I was contacted by a user here on inquiring about the status of my stories, in particular The Journey Home but it wouldn't hurt to include The Malefor Chronicles into this. I gave permission for him to post my response as a review but I think me posting it as an update would be far more effective as notifying you guys. I don't know if there are many people left here who even GIVE a darn about the fate of these stories but here we go. I'd wanted to do an "update" of sorts for years but to be honest I'd forgotten my own log in password XD;
I'll post my response to his PM which sums up pretty much everything I'd wanted to say in a broader update:
Hey there. Yeah you've got permission to put it as a review although I think it'd be better I post an update myself. Nobody would be alerted to the posting of your review. It's been quite a long time since I did anything with these stories, and to be honest I'd forgotten my login to this website!
In answer to your questions I'd wanted to do a final chapter for The Journey Home for such a LONG time. I had at least ten different drafts that I just found unworkable. Each time I scrapped them and started over because it just didn't feel right, it felt too rushed. Finally I just ended up moving on to other projects. I've wanted to come back and at least give the ending I had wanted to for TJH as I have only one more planned chapter, maybe two if the epilogue is too long.
Another reason why I stopped is because the original ending I had planned for the Journey Home was thematically set in stone from the word go, but as the story came along and was flushed out more I found the original idea for the ending kind of... not as satisfying as it could or should have been. The original thematic ending was meant for a shorter story and to capture a certain feeling but after the story became what it did I didnt think the ending was nearly as effective. It lead me to kind of decide I needed to rethink everything about the ending... which was a tall order being one chapter towards the end.
The Malefor Chronicles is another I felt incredibly guilty about abandoning. There was SO much story I had wanted to write for it but had bumped into so many dead ends and again, draft after draft that were unsuccessful I eventually got tied up with work, school and other projects. It's always been my intention to return to these series, but I need to seriously sit down and reread the stories themselves to even familiarize myself with the characters, plot and setting. If I did return to The Malefor Chronicles I'd cut down my original planned 5-10 chapters to probably less then five. Maybe more depending on what I could come up with. I've been more successful on that front, redoing The Malefor Chronicles. I think I've got one solid draft chapter. After that... well I'll have to see. I've honestly wondered if there was genuine interest in seeing these series continue, it's been SO long...
Bottom line: Do I want to update these stories now? Yes, I'd love to. It'd be a tall task trying to step back into a project that basically went on ice several years ago but it's been something gnawing at me ever since. The support from your guys and the community had always been a great source of inspiration. Who knows if there are still a lot of you out there clamoring for these endings I'll have to give this some priority attention!