Arcadia: Blog

A little (okay, long) update on what I’ve been up to!

The Missing Piece revision
First, a revised version of The Missing Piece went up this morning! It was the first story I ever wrote -- that naive, young Arcadia of oh those *checks watch* 6 months ago -- so it definitely was raw. I do my best to leave a story alone once I hit “submit,” but I made an exception in this case because it wasn’t just some style or word choice things, it was stuff like inconsistent tenses, and I cringed knowing it was still out there.

There are, however, two additions, both in Chapter 4, that are relatively minor but are more than just tweaking what was already there. Just two sentences: one is a completely new addition, the other I swapped for an existing line of dialogue that I thought maybe was a little more distracting than helpful. Together, they don’t really do much more to give readers a window into what’s going on with Charlie, but they are more consistent with what’s there already and I think do a subtly better job of doing what I was trying to do at the time. If I were to rewrite the whole thing completely, I might do all of that subtext differently now that I have a little more experience. But I didn’t want to change the spirit of what was there, just make it the best version of itself, which I feel good about now.

Lupine ebook
Lupine Dreams is now available for free as an epub on the ZBookstore!

I’ve been slammed with work over the past few weeks, so I didn’t have much time to write, unfortunately. But, in addition to the above revisions, I also decided to take a crack at putting Lupine Dreams into an epub format. Mostly the only wrinkle was properly formatting the texting chapter, but that made for quite the sufficient wrinkle haha.

It was just kind of a fun little experiment that was satisfying to figure out how to do. It's free because...eh I just feel weird about people paying for my work. At the moment, anyway, I really just would like my stories to find their audience and vice versa, and I don’t feel like I’m making a colossal sacrifice considering the size of that audience haha. I just write what I feel like writing, and I’m gratified that it’s connected with some folks so far (: Maybe sometime in the future I’ll feel differently, but I have a hard time imagining ever charging for any ebooks I put up. So if you want a cleaned-up version of Lupine you can download and keep for yourself that's made for your e-reader, welp, it's there! (:

What’s next
I’ve got quite a few irons in the fire at the moment! First, I’ll have a very nostalgic, fun story that runs about 35k words out in about 2-3 weeks. I’ve got it “done,” now it just needs some final revisions and polish. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, though, and suspect that plenty of folks will enjoy it (: Unlike almost all my other stories, it’s an unreservedly good time without the plodding melancholy that is pretty much my hallmark. I look forward to sharing it with everyone soon!

Thank you so much for reading (:

Arcadia

Sunny Afternoons, a new short (very short!) story went up yesterday! It has something to say about putting yourself out there, even if you think nobody might be interested in buying what you're selling.

I would say it's a pretty typical Arcadia story of melancholy and loneliness -- just the way to really settle into your weekend! :P

Be forewarned, though: There is no sex. But! There is a cat. So...how bad could it really be? (;

Bonus points if you can spot the rather glaring cat-related mistake that tendertouch gently pointed out to me, as did others elsewhere. Whoops! Charlie Kelly tried to tell me, but I just didn't listen (;

Another new short story, Sunday Scaries, posted this morning!

If you’re anything like me, Sunday nights have a special kind of anxiousness to them, don’t they? Even when there’s nothing big looming on Monday morning. It’s a phenomenon called “the Sunday Scaries” which...okay, is not the name I would’ve gone with, but I see what they’re doing there :P

There’s a lot of melancholy threaded into the stories I’ve written so far, but this one really sets a new bar for what I like to think of as a whole cloudy mood that I feel encapsulates the vibe of a Sunday night. Fittingly, I wrote it on a Sunday night and it helped me get to Monday morning, so I hope it can do the same for you -- whatever, wherever, and whenever your inner Sunday may be (:

Sunday Scaries

I have been so touched by the reaction, comments, and messages about Lupine Dreams. Thank you to everyone who read and shared (: Putting your work out there into the world is supposed to be fun -- and it is! -- but it's also an anxious experience, and the positive reception to Lupine has really made me feel like okay, maybe this is a hobby worth doing (:

Anyway! I posted another of my one-off lesbian short stories today, which I know don't do as well but I hope some of you find something to enjoy in them! This one I am particularly proud of. The Captain is a classic sports story that has something to say about competition, leadership, and resilience. And also a steamy between-innings habit between a high school softball pitcher and her catcher (;

I understand lesbian stories aren't for everyone, but I think anyone's inner competitor will find something to relate to in Khloe's experience. So if you don't mind some girl-on-girl action and like a good sports story with a lesson, give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading (:

Arcadia

The final chapters of Lupine Dreams are up now (:

Writing and posting this story was a new experience for me entirely, and I appreciate all of you who went along on the journey together with me. I know it wasn’t a story, or characters, for everyone. But it was the story I wanted to tell, and I couldn’t be prouder of the result. I’m very grateful to be a part of the community at SOL where people can tell the stories they want — and people even want to read them! :P I hope you found something in it that connected with you (:

Thank you for reading (:

Arcadia