Really Testing Sturgeon's law

 So it's been a little more than half a year, but what a half year! Lots of ups, lots of lows, but some things are just leveling off which is nice. I don't have nearly anything new written, at least not that's also finished, but thought I'd check in.

So for those who don't know, there's an adage called Sturgeon's law. It basically states "ninety percent of everything is crap." Meant to be applied originally to art but has generally been expanded over time, that truly "good" works make up an overwhelming minority. 

Why am I bringing it up? Well, I have crossed over from just reading free stories to reading some of the paid stuff. I want to see how much of a difference there is, thinking in the back of my head that maybe some of my future work I might try to sell for some side something. Several of the early examples really did show "oh yes, there's a big jump, this is very well written." Some even annoyingly well written as a sometimes author myself, game recognize superior game. 

But damn, there is a lot of crap out there. I cringe when I re-read what I've put out and there's a typo but I've seen typos in things people are actually asking money for, to say nothing of dry characterization and flat setting. "Oh, a billionaire/nobleman/warchief/boss wants me but he wants to dominate me, which I don't like but oh maybe I'll find out I do?" There are small libraries worth of stories where that is the sum total of the plot. And some of them are getting away with selling less than 10,000 word instalments as "books" in a series with that plot.

But maybe that's what sells and I'm the weird one for thinking there should be motivations and such with characters with enough personality they aren't just blank placeholders for the reader to self-insert. I've never been good at understanding what's popular and not.

Really makes me feel a lot more competent, and strangely appreciative of all the authors putting out work for free that absolutely is better than a whole lot of what is being sold.

I will assure anyone reading that I do not intend to lock the ending of this saga behind a paywall, I only got a following at all from these free stories and it would seem mean to change that. The worst I might do is if I write the events of the epilogue in more expanded form, *maybe* those might cost something if I get into that world, but I have mostly entertained the idea of selling stories for some of the other ideas I've had. 

Mostly I just wanted to use my generic update to vent about what I'm finding in the state of paid erotica mediocrity. But hey, Sturgeon's law is holding up at least.

So how "am" I?

 It's been a while, and after a few of you asked on my last post I thought it was time for an update. It'll be a little personal and a little political, but it unfortunately won't have a story below it so read or skip this accordingly.

I wish I could give you another story, but I can't. This year has been so much, I'm hanging on by what sometimes feels like a few old threads. The company I've been working for collapsed, combination of its own failures and the covid downturn. I thankfully have saved enough that I'm weathering it alright, but I still don't have a replacement job or  even really a firm idea about what kind of employment I'd want to pursue next. I also have medical conditions that put me at very high risk of this disease and so I have been very limited in what I do while also having this grey cloud over me for a lot of the time. And then there's the election.

I don't know these are really excuses for why I'm not writing, I certainly have downtime, but I just have trouble staying focused or productive in that way. But as the last few years of updates without stories have shown, this isn't just a 2020 thing.

I can't remember if I've shared this or not, but I suffer from a mood disorder causing high levels of anxiety and depression. It's been with me most of my life, and since college when I really had a breakdown I've been trying different treatments and medications. Around 2014, I got on a new drug cocktail that kinda seemed to make a difference on average. However I've also looked back and noticed that 2014 is also around the time my story output began to drastically slow. I've often wondered if they were connected, but never enough to say so out loud to a doctor. But for nearly two years I've felt that either I'm numbing to the medication or my condition is getting worse. And that was before all the 2020 noise. Unemployment, global pandemic I'm at risk of, election, it's a lot.

So I'm hanging on, sometimes it feels like by a little, sometimes it feels like more. I'm trying to be kind to myself and forgiving of shortcomings because everyone right now is just doing their best. I hope you are all still in good health.

As for this damned beast called the election, in almost every state it is already started. As of me writing this, 9.1 million ballots have already been cast (you can follow updates here if you want). And even though one party openly refuses to honor the results, even as one party openly tries to tilt the rules in their favor, even as one party packs the court for the expressed purpose of possibly overturning the results, even as one party looks into using the electoral college to ignore the will of voters and cast their state electors for Trump regardless of results, by all available measurement they are losing. It is not reason to celebrate or assume it to be a done deal (mostly for the reasons I listed above). But Republicans haven't run against a white man since 2004, and they are struggling to figure out how their brand of identity politics and white male grievance can work against another white man.

And as much as I supported Warren in the primaries, and feel she would have made the best president, it's clear now Biden is the best candidate we could have picked. Someone seemingly moderate enough for the white suburbs (and somehow seniors?) to line up behind him over Trump. Someone coalitional enough that he adopted a platform written in equal parts by his people and Bernie's people, making it the most progressive platform any major party nominee has run on. AOC literally co-wrote his new climate plan. He's adopted parts of Warren's platform in full without alterations, including on the topic of bankruptcy where he was famously opposed to what she believed because he now admits he was wrong. Imagine, after the last four years, a politician who can admit when they were wrong and change accordingly. He has credibility with the black community without any of the social expectations an actual black candidate would face. And after 4 years of a heartless president, he is empathetic in a way we all need. The president isn't just the head of government they are the head of state, and that role requires that a president feel our pain. Obama during his 8 years gave more national addresses after a mass shooting than he had state dinners. 

He's also the first candidate in the history of modern primaries who moved away from the center after getting the nomination. Not only does that make his policies closer to my own, but it proves he is willing to move when there is pressure to do so. Lincoln didn't start a strict abolitionist, he was moved there. Johnson didn't start out supporting a Voting Rights Act, he was moved there. Biden can be moved if we move him. It's telling that the area he probably moved the most on has been the environment, the area with the most activist pressure. He's also moved on police reform, healthcare, college tuition and debt forgiveness, all the areas progressive activists care most about. He even moved to embrace the possibility of ending the filibuster and rebalancing the court, and if we can hold him to that we could end up with more progressive victories than any president since at least Johnson. So I don't care who you supported in the primary, I don't want to hear you aren't excited, not only is this election vital to the continuation of democracy but Biden is a fundamentally good person who is at his core a coalitionist who wants to find common ground. In 1974 he was rated at just a hair to the left of the median Democrat. In 2008 he was also rated as just a hair to the left of the median Democrat. As we move the party, he has shown he's willing to move with us. Not to the bleeding edge, but he will move. 

So to all you who are American, have a plan to vote, make sure your friends have a plan to vote. But don't just vote, volunteer. Phone and text contacting is even more important in a pandemic world where it's not safe to go door to door, and it means you don't have to be local. Donate if you can, there are several good Senate races that could flip that chamber (which is basically a prerequisite for any legislation anyone might want). Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina, two of them in Georgia, Arizona, Maine, South Carolina, even Texas and Mississippi are within the margin of error. There is a major effort in Texas to flip the state legislature, they are just 9 seats from a majority and whoever has a majority will draw the congressional map after this year's census. A fair map in Texas without gerrymandering would be the biggest win for small d democracy we could make at the state level.

As for me, I don't know what my future holds. I hope that the election goes smoothly enough I can get some decent sleep again. Really looking forward to next year when there should be an internationally verified working vaccine. As for stories, I don't know. As has been the problem for years I have ideas but can't make myself sit down and bring those ideas onto the page as easily as I once did. I don't know if that will change because I don't know what's causing it. But I appreciate you all for sticking with this as long as you have. You are all great.

That thing I promised myself I wouldn't do on here

So, when I started this blog I wanted to keep it just about the stories. It was a nice alternate reality, and while there were politics in them in places, I actively tried not to make them or this site political.

But I'm a very political person. As had been hinted at, I went to American University in DC (living in the dorm room Andrea had if you care to figure that out) and majored in political science. I even got some jobs in politics after graduating before burnout became too real and loans came due etc. Campaigns are not known to pay well, especially to people like myself at the lower end of the totem pole.

So why am I saying all this? Well like many I've been transfixed by what's happening, and I want to share a thing or two. If you don't want to hear about politics you don't have to click "read more." Know that I'm not ready to post the rest of the epilogue, but that progress continues in fits and spurts. This update won't have anything more about that, bu if you would like to please read on.

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.

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.

A major announcement

Headline first: A STORY IS COMING VERY SOON

But it will be a little different as I'll explain.

So as is quite obvious, my output has basically stopped. I could say it's fatigue, or my changing life making me feel less inclined to write, a desire to change up the long plot, or  any number of other possible reasons. Whatever the motivation, the result is that I'm simply not been writing much. Writing out the events is just not feeling as fun as it used to be, and so in my freetime I don't do it very much any more.

So I made a deal with myself a while ago. If by December 21 when my work shuts down for the year, if I haven't finished the next story I go to plan B. This story "Andrea's Memories" will be done some time this holiday break.

New Short Story: Deep Cover Engagement

So, I was going through some forums and came across a story contest being held over at Gromet's Plaza. The topic was a crime fighting woman, and rather quickly an idea came to mind. So I wrote out a quick story on it, I maybe could have gone longer but I tried to keep it short since the story contest specified a maximum of 6,000. I still went way over that amount, and had to edit down the story quite a bit removing whole scenes to make it fit.

So I wanted to also post the story here in its fullness. I have no idea when/where the contest is happening, but I'm not going to link to it cause I don't want to try to funnel people from here to vote there and throw the fairness off. I sometimes find a random topic like this can be a change of pace that is good for resetting the mind. I'm sure many would prefer this be a story about the main girls, but it's just its own thing all on its own. Hope you enjoy:

PDF Download

Deleted scene!

So, I suddenly realized how ungodly long it has been. The past year has been exhausting, draining, not just from work but just.. all of it. Anyway, I've never fully given up on this, but I keep having difficulty concentrating on it often and I keep reworking and re-refining how everything's going. I can't give you an update unfortunately about when a full next story will be up, but in the mean time I do at least have one section that I know for sure will not be in the next story. I wrote it, I like it, but I realized a better way for things to naturally go. Normally I'd take something like that and store it for maybe being recycled into a future story but this small bit can't really do that.

So I present the first bit of a deleted segment of a story, and all you need to know is that Andrea and Zaianb are at a party, and as they came in there's a large room where costumes are out for people to put on. Andrea is having trouble picking what to wear, so she and Zainab get one of the people working there to dress her up in the "swankiest" attire available. It may not be much, but enjoy:

A Slight change

So I have been writing more, but something new has come up. I started this whole series a while ago with the idea originally of trying to lump all my various kinky scenarios into a continuous story so I wouldn't need to re-create characters or re-establish dynamics each time I wanted to write a story. It built up a bit beyond my original plan, but the broad stroke outline has been mostly the same since I started writing about the cabin.

I've been making pages and pages of progress, but I've been finding I've kind of hit a wall of sorts. It's not just my different life, I'm able to focus more of late and spend more time writing. I'm just having trouble getting moving past where I'm currently at. A weird kind of writer's block.

And of all the places I thought I might get inspiration from, I didn't expect a network show I just started on Netflix to be able to tell me why. For those who haven't seen it, Jane the Virgin is really crazy over-the-top. But in an episode I just watched recently, Jane (who writes on the side) got the advise that when you reach a block, sometimes you need to look farther back. And so I started questioning my long-held outline for where things will be going to see if changing that might help.

I've always liked having twists in my writing. I think they keep suspense when you know they are a possibility at any time. However, I try to keep them within the real of likelihood to not be rejected out of hand. My biggest criticism to myself from the series is I think I may have crossed that line (or at least got very close) with some of Sophia's contract stuff. But what I'm at the edge of now, might require as much or more unrealism and I think that might be what's hampering me. Either that or I'm feeling it's maybe too mean. So I've started thinking about what else to do with the long arc of the story. And since removing that restriction and creating a new path, I'm writing better again. It unfortunately means shelving a lot and repurposing what I can, but such is life.

I still don't have a time table, I'm still not writing as fast as I was a year+ ago, but I wanted to give a little update about a recent change. I'm writing faster than I was half a year ago, and hopefully faster still with this shift, but it does mean some work has been lost.

An Update with unfortunatly little new to add

Hi all. I just got reminded how long it's been since I've said anything more and though I'd do that now.

I've said before that the change to my work life has made me less productive. But a big specter that I haven't talked about was the election. Politics have always been important to me, it was what for a time I thought I wanted to do with my life. Andrea going to AU was not a random pick, it is my alma mater, her room was basically my room (for those who care/know enough to figure out which dorm that is). But my usual passing watch of news et al has been increasingly replaced as this election got into the closing months (which is seriously way too long). It has to a large degree consumed me whenever I had a free moment.

I know statistically, many of you will be on one side while the rest will be on others. So I've resisted the temptation to let politics bleed into this side of my life. It is sad to say that ~40% of either side believe that the other side winning could pose a threat to the country. So not only would I divide my readership by landing on one side of this, but I'd worry that I would offend at a deep level someone who may feel my side is a threat to the country.

Now that the election is over I'm hoping I can regain some sanity. I feel almost like a junkie, that my worry and passion fueled an almost addictive obsession. I'm trying to wean myself off in a way I seemed incapable of during during the general election itself. Because even though I know watching news attentively does not alter the news I'm watching, I none the less felt almost an obligation to hear everything in a way I haven't with elections before.

And among those things I'm using to try to wean me off of it, I am trying to write more. I won't lie and say I'm nearly there, but I dropped off the map for reason, and hopefully that reason will soon be going away. And I'll try to let you know how that's going sooner than the five months I waited this time!

😁

A few kinds of updating

So, after long last, some very overdue site maintenance has been done. All the little things I keep forgetting to do.

But I also want to be blunt about my lack of posting progress. When I started this series, I was in a very different place in my life. I've spent most of my life either a student, unemployed or underemployed. Since last summer, that's been different. I've been working longer days than I ever have, but it's long days doing more than just bit jobs that leave my mind starving for escape. I believe I've mentioned most of this before, but I'm not sure if I've ever been so blunt about it.

Work continues slowly, but I'm also at a spot that may need to create an even longer wait than usual. When I was going full steam I liked to leave myself a buffer. I'd have a gap between what I've finished and what I've posted. On many occasions, writing ahead like that I'd realize that I painted myself into a corner without realizing it. I don't like to make edits beyond spelling and typos once I post, so if something would be easier for me if x were actually y then I'd just change it before posting. I utilized it several times and it's made the story seem much more coherent and planned.

I started not doing that as much as my speed slowed. But I was also in an area where that was less important because things were less connected. Now they are becoming more connected where the possibility of easily painting myself into a corner more easily. So, it will likely still be more time. Sorry.

But I have a consolation! 

I have a small part I know for sure will not need to be changed at all. So even though it's not exactly how the story starts out (though it's close) it should make rough sense as is and give y'all a little something as you continue to wait. It's taking place on the morning before the party as Ravi wakes up. Enjoy!

Long overdue update

Hello again. Sorry it's been near silence since the new year. Where does the time go, seriously? How is it already half way into March?

I've still been writing, and I've gotten quite a lot accomplished. I'm still not quite to the end of this particular story, but I'm much closer to the end than the beginning. It will be a longer than some of my recent stories, it's already longer than any of the last ten or so and it's still got several pages at least to get through. And I know this may only serve to tantalize more, but it also is very different from this last chapter in the amount of "action" going on. Part 22 had a lot of plot I needed to get through, and not much of it could be accomplished on a sexualized backdrop. What I'm working on now is much more sexual, and gets back to the kind of stuff I love: setting up interesting ideas with enough detail to let you picture it, enough action and description to not put all the work on your imagination, but enough unsaid to let your mind wander.

I understand this can sound like a bit of a tease, but what can I say I like to tease! I'm still not confident I can say exactly when this will come out, but it's probably 80-90% done. I don't know if that helps or hurts the wait time, but there it is.

And if you're one of those who want to know the second it's ready, there should be an rss feed or a email notification (I don't personally see the email address) that sends out a message every time something new is posted.

Small Update

So I just realized it's been nearly two whole months and haven't said a word. I thought as the weekend approaches I'd just pop in to say I'm still working hard at the new job, still writing when I can, but it's going slowly.

I also think I might be hitting a problem I didn't anticipate. I created Surda, a made up country, so that I wouldn't have to make someone be from a real place I'd be able to make it up to be whatever I wanted it to be for the purpose of the story. What I might not have considered, is that because I've created a whole new place I want to fill it. I keep struggling as I write to not sidetrack myself with needless details that slow down the movement of the story. So I may end up having quite a few "cut scenes" that don't make it in because it adds nothing but details in a story that's frontloaded with details and not a lot of action till later. I've cut back on now thousands of words that I had written but going back over could be replaced by something much smaller or removed completly. Some of it will get folded back in later on perhaps, but that's also adding to my slow pace. From when I went back to "tighten things up" to now, the word count is almost unchanged but I've gotten a lot farther which at least feels like forward progress.

Not cutting it all out of course, don't want a totally empty world, but it's just a problem I hadn't predicted. I thought making my own world would save time than finding the perfect real world equivalent, I might  have been wrong, but I'm not going to go back now and do it any differently. I like the world I made, even if its details will only be known to me and maybe anyone here who wants to read the extras.

So.. I'm trying to progress along it's just being slow, BUT I am still writing!

Going forward

So, now that I got the latest part finished (woho!) I need to also add something not as fun. I hinted at it in my little disclaimer update, but recently my working situation has changed. A good friend has started their own company, it's longer hours but it's with people I actually like. It's meant that I've had less free time to write and a bit less energy for when I do have time. I kind of pushed myself to get this last one done, because I didn't want to leave you all hanging with too many unknowns, but in the near future at least I'm going to be getting slower.

I'm not stopping or giving up, I want to make that clear. I just have fewer hours to commit and not just from some game but because I'm working much longer hours and it can sometimes drain me. And when I'm drained, writing is a slower process. It may be several extra weeks between stories for the next little while. This might change if things start settling down but not sure that will happen for a while. I wish I could just mentally transcribe all this in a weekend, but sadly that's not how this works.

New story this weekend, but first a quick word.

So I know it's been forever, a new job has started and it's eating up a lot of my hours (but it's a good friend's startup so the long hours aren't nearly as soul killing!), but I'm finally nearing the end of the next story. Day or two tops!

However, aside from that I want to say one thing that's been on my mind some as I write this next story which goes back to Andrea, Megan and Zainab in Surda.

What I'm writing is fiction, but fiction that borrows from elements around us. I'm personally white and American, but now a bunch of my characters are not in America so I'm starting to get into less and less familiar and intuitive territory. They're in a fake country I made up in part so that I don't misrepresent or insult a real one. I grew up in a very Persian heavy neighborhood, so I have some familiarity with at least the kinds of Persians who fled the revolution. But even still, even with it being a fake country with fake people, I don't want to insult any real ones. Just kind of the way I am personally. I'm the kind of person that throws a party and spends the whole time making sure other people are enjoying it and never being able to enjoy it much myself so long as I think other people aren't also.

So, this I guess is my one big disclaimer. I'll say it here so I hopefully don't feel the need to pester and repeat it with every chapter that's taking place in Surda:

I try to do justice to representing people from other places as real human people not only relying on stereotypes and culturally assumed tropes too heavily. In some areas I have personal knowledge and experience I can draw from, in some areas my understanding is only Wikipedia deep. If at any point, you find something hard to believe, just try suspending your disbelief a little harder if you can. If at any point I offend you with my ignorance, know it's the last thing I intended and please let me know where and how I did it because it's the only way to learn and improve. The last thing I want to do is paint whole groups of people unfairly. I don't expect problems, I feel like I do a decent job to keep people human (though not always very likable), I just needed to say my piece this once.

A call for art

Increasingly, though I don't think I've put it this way, I've begun to see the story as different "volumes" for lack of a better word. Think of them like seasons of a tv show with each part being an episode. The first volume is parts 1-8, it's meeting the girls, having them first dabble and have them culminate in the end with Sophia heading off and the others free but shamed. The second volume is 9-18, involves Sophia's journey through Atlantic City, Lea's reaction to it, and the introduction of Zainab into the equation. Now we're just starting the third volume. It will not be the "final" volume, but it is a slightly modified version of what was the "final" part of my original arc and so it feels a little "final" to me nonetheless.

So as I keep thinking of these as two now complete "volumes," I've been having more and more thoughts about something I've always wanted for this series: art.

This might be pie in the sky thinking. The problem is that I may have a way with words, but my artistic skills otherwise are just not good. I can sometimes do passable simple stills, but I couldn't draw a decent person to save my life. But none the less, I've often (and increasingly so of late) wondered about having a piece or two of cover art. It's asking a lot to get one for every single part, but.. that's why the idea of volumes has been making me think of it. A cover for volume 1, a cover for volume 2, that's not exactly exorbitant.

So I'm putting a call out. If any of you fans can draw, it would be utterly amazing. But if not, if you know people you think would do this well, who's style you like, and who takes commissions at a reasonable price, let me know. I don't have a lot of money, but I am possibly willing to pay a fare price if it's needed. I don't want to make things complicated here by asking for money directly from anyone, which is why it would obviously be ideal if any of you had any kind of skill or willingness to get commissions for me. I'm also more than willing to basically pay "in kind." I could put you in the story, make another story you'd describe, or just at minimum give you advanced access to early drafts and such.

Just a topic to leave you with for now that I'm sure isn't going to be quickly settled.

New distraction

So it's been about a month and I just wanted to give a quick update. Unfortunately I've been going a little slow but I am still going! Just slower. Kind of found a new addicting thing and it's been slowing me down. I got Crusader Kings II during the recent Steam Summer Sale after heavy recommendations. I'm now 165 hours deep, It's been making the writing go slower. Sorry, still just human and all that.

I'm hoping the next part will be done next week or so.

Lots of change

So as most of you can probably guess from the last episode, a lot of things are about to change. Lea's reaching the end of her contract. I still need to "go back" chronologically to catch up with some Sophia stuff that happened before then. However, at the end of the story a lot of things will be different. As such it's important I make sure things still work. I will be posting it soon, but the delay has been because I want to get ahead on future stories for a bit before releasing this one to make sure they work properly.

It also means a lot of things may seem up in the air, but sometimes that's just what change looks like even if it seems like a mystery at the time. I will also be broadening things as Andrea and Megan take a trip to Zainab's home country of Surda. I like to try as much as possible to not change my work (aside from the typos I always seem to miss no matter how much I proof read!) once it's posted. That way, once it's up that's what basically happens. So when I'm upsetting the balance of things like I am now, I really really want to make sure I'm upsetting it the right way before releasing the thing that starts it all.

So the long and the short of it is: it will be about a week or so (as a target at least) because I really want to get ahead on other stories before posting part 18 which will create a lot of ripples. I know you are all thankfully patient, but I just wanted to explain why there's been a delay with this part after earlier saying there shouldn't be long delays with these three parts.