Quick heads up before the actual numbers: I’m still hard at work on the rewrite, still just as committed and passionate about this story as ever, and I have absolutely no plans to drop it anytime soon. Just wanted to reassure any of you who may be thinking that this story will be abandoned. That's not the case.

  Now for the progress update. I currently have 12 chapters mostly written and edited, with those chapters sitting at roughly 95% complete, just awaiting some finishing touches on Chapters 11 and 12. These chapters carry the rewritten story through the equivalent of Chapter 7, and also include Max’s introduction, so functionally it lands closer to something like Chapter 7 ?. With that progress, I’m now sitting at roughly 12.5% complete overall.

  First, thank you again to everyone for your patience while I work through this. I know the waiting isn’t easy, and I genuinely appreciate the understanding.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Progress this week was better than last week, though not quite as much as I had originally hoped. A big part of that comes down to me letting perfect be the enemy of good. I’ve found myself rewriting a chapter, stepping away, editing it again, rereading it, and then rewriting portions of it a second or even third time. Each time things look “done,” I do one last pass and spot something small to tweak or get a new idea I want to incorporate, which then snowballs and makes the process take longer than intended.

  That said, I’m very happy with how these chapters are turning out. The extra time has gone into tightening pacing, improving clarity, and making sure the foundations of the story are as solid as possible moving forward. I'll be working on striking a better balance between polishing and forward momentum so progress stays consistent without sacrificing quality.

  As always, thank you all for sticking with me through the process. I’m excited about where the rewrite is headed, and I’ll continue to share updates as things move along.

  Stay tuned for the next update, on Monday January 19th, at whatever time of day I happen to write it up ??

  ~ Viserra