Update, May 10, 1999LONG time since the last update. Since October, Chapter 4 has been put up (albeit late), Chapter 5 will be going up tonight, I've moved to Los Angeles and gotten a new and better paying job, and published another story of mine, which I sold at CF10. The only reason I mention that is that it might become a template for what happens to First Keep eventually...there's some interest among other writers in self-publishing that might result in larger than the normal self publishing runs for some works. Anyway, time will tell.
Update, October 1, 1998: The 'clean' version of Chapter 2 has been pushed WAY back; in fact, I'd nearly forgotten about it until I went to do this update. I finally got chapter three up on the web, but from here on out, the chapters will not be linked to these pages. You'll have to sign up to the mailing list to get the URLs. This is mostly so I can keep closer track of how many people are reading the story by keeping track of the mailing list. Anyway, chapter four is scheduled for January 1 because I'm envisioning the next few months being very busy. The reorganization of chapters is complete, though (see chart below), with the result that I started chapter six and by the time I finished it, it was chapter seven. Actually, what are now seven and eight were originally going to be just one chapter. It turned out to be too long, and there's a natural break point, so I split it. You'll be happy to know that I think the story gets better as it goes along. :)
Update, July 19, 1998: I haven't heard a great outcry demanding the "clean" version of Chapter Two, so I moved that to the back burner while I tried to get Chapter 2.5 ready to go by July 1. Some comments from my editorial volunteers came in late, but I wanted to address them, so I waited until I had the time to make some last minute revisions before posting this segment. I think I'm going to try for August 1 for Chapter Two clean, and September 1 for Chapter Three! I'm also going to load up a few more pictures of the characters that I did this spring, so keep your eyes open for those.
Update, June 7, 1998: June 1 came and went, and no "clean" Chapter Two. This is partially because it's a difficult chapter to edit that way, and partially because I've been really busy with other things. I moved that deadline to July 1, and am keeping the deadline for 2.5 there, too. Hopefully I can get both done, even though June's going to be a busy month. I do, however, have a new job, so I don't have to worry about that.
Update, April 27, 1998: Some text has moved around between chapters as a result of suggestions from my editorial volunteers, and some of what was originally Chapter Two is now Chapter 2.5 (with some material added). The "Point Five" chapters are going to be interludes that take place away from Firmane. Since I only had to add a little bit to Chapter 2.5, I'm going to try hard to get it out July 1. Between now and then, however, I'll also be looking for a new job and possibly moving, so the story will necessarily be taking a back seat to those priorities. Hopefully the fact that most of it is already written will make it easy for me to keep posting the story on schedule and you won't notice any skips. Editorial changes that result in me getting more chapters out of essentially the same amount of text are helpful that way. :) (In case you're interested, by the way, some of chapter 2 also spilled over into chapter 3, so some of 3 is going into 4. I haven't followed the domino effect all the way through yet, but I'm pretty sure that 4 will either be a very long chapter, or will split into 4 and 5, and what is now 5 will become 6 ...)
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Last modified May 10, 1999