Journals81
Newest
The end of an era
2 min read
I am here to announce that With Fire in the Night as a project is officially dead.
For four years off and on, I've worked on it. I'm proud of the fact that I wrote a whole draft of a book before even leaving high school. I'm even more appreciative of how writing a book has improved all my writing—including, ultimately, the very book in its later revisions.
But writing what used to be called River Cats and Curtains of Smoke is emotionally taxing. It continually reminds me of how I used to be a different person. I've changed. We've all changed. At least one of the most important people in the project's history is now out of my life. I have different priorities, do different sorts of writing. What I've already done with this book is charged with the emotions I had in 2012 and 2013, things I cannot relate to now.
I want to thank those who have followed me in the last four years over the course of this project. I still remember being hesitant to begin writing. I watched as people like samoholic and others (you know who you are) pushed me to become a better writer. Soon, instead of writing 350-word chapters they were longer: 1000, 1500, 2500. I met SunetteTheWolf here, and she changed the direction this book took for the better. Your support was crucial to the success of this project. But it got harder and harder to rewrite this book without being emotionally spent. There are other things I would much rather write these days.
You probably won't see much from me on DA in the long term. My graphic design work, which has thrived in the last year as I've picked up new clients and techniques, is on Behance. My writing is about other things and can be found at one or two other places. All of it is under my real name.
But thanks to DA, this book project and especially AzurikTheWolf, I became a writer. And a darn good one, at that.
Signed,
Mystic Cheetah
For four years off and on, I've worked on it. I'm proud of the fact that I wrote a whole draft of a book before even leaving high school. I'm even more appreciative of how writing a book has improved all my writing—including, ultimately, the very book in its later revisions.
But writing what used to be called River Cats and Curtains of Smoke is emotionally taxing. It continually reminds me of how I used to be a different person. I've changed. We've all changed. At least one of the most important people in the project's history is now out of my life. I have different priorities, do different sorts of writing. What I've already done with this book is charged with the emotions I had in 2012 and 2013, things I cannot relate to now.
I want to thank those who have followed me in the last four years over the course of this project. I still remember being hesitant to begin writing. I watched as people like samoholic and others (you know who you are) pushed me to become a better writer. Soon, instead of writing 350-word chapters they were longer: 1000, 1500, 2500. I met SunetteTheWolf here, and she changed the direction this book took for the better. Your support was crucial to the success of this project. But it got harder and harder to rewrite this book without being emotionally spent. There are other things I would much rather write these days.
You probably won't see much from me on DA in the long term. My graphic design work, which has thrived in the last year as I've picked up new clients and techniques, is on Behance. My writing is about other things and can be found at one or two other places. All of it is under my real name.
But thanks to DA, this book project and especially AzurikTheWolf, I became a writer. And a darn good one, at that.
Signed,
Mystic Cheetah
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Let's change the subject
1 min read
...Let's get something more positive up in this space.
Like the fact that I'm finally uploading chapters again, I'm writing again(in fact, chapter 9 is being worked on at this moment), and the growth both in size and in quality is massive.
Also, you might be happy to hear that chapter 9 is complete, and as such I will be able to extend my streak of nights with new chapters to seven. This is incredible — it's actually my busiest month ever on dA, which is something pretty amazing.
I haven't uploaded to FA or SoFurry yet — it did not help that I got zero readers there.
Like the fact that I'm finally uploading chapters again, I'm writing again
Also, you might be happy to hear that chapter 9 is complete, and as such I will be able to extend my streak of nights with new chapters to seven. This is incredible — it's actually my busiest month ever on dA, which is something pretty amazing.
I haven't uploaded to FA or SoFurry yet — it did not help that I got zero readers there.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
My deviantART Story
3 min read
...I didn't think I'd still be writing today.
When it was born alongside this dA account, River Cats was a pet project. It was not very good at first. It suffered from my tendency to write in a more academic style, and it was terribly short. I recall re-reading one chapter and feeling like it was a news report or a summary of the events that had happened. The first set of chapters ran an average of 500 words.
It became Curtains of Smoke around the time I became very, uh, dark internally.* Those who know me best—you know who you are—get what I mean, and understand how things have changed. Of course, With Fire in the Night hasn't moved much at all in the last few months and that is because of editing issues. With Beta-Readers having collapsed this is a serious issue. I cannot seem to find an editor available enough to go through the backlog, and I am not going to pin more on an editor when I get one than the seven completed chapters. That's not right. I still want to do a lot with this book.
...As to some other matters I shall address here:
#1. Some of you may remember I had some graphic design materials up on dA when I thought that I could make this my new home for my design work as well (that never panned out). I'm still doing that sort of design, and I've actually experienced a career renaissance in the last few months in my primary design market. In fact (and unrelated to said renaissance) I wound up with an unexpected graphic design-focused internship recently. However, I won't be posting any of that here because that stuff should go under my real name, which I can't quite put here without creating some friction. If you know me well, ask me and I'll show you.
#2. Those who know me best probably understand what I mean when I say that Ramona the cheetah is a bittersweet creation of mine. My heart has been wrapped in cheetah fur for so long (almost since the beginning of the River Cats RP), so Ramona means a whole lot more to me than a fursona. She almost took me over in more ways than one.
I've stepped back from the brink over the last 15 months after once hanging from its edge.* One of the ways I've done that is by retiring Ramona. I'm not rewriting the book or anything like With Fire in the Night is for AzurikTheWolf, but I no longer RP Ramona (my new fursona is actually a tandem, a female jaguar and a female hyena — I might introduce them at some point to you, who knows). I suppose I'm a Mystic Jaguar now.
When it was born alongside this dA account, River Cats was a pet project. It was not very good at first. It suffered from my tendency to write in a more academic style, and it was terribly short. I recall re-reading one chapter and feeling like it was a news report or a summary of the events that had happened. The first set of chapters ran an average of 500 words.
It became Curtains of Smoke around the time I became very, uh, dark internally.* Those who know me best—you know who you are—get what I mean, and understand how things have changed. Of course, With Fire in the Night hasn't moved much at all in the last few months and that is because of editing issues. With Beta-Readers having collapsed this is a serious issue. I cannot seem to find an editor available enough to go through the backlog, and I am not going to pin more on an editor when I get one than the seven completed chapters. That's not right. I still want to do a lot with this book.
...As to some other matters I shall address here:
#1. Some of you may remember I had some graphic design materials up on dA when I thought that I could make this my new home for my design work as well (that never panned out). I'm still doing that sort of design, and I've actually experienced a career renaissance in the last few months in my primary design market. In fact (and unrelated to said renaissance) I wound up with an unexpected graphic design-focused internship recently. However, I won't be posting any of that here because that stuff should go under my real name, which I can't quite put here without creating some friction. If you know me well, ask me and I'll show you.
#2. Those who know me best probably understand what I mean when I say that Ramona the cheetah is a bittersweet creation of mine. My heart has been wrapped in cheetah fur for so long (almost since the beginning of the River Cats RP), so Ramona means a whole lot more to me than a fursona. She almost took me over in more ways than one.
I've stepped back from the brink over the last 15 months after once hanging from its edge.* One of the ways I've done that is by retiring Ramona. I'm not rewriting the book or anything like With Fire in the Night is for AzurikTheWolf, but I no longer RP Ramona (my new fursona is actually a tandem, a female jaguar and a female hyena — I might introduce them at some point to you, who knows). I suppose I'm a Mystic Jaguar now.
*No, not a self-harm brink; if you know me you know what it was. Two words: Ramona Fever.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Update
1 min read
I am waiting on my (temporary) editor to review chapter 3, though I am currently writing chapter 5. Until I get the backlog resolved I'm not posting anything. I've put in a request to Beta-Readers to get another writing partner (I currently am not using one from there), one more suited to my needs of character development and plot streamlining.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
About With Fire in the Night
2 min read
If you've read the first chapter of With Fire in the Night, and you're familiar with the River Cats/Curtains of Smoke history, you might have noticed a major change off the bat in the first chapter.
Tigers are wolves and some wolves are tigers!
In the time that has passed since the incubation of the RPs and novels with kaintiger his fursona has gone from being a tiger to being a wolf. To reflect that I needed to make the Tiger Kingdom a kingdom of wolves, and since I had a rump wolf land that wasn't well defined (Lycan's southern wolf lands) I decided to keep tigers involved in the story by making all those wolf characters (not the red wolves or the Woven) into tigers. You'll be seeing this ahead.
You'll also be seeing (down the road) that I've almost completely changed one of the kingdoms in the story. It has a new flag:
If you have an eagle eye you may spot the future kingdom and some name changes to other minor characters in chapter two...
Tigers are wolves and some wolves are tigers!
In the time that has passed since the incubation of the RPs and novels with kaintiger his fursona has gone from being a tiger to being a wolf. To reflect that I needed to make the Tiger Kingdom a kingdom of wolves, and since I had a rump wolf land that wasn't well defined (Lycan's southern wolf lands) I decided to keep tigers involved in the story by making all those wolf characters (not the red wolves or the Woven) into tigers. You'll be seeing this ahead.
You'll also be seeing (down the road) that I've almost completely changed one of the kingdoms in the story. It has a new flag:
If you have an eagle eye you may spot the future kingdom and some name changes to other minor characters in chapter two...
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In