Updates and the H-space MGB in 2017

My original plan was to hit 2017 running, and that happened... if you count tripping on your shoelaces and faceplanting on the ground so hard you knock the Earth out of orbit.

Ugh.

I was going to go back to logging word counts on Twitter.  As you haven't seen any word count tweets on Twitter you can assume January has not been a productive writing month for poor Hydra.

There are reasons for this - a bad medical diagnosis for a family member (it was expected), other work on the side eating up time, a bout of winter flu striking just when I thought I'd cleared it all - but I won't bore people with the details as they're irrelevant.

I have been considering what to do with the H-space Monster Girl Bestiary.  On the one hand, I really like how the background stuff is shaping up and how it slots into the wider universe I've hinted at in other stories.  On the other, the short stories have been gradually creeping up in length to the point I find it hard to keep to the weekly schedule and get other things written.

The and is the important thing here.  I enjoy writing the short H-space stories, but I can't for the life of me think of how to properly monetise them, and as vulgar as it is to talk about money, it is essential if I want to continue doing this.  Maybe Patreon?  It is something I've been considering, but I don't want it taking too much focus away from the novels and short story collections, which is what does pay the bills.  (And I definitely don't want to make readers wait as long for Succubus Summoning 301 as they had to wait for 201!)

January is pretty much a bust at this point, so I'll use what's left of it to work on putting a stockpile of new stories together.  My plan is to start posting new Bestiary stories from the beginning of February onwards.  The one change is I'll post new ones every two weeks rather than every week.  I have a strange relationship with self-imposed deadlines.  They're a great productivity aid for me up until the point when I get too close to the end of the treadmill and then everything locks up.  A fortnightly schedule might avoid that problem as well as giving me adequate time to sink my teeth into longer projects (like Succubus Summoning 301 and mystery Nicole novel).

So, the H-space Monster Girl Bestiary isn't going away.  You don't need to worry about it suddenly going on hiatus (like some other projects I'm also eager to rescue this year).  I have too many monster girl ideas for starters!

The other thoughts I'm having is how to give the setting a little more depth.  As you might have gathered, I love writing me some death-by-snu-snu, but it does have limitations if the humans are killed on sight in every new region they enter.  I think it's time to give the poor beleaguered soldiers some "friends".

No, this probably won't turn out too well for them.  😈

Anyway.  I'm still alive, but expect January to be quiet with some kind of normal service resuming in February.

Obligatory still alive post :)

Yeah, I know I've gone and done that fade out thing again.

I've been off and away doing other stuff for the past month that has eaten most of my weekends.  It's fine as it supplements my income and allows me to keep paying the bills and put food on the table.  (And the travel is a great source of story inspiration as I'll reveal in a future blog post).

I would mention more, but I'm starting to realise why other writers keep shtum about projects until they actually come to fruition.  It's a much better way of managing expectation.

I have been writing, but not H-space bestiary stories.  My current rule for #ChaosWriting is if I get the urge to write Succubus Summoning, I drop everything else and write that, as it's the number one thing I need to get done at this point in time.

More later (when things come to fruition).