It didn't take long after pushing this area of my life away before it started gnawing at me. I had a total meltdown a month ago out of fear regarding the current political climate in my country. There's so much effort now to control the Internet and what people do over it lately that the idea came into my mind I could be tracked and targeted for being who I am.

I haven't shaken the feelings off entirely. I don't know what's going to happen. I hope nothing bad happens to anyone. But I've since been told by a few people close to me that my writing was doing good things for them, and it was actually doing good things for me too. The way I feel about writing my story hasn't been felt when I've done anything else, not even programming, and the thought of leaving my story where it was makes me sick. I haven't been able to keep off of it and I've actually completely finished the current story arc while away.

Wishes of Mana will continue. Another chapter will be uploaded next Friday.

To those of you following my story, I’m very sorry for this.

Due to the outcome of the 2024 election, I doubt that I’ll be able to continue my writing anymore. This whole thing has me completely torn up and I can’t think of my work while constantly worrying for the continued survival of my loved ones.

I’m so incredibly sorry that I didn’t leave off on a better note. If you all want, I’ll reveal what happens next.
Haze is revealed to have been following them and steals the lamp. Phoenix unfortunately falls under her control and immobilizes the other monsters while Haze hits Floren with a powerful confusion spell. While mired within a weird dream, Floren manages to recover her memories before snapping out of it, and with some trickery on Phoenix's end, she manages to take the lamp back and defeat Haze for good.
A projection of the Emperor appears then and talks to Phoenix, revealing that he can detect Wishes that are made, and giving him a creepy talk about how he'll get the lamp someday. Phoenix then restores the Benevodon, who reveals to Floren that she is the Knight of Mana and needs to learn to wield elemental magic.
The two say goodbye to all the monsters, collect the diamonds Floren dug up earlier, and head out the caves to the surface before flying back to Renar. That ends the story arc.

I loved writing Wishes of Mana and I was just starting to love identifying as a furry. But now it’s over. From this point I need to prioritize the survival of my family and doubt I’ll ever get to create anything again. Thank you to those of you who followed me this far, and from the bottom of my heart, I’m truly sorry.

News on Wishes of Mana to the five-ish people keeping up with it.

I am posting two chapters (one today, one tomorrow) because one is very short. That’s not all though.

Starting this month, I’m going to be posting semi-monthly instead of monthly. I’ve gotten an unexpected surge of drive to continue writing and now have a LOT more backlog than before, and it doesn’t seem to be tapering off much. I think it’s safe enough to pick up the pace without running out of chapters; I’m actually currently working on 29! Should this keep up even after Floren and Phoenix get back home from the caves (this is a looong arc), I may be able to post weekly. We’ll see.

Thank you to everyone who’s given me any attention for my work at all, no matter how little.

For whatever reason, writing has gotten a lot harder than it was at the beginning. That’s why my story stopped dead in the water. I don’t know if anybody cares about my work or ever did, but the good news is I didn’t actually start this to impress anybody. I just started Wishes of Mana because I wanted to READ it myself. To anybody who DOES care though, and is disappointed that my updates stopped, I’ve got a confession to make:

I’ve actually got more chapters. They’re done. They sound really good and I’ve polished them twice over. The reason I haven’t shared them though is that they’re part of a huge story arc that appeared out of nowhere, and I wanted to get the entire thing done before I started uploading. Editing older chapters sometimes becomes necessary as I go along (ch8 got changed btw!), and it’s easier to edit my work if I haven’t posted it yet.

I’m not happy with how long it’s taking me to get content put out though, especially with how much more is left. I don’t like neglecting my account like this. So here’s the deal: I’m going to post one chapter tomorrow. It’s a good one, and contains my favorite conversation so far out of the entire book. And then from now on, I’ll be posting a new chapter on the first friday (Flammie Friday!) of each month. That’ll last me a good while, and I figure if I can’t get another chapter out each month then I should probably re-evaluate.

To those few of you who HAVE taken any interest in me, thank you! Every single comment and favorite gets my full attention and really makes my day. I hope to prove capable of deserving it.

To those incredibly few of you who are actually interested in my work, Wishes of Mana is on pause for a bit. This is not a long hiatus (hopefully!), but I just needed a couple things to fall into place first.

One is that I wanted a bit more time to keep writing. I burned myself out a few days ago, and didn’t want my backlog of finished chapters to dry up, because… for complicated reasons, that’d lower the quality of my writing. I don’t know how to explain it. But I’m starting to feel better and I think I can continue writing now. UPLOADS are still on hold for a while though.

The other issue is I’m hoping to get some art done of my main character that I can use as a thumbnail. I already have an artist who’s up for it but it’ll be awhile. Please be patient.

In the meantime, I think I’ll upload some other art that I have, starting tomorrow. Stay tuned.