[fic] Something to Hold Onto, Epilogue: Author's Notes
(Sorry to have to put this in a separate entry! I couldn't quite manage to fit it in either of the two posts for the fic itself, but I want to make sure I thank everyone properly, after all the incredibly kind help I received.)
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Because I'm a crazy person, what I'd originally intended to be a quick little epilogue took on something of a life of its own in the end. Professional obligations and the usual sort of real life chaos made the process of writing this much slower than I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy it despite the long wait. For those of you who've been with me since I first started posting this, way back in August of 2009: thank you so much for sticking with this story, and for being patient and supportive when my schedule got away from me. And to any more recent readers who've come along since the last chapter: thanks for taking a gamble on a story that probably looked like it had been abandoned.
I absolutely cannot thank my betas enough for all of their help over the past couple years. Thank you to kittyjimjams, for first encouraging me back when this was just a few thousand words pasted into emails, and for reminding me in recent months that I had to END THIS THING PROPERLY, goddammit, and no slacking off on the details! Thanks to hoshizora, who read this thing despite it omitting all of his favorite characters and focusing rather heavily on one of his least favorite, who offered a welcome perspective during revisions, and who reassured me in dark moments that yes, someone would probably read the epilogue when I got around to finishing it. Thank you to emsariel, for giving this one last read over to clean things up a little, and for catching a pretty major continuity error. And thank you to jlh for her invaluable insight, patience, generosity and kindness, both as a beta and as a friend, as she tried her best to keep me from losing my mind entirely.
Thank you, also, to the fantastic boredgods and achtung_baby, who suffered through the unedited first draft of this epilogue so they could draw ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC ILLUSTRATIONS and spoil me fucking rotten. They did an amazing job with next to no notice, and I seriously cannot overstate how grateful I am to them both.
Basically: lots of <3 to everyone, for being awesome and helpful and amazing!
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Because I'm a crazy person, what I'd originally intended to be a quick little epilogue took on something of a life of its own in the end. Professional obligations and the usual sort of real life chaos made the process of writing this much slower than I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy it despite the long wait. For those of you who've been with me since I first started posting this, way back in August of 2009: thank you so much for sticking with this story, and for being patient and supportive when my schedule got away from me. And to any more recent readers who've come along since the last chapter: thanks for taking a gamble on a story that probably looked like it had been abandoned.
I absolutely cannot thank my betas enough for all of their help over the past couple years. Thank you to kittyjimjams, for first encouraging me back when this was just a few thousand words pasted into emails, and for reminding me in recent months that I had to END THIS THING PROPERLY, goddammit, and no slacking off on the details! Thanks to hoshizora, who read this thing despite it omitting all of his favorite characters and focusing rather heavily on one of his least favorite, who offered a welcome perspective during revisions, and who reassured me in dark moments that yes, someone would probably read the epilogue when I got around to finishing it. Thank you to emsariel, for giving this one last read over to clean things up a little, and for catching a pretty major continuity error. And thank you to jlh for her invaluable insight, patience, generosity and kindness, both as a beta and as a friend, as she tried her best to keep me from losing my mind entirely.
Thank you, also, to the fantastic boredgods and achtung_baby, who suffered through the unedited first draft of this epilogue so they could draw ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC ILLUSTRATIONS and spoil me fucking rotten. They did an amazing job with next to no notice, and I seriously cannot overstate how grateful I am to them both.
Basically: lots of <3 to everyone, for being awesome and helpful and amazing!