maex
Woman with dark hair wearing catrina makeup and holding a painted skull, surrounded by vibrant pink flowers. VERSION 2.0 SUMMER 2026
Can I tell you a story?

Before the platforms ate everything, people made the internet.

Once upon a time in the '90s, I taught myself to code instead of making friends in middle school. I'd learned the term fan fiction and wanted to share the stories I'd been scribbling in notebooks during math class on the internet.

(The stories sucked then, but I got better tens of thousands of words later in the 00's.)

I'm not interested in twisting my work to beg the algorithm for a boost. I write because I've been a writer since I could pick up a pen. I share freely because fandom made me the writer I am today.

-- mae x maya
maya.
featured

essays & notes

nonfiction
May '26
The Trick is to Keep Breathing

Notes on Version 2.0

Just shy of six months into this website, I have no idea if anyone is reading. (Just like high school!) Seemed like the perfect time to indulge the urge to redesign this whole website with a bit of nostalgia for the design elements I've always been drawn to...

Notes
Jan '26
A Site of One's Own

Notes on Why This Site Exists

A short intro to who I am, where I'm coming from, and my personal history of the internet jumbled up with a meditation on this site's opening and purpose. (Yes, I was diagnosed with ADD as an adult, how did you guess?!)

Notes
The manifesto the author & artist v2.0

creating from the margins & living outside the algorithms

Being online has become exhausting.

I built this site because I refuse to participate in platforms owned by billionaires that amplify fascists and nazis. I'd rather bypass traditional publishing entirely than be required to use X or Meta to chase the algorithm and "build a brand" for followers.

I write what I want. I'm beholden to no one's vision for my work except my own.

Fuck ICE. Free Palestine. Let trans people live freely!