November 21, 2012 Thank you to everybody who has been giving me lovely reviews lately. It really is inspiring. I have been keeping myself busy writing, and sooner or later, you shall reap the rewards. :-) I've been participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so the hope is that at some point, you'll have a whole novel to read. Or several. And, once again, this does NOT mean that I've abandoned my beloved stories. Quite the contrary. In fact, I intend to finish them all, and they have proven inspirational. In fact, you may find certain plot lines in certain someday to be published series novels rather familiar.

So...you will get new chapters. Soon, I hope. Probably a few in December. Meanwhile, you may like to follow my main tumblr blog: Literati Love, where I post all sorts of lovely pictures, blog posts, fan videos, etc. etc. primarily about books, Jess and Rory, Luke and Lorelai, and the wonderful residents of Stars Hollow. Hope you enjoy!

January 1, 2012 If anyone is actually reading this, THANK YOU! I have not forgotten my lovely readers or my beloved stories. I've simply been experiencing writer's block AGAIN. I find myself mentally re-writing the same scenes over and over again, and pondering all sorts of plot points that aren't necessarily in any particular story... I keep mentally exploring Jess and Luke's relationship and history, as well as Jess and Liz's. This is such a rich, poignant, complicated puzzle in my mind, that keeps slowly coming together, and there will be lots of story material once it materializes...but right now it's just mulling...mulling...mulling...(while the impatient part of my brain reminds the contemplative muse that it has Pay the Piper and Ever-Fixed Mark to write, so why are we going off on these tangents?)

In any case, I wanted to keep you updated, beloved readers, and to apologize for making you wait. Oh, and by the way, if there are any readers, particularly of Ever-Fixed Markwho don't mind spoilers and would be willing to help me work my way out of the funk/block and get the creative juices flowing again...mulling over ideas and how to get them into chapter form (there's so much plot left that I already have figured out, but I just can't seem to get moving), I would be SO GRATEFUL! PM me, please. Thanks in advance.

September 19, 2011 All right. Just an update. I recently posted a new story, Waking From a Nightmare. I'm really hoping to get some more feedback on it. :) For everyone waiting around for an update on EverFixed Mark, Pay the Piper, and Don't Go (as well as any of my other stories), I haven't abandoned them in favor of this new story. It's just something that's been bouncing around my head for awhile, and suddenly demanded to be let out. As I see it at present, it's part of the backstory to all of my other fics, a piece of Jess' history and "how he got here" in both storyverses. Anyhow. Re: EFM, I know that you feel an update is overdue. I agree. In fact, I was all ready to post a new chapter yesterday morning, when I read it again, and realized that I hated it. Really, flat-out hated it. No, not the story, but that chapter was all wrong. It was OOC and taking the story in the wrong direction. So, I actually scrapped it. The whole chapter. Very discouraging, by the way. In fact, I'm feeling a little as if I've written myself into a corner. I've just got to see if I can write myself out of it. I don't like that there's an awkwardness between Rory and Jess right now. And, I've got to go back and explain who beat up Logan (have I mentioned that fight scenes are my absolute LEAST favorite thing to write?) Blech. I also have some tentative plans for a scene with Emily, and my muse has decided to be fickle and poutish about that. She doesn't like Emily at the moment, and doesn't wish to crawl inside her head. Anyhow. I should stop rambling excuses and get back to writing, tossing metaphoric crumpled pages into the wastebasket, and re-writing...oh, yes, and tearing my hair out, can't forget that part. ;) And, if you haven't read Waking From a Nightmare, please go read it, as a favor to me. I'm rather proud of it. :)

August 26, 2011 - Desperation is a very unattractive thing. It's past midnight and I am positively brain-dead...flat-lined...zombified... And, what am I doing? I am going to my email and hitting the "refresh" button every couple of minutes to see if I've gotten any new reviews on the latest couple of chapters of EverFixed Mark. "Why?" you ask. "I reviewed. I did. Why don't you write the next chapter so that I'll have something else to review?" you ask. Why, indeed. That's what I'd like to know. I think I'm going insane. I think I'm overtired. I think I should get some sleep. Because no chapters are getting written tonight...despite the fact that all day long, as I ran errands, I had scenes from upcoming chapters playing and replaying in my head, demanding to be written. I got ten seconds and wrote a sentence and a half. Now, when I'm sitting here...flat-line...nothing...nothing but checking and re-checking to see if there are any new reviews. Newsflash: nobody's reviewed within the last four minutes! Feeling ridiculous. Shakes finger in the face of self: GO TO BED! *stumbles away from computer grumbling about abusive alcoholics and kids and families and...fades off in the distance*

August 20, 2011 - I know, I know. I promised. I told you that I'd been re-inspired in regard to Pay the Piper and House Rules, and I haven't updated either!!! Bad writer! BAD! BAD!!! But, I hope that you're enjoying my latest story, EverFixed MarkIt's something completely different that I've been experimenting, and it's really jump-started my muse, so I've been riding this wave of inspiration as far as it's willing to take me. :D

Never fear, though. I haven't forgotten about Jess and Jessica, or about the Literatiness of Don't Go, or left Luke and Jess completely in the lurch. Sorry for the wait. :(

While you're waiting, though, please check out EverFixed Mark. Hopefully, you'll be glad you did.

July 29, 2011 - If you haven't already noticed, Man to Man is now complete (though it isn't marked as such, because my completed stories have this annoying habit of continuing in my head, and occasionally that means they get longer...like this one did...like almost all my one-shots do...lol) And, if you HAVE already read the whole thing, I'd just like to point out that I added about another paragraph to Chapter 5, and revised a couple of sentences to make a few things clearer.

And, I've really gotten re-inspired with Pay the Piper in the last couple of days. The mental gears have actually started turning again (HOORAY! This calls for confetti! I've missed little Jessica SO MUCH!) Oh, and I've been writing more on House Rules too, so hopefully you'll get an update soon...though I'm having difficulty figuring out how to resolve certain issues without telling Luke stuff he's not supposed to know, or giving away too much of the Liz/Jess story. I've actually been dropping hints of it in all of my stories (those of you who have been helping me on it, probably know what hints I'm talking about). Okay, shutting up before I get spoilerish.

Toodles!

July 19, 2011 - At long last, I have two more chapters of Don't Go up. One of them is even the size of a mediumish normal chapter, instead of the mini-chapters I've been giving you.

And, I haven't forgotten my pride and joy, Pay the Piper. I really have been writing Chapter 12, slowly but surely. It's 12 pages long, and still not finished. I may end up splitting it AGAIN. Originally, everything from Chapter 10 to the part I'm currently writing was supposed to take place in ONE CHAPTER, but it just keeps growing. I'd really like to "get on with the story," but Luke's visit just has so much in it that I feel the need to do it justice, and it's proving to be MUCH more difficult than I'd originally thought.

Oh, and in case there's some way you've gotten to my profile, but missed the story list, I've also added two more fics to the burgeoning PtP storyverse: House Rules, showing Luke and Jess' relationship from when Jess was 8-years-old, until he's at least in his mid-twenties. The first four chapters are up. Man to Man, a one-shot futurefic that shows a 40-year-old Jess with his teenage son. Yes, we're still in the same storyverse, just fast-forward 18-19 years from the beginning of PtP.

I've also begun writing a Liz/Jess story that will take place in the weeks just prior to Jess being shipped off to Luke's. It always seemed to me that period of time was a bit of a mystery...and so was Liz...everything about Liz. It will also be part of the same storyverse. It's probably the most difficult thing I've written to date...very intense and complicated. Hope it's something you'll find interesting...I hesitate to say I hope it's something you'll enjoy, because it's quite dark. I find it fascinating, but enjoyable doesn't seem the right word to use. Anyhow, I'll try to keep you posted.

March 24, 2011 - Regarding Don't Go, three more chapters up! Enjoy! (Yes, I'm aware they're short, but they're pithy, and satisfy the angst craving.)

Regarding Pay the Piper, Chapter 10 is almost finished I promise. And Chapter 11 will follow shortly in its wake. They've been my Everest...and the next few chapters are proving to be another Everest, but I'll try, try, try to climb quicker.

March 19, 2011 - Regarding Pay the Piper, I am still writing. I'm desperately sorry for the long wait for an update, but I'm writing several chapters at once, they all are requiring about a million rewrites, and absolutely refuse to come out in any sort of chronological order. Blasted selective writer's block! If you're reading this, I'm so very happy that you care about my story. This means so much to me! If you're not reading this...why am I still typing? ;-P

Regarding Don't Go, there WILL be more.

Regarding Until You Came Along, which I'm about to post, there probably won't be more. This was a portion of the byproduct of brainstorming for Don't Go that didn't quite fit the rest of the story. It would have ended up in the cosmic wastebasket, if it weren't for the fact that I really like it - and the fact that I hate going this long without posting SOMETHING! So, enjoy the brain-crumbs!

Iscah

Haunted by Her Eyes...Her Words - This picture is not directly linked to any of my stories, but is a common thread throughout most of them - Jess Mariano, haunted by the memory of and longing for Rory. I poured a lot of my heart into this one, so I'd love to hear opinions on it via PMing. Also, if you would like to use it for anything, please drop me a line. Thanks.

EverFixed Mark - Title Page

Pay the Piper - Title Page - Jess and Jessica

Don't Go - Title Page

Don't Go - The Scream - referencing "Chapter 2 - The Man in Black (Painted by Edvard Munch. His description: "I was out walking with two friends. The sun began to set. Suddenly the sky turned blood-red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on a fence. There was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and there I stood, trembling with fear. And I sensed an endless scream passing through nature.")

By the way, bonus points to anyone who can catch and explain all the pop culture references in "Twitterpated." PM me, and if you get them all, I'll send you a special treat! (now I have to figure out what special treat to send.) Tell me your favorite GG character/couple, and I'll make the treat somehow related to them (even if it's a couple that makes me gag - no slash though. I draw the line at slash. I also draw the line at pairing Rory or Lorelai with each other's boyfriends. This is WAY BEYOND gag. Wish I didn't have to say it.)

By the way, if anyone is curious about the reference in Pay the Piper - Chapter 8 - Writing in Books and Pie Crust Promises to Rory calling Jess her Tin Woodman and herself his Munchkin Maiden, I thought it might help to include here the excerpt from The Wizard of Oz that contains the life story of the Tin Woodman. It may help to explain the emotional context of Rory's gift:

"I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living. When I grew up I too became a wood-chopper, and after my father died I took care of my old mother as long as she lived. Then I made up my mind that instead of living alone I would marry, so that I might not become lonely.

"There was one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever. But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the wicked Witch enchanted my axe, and when I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.

"This at first seemed a great misfortune, for I knew a one-legged man could not do very well as a wood-chopper. So I went to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. The leg worked very well, once I was used to it; but my action angered the wicked Witch of the East, for she had promised the old woman I should not marry the pretty Munchkin girl. When I began chopping again my axe slipped and cut off my right leg. Again I went to the tinner, and again he made me a leg out of tin. After this the enchanted axe cut off my arms, one after the other; but, nothing daunted, I had them replaced with tin ones. The wicked Witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head, and at first I thought that was the end of me. But the tinner happened to come along, and he made me a new head out of tin.

"I had thought I had beaten the wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever; but I little knew how cruel my enemy would be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinner came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my arms and legs and head to it, by means of joints, so that I could have moved around as well as ever. But, alas! I had now no heart, so that I lost all of my love for the Munchkin girl, and did not care whether I married her or not. I suppose she is still living with he old woman, waiting for me to come after her.

"My body shone so brightly and the sun that felt very proud of it and did not matter now if the axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There is only one danger--that my joints would rust; but I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whatever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted, a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If she does, I will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her."

Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the Tin Woodman, and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart.

'All the same,' said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one."

'I shall take the heart,' returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.'

"The historian, if honest, gives us a photograph;

the storyteller gives us a painting."

- Leon Garfield