AUTHOR'S NOTE (SUBTITLE: IN WHICH THE AUTHOR RAMBLES BY WAY OF MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME)
Alas, this is not an update. I'm so sorry. I was thinking about just editing the last author's note, but then some old readers might not see it. I had posted this notice on my user profile quite some time ago, but lately I've had a few kind messages come through that made me realize not everyone reads/stalks the user profiles, and hence why I am letting it known here that the notice is this: I HAVE NOT ABANDONED WRITING. I did, for about a month, around the time the last author's note was posted. It was a bit of a mini-depression episode, I think. To save you the long boring details, I got out of it, I went back to writing, finished a few old fanfics, cranked out a novella, and won a short story contest. It was like God was just grabbing me by the shoulders and turning me around onto the road of writing again, saying, "See? This is what I want for you. Now stop moping and start doing."
So what does this mean for you darling readers? First of all, I can't thank you enough for the kind words you gave me, then and now. It was so encouraging to read your comments. In fact, I just reread them, and honestly it made me tear up a little. I'm incredibly blessed to have you guys. And if you don't mind being patient with me and putting up with a few more months, I will have updates for you! I swear! I'm never going down that "woe is me" path again. Not with writing. If anything, that month of ignoring all my stories just proved to me that even if I don't get anywhere with them, they are still incredibly dear to me.
Now then, the bothersome news: I'm in college-yay!-which means I'm busy-boo. I'm trying to crank out an anthology of original works and self-publish that to make a few extra bucks, do homework, survive German, and have a social life. And so I have decided that I will focus on my original works during the school year and my fanfiction projects during the summer. Including this one, I have about four works that are still ongoing in the fanfiction arena. "Spirited Around" is arriving at its climax (and that should be interesting because it's an action-y story and since beginning that series I have realized that I cannot do action-y worth crap), "The Thousandth Summer" I am considering dropping but have not decided yet, "Before She Leapt" has hardly even started yet but I have some vague idea of where it's going, and this story. Ah, this story. I have most of it plotted out, but it's a much trickier project in many ways than the others. All my other stories have been spinoffs or sequels and as long as I followed the original plot, I was pretty much okay. With this story, though, I want to keep familiar territory while making it fresh. And I want it to be deserving of you guys. That's why in the past, "Destiny" never was really updated very much. I feel intimidated by it, because I never meant for it to get this far. I expected it to maybe be fifteen chapters, tops, not seventeen and not even close to being done.
But I will finish. And God willing, it will be good, or at least not something that will make me embarrassed to read a few years down the road. The game plan will be to finish "Spirited Around" (FINALLY), come up with some concrete plan for "Before She Leapt", and post a few chapters of "Destiny" this summer. It probably won't be a lot, but it will be something, and I hope you will like it.
In case you would like teasers, the title for a future chapter which I am actually very excited to write (but probably won't be for a few more installments) is this: In Which Lettie is Bespelled.
There. Now you know I am not dead/anti-writing, because self-loathing ghosts do not generally write this much. ;) Actually, it's 1:30 at night and I ramble at night. Yep. But it's been a while since most of you have probably heard from me, so here you go!
As always, thanks for your patience. I will see you in the summertime! (Hopefully sooner though!)
-Alyssa