July’s Plot Bunnies Poll

Okay, so, the good news is that I did take your sternly worded advice and got a break.

Last week.

It lasted three days.

And I still feel the need to apologize.

…

Yeah, let’s just say my lacking input over the past month has more to do with me being terrible at plenty of things than with me being sane and caring for my mental health.

On the brighter side?

I finished a novel!

I mean, yes, some of you may remember how much I gushed about feeling like Zaimokuza Gaiden was my first novel, but I still need to edit all the fanfic elements out of it, and Ginosko is…

Well, very much not a fanfic.

Previously, my longest piece of original fiction was ‘Do I Look Like I’m Joking?,’ and that certainly felt like an accomplishment (a draining one that it took some time to recover from), and this month’s rush to finish Ginosko has been equally exhausting for plenty of reasons, some of them even writing-related (those of you curious enough about my TMI may check the Discord, but I’ve been told it’s a bad idea to just write about it over here). Regarding the part that you may actually care about, that is, the writing part, I really struggled with putting an end to it, but I think it’s served to get me past a mental block.

As in, I’ve finally done something I had half-convinced myself I couldn’t years ago.

And now I just have to do it again.

The next original novel will be the much delayed, and now entirely its own thing, Easter Special, which will be a superhero short novel about a man with fox powers and a not-Mirko with a kind of “foes to lovers” arc. I’ve got plenty of scenes planned for it, and I’m kinda enjoying how the characters play off one another.

Then we will get to the project that will replace either Wake-up Call or All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! on the roster, which most of you agree should be The Demon Lord’s Secretary Is Terrifying. I may do another poll regarding this when it’s finally time and elaborate a bit more on the other options to give you a better idea than just a short blurb so that you will make a more informed decision, but I’m not unhappy with this choice. It will let me flex my comedic muscles and delve into the fantasy genre in a slightly different way than I’m doing with the Tales From a Lewd Fantasy World series.

That I will get back to as soon as possible. And that leads me to the next few priorities for the near future.

First, I’m working on the next Konosuba chapter, and I hope to have it finished and edited by tomorrow. Depending on how that goes, I’ll either go back to Wake-up Call and All Right! Fine! I Will Take You! straight away, or do a slight detour to write the next (much delayed, to my shame) Periodical Cicadas.

Then July will likely feature my finally finishing the next Tales (it’s more than halfway there and gearing up to be quite long), the meeting of Steve Rogers and Toni Stark, a quite delayed commission about Kaguya-sama (basically, somebody decided to buy one of my poll options, and I told them that I would get faster to it given that it was a poll option—then I proceeded to spend far too much time doing other stuff), the next Puella Monstrum, and, if I have the stones for it, Wordsworth’s last two arcs.

Also, it will be my birthday. On the 19th.

Yay.

But, well, you’re already giving me quite an amazing birthday present just by being here and reading, so that may be slightly less alcoholism-inducing than usual (joking: it’s Spain; every celebration is alcoholism-inducing).

So, well, this is it. My near-future plans, my stated intentions regarding a less immediate future, my quickly realizing how much writing I need to do to catch up after the past couple of months and the chaos they have wrought, and my sincere, earnest gratitude to all of you.

Thank you. I don’t say it often enough.

And now, get to voting!