Author's Note Only – not a chapter.
Thank you so much for the positive reviews. This post is not a new chapter, but a response to some of the reviews who asked why there are not more chapters coming.
Several reviewers have questioned why this is marked as complete when it doesn't feel like a complete story. As is clear from the story summary, this is a sample of a longer work. The full story was posted here for two years and many readers were able to enjoy it. I have recently removed everything but the first three chapters, but I have left the story marked as "complete" rather than giving readers the impression that it is still a work in progress, because I don't want you waiting for new chapters to be posted when that isn't going to happen. The sample is as complete as it is going to get, and if people want to read more, they can find the published work on Kobo or Kindle. I'm sorry if people are dissatisfied with that, but there it is.
I value this community and have posted most of my works here first. I love to read others' work and to share what I am working on. The generous feedback provided by reviewers has helped to motivate me and to improve my writing. But when a work is published, there are a couple of factors that lead myself and many others authors to remove them from FanFiction. The first is that the rules of publishers – and particularly of Amazon – prevent us from publishing on those platforms if the work is also freely available on the internet. The second is that there have been instances of theft, where works shared freely here have been stolen – copied and published by someone other than the author – and unfortunately that bad behaviour by a very few makes it harder for authors to trust in leaving completed works here indefinitely.
And of course, when authors publish, we hope to sell at least a few copies of our works. That is much less likely if the full text is also available for free. I try to strike a fair balance by leaving the full text here for a while before publishing, and even, as in this case, for some time afterwards. I know that whenever I get around to removing chapters, there will be some readers caught in the middle, for which I apologise. And when I remove chapters the FF system puts the story back at the top of the list, because it has been "updated", thus attracting a group of new readers who will inevitably be disappointed. If I could make the amendment without that happening, I certainly would, but that is how the system works.
Another anonymous reviewer has reminded me that this is not a free advertising space for commercial works. I understand that. I have never treated FanFiction that way, and those who have followed my works over the years will, I hope, absolve me of that charge. I have been privileged to share short and long stories, to engage with the reader community (as well as to provide my own feedback and suggestions to other writers) and to develop story ideas through the creative energy of this community.
So all in all, I know this won't satisfy some, but I am doing my best to find a fair balance between sharing in the public domain and earning a little from the sale of some of my stories.
If you are one of those readers who also buys published works from time to time, I would urge you to look for outlets other than Amazon. I know they are big and easy to use, and will come up at the top of most search engines, but their practices both in relation to authors and to their employees, together with their near monopoly of the market, mean that you should seriously think about going elsewhere when you can. I publish with them because that is where most of the buyers are, but I always publish with Kobo as well, and wish that more book buyers would support the smaller and independent publishers.
I'll be back before too long with a new story, so if you enjoyed this sample, keep an eye out for my next work.
It is a crazy world at the moment, and I hope you are all staying safe and warm, and enjoying the escape that a little fan fiction offers.
elag / Margaret Gale