author's note: on endings, and on the future

This made me laugh. Do you guys remember that one where Lara had a crush on Leila?

Bwahahaha! And you though Leila was gonna end up with a man? lol!

Just kidding. Unfortunately for Lara, Leila doesn't swing that way ;)

I almost have the next update ready - just need a couple more pics, one of them involving a *very* specific pose that cannot be compromised, and it's kind of driving me a little crazy. But I have some other work to do as well, so maybe I'll try again tonight, or maybe tomorrow. Soon though!

on endings:

I just wanted to put up a small note about the fish and the bird storyline, and how we're coming up on the end of it here in this blog. There are two more updates (really, one story, split into two parts), and that brings us to a natural ending point.

Is it THE END? No, of course not. And I do feel badly about the few threads that will remain unanswered here. But THE END, as I imagine it, with all the loose strings tied up, probably happens a good four or five years in the future. And given the structure of LH as a whole, we just don't skip around in time like that.

But what I have here in the next story is an ending, and I hope it will be a satisfying one.

There are more stories to tell with these characters though, and that's why I'm writing a novel about them. There's more freedom that way, more room to dig deeper into the story without overwhelming the other stories here in LH. We have to admit, Leila has been a bit of a story hog as of late, lol! The same could be said of Jodie and Amelia.

There may still be cameos from time to time. Corbin will probably still show up in Justin's story. Jodie and Amelia will still show up in Piper's story. (That one is gonna boggle my mind, because novel Piper is quite different from LH Piper - I'll just have to think of them as different characters...) Nobody is moving away. And you'll still get to meet Amelia and Drew's baby when it's born!

I've also decided that I will not need to remove any of the stories already posted here on the blog, so those will remain for as long as I continue to pay my hosting bill ;)

on the future:

I wanted to thank you all for your patience during this little break, while I tried out about a million new projects and got my head screwed back on straight. I have a lot in the works, and I'm very excited about it all. I'm not quite ready to make any bold announcements yet, but check in around April time, and I might have a real announcement to make.

And now specifically on the future of Lakeside Heights. The best thing about this story is that I'm not sure if it will ever really end, in a big fat THE END kind of way. Instead, it transforms as I need it to transform. And that's what makes it so much fun for me, I think. It can always be exactly what I need it to be. It's my play story, and so I play with it. I'm not sure how you all manage to follow this glorious mess, but I'm so very happy that you do! It wouldn't be so much fun without you all! :)

So. I have the rest of this season written, and the next two seasons being drafted. I have stories coming up this spring from the whole Phoenix family, and many characters we haven't heard from in a very long time. By summertime, I should be finishing up our current season (OMG, it was long!), which includes stories from Justin and Stephanie, and Lucy and Sarah!!!

And then we're through this season and ready to start another, full of fun stories from April and Beau, Summer, Keri and the rest of the soldiers on base, Lucy and Dallas, and Melissa! Don't you guys miss Melissa!?!

I guess, what I really want to say is that Lakeside Heights has a bright future ahead of it still, even if I keep stealing off characters for my novels, lol! Believe me, I have enough novel material for at least the next five years (no joke!), so I won't be needing to steal any more any time soon.

and on the topic of TS3:

If I ever get around to buying it (which I swear, I really do intend to, lol!), I'll probably try to recreate LH and continue as is. It may be that TS4 is out by that point. But you know, whatever ;)