Remember when I posted a blog with this video out of the blue a while back?

Perhaps now my reasons for doing so are more clear.

My new story has been submitted for approval, but apparently, you can view it before the process is finished. (I did not know that...)

Well, after three weeks of work, it finally feels like I'm close to finishing the first chapter in the new Petriculture Cycle story. There's still a little bit left to go, but I think I can safely predict that, barring unforeseen circumstances, it will be on FIMFiction by the end of the week.

In the meantime, allow me to once again plug the Cycle's FIMFiction Group! By joining, not only will you get more frequent updates, you'll also learn about any known fan projects in the works, including a comic adaptation of Petriculture.

Work has commenced on the final story in The Petriculture Cycle. At the moment, writing seems to be going slowly, but that just might be due to the fact that the chapters in this story are relatively long (compared to my usual chapter size, that is). For more frequent updates on progress, I recommend joining the Cycle's FimFiction group.

...or at least the ones who haven't read/don't like The Petriculture Cycle. My preparations for the first chapter of the final story are taking longer than expected, so it might take a bit longer than usual before I write a new Flash Fog chapter.

Yes, yes, I know that you don't care how long it takes me to write new installments, so long as the results are good. That doesn't change the fact that every time I push back a chapter I get a pang of guilt and I'm all like:

I promise that once The Petriculture Cycle's finished, it be just you and me until Fluttershy's story reaches its conclusion. You know we'll have a good time then.

Okay, I'll admit that I occasionally check the assorted "top story" lists, mostly out of vanity, and have done so ever since I realized that Petriculture's view count was atypically high, even for a very well-written story. However, when I took a peek at the "Top Rated" list today (with the Mature story filter on), I was honestly shocked to see Avocation, Flash Fog, and Inscape holding the 17th, 18th, and 19th spots, respectively (though given the volatile nature of that list, it could very well be different by the time you read this). I mean, I knew you guys liked my writing, but I never would have guessed that you liked it that much, that consistently.

So, uh, thank you.

1. Work has begun on the fifth and (most likely) final story in The Petriculture Cycle. So far, I've written 450 words out of an estimated aleph-one.* I suppose I should be glad that I've planned the story out a bit, because it would probably be even more intimidating otherwise.

2. If you enjoy these stories, but haven't joined the Cycle's group, you may want to seriously consider it, if only because I plan on giving more information to group members.

* I know just enough about mathematics to know that math nerds might find this amusing.

First of all, as you might have guessed by the post's title, work has commenced on the next chapter of Flash Fog.

Secondly, as a writer who enjoys conversing with his prereaders while he writes, I am extremely happy that Google has finally integrated an optional alert noise into GDoc's chat function.

Third, earlier today I accidentally read the comments section of a post on a politically-oriented site. For the love of all that's good, never, ever do this.

Hello, readers. Just a quick update on what I've been doing. While I normally attempt to finish a chapter a week of whatever I'm working on, I decided to take a week off to focus on planning the final Petriculture story. I'd say it paid off reasonably well; although many of the details are still fuzzy, I have a very good idea of what's going to happen, and just as importantly, I'm quite confident that it will work as a narrative.

I'll be getting back to Flash Fog this week, and, if all goes well, the following week I can get started on the new story.

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