1.28 AM, October 16, 2006
Second Cup, McKay and Ste Catherine, Downtown Montreal
Author's Notes –
Alright, to answer everyone's first question (indeed, the most pertinent, and also the most irrelevant) – a celebratory mocha with whipped cream! My largest consecutive posting – six chapters at once – is complete, and ready to go!
Welcome back, Sydney Andrews. Welcome back, indeed.
I apologize for this belated posting. But it was important for me to post these next installments together, rather than one or two a week. It was also important to me that they be the best I could possibly make them – to post something I could really be excited about. I truly hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
The past month has been complicated for me, hence my exile. I met someone, committed three weeks of my life to him, and then had an epiphany of common sense and ran the other way. I'm still running.
I also did a lot of reading, my exercise for soul-searching. Because of this, there are echoes of Ian McEwan (Atonement and A Child in Time), Gregory Maguire (Wicked and Son of A Witch), and Frank McCourt (Teacher Man) in these chapters, as great writing lifts the heart and the heart is where all writing, even mediocre writing, begins.
Writing is also an exercise in self-discovery. Because of this I'd like to extend my love and deepest esteem to my fellow members of the Matrix fanfiction community, the TLG crew and others. I wouldn't have kept up with this if it weren't for my sincere joy in reading your works, and the benefit of your encouragement. What we have here, ladies and (one) gentleman, is a wonderful learning environment of mutual support. It fuels my love of education, of writing, and of life.
That being said, the next 25, 000 words are dedicated to the fans, the fangirls, the fanboy, the readers and reviewers who work hard to better themselves, and better each other through writing. If I become a teacher, this is the kind of classroom I will strive to create. I fear I will never achieve it. The world of Matrix fanfiction is unique.
I'd like to mention elementalplatinum and Zinck by name, because they will kindly receive my mention of them in the coming chapters – edit and Zinck's Story are recommended reading to anyone who has not yet discovered them.
Thanks also to those who have sent me encouragement, nagged me, whispered death threats, etc, for more of Rorie(check!), Knight (check!), TriNeo (checkcheck!), smut, puns, romance, friendship, and a whole lot of laughs (consider them all checked!).
Enjoy, and keep writing, learning, and loving life,
-Sydney.