Well, it’s been another year of “Eternity’s Irys”! That marks 7 years since the project began as a web series. It is now a book series with the first volume ready to purchase on Amazon! The book series started somewhere around 2022 and, with the help of my partner and illustrator, Rhett, we were able to create the novel of my dreams! “Two Minutes to Midnight” went public on October 31, 2024.

So what did we do in 2025? There was no book release as previously planned, so what was accomplisehd? A lot, actually!

In no particular order, because my observation of time is scattered, here’s what we at EI accomlished in the year 2025 and where we are hopefully heading in 2026.

Second Book Cover Started and Completed

At the start of the year we began work on the cover for “Fly Away”. It started out following “Two Minutes’” design, as all books in a series should, but we quickly realized we hadn’t hit the mark. Rhett wanted to push it, and I agreed so we went in a totally different direction. I was nervous because I knew it would mean having to redo the cover for”Two Minutes” and I had no idea how that would fit into the production timeline. Rhett got to work regardless and managed to create what I consider a masterpiece. Gone were the straight lines of the frame that both congested the artwork and made the print errors often faced with Amazon more evident than they needed to be. The end result was far closer to the vibe I was hoping for from the start.

It was simplified and stark. Just how I wanted it.

The problem was, that was the vibe I wanted for “Two Minutes” as well. Unfortunately, this resulted in Rhett scrapping most of the original cover and starting virtually from scratch. I felt terrible, but the results speak for themselves.

As far as I’m concerned, we’ve reached peak cover art for “Eternity’s Irys”. I expect we’ll be following this trend for the rest of the series.

“Fly Away” Manuscript Complete!

I began and completed the manuscript for the second book this year. It was faster than before (6 years for “Two Minutes”), but it’s still in its editing phase.

As I’ve mentioned before, I cannot currently afford an editor, so all of the corrections are done between myself and my beta readers. It is an arduous process, if I’m being honest. I always give my books at least three passes. We are on the second one for “Fly Away”.

I had initially intended for it to be released early this year (January), but I had a dumb idea that I knew would slow the process down. Instead of four full-page art pieces, I asked Rhett to work on an entirely illustrated epilog. It started out around 20 pages, but of course, I pushed for more. It is now upwards of 30 pages.

We are now looking at a mid 2026 release date, but that is depending on some rather large life changes.

Character Art!

We now have a line-art line-up of all the main characters!

Left to Right:

Saari, Sylus, Jeron, Finn, Inaya, and Castor.

Not pictured for some reason is Edie:

Fun Fact: The “humanoid” cast is evenly split between AFAB and AMAB people 🙂

Third Book

Fear not, my two fans, “The Devil Wears Violet” is underway! The first two chapters have been written and the tone has been set! I have no concept of a production timeline for it yet as I also have no idea what the art capacity will be like for Rhett besides the cover.

The IRL Situation

Personally, it’s been a year. My job was dragging me down and my entire autumn was marred by a botched move. All I had to do was move from my old apartment to the new one next door and boy did it go to hell in a handbasket. I was not okay. I was on the verge of quitting my job because after years of telling managment it was too much, nothing changed (par for the course, but I was in literal pain and never filed a complaint so that was on me).

Well, the move was finished in a few days thanks to my brother and a friend. Still, I’m not entirely finished unpacking. It’s not a big place, but I live alone and was mentally unwell. I’m steadily picking away at it. It’s a gorgeous apartment but I often find myself very concerned about how expensive it is, but that might be resolved soon.

In addition to living in a nicer place now, I moved to a new position at work. One that better meets my capabilities and allows me to pace myself much more reasonably. A lot was placed on my shoulders in my previous position, so much that no one believed me that it was TOO much until I was gone and it took three people to step into my shoes. It was validating in an almost sick way, but I try not to look back, though they still drag me down to the dungeon occasionally to help. My new teamlead is staunchly against them taking me away and it feels… really nice to have someone advocating for me for once.

Oh, and remember what I said about rent? Well, there’s a 99% chance Rhett will be moving in this year which will make this place a dual income household (and I’ll also have the luxury of a live-in illustrator >:) ). This will be huge for everyone and the project itself.

2026 Projection

So what’s the plan?

Overall? The plan is to get “Fly Away” out the door. This is the primary objective that must be completed this year no matter what.

Second, start and finish the cover for “The Devil Wears Violet”. It shouldn’t be too terrible as it borrows heavily from “Fly Away”‘s epilog.

Third, updated character art. Jeron and Sylus have changed an awful lot in the second book so some fresh portraits are likely in order.

Fourth? Maybe put more work into actually selling the books/merch? Being indie is difficult and success is probably impossible, but unless a unicorn of a publisher picks us up, that’s how it’s going to have to be. I try not to think about it too much. I’m in an okay place in life right now, so I’m not as desperate as I once was for it to succeed. I would like it to, to some degree, but I feel more confident in my desire to cultivate a small fanbase that cares for the IP than hit it big and lose control. All of which is very unlikely, but we press on regardless.

Bonus!

More remastered artwork!

Soldheiria 2!

The left image is, I believe, the first piece of artwork Rhett did for the series at the end of 2023 as a sort of test to see if our visions aligned. Which they did.

I asked Rhett to remaster it to celebrate the one year anniversary of the release of “Two Minutes to Midnight”. The second image is where we’re at today featuring Jeron’s updated “Fly Away” design!

I’m so proud of how far both they, as characters, and Rhett, as their illustrator, have come.

Speaking of the illustrator:

A Word from the Illustrator

I asked Rhett to contribute to the retrospective with their own voice and feelings so what follows is their perspective on the project:

Since before I can remember I’ve always had my hands on some method of creation: in daycare it was colored pencils and printed out Pokemon coloring sheets, high school was all original character development and story trades with new friends (this was also where I realized I could gift my art to people… nothing is comparable to seeing someone you care about light up because you drew their characters). College has been the peak of my creative career, but considering that period lasted up until May 2024, I suppose it’d be cheating to imply that it wasn’t without effort. 

2024 also brought the delightfully rich world of Eternity’s Irys to my fingertips, and for me, a grateful change of pace from homework to paced, legitimate projects. Tav put out a post for a cover artist and soon we were talking: long, nervous paragraphs exchanged from two folks taking a risk with each other. It was a welcomed surprise to realize that his content was exactly the kind of reading I enjoy most, and by the end of the first pass I was hooked to these two traumatized men and their love story. In the interim we discussed illustrations to include, looping in another close friend to beta read and brainstorm, and we landed on some heavy-hitting moments that we couldn’t not put onto paper. 

Ultimately, Eternity’s Irys has brought me an excuse to look forward to the long term. 

This is only getting started for either of us. 

This entire endeavor has brought me so much hope, let alone the opportunity to share a story that desperately needs to be told. Jeron and Sylus go through so much together… change, fear, love, discovery… and there’s so much realism in their emotional processing that it’s allowed me my own self reflection. I’m excited to learn with them. Grow, even. They already hold my pen as I draw them. Besides, they’re two gays in a cosmic struggle. Oversimplified as that is, that’s like my whole personality. 

And if you want the truth, they give me a cosmic struggle. Countless times we’ve started a project involving Jeron and Sylus and one or the other will decide that that is the time to play with me. One’s eyes will be off-brand in one image, but in another project they’ll be perfect. I’ve told them if they don’t cooperate then they get to reap the consequences: terrible stick figure memes. 

That said… we have yet to agree on what Sylus’ butt looks like.

~Rhett

Conclusion

It’s me again. Thank you to everyone who’s been following the project, and especially to those who have taken a risk and purchased the book. I can’t tell you how much every like, comment, share, and purchase means to us and the project as a whole. We hope to continue offering content worthy of your time and investment.

May 2026 be the year “Eternity’s Irys” truly blooms.

Until next time o/