Come July 19th... Winds of the Past Officially Rises from the Graveyard (And Also I'm Back, I Guess...) · 11:33pm Jul 13th, 2019
Yep.
So... I spent some time thinking about how I should go about this... Being inactive for... what has it been...? 3 years now? With barely a word, or status update...
I really have no excuse for this... I could say that I've been preoccupied, or... recovering, or... dealing with some sort of drama in my life, which, while true, is still no excuse.
I should have made a followup post back in August or September of 2016... and yet, I didn't. I couldn't tell you why. Maybe my mind was in such a state of disarray, or I was flogged down with so many checkups and appointments that updating you guys was the least of my concerns...
I'm sure some of you might have thought that I had died, or went blind permanently... or simply moved on to something else.
I assure you that none of those are true.
No, I am not dead.
I am only somewhat blind, but I still have some eyesight left in me.
And I never left.
I am still very much so a part of this community, and a fan of both My Little Pony and TwiDash. It's one of the single most adorkable ships out there, and I don't think that I could ever bring myself to stop writing about those two.
No, I... guess the biggest reason why I stayed in the dark for as long as I did was because I didn't want to update you guys until I had something to show for my absence, you know, something worthy of an update.
And now I do, if any of you are still interested.
I've been gone for an inexcusably long time, but it's not like I haven't been getting any work done either.
The thing is, another reason why I haven't updated in as long as I have, is because I had the, albeit selfish, idea to finish all of the remaining chapters, and then give them to you all at once. Or, well, on a weekly basis. I think I've brought this up before in a couple places, but nevertheless, I thought that would make up for my extended absence, if I gave you all basically the remainder of the story all at once...
And truth be told, I sorta still plan on doing that.
I wanna give you chapters 12 through 18 (18 being the epilogue) within weeks of one another, and then hopefully maintain that tradition as I move ahead with the sequel, and eventual other projects.
And so, during all this time, when I had the chance, or felt up to it, I was working on these later chapters, essentially writing the story a little out of order... 😅
You can view the progress of these chapters on my profile page, but just to recap...
Chapter 12 (Day 331 - 333 - Legends of Magic) is around 33,000 words, is basically written, with only a little remainder needing to be edited.
Chapter 13 (Day 333 - The Grand Galloping Gala) is around 18,000 words, is mostly written, and is about halfway edited.
Chapter 14 (The Evening of Day 333 - The Best Night Ever, Part 1) is around 17,000 words, is mostly written, and has yet to be edited.
Chapter 15 (Another Side, Another (back)Story) is around, and I'm not kidding, 54,000 words, is basically written, and is about... 60% edited. Seriously, this chapter is mostly what I've been working on this whole time...
Chapter 16 (The Dawn of Day 334 - The Best Night Ever, Part 2) is around 10,000 words, is about halfway written, and has only been edited a little bit.
Chapter 17 (Days 334 - 363 - What's Past is Prologue) is only around 5,000 words, but I haven't really been working on this that much, I'll admit. I've sort of just been planning a lot of it in my head while I write the others... Very little edits have actually been made in this one.
Chapter 18 (Day 364 - Summer Sun Preparations) is around 3,000 words, is basically written, and has been somewhat edited.
And then that just leaves Chapter 11.
If you'll remember, the story currently has only 10 chapters, the last being the Hearth's Warming Eve chapter.
I was going to wait to release Chapter 11, because like I said, I wanted to wait until every one of them was finished first. But then I realized, as I worked on finishing it, how much longer I still had to go, and that if I did that, you might not end up seeing the story for another several months...
That, and honestly... I was growing a little impatient myself. 😅 I had the sudden urge to update, and give you all a new chapter, and just couldn't stick to my own plan anymore. Maybe it was because of some of the twists and turns this chapter takes, or simply how sugary sweet this chapter ended up becoming.
Seriously, this may be the sappiest, sweetest, cutest, and downright fluffiest chapter yet. The TwiDash levels in this chapter are seriously through the roof. 
And I just had to share it with you guys. I couldn't wait any longer.
It sorta makes me think about how long you've all been waiting...
Again, guys... I truly am sorry, and... I realize no words can really make up for it. I only hope that this chapter (along with the progress made on the other chapters) is a good start, and makes up for it somewhat.
I'm still not even completely done with Chapter 11, truth be told (it's like 98% done) , but rest assured it will be completed come Friday, July 19th.
Also, I feel I should mention, Chapter 11 is currently out now on my Patreon! The first two parts of it, anyways... Hey, it's like a 64,000 word chapter, give me a break... So parts 1 and 2 are each around 20,000 words, and chock full of TwiDash goodness. I'm not trying to shill out my patreon or anything, just... if you'd like to read it now for a small fee, you can; and If not, cool, it'll be out Friday, both on here and fanfiction.net
Part 1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/winds-of-past-11-28320049
Part 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/winds-of-past-11-28320371
(And if those links for whatever reason don't work, you can find them by visiting my page here: https://www.patreon.com/Fantasia_FIM
You can also find that to be the place where I try and post regular updates, so if you'd like to stay updated with how things are progressing, be sure to visit now and again. The updates themselves are completely free. 
I'm still working on Part 3, but it's nearly done, with really only minor edits required. It should be available on there within a day or two.
And yeah, that just about does it.
If any of you were concerned or curious about my eyesight, I guess I can talk about it briefly, and hey, if not, feel free to tune out here.
So, yeah... for those who remember (and if you don't, my previous blog post details most of it), I was sort of dealing with a bout of blindness! From December of 2015, to Jamuary 2016 (where I had developed a cataract in my right eye) to like, June 2016 to August 10th of 2016, where I had developed another cataract in my left eye, and suffered a retina detachment in my right.
And again, to this day, I still have zero clue what caused any of that. My family has no history of blindness, I have an okay enough diet, I wasn't hit in the face or anything... so I don't know. Stress maybe? Is that even possible...?
Well anyway... long story short, there was no saving my right eye. I got my retina reattached twice, and no matter what, I was never going to have complete vision back in my right eye, and then one thing lead to another, and yeah... it died. Again, I'm not really going to go into full detail or anything... but trust me, my right eye is a whited-out, withered useless sack in my skull now.
So... in 2018, I got this fancy sort of... contact lens? Well, it's not really a contact lens, it's more of a prosthesis... shell, that's made to look exactly like your other eye, that slides in under your eyelids and over the bad eye. It's sort of like a glass eye, but instead it's like the front of a glass eye, and it rests comfortably over your real one because when your eye dies, it sort of deflates a little and... yeah. If you're interested, and would like to know about it, check out: http://ocularrestorationclinic.com/index.html and: http://ocularrestorationclinic.com/gallery.html It's really quite amazing what these guys do.
So basically I have a $3000 piece of art in my head. 😅
And yeah... I'm basically half-blind, and I've been that way for... around 3 years now, yeah... but I try not to lament on it too much. I mean, hey, what good is that? And I still have a good eye left, so... I'll keep writing until I lose this one too.
Well, hopefully that never happens... 😝
Seriously, it goes without saying, but being blind sucks...
It's not as fun as Daredevil, or any other badass fictional character makes it looks.
So, um... yeah. That just about covers it.
It feels good to be writing this, and stepping back into the proverbial spotlight so to speak... and letting you all know what's been going on.
So... yeah. Like I said, Chapter 11's out now on patreon as I write this (er, most of it anyway) and will be out worldwide July 19th. I would also like to mention that I have a ko-fi account, so if you'd like to throw a few bucks my way, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Well, that's about it.
Again, I really am sorry... but I am back now, and hopefully back for good.
Thank you for your time, and until next time!
See you all Friday!
Holy... You mean Winds of the Past will actually be updated again?!
I have kept it in my tracking list for years in what I thought was the vain hope of seeing it continue, but I never thought it would actually happen!
You just made my day! Your story was one of my favorites TwiDash fics! Really looking forward to it now!
Welcome back!! I can't wait to finish your story :)
Be nice to read new chapters of that.
woooo!
IT LIVES!
*squints at the image*
That person sure does have fine taste.
Well I know for sure my brother is very happy to see you back. That said...64k words isn't a chapter. It's 21 chapters at around 3k words each lol. It's about the size of a decent sized novella. Eh it's all wibbly wobbly flirty wordy stuff, right? ^_~ At any rate welcome back. I can't wait to read along with him. We both enjoyed your stories very much.