News:

October 22, 2013

I've been getting some PMs and emails lately. Some have been supportive. Some, not so much. I'm going to pick on Flare4Rachet a bit since they were the last one to send me something along the theme I figured it only fair to everyone else to explain where I'm coming from and why I haven't updated in so long. I'm quoting Flare's initial review and my response for clarity.

Flare's Review:

Why did Artemis leave Luna at the alter? I'm very confused by this whole thing. There are a lot of things left out that leaves readers to speculate. I know I will never get the answer to this, since the fic is abandoned... *sigh* Sometimes I don't know why authors do what they do with canon couples/characters, but it's not me to judge. *shrugs* Again, I'm just confused by this whole story - which leads me to believe you have 'painted yourself into a corner' and couldn't get yourself out of it...

My rather long winded response:

Because you asked. Artemis left Luna at the altar because he was an immature womanizer that wasn't ready to be tied down. There's more to it than that, but I have no desire to explore the deeper reasoning at the moment. The story hasn't been abandoned, it just doesn't want to be written. I've got everything plotted out, but to be completely honest I've lost a lot of faith and interest in the Fanfiction community. People demand too much and gripe even more when I grind myself to the bone to pump out a chapter here and there, totally souring the experience. I stopped writing for a lot of reasons - health issues, deaths in the family, Real life c* that won't leave me alone. I also stopped writing because I stopped caring. It's no longer fun. Getting veiled criticisms like yours, that make negative assumptions make me wonder why I even started in the first place.

I committed myself to finishing what I started, and to be blunt it takes time to produce something good. I vowed to myself that I would write the story for the story's sake. I would let it be what it wanted to be, and if it took me twenty years to see it finalized, well then, it will take twenty years. There's an attitude among readers nowadays that is troublesome and a bit alarming. It's an attitude of entitlement. Contrary to popular myth I, as a creative, do not owe the world anything. I give of myself freely. There's no pay in this. I write because I love it. I write to better my craft. I write because I have to get the ideas out of my head. There is very little gratitude in the Fanfiction community anymore, and even less support. I've been lucky, for the most part. A large part of my readership have been very supportive of me in their reviews and PMs, which helps. Sadly, a lot of the personal correspondence that I've received has been greedy, juvenile, and in some cases antagonistic. To be quite blunt, I am pretty close to abandoning fanfiction altogether; mainly because of this "gimme" attitude the readership has displayed. There's very little reward for the effort any more.

Your note to me wasn't too bad. It brought up a plot point that will eventually be addressed, but the rest of it left a bad aftertaste. It wasn't supportive. I know there's an interest in this story. People want it updated. As it stands, I've got almost seven thousand words done on the next chapter, and the rest of the story has been plotted out to the end, complete with epilogue. My point to you, and all those who have been a bit more rude in their nagging personal correspondence, is this: I'll finish when I finish. If you're impatient for the next chapter, then here's my advice - take the concept and write your own story. Leave my stuff out of it. Make it your own story and build something from it. I'm busy right now raising kids and trying to work on original pieces to feed those bottomless pits that tend to come with adolescent children.

I apologize if I have inconvenienced you. I very much appreciate everyone that reads my work. What I don't appreciate so much, are the assumptions that people make concerning the status of my work, and the lack of compassion in general for authors. We don't know what struggles they face. We don't tend to think about why a story hasn't been updated in X days, months, or years. We're just pissed because we can't get our fix or find closure.

If this response offends, I apologize. You're catching the flak for a lot of other c* that has been dumped on me by the community lately - proverbial straw and the camel's back. Like I said - I'm still writing. The story's still there. It will be updated when it decides to be updated. Until then, I'll keep plugging along, if only for the story's sake, until its done. Thank you for your question and for reading my work.

--Jeffrey Vasquez--

I want to make something clear to everyone. I write to write. I publish when I am content that I have achieved my goals. I'm not holding stories hostage for reviews or any other stupid garbage like that. I let the stories write themselves. Period. Full stop. Progeny and Realms haven't wanted any attention. They're not stuck, they haven't written themselves into corners, nor have they been abandoned. These stories want to be nurtured. They deserve to be nurtured. Quality isn't slap dash, and I won't insult my readership by shoveling them a heap of steaming slop just to appease those who are impatient. I've seen too many authors leave the community because people no longer understand the concept of manners. I'm starting to understand their motivations for walking away and removing their work from circulation. Common courtesy goes a long way to inspiring the muse.

Soap box is put away. I'm going back to my day job so that I can feed my kids. Have a good day.

May, 2012 - Hell hath no fury than a reader scorned. In this case many readers. I apologize to all who are following my work, however these last two years have seen four surgeries for my father, the death of a dear friend, and much more hardship. I am still writing, but its a sentence here and there between stolen moments. To Gary, who so kindly told me that two years is long enough between updates - under normal circumstances, I would happily agree. You aren't alone in your frustration, but Life rarely cares about what we want. I want to cut the umbilical and wrap up these stories, you want to read them. Life wants me to be crushed under the constant strain of crap it dumps on me. I'm doing the best I can. Sorry its not enough. I promised myself I would finish these stories no matter how long it takes. If all of you are still here reading when I do finally finish them...well, I'll be grateful for your loyalty and faith. I'll update when I can.

September 28, 2010 - Okay. The Document Editor has eaten Realms 11 like twenty times. It's really pissing me off. I've tried reformatting it over and over again, but for whatever reason the changes aren't sticking. I apologize for the stupidity of the FanFiction.net publishing system. In the event that I can get the moderators to ever respond to me, I'll see about re-posting the chapter in a more legible format. I'm getting really close to pulling my stories from this migraine. If anyone knows of a reliable substitute that would welcome my stories, drop me a line.

March 26, 2010 - Sorry for the multi-post of Nomad 02, but there were some really weird things happening. Hopefully its all sorted out though.

March 23, 2010 - Lookie here! I just updated Progeny! And it didn't take me a year after updating Realms to do it! Aren't you proud of me? I'm on fire!

March 17, 2010 - Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you Irishmen and people pretending to be Irishmen! New update for Realms is here, and I hope you enjoy it. Progeny has stalled a bit, and I've been trying to pull it up by the boot straps. Problem lies in the fact that the outline that I wrote for the story all those years ago, just doesn't want to fit with where the characters want to go now. I guess its a problem that all authors face when writing big stories over a long period of time - as you grow, the story you're writing sometimes stagnates. I'm committed to finishing the beast, so those who enjoy it never fear. I'm just taking a step back to re-evaluate how certain things need to play out. Splitting Heirs is in the same boat, so I may end up just buckling down to focus on finishing Realms up before coming back to the others. As always, I thank you for reading and hope you enjoy the new chapter! Now, I'm going to go back to writing Realms chapter eleven so that I can get it done before summer... _

June 29, 2009 - Great Scott! I can't believe that it's been two plus years since I updated! I beg and grovel on my knees for forgiveness from you, my dear readers. I won't bore you with lame excuses about reoccurring illness, the birth of son #3, moving into a new home, starting my own business, etc. You came here to read, so I'll let you get on with it. For those that have written me with encouragement and longing, I want to thank you for keeping the spark alive. In an effort to make it up to you, I will be cutting chapter lengths to more manageable sizes and posting more frequently. I'm also shamelessly stealing an idea from one of my all-time favorite authors, Rorschach's Blot, and will be posting a slush file with all the odd ideas that have been stealing my attention away from my main three. After that, I will be working on Progeny next, with another chapter of Realms, and then back to Splitting Heirs if there is enough interest. Godspeed!