UPDATE - Please read...

So I'm not sure how many have noticed but it's likely more than one since apparently Patreon shows a notification for it now. I've paused billing for the month. This post is to update everyone about why and what's going to happen in the future.

Currently I'm about to get neck deep in the process of pursuing my career. I've already been busy and I've already run through my backlogs, but soon enough, and I'm pretty sure this is set in stone, I'm not going to have any time for more writing. At least not as consistently as I've been releasing.

I don't know my exact timeline yet. I may have a couple more weeks, I may have a month or two, before things get kicked off. I'm still not sure but that's exactly why I've paused billing.

This means that NOBODY will be charged for their upcoming month. I paused billing on March 14th, which means that anybody whose subscription ends/recurs after that day and from now on will NOT be charged anything to stay a patron. Those who are new patrons are charged for subscribing but I don't have a way to prevent that from happening short of unlaunching the page as a whole, so I'll simply be updating the description for the Tiers and leaving it at that.

Billing will be paused for the foreseeable future. I will keep everyone updated on my timeline as I figure things out myself. For existing patrons, this makes the patreon completely free for you. As for my release schedule, my plans are as follows.

I want to continue releasing as normal for as long as I can. Since I've run through my backlogs, I'm slightly less confident in being able to keep up with the tuesday-thursday schedule, but I'm going to do my best. I want to make sure that everyone who subscribed up until I paused billing, and ideally everyone who has become a patron up until this day, receives the full month and experience that they paid for. That means I'm hoping that I'm able to continue as normal until about April 20th. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do so, but I can't be 100% certain.

That means 6 more chapters at the barest minimum, preferably 8, hopefully on the same schedule, but if I delay a day, I can only apologize and point to this as an explanation. After that I can no longer give guarantees, but so long as I haven't been shipped out, I intend to continue writing. Every chapter after that will be completely free since billing is paused. For those of you whose subscriptions ended on or just after I paused billing, congratulations, you're basically getting a free month.

Does this mean the story is coming to an end? I sincerely hope not. I will likely have to unlaunch the patreon page sometime in the future since I won't be able to pause billing for a few consecutive months. Whether I relaunch it again is undetermined. I may just stick to releasing free public chapters since I don't want anyone paying for something inconsistent. If I manage to take some time and stockpile a backlog, perhaps I'll relaunch it then. Who knows. What's important is that after those few months of absence I'll be in the position to write at all. The story will not be on a complete hiatus after I get back, but again, I won't be able to make promises about its regularity.

My priorities have unfortunately shifted. Believe me, this was not an easy decision to make. It was a life altering decision that, in the long term, I believe was best for not just myself, but for my writing. I've decided that it's irresponsible of me to completely rely on writing for an income at this stage in my life, and that I need to build myself a foundation to support myself and a family. Being as risk averse as I am, I've determined that writing cannot serve as that foundation.

My American Isekai series has grown to the point where it has rivaled a decent salary in terms of monthly income. There was a time where I almost decided to drop everything and become a full time writer. Harrowing thoughts of the future have unfortunately squashed that dream, however. I don't believe I'm at that level of skill, and call it the fear of the unknown, but I'm not willing to bet that I can rise to that skill level in an acceptable time frame such that I become confident enough to disregard the other careers in front of me now. Careers that may not be in front of me in the future.

However, by taking the hard path now, I'll be able to open myself up for writing in the future. It will be several years from now, at the minimum, when I will have an opportunity to write full time again. If things change between now and then, and I decide not to cut my career shorter than I can, then it may be over a decade from now. Any writing that happens across that time will be a surprising opportunity and luxury, and certainly nothing I would bet on happening often.

So, it's with a heavy heart that I announce the upcoming hiatus of American Isekai.

Although a large part of me wants to believe that this may change, that something happens and I don't suddenly have to put my head down and take myself away from writing, I unfortunately can't allow myself to think that way. This decision has made me physically sick, not kidding, but I know it's what's right for myself and, ironically, my future as a writer.

I'm not sure if there are any other professional details I need to elaborate on. I would prefer any questions to be put in the comments so others can see the answers, if you have any. I will try and answer them all after I wake up. I've been awake for nearly a full 24 hours and have been mulling over this update message for 10.

Until then, I can only give my apologies to everyone for what will end up being another unfinished story of mine. I certainly didn't foresee this back when I first started the story, and it wasn't even much of a thought until around the beginning of the year. I didn't realize that I'd have to stop writing until around a month or so ago, and even then I was in denial for a while.

I love writing. I love bringing these stories to you guys almost as much. But now I'm going to be setting aside this passion of mine, willingly. I've never had a passion for anything before writing, certainly not like this. The kind of sadness that putting it down brings me is hard to describe.

I can only hope that what I've written thus far is good enough to have value on its own, and not hinging on what would have been. It sucks too, because we were only just scratching the surface on what was going to be the best parts of the story. I had so much planned. So much built up. Just for it to end up like this.

Anyway, I'm sorry, for as much as it's worth. I will keep everyone updated.