12/12/2008

Well, boys and girls, it’s been a really long ride. Five years in the making; three parts; 48 chapters; 250,000+ words. I kind feel I have to give some final words here.

First and foremost a huge THANK YOU!! to all who have reviewed and followed this story. Especially those that have hung in there for long periods of time, ever patiently awaiting my updates. Your feedback and support are absolutely what has driven me to keep writing this story. From the bottom of my heart, I’m so grateful to all of you.

With that in mind, I beg you to leave a final review with your thoughts on the ending. You can leave comments about anything—something from the beginning of the story, something from the end, something you especially liked, something you hated, which characters you liked/disliked, did I ruin the ending?, were my surprises predictable?, do you hate that I ramble at the beginning and ending of chapters? Don’t hold back. There are some things that I’m not satisfied with that I’d like to focus on when revising (and I foresee a lot of revisions in this story’s future).

1. I was thinking of inserting a prologue at the very beginning. I’ve toyed with the idea on and off. I think since there is an epilogue, there should be a prologue (I’m anal like that). I also heard a song (“My sweet rapier” by Michael McDermott—I would be absolutely shocked if anyone reading knew the song I was talking about). Anyhow, I had this idea that if ReGeneration was ever made into a movie, this was the song I would want playing during the opening credits, and the scene that would open the movie would be a dark, stormy night, treacherous cliffs, a red-haired woman running in terror, a uniformed man chasing after her. He overtakes her. Scuffle. Blood. His knife into her head, and then ending with him throwing her body over the cliffs into the sea below. End of prologue. First chapter would open as it always has on Nathan in the Duster pub.

2. I really hate that multiple people have misjudged Cora’s age—I desperately need to fix this, although I’m still not sure how (any comments on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

3. I’d like to spend a little more time on Micah and Ojinna in the final chapters. I want to extend one of the final battle chapters to include the scene of Ojinna finding Micah’s body. This was what I originally intended, but when I got to that part, I kind of rushed on the sequence of events and found that if I stuck that scene in, it wouldn’t really make sense chronologically.

4. Aberrant Lycanthrope suggested that I could have made the final chapter (Elegy) a lot more emotional—which I completely agree. I was afraid of making it too melodramatic, so I actually pulled back. I think I really need to throw Nathan into the depths of despair. I’d like to make the focus of the chapter prior to Lorelei’s awakening a lot darker and moodier. I’d also like to give a little more focus on Ojinna’s despair. At first I thought I’d let her be the only one without a happy ending. Then I felt bad, since she was one of the heroes. But after thinking about it some more, I realized she’s actually not all that nice of a character to begin with. Neither is Micah for that matter. But I killed him off as a means of redemption for him. Ojinna never really had that. So no happy ending for her.

I just figured after reading so much of this, you all deserved to know some of my thoughts for improvement. If you have any comments on these revisions, please feel free.

Lastly, since some of you have hinted, I wanted to give you guys a sneak peek at what you may see in terms of future works by yours truly:

1. What some of you may not realize is that a lot of planning went into ReGeneration, which includes a lot of back story, and imagined events that never actually show up in the text. Other than starting on revisions, I think my next plans are to write some short stories about characters and/or events that revolve around ReGeneration’s characters and plotline, but didn’t actually happen within the story. For instance, I’ve been mulling over a short story revolving around Lex Roanaque (Lorelei’s adoptive brother) when he was a teenager growing up in Quensa. This would also include the rivalry between Lex and Brandt Wylde that had a lot of bearing on events that happen later in Wylde’s life, and of course, Lori would have a big part as well as Lex’s doting little sister. Another idea I had revolves around Garret after the events that happen in ReGeneration, including an awkward blossoming teenage romance with Cora and a trip back to his tribe to sort out his lingering doubts concerning his religion and upbringing.

2. I have a couple other short story ideas that have nothing to do with ReGeneration, and are not even fantasy, more like realistic fiction, semi-autobiographical shorties. I may pursue one or more of those ideas. When telling a friend of mine about a couple of things that have happened to me, he said it sounded like the plot for an independent film. I've always thought they would make good short stories, if bent a little into a fictional story.

3. Perhaps—and this is a big perhaps—I would also write a not-so-short story (i.e. a long story) that takes place after ReGeneration. Not a sequel, because that’s an evil little word. Hear me out before you hate me for even thinking such a thing. I’m envisioning a story that takes place 18 years after Madden’s fall. It focuses on 16-year-old Phen Ryder (which is short for Phoenix, but that fact is known by few besides his parents). He’s grown up in a small, country town. He has a shady lineage that he’s been told very little about. His father is a prominent government figure, who is away from home a lot to participate in the counsel in Madden’s Fall, although despite this fact, Phen is close with his father. His mother occasionally does volunteer work for the Madden’s Fall counsel, but has mostly stayed home in New Quensa to raise her son and keep out of the public eye. As Phen grows older, he gets along with his mother less and less, and he starts to get the weird feeling that she’s afraid of him. Phen, himself, is an average teenager, well-liked amongst his friends, although he has a tendency towards insecurity and hides many secrets, afraid of being different or disliked. He starts to develop feelings for a childhood friend named Olivia Orin, but his relationship with her becomes complicated when his friends find out her father is a ‘Sent, creating racial tension that Phen is reluctant to face. But Phen’s fairly quiet life suddenly takes an unexpected turn during a visit with his father to Madden’s Fall. He’s confronted by a man who seems to know Phen’s parents, and also knows more about his lineage than even Phen knows. Phen immediately feels a connection to this strange man, despite his father’s warning to stay away from him, and as he gets more involved, Phen finds himself immersed in a brewing rebellion against the young, fragile government his parents fought so hard to build. As he’s pitted against his parents and the ideals he was raised to believe, he feels a war mirrored in himself. He realizes that what he wants and what is right are not always the same thing, and as he allows himself to be swayed by his new mentor’s guidance, he begins to bend his own ethical boundaries. When Phen learns from his mentor the dark secret his mother has kept from him all his life, he finally realizes what his mother was afraid of. And understands that she was right to fear… Much more a story of political unrest and racial tension than the action/adventure story ReGen was, also with deeper shades of gray in regards to good and evil and heroes versus villains. Again, not saying I’ll actually write it. It’s just a thought I’ve been tossing around for a while.

With that said, I guess I’ll wrap this up. Thanks again to everyone reading and all who have reviewed. I look forward to your feedback. I’m sure I’ll start another writing project eventually, but you probably won’t see anything from me until January at the earliest (what with holidays and such).

Lots of love,

Ms. Jenny Rocker