Sage Mullins: Blog

...that I've been struck by lightning and sent back in time, accounting for the delay in posting chapter 46. :)

It's something much less nefarious, namely real life (read: work), which has me tied up this week. 46, in progress now, should go up around mid-to-late next week. After that, I want to get back to something close to a chapter a week, as I've maintained for the last few months.

Come on ... you really didn't think I'd let Pat get the girl without making you suffer through another one of his screw-ups, did you? :)

Chapter 42 seems to have fueled a lot of speculation that LIAB is about to draw to a close. It's not. Not even close; there's a long way to go yet. Back near the beginning, I speculated that this story would have between 50 and 60 chapters. That estimate was definitely on the low side. We're going well past 60, folks.

At the same time, you might see the pace of updates slow down just a bit. It's taking me about 10 days or so to write each new chapter, and I've finally reached the point where my streak of getting a new chapter up every Monday will draw to a close. It's looking more and more unlikely that I'll have chapter 43 ready by next Monday. The middle of next week is probably more realistic.

I want to keep the new chapters coming as quickly as I can. However, I also don't want to sacrifice quality in the name of putting the chapters out as fast as I can.

I sure dropped a cliffhanger on you at the end of Chapter 37, didn't I? :)

You won't have to wait much longer to find out what happens next, though. I have Chapter 38 in the queue to be posted on Monday.

I need to give a belated shout-out to a reader, Arch, for a very valuable suggestion. Believe it or not, Lightning in a Bottle, although it's the title of the story, was not my original choice for the name of the band in the current timeline. I had intended for it to be Activation Energy, again, just like it was in the other life.

The title "Lightning in a Bottle", of course, refers to the means by which Pat was sent back in time. I'm still a little surprised that it never occurred to me to give the band that moniker. It's just too appropriate. The suggestion came to me just in the nick of time, too; I think it was less than a week before I posted the chapter where the characters agreed on a name for the band. That's how close you came to having to read about Activation Energy 2.0. :)

Just a quick update on the progress of LIAB. Chapter 36 will be posted on Monday, 1/28. Chapter 37 is finished, and will probably go up about a week later. At the moment, I'm writing Chapter 38.

My goal is to maintain that schedule of putting up one new chapter a week, but I won't make any promises. I'll do the best I can. It depends on how well I can juggle writing with real life.

The recently posted Chapter 33 seemed to generate extreme reactions from those readers who were kind enough to offer feedback. They either loved it or hated it. The comments were nowhere near as overwhelmingly negative as the ones I got in response to Pat's dark period after his big blowup. But the negative remarks were every bit as vehement.

Many felt that Julia's dumping of Pat was unrealistically abrupt and out of character. I guess I can understand that, to a degree. There was one extenuating factor, though, that you don't yet know about. You'll find it out in the next chapter. Hint: I foreshadowed it when I first introduced Julia, way back in chapter 25. :)

Reading between the lines a little, I think there may be a worry out there that another dark period for Pat lies ahead. But you already have a clue about that. Look at Pat's reaction when Julia dropped the bomb on him. Did he blow up? No. In fact, his response was quite cool and measured. So, maybe there's hope for him yet. You'll have to wait till the next chapter goes up to find out how he reacted in the longer term.

I enjoyed writing that chapter; a lot of cool things happened. Inez's parents survived the accident this time. Pat made up with Evie. And Pat made a decision to tell his time-travel secrets to someone else.

Chapter 34 is in the queue to go up on Monday, 1/14. Chapter 35 is complete and ready to go, too; I have it scheduled to go up on Monday, 1/21. Right now, I'm putting the finishing touches on Chapter 36. You can see that my backlog is down to almost nothing, which explains why I'm taking longer and longer to post each new chapter.