New Website, New Year

This is the first post I am putting on the brand new Signals blog, revamped from the previous edition on the original Sebastian Michaels website. For a long time, Signals existed as a fun little side project radio transcript, where I posted personal content with tie-ins to The Crown of Glass. This content isn't entirely gone, and if you wish to see the original Signals blog, it actually still exists under the KRFX logs (if you find your way in, of course.) Those that have been around since the beginning may have noticed the website has changed quite a bit since the original release of The Crown of Glass.

It breaks my heart to finally be able to announce this, but the original bones of my online portfolio is no longer with us. There was an unfortunate incident in creating custom code, where it broke and corrupted the entire folder, leading to the total loss of all my hard work. At the time, this was terrible news. Looking forward, however, I see that this has been a freeing experience leading to my own personal ability in rebuilding my entire website from scratch, and by hand.

I. The Rebuild

Somewhere in the middle of my catastrophic loss, I realized the only honest response was to rebuild the foundation of my work. I originally had many ambitious goals at the time, and my previous website prevented a lot of my creativity from rooting itself in place. After many many trials of attempting to build a home page, deciding on a color palette, and figuring out why elements weren't working, I settled on a system that made me very happy and have been working on pages in my free time since. If you're a part of the group of individuals peering at the site during the rebuild, my deepest apologies for most of the pages not existing until a week ago. The process took a very long time, and it wasn't until halfway through I figured out ways to consistently have certain elements across every page (I may not be the best with js, css, and php).

During this rebuild, I've appreciated my ability in learning new things, figuring out what best suits the aesthetic of my work, and getting the opportunity to put together my portfolio once more. Even now, certain ambitious projects like The Astral Annex's rotary phone interface has been such a fun and unique element, it makes me wish my website corrupted even sooner.

II. The Crown of Glass

August 15th, 2025. The Crown of Glass. My first ever book released and published this day through Barnes & Noble Press. In my head, that particular date is when everything changed for me. Before the release, the book had an astounding 119 pre-orders on Barnes & Noble. This is a number I absolutely had not anticipated. I had so much support and excitement for the project's release, and it meant the world to me the amount of trust the pre-ordering customers placed in my ability to be an author. To everyone who pre-ordered a copy of The Crown of glass, please redirect yourselves to the contact page on my website, and shoot me a personal email. I have a thank you package I would love to send to these early supporters.

Over the first four months out in the world, it sold exactly 872 copies (including the pre-orders), and it became the number one bestselling cosmic horror poetry book of 2025. I still have trouble saying that without feeling like it isn't true. I cannot express how much gratitude I have for everyone even willing to read my narrative poetry compilation. Thank you for allowing my introduction to authorhood. The story does not end at publication. It never does. The Crown is a constellation, not a finish line. I am working on more ways to bring it to life outside the page, photo projects, video projects, and other artifacts that let the world leak into ours the way it was always meant to. There is also a second edition coming. Expanded content, more layers, more fractures, more hidden seams. I want the next version to feel like a deeper transmission, the same signal, but clearer, louder, and stranger in the ways it needs to be. For those who have already purchased a copy and would like the opportunity for a 2nd Edition, shoot me an email through the contact form with proof of a first edition purchase, and I will provide a discount that only requires print cost, or as much as I'm able to.

III. The Astral Annex

The Astral Annex is a side project I'm using to freely write content that fits within the "Bizarre Tales" universe. The first chapter is officially out, with chapter two in the works.

The Astral Annex functions differently than The Crown of Glass. This compilation is a collection of memories of those who wandered too far beyond what they know. Some previous characters make appearances, and new characters emerge with their own unique storylines. Some cosmically interconnected storyline is definitely something you should expect from me.

Closing Transmission

Thank you for being here at the beginning of this new Signals page. Thank you for the patience during the rebuild, and the support as the universe expands. A website can be a simple portfolio, or it can be a lighthouse with strange light patterns. I am choosing the lighthouse.

If you want the latest updates as they come through, subscribe and stay tuned. More posts are coming, more pages are opening, and 2026 is already making that quiet sound a new machine makes before it turns on.