State of Pacer1 2025

It's Year Five!

It has been a quiet year from me just as about any other year tends to be. Not only have I not spoken much about the stories I'm releasing on this website this year, but- for the first time since before the turn of the decade- I will end this calendar year having written absolutely no new episodes of anything. I haven't even tried. This year has been entirely dedicated to other projects that I have that aren't public and won't be. Most of my recreational time was spent recreationally. This doesn't mean there won't be new episodes in 2026, as there absolutely will be. All episodes meant to be released in 2026 and 2027 have already been written ahead of time, as that is the way in which I prefer to write. It offers me opportunities, whenever they occur, to take time off and direct my focus elsewhere. Up until this year, I had never taken advantage of this "get ahead of schedule" practice that I partake in, but it has been rather self-fulfilling to do so this year. There is one big question that I've asked myself, and I feel it wouldn't exactly be fair to not make that known on the platform directly influenced by such a question being asked.
"Do I expect myself to write any new episodes of anything moving forward?"
It's a hard question to answer, mainly because it's been quite some time since I even attempted to begin writing a new episode of anything. There are some series that I've written a 2027 release for that I haven't had much clarity in how to craft a 2028 release for. I have a paper log that lists every single episode in each year that I have to write. Being able to complete one episode per day when I do write, I'd simply cross off one of those episodes from the list until they were all finished. I did intend to begin writing again earlier this year, and I prepped a new paper log for that. It remains without a single episode crossed out. Every few days, I'll take notice of that paper log and reckon with the fact that I still haven't made any concrete plans to begin writing again. I don't know when I will, and I don't know if I want to. For as much as I enjoy crafting these worlds and these people that I tell stories through, it's a bit difficult- once you've dropped the practice for a long period of time- to find the ability to get behind the keyboard with confidence again. I wasn't Shakespeare by any means when I was writing frequently, but I do feel that I had a style and a layout that worked for me. Without having begun trying to write again, anyone that's realistic with themselves will come to the self-inquiry of "Am I even able to just pick up where I left off the way I did before, or is everything going to read differently from the reader's perspective?"

That's not just to say that the manner in which people who have read my stories may feel like they read quite a bit differently, but perhaps I can't write the characters in these stories the way that I once did. Perhaps I'd write Emilio Vasquez of Rise or Grant Haste of Tonight at 9 in a certain way that I no longer naturally can. Perhaps the way in which I detailed, or didn't detail, the environments my characters are in is different is no longer the way in which I have them depicted or interacting with like I had before. Maybe I can and maybe I can't, but the issue at play is still that I won't know until I start writing again, and I'm not sure when or if I will. Couple that with the fact that I've done a horrible job at marketing this project, and it's not difficult to see why I'd be having those questions from the point of "does it even really matter, or am I the only one bothered enough with these questions to think about them so much?"

I don't market Pacer1 at all. I wouldn't even be surprised if people thought it was "Pacer 1" with a space between the name and the numeral and not both placed beside each other. Most of the time, if you Google "Pacer1", you'll get something akin to the Pacer Gram Fitness Test, because I clearly did such tremendous planning into what I was going to call this project (I'm being sarcastic). What's worse is that I haven't just done a poor job at marketing what Pacer1 is, but Pacer1 is trying to be something that, for the most part, doesn't truly exist yet. I've taken to calling these series "Written Series" before, and I've adopted the term "Web Serial" that I've seen floated around, but neither the former term that I created, nor the latter term I adopted adequately fit what I'm making with Pacer1. It's a story that is broken down into chapters released weekly over the course of a few months that then goes on break before coming back ten months or so later. That's a television show in the form of a book, but it's not actually a book- it's just what a book is releasing as if it were what a television show is. Are you confused yet? If not, congratulations- I feel like most people would be. In order to market what Pacer1 is doing, I have to market what Pacer1 is, and in order to market what Pacer1 is- I have to market what this genre of writing is. 

In the past, I came up with a few different ideas and none of them truly stuck. Pacer1 Audio is something I'd very much still like to do, but when I first came up with the concept, it became clear to me that I wasn't doing it as effectively as I should have been. Quietly, I decided to retool my expectations and play the waiting game. I know there are a ton of people who would prefer to hear their stories in audiobook format rather than reading them, and not having an audio option is something that I firmly believed would come back to bite me. There are many ways that I've failed Pacer1 just as there are ways that I've set it up well, but one of the biggest ways I've failed is in not finding an adequate manner to release content in audio format. 

A look around other websites that I've used can show how difficult it is to anticipate anything more than a struggle when it comes to growing my audience. The main reason for that struggle is my own doing, but the failures of others show that difficulty in general that comes with web serial content for most writers. StoryFire was one of the first websites that I used to release Pacer1 material onto other than this website. Through what can only be perceived as awful leadership structure, a lack of transparency, and a userbase unmotivated to use the platform, StoryFire no longer exists. Neovel, on the other hand, went under financially, could no longer front the costs to operate, and ceased operation. Wattpad is filled to the brim with countless stories from countless authors, and I just can't see much of a future in releasing stories on Wattpad with the intention of growing the Pacer1 audience and seeing it succeed.

Here's the way that I see things... Pacer1 as a brand needs to be in front of more people, and not from a promotional point of view. The name of Pacer1 needs to be in front of people who read or want to engage with stories. Furthermore, Pacer1 needs to be much clearer about what it is and how these stories are released. I foresee myself altering the website slightly in the coming months to better organise how new readers are able to understand what Pacer1 does. Up until now, their best understanding of what Pacer1 is was a post I made roughly two years ago detailing how I write, what I write, and how I release my stories. I don't need to "market" in my opinion, as I don't want to push my content in front of people who want nothing to do with it. Advertisements can work, but I often times find myself struggling to see how one can make an investment into advertisements and see it pay off if the purpose of those advertisements is market growth. I don't want to burden people who want to read with "Pacer1" constantly. I want to have Pacer1 around the spaces that readers engage in. If that means finding those outlets on social media or on websites, I suppose that's a route that I can take. Beyond that, I feel like I need to spend more time figuring out how to adequately get my content produced in audio form. The method I used prior wouldn't even be pass for being called "amateur" in my view. I have ideas of what I would want audiobook releases to look like, especially if they are accompanied by visual elements that can keep readers' attention as the audiobook is playing out, but I don't believe I'm confident in knowing exactly how to achieve what that looks like in practice.
Here's what I know I'll do. In the Author's Desk section of this website, I will make a post- even if not a lengthy one- detailing a step that I've taken in the direction of working on Pacer1 as a brand. When I say that, I don't mean in creating some image for Pacer1 to be taken in, I mean the manner in which I've gone about trying to get the name "Pacer1" and the logo of Pacer1 in front of people that may or may not be interested in reading content released under the banner of "Pacer1". Furthermore, if I begin writing again, I'll make what would likely be a very brief post in the Author's Desk section of this website stating such- in case any of you coming across this address will be- for whatever reason- chomping at the bit to find out if I have or have not.
But now, as you have all come to anticipate, I'd like to begin running down the releases that we have coming in 2026, accompanied with their promotional posters as I do every year. Let's begin!

Late Winter Saturdays in 2026: You're Always on the Clock Whether in the Newsroom or Out of It as Tonight at 9 Returns for Season 4.

Tonight at 9 has been renewed for Season 4 at Pacer1.

​-> "The Root of All Evil"

Season Four of Tonight at 9 will be coming to Pacer1 every Saturday at 5am EST beginning on the 3rd of January in 2026 with "Heartbreak Helion", the premiere episode of the series' fourth season.

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual, Tonight at 9 has been renewed for a Season Four that will continue to follow Grant Haste, Taylor English, Sam Vickers, and the rest of the LMC News Crew that you've grown to follow across mid-2000's New York City since its premiere in 2022. Following the premiere of the series' fourth season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with "Beneficiaries of Battle" premiering on the five year anniversary of Pacer1's first-ever episode release, January 10th, 2026. Following "Beneficiaries of Battle", the remaining episodes to look out for are:
- "A Change of Pace to Keep Afloat" on January 17th, "Auld Lang Syne (Part II) on January 24th, "Putting Boots on the Ground" on January 31st, "Let's Make it a Mission to Stay Current" on February 7th, "The Will of the People" on February 14th, "White as a Ghost, Dark as the Skin of Her Assailant" on February 21st, "Extending Power to Thee of Worthy Hand" on February 28th, and the fourth season finale episode "Perhaps the Show Doesn't Go On", premiering on March 7th. 

Late Winter Sundays in 2026: Tough Times Make Tougher Men as Seattle Noir​ is Returns for Season 2.

Seattle Noir has been renewed for Season 2 at Pacer1.

​-> "Nothing's Watered Down, Especially not the Violence"

Season Two of Seattle Noir will be coming to Pacer1 every Sunday at 5am EST beginning on the 4th of January in 2026 with "A One Way Ticket to the Next Level", the premiere episode of the series' second season.

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual, Seattle Noir has been renewed for a second season that will return you to the era of the Great Depression in the Pacific Northwest, reintroducing you to the dog-eat-dog world that Wilbur has taken to building his own, personal domain within. Following the premiere of the series' second season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "A One Way Ticket to an Alliance" on January 11th, "A One Way Ticket to Buying Time" on January 18th, "A One Way Ticket to a Green, New Deal" on January 25th, "A One Way Ticket to a Skyline Receipt" on February 1st, "A One Way Ticket to Mercer Arena" on February 8th, "A One Way Ticket to the House of the Lord and the Den of His Debaucherous Men" on February 15th, "A One Way Ticket to Termination" on February 22nd, "A One Way Ticket to Win or Go Home" on March 1st, and what may be the most gutsy episode I've ever written for the purpose of what it does to an entire series... "A One Way Ticket to Staining the Seats Red" on March 8th that serves as the finale to the series' second season. Without spoiling much, there are some practices that stories take that allow readers to suspend their disbelief. There are times in which stories are set in the reality that we live in and define the tales they tell based off of events that have occurred in either our lives or the lives of our predecessors. Rarely, when stories are told, do authors take a pre-built world and dramatically alter a readers' understanding of it, and without giving up much information- "A One Way Ticket to Staining the Seats Red" is one of the riskiest literary choices I've made in developing a series for the purpose of how it alters a reader's way of viewing the story being told in the manner which they knew it to be told in.

Spring Saturdays in 2026: The Hidden Generation Comes Under the Spotlight While Deeper, Darker Revelations are revealed as Generation Alpha Returns for Season 4.

Generation Alpha has been renewed for Season 4 at Pacer1.

-> "Maybe It's Better to Just Walk Away"

Season Four of Generation Alpha will be coming to Pacer1 every Saturday at 5am EST beginning on the 11th of April in 2026 with "When the Cold Hand Burns Hot", the premiere episode of the series' second season. This is a new slot for Generation Alpha to be released in, having spent both 2023 and 2024 releasing during the Summer slot on Saturdays. This is the second time that Generation Alpha has been released during the Spring slot on Saturdays since the run of its first season in 2022.

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual, Generation Alpha has been renewed for a fourth season that will build off of the shocking revelation in the series' third season finale. Following the Carrion family for yet another season, Generation Alpha will build off of the story having been told throughout the first thirty episodes of the series with the added context of what season three's finale offered. Following the premiere of the series' fourth season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "A Stick of Chewing Gum" on April 18th, "Nothing But a Nuisance at a Noose End" on April 25th, "Limp Be the Hand of the Bloody Print" on May 2nd, "Nothing Less Than a Father's Best" on May 9th, "Phone Light in a Long, Dark Car Ride" on May 16th, "Heavy Hand Behold the Heart" on May 23rd, "The Blade One Wields Toward a Turned Back" on May 30th, "Concealed Carry Within the Wall, Dejected Spirits at the End of the Hall" on June 6th, and "The Wounds That Calls Below Home" rounding out the series' fourth season as the finale on June 13th.

Spring Sundays in 2026: The Suffering of One is the Opportunity of another as Athens of America Debuts on Pacer1.

Athens of America has been greenlit for a Season 1 at Pacer1.

-> "No Need to Light the Sky on Fire"

The first season of Athens of America will be coming to Pacer1 every Sunday at 5am EST beginning on the 5th of April in 2026 with "The Common People", the series premiere. 

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual, Athens of America has been greenlit for a first season, and is a spinoff of Dire, the Pacer1 series that ran from January 2021 until earlier this year in 2025 Athens of America explores more of the world set up in Dire and a new set of characters to follow, focusing heavily on the cast featured in the first half of Dire's series finale, which acted as a soft introduction to Leon and those that call Athens and its surroundings home. Following the premiere of the series' debut season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "Light the Sky on Fire" on April 12th, "Presidential Impotence" on April 19th, "Selfish Pour" on April 26th, "Those Who Get to Live" on May 3rd, "Chaos Candidate" on May 10th, "Heard It Through the Grapevines" on May 17th, "The Vision Beyond One President" on May 24th, "Dreams of Reunification" on May 31st, and, finally, "Make Home Where You Don't Belong, Chancellor" will serve as the finale to the first season of the series on June 7th.

Summer Saturdays in 2026: It All Comes Down to This as Pacer1's Flagship Series Rise Returns for The first Half of a Two-Part Season 8, the Series' Final Season​.

Rise has been renewed for a final season, Season 8A comes to Pacer1 in 2026.

-> "It's The Beginning of the End"

The final season of Rise will be coming to Pacer1 every Saturday at 5am EST beginning on the 25th of July in 2026 with "From Charlottetown to the Shoreline", the premiere of the first-half of Rise's final season.

Running for a total of eight episodes, the series that started it all for Pacer1 comes to an end in 2026 and 2027, with the Summer Saturday slate in 2026 being taken by the final season's first half. Having begun with John Callis at the New World Order, it comes to an end at the final stand of the old world in Nova Scotia, as the creation that Charlotte Walters forged and the spirit it was carved with are tested in what may be its most-grueling test yet.
Rise is a special series to Pacer1, pre-dating it by nearly three years and having spawned "RISE and REVOLT". In many ways the crowned jewel of Pacer1, Rise' story gets the conclusion it deserves as the brand's original pillar, with the final season being broken into two, eight episode parts premiering across 2026 and 2027.
Following the premiere of the first half of the series' final season, you'll receive an additional seven episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "With the Snap of My Fingers" on August 1st, "Too Quiet for Wartime" on August 8th, "Ships in the Night" on August 15th, "Goodnight, Nova Scotia" on August 22nd, "Return Fire" on August 29th, "Black Cat by Your Bedside" on September 5th, and "Louie" acting as the midseason finale to the final season on September 12th.

Summer Sundays in 2026: Return to the Second Level and the Tracks that are Taken To as Driveline Returns for Season 2.

Driveline has been renewed for Season 2 at Pacer1.

​-> "Imperfection is Intollerable"

Season Two of Driveline will be coming to Pacer1 every Sunday at 5am EST beginning on the 5th of July in 2026 with "The Warped Stratum", the premiere episode of the series' second season.

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual, Driveline has been renewed for a second season that will take you back to the physics-defying, reality-altering racetracks that the DSRC, the Esteemed, the Crew, and Kaiyo take their talents and competitive spirit to. Following the premiere of the series' second season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "Shedding the Jacket and Walking" on July 12th, "The Lava Stratum" on July 19th, "Intolerable" on July 26th, "In the Name of Unity" on August 2nd, "Speak the Language" on August 9th, "The Fog Stratum - Part 1" on August 16th, "The Fog Stratum - Part 2" on August 23rd, "Through Ones Lies" on August 30th, and "Two Minutes in Arkansas" will serve as the second season finale on September 6th.

Fall Saturdays in 2026: Whether Out of Obligation or Being Allured to do so, Prepare to be Welcomed Back as Remedy Hills ​Returns for Season 3.

Remedy Hills has been renewed for Season 3 at Pacer1.

​-> "If a Tree Falls and No One is Around to Hear It"

Season Three of Remedy Hills will be coming to Pacer1 every Saturday at 5am EST beginning on the 17th of October in 2026 with "The Silent Search for Avon King", the premiere episode of the series' third season.

Running for a total of ten episodes as per usual (without you needing to wait two years again), the third season of Remedy Hills will take you back to the titular town with mysteries galore and secrets hidden so well that they may require more than a shovel to unearth. Following the premiere of the series' third season, you'll receive an additional nine episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "Written by Hand" on October 24th, "Down the Dirt Road" on October 31st (Happy Halloween! Quite fitting for Remedy Hills, right?) "Where Do You Wander Off at Night" on November 7th, "Seeing Through Fog" on November 14th, "Reading Each New Line" on November 21st, "I Don't Remember Anything" on November 28th, "Dead End Arriving at Sherald Station" on December 5th, "What They Don't Want You to Know" on December 12th, and "One Tin at a Time" serving as the third season finale on December 19th.

Fall Sundays in 2026: It's not so Easy to Make a New Home When you Carry the Ghosts from Your Old One as RISE and REVOLT​ Returns for Season 6.

RISE and REVOLT has been renewed for Season 6 at Pacer1.

​-> "Someone's Always Got it Worse"

Season Six of RISE and REVOLT will be coming to Pacer1 every Sunday at 5am EST beginning on the 4th of October in 2026 with "Lazarus", the premiere episode of the series' sixth season.

Running for a total of twelve episodes as per usual, the sixth season of RISE and REVOLT will kick off right where it left off, in the harsh, Canadian winter with the undead still out and about (aboot), lurking in any corner Lou and crew may wish to call home. Following the premiere of the series' sixth season, you'll receive an additional eleven episodes once per week as stated prior, with the remaining episodes afterwards being:
- "Better Role Models" on October 11th, "Leave Me Behind" on October 18th, "As the World Stops Spinning" on October 25th, "Meet the Family" on November 1st, "Ready to Bear Arms" on November 8th, "The Bazaar" on November 15th, "Someone's Always Got it Worse" on November 22nd, "Not Whom the Oasis Attracts" on November 29th, "Between the Ears" on December 6th, "Good and Trust" on December 13th, and the finale to the series' sixth season, "All Will Get Better With Time" premiering on December 20th as the final Pacer1 episode to be released in 2026.

Closing Remarks...

I recall calling last year a "quiet year" in last year's address, but this year puts it to shame. Much of this year was simply clockwork for me, making sure the episodes released on time and were adequately promoted on the front page of the website. One of the few great things I think I've done for Pacer1 beyond giving myself the ability to backlog plenty of episodes to ensure they could release on time is that I've made sure they've released on time. I've made sure they were uploaded and scheduled, and that every time an episode was slated to be released- it was released on the day, at the time, and in the way it was announced to be released. That will continue in 2026 (hopefully), and so long as nothing happens to me, the website will continue to be updated regularly- at least as far as episodes being released are concerned. If that stops, just assume something's happened to me and that it's not necessarily something wonderful. Until then, this website will continue to function as designed and I look forward to continuing to share these stories with you for what will hopefully be a very long time.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for allowing me to take some of your time. Thank you for spending some of your time on my work. Time is a very valuable currency, and I appreciate that you're willing to spend it on me or what I'm passionate about. I look forward to 2026, I hope you do too. Happy new year, happy holidays, may you all be safe, happy, merry, and well-off beginning 2026 and throughout it.