Alrighty, here's another chapter! On time! Yay!

This is one of the chapters that I almost cut when I was trying to speed up the pacing of the book. I'm glad I decided to slow it down and let this story find its own rhythm. Scenes are flowing a lot better for me now.

In this chapter, Pykh is practicing sparring with Teal. He's sort of flirting without trying to, and Siel is a little jealous. This is a really adorable scene I wanted to write because Pykh hasn't been able to interact with anyone his own age and just play.

It's short and silly and accomplishes nothing besides a little character development, but I hope you find it cute! 

Happy new chapter day! In this one Auk confronts the general over the cage he's bringing for Carter. Auk and Iethuth have a few confrontations in this book, and all of these chapters are extremely fun to write.

​I have a new washing machine, and all is finally calm again. :-) I am heavily focused and hard at work on this book, so I'm just going to tab back over to my word processor and keep going.

Let me know what you think of the chapter though! I love responding to all your comments. I will post two more chapters. One on February 7th and the other on the 21st. The book should be about done by then! (crosses fingers)

Here's another chapter! Sorry it's about a week late. My household is sick and the washing machine is broke. :-( I bought new clothes because I'm sleepy and drowning in laundry.

But also, I purposely procrastinated with posting this just because I've been writing like crazy. Whenever I get to my desk to write, it's so easy to blow off the blog in favor of going after another scene right away. I do appreciate the occasional poke now and then. It's about the only way I remember to keep my promises!

We're jumping way ahead in the story just because A) the scene with Carter explaining that he is not an omega is one I'm very particular about, so it may go through some changes. And B) I'm not too sure how many of the beginning chapters I'm going to keep. Somehow I wrote 40,000 words before plot point #1 of our adventuring begins, and I'm still not sure what to cut. Some of the scenes might not be strictly necessary, but they're still cute.

Like Pykh's first hot bath. Total non-plot related wish fulfillment.
​
So how do you like your romances? Slow burn or insta-love?

I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I've been reading through all the amazing recs you guys gave me, and there's definitely some moments where an author summarizes something and I'll think, 'Wait! Go back! I want to read that! That should be a chapter!'

And that's why I write too damn much in my own stories. Pykh's bath is so cute. But it leads to other chapters that don't have to be there either. :/

Anyhow. I'll put up the next scene on the 22nd! Really! :D 

Merry Xmas! I hope your holiday was safe and joyful. :) I am stuffed on apple pie and after Christmas sales. I especially like the clearance tags at the pet store for Christmas themed dog toys and treats. My minions got another Christmas after the first one!

Here's another chapter for you. It wouldn't be right if Carter was the only one freaking out. The guys have plenty of reason to panic too. Let me know if you enjoy it! Or just pass along some encouragement so I know you read it. :) Tomorrow I wake up early to write! I'm in prime writing mode since I'm fat and lazy and everyone else is too. The sleet and hot chocolate help a lot also.

And speaking of sweets, what's your favorite alien/unusual romance? I'm starting VC Lancaster's The Guy Next Door and I need something to follow my reading binge.

(Funny almost: I accidentally compiled the entire book and started dropping it in when I realized. Wouldn't that have been hilarious??)

So for the last week I've been arguing with Amazon's moderation team. Recently, they decided the word 'omega' in book titles is offensive, and they're banning it from advertisements on the site.

The representative I spoke to lumped the word omega in the same sentence as "BDSM, incestualized relationships, sexual contact with person(s) under the age of 18".

I argued that omega is a cultural term, not a sexual term. I sent in a screenshot of advertisements on my book's page, which includes several stepbrother romances, banging your 'manny', banging santa, your teacher, a police officer, shifters, and one dark romance which is thinly disguised abuse/rape. I pointed out that my book only has 3 explicit scenes in 110k words.

Aaand guess who they refuse to talk to? They marked my case as resolved multiple times as I reopened it. I'm told that I have to change my title to omit the word omega if I want the ad to run.

To be clear here: They consider the word to be offensive. They're totally fine with my content.

So I might be changing my title? I'm not sure yet. I like my scifi-pulpy titles! They're fun. It's pretty scummy of Amazon to censor a perfectly acceptable, safe word for a type of gay romance. I really do feel like they're picking 'omega' specifically because it limits gay romance on their site.

There are currently omega books being advertised, and when I pointed that out, they said the policy is new and they're in the process of purging all such titles from advertisements. This is going to hit some authors hard.

Sigh. So that's been my week this week… My final follow up question was to ask if they're eliminating 'omega' from search results too. They haven't responded.

As an indie there just comes a point where I have to stop courting bullshit and write.

So there's another chapter below to enjoy! Carter's funny ramble leads into him deliberating over an SOS button. I've always thought that characters are surprisingly okay when they get abducted from their life into a strange world.

Carter is onboard with alien boyfriends, but writing reactions like this to the weird stuff is very satisfying. This is what I want to see from all those heroines who go back in time or whatever. Why do they never mention the toilet?? Bathroom facilities should be a top priority!

Anyhow. I love indie publishing. I love writing my own stuff and to hell with everything else. I probably won't change my title unless they've banned it from search results or I have to do it to pay my bills.

I'll post another chapter on or after Christmas. See you then!