Hey guys. Sorry for the lack of a chapter, but I thought it was about time I humbled myself a little. I realize I should've done this a long time ago know, but since I always meant to come back to the story once I had a bit more time on my hands, I kept putting it off. Anyway, this is the situation:

When I first began this fic, I was still in high school and had a ton of time on my hands, but sadly, getting older means new responsibilities. Without revealing too much about myself, I'll tell you guys that I'm currently wrapped up in a pretty intense University course that at times can take as much as ten hours out of my day when it is at its worst, and my writing halted last year when I realized it was affecting my studies negatively. Couple that with a part-time job and trying to maintain some small semblance of a social life, and it gets even worse.

Furthermore, if I'm to be completely honest with myself, I'm probably a touch burnt out with the story, which is bad news, considering I'm only one third through the tale I wanted to tell. There's a lot of reasons for this. One is that, looking back on it now with the experience I've amassed since starting out, I'm not really very pleased with the quality of the story thus far (except for maybe chapter 16) and if I could do it over, I probably would've changed quite a few things. I've probably restarted chapter 18 four times by now, but not because I don't know where to go necessarily. The greater story is mostly outlined in my head, particularly the last third, but I keep running into these blocks it takes such a long-ass time to get through. No matter what I do, I just can't seem to be pleased with what I put down on the E-paper, and that's no way to be writing a story. I think I can understand a little how good ol' Santa Claus George feels now (Not that I'd ever try to compare myself to him in terms of skill. I'm just an amateur that's slightly better than most of the other amateurs, and in terms of work-ethic, there's probably quite a few of you reading this that has something to teach me).

Now, this is not to say that I've completely given up on this story. Despite everything above, I'm still quite proud of it, and would hate to leave it unfinished. It's probably somewhat of a long shot at this point, but if any of you guys want to help me out, you could send propositions to my inbox regarding things you'd like to see, ideas you have, maybe some criticisms, etc. I can't promise I'll listen to everything you guys tell me, but maybe it could help draw me out of this stupor. All this time I thought I was just king shit and nobody else in this category had anything to teach me, and look where that's gotten me. It's probably about time I realized that's not the case.

So again, I'm sorry it took this long for me to get this update out, and I wanna thank my loyal Beta-writer for urging me to do so, and those of you that were kicking my ass in the review section for being totally AWOL. If not for you guys, I'd probably have taken another year for this to come out.

Ah, and before I forget. It'll probably take quite a bit of time for a new chapter to come out, even in the best case scenario, but if you guys want, I could post a text in my other AKG fanfic (Alternate Worlds: Short stories) that explains chapter 16 in detail (character motivations, symbolisms, etc.). I'd be lying if I said I never needed help with fully grasping a literary work myself (the first that comes to mind is my all-time favorite short story, Indian Camp. It really opened my eyes to how much can be said with so few words). Please let me know how you guys feel about that in the review section.

Peace out.