FAQ

Hi! I’m Xiaq or E.L. Massey IRL.

You can find me on:

Instagram Here

Bluesky Here

AO3 Here

Substack Here

elmasseywrites@gmail.com

My published works are Like Real People Do (Aug 2022), Like You’ve Nothing Left to Prove (May 2023), All Hail the Underdogs (Aug 2023) and Free from Falling (Dec 2024) which started nearly a decade ago as OMGCP fic. The latter two are standalone books, the first two must be read together.

I’m currently working on an adult fantasy original fiction series as well as Star Trek fanfic on AO3.

If you’re looking for downloaded fic versions of LRPD and AHTU, I can’t send them to you for contract reasons, but I CAN direct you here and here where you may find folks who are willing to assist :)

You can purchase my published work via My Publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or anywhere books are sold in the US.

5% of royalties from my first book, LRPD, goes to a queer charity each month. So far, readers have helped support Out Youth, Austin LGBT Coalition on Aging, The Dru Project, Dallas' Resource Center and Magic City Acceptance Center. If you want to suggest a charity for future donations, you can do so here via chat or any of the above listed ways to contact me.

Deacon is my 12 yr old, mostly retired, service dog. He's a Belgian Mal and I do not recommend Mals, as a breed, for service work. He's a special boy. Feel free to message me if you want to talk about SD stuff.

If you're looking for student stories/tales from my time in academia, the tags are #shitmystudentssay or #shitmystudentswrite or #academia.

If you’re looking for DIY/renovation content, the tag is #DIY

For posts about my partner, the tag is #B

I will not share or donate to any fundraisers unless I know the beneficiary, or someone I know can confirm they know the beneficiary.

I was telling my mom about how I’ve been decorating our rooftop deck, but was bemoaning the fact that the wind kept pulling up the rug on one side.

“Just put some shot in bags and weigh it down on the corners,” she suggested.

“Mother,” I had to remind her, “not everyone has a bunch of lead shot hanging around so they can make their own shotgun ammunition.”

“Oh,” she said. “Right.”

I’ll ask Deacon, “will you do x for a treat?” And he will 100% always do x for a treat. I can literally pose this dog in any silly position and he will not move until I tell him “ok, all done!” because he knows his reward is coming. What a good and patient boy.

Reading Roundup: I started the month strong with Lights Out which has the (dubious?) honor of being my first “dark/stalker” romance. Considering the premise, I didn’t expect to spend much time laughing, but I legitimately lol’ed multiple times.

Next up was Don’t Let the Forest In, which is a YA story that’s dark and twisty in all the ways my teenage self would have positively salivated over.

I did a comfort re-read of One Last Stop (time travel! pining! found family!), and followed it up with Ninth House (mystery! intrigue! dark academia! And some of the most lyrical writing).

Hazelwood’s newest, Deep End, did not disappoint, featuring a delightfully complex female protagonist and a tall man who falls first and falls hard, as usual.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance has a really interesting take on the arranged marriage trope, some A+ world-building, and the sweetest slow-burn (mind the warnings on this one, as a significant component of one MC’s character development is dealing with the aftermath of sexual assault).

Finally, my favorite read this month was Yield Under Great Persuasion. If you’re looking for a book that’s enemies-to-lovers except they’ve been sleeping together for years and also only one of them thinks they’re enemies and the other has been quietly waiting for the former to get his head out of his ass (while engaging in some of the snarkiest yet simultaneously wholesome banter imaginable), this is the book for you.

Also if you’re looking for a book where the primary conflict is internal (personal growth! Self-care! Healthy mechanisms for dealing with loss!) rather than external, this is the book for you. Bonus points for a very neat and subtle take on small country gods/folklore. And for being explicit about the sex in a way that felt not at all contrived and very relatable in that “ah, damn, your body is magnificent but it seems I’ve developed feelings as well” sort of way. Rowland simply doesn’t miss.

And this concludes my March reading adventure. Please give me recs for my never-ending TBR!

A snorkel + underwater headphones has changed my lap-swimming game. I swam nearly an hour straight today through an entire sleep token album before I was like. Hm. Perhaps I should stop before I die.