Update: January 10th

Uhhh

There was an attempted coup in the US this week.

That happened.

So yknow. 

Uh.

Black Lives Matter, fuck Trump, defund the police, decriminalize weed and sex work, defend trans kids, abolish prisons and drink some water.

ANYWAY

New stuff:

I posted a poll (yesterday? Foggy brain strikes again) for patrons, asking people what they'd like my next novella to be. I'll be taking this under advisement (I get it, the world isn't ready for Trans Adam Jensen just yet (Eve Jensen?)) and I'll be letting you all know which one I picked soon.

Then, I'll be doing outlining, talking to my Omega and Omni tiers to see if they have any input (they have that right) and start writing as soon as possible. 

In development:

I'm currently working on several projects, most of them commissioned. That means that I'll always be working on those first at the start of the month, to make sure I'm giving people what they paid for. This also means that sometimes, updates will be slow on some unpaid stories while I work on paid ones. Think of it as me paying my bills by doing private concerts vs sitting on the market square with a guitar and my hat. 

• Campus Creatures will get 2/3 more chapters this month, as agreed on with the Patron who commissioned it, unless someone else commissions more.
• Any Other Name will, until the end of this year/when it's done, receive 5/6000 words per month, unless there's a change to the commission. I know that that's slow, but this is a novel-length project.
• There are a few requested but-as-of-yet-unpaid chapters for both Among Brighter Stars and Morgan Yu Too, which I'll work on as soon as payment comes through. 
• There will probably be one or two more commissioned chapters for Horns In The Library, ideally before the end of the month, so keep an eye out for those. 

Unpaid stuff

So, when I'm not working on these, what will I be up to?

Well, there's a few things. The problem is that, while I LOVE working on these, I can't devote my full attention on them because they're, well, unpaid, and the recent changes to scribblehub's trending algorithm means I can't reliably use those to get seen anymore, I'm more reliant on word of mouth these days. 

Does that mean I won't work on them? Of course not! So, what am I working on?

• We're Not Here/We Didn't Ask To Be Here. I just kinda started writing, and I'll be doing a full outline soon. I don't see this one being anything but full novel-length, so it'll take a while before it's finished.
• Eris. I was a little burned by the lack of reception on scribblehub (this was before finding out about the algorithm change) and kinda dropped the project after nobody seemed to care all that much, but I'm going to go back and do an outline and probably try to finish it after We're Not Here. Full Novel for sure.

Vanity projects

There's also just stuff that I still want to work on, stuff that's been on the backburner for almost year and that still holds a place in my heart, or short-stories and longer projects I want to develop in my own time. What could you semi-reasonably expect me to (try to) pick (back) up this year?

• The first and biggest one is probably Siren Song. I need to rework, and possibly rewrite it. Having a nonbinary protagonist was important to me, but having them be nonbinary and without much of a personality really hurt my ability to get into the character's head, so I might need to rework the whole thing. I can't make any promises but I want to finish my young-adult mermaid story this year.
• The Fluffy Demon Queen rewrite. Imagine a version of Demon Queen that's more of the first third, where the sense of urgency is less "thousands will die, slavery will persist if we do nothing" and more "but Prom's tomorrow!". I think I want to do a version of this story that's more poly, sweeter, and has that slow trans burn with our loveable dumbass Liz without the emotional whiplash. 
• The Apocalyptic Demon Queen Rewrite. I know. How do I marry these two ideas? I don't know yet, but I also really enjoyed writing a story set in this world that was magical in a dark way and dark in a magical way, the Deepwood and the Dragon peoples of the steppes riding giant tortoises. This one would probably crank that up to eleven, with less time-pressure and more finality, less of the jokey comedy and more of the world. It might be a separate story set in that world, but I'm probably sticking to the idea of the Demon Queen being the protagonist, having to work with The Hero to prevent, or even just observe, the end of the world. 
• Exopunk is currently not much more than a smattering of ideas, a young adult story with themes of anticapitalism and anti-stratification of society, in the vein of the Hunger Games (like how Any Other Name is going to be leaning into the Harry-Potter-style story), but with exosuits, trans gals, good boys and adventures. There may or may not be a love triangle.
• A whole truckload of short stories. As you saw the poll, I'm not short of ideas just yet, and I'll be working on putting out little shorts in between the major projects. Look out for those :)
• And finally, last but not least, Penumbra 2: Lumen. The story outline is done. I have a beginning and an ending. I just need to do the outlines and write it. This is going to be a hard story to tell, because it'll have a protagonist whose issues aren't mine, but I'm still doing research. Disability, trans- and queerness, and societal ableism will take center-stage on this one, so keep an eye out. 

So that's that!

Whew! 2020 was a productive year for me, and that productivity has definitely fallen off after Demon Queen (4-8000 words a day was a bit much), but I think I'll be able to get a few novels and novellas done in 2021 ;)

I also want to remind you that you're always free to commission stories you want to see more of, either by messaging me or by emailing me at elamimax@gmail.com with "Commission Request: [name of the work]" in the title and we can talk about pricing (full explanation here) and whether or not the work is available for commissions then. 

Last words

Thank you for reading this far. Things are going to be fun, I think, and I hope you'll stick around for it all :)