Dreamer's Sanctuary

It’s been a busy few weeks, but I’m finally back with an update on The World Will Be Waiting!  Chapter 61 is up.  I’ll be at Nick’s show next Saturday (yay!), so don’t expect an update then, but I’ll have more where one came from soon enough.  Hope you enjoy!

Nothing like waiting until the last day of the month to update again! 🙃  I apologize again for the delay.  August is always a busy month for me, and besides the usual back-to-school shenanigans, I’ve been hanging on to the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting, waiting until I got a little further into the next arc of the story and felt comfortable with it to start posting it.  My drama-loving writer brain has a tendency to plan plot elements early on, get excited about them, and then take so long to actually get to the point of writing them that by the time I do, I’ve lost some of my enthusiasm for the ideas and start second-guessing myself.  Some writers write scenes out of order to eliminate this problem, but I’ve never been able to do that.  So I’ve been sitting on Chapter 60 for almost two months, making sure I felt committed to this particular arc before I put it out into the world.  But in the meantime, I’ve still been writing every day, keeping my streak alive.  953 days as of today!

Anyway, thanks, as always, for being patient with me!  Chapter 60 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!

Yikes, I can’t believe it’s already been a month since my last update!  Sorry my updates have been so spread out this summer.  I got back from a family vacation a week ago and have spent the past week trying to get back on track with my writing, which has been very successful! In fact, the reason I’m updating at midnight is because I couldn’t stop writing long enough to do it earlier. I hit Day 900 of my streak earlier this month and have written over a thousand words almost every day this week.  I’m three chapters ahead of the one I’m posting today, which will give me a bit of a buffer to get through back-to-school season.

The Olympic Games may have captured the world’s attention in real life, but it’s Super Bowl Sunday in Chapter 59 of The World Will Be Waiting!  Kevin’s heading to Georgia to spend it with Brian in this chapter, which is meant to bridge the gap between the previous two chapters and the next few.  I know there haven’t been nearly enough Backstreet Boys in the story lately, so hopefully this will help with that, too.  I’ll get back to the other Boys soon, but I must admit, I’ve been having fun with my original characters in the meantime.  I hope you don’t mind.  This story’s about to turn into BMS 2.0 with how long it’s becoming.  I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing… I guess it depends on how much you guys like it!  I’m still enjoying writing it, and that’s what really matters most to me.  It’s no fun trying to finish a story you’ve lost interest in.  Your comments help keep that interest alive at times when real life gets in the way, so thanks to those of you who take the time to let me know you’re still reading!  I really appreciate it!

If you’re reading this on the site, then that means my efforts have paid off, and Dreamer’s Sanctuary has successfully been migrated to its new server!  That has been my project for the past week, transferring everything to a new web host.  I’d been with my old host for twelve years, but since they kept jacking up their prices, it was time to make the switch to a new one.  I’d only switched hosts once before and never with a WordPress site, so it was pretty scary at first, but I figured it out.  As with any change, there may be glitches I haven’t discovered yet, so if you find any broken links, images that don’t load, or other issues while you’re browsing the site, please let me know so I can fix them!  I’ve clicked around a little, and things seem to be working so far, but I haven’t checked every page.

Anyway, that’s the main reason I haven’t updated in the past couple weeks.  Now that that’s taken care of, I can finally post Chapter 58 of The World Will Be Waiting!  I hope you enjoy it!

Yup, still alive and writing!  Sorry I went the whole month of May without updating.  I did write every day in May; I just didn’t write much.  I’m way behind on the word count goal I set for myself this year, but that’s okay because 1) my daily writing streak is still going strong, and 2) I have all summer to catch up!  Just don’t let me download any more Sims expansion packs this year – that’s what killed my productivity over winter break and got me off to such a slow start! 🤦‍♀️

Speaking of The Sims, I know you’re probably sick of seeing me talk about my Sims world, but I have a funny story to share that is fanfic-related.

Read“A little Sim with a big story to tell!”

I know I’ve been MIA for most of the month, but you didn’t think I would forget my website’s twenty-fourth anniversary, did you?  Of course not!  On April 29, 2000, I created the Geocities site that I christened “Dreamer’s Sanctuary.”  I had only been writing fanfic for a few months and never really imagined it would amount to much of anything.  But, twenty-four years later, I’m still writing, and Dreamer’s Sanctuary is still going strong!  Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or have only recently discovered this site, I thank you for sticking with me, for reading my words and sharing your thoughts with me.  I’m truly grateful for all the friends I’ve made as a result of this hobby and our shared love of the Backstreet Boys!

In terms of writing, the month of April was not the most productive for me.  I spent the first half of it getting ready for Cancun and the past week trying to recover from it.  I wasn’t within six feet of Nick Carter yet somehow still managed to contract Nick Plague.  Just my luck! LOL  Exhaustion, sunburn, and sickness aside, I had a great time and would gladly do it all again!  And I did manage to keep my writing streak alive while I was there.  Today’s Day 829!  I still haven’t finished the Frick & Frack one-shot I teased in my April Fool’s update, but I will when time allows.  I did finally manage to finish Chapter 56 of The World Will Be Waiting yesterday, just in time for today’s anniversary update, so that is up!  It’s funny – when I started writing this chapter, I thought it was a shame that I was writing it before I went to Cancun because it takes place at a luxury tropical resort, which I had never experienced before.  I figured I would finish it before I left for my trip and never imagined I would still be writing it afterward.  I wish I could say that Cancun inspired me or at least helped me write the setting more accurately, but I had already done so much research beforehand that I didn’t end up changing anything.  Oh well.  🤷‍♀️  Sorry for the long wait.  Hopefully it won’t be as long for the next one!

And speaking of the next one…  Next April will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dreamer’s Sanctuary!  I would like to do some kind of retrospective thing, similar to the blogs I did leading up to my twentieth anniversary in 2020.  Instead of blogging about whole stories like I did then, I thought maybe it could be about the biggest moments or most memorable/favorite chapters from my stories.  Is that something people would be interested in reading?  Or do you have any other ideas for anniversary content you’d enjoy more?  Please comment and share your thoughts!

Thanks again for your continued support!  Here’s to twenty-four more years! 🥂

It’s been a productive start to spring break for me, and I’m already back with a brand new story!

Remember that one-shot I mentioned in my last update post?  Well, it was inspired by my recent struggles to write sex scenes that are actually somewhat sexy and not completely cringe-worthy.  I’ve always enjoyed challenging myself to write in new genres, so I decided to try my hand at writing the kind of PWP (porn without a plot) smut that is popular on AO3.  If you enjoy Brian/Nick as a slash pairing, are not opposed to reading explicit sexual content, and are old enough to read it legally, please check out my new one-shot at the link below and let me know what you think!

Frick & Frack’s Fuck Fiesta!

Synopsis:
When Brian meets up with Nick in Mexico, things get… caliente.

Genre: romance
Starring: Nick, Brian
Status: complete
Published: April 2024

Please note that, for now, this story will be posted exclusively on AO3.  I’m trying to boost my stats there, so I hope you’ll consider commenting, giving kudos, and/or subscribing to my account or the story.  Thanks in advance!  I’ll be back soon with the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting!

Sorry for the delay in updates!  March has been a busy month for me, so my writing has slowed down a bit.  But that’s not the real reason I haven’t updated The World Will Be Waiting in four weeks.  Truth be told, I finished Chapter 55 a few weeks ago and have just been sitting on it, avoiding rereading it because of how cringy the second half of it felt when I wrote it.  It hasn’t changed much since then, so now seems like the perfect time to remind you that I am not a smut writer.  The sex scenes I do write serve a purpose, and that purpose is usually not to be sexy but to further the plot in some way.  So, yeah… Chapter 55 is finally up!

I’ve also been working on a one-shot when time allows, so expect another update sooner rather than later.  Wishing a happy Easter weekend to those who celebrate!

Happy March!  I don’t know if the weather’s been extreme where you live, but Mother Nature was having some kind of bipolar episode here in the Midwest this week!  At one point, we literally went from 77 to 17 degrees in the span of about twelve hours.  Crazy!  But that lovely taste of spring has me hoping the worst of winter is behind us.

It’s still winter in The World Will Be Waiting, which has been updated with Chapter 54!  This is the chapter I was writing two weeks ago when I posted the poll about my two female original characters.  Thank you to everyone who took a moment to vote; I appreciate your feedback!  It was interesting to see the results – apparently, there are a lot more of you who feel the same as me than I realized!  No one ever really says much about Dawn in their comments, so it’s nice to know other people do like her character.

The reason I posted that poll was because this chapter went completely off the rails!  It was supposed to start with a short Kevin-Dawn scene that would lead in to Kevin and Natalie’s trip to Jamaica, which the rest of the chapter would focus on, but it definitely did not turn out that way.  I’ve mentioned before that I am mostly plantsing this story – half planning, half flying by the seat of my pants – and this chapter is a perfect example of that.  It took me in a different direction from where I was planning to go, and I just went with it, letting it unfold the way my characters apparently wanted it.  Take that as you will; I’ll probably have more to say on the subject when I finish the story, whenever that may be.

I also discovered a trope/kink that I didn’t realize was a thing with me until it dawned on me, during the writing of this chapter, how many similar scenes I’ve written in other stories.  If you’ve read enough of my other work, you may be able to figure out what it is after reading this chapter.  I hope you enjoy it and am curious to hear your thoughts on it!

Man, I was so proud of myself back in December when I was writing chapters that also took place in December.  It felt almost like I was writing in real time, even though my story takes place eleven years ago.  I thought for sure that I would have some Christmas chapters ready to post in time for Christmas, which would have been perfect!  Unfortunately, Chapter 51 turned out to be over ten thousand words long, and Chapter 52 (which was technically the first of said Christmas chapters) unfortunately coincided with my latest Sims 4 phase and took me a month to finish.  That is why I’m just now posting the second of said Christmas chapters after Valentine’s Day. 🤦‍♀️  Fail.

But, in any case, Chapter 53 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  Better late than never.  I haven’t opened The Sims in well over a week, and I’m officially back on track with my writing!  The streak never stopped (it’s up to 757 days now!), but I’m not having to force myself to put words on the page just to keep it going anymore.  I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter and am happy with how it turned out.  It’s more of a Dawn-centered chapter, which was a nice departure after writing several Natalie chapters in a row.  Confession time: I enjoy writing Dawn’s character more than Natalie’s.  This is not a clue to the direction the story is going in; it’s just the honest truth.  It was very evident to me as I was writing this chapter and the next one, which I’m working on now and is also very Dawn-centered so far, even though it was supposed to go back to Natalie.  Anyway, it made me curious about which of the female characters my readers prefer, so if you’re reading this story, please vote in the poll below!  I promise this is not meant to influence the plot in any way; it’s just for fun!

Also, I promise the other Boys will be back in the story at some point soon-ish as the story shifts back to them finishing the album and eventually rehearsing for the tour!  I still have a lot of story left to write, so yeah… it’s gonna be a long one.  Thanks for reading!  And, since I won’t be updating again on Tuesday, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my boy, Brian! 💙