I don't like talking about my own stuff too much, because it makes me sound like a walking ad and like many people, I have a strong dislike for ads. Unfortunately it seems I have played the "be unobstrusive in your self promotion" game way too well because I regularly hear people being surprised to learn that I do in fact dabble in original stuff. So expect me to make some self-promotion posts from now on, because I do quite a lot of stuff aside from writing literary analysis of obscure pieces of media and porn fics of my favorite characters.
Anyways, the first book I have ever published is Lion in Human Hide, an urban fantasy story about college kids meeting ancient gods and realizing that there are many skeletons in their family closets.
The title, Lion in Human Hide, comes from an in-universe saying: Lion in Human Hide, would eat the Sun to stay alive, a way to refer to someone who is willing to do anything for the sake of their goal, including devouring the sun itself. As such, a major theme of the story is thus:
What
Are you
Willing
To do
To achieve your goals?
Would you give up on your body? Your limbs? Your organs? Your secrets? Would you make your loved ones grieve for a decade if it meant keeping them alive? Would you curse them down to their marrow if it meant keeping them alive? Would you sacrifice the few to save your many? The many to save your few?
Would you make yourself a lion, sacrifice your humanity? What does it even mean, to be human? Is it decided by your body? Your soul? Are you still human if society has deemed you worthless, broken, useless? Are you still human if you have grown claws, teeth, feathers? Are you still human if you have done horrible, horrible things- the kind people only whisper about when the night is at its darkest?
What does it mean, to want something more than anything?
Tl;dr: it’s a story about humans, and monsters, and gods, and the terrible things one would do (the terrible things one would become) for the sake of love. If you've ever seen me write about the line between human and monster, about what extreme circumstances do to people, about isekai protagonists with strong opinions on their other world, and thought to yourself "whoa this is cool I wish Verse wrote more of that," perhaps you will like it.
You can buy it on amazon over there, on itchio over there, and on other various ebook stores over there.
(And for those who have already read it, did you know that I have a mailing list? If you want to be kept up to date for my new releases, you should subscribe!)