Starwalker begins!

The first post of Starwalker is now up and available for reading! Go, my lovelies, read and be amused!

Milestone: End of the world: complete

I have just edited and scowled and edited and tweaked and… made myself stop and post. The Apocalypse Blog’s final instalment has just gone live.

Wow. I say this a lot, especially at the moment, but: wow. I’m a little stunned to realise that I’ve made it to the end at last. I’ve been living with Faith and her adventures for over a year now, and it has been draining! Some of you have been with me that long as well, so you know what I mean!

I don’t know if the end came out quite the way I wanted it to. Or, more precisely: I don’t know if I pulled it off. I’ve had that image in my head for months, that last twist to let Faith’s story both finish and carry on at the same time. I hope I did it justice. Hell, I hope I did my readers and the rest of the story justice.

I’m going to do a more thorough retrospective at some point, but for today, I’m going to collapse. I’m going to enjoy this weird feeling of freedom and sadness, and be immensely proud that I got all the way to the end.

Some fun stats:

• Total wordcount: 344,295
• Total number of posts: 417

And to top everything off, the Apocalypse Blog has had over 1100 visitors this month! It has been struggling higher every month, and the previous highest was 903 visitors in one month. I have no idea how good or bad that truly is, but it has been growing and that makes me happy. I never dreamed I’d get over 1000 people to the site! Whoo!

Today has been a good day. Thanks to all of my readers and supporters – you are why I write.

Time to celebrate.

Milestone: Apocalypse Blog’s first birthday!

One year ago today, the first post on the Apocalypse Blog went up. In today’s post, Faith reflects on the intervening period, in the first of two, possibly three anniversary posts.

I keep getting to these milestones and sitting back, feeling stunned as I turn it over in my head. I’m so proud to have made it this far.

When I started out, in my heart, I wanted to run AB for a full year. That’s was my original goal. I wasn’t sure if I could do it, though – I’d never done anything like this before, I didn’t know if I could keep up the pace, and I had no idea if I had enough plot to keep it interesting for this long. I forced myself to take my time, to not rush from one pre-planned plot point to the next. I set a tentative goal of six months, to see how it went.

I think by the time I was about three months in, I knew I could spin it out for a whole year. Still, it’s more than a little amazing to think that AB has been a large part of my life for an entire year. My brain has trouble wrapping around that.

Two weeks to go. One week’s worth of posts left to write. Wow.

Today was the perfect time to go check on the e-Fiction Book Club, where I found that they have put up a review of AB. It made my day. I’m still grinning. It’s the sort of review that makes me bounce.

Thanks to the e-Fiction reviewer (Cassie) for taking the time to read the blog, and thanks to all my readers for sticking with me for so long. I adore you all.

Milestone: 400th post!

Today, the Apocalypse Blog’s 400th post went up! Huzzah! Everybody: dance!

It’s hard to believe there are that many posts, and that the average wordcount per post is still rising. I haven’t updated my little spreadsheet in ages (I really should do that), but they’re usually over 1,000 words these days!

I have about 10 days’ worth of posts left to write (having spent the weekend sorting out a gnarly plotting issue and editing up the next week’s posts). I’m really looking forward to getting my head down and getting those posts written out – there’s so much still to come! Hopefully I can fit it all into those 10 posts!

Fingers crossed, huh? Almost into the final run, my lovely readers. I’m so excited to be getting to the end, even though I know I’ll miss it when it’s done.

Do you want a sneak peak at the end? Here you go: “And then they ate us all.”

No, wait, I have a better one: “And then I woke up and realised I’d been in a coma for a year.”

You don’t want lame? Okay, I shall restrain the urge to give it an ending that will make you want to beat me with sticks. I shall endeavour to not suck! :)

Milestone: Post 300 achieved!

Last night, the Apocalypse Blog’s 300th post went up. How awesome is that?

Wow. 300. I can hardly believe it. 300 posts and 220,000 words – it’s mind-boggling when I stop and think about it.

Sometimes, I go back and read over the first few posts. It’s amazing how different they sound (and not just because the world hadn’t ended yet). Faith has changed a lot, and I think my writing probably has developed along the way too. In a little introspective moment, I even had Faith do the same thing – looking back in order to move forward, walking in the same mental circles but ending up in a different place. It was interesting to do, and fun.

I love that AB is still fun. I’m exhausted and it’s really difficult to get my head into the right space at the moment. As I whined about earlier, I have a lot of balls in the air and I’m afraid that AB is starting to suffer because of it.

Sometimes I sit down and have to stare at the previous post for a while before I can begin to figure out where today’s is going. They’re still going up almost as soon as they’re finished, which I’ve said before is more raw than I like them to be. I make a point of reading them through at least once before I put them up, but still.

But I still haven’t missed a day. Even with all this shit going on, I’m getting it done. I am insanely proud  of that.

I’d love to take a break. I’d love to not have to worry about it for just a few days. But AB goes up every day – it has for nearly nine months now (!!!), and I’m going to see it through for another three and a half, almost four. I’ve fought against things that want to restrict what I do all my life – arthritis and chronic fatigue, to name the biggest – and I’ll keep going. I’m going to hit 400 posts before I’m done, and probably add another 100,000 words to the tally.

Wish me luck! Hopefully, I’ll pull out of this difficult spate soon and get onto a more even keel. In the meantime, though, I’m going to wait for the painkillers to take the edge off this headache and then go write today’s post. I’m nowhere near done yet.

See you all at the next milestone!

Consider me kicked

I have just read a wonderful post about why writers should blog (or blog more, in my case). Lots of good points there!

It’s something that I know I need to work on more. I still have a list of Writing Tips posts that I need to write and put up. And there’s lots of other writing-related shenanigans that I could put in here, too.

As I mentioned in my last post, part of why I started this blog was to chronicle my adventures in writing the Apocalypse Blog. AB started out as an experiment for me, a challenge, and an exploration of lots of different facets of writing. It has grown to take over parts of my life, in ways that I can’t bring myself to mind. It’s fun, it has readers, and I can’t believe it’s still going after nine months.

Last week, it tripped over the 200,000 word mark. See, this is the kind of stuff that I should be putting in here! Also, holy crap. I haven’t ever written that much on one story before.

Also, a very kind person over on a new forum I tripped over last week has done me a cover for AB. As if it was a real book. How awesome is that? I’ll sort out posting it and stuff soon, to share it with you all. In the meantime, you can find it on the AB thread there (I think it’s on the last page).

So. Right. I’m going to make an effort to post more on here. There’s more I want to say about Dillon’s death, and other related musings. Keep an eye out, there will be more here soon!

Apocalypse Blog’s 200th Post!

The 200th post has just gone up on the Apocalypse Blog! How awesome is that?

Wow. It’s boggling when I think about it. If I had only done one a day, I’d be two-thirds to the finish line! As it is, I’m just less than halfway. 

It feels like forever since I celebrated the 100th post. The posting has slowed down some since then, I’ve had pneumonia, but it seems to have settled down to a post a day now. The posts are gradually creeping longer and longer, but I’m trying to keep them to a reasonable length. Some days it’s easier than others!

Just because I haven’t done it in ages, here are some fun stats for the Apocalypse Blog:

There, wasn’t that entertaining? Whee!

Here’s to the next 100 posts. Lots more to come, faithful readers!

Centenary dance!

Just a moment ago, the 100th post went live on the Apocalypse Blog. WHOO-HOO!

It feels like a real milestone. It turned out to be luck that there was a bit of a resolution in it (with Matt finally joining the group and leaving the nasty sharks behind), and that pleases me immensely.

I’m two months into my (goal) year of AB, and it’s still fun to write. I still sit down with loads of ideas and so much stuff that I want to do that I struggle to fit it all into the posts. I still have a pinboard full of notecards, marking out the places I want to go with it.

There’s lots, lots more in store. It’s hard (particularly for me at the moment, but I’m not going to go on about that right now, because YAY), but I am loving it. I hope you all are too!

100 posts. Wow. Picture me dancing.