Hey, those who are watching this space and haven't been seeing much? That's because I've been busy with non-furry projects which don't belong here. I've also been lacking in inspiration to really get to work on even short pieces to keep this place alive. I thought I'd get a chance to really get to work on myriad other writing projects after finishing "Evalia's Tale" (and the edits) but wrestling with getting FA to accept the full story kinda put plans to a halt.

And then after that... reality happened, as for two months I became consumed with a lot of things which HAD to be dealt with immediately. (Or else.) And then there was some minor interpersonal drama with someone in reality which needed the REST of my full attention. This is outside of running a (very long) BattleTech campaign back up to speed again, and starting to 'spin up' a D&D 4e campaign back to process again. The good news is at least these projects are going along fine - everyone involved claims to be having fun with it, so it's working out.

(... no, there are no plans for an anthropomorphic version of the Inner Sphere to sink time into. Because there are WAY better ideas I could be doing with that IP.)

However:
- I've got a couple collaborative pieces which are in the pipeline just waiting for finishing touches to get done. This could take a while, or no time at all, as it really is out of my hands for the time being. Just know the text is (mostly) finished.
- There's a folder of ideas for short stories featuring Evalia, but the aforementioned problems have kept me from doing more than add to the list.
- The tease I had for working on "Green Eyes" is going to start going into motion again once I can find the "voice" for various characters again.

But there's not a good chance these are going to happen any time soon, because in four weeks work starts pushing for the holiday season and that's always a "good time". (Disclaimer: How good it is depends on whether I've gotten into the wine yet.)

I know I slowed down quite a bit with writing, but there's two three reasons for this:

One is just the season. I get busy with work at this time of year and it exhausts a lot of my energy I could sink into writing. I'm spending more time with things which just... relax me... than writing new things. I still have ideas but having the mental focus and energy to just get to it has proven much more rare. And when I do, it's in such a rough shape it requires a lot more time to go through an edit pass. I have some things waiting for me to finish a good strong edit instead of just getting put up as roughs. I also tended to have more stuff in progress which just needed polish before I could put it out.

The second issue is a little different, but also exhausting on a different case.

I've put a lot of energy into 'Evalia's Tale' and it is drawing to a close shortly. Not that there's nothing more to write about the shadowvixen - there's always more. But it's almost finished to a point where it can be termed "completed". After which there's just a smoothing pass to iron out wrinkles before I intend to not go back and work on it again. And while there's a few candidates for 'further adventures', I'd like to wrap what there is before I dive into them. But I've also not got something immediately to take its place once I finish. Nothing which I could really be pouring my energy completely into quite so deep.

Which is the third reason... I got "not furry" writing I want to get back to. And because it's not furry, it'll not get posted here, and I won't actually advertise what it is. (Some of you will know what it is. Some who tripped across me via looking me up after seeing me from those other places? You already know what it is.) It's entirely not fair to avoid mentioning it, even if I was going to, because it's meaning I won't get as much writing done to post here.

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So, TL;DR? If you're seeing a slowdown, it's not because anything went wrong. It's because I no longer have things which are going to be quick to work on and get out onto here.

So, a lot of people I saw were doing Halloween stories this year...

Now, I anticipated getting the finale of Evalia's Tale up around then, but a couple things came up. (Most of all was a cold snap announcing "hey y'all, Winter is almost here" playing merry havoc with my body.) Then I was shooting for something else, smaller... and I couldn't get the energy together to get it done. So, well, I am just going to hang onto the idea until later.

The good news is next year I'll have more things in place writing-wise to do one. Evalia's Tale will be finished and I'll have plenty of time to sit down and use her freely :)

So I'm reading through my first half-dozen chapters of 'Evalia's Tale' and deciding I probably am going to be revising them. I'm just overall unhappy with how things look, catching small errors which were fine when I was treating it more like a side-project to just do as I felt like. Now that I'm getting more serious about it, going back and re-reading has me wincing a great many times. (You could make a drinking game out of it.)

I'm going to wait before doing any upload changes, because I'm close to where I want to plant a flag and go: "This is where I am done." But if you're reading my early six chapters and thinking it's a little rough... you're right. Those are basically rough drafts which weren't being "test-read" like everything started to be once I had other peoples' characters involved :)

First of all, welcome.

For those who have noticed a lot of stories in my gallery? That's mostly an ongoing story I am writing. I've mentioned it in the previous journal, but I'll explain in this one. For the quick rundown? I am compiling my portions of "Evalia's Tale" here in this journal entry for latecomers who are wanting to read the whole thing. I will periodically edit in links to each chapter as I complete it for ease of reference. It'll be mature but not adult, mostly, and will showcase Evalia's character development through a couple years' real-time play... in "I don't know how many" chapters. I'm thinking twenty thirty, but it could easily be more than that.

There are three things to know, and one for me to state openly:

First. This is a dramatized retelling, an origin story for my shadowvixen character. She has been around for "ohgodhowlong?!" years and details are very fuzzy through much of this period. So I'm using old notes of events on top of original character notes polished over the years to settle her backstory. A lot of this happened before 2005, but now I'm rewriting it over the last couple years. (As I think I've gotten better enough at writing to get it to work.) There's a few things which were part of her in the early days which... no longer make sense or I simply stopped. Those are gone, for all sorts of reasons, but what remains is the core of her character - redefined, refined, and polished. This Evalia is the version which is the... base self.

Second. Not all the characters in the story chapters are mine, and I will be crediting them when they get more than a mention-cameo. This picks up more once Evalia reaches 'the wider world', when I started playing more publicly (part 12). That said, I'm mostly including characters which held a special meaning at the time Evalia was developing: they had some influence on how the shadowvix grew as a person. I'm also unable to include some of those who simply... dropped out of my awareness, or who explicitly say "no". My apologies, and if you're reading the story and don't like the cameo or inclusion - at any point - please drop me a line and I'll see about fixing it. After taking the offending part(s) down, naturally. I will do my absolute best to rewrite anything to satisfaction.

Third. I am hoping to keep this particular story PG-13, or at least to avoid excessive amounts of adult content for the sake of it. So if you're hanging around hoping for a shadowvixen-of-size to [insert some sizefurry sexual thing here] then it's not happening except in implications. I'm also not going to intentionally go deep into gore, or such. It's not about me objecting to the use of Evalia in such situations (because a few people who know me are snickering at that idea) but because I'm looking to leave this "mature, but approachable" to show how Evalia developed. Smut will likely happen, but it'll be separated. I will not link it in here.

Lastly. I am well aware the earlier few parts are shorter than later ones, but I was still getting a feel for what I wanted to write. I will not be adjusting their length or fleshing them out further, because then I'd be at this for years trying to get it "perfect". I may have to remove chapters and re-upload because of typos which sneak through, but I will always keep this journal updated with working links. There is no set release schedule, since I'm doing this on my own time and not being paid for it. (And no, I'm not asking for it - I've included other peoples' characters and monetizing that feels morally wrong. Copyrights aside.) If you want to keep up, either throw on a Watch (much appreciated, enjoy the art which goes up between stories too) or check back here periodically.

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1. Principles*
2. Unwanted*
3. Confrontation*
4. Consequences*
5. Departing*
6. A Curious Meeting
7. A Night to Remember
8. Playing the Game
9. Opposition
10. Understanding
11. Experimentation
12. Two Nights Out
13. How to Make Friends
14. Research and Relaxation
15. In Their Proper Place
16. Creation
17. Casting Shadows
18. Memory Lanes
19. Night of the Tigerthing
20. Learning Experiences
21. Making Peace
22. Goddess of the Night
23. The Towering Wolf
24. The Inheritors
25. Searches and Memories
26. Final Preparations
27. The Midnight Hour
28. The Days Which Come After

(Note: The entries with an asterisk have been replaced with rewritten chapters which hopefully fall in line with the rest of the story.)

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Thank you for trusting me with your time. I'll try not to waste it too much.

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Credits:

Sardeth, Tyarlal, Sorvetz, Xecheq, and Lhuhikwdwoo are ©  Lhuhikwdwoo
Kitana is ©  kitana
Litan, Giada and Shenayim are ©  djagir
Jenora is ©  JenoraFeuer
Arilin and the Giants' Club were created by  Arilin
Macrotis is © their player

All other characters are © myself.

So, here I am, writing the next part of Evalia's ongoing origin story (which is hard enough since that's almost 20 years ago) and reaching a point which became the defining point for where she is now:

When Evalia went to FurryMUCK and started hanging around the Giants' Club.

I'm not going to lie, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. That period was the largest part of what developed her as a character, alongside private roleplay scenes I had with others. (One of those scenes being entwined with this story thus far, as they were present and driving a lot of development before FM.) But publicly hanging out and having met a number of different people, chatted, played around... FM shaped Evalia to the point she's at now.* I can't tell a good tale about her origins and early development without going into it.

... and therein lies the problem I just got hit with. Full in the face like a 2x4. These aren't my characters to talk about, and when I dropped onto FM back in 2005. (Maybe earlier, that's just the first date I can find for certain.) I don't have the rights to really include them in the story, yet the interactions with them are part of what shaped Evalia. And even more, I want to tell the story about my time with Evalia getting to know some people who are - even now - among my closest friends and persistent RP scene partners.

So I'm sitting and striking a pose like Gendo Ikari staring at the monitor and fighting the dilemma:

I can either write and only include the characters I want to highlight, and make up people for crowds or other minor interactions so I don't include people who would rather not be a part of this story. Benefits? I don't have to worry about people falling out with me and demanding I remove stories featuring them. (I've already crossed that line, in a sense, by wanting to include the Club in the first place.) I can focus more on Evalia and her development through to the end of this section, and just leave informed what happens through journal notes like the last entry. It's very bare-bones but it gets me through quicker.

Or...

I can figure out who would have actually been around at the time in the Club in '05 and start thumbing through my contacts to see who's not yet blocked me, then ask if they're okay with a cameo in a story which isn't about them and their presence is all about propping up my character's existence so the world doesn't feel empty. And, hey, since I don't have detailed logs of what went on I'd be reconstructing entirely from memory - and could get it completely wrong! I'm sure that offer would go down about as smooth as shattered glass.

I'll figure it out, I'm sure, but it could always be worse. I could have to explain how I got Evalia to exist in the first place and have the other person involved come looking for me. There's at least one person out there still active which might know the tale... it's not a good one, in many senses of that.




* (Or more accurately, the place she has been at for the last ten years or so. She kinda reached a point where her growth - pun intended - has mostly just been in stepping out of things and no longer being... public.)