September Update
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The State of Gibberish
I’m starting to get a handle on what I’m doing, and in turn I’m feeling better about how I’m doing it. Gibberish is makin’ moves, and if you’re already on the train I am so grateful you’re here. There’s a LOT to look forward to, and a lot happening—let’s dive in!
What You Missed
I don’t know what stopping even MEANS!
✨SUBTEMBER✨
Since starting SUBTEMBER, there’s been an unusual influx of subscribers! Thank you for joining—for the life of me I can’t figure out where you’re coming from! Was it Scoot Roulette? Was it a referral from someone else? Was it Weather Reports? How did you find me?
Thank you for subscribing during SUBTEMBER, my two month promotional where a subscription to Gibberish is 50% off a paid subscription, and there are MANY MORE WAYS you can help Gibberish so check out the SUBTEMBER post for more info!
LIVESTREAMS
Shaina Read and I did at least one livestream—life has a way of getting in the way. I also did a sneaky livestream with The Chronicler, I don’t think she’ll post it so subscribe to Shaina and The Chronicler and then you’ll catch the livestreams as they happen and you won’t have to wait for the monthly update to know about it!
FLASH FICTION FRIDAY
Weekly prompts keep on dropping, except for last friday where I took a break. Hope everyone is enjoying a long weekend reprieve! Check the prompts out at the Prompt Index page here and the stories shared every week!
🔒DEV DIARY
My weekly Dev Diary posts and occasional Interstitials are REALLY helping me figure out my plan for Gibberish. After Find the Blackpage ends, I’m going to be bringing 2025 to a close with an ambitious plan for 2026. A Paid Subscription (paid or earned by referrals, see the SUBTEMBER post above!) will give you access to the Dev Diary if you’d like to see what’s coming!
FICTION
Find The Blackpage, a fantasy adventure serial, kicked off in June. Check out the Index, and the episodes published in August: Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, and Episode 10!
There are only TWO EPISODES LEFT (and maybe an Epilogue) so catch up so you can ride this ending with me!
Weather Reports - This was an AMAZING collab with an insane panel of talented writers. I wrote Thom Bergstrom but you should go read all of them. I haven’t finished reading them all but I am looking forward to taking some time, maybe on a rainy day when the shimmering isn’t so bright, and finishing these wonderful stories.
What Is Coming?
There are only two episodes left to Find The Blackpage, so that will be definitely ending in September. I have a collaboration with Leigh Parrish which is the next major project on the docket, timeline TBD. Subscribe to Halcyon Horror to catch the latest and greatest. We’ve been slowly accumulating ideas but we’ve both also had other projects taking our priority. When Blackpage is done, this moves to the top of my list!
The Chronicler announced today another shared world project (kinda like weather reports, or Blackwater if you remember!) called the Ynnysfall Codex. I’ve got an idea for this one that I am excited about—keep an eye out for more from me on this. It’ll be short, so not a major project like FTB but you’ll see it before you see anything else probably.
The Paywallening
The inexorable icewall of paid content marches forward through time at it’s new accelerated pace! Everything from December 2023 and earlier has already gone behind a paywall as of publication of this post. Check out the previous update to see the stories that have gone behind the wall! That’s right, the first year of writing at Gibberish is officially paywalled!
On October 1st, everything from January and February 2024 and earlier will go behind a paywall. The next stories to go under are these:
Writing Exercises
Fiction
Republish: The Light in the Distance - This is a fictionalized depiction of the Harrowing of Hell, something I published elsewhere and decided to bring over here. I don’t think it’s theologically accurate but it struck me as interesting at the time!
Who Are You? - This short and sweet little number is about a Man looking for the meaning in his life, when a stranger shows up and offers him something he didn’t expect. This is a low-key favorite, one of my more popular stories, and was acclaimed as “simply beautiful” and “delightfully unexpected”.
Out of the Black - Set in the Sandbox Earth Universe, this story features the journeys beginning for the Colony Ship Hearken (which you may remember from my recent mini-series, the Trials of the Hearken), and hints at the end of that journey. This story is a personal favorite of mine—don’t miss it while it’s still free!
Serials
Letters From Armin - This was a slow-rolling epistolary serial in the Sandbox Earth universe pitched as “Pride and Prejudice in Space”. I published letters once every three weeks, so it took the whole year to complete. It was a lot of fun, and it was a cool experiment to see how the slow-rolling serial was received.
Synopsis: Armin Tolor is the second son of the Count of Weyand—a small holding on an insignificant continent in an insignificant planet of the Iris system. Through letters to his friends and family, he will navigate life as his family is turned upside down, a delicate peace is threatened, and through it all searching for meaning and purpose.
Essays
Worldbuilding with Training Wheels - This is a lil’ Writing About Writing essay about worldbuilding, that is not going behind the paywall! I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to highlight it since it was published in Jan/Feb 2024.
This was a busy two months for fiction at Gibberish, so don’t forget to catch it while you can!
This is your last chance to read these stories for free! Check them out now!
If a paid subscription is not something you can manage right now—never fear! Using the Referral program, you can earn a paid subscription by referring someone else to subscribe using your custom link!
By sharing this link with a friend or family, when they subscribe you will get credit for referring the subscription, and starting at 2 new subscribers, you will earn 6 months or more of paid access!
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for another great month of reading and writing here at Gibberish. I can’t wait to see what the next month will bring!
God bless you all!
- Scoot
Lots of cool stuff coming down the pipeline! Is it possible to put out a survey to the newest subscribers to see where they're coming from?