So I've passed 200,000 words posted so far. That's roughly the same as two smallish paperback novels.

A fair number of words, in other words. Now, I've said on a number of occasions that this is intended as a single novel, with a specific end in mind. I haven't finished writing it yet, but I do know where it will end up even though sometimes the characters surprise me with unexpected detours.

I still have a lot left to write, and even though I have a decent buffer of chapters stashed away I am concerned that I may have to slow down my posting at some point in the future. Not now, and maybe if I can keep my productivity high there may be no interruption, but it does remain a possibility.

By my guess we are a bit more than halfway through. Things still need to happen, and they won't all be easy on our couple, but we are far from the end now.

So that's the current state of the story and my writing. All well and good, and continuing as planned.

but in other news, Emmy And Me has passed the 100 Followers mark! Today we picked up two new followers, putting the story into that coveted rank. Obviously there are other stories here in RR with thousands of followers and I'm not trying to compare this story with those others- after all, as has been pointed out, RR may not be where readers would go to look for a story like this. So far there have been no signs of any [System], no magic, no rebirths...

Despite all that, over a hundred of you have enjoyed this story well enough to bookmark it to be reminded when it updates. That means a lot to me. I can hardly express how much.

I started writing this story after a dream I had that introduced me to the main duo (they weren't exactly as they are in the story, though the most important elements were) and their hopes and dreams. I chewed on the story mentally for a while, then decided I'd write it as my first attempt at writing long-form fiction. As I outlined it and the characters evolved, I thought that maybe I could have some fun with it.

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I got well into the story, showed it to a few others and they suggested that it was actually worth reading and that somebody might want to publish it. I contacted an editor, who didn't much like it at all. Not genre enough, she said. Well-written enough, but it misses its market. So I looked into self publishing, then set it aside for a while. I stumbled into the weblit scene on another site, quickly realizing that wasn't the right venue but another such site might be. Eventually, I wound up here on RR, and although my story is outside the typical for this site, I figured that the readership here is probably younger and maybe more open to unusual stories than a lot of others, so I created an account and started uploading.

With my very first upload (The Day Before) my story was ranked at #11,860. I figured that was the total number of stories on RR at the time, since obviously mine had to be dead last since nobody had read it at all. Now it is above #700, so that's the top 6% on the site. That makes me very, very pleased with my efforts, and maybe, just maybe, I should start to think about publishing again, even if it is just a self-published e-book. I mean, I've put in the work, perhaps somebody out there might want to read it enough to send me a few bucks for my efforts, right?

Well, I'm not there yet. As you may have noticed, I haven't even set up a "Donate" for Emmy And Me. I'm writing this story because I want to flex a muscle- my writing muscle. Not because I think I'll be the next Stephanie Meyer, but because I want to exercise my creativity.

And it has worked. I'm already thinking of the stories I want to write next. I've outlined a Sci-Fi story, a fantasy novelette and a separate series of fantasy short stories, and a contemporary fiction novel.

So it has so far been a win as far as I'm concerned. This is in a big part a result of the fact that you guys are reading Emmy And Me, enjoying it, and commenting on it. The comments, really, really make my day. Thanks for that.