Looking Ahead At 2021 (January/2021 Newsletter)

So………

Wow. 2020 sucked.

At the beginning of each year, I try to do a little reflection and then provide a forecast for what’s to come. I have been considering these two things for most of the past month, and for what felt like a long time, I wasn’t quite able to properly process much of anything.

Although I cannot claim that anything dramatic or terrible happened to me during 2020, it did seem to take a heavy toll. Especially towards the end. The broadest, simplest way I can put it is: my anxiety caused a lot of fucking problems.

At present, I’m currently pursuing a few new avenues to help alleviate that problem. And even though I couldn’t quite afford it, I ended up taking off a good solid week or so last month to try and settle down and get my head screwed back on right. From where I’m standing right now, I think it helped. I feel calmer, more focused, which is always a great thing.

So first, let’s reflect a little bit.

LOOKING BACK ON 2020

Near the end of 2019, I decided I was going to focus on Haven for 2020, and I succeeded there. It led to me having probably one of my best years, sales-wise. I finished out Haven in October and although I could have kept it going, I chose not to. There’s just too much else I want to do.

I also managed to start a new series for the first time in quite awhile in the form of Like A Fine Wine. I’m not completely sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, the people who do read it seem to like it. On the other, it isn’t selling well and there have also been some frustrations that it’s too plot and action-light. When I went into Like A Fine Wine, I did so with the idea that it was kind of an experiment for me. I wanted to see how I would fair nowadays with writing something closer to what I used to, something that was more fluff and sex than anything else. Personally, I think I’m better off writing more action/plot-heavy stuff. Nonetheless, I intend to finish Like A Fine Wine in short order.

I managed to get out another Demoness novel. Although I had fun writing it, I’ll admit that I’m kind of depressed at its reception. Though people really seemed to like Demoness in the beginning, not many people showed up this time.

Those were the major releases in terms of new novels. I also bumbled around a hell of a lot with bonus content and collections. This is what ultimately came of that bumbling:

  • I enrolled almost all of my collections in the Kindle Unlimited. People seem to like this.

  • I released Complete Series versions of Haven, Parasexual, and Alien Harem, as well as Demoness I - III Collected.

  • I reorganized all of my bonus shorts that were written for existing stories. Though some got added to the stories themselves, (for example, the bonus short for Parasexual 1 - 3 was an epilogue for Parasexual 2, so I just added it onto the actual story), or added them to the Complete Series/Trilogy Collections, but many of them were released for free on the website. This includes brand new sequels to each of my free shorts, (Snakeskin, The Pale Redhead, etc.). You can find a complete breakdown of what happened in this post.

I also created a comprehensive Chronological Order Reading List that encompasses all four of the shared universes and includes every single piece of content generated. In short, it tells you the best order to read everything in.

Finally, I got started on what will (hopefully) become my largest series to date: A Warm Place. But considering that that’s upcoming, I’ll speak more about it below.

So that was 2020 in a nutshell. It was a difficult year, and I don’t necessarily live with the delusion that 2021 will be nothing but sunshine and rainbows, but I’m hoping it’ll be better.

LOOKING FORWARD AT 2021

My primary focus for this upcoming year will be A WARM PLACE.

For those who don’t know, back in 2019 I launched an experimental pen name and wrote a 12-part serial fiction called A Warm Place. I liked it very much, and the people who read it responded quite well to it. Although I took down the pen name and all associated work with it near the end of 2019, I knew I had something special with A Warm Place. I began working on the series mid-2020 in the background and am finally ready to launch it.

So what is it?

In short, it’s a series of post-apocalyptic survival novels with an emphasis on sexual encounters and relationships. In 2038, the world is a frozen wasteland, and most of humanity has died off as a result. Those that remain live among small towns or isolated enclaves, but some choose to wander the desolate hinterlands between the bastions of civilization. Chris Weston, a man oddly suited for survival in this new world, is one such person.

You can read A WARM PLACE - PRELUDE, a 34,000 word novella prequel that helps set the stage for the series, here. However, it is not required reading. If you want to just jump right in, you can read A WARM PLACE right here.

At present, I intend A Warm Place to be nine novels long. I have a rough layout of the series and I intend to release one new novel at the beginning of each month. (We will see how this holds up, though. I’ve never attempted something like this.) I also intend to release triple pack collections with bonus content. At present, I’m not sure if I’ll release a Complete Series version of it. The primary reason for this is because I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series beyond the initial nine-novel run. I have a few ideas and if it’s wildly successful, I’ll admit I’d be compelled to keep it going. Not forever, but for a bit longer. Basically for as long as I have ideas.

So, with the spotlight being focused on A Warm Place, what else is going to happen?

First and foremost, I intend to finish Like A Fine Wine. I had hoped to get the fourth novel out before now, but that was one of the sacrifices I had to make for the sake of my mental health. I should have Like A Fine Wine 4 done and out soon, hopefully within the next week or two. Definitely before the end of January. After that, I intend to immediately plunge on into Like A Fine Wine 5, as at present I do have the cover art for it. I’m hoping that while I am working on 5, I’ll be able to get my hands on the final cover for 6. Even if I can’t do so in a reasonable amount of time, I might go ahead and just write and release it with reused assets anyway, then just update the cover later, since readers care more about the words than the cover art. If all goes according to plan, I will be able to post The Complete Series version of Like A Fine Wine in March. We’ll see how that works out.

After that?

I want to try an experiment. I’ve mentioned that I’ve waffled back and forth for awhile now on whether or not I want to launch a new serial fiction. It’s a surprisingly difficult decision. I think one of the biggest problems is that one week it will make perfect sense for me to do it, but then the next week, I’ll have a great reason not to do it. Seriously, I have alternated between for sure doing it and for sure not doing it several times over the past several months. Here is what I have ultimately decided: I’m going to do one and treat it like an experiment.

I’ll talk more about it as we get closer to launch, which will hopefully be in either March or April. But here’s what I will say about it: It takes place in my Fantasy Universe, though it’s basically completely set apart from anything else written so far, and it’s a town-building monster girl harem. Going heavy and hard on the monster girls this time, so sort of a return to form. In short, imagine the plot of Demoness IV but the setting of Demoness V. I’m looking forward to it. I hope to release a new episode once a week, with a Complete Season (very old school) being released every fifth episode.

Those three things will be my primary focus for 2021. That being said, if I do find myself with spare time, I am going to be focusing on something else, which is: generating content for my website.

Something that was really heavily emphasized for me in 2018 was: if your job requires you to sell something through a big retailer, never fully trust them and try to draw people to a space you control. Amazon tried to kill my career in 2018, so naturally I’d like to have a backup in place. That’s why I have a Patreon & a Ko-Fi. However, something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now is to set up a store on this site, so that my fans can have the option to buy directly from me. In much the same way I found myself in the ‘golden handcuffs’ back during 2018 where I was attempting to make the transition from writing serial fiction to writing novels, I now find myself in a similar situation. In order to keep my head above water, financially, I need to produce content at a rather breakneck pace. Which doesn’t leave much room for anything else. The only real solution, unfortunately, is: write more, write faster. Which I’m not as good at as I’d like to be, even six years in.

This year, I’d like to actually set up a store on my site. I’d be selling incest erotica through this store, primarily, since I can’t really sell it anywhere else. Occasionally, I might write something else, something that takes place in one of my universes, that I can sell both through the site and Amazon, and elsewhere on the internet, just not through the KU. I would also like to write and release (for free, obviously) erotic fan fiction. I’ve got a lot of ideas. But that’s definitely lowest on the list of priorities.

That’s it, really. That’s what I’ve got lined up for 2021. Let’s recap in a nice, neat, bulleted list.

  • Write (at least) nine novels for A Warm Place.

  • Finish Like A Fine Wine.

  • Launch (and maybe finish) an experimental Fantasy serial fiction.

  • Launch a store for my website, write some incest erotica and some erotic fan fiction.

I’ve got other plans and ideas, and who knows? Maybe 2021 will be the year I manage to get my shit together and keep it together, allowing me previously unexplored writing output. If that’s the case, I’ll probably write the next Post-Apocalyptic Universe series. Looking forward to that one.

Either way, lots of new material coming. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope 2021 is better for all of us.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (December 2020)

Before we do anything else, 26 of my titles are free until midnight. If you haven’t yet, check them out!

This newsletter is going to be short because November was an awful month and I don’t have as much news.

Like A Fine Wine 3 is out at least.

With regards to Like A Fine Wine 4, I will try to have it finished before 2021. The good news is that I have a good idea of how I want to handle it and I also have the cover art. I’ve also spoken with the cover artist about the last two covers and although we don’t have anything lined up yet, I’m hoping we will be able to get them done sometime during early 2021.

I’m going to officially launch A Warm Place this month. The prequel novella, A Warm Place - Prelude, which is 34,000 words, will be published December 15th. I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to it, I like how it came out. A Warm Place, which clocks in at 92,000 words, my second-longest title ever (Demoness IV being the first at 102,000 words), will launch January 1st, 2021. I have covers for both. I intend to launch a new A Warm Place the first of every month for nine months. I’ll be writing a blog post soon about the nature of the series, given it’s a little different than the other stuff I’ve written. Although if you’ve already read its original incarnation published as Crystal Candy, you’ll have a good idea of what it’s like.

That’s all I’ve really got for now. I might get a chance to publish some free stuff to the site, either an incest short story set in the A Warm Place universe, or a fan fiction for Dragon Age. I’ll give a bigger, broader idea of my plans next newsletter.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (November 2020)

THE CHANGELIST

So, I had a bit of a revelation last month.

In short, it was this: Not putting collections in the Kindle Unlimited is stupid, and I should fix that immediately. The result of this was a SHITLOAD of changes that needed to be made, as it made the Quickies unnecessary, which caused many, many problems. I spent most of the middle of October making all these changes. For those who are interested, here is a COMPLETE LIST (I hope, I really hope I haven’t forgotten anything) of all the changes that have been made.

So I think that’s everything, but this really fried my brain, so I could have missed something. I spent a long, long week implementing all these little updates and fixing any errors I found and then going through and sweeping up any OTHER errors I made in the process of doing all this, but even still I’m sure I missed something. The long and short of it is that now, everything I have to offer is either freely available, available through the Kindle Unlimited, or available in paperback (with the exception of some random stuff like Valkyries or Kyra’s game). If you have any questions, please let me know.

NOVEMBER NEWS

First let’s get October stuff out of the way. There isn’t enough leftover to make its own section so we’ll deal with it right here.

And that’s that. I finished Haven. Finally! I know some people wanted it to keep going and I sure could’ve, but it was time to lay it to rest. Don’t worry, though. You haven’t heard from the Marauders for the last time, and the situation in my Post-Apocalyptic Universe is only going to get worse as times goes on. Stalkers and rippers and vipers are only the beginning. But that’s for later.

So given that all my short story loose ends are tied up and Quickies aren’t a thing anymore, what’s going to happen now?

  • LIKE A FINE WINE 3 is going to come out this month. I have the cover art for the it and I should definitely be able to get it out before the end of the month.

  • LIKE A FINE WINE 4 will almost certainly come out before the end of 2020. The cover art is presently in progress, which means that as soon as 3 gets done, I’ll immediately get going with 4. Due to how I have shifted my perspective, there won’t be a Like A Fine Wine Collection #1, just a Complete Series at the end. In fact, it will be the first series I’ll have written (as Misty Vixen) with zero bonus content for the Complete Collection version.

  • So what about parts 5 & 6? It depends entirely on my cover artist. Basically, she’s super busy, and again, I don’t want to change cover artists. But even if the stars align, even if I got all the cover art and worked my ass off, I seriously doubt I’ll manage to wrap up this series before 2021. So basically, I’ll feel the situation out and see where we are as I begin wrapping up part 4. What will likely happen is I’ll have to put the series on hold and wrap it up later in 2021 as time allows my cover artist to make the covers.

  • Now, what about A WARM PLACE? Well, I have finally decided to commit to it, and by that I mean commit to a release date. PRELUDE is already written, edited, formatted, and covered. It’s ready to go. Theoretically I could launch it right now. Instead, I have decided to wait until December 15th. That is when it will go live. I want it out to build a bit of hype for the main event. A WARM PLACE will launch January 1st, 2021. If at all possible, I would like to launch a new A Warm Place the first of each month. I don’t know how well this will go. At present, A Warm Place 1 has its cover and is probably about 80% done. I fully intend to finish it this month. Ideally within the next week, at which point I will launch directly into A Warm Place 2. I have already begun the commission for its cover. Basically, as of right now, my number one focus is A Warm Place.

  • Finally, the serial fiction. As of right now, I am still waffling. For a little bit there, I thought I was for sure on this. But now I’m wondering if it’s not a good idea. Would it be overloading myself? Would me, and my work, suffer from the extra work? What about other projects I should be getting to? There’s only so much time in the day. For now, I’m going to continue thinking on it. We’ll see how I feel after finishing Like A Fine Wine. Maybe I’ll decide the time has come for Demoness VI? Or maybe it’s time to finally get some more incest fiction written? I don’t know. It’s a tough call. Right now, the best course of action appears to be a test-run. I write one series and see what that’s like. Although one series is a lot of work. Like I said, tough call. We’ll see where I’m at after Like A Fine Wine.

So that’s all the news I got.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (October 2020)

I’m going to try and make the Newsletters a little more organized and structured. Hopefully this is a bit more visually appealing and maybe helps me clean up my sometimes meandering way of giving information.

IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR THE NEAR FUTURE

Since people tend to want to know the most important stuff first, I’m just going to put this right here, right now.

I'm making some changes to my overall plan. Yes, again. Something I’ve learned is that not only is having a writing career a litany of constant reevaluation and consideration, but also of evolution and experimentation.

But don’t worry, my biggest plans remain intact for the moment. Although certain events beyond my control may force my hand in ways I’ll explain below.

  • THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT CHANGING: Still going to finish the Haven Series pronto. Ideally before November arrives. I’m also going to for sure get Like A Fine Wine 3 and Like A Fine Wine Collection 1 out following that. And Quickies #5 & #6 will be released somewhere in there as well.

  • A RETURN TO SERIAL FICTION: This is probably the largest change. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, as not only the urge to write serial fiction, but the practical benefits of it keep coming back to me. I set some time aside and really considered it in September. I asked myself: Why did Crystal Candy fail? Two reasons. The first and foremost was that words written as Crystal Candy were worth approximately 1/3 as words written as Misty Vixen, as I mentioned in a previous update. But I could fix that if I released serial fiction content as Misty Vixen. The second reason was how much time/energy it was taking up. But since June I have been working on A Warm Place alongside my other projects, and with a few exceptions, I’ve settled into a steady rhythm of putting decent working into two projects almost every day. So I can see putting in enough work on serial fiction to put out about one episode per week. This would also deal with the burnout problem, allowing me to start several different serial series (I would work on them in blocks of 4 essentially, pause them on Episode 4 or 8 or 12 whenever I need a break). It would give me much more freedom to work on new projects I’ve been itching to write (that fantasy caveman story? Sci-Fi/Horror? That Eyes in the Dark series? I’ve got a lot of ideas I’d love to get started on). It would also give me a chance to write some projects that don’t quite work as a series of novels, but would be perfect for a serial. For example: Fans of Haven, remember that journal David found of the man sent across the countryside to activate a series of radio towers? I’ve really wanted to write a series in the Post-Apocalyptic Universe with a similar premise, but I didn’t feel there was enough there to warrant novels. As a serial, it would be perfect, however. At the moment, I’m still toying with this idea, and I haven’t ultimately decided if I’m going to do it. But I’m leaning towards yes at the moment. For now, I have to work on other projects.

  • A WEBSITE STORE: So here’s some advice I once received as someone who makes my money by being hosted by another, larger site: send your fans to a website you control as much as possible as soon as possible. The reason for this is because you never know when that big site might arbitrarily decide to fuck you over. Like Amazon almost did to me in 2018, and has done in a few other ways since then. I’ve been pondering how to sell stuff through my website, directly to fans, with as few middlemen as possible, for awhile now. I began seriously considering it in 2018, when they started fucking me over, but for awhile, I couldn’t come up with an idea of what to sell. Not putting my works in the Kindle Unlimited, which demands exclusivity, cuts MAJORLY into the earning power of anything. However, I finally have an idea: incest fiction. I basically can’t sell it anywhere else. Technically Smashwords accepts it, as well as a few other places, I think, but really it’s hard as hell to sell anywhere. However, I have a lot of ideas for incest stories, and judging by the reaction I’ve gotten, at least some of my fans want to read it. So yeah. Also, in the future, I could see taking some time and maybe writing some website-exclusive shorts. So this is something I’ll want to seriously start exploring in 2021.

Those are the big changes. Hopefully they made you happy. If you’ve read this far, at least read the next thing, it’s also important.

RECYCLING COVER ART

I wanted to address this here and now, front and center, so that people don’t think I’m trying to pull a fast one on them.

I have been updating some of my covers that I gave ‘real’ backgrounds (i.e. actual photographs, not drawn backgrounds), because essentially I didn’t/don’t have the time/money to get a full character+background or because other circumstances forced my hand in the past or are doing so now.

There are three primary things that motivated this that I will talk about below.

  • COVERS ARE COSTLY. Even a great deal can be somewhat pricey. My Patreon definitely helps, as do any other donations and the occasional sale I get through Smashwords. And although I’ve been doing decently for a writer, I wouldn’t call myself rich. Plus, I have to be honest, I’m just not great with money. Never have been. I’ve gotten better, but still not great. Combine that with the fact that I have had to get new covers made for my ENTIRE library TWICE and I have spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars on cover art. Not even joking or exaggerating.

  • COVERS TAKE TIME. Even a quick cover artist can take weeks to get a project done. Besides the fact that it’s a whole character and whole background, they have other projects and their own life. I write fast, because that’s the tempo that Amazon and other people who have ghost writer farms to pump out fucking 500-page novels every week dictate. I can’t really afford to wait and sit on a novel for weeks or months. This doesn’t come up often, but it has come up enough (more recently) that I’ve had to make a call.

  • UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES. I’ve worked with a few different artists since going looking for some, and all of them have run into problems that mean they may be out of contact for weeks or even months, or maybe be unable to work. I’m understanding, but as I’ve said, this has forced my hand a few different times. Especially recently. This is actually another reason I want to return to serial fiction. If it comes down to it, and I can’t launch because I don’t have a cover (and don’t kid yourself, launching with a shit cover is novel suicide), I’ll have a Plan B.

I hope this clears things up.

Here is a list of titles that now have or will have recycled backgrounds or otherwise reused assets.

  • ANY COLLECTION (Any Complete Trilogy, Complete Series, or ? - ? Collected collection 100% reuses assets to save on time/money. I figured this would be obvious but just in case it wasn’t I’m pointing it out now.)

  • DEMONESS - FUN IN THE FOREST (Background is reused.)

  • DEMONESS - THE FORMER PRINCESS (Background is reused.)

  • DEMONESS - FAREWELL FOR NOW (Background and model are reused.)

  • ALL OF PARASEXUAL (When it was originally conceived, Parasexual was sort of a quick & dirty series. Both to save time/money and also to get the projects out faster, I only had characters drawn. However, I have since decided that they’d look better with full cover art, and there were enough quality backgrounds created that it would work.)

  • THE SEX & SURVIVAL TRILOGY. Kind of the same thing happening here. Originally, I was going to have characters and backgrounds created, but the situation changed and I really just want it done and over with. So I’m in the process of getting the final two characters drawn, and I already have other backgrounds ready to go.

  • THE VALKYRIES TRILOGY. Same situation as above essentially.

  • QUICKIES. This much should be obvious.

  • MISTY VIXEN COLLECTED. Yeah, I wasn’t spending like 100$+ on a paperback that probably 5 people are gonna buy ever.

I think that’s everything. I hope everyone understands. And because of that I hope people will understand when I say that HAVEN 8 + HAVEN - EPILOGUE WILL HAVE REUSED ASSETS. Without getting into details, the artist has become very busy and as it is, they’re having a hard time even finding time to do Like A Fine Wine covers, and I don’t want to just switch to another cover artist in the middle of a series, and I don’t have enough assets for Like A Fine Wine to recycle for future covers. I made the call to not ask for new Haven covers to try and get a jump on Like A Fine Wine covers. Although I’m not sure how this is going to play out. Although I have the cover for Like A Fine Wine 3, and enough assets for the first Collection, I’m not sure if I might outpace the cover artist for the series in the near future. It also isn’t necessarily feasible to just keep writing the novels in the hopes that the covers will catch up, because I NEED to publish what I write pretty much as soon as it’s done (with a few rare exceptions). Gaps in publishing are very bad, the algorithm punishes me for this. This is another reason a return to serial fiction is enticing.

Hopefully this covers everything related to this. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in a comment or an e-mail.

SEPTEMBER WRAPUP

Like A Fine Wine 2 is out!

Quickies #4 is also out!

I also finally got around to putting together a full, hyperlinked Chronological Bibliography page. This page lays out every single title I have ever written for my four Shared Universes. All the novels, novellas, and short stories. The short stories are the ones I imagine escape people the most given how all over the place I’ve been about them. I wanted one, single, absolute, centralized page to give fans a very straightforward and clear-cut picture of not only every title, and not only where they can be found, but what order it’s all best read in. Although if anyone has any questions or requires further clarification, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be glad to help. At the moment not all of the links have been created because some of them don’t exist yet, basically the Quickies I have yet to write.

BACKGROUND UPDATES

I had another ‘go through and re-update all my titles’ spree because enough little things had accumulated.

  • Perhaps the most important thing I did was make sure that all the stories that have been covered by my Quickies releases have been updated with information and links to reflect this. So for example the Complete Series and Complete Trilogy packs have a notice at the beginning that if you don’t want to repurchase the entire trilogy just for the bonus content, you can instead just go buy the Quickies instead. Also the end of a series or the back of stand-alone titles now reference follow-up shorts that have since been written (provided they are out, still a few to go.)

  • When I went through and created the customized titling to be inserted into the actual Kindle files for all of my titles, I for some reason did not also do the same thing with my author name. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me then, but it has now. So that’s probably the biggest, most obvious change.

  • Social media links. I have now inserted links to my website, twitter, and given my e-mail address at the beginning of every title. The reason for this is pretty much what I said above: I need to send fans to an area that I control as much as possible.

  • Although some jerk person left a rather rude 1-star review, I did get a new piece of knowledge out of it: I’m apparently fond of the phrase ‘per se’, which is latin. And I seem to have been misspelling it the entire time. After learning that, I went through and fixed all examples of it across all 50+ titles.

  • I also found out that some of my paperbacks have an extra page near the back that just says ABOUT ME and then is blank right before the real About Me page. No idea why this was. All the Haven novels had it and some others did as well. I fixed all the instances I found, but I didn’t check them ALL.

WRAP UP AND THE NEAR FUTURE

Okay, so that’s about it. Now I’ll just cover what’s happening in October, or at least what I hope will happen.

  • I’m hard at work on Haven 8. I intend to have it out within the next week.

  • I will then write half of Quickies #5, and then write and publish Haven - Epilogue as quickly as possible.

  • I will then finish and publish Quickies #5, then write and publish Haven Collection #3, and with that the Haven series will be completed in its entirety. (Well, technically there will be ONE more bonus short story in Quickies #6.)

  • Over the course of the rest of the year, I will be making the first title in every series, (except for Like A Fine Wine) free. This is an experiment I’m doing to see if it will help get my books to more people. As of right now, HELLCATS & DEISRE are free!

So, four things I will attempt to publish in October, all while also working on A Warm Place. It’s going quite well, actually, I’m at about 65,000 words, or roughly the length of an average Haven novel, and there’s still several more big scenes to write. If I keep up the pace, I should have it wrapped by the end of October as well. I have to admit, it’s going to be hard not to publish it. But I may end up changing my mind and launching A Warm Place if things go wrong with Like A Fine Wine. I’m not sure, we’ll see. I am also going to likely begin work on my first serial fiction, provided my ultimate decision, (which will come soon), is yes. If it is, I already know which one I’m going to work on: Eyes in the Dark. I really want to write a modern day apocalypse horror. Not a post-apocalyptic story, but a story where the apocalypse is presently happening.

And that’s it for this Newsletter. Let me know what you think in the comments!

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (September 2020)

I was really hoping August would be better but, oh boy, stuff kept happening. I feel like I keep dodging bullets. Something happens that could be serious, but then it fades to nothing. So that’s nice. But yeah, freaking out over stuff takes up time and completely derails my focus.

That’s why Like A Fine Wine 2 isn’t done.

The biggest good news of last month is that I got Haven 7 out!

I also got half of Quickies #4 written, and as soon as I’m done with Like A Fine Wine 2, I’ll write the other half and publish it.

As for Like A Fine Wine 2. I’m almost done. It should be up this week. Sorry it took so long, I basically kept running into problems, a variety of problems, not the least of which was…I don’t want to call it writer’s block, because it wasn’t really. It was more just “I don’t fucking want to write this right now.” Suffice to say, August was just a derailing month in general, and I’m hoping September will be better.

The only other thing I want to say is that I’ve adjusted my plans. The biggest change is this: Once Like A Fine Wine 2 and Quickies #4 are out, I’m shifting focus to Haven. Like actually finishing the series. Like A Fine Wine is going to go on hold until I can get Haven 8, Haven - Epilogue, & Haven Collection #3 out and that series can be called done. I apologize but this makes more sense to me. Instead of staggering the releases any more than they already are, I should just be wrapping up Haven and then shifting focus entirely to Like A Fine Wine. So that’s at least the good news, after you get done waiting for 3, the waits should be a lot shorter, ideally.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (August 2020)

Wow, so, July was kind of a wash in terms of getting shit done.

The only real good news that I can take away from last month, and it is good news, is that I’ve largely dealt with my real life problems. I was in the midst of tackling the ones already in progress, and then a completely new one cropped up, but as of now, I believe they have all been put back in their place, and I can just focus on writing! I have to admit, this is really fucking nice.

The bad news is that I didn’t finish Haven 7 or, subsequently, get any work done on Like A Fine Wine 2. Sorry about that. Believe me, I’m pissed too. I had really hoped to have more done, but sometimes life forces itself in your way and you just HAVE to deal with it.

But I’m almost done with Haven 7! It should be out within the next week.

Also, for the first time ever, EVERY single nude alternate version of my cover art is now on my website. Nothing is exclusively on Patreon. That will change very shortly with the release of Haven 7, but I thought you’d like to know. In a way, I feel like it’s a bit of a failing on my part, as the only way this could happen is if enough time lapsed between releases, which it has.

The other thing I want to discuss is the future. I had one of those revelations, although I’m hesitant to call it a revelation because it’s more of a ‘no fucking shit’ realization than anything else. It relates to something I’ve wrestled with before, and it’s kind of a ‘I need to face reality’ kind of realization.

I was looking at Like A Fine Wine a few weeks ago, and it just kind of hit me, all at once like things sometimes do, that I had just wasted its momentum and potential. I saw the numbers rising, the sales rank getting better, and then falling as the momentum it had, the interest in it, began to wane. If I had immediately gotten to work on the sequel, I could have gotten it out just as interest was beginning to peter out, which would renew interest in the series again. And then repeat until finished. This is something people have known for awhile and something I’ve wrestled with, as I get burned out.

I could be wrong, and it could just be that I’m not built this way, (I hope not), but I think I need to view writing series in order until completion the same way I had to change my view on writing what I wanted versus writing what sold last year. Making the shift in emphasis to Haven has been good. People seem happy. Which is good. But they would be happier if Haven came faster.

While one of my driving narrative devices in almost everything I write is characters building their own lives, setting their own paces, living the way they want, and that is something I do actually believe in, I also have to face the reality of the world I live in. In the world I occupy, worth and value are measured in dollars earned and productivity output. And as a writer, I’m already at a disadvantage, as there are a lot of people out there who roll their eyes at the idea of writing being ‘work’, or entertainment having any real value. Again, I know they’re wrong. Writing is work, entertainment is valuable, but I’ve noticed that a lot of people are stupid, and won’t let things like reality or facts get in the way of their beliefs.

My point is, I’ve come to the conclusion that, even if I burn out, I need to keep working harder. Because the competition isn’t going to let up. Even if the competition is cheating, they are still the competition, and that is still my reality.

Consequently, I’ve slightly revised my plans for the rest of 2020. Not by much, as I still do intend to use the rest of this year to wrap up loose ends, but I also want to lay the groundwork for the future.

Here’s an idea of what the rest of 2020 will look like.

  • As soon as Haven 7 is up, I’ll write half of Quickies #4, which encompasses the rest of my Fantasy stories.

  • From there, I’ll write Like A Fine Wine 2, publish it, then write the rest of Quickies #4 and publish that.

  • I will then write and publish Haven 8, then write half of Quickies #5, which encompasses the rest of my Science Fiction stories.

  • I will then write Like A Fine Wine 3 and publish it, then publish the first Like A Fine Wine Collection, then finish and publish Quickies #5.

  • From there I will write and publish Haven - Epilogue, as well as the third and final Haven Collection.

  • With that finished, I will write and publish Quickies #6, which will include all of my Post-Apocalyptic stories.

  • With Haven and all of the Quickies written and published, I will then turn my attention to Like A Fine Wine, writing the final three books in the series and publishing them as quickly as possible.

  • In the background of all this, I will be working on A Warm Place. As of right now, I have already written and edited most of A Warm Place - Prelude, which acts as kind of like an encapsulated story of what readers can expect from the series. It takes place a few months before the beginning of the series and can be read or ignored without a problem. It is my hope to have at least the Prelude and A Warm Place 1 written and ready to go by the time I finish all my other projects. Ideally I’ll even have A Warm Place 2 ready to go as well. Once I begin publishing A Warm Place, it will be my aim to continue writing and releasing novels in that series until it is finished. Ideally, I want to be able to release a new A Warm Place novel every 3-4 weeks. Like I was hoping to achieve back in 2018, I want to build up a few novels to give me some time to stay ahead of the series by at least one novel, so I’m not just desperately writing and releasing. It would be nice to have an actual set schedule, though I know how unrealistic that is. Even just one new novel a month would be great. Right now, I’m honestly not sure how long it will take me to get through wrapping this stuff up. Ideally, I will be able to launch A Warm Place with the new year.

  • That being said, A Warm Place is going to probably encompass most of 2021. Right now, I have 9 novels in mind, as well as the Prelude. I don’t know what will come next. I do know that I will try to squeeze some side projects in there. More Quickies, as they become necessary, some more incest to be sure, and maybe some fan fiction for fun. It would be really nice to finally get to write that. But we shall see.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (July 2020)

So I got some stuff done in June. Most of it was pretty background, but maybe something on the list will appeal to you.

  • I cleaned up the site and rearranged things a bit.

  • I released Like A Fine Wine. (Kindle | Paperback | Nude Cover)

  • I released the nude covers for Haven 6 & Demoness I - III Collected.

  • I released Alien Harem Collected, which has Alien Harem 1 & 2, and 4,400 words worth of new content in the form of a short story that takes place after the end of the series. (Kindle | Paperback)

  • I released Misty Vixen Collected, which is a paperback that collects all my titles that are available for the Kindle, but not available in paperback. This includes the five Freebies, Exploration, & My Undead Lover. For the sake of clarity, there is NO NEW CONTENT. (Paperback)

  • I released Quickies #3, which collects all four of my Paranormal Universe stories/series: Paranormal Passions, Pink, Roommates With Benefits, & Parasexual. Each gets its own new short story, totaling over 20,000 words worth of new content. (Kindle | Paperback)

  • I discovered that you can insert images into the Kindle files, and so I set aside two days to update every single title with a new custom-made title that I had to make myself. So basically just sprucing the stories up a bit. I also took the opportunity to update the back matter, removing any reference to Crystal Candy and inserting Like A Fine Wine in there.

  • I got started writing Haven 7.

That’s what I did during June. Unfortunately, I also had something of a setback, and July might not necessarily get much better. Suffice to say I’m dealing with some personal problems that have the potential to become something WAY worse and I’m doing the best I can to handle it. At present it’s all kind of murky as to how worried I should be. If anything more definitive comes along, which ideally it will this month, I’ll say more.

But despite that, I am going to try really hard to get Haven 7 out this month and get most of Like A Fine Wine 2 written. Ideally, I’ll have it out the first week of August.

That’s about all I’ve got. Stay safe out there.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (June 2020)

 
 

So, big thing out of the way first. Haven 6 is out!!!

You can purchase it as an eBook for 4.99$ or read it for free through the Kindle Unlimited here!

You can purchase it as a paperback for 9.99$ here!

If you are a 5$/month Patron on my Patreon, you can see an alternate nude version of the cover here!

I feel better about this one than the last one, so that’s nice at least. It was fun to have Ellie back in the main cast again after the last two novels, and to introduce a completely new character.

Also, you can get the first Demoness Collection if you want.

Also Haven 4 - 6 Collected is out! It’s got a bonus short featuring Ellie and Amanda.

Presently, I’m working on two things.

The first is Quickies #3, which will encompass all of the Paranormal Universe. Which means there’s going to be four original shorts in there. (Paranormal Passions, Pink, Roommates With Benefits, & Parasexual.) So far, I’ve got two of them down, Paranormal Passions & Pink. I think they came out pretty well, and it was fun revisiting those characters again, although admittedly doing so has reminded me that I’m quite glad I’ve closed down the Paranormal Universe. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m so much better suited writing stories that have wild adventure and ferocious monsters.

And now I can talk about my new series. It’s set in the Science Fiction Universe, though it doesn’t feature any characters I’ve written about before. They’re all original. It is a Mature Harem, meaning no ladies under 40 are in this story.

The premise is simple: a group of mature, sexy, (mostly) confident women who have all conquered in their chosen fields of profession and are all good friends are now looking to conquer something new: a working vacation. They have picked up a few contracts repairing an old outpost on an abandoned world and running a few other jobs while out there. But all of this is really secondary to their main objective: to get fucking laid by a cute young guy. The man they have hired, who has just left the Marines and is at a bit of a loss as to what to do with his life, has no idea what he’s in for when he signs up for this ‘expedition’.

So it’s kind of like Hellcats, the only difference being it takes place mostly on a planet instead of a ship, it’s more structured and planned out, and it’s mature ladies instead of inhuman ladies. Though there are some inhuman ladies involved. Also, one other thing I wanted to mention. In a tweet I said that I was going to write this series in first person, but after trying it out, I’ve decided to stick to third person, it just feels more right.

It’s called Like A Fine Wine and I intend to have the first one out within the next few weeks. Possibly by next week. I’m looking forward to it and I hope you all enjoy it.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (May 2020)

First and foremost, if you missed it, Demoness V is finally out!

You can read it as an eBook on the Kindle for 4.99$, or through the Kindle Unlimited, here!

You can read it as a paperback for 9.99$ here!

You can see the alternate nude version of the cover if you are a 5$/month Patron here!

Secondly, Quickies #2 is out, and Quickies #1 has been released in paperback!

Quickies #1 Paperback.

Quickies #2: Kindle | Paperback.

Quickies #2 contains all the bonus content for Wanderlust & My Undead Lover, and includes two brand new shorts, one for Wanderlust, one for My Undead Lover. They can only be found in Quickies #2.

And that’s what I managed to get done for April. Unfortunately, April was a really shitty month for me. Nothing super specific happened, but my anxiety and depression, (especially the anxiety) are kind of spiking, and that makes it REALLY hard to function, let alone write.

So now that Demoness V is finally out, I’m going to put it away for awhile. For whatever reason, I’m just tired of Fantasy. Not forever, but for awhile yet. Sorry if you liked my Fantasy, or Demoness. Don’t worry, it’s not canceled or done, I still have ideas, but I want to let it sit for awhile before coming back to it.

Let’s talk about May.

My main focus for the month will be Haven 6. I intend to have it out before the end of the month.

Demoness I - III Collected will come out this month.

Also, if you missed it, I had a poll on my Twitter. Writing Haven 5 burned me out kind of bad, and although I’m feeling better now, it’s made it clear that I can’t keep up the schedule where I pump out a Haven novel, take a week off to plan the next one, then dive right into writing another Haven book. The work will suffer. I decided I needed a palette cleanser. So I sorted through my ideas and found two that appealed to me. They were smaller ideas, their stories more contained and simpler in scope. One takes place in my already-established Sci-Fi Universe, another would have introduced a new dark post-apocalyptic universe. The Sci-Fi Universe series won out by a landslide, so that’s what we’re getting.

I’ll say more about it after Haven 6, but here’s what I can say now. It will be a little like Hellcats, but more coherent, with more settings and a story structure closer to my newer stuff. It will run for six novels, and these novels will be shorter. For reference, novels nowadays aim for somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 words. These will aim for between 40,000 and 50,000 words, and will be priced 3.99$, and also be available in the Kindle Unlimited, and as paperbacks. The main character is a young man just out of the Marines, and the harem will all be mature women, mostly human with a few alien ladies thrown in.

That’s about all I’ve got. I hope everyone is doing okay and coping with the insane fucking state of the world right now. Good luck out there.

The Misty Vixen Newsletter (April 2020) MAJOR UPDATE

Wow. So, March.

And then we got April now.

March was a really weird month for me, kind of good, kind of bad. Now, just for the sake of updating on the obvious: as of right now I’m not sick, I’m locked away in my home, which isn’t much of a change from how I normally live, and the people still around me aren’t sick. Hopefully it’ll stay that way.

Just so you know, this is going to be like a long post. I had to work some shit out in my head that’s been hanging out for over a year, sometimes longer. Don’t worry, though, because functionally speaking, nothing life-changing has happened. I’ve just made some decisions regarding some of my work.

In short: I have decided to discontinue or alter a few things, and I want to explain why. But not to keep you in suspense, Demoness and Haven are FINE. They will continue.

Now, as for what happened in March. Some of you may have noticed my blog post about deleting Crystal Candy. As of right now, it’s all gone. I went into some details as to why, but I’d like to expand on it a little, and also explain how deciding to cut Crystal Candy wasn’t the only decision that came out of this whole mess.

So, for the first half of March, I was pretty good. I did some work on Demoness V, then began Haven 5, and managed to hit my writing goals for a solid week during the second week of March. Then, the week after that, something happened. The thing is, I don’t actually know why it happened. There was no event or catalyst. It started with me just falling off of my schedule abruptly. I overslept and I was irritable and it became really difficult to work, to even make myself work. Now, the thing is, that in and of itself isn’t new. That’s happened a ton. Sometimes you just get in a shit mood, sometimes it lingers for a few days, especially if you have mental problems like I do. (Nothing severe, some anxiety and depression. And that isn’t me downplaying it, I try to be unbiased and take a more clinical look at this stuff. I am on medication, and although my anxiety more than my depression does impact my life to a certain degree, I’m functional and have healthy relationships, though I admittedly know that my life would definitely be a lot more impacted if I had a job that forced me to leave the house everyday.)

But then the something happened.

A few days in, I just kinda woke up and I was going about my morning routine, I thought, “Crystal Candy isn’t going to work out.” Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve thought this. Obviously. But before, there was always dissenting opinion in my head, as in I had reason to believe maybe I was just being paranoid or anxious. But this time, there was no dissent. It was kind of like my subconscious had realized that Crystal Candy isn’t going to work out, and simply informed me, instead of my anxiety or depression trying to convince me something I wanted to do would fail. Those are two distinctly different events.

I let it sit for awhile longer, but eventually I had to really examine it, and ultimately I had to admit to myself that yeah, Crystal Candy wasn’t going to work. And there were a few reasons for this, but as I said in the post, l think the biggest reason is time. It’s my most precious resource, there’s only so much of it, and I’m perpetually bad at managing it. I’ve come at this problem a few different ways, and I think I’ve finally determined what the problem is and why a single solution won’t fucking stick: the variables keep changing. I keep changing. What worked in January may suddenly be ineffective in February, and for no clear reason. It’s like I’m a constantly shifting problem that is actively aware of the solution and trying to outpace it, like there’s some part of me that wants to run from any form of responsibility, no matter how necessary, good, or even enjoyable it may be.

Obviously, I can’t give up. And obviously fundamental progress can be made, (and lost, sadly).

So that’s part of it. Another part is that I don’t like lying. Although I think it can have its uses, and that telling the brutal truth ALL the time in EVERY circumstance probably isn’t a good stance to take, in general, I prefer to tell the truth. If only because I’m not great at lying and I’d rather keep it simple. Honestly, it may be smarter if I didn’t communicate certain things with my readers. But you are my readers, and I don’t want you sitting in the dark on some things. Like Crystal Candy. I obviously wanted to continue Refuge, but in the three months since I’d started working on it again, I had written a grand total of one fucking chapter for Refuge 5. Obviously, that is not sustainable. But, instead of just shutting up about it and hoping you’ll forget and then eventually quietly taking it down, I’d rather just tell you up front that I’m taking it down.

In light of that, I believe that my introspective period over Crystal Candy triggered me to finally make some decisions I’ve been kind of waffling on, (and maybe even without actually REALIZING I was waffling on it, sometimes we lie to ourselves as much as everyone else), and I’d like to share with you those decisions and my reasoning behind them.

  1. WOMEN OF THE WILD. The first one, and this one sucks, is that I am going to remove Women of the Wild from the Kindle and basically tuck it away for the foreseeable future. Given how promising an idea it was, why in the fuck am I doing this? A few reasons, but I think the biggest one is another revelation I had: I’ve changed. I wrote Women of the Wild in 2017. About two and a half years ago now. When I started out, I had a very specific protagonist type in mind, I wanted to tell a certain kind of story. And I told it again and again in a variety of forms. I told the story of the underdog, the awkward technician or the scrawny nerd or the quiet introvert. I liked that story. But at some point, and I think it was after I finished up Parasexual, I realized that…I don’t really want to tell that type of story anymore. Although I’m not saying that I’m going to just make a polar opposite switch and start writing about alpha bros and douchebags. Obviously that isn’t going to happen. But I more want to write protagonists like John from Demoness, or even Chris from A Warm Place in some cases. I want to write protagonists that are more take-charge, more able on the battlefield, and just generally do more shit with a bit more confidence. But these characters will still have some of the qualities of my older characters: insecurity, anxiety, being humble, awkward at times, kind, communicative, respectful. I’m not changing my protagonists so much as making a noticeable adjustment, making an augmentation. So again, think John from Demoness as opposed to Ryan from Hellcats. I told that story to my satisfaction, for the most part. Though don’t count those protagonists completely out of the game, they may show up here or there. Now, as for Women of the Wild, what will actually happen? Well, after taking it down, I’m putting it away in the digital chest and I’ll let it sit there for however long it needs to. I do want to come back to it someday, because I still like the basic idea, but I may end up doing a full rewrite, maybe not even in the same universe. I’m not sure. If you were a fan of that book and looking forward to more, I genuinely am sorry. I actually thought that I would find time to continue it, I fully intended to, but I have occasionally asked myself over the past two years, “Should I just take it down for now? There’s no way I’m going to be able to find time for it for years…” When I finally made that decision, I felt…relief. I think that’s a good sign that it was the right decision.

  2. Adventurous. Something similar is happening here. I wrote Adventurous in late 2016 and early 2017. Now, although I actually still really like the premise for the story that was set up and think it would make a solid series, I no longer feel like Steven is the proper protagonist to carry that series. I’m not taking this one down, it will remain up, (and be getting a new cover sometime soon!), but there won’t be a direct sequel. Instead, what I think I’ll do, and again, this will be a ways in the future, is to simply start a new series. Introduce a new protagonist who is approached by Liz to help her with her future operations. I actually really like the idea for this series, because it would crossover several characters from other stories, and be primed for lots of adventures. But again: time. There’s never enough of it, it feels like. So, anyone who was specifically a fan of Steven, sorry. I mean, he will still exist, I’m not ret-conning him out of existence or anything, but he won’t be a protagonist any longer. But Adventurous will live on! Eventually.

  3. Lust & Adventure IV. This one is less about the protagonist, and more about ideas. Although I had an idea or two for Lust & Adventure IV, the more I’ve tried to piece it together, the more it just seemed like a bad idea. Although I still feel a bit uncomfortable about the ending of the trilogy as a whole, I have taken some solace in the fact that that situation will be revisited and, some might even say, resolved, in the Demoness series. Specifically in Demoness V and VI. I don’t really want to try and force another story if it doesn’t need to be told. I’ve spent five years writing, and I’ve tried to develop my ability to tell the difference between when a novel is just being a pain in the ass and to press on anyway (literally all of them fucking do this) and when a novel just isn’t going to work and to stop it (luckily, almost every project that wasn’t going to work, I realized it before I even seriously got started in production). And Lust & Adventure IV, for me at least, just isn’t going to work. So a trilogy it shall remain. So, again, sorry if you were looking forward to this. But just know that Layla, Alan, and Topaz will return, in a serious capacity, in the Demoness series. (If you read the Demoness V preview, you should know this already.)

Those are the big kind of ‘negative’ changes. Sorry. I probably shouldn’t keep apologizing, but honestly, my main goal as a writer is to make happiness. Happiness for you, happiness for me. And I know how fucking bitter it can be when someone decides to cancel something that you really like, even if they have great reasons, and even if you agree with their reasons. It still can really suck. (DBZA anyone?) All I hope is that you understand, and that you take solace in the other things I’m writing.

What about the other changes or upcoming things?

Sometimes, I go through all my files and sort of clean house. Decisions get made, like everything I just said above, and shit gets figured out occasionally. Sometimes new ideas occur. Stuff like that. And I normally clean house whenever I’m feeling down and indecisive and frustrated. So that happened in March.

I don’t know if you’ve picked up on it, but there is an intentional order to the universes. The first one listed is the most important one. It used to just be chronological, with Sci-Fi coming first because that’s what came first. But then as I got more and more into Fantasy, I realized it was my lead universe, so I switched it. Paranormal went to last after I wrapped it up.

But that’s changing. With all the recent decisions I’ve made, I’ve come to realize that my Post-Apocalyptic Universe should be in the Number One slot. I’ve actually had several ideas for cool series over the past few months since I’ve begun investing in Haven. I’ve got a solid idea for the series that comes next, and have for awhile, but I’ve since come up with two more. One of which is very, very different, a bit more…traditional, let’s say? A bit less ‘sandbox base-building survival’ and a bit more ‘first person shooter campaign’. Let’s just say that Haven 5 is going to open up a lot of doors in terms of just how fucked up things can get in this world. I’m actually a little anxious about writing it, (when I get to it), because I know that some people like the fact that I don’t really write ‘let’s save the whole fucking world!’ stories, and this would kind of be like that. But I also don’t want to let fear hold me back, I want to take a shot at it, I want to expand my horizons a bit, try out some new plots and ideas.

So yeah, expect a bit more emphasis on my Post-Apocalyptic Universe.

Now that Haven 5 is written, I’m going to take a break and focus on wrapping up Demoness V and a few other projects. Like I was talking about earlier, I’ve been having trouble maintaining my focus, and although I genuinely thought working on two things at the same time was the smart thing to do, and it actually was working for a little while, now it kind of seems like it won’t. Honestly, it’s pissing me off. I wish I could just make a goddamned fucking plan and just stick to it. Once Demoness V is wrapped up, I’ll take the opportunity to complete one or two smaller side projects. Here’s a comprehensive list of side projects that I want to put out before 2020 is over. (This is subject to change, but I’m feeling decently confident about it right now. Fuck, it’ll be good to have the side projects down and out of the way once and for all!)

  • DEMONESS COLLECTION #1. This will collect Demoness, Demoness II, Demoness - Fun in the Forest, Demoness III, & Demoness: The Former Princess. It will also feature a brand new, never-before-seen short story taking place between The Former Princess and Demoness IV. This might come next, since the short story is over half written at this point, and I’m hoping to have the cover soonish.

  • ALIEN HAREM DUAL PACK. People apparently like packs. Like a lot. Seriously, people bought the FUCK out of the Haven Collection. So I figure I should create a pack for Alien Harem 1 & 2, and take the opportunity to write a new bonus short!

  • QUICKIES #1 PAPERBACK. I figure there’s enough content to warrant a paperback. Even if it’s a short one. On the one hand, I know a lot of people don’t care about the paperbacks. On the other hand, I know that a few people do, and I imagine if you care about paperbacks, there’s a good chance you at least want the option to own EVERYTHING in paperback. So, Quickies will be released as paperbacks, too, going forward.

  • MISTY VIXEN COLLECTED PAPERBACK. In the same vein, I realized there’s a few things I’ve put out that simply can’t get in paperback. I once created a Collected paperback to solve this, but had to take it down. I’m going to do that again. It will collect MY UNDEAD LOVER, EXPLORATION, & THE FREEBIES. Specifically LARGE & LOVELY, BLIND DATE, SNAKESKIN, THE PALE REDHEAD, & PINK. Nothing new, I don’t want to tie new content to a paperback, and 99% of you won’t care about this, but there it is!

So all that’s left after that are the Quickies. I’ve finally got what appears to be a finalized list of Quickies. Again, this may change, I want to stress that. I may finish a collection and realize it’s too short and need to rearrange what goes where to compensate.

QUICKIES

  • QUICKIES #2: WANDERLUST | MY UNDEAD LOVER.

  • QUICKIES #3: PARANORMAL PASSIONS | PARASEXUAL | PINK | ROOMMATES WITH BENEFITS.

  • QUICKIES #4: ROYAL LUST | LAY OF THE LAND | SNAKESKIN | ADVENTUROUS | LARGE & LOVELY | LUST & ADVENTURE

  • QUICKIES #5: ALIEN HAREM | DESIRE | AMAZONIAN’S LOVE | BLIND DATE | LIKE A SEX TOY

  • QUICKIES #6: SEX & SURVIVAL | A NEW WORLD | THE PALE REDHEAD| HAVEN

  • QUICKIES #7: DEMONESS | FUTURE CONTENT

Obviously, #7 seems pretty vague, but you have to remember that Quickies will be ongoing. The only reason that there’s going to be so many of them in the first place is that I have to cover everything I’ve already written. How it will work once I’m caught up is that I’ll release new ones as new material allows. So once I write enough content to make a whole Quickies, that’s when I’ll release a new one. So when I publish #6 is when I’ll be caught up.

Okay, not much left now.

Let’s talk a bit about Haven! Another decision I had to make: the final number of books. For a long time, I wanted to make Haven a nine book series. But the way the story was falling, I was really worried about Haven 8. Basically, with how the final part of the series plays out, there was definitely enough for two books, but not really enough for three. For awhile, I just put it off as “I’ll figure it out when I get there.” And although I’m only on Haven 5 right now, I’m realizing that it’s just not gonna happen. And I don’t want to pad out an entire novel with meaningless bullshit just for the sake of having three trilogies. So this is what I ultimately decided: There will be eight main entries in the Haven series, and then there will be an Epilogue, just like Parasexual. I actually really am liking the idea of the Epilogue novella. It allows me to revisit all the main characters one more time, see where they ended up and where they may be going, but not have to write an entire novel in the process. It kind of moves at its own pace, you know?

What comes next?

So, something new kind of came at me all at once over the past week or so. Sometimes, how writing works (for me) is that I’ll have things I just want to write about. Usually disparate stuff that I either work into a novel or a short story, sometimes as the main story/theme, sometimes as a side scene. This can vary heavily. Sometimes it’s just a specific character, or even type of character, or sometimes it’s a specific type of sexual encounter, or a specific plot point or type of scene. These come and go. I think it helps add flavor to my varied books. The way I write stories, typically, is that I leave openings for sexual encounters. Like basically, “and in this scene the protagonist fucks (someone new).” Someone new could be an inhuman or a redhead or a mature cougar or a married woman, basically whatever I’m feeling in that moment. It’s kind of a way to allow me to get out thoughts that keep bugging me.

Now, there’s always stuff floating around, coming and going, and sometimes, it’s rare but it does happen occasionally, a handful of things I want to write about abruptly coalesce into a story. That’s what happened with A Warm Place and Refuge. (I know, not the best references given what just happened to Crystal Candy, but this is different.) And it happened again just last week.

One of the biggest factors, I think, that necessitated this cohesion was that, oh my fucking God, writing Haven 5 was a grind near the end. Worse than usual. I don’t really know why, but as I entered the death march that lasted for about a week to try and get it done before April, I fucking KNEW that I couldn’t keep going on like this. I couldn’t just jump into Haven 6. And I needed to do something just really different at some point. It made me realize that I need to break up my writing schedule, and more than I just announced. Like, writing a short story or two between main releases just isn’t going to be enough. My work WILL start to suffer if I keep pushing this hard, I have realized. Which is frustrating, given the fact that I know I really need to keep on publishing Haven titles.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Anyway. This series. It’s going to be in my Sci-Fi Universe, but I want to state that it is NOT the Sci-Fi series I have been referencing for the past few months. That’s still coming, but later. I want to do something a little different with this series. It’s going to be a bit simpler, in terms of scope, (no epic, month-spanning, city-building adventure in this one), and the titles will be shorter. As for what it’s about? Imagine the plot of Hellcats, but much more coherent and narrative focused, only the protagonist is an ex-Marine, and the Hellcats are hot mature women, and the location is a remote planet. I’m still piecing it together, so I’ll let you know more when I know more!

But as for the main course? Right now, it’s looking like I have two choices. The first is to press on with my Post-Apocalyptic Universe and dive right into that next series. I feel good about it, at least. Or, put the Post-Apocalyptic Universe on the back burner and instead start up A Warm Place. Right now, I’m not going to say which, because I can’t know for sure how I’ll be feeling when that time comes. However, if I had to guess…I’d say I’ll be firing up A Warm Place. I’m guessing I’ll be burned out on the Post-Apocalyptic Universe by then and want something different. As in, another post-apocalyptic universe! (Yeah, so different!…..)

So that’s My Plan For 2020 (Revised: Sixth Edition)™.

To reiterate, for April, I’m going to finish Demoness V, probably get out Demoness Collection #1, and maybe do Quickies #2. Maybe. Then I’ll dive right into Haven 6. I actually feel pretty good about that one.

Wish me luck!