I don't want to go to deeply into personal details, but very shortly before I posted the last chapter my mom was hospitalized and after spending the better part of the year with deteriorating health eventually died.
For most of my stories this didn't have much effect on how much writing did or didn't get done; generally writing helps distract me and makes me feel better for while. But this story was different.
Open Road is the only thing I've ever written where the (intended) plotline draws very heavily from my own real life. Specifically from roadtrips I took with my mom and grandma and aunt every summer from the time I was nine until the last one just a month before she was admitted to the hospital. The locations Duncan and Courtney'll be visiting and their personalities and reactions to things that will be happening are very different from any of our ours, but any number of little hassles of the road or ways of deciding on stops that I have planned for the story are based on real things that happened to us.
And since my mom got sick, and even worse since she died, I just can't focus when I'm trying to write something that reminds me so strongly of her. The only reason I was even able to get chapter four up was that it was already almost complete.
So I just wanted to apologize and, as I said at the start, officially declare this story on hiatus until I can reliably work on it without getting stupidly teary-eyed over a story that's supposed to be light and humorous. But after that I do still have my outline for the story so I'll be able to pick it back up again and have it go on as planned (and, no, the events of World Tour aren't going to change any of it). I hope you all understand.
And, hey, I might actually write some more shorter fics in the fandom again now that I'll be able to pick up the characters without feeling guilty that I'm not using them to work on this story!
Cheers everyone,
Person