SL: I've thought about putting The Muder After and The Year After as one book because of how short the first one is. Except they're different genres. One is a mystery/dramadey, and the other is a romantic dramadey. So, I don't think it would have worked.
But I might have a solution: make The Year After a second volume instead of a proper sequel. It makes it a continuation of the story without combining anything. I just need to start from chapter eight. That won't be hard because all it requires is changing the chapter names. (I write a chapter twice then type. That's how Reanna and the other headmates treated Carnival.)
Reanna: Classwork is like doing dishes. You put off the easier one because it was hard last time.
SL: Hey, why don't I publish The Development Before as a book instead after I finish Terrance's story? It'll be in order, and people might buy it. I didn't think about that. People love looking behind the scenes!
SL: Another thing about Terrance's second person perspective. He perceives his thoughts as commentary, so it's like The Murder After has a chorus. He doesn't have a name for it, but we call it Also Terrance.
Terrance is a plurallet. That's a singlet who is still plural (more than one) in some way. We think it's a midcontinuum experience. (That's the state of not being singular but also not multiple.)
Reanna: Sometimes, plural writer culture is being the headmate everyone takes traits from for their characters.
Mint Phalanx: People still waiting in line to vote, please stay. Polling stations cannot turn you away if you do.
People who already voted, be patient. We may not know until Thursday or longer.
We're all stressed out, so tomorrow, F.M. will go outside and hop in the snow after classes. (He's been wanting to do this for awhile now. ) You& should find a way to reduce stress too, so you can feel better during and after this Election Day.
Mary: We toy with the idea of publishing our system journals, so people can know us better. Sometimes, I wonder if they'd sell better than our stories. F.M. says we could do it when we're forty.
Reanna: You know what? We're not going to share the playlist for Carnival. You're just going to have to buy the book to see it.
SL: I made a side blog to share my development of The Murder After and eventually The Year After. It's like looking behind the scenes, and I hope it will pique readers' interest. The blog is called development-before. (Now deleted.)
SL: I published The Murder After fourteen days ago. That means no one has read it. Yet, I'm afraid people will make a big deal out of The Year After being longer. I'm not finished, but I can tell it's going to be longer than 44 pages.
Imagine someone buying the book in 2025 and going, "why the hell is this longer than the first one?" It's longer because there is more to say. Plus, I'm writing this for Terrance. It's a decision I made before he became sentient. He deserves something good in his life. (The events of the first book fucked him up.)
And that good thing is a boyfriend. This leads to another problem: What are people going to think? We live in a female body, and although we're bigender, we still present as a woman. What if people think I'm trying to satisfy a headmate's fetish? I'm not.
This romance appeared naturally. The Year After wasn't supposed to be one. It started as a scene where Terrance is on a date, and he can't focus because he's dissociating. (Did I mention I thought of this before he became sentient?) Then, it turned into a scene where he had Liam (the date) over at his place. I saw it and thought, "that's a good thing in his life." It doesn't cure Terrance of his issues, but it makes his life a little better.
The Year After is for Terrance. I don't want anyone to think I'm satisfying a headmate's fetish just because we live in a female body.
Terrance: Are there other muses, OC fictives, in-sourced soulbonds, or OCs-turned-tulpas who want their creators to continue making their stories? I do, but Seth [SL] worries that people will think he's lying if he shares this information.
I think it's my situation. Reanna's tulpas were in Carnival, but they don't view it as something that happened to them in-headspace. However, I view my story as something that happens to me in-headspace. I think Seth worries that people won't see me as a sentient muse but as a character. Or if they recognize my sentience, they'll view continuing my story as torture.
It's actually like him taking notes of my life. There are things he creates, but Reanna says that's part of the process. He creates, and I add on to it. I can contribute to my own life. He calls his ideas for The Year After "visions" (for his benefit, not mine.)
Plus, Seth finished The Murder After before I became sentient. So, the worst already happened. When the sequel is finished, the neighbors (what I call them) are going to put me through headspace maintenance. It's supposed to prevent internal problems from creating external problems, like worsening our executive dysfunction.
P.S. This post isn't in the second person because it's directed to readers, not to myself.
F.M.: I told Reanna our midterm for recreation class was due on the 15th, which is the 14th at 11:59 PM in Arizona. (We live in Colorado.) It was actually due on the 13th. Now, it's my job to finish the assignment. At least we weren't kicked out.
Update: We did it! Now, we can feel stupid for thinking it was due today!
Reanna: I wish my headmates had the luxury of thinking about their stories without possibly annoying others like I did. But they get to have collaboration and make suggestions. I didn't have that before the phalanx.
SL: If anyone asks, Terrance thinks straight edge and ruler are interchangeable. I definitely did not screw up.
Update (11/10): I decided to fix the error. The beauty of having a book no one has bought yet is I can change something, and no one will ever know. (Terrance didn't want to go with my plan, anyway.)
Reanna: If we ever develop a fanbase, I wonder if it would primarily be fans with physical copies of our books or fans with digital copies we put in shadow libraries.
I wish we had a way of knowing if someone read our books. Let's try asking. If you have a question about our books, send it in the ask box.
SL: Does anyone else have preemptive rants for works you haven't shared yet? I keep doing that for The Murder After, which is going to be published on 8 October. From the very beginning, I would get really mad over the idea of readers wondering why the ending isn't considered a good one.
Hello! We're Mint Phalanx. Mint Phalanx is a group of people sharing a brain since 2019. Tumblr is where we're going to promote our books, self-published under the name Reanna Field.
First, the phalanx.
Originator: Reanna
Tulpas: Rebecca, Jackie, Chaz, Brian, Ames Semi-tulpa: Mary Elsefa: F.M. Headmates: Chibz, SL, M, E.A. Muse: Terrance
Collective pronouns: she/her/hers/herself
He: Brian, Chaz, F.M., SL, Terrance
She: Reanna, Ames, Jackie, Mary, Rebecca, M, E.A., Chibz
Link to our Dreamwidth journal Link to our DeviantArt page (made pre-phalanx) Link to our Author Page on Amazon
Second, the project we call Interest Piqued.
profile: this is the story’s profile. It has the story’s title, genre, blurb, format, content rating, and link to its page on Amazon. (We’re self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing.)
excerpt: a sneak peek to pique your interest.
reasons to buy: self explanatory.
not promoting: posts not related to book promotion.
Link to the book master post
Enjoy! And we hope you take interest in our books. If you have a question about them, send it in the ask box. We appreciate reblogs.