Extended Progress Update: 12 April 2024

Hi Returning Visitors,

Key highlights of this update and reminders:

• My typical gentle nudge to remember to add my email address can be found here. It's important for the TFS character portrait inquiries and welcome message I promptly send out. Also, remember to check your spam folder and to reach out to me, if needed.

• The Corvin family dinner outline is done! 😁 (There is still more to this chapter besides the dinner though.)

• I've begun writing on this sprawling chapter after finishing up the outline.

• Book Two Snippet: I wonder how a meeting between C and B will go? It depends on your Returning Visitors. 👀

I feel my use of a granular for the extended outline was a mild understatement. 😌 By the time I was finished with the Corvin family dinner, it spanned about 18 bulleted pages that were very colored-coded with highlights. 🎨It took me a little longer (around the 6th of April) than I had hoped, but it will make the writing easier going forward. I have the major scenes, optional locations, and variations all broken down. If anything, I'm even more eager to start a writing blitz. Much like Mrs. Corvin's lasagna, it will have layers. 🍝

The variations within it will invite you to try different character dynamics and choices!

Edit: As of where I'm at in the outline rn, your Returning Visitors have officially seen the Corvin's home again, yay! 🥂 (There were optional scenes during the drive/start first.)

At one point, I did mention about how this dinner can pose a unique opportunity for the MC to also share more about their past, which I've incorporated into the outline.

There will be choices to let the MC share how they met B from a list of choices that you'll get to pick for your MC. The meeting might have happened at university, B might have quite literally tripped and fell into your MC's life (lol), you could have been roommates, and more. 👀 I'm not going to spoil the options, but there will be plenty of them that unlock scenes with your bestie and reactions from the Corvins. Keeping the MC's past relatively reader-decided within TFS's plot construct is important. It lets you shape your character! (The life outside of Fernweh slowly decaying as the stay progresses can be a theme.) This conversation gives a chance to further that since naturally Mrs. Corvin may have questions for you that you can elect to answer or just gnaw on Italian bread. Yum!

(No, seriously, I have a note to potentially let the MC avoid small talk via the bread basket, but I must have come up with it while I was tired or feeling a little zany. 🍞 It happens.)

Hopefully, you're looking forward to that, although that's just one aspect of the dinner conversation that will help you learn more about the Corvins and their family dynamic.

I'm excited to jump back into writing now that the intricate outline is done and reviewed!

The urge to drop hints about it is strong. B makes a Blair Witch reference. There's a mention about an engagement. Hmm, R wears something interesting (on the JR route only 💜). Huckleberry meets a new friend (Will it be your MC?). Your MC's emotions might be put through one of those pasta rollers depending on your choices. 🍝 Mrs. Corvin's appearance is based on Lucy Lawless's because apparently all of the potential TFS mother-in-laws are stunning. 😉

Okay, I'm going to let this publish and go write, in case you can't tell I'm excited to.

As for our Patreon content, we've just had C's POV post recently that I encourage you to dissect beyond their, er, unique attitude. XD The spicy writing is inching ever closer along with a ramble about Mal's need to tailor things to the MC. We still have posts ahead with the alpha drop at the end of this month that includes many character encounters.

[Spoilers Ahead!]

Here's an excerpt from Book Two:

Charles

Jealousy spikes through you chased by sharp uncertainty that prompts you to glance over at Becca who's watching you with an unsaid concern. Your reaction is controlled; she just knows you too well. You tap your fingers along the steering wheel to loosen them up, inaudibly inhaling to keep a calm expression.

"No one."

"You were lowkey strangling the wheel…"

"No, I wasn't," you quickly retort. "That's Charles Schade, another bloodline, and—"

"Someone we don't like," Becca knowingly remarks.

"—someone who followed after Ruby when we were all younger like a lackey. That's all."

Charlene 

Jealousy spikes through you chased by sharp uncertainty that prompts you to glance over at Beckett who's watching you with an unsaid concern. Your reaction is controlled; he just knows you too well. You tap your fingers along the steering wheel to loosen them up, inaudibly inhaling to keep a calm expression.

"No one."

"You were lowkey strangling the wheel…"

"No, I wasn't," you quickly retort. "That's Charlene Schade, another bloodline, and—"

"Someone we don't like," Beckett knowingly remarks.

"—someone who followed after Reese when we were all younger like a lackey. That's all."

I selected something that links to C in honor of their recent writing.😁 This scene changes based on multiple dynamics (romance and friendship) and your choices.

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. 💚

Wishing you all a lovely and safe weekend!