Exodus From Floating Point

Before starting Arcade Spirits, I was writing a trilogy of novels called Floating Point. I’m relieved to announce that I’ve released book three in the series in print and ebook form, and it’s now available from my book store.

I say “relieved” because this was supposed to be released in 2017, and I only now got off my butt and finished up the work needed to compile it together. Why did it take so long? A few reasons.

First, difficulty. Floating Point used a lot of iconography, emoji, and other imagery which can be tricky to format into print and ebook formats. It took a few days to pull it all together; fortunately I had a surplus of time thanks to being temporarily furloughed. But still, I could’ve done it at any point prior, if I’d just sat down to do the work.

Second, exhaustion. Honestly, Floating Point was a doom grind of a book to write for me. It’s all about how the nexus of partisanship, hatred, and anonymity have torn down online discourse and reduced it to a slouching beast that devours and kills. It used metaphors to point to things actually happening in the real world, terrible things, and constantly exposing myself to that stuff and researching it to make the book work ground me down into a fine gravel by the end. I’m proud of the work but it was a miserable experience by the time I reached the third in the series.

(That’s also why I aimed to have Arcade Spirits be something lighter, fluffier, more optimistic. A simpler story about friendship and love and the arcade industry. I wanted something a bit less divisive, something anyone could enjoy. …but apparently merely including a pronoun option makes me a radical leftist, so what the hell, I chose to lean into that eventually.)

Third, motivation. Once I start a new project, I have a hard time keeping my motivation up to do any final cleanup for the previous one. I’m avoiding this with Arcade Spirits… sort of… by not diving into any potential sequel design work until completely finishing AS1. It’s completely finished now, and my mind’s moved on to AS2. Hopefully AS1 is a success and I get to make an AS2 (no promises, folks!) but yeah, I move from project to project, and I’d moved on from Floating Point by that, uh, point.

Finally, finances. Let’s be real, my book sales were barely enough to afford a dinner at a nice restaurant once a year. Doing a chunk of work to produce a book maybe twelve people will buy felt like a weird investment.

But let’s be real, these are all excuses. In the end I admire the sort of people who knuckle down and do what needs to be done, regardless of circumstances. Dudes who serve with both hands, to quote a cyberpunk novel I love. So while it’s a long time coming, I’m relieved to close the last chapter on Floating Point, and proud of my accomplishments. I’m proud of the stories, I’m proud of the people who backed me and helped me see it through, and I hope you enjoy the novel.

Now, then. Arcade Spirits launches Feb 12, and I’m shifting my focus back there. Let’s rally and make this happen!