The Briar and The Rose is done; at 87,000 words it turned out to be far more mammoth a project than I had anticipated, time-consuming and self-indulgent, but one that I very much enjoyed pursuing nonetheless.
I know the story's faults; where it is too fan-fictiony, too Mary-Sueish.
Were I to do a massive and highly critical edit I could find a lot to change, I'm sure.
Things did not happen quite as I had originally planned. Initially, Evie and Jack were intended to have next to no interaction at all, apart from Evie seeing him about on Tortuga a bit. She ended up playing an instrumental role in his and Barbossa's meeting which would be intolerable to some readers, being far too cliché. But I like it.
The story also ended up being more a series of character vignettes, rather than a plot-driven tale, and originally, I had intended there to be more of a plot beneath it all, involving that mysterious little box that comes into Barbossa's possession.
It ends up being an odd little flyaway with no real purpose, and that is my fault for I thought I would gain more of a readership if I gave it some plot rather than just making it a relationship story.
A work this mammoth, based around one of the characters who, if not unpopular is certainly not popular on the level of Jack or Will, and involving an original character, is never going to get a big readership anyway, so in the end I hope I gain the readers who are interested in the type of tale it tells.
Because I have grown very fond of my story though I never intended to, in spite of all its faults. And I love Evie and I love the relationship she has with Barbossa, though it would be dissatisfying to many. I tried to be truthful and create an authentic world and a genuine and realistic relationship between them with a three-dimensional, multi-faceted character.
I hope that some people will read it all the way through and that the enjoy it and see that spark of honesty in it, despite its flaws, and that it will be considered kindly as a standard of fanfiction that is high within the Barbossa fandom.
To stop writing about Evie and Barbossa now is a little painful, I must confess. Their story has become quite real to me.
But I knew when I set out to do it that it would come to an end, and how it would end.
Thank you for being with me on this journey, it's certainly been an adventure. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with it, for being patient enough and interested enough and, if you dropped a review, generous enough for sharing your thoughts. I wrote this story largely for my own amusement but it would be a lie to say I do not long for readers, because I do, and the fact that you take time from your lives to pay some attention to my story is incredibly meaningful and I thank you deeply and joyously.