June 2026 Writing Update
Hi everyone! Hope your June is going well so far. Here's a little writing update from Tao to catch you up on what's been happening on our end!
---
Well, here's this month's writing update. I can't even recall if I wrote one last month, I'm pretty sure I did for April. Time is flying by this year, I blink and it's June. Where has it all gone? Seriously, the older I get, the faster time moves.
Anyway, more complaints about being older later below. I'm going to update on what's written below:
A Thousand Li
The First Step has been out for nearly 2 months now and it continues to sell regularly in stores everywhere. I've been running around, going to bookstores where I can and signing them. I've even seen it on a few staff pick's and shelf talkers around, small sample here.
Super exciting, but so is the fact that we will have books for the First Stop available at LitRPG Con for purchasing EARLY of its release on July 12, 2026. I'll be turning up for the event (of course); but will also be signing books, selling at a table, playing games and being on panels. I'm super excited to meet everyone, and if you're local but not going to the con, let me know! I will be hanging out for a few extra days to sign bookstore stock around the city on the 12th.
And don't forget, we have a pre-order incentive with lots of bookmarks, bookplates, etc available for people buying the book. And watch out for all the promos Ace Books is running.
Celestial Cataclysm
Book 1 of Celestial Cataclysm (Immortal Connections) released in May and so it's been over a month since it was out. Can't really complain about the launch, we're quite happy with how things have gone. Hoping to continue to pick up more and more new readers who are into the 'epic fantasy' side of it.
I'm working on Demonic Tribulations (book 2) right now. It's at 267k words written, with the finales for all the various characters coming up / in the midst of it. It's been fun writing the second book, weaving the various stories together but it's going to be another chunky boy.
Release for this one will be basically next year, with each book coming out once a year just because of how big they are and my desire to give it enough time to be edited, recorded, etc.
System Apocalypse
Right, next up - SA. Still waiting on book 4 of Relentless from Craig, it's still scheduled for this year, but we'll see how it plays out.
More importantly, the second book of System Apocalypse: Liberty - Dropout is out! Look at the cover....!
Caleb and the crew of the escaped spaceship are out in the wide galaxy, but their Earthly troubles are still chasing after them. New threats ahead, old enemies behind, will Caleb and the refugees manage to stay alive and level?
Dungeon Brawler
Did you see the cover? Did you? It's sooo pretty. And book 2's cover is even nicer. If you haven't pre-ordered it yet, you can do so on Starlit Publishing's website. It's a 5 book series and you won't have to wait very long for them all when they start releasing, since I've already written and edited book 2 (it's being recorded now!) and book 3 is 80% done. That's right, we're going for a rapid release for this series and have it all done by end 2027.
Hidden Dishes
Magical Mains is trundling along, slowly. I am focused on getting CC2 and DB3 written and finished first, so it has taken a backseat but once DB3 is done, I'm going straight to finishing HD5. I figure I'll try to write up the other two novellas too ASAP and finish the series once I can, so that it's not hanging over me. That way, I also have other projects that I want to work on teed-up.
Some of which, I might ask you guy's opinion on. More on that later (much later. Not this post).
Climbing the Ranks
Some of you might have heard, others might not. But we're stopping the release of Climbing the Ranks on Starlit Publishing on a regular basis. The amount of time taken to do updates on a different site, to drive traffic and revenue there wasn't worth the cost.
CtR sells okay, but not amazingly and with all the projects I have and wanting to finish some of them first, I am putting the series on short hiatus. I'll continue to plug away at CtR 5 but without the onus of making sure we have chapters to push out for readers, I think the work will be better for it.
Don't worry, it's not being abandoned, just put on the backburner. Sort of like AoB was put on the backburner for a year. I don't know if there's a 'series end' involved, but books will come out, slowly.
Trad Pub project - The Blade That Remains
Yeah, if you didn't know, I have a tradpub standalone work that is coming out next year. That just had its line edits sent back, after dev edits earlier on. I believe there's a copy edit and a proof and a final pass left, so lots to go through.
It's a very light LitRPG work, but probably one of the best works I've ever written. It's closer to something like A Thousand Li and Celestial Cataclysms than it is Climbing the Ranks or Dungeon Brawler. More thoughtful, more introspective but with good action still.
If there's interest, I'll write up about the process later in the year since the trad experience is so different. Let me know.
Other Projects
Right! There's a new side project by a new co-author that is coming out. I can't say much yet, but look out for it coming out this year. I'm really excited about it, it's a switch to a lighter tone, more humorous, with a cute kitty. :) Apocalyptic, but not sad apocalyptic. Well, not too sad.
Also... anthology! A wuxia anthology, 3 years in the making. A bunch of us writers who applied to get into the Strange Horizons wuxia anthology were NOT picked. So we decided to use the stories we wrote in it. (Okay, I cheated, I wrote a new A Thousand Li story for the anthology because I realised I wanted to use the short for something else. Yes, a new project in the future. It's cool).
Go back it! It's really good with some great stories.
And Life
There's a lot of things going on, LitRPG Con, Dragoncon, Can*Con coming up this year. I also have a few other potential conventions I might be going to, which I can't announce yet till I'm certain. In addition, there's a few virtual conventions you can see on panels for, so that's pretty damn cool.
I'm running around incredibly busy, since we're also moving residences soon. That's a lot of work, as usual, and on top of that, my hip is killing me. I've got a visit to the doctor on Tuesday for a cortisone injection that will bring some relief, but if you come by on Thursday, July 12, 2026 for Michael Chatfield's book launch at Bakka Phoenix (hint, hint), you might see me with my cane.
Overall, life's good. Life's busy. There are more things happening on the backend I can't speak of, mostly because those things aren't worth anything till papers are signed. Once they are though... I'm going to be blathering them around everywhere.
Till then, questions and all, drop it below.
PS: I figured out where all this time went this year. Work. Too much of it. :(