Next Project (Patreon)

Began work on the 7th installment to the Shrimp of the House series, Aiden's Bully.  It will be another clean story (ie. all ages).  I'm thinking it will be a shorter project, 3-4 parts (75-100 pages), but we'll see.

As for the story, a teenager, hanging out at the local playground, picks on Aiden whenever he's there.  His antagonistic older brother, Jackson witnesses it during one visit, and decides to get back at the older kid by stealing the size-changer once again and shrinking the kid down to size.  He takes the bully home and hides him in his bedroom while he torments and teases him for 2 days.

In creating a contrived reason for why the bullying goes unnoticed when Aiden requires supervision, I created a B-story about Allison falling for another kid her age who also hangs out at the playground. (It's already becoming very strange for why all these older kids are hanging out at a playground meant for younger kids. :D )

There's also a running gag about Jackson getting responsibility for Aiden.  He takes the responsibility too seriously with some humorously overbearing results, and through his protection of Aiden, we see a side of their relationship that's always buried beneath the brotherly antagonism.

I'm halfway through the first part right now, and was afraid the set-up was going to drag the beginning down.  If I set the story in a linear fashion, the shrinking aspect won't come until late in the first part, if not at the end of the first part.  But I find myself reading through the existing pages to catch the pacing, and it actually moves pretty quickly.  The macro/micro stuff won't be the hook it is in some stories, but the build-up to it will work for the reader, I think.