August was full of changes for me. I am officially a licenced insurance agent of Washington state—for the next two years, anyhow… and then I quit my insurance job for Boeing. As of writing this, I officially started. I don’t plan on working at any non-union job ever again after this.
On the writing front, there were also a few updates, so less talk about them!
Misc. Professional Update
I mentioned my job change above, which is very exciting. Here’s a small list of other things I’ve accomplished this month:
I’ve been dipping my toes into streaming! Nothing major or regular, but still. My intention with this is to do writing streams and sprints, allowing people to see a bit into my process. Additionally, I want to do video game streams where I roleplay as various characters of mine and explain my thought process behind the characters while I do so.
I’ve revamped my substack some! I changed the post layouts and added banners to all the posts that it would let me add them to. I also am making separate banners for my newsletter versus for my blog section (The Cat Discusses)
I’m working on a new “Behind the Scenes” post for my top-tier patrons. This one is for ASMLP, which will cover everything from the initial inception to finishing my first draft.
Writing Update
I’ve finished the first draft of A Sharper, More Lasting Pain! This is a feat that has been months in the making. I meant to finish it a lot sooner than I have, but a conclusion is still a conclusion. I ended up livestreaming me writing the end, and the playback can be found here if you missed it. The stream also features me playing Aion, one of my favorite MMOs.
I’m planning on making a post going over my process, including things I’ve learned and things that changed. It’ll be a condensed version, as a lot of this will be covered on the Patron-only “Behind the Scenes” post I make for it. In the meantime, here is one of my favorite sections from the ending:
Chapter Twenty-One — Simone
“Nadia is dead, Simone.”
The wind rushes out of them. He’s lying. He has to be. And yet, somewhere deep down, they know the it’s the truth all the same. They can’t imagine any other reason why she wouldn’t have shown her face. Surely, she would have known that nothing she did was terrible enough she couldn’t come home to them.
And yet. Their fingers curl tight around their capelet collar. “How?” they ask, eyes squeezed shut. They almost can’t bear the answer.
“I… I wish I could describe it.” Etienne’s hand cups their knee, the gesture simultaneously nausea-inducing and comforting. “One moment, she was fine.” His voice catches.
“A-and then?”
Chapter Twenty-Two — Nadia
His pencil-thin brow arches at the sight of her. Were it anyone else, she would take the gesture as a sign of derision, but she knows better with Etienne. His concern couldn’t be plainer if he tried. He doesn’t ask if she’s okay, doesn’t stop her when she barges her way into his apartment and sits down. He closes the door with the click of the lock, hands buried deep in his pockets as he turns to face her. From over his shoulder, the portrait that resembles his mother mutters its greetings. The simpleness of it all is almost enough to make her start sobbing anew.
Instead, in an impossibly thin voice, she says, “I think I’m going to hurt someone.”
He’s nonplussed by her statement. They’ve had these sorts of talks before, in their preliminary schooling when she hadn’t yet gained control of her agitation and anger at the world. Now, only their shared memories and the scars on her hips remind her of those days.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Yes. No. Maybe. The words circle her brain, a torturous roulette.
Chapter Twenty-Three — Etienne
“Leave,” they growl, shadows falling across their face and highlighting the fury within their amber eyes.
Damn stubborn, indeed. And a damn fool. Etienne buries his hands in his pockets again and shakes his head. “As you wish,” he replies with the click of his tongue. Then he turns away, intent on turning his back on them for good.
A couple of steps later, he pauses again. “You have two weeks, Simone. Two weeks to change your mind, and then I will graduate and I will be far, far away from here. I can’t do anything further for Nadia—gods know how much I want to. But I can stop you before you end up like her all the same.
“Do not mistake me, though. I do not offer this out of kindness for you. It is a last favor for Nadia and nothing more.”
Etienne resumes his uneven pace through the dungeons. This time, he doesn’t stop.
Epilogue
In a wooded grove across the world, a woman claws her way out of a puddle of muck. First one pale arm, then the other, then shocks of bone-white hair as she hauls herself up with a gasp. Miasma drips into the mass of black still encasing her body.
One agonizing handhold after the next, the woman drags herself free before flopping down on solid ground. Her eyes flutter open to regard the sky above her. A smattering of stars twinkle, pinpricks of white against a sea of black. The moss is soft underhand. The earth cradles her like a child to its bosom.
She takes her first moments of lucidity to give herself a mental appraisal. Nothing aches, as far as she can tell. She bears two arms and two legs and a head. Small wings flutter on her temples, catching in the nighttime breeze.
Now that the first draft of ASMLP is over with, I’m not fully certain what I’m moving to next. At the moment, I’m pecking out more words on Across This Hollow Distance, like this little section here:
“As we discussed, some items are still due to arrive,” (NAME) said as they secured the curtains at last. “Teleportation is a finicky sort of Casting, after all.”
This was the reason she had never thought to go into Conjuration while in college. The discipline overall had much to offer for prospective Casters, sure, and was the realm of Casting which formed their Caster’s marks, but Rianne had never found interest in it besides. Pulling something from through another plane of existence was a sort of magic all too complicated for her.
“So long as my possessions are collected in a timely manner,” she said after a beat too long.
Their brow quirked. “Of course.”
If you want to see where this project goes next, I do have the finished outlines available on my Patreon. In general, the wordcount has so far gotten away from me and I’m thinking this will end up as a novella.
I’m going to make a separate post going over my post-ASMLP plans now that the first draft is completed, but in general I have a couple of different options for where to go next. I have another novella I can finish, Before the Moon Sets, which is about ghost hauntings and necromancy and vampires. I also can start outlining my monster hunter project—and sister to ASMLP—which is dubbed A Bitter-Tasting Blood. I haven’t decided yet which avenue I will pursue, or if I will deviate from these options entirely.
Media Update
I kind of slowed down on the reading front. That said, I did finish inhaling A Day of Fallen Night… What an experience, truly. Samantha Shannon is the gift that keeps on giving. It sounds like she wants to write more books in this world, too, which I’m very excited for.
I’m also reading Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark still, which has been an interesting read so far. I like the intersection of history and eldritch horror. I’m also still reading The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo and have been really liking it. It’s taken a turn I didn’t fully expect.
In terms of video games, I got a new computer that can handle video games quite well, so I’ve been playing a lot of Skyrim. I also re-downloaded an MMO I used to play in my teens: Aion. Or, at least, Aion Classic. As mentioned above, I want to do some game streams where I roleplay as my characters. A lot of my characters started as toons on various MMOs, including Aion, so I want to add this game to my streaming repertoire. Same thing with Skyrim.
Blog Update
I’ve made a post about social media and the communities we foster while on them. It’s almost done, and as of writing this should be posted in the next couple of days. As mentioned, I am also making a separate banner for those posts, to help delineate which posts of mine are for my newsletter and which are blog posts. That’s also not done yet, but soon.
The Cat Recommends
I like to use this space to shout out other indie writers, cause I think we could all use a boost from time to time. This time, I’m using this space to shout out Morgan Dante, author of A Flame in the Night! Here’s the summary:
The definition of marriage: Two people and their silver-haired vampire.
In 1924, Paris is a bastion of sexual freedom, even for shell-shocked Leon Laflamme, the most dramatic blond this side of the Seine. After years of loneliness and secrecy, he's married the clever and sumptuous burlesque dancer Claire. However, Leon truly finds liberation when he meets the stoic, intriguing, and silver-haired Count Matthias, who offers true freedom in his dark gift: immortality.
Here is the project page for this novel, which includes buy links, tropes, and content warnings.
The Cat Thanks
One of the perks for higher-tier patrons is shout-outs at the end of newsletters. Special thanks to my patrons: Ceph the Ghost Writer and Larkspur. If you want to have your name here with theirs, subscribe to my Patreon!
And that’s a wrap! Here’s hoping I get more accomplished this month, and that my start at Boeing goes well for me. Wish me luck!
Kind regards,
Alex