Help A Creator Out On His 42nd Birthday?

It's been one hell of a year, and I've had a rough ride over the past decade or so. The wheel doesn't stop its grinding just because you have a milestone coming up, though, so I wanted to take a moment to both acknowledge my birthday this year (something I don't normally do), and to ask folks to help me out with a couple of projects I've been having trouble getting eyes and ears tuned in to.

 

So, if you'd like to help me make sure that this Douglas Adams birthday of mine is a good one, please check the list below for how you can help!

 

 

It would really give me something to celebrate!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

 

How Can You Help (Free Stuff)?

 

First and foremost, I know we're all on the struggle these days, and most of my regulars are on very tight budgets. So, most of the things I'm going to ask for are things that will cost you nothing but a bit of time, but it will still go a long way toward helping make my coming year a little easier.

 

I'm not getting any younger, after all.

 

 

At the top of the list is the new project I launched with Alice Liddell a few months back, The A.L.I.C.E. Files. This YouTube channel features audio book readings, as well as an ongoing plot involving the mysterious Carroll Institute, and the latest "Alice" who has signed on as a witness cataloger. And because this project is new, we simply aren't getting paid for it yet. It's a huge amount of time, effort, and energy, though, which is why I'd really appreciate folks going to the channel, and giving the episodes we have out a watch. If you like what you see (or you just want to help us reach our goals so YouTube will actually share ad revenue with us), subscribe to the channels, like the videos, and leave some comments on ones you enjoy the most.

 

We just broke 300 subscribers, and we've got less than 1,000 watch hours. Those numbers need to be 1,000 and 4,000 respectively for us to actually start getting paid... so even getting us a few steps closer would be great!

 

We also have an AMA planned for when we hit 350 subscribers, which I wrote about recently in Ask Me Anything For The A.L.I.C.E. Files... Our Next Stretch Goal!

The second thing you could do to help also involves YouTube! I've been making videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for some time, and we did manage to get the channel monetized (in no small part thanks to the surprise success of my video essay The Problem With Pentex). However, we're really close to hitting a new milestone over there as well! At time of writing we're about 30 people away from crossing over the 2,000 subscriber mark... it's a drop in the bucket by YouTube standards, but it would still be a pretty awesome finish line to cross.

 

Especially since the channel only had 300 and change folks subscribed when I first started making videos for it.

 

Second verse same as the first with this one. If you aren't subscribed, please do so. And whether you are or not, watch a couple of videos, and see if there's something here that you'd like! We've got advice for World/Chronicles of Darkness, discussions about my fantasy setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, crafting videos, previews of supplements, videos about my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic... and so much more!

 

And last on the free list, I want to let folks know about my Vocal.Media archive. I've got more than 300 free articles over there covering fantasy and sci fi, RPGs, fan and original fiction, and more... but more importantly, I get paid for every read! So consider bookmarking it, and reading through the archive. It's only a penny a read, but if you find something you really like, consider sharing it on your socials, telling your friends about it, etc. as well to help me grab some more eyeballs.

 

It really does help, when all is said and done.

 

If You Want To Throw Money At Something, Though...

 

If you're one of those people out there who wants to get me something to mark the occasion, and help me pay my bills at the same time, then you might consider becoming a Patreon patron. I recently switched to the monthly subscription model, and it's been tough to rebuild my earnings on that platform. Or if you just want to give me a little tip to help keep me going, you could just Buy Me A Ko-Fi.

 

Of course, buying a book or two is always great, as well...

If you want to actually get some of my work, though, then picking up a copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic (or one of the mission modules I've written for it like A Night At Breckon's Beacon or Assault on Outpost 13) would also be great! And if you're more of a traditional fantasy RPG player (especially if you play either Pathfinder or DND 5E), then consider grabbing some of the books from my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting! You can find a full list of supplements for that setting in the post A New Year Is Coming For Sundara: Dawn of a New Age (What Would You Like To See)?

Of course, you can also check out my Amazon author page, or type my full name (Neal Litherland, for those who don't know) into Drive Thru RPG. You'll find a dozen or so books on the former site, and over 200 separate supplements on the latter to choose from!

However you choose to help, it's much appreciated! Thanks in advance, and I'm going to try to keep things going in 2026 to get even more stuff right in front of all of you!

 

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

An Ask Me Anything For The A.L.I.C.E. Files... Our Next Stretch Goal!

I wanted to start this month off with a bit of good news... the audio drama YouTube channel I launched with Alice Liddell, The A.L.I.C.E. Files, just hit 300 subscribers! And since this has been a goal of ours through most of April (the algorithm has been suppressing our signal hard), I wanted to dangle a bit of a carrot for folks who want to see the new project keep picking up steam.

 

Because if we can get that subscriber count up to 350, then Alice and I are going to put together an Ask Me Anything for the channel, and the ongoing stories of Alice and the Carroll Institute!

 

If you've got a curiosity, now is the time to ask!

 

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

 

You Want To Know, And We Want To Tell You!

 

At time of writing, we're getting a lot of fresh episodes in the can for the channel, and we're finally starting to set things up for the nebulous Season 2, where we're going to start opening the doors of the Carroll Institute, and figuring out some of the mysteries that lie beyond what we see in the files sent up by the archive. And while we're really excited about that, we also wanted to take a moment and let our listeners know that if you're enjoying what's going on, we're more than happy to give folks a little peek behind-the-scenes regarding what we're doing, explaining different plot points, and tossing out some world building explanations!

 

So, if you want to see us put together an Ask Me Anything video about The A.L.I.C.E. Files, here's what we need you to do:

 

- Subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files if you haven't yet

- Leave a question in The A.L.I.C.E. Files Behind The Scenes video with the tag AMA in the beginning

- Watch the videos we have on the channel so far to catch up on the plot

- Tell your family and friends to subscribe as well

 

As soon as we hit 350 subscribers, that's when we're going to go through the questions folks leave for us, put together a list, and sit down to satisfy some of your curiosities!

 

 

As a final note, if you go to the comments section and see that someone has already asked your question, that doesn't mean you shouldn't leave your two cents as well! If we see a question being asked more than once, that's going to make it far more likely that it goes on the list when we hit the magic subscriber number.

Until then, thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far, and a thank you in advance to everyone who will help us hit that goal we've set for ourselves!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my more involved audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Obligatory Patreon Shout Out (And Progress On A New YouTube Project)!

It's a new month, and you all know what that means... time for my Patreon patron shout out! So, for all the folks who shoot me at least $10 a month, you can have a spot on this list as well. Before I move on, I wanted to offer my regular (and very heartfelt thanks) to:

 

- Joy Von Holle

- Brenton Ayres

- Phillip Litherland

- Tracy Bailey-Matthews

 

If you're a patron who wants a spot on this list, check my Patreon page and see if you can get up to that level! But even if that's outside of your current budget, you have my thanks as well. Big or small, everyone helps keep the wheels turning and the lights on over here!

 

 

Seriously... without you all, I couldn't do what I do.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

 

I've Got Some Fresh Updates For Folks, As Well!

 

As I promised in the title, I do have one other update this week that I wanted to get folks in on. If you're a regular reader you might already know about this project, but in the event you aren't, I recently launched a YouTube channel with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files, which is a sci fi reimagining of Alice in Wonderland. We follow Alice, a witness cataloger for the mysterious Carroll Institute as she sees the reports that agents have filed, and realizes exactly how many other dimensions there are out there.

 

 

The channel currently has 12 videos on it which follow Alice's encounters at the Institute, the files she's examined thus far, a chapter-by-chapter reading of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (which may have some significance for folks who are looking for patterns), as well as our first behind-the-scenes video for folks who are curious about what it actually looks like to put together an audio drama.

 

And I bring this up at the start of this week because we've been straining to cross a certain threshold for a while. Because while the channel did very well for the first few weeks it was up, YouTube's algorithm quickly clamped on the chains to hold us back. We're currently at 296 subscribers at time of writing, and I wanted to get us at least to 300 before I offered a new incentive to get folks interested in helping us push forward.

 

So if you want to open up that door, and help me put together something new, please subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and leave a comment on Episode 1 saying that you came there from Improved Initiative so we can track your arrival. Because while we're shooting for 300 subscribers, we need 500 before YouTube opens up some of the monetization options, and a full 1,000 subscribers before they share ad revenue, so we need all the help we can get!

 

I doubt we'll get there by the 12th of this month, which happens to be my birthday, but if you did want to give me a little present that won't cost you anything, a subscription to the channel and a nice comment will go a long way!

 

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Need More Grimdark Tales? I've Got My Own Playlist Over On "A Vox in The Void"!

For all the books I've written and short story anthologies I've been a part of, it seems like most people who know my name recognize me from the work I've had featured over on the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void. From tales of the grim darkness of the far future like Waking Dogs or The Final Lamentation, to installments like my Pacific Weird War story Where The Red Flowers Bloom, or the Dead Space tale Black Marks, literally tens of thousands of people have heard those stories because they appeared on the channel.

But I've hit something of a milestone recently, and I wanted to share it this week... because enough of my tales have appeared on A Vox in The Void that I now have my own playlist!

Seriously, go check it out if you haven't yet!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

13 Tales of Blood, Death, and Vengeance!

I've been working with A Vox in The Void for several years now, and I've watched their channel grow, and their professional career take off. I won't say I'm responsible for it by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm glad to have done my part to help grow things, and I'm glad the audience seems to like my work overall. However, given how the Internet is these days, it's entirely possible that there are regular readers here who haven't been over there yet... and if you're one of those folks, take a moment to, at the very least, give my stories a listen!

Additionally, if you find a story on that list that you really like, consider leaving a comment and saying what appealed to you about it! And if you want sequels to any of the stories, make sure you let me know. I only add to things that it seems folks want to read, so your voice is what helps me lock-in to make more stuff!

And Once You're Done With Those Stories...

I will admit, I've only got 13 stories on that playlist. For most folks, that's going to be a long day of chores, or maybe half a week of commuting. If you need more, I have two specific recommendations for you to check out, both of which would help me a great deal!

The first is the ongoing audio drama YouTube channel I just launched with Alice Liddell titled The A.L.I.C.E. Files. In addition to the individual, stand alone stories we're presenting, there's also an ongoing narrative about the new "Alice" who just accepted a job with the mysterious Carroll Institute which is finally starting to rev up a little bit. We've had trouble getting eyes on this channel, and any subscriptions and views would be greatly appreciated!

If you managed to get through all of that, and you still find yourself wanting to listen to more audio fiction from yours truly, I have a rather sizable playlist on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. This is where I first started refining my skills, and if you listen to the playlist from back to front you can actually watch as my audio dramas evolve in real-time. All views are appreciated, as they help put pennies in the jar for Azukail Games, which is my main employer and publisher these days.

For all the folks who check these stories out, upvote, and subscribe, thank you. I like writing stories, and I like making audio versions of them... but doing it for free takes a lot of eyes to make the wheels turn. So if you're willing to put your shoulder to that wheel to help push, I (and all the other folks who work to bring these stories to life) are very grateful for it.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my more involved audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Literary Mercenary's (And Improved Initiative's) Recent Newsletter Change

The chaos of the year keeps on shifting, and over here on Improved Initiative I'm doing my best to roll with the punches. Which is why, first off, I want to give my monthly shout out to my patrons Phillip Litherland and Tracy for being my VIPs over on The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. I'm still reeling from the changeover (I lost more than half of my Patreon earnings switching from a per-item account to a single, monthly fee account), so if you want to help me keep my bills paid while working on stuff like this blog, please consider becoming a paid member this month!

However, as if that wasn't enough to deal with, it seems that a certain Digital Ape wanted more bananas from myself, and a bunch of other creators who were just trying to get the word out about our work. Which is why I recently had to switch my bi-weekly newsletter to a new service. So, keep an eye out for Email Octopus, if you haven't seen it yet!

Come, friends. Let me tell you the latest happenings!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

So... What Happened (And What This Will Change)

For folks who haven't been with me for a while, a few years back I took the advice from various folks, and put together a newsletter to keep all my interested readers updated on all my recent releases. The idea was that people who like my work could get personal, up-to-date content round ups coming straight from me, rather than depending on social media algorithms to see my posts (since these sites have been blocking, strangling, and silencing creators across the board). I never had a big following (10,000 is generally the number you need for a newsletter to be a money maker), but there were 300-500 folks subscribed to my newsletter at any given time.

And for all the time since I started this newsletter, I was a Mail Chimp user. You could send out up to 1,000 emails or so a month on your free account, and since I never really grew large enough to worry about going over that (as long as I did bi-weekly newsletters), it was a business arrangement that worked for me.

Until last week, when I settled in to send out the latest, and found the monkey with his hand out, demanding that I pay to play.

Your subscribers are waiting... what's it gonna be?

It seems that when I wasn't looking that Mail Chimp changed their policy so that anyone with over 250 subscribers on their list (I believe that was the number, at least) now had to pay to use their service. Well, given that only about 20% of my list actually reads their messages, and I don't really make any money from sending out these two newsletters a month, I wasn't going to just start tossing cash into a hole.

So I decided to use a different service... and that was why I've migrated my service over to Email Octopus (and you can sign up for the new location right here)!

I was fortunate in that all my previous users were downloaded and slotted right into the new service (so if you were already on the newsletter, you don't have to sign up again), but I'm going to be changing over links and trying to make sure that new folks don't end up on the old service as best I can. Sadly, that's a LOT of posts, so it's possible a few will slip through the cracks. My apologies in advance, but having to go through and change everything individually is going to take me a bit of time.

On A Final Note...

Speaking of going back through and swapping out links, I'm going to be replacing a lot of video links in both this blog, and over on The Literary Mercenary. For folks who haven't seen any of the updates, I recently launched a new YouTube channel with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files, which is going to have a lot of my older RPG audio dramas on it, in addition to all the fresh content we're going to be making for it!

You'll see videos like this latest Deadlands-inspired tale Dead Man's Bluff, which appeared in my collection The Rejects. So stop on in, give us an extra view, subscribe if you like what we're doing, and consider sharing it around so I can keep making more stuff just like this!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The A.L.I.C.E. Files Is Here (And Will Soon Be Featuring Various Audio Dramas)!

I mentioned earlier this year that I had a secret project I was working on, and that I would provide more information when it was ready to be revealed... well, that time is now! I've started a new YouTube channel in partnership with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and it's going to be an ongoing audio drama with two different layers. On the one hand there's the tale of a young woman who ends up working for the mysterious Carroll Institute as a witness cataloger, and she gets drawn deeper into the bizarre nature of the organization's endeavors to explore parallel dimensions through the unique device known only as the Rabbit Hole. On the other hand, though, there are the stories in the files themselves; agent reports in the form of dramatized fiction from Alice, myself, and from a variety of other authors.

And at least some of these stories are going to take place in various tabletop RPG settings, which is why I'm giving the project a shout out in this section of my blog.

And if we're going to make this project soar, we're going to need your help!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Settings I Have Ready To Go

While I'm writing, recording, and editing the meta stories about Alice, the Institute, and the dark mysteries that lurk within its walls, I do have a variety of stories that are ready to go, and which will begin appearing on the channel very soon! Some of these include:

- An Exalted story (which falls under the Dark Pack rules)

- A Warhammer 40K collection

- Some Lovecraft/Call of Cthulhu short horrors

- A Deadlands-inspired tale from my short story collection The Rejects

In addition to these settings (and several original stories of my own that either have been, or will be, dramatized), I also have some plans to adapt my story Devil's Night, which was the first story for my group's run through the Pathfinder adventure path Hell's Rebels.

In case folks were interested in more tales from Golarion.

I wanted to take a moment to ask my readers, however, which settings they'd like to see featured on the show. While not all of them will be feasible, I want to at least look into it, and see which stories I could spin into at least one episode of the show... though popular stories are much more likely to get sequels as long as folks keep putting their eyes and ears on what we're doing!

What Makes This Channel Different Than Azukail Games?

As regular readers know, I've been making audio dramas for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for a while now. Which, speaking of, go check out my videos over there and subscribe to the channel is you haven't done so already!

However, there are two things that make The A.L.I.C.E. Files different from what I've been doing for Azukail Games. The first is that while my Azukail Games stories are sometimes connected, generally they're stand alone stories, or they're only loosely related because the shorts come from the introductions to my TTRPG supplements that I write for the company. They're meant to draw in the viewer/listener, and to get them interested in seeing more... they're basically an RPG commercial with voice acting.

The second thing that's different, though, is the length of the average story over on the new channel. For example, consider the trailer:

It comes in at 7:33. It's short, sweet, and to-the-point, while also making sure that the listener gets a full story to draw them deeper into the Institute. However, the first episode of the show is over 20 minutes, and Dead Man's Bluff (which should be dropping next Friday) is also well over the 20 minute mark.

So, this new channel won't just have an ongoing connected story to follow (both in terms of full meta episodes, but the introduction snippets for unrelated stories will also feed into the ongoing narrative), but it will give us room to tell longer, more involved stories in ways that I haven't done before.

What We Need From You As Listeners

First of all, we aren't asking for money. We're very new, and we're trying to earn it ourselves. However, YouTube doesn't share any of the ad revenue with creators until they have at least 1,000 subscribers to their channel AND 4,000 hours of watched content (which is over 11 watch hours per day for an entire year).

And just to add insult to injury, those watch hours can't be from people with ad block. Because our first week had 65 hours of real watch time according to our metrics, but YouTube only counted 4 of those hours as real for the purposes of our monetization.

So... you see the sort of hill we're going to have to climb here.

What I need from you, dear readers, is simple, straightforward, and best of all, it's free! Just:

- Subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files on YouTube (we're 1/5 of the way to the subscriber goal)

- Watch the videos we have up (preferably with your ad block turned off, if you can)

- Upvote the videos, and leave comments of at least 7 words on them (it's for the algorithm)

- Share our videos and channel on your own social media pages (we need a bigger reach)

That's it!

My experience with getting the Azukail Games channel monetized is that what we really need is folks to show up, listen, and share if we want to get our numbers up. Because if something went truly viral today (let's say the trailer garnered oh... I don't know... 20K fresh hits who all watched the whole thing, and then at least half of those people watched episode 1 in its entirety), we'd basically be monetized by the time Monday rolls around.

But that kind of success doesn't just happen out of nowhere. It happens because an audience watches, comments, and shares videos, boosting the size of the potential audience, and getting more folks to walk in the door. So if you're one of the folks out there who has enjoyed my audio drama work, and you'd like to see me really expand on the stories I tell (and you're enjoying a broader cast of voice actors), then follow the steps above to help make it happen!

There Is A Bonus Option, As Well...

I said above that we aren't asking our listeners for money, and I mean that. At the moment we are very focused on getting the channel monetized so that we can just focus on telling good stories.

With that said, though, if you do want to monetarily support us, check the video descriptions because we will have links to the books we're dramatizing stories from. Whether it's my own book The Rejects, one of Alice's short story collections, or even novels like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, buying from the links we have will help ensure that the channel makes some money while we struggle up the hill to force YouTube to actually share some of the profits our work is generating.

Thanks in advance to all who take the bonus option!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my more involved audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

"A Trail in The Margins," A Call of Cthulhu Audio Drama, Has Fresh Episodes Coming Up!

As folks around here know, I typically wait until the third installment of an audio drama series to write a blog about it for the Table Talk section of this blog... however, this is one that I want to touch on a bit early, because I really do need readers' feedback before I decide how much further I'm going to take it. There are a lot of irons in the fire right now, and I want to make sure I'm giving the most attention to the ones that people are actually interested in.

Which is why I wanted to talk about A Trail in The Margins, which appears on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and where this dark little noir drama set in Lovecraft's back yard is going.

After all... some cases do remain permanently unsolved.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

A Private Eye, A Forged Tome, and A Deadly Cult

Our tale begins with A Trail in The Margins, which is the introduction story in the supplement 100 Books To Find in The Miskatonic Library (That Aren't in The Restricted Section), which was the first supplement for a Lovecraftian game I'd written in some time. In this story we meet Archie, a researcher and academic who works for Miskatonic University, and his friend Jonathan "Jack" Walker, a gumshoe who works out of an office on Arkham's north side. The two have had dealings before, and Archie has need of his friend's help when he discovers that one of the books in the university's collection is in all likelihood a forgery.

Following up from this tale, we find Jack back at his office in The Men Behind The Curtain, the opening story in 100 Whispers and Rumors to Hear in and Around Arkham. An unexpected visitor comes on behalf of a family well known for being on the wrong side of the law, telling Jack that his and Archie's mission is of great importance to these movers and shakers in the underworld. Jack doesn't take this news well, but he made a promise to his friend... it just seems like now Archie might actually need somebody with Jack's skill set to watch his back.

The third tale is coming out this month in a new Lovecraft-inspired supplement that covers informants, academics, and adventurers, and while I fully intend on adding that audio drama to the ongoing project, I wanted to ask my audience this week if this story is one they're really interested in? And, by association, do you feel I should add a few more Lovecraft-related supplements onto my to-do list for this year, or would you rather I spend my time working on something else?

Please leave your answers in the comments for the two videos above. This ensures that my publisher sees them, that I can see and respond to them, and that we can get an accurate count regarding audience enthusiasm. And if you want more people to see this story, make sure your comments are at least 7 words long, because that will make the videos rank higher in YouTube's algorithm!

Lastly, if you do enjoy these, and you'd like to see even more of my Lovecraft-adjacent work, please consider checking out the following:

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Cthulhu Mythos Edition: A short collection of spine-tingling tales, these can be used to set a tone, or to inspire a game of your own!

- 100 Businesses To Find in Arkham: A supplement to fill out the town of Arkham itself while also providing plot hooks, this was my first contribution to Call of Cthulhu... but certainly not my last.

- 100 Gangsters, Gun Molls, and Goons: A collection of dangerous NPCs for Arkham's underworld, these characters can add that extra edge that an investigation sometimes needs.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

"Ship of Martyrs" Showcases A New Video Format (Should I Keep It?)

As a lot of regular readers here know, I regularly dramatize the introductory short stories from my TTRPG supplements on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and those videos often show up on Drive Thru RPG as well. Recently I've been tinkering with some different effects, and I think I finally managed to really capture the feeling of an old-fashioned video game RPG, which I think really adds some strange elements to the latest story I put together, Ship of Martyrs from my supplement Beyond The Black: 100 Dread Scenarios On Stranded Starships.

My question for you all this week is do you find this format engaging? And if so, is it something you'd like to see me do in future videos?

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

How You Can Make Your Voice Heard

Generally speaking, when I try something new with a video format, I keep an eye on what the reaction is to that video. So if you're someone who enjoys this look who would like to see me make future videos with this kind of setup (whether you just find it visually more engaging, or you like following along with the dialogue), here are some simple things you can do to make sure that this format sticks around in future videos!

- Watch The Video: Views are hard to come by with YouTube's constant algorithm changes, and even breaking 100 views was tough to manage. Getting it up over 500, or even 1,000, would be a clear message!

- Leave Comments of 7+ Words: The algorithm, for some reason, likes longer comments. But if you want to see more videos like this, then the comments are one of the best ways to help. Also, more comments helps the video get seen by more people, so, bonus!

- Share The Video on Your Social Media Pages: While a lot of people are awed (or annoyed) at my ability to share my work as widely as possible, I really need your help on this one. If you like this video, please share it on your own social media pages so more folks can see it.

- Subscribe To The Channel: Any time there's a big boom in subscriptions, there's often a correlation to the latest video released when they happened. So, if you haven't subscribed yet, then please do so! And mentioning your subscription in the comments will help, too.

I am asking for a lot of feedback in this week's post because this is a format I had to tinker with for a while to get it to look good, and function right. As such, I want to make sure it's something you all enjoy, and that you think is neat, before I roll up my sleeves and put in the work to do it with future videos as well!

And, of course, the more views you all give my work, the more money my publisher makes, and the more they can afford to pay me for future projects... just something to keep in mind!

There Are Actually Two Previous Stories You Should Hear, Too

While Ship of Martyrs is the newest story out, I've actually written stories about Argent, Grady, and their ship's adventures in the black before! The first actually appeared in the supplement 100 Spacer Superstitions, and Voices in The Void deals with the rather rocky relationship the two spacers had with one another when they were first serving on the same crew.

And a follow-up story to the crew of this ice hauler was found in 100 Sci Fi Cults. In Saints Among The Stars, the crew has been boarded by the Star Breakers, a crew of space pirates. All seemed lost, until unexpected aid came from a single member of the Knights of The Void. One of the more popular stories on the channel, it was also the first time I experimented with the audio effects to create a space marine style voice for the crew's savior!

So, if you're looking for the history of Argent and Grady's adventures together, check these supplements and videos out (and leave some comments on them so that I know you found them via this post)! And if you want to see more of the things that lurk out in the black, let me know that too so I can return to these characters, and the things they've had to encounter on their runs through the emptier parts of space.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

"Old Soldiers" Has An Audio Preview (And You Should Absolutely Check It Out!)

Folks who regularly stop by this blog are probably aware of the fact that I have written a slew of space marine fan stories for the grimdark future of Warhammer 40K. And if you're one of the readers out there who has enjoyed The Final Lamentation (my story of a Lamenter savaging a Black Legion ship), Blackest Knights (a story of Kill Team Errant for the Deathwatch), or even my Waking Dogs series (featuring a renegade World Eater), then I wanted to take a moment to let you know about my sci fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers.

Not just that, but it now has an audio reading for the first two chapters from Altered State Adventures!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

A New Update (While I Work On Some More 40K Nonsense)

For folks who haven't come across this book before, Old Soldiers is a novel of mine that's been out for some time. In this book we follow Pollux, one of the myrmidon, who is attempting to survive in a world that was not meant for him. A genetic experiment who was one of hundreds of different doomsday weapons created by humanity, these gigantic, albino shock troopers weren't meant to survive their clash with the alien Hyperion... but some of them did. Ghosts of their former selves, the myrmidon have become relics of the past, mostly forgotten by the world they fought for. Pollux is just about to get his life together, when assassins come for him, and the woman he's formed a connection with.

Their bullets weren't enough, though. And when he gets the remnants of his squad back together, they'll tear apart the city until they find the answers that have been buried for far too long.

So grab your copy if you haven't yet!

And I bring this up this week because this is the second piece of mine that's been dramatized by Altered State Adventures. The first one of mine the channel put together was my Warhammer 40K Knight story Broken Heroes, whose video is approaching 10K views as of this reading...

So, you know, go check that out if you haven't!

I've Got Some New Stuff on The Horizon!

While I'm currently getting ready for my last event of 2025, once I pack up and get back home I have plans to settle down and to work on the next installment of the Gav and Bob series, which tells the tale of the Imperium's Bravest Ogryn! I don't know if I'm going to manage to get the next installment done by Sanguinala this year, but I'm going to do my best!

And for folks who haven't come across this series yet, check out this playlist over on A Vox in The Void!

And, of course, if you want to help me make a little extra scratch for the holidays, you can read my contributions to the series directly on Vocal.media:

- Gav and Bob Part IV: The Emperor's Hand

- Gav and Bob Part V: Faith and Martyrs

- Gav and Bob Part VI: The Laughter of a Thirsting God

Lastly, if you've already read these stories, consider sharing them around on your social media site of choice! It's tough to get eyes on these stories, but the more folks who cheer for Gav, the more of these stories I'll be able to put together... so raise your voice, because it matters!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Help Azukail Games Defeat The Algorithm! (On YouTube)

The algorithm is the strange (and often malignant) god of the Internet age. It determines who lives, dies, who fails and thrives. Its decisions appear utterly random, and while it purports to be all-knowing, it never seems to actually be able to give you precisely what it is you want.

The truth is that the algorithm is a blind, idiot god. It sees everything, but truly understands nothing... but if you wish the blessings of the attention economy, it must lift you up as a creator. I talked about this more in-depth recently in As An Author The Algorithm Controls Your Fate (And It Determines Your Success), but this week I wanted to ask for your help in binding this technological force in order to use its power.

In short, the year is drawing to an end, and Azukail Games could use your help!

We won't be able to do this without you!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

How You Can Pull Us Out Of The Mud!

So, full context for folks who haven't been around these parts before, I am one of the major contributors to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, which is where I host 3-4 regular shows with occasional dramatized stories from the TTRPG supplements I write. And while the channel got monetized earlier this year, it's been a slog for us to actually climb up the hill and get noticed.

And there are two major reasons for this:

- YouTube changes to the algorithm, which has taken our average views from 300-400 per video, to 100, and sometimes as little as 50 views per video.

- Subscriber slow-down. Unless your channel is constantly growing (or reaches a massive subscriber level in the hundreds of thousands) the algorithm hides/de-prioritizes your content, and doesn't share it with people.

The issue that we're running into is that while we can make all the videos we want, and try to share them around as much as we can, we can't tap a magical button and increase our views, or get people to subscribe to us as a channel. And that is what this post is for today... because we could really use a few helping hands before the year is over.

And best of all, it won't cost you a dime!

All we need folks to do is, basically, help us fight the two issues I mentioned above! So, if you want to help us keep pushing forward:

- Subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. For bonus points, hit the bell to be sure that you get notified so the algorithm can't just bury our videos when they drop.

- Watch our videos. If you're already subscribed, just take a few minutes out of your day to watch at least 1 video. Or, if you enjoy a particular show on the channel, watch one of the full playlists!

- For bonus credit, upvote videos you like, and leave comments of at least 7 words on them. Those are signals to the algorithm that a video is popular, and it makes a difference regarding how much attention our content gets. You could also share links to the videos on your own social media pages, which can have a surprisingly large impact.

And that's it!

My personal goal is to get the channel over 2,000 subscribers by Christmas, and we're currently at around 1,760. So if we can find about 240 folks, more or less, that growth will be a big help that will allow us to regain some of our momentum. And if we could also get a bigger percentage of folks to hit that bell and watch our new releases (as well as sharing older videos they think more folks should see) that would be huge for us. Because while the channel is monetized, it isn't exactly pulling down notable ad revenue... which is something you can help us do just by using your eyes and ears to send a message to the algorithm on our behalf.

Thanks for reading this far. This has been an ongoing project, and I have so many topics I still want to cover, and more involved videos I want to make. But to justify the cost in time, energy, etc., I'm going to need all the help I can get!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!