Dear friends,

A timely reflection to share with you all today, prompted by the latest review (unfortunately anonymous) that was left behind on our reviews page.

Here is the full text of the message, unedited and unaltered; do forgive the profanity:

Sexist little moon-blasted crocodile spawn! God. And that is not even remotly Nick-like at all. He's the type to point and run. The type of person with witty combacks and sacrcastic comments that simultainyusly want to smack him and hug him. Plus he is the second smallest officer on the force! Not the type to leave people with a black eye or chipped tooth. Just because he is male he atomatically hast to be domonening and fighting all the god dam time? What the fucking hell dude? That is stupid and sexist, and, again, way out of Nick's character. I fucking hate you so much right now. This just ruined an other wise perfect story. Thank you so much you sexist little cow's butt.

Skipping the insults (sorry, but it isn't even signed, we don't even know each other, so how do you expect me to take this seriously?) I would like to address the issue behind the swear words.

- I am assuming that you are talking about one of the early chapters, where I mention that Judy noticed Nick sporting marks of fights and run-ins with the other guys on the force. You find this to be inaccurate and out of character.

Here's the funny part - I agree!

Let me elaborate: the earliest couple of chapters were written on a spur, inspired by the first time I saw Zootopia in the cinema (along with my dear friend who became our lovely Beta :) ) and I have to say that all I had for reference were the memories of my first time watching the film at a late evening séance, after a long day (or week?) of work.

Despite these details, I was of course hooked and taken at once with the film and the universe. But I will admit that I did not at once achieve that level of feeling for the characters as some musing and in-depth analysis, as well as talking over the characters, reading about the film's production, watching it several more times etc have since given me. (Thanks so much Orieon for your invaluable reviews and feedback early on! Same goes for the Red Omega! And so many others, thanks guys.)

So the question then arises, as one starts to 'know' the characters better, does one go back and correct these mistakes for future readers, things that would appear to be inaccurate according to the author's further perception of the heroes the way they were 'meant to be'? Or does one just press on, promising readers that as the story progresses, so will the author's understanding of the characters/universe grow and improve (thanks to reviews and feedback besides their own analysis)? What do you guys think?

- The newest chapter is ready in draft form. After some reflection, once again following that latest review, I have decided to hold it back for a while longer, just because of that very thing; I am not so sure that a couple of key moments are in character for our dear heroes, and I would like to go over this bit of the story (where the plot starts to take major twists and key turns) to be sure that the end result delivered is of good quality.

Therefore, with much apologies to the outraged anonymous reviewers who hate delays, we will be delaying the latest chapter update till September the 28th. Sorries people, but my friend Moonshine agrees with me, see their review above - quality is more important than speed and characters must stay, well, IN character :) :)

- Not to be forgotten - the contest! We have closed for entries, and now the fun starts, the jury will go over all of the entries we have received - thanks everyone, there have been so many lovely pieces! - and pick the winner! This is so exciting, but it is also so very hard to pick just the one. Fingers crossed everyone, you all did a superb job! We will be announcing our lucky winner - who will walk away (virtually) with the Zootopia Infinity 3.0 figurine of their choice - at the same time as the next chapter comes up, September 28. A bit of patience everyone, allow us time to go over all the entries and make our educated choice.

I look forward to hearing/reading your thoughts on these points everyone,

Hope back to school is going well to everyone concerned - hang in there, it can be a tricky time!-

Moonshine and witty comebacks everyone :)
Ta!
-ChezIBY