Children of the First

Hello all,

PLEASE DON'T STAB MY FACE! I'm really sorry it's taken so long to post anything... at all. I suck. I'm trying to suck less. So here's a relatively recent correspondence (that is now outdated in some ways) with CotF reader virulent Goblin. Thanks to vG for agreeing to let me post it!

VG: I still check your site every so often. I see you haven't updated in a while - is everything okay? I use the alias virulent Goblin for my comments, just so you know, and I think your world is interesting, unique, and well written. I hope you haven't stopped for good.

AMcG:

Hi, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Honestly, I think I put off replying right away because I was embarassed that I've been so neglectful for so long. Though, I probably should be.

Ah, virulent Goblin you are. I always enjoy your comments and general web-proximity. It is partially because of you and a couple of other readers and friends who keep poking at me to write CotF that I can honestly say I'm not abandoning it forever. The other part of that is that I really like the world, too. (Thank you, by the way, I'm glad you like it--I have so much fun coming up with it, it feels really good to share it with people who want to read it.) I may wish I'd done certain things differently from time to time, but now I know a little better and overall I like how it's progressed.

With me, in the big picture, I think everything's okay. I just have a lot on my plate right now. I had to buy a new car because my old one died, and I have to have one for work and tutoring. So now I have car payments to worry about, which means I have to work more for money, and both my jobs are fairly demanding (though I have gotten a promotion at one and a raise at the other--the only reason I could buy the car at all--which is nice but also reminds me that I'm putting that energy into something that I don't reall want to be doing.) On top of that, I'm taking the GRE on the 23rd, so I've been studying for that a lot, and my girlfriend just moved away to school, so that's been tough too. Unforunately CotF had to take a back seat, but I'm always hopeful that something will give and I'll get back to it. I have been writing sone poetry, but I have to do that for several reasons.

I don't know if you wanted to know all that or not, but I wanted to give a real answer since I took so long doing it.

Thanks for writing and for keeping hope alive.

Rock on. \m/

-Alex

So I took the GRE and broke up with the girl, which frees me up somewhat. (I did fine on the GRE--not as well as I could, but right on the "acceptable" line.) I have been writing poetry and I've been reading a good bit, but I think CotF still seems a bit daunting. I am trying to get over that. In fact, I'm going to work on it today. I would love to publish a chapter a day--or five chapters a day, for that matter--but it's just not feasible right now.

I can't tell you all how much it means to me and how much I appreciate your continued support and simple fact that you care whether or not chapters are being written and/or published. Thank you all so much. Hugs and Kisses!

Rock On. (do it)
\m/
-Alex

Sorry this is going up so late. I was trying to work out how I could format it to look like it was from a scroll or something, but it was taking too long and the way I was trying to do it would have involved a big picture in the post, which would be a problem for a number of reasons. I may still edit this over the next few days, but I wanted to get it up on schedule, so here it is!
Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone had/is having a happy holiday season.
Rock on. \m/

So here's a little bonus thing since I probably won't have time to write the next chapter until early next week. I drew a rough map  for my own reference after the first couple chapters, and I've been thinking of doing a more polished version for a while now. I may do another in the future, or color this one, who knows? Thanks for hanging around, folks.

On a different note, I wanted to mention that there are now CotF banners and buttons (for links/what-have-you) available on the Support the Sitepage. I've also (just now) decided to give bonus credit for every new link using the images, so... yeah.

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Wow. Too much. Expect blog post to explain what has happened in the last few days.

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