John J Ernest

What’s this, an update, But JJ is so bad at communicating. Surely this is a jest.
Nope
Here is an update.
The latest draft of ‘Fire in th night’ is with an editor, I’m taking this time to re structure the series. I had written a synopsis for a six book saga, (I know ambitious right) but the adventures of Hoq and Mia will now be a trilogy.
In other news, once I’ve finished juggling the plot for the trilogy, I’m going to start work on the Crawl re-writes, and then I’m going to self publish book one. Just to see how it lands. Book two will follow a similar route, firstly going on Royal road before being self published.
So thats kind of where I am, not a million miles form where I was a few months ago. I have had a few other ideas bubbling away, and I’m desperately trying to not get distracted by them.
I may throw out a short story or something to exorcise the demons.
Keep your eyes peeled.
Hope you are all well and enjoying your flights of fantasy where you can find them.

Will update again soon(ish)
JJ

It all makes sense now 😜😂

Hey, so, I am so rubbish at posting on socials. Sorry about that. So I thought I would write a quick update: I am still working on ‘Fire in the Night’. Just the epilogue to edit and a few scenes I need to add in earlier chapters. Then It’s off to an editor for a developmental edit. So not long now and hopefully I can look at querying it before the year is out.
I’ve been thinking about Crawl, and how to approach the edit and re writes needed to get it where I can begin posting on Royal road again, or, and hear me out, I might just work on it to self-publish the first book in the series, and then make a start on the next before returning to posting weekly/fortnightly. I found fitting in delivering fortnightly chapters, as well as working full time with the weird shifts that I do, a challenge. So I might re-address this to make it more sustainable. We will see. I just wanted you to know the writing/editing is still ongoing, I haven’t fallen asleep at the wheel.
Chat soon.

Work on "Fire in the night" is continung, but, I have also started work on a short for submission to the british Fantasy society short story competition. I will keep you posted. :D

New EP of Crawl is finally up here....
Its going to be the last for a while, at least a few months, while I concentrate on the novel. Then I'm going to edit Crawl, add a few things, tweak a few things, theres some continuity that needs addressing and some world bulding that needs expanding on. And I want a buffer on the chapters so Im not feeling the crunch so much. so this is not the ned, just a break to compose myself, get the novel into querying condition, and make crawl a lot better :D

Crawl EP 24 - Home - Crawl (A progression fantasy adventure) Havia led her father hesitantly into the kitchen, the sound of laughter and the clinking of cutlery on plates greeted them, a comforting cacophony that (...)

Yet again a bug (chest infection) knocked me for six and stopped me doing anything for the last two weeks. I've made the hard decision to shelve Crawl for a while so I can finish Fire in the night's current draft. I will be finishing the next chapter of Crawl and then it might be a month or two before I come back to it. In that interim (work on the novel allowing) I might edit all the current chapters of Crawl (correcting a few plot issues and adding some new elements) and will re-realease it on RR. This will give me enough time, hopefuly, to get ahead and have a buffer of new chapters so I dont get so easily derailed.

Wishing you all the best :D

Writing has been difficult of late, really had to push myself to do some daily work on the Novel and Crawl. Today I felt more like before, got over 2k words down and fleshed out the start of a new idea. Might even finish it, who knows. :D

New Episode of Crawl is up on Royal road
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72259/crawl-a-progression-fantasy-adventure/chapter/1517779/crawl-ep-23-intervention

Finished the draft of the next ep of Crawl, and finally got somewhere with a very painful chapter of Fire in the Night. In total 1800 words today. Keep an eye out for crawl on Wednesday. (I’m going to try and post on Wednesdays from here on out)

New Ep of Crawl just posted up on RR. Let me know what you think, or leave a review on RR, or give it a rating, honestly anything to let me know someone is reading it 😀

CRAWL EP 22 - Appearances - Crawl (A progression fantasy adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) Iki waited. They waited for what felt like forever. It had probably only been an hour or so. Eventually they gave up waiting and resumed their investigations (...)

I’m, here, once again, asking for feedback 😀
I’m done editing the next chapter of Crawl, and I want to know what you think. I feel like im just throwing it into the void, head cocked to one side waiting for any whispered responses to my fantastical ramblings.
So, let me know which characters you like most, do you want more of Utig and Quink’s relationship? More of them building their base of operations? How do you feel about the big narrative bubbling away in the background, with Aiegwin and Levi etc? What’s tickling your fancy, what’s making you put it down? I can’t improve if I dont know what’s working and what’s not.😀 so help an aspiring author out. Does not have to be on this post, you can DM me some feedback.

On a different note, I’m considering smaller, but more regular posts of crawl. So scenes instead of chapters. Would that work for you guys or do you prefer getting a larger delivery of dungeon devling delights?

Laters
JJ

So, yes, December sucked, but hey, heres a brand new chapter of Crawl to brighten the new year.

CRAWL EP 21 - Sacrifice - Crawl (A progression fantasy adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) It was the tapping, inconsistent in rhythm and volume, which brought Antios out of his deep sleep. He wiped the sleep from his eyes as he sat up on the (...)

Happy new year all,

Thanks for reading and following me on this journey so far, let’s set sail for brighter horizons.
hHere’s to a creative 2024, with more crawl, and more work on the Divine tears saga.

So, December has been a bit of a crappy month, for writing that is. I’ve had a fair amount of long shifts on site for work (which cancels out my writing time each day with commuting time) and then I got covid, which wiped me out completely for a week. I'm still not 100% from that, with a few flu symptoms just hanging around and being a general nuisance.

So this is an apology for the delay in getting Crawl out to you in a reasonable time. I do have the next episode written, but not edited, and to be honest I’m going to wait until after new year to post it. I will be writing the next chapter over the next week (to get a head start), but you wont be getting any new Crawl until 2024, because I’m just going to call December a non writing month and take the break.

So Merry Christmas and happy new you to you all, oh and the next ep of crawl reveals a VERY BIG BAD, just to give you something to look forward to.

So, night shifts and on site working has slowed the writing process down (add in that ive been doing some more on the novel and its a recipe for disaster) that being said, the latest EP of Crawl is up on Royal road, and I will copy it over to my site soon.
Sorry it’s later than normal.
Enjoy
JJ

CRAWL EP 20 - Repercussions - Crawl (A dungeon adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) Havia nudged him awake, he knew it was her because she kicked him rather hard in the leg before leaning down to whisper in his ear. “Wake up you lousy (...)

New Crawl Ep alert, I had a lot of fun writing this one.

CRAWL EP 19 - "Turn undead, MF?" - Crawl (A dungeon adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) Iki screamed. The golden light emanating from the spell caster was blinding and scary, and yet warm and reassuring at the same time. Either way it startled (...)

I just posted the next Ep of crawl, and feel I should mention that Royal road now has a mobile app to make reading easier. so yeah, check that out.

Heres the RR link. it will also be up on my site shortly, got to give the spam bots something to read.:D

CRAWL EP 18 - Safety in numbers? - Crawl (A dungeon adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) Doing a quick head count, Antios noted over twenty skeletons arranged around the vast, mist-filled hall. All of which, were shambling menacingly towards (...)

Also, a side note, I caved in, and with the help of the amazing Matt BW I got some AI art to use as a new cover for Crawl. (until I can afford to commision a human artist for what I really want)

So, while I was on holiday I got some writing done, here you go :D

CRAWL Ep 18 - Cracking skulls. - Crawl (A dungeon adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) They followed Iki through a labyrinth of winding tunnels, both natural and carved. The kobold was quick and stealthy, their tail swaying nervously as (...)

So the last Ep was crazy popular, so off the back of that I wanted to write somethng from a kobolds point of view.
Here you go :D

New Ep of Crawl is up. both on my site and on RR.

CRAWL EP 16 - Monsters - Crawl (A dungeon adventure, with Litrpg tendencies.) They heard them entering through the west walk, a lone corridor leading to the sealed ways. Iki knew they should report the invasion to the clan elder, (...)

So, the next ep of crawl is drafted, a little shorter than usual but I think you will like it. Hopefully posting it up before the end of the week (work allowing). I need so say, the last episode has had a lot of views, like, a LOT. Almost as many as the first episode. So maybe kobolds really hit home? Lucky for me the next episode is very Kobold centric 😀