09 January 2011

Okay, let's get the grovelling out of the way first, shall we?

I am *deeply* sorry that it has taken me this long to scrape together some
free writing time and try to work on the SMV*DA series again.  For some odd
reason, it is impossible for me to write at home.  Well, it's not odd if you
take a serious case of ADD into account.  Granted the home library of MP3s is
just what I need in order to focus the creative juices, to say nothing of a
steady supply of Cherry Pepsi, but when you have a library of computer games
at your fingertips and hours of free time available.... well, let's just say
Paragon City is the place to be.

In any case, work has *FINALLY* settled down somewhat to the point where I am
able to trust my above-mentioned ADD to bounce me between work and writing
without dropping any balls.  As for what I do, let's just say that I'm still
a government contractor in support of the Department of Defense and leave it
at that.  (It pays the bills nicely, I might add, and allows me to work nights
to boot.)  Hopefully things will STAY this way so I can get some productive
writing done.

I was actually trying to work on SMV*DA #13 last night, but I discovered that
the little bubble I had carved out on the shared drive for my writings had
disappeared at some point, taking the .TXT files with it.  (It happens with
disturbing regularity, I might add, which is why I archive such things on my
home computer rather than a work computer.  Yeah, it creates day-long lags
when I need to retrieve something, but at least I know I can grab it.)

I tried to grab the website copies, but it seems the government network I'm on
doesn't like to resolve certain groups of addresses, so I wasn't able to pull
up my own webpage.  In the process of trying to find a cached copy that WOULD
pull up (like, say, resident in Google's cache), I stumbled across a review of
my fanfic series on TVTropes.org:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/SailorMoonV

Finding this was.... unexpected.  And I have to say, it gave me quite a lot to
think about.  First of all, it reminded me that there are still fans out there
who care enough about my series to go to such effort of drawing up such a thing
in the first place.  The ego-demon greatly appreciates it. ;)  Second of all,
the author clearly has a sense of humor and had me literally LOL'ing (albeit
quietly) at work.  Laughter tends to get the juices flowing.  And third, it
gave me a moment of pause.  The author felt that the story wasn't so much dead
as on life-support and mentioned "the dreaded" I'm-still-on-it reminder from
my status update.

As my former Army drill sergeants were fond of reminding me, there is nothing
more uniquely motivating than a proper kick to the balls.  (A kick to the ass
has a different flavor to it.  Don't ask me or any other ex-military type to
explain, either you understand it or you don't.)  So now that I have the time
to do so, and having been properly motivated in a most unexpected fashion, all
I can say is that it is time to write once again.

As before, I make no firm promises on how long this will take to finish.  The
start-date on SMV*DA #13 is February 2008 (!!!), which means it has taken me
three years to get even part-way through this episode.  By my own personal
standards, this is not acceptable.  Alas, I am not Sailor Pluto and thus can't
go back in time, so there's nothing else I can do except keep trying to get
this all written down.

If you're still with me, thanks. :)  I appreciate your support.  Fifteen years
and counting....


"It's good to want.  It keeps you hungry...." - Captain Mako, "City of Villains"