I started this substack on August 4, 2023 and just hit 101 subscriptions on May 5, 2024. You can see that my subscriber numbers, while trending steadily up, also dip from time to time. So if you’re a new subscriber, I’d like to show you around the place. Most of my fiction includes soldiers or warriors, although I don’t depict much actual battle. My stuff tends to be PG-13: serious subjects, may include bad language, but no explicit sex or violence.
My current strategy is to keep this substack free, and make money through my published work, and anyone who wants to support me by paying for a nominal subscription.
Roman
I have a self-published novella, “Cloak and Stola,” which is a prequel to my Roman WIP. In this section, I publish side stories to “Cloak and Stola” or potential sections of my Roman WIP, something like ten or fifteen years after that novella. This also includes my posts from the Aeneid section as well.
Aeneid
I’m reading this for the first time, in my sixties, because my Roman WIP requires my first century legion soldiers to be teaching themselves to read and write Latin using the Aeneid. Which is historical. I’m also using this to teach myself Latin. As I go through the Aeneid, without knowing what actually comes next, I’m writing my reactions, and in some cases interpreting what I’m reading in my own version of poetry or in short fiction. Or I write fiction where I imagine the reaction of the characters from my WIP to reading the Aeneid themselves.
Poetry
Mostly blank verse, some rhyming, one with each stanza written as a haiku, one translation from Middle English.
The Other Side
I have a near-future sci-fi novella here, and a fantasy short story, each with a detrans character coming to terms with the aftermath of medical “transition” in a realistic and hopeful way. No, I don’t believe anyone is ever “born in the wrong body.”
Fanfic
Fullmetal alchemist manga, Harry Potter, and Conan the Barbarian. This section will obviously always be free, because I don’t own these properties. Usual fanfic disclaimer.
Miscellaneous
Things that don’t fit into any of the above categories. Other bronze age fiction, movie review, current day fiction, interactive fiction.
Congrats, Ms. Mary! 👏 I'm glad to see people discovering your talent.