Wolf Teeth || Book I : Summer {M/M} ❄

Hiatus Notice

Hello to all my lovely Wolf Teeth readers,

It's with a heavy heart I write this, but for the time being, I'm putting Wolf Teeth on pause while I consider an intensive future revision for it. I feel terrible doing this, as I know some of you are really invested, and I'm going to be utterly transparent about my reasons in the hope you'll understand why I needed to pause this one!

Normally, I'm pretty committed to finishing a project I've started. Full disclosure, no one has spoken badly of this story so far, and all my feelings on it are my own. However, I started writing this book in 2018 and my plans to rewrite/revise it now have hit a major snag. I'm not the same person, and I've learned a lot over the years that have made me feel that there's certain elements of this story that are insensitive and unaligned with my own values. I truly believe stories matter and have social impact, but when I began writing this I hadn't yet found a way to marry my values with the messaging in my books. What's more, the vast majority of SFF books I had as influences were rife with oppressive allegories like the ones in Wolf Teeth. It almost seemed a part of the genre standard to include worlds with a fantasy-equivalent of oppression. The problem I have with this is it's often reductive, and often redemptive of the oppressors. I've inadvertently written that into my own story, and it's made worse by the fact my cast is very diverse: largely queer, POC, disabled, or some intersection of the three.

I did this as a trans queer person because I wanted to see the diversity of our world reflected in the fantasy I love, but hadn't yet realized how the world-building of my stories could create mixed messages. I wasn't aware of the way this dystopian setting I'd built would lead my story in a direction I'd never intended. I'm not sure if this is making sense but, basically: I don't believe in an enemies-to-lovers story where the man who used to be a force of oppression in the life of the love interest redeems himself and wins the love interest's heart, and I think it's insensitive and potentially harmful that the oppressor in this scenario is a gay Black man. As a white person, I don't want to write something that could be harmful. The story I intended to write was about family--both family by blood and found family. I felt like werewolves made for a great queer allegory, with packs forming queer found families, but I fell down when it came to the world-building. I didn't create this dystopia with enough intention, and that pulled my messaging off course, something I'm extremely sorry for and ashamed of. I literally never want to write something that could be hurtful, and I'm afraid that's the direction this story is going. It's also just not the story I intended to tell. This isn't something I can fix without a full rewrite where I set the story in a different world with a different set up for the two protagonists.

Honestly, some of this is also exacerbated by the fact I feel like I live in a dystopia now. Hopefully this is not too personal to share, but as a trans person about to embark on a medical transition journey while separated from a lot of my friends and family back home, I'm not excited to write a story that doesn't involve a heavy dose of light and hope. That's simply not Wolf Teeth. To add to these feelings, I'm juggling way more than I normally would be in my day-to-day life. I really need to write something where I can express some of the feelings and experiences I'm currently going through.

Wolf Teeth isn't dead, I want to rewrite it one day, but I don't think I have enough building blocks to start right away. A new idea for a setting and premise needs time to cook. In the meantime, I have other ideas that I'd been putting off that I finally do feel ready to tackle. I'm undergoing medical transition, and I'm feeling pretty desperate to write a character from my own trans experience. That story will start very soon. 

I understand if you are upset about Wolf Teeth getting paused, but hope you understand why it needed to happen! I very much love these characters and want to do right by them, but I also want to do right by my readers, and I think a rewrite will achieve that end much better. 

Thanks so much for reading, for supporting, for sharing your feelings as you read! It's my hope I can still bring joy and entertainment through the stories I write in the future, or rewrite in the case of Wolf Teeth.

Much love! <3