Long Overdue Author's Note
I've got good news and bad news. Hopefully, the good will outweigh the bad, but it's all pretty insubstantial anyway, so this will likely serve as a notice to you all that I'm still alive, and not much else. I'll get the bad out of the way first. I haven't really been working on Voodoo Child in my ridiculous absence. I think I wrote a couple paragraphs from the time I ran headfirst into writer's block until now, but I'm still not close to finishing the next chapter. I'm not saying that I'm done with it. I'd rather not commit to anything like that. However, it's been years since I last played World of Warcraft, and some of my relatives have developed an unhealthy addiction to it soon after I quit. One of them came over for Christmas last year, went into my room while people were still arriving, and somewhat politely kicked me off my computer so she could play. It was double exp weekend, or double reputation, something like that.
And that was her justification. I told her I hadn't patched the game in a while, but she just spent all evening patching then played until long after everyone was gone. We thought the last of the guests had left, then I go back to my room and she's still sitting at my computer. It was kinda scary. I immediately wiped the game from my computer, and conveniently 'lost' the disk.
So…that's just one example of how these relatives have been turning me off to the notion of playing WoW again. Not to mention every time I try to start writing again, I have to go to thottbot for everything since I've long forgotten locations and NPC names. I've got a ton of other reasons for why I haven't been working on Voodoo Child, but none of them are as interesting as my computer being hijacked on a major holiday by a jonesing aunt. I think you get the point anyway.
That's it for the bad news. I'm not quitting, but writing VC is definitely going to be an uphill struggle from now on. However, I have been writing other stories, two of my original novels to be precise. I want to get out of fanfiction and into the big leagues, so that could be another reason for why my brain refuses to spit out more misadventures for Xan'Jin and company.
One of these novels is nearly complete, and it happens to be a comedy in a somewhat similar vein to Voodoo Child, so I think that qualifies as good news. Even better, you won't have to wait until it's published. In fact, you could help me publish it! A friend of mine tipped me off to a website called Authonomy, where aspiring novelists can post their manuscripts for free and the publishing company that runs the site chooses some manuscripts to be turned into books.
As soon as my book is done (it has something to do with zombies, Soviet Russia, and classic rock) I'll put it up on this site for you to read, offer suggestions, and maybe vote for it to be published. However, as you know by now, me finishing something isn't exactly a guarantee, so I can't really put a time estimation on when it'll be finished. At least, nothing more specific than 'soon'. 'Sooner than the next chapter of Voodoo Child', probably. Definitely 'sooner than the release of Duke Nukem Forever', but that's not much to shoot for, is it?
Thank you all for caring enough to get angry at me for stopping the story. I really wish I had more for you, but I figured I should make contact before people start holding candlelight memorials.
- Josh Conner (AKA Genoscythe)