And here's the 2023 Halloween special! And a bonus short story I hadn't put on this site yet which fits the season. I've been very busy with school and... school, but this place still isn't dead, pinky swear. Happy Halloween!
Another new short story, Disconnect. This one is a sequel to Object and Imitation. I was always fond of the way those very short stories were connected in an unannounced way, as an easter egg that was honestly probably much too easily missed. But I think finally pointing it out is definitely worth doing, for this one. Though I do think it works without the context as a standalone thing, I think it's strongest with.
For silly reasons, I started writing a short story. This is apparently the longest single page short story I've written on this website. Which, well, was a bit of an issue with my plan of 'I'll write this silly thing real quickly and then get to the actual stuff', whoops. Getting Should the Soil moving again is my next priority, and then hopefully I'll be writing more stuff in general again. Dread, maybe?
I also have plans to take that other website which I've almost never updated, with the non-writing art and such, and just smush it into this one like I should have in the first place. More on that, and other potentially exciting changes to my inter-net web-site, to come later, probably.
Also for the story itself, it's Departure! I'm pretty happy with it, though I think the ending could probably be better, there's a better way to tell the story that wraps up some of the loose ends here. So, eye out for that, eventually.
Okay. That was weird. I was having—ironically—a bug where Bug wasn't accessible. At least, not on the default theme. Let me know if any other pages are being persnickety for anyone; and try the /a/ version (or the / if the /a/ is what's broken) in the meantime. Also since I have now broken my radio silence anyways, I guess it's time to note the end of the update schedule, I was putting that off for... some reason.
...Huh. Well, I updated the index page (and the /a/ version). I checked the editor, it's updated. I cleared my cache and tried other browsers, still saw the old version, cleared my cache in the editor, the new version was still there. I'm not sure what's going on there, but I am going to admit defeat and wait for it to fix itself, I guess.
Sometimes it got me to write stuff I otherwise wouldn't have, but more often I just wound up cheating it. It's why I started Frigid as a serial instead of leaving it a standalone project I was writing. In retrospect, I think that's to the story's detriment, and the hope that it would help me write it faster definitely didn't pan out. I've rushed a few things because of it, though I don't think that badly.
Meanwhile I've been managing to write fully new stuff weekly at a higher wordcount than what my site stuff has been lately, with that forum Quest. And it's reminded me of why I started posting Preternatural as a serial. Because it wasn't something I really intended to be serial; it wasn't something that really took advantage of being a serial. I think it works as one, but that's all, it just works.
The reason was that I really wanted people to look at it. My biggest motivation as a writer is attention. Not, like, fame, even in a limited community sense; I just like people seeing my stories. Originally this was just a convenient way to show writing to friends satisfying my silly colored text idea. The fact as many people look at it as they do still makes me quite happy. Every like makes me happier than it ought,
Even the occasional ones coming from someone who I'm pretty sure hasn't read the update. It's nice to see people notice. It's still pleasant to look at the number of daily hits and imagine that even the small portion of those that aren't web crawlers are people who like the stuff I make. But my main motivation to write for this site is that I've made an obligation for myself,
Instead of properly anticipating the response. And this certainly isn't a complaint, mind. It's just something where I should probably rethink how this works, before I start to like, fully neglect it for the thing where I write it in a forum and people comment in response right there. Because I want to finish these stories. All of them, even the ones I posted out of nowhere and haven't gotten back to.
So I think I'm probably going to ditch the update schedule. I'll have to give it more thought; but it felt in the spirit of the full silly Preternaturality Experience to put an extensive and thorough examination of things, directed as much for myself as informing anyone bothering to read, right here in a character-limited comment box not meant for this at all. Even if it's not quite as funny without writing above it.
So, that's a thing. However this goes I really do want to avoid neglecting this place; I've got the one derelict site here already. (Actually I have two but shhh about that.) All in all, I think this was a successful experiment if you believed the way the front page said I was "trying out" an update schedule even after it was in place for well over a year. And middling if you took it for granted like a normal person.
While I haven't read everything on your site yet, I do genuinely like what I have (and I'm not a bot!). However, I stopped using the "like" button to signify this, preferring instead to express my "liking" through views and the occasional comment.
I feel similarly in that I deeply desire to finish all of the stories that I write, even if I have to return to it much later. So, whatever schedule you decide to keep, I think what matters most is simply that you continue.
Thank you, that's encouraging. And I really appreciate that you like what you've read. While I do like the silly lil' like feature (at least, on small scale stuff like this), receiving a comment when you or someone else is always nice; and means all the more when it's when someone specifically has something to say.
i haven't read this (or anything you've ever written, obvs) but know that you are a talented writer and dope human (again, i base this on literally never having read anything you've written, ever)
I finally uploaded the first arc of And Should the Soil Not Take You like I said I was going to. (If the titles look wonky, hard-refresh; I added a tad more CSS, so you might have the old stylesheet cached.)
A new short story, Superlatively Great Affection. Technically not new, it was on Sufficient Velocity for a contest shortly before Valentine's Day. I would link the contest, but it's NSFW? But this story isn't, I wouldn't say; it doesn't involve anything that hasn't been brought up before, at least.
Here's Dread Page 10! To be totally candid, I am not happy with this page, but I finally bit the bullet and finished it and posted it. Not much to do but make the next page better, after all. There will be an update at the usual time next week, and also the first arc of And Should the Soil Not Take You will come soon.
I said I would fold my other website into this one, and I finally did it. Please let me know if you spy anything broken.
WORLDS COLLIDING