My Ninth Ever Patreon Q & A! (Patreon)

Recently I put out the call for more questions to run another Q&A, and as always, you guys delivered! There were a lot of interesting questions this time, but then again, they’re usually quite interesting, and while I might not be able to get into them all, I hope to do them justice all the same. So, let’s get down to it and see what you have for me today…

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Pat Reon asks, “Why did you pick a skull for your Patreon account icon?”

While I wish I could give a big and profound and thoroughly meaningful story for the origin of the skull, the answer’s quite simple really. When setting up my Patreon, I needed an avatar of a specific size, and not being terribly experienced I just sort of looked around for something the right number of pixels and went for one that worked for me. I enjoy the spooky aesthetic, so, there we go. Maybe I’ll change it in time once I get a bit better with the technology of it all, but for now, it’s all about the skull.

Notmyname asks, “How long did you anticipate SYM running when you first started?”

Ah, this is a tricky one. As a writer, I’ve always bitten off waaaaaaaaaaay more than I can chew and get way more ambitious than I probably ought to with stories I plan out, which has led to a lot of abandoned projects over the years, while those I’ve stuck by tend to expand insanely. SYM is a fair example of this, as when I started, I just wanted to make cheesy cliched porn at about 8-10,000 words per chapter. I did imagine it making it through an entire school year, but as the chapters and storylines got more and more bloated… well, it got considerably larger than I think I realistically expected it to go. For various reasons, there’s been a few points where I’ve nearly given up on the story, but either for my own reasons or from support of readers like you guys, I’ve overcome those doubts, so here we are.

Dan E asks, “Any chance of a Blair Valley Arc, maybe Deidre can be the villain for what occurred over the summer. Really loving the SYM universe, so many stories to tell, so little time.”

Honestly, this isn’t a bad idea. I haven’t got anything planned for Blair Valley so far, but that doesn’t mean it can’thappen at any points. I do have a returning villain in mind to make appearances in the final months of the story, but, that’s still a ways off.

Faqt3 asks, “You mentioned in a previous Q&A that you were planning a lesbian story set in SYM. Has that been abandoned or is it going away with the rest of the side stories? Because SYM seems built for a few stories of girl-on-girl action with practically every woman Ryan has hooked up with having hooked up with another women (or twenty) regularly as well.”

As with many of my “wouldn’t it be cool?” ideas I propose over time, this one is likely dead on the vine as I’m currently planning on keeping SYM relatively simple and side jaunt-free, though that opinion can always change. However, I have also recently been working on a new, non-SYM story that would allow me the opportunity to write about a lot of different possible sexual encounters that SYM itself wouldn’t allow for, and while it’s still too early to announce anything concrete on it, I am crazy excited about the possibilities that this series offers. Once I have enough to share, I will be happy to post it here.

Sugaree asks, “I enjoy the AI generated art of the SYM girls. Have you thought of creating an AI generated Ryan?”

A popular question, and one I’m always happy to answer, even if it is a very polite “no”. I like keeping Ryan as a bit of a cypher, as it allows readers to project their own image of him as their gateway into this world, and I feel like giving a picture of him might take some of that away.

Notmyname asks, “How many overall chapters of SYM are you currently anticipating? Do you ever anticipate sharing your overall planned story arc?”

Oof, that’s a good question. I tend to have my story outlines on a month-by-month basis in universe, so I don’t exactly have a full endgame planned out yet, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this story ultimately winds up falling somewhere between 60 and 70 chapters. Though that would just cover the school year itself, if I wind up continuing past that point, then god only knows.

Faqt3 asks, “You introduced the new and naive art teacher, Catherine Montague way back in chapter 28. Will we be seeing her go the way of her colleagues and get under Ryan soon?”

Ah, yes, one of the many characters I’ve introduced to fall through the cracks. While I planned most of April to focus more on the pre-existing characters, I do also want to use it as an opportunity to catch some of those characters who’ve slipped through the cracks, and Ms. Montague is certainly on track to find her place in that group.

Pat Reon asks, “Could Ryan go on a summer vacation after he presumably graduates from senior year?”

I’ve got a couple ideas for how summer could go for Ryan and the people in his life, however, that’s still fairly far off, and I might decide something else is going to happen. I need to see how the rest of the year shakes out, basically.

Notmyname asks, “What kinks would you explore (or explore more) if you weren’t as constrained by SYM?”

If I wasn’t constrained by SYM… yeah, there’s a fair bit I’d be curious to explore. I’m pretty open-minded by nature, so I imagine a fair bit would be on the table. I’d be interested in playing with some femdom concepts, or playing more with bondage and pegging. And while the answer would likely be unpopular with a fair few people, I’d be curious to see if I could pull off a story with the lead guy getting with a beautiful and confident transwoman. On a less realistic front, I’d love to stretch my horror chops and do some sexy stories involving monsters.

Notmyname asks, “If you had to pick a female SYM character or group of women (other than Kaitlyn) to have her/their own “Book Club Memories”-style side-story, who would it be and what would it revolve around? This could involve Ryan or be written from the female perspective.”

Oh, Brooke, hands down. I love her energy and I know she could get up to some insane adventures. I mean, I’m biased because she’s probably my favorite to write for, but I could so easily do a ton with her.

Poison Pen asks, “Has there been a scene / line / joke that you've written, published, and looked back on later like, "I can't believe I wrote that / got away with that?"”

Oh man, there have been a few, but I think I know the one you might be thinking of. I am absolutely shocked with how good the star rating on Lit for Chapter 42 is, because I thought there was no way in a million fucking years I’d get away with the scene where Amy dislocates her shoulder during rough sex and then pops it back in, but here we are. That scene is absolute madness, and I am shocked that there hasn’t been much (if any) blowback from it, since people are generally all too happy to share what turns them off in the comments.

KnightRadiant asks, “Will we ever see Ryan's dad? I always imagined that he's having his own adult SYM-type adventures during his business trips.”

The way I like to think of it is that Ryan’s dad is a lot like bigfoot. While we can’t technically prove he exists, it’s the questions he makes us ask that are what really matter, questions about meaning and existence, and if that random shadowy figure I just saw was merely a shadow, or if it was Ryan’s dad doing something awesome just out of the field of our vision.

So, will we see Ryan’s dad?

*consults Magic 8 Ball*

“Signs point to yes.”

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Thank you again for all of the questions! This was a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing this more in the future!

-aimingtomisbehave33