Xalir: Blog

In honor of my 666th vote on the story, (which, incidentally pushed the story to an 8.0 score) I've posted chapter 9 in addition to chapter 8. I hope you enjoy both and please, keep sending me feedback, corrections, continuity errors, suggestions, criticisms and manifestos. I enjoy reading each and every one of them.

Thanks to all the readers who have contacted me, voted or just stopped to read the story.

I've submitted corrected versions of chapters 1-7 to the moderators. Most of this was for spelling and punctuation errors on my part.

There was one continuity error that needed fixing though. It was pointed out to me that $1million in $100 bills weighs about 22 pounds. Those of you that have read far enough to know how much money we're talking about are now aware of how much weight we're talking about. To correct that, I split one case in the garage into three cases and tried to be as thorough as possible in correcting references to reflect this change.

Today's chapter is in the pipeline for the moderators. I hope everyone likes it. A few people have asked me about whether Beck joins Matt and Lana and I don't intend to tease. It picks up right where Chapter 6 left off.

Thanks again to everyone who messages me with comments, praise, corrections, criticism and the one email I've gotten that expressed a hard-core distain. I appreciate them all in the spirit they're intended. Keep reading and I'll keep writing.

I just sent chapter 6 to the moderators. Apologies for being a little later today, but it's been a hectic day.

Again, I want to thank everyone for all the feedback and for your questions. I've been getting a lot of emails that mention the phrase "little did I know" a lot today and yesterday. As I mentioned to one response, Stranger Than Fiction is one of my favorite movies, so "little did he know" is a phrase that brings a smile to my lips even as it introduces dread to my tale.

One note: If you send me a question, I need a way to respond. Sending it anonymously through SOL means that I can't reply and there have been a few questions that I'd have liked to reply to yesterday like that.

Thanks again for all your support!

Chapter five is in the pipeline and the moderators should have it up shortly.

A lot of people have given me a lot to think about in regards to ways to make the story better and one of the ways that has been suggested is to be more explicit with my physical descriptions of the characters themselves. I realized that I've been leaving the characters' descriptions slightly vague and this was done, to a certain extent, on purpose. I've been painting them in broad brushstrokes and letting you, the reader, fill in the details to your own personal satisfaction. I'm currently looking at upcoming chapters for areas where I think I can insert a longer, more telling description, but I also want you all to chime in on the idea and see if you'd prefer to keep those details up to your imagination or if you'd rather see these characters more defined from my vision.

As always, I look forward to all the feedback I've been getting and I try to message everyone back unless they message me anonymously.

I hope you all enjoy Chapter 5 and the rest of the story as it unfolds. Enjoy and thank you for all your support and feedback.