Macabress Manuscripts

Novella #2 Chapter One

So, book two has long been in the works. Even though my mental state has been ROUGH.

I’ve made the decision to share chapter by chapter on Royal Road as well. Though the version there will be open door. So if you desire the occasional spice, please buy the serialized version of The Beast of the Kingswood.

Additionally new chapters will be available first on my ko-fi for a low monthly fee, to help feed a hungry writer who lost half their income recently.

After the page break, and for free, is chapter one of novella number two: Working the Graveyard Shift

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Throwback Thursday: Martyr

Context: In 2019 (and one of the years following) I had the GREAT pleasure of attending a Vampire the Masquerade, Sabbat focused, immersive LARP event put on by Jackalope Studios. Real life and the cost of a ticket, hotel, and travel mean I haven’t been able to do a lot of their events since, but the one in 2019 really struck a cord with me. So much so that I wrote over 5000 words of in event fiction about it in the days following.

My sweet Abigail was a true follower of Lilith, a heretic of heretics, and someone I needed to be when I was in a particularly awful time in my life. She was out to make converts to the true path, and walked away with a couple at least that night. So for the month of October, Thursdays belong to her.

Praise Liltih.

Blood, violence, vampires, and cultish behavior all after the page break.

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Pet Loss and Grief

On Wednesday the thirteenth, I had to make the hard decision to put down my cat, Wickett. She was twelve years old, an absolute Gremlin, and the not-person that got me through cancer treatment and outpatient mental health treatment. It was a shitty choice to have to make, but the right one.

I’m not typically one to write about myself beyond blurbs or social media statuses, but I gave a go at writing a little narrative piece of what that last day was like. If you don’t want to hear any more about pet death, go ahead and skip this. If all goes well, I’ve have some spooky vampire fiction coming to you soon.

Also, thanks to my incredibly helpful father, the hospital stay she had and her cremation wasn’t nearly as expensive as it could be. But any Kofi donations I get are going to go towards paying off that bill. The world sucks/money is tight so there aren’t expectations. But if you’re a pet parent, give the furball a hug from me, would you?

Writing After the page break

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Throwback Thursday: Wand

Originally shared over on my Ko-fi a few weeks ago. But, it’s another Thursday, so THROWBACK.

If you want to support the cause and are in the US, ordering a physical copy from me directly is the best way to do so. Otherwise, the e-book is currently a KU exclusive (through the end of June), but is available in paperback worldwide/through Ingram Spark’s distribution partners. And that includes at your local/indie book store, so shop local too!

In honor of the 1 month-aversery of my Novella publishing I give you one of the earliest versions of the series’ two main characters: Alnyx and Absinthe. This is at LEAST a decade old, with no real edits or changes from the original writing. Once upon a time, before their creator had a word for their own gender identity, Absinthe was essentially an incubus. And Alnyx was a little more chatty. There’s a second one of these that I may get the courage up to share as well at a later date. But until then: Little adventure with early version of protagonists after the page break!

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Week 1: Well, We did it!

It’s been a week since my first novella has been available in the public for people to buy and read. Considering my marketing is largely me shouting on social media and interacting with other broke indie authors, it’s honestly gone a little bit better than I even though it might!

I wanted to be as real as possible, and talk about what sales look like. Bearing in mind that this week was mostly preorders from friends/family that are far too kind.

Kindle/KU downloads and page reads: $8.25 (3 preorders, 1 not, and tiny page reads)
Ko-fi store (US/CA/MEX only until I can figure out an average shipping cost over the ocean): $20.48 (3 preorders, and one not! Minus cost of me printing the books)
The biggest surprise INGRAMSPARK (wide release of the paperback, hits most countries and isn’t Amazon): $2.00

Now you might be thinking :Two dollars, why is that a surprise/exciting? BECAUSE two of those sold in the UK. Which yes, I got incredibly emotional when I saw. Thank you, internet strangers, for taking a chance.

Books are, admittedly, a luxury item and the world is falling apart. So you know, rough time to try my hand at being an Indie/self published author in the US. This is just to say: Thank you to people willing to give my queer little novella a chance. I’m working on edits for the second one, and we’re gonna keep going.

Baby’s First Shipwreck

Or: Where Mace Briefly talks about finishing their masters. And then you get a story.

WE ARE DONE THANK THE GODS

That’s right. Earlier this month, I officially finished my last term of my MA in creative writing. There is a whole lot I could say, and there is an equal amount of what I would have done differently. But, for a moment, just the cathartic scream of ACCOMPLISHMENT feels really good.

I really enjoyed the MA program I was in (SNHU, fully online), and knew going in that it was going to be different than doing the MFA program. I’ve got a BA in theatre, which also has a BFA counterpart. The conservatory-esq focus on just the Art/craft makes a big difference. Because of that, you might be surprised how LITTLE writing I walked away with.

In the 18 months, I did a LOT of research and learning about the craft. I love literary theory and analysis, which was why the MA was a bigger draw for me. If I had taken the MFA route, I wouldn’t have finally gotten to read an Octavia Butler novel (Fledgling) or discovered Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me). I wouldn’t have been able to rant about the queer erasure in Frankenstein and The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The MA program was a firm reminder that I LOVE English in general, not just my little corner of high magic and science fiction.

That is to say, outside of the 30K portion of a manuscript that I completed for my thesis, I only walked away with two pieces of new, creative fiction. I know ONLY like half a novel and two fully drafted short stories makes it seem like that isn’t a lot of writing. Trust me, I know it is. But still, my one regret is that I wasn’t able to get more CREATIVE work done in terms of finished pieces.

You don’t NEED both degrees. But while they are both Masters level degrees that focus on writing, they do so in different ways. If you’re only going to do one, which you absolutely only NEED to do one, do your research and really think about what you want to get out of it. I’m taking a few months off and considering if I really want to take on an MFA, so we’ll see from there.

I PROMISED YOU A STORY

After the page break is the one of the two short fiction pieces I wrote for one of my classes. She’s a little clunky, and I haven’t done another pass/read through since I wrote her. But she’s fun. Complete with a little bit of sapphic mermaid yearning.

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NOVELLA COVER REVEAL AND RELEASE DATE

TL:DR Release Date 3/31/25

IT IS HERE AND IT IS TIME AND I AM WEEPING.

First, I want to throw a massive shoutout to Jessica Cvilo, who did the amazing, stupendous, all the other superlatives I can think of, cover art for The Beast of the Kingswood. Her work is wonderful, she is wonderful, and Reedsy is wonderful for helping find cover artists. Not a Reedsy ad, just a genuinely pleased customer here.

LOOK AT THEM! And yes, there are words and a blurb in that beautiful empty space for the back of the paperback. But I just want to focus on how WONDERFUL Jess’s work is.

Right now, you can pre-order the e-book on Amazon here. For the first 90 days, the e-book will be Amazon exclusive/part of Kindle Unlimited. After that time, it’ll be wide release. And maybe, just maybe, there’ll be exciting things to post about Novella #2.

Paperback copies/for my fellow physical readers: I’m getting proof copies and will be taking a look at them in the next week or two. After that, I’ll have pre-orders here for paperbacks, and those will also be wide release/never be amazon exclusive. So if there’s an Indie you love and want to support, or work for a library that is looking to buy some spicy queer lit, the Ingram Spark confirmation is so close.

If you can’t support with a purchase, I totally understand. Spreading word of mouth to other queer fantasy fans would be amazing, and my last post had a preview of the novella that you can share as well!

Blurb and Preview of My Novella!

Coming Hopefully by End of March!

Since I’m a few weeks into the process with my lovely cover artist, here we go: Announcement time! I’m self publishing my first novella within the next few months and I couldn’t be more excited. Especially with the state of the…Everything here as an openly queer author who tells queer stories, it’s important to be vocal if you feel you can be. Because we aren’t going anywhere ❤

I’ll hopefully have preorders and that sort of thing up over on my ko-fi page (because the extra cost to upgrade here for a shop isn’t in the cards at the moment) where this is also cross posted to. I swear, I’ll try to be using that more this year for things like this too. If you’d like to donate, I’d appreciate you forever but I also totally get that times are hard. And you know, you can save it for when the physical copy preorder goes up soon!

The Beast of the Kingswood

Elven sword for hire and member of the multi-kingdom sanctioned “Tasker” guild, Alnyx takes on a job to destroy a shape-shifting monster that has been killing hunters in the Kingswood of Pugila. A recently instated rule that forbids Taskers to complete work solo sees him paired with Absinthe Ravinac, mage of the Alabaster Square and eccentric socialite. In tracking the beast they discover a new fissure in the Weave, the undercurrent of ley power that facilitates the powers of mages and the energy of the plane itself. And that maybe, just maybe, having to work with others isn’t always such a hassle.

First Three pages After the Break!

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New Year, Same Ol’ Me

Have I ever kept to a New Years Resolution?

Look, we’re at about a 60% rate of most things I wanted to accomplish in the last calendar year. Grad school in 2024 meant I certainly did a fair amount of reading and writing, even if most of the reading was more theory and craft and less about tackling my ever-growing TBR. And the writing was about half analytical/”academic” and half stress dream-inducing creative work that I can’t see myself doing a whole lot with.

AND! Even with 10 weeks of outpatient intensive therapy, I still was able to send out my first 3 agent queries for a project! And the one rejection I’ve gotten so far from that little group was more reassuring than awful feeling. As difficult and mildly painful the last 365ish days were, there was some good. And if DBT therapy taught me anything, it’s to take the good and the bad together. Even and especially when it’s hard to do.

Also, I became a three-time Zizi (what my family kindly uses instead of a gendered title) with the birth of my older brother’s first kid. And have gotten to see the two other niblings really come in to their tiny human personalities. It’s genuinely wild how quickly small humans become just humans.

SO WHAT ARE WE DOING IN 2025?!

We’re going to go ahead and list out these literary goals in the most generalnto the bigger/specific ones at the end.

Read 100 pages a week this year
- Swan Song by Robert McCammon is literally the next book on my list of trying to get through that PBS list, not to mention all the other 500+ page books on my list. Page count feels so much more reasonable than book count.
Write or edit 10k words in a month, every month
- It might seem like I’m aiming low. But that’s because I want to make this feel attainable. Because saying that every month is going to be a 50k month out the gate just sets up anxiety and potential failure.
Send out more agent queries. No idea how many, just some more.
- And I mean, if you or someone you know is on the look out for a series that is self-described as “Anita Blake meets Dresden Files but make it Queer” vibes, drop me a line.
Work on Self-Marketing some more.
- We got a Kofi that I hardly use. We got some fanfiction that I swear I’m working on more things for (specifically, my vampiric, blonde, murder husband who is terrible and also has never done anything wrong). And you know, I tiptoe into social media.
Get Book One of my novella series out as a self-pub by the end of April
- That’s right, Q1 self pub baby. I’ve got meets with the cover artist after the first of the year. And you also see “series” there, right? Well, that’s because the full 3 novella arc of part one are almost FULLY drafted. Which leads us to big scary-
Publish the full first arc of the novella series by the end of the year!

That’s right. 3 novellas by the end of the year. A lot of the work is already done, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a HUGE goal. With lots of barriers. If you want to help out an (at the time of writing this) unemployed writer with a dream you can go over to that previously mentioned Ko-fi and donate. No pressure, of course. But if you’re feeling generous, I’m feeling grateful. And just maybe there’ll be a preview of book one of the novella going up soon.

Self Publishing Diaries: Getting Started

Three weeks ago, I got downsized out of my day job. Sorrows. Prayers. Six weeks of severance pay before panic sets in. Since then, I’ve started taking more seriously the idea of self-publishing a series of novellas that I’ve been working on for the better part of the last 18+ months. I’ve taken a class on publishing, am nearly done with my MA program: I’ve got this and I understand it.

Except egad, I did not understand everything I was going to need. So, I wanted to share some things I’ve learned as I’ve started navigating the process of putting out professional level work all on your own.

GOOD THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE

I hate to start this off just thinking/talking about the numbers, but it’s important to acknowledge and know this off the bat. Yes you could, in theory use an AI generated cover. But, pushing aside my personal issues with the ethics of AI aside, they just don’t look great. Paying an illustrator/designer is going to cost money. Hiring an editor (yes, you should get one if you can) or other writing/reading professionals also is going to cost you money.

No matter how good your own writing is looking good and marketing are JUST as important. And they aren’t free.

ISBNs aren’t just numbers

One I didn’t think about until I started diving more into the process: getting an ISBN costs you money. If you wanted to publish through Amazon (for example) these are included. But, if you wanted to list your ebook on another platform outside of the Amazon one, you’d have to purchase another. Or, if you wanted to print your book with a local printer instead of relying on the limited printing possibilities of KDP, you’d need your own. As a US writer, that means $295.00 for 10 ISBN numbers, to cover hardcover (if you want to go that route), paperback, and e-book versions. With some left over for your next book! It might not seem necessary, but also take in to account if you wanted to sell through a book store, or have your book accessible to libraries, you’d need a non-Amazon ISBN.

And yeah, I may be just a little bit anti-giant when it comes to bookselling, even if I acknowledge you HAVE to have your book on their platform. But, if you can have your own ISBNs, I feel like it’s better. Biased.

Finish the Piece First

This is going to sound obvious, but have your finished written project in hand before you really start looking at this seriously. When I say “finished” I mean the quality and content that you would hand over to an editor or a reader. Your cover artist may want to read part/all of the piece in order to really get a grasp for the tone/what you’re going for to make your perfect design. An editor will…Well, need the whole thing to edit it. Or if you’re having family/friend/beta/sensitivity readers look the piece over before going to a larger audience, also they’ll obviously need the whole thing.

Once you hit publish, there’s no going back to add/remove/adjust your work, unless you do a new edition/printing. Put your best foot forward!

Social Media is Exhausting

But honestly, if you’re self publishing it’s also a necessity. As a social media idiot, the prospect of self-marketing is almost more daunting than finding and paying for the right editors and designers. In a day and age where physical media is on life support at the best of times, people aren’t going to just run across your book. And in the SEA of work on various e-book platforms it’s even less likely that someone who doesn’t know you may just stumble over you.

In conclusion/Some links

There’s so much to think about, I’m already exhausted, but also excited. I’m sure there are a dozen more things I’ve run in to just in getting started, but these just hit me top of mind, in honor of work in progress Wednesday.

Reedsy Has a marketplace for editors, illustrators, and more. Obviously not sponsored. I ‘ve just genuinely been finding it really useful for finding book-focused illustrators and editors.

They also have free tools for typesetting/e-pub formatting which is a great place to start.

Fiverr Is tried, true, and totally a viable place to find editors and designers.

Scrivner Paid program that I’ve found helpful for organizing my writing as I’ve been working on this hopefully soon-to-be-published project. It’s a luxury/unnecessary for sure, but I enjoy it.