Status of The Road

When I first started the story that now bears the title Traveling A New Road, I was in a much different place, mentally and literally. I believe I began writing this about four years ago. I had been co-writing with a very dear friend of mine, and having quite a nice time doing so, to be honest. However, something inside felt unfulfilled -- I wanted to write something that was my own. I would set the pace, plan out where the story would go, and also see just how much I could write as opposed to doing shorter stories.

The story underwent a few changes as it was written, and re-written, and edited, and finalized. I was originally planning for the main to have a romantic relationship with Mayor Mare. My main reason for this was keeping it close to the ages of the characters, with the mayor being an older mare and the main being ... well, old. When I started gravitating toward Octavia, it wasn't too much of a concern as I never expected this story to see the light of day, so I opted to just see where things went.

Time passed, chapters were written, and I went into a depression that precluded any further work on the story, until I turned it around and wrote it in. And that's how the most recent chapter (Chapter 7 at the time I write this) was made.

I ended my hiatus from writing with Lighting the Dark Path, and it only through the encouragement of another good friend that it got published here. However, I went back into a depression (which resulted in me writing The Last Trip), and it was only after getting my head together and pushing the depression down (it's still there, just not as bad as it was, at least for the moment) that I took another look at Road. The same friend that encouraged me to post here in the first place suggested I try publishing it elsewhere at first. I did, it didn't get too much hatred, and I decided to pull the trigger and place it here.

I admit, I expected the worst when I hit Publish. I was surprised, and delighted, that some people out there actually enjoyed the story. I had a bit if backlog of chapters, and figured I could begin posting it on a monthly schedule, which allowed time for editing and revisions, and have time to write new chapters before the backlog ran out.

And then, life happened.

I got a promotion at work, ended up being hundreds of miles away from home only to have to return on weekends to pack and plan the move, settle in to the new place, and put things back together.

Which is where I am now.

After giving it some thought, I think I'm going to bring the story to a close. I have one more chapter ready to go from the original writing I did, and I will be working on the final chapter over the next couple of months. When that chapter publishes, which should be on the first of July, the story will have come to an end.

I don't know if I will write anything else, it depends on whether or not I receive some inspiration to do so. Either way, to those that read Traveling, and to those that also read my other stories, thank you for your support, I hope you enjoyed what I have written, and I wish you all well.