#bookupdate

It's official...

Sun Rising's first chapter has been posted on AO3!

Confused? Let me break it down.

For those who did not see it, I posted something here asking writers about publishing their original work online via sites like AO3. No you're not wrong, Sun Rising has, up to this point, been edited/written with the intent of trad publication. However, after some introspection and helpful conversations, I decided to pivot to digital publication (which, above everything else, is free and easy).

I want people to read Sun Rising. I want to move on to writing it's sequels and other books in this world. I want to write new things.

Sun Rising has been written, edited, and rewritten for nearly a DECADE now, which is quite a feat considering I'm only 22. It has been my greatest joy to work on. It has also been my greatest hurdle.

Essentially, publishing this digitally allows me to break free from the constraints I had placed on myself with the goal of trad publication. I can finally breathe and start to have fun with it again. I can finally put chapters out with the promise that I will never circle back and edit it again.

I want to thank all the kind folks who responded to my questions in my last post. You all truly helped me come to this decision in the best way possible. It was probably a long time coming, to be fair.

I'll post chapters here as well. Might as well. But for anyone who wants to support Sun Rising on AO3, the link to read it is here.

Sorry for the late update! Kind of was a bit out of it, but anyways, here we go!

Unfortunately, we didn't quite meet our goal of 9K words, and I apologize for that. I even pulled an all-nighter, but it seems it just wasn't enough (that's what she said 😔 ). The most I managed was 8.2K words, which is pretty good, but not quite as great as I'd hoped. However, I promise you all that I'll double down and give it my all next week! :D

On top of that, my university is starting again, but no worries, folks! I have a schedule in place that will ensure I write twice as much as I do now!

So, here's the official word count update: 4K words were written in the short story, and 4K words in the main book, bringing the main book's total to 125,214 words and the short book to 14,023 words.

In other news, I've also commissioned character art for a cute 19-year-old character who you'll be training with in my upcoming femboy dating simulator book (available on Patreon). I'll be sharing all the character art once we hit 20K words or once the demo for the second book is created, haha!

Considering the last update was me announcing I finished writing Chapter Eight, I felt it was finally time to write another, considering...

I FINISHED CHAPTER TWELVE? OOPS?

Haha, sorry for the (VERY) late update! As I'm sure most of you are well aware, I'm in my last year of University, so I've been very busy juggling the existential dread that comes with that fact. I also have about 40 days left of school which is horrifying, since I was one of those kids who actually liked learning (still am). Grappling with the horrible job market, the idea that I might never return to education, and the numerous job and internship applications I've submitted as well as everything else in my life has been exhausting, but I'm getting through it.

Writing has always been a way to relieve stress for me, and that hasn't changed; it's only evolved. Writing something with the intention to publish it is so very different than casual writing, it almost hurts. But I love it, and have been keeping up semi-consistently since my last update.

When I'm not worried about ALL OF THAT STUFF, I'm thinking about Project Hail Mary. That movie has fundamentally changed me as a person. I will never, ever be the same. I know a LOT of people feel the same.

I am officially FINISHED editing Chapter Eight!

(yes you can clap)

Thank you to everyone who has interacted with these posts, it truly means the world to me. I'm in contact with a good friend who plans to start beta reading these chapters for me. For now, I'm focusing on remembering why I'm doing all of this in the first place:

I love my book.

It's hard to remember when things get difficult. Then I read back over everything and get reinvigorated. THAT'S why I struggle. I love writing. I love my characters. I love my story. This jog to the finish line reminds me every day that I am a writer because I love to write, not because I pump out "perfect" writing all the time (not that I do, of course).

Oh hey... fancy seeing you here...

It's been a while since we did one of these, huh? As readers might be aware, I recently graduated college and have been on a desperate search for a job, so there's been a lot on my mind and I haven't been able to be as productive as I would have liked.

That being said, I've slowly stepped back into writing over the past few weeks, with some notable changes to Sun Rising.

I've been going back and typing out SR and transferring it from Ellipsus to a Word Document so the formatting is ready to go whenever i decide to start querying. Since I type it out rather than copy and pasting, this means I've been doing some editing as well, using feedback I've gotten from a friend/beta reader.

So, technically i'm working on Chapter Five right now, though changes are rather minimal, so I'll be able to catch back up to where I was quickly.