#serialized novel

Art for my fantasy novel THE DAY MY DREAM DIED

Illustrations and writing are entirely by Macaron

When the stoic demon Asmodeus takes chronically ill Evelyn to the fae world of Below in a contract for a second chance at life, they must learn to understand each other—and themselves—while a terrifying creature hunts them both...

I am so sorry about the radio silence as of late. Between the stuff earlier this week (yes, that stuff), dealing with deaths of people, and university; I've been very busy and mentally drained. However, the good news is, you can play the mini game of The Bureau, "Witchy Woman" right now! The link is at the bottom of this post! Eventually I'll integrate it into the main game, or put it out as potential free DLC or something, but for now there are no stats and it's not tied to choices from the base game.

Tonight is a special case. The MCT has been called in as a favor after finishing up our most recent case. A friend of Kris's reached out, and the local P.D. has let the MCT take the lead on this one. A house party in the beginning of October up in Maine has turned sour. A party-goer has been reported deceased.

We just finished a job, but in this line of work, there's always another case to solve. So here I am, approaching the residence with my team, about to find out exactly what happened on this cold, damp night.

Because it's not part of a bigger game or story, and the only pacing I had to worry about was that of the investigation, this is much more freeflow than other investigations in the main story. Go back and forth between the crime scene, the perimeter of the house, interrogations, and more! The more you discover evidence, the more new options will unlock in conversations, and you have an evidence log in the stats section that updates every time you find out something relevant to the case.

I'm only promoting this now, even though it's been done for a couple of weeks, because it was part of a Jam and I didn't think it would be fair if I got votes from a community built over a few years when others in the Jam would not have had that same benefit. I wanted it to be an even playing field, even if it meant holding out for a bit. So, I apologize for making you all wait.

There are still things I'd like to do for this game, things I'll end up adding, but it is at the very least ready to play. It's 40k words, so have at it!

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Right, next up, something I'd like to announce. I'm working on a serialized fiction that I'm (hopefully) planning to turn into a book. The first 3 chapters are going to be posted for free, both here on my blog and on my Patreon, though not quite yet. Chapters after that will be released on Patreon for the people who pay the $5 tier.

I'll be honest, it has been extremely cathartic to go from writing an IF where the chapters are all pretty much the length of a book themselves, to writing an actual book where a chapter is about 4k words. It's a very nice breath of fresh air, and it by no means, entails that I will stop working on Bureau. In fact, it may even help speed up rate of production, funnily enough. Having something to keep my mind turning while having writer's block about a scene in the IF will help me constantly generate ideas, and that's really nice to think about.

A small college town is rocked by a horrific murder. In wake of the events, a couple of friends begin investigating this personal tragedy, determined to get to the bottom of what happened at the Scribe City college. The lesson is quickly thrust upon them that loss leads to pain, but pain is temporary, and loss can be forever. So what comes after the pain? They need to explore that journey together, and in the process, navigate the complicated things feelings that have started to bloom.

The book (serialized fiction for now) , called Love In Stasis, is going to be a 'WLW romance small town college murder mystery'. You will explore the relationships that these characters have and continue to form, and just how messy things get when tragedy sparks love. I have almost 25k words done for it, about six and a half chapters, and I'm going to try to get 50k words done with it by the end of the month. A writing challenge that's totally not tied to the name of any organizations.

If this works out, I could reward patrons with static fiction while not having to worry about providing everyone with constant things tied to the IF itself, and I could work on The Bureau at a pace I'm very comfortable with.

I'm still learning as a writer. I'm still learning new things I like, and how I like to produce content. All I know is that I like producing art in the form of writing, and I most certainly will not stop doing that anytime soon, and now that the Halloween Special is done, I will be getting back to the base game.

Which will start with a complete recoding of the gender variables. I've already started on that process, so no more multiple versions of each chapter. One version. One set of gender variables. Much more condensed coding and script. So, people out there who said that wasn't going to change, I just have to say what I'd said all along. My coding was indeed bad. However I will also say something else I've said all along. I do take criticism.

That being said I'm never using multi-replace and you can't make me. I like being able to read what I'm writing.

More to come in the near future.

Stay Brilliant,

-Vi

https://cogdemos.ink/play/viisbae/the-bureau-halloween-special-witchy-woman

Tiger & The Viper Podcast Episode 1 is now free to listen online here.

🎲 [Synopis:] A direct follow up to Tiger, Tutor, Delivery Girl—Tiger & The Viper follows Sunny Joon, a woman crafted from birth to be the perfect entertainer, but ultimately set on a path to burn down the institution that created her.

🎲 [Where Can I Follow?:] Updates are posted monthly on Patreon, and then live on YouTube later that week.

Roxy did not return to an empty room.

The hour was right for it. That quiet stretch before the night properly took hold, when the bar had settled into its evening hum but had not yet filled to its edges. A drink being poured. A patron at the counter. Light holding steady where it always had. The room was alive, but not crowded. Humming rather than roaring.

Then Roxy crossed the threshold.

Not with the distraction people were used to. Not all at once. That would come later, in the turning of heads, in the pause before recognition, in the way a room subtly altered when she entered. But for a few moments, she had the pleasure of being there alone with it, unnoticed, absorbing it before she was seen.

No one had noticed her yet, and that made the arrival sweeter.

She let herself stand in it for a moment. The smell of the place. The old rhythm of glasses, voices, wood, and lamplight. The creak of the door behind her. The familiar weight of a room that had gone on without her and still, somehow, had kept a space she could slip back into.

She was already looking forward to Sera’s face when she finally did notice.

Sera had her morning routine.

She rose early, took coffee and something light before the streets properly stirred, and was dressed and in the office before most of the district had even opened its eyes. The hour suited her. The quiet helped her think. It had not always been her way, but some habits were better adopted than argued with, and this one had settled into her well.

By then, the Hub was different from what it became at night. Not empty, never that, but quieter in its bones. A place between movements. Ledger open. Work begun. The day not yet demanding everything it would.

Roxy slipped into the doorway without a word and stayed there.

For a little while she only watched. Sera had not noticed her. She was too deep in the ledger, too occupied with the shape of things as they were becoming. That, more than anything, told Roxy what the city had been doing in her absence. Pressure had a way of reaching the room before anyone named it aloud. It settled in papers, timings, shortages, faces, routines. It taught itself to the people holding everything together.

Having her back would be interesting. Sera just did not know it yet.

And the truth of it was simple enough. The city was beginning to ask for more than one woman could carry alone. After Eve. After the searches. After the pressure that had begun as rumor and was now starting to spread into the shape of daily life. Roxy’s return had come at exactly the right time.

Whether Sera was ready for that was another matter.

For Roxy, even after all that time, it came back easily.

The hat. The corset. The posture. The room itself. Not as costume, and not as performance exactly, though she had never minded being looked at. More as instinct. As fluency. As the old knowledge of how to occupy a place so fully that people felt the shift before they understood it.

She was home.

There was no need for an entrance by then. Surprise had always been more fun than announcement, and in a room like the Hub, recognition carried further when it happened in people’s own time. One face noticing. Then another. Then the ripple moving quietly outward until the fact of her presence belonged to the whole room.

Sera had held the place together. Eve had found her place within it. Life had continued, as life always did. But the balance changed the moment Roxy stepped behind the bar again.

People came in, saw her, and understood at once that something in the room had shifted. Some of them would welcome it. Some of them would not. It made no difference. Good or bad, Roxy had never been someone a place could absorb without response.

Being back was bound to draw interest.

(via Gulliver's Travels continues - by SJStone)

✅ What to Expect in the Serial:

A first-person heroine who’s too smart for the game but too deep to escape

Tech jargon so meaningless it sounds real

Horrific dystopia that’s also just… reality, but worse

AI tyranny that’s happening while everyone’s distracted by their personal brand

A revolution that fails because no one wants to miss out on monetization

Every Saturday on Reading.Writing.Revolution — coming at you all year long!