I’m not even sure where to begin.
A lot happened during 2021.
I guess, to help get it all sorted out, let’s first go over that.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2021
Well, first and foremost, A Warm Place fucking exploded.
When I first posted A Warm Place, I did so with a lot of hope, but also a lot of reservations. I really span the chasm between hopeful and hopeless. For a little while there in January, I was feeling pretty abysmal with the reception the novel was getting, as I’d put a LOT of work into it. And then, abruptly, it took off. And it’s gone strong since. So I got right to work on the sequels. And consequently, this series consumed most of 2021. Which is cool, don’t get me wrong. It was fun enough to write, and people really seemed to like it, and that is awesome. But good lord did it take a toll. After AWP7 I needed a break, and then after AWP8 I needed one even more. I was intending to get AWP9, the final novel in the series, done before now, but that didn’t happen. Mainly because of Raw. Which we’ll get to. Anyway, A Warm Place was a huge success for me, and I’m really happy about that, and I wanted to thank everyone who read it and reviewed it and helped spread the word about it around.
Near the beginning of the year I wrapped up Like A Fine Wine. Not my best project, for a number of reasons, but it got done.
I managed to get Valkyries back up, so yay.
I felt compelled to write sequels to all of my (former) freebie shorts, and so I did. And then I felt compelled to write sequels to those sequels, to make them all trilogies, and managed to get Pink, Blind Date, & The Pale Redhead out. The others are coming and I’ll discuss them more below.
I started writing Our Own Way on a bit of a whim and am very surprised by the reaction it got. I had hoped to get a bit further in it, too, but a number of things really kicked my ass towards the end of the year.
And, finally, the big one. Raw. After realizing I needed to take a break and start something else after A Warm Place 8, I finally sat down and wrote my caveman story I’ve been talking about for like two years now. And it fucking exploded. Raw has changed the course of my whole career.
Looking back over my previous yearlong statement at the beginning of 2021, I’m surprised that I managed to do almost half of what I set out to. I still intend to start a new pen name, but I’ve drifted away from the concept of a website store…for now. At the very least, it’s been boxed up and put away in the metaphorical attic. Not gone, but put away. Maybe someday I’ll pull it back out. I also did indeed make a return to serial fiction, though it wasn’t the idea I first had, but it taught me that serial fiction is a bad idea. For me anyway.
Last but not least, I can reveal that I secretly helped create an EMP disaster survival harem! Back near the beginning of the year, I worked on a 12-part serial fiction with a friend and called it Desperate Times. It did okay. As I learned more, I realized it’d make WAY more sense to re-release them as novels. And so that’s what is being done. More are to come, but here’s the first book. It covers roughly the first four parts of the serial, and has 9,000 new words of content. If you like my stuff, you’ll almost certainly like this series. Also, just to be clear, because there have been questions, Lara X. Lust is not my new pen name, nor is it me. I do not run that name, just do some work with them.
I didn’t get my shit together in 2021. If anything, I fell apart harder than ever before, for a number of reasons, but I did manage to have the most successful year of my life. So that’s pretty cool.
Now, let’s talk about this year.
WHAT I INTEND TO DO IN 2022
Things have changed. Sort of.
I learned a lot last year. Honestly, I learned more in 2021 than I had in all the years combined before that. Consequently, I’d like to explain why I want to make the changes that I’m going to be making.
To explain that, we need a little history lesson.
In the beginning, there was erotica.
I stumbled awkwardly onto the scene in late 2014 with my weird little sci-fi erotic serial fiction Hellcats. It worked. People bought it, I could write more of it, so that’s basically what I did. I experimented here and there with slightly longer works, but I basically just hustled my fucking ass off and wrote erotic serial fiction all the way through 2015, 2016, & 2017. When 2018 hit, something changed in me. I just could not write serial fiction any longer. By then, I’d been wanting to make the change to longer fiction for awhile, and with the success of Demoness, then my longest title ever, both financially and with how much fun I had writing it, I knew I had to make the switch. I did, managing to buy myself some time by re-releasing all my serial fiction as novels with new cover art.
By then, I was beginning to get the idea that there was this type of erotica called harem. The concept seemed simple enough: one dude banging multiple chicks. Technically speaking, the first thing I ever published, Hellcats, was harem. So through 2018, 2019, & 2020, I drifted closer to harem, gaining a dawning awareness of the rules of the genre. Because I am not a social person by nature, it took me quite awhile to begin interacting with the harem community. Finally, in 2021, I did. This is when I began learning a lot.
I learned about a lot of rules, and how I was breaking or bending them, and all about the expectations of the genre.
Probably the biggest thing I learned, and this genuinely fucking blows my mind, is that harem and erotica do not necessarily mix.
I still have a lot of trouble wrapping my head around that.
I don’t want to really get into the rules & regulations of harem, because it’s strangely complex, but also hotly debated, and that’s not really what this is about. What this is about is one of my biggest takeaways from this was: I am at a large disadvantage if I want to be a harem author. And I do want to be a harem author. Harem offers me the most freedom as an author. Quite by accident, I stumbled into almost the perfect genre. I really like writing about action and adventure, I really like writing about sex, I really like writing about a protagonist having multiple girlfriends, I really like writing about monster girls and alien girls and other inhuman girls. All of these are components of the harem genre. Plus, it’s just fun to write.
Unfortunately, it’s obvious that I have some stuff holding me back. Surprisingly, one of the biggest things that has come up again and again is the fact that I have a female pen name. This is one of the reasons I want to start a second pen name. Obviously this time it will be a male one. Another huge thing holding me back is my erotica past.
Now we can finally talk about some of the changes I’ve made recently.
Something really important I learned about being a successful indie writer is that you want to have a lot of ‘entry points’ into your library. Or basically, as many titles, be they novels or shorts or collections, that people can come across in the wild, pick up and read, by themselves. As in, there’s no previous required reading to understand and enjoy the story. Although it sounds counterintuitive, in a roundabout way, this was why I fired up four shared universes. My ‘theme’ as an author wasn’t outer space or fantasy or paranormal romance, it was, among other things, dudes banging inhuman women. So I wanted fans of sci-fi and fans of fantasy and fans of post-apocalyptic and fans of paranormal romance all to be able to find something. Many entry points. That was also why I wrote the Misty Vixen Starter Pack and the freebie short stories, and why I experimented with making some of my novels free. Exposure is everything, discoverability is your biggest obstacle as an author.
However, and this is a thing I have learned harshly: your titles should be representative of your library and what you have on offer. And this is where the problem comes in. In the beginning, I had erotica on offer. But now, I have harem novels on offer. And those two things bump. If some harem reader who has never heard of me before stumbles across, say, Wanderlust, or Desire, and reads it, they’re not going to be happy. And that’s why I removed the subtitles from every book that isn’t harem, that’s why I added ‘This is NOT harem’ in the description of every non-harem novel. It’s why I made the freebies not free anymore, because they became bad advertisements for my library, because they don’t represent what I’m writing nowadays.
Unfortunately, I’m at a bit of an impasse. I’ve been told that if I really want to deal with it in a brutally efficient way, I would just unpublish everything that isn’t harem. But I can’t do that. That’s like…thirty novels. I put a LOT of work into them, and those stories are what a lot of readers got started on. Taking them down just feels wrong. I still like most of them and I’m still glad I wrote most of them. They were fun and I like the characters and stories.
So, instead, I’ve done everything I can to separate them from the harem stories. I think, someday, maybe next year depending on how this year goes, I may take them out of the Kindle Unlimited and instead start also offering them on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, etc. Maybe, we’ll see. Sometimes it’s better to just keep things simple, though.
So that covers why I’m making all these changes: I’m trying to become a harem author.
Now, I have three more things to discuss: the roundup of where I stand with all my varied projects, and also my new pen name. And finally, we’ll finish this off with a bullet point list of what I hope to accomplish in 2022, as well as a brief section dedicated to specifically January. First the roundup.
I’ve been saying for a little while now that I’m intending to wind down my shared universes, as they have largely run their course and served their purpose. I’m closer than ever to doing that. So here’s a little look.
PARANORMAL UNIVERSE
This universe is now officially closed (again). I know I said that before, but then I had to write two more Pink stories. But now I have. And so it’s done for real this time. Honestly, Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy have never truly worked for me. It’s not impossible, but I don’t see myself returning to this scene.
POST-APOCALYPTIC UNIVERSE
This is finished. I had intended to write two more series, but I ultimately realized that they would actually be much better combined into one, original series that isn’t part of the universe. I’m not saying it’s impossible that I’ll never return to this universe, as I do have a lot of love for it, but the future is simply too crowded for right now. There’s other Post-Apocalyptic universes I want to explore. But maybe someday, years from now, I’ll return. I do have a few ideas.
SCIENCE FICTION UNIVERSE
This one has a bit more to do. One final series. The follow-up to Like A Fine Wine. I’m admittedly feeling iffy on this one. I committed to it, so I’ll do it, but I’m kinda worried. Like A Fine Wine didn’t go as well as I’d originally intended. And I’ve never actually written a sequel series before. I’m extremely reluctant to go back on a promise, but at the same time, it’s next to impossible to force myself to write something I truly don’t want to. And honestly, I think readers would be able to pick up on it. On top of that, it slows down EVERYTHING. While I was writing Like A Fine Wine, writing became a nightmare. I dreaded working on any project. So I just can’t say. The only good news, I suppose, is that I can kick this particular can down the road. I literally don’t have time to think about it right now, and probably won’t be able to actually reexamine it until 2023 because of all the work I have to do on other projects. However, beyond that, there’s nothing left in this universe. I originally intended to write a hurt-comfort story set on an island, but I’ve since realized it would actually make more sense to roll it into a completely separate series in another universe, so that’s what happened to that.
FANTASY UNIVERSE
This one has the most work left. I need to write Large & Lovely III and Snakeskin III, both of which I hope to wrap up sometime soon as well. I also need to write the Epilogue novella to Lust & Adventure. And finally, I’m going to reboot Demoness. This universe probably won’t be closed out for awhile, but in reality, it’ll just be focused on Demoness. I want Demoness to be pretty big and epic, and it will pull from all the other stuff I’ve written in this universe, and will likely go on for years and years from now, as it will be a passion project, not a moneymaker, and thus I’ll be able to take more time to write it in the background. And, like, can I just say how fucking excited I am for the Demoness rewrite? I already have the cover for it made. The woman who made the originals drew it for me and I found a fucking cool new font and I’ve got a lot of ideas. The first novel is going to basically cover Books 1 & 2, with some expansion and more coherency in the storytelling, and probably be about as long as Demoness IV (my longest novel ever) was. I’m thinking all of them are going to be 100,000+ words now. Which means they’ll take a lot longer to write, but whatever, it’ll be worth it. Also, this will be a full rewrite, so even though the plot will be similar at first, it’s still all new words. No copy/pasting.
STAND ALONE PROJECTS
A WARM PLACE: As mentioned above, A Warm Place 9 will be the final novel in the series, and at some point I’ll release The Complete Series. That being said, I’ve been toying around with an idea or two for another series set in this universe. I’m very on the fence about it. On the one hand, I like these ideas, on the other, I have so many other things to write, and I’ll have just gotten done writing the longest series I’ve ever written when I wrap this one up. Maybe I’ll come back in a few years. That being said, it will not be about Chris. It will be a new protagonist. Probably.
OUR OWN WAY: I’m about halfway finished with this series at the moment. I’m looking at eight or nine total novellas and then a Complete Edition. I’m definitely going to wrap this one up this year, and then I’m done, like, forever, with serial fiction. I’m kind of kicking myself because judging by the reaction I got from this, I could have been MUCH more successful if I’d just made these full novels with proper cover art. I think from the outside it looks successful but compared to A Warm Place or Raw, it’s basically making pennies. And don’t get me wrong, not everything is $, but after awhile, you get better about seeing opportunities, and realizing when you fucked an opportunity up. Regardless, I’m happy with this series. It’s been very fun to write, and I really love how much people love it. I’m going to write another series kind of like this, but in a sci-fi setting.
RAW: So this is my main focus for 2022. I am positive I will not be able to finish the entire series this year, even pumping out a novel a month. I have a lot of material to work with and a lot of ideas. Basically, expect Raw, Raw, and more Raw all this year.
OTHER: I will discuss this below, because it involves the other thing I need to talk about, my pen name.
Okay, so, first of all, I have a name picked out, and no I’m not saying what it is yet. Main reason for that is because I am nowhere near ready to launch it yet. I thought for a long time about how I want to handle this new pen name and this is what I have decided. Once launched, I’m going to basically split my ideas in two. My new pen name will handle my more action-oriented material, whereas Misty Vixen will handle A) Old ideas that need to be written, B) Chill slice-of-life fiction, and C) Weird-ass stuff that might absolutely tank. Some of my ideas are experimental, some of my ideas are, I’ve been told, fucking awful in terms of harem. I still want to write them, but I don’t want them to poison the well, as it were. Instead, I might as well just poison the well that’s already been poisoned, (according to a lot of readers, serious some people fucking hate me over on Reddit). This seems like a nice compromise.
I want to have several novels written and ready to go before I launch my new pen name. I have also been advised by several other authors in the genre that I’m kind of shooting myself in the foot by writing such long series. That’s only really sustainable if I’m, like, Logan Jacobs or Eric Vall. Which hey, apparently I’m not that good of a writer, but oh well. What I need to be doing is writing short stuff, like 3-4 novel series, that can end, or can keep going, depending on if people like it or not. I have to admit, I’m not super fond of this approach, but I can’t argue with the logic.
That being said, I’m taking a slightly similar approach to this new pen name as I did with Misty Vixen, in that I want to have several genres on offer, they just won’t be shared universes. I’ve got a hardcore survival series I really want to write first. It’s sci-fi and, yep, you guessed it, in a winter setting. I’m debating about what I want the second series to be, but I’ve got a couple of really fucking cool Post-Apocalyptic ideas. We shall see.
I honestly don’t know when I will be ready to launch this new name. I can’t even promise it’ll be this year. I sure want it to be, but my mental health took a massive dive in 2021. I’d really like to believe that it will get better in 2022, but even if it does, Raw still takes precedence.
All right, we’re at the end. Let’s wrap this up.
2022 Agenda
Write 9 more Raw novels.
Finish A Warm Place.
Finish Our Own Way.
Write Snakeskin III, Large & Lovely III, and Lust & Adventure - Epilogue.
Assist with more Desperate Times novels.
Write first Demoness reboot novel?
Launch new pen name?
Rework a lot of cover art. I’ve been in the process of tracking down new artists, and an old one, and I’m working on getting some of my covers redone. This is one of the last things I want to do as part of closing out my old library. I’ve spent years fiddling with my books and I’ve finally admitted to myself that it’s costing me too much time and money. So I’ve decided to give everything one last going-over. Haven is in the process of being re-covered, and I think the covers are amazing. Parasexual and Like A Fine Wine will get the same treatment from the same artist. I also intend to get most of the Collections re-covered by my old cover artist who made most of the covers you see today. I also want to get the Sex & Survival novels, and Amazonian’s Love re-covered.
I’m tossing around the idea of having drawings of side and minor characters from my varied series created just for fun. If I do, they’ll be hosted here on the site like the others.
January 2022 Agenda
Publish Raw II
Publish Large & Lovely - The Complete Trilogy
Publish Snakeskin - The Complete Trilogy
Publish Our Own Way 6 (Hopefully)
Wish me luck, and I hope you all have a good 2022.
