I DO Have Irons in the Fire…u just cant see them yet >:( grrr

I feel like I’m working on fifty creative things but forty-nine of the things aren’t out yet!

What do you do when this happens? I guess most people tease the upcoming work. It’s almost like venting! Well, reverse mirror-world venting. You’re not getting a worry off your chest, you’re cheerfully noting/braggadoci-ing how cool your next piece is going to be. Maybe this clears your circling thoughts. Maybe it lights a fire under your ass to get this project up to snuff already.

But for whatever reason, I have never been one to chat much about my story ideas. I have a sibling and friends who will go “okay, I have this amazing story going on…” and regale you for quite a while, but even as a kid, I quite frequently made stories for my eyes only.

I…guess I’ll see what happens if I try to remedy that, right here on this blog! Here comes a mixture of venting and talking up my own stories.

What do I have in progress right here, right now?

Physical Stuff for In-Person Events

I am working on flyers. I’ve been working on books, bookmarks, and a bookmark-holding cup. I recently went out and bought some book stands. (You’d think they’d be cheapo. Nope.) And lastly, I am considering a really fun decoration or two. Something to make casual observers at conventions stop and say “wait, what the fuck?!”

Yet I assume this is extremely unsatisfying for people at home to read about. I mean, unless you live within two square miles of me, will you even get to see this stuff? That’s not helping my anxiety about not having “enough” to show for the past several weeks.

Wait a second, I CAN show you something! You just can’t feel it with your mitts!!!!!!!!

Grants

I’ve started learning more about grants. I need to be learning more about grants. Grants! Do you even know about them? I say this in such a frankly condescending yet hopefully humorous way because…as an indie artist, especially one in science fiction and fantasy, I rarely think about grants. I mean, I just automatically assume there are no grants available to me. Depending on where you are in the world, that might absolutely be true, and it’s not fair.

But you know what? I’m in the United States, and that nation is like the King of the Grants! So even if genre fiction does still get kicked around a little, I should be—oh, wait…I forgot it’s 2025, and the big 2025 government thing just happened. Oh…

Gamebooks

Okay, this thing is actually coming out in like a week. I submitted a gamebook (interactive fiction…solo physical game…CYOA…whatever phrase you’re most familiar with) to something called the Lindenbaum Competition. Nobody saw this coming at all, but I submitted it ten minutes before deadline. Dang, I give myself seemingly ample time, I chip away at the thing over the course of weeks, but in the end, I still only pull it together on the day of? I mean, that’s better than falling short, but it frustrates me because it shouldn’t have to be this way.

Anyway, I think I’m supposed to be bragging about things, so…this story is neat. I was thinking about this blog post a gamebook writer made about how many gamebooks are supposedly about free agents. According to the marketing language, they are about you making the choices. But obviously it’s the writer pre-making those choices, and it’s way more restrictive than a video game’s code. So what if you actually played a purposefully limited protagonist who is sort of an advisor to the hero?

Does it sound fun to not play the hero? Uh, probably not. In this case, I hope that the enjoyable, immersive part of my experiment comes from your interplay with the lead and the surprise of how she will react to you next. You play a mirror that has nothing to do but sporadically interact with the princess who owns this closet. Your communication is limited by the fact that…you’re a mirror. There’s magic involved, but it sucks. It’s really bad.

In the future, I’d like to make a game where you play a Navi-like sprite to some Link-like character. You can counsel him or even lead him astray, but he doesn’t have to listen, and your power to interact with the world has clear limits. If you know my work, you are sighing with relief, knowing that I can write comical banter that would make this less tedious and more tedious-yet-very-funny.

Be Her Mirror releases on March 10^th in demo game-competition form. I would like to polish it some and turn it into physical and digital book versions, but not for a while yet.

Catgirl System

Woah there. Things have really changed since I declared I would work on this and only this until it was finished. (Well, technically I said I would “try”…um…we’re safe? Please?)

Now that there’s one book left to write, and the rudiments of Book 4 Chapter 2 have begun, I’m taking a break. I think I need that time to do a few things…

• Assemble good, wacky ideas in both my consciousness and subconsciousness.
• Allow myself to fidget with other, shorter, refreshing projects for a while.
• Feel generally restful about the story—like I’m not rushing just to kick Catgirl System out the door already.

I have NOT had that ideal clean slate open for any and all creative juice-flowing…yet I still am cooking up ideas, I feel very positive about them and about the story, and I’m enthusiastic about taking Catgirl System’s early chapters to local events (or just a random table on the street. I think that works?).

Also, if I had avoided completing Be Her Mirror in favor of devoting that time to continued Catgirl System work, or divided the work between the two for more than five seconds, I would have felt so frustrated by myself. First of all, I barely managed to finish Mirror, giving as much time to that as I did. Second, the Lindenbaum Competition may be niche, but it’s been on my radar for…wow, I guess years at this point. I’ve been saying “I want to write gamebooks” for long enough that now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. If I missed it, I’d be waiting a whole other year!

Okay, but…what are some of the cool new ideas that only readers of this enticing blog post are privy to? Here are a few:

• Taipha gets a cool new vehicle! Great for when, like Sonic in Super Smash Bros., she has to jump a little bit higher and doesn’t mind losing a spring/massive dangerous piece of equipment in the process.
• New enemies appear, and this time they have a sustained and vested interest in being good at their job, AKA Taipha death trap.
• Sierra takes some responsibility.
• Reed and Taipha’s hunting communication system begins to matter.
• I draw DeGalle, Logy and Heidschi.
• I consider changing DeGalle’s name to eGalle or something? Every day I wake up desperately hoping she isn’t seen as political commentary on Charles de Gaulle. She’s not!!!

I would love to have a solid LitRPG series…solid and finished, gotta emphasize that. But I’m on my way.

My latest ultimatum decrees that I will finish Catgirl System this summer. I think that once Book 3 finishes posting in early March, I’ll begin updating again around June 1^st…maybe May 1^st? Bah, I dunno yet. And in the meantime I must do another character poll—I like those.

Lastly…A Story for Another Competition!

Y’know, I should mention that I normally avoid story competitions like the plague. Like with grants, I always feel there’s always someone better, and by “better” I do mainly mean “more popular” or “more palatable to these particular judges” or even “more marketable.”

But strangely, when a friend brought up a new web serial contest, I went from “oh no! I’m not touching that!” to “hm…okay, maybe.” Now I’m going to see if I can dedicate March to it.

There are four big reasons behind me jumping in. One: I’m putting aside Catgirl System for now. Two: it’s a web fiction competition encouraging genre work, where many authors will have at least a general aesthetic like mine, so I’m not as worried about making something the judges aren’t looking for. Three: it’s not a popularity contest, and the rules indicate all submissions will be reviewed. And four…someone else I know is entering! I must compete with them!!!!!(in a friendly way)

It’ll be fun to compare our different approaches when both stories are out. (I’ve gotta prod them to co-write a blog post with me about creative process when it’s all said and done. Anyway…)

Next month, I’ll be writing an Industrial Revolution-flavored fantasy romance. Magic is derived from blood and bone. The strongest “physical resources” come from a few nonhuman animals, so of course, the hunt (and continued ecological exploitation) is on! Clover is new to the big city and its magic academy, wanting to be the best, have all the friends, and discover what true love is like. Meanwhile, a “wild girl” named Carmina comes out of the forest to claim what the forest lost. Together they can’t change the world, but they can at least take back something.

One reason I’m enthusiastic about me actually being able to complete this story in a timely manner is because the MAL x Honeyfeed contest limits authors to writing between 25,000 and 75,000 words. While it is sadly possible that I won’t finish Bears Eat Clover in March (that will require an average of over 1k per day AND editing), I want to still reach for it. It’s a cool goal. If I need the beginning of April, so be it. If I need the end of April…that’s going to be sad.

I Guess That’s It?!

Yep, that’s what I’m working on now and forever—I mean, into the near future. Is it messed up that I feel this fulfilled about finishing shorter projects, and not as revved up to finish Catgirl System? Maybe. But I’m confident I will finish them all. If that makes me a beanball, or a nutball, or another strange ball, so be it. We shall see.

Meanwhile, YOU shall see…this Patreon, if you want. Or other blog posts. Well, if you like. What about this one about Super Sentai theme songs? It’s got mp3s and 8fps GIFs in it. Or this searing Blondie exposé. Or this positively incendiary piece on The Cowboy Way.