To My Loyal Readers…

This is for all of those who (like myself) really liked Brother from Another Dimension, but felt that my first attempt at the sequel, Bastion's Revenge, left a bitter taste in their mouth. First of all, allow me to sincerely apologize for the time this has taken. Graduate school and starting a new job took a lot of my time. Add into that gaming and other stuff, and writing took a place on the backburner.

Now, why have I done this? Well, I know from classes as well as personal experience that writing takes time. Stories don't just appear out of thin air on your paper like gifts from heaven, shining like a beautiful gem, perfect as they are. No, writing is a process that involves thinking up a story, developing it, writing it down, looking it over and fixing it, writing it again, looking it over and fixing it again and again until you finally have a story good enough for you to push out. It can take anywhere from a few months to a few years to create a good story.

BfAD was a freak of writing. I thought of the story, started writing it, and came out with a story that, even though a few elements were a bit clunky, was still pretty good. So I pushed it out, and low and behold, it actually got some good reviews. It wasn't a smash hit, but it was a moderate success.

Therein lays the problem. BfAD set the bar really high for the sequel. So, I thought up a good idea for the next story, and just started writing, trying to "recapture the magic," if you will. And, needless to say, I failed miserably. BR looked like a rushed story should: like a complete mess.

Another issue I suffered from was weak will. As I wrote, I started to think of things to add to the story. Instead of saying "No, this will ruin my original plan," I just added whatever plot device and character came into my head. I took a good idea, and completely bastardized it with every whim I felt. I feel ashamed of myself as a writer and a fan.

Speaking of characters, I fell for a common writing trap: I added way…WAY to many characters. That's one of the main problems in writing. You need to find the right balance of characters to support the plot devices, have primary and secondary characters. This will make your story seem concise and clean, not bulky and messy like BR. On the LWC side, for example, the character Alex Johnston provided no value other than to forward a worthless plot device. Worse yet, on the CDRR side, the character Sparky provided absolutely no value, not even forwarding a plot device, which is not only an injustice to the reader, but to a character that was really rather cool.

Even worse, on my first revisit, I didn't learn my lesson. I got lazy, and just remove characters without changing the story. This was a mess, and provided more headaches than it fixed.

So, here's what I've done. I've taken the first three chapters of the original story (the only part of the original BR I thought was any good) and saved them. The rest of the story has been scrapped. I will write the story as it was meant to be. I think you will be pleased.

Thank you.

Shield Lightning