Yes, you read that right—I come to you today bearing the gift of a new book, and better yet, a free book! It’s been a while since I posted an update here on my website, but I’ve been keeping myself quite busy in the meantime, both in terms of my personal/professional life and my authorial life! In an effort to not bury the lede in my incessant rambling, this new project is called “Worlds Fair: Where Discerning Gods Come to Shop!”, and you can read the entire thing (for free!) right now on my Patreon! All of the draft chapters are available to anybody following me on there, so you don’t have to actually pledge any money to read them. If you’re interested in the origin of this new project, why I wrote it, and more, feel free to continue reading this blog post, but if you just want to check out the book, click HERE!
Those of you who’ve been following this blog might already know the origin story behind this brand-new endeavor of mine, but for those unfamiliar, let me bring you up to speed. Last year, the J-Novel Club ran their inaugural Original Light Novel contest, where people from all across the internet could compete to win quite a flashy prize: 15,000 dollars and a potential manga adaptation of their work by Kadokawa! Now, when I first saw this announced last August, an idea immediately began forming in the back of my head. It was a concept I’d actually thought of a few years ago and filed away in the “Things to Maybe Consider when Restart Again is Completely Finished” part of my brain, but this one in particular seemed to perfectly fit the constraints of the contest: A short, anime-and-manga-inspired novel that would be well-suited for a continued, long-running manga adaptation.
However, this was also around the 18 month mark of my continued work on Restart Again Volume 5 (Lux was just about to enter the Eastern Forest, for context on the timing), and I knew I didn’t have the bandwidth to work on two novels simultaneously. As such, I simply jotted down the most basic of notes in a one-page Google Doc, threw it in a folder, and mused on it occasionally as time went by. Plenty of authors in my niche submitted their entries to the contest, so I essentially lived vicariously through them as I battled my way to the finish line on Volume 5.
Fast-forward to April of 2024. Volume 5 has just been released, and I’m planning to give myself a well-deserved rest from the series to avoid another round of burnout. My authorial acquaintances are buzzing about the JNC contest as it gears up to announce its finalists, and I suddenly find myself with time to look more closely at my initial idea. Given how long Volume 5 took to write, I’d already been considering revamping my writing style in an effort to increase my daily word count, so it seemed like the perfect time to try out some new techniques in a more low-stakes situation. I set myself a deadline of late May to early June, after which I would back-burner the project and start working on Volume 6.
Well, here we are in early August with a completed first draft. I should’ve known I wouldn’t be able to quit the project once I started it, but thankfully, it didn’t take me nearly as long as I feared it would. At present, the draft for Worlds Fair sits at around 65,000 words, which puts me at a far faster writing pace than I ever managed to hit on Volume 5! I think things really worked out for the best here; I figured out some new drafting strategies that work well to speed up my current writing style, and I managed to get an entire book out of the exercise!
When I started writing Worlds Fair, JNC hadn’t officially announced that they’d ever run their contest again. I assumed they would, but if they didn’t, I knew I’d be able to publish Worlds Fair on Amazon as a one-off, maybe going back to it for quick entries between volumes of Restart Again. Fortunately for me, JNC announced their sequel competition alongside the winners of their first contest, so I’ll be able to submit this like I’d hoped!
Now, with all of that said, what the heck is Worlds Fair even about? I envision it thusly: Part fantasy adventure, part workplace comedy, and part satirical commentary on the anime and manga industry, “Worlds Fair: Where Discerning Gods Come to Shop!” is about a shopping mall in the “Realm of the Gods” where our cast of godly characters go about their daily lives creating the worlds that we see depicted in popular anime and manga series. I know that might sound like a bit of an ambitious idea, but I think it really comes together on the page!
The chapters posted on my Patreon (for free) are all rough drafts. I’m flying solo on this endeavor, so the only editors are me and anybody who decides to leave a comment with their critiques. I’ve already gone back in my working document to write, rewrite, and re-rewrite some sections, but the core ideas are still there. I’m going to continue tweaking things as I read through the draft, but otherwise, I think I’m pretty much done with the project! I’ll keep the drafts live on my Patreon for the time being, but once I submit the finished draft to the JNC contest, I’ll be taking them down until I find out the results, so make sure you go read them now if you want to get them for free!
TL;DR: I wrote a new book called “Worlds Fair: Where Discerning Gods Come to Shop!”, and you can read it on my Patreon for free right now! The book will eventually be entered into the JNC Light Novel contest which, if I win, would see it adapted into an official manga by Kadokawa. I’ve had the idea for this story in my head for quite a while, but I finally had time to write it after publishing Restart Again: Volume 5. Click HERE to go read it for yourself!
Now that the draft is done, I’ll be officially starting my work on Volume 6. Those chapters, along with any new bits of Restart Again artwork, will also be posted on my Patreon, but they will not be for free. If you want to get those drafts as soon as they’re finished (instead of waiting a year+ to read them on Royal Road), consider pledging! Every tier gets you access to everything, and any support is greatly appreciated! Otherwise, stay safe out there, and as always, thanks for reading!
~Adam