Hi everyone,

I want to update my profile so that I’m not leaving you all in the lurch.

I will shortly be pulling the sequel to THWTLAL for a few reasons. To say it was a misguided decision on my part is an understatement! I wanted an outlet and missed fanfic so I shoehorned a story where there simply didn’t need to be one. I won’t be completing it and will soon take it down for a couple of reasons - firstly (as is obvious by my above statement) I don’t like what I’ve done to those characters and neither did a lot of you so I simply don’t want to continue. Secondly, I don’t want any new readers (if there are still new fanfic readers!) to start to read that sequel thinking it’s any good haha. Thirdly, I am now a mother myself and I know nothing on earth could make me walk away from my daughter so I cannot continue to write Bella that way.

For those who are interested, the short summary of where that fic was headed is that Bella clearly had some mental health issues (so trigger warning ahead if that affects you). Mainly postnatal depression but that was compounded by drinking to numb it and ultimately culminates in an incident when she left her twins alone in the bath to go and drink and one of them almost drowned. Instead of reaching out for support, Bella decided they would be better off without her and left town. Obviously there would have been a HEA in the end but there would have been some meaningful discussion between Bella and Edward to get there and Bella would have had to work very hard indeed to get Ethan to trust her again and the twins to know her.

I’ll leave the story up for now and perhaps add the little bit more that I had so that you can fill in the blanks in your own minds (if you so wish) or rip the fic for your own records if you are in the minority of people that enjoyed it haha. But soon I will remove it.

Otherwise, I’m not planning a return to fanfic any time soon. I simply don’t have the time to write! I am now a primary school teacher, currently on maternity leave with my 6 month old daughter (who does have a Twilight name but such a minor character that you’d forget it ever was a Twilight name at all. My husband actually chose it but I do secretly smile at my very subtle nod to the fandom. Though, strangely, I do now have a niece called Bella with a major Twilight surname! Think Bella marrying a different member of the Cullen family).

I still re-read my old favourite fics occasionally and I still read every review that comes through and feel so grateful for all of you that ever read any of my nonsense. To those of you leaving highly critical anonymous reviews (especially for A Million More Mistakes), thank you as well. I wholeheartedly agree with your wise assessments that it is, ironically, riddled with mistakes and cliches and is a pretty weak story all round!! But I won’t remove it because I was 13 when I wrote it and, come on now, let’s give my 13 year old self a break haha. It was dreadful but I didn’t know any better!! If you haven’t read it yet, proceed with caution!

If anyone is still out there and wants to drop me a PM, please do. I can’t promise a speedy reply but I will try to get back to you eventually. I’d love to know what you’re all up to now over a decade later.

Thanks again for your readership and friendship over the years. It was an absolute blast.

-Steph xoxo

PS - I can still do a pretty impressive A/N huh?! Sorry about that too, reviewers. I don’t blame you for walking away from a fic with more words in the notes than the story haha. Trust me when I say I am suitably embarrassed now!