CHAPTER TWENTY NINE #3
“Good. Very good. This is–” She looked to Chloe, then back to him.
“Wow, what are the odds? All right, so, this is off the record for the moment, mostly because we want to surprise people with it, but I’ve been toying with the idea of publishing official written content for Recovery.
It’s our baby and honestly, we have so many ideas for it that we want to keep the franchise going for a while.
And one of the big ideas was that we wanted to hire the best writers from the community to create this content. And you absolutely made the shortlist.”
Gabe felt like the world had just dropped out from beneath him and like he was tumbling. There was no way this was actually happening. Before he got too excited, though, he felt a stab of uncertainty as something occurred to him.
“So, um...you know about Recovery After Dark, right?” he asked.
“Yes, I do,” Aria replied with a small smile. “Honestly, that’s part of the reason why you made the shortlist.”
“Because I wrote porn fan fiction of your game?”
She laughed. “Because you wrote good porn of my game. And because it was so well-integrated with the main story. So–again, under the table for right now–one of the big things we’re leaning into this time around is romance.
Everyone loves romance, everyone wants it in their games.
Or, at least, most everyone who is likely to play Recovery.
That’s part of what’s made it taken longer, writing all the potential relationships. ”
“Oh my fucking God, yes,” Chloe whispered intensely. “I have been wanting that so bad.”
“You are not alone,” Aria replied. “We’ve been very into it. Lots of options. But here’s the thing: we are not shying away from sex. At least, not nearly as much as most other games. We’re not doing full-blown sex scenes or anything, but there’s going to be sexy stuff and nudity in the game.
“I’ve been wanting to try and bridge the gap between ‘erotica games’ and ‘everything else’ for a long time now, and it’s becoming more of a thing in novels.
Increasingly there are novels that are otherwise typical fantasy or sci-fi, but have a romance subplot that’s a more significant part of the narrative and involve non fade-to-black sex scenes.
So what I’m saying is, I would encourage you to write more of what you’ve already written, because we will absolutely publish it.
In fact, based on everything I’ve read, I would like Recovery Echo Four–sex scenes and all–to be the first officially published novel under our imprint. ”
Gabe felt that fading falling feeling coming back again.
There was no way this was happening. But it definitely was, he knew he wasn’t asleep right now.
Was there something he was missing? He honestly couldn’t think of anything.
This seemed like a tremendous opportunity, and everything about Aria and her studio’s business practices had indicated she was fair and reasonable.
“That’s...a lot,” he murmured finally.
“Absolutely take time to think about it. I need to finish looking over all the legalities of publishing novels anyway, but everything I’ve read so far indicates it really isn’t that complicated.
We’ll likely draw up a couple-page-long legal document protecting you and us, laying out conditions, royalties, stuff like that, and it can be adjusted before signing.
Thanks to the ebook market and self-publishing, it’s easier than ever to make this happen and actually get it out to the masses...
I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but this is really exciting.
Recovery Echo Four is my personal favorite of everything I’ve read. ”
“Man, really?” She nodded. “Why?”
“Well, besides being written in a way that is both clean and compelling, you clearly get the world, the atmosphere, the vibe. The message. The game means different things to different people, to be sure, but overall it’s a message of hope, and protection against the ethical decay of greed and hatred and fear that’s honestly pushing us into a world like Recovery.
And you get that. And you write very compelling characters.
Actually, I wanted to ask, what else do you have written?
I’ve read the other fan fiction on your profile, but couldn’t find anything else. ”
“Ah. Yes. Well, I pretty much didn’t get serious with writing until about six months ago, and all I’ve got right now is a pen name that writes erotica.”
“Yeah, all you’ve got after you’ve taken off almost immediately,” Chloe replied, rolling her eyes.
“Well, let’s not set unrealistic expectations,” Gabe said.
“Gabe, don’t worry. I’m not looking to go into business with you because I think you’re going to make me rich or anything.
I’m making this offer because I want to add more to the canon of my world, I want to give the fans more of what they want, and in different ways than one medium.
Video games are great, but so are books, and we can have both.
And I’ve always wanted a multimedia shared universe for Recovery, but it’s kind of been out of reach until just recently. ”
“That sounds so cool...and I’m almost certainly going to say yes to this if you decide you really want to offer this to me.”
“I’m pretty confident I won’t change my mind. Ah, food’s here. Why don’t you two tell me about how you got together?” Aria suggested as their meals were set before them.
Gabe chuckled, glancing at Chloe, who simply smiled and nodded.
“Well…”