Here at the House of Roubaix, I do pretty much everything save editing and cover design. This means that I am my own commissioning editor, the person who decides what to work on and publish. I do not make it easy for myself.
Among my absolute snarl of author documents and spreadsheets is a huge file ominously labeled "Story (and other) ideas." I'm not totally sure what "other" was meant to refer to — perhaps series? — but I fear that I'll someday go into a tab and find my lost bbq sauce recipe or plans to take over a small portion of the world.
I want to reassure you: stories do not get benched because they're unhinged; every idea of mine is unhinged in some way. They gather digital dust for good reasons such as I'm not that excited to write them, I can't see the opening scene yet, or I'm not really sure that I can sustain the heat and excitement of the conceit for even a short book.
Most recently, I had a brilliant terrible idea. You know those classic books about famous inventors or political leaders for children? Very rah-rah great man stuff, minimal engagement with recent historiography, that sort of thing? OK SO...
Stories about how great inventors got their ideas from sex
Gustave Eiffel takes part in a proto-eiffel tower and solves his design problem. Richard Trevithick runs a train and then invents the steam train. Series title: Inventive Fucks in History.
If you're currently reading this wondering where the download links are...two problems (at minimum): I would need to commission some illustrated covers to stick with the Great Fucks in History theme (fam, I'm tired as it is) and the concept feels pretty one-note to me. What could I possibly do in the manuscript that would top the conceit?
Then there's the small issue that I know zero about these inventors and how they'd feel ending up in Real People Smut in 2026.
Still, it's a funny thing to think about, right?
In other cases, ideas rest in my file, waiting for the day I work out how to do them justice. [I have Legend of the Bucks, the dark Georgian origin story of the Grand Bucks club — which appears in Shared by the Grand Bucks and the A Few Good Bucks series — in my drafting plans now by the way. I finally feel like I might be able to write something that epic.]
