Hello, dear friends!

So, a funny thing happened last night. Some context: every other week, I play in a Fading Suns TTRPG campaign with Bill Bridges. Yes, that Bill Bridges, the one who co-created Fading Suns and worked on little-known titles like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. (Fortunately, he’s also an incredibly gracious human being and has never once pulled the dreaded “Well, actually…” on the GM.)

Anyway, last night, our GM casually mentioned that a revamped, enhanced edition of Emperor of the Fading Suns—the 4X video game that Bill and Holistic Design, Inc. originally created—is launching this Friday, April 4. Better graphics! Better sound! More empire-building goodness! It’s hitting Steam, and if you want to check it out, here’s the link.

Naturally, I turned to Bill and said, “Why didn’t you mention this?”

To which he replied, “I didn’t think I needed to. It’s been all over social media for weeks.”

I, of course, informed him that my social media feed had not breathed a word of it.

Cue much cursing of the algorithm. And cue me having a moment of clarity because this is exactly what’s going to happen when my campaign for FULL NEGATIVE ends. I guarantee you that once the dust settles, I will have friends—actual, real-life friends—say to me, “Wait, you had a crowdfunding campaign? I wish I’d known!”

Because no matter how much we shout, our voices don’t always carry as far as we think.

So, you know what I’m about to ask. If you haven’t already, please spread the word. Every little bit helps, and we are down to the final nine days. (Nine days! How did that happen?)

Also, in case you were wondering why I’ve been a bit quiet: it’s for a very good reason. The manuscript for Full Negative is officially with the copy editor! She’s fantastic, and I have no doubt she’ll do an incredible job. It’ll take a few months (because rushed copy editing is a terrible idea), but everything is on schedule. And that means we’re getting closer to putting this book into your hands.

Stay tuned—and thank you, as always, for being the best community I could ask for.

Much love,
Jenn Lyons

P.S. Why is there a photo of kittens at the top? Why NOT? Seriously. We need all the cuteness and love we can get right now.