Dreamer's Sanctuary

Happy birthday to the handsome, wise, and majestic Mr. Richardson, who is fifty-five and aging like a fine wine! 😍  Maybe it’s because I’ve been writing consistently about a fictional version of this man for over five years, but I can honestly say I’ve never been a bigger Kevin fan than I am now.

Four years ago, I posted the first chapter of The World Will Be Waiting on Kevin’s birthday.  Today I’m posting the ninetieth chapter!  To be honest, I just “finished” writing Chapter 90 earlier this morning and edited it tonight, and I’m still not sure if it’s actually done or not.  That depends on how long the next scene, which is still in progress, turns out to be.  If it gets long enough to be its own chapter, it will become Chapter 91.  If not, I’ll probably go back and tack it onto the end of Chapter 90.  If I do the latter, I will let you know in my next update.  For now, this chapter will posted exclusively on Dreamer’s Sanctuary, and I’ll add it to AO3 once I decide where to end it.  This is one reason why I usually hang on to chapters for a while before I put them online, but I really wanted to post something for Kevin’s birthday!  Sorry it’s not the most uplifting or celebratory chapter, but my stories rarely are. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve written over half a million words in the four years since I started this story, my longest novel since By My Side.  To those of you who have read them all, thank you! 🩵

I’m back with Chapter 89 of The World Will Be Waiting, which features an old familiar face.

I have to say, while this hasn’t been the best year for me in terms of productivity, my writing has been going well for the past few weeks since my last update.  I haven’t gone back to writing every morning, but I have been happily writing every weekend since school started up again.  It’s been over four years since I started this story, which is a long time to work consistently on one project – even longer when you consider My Brother’s Keeper that came before it.  I’m glad that I’m still this invested and fully committed to finishing it, and I’m grateful to those of you who have stuck around.  As always, thanks for reading!

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to our favorite Latin Lover, Howie!  Howie is featured in Chapter 88 of The World Will Be Waiting, which is now online for your reading pleasure.  I finished this chapter a few weeks ago, shortly before going on vacation and getting ready for the school year, which started for me this past week.  I have a solid start on the next chapter, but it’s not yet finished.  This is a busy and tiring time of year for teachers, so it may be a few weeks before I’m able to update again.  Thanks for being patient with me!

Before I wrap up this post, I have a slightly related story and movie recommendation to share with you.  I started rewatching one of my favorite shows, Breaking Bad, while on vacation and have continued watching it since coming home because BB is the kind of show you can’t just start and not finish, even though I’ve already watched it in its entirety at least three or four other times by now.  Anyway, while watching the Season 3 finale the other night, I found myself wondering what Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) has been up to lately, acting-wise.  I looked him up on IMDB and discovered (or re-discovered?) a movie he starred in called Adam, which came out in 2020 but was actually filmed in 2010.  Based on a true story, it’s about a salesman who breaks his neck in a diving accident and becomes a quadriplegic.  Now, as part of my research process, I have watched a lot of movies with quadriplegic characters in the five years or so that I’ve been writing this series.  I was pretty sure I had watched Adam, but after watching the trailer, I couldn’t remember any details about the movie, so I decided to watch it… again?  I literally sat through the entire movie, trying to figure out if I had seen it before or not, and I still don’t know.  Is this the result of perimenopause brain fog, or did all the disability movies just start to blur together in my mind at some point?  Who knows.  What I do know is that this movie showed one of the most realistic portrayals of quadriplegia out of all of them, and Aaron Paul is an incredible actor!  Absolutely worth the watch.  Interesting, his Breaking Bad co-star, Bryan Cranston, also played a quadriplegic character in a movie called The Upside, which is also pretty good, although I’ve always heard that the French movie it was based on, The Intouchables, is even better.

For the record, my favorites of all the disability movies I actually remember watching over the past five years are Penguin Bloom and Monkey Shines.  Penguin Bloom, starring Naomi Watts, is based on the true story of a recently-paralyzed mother and an injured magpie.  It’s sweet and touching without being too cheesy, as this type of movie tends to be.  Monkey Shines is also about the bond between a disabled human and an animal companion:  in this case, a capuchin monkey who becomes a service animal for a quadriplegic man… and (spoiler alert) starts killing people.  It’s a silly ’80s horror movie, but as a fan of ’80s horror movies, I found it quite entertaining.  You know I love me some killer monkeys!  So, if you’re looking for something to watch this weekend or while you wait for the next chapter of TWWBW, there are a few recommendations for you!

Summer is flying by fast!  How are we already over halfway through July?!  It’s been a busy month for me, and it’s about to get even busier, as I have two more trips planned before the end of summer.  I’ve been writing when time allows, but since I’m going to be away from home for much of the next month, today’s update will most likely be the last one before my school year starts in August.  Chapter 87 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  This is another BSB-centered one that hopefully has enough bromance to tide you over until my next update, whenever that may be.  The next chapter is well underway, and I’m hoping to finish it before I leave for vacation so I have something new to post when I get back.  Thanks to everyone who’s still reading and leaving comments!

Happy summer, everyone!  What a fun month it’s been in BSB land!  A great new single from the Backstreet Boys, a new solo song from Howie, so many appearances and interviews lately, and we’re just a few weeks away from the next round of Sphere shows!  Can’t wait!  (But, as always, I actually can wait because I don’t want to wish my summer away.)

Now that I’m in full summer mode, I’ve gotten back into my groove with writing.  Since my last update, I’ve written two more chapters and started on a third.  I’ve written almost as much in the last month as I wrote for the first five months of this year!  I’m posting Chapter 86 of The World Will Be Waiting today, and it’s a long one!  I could have split it into two chapters, but it all revolves around the Boys’ 20th anniversary celebrations, so I just kept it all together and let it be long.  For those of you who may have missed this era or want to relive it, here are links to videos of the two events I wrote about in this chapter:

20th Anniversary Fan Celebration Livestream: Part 1 | Part 2

Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony

I hope you enjoy the chapter!  Happy Father’s Day to the five fantastic BSB Dads and any fathers who happen to read this!