Where to Begin ...

What is this Substack place?

Photo by Fabian Møller on Unsplash

Beginnings are hard.

Here we go. It’s the first day of 2025, and I decided to get on this Substack thing and give it a try. I have no clue what I’m doing or how this platform works, but there’s only one way to learn, so let’s start with this ‘tester’ post, shall we?

1. Why this, why now

I signed up to Substack a while back when I closed my Mailchimp account after the cost just became too high for lil’ ol’ me. I’d built up a chunky mailing list, but the cost was eating into my food and bills budget, so I had to let it go.

However, since then, I spent most of 2024 perpetually behind in my day job, which has left me little time to focus on my writing projects and future books. Which left my mailing list and Substack in the dust.

Now that the clock has ticked over and we’re mid-way through this decade, I realise how little I accomplished in 2024 that was on my epic goal list last year: Finish Bloody Frost, write Siggy Smith book 2, launch 5 Kickstarters for my 3D printable projects, buy a car.

Yeah, I didn’t accomplish any of that.

However, I did start writing a crazy space opera, work on a video game currently in early access on Steam, and visit London. Although 2024 wasn’t the successful year I’d hoped for, that just means there’s more to accomplish in 2025.

2. What kind of community are you looking to build here

I have a number of stories that are heroine-lead, gritty, dark, long-standing, and complicated. All of them exist in the same urban-fantasy-based universe aside from my space opera, and I’m looking for like-minded folks who will enjoy the stories bouncing around in my head.

Honestly, the darker and more complicated, the better.

3. Be specific

Fantasy romance, action, adventure, dark adult themes. Pain. Terror. Growth. Failure.

Crazy shit.

Let’s go.

4. Why are you here?

So with this little tester post coming to an end, what are you here for? Have you any interest in an ex-S.A.S. soldier in her thirties who lost both her eyes and her voice in a tragic event on Earth wake up on an alien ship on the other side of the galaxy?

Would you like it more if that non-teenage main character was a shapeshifter?

Stick around if the answer was yes.

Photo by Tyler van der Hoeven on Unsplash

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