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Greetings from oblivion. I know that most, if not all, of the readers who used to follow me here have gone but I'm getting a lot of questions about whether or not I've quit the above mentioned titles or when I'm going to update. The answers are long and involved. I don't want to repeat myself in individual replies. I'd like for there to be one place where the few readers I have left can find the answers they want. To that end, I'll be posting here more often. Besides which I keep coming across the advice that aspiring writers need a blog. I don't blog, but this seems to be close to one, and I'm already established here. So...

The Setting Sun

I'm still baffled at the popularity of this, but extremely grateful. NO I HAVE NOT ABANDONED IT! I don't abandon works. Even if I haven't updated in years, I still plan to finish. The problem with TSS is that it's very complicated. Let me explain that. Chapter 3 opens with a battle. Not a fight between 2 characters, but an actual battle with a good twenty or so people involved. Now. As per the rules I've established for this story, the characters are all vastly more powerful than they are in canon. (Controlling every grain of sand? That's literal.) As such, I needed to research the specific abilities of the people fighting, and then construct ways to dial those powers up to fifteen. I'm still doing that. But after I've done that, I still need to choreograph the battle itself. This involves timing issues that are difficult only because several other things are taking place at the time of the battle. There are things happening chapters from now that need to be carefully set up in these opening chapters and I don't want to make mistakes. So I'm going carefully. I've met with real life delays in writing, not the least of which is my own ongoing battle to just write every day, but I'm being very careful with this fic because this setting most closely resembles the magnum opus of my original works. This is practice for that. The devil is in the details and I am doing my level best to be attentive to each and every one. But chapter 3 is coming along, I promise you that.

Infancy

I don't get as many queries for this, so I'll just say that chapter 10 has been complete for the last 2 months or so. I haven't posted it because it felt wrong to me. That chapter just felt skewed in some way. It took a conversation with Gar for me to understand that I'd written a pile of horseshit. Most of the chapter needs to be rewritten, and I'm in the process of doing that.

Lesser Heroes

Right. So. The chapter that picks up after Itachi tells Naruto that Danzo is alive is in the process of being written. Before I get into that, though, let me say something. THIS IS NO LONGER A SIDE FIC. THIS IS A FULL-FLEDGED SEQUEL TO BE MY HERO. Why? Because in writing this chapter, which I call the official chapter 5, I needed to delve into Itachi's mindset and POV. And because the more I write for this fic the more detailed I get about events after BMH. I have chapters numbering at least 6 or 7 heavily outlined for this fic. Not to mention the things I've put in place regarding the Naruto/Sasuke/Itachi dynamic are layered and deliberate. There is real neglect going on. Real resentment building. Real changes in how all three relate to the other that we got glimpses of in chapters 2 and 3, and a much better look at in chapter 4. That's all leading to something, and the amount of work involved in accurately portraying those changes does not belong in a side fic.

Now, as to why chapter 5 is taking so long, the reason is simple: since I'm legit writing about Itachi, he is no longer the flat character he was in BMH. He now has a story arc, which mean he evolves, which means I now have to seriously get in his head the same way I did for Sasuke and Naruto in BMH. Problem: Itachi, as portrayed in BMH, is many times more intelligent than I am. It takes me a lot longer to arrive at his motives-behind-motives-behind motives than it does for other characters. Nothing can be explained away with simplicity. For this chapter in particular, his brain is very much at work. It's just taking me time to fit the puzzle pieces that are his thought processes together. But I'm doing so. Haven't quit.

The Original Novel

The first draft is done. Editing and rewrites are what's delaying it further. And I'm not so sure this is a delay since this is a natural part of the writing process. This isn't the Mendoza story, by the way. It's a different one that revolves around a pansexual woman marrying a gay man...both of whom are Muslim. And that's all I'm going to say for now.

Till next time!