Hello friends. Let’s start with the bad news and I’ll be direct… Chapter 16 isn’t ready yet. I have a bad history of not delivering on chapters and disappearing. To be honest, part of the reason for my original long hiatus was the shame of not having delivered chapters by the stated dates. In the interest of preventing that from happening again, I’m going to just come clean here and push through that shame.
The reason the chapter isn’t ready is a combination of factors. One is that I have been sick the past few days (running on both ends is not fun) but that’s not the biggest reason. The biggest reason is I got a large chunk of the chapter done… then reread it and felt it just didn’t work. After hemming and hawing I finally deleted it and started over. It REALLY pains me to rewrite stuff. I just don’t like it. At all. But I just really want to make sure these are chapters you can enjoy and that they are up to the quality that I expect of myself and, I feel, you expect of me.
So, where does that leave us? I’m going to deliver the chapter on November the 18th (1 week later than originally) promised. This chapter will, I feel, be up to snuff. If it turns out I get it done a bit quicker than anticipated, well then, that’s awesome and I’ll post it earlier. So stay tuned. Throughout the week and I’ll give you all updates.
“So, Taralynn,” you say, “you said there would be some GOOD news. So far it’s been nothing but a mountain of bad news and puppies crying.” You’re right fair reader. I did promise good news that… sorry, I just got distracted by seeing a huge gust of wind blowing a fairly large cardboard box down my street. It’s incredibly windy today. Okay, distraction over, onto the good news! The good news is Pip is doing the art for next month’s pin-up commission. As you can see in the upper right, December’s image is “Christmas Vivian” and you’ve already seen his awesome picture of Spirit Guard Felicity so you know he’s more than up to the task. I’ve seen is work and it is, indeed, awesome. I think you all will like it.
One more piece of good news before I get back to that chapter: I will be posting the MGP Chapter 2 with Reader Commentary on Thursday (on Wednesday if you’re a Patreon patron). So, if you’re one of my $5+ commentators looking to get one more quip in, please get those comments onto the googledoc by Tuesday the 11th so I can post that.
Thank you for your patience,
Taralynn
PS: Again, really sorry about not being ready for my own deadline. I hope the chapter is good enough to make up for it.
Puppies, oh the poor puppies. I do not mind waiting, and sounds great that Pip is doing another pin up.
Tis fine, life happens! Much better to communicate honestly rather than to disappear and hide in a corner. Keep up the good work and please pet those poor crying puppies 🙂
Good news and bad news indeed. The bad news is that there’s no new chapter for me to read. The good news is that there’s no new chapter for me to read. I was planning on blowing off this afternoon’s work to read it. So that means back to the keyboard for me.
I’ve run away from enough things in my life because of shame…left enough projects unfinished, disappeared from things that were worthwhile. To say I understand would be an understatement…
…I’m glad you didn’t run and hide though. 🙂 I’m certainly eager to see the next chapter, and I hope I’m able to reassure you that we, those who read the scribblings on your wall, are certainly willing to wait a little bit longer due to exigent circumstances.
And I’ve had to rewrite things entirely from scratch before. It almost always comes out better in the end. It’s a natural part of the writing process, don’t worry about it. 😉
Thanks for your kind words. I hope it’s worth the wait too
It sounds like you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Relax and let the process play out. It might help to get someone to read your drafts and help you talk through the issues. I’d guess that the chapter was better than you thought and probably could be rescued. You’re a good writer. Don’t let a small hurdle stop you.