I basically ran out of time to do this before the end of the year, but that's okay - we'll do it now!
My initial impression is that I wrote more
overall in 2018 - for one thing, two actual romance novels! - than in 2017, but less fanfic and more original published fic. It's been a weird year - how has it only been a year?! - so let's see if I'm right!
It's also been a year
in which I became a fandom, or rather the Demon universe acquired a fandom tag on AO3, which - that's like the COOLEST THING EVER. It is the BEST thing. I feel like this is some sort of pinnacle of fandom and life achievement. I love you guys.
(I haven't listed the actual academic scholarly work - a book chapter! on romance and outlaws and food and community! and a book review! - because they're not out yet and the curse of academic publishing is slowness, but I did also write those, as far as word count. So add around 15,000 words of academic writing to all this. Plus two successful grant applications to study romance and pop culture!)
FanficStuckywe got two of that, baby, E, 3,386 words - hmm, I...guess I didn't write that much Steve/Bucky this year? I feel like I read a decent amount, but...oh well. To be fair, there's a bit more - short pieces - in the Collected Ficlets, below. This one was both fun and frustrating - it'd been a while since I'd written them, and it's pure AU kinky fluffy love-with-sex-on-a-desk, and I enjoyed writing it - but it also got a couple of weird less-than-nice anon comments, and mostly I'm pretty good at ignoring obnoxious people, but the whole thing just sort of...made me want to deal with
fandom less, y'know? I still do love this fic and a sassy confident-in-his-sexuality Bucky, though.
Stucky/Evanstan crossoverthe sound of rain on tin, still a WIP, currently T but that may change, 17,145 words - probably the weirdest thing I've tried to write! I mean, universe-swapping, crossover characters, Lovecraft fusion...this one was odd because the first two chapters were easy, the third one was...hard but I managed, and then, just, nope. Brain offline. I wanted to have it done by the end of the year, but it'll have to be an early 2019 goal instead.
Collected Ficlets updates - I'm not sure about the word count exactly, but I know I added chapters 133-136 in 2018, and the total word count is up to 103,995. So...some amount of words, probably a couple thousand - these chapters cover both Evanstan and Stucky, with the Seb-as-literal-bookwyrm fic (133), the medieval werewolf!Bucky & king!Steve (134), the magician!Seb & hero!Chris & enchanted-object-truth-spell-love-confessions short (135), and the Bucky-collecting-blankets soft fluff (136). I'll probably end this collection (and start a new one?) once it hits 140 chapters, if it ever does - it's getting unwieldy, but then I'm also updating it less, so we'll see.
EvanstanThe Love Song You've Earned, E, 15,987 words - let's get the big one out of the way! This story ended, more or less,
the whole Like Sugar arc, and it was huge and kind of scary and I went through a lot of self-doubt ("is it good enough? is it going to be a satisfying ending?") but I'm really proud of the series overall, and sort of amazed, looking back on it. There's one more bonus scene to go in the
Extra Sugar tidbits, so it's not
100% done, but the core story is. Wow. Look what I made. I mean...how? How did I do this? Wow.
Extra Sugar - speaking of, I know I added chapters 28 & 29 in 2018, but not sure about the word count (Extra Sugar is up to 103,533 words total, but that's over several years!). So...some amount of words, at least a couple thousand!
night flowers colored like your eyes, T, 3,450 words - ah, the Sebastian showing up for the
Lobby Hero performance fic! Love-confession fluff.
Evanstan Round Robin 2018, um, Not Rated, I guess?, and co-authored with many writers! 15,074 words total but my chapter was ~1800 words if I'm remembering right. The usual yearly festivities, full of lovely fandom people!
McFassy
Catch That Blazing Star (That Rainbow), T, 3,013 words - I WENT BACK TO MY OLD MCFASSY LOVES AND FINISHED THIS SERIES ARE YOU AMAZED BECAUSE I AM :D :D ...honestly, though, one of my goals for 2018 was to try to finish the two series (not stories, those have been individually finished, but series) that I'd left unfinished when I sort of...95% slid out of McFassy/X-Men fandom. The X-Men Erik/Charles series is the compromise series, which I did *not* get to, but I *did* finish this McFassy Regency series, so - half-yay! :p And, y'know, it wasn't that hard to write - I mean, I think my writing style has shifted a little, but the story itself, once I sat down to do it (I'd had notes and an early couple of paragraphs, not the very opening but shortly after, done for literal YEARS), flowed pretty easily, which felt nice. If this is my last McFassy fic - I'm not saying never, because, well, who knows, but it is true that I don't have anything else in my head/any burning desire to write more for them - anyway, if it is, I'm glad it felt good to write, and it ends with a happy promise of a happy future.
Original Fic (all or mostly written in 2018, published or accepted for publication as of the end of 2018)Sundown, Holiday, Beacon, E, 14,652 words - the AO3 version, that is. I'm including this here because
the revised version is being published as part of Less Than Three Press' polyamory anthology, and it's available now for pre-order, and out in February! Contains a m/m/m triad of superheroes (well, one superhero, one former sidekick, and one reformed supervillain) in love! Also contains lasagna, jokes about gardening, interesting uses for superpowers, and coming home to each other. I know the revised version has a slightly different word count and less explicit sex (they said basically that implied sex was okay but keep it sort of fade-to-black, so we did some editing), but yay! I also wrote the sequel just because these characters wouldn't leave my brain, so more on that in the not-yet-published category.
Sound the Fairy-Call, E, 5,545 words -
no purchase link yet, because I literally signed the contract with my JMS Books editor for this on the 27th! It'll be out in March. It's basically the
heavily rewritten (like, nearly twice as long, new original characters, world-building, all of that) original-fic version of
my old Evanstan fic Glow, the medieval fantasy healing-sex fic with a fairy and a tired mercenary, if you've read that one. Plus I've managed to quote Robert Graves in the new version. It's fun.
Snowed In: Kit & Harry, E, 30,047 words - the
Demon for Midwinter (more about this later) Regency-era prequel! Available for pre-order now! Part of the JMS Books Snowed In themed collection - basically, we're all just working with that theme - the stories aren't related and will be purchasable separately, which is why I got to play with the
Demon universe again! You don't have to've read
Demon for this to make sense, since it's all-new characters, historical time period, etc - just in the same universe. There will be Regency fashion! A magical detective! An Earl's younger brother! A mystery on a country estate! Characters getting snowed in together! Hurt/comfort! All the tropes and fun and falling in love you could want!
**
Leather and Tea, E, 7,789 words - this has the ** because
technically it's a revised & republished version of one of my first-ever published stories, with Ellora's Cave, before they closed. But I do mean revised - I did a lot of rephrasing and rewording to make it sound closer to my current style, and put back all the Oxford commas that the EC editor kept deleting - and the republished version came out this year -
and is now part of the JMS Books Top Ten Gay Romance of 2018 Collection! Come pick up the collection and be excited with us!!
Fire and Ink, E, 16,000 words - the
Port in a Storm sequel, second of the Kitten & Witch stories, out now from LT3! Contains an actual house on fire, pastrami, hurt/comfort, magic art, and love confessions. There will be a third one, which almost certainly has a marriage proposal in it, and also a murder mystery. It is tentatively titled "The Warlock Affair" and it scares me because I've never written a murder mystery before but that's also what makes it exciting, so we'll see how that goes in 2019!
Revelry, E, 6,697 words - holiday porn-with-emotions fluff, published with JMS Books! Contains one lonely academic, one adorable bartender, and obscure classical Roman holidays being celebrated in style. These boys are adorable and deserve each other and also someone wears a Dolphin Princess tiara.
Peaches and the Shadow, E, 7,023 words - my October ghost-themed story for JMS! With Poe references all over the place, and a young Knight trying to prove himself, and the ghost of a bisexual turn-of-the-century brothel-owner (he's a good one, mind you - he took care of his people), and sex magic.
Elemental, E, 12,776 words - my Dark & Stormy Night themed story for JMS! Basically we all got to play with that as an idea/theme/line. This one was sheer fun - I love Sterling, and Dan, with his writer's block, is occasionally all of us, I suspect. This one felt good to write - flowing, quick, full of first-meeting delight and magic and ghosts and hurt/comfort and comfort sex and two people turning out to be exactly what the other person needs.
A Demon for Midwinter, E, 85,788 words -
MY ACTUAL FIRST-EVER PUBLISHED FULL-LENGTH NOVEL, YOU GUYS. YOU CAN BUY IT IN PRINT AND HOLD IT IN YOUR HANDS. (Okay, *technically*
Prophecy was *completed* first, but
Demon came out first, because publishing. Also technically I wrote most of this in 2017, but it came out in March of 2018, so...) Kris and Justin! Demons and rock stars and magic and comfort and love! Romance and music and sex and Justin's gorgeous purple suit! This wouldn't've happened without everyone's support and comments and letting me ramble about characters with you guys and fandom and friends, so thank you. I love you. (Also, there's going to be that Regency-era prequel in this universe, as per above...)
~Lightning in a Bottle, T, 5,349 words -
still available for free! The first Demon bonus story, with a young band getting to meet Kris and Justin backstage, and a lot of pining, and Justin gently nudging Adam and Lee into love confessions and a first kiss. Also demisexual representation, with Lee, and an epilogue told in headlines. :-)
~Love Songs for Every Day, T or M, sort of, 10,366 words - I'm saying Teen or Mature, the JMS rating says 2 heat levels, I mean, they do briefly hint at their fantastic sex life and some D/s undercurrents and toys, but it's teasing and quick, so...I don't know, whatever you think, as far as rating! This one's the second
Demon bonus story - I have a weird amount of affection for this one. I don't know, I just really love outside POV fic, and this one's the interview story, and Kris and Justin are so happy with where they are, and it makes me smile. Also sometime I will write the fanfic version of the bit I cut out, about the accident at the concert in London and Justin rescuing people but overexerting his powers, and Kris's emotions as Justin collapses, and all the hurt/comfort.
~Sunlight and Gold, E, 8,149 words - the final
Demon bonus story! Contains baked goods, afternoon sunshine, happy sex on an equally happy sofa, and marriage proposals. So much fluff, so much love, so much happy ending. Wow. Seriously, though, this one just makes me smile, because it's a culmination, an ending and a beginning, this whole first series and these characters - I'm just thrilled that this all exists and I can write things and other people read them and fall in love too and everything's fantastic, you guys, thank you.
A Prophecy for Two, M, 60,000 words (more or less) - MY OTHER PUBLISHED NOVEL! Technically I wrote most of this one in 2017 and even early 2016, but it came out in 2018, so it counts! This one was MY FIRST NOVEL, at least the first to be finished, and I love it so - it started life as an Evanstan fic, as some of you probably know, but then the plot and the world wouldn't leave me alone, and I ended up rewriting it into something nearly three times as long, with original characters and much more development and even a bonus story. It's full of love in the way that first novels are, I think - Oliver and Tir are in love, and I love them, too. Lots of fantasy, sort of a late-medieval or early-modern setting (they've got a newfangled printing press), fairies, a prophecy, (fake) character death, happy endings, wedding planning.
Original Fic (written in 2018, not yet published)
Frost & Raine, E, 31,879 words - the lawyer!Cupid and coffee-shop-owning!Frost love story! Cacti and fluff! Slow falling in love over coffee and prickliness! I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH THIS WHOLE WORLD AND THESE CHARACTERS and I am so happy. I have 1,931 words of the follow-up story written already, and I just...you know how sometimes you
know it's good? For me that tends to happen if I want to know more, or I do know more, about these characters and what comes next - I have so much head-canon and extra thoughts and EVERYTHING. I LOVE THEM. But seriously, I'm trying to figure out what to do with it - right now it's an odd length for publishing, but it also feels fairly *complete* - like, I could tweak some wording, but I don't know what I could add. But
*if* I could get it to be 40,000 words, both LT3 and/or JMS will do a print run, rather than just ebook - not that ebooks aren't books, but physical copies of my writing, mmm, yes
please. (The JMS terms are a little less favorable - at 40k, they'll do ebook first, then print if sales over the first six months warrant it - whereas LT3 will just do a print run at 40k. But my JMS editor already knows about and expressed interest in this story/the idea, because it was originally supposed to be a Valentine's short for them, which obviously...did not happen. So I'd feel sort of bad turning around and trying to send it to my other publisher...so I don't know. But then again it's all moot if I don't have a good way to make it longer/the story doesn't want to be longer. We'll see.)
Home(s), M, 15,170 words - the sequel to the aforementioned superhero polyamory story! I need to see if LT3 wants it, after the anthology comes out - obviously it doesn't really make sense if you've not read the first one, because it's basically a sequence of three meet-the-parents vignettes, but I love it. I honestly feel like some of my best writing is in here, including my single favorite best worst joke I've ever written in a story.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kellyscams knows which line I mean. :D
Character Bleed, M, 40,371 words currently (but more in my Word doc, that's just on AO3), still a WIP - THIS STORY, MAN. I love it and them so much. It's the most ambitious thing I've ever tried to write, because it's basically a story-within-a-story, being about actors filming a Regency-era gay love story, and falling in love themselves. I've had to make THREE separate timelines: the overall plot of MY story, the plot of the film, and the filming/shooting order of the scenes they're filming, which of course is non-linear. It's awful and wonderful and I'm so excited. I don't know what I'll do with it when it's done, but I hope one of my current publishers wants it!
Bulletproof Heart, co-authored with Boop - E, 22,925 words currently but WIP (we actually have more written, in bits and pieces, but that's what's up on AO3). This is an interesting one because we worked on it so smoothly for a couple of glorious months, and then Real Life Busy Times just hit us both over the head and we lost momentum. We do have an outline though - I would like one of our 2019 goals to be finishing this, though with two people it's trickier as far as scheduling and coordinating, of course.
~~
Okay, I THINK that's everything! And I think I'm definitely right in saying I've both written and published more, and moved more toward original versus fanfic. But I did finish off two BIG fanfic series that I've had going for literally years - the Evanstan Like Sugar and the McFassy Regency stories - so I feel accomplished in terms of fanfic, and also, looking at all the original writing: I think I've done well this year.
Thanks for being here and doing this with me. <3
