Friday, 24 June 2026
This year has been a nightmare. Just a constant stress, disaster, nightmare, on and on and on. I've had a to find a new place to live, deal with extremely expensive car repairs, the horror of living in the modern moment... my partner hasn't had it any easier, and she's had to deal with going back to college on top of it all.
Things are finally starting to turn around for us. We just have to get through moving next week and maybe we can have at least an entire week before something else goes wrong.
I'm kind of shocked with myself that despite everything that's happened just this summer along, I've been able to finish writing and posting Soul Starved online. I had wanted to have a site mirror set up on neocities to go along with the ScribbleHub and Ao3 postings but there just was never the time. There are parts of the story (mostly act 2) that I itch to go back and rework. BUT on the whole, it is done, and I am pretty happy with how it came out. I am also blown away by how many other people have found it. At time of writing there are at least 136 readers on Scribblehub alone. That is insane, that is crazy, that is terrifying. Hello???
I get this is still small potatoes for the internet, but that is a staggering number of human beings, you understand me???
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy so many other people liked it. It just doesn't quite feel real though.
I am deeply appreciative of everyone who commented, who clicked a button, who so much as even took the time to look at it, even if they didn't like it. I didn't expect anyone to like it. It's a weird 2nd person pov story set in a brutal dystopic future where the people who were trying to make things better not only lost, but fucked it up so bad that they plagued the world with monsters. It's kind of grim!
But it was cathartic for me to write, and I hope it was cathartic to read. Rivka is not a 'good person' but you still want her to win. Because doing something, anything, is surely better than letting the status quo continue. And then all the people like Roz, Riley, and their friends who are caught on the sidelines are trying their best to self actualize and survive. It's a story about growing up being denied any agency and learning to claim your life for yourself. It's a cast of horribly maladjusted queer people trying their best (or worst).
It makes me so happy that it's found an audience. Writing this story, and the reception to it, have been one of the shining lights in my life this year, so...
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I want to release an epub file on itchio with a (hopefully) cleaned up version of the manuscript. I know my proofreading skills are not the best and that the story deserves another look over. For most of Soul Starved's run I relied on my partner and wife, only reaching out for more help towards the very end when she needed to focus on school. She caught a crapton of errors, problems, poor wordings, continuity mistakes, etc over the course of this project. I am deeply appreciative of her love, support, and writing skills.
I am also extremely gratefuly for the help of Kali, Chloe, an Chefwhatnot who stepped in towards the end to proofread the last two chapters. When I am gearing up to post something online again, beta readers like this is going to be the way to go I think. Having multiple people to lean on really helped ease the burden.
I'd like to get an ISBN number and properly 'publish' Soul Starved in like September? But consider that a soft date. I have no idea how feasible that is. I just know that ISBN numbers are crazy expensive and that's money better used towards things we'll need to get for the move right now.
I also want to get started working on the sequel! Soul Burn is the story I set out to write in the first place before Rosalyn's backstory took everything over. Things have grown enough though that I need to toss out my old outline and start over. It's going to take time to work out the new narrative, the new keystone scenes, and the ending before I can get started on writing proper. I want to have at least an entire act / arc down in print before I start posting anything. Ideally two, maybe? We'll see how patient I can be. My hope is start posting again before the end of the year.
I think that's everything on my mind right now. Stay tuned, posting friends.
Thank you, I love you, take care.
