Weekly Update - 2/5/25

Well, it isn't Walking Pneumonia, thank the heavens.

Friday morning of last week, I woke up with a hacking cough and a sense of complete exhaustion. It wasn't a complete surprise to me - I'd bailed on poker night a few days earlier, and had been trying to get as much sleep as I could to make myself feel better, but that wasn't happening. So I went and saw the doctor, who x-rayed me just to be sure, because Walking Pneumonia is apparently going around right now, and there was a chance I could've contracted it, but no, it's just a particularly stubborn and brutal head cold, and my sinuses weren't draining well.

Saturday and Sunday, I had the house basically to myself, with my flatmate gone for a few days, leaving me alone with the kittens. I fed them, changed their litter box, but mostly, I just slept. I fell asleep in the arm chair in the living room for at least a couple of hours and woke to two kittens pressed somewhere between my lap and the chair, being as I was the only human around. I skipped my usual Saturday night game group and went to bed several hours earlier than I normally did. Sleep sucked. It would continue to suck through Monday night, but Tuesday I started to feel like the fog was clearing, and so I sat down to write as much as I could, getting most of Captains' Day Ch. 5 done, which I'd intended to have done last Friday. But today I got up, realized about half of what I'd written was useless shit, removed all of that, and finished up CD5 and posted it.

I still owe commissions, and I'm going to hammer on those as well, but also going to hammer on QT2:i7, because I know that's the main story people are here for. I suspect if I wake up and immediately zone down QT2:i7 tomorrow, I can have a finished draft and run it past the writer's room tomorrow night and post it on Friday, as we try and get back into some semblance of a schedule. I have an appointment all day Saturday and Sunday is the Super Bowl. Add that in with the utter madness and complete disintegration the United States is having in its democracy collapse and crumble around it as college students voted in by no one gain access to the entire country's Social Security information, and most of the personal information of, well, everyone. If that isn't enough to make you nervous, I don't know what would be. It ain't a great place we're in.

All that said, I woke up this morning and coughed far, far less than I have any other day in this past week, and the coughs have actually felt like they're dislodging phlegm, so I'm counting that as progress. I had a sneezing fit that lasted nearly three minutes as part of this. Clearly, the grunge in my sinuses is breaking loose and I'm starting to be able to think clearer again.

As always, I hate apologizing, but as you have all reminded me, my health comes first. That said, I think I'm getting back into being non-sick, or at least less sick, and as such, will do my best to compensate in getting somewhat caught up.

Last bit of what I'll call a 'tone warning' - I know some people have definite preferences in how their erotic fiction reads, and I've mostly stuck to a 'harem style' story for the majority of my works. Both Captains' Days and Before The Storm are definitely moving into polypod territory, more than 'harem' fiction. If that's something you don't want to read, feel free to tap out of those stories, but I wanted to broaden my palette a bit. I'm not going to write any male-male scenes, simply because I don't have any interest in those, and I don't think I could write them convincingly if I wanted to. But I remember when I had my MFM scene in Mr. Magpie, and some people balked a bit. It's possible that we could have scenes like that in either Captains' Days and/or Before The Storm, but they will definitely be outliers and not regular occurrences. But these stories are certainly going to feature 'partner swapping' in near future, and I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, so consider this the heads up that's down the line. There's another warning I'll have for Captains' Days when we get a bit further, but I'll bring that up when we get there.

I've got a couple of poly friends, and I myself was in a poly relationship for several months several years back, and that sort of thing needs more representation in fiction. I've seen it in places like The Expanse books and tv show, but as they say, normalize through usage. And so both Captains' Days and Before The Storm are going to proceed along poly-paths as they move forward. I'll probably do a poll for everyone to check in on how much or little we show on screen with characters who aren't the main protagonist of those stories at some point, so it's not an end-all, be-all hardline. For a few people, that might be ick in their yum, and it's always good to warn people before just mixing it into a dish.

I'm actually very happy with how both Before The Storm and Captains' Days have been evolving as stories, so I hope the majority of you will feel the same way. This most recent chapter, once I got my head clear this morning, just launched out of me. Sickness blows, kids. Avoid it at all costs.

Oh, as a reminder, if you want to, you can still order autographed print copies of Quaranteam - Book 1 from me! I'm going to try and get print versions of If I'm Honest and CARP done before summer, and if that happens, you'll also find them over at this link. Someone ordered one last week, and so I figure it never hurts to remind people of the option.

And, to conclude, the public release schedule for the next month or so: 2/8 - QT2:28; 2/15 - Captains' Days 3; 2/22 - NS 9; 3/1 - A Pack Of His Own 14; 3/8 - Before The Storm 13; 3/15 - CARP 10.

Now, off to my first poker night in weeks, where I shall endeavor to stop letting my friends keep so much of their loose pocket change. ;)