In 2005 I attempted to give Reflections a general update and repost. The general chaos of my life had begun to settle down, and I thought I would be able to return to writing fanfiction long enough to finish up Vol 5. I began a revision of Vol 1, but decided to put it on hold on discovering that minor changes conceived as improvements lead to major changes as the work continued, and I have not decided whether to allow that or to just write an alternate version. I am still trying to get a real writing project off the ground; the idea being, if I can make a living at writing, I can afford to spend more time writing, and do a little fan fiction on the side.

04/08/06 : Okay, some changes have begun. Stuck In The Middle With You, the revised Vol 1 of Reflections is currently suspended. It's gone from FFnet for the immediate future. Without that to distract me, I will hopefully be able to focus a bit better on updating Vol 5! In addition, I've started a forum for fans of Reflections, and there ought to be a link somewhere in my profile now to take you to it! Give the initial post a look, it gives a little more detail on my plans for the moment.

07/05/06 : Well, hit a rocky patch at the end of June. Had to take a week off to move, so my writing schedule got a little derailed. I will be resuming work on Reflections Vol 5 in my free time and hope to be able to get the next part posted soon. My thanks to those of you who have been reading and leaving comments, especially those of you who visited my deviant art site! A few of you have mentioned spotting typos and grammatical errors... would it be too much to ask if you would point out where? I have a sort of blind spot for my own glitches. I tend to correct them in my head instead of actually seeing them!

08/17/06 : Ah, yes, it's been a bit longer than I promised... my apologies to my readers! The world has been keeping me quite busy and the fight sequence with Taro has proved to be a little more demanding than I had anticipated. It went through a few rewrites, but I believe the results are well worth the extra wait. I've been told that my fight sequences tend to be a little hard to follow so I tried to fix that this time around. I hope to finish the chapter and post it soon.

12/15/08 : It is sad to say, but a person cannot make a living writing fan fiction, so, while I've been struggling to make a living, I have not had time to write fan fiction. It was never my intention to let so much time pass between updates -- heck, I was planning to rewrite my entire epic! Unfortunately, I did. A writing project loses a lot of momentum during a long break, so it will not be easy to pick up the thread of the story without going back and reading what I've written. Assuming I can squeeze that in, I will pick up where I left off.

01/13/09 : I have finally stolen enough time to wrap up a new chapter and update the formatting for the previous parts of Volume 5 of Reflections. It has taken far too long to get this done, for which I am truly sorry. When my life fell apart in 2005, I did not realize it would leave me in a position where I could not write; I expected to have more free time, but with work, school and other obligations, I ended up with no free time at all. I moved to Alaska hoping to change that, and I did manage to get many problem in my life sorted out. Unfortunately, I was still working and studying most of the time, while getting my writing and art projects reorganized. Still, people kept reading and making comments, so I continued to work on Reflections. I got sick this weekend and missed a day of work -- and because I was out cold, I failed to call in ahead of time and was fired. I am wasting no time looking for a new job, but the unexpected free time was enough to get the last half of the chapter written. I usually check my work before posting it, but if there are any mistakes, point them out and I will try to get them fixed quickly. I do need to make a living, so I have to put my original art and writing ahead of fanfiction, but I will be working on the next chapter. I don't plan to let a year go by between updates again.

02/26/11 : Obviously, I was not able to keep it together and the story hung in limbo for two years. I'm sorry to say, the demands and distractions of school and work undermined all of my creative efforts, so I don't have much in the way of art or original writing to brag about either. My life in Alaska fell apart completely at the beginning of 2010 and I was forced to spend the next six months starting over at square one. I managed to keep up with school, and eventually found a decent job, and I graduated with a BS in IT for Visual Communications in October. I spent a few months blowing the rust off of my writing and illustration skills with little projects, a few of which went up on my deviantArt page. I went through all of my unfinished stories and they're all influenced by my gender and identity conflict, making all of them somewhat repulsive to the mainstream reader. It's sad to say, but my stories here kind of prove it. They only get a response from one percent of readers who love it or hate it. The issues I've wrestled with and put into words are too complex and confusing for most people. I know it's possible to dumb it down and make it accessible to everyone, but it's that complex and confusing knot of gender, identity, sexuality and intimacy that compels me to write. I may have sabotaged myself by putting so much effort into a work of fan fiction, but I don't regret giving my inner Ranko a voice. I'd finish the story for her even if you all hated it. On the other hand, every person who has said "I love this story, I am waiting eagerly to read more!" has given me a reason to post it for anyone to read. Be sure to thank them for part 8 and part 9!