Oh wow…
So September was a fairly big month for drastic changes on my part.
Let’s get started.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SEPTEMBER
Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way first.
I published four novels and a collection!
Obviously that’s not the release schedule I originally had set. I’m beginning to suspect that release schedules aren’t really compatible with me. Something I typed during the last Newsletter was “I need to prepare like 12 novels for re-release. Which, admittedly, won't take a LOT of time, but I can't just release them when they're done.” But after I wrote that, I began thinking about it, and asked myself…well, why? Why can’t I?
Why not just release something if it’s ready?
And that’s why I got the Paranormal Passions Trilogy out. They were ready. Why wait? But I’ll get more into this later.
I posted five more free short stories.
MORE EXPLORATION (A follow up to Exploration.)
REUNION (Takes place after the end of Wanderlust. Owyn hooks back up with a few of his favorite monster ladies.)
A SPECIAL FRIEND (Takes place after the end of Amazonian's Love. Paige hooks Ethan up with a hot redheaded Amazonian friend.)
DEATH FETISH (Takes place after the end of My Undead Lover. Darren and Brooke hook up with a hot undead woman.)
SCALES & FUR (Takes place in between WANDERLUST I & II. Right before parting ways from Liz, Owyn has a threesome with her and Kat.)
That represents the last of my ‘reserve’, as in, stories I had leftover from the Quickies collections and other collections. It’s possible there might be a few more, as I have yet to fully go over Sex & Survival, and I think one or two of the bonus shorts I wrote for it might not so comfortably fit in a novel format, but we’ll see.
Now, as for the bigger stuff.
My Patreon Library is gone. There is no 10$ tier any longer. The reason for this is because I decided to rejoin the Kindle Unlimited. Why in the fuck did I decide to do that? For a long explanation, read this. For a short version? It’s…complicated. Honestly, I feel like I’ll just butcher it if I try to shorten it. Just go check out that blog post. But that’s why it’s gone, I can’t have my titles that are enrolled in the KU available literally anywhere else. The biggest bonus of this is that a lot of people who had to stop reading me because they were only able to do so through the KU now get to read me again!
My Patreon is still there, and anyone who wants to help out is still really appreciated.
Uh…what else did I do last month? It wasn’t a great month. Besides the generalized anxiety and depression issues, I had a death in the family. Still kind of dealing with that. If I seem kind of erratic or scatterbrained, that’s probably why.
Oh, if you missed it, I did write a rare blog post about my views on the fact that I write feel good stories. Check it out.
I think that’s about it.
THINGS I’M GOING TO DO IN OCTOBER
Well, first off, I do intend to get the Desire series back out. The first one is going through the publishing process as we speak. It will be enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited. Going forward, practically everything I write should be. The release dates I have on my release schedule might not hold up because I’m waiting on the cover art, but otherwise the books are done and ready to go. I expanded Desire by about 12,000 words, so even if you read it before, maybe pick it up again. Or read it through the KU. Otherwise, nothing new for Desire 2, 3, & 4.
I’m going to try and get a free short story that takes place in between Demoness III & IV out. It’s set about a month or so after the end of Demoness III and will be just a fun little adventure story. And it will be featuring a character from another, much older fantasy story of mine!
I fully intend to update my novel Demoness this month. As I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to go back and expand it a bit for a few reasons. Mainly because when I was writing it, I didn’t know it was going to be one of my favorite stories and the beginning novel in my freaking flagship franchise. I’ve already begun the process and I have to say, going back and even just re-reading/editing over what I had so far, it’s given me a chance to clean up some inconsistencies that I wasn’t really thinking about because again, I didn’t know I’d be doing a second or third book, let alone probably my biggest series ever! There isn’t going to be a massive amount of content added. I’m shooting for about 14,000 words, bringing the total wordcount up to roughly 45,000 words. So still pretty short for a book, but a bit more respectable I think. What can you expect? Some more interaction between John and Yelena, some more sex scenes, (obviously), and mainly an extension of the plot point near the end of the book where they help Lily by taking out a necromancer’s experiment gone wrong. That’s going to be a bit more of a thing. Now, if you already have this book, you should be able to simply go in and download the updated version. If you have the Kindle Unlimited, just borrow and read! Once this update gets pushed out, I’ll be enrolling Demoness II & III in the KU as well.
Now, with regards to me being in the Kindle Unlimited, please take note that right now, the only titles currently not enrolled in the KU are my Demoness Trilogy and Women of the Wild. Everything else (with the exception of my episodic titles and their complete seasons, and my already free titles,) is in the KU. So if you missed anything, check it out!
Now let’s talk about why I’m seriously beginning to doubt the idea of a release schedule. It occurred to me not too long ago when I was working on Parasexual 2. At present, I’m halfway to my approximated word count that I expected it to come out to. However, I don’t think I’m halfway done with the story. This seems to be happening more than ever now than I’m writing actual novels. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I’m working with longer material and I’ll eventually get a better hang of it…or if it’s just something I’m personally bad at.
I’m also thinking that Demoness IV is going to be longer than Demoness III, and Demoness III was the longest thing I’ve ever written.
So this is why I want to relax the release schedule, and I think you’ll agree with me: Whenever I hear about some kind of creative endeavor that suffered at the cost of the release date, (this happens with video games a lot, in my experience), I always get sad and wish that they would have just been allowed to take the extra few months, or even the extra year. I mean, Dragon Age II needed more time, and clearly suffered because of it. Dragon Age III, on the other hand, was given an extra year, and it fucking SHINES as a result. (DA: Inquisition was fucking amazing.)
So my point is this: I think most of you, as an audience, would rather I take the time to get it right instead of hitting an arbitrary release date. Which is why I’m basically just going to be a lot more loose with the release schedule and probably change it to a ‘What I’m Working On’ page.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to George R. R. Martin it up and stretch this shit out for months or years. Believe me, I still want to get these stories to you as much as I hope you want to read them.
So, with that being said, how are things going with Parasexual 2 and Demoness IV? Not as well as I’d like, but I also believe in being honest.
I’m probably a good 2/5 of the way done with Parasexual 2. And starting this week I intend to get back on the horse and ride hard to the finish line of this book. I am going to try and not let life get in the way as much as it has been over the past several months and just get this book written.
Demoness IV is still in the planning stages. I honestly thought I’d have begun writing it by now, but after writing the third book, I needed a break. I needed time to just step away and let all the ideas I have for IV stir up, then settle down, so I can sort through them and assemble them as best I can. I’ve got the skeleton of the book uncovered and I intend to have a fully fleshed-out plan by the end of this week.
I feel like that’s all the big stuff out of the way. Now, where I’m at with the other stuff cluttering up the background.
Kyra’s Game, my incest erotica, hasn’t seen any progress. I still really want to write this, I’m just too goddamned busy.
Lust & Adventure. The more I think about it, the more I think I’m going to just pull this down for now and put it back into storage. I’m not abandoning this series, but I do need to put it on ice for now. I don’t think too many people will be upset because I honestly don’t know if this series had a lot of fans. I'll be honest and admit that I’m not 100% sure why I feel like doing this, only that my instincts are telling me to. I think one reason is that I don’t want yet another series sitting idle on Amazon. I’ve already got Women of the Wild stalled for now.
Now that Desire is expanded and out of the way, I think that once I get Demoness expanded, and that Demoness short story written and finished, I’ll be able to begin turning my spare attention to Sex & Survival 4. Once I get that out of the way, I’ll technically be caught up! I do still need to rewrite Alien Harem and Valkyries, but those can definitely wait.
I’d really like to get to the point where I’m just hammering away at Demoness and Parasexual. Although I honestly am not sure when Demoness is going to end, I’m confident that Parasexual will not end up a mega-series like Demoness. It’ll definitely reach its end before too long. I have rough ideas for want I want to do for Parasexual 3 & 4, and I feel confident there will be at least a 5, possibly a 6. But again…we’ll really have to see. I’m not really a fan of keeping a series going for the sake of money. I have so many other ideas I really want to get to! Once Parasexual ends, I think I’ll start work on Haven. But that’s getting ahead of myself.
I think that’s everything. The only other thing to say is that now I’m living with background fear that I’m going to get slammed by Amazon again and I might not walk away the next time. Unfortunately, I have to play Russian Roulette if I want to actually succeed in life. Is it fair? Fuck no. But as everyone is apparently so goddamned thrilled to point out: Life isn’t fair.
Wish me luck. I’ll try to work harder and write faster.