IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey there, dearest readers! I feel like I must apologize for the exceeding long wait since the last update, and the fact that I've had this story posted here for over a year and a half and only have 3 measly chapters to show for my efforts. Pathetic, I know, but I must admit I have somewhat of a history of "abandoning my babies" (AKA not updating a fic that I was initially uber-excited about at first and leaving it only a few chapters in), a pattern that I was determined to break when I started "The Good Doctors".
You probably don't want to hear me trying to justify my bullshit, but life, writer's block, and ideas for new fics (I'm also terrible at staying faithful to one fic at a time and even one fandom, I'm a shameless fancfic slut) all too often get in the way of my writing. Unfortunately, college life (and laziness, but mostly college) has kept me from updating for many months now. In that time, I've received a shocking amount of feedback and popularity for this story that I'm certain I don't deserve. Over a 1000 hits, 8 reviews, 10 faves, 16 alerts, and a spot on a C2 with the charter "the best stories on the web", all for a 3 chapter OC story! That's more than twice as many hits and favorites, and 3 times as many story alerts as my oldest, longest, and 2nd most popular story! So thanks so much to all of my beloved readers, new and old, who for some reason keep adding up, despite the age and inactivity of the story. You guys amaze me and the continuously growing list of alerts/favorites has encouraged me to not abandon this story.
So do not fear, dear readers, more shall me coming, although you may perhaps have to wait a few more weeks still (I know, I know, it makes me sad too). Writing is my creative outlet but schoolwork and rehearsing for HMS Pinafore still come first. I plan to do a buttload of writing over the summer, though, and I'll try to push myself to update this as well as my new Harry Potter fic once a week or al least every 2 weeks. I plan on following the main work of "TGD" all the way through the 5 year mission (once I get maybe 10 or so chapters in I'll start basing most of the chapters on episodes, with the intention of doing almost every TOS episode, plus intervening original story arc chapters. After "Turnabout Intruder" I haven't decided how to finish off the mission yet since I've never seen the Animated Series, so much of the last few yrs. of the mission might be mostly original with possibly some TAS, not sure yet). Post-five year mission, I definitely plan on writing about what happens in between then and V'Ger (I planned on actually doing TMP for the longest time, but I actually only saw the movie in it's entirety for the 1st time recently, and besides a few really good points it's pretty dull and I don't see how I could effectively incorporate an OC into the story), but this will probably be a shorter multi-chap. fic or a series of oneshots/vignettes. I'll also most likely do s series of vignettes set during the 2nd 5 year mission (which will mostly be entirely original, but will include so technically "non-canon" stuff like the introduction of Saavik and her half-Romulan background). Lastly-and I know this whole thing sounds ambitious already-I hope to do the "trilogy" of TWOK, Search for Spock, and Voyage Home, although I'll probably end up working on these simultaneously with the vignette series.
Phew, sorry to go on like that with an excess of parenthetical statements. But yes, I will be back, and yes, you readers do have a lot of stuff to look forward to, provided you still like what I'm writing as the series continues. Oh, I forgot to mention that before I finally post a new chapter, I am going back and rewriting most of the party scene in chapter 2 (expanding more on the friendship between Kirk and Mark Zoellner, and adding that Kirk and Nicole had met previously), as well as fixing some atrocious spelling and grammar mistakes I noticed in chapter 3, and reposting that as well. I hope to have both of these tasks finished and reposted within 2 weeks, and hopefully the long-awaited CHAPTER FOUR written and posted soon after. Expect new chapters to be more frequent from then on, but don't expect too much from me until at least March.
You, my dear readers, keep me going (with fanfiction, that is), and I love you all for it. Hopefully you can all understand my reasons for taking to long to update, but rest assured that I have not abandoned this yet! I know I hate reading "chapters" like this one with extensive apologetic author's notes, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. I hope I have not incurred the wrath of any of you.
Live long and prosper,
Leanne The Rocket Dog (formerly known as LeanneWasHere)