Glad to see you folks again. Luckily the time between updates wasn't too terribly long (still longer than I'd like, but that's life), so hopefully you all aren't too impatient with me, eh?
I can't really think of anything to say about the chapter, but I might as well talk more about NaNo to make sure you guys don't expect anything during November. xD
Basically for those that don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, wherein thousands of authors sit down during the month of November and try to crank out 50,000 words for a novel. This is a pretty time-consuming task, so I'm dedicating all my time to my novel during November. This is my fifth time doing NaNo, and I'm kinda breaking the rules (you aren't supposed to continue old pieces; rather, you start with something new) but since it's my fifth I figured I had some leeway, haha.
I'm going to be working on Dragon's Bargain, my '10 NaNo. I've been editing it piece by piece for months now, and I'm pretty close to being completely done with that so I can start with a fresh chapter when November 1st rolls around. If you guys want to take a gander, it's on fictionpress (fictionpress.com/~prinpardus). Right now it's at 72k, so it's quite a bit to read, but that's nothing new to you guys. ;)
If you'd like to stop by and review during November, I'd appreciate it immensely, since such work doesn't tend to get much attention. And, of course, reviews to Chilled are also appreciated, since they help motivate me a ton, and sometimes it's hard to get back into the rhythm of fanfic once November ends.
Anyway, that's just a heads up. I won't be working on Chilled AT ALL for the month of November. Maybe plotting out some stuff, but no real writing. All my writing will be soaked up by DB, which should be fun. Do stick around, though, for in December, the Chilled freight-train will be puffing away again. :)
Anywho, reviews!
@Aurea Lilium: Thank you! I'm glad you decided to follow Chilled after Shattered, since they're both so long and it can be difficult for new readers to push through all those words. I'm glad you've enjoyed the characters. As I've mentioned before, they'll probably be apprentices for the rest of the story, since it's less about their journey into warriorhood and more about the current struggles, so that isn't really such a good measurement of length, I don't think. It's interesting to play with, though, since very few fics stick with their characters being young throughout the whole thing, which is a fun experiment. :)
@WildheartTheWarrior: Who knows what will happen in the Boneland? o:
@Dawnshine: Thank you. c:
@Juniper: I definitely appreciate amazingly long reviews, haha. Interesting theory on Rabbit's kits, but we'll just have to wait and see! I didn't remember that Squirrel was Bramble's apprentice, though. That's odd. He's waaay older than her. Neat point about Blight. When I first read the Warriors series, I was pretty typical; loved heroes, hated the villains. Now, though, I do like looking into villains much more (TR and JtR are proof enough of that). They're just fascinating in a way that do-gooders sometimes aren't, I think, and deliciously fun to write. Blight is a really wild dude, that much is true. Originally I had a more refined speech planned for him when he was spilling his guts to Sooty, but he decided to turn it into a twisted fairytale instead. Chilly also tends to grab the reins from me pretty often; he definitely does what he wants, sometimes irritatingly so. We'll see more of the journeying cats quite soon, no worries. As for the summer thing, that pretty much went out the window when school started, which was what I had really meant by summer. Alas. xD
@Guest: As I've said before, length is hard to determine. It just depends on how long it takes to play out certain actions - how much plot I can cram into a single chapter - and also if my characters decide to throw in a twist I wasn't expecting, as they often do.
@Jack Holmes: Thanks!
@Cinderfire: Sooty's parents are clueless, as far as we know. The Pool will allow the DF cats to be reincarnated I'm not sure who Wolfpaw is...?
@Cinderstar: I have no plans for a third atm. Chilled will prolly lay AshClan's story to rest.
@Hunting Dreams: Spiderpaw went through a lot of hate back in the day, so no. xD
@TheVioletGleek: In most respects, I definitely do that. I forget about a project and then remember it but don't want to face everyone that I've already let down by being so terrible, so then I just creep away and let it die. That happened quite a bit with my earlier stories (not fics, just things I wrote to read to my brother and stuff). For some reason, though, fics are different. I've managed to finish everything that I've started (big story wise, that is, not the lil stuff like the one-shots or parody), which I'm pretty proud of! I think it helps that the community is extremely kind and supportive, and has really sort of embraced my work. I probably would have given up if TR had bombed, but I have my inkling of popularity, and I'm glad of it. Ha, I'll see if I can squeeze a fat rabbit in there somewhere. That would certainly make her feel better, at least for a bit. She's definitely going through the hardest time in her life, though, and the cat that emerges should be interesting. Unfortunately, there are some holes in your other theory. For starters, the three forest Clans were already fully established Clans when they came to the forest. Also, the forest had already been burned when they arrived. This new forest is very similar to the old one, but it's not the same one. Heh, nice caught with the bones. ;)
@Snowlight: Aww, thanks for the effort with this longer review (or reviews, I guess xD). I really appreciate it, love. Rook's accent can be fun to write, although a lot of the time I forget about it and have to correct it later. Accents aren't a thing I've done in the past, at least not with a character that crops up a lot, so he was another cool experiment. Kudos to you too for noticing the bones thing; the last mention was quite a long time ago. Swanpaw and Sooty do share some interesting similarities, even though their personalities are completely different; it's a nice example of how different cats respond to the same situation. They've both isolated themselves, but for completely different feelings. Again, thank you for the extra effort this time around! <3
@Justsmile: A Sooty/Swan partnership would be cool. Girl power. :)
@The Last Clan: Oh dear, don't die on me! That would be terrible. Good on you for picking up on the bones thing. I'm thinking the last/only time they were mentioned was in Shattered, but Jag might have let it slip in Chilled, I honestly don't remember. So many tiny details. Either way, nice job. :3
@Reenakitty: It's fine. c:
@LittleSpark: Ha, yeah, it's kind of a bummer! Sorry. :p
@Lynxeye: Who knows what Sooty will do. She's not really the type that could do well by herself, but she's certainly determined, and she doesn't feel she has many alternatives. The similarities between the territories are definitely not an accident...but neither are the differences. ;)
@Echowind: Thanks!
@Halliova: Clearly she's going to have Chilly's ghost babies! And then Chilled will plunge into the horor genre when his ghost kits set out to avenge their father's death. It will be awesome. But also terrible. :D
@Ranger: Aw, thanks. I'm glad you're sticking with the story, and so many others are too. Warms my heart. :') Interesting note about betrayal and Carmelo...we'll see.
And that's all, hooray! Hopefully I'll cook up another chapter before NaNo starts. Until then!
PS if you have any questions or would like to attempt nano, their site is nanowrimo.org. I'm princessleopard on there, if you can find me. :)
