Dreamer's Sanctuary

Well, faithful readers, it has finally happened:  Here it is, Update Day, and I don’t have an update ready for you. 😔  I even had an extra week to finish the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting, and it’s still not finished.  Not for a lack of trying; I have still been writing every day, my streak is up to 561, and I’m 7 pages and almost 4,000 words into Chapter 42.  But it’s not done, and there’s no way I can finish it in the next few hours without putting pressure on myself to push out a piece of hastily-edited writing, which I’m just not willing to do at this point.

I knew this day would come, if not this week then probably next week.  It’s August, which is one of the busiest times of years for teachers.  School doesn’t officially start for a couple weeks, but if you are a teacher or know a teacher, you know there is a lot of classroom prep and professional development that happens before the first day for students.  I’m in back-to-school mode and just don’t have a lot of time to devote to writing right now.  I do have a great routine established and am committed to keeping my streak going, so I will still be writing every day – it just won’t be enough to stay consistent with my weekly Saturday updates for a while.  I will post Chapter 42 when I’m finished writing and editing it to the point that I feel confident posting it.  I’m not sure yet when that will be, but I will try not to leave you hanging for too long.  I was actually surprisingly productive on this story last August, so it may not be long at all, but I’m not going to make any promises about weekly updates until I have a buffer of chapters built up again and know I can deliver on it.

I am celebrating the fact that I was able to keep up with my weekly updates for as long as I did.  With the exception of three planned and announced weekends off, I posted a chapter weekly for almost ten months before I ran out of chapters.  If my chapters for this story weren’t so dang long, I would have been able to keep it up for even longer.  I am also appreciative of the fact that, while I’m still enjoying writing TWWBW, it’s not constantly in my head, haunting me the way some of my previous stories have.  As much as I love feeling inspired, it’s frustrating when all I want to do is write but can’t because my career and other real life responsibilities have to take priority.  My morning/before work writing sessions I still do every day started a few years ago out of desperation to finish AHTIM and get it out of my head.  With the content of TWWBW being a lot more light-hearted, I don’t feel as driven to get myself and my characters to the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel; I’m just enjoying the journey.  I hope you are as well!  If you’re not caught up on TWWBW, this is a good time to do it.  I’ll most likely be back later this month with the next chapter, and we’ll go from there!  Thanks for being patient and waiting for me; I appreciate you! ❤️

Picking up where the last one left off on Kevin’s forty-first birthday, Chapter 41 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  If you love food as much as me, the first part of this chapter might make you hungry, but I would highly recommend you refrain from eating while you read it.  You’ll thank me later… haha…

This chapter turned out to be quite long and could have been two chapters, but I left it all together as one.  Consider it this week’s update and next week update combined.  I will be out of town and away from my computer next weekend, so I am going to take a week off from updating the story next Saturday.  I should be back with the next chapter the following Saturday and may have a BSB-related-but-not-an-update post in the meantime.  Thanks for reading!

Today is Day 540 of my writing streak, and Chapter 40 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  I’ve been dog-sitting for the past week and have gotten a lot of writing done during my little staycation!  Not only did I finish this chapter in plenty of time to post it, but I already have a good start on the next chapter, so I’m 99% sure I will have another update ready by next weekend.

A couple people have asked me recently how much longer I expect TWWBW to be, which is a great question, especially considering it’s already almost as long as MBK.  The answer is:  I have no idea. 😬  I’m nowhere near the end of the story I’ve planned.  To give you some perspective in terms of the timeline, Chapter 40 takes place on Kevin’s 41st birthday, October 3, 2012.  I’ve always intended to show at least some of the IAWLT tour, which would take me into 2014.  So I have a ways to go yet, both in terms of time and planned events in the plot.  If I had to make a prediction now, I would say I’m probably at about the halfway point.  So, I hope you’re enjoying the story so far and are in it for the long haul!  Huge thanks to those of you who have been reading and giving feedback.  I appreciate you! ❤️

I have managed to delay the inevitable update drought for another week!  Not only did I finish the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting on time, but I’m actually posting it super early in the day instead of late!  I’m going to be away from home this weekend, so I figured I’d update while I can do it on my desktop computer, since I’m a geriatric millennial who still prefers to use a mouse over a touchpad.  Chapter 39 is up!  And because I know you’re going to want to listen to the song when you read it, here’s an excuse to watch the video for “Show ‘Em (What You’re Made Of).” 😍🤤  You’re welcome!

It’s been almost ten years since this music video was released, and as a Brian girl, I still have to pinch myself sometimes to prove it’s real.  I remember vividly where I was when Brian posted a shirtless pic from the set:  at the Port of Miami, standing in line to board the 2013 cruise.  What a great day that was!

I give “Take Care” a lot of credit for inspiring My Brother’s Keeper, but I’ve also drawn a lot of inspiration from “Show ‘Em (What You’re Made Of),” not only for the title of The World Will Be Waiting but even going back to MBK.  Even though the song hadn’t been written yet in the time period when MBK took place, I made a few references to its lyrics that I call back to in this chapter.  I hope you enjoy it!

For anyone else who has joined Threads, I’m @RokofAges75 there just like on Twitter.  Follow me if you wish!  I will still be using Twitter as long as the people I follow do, as I much prefer its organization to Threads, but it’s always good to have other options.

Well, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have an update for you today or not, but… surprise!  I do!  Thank goodness for short chapters!  Chapter 38 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!

It’s been exactly one year since I started this story on July 1, 2022.  In the past year, I’ve worked on it every single day and written a total of 205,783 words and 38 complete chapters.  I’ve updated it almost every week since I started posting it in October, the only exceptions being the day Aaron died and the weekend I was at 90s Con.  I’m proud of that record of consistency and hope I can keep it going.  Like I said last week, I have a solid start on the next chapter, but it’s not done yet, so I can’t promise with 100% certainty that I’ll be able to update next Saturday.

Thank you to those of you who reached out with feedback and ideas after my last post; I appreciate your investment in the story!  I know there are a few Brian fans out there hoping for more Brian content, and as a Brian girl myself, a part of me feels bad for not writing as much about Brian as I used to.  It’s been a long time since I wrote a genuine BRIAN story (that wasn’t an April Fool’s joke).  I do still have several ideas for future Brian stories – a psychological thriller that always has the potential to be one of my next projects (I actually thought it was going to be before I went back to My Brother’s Keeper), an old-school suspense that would be fun to develop, an angsty medical drama that I will probably never write because it’s too sad even for me, and a couple of very old AU ideas that will probably never get written at this point either.  I’m also always on the hunt for A-Rok story ideas.  But, for now, I’m still really enjoying writing about Kevin.  I hope you’re enjoying reading TWWBW!