No, really. I know it’s been 5 years, but it is written.

TLDR: Release date for end of August

Onto the goods. After writing book 1, I took a break for health reasons. The next year, I got back up and running, and I was dedicated to write book 2. I wanted to make it longer than book 1, which pushed it out even further (a full year, in fact), but by Jan 2024, the second draft was done. I sent it out to beta readers, excited, and the feedback… was not good.

Book 3 (aka the second half of the now very long book 2) was a banger, but book 2 was not. Most of my readers didn’t even make it to book 3, and only 2 people voluntarily finished it all, one of whom was my mother.

I don’t have the highest standards, but that was too low. Unfortunate, as I’d spent the best part of 2 years working on it, and a long time redrafting parts which were by that point 4 years old. I’d like to say that I took a healthy break and came back to it with fresh eyes, but I spent most of the next two years making very painful redrafts of everything I had written, many words binned.

What’s left, having abandoned all that, is something close to my original vision, just touched up and with a third of it deleted. This is really just me venting about what was a long 5 year process, in which I never once gave up on Cultivation Fever, but was never quite able to give the fans what I truly wanted to give them. I’m happy to be able to offer it now, but sad that it is far, far too late.

I can only apologise and hope that after all these years, this world might still interest someone. I, for one, had to know what would happen to Oscar Schwarz, and whether that little prick Tai would get what was coming to him. That, at least, I found out, and I look forward to you finding out too.

Again, end of August. Keep your eyes very casually peeled - it is a long way off, but these days, August feels like it will be here tomorrow. And for those who follow these announcements, I will likely organise a free release day or two - it’s the least I owe to the people who have waited.

Thank you for your patience,
Ozzy Banks