Hello! Been a while since I've posted anything on this pen name/account. Sorry for the lack of news!
I'm still ultimately planning on writing a second book in The Grind series and continuing Nate, Reena, and Melody's adventure across Neria. I have it planned out, at least, and have started it, but I had to focus on other projects which took precedence.
Part of the problem with The Grind is that I've been unwilling to market it in the usual haunts for harem LitRPG, because it doesn't properly follow all the "rules" of those kinds of spaces. I couldn't market it to LitRPG fans who don't like the harem stuff, because it's got (way) too much smut. It also failed to find an audience on KU, although the few that read it seemed to really like it. Nonetheless, I personally like the story, and would like to eventually finish out the story I have in mind for it.
(Sidenote, it's currently off KU, because I will be doing a better edit pass over it now that I've improved a bit, and will upload the fixes with a new cover and possibly a print version once I have one. That'll also give me a refresher for when I go to write the second book in the series. Making the chapters available here again when I plan to edit them doesn't make a lot of sense, so it's in a bit of limbo at the moment, but it'll be ready for KU again before I start posting book two in the series, whenever I do that.)
I tried to write something last November that followed the general haremlit "rules" a bit more closely, but hit the "first writing wall" at around 35k words and have yet to push though. I might try again this fall. It was fun, and I think I know how to fix the thing that bothered me, so hopefully I can make that work when I need a break in the future. Niles Rex is already a secondary pen name for me, so it doesn't get a lot of my main writing focus, but when I took a break from my primary writing project this year--and after developing a bit of a thing for goblin girls--I got inspired to write a new story that's a bit more slice-of-life and with more of a progression fantasy tilt rather than actual LitRPG.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
I'm posting that story now on my profile, entitled My Goblin Homestead, link in the author's note above and below. It'll be slightly sanitized for Royal Road and I won't be bothering to post it on any other serial webfiction site. The full release for sale will include the edited portions, which I'll drop a link for when I've got the final cover for it from my artist, and like with The Grind, MGH will be stubbed and then placed on KU sometime after the book is done posting here. I know that annoys some people, and sorry about that, but it's the nature of the biz. I can't exactly run a Patreon when I write so infrequently on this pen name.
This new book is much more marketable, though, I think. It's quite a bit longer than my others on this pen name (almost 90k words), and had lots of room to grow into a series in the future. It's just as character-driven as The Grind (rather than plot driven) but if you're into homesteading and romance then it might be up your alley. I hope you like it!
As for the future of writing on this pen name, I don't think I'll ever fully stop, because I like writing erotica every now and then. I'm not sure if I'll ever ramp up beyond writing 1-2 books a year (which... is a lot, actually, even if it doesn't seem like it for a serial webfiction platform and these rapid-paced genres) because my main projects take precedence and earn much more money. I've had some really amazing responses to both The Grind and Warm Hands, Warm Hearts though and I really want to make sure that all my projects get the right amount of care and attention. While the first The Grind book gave us a nice arc for Reena's character development, there's definitely more story to tell. But it's also a weird book, so MGH is my attempt to write something that will be more broadly appealing just to balance that out.
Thanks for reading!