Author's Note
I know it has been a while since my last update and I thought I would fill all of y'all in on what's been going on in my life to cause the delay.
As some of you may know, my husband's job brought us to England back in April. Now that I am no longer living in the middle of nowhere Arizona, there is so much to do and see and often takes up a lot of my free time that was previously allocated for writing. That is why after the move I made the very difficult decision to table a lot of my WIP and focus only on The Return of an Heiress.
Since then several things have transpired that have taken a toll on both my mental and physical health. To properly attend to these problems, I unexpectedly pulled back from writing my more plot heavy, darker aspect stories and created something that was easier on my soul and heading into a very fluffy territory, the Marcus Flint and Hermione Granger story, Sidelined. However, the mental relief I felt writing that story did not last nearly as long as I had hoped. It was then that I made the abrupt decision to pull back from writing and reading fan fiction as a whole.
To give you all some insight into my life, I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder when we lived in Germany several years ago. Here in England, as the days began to get shorter, the nights longer, and the weather more grey it reared its ugly head and came back like a kick to the gut for me. With several changes to my diet and lifestyle, I have been able to finally begin to push back the specter of my seasonal depression and am back on the upward swing as the changes take effect in my life. To get a bit further into how writing played a role in everything I'll tell you a little bit about myself and two of the characters that I write in Star Crossed Through Time and The Return of an Heiress.
Twelve years ago I met two wonderful guys in a teen support group I was attending as an attempt to deal with a particular event that had occurred that summer. Rabastan's childhood traumas from The Return of an Heiress, is based on one of the friends I made in that group. Severus's childhood and later his struggle with addiction and overdose in Star Crossed Through Time, is based on the life of our other friend.
Several aspects of a much darker time in my own life and in that of my friends' has played heavily in creating these stories. As such, there are days when I finish writing and am mentally drained and take several more days to shake off the oppressive weight that settles in my soul. Writing has both been healing and oppressive to me. More often than not I have gotten through life by constantly keeping up walls within my own mind and compartmentalizing everything. Dredging things up for the sake of continuing my stories - coupled with SAD - wreaked havoc on my mental and physical state. The final nail in the coffin came in September when the anniversary of my friend's overdose and subsequent suicide came to pass.
So, after pulling back the curtain on my past, I hope you all understand my abrupt halt on writing and posting. I apologize profusely for leaving you all hanging but also wish to say thank you and that I love you all so much. The outpouring of love through comments and direct messages has been overwhelming and while I have been horrible at responding to them, I have read each one and truly appreciate and cherish them. You all have done so much to aid in helping me get to a place where I feel ready to resume writing. This time, without allowing it to cast such a dark and heavy shadow over the rest of my now bright and wonderful life.
As I ease back into things my updates will not be as frequent - for which I again apologize for - but they will hopefully be more consistent. For the time being I will only focus on one story at a time, starting with The Return of an Heiress. I plan to only post two or three chapters a month and also follow the muse where it takes me more diligently. This means going forward the stories I work on will really have no rhyme or reason but as of now, The Return of an Heiress and Star Crossed Through Time, have my attention and as such will be getting my writing focus on the days I feel like I am capable of keeping the barriers of my past in place while I write.
God and toddler willing, I shall begin posting again in mid to late November, early December at the latest. Also for any of my Star Crossed Through Time readers, that story has been undergoing some rewrites as I wade back into the writing world so be on the lookout for when those begin to get posted. They will show up under the series link for the story.
Thank you all so much for your continued love, concern, and patience.
I love you all so much,
S.L.a.G (SlytherinLovesaGryffindor)
PS: Who else noticed my screen name abbreviated spells slag? When I noticed that this summer, I almost died of laughter. Anyways, have a great day and y'all will be hearing from me soon enough.
XOXO
PPS: This chapter will be replaced with an actual story chapter when an update comes.