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Lore News Update - June 2022
🕑 Added 2022-06-16 12:49:34 +0000 UTCHey folks!
I trust your spring has been bright and hopeful. I know my heart gets a little jolt every time I look out my office window and see all the green and colorful flowers (my wife is quite the gardener, and my yard shows signs of her hard work everywhere!).
But in the "Land of Lore", all is still dark and creepy. In fact, I felt like this half-way point through the year was a good place to offer you—my loyal and generous supporters—a glimpse of what's on my plate, and where things are headed.
So...here are some updates!
My Writing
As of today, I only have two more 2022 episodes left to write, record, and produce. That means I've completed all the episodes through the end of November.
After those last scripts are written, I'll pause my Lore writing until November, when I start in on the 2023 episodes we've already planned. My goal over the last few months has been to make the 2022 episodes tighter and a tad bit shorter (for a better storytelling experience, not out of laziness...shorter is actually harder work, trust me!).
So far so good.
Lore Release Schedule
Keep this between you and me for now, but I'm working on a plan to double the Lore output in early 2023. I still want to finish remastering the first 50 episodes, but once that "off-week" Monday is available (sometime in May, I think), I have another idea I plan to implement.
It'll be brand new content—full-episodes with everything you've come to expect—and delivered in the same RSS feed. And of course, ad-free versions of those new episodes will drop in here for you, never fear! But it's going to have a "theme" of sorts...
I still need to plan out how that's going to work, but I've started the process by hiring two additional research assistants (full-time, with salary and benefits and everything), plus I managed to lure my Cabinet of Curiosities writer, Harry, away from his Big City job, so now he'll have time to write more than just Cabinet.
I'll keep you posted as those plans take shape.
Merchandise
The team and I absolutely love exploring new merchandise, but we've simply fallen back on high quality print-on-demand options for the last couple of years. It's good, but I've been wanting to find a way to bring more physical rewards into the Patreon tiers that you and others belong to.
So, to that end, I'm also beginning to plan out how I can offer and deliver things like t-shirts, bags, mugs, etc to Patreon members on a set schedule. Patreon started offering a service to make that happen about a year ago, but I've been [1] too busy to explore it while writing, and [2] waiting for the kinks to get ironed out. And now I feel ready.
So, keep an eye on the updates here for news about new benefits to your existing support tiers. Fingers-crossed I can find some exciting ways to return all the love you've offered me over the years!
Grim & Mild Presents
As you probably know, my teammates and I over at Grim & Mild (my production company focused on writing and research for new shows) replaced Unobscured with a brand new show back at the start of 2022. It's called Grim & Mild Presents, and it's sort of like "Unobscured 2.0".
The first season (new episodes every two weeks, just like Lore) has been all about the American sideshow, and folks have been absolutely loving it. But with episode 13 arriving next week, "S1: Sideshow" comes to an end, and two weeks later, the RSS feed will start delivering "Season 2" (just stay subscribed to G&MP, and you won't miss a thing).
While I can't tell you what Season 2 is about just yet, I have a feeling you're going to love it just as much as we do. In fact, you might even want to raise a glass of rum in honor of the topic. But that's just a random suggestion...
Oh, and one note about Grim & Mild shows in general: because they're produced and distributed by my partner, iHeart, I can't offer those shows ad-free here on Patreon. I'm guessing you already assumed that, but I just wanted to state it for the record. I would if I could, but I can't so I won't. You know the drill.
Touring
I have no plans to tour this year, sadly. I'm far too busy with a number of shows on my plate, and Chad Lawson is off touring for his record label in beautiful places like London, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Am I jealous? You bet.
Oh, speaking of Chad, he teased a photo on Instagram the other day of the UK studio he's currently recording an album at, and if you have sharp eyes, you'll notice how "fab" the space is. He's working hard in there—harder than, say, four whole English lads—and I can't wait to hear what he creates.
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And that's it, folks! Thanks for reading through this long and winding message. As always, you get access to some of my plans and news before anyone else, so I'd appreciate it if you kept this stuff private until you see me talk about it on social media.
And as always...thanks for your amazing support!
Aaron
Comments
Kelly
Do not shorten episodes, if anything, makes the linger!
Anja
That sounds super cool!! Can't wait to see what you come up with 😃 it's really cool to see how Lore has developed into all these different projects over the years, and all of them are equally amazing!
Jane
I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see the changes, updates, merch and storyline galore. I’m sad to already be near the end of the sideshow story for Grim & Mild Presents but if that rum hint means what I think it means then the new one should be Arrr-mazing.
Aaron Mahnke
Thanks! To be fair, when I say "shorter", I mean slimming down from 5,000 words in an episode to 4,500. Not a lot, really. And the historian interviews really slowed down the production process on Unobscured, and added *months* to the process. By removing those, we can make more episodes, faster.
AUTUMN TUCKER
So excited about all of this! You and the whole team have been just killing it lately! Shorter episodes is a bit sad but if the tradeoff is an episode every week I think that is so worth it 😄 Very similar to missing the historian interviews from Unobscured in Grim and Mild Presents. Slightly sad, but very worth it for other perks of the new format. Thanks so much for always striving to improve (even when it seems impossible because it's already SO GOOD).
