Dreamer's Sanctuary

Yes, yes it is!  It’s also the twentieth anniversary of Nick’s first solo album, Now or Never!  There’s a part of me that can’t believe it’s been twenty years since that album came out.  I don’t want to accept it because it came out my senior year of high school, which means I’ve been out of high school almost twenty years.  How can that be?  But then I remember using my boombox to dub my Now or Never CD onto a cassette tape to play in my first car because it didn’t have a CD player and am forced to admit that, yes, it really has been that long, and I am, in fact, old.

The Now or Never era is an important part of my personal fandom history because it’s when I fell in love with Nick.  I had been a BSB fan for almost five years by that point, but Nick used to be my least favorite member of the group.  I know – shocking, right?  Teenage Nick never really appealed to me; I found him annoying in interviews, and his yellow curtain hair was not attractive to me at all.  But by the time Now or Never came out, he had grown up a bit and cut his hair, and gradually, I began to realize how hot he was.  I think it helped that I also started reading more Nick-centered fanfics around this time because most of my fanfic friends were Nick girls, so that’s what they wrote.  I know I became obsessed with the Swollen Issues series around this time because that inspired me to write Broken, which turned me into more of a Nick writer.  Now or Never certainly influenced Broken, too.  I remember watching the “I Got You” music video frequently for “inspiration” (okay, eye candy) and wrote a lot about Nick walking on the beach and taking his boat out on the water because of it.  And, of course, there’s the scene of him singing “Who Needs the World” to Claire in her hospital room.  Those two tracks, along with “Blow Your Mind,” are still some of my all-time favorite Nick solo songs.  I’m listening to the album as I write this post and, overall, it still holds up well.  (Though, ironically, the one song I still hate is the title of this post, “Is It Saturday Yet?”  Sorry, Nick, but that song belonged on your brother’s album.)  Happy anniversary, Now or Never!

Now for the update!  Chapter 5 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  This story also makes me nostalgic for Broken and its sequel, By My Side, because it reminds me of them – especially BMS.  My writing style has evolved since then, but otherwise, this story has a similar feel in a lot of ways.  I don’t think I’ll ever be as obsessed with a story as I was with Broken/BMS, but I’m absolutely loving writing this one so far, maybe even more than My Brother’s Keeper?  I always felt that the fun of Broken/BMS was knocking Nick down so I could build him back up again (and then knock him down again… and build him back up again… and again…), and that’s how I feel about Kevin in this story.  It’s like he finally made it to the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, and I’m enjoying letting him bask in its warm glow, while occasionally still looking back at the darkness.  Like I said in my last update, it’s been refreshing to write something relatively light and fluffy for a change.  That being said, this chapter is a little angstier than the previous ones.  I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 4 of The World Will Be Waiting is up, in which we see an old familiar face.  I’m really enjoying writing this story!  My writing streak is up to 274 days now, and I just finished Chapter 16, so I’m still well ahead of what I’m posting.  I’m a little surprised by how well it’s going so far, considering how fluffy it is.  I’m not used to writing fluffy, happy stories, but maybe the novelty of it is what’s making this one so fun for me.  It still has enough angsty undertones to make it interesting to me, but otherwise, it’s a nice departure from my usual heavy drama.  I hope you’re enjoying it, too!  Your feedback is always appreciated, so thank you to those who have taken time to comment on the story.

Backstreet Time is so strange.  They make us wait an extra year for an already long-awaited Christmas album, then release it a whole month earlier than necessary.  But hey, I can’t complain about new music, even when it comes in the wrong season.  I’m a big fan of spooky season, but you bet I’m listening to the new album on repeat as I write this post.

Quick review before I get to today’s update:  I absolutely love it!  Their covers of classic Christmas songs are beautifully arranged, the new songs are fun, their vocals sound incredible, and there’s a perfect balance between all five voices.  I absolutely love hearing more of the low range of their registers, especially Kevin and Nick.  Swoon!  Their rendition of “White Christmas” to open the album was a perfect choice. I’ve never been a big fan of “The Christmas Song,” but of course, they sound great singing it.  I love the a capella arrangement of “Winter Wonderland.”  After writing The Road to Bethlehem, I was really happy to see “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” included on the track listing.  It’s the perfect Christmas song for these troubled times.  “O Holy Night” is one of my very favorite religious Christmas songs, so I was happy they recorded that one, too, but so far, “Silent Night” is my favorite of the classics on the album.  It brought tears to my eyes because it’s just so beautiful!  Speaking of beautiful, my favorite track on the album is “Same Old Lang Syne.”  I just learned yesterday that this is a cover; I had never heard the original before, but I adore it.  I’ve always loved a song that tells a story, and this one is so beautiful!  Can’t wait to see who’s going to write the first fanfic based on it, LOL.  “Last Christmas” is a great cover as well, and I’m enjoying all three of the new songs.  “Together” is particularly bouncy and fun.  “It’s Christmas Time Again” still beats them all, though; I freaking love that song as much now as I did a decade ago!  Also, how has it been almost ten years since the pandaskunk song was released?!

Speaking of ten years ago, Chapter 3 of The World Will Be Waiting is up!  It takes place during AJ and Rochelle’s wedding, which was also almost ten years ago.  They got married in December, so while it’s not quite a Christmas chapter, it’s close enough.  Perfect for A Very Backstreet Christmas in October!

Thank you to everyone who’s been reading, as well as to those of you who voted in the poll I posted last week.  The majority of you preferred Saturday updates, so I’m going back to that.  I’ll be back next weekend with the next chapter!

Thanks so much to everyone who read the first chapter of my new story, The World Will Be Waiting!  I’m especially grateful to those of you who have taken time to leave comments or kudos here or on AO3.  I appreciate every single one!

I’m back with Chapter 2 this week!  I went ahead and waited until today to post it, knowing I would have the day off for Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Columbus Day here in the U.S.  (But also, happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!)  But I’m still wondering if I should go back to weekends for my regular updates.  It doesn’t really matter to me either way, so I want to know what my readers prefer!  Which day of the week would you like to see me update?  Please vote in the poll below!  I picked days that I can usually count on having some time to update.  Keep in mind, I typically update in the late afternoon or evening, so for my friends overseas, whatever day you pick might actually mean the following morning.

Thanks for reading and voting!

Happy birthday, Kevy Kev!  As a “gift” to you, I’m posting the first chapter of my very first solely-Kevin-centered novel, The World Will Be Waiting.

Synopsis:
Four years after the tragic accident that changed his life forever, Kevin tries to keep moving forward… by going back.

This is, of course, the sequel to my latest novel, My Brother’s Keeper.  While I would recommend you reading that one first, it’s not absolutely required.  The sequel starts a few years after its predecessor, and I provide enough back story that you can get the gist of what happened in the first story without reading the whole thing… but I hope it will make you want to if you haven’t already!

For those of you who did read MBK, I hope you’ll enjoy reading the continuation of Kevin’s story.  So far, the tone of this sequel is completely different from the first one.  It’s a lot less angsty and more light-hearted, which has been refreshing for me to write.  Don’t worry, angst-lovers – there will still be drama down the road, of course.  There will be also be romance, which is a genre I haven’t written in a while.  There will be bromance as well, but Nick is not going to be as much of a main character as he was in MBK.  Sorry, Nick girls – he and the other Boys will still play prominent roles in the story, but it’s going to be told solely from Kevin’s point of view.  If you’d asked me a decade ago if I thought I would ever write a Kevin novel, I would have said it was possible but not probable.  Well, here I am, writing a Kevin romance novel, of all the crazy things, and I’m loving it!  I literally started this story the day after finishing MBK and have written every day since, which puts my writing streak at 255 days.  I’m over 60,000 words and thirteen chapters in already, so you can expect regular updates at least through the rest of the year.  I’m not sure yet if I’ll stick with Mondays as my update day or go back to Saturday updates, but I thought Kevin’s birthday would be a good day to post Chapter 1.  I hope you enjoy it!