Part 23 - Andrea and the Opulent Mall

Part 23 - Andrea and the Opulent Mall - PDF Version

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This is new and as of now, not posted anywhere else. I hope you all enjoy.

Part 23 Summary

Part 23 takes place several days after the last story, nearing the end of Andrea, Megan and Zainab's spring break. Spoilers below.

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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.

Part 22 - Sophia and the Open Sea

Part 22 - Sophia and the Open Sea - PDF Version

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This is new and as of now, not posted anywhere else. I hope you all enjoy.

Part 22 Summary

Part 22 starts the morning after the new years party that took place in part 21, still in Surda. Spoilers below.

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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.

Part 21 - Zainab and the Spring Flower

Part 21 - Zainab and the Spring Flower - PDF Version

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This is new and as of now, not posted anywhere else. I hope you all enjoy.

Part 21 Summary

Part 21 picks up moments after the end of part 19. Andrea and Megan are with Zainab at her family's home in Surda. Spoilers below.

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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.