#it's also the reason i've hit a lot of writer's block on The Ice Plague

[not-poignant]

I would LOVE to read the story about Anton and Flitmouse! I loved getting the glimpses into who Flitmouse is as a character in TGATNW and the promises of hurt/comfort. But you already write so much at such a consistently high quality (seriously, how do you sustain it??) that I completely understood no new updates. I remember being extremely pleasantly surprised when you went back to publishing SOTS (and how did that turn out! <3). It’s great to hear you’re still thinking about the story but

But I think most of your readers understand why not all stories can be continued! If it’s ever a novel - great! If it remains as an idea - too bad. Just wanted to say I’ve also never forgotten Flitmouse’s and Antony’s story but I know asking you about updates when you write like a million words every year is putting too much pressure! All your stories are gold, Pia <3

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Thanks anon!

I'm glad you enjoy Anton and Flitmouse so much, they're lucky to have folks like you who enjoy them :D

There's definitely no harm in asking about updates, either. While it's true that I often have a lot of my writing 'budget' for the year planned out (i.e. where I'm going to spend my words, and how much I'm going to write for that thing) which doesn't leave me much spare room for other projects, the fact is sometimes I do kind of play hooky on all my main projects by writing something else. That's how Smoke in Autumn came about.

Even The Golden Age that Never Was went on a fairly big 8 month hiatus only a handful of chapters into the story. That was because I knew the story would be epic, and I knew I didn't have time to write something that epic. After enough time passed, I was able to come back to it.

Anton and Flitmouse are more complicated because I believe Flitmouse's story would make a good stand-alone novel. Business sense Pia is like 'this could actually contribute to your income, and help you live, and buy things that you need to live' and the rest of me is like 'it'd be nice to keep it in the Golden Age universe, and have cameos from some of the other characters.' And then I get stuck, lol.

(And then also yeah, metrics is a big part of it, as in - how many people engaged at the time? How many people expressed interest since? I wrote in another post that feedback and engagement drives why I write serials in the first place, All the Loose Threads just sadly didn't quite hit that level even at the height of folks reading it. It happens!)

#asks and answers #TGATNW #all the loose threads #anton the brave #alois flitmouse #i got your other message too and you're all good anon! #there were a lot of factors #but feedback + engagement was a big part of it #it's also the reason i've hit a lot of writer's block on The Ice Plague #it's the least popular fae tales canon story i've ever written #and The Ice Plague 3 is the least popular of all the Ice Plague stories #it's wild when I contrast the interest in FFS vs TIP #though I largely know the reasons for that disconnect now #but it certainly causes writer's block #and i just don't like committing to a long story that i might get severe writer's block while writing #halfway through #that's not fun for *anyone* #and i am not that kind of risk-taker