When you go on an adventure, remember to take a toothbrush. Go to the bathroom first, charge up your mobile phone, and when the strange faerie waves at you or you step through that doorway and take the stranger’s hand, that’s a choice you should think over carefully. But adventures, like change, are good things.

I’m not an adventurous person, at least, in the physical sense. I don’t travel as much as I could, I get nervous about big events, but I like stories. I like tales where someone goes far from home, takes risks, and comes back better for it. So when you read this, think of it like an adventure. New events can be bad, but some can be truly wonderful.

For instance, my brother got married two years ago.

That was one of the highlights of 2024 for me, and my life, because I believed in him and my sister-in-law, and it was something I thought could only be for the better. I attended his wedding, gave a speech (which went well), and though I don’t know what comes next, I think it was a choice that was completely correct.

He was afraid as he walked up to that altar. Not viscerally terrified for his safety, but I think, in a way, it was one of the scariest moments in his life. Strange, how a few steps, a ring, and a bunch of bridesmaids with flowers could make him so nervous. But that’s what I mean. He saw a future he was walking towards, one he wanted, but he was facing it head-on, as it was happening, and I think fear was both hilarious and justified. It was a moment you shouldn’t forget. And I treasure that.

It wasn’t just my brother’s wedding that happened to me, either. I went travelling that year, to Puerto Rico and other places. I had the chance to meet with my agent in person and talk with him, and I found that I liked him and other people I worked with.

We launched a webcomic. If it hasn’t happened yet, I’ll redact this part and you can fill in the blanks later. I have another message there that will explain how much it means to me, but it is an honor to see what I only had mere words for. To see it when I didn’t even know what it looked like until people helped me visualize it.

The Wandering Inn put out a fashion line, and I believe the clothing and the project mattered and people will enjoy what was created. I can’t wait to wear it and, perhaps, to someday see people with that clothing on and smile, then panic about whether I should say something to them.

All these projects are good, difficult at times, and adventures. And that’s what I mean. They matter.

So…and so, I have one last project to announce. It’s taken two years. Lots of contract negotiations. Offers made, rejected. Hard work from my agent, and I know it is something you have asked for, you readers, for years. This is it.

The Wandering Inn will be coming out as a physical book by HarperCollins. It will be in bookstores. It will be in your hands. It’s taken a long time, but we finally did it.

I rewrote Volume 1 in hopes we could launch a Kickstarter for Volume 1, but we did send it around to all the big traditional publishers, and here we are. It took a while, and I couldn’t talk about it because we were negotiating things, but now I can say the story is going to be in major bookstores.

I hope there are some readers who are overjoyed to get the book into their hands, so they can show it to the people who won’t read books or just have it on their shelves. I think The Wandering Inn often feels like a fun dream to me; I’ve never met a fan of The Wandering Inn who wasn’t related to me somehow. I hope someday to meet one in the wild, and the printed book may well change that.

When I hold the book in my hands, perhaps that dream will feel realer. Or if I see it on a bookshelf, then I’ll feel it.

I don’t know, but I’m looking forwards to that moment. But as I alluded to, there will be a few changes. The Wandering Inn has always been a story about things shifting and the most classic of things: consequences. As a result of the deal, a major change will occur on the website.

Volumes 1 and 2 of The Wandering Inn will be limited access on the site. Audiobooks and e-books will not be affected. The change to the Volumes are so the web serial doesn’t hamper the book launch, and it is a necessary step to publish the book. This was a hard line to get the books published with a traditional, international company. Putting up the story for free while the physical and e-books are launching goes against their business model. They see this as a risk so it’s a compromise I have accepted to get the story to more readers.

I am aware many current readers found the story because it was free for them and that the pricing may affect their ability to read, and that some readers will not like the idea of having to pay for Volumes 1-2. However, it is my hope that past, present, and future readers of The Wandering Inn will find it available and accessible despite this compromise, and that millions more people will find the story.

Billions. Trillions. I have no limits on ambition, and if there are aliens out there, I’m sure we can set up interstellar delivery. Or translation.

HarperCollins will help take The Wandering Inn to the rest of Earth, and I am going to put my faith and trust in them to spread the story well and far. Exciting days have already passed for the story, myself, and readers, and I am always amazed at where I am. But I hope even more strange and wondrous days await in the future, and so I thank you for reading and hope you’ll get the book when it appears in person.

Just don’t read it when going to the bathroom. Take a phone, a survival kit, a roll of toilet paper, and a toothbrush whenever you open any door, and hopefully you have a wonderful adventure.

(…This is about magical doorways to other worlds, not bathroom experiences. I hope those are short and as painless as possible.)

Here we go, into a new chapter of the story. When the new readers arrive in Discord, or you see them talking about the story, I hope you, the existing readers, welcome them in. Like they were guests of The Wandering Inn.

Don’t spoil anything for them, be nice even if they hate Ryoka, and don’t scare them off by saying how long the story is. Wait for them to say how much they like it, then spring the number on them.

I hope it feels fun, and you enjoy being able to say ‘I was there, I saw it, I was there’, and you wear that as a badge of pride, and the story keeps going for ages. This feels like starting a new volume. New, exciting, and yes, stressful and uncertain at times. But if we keep reading, I think we’ll still find that wondrous, magical moment.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you look forwards to The Wandering Inn as a book.

––pirateaba

(PS. We also have new covers. Look at that!)