What’s up Doc?

Eeeeh… Hi? How’s everyone? …Me? I’m fine… okay… So… I believe some apologies are in order on the matter or my absence, which was rude, long and without forewarnings. Then again, I’m not really sorr– Ah. No. I was supposed to be humble here… Eeeeh… yes.

Let’s start again. *cough* *cough*

So… after receiving heart-warming and concerned messages from some of you, dear readers, and some encrypted threats from others whom I shall not name… *cough*ArchmageNaoki*cough* … I concluded it was time for some appo– grovel– prostern– explanations.

What happened was a small case of writer’s block… at first. I then committed the damnable mistake of trying to write something else for a while, waiting for inspiration of the genderbent-bloodsucker kind to come back to me. Oooooh, how young and foolish was I… in the olden days of a year ago… So young. I really believed I would able to focus on several things at the same time.

And, big surprise: I wasn’t.

The result were four other budding stories which– I feel like I’m digressing, so I’ll cut to the chase: I was never sure which one to write, so I ended up writing none and reading instead. (Though I do plan to release those other stories at some point… probably soon… eventually… one of these days…)

So I read… readed… no, read. What a confusing past participle. Anyway. I read – past tense – a lot. And I still read – present. See! That’s confusing!! – but less now that I’m back on my meds. Although I’m not really sorry because I did enjoy myself a lot – Should I say that? It kind of makes me seem like an asshole… Well, you kind of are… Geez. Thanks, Me. – but I do feel a bit ashamed to say I went full hikkikomori for a while. Ignoring not only my faithful readers – Yes, you, public! – but also my – few – friends.

No, really, I basically ignored them for six months yet they still welcomed me with open arms when I came out of my hermitage. What good friends I have. I bet ponies approve– AH! But I’m sure you don’t give a flying pink platypus about my life. Chaos knows I don’t care much either.

Sooooo… about “Tales of the Blood Princess” – which is to be renamed “The Blood Princess’ Tales” because that possessive case is haunting me in my lack of sleep – I declare:

IT IS NOT DROPPED! Nor shall it be.

Just to be clear.

Actually, for the past couple of three four (I keep rewriting this apology) months, I’ve been doing some heavy re-editing, starting from chapter ichi.

Even if I never really stressed that point, Tales of the Blood Princess was my first attempt at writing something – my unpublished tentative French horror novel notwithstanding – and I soon discovered my ambition had kind of overwhelmed my skills. Upon re-reading my story, I was a bit displeased by a few things at the beginning and along the way, so I decided to change them.

First, I straightened that unholly mess of flashbacks and flashforwards and info dump that were the first few chapters. *shivers* The info dump couldn’t be totally obliterated, unfortunately, but I did remove some dubiously necessary parts and tried to arrange the rest to feel less like a lecture by a half-dead teacher mixed with wish-fulfilment and more like pertinent descriptive narration. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Also, we have a brand new prologue. Yeah~… I guess.

As for other changes, the major one is that the story is now written with a 1st person narrator. RIP M. Narrator…

The thing was that the narrator kind of had the same personality as Elric/Victoria/Nicolas. I mean, it was all well and good when the story revolved around him/her alone, but the feeling it gave off felt a bit... well... off when the story focused on other characters. Especially Athena, given she's supposed to be this overly serious but irritable girl.

Try to stay serious when the clown telling your story makes fourth wall jokes each damn paragraph. Yeah. Not happening.

I’ve also made some remodelling with Athena’s personality, in a way that I think makes more sense… though she ended even more bipolar than before I think… and probably weirder? I don’t know. Though it does feel awkward that I used my dad as a reference… given that Victoria is a caricature of myself…

…

……

………

Nooooope. So much nope.

Aaaaaaaaaa-nyway… What I really wanted to say was that Victoria an’ co. will return as soon as the edits are finished – or as soon as I break under pressure and start releasing. It includes editing the few unpublished chapters which I had finished before going on hiatus.

Hiatus. God I hate that word. There’s nothing I hate more than an author suddenly stopping in the middle of their work. I’m a bit of a hypocrite I suppose… *sigh* Damn, now I feel sorry.

…sorry.

As an… apology of sort, I deliver to you the culprits of my temporary abandon of the physical world.

I mean, I did spent months held up at home reading every single femslash I could get my hands on. Plus a few others. So if you’re in such lack of good reading material that you’re willing to put up with my sorry inconsistent selfish ass to get your fix… here’s some for you (mostly fictionpress stuff):

First and furthermost, I recommend anything by StarvingLunatic. That's one great author. There's a few fantasy ones in the mix too. Like the one called “Celestial Reign”, which is awesome. QueerFairy and Imagine Nation are good authors too, but far from on par with the Lunatic. DarkRhodion comes close, if not for the unrealistic affliction which all of their characters suffer from: Everyone. Becomes. Gay. Everyone!! I think there's two... maybe three hetero couples in there. Good stories nonetheless.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

And those stories too:

- Desert Lilies. Naga X ex-slave girl. Snaky!

- Lamia's Fist. Boxing Lamia… X human orphanage owner. Feels like a novel version of Hajime no Ippo, but with lesbians and snakes.

- . "Sky Woman" and "Rune Knight" Healer, dragons and assassins. Good story. Good characters. Excellent world-building.

- Lex and Amanda series by Carrie Carr. It’s a cute love story between two women in modern times Texas. Simple, yet great.

- Dar and Kerry by Melissa Good. Again, modern times. Any of you familiar with the term ‘Uberfic’? Well, if you’re not, it doesn’t matter. This romance is great. And loooong… Though, be warned, there are some continuity issues because the published versions are not exactly the same as the online ones.

Then there’s a bunch of books by Radclyffe, but you’ll have to buy those. They’re good. Not revolutionary, but simple and straightforward. Want a lesbian romance? Get a lesbian romance. I recommend the Honor Series… because I haven’t read any of the others… Hehehe…

In fact… Just check out that list: Best Lesbian Novel Series on goodreads.

And, if you're not into girlXgirl, F/F, etc.:

- Emissary of Death. Awesome, if a little slow at times.

- Human to Fish. Current favourite. About a girl turned into a mermaid by a bunch of a**holes in the name of SCIENCE!! Slow updates, but worth it.

- A Curious Mask. Basically, a psycho trying to feel. Lots of fantasy and kings and fights and romance too.

- The Crow and the King. Transvestite female blacksmith meets prince.

- To Become a Suitable Heroine. It's funny.

- Midnight Moonlight. Vampires, werewolves and romance… No, seriously, give it a try. The heroin is neurotic and paranoiac.

- Stone Burners. Who doesn’t like a dragon-girl in modern prejudiced super-hero setting?

- The Zombie Knight. Does anybody not know about this one? It’s like not knowing about Worm. I mean, have you EVER been on topwebfiction?

- Hardcore OP-ness. Chaotic perversion at its mightiest.

- Void Domain. An urban fantasy with lots of demons and a female MC of dubious moral standards. Lots of grey here.

Aaaaand Taint. It’s a… cute… horror story, I suppose? A cute horror story of epic proportions with an odd mix of medfan-wuxia-scifi-ish stuff? It’s great! Really! Try it out!

I’d also recommend Death Marching to the Parallel World Rhapsody, but… who’s not yet reading that?

Oh, and if you haven’t already, take a look at A Mermaid’s Responsibility, Dead Gods Tell No Tales, and The Daily Life of a Mushroom. On this very website.

Eeeeh… Did I got side-tracked again? Sorry. Point is...

Spoiler :

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But you have still some time to read something else before it happens. I’ll try to hurry.

The Blood Princess’ Tales will be the same but different… and hopefully better. I’d say you should read it again from the start when it eventually comes out, because a good chunk of the text will have been altered... but the actual plot – or lack of thereof – will be mostly identical, so I’ll understand if you prefer to wait for the story to catch up to where Tales of the Blood Princess left off.

Then again, given how much time will have passed, you probably could use a refresher. Gods know I did.

So, with my best regards,

See you (as) soon (as possible),

Sorrily (is that a word?) yours,

Doc.

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PS: I shall post an announcement here with the link to the new version, so that you don’t need to stake out the Latest Updates page. Am I being arrogant thinking you’d do that?

PPS: A very merry unbirthday to all of you.