Due to a happy coincidence of timing, I got the next TWCD chapter published as well as Xabiar’s new Citadel Files : Military out the door today.
We are having a PV-RPG session today from 2 PM to 6 PM CST, which will result in that being put into an online chapter along with Bright’s next happy discoveries.
I’m also in the process of getting bids and estimates for the next set of artwork, as well as waiting for my Patreons to determine what oneshots they want to see. Later on this month we’ll start to see more of the stories from the Fanfic WriteCon showing up as well.
I am satisfied with this 26k chapter. Have a wonderful new year and let’s hope 2020 is better than 2019. MAJOR thanks to the Editing Gang for pulling together and getting this one out the door, and with the suggestions that made the re-write work.
Redid the next chapter after the Editing Gang shot down draft one, and its with them now. I do not have a good ETA on when they’ll be done with it, but since in theory some parts have already been fixed the goal is to get it out the door before New Year’s Day.
Today starting at 11 AM is the final throes of the Death March, as we are predicted to have to ship and scan over two hundred thousand phones. Assuming I am not obliterated by this last torrent of hate, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or apropos holiday) and look forward to a new year.
I’d like to take a moment to recognize some people:
Nimiraj, of course, who keeps me sane. Several of her suggestions involving Shepard and Liara have been invaluable.
The Elder One, who continues to do background work in uploads, edits, and corrections to my train-wrecks, even while managing his own creative writing and other issues.
Both VadderDarth and TheNamelessWele in the Discord chat for work on artistic elements, emoji, and ideas.
Jim and Sevoris for the official design of Shepard’s and Aethtya’s warp swords:
The usual triumvirate of Comma, Jacob and Metaladdict for advice, ideas and support. All of them have gone through some shit IRL and yet continue to help, assist other members, and basically be bros. Extra props to Comma for doing all the moderation of the Discord chat, which as of today has 134 members, many of whom are completely insane.
Quentin, Bish09, and Burnsidhe for critical changes and ideas that I used in shaping the fic this year. Each of these has been extremely useful and evocative — and made me think on other things, down the line that have shifted the story line.
Seras, Nagato, and Kaikono for being supportive.
Everyone who participated in reviews, comments, well wishes, DM’s on Discord, PM’s on FF.net and emails — thank you. I don’t write for reviews, I don’t write for ego, and I don’t write to be praised. I write for the simple reason that I want to make people be able to lose themselves from the real world for a while, and to remind you that just because things are dark doesn’t mean they always will be.
Thank you for reading my work. Thank you for giving me a focus. Thank you for being yourselves.
The Author’s Note I left at the top of the last chapter bears repeating.
Often I am asked why evil flourishes.
‘Evil
is merely the lack of empathy and the belief that love and hope are
empty words. There are those who embrace the darkness within, who
honestly believe that mercy is weakness and that to love one another is
impossible – due to politics, or to conflict between our species, or
that it is merely naïve.
‘Yet
for all the power of evil – death, darkness, greed, cruelty, and lies –
you will find these are transitory, and lead to the undoing of those who
espouse them. Death is simply a part of life. To fear it is to miss the
point of living as fully and as joyfully as one can in their span.
Pain, greed, and cruelty are opportunities, a chance to show that mercy,
love, and kindness are real. Lies are merely the tyranny of evil beings
over those who would bring them down if they knew the truth, and will
always falter in time.
‘None
of these evils can match the laughter of a child. They cannot match the
beauty of the moon-rise, or the glory of the sun. No material wealth is
as potent or fulfilling as the warmth of a lover’s embrace in passion.
No greedy and cruel leader can steal from you the ability to show love
and to share hope.
‘It is only
in those who have given up the fight that evil wins. And as long as I
draw breath and live, I will never bow to its demands, nor fear its
lash.’
-Matriarch Uressa T’Shora, ‘On Light Reflected,’ a commentary of her actions at the end of the First Contact War/Relay 314 Incident
So, the good news: the new chapter is with the Editing Gang and should be out by next weekend (unless a rewrite is needed.)
Bad news: As it stands, it ends on a cliffhanger.
I need to write the Shepard-Liara scene, but I want to do it the right way, since it is going to be a critical thing. And as I may have pointed out before I am not a female so I want advice and feedback on how to proceed before I do so.
The semi-good news is I will try to have that chapter done before Christmas. We’ll see.
Second, we have a NEW documentation story, covering all things Citadel (including, finally, a coherent historical timeline lol) written by Xabiar from the Broker’s viewpoint!
The next chapter is at 16k of FLUFF and AWESOME and the Editing Gang is arguing fiercely at how much of a simply useless hack writer I am, so it may be a few more days before they finish tearing it apart and making something better from it.
Also wrote an article touching on some of why I wrote the reunion the way I did.
The next chapter is about 5k words in, and I don’t think I can get it out in the next two weeks — we’ll see. It will cover a lot of the media reaction, insight into the turians and salarians (since most of the viewpoints have been humans and asari) as well as the krogan, and the first appearance of the real players on the stage showing up.
It will also contain memes, lol. At any rate, enjoy the chapter and Happy New Year.