June 2026
First: The Theme
Oh shit.
So this newsletter is LATE late. I have been working on it for several days, but between Maycember and Juneuary we kinda lost the plot in terms of getting this out the door in a timely fashion. But! I have a justification for this lateness, and it’s that I’ve actually been working pretty diligently on the things I am supposed to be working on. This issue will probably be a little shorter than usual, both due to the limited time I have on my hands, and the fact that there’s just a ton that needs doing. Alright, let’s get into it. The theme for this month is Progress. I may have done this already, but if I did, I’m revisiting it.
Second: The Work
By the time I’ve posted this, Glassblade Chapter 13 will have just gone out to early access. I have been diligently, if slowly, working my way through Broken Vessels, and I have managed to unsnarl some plot issues that were keeping me up at night. The book is both deeply personal and obnoxiously complex, which means I get extremely hung up on every effort to make sure it’s as good as I can make it, and am prone to being very frustrated when it wont just go. I wish I could tell you which character I just worked on, but I will say that it was harrowing the last time I did it. I’m closing in on some pretty big plot points and that’s both exciting and, well, frightening. See above comments about not wanting to mess it up. Progress? Progress.
In addition to this, much of my time has been taken up by trying to figure out how to properly market this serial. With the choked out nature of the field as regards visibility on the internet, it’s been challenging, but it helps (ironically enough) that I know basically everyone in the industry is going through this. More on that in the Craft segment. In any case, sometimes less news is good news. When I am less communicative, it’s usually because I have my nose to the grindstone.
Oh, in addition, Concarolinas was lovely, and if I saw you there—or picked you up as a reader there—hi! This is the sort of way you can expect me to talk in these things.
Third: On Craft
As I mentioned in my last issue, it’s pretty hard for anyone to get anything done right now, to say nothing of anything creative. If that’s you, don’t feel bad. A few things have really crystalized in the last few months. One of them is that everyone is struggling to get eyes on their work right now, and almost nobody knows how to do it, so most of us are throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. In some cases this means doing lots of videos, in others it’s blog posts, and in others it’s dancing like a jester in the forum of Social Media and hoping that people are drawn to the performance art that is so many of these places, in sufficient numbers that some of them will go and check out the things we would love for you to read. In virtually all cases, people are winging it, and it’s very difficult to replicate a single successful formula.
And this is assuming you even have the bandwidth to create right now. So many of us don’t. We’re inundated with daily bad news: war, chaos, political instability, institutional cruelty and neglect, and the simple weight of the stress bearing down both on our own shoulders and on everyone else’s. It is insane to expect your tank to remain full in such times, and while I don’t know if my words help, understand that if you’re barely able to so much as put words to the page right now, you are not only not alone, you are in some very esteemed company.
The upshot of all this, for me, is the simple realization that none of my problems are fundamental to who I am, or the product of some unique ill-fortune or faulted nature on my part. I just happen to live in a time where something that is not easy even in the best of times is even harder than that, and wherein much of our creative ecosystems are very unfriendly, and in some cases actively hostile, to personal progress and getting stuff done, to say nothing of seen.
You are not alone. You are not alone. My God you are Not Alone.
Fourth: What I’m Doing
Honestly? May was such a chaotic month, and June has been so much the same, that I can barely remember half of what I read or watched. I can remember that I made it through the first three episodes of A Rascal Does Not Dream, which is a very charming anime, that I read more of Ravenor and Ninth House, and that much else is a blessed void. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to put more in this category soon, as once the kids are out of school for the summer (Tuesday!) there will be a lot more adventures to be had and a lot more media consumed. If nothing else, at least, I will have some pictures of more Warhammer miniatures for you. I’ve been jonesing to get back to that, and it’s going to be very good for my sanity when I do, I think.
In Conclusion, or What’s Next?
Glassblade Chapter 13 is out to early access, and will go out to general and free subscribers next Monday (6/22/26) and then on Wattpad the following Friday. I will be at Tournament of Roses in Portland the weekend of the 28th, and much of my free time has been taken up training for that. Broken Vessels will continue to be written, and my next Newsletter will be on-time next month. At the very least, it wont be delivered halfway through the month. That wont happen again, surely.
I really do appreciate you all, I hope some of this has helped, if you are in a dark place, and that you remember that shadows can only follow the light. Keep the candles burning. We need them even in summer.
Stay healthy, stay friendly, stay curious.
-Joe