A Lament of Gods and Monsters
A webnovel about six Scions - warrior-mages possessed by fragments of god - fighting to gain back their freedom and unveil the mysteries of their world and the one bleeding into it.
Please consider supporting it at the following platforms!
"At the End of the World" is a webnovel that blends dark fantasy and gothic horror to tell the story of six Scions -- warrior-mages possessed by fragments of God known as Archons -- as they fight to gain back their freedom and unveil the mysteries of their world and the one bleeding into it.
It was born from wanting to see several themes and characters that don't often get to see representation in fiction. Despite the fact that it has become more open to diversity, traditional publishing still puts a limit on how many stories about queer, neurodivergent and POC people they put out. Not only that, but there's an unspoken rule that only the right kind of representation, the one that's palatable for a white, neurotypical, cishet audience is accepted. It's only in indie and self-published stories that writers like me can have the room they need to unapologetically be themselves and this was part of the driving force in choosing the format for this story.
The themes and setting also reflect this. I've created a world centered around trauma, emotions and the general workings of the human psyche. The main characters have been raised in an environment that is a mixture between neglect and over-zealousness, depicting the contradictory combination that so often is at the basis of mental illness.
While they all show signs and symptoms of certain disorders, I’ve refrained from openly diagnosing them to allow different people to feel represented by them.
Rather than produce a work that becomes almost exclusionary by representing only one group, I wanted to make something vaster, that touches on specific struggles and symptoms I am intimately familiar with, but that a wide range of people, no matter their particular neurodivergency label, will be able to identify with and relate to.
Also important to me was having characters in that age of early adulthood so often ignored by creators. In general, there is a gap in mainstream literature; it goes from depicting teenager experiences in YA to showing the lives of married 40 year olds fighting to save their children in adult fiction.
Millennials like me feel this more acutely, as the first generation to stray widely from the social expectations of early adulthood. Furthermore, the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and / or neurodivergent people tend to be even more slowed down, as we spend more time figuring out our identities, overcoming early childhood trauma and becoming comfortable in our new skins.
Teenage years are a confusing and horrifying time, with feelings running amok, peer pressure and first time experiences to unpack. But we have so many stories to guide us through them, to dress them up in glory and glamour that it eases the burden slightly. The same happens with adulthood; there are a thousand heroes to look up to, people whose courage or kindness we can be touched by and driven to emulate.
But, in that in-between state, that grey space where we have to take a hard look at who we thought we were gonna be and who we’re going to actually choose to be, there’s nothing. No stories to help guide or comfort us, unless they are specifically about the struggles of being who we are. It’s almost as if there’s no room to dream, when we need it the most, because everything is so bleak.
So, that's where this story comes from. From the desire to depict the experiences I went through and that I was never lucky enough to have fiction help guide and comfort me through. If I can do that for someone else, then I'll be happy.
My main objective is to keep the series “wait-for-free”, a format in which people who can't pay will still be able to read, but everyone who is willing and able to pay can read ahead and thus allow me to support myself and keep my career as a writer. I’m a firm believer that people who can’t afford entertainment are often the ones who need it the most, but also that artists, no matter their area, deserve to be paid for their work, so this model seems ideal to me.
Here are the ways in which you can help support me and my work, both for free and monetarily.
Ways to Help For Free
+ Following the series on Tapas & RoyalRoad
+ Favoriting, Rating, Reviewing and upvoting other’s reviews on RoyalRoad
+ Commenting on chapters, on Tapas & RoyalRoad
+ Boosting it at TopWebFiction once a week
+ Following the social media on the main page and spreading the word!
+ Reading on Tapas will bring in ad revenue which will still be helping me monetarily, without you having to spend a dime!
+ Similarly, once I hit 250 followers on Tapas, the platform will automatically open an "ink donation" tip jar, where you can donate free ink you get from contests and events they hold, again allowing you to support me monetarily without you having to spend any money! Just keep an eye out on their social media for those events!
+ Regular free ink obtained through watching ads, opening the weekly fortune cookie and answering surveys, etc, cannot be used to donate to authors, unfortunately. They can, however, be used to unlock chapters, so if I'm accepted for the Premium program, you'll be able to read ahead and support me that way, for free!
It's really easy, just read and interact and help spread the word! It makes all the difference in bringing in more readers if a story has an active community around it.
Buying Chapters or Paying in “Installments”
If you’d like to support me monetarily (and first of all, thank you; I’m both humbled and honored that you’d make that choice!), you can pay in “installments”, rather than buying the entire book at once. This is how it works:
+ Subscribe to Patreon or Ko-fi (Notice that Ko-fi won’t charge you VAT and the prices there are lower, as the platform doesn’t charge me any fees!)
+ You’ll be able to read ahead of the free readers, but also at a daily release rate!
+ If you remain a Patron during the entirety of that volume’s release, I’ll send you the ebook files once the ebook is ready for launch! (And if you have to skip a month out of the four that it takes to complete a volume, for any reason outside of your control, let me know and I’ll pretend you didn’t and send it regardless.)
+ If you get the ebooks this way, you’ll immediately qualify for any updates that happen to them upon any crowdfunding campaign (e.g. the adding of illustrations, any editing, etc)!
+ When the crowdfunding for the physical version launches, you’ll have access to a special, discounted tier, should you wish to buy a copy, as a thank you for your continued support!
Buying Full Volumes
Full volumes will take longer to be ready, and you won’t be able to read the chapters as soon as they’re released, but if you’re someone who prefers binge reading, or an experience similar to that of a traditional book, and who is able to and doesn’t mind paying for them all at once, they might be the best option for you.
+ The volumes will be available both on Amazon and my Ko-fi shop; the prices will be the same, as Amazon will just match the lowest price available anywhere, but buying directly from me will ensure that all the profit goes to me, and not towards making Jeff Bezos richer.
+ If you buy the volume on either of these places, you’ll immediately qualify for any updates that happen to them upon any crowdfunding campaign (e.g. the adding of illustrations, any editing, etc)!
+ When the crowdfunding for the physical version launches, you’ll have access to a special, discounted tier, should you wish to buy a copy, as a thank you for your continued support!
If you have any questions regarding any of this, please don’t hesitate to contact me, through twitter DM or email!