Category Archives: Therapist in Another World Series

Hooray, it’s Small Tasks Day

Therapist in Another World Series

Decided to use my day off to tackle some long-standing formatting tasks. They’re all Therapist-related, because Healers is holding the course until the (increasingly complicated) cover situation resolves. Here we go.

  • The vol. 1-4 omnibus is coming back in print!
  • The omnibus now has content warnings in both formats.
  • The ebook covers of Vol. 1-7 and the omnibus are now a standardized size. That was an unprofessional mistake on my part that was annoying the hell out of me.
  • If all goes well, the Therapist series will include a timeline graphic on its listing pages. It will also be added to the Extras page on this site.
  • Dipping into inside baseball for a moment, both series now have ads running on Amazon in the US. I’d thought about waiting until the Healers cover was updated, but I decided to run them in the meantime to try to learn how the system works. (I’d previously run one on Healers for a minute, freaked out when I got a few dozen impressions without any clicks, then learned that that’s pretty normal — apparently a “good” situation is when 0.3% of the people who see your ad click it. Wild. So I’m trying again.)

The current goal otherwise is to continue full-steam-ahead on Strangers. The thought of a newsletter extra for Healers is still nagging the back of my mind, so as soon as Strangers reaches the end of its first draft, we may finally be able to move ahead on a full-fledged newsletter.

Powers: Organizing useless information

anime nerd corner, Therapist in Another World Series

Short update:

  • Shuffled around some of the pages in the Therapist section to organize them in an “Extras” section, and finally added a character list for that series. (Eventually I’d like to do the same for Healers, but that’s a longer list, and I’d like to focus on finishing Strangers first.)
  • Got the art for the Bardbarian cover, and I am super stoked!
  • Anime nerd corner: Senpai is an Otokonoko is so goddamn cute, people, I can’t handle it. The “dolphin vs. whale” metaphor hit me directly in my gray-ace heart, even though I think they were aiming for aromantic. That’s fine. I can vibe with it while knowing it isn’t made “for” me.
  • I’m pursuing other options for a full re-cover of the Healers series. I have been working with an artist on art for book 1, but I’m not sure it’s going to work out. If it does, that will be a happy bonus that we’ll use as promotional art.

o/` It’s coming o/`

Therapist in Another World Series

It sounds like I’m going back on my plans to say that the next Therapist book is almost done, but here’s the truth of it: I really am working actively on the next Healers book, but Therapist 8 was already in the pipeline at the time. While my Fearless Alpha Reader read through a draft of the first ?half? of Strangers, I finished my second draft of Therapist 8.

The cover is in the works by the same artist as book 7 (and I LOVE IT), I’m doing my own last edits before getting any beta readers involved, and I hope to have it out within the next couple of months if all goes well.

After that, full steam ahead on Strangers, with my own suspicions about the outline confirmed: the pacing will fit into two years rather than three, as I’d originally outlined. (Yes, the same timeframe as Healers 1, leave me alone. The “oh wait, this person I hate is a human after all, and I’ve been a jerk” moment comes after ~6 months instead of ~3, for starters)

It’s an unusual feeling for me to be energized and optimistic about two projects at once. Riding it out as long as possible. Besides, over the last two years I’ve tried to develop better habits so that I keep writing even if “inspiration” hasn’t struck. It helps.

Still waffling on joining the fall group sale. It’s a great sale, and they keep building on it; that’s not the issue. I’m waffling on whether I belong there. The more I read of the other books that have been in the sale, the less commonality I see between them – they are truly a range of storylines and tones. So I’m having a little bit of a Bilbowhyshouldn’ti.gif moment about it. If those other books can vary so much, is mine close enough to that range to fit in?

But that’s further off. Don’t worry, I now have a page-long writing-related to-do list to keep all of these projects moving. Self-publishing and plate-spinning go hand in hand.

Internal screaming, mostly

Therapist in Another World Series

Quick note: The Therapist omnibus edition is paused in print for now, just to attempt to switch it to say “Vol. 1-4 Omnibus” instead of “The Complete Series.” Because it’s not the complete series anymore, and I don’t need Amazon banhammering me for false advertising.

(Did I just this weekend come across a lovely boxed set of a “complete” traditionally published series that went on after those volumes? Yes, I did. Am I slightly salty about this? Yes, I am. I write horrible characters because I am a horrible character; this is not a secret)

Long story short, fiddling with the cover text led some odd resizing issues that are going to take some more time to hammer out. The ebook cover was fine, and so that continues.

You know what else continues: work on Strangers, which is less frustrating than this.

Sale time

Sales, Therapist in Another World Series

Therapist book 1 is now 99c in the US / equivalent “about half off” everywhere else it’s available. I figure I’ll continue it through the week, so till May 31.

That’s it for now!

EDIT, May 29: Added a little page recapping the plot points of Therapist book 7 for anyone who has been following the series, but wants to skip this one. I stand by that book, but I also recognize that I’m not very good at “sticking to the assignment” and changed lanes. Not many people read both f/f and m/m (and m/f and nb/anyone and nobody/nobody, hi, it’s me, I read everything), and I went and included both in the same series like a not-very-smart person. So with that in mind, I wanted to create a little “here’s what else happened” list.

EDIT, May 31: Sale’s over; thanks to anyone who took a chance on Book 1! It is slated to go back on sale as part of the July 12 Cozy the Day Away promotion. More details once we get closer.

Look, spellcheck, I know “fuckup-itude” is not a word

Therapist in Another World Series

…so yeah, I went and wrote a gay romcom, because it had devoured my brain and would turn me into a lifeless husk if I didn’t. It features a character set up as an antagonist 6 books ago and the drama-llama speechifyer he seemingly summoned to this world to be his nemesis. Choice scenes include “Dark Lord goes shopping for porn”, “the edgelord finally gets his ass to therapy”, and “a bunch of isekai’d humans play D&D in an actual fantasy world.” It is fluffy, angsty, silly, and sappy. It’s uploading now.

I have been having a lot of complicated feelings about this series lately. I always knew it was a niche of a niche of a niche of a niche; nobody writes queer isekai about mental health because no one wants it. But I did, and so I wrote it. And I still love it. Every single one of my unasked-for, stupidly-small-niche, screen-door-on-a-submarine story-children.

Even with all of that angst, I haven’t given up on the series. I don’t have any more in the pipeline I made for myself, ready to roll within a month, but I have started on one and have ideas for a couple more. I still don’t regret the time I spent on it. Not a minute. No matter how it does on the charts. It meant something to me, and so I put my heart into it. Because that’s what I do.

Judging books — well, you know

games nerd corner, The Healers' Road (Book 1), Therapist in Another World Series

It seems like the artist I’d hired for most of the Therapist covers isn’t available right now (no offense, they’ve been great), so I figured — it’s a story where it would be nice to have two characters on the cover, why not go a bit further with it?

One chaotic “hiring” post later and I found a fantastic option; I am so, so pumped. They’ve even worked on light novels before, so they know the style; I loved their portfolio; y’all, I am PUMPED. This also means that I should be able to release Therapist 7 within the next couple of months, if all goes well. Fingers crossed.

As usual, I also heard from a bunch of other great artists who I’d also be happy to hire, and I’m thinking again about having some illustrated covers made for Healers. All three of them. In my head it’s for the 10th anniversary of The Healers’ Road this fall, but I would like all of them to match, so it’s a big undertaking.

We’ll see; I’ll put together the reference documents and stew about it for a while. (Related: We recently finished the anime The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent, and my husband commented that its lead character looks like Agna. And now I can’t unsee it, haha.)

This also reminds me of the “trilogy” thing: I swear I actually am, slowly, working on more Healers books. I consider the story soft-closed/resolved-ish but not closed-forever. Like, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, I want the end of book 3 to feel satisfying. But I also hope that if I write a book 4, it won’t be annoying to readers, like “I thought this was done.”

This may be an impossibility, asking for both of those things. I hope not.

Just a brief games note: I started The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Christmas Day and finished it the day before Easter, three months and a couple of days. Logged 190something hours. Completed all the shrines (which I didn’t think I would, but here we are). Found all the lightroots and wells. Did not find all the bubbulfrogs; I stopped about 30 short. Completed all of the sidequests except two (the last mine cart one – meh – and the one where you need to find Gleeok guts – are you kidding me). Collected all the armor that didn’t require defeating a) a King Gleeok (are you kidding me) or b) several waves of Lynels (ditto). And one of the glide challenges. Which is to say, I got almost all of the armor. Did not upgrade all of it, which would require more grinding than all of the rest of the game put together.

Fought one (1), count ’em, one Lynel, and I was pretty annoyed about it. I did enough of that in BOTW. You can’t make me. Except that one time.

The ending makes no sense. But they could not have done the ending that would make sense; people would spontaneously combust. Not spoiling, so I can’t say more than that. (I did get the “true ending” after the credits; I liked that one fine.)

It got me through the winter. I probably could have kept playing for another 50 hours, just meandering around. I don’t even consider myself a giant Zelda fan, but these are both beautifully realized open-world games. Not perfect, sure! But they were hyped for a reason.

So that’s that. I’m thinking I’ll try to ease off, play Switch Sports and Ring Fit Adventure, and actually practice the guitar like I keep meaning to do (oops) for a while. We’re heading into spring.

And… …done.

Therapist in Another World Series

Therapist book 6, Starting Over in Another World With My Level 99 Self-Doubt, is on its way. As soon as the links are live, I’ll update the sticky post above.

I say this a lot, and I say it because it’s true: I really liked this one. It’s actually low-key apart from some references to past stress; it has some of the same elements as the first four books through a very different narrator POV; it brings us back to a fun setting (the tavern) and gives it more room to breathe.

Also, let’s be honest, plant nerdery.

So that’s exciting. Still looking forward to the sale at the end of April. Personal life is still in limbo. That’s all for now.

2 months of winter to go

games nerd corner, The Process, Therapist in Another World Series

Therapist book 6 is with the cover designer, which is generally the last stop before release. I really like this one, too. I mean, I really like every single one of them. As we get to the end of the novellas I’ve finished/nearly finished, I’m sad to shift away from this series, at least for a while. Ah, well. Chances are I’ll circle back after another Healers book. And I hope I’ve learned enough from this experience to take back over to Healers, like how to write faster, for the love of all that’s good and holy

(ahem)

I’m not remotely done with this series anyway; book 7 is still with the beta readers, and then I plan to commission another paperback cover and compile 5-7 on paper. So we won’t see the back of this series for a little while yet, even leaving aside future as-yet-unwritten stories.

I’ve spent the last seven weeks line- and copy-editing my spouse’s first novel. It’s been an exciting process seeing this whole thing take shape. He’s supported me through half a million words’ worth of my stuff; it’s about time I got to even begin to return the favor. And it’s a lovely story.

And honestly? I enjoy this part. There’s a reason The Healers’ Road circled around, unfinished and endlessly re-edited, for something like 5 years before I broke the cycle and finished a complete draft. I love tweaking a sentence. Probably to my own detriment.

I also discovered that editing on paper somehow clicks with my brain. Maybe because I don’t often read on paper these days; I’ve been Ebook Hive for 12 years now. So I don’t get sucked into the story in the same way. However it happens, it seems to work. So I guess next time I edit one of my own, I’m printing the thing out.

Gaming: 70 hours into Tears of the Kingdom, so, y’know, less than halfway. I started Breath of the Wild in late fall on purpose, planning to zone out through the winter on these two games. Which is exactly what’s happening. Though I am trying to limit my time on weekdays: work, sleep, writing/editing, and exercise take priority. It’s mostly fine.

As with pretty much any open-world game, I am inclined toward exploring and collecting. Just finished all the petroglyphs/memories and did the Thing that the Game Nudges You Toward Right After That. (y’know, the thing where you hold the A button for a long long time)

Actually, narratively, doing things in that order was quite effective. Though I was spoiled for the end of the game by watching my spouse finish it a few years ago; it probably would have been quite a whallop if I hadn’t known. It’s okay. I was still moved. For a series not known for its narrative coherence, it’s doing just fine by me.

Better things around the corner

anime nerd corner, Therapist in Another World Series

“One day at a time” mode is never a fun place to be. Of course, January is sometimes a little bit like this anyway; this is just a January of Januaries.

However, Therapist book 6 is almost ready — I hope to release it by the end of the month if all goes well. This one is Berry’s story (the retired adventurer from book 3), and it might be the most mellow of the series? I think it is.

In the Winter 2024 anime season, we’re trying Mr. Villain’s Day Off (already relatable, don’t mess it up), Delicious in Dungeon (fun so far), and A Sign of Affection (haven’t started it yet). It looks like ‘Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess is, despite its title, a food porn show, and we tend to like those in this house. But the descriptions I’ve seen make me kind of tired for reasons I can’t quite articulate, so that may go on the back burner (heh) for now.

[Edit, like 1 day later: I had some down time, and tried the first episode. Funny enough to keep going.]

Still working on The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent season 1, Natsume’s Book of Friends season 1, and Isekai Izakaya in the backlog, and I’m also midway through created-in-a-lab-for-the-likes-of-me Revue Starlight. We’ve got enough to watch for now.