22nd October 2000
Moved all the fanfic update info to this page. It just seemed a little pointless having a What's New page with nothing much on it!
I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted the last update. I've been to a Xena convention (report to come later) and on a holiday to Korea but besides that I've just been working like a maniac (usually 24 hour shifts separated by 6 hours of sleep). Fingers crossed this week will see the end of it for a while.
Although it wasn't planned, the long delay with this update means that you may feel a little of what Lori's feeling. You'll see what I mean ;) Anyway, this doesn't finish Part 5. There's still a little way to go but I thought I better post something before everyone gives up on me.
I'll post the Olympiad report as soon as I get the photos sorted out and I still have to write the Starfury report. However the photos came out better than any other convention report I've posted so that's something to look forward too.
09th August 2000
Someone has taken the scanner home and I can't finish of the Olympiad report until it's back in the office. However, here's a smallish update to the story. Enjoy.
30th July 2000
The story of what you've read before doesn't change. There are just subtle changes to the text. The extended part continues on from the end (I just didn't like the way it finished). Sorry it's taken so long to update but I wanted to get it just right. Please let me know if you think I got it right.
There's just a few more pages to go to the end of Part 5 and then we're on to Part 6 where the real fun begins (are you excited yet?). However, I'll be writing a report for the Olympiad Xena convention first before I forget all the details.
7th July 2000
2nd July 2000
Here's another update. I'm doing my best to get more than one update a month! Things are slowing down a little in the story but remember that phrase with 'calm', 'storm' and 'before' in it?
06th May 2000
Here's a short update. Things are getting back to normal now and hopefully will settle down for the summer. Time will tell.
27th March 2000
You're long overdue an explanation as to why there have been no updates in over a month. Two letters - RL. Over the last three months, it has felt like someone has taken my life, put it in a spin dryer and turned it up to HIGH. I'm really struggling to find time to write and I'd like to be able to say when RL is going to slow down again but the truth is that I don't know. My work pays the mortgage so everything else is going to have to take a back seat for a while. That isn't to say that I'm going to stop writing in the short term. I'm going to keep going with whatever time I can find. I won't even guess when my next update will be but rest assured I know exactly where this story is going and how it will end up and I will get you all there eventually.
Another thing I'm trying to do at the moment is to lay out the next 4 or 5 parts. I had parts 1 - 4 laid out before I started but I got so involved with writing them that I never got around to laying out any of the following parts until now. I know where everything will end up (honest!) but it helps me to have a skeleton story to work with and it means that I don't have to worry about continuity or details like people/locations when I'm writing.
Until the next update, whenever that may be.
07th February 2000
I'm working on a longer part but here's a small update in the meantime. I've just let the indexes know about Part 4 (I forgot to notify them when I posted it).
30th January 2000
I'm back. I've been working 14 hour days (and weekends) since posting the last update and I've only just got around to posting the beta read versions of parts 1-4. Thanks goes to My Warrior for beta reading my work and giving me loads of encouragement to keep going. The re-posted files only contain spelling/grammar corrections and nothing has changed as far as the story is concerned. There is something I have added to the disclaimer in part 1 though.
Language Disclaimer
I'm not talking about strong language here. I'm talking about US-English Vs UK-English. You may have noticed in the first line of the disclaimer that I spell 'recognise' with an 's'. Later on you'll see that I spell 'new-found' with a hyphen and 'artefact' with an 'e'. However, I haven't found an excuse yet for confusing loose with lose or effect with affect - but I'm working on it.
There's nothing new at the moment but I'll have started writing part 5 by the time you read this. I'll post it here as soon as I can. The deadline that had me working the long hours has passed so hopefully I'll be able to get back to regular updates (when have they ever been regular, I hear you ask).
10th January 2000
Well, I told you it was going to be a long one :)
Sorry I didn't get an update over Christmas but I had to make sure it was right before I posted it (you'll understand when you read it) and watching over 40 Xena episodes didn't help either. This concludes Part 4 and Part 5 will begin shortly.
I made a small change to Part 4b. When Kay is brought to Egypt in her dream, there is now no mention of her hiding in a tomb (because they were not excavating tombs) or her father defending her. I also changed Luxor to Alexandria because it fits better with the geography. No dramatic changes so there's no need to re-read it. The change is only reflected in Part4.html, not Part4b.html
I'm still waiting on a couple of parts to come back from my beta reader so Parts 1 - 4 will be re-posted with spelling/grammar corrections when I get them.
As usual, you can send any feedback my way to let me know what you think of how the story is progressing.
14th December 1999
This update was written in small parts over a long period (whenever I could find a spare hour or two in a day). This resulted in a very disjointed update and I spent as much time editing it to get it to flow better as I did writing it in the first place. Well, I've learned something from it. Don't write updates in small parts. From now on I won't try to put an update together unless I have the time.
Anyway, this little part is likely to change further when I get around to editing Part 4 as a whole because I'm still not completely satisfied with it. My beta reader is having a lot of email trouble so nothing has been re-posted yet. I hope to get parts 1-3 re-posted before Christmas though. I still have all my Christmas shopping to do so you can expect the final part of Part 4 sometime over the Christmas holidays. It's a long one so I'll start it this weekend if I get the time.
Finally, you'll be happy to know that all my students passed their grading last weekend and I passed all the things that were keeping me from writing updates :)
Have a great Christmas if I don't get to speak to you before then.
2nd December 1999
The revision for the coaching exam took more time than I had hoped so the next part is only half written. I have another coaching course and grading exam this weekend but I'll see what I can do in the evenings. Sorry about the shaky schedule for updates but if you can suffer this for another couple of weeks, things will get back to normal. The Christmas holidays are only a few weeks away and I'll have plenty of time for writing then.
On another note, I have a fine beta reader working on the first three parts and he'll be looking over part 4 before I combine the sub-parts into a final part. I'll let you know when parts 1-3 get re-posted.
Once again, thanks for your patience. I'm as frustrated at not having time to write as you are at not having anything to read.
22nd November 1999
This was a damn hard part to write so like it or else! :)
It gets a little weird in places...ok, it gets totally whako at times but I promise I'm not on anything. Most of it was written in the wee hours of the morning after I've lost count of the cups of coffee I've had and I realise it's time to go to bed when the boiler starts to heat the water I should be using for my morning shower. Believe it or not, this is also the way my final year project was written in university, but that's another story :)
Anyway, since I have a normal 9 to 5 job, I'm kind of restricted to doing my all night writing binges at the weekends. I'll get a little done during the week but I have a couple of martial arts classes to teach and I have to squeeze in a little training time of my own. I have a coaching exam next weekend and my 2nd Dan grading the weekend after. This means a lot of study and a lot of training, leaving little time for writing. Still, I'll do my best to piece together an update. The next part is pretty short, it's the one after that that's the biggie!
16th November 1999
I'm back from Florida and I had a great time, thanks for asking ;) I didn't get to see very much because it was, after all, a business trip. Anyway, back to updates.
Part 3d is just a few pages to complete Part 3 and leave a clean canvas for me to start Part 4 (a very important part in the story line so I want to get it just right). I've decided to post the sub-parts as I write them instead of reading them over and over to make sure they are the way I want them. Sometimes I think that the more I read & tweak them the more complicated they get. I haven't got much feedback in this area so I don't know what people are thinking.
When I have enough sub-parts to make a full part (about 30 MS Word pages) I'll get someone to proof read the whole thing and make any changes then. This means two things - updates will come faster but they are likely to have some mistakes in them. If these little things annoy you then you can wait until I combine them into a single part but if you don't mind them then you can get more frequent updates to the story.
If you have any comments then just mail me.
4th November 1999
Ok, it's the first update since I posted the story and I'm not very happy with it. Everything happens the way I want but there's something missing in the first half...yea, you guessed it, something I can't quite put my finger on ;) I guess I'm going to have to get used to not being 100% satisfied with the pieces I post - after all, it was me that decided to put an unfinished story on the net and try to keep up with the demand for updates.
I'm being sent to Orlando for a week so the next chance I'll have to do an update will be the weekend of the 13th. I have a clear picture of where the next few sub-parts are going and I'll get a chance to write them as things should ease off at work after our product launch...for the engineers at least - it's the turn of the marketing guys to have their hands full for a while :)
Anyway, the deal is that complete parts (Part 1 & 2 at the moment) are finished. I won't touch them unless absolutely necessary (or for minor things like spelling mistakes). The updates of the latest part have more potential for change. Major changes are unlikely but I may reword descriptive paragraphs for example - like if my finger ever finds out what is wrong with Part 3c. If I ever change a sub-part then I'll mark it as being updated above.
1st November 1999
27th October 1999
25th October 1999