Updated May 4, 2015 (Happy Star Wars Day!)

My name is Jenni and I write a few different fandoms. I had a co-author account with NalanaSpinderOfSouls http://www.fanfiction.net/u/133615/. Our screen name was LadyVNalanaCreations, and we had been writing alternating chapters of a Harry Potter fic. The story got put on hold due to school and work getting in the way as well as a lack of reader interest. I plan to rewrite it myself at some point (not until after I've finished with my current WIPs), but I don't think that account will be updated. I don't know if she has updated more

Go here to see my illustration for the final chapter of "The Birth of Rage and Wrath."
My deviantART account is ...however it has not been updated even longer than this account (where on earth did the last five years go?) and I don't see that changing any time soon.

I am alive. Yes, I plan on finishing my stories.

Where have I been for the last five years? In hell. Seriously though, I have been a part-time caregiver for my grandmother for the past six years. In the beginning it was time consuming but not stressful. After about a year, however, she had the first of three mini-strokes. Although she mostly recovered from them, she was told not to drive anymore after the first one. A short time later, her memory started to go. She was diagnosed with age-related dementia. She has been getting progressively worse ever since and it is a very difficult situation to deal with. Two years ago she was diagnosed as likely having Alzheimer's (I didn't know until asking "why likely" that Alzheimer's can only be 100% confirmed when doing an autopsy on the brain... you have to be dead for that).

As it stands, she has no short term and very little long term memory left and her cognitive abilities are severely lacking. It is really stressful to deal with, and I don't deal with stress well. There is actually another caretaker helping now (a hired one who also does some housekeeping since my grandmother started slacking on that), but she really needs to be somewhere she can be watched 24/7. Unfortunately, my aunt who only sees her once every six months is the one in charge and wants to keep her in her own home as long as possible.

During all of this, my mother, who has been chronically ill for the last twenty years, has also had a decline. She was recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and then had a slip and fall that resulted in a compression fracture in her spine. So helping out with her has also increased.

Personally, I have suffered from depression (what type I'm not sure as I've never been diagnosed; my mom is manic depressive) since my teens. It's been much worse in the last five years.

Despite the fact that none of this has lessened or will anytime soon, I want to start writing again. Last night I wrote three hundred words of the next chapter of The Darkholme Legacy. It is the most I've written outside of work in the last five years. Hopefully it is a starting point and not a fluke. I love writing, even if I'm only mediocre at it, and I have felt like my soul has been dying with the lack of creative endeavors I allowed myself to fall into.

I ask for your patience as I get back into writing. I was never very fast to begin with, and despite my renewed dedication, nothing has changed how busy I am with work, home and my grandmother. So updates, when they come, will not be fast. I hope there are still a few people out there who want to read my stuff. HUGE thanks to those who reviewed, followed and favorited during my hiatus, it meant a lot to me.

I have enabled "Moderate Guest Reviews" and will be deleting any from people who are only "yelling" at me for being gone so long. Life happens, and a lot of the time it sucks. I don't need anyone making it worse. Thanks!