Completion!

So I finally finished Harry Potter last night. It was good! I mean, it didn’t blow my mind, but it was a fun, enjoyable read. I do think it could have done without the epilogue, which seemed way too happy-go-lucky, but then again I do realize that she probably did it so that she wouldn’t be forced to write yet another sequel. If everything is all hunky-dory in nineteen years, likely there’s not much to talk about. But *anyhoo*! It was fun, and I did enjoy it, though I must say, I’m glad it’s all over and I can finally be finished with the series. I don’t know about you people, but I have far too short of an attention span for long series. Remember my massive failure at trying to read the Wheel of Time series? Yeah. I’m telling you, show me one book and tell me it’s the first of a 4+ series, and I pretty much guarantee I’ll put it down and not even bother. If it’s one book in a 4+ series of books with more than 500+ pages each, then I will definitely probably not bother. I always add the “probably” and “pretty much” because I do–call me naive, call me an idealist–believe that there must be some author out there who could write a 4+, 500+page/each series that I might actually enjoy and manage to get through. *Possibly.* Though I haven’t yet encountered one. I did finish the Harry Potter sequence, but you must also realize, I was in sixth-seventh grade when the first of those came out. I’ve been reading them as they came out, intermixed each year with many other books. It keeps me from losing my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get through a whole 4+/500+ series that I’ve had to start from the beginning when all the books were available.

Writing Stuff:

But speaking of series, or at least episodes, I finally posted a new chapter of The Thief Dilemma. For those who do not know, this is a major achievement for me. I do believe the last chapter I posted for this story was early November of last year. That would make this…about five months since the last post. OUCH. I didn’t even realize it had been that long. Anyway, for those of you unfamiliar with this particular writing project, The Thief Dilemma is the fun, goof-off fan fiction I write for fanfiction.net. It’s based on a series of computer (and console) games entitled Thief: The Dark Project, Thief II: The Metal Age, and Thief: Deadly Shadows. I played Thief I some 8+ years ago, and loved it so much, I haven’t been able to stop playing it. I’ve beaten all of the games, I believe, except for Thief Gold (which is, I think–though I could be wrong–an expansion pack for Thief: The Dark Project). It’s just a blast. Andy got me a used X-box this Christmas so I could play Thief: Deadly Shadows again (since I can’t play Thief on my Mac), and I’ve been gradually working through it again. The storytelling is really quite excellent for a game, and the characters are very well composed. Can’t help but love the incredibly cynical MC Garrett.

Anyway, as for the fan fiction, I started it back in Junior year of High School in the middle of Chemistry. My friend Danielle and I were both crazy about the game*, so we often joked about what would happen if we somehow ended up *inside* the game. Out of these maniacal musings, I wrote the first chapter of The Thief Dilemma. This, for those of you who are vaguely familiar with fan fiction, is what could be called a “Mary-Sue” story. Basically, it’s a personal fantasy enacted through fiction. Usually–apparently, since I have not read any of these Mary-Sue stories myself, for the particular following reason–these stories appear to suck.

However, by some weird twist of fate or just dumb luck, my tale apparently does not always suck. At least, that’s what some kind individuals have suggested. There may be several reasons for this, though I cannot speak for those patient saints who continue to read it, despite my horrible updating schedule. Although Megan and Daphne were originally crafted directly from myself and Danielle, they have since developed far past either of us and have truly become their own unique characters. They do not know how to use a sword (as neither I nor Danielle know how to do such things); they do not know how to use a bow and arrow (though we’re both very adept within the game); they are usually only lucky to survive near-death experiences (as we are); and the only thing they really want is to get the hell out of the game and go home. They are incredibly far from perfect, and though I adore them tremendously, they are almost always making stupid decisions, just as Danielle and I usually did while playing the game. This, apparently, makes them sometimes interesting characters, as I’ve tried very hard to keep them as realistically baffled by their semi-medieval / steam-punk surroundings, as any 21st century kid would be, and I’ve also tried to have them react realistically to the things they have to do (like steal, avoid guards, potentially kill people, etc.). Also, almost all the characters I work with who are truly, 100% fictional are my own original characters. There are certainly a lot of cameos by game characters (like Garrett), but the *main characters* are Daphne and Megan, and the fictional counterparts which I created from scratch. Who knows if I’ve done this particularly well, but I’ve had a blast writing it. ^_^

All though you may not be able to tell from this last paragraph, I try not to take myself too seriously, and so far that’s worked mightily well for keeping me engaged in the story, even if it does take me unbelievably and inexcusably long to update every chapter. So at last, I finally wrote Chapter 15: In Which Sherry Begins an Adventure. It’s a lot longer than some of the older chapters (I was on a roll, and I felt bad about the long break between this and Chapter 14), and it’s definitely far from perfect (as all my writing is), but I think it’s the best I could do with the stuff that needed to happen, and I’m generally very pleased with it. It’s insane, of course, but it’s still fun. I hope. I do plan on finishing this story at some point–I actually know the ending, with all it’s metaphysical insanity–but it may be a while until you see “THE END” at last. Still, I hope it’s as entertaining for the few people who do read it as it is for me writing it.

The truth is, even if no one read it, I’d still keep writing it, because I’ve just never had so much fun on a project. It’s not to say that other projects aren’t fun in their own way, or even more rewarding, but The Thief Dilemma is different. There’s no pressure at all, because I absolutely can’t sell it. I can work on characterization, play with writing styles, and generally just goof-off and have a good time without constantly having “where can I sell this?” in the back of my mind. It’s a pleasure to just write for fun.

I’ve tried to attach The Thief Dilemma as a PDF file for those of you who would like to give the first fifteen chapters a look-over (or for those of you who have read some of it, but would like to see where I’ve gone with it since then). I formatted it like an actual book because I’m a dork who has been interning at a publishing house, and a couple weekends ago, I interviewed the production manager who introduced me to all the nifty production/book design stuff that we readers often overlooked. Because of this, I got the bug to format *something*, and The Thief Dilemma was the only thing long enough to bother with. Plus, I couldn’t find my old multi-chapter draft, so I figured I needed a new one anyway.

If this doesn’t work, then you can always email me if you’d like to check it out, or you can view it on fanfiction.net or even on my DA account (DA usually gets the chapter a day or so after ff.net). But as this blog is labeled, don’t feel like you have to. It’s really long, and almost no one has time to spare these days. Heck, I don’t! It took me five months to write 6,000 words! So as the subtitle says: Nobody’s forcing you to read this:The Thief Dilemma

But if you want to, I’m cool with that. ^_- Just keep in mind, it is a rough draft (I do minor editing along the way, but nothing huge. There are definitely some inconsistencies and some wacky plotting issues.).