Hello everyone!
I imagine it was an unpleasant surprise when I announced Eikasia was in hiatus. I apologize for that. I was beginning to feel burned out from writing, and unrelated events didn’t help with matters. I anticipated the need for a break in November–but I thought I could finish up Chapter 13, plus the two bonus stories I owed you all. I was wrong. It’s my fault, stretching myself too thin when I knew I was about to give out. I’ll try and be more up front about it in the future. I’m not so much guilty about taking a break, just at how it came about so abruptly. That wasn’t fair to all of you, and showed a lack of professionalism. (despite my doing this all for free–it’s the principle of the thing!)
So if you’ve been following my occasional updates on Twitter I HAVE been working on Eikasia, but in different ways. First of all, I’ve been working up a lexicon explaining the different schools of magic and the different races found in Eikasia. (it’s at a total of 2723 words) I’ve also been trying to do a color map of the world and the continents. (Though those files were lost–I’ll explain in a moment…) And of course, I’ve been working slowly but surely on Chapter 14.1 (at 2206 words) and the Nyx Bonus Chapter that you guys earned from the review marathon. (still to be 4000 words, I remember! It’s currently up to 1459 words) After that bonus story is posted, I’ll have the poll for the next bonus story ready.
Much thanks to Hawk for the review he posted on Web Fiction Guide! That was very encouraging to see. I’ve added the 15 points to the point pool–which, I don’t know if you guys have noticed, I’ve been updating faithfully whenever someone does something to earn more points–despite the hiatus.
I’ve also got some crappy news. My laptop bit the dust. It may have been a virus, or a hardware issue (I’ve started suspecting the former). I haven’t got the moolah to fix it, and it happened at a silly time. I was beginning to contemplate buying a new desktop computer, but at this rate, do I opt for a cheap entry level laptop or suffer a long drought till I can get the new one? I’m not sure… Fortunately, my files were backed up before this happened, so my important notes for Eikasia were not lost. What I didn’t back up were the color maps I had completed of Eikasia’s world. I’ll have to start from scratch. But that isn’t all so bad I guess, is it?
I don’t know how much longer this hiatus will go on. I’m trying to get my mental health in order. Currently I’m focusing on work, school, and exercise. Suikoden 3 has also swallowed my soul. But as I’ve said before, I’ve been making sure to work on Eikasia now and again, to keep the iron hot, so I’ll be getting back to the weekly schedule eventually. If the weekly updates prove to be too much upon my return, I may start out with just bi-monthly updates, but that’s just a possibility.
So I hope everyone is taking care of themselves! If you need something to read during the hiatus, I have some weblit to suggest:
“Above Ground” by A.M. Harte (Dark Adventure Fantasy; Best Fiction Nominee for the Rose and Bay Awards 2010)
“The City of Roses” by Kip Manley (Urban Fantasy)
“Strange Little Band” by Nancy Brauer and Vanessa Brooks (Science Fiction with a lil’ Romance)
“Addergoogle” by Lyn Thorne-Alder (Contemporary Fantasy in a school setting)
OR! If you can entertain the idea of fanfiction, and have played either Final Fantasy 7 or 8, I recommend:
“Fire and Ice” by altol (Final Fantasy 8; Dark Romantic adventure, with Quistis and Seifer as the main characters; one of my most favorite writers! Greatly inspired the style and voice in my writing.)
“Vagrants Rhapsody” by…um. Me. (Final Fantasy 7; Eikasia’s awkward younger step-sister. As it’s the last story I worked on, it has alot of the same style and voice as Eikasia does. Also a lesbian romance. Main characters are Tifa and Yuffie.)
OR! If you’re willing to go out and get the books, I also recommend reading these paperbacks:
“Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman (Dark Fantasy)
“Kitty and the Midnight Hour” by Carrie Vaughn (Urban Fantasy. Believe me, the title is tongue-in-cheek. The writing is actually quite good, and the protagonist grows on you. Oddly enough, this is one of the major inspirations for Eikasia)
“Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown (A bildungsroman–or coming-of-age tale–about a beautiful tough and funny lesbian from the south, and the challenges she faces in the 70’s.)
I hope some of those recommendations work for you! Be sure to keep on an eye on my twitter updates. Until next time, everyone.
...Prepare to Die. 