The Misty Vixen Newsletter (February 2021)

January was a difficult month.

I had a Covid scare at the very beginning of the month, and several people close to me actually did get it, but thankfully, they’re okay now and I somehow managed to dodge that bullet. I got a clear test last week and I don’t go out much as it is.

The past few months have been very emotionally unstable and tumultuous for me. Fuck, the past year basically was, but especially the past few months. I’ve obviously gone back and forth on a lot of things, and part of the reason for that was because I felt the need to make decisions that fell within certain boundaries. There were some things I wanted to do, but they felt too big, too difficult, or too intimidating.

January made me finally really sit down and rethink…just about everything.

I’ve made some decisions. Here is a shortlist of those decisions.

  • A WARM PLACE will continue unabated for now, although I’m no longer sure about this 1st of the month release dates. I will try for one a month though. Regardless, it remains my primary focus for the moment. In fact, you can read A Warm Place 2 right now!

  • LIKE A FINE WINE is going to end with the latest novel. If you haven’t already, please read this blog post explaining why. To be clear: With the release of Like A Fine Wine 4, and Like A Fine Wine - The Complete Series, the series is officially finished. However, at some point in the future, I do intend to do a sequel series.

  • The fantasy serial fiction I mentioned earlier is being put away for now. It isn’t the right time for it and based on the decisions I’ve made, it is no longer the right call to begin working on it anytime soon.

  • At some point in the future, ideally during 2021, but early 2022 for sure, I will be launching a new pen name, with two new series. I’ll elaborate on that below.

I’ve been considering the notion of starting a new pen name since before even Crystal Candy, probably sometime during 2018, or perhaps even late 2017. I had the idea that I needed something of a clean break from everything I’d done so far, to take everything I’d learned and apply it to a new name from the very beginning. And beginnings appeal to me, as well, like I imagine a blank canvas calls to artists.

Obviously, I gave it a shot with Crystal Candy, and ultimately canceled that side project, determining it made more sense to just write under Misty Vixen.

So what changed?

What truly got me started down the most recent path of this decision was A Warm Place. It…has not done as well as I’d hoped, and I’ll try to elaborate on how. It’ll take a moment to explain my thoughts on this particular subject.

In short, I feel as though there are, for lack of a better term, ‘levels’ to being an independent author. In the beginning, I was very lucky. Not long after I began publishing Hellcats and Wanderlust, I got to a decent level. I was actually selling. Nothing crazy, but definitely more than you would expect a brand new author with no advertising or social media presence to do. I worked very hard to keep at that level and although things got very dicey in 2016 and then EXTREMELY dicey in 2017 in terms of earnings, (looking back over my earnings for 2017, I’m shocked by how bad it got), I managed to stay at that level for 2015, 2016, & 2017.

In 2018, everything changed. I had been wanting to write novel-length stories almost from the beginning, but the urge certainly grew to intense proportions during 2017. In 2018, I managed to make the jump. As some of you may remember, while I saw an unprecedented leap in popularity, I also faced execution from Amazon’s firing squads, as they accused me of cheating and threatened me with account termination. Ultimately things settled down and although I lost a LOT of what I had gained during that brief surge in popularity, when the dust settled, I had just barely manage to rise to the next ‘level’. I was earning more comfortably, though still not quite as consistently. (One month could be great, and then the next the sales could drop by half for no obvious reason.)

Because I’m goal-oriented and because I have people in my life who need help and because I grew up in, shall we say, less than ideal financial circumstances, I’ve been really aiming for getting to the next level. I think I might actually be happy at that level of earning. I definitely wouldn’t be rich, but I would be more than comfortable and able to actually help people with big, unexpected bills or fill out entire GoFundMes of strangers or pay my mom’s house off or whatever the fuck. I know I’m very lucky to even be where I am right now, and I try not to take anything for granted, but it is very difficult to maintain gratitude when I see people who I am at least as good at in writing doing 50-100x better than me, out-earning me with fucking EASE, just shitting out novel after novel with no real effort.

But part of my ultimate goal isn’t just more money. I also want to be able to write less. It’s obvious to me that my work and my mental health suffers because I have to pump out a novel a month at minimum, and that’s very stressful. I’d love to be able to even ease that down to a novel every two months. Like, damn that’d be nice! That’d be a vacation. Although I’m sure because anxiety and depression are self-adjusting, I’d reach that, enjoy it for a bit, then start complaining that a novel every two months is too much! Being human fucking sucks.

Anyway. As I was saying in the beginning, when 2020 rolled around, I decided it was time to really get my shit together, get serious, and aim for that next level, in sales if not in output at least. A Warm Place was intended to be that. Although technically speaking A Warm Place might be my best launch ever, (barring the freak occurrence in mid-2018), it still did nowhere near as good as I had hoped. It didn’t catch fire, it didn’t take off, it’s just doing kind of well, and I’m sure that’s going to drop off at some point soon. And that just…crushed me. Like, I might have actually had a little bit of a mental breakdown there a few weeks ago.

It was a very, very emotionally dark time and given the fact that I already feel like a giant fucking failure half the time anyway, yeah, it was even worse than that.

I’m better now, and ultimately it led me to seriously reconsidering everything about my plans for the future.

Now, to address a few things.

The first is this: Why do I think a new name will work this time, when Crystal Candy did not? The answer is basically because I’ll be treating it in a fundamentally different way. Crystal Candy was intended, from the beginning, to be a quick, fun side project. This new name will become my new primary focus.

Which leads to the next obvious question: What will happen to Misty Vixen? I want to be clear on a few things about that. The first is that Misty Vixen will remain up and active. Nothing’s being taken down, nothing’s being abandoned or discontinued. Or, if something is discontinued, like Like A Fine Wine, it will be for its own reasons. I will continue writing for Misty Vixen once launching this new pen name, but at a slower pace. And because I’m hoping this new pen name will ultimately help take the pressure off, it means I can work on something even if it isn’t super financially viable. Like Demoness, for example. Or maybe I could expand The Pale Redhead into a complete novel, or trilogy, like I kind of have wanted to. Or other projects that I’ve considered and rejected or put aside because I simply don’t have the time.

I hope that puts everyone’s concerns to rest.

The next thing I want to address is: Why do I think this is a good idea? Here’s a few conclusions I came to, that were reconfirmed by stuff several of my readers have been telling me over the past year or so. (And some less than kind reviewers.)

  1. My tone as Misty Vixen is all over the place. What I wrote in 2015 is very different in some ways from what I am writing in 2021.

  2. My protagonists are almost anti-adventure/harem. This has been changing naturally as I’ve gotten the counterculture written out of my system and I’ve wanted to write more assertive and proactive protagonists, but I still have a good 40+ novels of awkward nerds, introverts, and indecisive young guys surrounded by older or much more confident women. While I don’t regret writing those stories or those characters, and I still like them, and even aspects of them, it’s obvious to me now that they’re working against me. If someone who might actually love A Warm Place or Haven discovers me through, say, Hellcats or Paranormal Passions, there’s a decent chance they’ll just decide they don’t like me and move on.

  3. I think there’s too much extra shit going on in how I present my work. Between the shared universes, the bonus stories, the collections and compilations and anthologies, the free website-exclusive stuff, the repackaging…it’s all too much. It’s clutter. I thought people would like it, like blu-ray extras or DLC, and while I have no doubt that there are some people who enjoy it, it’s become clear to me that for the most part, people just don’t care, and I could do away with it without a problem. This is more a problem on my end, as it takes up a lot of time and effort to make this stuff happen, but also it might be intimidating/irritating to see a massive list like what I’ve got on my Chronological Order page and just say ‘fuck it’. With a brand new pen name, I can make it much more simple and streamlined.

  4. Balance in telling my stories. Since the beginning, I’ve been experimenting in how I tell my stories, balancing sex, action, and character development on a sliding scale. Ultimately, I’ve leaned towards more action and characters, and less sex, and I’ve had more people telling me they like this. Honestly, I have found myself wanting more and more to write more plot-focused narratives. To put it in video game terms, I’ve been writing Minecraft stories, but I want to be writing Mass Effect stories. Open world, open-ended survival versus narrative-driven campaign. Open world is fun, but I think I like the campaigns better more often than not. I think Haven is the closest I’ve ever gotten to what I ultimately want to do, so imagine Haven, but with even more quality and focus.

I hope this explains it all. But the thing I want to emphasize the most is this: I AM NOT ABANDONING MY READERS. In short, if you like what I’m writing now, you’ll like what I write under this new pen name, and I will very clearly let anyone who cares to look know about this new material. It won’t be a secret or anything. I honestly believe that if you liked Haven, or the more narrative-focused aspects of my other stories, you will absolutely love the new ideas I have. (Hint: Remember that caveman story I’ve been hinting at for years? I’m finally going to do it and I think I have a really fun idea for it.)

What I truly want to get across is this: If you are already a fan of my work, I am positive you will continue to be a fan of the newer work. I’m not changing direction so much as refining my process, cutting out the bad and enhancing the good.

Another bottom line I want to get across is that I believe in hard work, but I also believe in effective hard work. I have spent years attempting to break down the barrier between this level and the next, but only recently have I truly come to realize that I’ve been using a spoon when I could have been using a pick-axe. This new pen-name is the pick-axe.

I’m hoping this doesn’t come across like some corporate damage control bullshit, because I hate that soulless, boilerplate BS. That whole ‘we hear you and we will do better going forward and we value your feedback’ fucking corporate spiel that sounds so fake.

I hope this does something to set your mind at ease. I know it’s helping me a lot. Ever since I began seriously considering it over the past few weeks, it was kind of like a weight was lifted, one that’s been there for probably over a year now, maybe longer. It was like: This is it. This is the thing that makes sense. This is the way forward.

I haven’t felt like that for a long time.

If you have any questions or comments or concerns, seriously let me know. Either in a comment down below, on Twitter, or an e-mail. I can always be reached at mistyvixen@outlook.com, and I will answer.

To all my readers, genuinely thank you for your support. It pretty much means the world.

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.