I'm Mejo. This is my writing blog. Main blog is @mejomonster. I'm writing a series called The Blank Files. Updates will be posted under the tag #the blank files
The Blank Files is a story universe, in which the events of magical realms intertwine with Earth, and the various stories follow people mixed up in the changing world. The story genres fall into: queer romance, horror, supernatural, fantasy, urban fantasy, political intrigue, action.
Danny Series:
Book 1, Under the Willow: A coming of age romance in which Danny Amato transfers to the exclusive Still Water Academy to hold onto a friend, and finds a populace habituated to keeping secrets. Danny and his friends find trouble with bullies, but schoolyard insults and fights are nothing compared to the danger lurking beneath, of just how much has happened here, and how much still can.
Status: Written, editing as of 6/29/2026. It will be published online as a webnovel (once a home is found for the webnovels), as well as digitally and in print. Keep an eye on The Blank Files tag for updates on when this releases.
Additional details: gothic, queer romance, horror
Book 2, Beneath the Surface: It's senior year at Still Water Academy, a private school with a dangerous underbelly. Danny Amato has been having strange dreams lately, and the line between what's real and what's not is only getting blurrier. He hasn't heard from Devonte in weeks, and now people are starting to die. He'll to do whatever it takes, to protect the people he loves.
Status: currently being written. 10,000+ words done.
Additional details: horror, queer romance, urban fantasy
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Note to self: before I stsrt posting chapters, make sure there's a visible pinned Navigation post on my substack, that links to the Nagivation pages for the webnovels. (StJohnStarling has a good one)
The mobile version of Substack (the app) just shows the newest posts, not necessarily the Pages put on the website.
Okay so Substack seems doable for setting up a webnovel. However, it is still much harder to format posts than on app.gethermit.com. I mean, understandably. Because Substack allows embedded images, a subscribe now button, different fonts and headers and formatting sizes. Links.
Whereas app.gethermit.com is truly just: here is your novel chapter page, in 1 style of formatting that is easy to read but uncustomizable, here is your table of contents navigation click-down and previous chapter/next chapter links. That's it. No main page, no website. Just your novel. (I however, deeply appreciate simple things that are easy to read and navigate).
Official updates on webnovel posting and book publishing will be tagged with #updates. Official updates on The Blank Files will also be tagged with #the blank files. Little thoughts about The Blank Files and ramblings will just be tagged with #tbf (and #rant) to keep the main updates tag focused on big updates. Little ramblings not particularly related to TBF will only use the tag #rant. I link these tags to the side navigation.
Notes on the webnovel home:
I am looking into ScribbleHub, as I've read some erotica authors use that site to post. The positive: I would like to use a website host that is going to let me post queer erotica on occasion. The uncertain: I have to look into this site more to check what their policy is on if they get any ownership over my writing if I post there. I want to still be able to publish anywhere else, and in print, (and if by some fantastically rare possibility there's ever adaptations, I want to retain ownership of my ideas). That shouldn't be a concern, but back when I considered putting up comics online it was a major concern with sites that would host them. Also, like any writer of queer stories, I'm always concerned some site might make a policy to just delete our writing or accounts. (Concerns with Scribblehub's content policy in that you can't have stories encouraging non-consensual acts - "Encouraging Non-Consensual Sexual Content - These are stories that are encouraging non-consensual sexual acts. Your story cannot be encouraging non-consensual sex acts." 'Encouraging' is a vague word. If a story simply has non-con, or the character who perpetrates non-con doesn't face consequences - maybe because they're a villain and get away with it - then does the story fail to meet guidelines? Rape, blackmail, coercion, all happen in TBF. I write horror. So I suspect Scribblehub won't be a reliable place to post for me. Even if something meets guidelines, if they met it could change depending on individual judgement. Cool. Ruling it out).
Still looking into Substack. That's still looking like it will probably be the home for the stories online, since I know queer stories and erotica have been posted on there, and many of the webnovel writers there have also been able to make print and digitally published versions of their novels, while keeping the free version up. The site also has a built in newsletter feature.
Substack's policy on erotica: "Nudity, porn, erotica
We don’t allow porn or sexually exploitative content on Substack, including any visual depictions of sexual acts for the sole purpose of sexual gratification. We do allow depictions of nudity for artistic, journalistic, or related purposes, as well as erotic literature, however, we have a strict no nudity policy for profile images. We may hide or remove explicit content from Substack’s discovery features, including search and on Substack.com."
Ghost.org: I've seen one person use this to host their webnovel, sounds similar to Wordpress. Only concern here is it sounds like ghost.org requires me to build the site, and I haven't been good at building sites since I was a pre-teen when I was super into site making - since then it's like I forgot so much of the process. I tried making a simple text pages with links and table of contents on neocities.org last year... I struggled way more than I hoped and did not succeed... That said, if ghost.org is like Wix, where there's tools to just drag and drop the site features you want up there, it might be doable. Wix worked really well for making my Art Portfolio site. The only drawback with Wix (which I was originally going to use to host the webnovel), is I cannot figure out how the newsletters work through Wix, and I want to be able to reliably send communications out to readers who want updates. I still need to explore the ghost.org option more. (Update: I've dug into it more and it may not allow erotica, so this may not be an option. Cool. Ruling it out).
Wordpress: I was hesitant to use this, because Automattic owns Wordpress and Tumblr. Tumblr, while a nice social media to blog and meet more cool people into what you are (like all of you), has deep problems with transphobia and homophobia and racism and it's a site I consider untrustworthy to leave posts be or leave blogs reliably up. Wordpress being owned by the same company has me concerned it would not be a reliable safe place to post queer stories long term. On the other hand, I think Shousetsu Bang Bang uses Wordpress to format the stories (I'm not sure how they use it but I saw it mentioned on their site), and Shousetsu Bang Bang includes a lot of queer erotica.
Wordpress says: "We do permit mature content on WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress sites connected to Jetpack, including text, images, and videos that contain nudity, offensive language, and mature subject material. However, websites that contain such content must be marked as Mature in our system.
If you are publishing content that is intended for mature audiences, we ask that you provide us with the courtesy of reporting your site here.
A website that is marked as mature is excluded from public areas of the WordPress.com service. This means:
It will not appear in the Reader or other tag listings
It will not appear in Top Blogs listings, recent posts, or related posts listings on other blogs
The associated users cannot use that URL as a link in their WordPress.com Forums profile
Mature websites and their owners are permitted to utilize all other aspects of WordPress.com and Jetpack. We do not suspend accounts or sites solely for the presence of mature content, and there are no interstitials or other “age gates.”
As a positive for Wordpress, I have used it before to post stories. Also a lot of translators have used that site for putting up translations of novels. If the navigation hasn't changed much, I'm pretty confident I can structure page links to next/previous and the table of contents, which is all I really need. (My ideal is a very plain easy to read site, with text, navigation links to other chapters and other novels, and a newsletter-communication tool). And I do think Wordpress has a newsletter function or add on, which will help with sending communications.
App.GetHermit.Com has a Public Library area. (Fun fact: it looks like a ton of the 'most recent' pages are teens sharing notes or something, with the titles of their works, which is interesting in that it feels like 2000s-2010 internet use of a random site). The big positive: GetHermit has a great clean format for reading webnovels. I already have my stories there, it's how I share my stories with early readers (<3). You can have your stories password protected to access, which is what I do. Or you can share them publicly, which is what I'd do if I used the site to share more broadly. Another positive: the creator of gethermit is really nice, and answered me personally the last time the site was down and I emailed support in concern. It is a nice, simple, site built for sharing multi-chaptered stories in clean easy to navigate pages. Absolutely minimal setup. Well dang now I'm convincing myself. The only major downside: no newsletter option built in.
Conclusions after thinking it out: Okay after talking (writing) this through... maybe I'll just continue to use GetHermit for sharing my drafts with passwords (which I'd continue to do regardless), and use Substack for public posting and setting up a newsletter. Then if there's any issues with Substack, I can change my novel on GetHermit to public and just redirect there in newsletters while working on fixing any Substack issues. And if Substack sucks... maybe I'll try Wordpress.
Additional note: if anyone wants to be an early reader, GetHermit already has book 1 Under The Willow. I'm now in the "checking for typos" and "making sure details/changes are consistent through all chapters" stage. So it's somewhat unpolished. But if you want to read early, and press me to write the next books faster lol, let me know. I'll send you summary info and warnings if you want them, and share the password protected version. I do not plan to make any more major changes to book 1 Under The Willow though, so it is what it is and won't become a different story. Ideally, once I have a newsletter set up, it will be easier for me to check interest and share with early readers who want to read sooner even if the polishing isn't done. Setting up a newsletter is the next priority for me.
(Shout out to you wonderful friends who agreed to read Under The Willow early, and help hype me up to make progress in writing more, you're awesome. I appreciate you so dearly. Thank you).
Also... if you are looking for a site to use to share drafts, I really like gethermit.com. I tried Ellipsus but it lagged too much at my story length, Google Docs requires sharing settings and I'm always concerned I'll accidentally share 'edit' control and my file will get deleted (although I realize there's a way to share Read-Only) but mostly I just never write in Google Docs so I'd have to copy-paste every time to update and then deal with Google Docs formatting issues. GetHermit just lets me paste in text from the tools I write in (usually notepad, a site online dedicated to focused writing with minimal distractions like justwrite.page, or Lite Writer app on my phone), and I can do minimal editing if needed on the text with no formatting issues. I can export as a txt file whenever, to backup. I can share with others and they'll get a read-only copy with easy navigation to the next chapters. And there's no lag. The biggest downside of gethermit.com is that it is a little site. So there's always a chance that one day it disappears, therefore back up any stuff you put there elsewhere.
Does anyone have a site you personally prefer for hosting original writing online? Do you prefer reading original works on any particular site?
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Book 1, Under the Willow was, among other things, sort of a love letter to ~2010s and what it was like to be a teenager back then. So there's references to the technology of that time, to how cell phones and instant messenger and paper notes were used, computer lab time at school, what the internet was like and what sites some people used, bands that were big in some circles, cliques, the kinds of things bullies said and did back then, sort of the general way sexuality was able to be open and yet not. Just sort of giving a taste of the flavor of ~2010-2011.
Book 2, Beneath The Surface, is going to end December 2012. You know. Because back then, lots of people liked to say the world was going to end in December 2012.
Under the Willow turned out to be a little over 100k words even after the edits.
In a way this was an accomplishment, even though it's longer than I was maybe aiming for. I was inspired to finally put my story ideas down into actual words because I read some of priest's novels (which are long beasts with juicy arcs) and those novels made me desperately wish to create my own plot heavy character driven romance stories. They made me want to weave through the every day moments, the building relationships, the creeping dread as the story grows darker bit by bit, the emotional weight by the end that I can carry with me after. For me, I feel the story accomplished that.
After maybe a million words of fanfics, I finally dedicated myself to putting in that kind of work into my original stories. It was a monumental accomplishment for me. I know, for some people, writing a story is something they do every few months. Something, maybe, they've been accomplishing since they were twelve.
And you know? For those people, and me, and you, that first story was an amazing, life changing, accomplishment! Young writers, and people who have written for years, you are amazing. You really are. Even if you look back and maybe don't like some of your older stuff, or if you never shared it, or even if your writing ended up getting deleted or lost. Because when it comes down to it, you put what's in your imagination (or if non-fiction, what was in your mind being constructed to add something from yourself on the topic) out into reality. You built something. You changed the world. Even if your art being created, only changed you. It still mattered.
That's what this first novel is for me. It is over a decade of trying to get this idea out, in sketches and notes and snippets of writing, finally fully realized enough I can let go and enjoy knowing it exists even if I forget. I can have the joy of experiencing it again whenever I read it again. I can see what I was like when I made it, see what I treasured and enjoyed in a story, see what I was trying to do and the way I did it back in this point in time. I think that's really cool.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Just feeling a little mushy.
Thank you if you wrote a story, a small thing, a fanfic, a fan edit, a music video edit, a piece of art, a sketch, a doodle, a scribble of your ideas out into the world. You did something really special. You put a piece of your mind out into the world.
This is the first official post for my writing blog! Woohoo!
I'm Mejo. Welcome! I will be posting about my upcoming webnovel series, The Blank Files, on this blog. Any updates and related posts will be tagged with #the blank files. (A separate post will be coming shortly, with more details on The Blank Files).
I am still trying to decide if I should link this writing blog to my main tumblr blog, or my art blog, or my art portfolio site. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
I had a newsletter and built-in wordpress blog set up on my art portfolio site for eventually posting the webnovel series The Blank Files, but I've been going back and forth on if that was really the best way to post the webnovels. I'm still looking into substack, ghost.org, or wordpress as the host site for the webnovel and newsletter. I want to use a site: A. I don't have to build from scratch, B. has a built in newsletter mailing list feature to communicate to readers, C. Will be easy to read on, D. Allows explicit and mature writing (so it has a login feature or some way to have a popup ask people to check before proceeding like ao3 does). One reason I'm looking into substack because St John Starling uses it for his webnovels. If any of you have sites you enjoy reading webnovels on, please let me know if you like how it works.
I'm also still deciding if I want the webnovel site to be entirely it's own thing, or connected to my art portfolio. I am leaning toward making a dedicated space for the webnovel series, because I feel that having the writing on the same website as my art would detract from the focus on the writing.
