late to the party as always, but happy 2025 to you and yours. I don’t know about you, but 2024 was a swift kick to the groin.

within the span of a month i saw the death of someone very close to me and the publication of my fourth and most difficult novel. to say it was a whirlwind is putting it very, very, politely.

2024 had some surprises too — it brought lots of friends into my atmosphere, both old and new. It also brought me someone that I think I had been asking the moon for, for a long time.

Publications in The Coming Year

TALES FROM THE REAPERVERSE: VOLUME I

A collection of short stories taking place before, after, or alongside The Shintori Chronicles is slated to be released late spring/early summer. This will be an Itch exclusive release, as I intend this to be free to read as it includes content already free on my website.

THE FAMILY BORN IN BLOOD: REAPERVERSE BOOK II

The follow-up to THE BOY THE MONSTERS MADE — also lovingly known as 2DILF2WIP — is slated for release this winter.

The Backburner

I currently have two projects, both standalones taking place outside of the REAPERVERSE:

TWIN PEAKS WIP

TWIN PEAKS WIP is a YA PNW gothic following Aaron, a trans motorhead who moves to the small town of Lune Falls to aid his grandmother, Juniper, after the death of her husband. There he meets Maeve, Connor, and a whole cast of the kind of folk you only meet in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Aaron is nearly certain life will be as still as a doldrum, but the lake that spat out a body has other plans.

My hopes for this novel is to query, as the excitement I receive every time I pitch it for events is incredibly encouraging. Thank you all for that.

TECHDIGGER WIP

TECHDIGGER WIP will be my first venture into sci-fi, so it is a rather daunting draft right now if I’m being perfectly honest. I think the way I will find familiarity in writing it is the same tongue-in-cheek humor I used in The Shintori Chronicles and I think that will suit our nonbinary scavenger, Ranger Riggs, rather perfectly.

Ranger has been left their father’s life work, taking the dilapidated shape of Riggs & Marley Mortuary and Repair Co. (you waste ‘em, we recycle ‘em!). They know all the best ways to part out cyberkinetic prosthetics, which headstones are likely to have the occupants with the most expensive parts, and how much time you need to run for the fence. Unfortunately for them, they were not aware of this particular client and the trouble they would bring.

Other Things

I’m still scratching my head to figure out what my NEW YEAR, NEW ME will be this time around. And not to bring up astrology in every context possible, but my Capricorn moon gets tremendous pleasure from that feeling of squaring everything away at the start of a new year and setting clear goals. Not this time!

But I’ve decided it’s okay — it’s far better to take the time to marinate a little on what I would really like to accomplish than to buckle under the pressure and generate goals I don’t even particularly care to stick to. So if you’re in the same boat: I see you, take your time.

I’m still figuring out the best way to move forward on social media with the disheartening policy changes to Meta platforms and the likely TikTok ban. For now, I will still be on Bluesky and chatting with my peers about healthier platforms we can shift to.

Things I’m Liking

• Book: Right now I have Red In Tooth And Claw by Lish McBride checked out from the library! I’m not very far in yet, but something is starting to feel amiss and I am really enjoying the main character & the grumpy gunslinger.

• Movie: Would you believe me if I said I had never watched Lord of the Rings until this past weekend? Because I have some bad news: I had never watched Lord of the Rings until the past weekend. And I love it, so don’t worry.

• Show: I can only rewatch Chainsaw Man so many times so I turned to a friend I knew had excellent taste in anime, Morgan Lawson (The Stars Want Blood). I started watching one of their favorites, D Gray Man, and hot damn I love it

• Music: A couple weeks ago I went to my local record store (support ‘em if you got ‘em!) and picked up vinyls of MF Doom’s Operation: Doomsday (aka one of the best albums of all time), JPEGMAFIA’s I Lay Down My Life For You, and Sanguisugabogg’s Homicidal Ecstasy. Other than that, I’ve been getting sucked back into my 12 hour long 80’s playlist.

• Etc. : IKEA trips. Furnishing a small space is hard because it makes the most sense to do it little by little in order to see how it changes the flow of the space. I’m slated to get my bookshelf (I have six unopened boxes still…) and record console this weekend.

I guess that’s all for now— thanks for reading!

LOVE & SWORDS,

Ronan Graves