NOTE: THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER

Thank you all for being such wonderful readers. I appreciate all of your feedback and love for each of my stories. I wish I could be giving you all a new chapter of this story, but as it is, all I'm able to give you is this frustrated response to an offensive and petulant reader.

This morning, when I checked my email, I found a scathing, nasty review left by a guest reviewer on this story. It has since been removed via review moderation, but if you'd like to see a screenshot of it, you can find it on my twitter page (Moonchild_707). Now, I don't normally respond to critics who have nothing constructive to offer, but this one made me a little angry. And as I was given no username or profile to use to respond to this person, I've been left with only two choices: 1) don't respond at all, or 2) respond publicly.

Evidently, I've chosen the latter.

I don't think some people realize how much work it takes to write, revise, rewrite, and fine-tune a story on a scale as grand as a 4-part series like A Diamond in the Rough. Calling me a "fucking lazy ass bitch" for not updating at a rate that suits and pleases YOU is erroneous and, quite frankly, uncalled for. As much as I love writing new stories and fixing up my old ones, there are other, more important issues that often get in my way. Like an average adult human, I have work and family responsibilities to tend to before I can take time to sit down and write. And, if you're a writer yourself, then you know how hard it can be to get your ideas down on paper in a way that is coherent, meaningful, and deliberate, rather than jumbled, hasty, and rushed. Stories need pacing. They need clear direction. They need planning, and thought, and discipline, or else everything ends up a big, tangled mess.

I assume that you, like myself, want a decent quality product when I DO eventually decide to release it.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the person who wrote this is frustrated by the fact that while A Diamond in the Rough waits in the wings, I've released a number of new stories in the interim. Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but my creative process does not allow me to simply focus on one narrative at a time. Sometimes, for the sake of the story, I need to take a step back and reassess, and I often use that break to develop other plot bunnies and story ideas that are bouncing around in my head.

Simply put— sometimes, when you're writing, you feel distracted by other ideas and the best way to get those ideas out of the way is to develop them on paper before you return to your original work. Now, I might be wrong, but I assumed that maybe someone (even if it's only ONE person), might enjoy reading those new plot bunnies (Invictus, Beneath the Old Oak Tree, and The Island, etc.), so I put them out there for public consumption.

But there is a point about this process that I can't stress enough— the creation of new stories does NOT take away from the continuation of old ones. I'm not taking time away from Invictus to work on Beneath the Old Oak Tree, nor am I taking time away from A Diamond in the Rough to work on The Island. All of my stories are distinct and separate entities, and each has its own demands and challenges. Sometimes, those challenges frustrate me, and if I choose not to take a step back, the end product is messy, rushed, and not nearly as good as it might have been (see the ending of Dark Waltz for an example of this— I've learned since then). So when I write more than one story at a time, it's not an "either-or" situation— even if I didn't work on something new during my break from A Diamond in the Rough, there would STILL not be anything for Part 2 until the writer's block eases, and I can think of a way to make it as close to ideal as possible.

And finally, how DARE you accuse me of not caring? These stories have been with me since childhood. The first edition of Part 1 was published on this site when I was just a freshman in high school, with no writing experience and even less writing prowess. I know it's only fan fiction written for a select few readers in a huge fandom, but these stories mean more to me, both as a person and a writer, than they ever could to you. You read them because they're fun, or striking, or interesting. I write them because they mean something to me. I write them as a testament to my own growth as a writer. I write them for that grown-up little girl, whose own life was shadowed in those early chapters of Part 1, and for all of those internet readers out there who feel like they've found a little piece of themselves in her. I do NOT write them for your enjoyment or convenience, because as far as I'm concerned, they serve a much greater purpose to those who love them most. And those people who really DO love them most understand the wait, because they know how important it is for both of us— for me as the author, and for "Bella" as the muse— to get it right.

I hope that next time, if you choose to comment in such a way on any of my work again, you'll be brave enough to let me write you back. I don't know if you'll read this, or if you'll even care, but it needed to be said. I don't know if you're a writer yourself or if you've ever tried to create something meaningful, but I hope that someday, you can find some morsel of empathy for those of us who, despite our best efforts, struggle to make everything come together like it should. If you're not a writer, you have no way of understanding and no business critiquing

And if you are one, then shame on you.

Also, you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

This story WILL be updated just as soon as I find a way to make it great.