Tomorrow, the prologue and first chapter of Shadow and Light will be available for everyone to read right here. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’m pretty excited. I’m really happy with how the story is developing, and all my early readers have had really good things to say.

In the process of launching this project, I’ve had people ask a few questions and make some suggestions. Let me start by thanking everyone for their feedback. I appreciate honest and respectful input about what I’m doing.

One of the questions I’ve had is about my Patreon campaign.

Patreon isn’t about selling books (or art, or music, or videos). It’s about supporting the people who create the books, art, music, videos, and other creative works you enjoy. It’s about the people who appreciate creativity taking ownership of their creative experience, and about the creators taking back control of their work.

When you sign up to support me through Patreon, you’re not buying a book. You’re empowering me to create that book. You’re saying that you see value in reading, value in my writing, and you want to help make it happen.

I know I’m making the book available online for free, here on this blog, for anyone to read. And when the book’s finished, I’ll make e-books and possibly even printed editions available for people to buy. I’m sure there will be people who will read the book for free and never consider supporting me. I’m sure some people will wait to buy the e-book for a few dollars, rather than spend more money to support me through Patreon. I understand; Patreon isn’t for everyone.

If I don’t get enough supporters on Patreon, I’ll still write the book, it’ll just take longer. I’ll have to take time out from writing to earn money. I’ve found that when I’m working other jobs to support my family, I can only come up with 3-4 hours a week to spend writing. In contrast, over the past two weeks I spent more than 100 hours working on the prologue and first chapter of Shadow and Light.

J.K. Rowling spent six years writing her first Harry Potter book while trying to support herself (or living off welfare). It would take me at least that long to write Shadow and Light. I don’t want to wait that long, and I don’t want to make you wait that long to read it.