Book 4 Release and Author Afterward |
If you can hop on and leave a review for the complete series, that would be amazing. Thank you so much for your support over these past few years.
Acknowledgements & Afterward
And... that's a wrap!
After nearly 4 years, Beers & Beards has come to an end.
Crazy, when you think about it. A complete LitRPG series? That NEVER happens!
Do I have any further plans for Pete and friends?
Not particularly. The story was told in full, with what I hope was a satisfying if bittersweet conclusion. Could Pete's time in the Elf lands have been expanded on (that couple months where he sets up the brewing school), and then his time in South Erden with Mirelda expanded on? Absolutely. But at that point I'm stretching the story far beyond what it needed for the telling. Book 4 was more about telling the end of the great game, and how the machinations of the various Gods impacted the wider world. It was definitely a lot harder to write, and served as a valuable writing lesson.
And speaking of writing lessons. Phew! Nearly 1 million words! It's hard to believe!
I never would've imagined five years ago that I'd be here writing you all today. Beers & Beards came to be out of a particularly enjoyable gaming session of Deep Rock Galactic. I'd been reading a lot of LitRPG at the time, and wanted to go read a book that captured that dwarven feeling of joyful chaos. Unfortunately, every book on dwarves I could find was a dour thing of vengeance and battle.
And she said yes.
So I did! It took me about a week to lay out the plot of the game, write out a massive spreadsheet of Titles, and stats and stuff, and then I wrote my first chapter and posted it on Royal Road.
The rest is history.
One of the biggest questions I get about the series is why the start of book 1 feels so different from the rest of the story. It's because it's meant to hearken to what dwarven literature seems to always be about - a dour dwarf in a mine. It's also a massive series of references to games like Dwarf Fortress and Deep Rock Galactic (And Diggy Diggy Hole!). In fact, the entire stoneant section is actually a love-letter to Glyphid swarms.
I wanted an isekai that really looked at the hard work and effort that would go into acclimatizing into a new world, especially as someone starting at the actual bottom rung. Pete mourns. Fails. Runs afoul of culture. Runs into dangerous system quirks. Uses humour and references as a way to stay sane and hold onto a world he left behind. He has to earn everything he gets with sweat and hard work - which is a theme throughout the series. I know that the initial dark outlook can turn off readers looking for the cozy, but you know what? I don't think Beers would've had the same narrative arc if I'd jumped straight into the brewery.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I'm super pleased that the Great Game concluded how I'd imagined it way back when I started the planning for Beards. And yes, this finale was planned before I even started writing. Every major plot point got hit, even as my characters often hijacked the narrative for short spurts. That was the craziest part of all this, having NPCs with their own wants and desires and watching those completely change how my story was going. At times it felt like my own characters were taking control of my writing and deciding where the plot was going to go.
And it was great!
So what's next?
If you loved Beers and Beards, please keep an eye out for my upcoming new series, Dropship Cultivation, which is a cozy-adjacent noblebright story about a young man in a world of kung-fu and eldritch horrors finding a future in mail delivery.
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Onto my acknowledgments. It’s been almost four years, so I hope you’ll forgive me if I forget to put you in here! As such, here’s a blanket thank you to everyone who supported and helped Beers go from a small unknown flash in the pan idea, into the epic story is became.
First thanks, of course, are to my wife and daughter. You two put up with me writing late into the night, and early into the morning, helped with editing and put up with daddy spending way too much time on the computer.
Next goes out to the team at Aethon, like Rhett, Steve, Rob, Julie, Kaion, and Actus who believed in me before anyone else, and were willing to take on a complete unknown with barely fourty chapters out.
Another Huzzah goes out to the teams at Ghost Ship Games for making the incredible Deep Rock Galactic, and Bay 12 Games who made Dwarf Fortress. Those games are what gave me the impetus to start writing this story, and it wouldn’t exist without them.
To Granville Island Brewing, and all the other small breweries that answered questions and let me tour their brewing facilities.
To the Yogscast, who were my first introduction to the world of dwarves, and gave me permission to use their song Diggy Diggy Hole.
The mods at r/litrpg, the litRPG facebook group, and r/cozyFantasy, who allowed me to pitch my story.
In memory of Tarrel Garret, who was the first person to shout me out on Royal Road, and made me aware of the wilder world of authors.
To Royal Road, Wing and Kana, for providing a place and an audience for an idea that really would’ve never made it as a traditionally published book. And here’s to all my readers on Royal Road too! You all rock!
A big one for my Patrons on Patreon, especially Jordan, Mikael, Sam, Joel, Twin, Akki, Ryan, Jeff, Colby, Daniel, and Lisa. It was all of you that made it possible for me to dedicate all this this time and energy to writing. Thank you, and I hope that you’ll enjoy my next series as well!
To other authors whose stories were an inspiration for my own writing. Especially Casualfarmer, Ryan Rimmel, Dakota Krout, Travis Baldree, MysticNeptune, Matt Dinniman, Shirtaloon, and PirateAba.
And finally to Christian Gilliland. You made this world come to life, and it wouldn’t be half the story it is without you narrating it. Thanks man. Eventually I may forgive you for mispronouncing Okanagan.
Last but not least, here’s to you. Thanks for coming on this cozy, funny, hairy, unigoat and alcohol filled journey with me.
Cheers!
FOR CRACK!
AND ANNIE!