Not yet, really, but I'm thinking ahead to October. Bodyslyde chapter nine released this past weekend, read it if you haven't yet, I'm pretty proud of it. White Stained Black Ch2 began preproduction yesterday, with today as the first day of writing. Targeting ~14k words, meaning it should get done somewhere in the back half of the month.

But, October: I have another trip coming up (this time a trip of my own making), and it will have me away from October 17th to November 3rd, with likely a few more days on either side as preparation/recovery where I won't be able to write.

I'm trying to decide how to best make use of that awkward period of time after finishing WSB2 in late September and getting ready to go on a two week (and change) vacation on the other side of the world in mid October. Odds are that whatever I write, unless it's short, won't get finished before I leave, and I'm loathe to leave something for 2.5 weeks and then come back to it—my mind will be in a completely different place when I do.

So (and this is subject to change as I work on WSB2) I'm thinking I either work on the Heroine Will Not Lose! story so far document (a hopefully quick who's who & summary of the series) or I go to the next commission in the queue, which is a 7.5k word Mass Effect fic.

I'll probably have October as another fee-free month for subscribers, for the same reasons as August: Traveling is funny and I may not be able to write for even more days than my listed vacation, so I'd rather give you back the whole month and write where I can, not worrying about meeting an obligation.

That, and it seems like a huge nuisance to mess with billing for just 2.5 weeks.

In which Jessica Clairmont has a normal day.

This one was a ton of fun to write—thank you Shadow for the commission!

Title. If you've been in the Discord I've been more alive there, but as expected this month had me pretty drained. I've still been writing a good amount (Bodyslyde Ch9 is at 19.9k words and should be finished this week) but my social obligations (bachelor party into unrelated wedding into wedding for the bachelor party) left me with not so much energy left to be a human being, hence the lapse in blog posts.

But now I'm mostly recovered, and my schedule is clear until my (planned) vacation starting in mid-October, so we'll be going back to business as usual starting now. Bodyslyde Ch9 is, as parenthetically stated above, very close to being done. Another day or two of writing, another day or two of editing and revision after that, and it'll be good to go! After that is White Stained Black Ch2, and after that—I said I wanted to write a pilot chapter of a New Thing, and I still may, but we'll play it by ear, because I may also want to write something else original for a friend, and we'll just have to see how I feel mid-WSB2.

I do apologize for falling off on posting updates, even if they were just to say "still alive still writing," for those who aren't in Discord. I have a very limited amount of social energy, so while I can show up and do good for events like this month's, I'm completely wiped out after, and it takes me some time to recover. So, sorry, and it may happen again, but I'll do my best to maintain a minimum level of contact if it does.

Thank you as always for reading my work, and for supporting me. It really does mean the world. 

We're coming up on August, when I'm going to be inconsistently here and writing. My first obligation runs from the 1st to the 4th, so either next week there will be no update blog or should sufficient things happen between now and then, I'll make a post on Tuesday to get us all back up to speed.

Then I'll be back, and presumably writing, until the weekend of the 15th, which I'll be gone for.

I'm the kind of person who hates disruption to my life's rhythm, so even though I'll only be gone for, oh, seven days total, I made August a bye month just in case I'm thrown out of sorts and have trouble getting back to my writing headspace.

Bodyslyde 9 is going along as it should. A reminder that you can peak at WIPs in Discord if that's your thing (I like uploading them as an accountability thing, "look I AM writing!"). I may not finish the chapter before my trip this weekend, which would be annoying, but whatever happens, happens.

After Bodyslyde 9 is White Stained Black 2, and after that—after that I'm going to be a little bit selfish.

I've been doing some prewriting for another project on the side (and testing out Obsidian as an organizational tool; I loathe Markdown as a formatting language but it is very nice to have pages and folders and organizational tiers to manipulate as opposed to a simple design document) and after White Stained Black 2, I'd like to write the pilot chapter for that project.

The working title (everything deeply TBC) is The Woman Made of Monsters and the Royal Brat, and the premise involves two outcasts: a mercenary whose body was experimented upon and strange organs implanted in her to make her preternaturally strong and fierce, and a prince born under inauspicious circumstances that disqualify him from most of the privileges a royal heir would be expected to enjoy. The idea is they don't treat each other very well.