My Thoughts On "Alterlife," Milo Winter, And Moving On As A Writer

Disclaimer: this post is not directed towards Milo Winter specifically, nor anyone on or affiliated with his team.

via Instagram

My coworkers are incredibly supportive of my writing, and that's led to some interesting conversations about craft, the industry, and my own projects. These conversations have more than once been the key to figuring out something I've been getting stuck on and finding inspiration both in terms of fiction and this blog.

Several of my coworkers have a downloaded copy of Bound to the Heart, one of my Regency romance WIPs about a bookseller-turned-sibling-chaperone and a hopeless romantic with a grieving heart and an overbearing mother determined to see her wed to a proper suitor by the Season's end. The company "book club," so to speak.

Not long ago, one of the "book club" members mentioned in passing that he hadn't finished reading my WIP yet but promised he would. The conversation eventually shifted to the project I'm currently working on, the one I've been known to be working on in short bursts during the lulls of my shifts, which also happens to not be the one the "book club" has.

This was also a short bit after Milo Winter's release of Alterlife, a poetry collection, and it got me thinking.

Milo Winter is a name that probably sounds familiar to you. In 2025, he released his highly anticipated fantasy novel, The Age of Scorpius, which was poorly received, with many readers saying it felt unfinished and unpolished. Winter's comments about this feedback only added fuel to the fire, and it quickly garnered attention well beyond the bookish corners of the internet.

In response, Winter said he would be making substantial changes to The Age of Scorpius and releasing a second edition. And for a while, I think a lot of his readers were disappointed but cautiously optimistic about those changes. As I mentioned in my post about the controversy, I had hoped this could be a learning experience for him. Getting negative feedback as a writer can sting, especially when it's a story you've been working on for a long time, and Winter was receiving it in spades with thousands of eyes on him. And a lot of fellow writers, I think, felt for him—initially, at least.

The controversy didn't peter out with his video outlining the steps he had in mind to rectify the situation. The promised updates became less frequent (though, if he's actively working on revising his novel, I could understand why that might be the case because, let me tell you, it can be hard to stay consistent on social media when you've got a book to write), and some report that some of those updates are now behind a paywall.

Then came High Disturbance, a personal essay from Winter that was contentious in its own right.

Most recently, Milo Winter published another book: a poetry collection titled Alterlife.

I am far from the right person to critique poetry—it's honestly the area of writing I feel the least confident in—so for a more in-depth look at the poems in Alterlife, allow me to suggest these videos from the SBU English Club and Rachel Oates if you're interested in an assessment of Winter's poetry.

Apart from the critiques of the poetry featured in Alterlife, much of the conversation I've seen about it revolves around the timing of it all. Reviewers have mentioned that it felt rushed, whereas other creators have said it felt like a distraction from The Age of Scorpius, expressing concerns that he was working on Alterlife instead of the revisions or that this was a way to take a step away from the catastrophe of his novel's release.

That, combined with the aforementioned conversation with my coworker about having multiple projects of my own, has left me with complicated feelings.

One thing I do want to address is the use of multiple pen names. I've heard some criticism regarding his decision to publish the poetry as Milo Prather as opposed to Milo Winter.

First off, on the name change as it pertains to the author's Trans identity: in the weeks following The Age of Scoripus's tumultuous release, Milo Winter shared that he is Trans, uses he/him pronouns, and will be called Milo going forward. I saw commenters imply or outright state that the timing of this felt off somehow, like he was adopting this new name to separate himself from the controversy, especially since this announcement was at the end of an essay in which he compared himself and the fallout of The Age of Scorpius to a wildfire. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

It's also pretty normal for authors to use different pen names for different genres. Willow Winters also writes as W. Winters, with her darker romances published under the latter. She explains on her FAQ page, "I found that sometimes the books were strikingly different in terms of the feelings they evoked. One light and contemporary romance with those ooey gooey book feels (with the occasional gasp and gut punch) and then others were much darker, more suspenseful, more hold-your-breath throughout most of the book type of book feels. I simply separated the two to make it easy for readers to differentiate and know what exactly they’re about to read based on which pen name is on the front cover."

In other words, having two pen names helps Winters's readers select the books that are right for them.

This also extends into leaps between genres. If I were to branch out into horror, I'd publish those projects under a different name so my romance readers aren't caught off guard by picking up something darker and grittier than the rest of my books.

Suffice it to say, Winter publishing Alterlife as Milo Prather does make some sense. I don't think it's because he's trying to distance himself from The Age of Scorpius. It could simply be his way of keeping his poetry and fiction in different zones. Had he created an entirely new social media profile for it or had chosen a pen name that wasn't as similar to Milo Winter, that might be a different story.

This also coincides with his seemingly sudden move from the US to Finland, adding to the comments about Winter wanting to distance himself from The Age of Scorpius or even fleeing to evade taxes. That's not something I'm going to speculate on, either.

My feelings about these Alterlife conversations are mixed.

On the one hand, I do agree with those saying Winter ought to rein in his focus and work on revising The Age of Scorpius. Money changed hands. Therefore, there is an expectation of a quality product.

Had The Age of Scorpius been considered not to a reader's personal tastes but otherwise fine enough (i.e., a polished manuscript), I don't think the controversy would have spiralled as it did. That, combined with Winter's subsequent responses. The demands for answers and accountability are valid, especially now that Winter has assured readers that he is working on a second edition of the novel that intends to remedy a number of its issues—only to be met with increasingly loud crickets and a sudden poetry drop.

I understand the collective frustration with Alterlife and why readers feel like it's not the right time for Winter to be releasing another book. He made a commitment to make things right with his audience, one that involves a lengthy editing process and consistent updates. Between those updates becoming unavailable to the wider public and infrequent, and his announcement of a poetry collection that nobody asked for, it leads you to wonder if he's been working on that instead of The Age of Scorpius.

But I also get the desire to shift to another writing project. I've done it several times over, myself.

The first novel I ever started was called Guises to Keep, which you may have seen me describe as "Regency Era Downton Abbey." Like Winter, I worked on that book for years and years, starting as a high school freshman all the way until a few years after college. The only breaks for me were to work on assignments for writing classes, one of which was the origin for Bound to the Heart.

In retrospect, I'd known Guises to Keep wasn't working—at least, not in that moment. It had far more issues than I could fix at the time, many of which would require a complete retooling of its plot, making the love interests less toxic, and refining my narrative voice as a whole. Working on Bound to the Heart as a college senior, compared to working on Guises to Keep as a high school freshman, there's clear evidence of my growth as a writer; part of that, however, involved me growing apart from the project. There is still so much I appreciate about it. It's the book that taught me how to write a book (and, admittedly, how not to write a book in some respects). It still has value, even if it won't see the light of day. But there are just as many things I don't feel the same about as an almost-30-year-old.

As a teen, I was certain Guises to Keep would be my only book. A one-hit-wonder. I didn't know what I'd do beyond that because nothing else seemed as interesting of an idea.

Bound to the Heart was the book that taught me that I can, and frankly should, write other things. Even though it's not in a publishable state yet, it's significantly better than Guises to Keep. But as was the case with Guises to Keep, there came a time when it needed to be shelved for the moment. Bound to the Heart has its issues, too. They're not as glaring as the ones in Guises to Keep, and I expect they'll be easier to fix when I'm able. It's just not its time yet.

There have been a handful of other projects along the way, but my current one, A Tided Love, is the last I want to highlight for this post. It's a second-chance romance set in a seaside resort town about a widow and the man she met on a summer holiday a decade before, and I've been working on it on and off since NaNoWriMo 2023.

Everything about A Tided Love feels different. Even though I've been going back and forth relentlessly on outlining and ultimately giving in to my Pantser urges, it's the most confident I've felt about a story idea since Guises to Keep, and the most confident I've felt about myself as a writer in a long while.

It feels like the book I need to write for myself now, in a way that others haven't. I've discovered so much about myself through this WIP so far, and I've loved discovering the story as I write it. Letting go of outlines quickly rendered obsolete has been one of the best things for me as a creative being.

And I know I wouldn't have gotten to that point if I'd kept myself locked into working on Guises to Keep.

It's been through these other projects, the experimentation and exploration, where I've been finding my own self as a writer and developing those skills that I could bring back to Guises to Keep if I ever decide to dust it off for old time's sake.

Here's the thing: shelving that WIP sucked. But I've grown so much since putting it on the shelf and starting on other projects.

However, Milo Winter isn't in the same position. And right now, The Age of Scorpius is what he absolutely needs to be working on. That's not to say he cannot write poetry or even another work of fiction on the side. The issue is that he is no longer just a writer. He is a business (even without The World of Gardian, LLC existing) because money has been exchanged. Customers are unhappy. That would be one thing, but there's also the public spectacle that this has all become.

Moreover, he has promised his audience that he is going to rectify things by releasing a second edition of The Age of Scorpius. He's assured his customers that there is a plan in the works. Had I pre-ordered The Age of Scorpius and found it nowhere near my expectations but was holding out hope for these revisions, this diversion into poetry would feel like a slap in the face. As if he'd taken my money and run with it.

I guess what I'm trying to say in all of this is that, as much as I support writers trying new things, there is a time when you have to stick to the plan. Right now, Milo Winter owes his readers that—or, at least, an explanation.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have in the comments, especially if you pre-ordered The Age of Scorpius. How do you feel about this poetry collection being released while waiting for more news on the second edition?