<– 003.027 | Index | 004.001 –>
All of the following is completely optional to read. This is no narrative. It in no way affects the story. I’m mostly going to ramble for a few words.
Hello, thanks for reading.
Book four will continue as scheduled. No intermissions, no interludes. Tune in next time for 004.001.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself while writing book three. It was lots of fun the entire way through. Especially those last seven or so chapters. I’d like to know what you all thought about it.
In the other Author’s Notes, I called out what I viewed as the weakest chapter. For book three, that would probably be 003.004. That was the chapter in which Eva returns to Florida for all of five minutes to collect the last of her personal effects, since I know you’ve forgotten. That is exactly why it wasn’t that great of a chapter. Nothing memorable happened.
I will try to keep situations like that in mind going forward.
Book four will alternate every few chapters between two core groups of characters. We’re going to be leaving Brakket, and most of the side characters associated with the school, for almost the entire duration. It is going to be a bit different, but I hope you will continue to read and enjoy.
Now for some side notes:
Starting around the first of January, I’ve found myself with distressingly little free time. A few things have intruded upon my life and probably won’t be going away until late March. Hopefully sooner, hopefully not later. My normal writing schedule is Chapter A on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and Chapter B on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday I use to review the two chapters that are going up the next week (I am ten chapters ahead of the currently posted chapter) and then free time, which I normally used to write extras or simply do something else.
Unfortunately, due to his lack of time, I’ve been needing to use Thursdays as catch-up days. Typically I fail to finish the B chapter by the end of Wednesday. That doesn’t really mean anything for the primary chapters, but there were supposed to be four extras in book three. I scrapped about a thousand words of a Lucy (the tentacle demon) centered extra (that I might still do later if I can get the tone right). Another thousand words of a Wayne extra are currently sitting in limbo, mostly because there is no way said Wayne extra will be 1k-2k words and I do not want another Nel extra.
I am considering restructuring extras into a full-chapter replacement thing, possibly driven by community vote. Unfortunately, even that will probably be on hold until the end of March at the earliest.
On a related note, the Hide and Seek project I mentioned in Author’s Note 002 is currently at two chapters and hasn’t been worked on since December. It is only supposed to be ten or so chapters and is already outlined, but the aforementioned lack of free time has essentially put it on hold.
Let’s see, what else?
Oh yes, Patreon! Yes, I still have one of those. And I appreciate every penny. It won’t exactly help increase the chapter output, not unless I make enough to quit my job. Perhaps a goal for a few years down the line.
I would just like to thank my current patrons. I am truly grateful for your contribution. And you too PayPal donators! It means a lot to me.
On a slightly related, slightly unrelated note, a huge amount of referrals to this story come from Top Web Fiction. I fluctuate between ranks thirteen and twenty, typically. I think my highest rank was about eleven for all of half a day. As such, I would appreciate any extra votes in my direction. It is a quick captcha fill-out once a week and helps a lot.
And hey, if you like someone else’s story better than mine, go vote for them. If their referrer list is anything similar to mine, they’ll appreciate it.
Anyway, enough babbling. On to the trivia section!
-The corrupted script (and I hope it didn’t cause problems with anyone’s reading) that I used for Eva’s floating blood text in 003.026 is easily found online by searching for “Zalgo generator”.
-As mentioned in Author’s Note 001, taking away Eva’s eyes was a last minute change. In this book, Eva got eyes again. This was also a last minute change. I was writing the scene with Arachne and the carnivean and got to a point about an eyeball flying out of her skull as Arachne caved in her face and was like “Woah, hold on. Would Arachne do all this knowing Eva needs eyes?” and then rewrote it to how it is now.
-Did you know the Characters page is updated any time a named character appears? {Wow TC, I didn’t know that!} It’s true! It is somewhat messy right now (I have plans to update it with categories such as Main Characters, Demons, Brakket Staff, Brakket Students, and so on), but you can easily check for recent additions simply by searching (Ctrl+F) for the chapter number.
-Again, not a trivia, but a reading recommendation. Sentenced to Prisim by Alan Dean Foster. It is sci-fi, so a bit different. The first two or three chapters are a bit of a chore unless you’re interested in ADF’s Commonwealth universe, but it gets great once the main character gets planetside. And about half-way through the book… well, I don’t want to spoil anything. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link except for the google one. It is a real book written in 1985 and has no e-version as far as I’m aware.
-Because Sentenced to Prisim isn’t a web thing, here’s another recommendation! Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Okay, yes, technically it isn’t a web novel, but there are free PDF and PRC versions available for free (scroll to the bottom of the page). Many might know Brandon Sanderson for Mistborn, which is a great book, but I think I like Warbreaker a little better. It is about two princesses that get put into two bad situations and there is also color. I’m doing a terrible job selling it, but that isn’t really my job. It is good. Go read it.
Stats:
Chapters: 27 (+three Extras)
Wordcount: 118,089 (according to WordPress’ built in word counter (including Extras))
POV counts (max of one count per chapter (including Extras)):
Eva: 17
Zoe: 10
Juliana: 6
Martina: 4
Nel: 3
Des: 3
Arachne: 2
Devon: 2
Irene: 2
Shelby: 2
Shalise: 1
Genoa: 1
Catherine: 1
Annie Reinhardt: 1
Carlos’ Paper: 1
That’s all, thanks for reading book three. I hope you enjoy book four.
Just going to pitch in my vote as pro-extras, even as replacements of normal chapters! Other than that it’s a great story! Sincerely hope you get the recognition you deserve and your twf rankings increase dramatically! At least top10!
Thanks!
The biggest problem with extras as replacements of normal chapters is that they tend to be mostly unrelated to the current happenings. When reading other works, I tend to skip by chapters if they’re suddenly about something different. Flashbacks especially. I despise flashbacks. It’s terrible, I know. But I can’t help but fear that if I do that, others do as well.
At the same time, I’m not entirely opposed to it. It depends on the exact contents of the extra.
You’re awesome! It’s Awesome!
Too much happening all at once
This story is great and engaging, isn’t bothered by silly things like heroic protagonists and morality, and the worldbuilding is perfect!
Thank you so much for writing it!