I somehow managed to attract scammers from all over the world this month to leave comments on my site—yippie!

On a more serious note, some real-life issues at the beginning of the year took up most of my time. It was a rough start, but I’m recovering now.

Website

As expected, the traffic increase I saw at the end of last year wasn’t genuine. It was mostly scammers who vanished as soon as I deleted their spam comments. A few are still hanging around, though, posting casino links in English, Russian, and—for some reason—even French.

I also couldn’t write until January 18th, which was a real bummer. I really wanted to stick to daily articles, but real life got in the way. Since then, however, I’ve managed to publish something every day.

One good project I’ve started is writing about book marketing once a week. It forces me to invest more time in a topic I’ve neglected for far too long. Writing books is one thing—selling them is a completely different animal. Let’s see if I can tame it.

Newsletter

I think I’ve got some real subscribers now—though it’s fewer than a handful. Still, I’m happy about every single one. So thanks to the few of you who joined. You da real MVPs!

If you want to join as well, you’ll get a free e-book and an update email whenever I give away free books on Amazon. Sign up here: Endless by Michael Brig.

Free Books

I published the next short story, The Wheel, a week ago. Two people already reviewed it with 4-stars. Thank you!

As always, I gave the story away for the maximum of 5 days on Amazon. The English version got 30 downloads, the German version 20.

That brings the total to 11 out of 52 short stories published.

The next one is already in progress on Amazon, and I have another handful ready for publishing. I’m confident that by the end of the year all 52 of the series will be available.

Writing

I messed this one up. The goal was to write 12 novels in 12 months this year, but due to personal issues I quickly realized that this just isn’t realistic—at least not this year.

My focus now is on completing my short story project STORY52 first. I also want to get back into AI comic creation using different tools and solutions. When I started this website, my long-term goal was to publish four novels per year. I think that’s a manageable and realistic target for 2026.

Project Updates 2025

• STORY52 – 11 of 52 published. The goal is to release the remaining stories in 2026.
• Therapy – Editing is 90% complete; translation is next. Planned release: March 2026.
• Crowley – Writing is finished. Planned release: 2026.
• Smash the Patriarchy – Writing is 25% complete. Planned release: 2026.
• [New Title] – Concept is 50% complete. Planned release: 2026.
• 17 Part II – Final draft is 20% complete. Planned release: December 2026.

If everything goes according to plan, this would result in five novel releases this year. At the same time, I’ll continue writing new stories for a 2027 release.

Comics

I checked out Midjourney again to work on an update about AI comic book creation. ChatGPT, Nano Banana, and even Grok are also tools I plan to test for my AI comic project, The Last Superhero.

If all goes well, I’ll post the next part in February and an update on AI comic book making in general.

X / Twitter

I had plans for X at the start of the year, but time is limited—and my reach there is abysmal anyway. For now, I mostly post links to my blog articles and the occasional movie review.

If I ever find an audience on the platform, I’ll invest more time into it. For now, that’s not the case.

That said, I still use Twitter daily to read and stay informed. You can follow me here: @michael_brig

Instagram

No real changes here—I’m still just posting book covers for now.
Follow me here: Michael Brig IG

YouTube

I’ve started making tutorials again after taking almost a month off. Currently, I’m working on tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, CapCut, and Affinity. I’ll also add AI tutorials whenever I feel confident that I’ve learned something well enough to teach it (e.g., AI comic book making).

I also decided to publish my author progress videos on my tutorial channel. Since YouTube has put my account into what feels like a sandbox, new channels get virtually no views. On my tutorial channel, I at least get some exposure for these videos.

My video essay channel about movies will return in February as well.

• StoryLines | Video Essays About Stories (YouTube | Rumble)
• Michael Brig | Tutorial Channel (Only on YouTube)

Conclusion

A bad start to the year—but I’m getting back on the horse.

See you next time,
BRIG