Okay, I'm awake now....
And Chapter 5 has been posted, in two parts.
At this stage, folks, I think I should level with you all. Soon after posting the first chapter of this book as fanfic, a friend still working with CGL approached me about possibly buying the book, explaining that they would have made the offer sooner had they known I was even working on it. (Since formal communications between myself and the company have been severed for the better part of three years now, that would have been somewhat difficult, but que sera sera, right?)
Now, while I still have some misgivings about some folks at the top of the lines, the logical side of my mind not only convinced me that selling a story is better for my bottom line than giving it away for free, AND doing so would also have the perk of making this story official in the truest sense. Heck, it might even find its way to bookstores somehow, which is also rather nice. And so, we hammered out terms by the time I posted the second chapter.
But here's where it got interesting... Though terms have been nominally settled, one of mine was that I would continue to post the chapters, one per week, as I promised YOU all when this whole affair began. Only after we (CGL and I) have a signed contract between us will I deliver the whole book to them, and only THEN would I stop posting chapters here, explaining to you kind folks why that would have to be (mainly the fact that ownership of the story will have changed the moment I signed on the dotted lines). After that, either TPTB would have the posted chapters removed or left up as a teaser, depending on what the company overlords decided, but otherwise, the finale would go "dark" until its eventual official publication.
As of this point--three more posted chapters later--there remains no signed contract. And so you folks are still getting your free chapters once a week. There are just four more to go, however, and the longer we go, the greater the chance that a deal will either get inked, or be abandoned. If abandoned, you get the whole story free here as fanfic. If we ink the deal, the story is property of CGL and goes into canon alongside the first two books.
Now, I'm not sure which way you folks would prefer this to go down, but mark my words that I remain committed to the promise I made at the start of this whole affair, and thus I will continue to post chapters here as long as the story remains wholly mine. If we make it to the epilogue, though, know that the story may never be entered as canon, and I will never see dime one for all the time put into this final book. That's okay by me, since I didn't expect anything like that when I posted these chapters, but I don't know how it settles for you guys.
Either way, the fact that this is going on is at least part of why my last few chapters didn't post right away every Monday; I was giving the other party a little extra time to send me a contract. I also like to sleep a LOT these days.
Just wanted you all to know what's up.
Now, go and enjoy chapter 5!
- Herb
