“Nick doesn’t seem to update his blog anymore. He only did three podcasts this year. I think he’s done with the Game” says a regular reader.

It certainly looks that way but let me reassure you all I’m most definitely not done with the Game. I have, however, had amended priorities in 2016 over and above regular blogging or doing in-field recordings.

I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. Fortunately, I also have the tenacity to push forwards and the completionist’s obsession with finishing everything he starts. Two years ago I started writing my daygame memoir Balls Deep. It quickly became obvious that I couldn’t tell the stories I wanted in the way I wanted to tell them and still keep it down to one volume.

By the time Balls Deep was finished in late 2014 it had only covered the first quarter of my Player’s Journey. “I’d best do this across four volumes” I mused. So I added three more volumes to my To Do list and got cracking writing all three simultaneously, as if I was filming Lord Of The Rings.

What a silly idea!

Two years later and I’m still at it. Back in November 2015 when my winter hibernation began I resolved that I must get these bloody memoirs out! I spent the whole winter writing  volume four, Adventure Sex, which was released this summer (to good reviews too, check here and here). While writing these books I came to a realisation that game was no longer my obsession – writing had replaced it. Here was a highly technical, wonderfully expressive art form in which you can keep improving for literally decades! I’d sit down at the local Costa Coffee with a grande americano and just disappear into the book. Love it!

So let me update you on the status of the quadrilogy.

Volume One: Balls Deep is on sale in both paperback and PDF here
Volume Two: A Deplorable Cad has just been finished. It’s now with the layout designer.
Volume Three: Younger Hotter Tighter is currently a 75k-word draft. It needs a lot of rewriting.
Volume Four: Adventure Sex is on sale in paperback here.

So the big news is A Deplorable Cad. I’ve literally just finished the seventh and final re-write this morning, polishing its mammoth 161k words to a fine sparkle. I’ve already received most of the commissioned artwork and now I need to go through instructing my layout designer and then reviewing test prints. My best guess is it’ll be on sale in January, just in time to motivate you fellow daygamers to follow through on your New Year Resolutions to do more sets.

A Deplorable Cad is my best writing. I’ve lavished extreme care on it because writing is my big obsession now. It picks up right where Balls Deep ends. And that is why I haven’t been blogging so regularly in 2016, especially lately. All my creative energies have been poured into this albatross. I’ve written 320,000 words of my memoir this year. Unbelievable, really.

If you like hearing me witter on, come find me on Gab – the only social media company that has yet to lock my account. Find me at https://gab.ai/NickKrauser