Halloween Story Missed

So for the second year in a row now I've been trying to write a story for halloween since it kind of has some mystical/dark elements to it, but second year in a row now I underestimate my time I'm able to commit and fall short of being able to deliver a story. Oh well.

So I just felt like sharing that, not a big deal. Back to the epilogues!

Time flies and other updates

So, it was pointed out I kinda just went dark for 4+ months, so I wanted to give a small update. Life has been crazy and time is not working like it used to or something.

Anyway, I'm planning basically two more pieces to the Bound Friends Epilogue.

There will be Epilogue 1½ which is the continuation of Epilogue 1. Epilogue 1 had been the "end goal" for a very long time, but in that time I'd had many ideas of "and then what" that I'm consolidating into a volume, albeit shorter (hopefully) than Epilogue 1 and with a less bittersweet ending. Epilogue 1½ is 100% optional and if you like your headcannon of what happens after Epilogue 1 then just keep it and go onto the next part.

Then comes Epilogue 2. You will need to have read Epilogue 1, but Epilogue 1½ will not factor in at all. This is the branch I started coming up with once I started getting squeamish about the end goal I had in mind. I had been writing Andrea and Megan and Zainab so long I didn't want to put them through that much pain. So I started coming up with alternative directions to go, ones without so much sadness. So this is where the "new" endgame was heading when I hit massive writing block. I've written basically a full length story already going down this path, so that will make the heart of it. Then, at the end of Epilogue 2, is a bit of a conversation between Andrea and Megan in the time in which the storytelling takes place. They are living in a world much closer to Epilogue 2 than 1 and they give me a chance for an ending that way I wouldn't have been able to have if I didn't do this epilogue format.

I want to try to give these characters a bit of an ending, but I also know that I have to rush myself a bit to get there. (As if it looks like I'm rushing now!) I've also started writing some side stories that are unrelated to any of this that I will post here when they are done but they are both far from it. One I hope to get by Halloween, but that's a long shot.

Either way, I'm still here, I'm just really busy and burned out but I am trying to finish this off when I have the energy to write.

Epilogue 1 - Andrea and the Original Dream

So it has been a long time since I first promised it, but the project simply grew in size like I wasn't expecting. Now however I can share the first major part in the ending, which I'm calling an epilogue simply to distinguish it from my more "conventional" stories.

This is the first story, and it details the path I had been planning on taking for a long while. It ends where I had planned to end the series. This path is the one Lea's story had been started for, but this stands alone if you haven't read that fragment. I had vague notions of where people went after this, but I wanted to end the story here since for years this was where I planned to leave it. The "Original" as I dumb it.

Going forward now I should have one more story of roughly this size, maybe a little less. That will show the alternate path I was coming up. I may also share some of the other ideas for alternate paths I came up with but no promises on how much. I'll also share the partial story (though much fuller than Lea's) I had been working on.

So now without further introduction:

Epilogue 1 - Andrea and the Original Dream - PDF Version

Part 24* - Lea and the Recovery (Unfinished)

This is the start of what would have been a the next chapter in the series. This picks up with Lea and sets her back on a path to getting better. This was one of the parts I found hard to write. Maybe it's the subject matter, I was caught between not wanting to "cheapen" what Lea was going through but also not having an easy time writing the depressive melancholy. I have put parts of myself (or parts I wish I had) in many of my characters, and maybe this was just too close to home. I don't know, but it's been sitting unpublished for some time and I had even written out an outline for the rest of the story to try to drag myself forward without a lot of progress. I won't be doing the normal PDF download for this, unless someone asks. Anyways, enjoy a brief glimpse into Lea and her RV adventuring:

One month later update.

So it's now into February and I had earlier said I'd have something by last December. So, yes sickness did delay things. I've found that I get the most writing done during periods when I'm away, maybe it's the change of scenery, but I had planned to use Christmas break from work as a time to punch it out. So being sick over the holidays is a bigger deal than being sick at other times since I have more energy to write when I have breaks from work.

But the largest part of the delay is the scope. I had planned out roughly to get a preamble setting up the format of this special story, then go through the two paths I had planned out in very rough details. Well, as I actually got typing, a bit in I realized I was not being nearly as brief as I had planned to be. I was still skimming faster, almost no downtime or dialogue, but more details than I had originally planned.

My two options were return to skipping more of the details to get it done faster, or go back to the beginning and fill in a little more of the details and get everything the kind of some-details version rather than the few-details version. I settled on the some-details version, I think it's more satisfying to read, but it's making the story much longer. I'm already to 23 pages and haven't finished the first thread. So when I am done that I may post it so the "dreams" are spread out over two stories, but I don't know for sure. Either way I wanted to update those of you still out there so you don't think I totally flaked again.

Will keep plugging away when I can, but unless something else comes up I probably won't give another update until I publish something.

Do adults still get sick notes?

OK, so I know I said I'd have an update by end of year. But I also forgot to factor in that my immune system really hates the Christmas holidays. Between the travel, the cold, the sleeping not in my apartment, I have about a 1 in 3 chance of getting sick every year around this time. Why can't Christmas be in May?

This is my long winded way of saying I'm sick and will be a little slower because I have been dizzy and sleepy for the majority of the last almost week's waking hours. I'm getting better and thought maybe I could still make it, but I didn't.

It is coming along, it's also getting a little more detail than I was thinking originally I'd put in but if I don't put it in here it may never make it into anywhere. 11k words so far and I'm still on the first "branch." So..

The good thing about me being such a flake the last year and a bit is that at least you know how to wait a little longer!

Happy New Year everyone, and buckle up cause 2019 is coming and things are going to get worse before they get better.