Status update and introducing my next three fics · 3:26pm Nov 1st, 2019
Howdy, y’all. Just a little status update from your local word bun, concerning what’s to come from me in future months 
So to start with, only good news here. On a personal note, I quit my job that was deteriorating my mental health and have moved from Florida to Virginia. My wife and I are now living with her boyfriend and I have more time to focus on healing and writing than ever before. For y’all, this essentially can probably expect that I’ll be able to keep up weekly updates for some time (as of writing this, I have updates queued up to February). I’m also participating in NaNoWriMo, hoping to hit that 50k goal for the first time, so that content buffer should only grow from that.
So I wanna tell y’all what stories are coming. I’ve mentioned it here and there, but I’d like to do a formal announcement now. First off, it goes without saying that “Playing House” is finishing. The story is finished, edited, and all queued and ready to go. People who have been waiting for the the conclusion of this story before reading the rest of WWB can safely dive into the rest of the series after its conclusion; I have one more story that’ll fill in the timeline, but that story could be read after the others in the series (It’s an Equestria Girls story, and the later stories in the series are all Equestrian, with little crossover between the two worlds at that point).
After that, I have a non-Who We Become fic coming out. It’s called “Great and Powerful, Darling” and as you can probably guess from the title, it’s a Rarixie fic. It’s set in the Equestria Girls world, is a relatively short story (three chapters, about 15k), and is the most fun story I’ve written in a long time (I like “Playing House” just fine, but let’s be real; it’s not a fun story). It was an interesting experiment of a story. I came into my Discord server with a ship in mind and no story, and we collectively came up with a story from the ground up, then I wrote it. It was a blast and it really recharged me after the heaviness of “Playing House”. I think y’all will really enjoy this one a lot. It’s also finished and edited and ready to go. The cover artist should be a fun surprise to people who are interested in the artistic side of the fandom; I won’t say who it is yet, but it’s someone well known who hasn’t been active in the fandom in a long time. “Great and Powerful, Darling” will come out on December 1, and publish weekly per my usual schedule.
Next up is a Who We Become fic, titled “Piece by Piece”. As the name suggests, it’s a sequel to “In Pieces” making it the first time in years this story is making forward momentum instead of filling in gaps. It’s also the first time in years the story will be set in Equestria rather than Everton. It stars Scootaloo and Amber Glow, and follows up on the revelation concerning Scootaloo that was mentioned in “In Pieces” (no mention of what that revelation is in the comments please; some people haven’t read past “Playing House” yet). Although this is part of my ongoing queer horse soap opera, it’s less drama heavy than my usual stories. Frankly I’m a little tired of all the drama after “Playing House”, which was a little much even for me. It’s got enough drama for my readers, I’m sure (I’m still me) but it has a lot more of a positive note to it than stuff I’ve done recently. This one is finished, but not yet edited. Still, that’ll be pretty simple to do once NaNo is finished. The cover artist is also a surprise for this one (normally I’d get Pasu to do WWB covers, but she’s busy with school and can only do one for me, and I saved that one for the story after this), and is also someone a lot of you will know who hasn’t been active in the pony fandom much lately (though less of a surprise than the “Great and Powerful, Darling” cover artist is). This story is six chapters, and will launch on December 22.
Finally, I’ve started working on the sequel to “Playing House”, which follow Fluttershy as the main character. Currently I’m working with the title “Thicker Than Water” but that may change as I write it. I’ve previously mentioned this story as “Left Behind” but on writing the outline, I decided that wasn’t a fitting name for what I have planned. It takes place shortly before “In Pieces” though its story is completely disconnected from “In Pieces” and “Piece by Piece” (separate worlds, separate characters) so feel free to go ahead and read the Pieces stories before this one if you want. This story is a bit more drama heavy than either of the others coming out, but still less heavy than “Playing House”. I also worked heavily with a collaborator on this story’s outline. I mentioned once before that I made Wendy Gowak my official partner in writing WWB stories, but this is the first time we outlined a story together. The result is less chapters that just have to be there for the story but aren’t as interesting, because every time I got to a chapter like that, Gowak was able to come up with good ideas to actually make every chapter interesting in its own right. She also helped me control the tone, so there should be lots of lighter stuff in this story that’ll keep it from being a constant drain on the emotions. I’m starting this story today for NaNo, and it will last for three acts, currently slated at twenty-two chapters. I anticipate being two thirds of the way through the story by the time NaNo is over. Pasu will be the cover artist (when she told me she could only do one cover, I decided on having her do the longer WWB fic). Assuming nothing catastrophic keeps me from writing, this story will be out February 2.
So that’s what’s coming up. But I do have one other reason for writing this blog, and it’s to (ugh) plug my Patreon. I hate to do it honestly, but the fact is that I’m unemployed now, and all my money comes from Patreon. I’ve blown through my savings on an expensive trip back to Florida to get the rest of our stuff (a necessity, but a costly one) and now I’ve barely got enough left to cover the cost of the three cover art commissions I’m going to need. After that, I currently make about $40 a month after Patreon’s fees, which is all the money I’ll have for myself. Costs of living are covered by my metamour, so my Patreon money is exclusively mine to keep, but it’s still not exactly much (particularly when I funnel a lot of it back into my stories via artwork commissions).
So this isn’t urgent at all, but I do want to advertise myself. Of course, there’s more to it than helping me. If I haven’t lost your interest already, it’s worth noting that $3 patrons currently have access to the rest of “Playing House” and will have access to “Great and Powerful, Darling” the moment “Playing House” finishes (basically $3 patrons always have access to whatever the next thing is). $5 patrons have access to every finished chapter I write, which means they currently have access to “Great and Powerful, Darling” and “Piece by Piece”, and will have access to “Thicker Than Water” as I write it (which should mean chapter updates regularly since it’s NaNo and all).
So that’s where I’m at, both in writing and in life. I’m off to finally start working on “Thicker Than Water” now, and I’ll hopefully have updates for that on Patreon soon for those over there. I hope y’all will enjoy everything coming at you, and as always, feel free to drop some comments, here or on my fics (Patrons are amazing, but I’m doing this for the comments tbh).
I like the sound of this.
5149026
One of those rare times I kept a working title. The title predates the story considerably, and I just loved it too much to ever change it
Sounds exciting, I can't wait!
5149050
Thank you, I’m really excited about all these stories
Good luck and success for NaNo!
5149069
Thank you, and same to you too!
Very glad to hear that you are doing better.
5149147
Thank you, I’m definitely getting there. Still got a ways to go, but I’m making improvements
Well, I'll definitely check out "Great and Powerful, Darling", but "Piece by Piece" will have to wait as I've only read the EqG side of WWB. And by that I just mean "Looking Glass" and "Playing House". Speaking of, what's the next story in the recommended reading order after this?
5149180
In between Looking Glass and Playing House, there’s a story called Inner Strength. That’s the story of Twilight and Fluttershy and how they got together and what happened, which you already know is a thing from them appearing in Playing House. If you’re not interested in going back and reading their story, Finding Home is next after Playing House, though I’d recommend waiting until Playing House is done before reading that (although you could go ahead and read Inner Strength now if you’re interested in that).
Additionally, there’s a recommended reading order post over on the Who We Become group forum
5149215
Thank you very much.
I'll pitch in on this. I think it's awesome that you are able to essentially do this full-time now and I'd like for you to be able to keep doing so. I'm really enjoying this whole continuity you've got going and I look forward to all of the continuations in the future, especially the one with Amber Glow and Scootaloo.
5149416
I’ll try my best to get even more content for you on Patreon soon 
Aaaaa thank you so much! It really means a lot to me, and it helps me a ton
Oy vey that’s quite a lot of writing and impressive schedule
5149567
Haha this bun has zero chill
5149595
Haha nice
It’s admirable actually
Wish I could get back to that
5149620
I have the perfect setup for this right now. I don’t need to work, so I can do this like it’s a fulltime job. Additionally, coming back from years spent deep in depression and getting better, even if slowly, spurs me to be more creative, I think.
5149649
use those creative juices bun
dont be stuck writing research papers rn like meee
i mean unless you wanna
5149654
I hope you’re able to get back to writing tons of horse words soon too, Ice!
I’ll pass on that yeah
5149656
Me too :)
Will these fics ever be posted on fimfiction?
5160101
Great and Powerful, Darling comes out next Sunday (December 1), Piece by Piece comes out December 22, and Thicker Than Water comes out February 2.
They all are, release date for all three stories are in the blog, homie