Postponement of that Christmas fic · 2:28am Dec 24th, 2020
So like oof y'all... First off, giving myself four days to write a two chapter fic when I'm out of practice was... not wise. I might have done it, but life got in the way.
So yeah, writing was slow but steady, until yesterday when lots of things kept popping up to prevent me from writing. Yesterday was day two of four, and I was determined to get through the first of two chapters. But well, I failed. I was still determined to make up for it today, but then I woke up to some shitty news...
A while ago (like a few weeks) my computer got hacked by a virus that got ahold of all my account passwords and all that shit. They attempted to spend around $550 on various websites and between my and my wife's cards. They wound up getting away with $100 of my wife's and $80 of my money. As we don't have a lot of income ($80 is more than a month's income for me) this was a big blow to us. I got rid of the virus and changed passwords, added two factor authentication to many websites (use that shit when money's involved, y'all). Well, today they got away with $240 via Humble Bundle, buying four $60 games. And like, I should've changed that password. I changed every password that had our card info (and many that don't but could have personal info, like Discrord and Facebook and shit) except I forgot Humble Bundle. It just didn't occur to me, it's not a site I use a ton these days.
So another $240 got spent, and while I'm still waiting on Humble's customer service to get back to me, this experience has taught me even more than I already knew that companies don't give a shit about us and that they aren't out to protect us (generally speaking, the reason they only got away with $180 earlier is because we ran out of money for them to take after that, not because any company stepped up to protect our money). So I'm not expecting reimbursement. I spent the day depression napping as a result, which means I didn't write shit, which means this two chapter story is still on chapter one.
So as I see it, I have three options. I can finish chapter one and just publish that on Christmas, with chapter two to follow, but I don't like that because what if something I write in chapter neccesitates a change in chapter one?; I thought of expanding the story with a New Year's chapter, so I could publish the whole fic on New Year's; or I could actually give the story the time and attention it deserves instead of trying to rush it during a stressful time in my life and publish it after Acts of Love. I'm kinda thinking of doing it that way for another reason...
See, I said I was done writing WWB for a while, but I don't want to be. I outlined a two act fic with Gowak, the follow up to Acts of Love, titled Life in Equestria. It's about new relationships forming and many of the core cast settling down into their lives and all that. I would like to get this finished in time to continue my regular updates, but that's a difficult task. Adding a two/three chapter fic updating weekly gives me two to three more weeks to get this story written and presentable. So for the sake of my content buffer and trying to not kill my regular chapter streak, I may publish my holiday story in January, with Coda to follow in February.
At the moment I feel too shitty about the hacker thing to decide what to do, but I just wanted to say you probably won't be seeing a new story from me on Christmas day. I was really looking forward to this, but life just sucks sometimes.
Take your time!
I’m sorry that happened to you :( I wish it didn’t. There is no need to apologize for postponing, real life is more important than this and I’m sure that nobody will complain. I hope you have a streak of good luck soon :( you deserve it so much more than anyone I can think of.
5421144
Tbh the main thing I feel bad for is rushing you on the art thinking this story was gonna go up sooner
5421153
Ehh its okay! You know I love drawing for WWB
And in any event, I could totally redo it now if you realize you want something different or changed :>
5421163
Why change such a great looking cover though?
5421168
stooppp you're going to make me blush! You're always so nice :>
I'm just putting the offer out there though. Let me know if you do want something changed, or if for some reason you want something drawn and I'll do it as somewhat of a birthday gift haha
5421172
If I was so nice would I always be attacking you with compliaments? Check mate, atheists!
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/498002563237543967/791526120091680768/Untitled.png
I'm so sorry that happened to you Krickis! You don't deserve that at all. What the heck is wrong with people? :<
5421272
Yeah, this is really scummy. People who steal from corporations, like, I'm not defending that but you know those corporations can usually afford it as long as it's not small businesses. Stealing from random people you don't know, you have no idea who you're even hurting... It makes me really angry to think about, not because they stole from me specifically but because they didn't care whom they stole from at all.
We'll be okay, even though we don't have a ton of income we also don't have a lot of expenses right now. If there's a silver lining I guess it's that this happened now and not, say, two years ago when we were poor af and barely getting by.
5421273
I've seen people who act like they run companies when they're just... scammers. They go on 'corporate' trips. Acting as if they're a legitimate business. It scares me the lack of empathy some people seem to have in regards to others. I can't understand these people's thoughts, because while I can care less about companies or getting free stuff if it's not hurting anyone... but so many people hurt people and trample others to do it and I can't process how someone could just be okay with that.
And knowing that someone like that hurt a friend of mine brings anger. I'm glad you guys won't be hurting too hard, but that sucks especially around the holidays. I hope that Humble does something.
Take your time with your stories friend! Do what must be done for both your mental and physical health and stability. 🖤
Do you need any financial help to recover? :( We could probably organize something quick.
5421274
Yeah absolutely. A lot of the people hit by scams like this are probably barely getting by and it just sucks... And I'm constantly afraid something else will pop up with this, some other site they'll hit me on or something... *Sigh*
Anyway, thanks for the well wishes, I'm less upset about it today than I was yesterday, and we'll make it through alright. Hope the holidays are treating you well!
5421328
I really appreciate the sentiment but we'll be fine. We are low income, but we're also low expense, so we're doing okay all things considered. If somehow they get access to more of our money (I spent over an hour yesterday just changing passwords on stuff, and making sure there was no more contamination on my laptop) then I might be pushed to ask for help, but for now we'll make do.