“I’m Happily Delusional!”

If anyone else read the title of this in Lewis Black’s voice, then we have something in common. For whatever reason, certain words always pop up in my head sounding like him. He’s quite hilarious in my opinion, and I’ve enjoyed his comedy specials.

But on to why I’m happily delusional. When I first started this “author/writer” stuff, I was sure I had book(s) that would easily pay for themselves, and help support other books I wanted to write.

I even mentioned to my wonderful editor once that I thought The Saint George Chronicles would be a ten thousand dollar book. I wanted it to be. I believed in it like that and invested in the time and effort to make it that kind of book. Alas, it might make ten thousand in like the next ten years, and maybe it would be closer to fifteen years. I don’t honestly know.

What I do know? Publishing my work has made me happy. I see people enjoying it, downloading it, even reading it. Whether or not it makes any money, or whether any of my books make any money isn’t the point right now.

Would I like them to have a decent return on my time and investment? Sure, that would be nice. Would I like to be a writer full time and enjoy writing words for a living, yes. Is that likely to happen any time soon? I remain optimistic, but I have my doubts.

Most of you are here because you downloaded my book from a promotion or maybe found any one of my socials. The fact that most of you are still here means, hopefully, that the writing is entertaining enough to want to read and enjoy—besides reading my books. Honestly, if you only read my book and liked it, then I’m very happy with that. I’ll take that win.

I realize that I’m not following any particular formula that is currently marketable. What I do know is that if you are queer, tend toward polyam, like fantasy, and enjoy reading explicit interactions between two or more individuals, then you’ll probably like my books.

Admittedly, that cross-section might be smaller than I realized at first. But that’s very okay. I wrote all of my books for me, my friends, and their friends that don’t see a lot of themselves represented in fantasy.

My books represent several queer configurations. They represent queer parents, aunties, uncles, and found families. They represent parents and guardians as well rounded individuals with lives in and out of the bedroom. They represent those of us who don’t have a well defined explanation of our sexuality and attraction. They don’t shy away from sex and represent multiple body types, sizes, and genders. They don’t shy away from complicated family situations and hardships that mirror reality.

I could write queer contemporary romance. I’ve thought about it. But I grew up on fantasy when it wasn’t cool, or mainstream. Science fiction was my main reading choice, with urban fantasy a close second. I love world building, and telling stories, so for me it was a natural fit.

Hopefully this is just the beginning. I have more great stories in my head that I hope to share with everyone, especially those of us that are out here trying to enjoy life as queer folks.

Personally, I don’t know how much more queer you can get than monster romance. Want some recommendations?

Serafin’s Ghost by Josh Hunt
Something Between Us by D.T. Brandt

If you have other queer monster romance recs, leave them in the comments! Enjoy!