Titan Mage, Cat Girls from Outer Space, and Monster Girl Tamer w/Edie Skye

Welcome everyone to In Other Worlds, the LitRPG Gamelit and Fantasy Podcast. I'm your host Jess, and today we have on Edie Scott. Edie, how are you? Doing very well. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. So you write under several pen names. Uh you've got HP Hollow, which does a lot of your non-spicy harem books, but you do have Monster Punk Horizon, which I have not read, but I think might be spicy.

Nope. The everything under the HP Hollow pen name is non-spicy, non-harem. ED Sky is where all the fun is. That's the after 10 p.m.

pen name. Uh so under E.D. Sky, you have Blood Knight, Titan Mage, the Monster Girl Tamer series, and then Cat Girls from Outer Space is your newest. Yep. So give us kind of a rundown on Cat Girls from Outer Space.

Oh goodness. Cat Girls from Outer Space actually has an interesting story. Well, of course it does because I wrote it. But there's an interesting story behind the story. So this one is actually a formal collaboration between me and my husband Jacob Hollow. And ultimately, it is a space adventure that's kind of like if imagine if you threw Firefly and Farscape and Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop into a blender and just put more cat girls in it. It's that kind of adventure with a little bit more cosmic horror thrown in the mix, too. Very far future, very fun stuff. The thing that makes this one particularly interesting, though, is this is actually a re-release. Freelancers of Neptune, if you can still find it, it's still available in print. Does not have spicy scenes in it. Catgirls from Outer Space was at least 20 to 30% rewritten to fit the harem genre. And so you're gonna get something of a different book if you read Cat Girls from Outer Space. But for once you have a selection between the spicy and the non-spicy version of the story.

Yeah, and all of those things in a blender with cat girls thrown in, you really can't go wrong. You can't go wrong with any of those.

Never. Absolutely not when I grew up on anime.

So harem, the harem, I have so the only one that I have read so far is Monster Girl Tamer. I do have Titan Mage and Cat Girls from Outer Cat Girls from Outer Space. Um, they are on my TBR. Monster Girl Tamer was incredibly cute. Uh the it was it was such a good story, and it didn't take itself too seriously. Oh yeah. Harem is very, it's very tongue-in-cheek. It kind of makes fun of itself sometimes. Oh yeah. And I just I love that about it.

That's one of the things that I absolutely love about harem too, because the thing is, I love writing fun, nonsensical stories. And and you know, I'll throw some seriousness in as well. There's this fine balance that you can strike. But because harem is by its nature a kind of absurd concept, literally, the readers are a lot more open to silly concepts, and that makes it uh a lot more like you can do some really, really crazy things in it.

Yeah, I mean I've read some that try to take itself way too seriously, and it's just not as good.

Yeah, I don't enjoy it.

I ended up getting angry at the main character. I couldn't I couldn't even finish it. I just couldn't even finish it. I was so mad at the characters that I was just done. But this is very like tongue-in-the-ones that are tongue-in cheek and don't take themselves too seriously, are just the absolute best.

And I will say that Monster Grill Tamer is definitely my wildest, most comedic one. The other ones strike this really fine balance of of serious, straightforward storytelling with some absurdity thrown in at just the right moments. And uh, and it's it's it's a hard balance to strike sometimes, but uh but it really works when it does. It was wild.

It was wild. So, what made you choose to write uh as a female author in men's romance harem? Because I don't I I haven't harem is something that I've just started kind of getting into, and so I don't know if there are a ton of female authors in the harem genre.

It's definitely male-dominated, but you do have a significant crew of female authors. There's like there's Anya Merchant, there's Eden Redd, there's Misty Vixen. Um, oh, there's there's one who has just fallen right out of my head now, and um, I'll remember it later. But um, oh, Freya Stone, my my one of my audiobook narrators, just released her first harem novel. And uh yeah, Freya Stone's Dragon Bound, which my husband says is the best harem novel he's ever read. So everybody go read Dragon Bound. Um she wrote it. I'm gonna add that one to my TBR too. Um, but um, as far as how I got started, that's another story in and of itself. And so one of so my husband and I have been self-publishing for for about 10 years at this point. And the Edie Sky pen name, though, is only about three years old. And one of his series, um, well, let me back up again. Um, I handle, I do writing, but I also handle all of our marketing. And so one of the things I'll do is go research his books, how they're performing on um, how they're performing on Amazon, what the also bots are. And he has one particular series called The Seraphim Revival, which is a giant robot series. Non-spicy, really straightforward. But I was looking in the also bots and I kept seeing all also bots being like people who bought this book also bought on Amazon, for those who don't know. Um, and I was seeing all these really like hot, boobalicious covers. And I was like, these have nothing to do in common with this series. Like, why are people buying this? And or or why are the same audiences buying this? And so, you know, out of eventually I just saw so many of them that eventually I just bought some and started started checking them out. And uh, and my husband comes up to my computer screen and he sees all of these like titty covers on my screen. He's like, hey, what you doing? And um one conclusion that we come to is that um there's probably an untapped market. And uh we we reasoned that the audience, what it one of the things that it implied was that the audience that is that enjoys giant robots probably also enjoys boobs. And and so we were like, you know what, why don't why don't we try writing a giant robot harem book? And uh and so I I read a bunch of harem books to try to get a feel for the genre, um, because you know each genre has its own little standards, and it was something I wasn't really familiar with at that point. And I discovered that even though it is not directed at me, I really, really liked its tropes because it's very, very straightforward, pulpy, fun adventure. And the thing is, at that time, I had never really enjoyed women's romance because women's romance is it tends to be a lot more um twisty, turny, dramatic. And it's like if if I've just had a dramatic day with my husband, I don't want to go read a women's romance where everything is dramatic. I want simple romance.

Yeah, it's also wild.

Oh, yeah. And and I found some women's romances that um that I do enjoy. And in fact, I literally just launched a women's romance pen name Monday. So so we've got the Arcadia Sky pin name with Into the Arms of the Demon that is up for pre-order now. That's that's a whole other story. Um, but um, but at that time, um, the thing that really landed with me about Harem, about men's romance, was that the romances were equally as important as the adventure. And I was there for the adventure. I loved the absurdity and the the sheer heroism of the adventure, and I liked the way that the main character interacted with his women because the women were supports in the adventure, they were all in it together, and uh and I really, really liked that dynamic. Um, and plus it's just fun, like it's a genre that that at its best doesn't take itself too seriously, and so it's really easy to relax to.

Yeah, yeah. Did you were there any challenges uh when you started writing in the male romance genre?

There there were certain bits of logic I had to get used to. See, one one thing I've always gravitated toward writing male characters, I've never really had any issues writing male characters, but occasionally I would fall into bits where the male character would be a little too passive relative to what male readers want to read. And I was viewing it as him being, you know, introspective or cautious. But the thing is, male readers generally want their heroes to be hyper competent and um and they want them to get everything right. They want them to be a sort of figure you can look up to um rather than someone who makes lots of mistakes. And that's counterintuitive for someone who comes from a different genre because generally you want your you want your character to have significant struggles that they have to overcome. Um, but that's that harem just doesn't have that same logic. Harem is ultimately escapism. And so though there were certain genre things I had to get used to. And then um, but anytime I had a character who or a main character who wasn't acting like a dude, um, I had my husband going through and he'd be like, This is this is how you need to do this. And so he he was my dude advisor.

Um that's a good thing to have.

Oh yeah. And and technically, like the uh we we say the ED Sky pin name is mine. To a certain extent, it's very collaborative. Um, because I I'm a skilled writer. Um, I'm not very good at plotting, whereas my husband is a professional project manager, and uh he is he is very good at outlining and keeping up with lore. And so the two of us actually, um, before I even wrote Titan Mage, which was my first one, um, we sat down, we collaborated on the world building together. He wrote the outlines, and he wrote the first, I want to say two or three chapters, because at that time he had actually read more harem than me, so he was more familiar with the genre. We both started reading at the same time, but I'm just a slower reader. Um, and then he gave me those three chapters. I had caught up on my harem reading, and he was like, go ham. Just and uh, and so from from about chapter three on, I took over the primary writing. And and all of our series under this pen name have been collaborative to a certain extent. Some have been uh the the the way in which they have been collaborative always changes. For example, in Blood Knight, um I was I participated more in the planning. Um, and Jacob did most of the writing because I was working on the Monster Girl Tamer series at that time, and I was initially slated to write Blood Knight, but he had a space between contracts, uh a space between traditional contracts. And he was like, Well, I I don't want to wait six months and just waste six months. Can I just write this? Because I want to try my hand at writing it. And and so he took the lead on uh on Blood Knight and and had a whole lot of fun.

That's awesome. Yeah, I can imagine that uh having your husband who can kind of look over that and be like, well, maybe just change this a little bit. Because it is, it's very different from your traditional fantasy lit RPG to harem, because we do in the traditional stories, we want that growth and we want we don't want that overpowered MC, but in harem, they're not allowed to make mistakes.

Yeah, they can't and they can't stumble and fall. And I I try to straddle the line between that because the thing is when you have a hero who succeeds all the time, it gets boring. And and that is a real problem in some harem stories. And so I have this structure where I the main character always thinks he's making the right decision, and sometimes he will struggle, um, but by the end of the scene, he's he's always won somehow. And uh, and and so that is kind of my my way of balancing it. Um, he never outright loses unless I have a moment where I'm establishing, like, here is the big bad.

Yeah, that's one of the things that I liked about Monster Girl Tamer, is it he wasn't the only one like just protecting his harem, and he wasn't just this all-powerful guy. He relied on the monster girls in his harem to also help fight and do their part, and he didn't always win.

And and that's honestly the the theme of cooperation is a theme that runs through all of my stuff, actually, because it's like obviously harem is male self-insert fantasy, and and it's it's meant to be glorifying of the male character. Uh, but I some of the harems I read early on, I didn't like how the women were basically cardboard cutouts who were who didn't really contribute that much to the story other than sex. Yeah. All of all of my novels are structured around how they help each other somehow. Um, and if if you look at Titan Mage, for example, each novel in that series is structured after a problem that each that a specific girl in the harem has, and Locke, the main character, helps her through that specific problem, and then she eventually supports him. Blood Knight is a bit more obvious, or obvious is not the right word, but uh a bit more intense about that in that Clark, the main character, his magic is directly derived from the strength of his relationships with them, um, with his harem. And uh, and then of course you have Axel, where the the strength is derived from the monster girl's various stats and the way they interact with him. And um so it's the way that they help him power up, man. That's who intimate in more ways than one. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Um, and that's that's one of the funny things about Monster Girl Tamer in particular, because my readers had been asking me to write a lit RPG. And I one of my favorite things about writing in this genre, I I love the genre, and I love genre tropes, and I really love to have a lot of fun with the tropes, both bending them and and taking them to their heights and whatnot. And so when I knew that I was gonna be writing a lit RPG, I was like, I absolutely have to have stats play some kind of role in these sex scenes. Yeah. But it was just it was it was one of the one of the most fun parts of the novel was figuring out how to fit that element um just inextricably into the series.

When you're writing out the books and you are coming up with the characters that are going to be in the harem, how do you develop their unique personalities so that they aren't all just kind of cookie-cutter the same?

I am one of those authors where I honestly don't plan characters all that much. Um now, one thing about it too is that given in the kind of genre that harem is, um, there are there are certain not rules you have to follow, even though there are, but there are certain tropes that just feel natural. Um, there are certain like different one of the big benefits of harem is that you can basically fit in all the types. So you can have the regal girl, you can have the sassy girl, you can have this, that, and the other. Um, but uh so I I do kind of try to work within those tropes. It's like, okay, here's here's the classy one. I already have a classy one, therefore this one needs to be the skanky one. Um, or or you know, it's it's stuff like that. But once the the characters after that just kind of pop into my head and develop their own characteristics. And um, I I've always described myself as there, well, there's a meme where it's like I don't I don't plan so much as watch my characters do stuff inside my head and then write the incident report. That's kind of how it feels. Like my my characters feel like living entities in my head to the point where sometimes if a story is sometimes if a scene is not working, the character will be in the back of my head saying, Well, it's not working because that's not what I would do. Okay, okay. So, and it's it's a funny little thing. Like, if I were not a writer, I would sound insane when I talk about some of these characters. Um But yeah, in in harem is also action adventure, and action adventure is a very trope heavy genre in and of itself. And so one of the things that I do when I'm writing is I always try to write with respect to the genre that I'm writing in.

When you when you guys are building these worlds for your stories, how does the harem aspect affect your world building? Are there certain uh like world buildings or settings that you try to follow because of the harem?

We always try to make the harem somehow integral to the story because well, one one piece of criticism that always comes up for spicy literature is like someone who is not looking for a spicy story will come up and say this sex scene was totally unnecessary to the story. And and I mean it's and I don't say that to condescend to people who like clean literature. I mean, there's it's a separate audience, but we also we're we're writing sexy literature, and given how far I like to push tropes and given how much fun I like to have with those tropes, I was like, we are going to make this a necessary part of the world. And so so no one can come up and say the sex was unnecessary. And so we always try to have some kind of mechanism where where the relationships are either an integral part of the magic system, if not the world itself, or if they just culturally make sense. Like in Titan Mage, Locke's relationships are are not tied into his magic, but there is a cultural reason why the girls want to get with him. And uh it's just that he's he's a really, really rare and powerful type of mage, and uh, and they're like, you know what, void mage babies would be kind of good. Oh so it's like a breeding thing. And it's it's not, it's it's not like breeding, is the simplest way to describe it, but the fact that Locke is a void mage is what makes him very eligible.

Okay, desirable.

That is what the and that's it was there are certain elements of that story that I would have done differently um if if I'd had more experience before I'd written it, because there's there's actually a lot of readers who really didn't like that aspect of the story. Um, because they they they said that because of because that was the way I introduced the harem aspect, it made the sex feel transactional and and not not tied to a genuine relationship. Yeah. And I totally get that. Like in retrospect, I absolutely do. And I mean, if I ever do like a revised edition of Titan Mage, I may tweak that. Um, because it it I I fully understand why readers had that kind of reaction. Now, from from my perspective, I was new to the genre and I was like, okay, this is this is a silly series that doesn't have realistic standards. Um, we're gonna we're gonna be a little bit crazy with it. We're gonna use some different cultural standards. And um, and there were just some things that that didn't work for readers. I mean, it still became my best-selling series and still continues to be my best-selling series. So obviously it didn't bother most, but it bothered enough that it's something that I take into consideration when I design future worlds.

Yeah. And I I like that you take the reader feedback and kind of implement that in future books. Not a lot of authors, I mean, I don't know. I can't say not a lot of authors do that. Um, because I I don't know.

But well, there's there's some feedback that some feedback I take with a grain of salt, because the thing is, a lot of times the most vocal people in a fandom are also going to be the people who have really, really niche enthusiastic interests. And there's been a lot of times where, you know. An an author will see people will see people in the harem community asking for a specific kind of book on Reddit. And you'll have a really, really enthusiastic crew who are like, Yeah, I'll read this. And that crew does read the book, but it's not nearly enough people to um to to make the series a success. And so you always have to be a bit wary whenever you listen to those kinds of recommendations. And uh so I don't I don't take everything my readers say to heart, but if there's a change I can implement that still fits the vision of the story that I'm writing, then I will absolutely apply it.

Yeah. Yeah, and I imagine you wouldn't want to get too niche either.

Oh yeah.

Um, because then you'll alienate just a bunch of the reader base. You are writing in the Titan Mage series still. That's still an ongoing series. Monster Girl Tamer is done with the two books. Uh Cat Girls from Outer Space is an ongoing series.

Well, it's right now it's a standalone. Oh, okay. Well, we do we we do have plans for it to be a series. Cat Girls, Cat Girls is a bit of an outlier in that usually when I release series, I like to release uh uh two or three books at a time. Um, but but because of the way Cat Girls landed, like we got the rights back and we had we we knew we could get it out quickly because I had just finished Titan Mage Havoc and so there was a space. We were like, you know what, let's just let's get this out. Um so it's not just sitting there. Um and and so it's it's a standalone just because we have other projects ahead of it. Um we do have titles, uh, we do have titles for titles and potential outlines for subsequent books. Um, but we've got a my plan right now, we've got to get um Titan Mage Havoc out of the way. Um there's the first series on the Arcadia Skypin name where I'm actually editing book two right now. And uh and so there's there's all those little things that are ahead of it just because of of where it landed. Um but we do plan for it to be at least a trilogy.

Nice. And so when you are working on multiple series at one point in time, how do you uh keep them all separate from each other and like get into the mindset of a specific series when you go back to writing it?

Usually when I say we're working on multiple series at a time, what it means is I am working on one series and my husband is working on another series. Ah and so either of us is like we have our own thing going at the same time. And uh, and because I have well one of one of my biggest challenges as a writer is I also have four different types of OCD. And a lot of the symptoms overlap with ADHD. And that makes focusing and staying organized tremendously challenging for me. Oh, so much fun, right? Yeah, yeah. And and it's like, and I have coping techniques that manage it. Um, and and you know, I get stuff done, but I have to spend about two or three hours each day, uh cumulatively, doing these techniques to get my brain in order. I am mentally incapable of working on more than one project at a time, and often more than one thing per day. Like one of I I'm sometimes people will get on to me about being really slow to respond to messages. And the reason why I am is not because I'm ignoring messages, but because I only check messages on message day. And because if otherwise my brain just goes all over the place and I I can't concentrate enough to get anything done. Not to say I only do it one day a week, but it's like this is message time, and I only answer messages during message time. And uh, and and so I tell people like if they really need an answer fast, literally just harass me and I will get you it. But that's a thing that that's the the OCD significantly affects my productivity, and so I have to have structures in place to manage that.

Yeah, I mean, and I think that's probably for uh a lot of people who go into artistic career fields.

Oh yeah, uh, it's probably a norm. Oh, absolutely. I have I have a lot of author friends who have OCD or ADHD or or really any of the the gamut of anxiety disorders. And it's it's very prevalent in creative spheres, um, to the point where I I I get asked for a lot of advice about how I manage because I not to brag, but I am one of the most successful authors in my sphere, and people often want to know how I do what I do. And come overcoming OCD was such a tremendous struggle for me that I want to be able to help other people through it if I can.

Yeah. Man, yeah, it's uh yeah, it's it's all over the place in this world. I mean, even for uh yeah, it's even for people who aren't writers but writer adjacent, it's everywhere. Um, so who of all of your books that you have written under the ED Sky pen name, who has been your favorite protagonist to write? Like who's been your favorite male character to write?

You know, it's it's actually a minor character in uh in the Titan Mage series. Um favorite character overall. There's there's someone you'll encounter in uh books two on of Titan Mage, and his name is Sevas Lazar. And he's he's this amusing engineer, and um his he is one of the few characters he's he's one of the few characters in the setting who doesn't necessarily follow harem rules um because he is disabled and suffers from chronic pain. Um he's got a leg brace and crutch and whatnot. And he he was a really interesting character to write in his context because his struggles are different from the main character's struggles. And uh being able to write a what one of the fun challenges of his character was writing a character who had realistic struggles related to chronic pain and related to his disability, while also getting to be an adventure-worthy badass. He is he he's he is one of the main characters in Titan Mage Havoc. In fact, the main reason Titan Mage Havoc exists is because I wanted to tell his story, even though he's not the main character, and the main character is his basically brother in all but blood Ryan, and he is the more conventional action adventure um hero. Um but it was just really, really fun getting to explore that type of character um in that type of series. Now, in terms of the uh the main characters, it's tough because they're all so different. And I I loved writing them all, genuinely, but uh, you know, I'm I'm honestly gonna have to say Axel. Um because the thing about Axel is he was he was one of the few characters where because of the comedic nature of his story, I got to let him make mistakes, I got to let him struggle and have these and and have these moments where he's not he he wants to be the hyper competent hero, but his circumstances are so weird that he's like, what do I do with this?

Yeah, he was also so like I don't want to say innocent, but kind of innocent. Like he never dated anyone before. He played video games and tabletop games and like lived in his parents' basement, but like was like a badass at the same time.

Yeah, like just very innocent. And the thing is, he was well intentioned. Like the reason he didn't want a girlfriend is because he knew that someone in his family was likely gonna be the that was gonna be the chosen one, and there was a chance that it could be him, and he didn't want to endanger someone else, like he was gonna wait until after the chosen one thing had passed. And if it wasn't him, get a girlfriend then. But it's like now it's now he's got his his destiny, and his destiny is to date monster girls, but he's never even dated human girls, and it's like, what do I do? Yeah, he goes from dating no one, yeah, having to date all these people, and and not only having to date them, but having to teach them how to use these these new like sentient intellects that they have because the monster girls are accustomed to being monsters, like they're not they're not accustomed to having complex human-like thoughts. And so he's not only gotta date them, he's he's gotta get them introduced to society and teach them that there's a difference between murder and eating. Yeah.

Yeah, he has to teach them all to be civil. Yes. Like we don't lick each other in front of people.

Precisely. No, yeah, he was he was my favorite just because I was I was able to do different things with him. Um, but in truth, like I there's not a single character I dislike. And like even the bad guys I love writing because it's some so many of so many of my bad guys are so deliciously evil. And and those are fun to write to.

Nice. Who has been your favorite uh harem member?

There's so there's there's even more of those to choose from. I know. There's a lot of them. Sloan from Titan Mage. And so so for those who haven't read Titan Mage, she is the cat girl of the group. And the reason why she is my favorite is because her story evolved as I was writing in a way that I did not expect. Um because so Titan Mage Rising, her book, is ultimately a kidnapping story. And when my husband gave me this outline, he did not know that kidnapping stories are actually one of my least favorite tropes. I I cannot stand action adventure where the entire point is to, oh, oh, the main character has a girl. Oh, she's been captured and is off screen for most of the book or whatever. And so I was like, I need to do something to make myself like this style of story. And her, um, she ended up having a really unexpected um familial relationship with another character or familial history with another character in that book, and ended up developing a really, really touching and affecting story that is ults it ultimately becomes a story of Locke helping her through past trauma, which is not something you would expect of a story where a cat girl is on the front cover. No. And and it was, and and not to say that it was dark or anything, but it was definitely an unexpectedly mature story for the kind of outline that we had. And so so I love her character, but I especially love the way in which she surprised me as I was writing her story.

Nice. So if the if if the kidnapped trope is your least favorite, what would your favorite trope be?

Oh man.

Or do you have a favorite? It's okay if you don't. I mean, there's a lot of tropes out there.

I don't know that I necessarily have a absolutely this is my favorite um overwhelming trope. I mean, I I love I love heroic main characters. Like I just I love characters who are the straightforward good guy who they have their beliefs and they stick to them. Um, but I also like I I really love, and this isn't so much a trope, so much as a characteristic, but I really love sassy sexy banter. If if a story does not have banter in it, I don't care. And that's one of the things that draws me to action adventure too, because there's like crazy banter and to a certain extent, like cheesy but also really badass puns. I love puns. Like I I love puns. And I I fit I will try to I'm I'm never I don't like obvious puns where it's like but I really, really love plays on words in general. And you'll find a lot of puns woven into the very structure of my story, uh, or or of a lot of my stories. And for example, one of the ones that I'm proudest of is in Titan Mage Dragon. And I there I came a point there there came a point in the series where I I wanted to have some kind of backstory explaining the dragons um in in this setting because they're they're not very common. And I mean it's it's dragons are cool and you want to have some cool stuff with them. Yeah. Um, and so one of the one of the things that's involved in the Titan Mage series is this failed civilization. Like it's it's a thousand years old. They don't know what happened to it, but it was this massively powerful, hyper-advanced, magical situation that suddenly fell and their artifacts of it left all over the place. The main character is privy to information about this civilization because one of the people who eventually joins his harem is like from that civilization and preserved inside his deck. Um, but and so there comes a point where she tells him the history of the dragons. And I was like, you know what? This this planet has been this the planet of Haven has effectively been settled by the precursors um on the run from something. And they they probably terraformed it beforehand because you know that's just what those things do. And I'm I'm into gardening, and I'm like, you know what? Worms do stuff to dirt, like they make dirt healthy. And worm is another way of describing a dragon. What if the dragons are basically magical terraformers? And and that entirely, and and the dragons therefore became the source of magic on all of Haven. You have areas where if the area has a dragon, it's rich in magic. If the dragon has died, that area has no magic, and it's kind of a ghost area. Um, and its magic returns whenever a dragon comes and lives there. And that it's one of the coolest parts of the world, and it entirely happened because I wanted to make a pull-in on worm. Yeah.

Because you know it's W-O-R-M and W-Y-R-M.

Yeah.

I love it. I actually really like that idea. Uh, I didn't realize the Titan Mage had dragons in it. Oh, yeah.

Well, that story is called Titan Mage Dragon. It's I I have one and two.

Oh, yeah. Well, that's I'm definitely I'm definitely bumping uh Titan Mage up my TBR now because I love a good story that involves a dragon.

It's it's one of those elements of the world where I certain things I reveal in a slow trickle with Titan Mage. So Titan Mage 1 is probably the simplest of the of really it's it's probably the simplest story on my entire pen name. Um, because I was I was not only getting used to the world, I was getting used to writing harem. And so we intentionally kept the story very straightforward, very streamlined. By the end of Titan Mage 1, I felt comfortable inside the world. And so in Titan Mage 2, I became a little more exploratory. And even then, it's still very, very narrow. Like it it affects this one archaeological ruin that they're exploring through, and they're like mimics and all sorts of stuff. Um, but I did a little bit more world exploration. Titan Mage Dragon was where I just went ham. And so you learn a whole bunch about the world. Uh like the the book, it's it explodes. Like Titan Mage Ruin is like this big, Titan Mage Dragon is this big. It's it's huge.

So you have so now you're taking a foray into woman's fan woman's romance. Uh have you is anything about that book public yet?

Or oh yeah, it's a it's like a pre-order on Amazon. It's uh what's that one called? The uh the series is called The Dark Infernals, and the first book is called Into the Arms of the Demon. That's right. And uh and the author name is Arcadia Sky. So we we wanted to make it clear that it was still sort of in the same, like it's the same brand. Um but we had considered releasing it under E.D. Sky, but one of the things about it is that men's romance and women's romance have completely different structures. I mean, we've touched on this, and there was enough difference in this one that we were like, you know what, this just needs its own pen name. I mean, first off, my E.D. Sky stuff is exclusively bright and happy and fun. And Into the Arms of the Demon is a dark romance. The main character goes through some stuff. There's uh there are trigger warnings that are partly advertisement, but also like if you if you don't want to encounter this wild stuff, don't read this book. And and another of the reasons why we established it is because like we've we've had people asking for spicier, crazier things, um, but because it doesn't sell in harem, like we've it was just not possible to do it.

Yeah.

However, in on the Arcadia Sky pin name, where we are basically taking the tropes that overlap with men's and women's romance, and we are bringing the things over that people love about Edie Sky and tweaking some of the things to fit women's romance more. The the relationships are while they're still supportive, um, they're a lot more convoluted and complicated. There's there's there's more drama. Um the the spicy bits are crazier, um, and the um the the tone is a little bit darker. And and and not everything on this pen name will be um will be dark uh romance. Um in fact, I actually have some stuff set in the Titan Mage universe planned for it once we get this first series out of the way. Um, but uh but it's just it's there's there were enough differences that um that we felt it it was it was best suited to another just a brand new pin name.

What is a monster that you would never turn into a monster girl? Is there anything that's just too weird, too stereotypical, too gross? I don't know.

That requires some thinking. Well, the the thing is, I took a monster named the raging butt lord and turned it into a monster girl in book two. So what kind of monster was that? So the the raging buttlord is a k is a monster that shows up in uh monster punk horizon. And the the the joke with this monster is it's it kind of it has this dinosaur-like look. Uh it's this kind of saurian thing, and the but its defining feature is that it's it just has this really, really disturbingly distinctively sumptuous human-looking butt. And and and monster punk horizon is this absurd series, like it's it's that kind of thing is not out of place. And but the joke with the raging butt lord was that so there's Monster Punk Horizon is is heavily inspired by the monster hunter games, and so you know, there's a society that goes and researches monsters and whatnot, and this this particular monster um was new and they needed a name for it, and the serious people had a name that they wanted to apply to it, but the hunters are a bunch of goofballs, and they all voted, and the raging butt lord was the name that won. And and so, and the the description of this monster in in that book is hilarious. And and I wrote this before Monster Girl Tamer was even a thing that I considered, but then when I sat down to plan Monster Girl Tamer, I was like, there is no way I can write this sexy harem book and not have a raging butt lord monster girl with the way I described that monster's butt. And so one of the one of the bad guys that shows up in in book two um is is a transformed raging butt lord monster girl. And she is just she is like buffed, she is thick, she's like a barbarian, and uh and she she was one of my favorite characters to write because astonishingly, she ends up having a really touching story as well. Which I that that happens with me. Like, I some of my most unexpected characters have some of the best stories. Uh, but in terms of anything that is too disgusting or anything, like I I don't really think anything is off limits in that universe. Because the thing is, if someone tells me uh, like if if someone were to bring a monster to me and say, hey, there's no way this could be a monster girl, my brain will immediately go, Oh yeah. I I wonder if I can find a way to make this story work. Because what one of my favorite things to do in writing in general is to take really stupid ideas and make them function. Like one of the funny characteristics of the Wizard's Way, for example, was the The Wizard's Way is a young adult steampunk story about a young wizard who has to team up with a sword fighting pug butler to solve a murder mystery. And the pug butler was not in my original plan, but there there came a point where I was just stuck on a scene and I was like, you know what? I like pugs, I like sword fighting, and I really like this this scene could benefit from a sword fighting pug butler. Let's just see what happens. And he ended up becoming one of the single best characters in the novel. Like he is, he is to this day one of my favorite characters. I I really, really appreciate the challenge of taking an idea that shouldn't work and making it work.

That's hilarious. I guess that's one of the benefits of being a panther, though, is that you can pivot like that when you're writing a story and you're like, oh, you know what, this scene really needs this.

And then it can become like an integral part of the stories and the rest of the series. I do a variant of that even today. Like what I do now to keep my writing a little more under control. So I have my outline, um, and I let my characters and world do whatever, but I have certain restrictions that I work within. And for example, uh, I one of my rules is that if it takes more than X number of sentences to explain this thing, it's too complicated for the story or it risks overcomplicating the world too much. Right. And so it and so if I can't fit the explanation in that small space, I don't use it.

That makes sense, yeah. I mean, that keeps you from just going too crazy.

And because going too crazy is one of the reasons why the sequel to The Wizard's Way never happened. And uh, and and so, well, I mean, I've got I've got 200,000 words of it, but it's not finished. And that's 200,000? Yeah, yeah. It was this this this novel was written before I was diagnosed with OCD. And and now that I look at it from the lens of how OCD affects my writing, I can absolutely see where the flaws are. Um, and unfortunately, there are enough flaws in it that it can't be fixed. Um but and but one of the good things too is that one of the new one of the benefits of the Arcadia Sky pen name is I I reread The Wizard's Way recently and went, you know what, I could rewrite 50% of this and turn it into a romantic. And so one of one of my projects, once I have time, is gonna be to take that and rewrite parts of it and bring it up to my current skill level, bring it up to uh make it more suited to an action adventure romanticy, and then re-release it and continue the series. Um, because I like my I I have readers who have been with me with me from the beginning who love that book, but at this point, the HB Hollow pin name has fallen by the wayside because of the ED Sky pin name. Like I can barely keep up with ED Sky right now. Like I've got so many projects going on between Titan Mage Havoc and Into the Arms of the Demon and two different special editions that we're working on. And I also just went TikTok viral and sold out of all my stuff on TikTok shop. And I'm to the point where I am actually coordinating a traditional size print run of some of my books now. It's like I I can't complain, but yeah, it's a lot of good stuff happened at once, and I am tired. It's it's been an adventure.

That's awesome though. Oh yeah. That's awesome. So I but it's good, it's good to know that you can at some point that it's not impossible for you to go back and kind of rewrite it in the genre.

I I actually it's parts of it have like it's it's been re-outlined for years. Um, well, not I want to say about uh not years, but like one or two years. Um, but other projects have just gotten in the way, which is the story of my life. Like I I have so many projects that I want to get to that if I just had a month, I could finish them, but I don't have a month because all these things are happening.

Yeah.

Are you are you gonna be at any conventions this year? Uh Jacob and I are actually gonna be Masters of Ceremony at LibertyCon in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I think that's gonna that's in late June, I believe. I can't recall the dates off the top of my head. Um, we have applied to be guests at LidRPG Con, but haven't heard back. Um, so once once we hear back, hopefully we will be guests. Uh we are tentatively planning to do LidRPG Con. Um, but we have a we have a low um con schedule this year just because I started this year intending to get into Kickstarters and special editions. And so that's a lot of research, a lot of coordination. And and I love cons. Like I love going to hang out with readers, but they are also disruptions to every single bit of the rocking process. And so we're just like, let's let's take a year, let's get at least two special editions done, and then we can start going to cons because then we can like have those to take. Oh, and that would be exciting. Oh, yeah. And they're they're gonna be gorgeous too. We've got um, we're doing a we're just printing outright a special edition of Titan Mage Havoc and the Frigid Flame, and then we're gonna be doing our first Kickstarter for uh Cat Girls from Outer Space, and these these both are still in coordination. Like I I have gotten so behind on everything. Like this these these were both supposed to be done a month ago, but then my TikTok success hit right before Christmas, and I have been shipping boxes so much that my post office, like my local post office, I they they either love me or they hate me. And they're not I can't figure out which one it is, but they're like, Can you just do you just want to buy a P.O. box here? Because you're here all the time anyway. And it's a good problem to have. Oh, yeah, it's it's an excellent problem to have, but it's also put me like a month late on everything. Yeah. So but I can't complain. It's it's been really fun. And I've I found one of the fun things about this particular um video that went viral is there are a lot of men who have been well, the the video that went viral was a video about the differences between men's romance and women's romance. And I remember that video. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, you're on TikTok too. Of course you've seen it. But but um the the there's a stereotype that men don't like reading romance. And what it is, it's not that men don't like reading romance, it's that men have a different standard for the kind of romance they want to read. And one of the reasons why that video went so viral and why I've gotten so many readers off of it is because there are a whole lot of men in the comments who were like, I've been looking, I've been looking for something like this forever, but I didn't realize it was its own genre. And it gets even more confusing for men's romance because men's romance is not called men's romance, men's romance is called men's adventure because of the stereotype that men won't read romance.

That's such a shame.

Well, it's and and and I I fully understand why. Like adventure is more appealing to even me. Like, I'm gonna read an adventure before I read a romance. Um, and and but it's the the the problem for people who are trying to discover it is that men's romance get buried, gets buried in men's adventure, and you don't necessarily know that that's where romance is because what about men's adventure suggests a romance, except it's cover. And uh, but it was it was it's been really, really cool to apparently have introduced this massive corner of TikTok to a genre they'd been looking for but didn't know existed. And so I mean it's been it's been wild, and it's it's really funny to me because I I used to be a teacher, and this was this was before I even read romance at all. And as a teacher, you really want to get kids to love reading, like literacy scores are are dropping, people don't read for read as much for fun anymore. And I think I have done more for literacy by writing smut than I did as a teacher. I love it. Because like, and I I tried to pick fun, I tried to pick fun books for my kids to read that would get them excited about reading, but you know, it's school, the teacher is recommending it. I have a ton of readers who come to me and say they don't enjoy reading, but they enjoyed my book, and now they're reading more of this nature, or they or it even inspired them to write their own. And I'm just I'm just like it's I I am accomplishing the thing I set out to do in college in a very unexpected way. And it's just yeah, it's it's it's been a really interesting experience. And also just figuring out one of the things I did not expect about the harem readership in general is how wholesome it is. They are like as a so so as a woman, as a conspicuous woman writing for a male-dominated fandom, I fully, fully expected to get an uncomfortable DM at some point. At least a couple, yeah. Oh, yeah. And the the crazy thing is that I have been writing under this pen name for three years and not received a single uncomfortable message. Every single message that I've gotten has been to the extent of telling me that they didn't enjoy reading and now they do, or asking or asking me for stats or world maps. Like my my readers are really into world maps to the point where I absolutely have to produce one now. Like they they will not let me not have a world map. And so I've I've I've painted one for Titan Mage, and then I'm doing an expanded one for Titan Mage Havoc. And um, it's just it's it's really, really like delightful how um how how how completely uncleepy the the readership is. And uh yeah, I love them. Like it and meeting them at cons, like I because I was nervous the first time I went to a con as E.D. Sky, but like a lot of my readers, like they it's it turns out that they also like they've introduced their wives to the books and or their girlfriends, and their girlfriends will be bigger fans of me than they are, even though the man read me first. Like it's which I mean, we women, we love some smut anyway. Like it's of course you're gonna like it, but it's just that dynamic is is is a really, really interesting part of of this readership.

I I mean, and that's something that you would never even oh never imagine.

There's a stereotype that people who enjoy sexual entertainment are perves. I mean, when it comes down to it. And I I think that I I mean, honestly, one of the biggest problems I have with uh American culture in general is how dysfunctional it is with regards to sex. Um, there there's there's actually another video I made about the difference between men's and women's romance, and one of one of my theories about why women's romance is as crazy as it is, um, is because in American society in particular, as a woman, you're either 100% pure or you're on OnlyFans. And there's no middle, there's no middle perception. And because of that, pretty much the only safe place women have to explore ideas of sexuality, because they certainly can't explore it publicly, are in the privacy of books. And and I mean this the romance genre has been the bestseller for decades, and so genres evolve. People find new things that turn them on and and and whatnot. Um but uh but it it frustrates me that our culture doesn't talk intelligently about the deep, meaningful details of sexual relationships. And one of the things that has been enormously gratifying for me is that at least amongst small circles, the fact that I write both men's romance and women's romance, and therefore are introducing some concepts of the differences between them and how both of them think, my readers are beginning to ask those questions and beginning to have more genuine discussions about it and developing healthier relationships because of it. And that's that's really important to me. Sex is such a key part of relationships, and no one is prepared for it when you enter a serious relationship because we don't ever talk about it in a meaningful way.

Yeah, it's always something that needs to be shoved under a rug or kept secret or you know, yo, it's inappropriate.

Yeah. And and the funny thing too is like, even amongst women's, um, like when you get a women's book club, even when they discuss the content amongst themselves, it's always in a teehee. Did you read page 35? Like it's even then it's kind of shy. And not to say you should talk about this disgusting stuff in public all the time, but it's just it's a really, really fascinating and frustrating element of our culture for me.

Yeah, it's surprising um how big the harem genre is starting to get. Like m on TikTok, even my my best video that I've done was my review of a harem book. And it's still, and it was one of the fur, I think it was probably one of the first videos that I did. And it still gets comments and likes and saves. And I'm like, this is wild.

Oh, I I have theories about why harem is suddenly risen too. Um, because I mean there's some variant of men's romance has always been around. Because, you know, I mean, Clive Cussler's been writing forever, or before he died, he's been writing forever. And there's like even if you go back as far as his first book, I wouldn't consider it a men's romance, but there's definitely it's there, there are the the kernels of the men's romance genre in there. And the thing about it is harem harem has been building for about the past 10 to 15 years.

One more question that I always end my um interviews on. If you had one stat or ability that would be your main, what would it be?

Oh my goodness. You know what's what's really astonishing is that even though I write lit RPG, I've never actually thought about this. This is hard. I'm just gonna limit myself to the basic DD stats. That's what I did too. I think I would want my main to be, oh my goodness, I don't even know. Strength, to be honest. Because I I I am not a buff person. And whenever I play video games, I always play the buffest barbarian I possibly can. Like I really want to be, I really want to be able to go like lift rocks and chunk them at things, like big rocks, not little rocks. But yeah, I just that's part part of part of my self-insert fantasy, self-insert is the wrong term, part of my fantasy is just being super ripped. So it's gonna be strength. Going to the gym. Yeah.

Yeah.

Which I'm sorry, I've actually I've started going to the gym recently, and I've actually started putting on a little bit of muscle, and but I discovered I've started putting on muscle in the winter, and I've discovered that my shoulders have like begun to get swole, not full enough that they like that I look bluff, but just big enough that I can't fit any of my winter coats. Oh no. Like just just enough, and it's just so it's like I'm I'm I'm definitely upping my strength stat, but it's like now I have to replace all of my favorite coats because I can't fit any.

Oh no. That's the worst.

But it's also really nice actually having muscle definition. Oh, there's not it.

I love it. Yeah, no, I'm lifting weights all the all the time. I love it. I I will lift weights any day over doing cardio. Oh yeah.

Like you don't sweat as much doing it, but it's ultimately more productive and you can go slower at it. Like I find lifting weights relaxing.

I do too. And you know, the more muscle I put on, the more calories my body burns, so the more fat I'll lose anyway. Yeah. So win-win.

Yeah, it's just it's more effective all the way around. Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself. I do love a good Zumba though. Like, I love my little Zumba classes. I just love to wiggle. I don't even care if I get the moves right. I figure if I'm sweating, I'm good. Yeah. Who cares?

Just have fun with it. As long as it's fun. Oh, yeah. Like as long as it's fun, it doesn't matter. Thank you so much, Edie Sky, for coming on and hanging out with me. Thank you, everybody else, for sticking around. Thank you to my editor, Jennifer. I appreciate all the work you do. Uh, you where can we find you, Edie?

Well, you can find me at edysky.com and arcadiasky.com whenever that gets up. And I I'm literally just getting all of my stuff set up. Um, but as far as social media goes, I'm on TikTok as Edie Sky Author. Um also Instagram, also Facebook, same thing, Edie Sky Author. Um, I'm also on Twitter, but I don't ever use it. Um, but uh the best place to find me right now is TikTok because that's kind of where I live. Perfect. I will link to your socials in the description of the video. Oh, I forgot to plug my Patreon too. Yes, I have I have a Patreon as well, which is also at ED Sky Author. So it's uh I'm I'm currently posting my Arcadia Sky stuff right there, but there's also the complete version of Titan Mage Havoc up as well. So if you want to read that before it comes out in March, you can do that there, or you can do it on Royal Road. And uh yeah.

I'll I'll link to everything. Oh yeah. I will link to all of it. Uh you can, as usual, find me on the web at Iowpod.com. You can find me on YouTube at Iow Podcast. Those are my two main platforms. I will link to everything else in the description of the video. Thank you for sticking around and keep leveling up.