I have been writing Romance For Men for a decade now.
Over a decade as, technically, Hellcats - Episode 01: Six Foot Ten released on September 23rd, 2014. For the sake of ease, I just say my career as Misty Vixen began around the beginning of 2015.
This is not where I thought I would be.
I don’t want to go on for too long and while it would probably be a smarter decision, I’m opting to mostly just freestyle my thoughts like I do for all my other posts.
In the beginning, there were monster girls. Well, to be specific, alien girls. While I had been poking around with the idea of actually trying to become a writer for a couple of years at that point, what actually got me started was the fact that while I noticed there were lots and lots of erotic stories about human women being fucked by big monster dudes, there was practically nothing I could find of the opposite. My motivation in the beginning was, quite literally, monster girls need love, too. And alien girls, mutant girls, tall girls, weird girls. And also, I figured we had heard enough from the ripped firefighter and the billionaire CEO who is also jacked and an astronaut and the spy and the warrior and on and on. I wanted to hear from the regular dudes.
Things are different now, but I like to believe mostly in an organic way. I don’t write about the average guy as much anymore, but I feel like it’s because I satisfied that need with four straight years of regular guy protagonists. I have to say, looking back over everything, I am a little amazed at how little my convictions have changed since the beginning. I’ve mellowed, certainly, but the things that I wanted to write about then I still want to write about even to this day. People going their own way, people dealing with the agony of mental health problems, people slaying isolation and loneliness, people doing the right thing because it’s the right thing, people loving each other.
But I do wonder if this is just a thing that most authors do. If they settle into the types of stories they want to tell, the types of protagonists they tend to write, and then they just get better at telling those stories and writing those protagonists.
I am, frankly, shocked by where I am today with my career. I am more successful than I ever dreamed was realistically possible. I’ve said before that I worry over being able to help people in my life, and I am at a point where I can do that. And now that a lot of the dust of adolescence has settled, what I imagined to be true from a young age-that people and experiences will ultimately matter more to you than things and numbers, even accomplishments-turned out to be quite true.
I wanted to take this opportunity here to say: Thank you to my readers. I owe the majority of my career to you. You are the ones who made this possible. Functionally speaking, you probably literally saved my life by helping make this work. Telling a tale is its own pleasure, but being heard completes the circle. Crying out into the void is awful, until someone calls back. So I wanted to say thank you, and that I appreciate you, and everything you’ve done for me. For reading, reviewing, sending kind messages, asking questions, donating, spreading the word, correcting my mistakes, all of it. For all of it. Because at some point it occurred to me that my works were no longer shouting into the void, but that they were the responding call to others who were shouting. I’ve had a lot of people tell me now that my works have helped the pain of life to pass more easily, and that is very good to hear. To quote Stephen King: “(Speaking on Different Seasons) Most readers, in fact, wanted to tell me that one of the stories roused their emotions in some way, made them think, made them feel, and those letters are the real payback for the days (and there are a lot of them) when the words come hard and the inspiration seems thin or even nonexistent.” I should probably stop now or I’ll just keep going. For real though, thank you for supporting me, and continuing to do so.
All right, we’ve spoken on emotional matters, let’s talk logistics. Let’s look ahead at 2025.
Also, just really quick, I am sorry that I didn’t get another Our Own Way novel out in 2024. I really was intending to, but I had…difficulties in December. As was evidenced by my very obvious, public breakdown……s. Which is always embarrassing. I am generally better now, I think? Being me, emotionally speaking, is at times very difficult.
So two things are going to define this year, and they are a mixed bag. The first thing is that I need to catch up. I need to stop having more than one series going on at the same time. (Or at least no more than two.) Besides the fact that it clearly is hated by the algorithm and thus is bad for business when I take forever to release a sequel, it’s also driving me crazy. Unfortunately, this is a decision I made in, like, 2023. And I decided that 2024 was going to be my year of ‘catching up’. Only that didn’t happen. It’s 2025 and I’m still not caught up yet. And so that needs to be fixed. The second thing is the algorithm.
The fucking algorithm.
I’m always wrestling with that fucking thing, but then again, we all are.
Due to a unique circumstance, I ended up with a dead zone of publishing where I didn’t actually publish a single thing to my own account, as I was busy working on titles that were going to be published by other accounts (RGP, for example), and it became very clear to me that the algorithm does not like this. My income from ebooks was chopped in half in about six weeks, and then kept sliding down from there. Not dramatically, but the message was clear: You must keep feeding the algorithm. And so I’ve been pondering on this problem, because I would actually really like to be able to take more time on my novels. Due to some unique circumstances, it took me over a year to actually write Lakeside Cougars. Normally, it takes me about six weeks. Everyone has been telling me Lakeside Cougars 1 is the best thing I’ve ever written, and I feel like this is because I took so much more time instead of just shotgunning it like I normally have to do.
I have ideas that would benefit from more time. Well, okay, they all would benefit from more time, but it would be nice to release bigger, better, more finely crafted novels. Unfortunately, I have not yet reached the lofty heights of success that a few others have that I can afford to take my time. (As a quick aside here, if you’re confused about why I’m still concerned about income, it’s because I have anxiety problems but also the last few years have shown me just how absolutely fucking batshit things can get, and how insane inflation can be, and any sense of security I might have found from the past few years is rapidly diminishing. Like, I think people genuinely don’t realize how bad it’s going to get.) I pondered on this issue for most of the last six months, and ultimately settled on Down the Rabbit Hole. So this is why I started a new thing even though I said I need to stop starting new things before I’ve gotten caught up. Basically, I’m hoping DtRH will keep the algorithm off my back long enough for me to catch up, and then to allow me to take more time with future works. Plus, if we’ve learned anything about me, it’s that I cannot predict when I will have some kind of mental health crisis and not be able to write for like two weeks.
With all of this in mind, let’s have a little looksee at how 2025 is going to play out.
OUR OWN WAY: So after some waffling and a year that saw only a single novel released, I have decided that Our Own Way is going to be my next flagship franchise. I will very likely keep this series going to nine novels, and it’s very possible I may go on beyond that. I really like this series. I’m intending to release three more novels this year, OOW 5, 6, & 7, and I intend to keep writing those bonus shorts from the harem’s perspective. In fact, I think that’s going to be what I do going forward for all series, because this actually feels really perfect. I will discuss below my tentative plans, and I want to stress that they are tentative, for a release schedule for the year, and when you can expect to see these novels, as well as everything else I’m going to speak of.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: This one will be pretty straightforward. A new episode of approximately 25,000 words or roughly 100 Kindle pages (I think, that system is seriously screwy) will be published at the first of each month, every month of the year. Meaning twelve episodes. I will be releasing Collections after every four episodes, about six weeks after the release of the fourth, eighth, and twelfth episodes. These collections will feature a minimum of one bonus short story set between the episodes from the perspective of the harem. I have also confirmed that there will be audiobooks for this series, though they will only be paired with the Collections, as it would tank sales to release these as individual episodes. I’ve got a rough outline and the series can end at Episode 12, or it can keep going. Basically, it’s an experiment to see how it does, how easily I can write it, how much people like it.
LAKESIDE COUGARS: I ended up waffling for a bit and ultimately I landed on extending this trilogy by one novel. I intend to write and publish Lakeside Cougars 3 & 4 during the first half of the year, then publish the omnibus either late in 2025 or early in 2026. There will be no bonus content.
DEAD FREEZE: This is the first thing getting wrapped up. I will be spending this month getting Dead Freeze 3 written and off to Lara, and it will ideally be out in February. There will also be no bonus content for the omnibus, which will be released sometime this year as well. And then that’ll be it.
SHELTER FROM THE STORM: Yep! I was supposed to have gotten back to this by now but at some point it became obvious to me that I couldn’t divide my attention well enough to properly write this story, as it’s somewhat near and dear to my heart. Firstly: I do intend to finish it out as a trilogy. There is the potential for more, but at least a trilogy. Basically, I want to get Dead Freeze and Lakeside Cougars wrapped up, get my mono-romance out, and at least two novels for Our Own Way written, and then I will turn my hand to this series and get back to the suicidally depressed war hero combat tech.
PRIMEVAL MONO ROMANCE PROJECT: My secret project. I’ve been piecing this together when I can find time and it’s only about third done right now. I’ve spoken about it before, but basically it will be a romance set in the world of RAW (with no meaningful overlap, so don’t get your hopes up), it will feature a ‘big, badass woman with shorter, scrawny man’ trope. It will be written as a stand alone, but there is definitely room for a sequel, or more, if the ideas take me hard enough and people want it badly enough. I’ll begin posting it to Patreon when it’s about halfway finished. I’m liking this one so far.
SIDE PROJECT: I don’t really want to do much more than bring this up. I’ve been kicking around a notion with a friend of mine for a while now and we’re a lot closer to finalizing this notion. Basically, I want to launch a little pen name that we can collab on and publish to and earn her some money. Not as a primary source of income, but as like a smaller revenue stream. We’re still kicking the idea around, but it would be like erotic shorts or the occasional haremlit novella. It would be something resembling Gabe’s career, for those familiar. Hell, I may even take a crack at By the Hearthfire’s Light, turn that into a reality for fun. None of these will break any rules, it’s just that some of them won’t be haremlit, it’ll just be a protagonist and one or maybe two girls. Like I said, we’re ironing it out. Also, to sate curiosity, it’s no one from the community or anything, just someone I know and want to help. Once we get things settled, I’ll set up a little section on my website. And these will be published to the Kindle, and the KU, so you can read them in the way most familiar to you.
Now, here is something that I will almost certainly regret: a publishing timeline! I am trying to be more organized, more regimented, more focused this year, and so as a result, I am trying to adhere to a schedule. Traditionally, this has not gone well. So take this with a massive grain of salt and assume that it will change.
JANUARY
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 01 | 01.01.2025
FEBRUARY
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 02 | 02.01.2025
DEAD FREEZE 3
MARCH
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 03 | 03.01.2025
OUR OWN WAY 5
APRIL
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 04 | 04.01.2025
LAKESIDE COUGARS 3
MAY
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 05 | 05.01.2025
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - COLLECTION ONE | 05.15.2025
PRIMEVAL MONO-ROMANCE
JUNE
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 06 | 06.01.2025
LAKESIDE COUGARS 4
JULY
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 07 | 07.01.2025
OUR OWN WAY 6
AUGUST
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 08 | 08.01.2025
SHELTER FROM THE STORM
SEPTEMBER
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 09 | 09.01.2025
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - COLLECTION TWO | 09.15.2025
SHELTER FROM THE STORM 2
OCTOBER
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 10 | 10.01.2025
SHELTER FROM THE STORM 3
NOVEMBER
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 11 | 11.01.2025
DECEMBER
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - EPISODE 12 | 12.01.2025
Clearly, this is an ambitious timeline. You can see why I do not expect to be able to write anything else. Even if a miracle pulls through, this just leaves me with the last two months in what will be a very busy year. It’s extremely possible that I may finish up my last project needed for the year and say fuck it and take a vacation. I guess we’ll see.
Okay, one more thing.
For the sake of my sanity, I suppose I should make a list of what I managed to accomplish in 2024, but I’ll be putting it down here because I am admittedly ashamed by how little I got done overall.
I published Beneath the Ashes 2 & 3, and finished out the trilogy with the Omnibus.
I published Goblin Girls Do It Better II & III, and finished out the trilogy with the Omnibus.
I published Our Own Way 4.
I wrote a breeding short story, For the Future, for the HaremLit 2024 Anthology Bullets, Blades, & Babes. (Also, if anyone is curious, I am not participating in the anthology this year. I have too much to do.)
I, with Lara’s help, launched Dead Freeze and wrote the sequel.
I wrote two short stories for Our Own Way that were unique because they were my first ever real attempt to write from the perspective of the harem, and this has prompted me to keep doing it.
I published Lakeside Cougars and also the sequel.
And unless I missed something, that’s it. Nine novels, two of which were coauthored, and three short stories.
Hopefully there will be more this year.
I wish you all luck and happiness for 2025. I think we’ll all need it.