8.1K FOLLOWERS!!!!!

1 • Thank you, guys!

We've hit 8.1K followers!!!!!, and honestly, thank you, guys. That's a ridiculous number of people following my work, and it's class seeing so many of you enjoying the characters, stories and whatever other shite I get distracted making.

Whether you've been around for ages or only found me recently, I appreciate you taking an interest in the characters, reading the stories and getting into conversations about them. I spend a lot of time with all of this in my own head, so it's always lovely hearing what someone else made of it, especially when you pick up on some little thing I wasn't expecting anyone to mention. I've really enjoyed the discussions around the recent pieces, too.

For anyone who's missed it, A Fisherman's Tale is part of the Lady of Shadows universe, where I'm getting into the deeper lore behind the more serious side of Gremmy. A lot of you will be more familiar with her usual carry-on, so I'm excited to share more of that world with you as well.

Most recently, there's also the Synaan pair, The Long Silence and What Remained. If they're your first introduction to her, I'd love to hear how you found them, and there's plenty more I'd like to explore with her going forward. I'll leave you to read those for yourselves, though.

I'd also like to keep sharing more of the adult side of my writing. I've held a fair bit of that back over worrying how it'd be received, even though it's part of how I write a lot of these characters. Intimacy affects how people live, what they want, how they love each other and how they make an absolute fucking mess of things, and I enjoy getting into that.

On the NEXUS front, Germaine's updated bio is up if you'd like to get to know him a bit better. I've been doing the ReBOOT designs, but AION DeSYNCH is technically the main project after MACHINATIONS releases. I've been returning to PROGENITOR as well, alongside the artwork, animation and work on how I want to present it all.

The release order I'm working towards is MACHINATIONS, then .icomic remasters of the old stories, followed by AION DeSYNCH, The Lands Beyond — Arc 2, and finally ReBOOT, Volume 1.

The .icomic work is part of that, and I'm really looking forward to being able to share more of what I've been doing with it. The versions on Gremmoire are the ones I'm treating as definitive as the stories develop, and I'll keep sharing artwork, previews and talking about them here too. I've enjoyed getting into proper discussions with you lately, and I'd like to keep doing that.

2 • Ten days of Grembed

Grembed is about ten days old now, which feels a bit daft considering how much has already gone into it. It started because CivitAI's embeds were going arseways when I wanted to share something, and I wanted the link to actually give people a useful preview of what they were opening.

So I made my own, and then kept finding more things I wanted it to do. I've had a fair bit on over these ten days.

CivitAI's own embeds are working now, at least in some form, and I want to keep mine more useful. That gives me room to spend more time on how the previews look, what they tell you and how much of the site you can actually share through them.

I'd like someone sharing their work to have a bit more choice in how it appears, too. Sleeker cards, more attention on the creator, and useful information you can see before opening the page are all things I want to keep working on.

It now covers images, videos, posts, models and articles, along with Challenges, Crucibles and 3D models. Depending on what's publicly available, the previews can show things like entries, status and prize pools, so sharing one of those actually tells people a bit about it.

Profiles now show the banner and profile picture together, and Creator Journey achievements have their own cards as well. I've put more attention on the person and what they've achieved, with the badge on the right and its colours fading into the darker background. I'm pretty pleased with how those are coming together.

And, most importantly, there's CivitAI Radio support, because apparently I needed to add that too. It shows the station information and listener count, if there's ever... you know... anyone actually listening.

There's now an updates page with RSS, so it's easier to keep track of what's been added, and public MCP, CLI and JSON tools for converting links, checking previews and reading the updates through your own tools. Those are available without an account or key.

I've also been going back through it for cleanup and optimisation, because it's been moving absurdly quickly and I'd rather keep on top of it than leave myself a bloated pain in the arse to maintain. I'm enjoying working on it, and there's plenty I'd still like to do with the previews now that I've got this much working.

3 • Gremmoire, and the path to beta

Gremmoire is something I'm really looking forward to getting more of you into. I've been building it as a home for my stories, including NEXUS, The Lands Beyond and OPI, with somewhere for people to share their own work and talk to one another as well.

I want you to be able to finish a story and get into a conversation about it, show people something you've been making, compare ideas, or just wander into the Lounge and chat. I've enjoyed seeing that start to happen already, and I'm excited to keep working on the community side.

The Reader already handles published stories and comics or prose you open from your own device, with reading progress, bookmarks, notes and text controls. .icomic is where I'm getting into things like panel order, reveals, layered artwork, movement and sound, depending on what suits the piece. OPI's Universal Broadcast is already there, along with some demonstrations of the Reader and motion work if you'd like to have a look.

The Publisher is being worked on alongside it, so you can write, organise, preview and export a project in the same place. There's a lot I want to do with that, and I'm spending time making it more comfortable to actually work in, including on a phone.

I'm still working towards beta, and the current push is on getting the everyday stuff to behave properly. Reading should be comfortable, the controls should fit where they belong, and posting something or changing an account setting should be easy to work out. A fair bit of the recent work has gone into those things.

That means cleanup and performance work, mobile and desktop layout passes, and improvements to notifications, account access and recovery. Passkeys are part of that too, and I'd really like going fully passwordless to be an option people feel comfortable using if they want it.

The community already has forums, boards, the Lounge and IM, and the MCP connection is up now as well. My main interest with that is giving people more ways to interact with the community and one another. You can read public discussions without connecting an account, and members can choose to connect for things like posting and messaging. It'll develop alongside the site as I add more.

For beta, I want people to be able to come in, find their way around and use the site comfortably. There's still a fair bit to sort out to get it there, and I'll keep you updated as I go.

And thanks a million again to everyone who's been reading, following, sharing the work and taking an interest in all of this. 8.1K is fucking lovely, and I'm excited to keep sharing the stories and showing you what I've been working on.

If you've read any of the recent pieces, I'd love to hear what you thought, whether that's something you enjoyed, a detail that stuck with you or a bit that didn't quite work. Feel free to get into it with one another too; I've really enjoyed having those conversations with you. 🖤