thanagar

Update: May 18, 2024

Black Box has always been the weird kid in my catalogue. It was the first story I ever tried to write for the site. When it didn't work, I put it aside and ended up spending the next year writing Little Packages. Then, armed with everything I learned writing Little Packages and turned it on Black Box.

The good news, I fixed a lot of the problems from the original story. The bad news is, I probably made a whole bunch of new mistakes. Plus I used it as a testing ground. Can I write science fiction? Suspense? Action? And all of this would have been fine if I had just stopped. Hit "The End" and moved on. But at the last minute I had an idea for a trilogy of stories, and ended it on a cliffhanger.

So now I had a whole bunch of new problems. The next chapter was tricky to write and I promptly got stuck. There were other things I wanted to write and didn't want to spend 9 months writing another 100,000 words of this story.

And this may sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself - the traffic just wasn't there. It has some of the lowest page view numbers of my stories. It's the tv show some people loved, but most never watched and those who watched are cranky because they want more. But one of the reasons I write is that I want the maximum number of people to see it.

Well, those who wanted more are getting their wish. Chapter 6 goes live on May 19. I'd hoped to have most of Chapter 7 and 8 written as well, but that hasn't happened. This is also a testing ground. If the story does well, I'll find the time to continue. If it doesn't, well, you might have to deal with a motherfucker of a cliffhanger and hate me. Sorry about that.

Also, fair warning. This is Erin's story, Kevin's high school crush who Lillian made disappear. It has....unpleasant moments. It's in the scifi category, but it easily could have been in non-con.

Despite the very long wait, I hope you like it. I'll touch base in a couple of weeks to talk a bit more about the story, and what's next.