Hello, and thank you so much for taking a look at my work! This is the second draft of my novel, and there is still much work to be done. Some of you have been waiting for this, and I certainly don't want to disappoint.
First, let me tell you a little about the novel, its themes, and what to expect. I've been writing this novel off and on for almost 9 years. The draft you are about to read is the 3rd draft of the 5th iteration of the story. I've written and rewritten this novel 5 times for a multitude of reasons ranging from not being satisfied, to corrupted data from my computer crashing while saving... that was a very dark day.
If you've been reading The Web for a while, this story may come as a surprise. While it features a lot of what you'd expect, it's probably the last kind of story you'd expect. The Scarlet Ashes is a romance novel, one that seeks to explore relationships in a world of horror.
One drunken evening, an old friend and I asked what it would be like if Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice with H. P. Lovecraft as a co-writer, or if Austin were a writer of cosmic horror, herself. Hilarity ensued, to be sure, but the idea stuck with me. It evolved over time to become the story you're about to read. It grew as I did. It matured as I did.
Don't misunderstand: This is not a pleasant, movie romance. This is a realistic portrayal of relationships. The Web is a brutal and violent world. There is plenty of both within these pages.
Your feedback is most welcome, and much of the novel is still prone to change. I hope you enjoy it. The Web is a worldbuilding project I cherish deeply, and the very foundation of what The Web has become began here. The entire setting began with this story, a story with an unusual theme: Love is Madness.
Why did you include the opening scene in the preface? The preface is just the beginning part, meaning meta information. In-book stuff goes in a chapter, be it regular, a prologue, or an epilogue.
OOOOF your too fast man. I'm trying to fix the chapter hangups, and it's... tedious. Separating it got it out of chapter one. you dont get like a slew of notifications everytime i change a chapter number do you?
Oops. I am indeed very fast because I’m bored with my work so I’m checking things out. I only get notifications when you make new chapters and publish them. So I’ve got a significant number of notifications but nothing too bad.
Oh, good cause I gotta renumber every one of them. XD that'd be not ok.