AND THE RECLUSE EMERGES!

An update on what to expect from the Fistbump the Sky fantasy world, and where I've been hiding.

Sorry about the radio silence, but in my defense, it had to be done.

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GEARING UP TO OPEN SHOP

For those of you out of the loop, I’m preparing to open an online store where you can buy chapters from The Fantastical Encyclopedia of the Imagined World of Fistbump the Sky, or commission a personalized book for yourself, one that takes place in the Fistbump the Sky world. I’ll keep you updated on the exact date the store opens, but for now, it seems like it’s on track to open in July, 2025 on Buy Me a Coffee.

It’s been strange being back in South Africa, but I’m slowly settling back into how things work here. I was, however, reminded again of how cut off we are from some things that were more accessible in first world countries. But I’m slowly figuring it out and, luckily for me, one thing always leads to another.

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LEAVING AMAZON

That’s right, I’m an indie author leaving Amazon. Now, despite all its questionable actions, Amazon is still a great platform for indie authors to get their work out there. So why did I decide to leave?

Simply put, South Africa is one of the regions excluded from Kindle Direct Publishing. This means that even though I can upload books, the people who are willing to support the work can’t access it. Having books as Kindle options on Amazon also inhibits you from hosting it anywhere else. It would also save me a ton of time not having my books on Amazon as I now won’t need to rely on book review applications or format each book three times due to the large amount of illustrations and footnotes.

All Fistbump the Sky books will be removed from Amazon on July 1st.

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THE MAP MAKER

In between manually making the encyclopedia chapters and everything else involved with preparing to open the store, I struggled finding time to sit down and work on the serialized fantasy story I want to work on - The Map Maker.

Fistbump the Sky is a soft worldbuilding project. It has its own rules and a unique way in which things work, but I am absolutely exploring the world along with the reader. Eventually, I managed to find an entire day dedicated to working on the story when I realised that I should probably figure out the landscape before I send the characters traveling across the map. Looks like I’ll need to figure out the geography a bit more before I can start writing the story comfortably.

Thus, I created an ultimate index, for you and for me.

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THE ULTIMATE INDEX

Fistbump the Sky is in a constant state of change, with much of it still undiscovered. Thus, for easier information digestion, the Ultimate Index is where information will be added as we discover Fistbump the Sky.

I probably should have done this from the beginning, but better late that never… Right? So that’s why I haven’t been writing on Substack recently and why there was a short period of silence on social media. There’s still a lot to do and unexpected hurdles to overcome but you will be receiving in-sight into the fantasy world again soon, because as we say in Afrikaans;

“a farmer finds a way.”