new stories from the lakeside

This is a two-part announcement. Let's start with the happiest news, shall we?!

(Also, this is going to be long... but when aren't they long?)

I've been plotting this little project under the radar for a few months now, and I'd like to make it official.

The Lakeside Files is a "new" neighborhood story illustrated with the Sims 3 game. Sort of new, anyway. The town will be familiar. It's Lake County of 1984, about 100 years before the point the Lakeside Heights blog ends. (Um, more on that in a minute!) Some of the characters you'll recognize, and some will be completely new to you.

I imagine the stories will be the same sort of neighborhood dramas and comedies and romances that you read in here LH, minus the alien war of course. ;)

So here I am ending one Sim story to start up another, and you're probably thinking, what the hell? But I promise you this makes sense.

This time, I've learned a lesson. I love writing stories. It's what I do. But it's also what I want to do for my career, and I don't want to finish my work for the day only to turn on my game and have more work. This time, knowing what I know about myself now, and knowing what I know about my writing style and habits, I feel like I can make a fresh and easy start with something new. This time, I'm going to share smaller stories, scenes, vignettes, little updates. Stories that have beginnings and ends within sight. One story at a time. Some of them may be related or intertwined, if it happens that way, and some of them may not. Some of them may be told in a series of parts, and some may stand alone. But Lord help me, I'm not going to plot them out and draft them to their ends like I did with LH, lol! In fact, knowing what I know now, if they begin to happen, I'll be prepared for what could happen and know how to keep it in check.

Writing novels is work, and I want this to be play. PLAY!

Doesn't that sound fun!?!

So, this will actually be a lot like LH was in the beginning, just an ordinary, wandering neighborhood drama - but better written, (I hope), since I've been practicing for so many more years. It will have better structure, since I know what I'm doing this time and what it's meant to be.

There are some more notes over on the new blog that talk about what that story is going to be about. That blog will be strictly story-related posts, while the Babble blog will continue to host my gameplay-related chatter. I have some Simmish school-building posts to share some time this week on the babble blog! :)

Announcement #2, What Becomes of Lakeside Heights?

To bring this blog to and end has been a debate raging in my mind for a long time now. For a couple of years, maybe. Many of you probably suspected that. When the story grew here, it became bigger than I could handle while working on my "serious" projects. In fact, it *became* one of my "serious" projects. (As always, serious in quotes because my stories are rarely *very* serious, lol!) And I didn't want to cheapen it, or keep it in place underneath my serious work. I loved it for what it became, and I wanted to honor that properly.

When I decided I wanted to write books, I was greatly naive to think I could carry on a story as taxing as Lakeside Heights on the side. LH is a monster in its own capacity. And when faced with this decision, it was either to scale it back, or else stop it entirely. Neither choice was something I wanted to do. I love it for being so big and complicated and so hopelessly intertwined. I don't want to shorten it, or cheapen it, or try to squeeze it into an allotted three-hour space of free time once every other weekend. I want it to thrive!

Lakeside Heights, the WHOLE story, will eventually be told in a series of what I expect will be about five novels. Barring the event of an actual real-life alien invasion (which would pretty much render my stories moot), the novels WILL be written and this story WILL be told.

I have a few other projects to finish first, and lots of research to do, but I expect to start working the series toward publication in a few more years. Lakeside Heights in novel form will be similar to what you've started to read here, though some of the details may change slightly. It will still be the same story. It will still take place in the future - an even more imaginative future than I've presented here - and it will be my first serious work in the science-fiction genre. I'm very excited to tackle it!

Now, while it will be science fiction, it will also be the light kind. It will still be about all the characters and relationships you've read here, in addition to war, politics, the universe and the meaning of life, or something. ;)  The stories you have read here so far would cover about the first two books of the series. There is SO much more to tell still.

This blog has been a labor of love. The stories born here have been an inspiration for the works that will feed my entire writing career. And most of all, this has been one of the best and most glorious wastes of time I've ever taken part in! I would not take it back for a second.

Until then, and after then, I hope you'll all keep in touch. As always, you can find me on Twitter or Facebook or blogs. Thank you all for reading for all these years! It has been my honor to share these stories with you! :)

links: 
lauraraeamos.com
The Lakeside Files

writing twitter: @LauraRaeAmos
Sims twitter: @LakesideHeights

writing Facebook
Sims Facebook