As part of trying to study up on the meta/marketing?/etc. of it all, I finally bit the bullet and changed the name of the Balance Academy to The Healers. That’s what I’ve been calling it for nearly a decade; the series veered off its original intent as an anthology almost immediately; the BA name is misleading; the end.
I apologize if this is confusing at any point, but it has been annoying me for ages, and I wanted to finally make that switch. So I did.
Announcement over.
I don’t think I’m ready to write the fourth Therapist sidestory novella. It’s about 5 chapters in, and I’m already reconsidering a) the path of the second act and b) whether I’ve done enough research to do justice to the psychological topics touched upon in it. I don’t think I have.
This isn’t a case of lacking confidence in myself, I think; I have gotten to a point where I feel fairly good about my skills. Just that the idea needs more background research and more consideration about how it’s going to resolve. All of which takes time.
So I’m going to focus on editing the first three for now. By the time those are finished and released, I’ll know whether it’s time for the fourth story or whether I want to save it for later. There’s another potential story in that universe I might still pursue someday, so there’s room for a wave 3. These three end on a nice note; there are threads we can still pull on, but I don’t think there are any cliffhangers.
About beta reading:
If you’re interested in beta reading, please let me know (email or Reddit PM; details on the About page). I’ll start badgering people outright when the drafts are closer to being ready — probably in late November or December.
The stories are all written to follow from plot seeds in the first four novellas, so I think coming in cold would be an interesting challenge at best. I do welcome the attempt if anyone is interested, however. The three stand alone from one another, so beta readers are definitely free to pick and choose.
All are about the same length as the Therapist volumes, about 40k words each. Working titles:
More detailed content notes will come along with the beta reading questionnaire; I’m still putting those together.
I feel good about this decision, which usually seems like a promising sign. Though it does scuttle my pseudo-NaNoWriMo plans. I guess I’m editing instead of writing for NaNo, then. Here we go.
Still here. My goal right now is to finish the first draft of Therapist 5 so that I can start 8 as a NaNo project. [Not that I follow all the tenets of NaNo… but I sometimes take the zeitgeist as an opportunity to dive into a new project.]
I often have misgivings about sticking with this series, since it is a pure passion project that nobody asked for. But on the other hand, I’m not beholden to anyone, this isn’t how we pay the mortgage, and if the alternative is to continue being burnt-out on Healers and not write anything, I think a year’s worth of nonsense is worth the cost. …Probably a year and a half by the time these are all done, realistically.
Still. I’m working through an outline for Healers 4 in the back of my mind throughout this, and trying not to let myself get hung up on perfectionism this time. Also in the back of my mind is the Chuck Tingle quote about putting love into everything you make. I tell myself to trust the story. Don’t give up, and don’t start spiraling in circles. Just keep moving forward. We’ll get there when we get there.
I’m quite tired of thinking about the nuts and bolts publishing stuff, so on to actually writing.
Edit to add, next day or so: OK, first novella is $0.99 and the others are $1.25 (USD). And I will stop thinking about this for now. Augh.
Okay, the omnibus edition of Therapist (books 1-4) is in its final processing for release. I have no idea whether anyone will want to buy the all-in-one or not, but hey, it’s done!
I also wanted to post a preview of this completely gorgeous cover and rave about it a bit:
The omnibus cover art is by Franshawn Langley (franlangleyart.carrd.co), one of many talented artists who replied to my call for a commission on Reddit. I LOVED the use of light and color in her portfolio works, and I am really happy with this one. The back of the print cover is also gorgeous, just saying.
And a shoutout to my sister, who has done the cover text design on all my books since the Healers’ Road inkwell cover. If you’re in Pittsburgh or wish you were, maybe buy a shirt (or mug, etc.)! ;P
The step away from anime style and toward a more fantasy/illustrated style was another gut decision: I love the individual covers (hell, we have prints of them framed on our game room wall), but I wanted the omnibus to have a slightly different style that still reflected the series’ vibe. Was this driven by market research, no, but nothing I do is ever driven by market research, and here we are nevertheless.
Okay. Hooray. Whew. Right about this time last year, I started this project. There was a time not that long before when I thought I was running on fumes. That I didn’t have it in me to come up with any ideas outside Healersverse, since I’d been writing in that setting for too long. (I did try once, but it didn’t quite come together.)
One year later, and I’ve had a complete blast. I still love the Healers series and plan to go back to A&K’s story, but striking out into a completely different direction has been so energizing for my sense of creativity.
So that’s today’s news. Happy autumn indeed.
Hello!
If you’re new here, here’s where to start! (The opposite of the other sticky post!)
by S.E. Robertson
Genre/keywords: slice-of-life fantasy, shouting-distance-from-cozy fantasy but check the content warnings first please, character-driven, road trip from hell, enemies to friends
Second chances and unexpected friends
Agna Despana has studied magical healing for nearly half her life, and now she finally gets to prove herself. Ambitious, opinionated, and out of her depth, she will plan her way out of any situation. Except the presence of the dismissive doomsayer she’s been matched up with.
Keifon the Medic has nearly given up. Having lost his family, his old life, and his revolutionary ex-boyfriend, he puts himself at the gods’ mercy to give him a new purpose. Maybe helping people as a medic will suffice. If only he weren’t saddled with this pompous young heathen.
Assigned as partners, the two travel the back roads with a merchants’ caravan, providing medical aid. They each have all the answers, but it will take a long journey, some chance encounters, and a deep look inside to reach the truth.
The Healers’ Road is an enemies-to-friends low-stakes fantasy road trip with warm campfires, good books, and the power of healing yourself as well as others.
Amazon US / UK / CA / AU – print and ebook, and on Kindle Unlimited where available
On Goodreads – rate and review
by C.A. Moss [also me]
Genre/keywords: fantasy isekai but make it tired, millennial, and gay; let’s throw all the tropes in a blender with a giant pile of feelings and see what we get; fish out of water; empathy as a superpower; humor and heart
Not the Chosen One, just doing my best
After an unexpected accident, Cat wakes up in a new body in a world full of magic. If this is the afterlife, it’s a lot more cottagecore than she expected — even though it’s also haunted by demons that prey on people’s emotions.
Good thing this world summoned the right vintage-loving queer girl, because Cat — now Lavender — was a therapist on Earth. Wielding magic that gives others space to face their literal demons, she sets out to make a new life for herself.
A world of new friends, territorial Earthlings, rampaging dragons, high society balls, and rollicking nights at the tavern is just down the country road. But so is the reckoning of what she’s lost…
How I Became a Therapist in Another World is a light fantasy heartwarming isekai novella with emotional moments and a wlw human/orc romance side plot. Lavender’s story continues in parts 2-4.
Amazon US / UK / CA / AU – ebook and Kindle Unlimited where available
Books 1-4 are also available as an omnibus in ebook and print.
Goodreads
Incredibly minor thing, but the content/trivia links for Therapist 4 are fixed. They previously both went to Content. Which, honestly, is preferable to the reverse — the content lists are at least theoretically useful, and I don’t seriously expect anyone to read the trivia.
I just do those because that’s how my own brain works — when I am even moderately emotionally engaged in a piece of media, I feel the impulse to learn everything I can about how it was made. Obviously, most people are not like this. Though some are; <3 to all those minutiae obsessives on TVTropes and IMDB who feed my obsession.
That’s about all for now. It’s only been 4 days since the last release. If I were a real indie I’d be *checks imaginary watch* finishing the next draft by now. But luckily for my sleep patterns, I am not.
Gave up the “level up everything” strategy in Pokemon Violet at level 35. I just could not take it anymore. Instead, I separated my army into types and now level up all of the types needed for the next challenge. Ex., I am taking on the Psychic gym next, so I’m leveling up all of the Bug, Dark and Ghost types. I won’t end up using them all, but that’s how I’m compromising with my usual playstyle.
I also leveled up to the range where I can take advantage of Wholesale Chansey Slaughter Happy Fun Time outside the Fairy base, and that helps tremendously. Between that and Dugtrio Search and Destroy in the mountain pass area for slightly lower level groups, we should be set for a little while.
Therapist Book 4 is processing on Amazon. What?? I could have waited another week, but I kind of wanted to stop worrying about it. It’s as finished as I’m going to make it, I think.
It’s July 22, 2023. I started writing book 1 in late September, 2022. I’ve expressed disbelief time and again about how fast this project came along, and here I am again. There’s a common bit of advice around self-publishing, “pick a popular genre that you actually like, write in it, and you’ll make lots of money” (something like that, I don’t pay much attention).
That hasn’t happened; this series isn’t selling. Probably because I can’t do anything normal, and this is yet another genre-mashing exercise instead of writing to market like everyone says you should. Maybe because I still haven’t done any advertising. But you know what? I’ve had a lot of fun, and I think it’s been good for me to switch gears for a while. I don’t think it’s ruined my touch with the Healersverse, at least based on the WIP I’ve been working on. It’s been refreshing just to do something different. I’ll go back to my serious(tm) universe and be happy to do so — I don’t think I’ll be free of that universe anytime soon, my brain still lives in it — but it’s been a fun vacation.
This sounds like it’s all over, but I’ve also been working on a set of side stories since I finished the second draft of book 4; if all goes well I’ll release them all in a kind of sidestory omnibus someday. (I cannot justify buying separate cover art for more novellas. It’s been really fun, but I have to be a little more practical.) I also intend to release the 4-novella set in ebook and print later this year.
But for now? Lavender’s story is soon to be out there at last, and I’m happy about it. That’s all.
subhead: One way the sausage is made, if you can’t draw but need to hire someone who can
Now that book 4 of Therapist is almost ready, I turned toward preparing the omnibus edition. This will consist of all 4 novellas in the series, packaged together for print and possibly ebook.
I’ve really liked the individual novella covers I’ve commissioned so far, but a wraparound cover for a paperback is an entirely different kettle of fish. I knew I’d have to start fresh, because as far as I can tell, the cover artist for 1/2/4 isn’t doing complicated-background stuff right now. (Hey, I could be wrong!)
Anyway, I laid out the combo package for print (which is just a long, tedious, but IMO satisfying process in Word) and got the template for the cover from Amazon. This is a layout graphic based on the size of the finished paperback, not only the trim size (trade paperback, etc.) but the width of the spine, which is dependent on the number of pages. So. I added this to the reference document I’d put together, which is a description of the kind of vibe and scene I’m looking for, the art I already have of the character who appears on this cover as well, and examples of similar art that I’ve found out there online. [I always dreaded this process because I thought I had to have preexisting art of the characters, but so far the ref docs I’ve assembled seem to have worked for the artists I’ve commissioned, even when I didn’t have preexisting art. So I think it’s working??]
I posted on r/artcommissions last night, which is a lively community at the slowest of times. I woke up to 56 comments and 7 direct messages from artists, and I think some more came in today. Now, I’m sure some people throw their hat in the ring whenever they can even if their style isn’t what was asked for, and I kind of don’t fault them for that. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and all of that. Plus, I posted a budget that I honestly think is commensurate with the scope of the project, and not lowballing probably helps my chances.
But um. I am currently eyeball-deep in fantastic art portfolios. I wish I could hire them all. Honestly, though, I am going to bookmark every single one and keep them in mind for future projects. Y’ALL ARE SO TALENTED, I CANNOT HANDLE IT.
My old sneaking impulse to commission some more Healers art is bouncing around my brain, too — not for covers, just to frame and hang in my house. I commissioned a piece years and years ago when I was tabling at anime conventions, but so far that’s the only Healers visual media that exists besides the amigurumi I made (because I’m a sentimental dork). The space right over my writing desk is all vaporwave-ish space stuff currently (the vertical poster here and this Lego set), but we are assembling a fantasy-nerd gaming room, so y’know. It could also go there.
Anyhow, I’ve got some art to look at, woo hoo.
Edit to add: Watchlist-wise, we finished Bocchi the Rock! — recommend, alarmingly relatable — and I just watched the first episode of Land of the Lustrous. Boy, this series is pretty. Also, let’s note that I have rambled here before about wanting to write about a character that everyone inherently/instinctively dislikes, even though they haven’t done anything particularly wrong; they just have something naturally repellent about them. I’m like this IRL, but so rarely see this type in fiction (people are just as repelled from fictional characters like this, I guess). It’s a very lonely feeling. (The What We Do in the Shadows TV series has one, but he thrives on others’ discomfort. While this is funny, I do not thrive on being this way IRL. It really, really sucks.)
Enter Cinnabar from LotL, an alien who uncontrollably exudes literal poison (mercury, to be exact) and is exiled from the rest of their species because of it. Hi, Cinnabar. I don’t think this will end well for you, but I’m paying attention.
Writing
Therapist 3 now has a Gumroad link, so the release is now complete. Part 4’s editing process continues with reasonable success. The cover commission is in the works, and it looks great.
I’m still on track to complete this series by the end of the summer. Now, the omnibus/print cover is going to be A Whole Other Thing, and I will need to wait and see whether Reddit implodes under its own corporate greed before I can start that search. (Deep sigh.) But I can get the four novellas out in any case.
I’ve been thinking a lot about What Next, but I think the answer is “one step at a time, fool.”
Other updates:
Games
Harvestella Got Weird in a manner reminiscent of another JRPG series after all. (implied spoilers inherent in that link) I’m in chapter 7, which I think is near the end of the storyline, and just hit the beginning of year 2. I’m still enjoying it. It took until chapter 6 or so for the script to start spouting complete JRPG word salad. That’s pretty impressive. (and look, I’ve played this genre for 30 years, and play over 100 hours a year of them to this day. I love them. I can slag on them if I want.)
The sidequests remain a highlight, although I get the frustration some players have with their bite-size structure. It’s just fun to see a range of topics from “I am a Dark Angsty Dude Seeking Revenge for my Slaughtered Village” to “I am a robot trying to figure out human emotions, so I became an advice columnist”. It’s like each and every sidekick character is coming from a different genre, and I love it.
Oh! And the SNES emulator on the Switch just released the original Harvest Moon. Which is neat. But the new port of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is also coming out, so between [Mostly Action-JRPG Stuff and A Little Farming] and [All Farming All the Time], I’m probably going to take a break with something other than a farming game.
Anime
Skip and Loafer remains excellent, and I will miss it when the season ends in a couple of weeks. I have still not started the second cour of GWitch. But I finally finished up The Executioner and Her Way of Life — my previous treadmill show — so the decks are clear to get started.
Executioner displayed the problem inherent in making an adaptation of an ongoing work and also the problem inherent in the light novel format, where nothing meaningful ever gets resolved so that the series can run forever. In other words, nothing meaningful gets resolved in this one-cour series. Which I pretty much knew going in. There’s a setup, a couple of small arcs, and then it just kind of ends. But it was fine. I don’t regret watching it.