So, this was supposed to happen, oh, three years ago.
See, three years back — almost a year after things like Lovelace½ had gone on hiatus — I was gearing up for a complete site redesign and an entirely new way of doing things. I’d actually done a ton of work reconciling my Justice Wing and Mythic Heroes universes, and built a structure I thought would work really well for telling stories about any number of things. I was excited.
Then, 2014 happened.
I’m not going to go into it — however, I can say without a shadow of doubt that 2014 was by far the worst year of my life. There were medical issues galore. There were a few tragedies. There was loss and an accident or two. I left an organ behind in 2014. And a lot more.
So. Why did this take until 2017 to happen instead of, say, 2015? That’s how bad 2014 was. This is literally when Banter Latte could come back. Now and no sooner.
In the meantime, I’ve re-unbolted the bolted-together stuff and built it all back up in a new configuration. Mythic Heroes as it was and Justice Wing aren’t one universe now, any more than they were before. Mythic Heroes itself is poised for a rebrand as 023SG — you’ll see a lot of codes like that coming up soon enough — and is also going to be a vector for that part of my brain that was writing for Superguy Digest in the eighties.
And, like a lot of other people, I now have a Patreon. And it would be disingenuous to say that won’t have an impact on what Banter Latte is and what it will be. Fortunately, I think that impact will be a good one.
Let me open by saying this. You do not need to donate to Patreon in order to read Banter Latte. The stories meant for Banter Latte will continue to appear on Banter Latte — for the same low low price of ‘nothing’ you’ve come to expect. In particular — the stories that started here already — Corbett-877, Interviewing Trey, Lovelace½, Theftworld, Vilify 5 and others — will continue to show up here. I can’t stand when someone starts a thing for free and throws it behind a paywall, and I’m not going to do that to you guys. You guys have been too great for that to be a thing.
However, the first draft of these posts will appear on Patreon and not here. I call them first drafts, but really they’re the posts you’re used to — everyone who’s been around for a while will remember the infamous ‘typo threads’ on each post, for example. Which means… well, people who donate will get them first.
But. You’ll get the redrafts, and in a timely fashion — how timely? Well, let me put it this way:
I will not get paid for my Pateron work before you get Banter Latte content posted here on Banter Latte.
Did that really warrant bold and italic centering? Eh, I’m old. I can get away with it.
See, I’m not launching my Patreon on the monthly payment model. It’s not workable for me with my work schedule. It’s not for me. So instead, I’m releasing Folios. Each Folio will be at least 25,000 words (which can scale up to 35,000 words if goals are met) and will contain… oh, lots of things. Stories. Art. Fun stuff. And some of it will be tagged as Banter Latte content. (How much? Depends on the goals that are met — right now I have a goal that means at least one Banter Latte story or post of at least 5,000 words per Folio, and a second goal pushes that to two.) That content will end up here.
In order to make all this work, the Banter Latte infrastructure needed to be heavily upgraded — the old ship’s timbers were worn and she was takin’ on water pretty much constantly. We’ve done this — meaning A) the site will be way faster and B) all of the series navigation died a horrible death. Some of that’s been resolved — any ‘project’ you see on the front page will have navigation links at the end of each post — but it’ll be an ongoing project to get the older stuff linked up.
Now, there’s plenty of stuff in the Folios that won’t end up here. Short stories, for example. Backstory and concept art. The bits and pieces that will make up the bulk of the published novels and the like. Take Folio #1 — just announced today, in fact! Folio #1 is also called Elaborating Leather, because that’s exactly what it is — an elaboration on “Interviewing Leather,” while I prepare to publish Interviewing Leather: an Anthology of Perspective. I’m publishing it as an anthology because the original novella didn’t fit a good niche. The final volume’s going to include several other stories, including “Like a Shot from a Cannon” about Dynamo Girl’s last days as a hero, “Being the Steve” about… um… being the Steve for Leather and the gang, and “Debriefing Leather,” which despite the title has no underwear in it. Those additional stories are going to be available for sale later on, and will be on Patreon now… but won’t end up over here. Why? Because book sales, man. Book sales.
On the plus side? Five bucks gets you all of them and a lot of other things too. Here, let me show you in convenient Infographic form:
I know. It’s an infographic. I feel a little dirty.
So. In the next week or two we’re going to see at least five thousand words bringing us back into the world of Andi Gannett-Moore. We may even see another five thousand words on the topic of Captain Liam Corbett (the 877th). After that… depending on what folks ask for, we should be getting back to Chapman, Trey and the Jack O’Knaves soon. If you’ve got the five bucks to spare — and the inclination — you can get to see a bunch more stuff surrounding Leather, including the Dynamo Girl stuff people have been asking me for… well, forever. And if you don’t? No worries. There will be plenty here over time.
There’s still a lot of work to do — I need to rebuild my links list. I need to put in navigation on more of the archive. I need to render a few more banners. And I need to write.
It’s a nice feeling, all told.
