Dear Readers,

Where do I start? I would be nothing, if not for you. I cannot express how grateful I am to have had your love and support through the last eleven years. Yes, there have been ups and downs, and I've received my fair share of flame and unkind words, but for the most part, you have been steadfast in keeping me on my toes, keeping me inspired, and of course—most importantly, keeping me writing.

That is why it is so hard for me to say farewell. I am leaving fanfiction and heading out into the wide and dangerous world of original novel writing. I am nervous, but I am also very excited. I have a lot of ideas for stories and characters that are important enough to me to want to give them their own voice in their own universe.

Also, I spend a lot of time writing and I would very much like to get paid for it.

I do not expect most of you will follow me, because the bulk of my fanfiction writing has been erotic romance or adventure romance (also erotic) and almost all of it has been male x male. My first novels, to the surprise of most of you I'm sure, will be horror. I have always wanted to write horror. It's my passion; it's what I like to read.

If that is disappointing to anyone reading this, don't give up on me quite yet. I am not throwing out romance altogether. That would be dumb. I mean, isn't that why most of you stuck around? I think if I had to pick one thing my stories were known for it was the angst, right? So my first novel might be about a town that is being overrun by corrupted nightmares literally manifested out of the townspeople's dreams, but at the core of the story, it's about a girl trying to connect with a brother she never knew she had and then meeting his handsome best friend—who just happens to be trying to recover from the trauma of his alcoholic wife leaving him alone with their ten year old son. That has potential for some angsty romance, right? And even when writing horror do you think I could write a book without a sex scene? Haha no.

Also, note: I do not plan on tossing out my LGBTQ writing roots either. Horror is an easy platform for representation.

That being said, I will miss fanfiction. I will miss the easy access of people to talk to and compare story ideas. I will miss the instant gratification I get with each chapter posted, and the sweetness of waking up in the morning with notifications of kind words from people I've never actually met, telling me about how they look forward to when I post or how something I wrote moved them in some way. I understand with writing books I will still have an audience, I will still have readers, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I will miss the intimacy of the fanfiction community.

I'm still going to read stuff though. No matter where I go or what I ultimately end up doing, I will still curl up and devour a smutty fanfic once in a while. I don't think I will ever get enough Sanji and Zoro, or Bucky and Steve, or various people and trolls in Homestuck, or even Aragorn and Legolas being put in adorable and sometimes compromising situations. So please, if any of you write, or if you create fanarts, keep doing so, because I appreciate all of it.

I think that was all I wanted to say, so I leave you with this, dear readers. I will miss you. I will leave my works up unless someone official says I have to take them down. I will check my Facebook and Tumblr now and again if anyone wants to stop by and say hello. Thank you all so much for eleven wonderful years. I wish you all the best.

Forever yours,

Stark Black

P.S. If you want updates on what I'm doing, follow me on FB at "Stark Writings".