A few weeks ago I finished the second draft of Untitled Lesbian Romance Novel (affectionately known as Car Gays – there are no cars involved). While I wait for my betas to get back to me I am trying a few other projects, in part so that I come back to it with fresh eyes when I’m ready to do another round of edits. It was a pretty substantial rewrite, but early feedback from betas has been very positive, so I’m pretty excited about it!
In the meantime, I’ve got a few other projects on the go.
- A Dog’s Day/Untitled Dog Game, which is just a silly little visual novel game I am writing just to see if I can – an extremely wholesome series of adventures from the POV of a dog just trying to have a nice day. Episode 1 is deciding what to do while you wait for your owner to come home from work, and Episode 2 is a trip to the park. I have ideas for another 3 episodes.
- I am writing a poem a day for August – I did this in February when I needed some time off from prose and it was an effective way to journal as well as producing some cool art, and if there’s anything that feels appropriate for 2020 it’s art/journal hybrids
- I have a few ideas for short stories I am slowly working on – I find writing short stories to be a very different process than novels so it weirdly takes me a lot longer to actually start writing while I figure out what I’m trying to say
- There’s a story about lesbian footballers inside me dying to get out but I can’t quite figure out what kind of story it is, if it involves magic, if it should be a visual novel, so that’s on the backburner for now but I still pick it up occasionally to see if I’m any closer to figuring it out
- Camera gays! I wrote a 500 word drabble of a lesbian romance set during a fictional version of America’s Next Top Model a few years ago when I was watching the show to cope with university stress, and I am sort of thinking it might be fun to write an actual novel set in this. The reality show nature gives it an interesting structure and I’d really like to get some practice writing multiple POVs and a bigger cast of side characters.
- Finally, a murder mystery starring a nonbinary lesbian (amateur) detective and her wife who run a pub somewhere on the south coast of England. I started planning this maybe a year ago, initially imagining it as a podcast told through the format of voice notes from the detective to her wife, but I’m not longer certain about the format or what kind of story I am going to tell. Also, I read this piece about Crime Fiction and Police Violence and need to think about how to write it in a way that aligns with my values.
In terms of things I might actually release this year: if I finish the dog game and think it is good/worth releasing I will hire an artist, at the moment it has some placeholder art, and then sling it up on itch.io. Some poems may see the light of day (I still need to edit my poems from February). I am definitely planning to publish some short stories on here, I just have to finish one first.
Everything else is still very much in early planning stages, though I’d like to have the first draft of Camera Gays (working title) done by the end of the year, and maybe look at writing a second draft of Drunk Magic (working title), which I finished in January and then put aside because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Secretly, I think it might be quite good. It’s a YA Fantasy with a diverse ensemble cast and I love them all to bits and I would love to publish it. It has lots of pieces of me in it, and it’s the first time I’ve written something with a disabled character.
Anyways! All this to say: I am working on lots of things. More information soon!
Max Louise Perry 