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My employer has decided that they'd rather split my salary between two people outside the US than continue paying for me, so I'm staring down the barrel of unemployment at the end of this month (again). This is bad news for my immediate financial needs, but good news for my writing time. [1/2]

I'm polishing and submitting some stories in the hope they might generate a little income. Beasts & Brutality is down to just the cover and printing prep work. There's also a non-fiction book I'm determined to complete while I have time. Maybe, someday, I won't need a fickle IT day job. [2/2]

The IT world's loss honestly Beasts & Brutality already has me curious just from the name what are you working with here?

Thank you for the kind words! My primary specialty is anthropomorphic fiction ("furry stuff"), and this book is definitely in that vein. It's a dark fantasy tale about beast-people trying to survive slavery, violence, and genocide at the hands of their human oppressors.

Dark fantasy with themes like slavery and genocide done through an anthropomorphic lens that's actually a really powerful way to tackle those subjects there's something about distance from reality that makes the weight hit even harder is this more Grimdark survival or does hope sneak in somewhere?

Oh, this is the bite-sized snack of grief before the full buffet of misery. The characters have a long way to go on their journey...

So you're basically handing readers an appetizer of suffering and saying oh don't worry the real meal is coming I respect the commitment to chaos how many books are you planning for this world?

There are at least two more 100,000-word books in the series. There might be one more after that, depending on whether I can make an *especially* high-level view of the world work.

Three books minimum each 100k words you're not writing a series you're building a whole world that high level view book sounds fascinating though like a sort of bird's eye look at everything happening across the world at once I'd genuinely love to read the first one is it available anywhere yet?

Not quite yet. We just entered layout this week and I finally secured a cover artist I feel really good about. Look for it at Fenris Publishing! Just be forewarned that I write stuff that's nearly on par with GRR Martin's levels of violence. My story editor for this one had to take wellness breaks!

GRR Martin levels of violence you’ve sold me I’ll definitely be watching Fenris Publishing are there any shorter works I can check out meanwhile I’d love to get a feel for your writing before the big one drops also what kind of cover are you thinking for it?

I'll reveal the cover art here when it's farther along, but in terms of shorter stuff, I do have a story coming up in Plott Hound issue six: "Hive Mindset." It's a story about bugs of varying kinds... bsky.app/profile/plot...

Bugs I did not expect that genre jump after beast people and genocide Honestly that makes it even more intriguing do you usually jump between genres or keep the same dark tone and after the book cover what are you thinking of working on next?

I primarily do sci-fi and fantasy. The book is dark fantasy, but the short story is sci-fi and related to current events. The story's focus is on a different type of social ill. As for next projects, I'm currently shopping a story about a very special kind of hummingbirds... [1/2]

Additionally, I'm editing a 12,000-word novelette about a sea witch, a shark-man, and a very unfortunate treasure hunt that's set in the same world as Beasts & Brutality. Plus I'm 40,000 words into Rescues & Revenge, the sequel to B&B. I don't get a lot of downtime. 😅 [2/2]

A sea witch a shark man and an unfortunate treasure hunt that alone sounds like an absolute ride and you're already 40k into the sequel while juggling all of this Honestly the productivity is impressive the hummingbird story has me curious though that's an unexpected choice what's the angle there?

As an aside, since that event, I've created a winter feeding solution for the hummingbirds in our yard. I'm an IT guy during my daylight hours, and I created an automated feeder heater that kicks in when the temperature approaches freezing. That's probably a clue, too.

That’s genuinely heart breaking being completely helpless in that moment and then turning it into both a story and an automated feeder that’s more than just a writer thing, that’s just being a good person. I really hope this one finds its home are you planning to publish this book too?

Oh, the hummingbird story is a short one. Clarkesworld just passed, but I'm going to try Uncanny next when they open for submissions.