The Calamity of a Reborn Witch

Dear RR readers,

First of all, I’d like to apologize for kind of, sort of ghosting you all for ten months. It wasn’t intentional. The long and short of it is that I reached a breaking point where burnout from pushing myself through the project of CoRW collided with some rather life-altering news regarding several disabilities and health conditions that, unfortunately, interfere with my ability to get out of bed and function, much less write. This 10-month hiatus was not at all planned. But the more I struggled to return, the more I realized I needed the extended break. I had far too many personal battles to contend with that were tearing my self-confidence apart and making me feel like a failure, and regrettable as it may be, that leaked over into my writing. Make of that what you will. Now on to your questions and comments.

No,CoRW has not been dropped. I’ve left a few comments to that effect on the most recent chapter but I understand the confusion. The author dashboard keeps track of all comments, for better or worse, even the deleted ones, so I will do my best to address your concerns now.

Yes, I am coming back

. I have only recently picked this project back up and will start uploading chapters on Patreon today. I will continue working on the Patreon side until Book 3 is entirely finished, then shift my focus to uploading solely on RR until I feel confident I can handle writing this story on two ends, 50+ chapters apart. This leads me to the next question/comment.

Yes, my Patreon is still active. However, I haven’t charged anything other than the initial subscription fee since I stopped uploading on Patreon. That is not something I can wave, nor do I see the need to do so since those who join still get what they paid based on their tier. The account itself has been on hiatus and does not draw further charges from those who remain subscribed after their first month (unless you leave and come back of course). Patreon will retain its hiatus status for the foreseeable future while I finish catching up on Book 3 here on RR and begin uploading advanced chapters for the final 4^th book of the series.

When will you start uploading on RR again? When I finish Book 3 on Patreon, I shall hold myself to the deadline of mid-April for now. Either way, the next upload you see here will be to announce that I am back to uploading on RR.

I will answer any other questions in the comments below this update, as this has already gotten a bit long, and I have a chapter to edit and upload for those waiting on Patreon. So I will leave you with one final note:

Thank you to those of you who sent DMs.

I did not respond to every one of you because I wasn’t always ready to or in a good place at the time, but your encouragement and well wishes meant a lot and made me feel like less of a failure. Thank you to those who left encouraging reviews for helping me see CoRW and my efforts to write it thus far with a kinder gaze than I could at those moments. You reminded me that this is just the first draft, that I have improved throughout the story’s development, and that I can come back and make further improvements when I am ready to.

Thank you for the detailed feedback that reminded me I’m not crazy for writing this story the way I do. That building a world of morally gray characters with an overcomplicated plot and subplots isn’t the complete disaster I sometimes think it is. Writing on RR continues to be a learning experience, both technically and personally. It is an odd relationship to want to interact with you all on a personal level because of how grateful I am, how frustrated I sometimes feel, or how much joy I gain through your experiences throughout the story; only to recoil and flinch when criticism turns into personal attacks.

In case it isn’t clear, you are free to comment on your dislike of style, characterization, pacing, etc. That is part of how writers learn, but remember that we remain at liberty to disagree with you. Sometimes you (the reader) don’t like how a story is written because it’s not written for you but a different type of reader. CoRW was never intended to be "mainstream." That's why I put so many damn warnings in the synopsis. Simple as, moving on. When your comments in any way address the author, you’ve gone way off course. This is not a personal opinion but, in fact, a rule clearly stated in the guidelines for reviews by the moderators of this site. You know who you are, so spare me the Pikachu face and conspiracy theories about why your comments/reviews get deleted.

Thank you to those who left comments as you read through this story in my absence. I will likely only keep up with comments on Book 3 from now on to make better use of my time and the feedback as it is presented. But rest assured, I will be reading them all when I finish this series and start its final rewrite.

Right, this update feels absurdly long, so I’ll end things here. See you in the comments.