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First off, I need to give a big thanks to Aleph of Malakhim. She sent me an e-mail about my last real entry here and I must sa that the existance of web-comic creators like her out there really restores my faith in the internet as a creative medium.

Next up is the status of this site and this comic. Even though I've hit 50k words, I'm not completely finished with my NaNo (more on this later, if you really want to know, keep reading). So, although I have some more free time now, there are plenty of other stuff that I've neglected for the past month. So, EF has to get in line with all the other stuff (it also doesn't help that the holidays are comig up. those will probably require some of my time too). Speaking of holidays, next weekend is Thanksgiving (my personal favorite holiday), and I'll be going back to NJ to visit Laura and my parents (and probably a bunch of other relatives)... so, the update may (read: most likely will be) late.

While we're talking about the comic, I hope people are enjoying the story. I'm sorry if things have been moving a bit slow lately. That's entirely my fault. I hit a really big writers block in issue 3. We're not talking about your run of the mill brick wall with barb-wire followed by a gator filled moat and mine field type writer's block... this was a "rock of Gibraltar" coated with super-slick ice with heat-seaking missile battery and orbital brain laser defenses type writer's block. I somehow managed to get past it, but... well, needless to say, some of the methods I had to use were far from an elegant surgical cruise missile strike. If you really had follow the analogy, I guess you could say I used a plantary mass driver. Anyway, the aftermath of this epic struggle is the second half of EF issue 3. Well, I guess you'll just see for yourself as it progresses.

As a preview of what's coming up, Issue 4 will (hopefully) start answering some of the big questions raised in the comic. I'm really looking forward to scripting issue 4, and I hope you all enjoy reading it. From my basic outline, it looks like it will be a challenge to present and arrange things effectively, but that's part f the fun for me.

Now, on to the NaNo report. (yeah, this entry is going to be extremely long... I guess I'm just making up for lost time).

Well, after managing to write for 23 days in a row (averaging about 2.2k words a day, with a min. of 1.7k per day), I'm pretty exhausted... but it's a kind of satisfying exhaustion. The scale of 50k word is a little hard for me to grasp, even after writing it. In some ways, it's a lot of words. Heck, it took 23 days to write all that, and when I print it out single spaced in 12 pt Times New Roman, it's over 100 pages long. However, if you look at it in terms of telling a story, it really isn't that much at all. I still have a ton of plot left for the story. If I had to give an estimate, I would say that at 50k, I've only covered around 15% to 20% of what I had planned out beforehand. Also, I know that when I wrote, there were parts that I glossed over really quickly. When I go back to revise (probably not until next year), I'll probably be adding more to a number of sections.

So, the question is... where do I go now? I've got 50k+ words of a story. Honestly, I have no idea if it's any good or not (most likely not), but it can probably be made better with some revision... but then what? Oh well... I think I'm going to not think about it for at least a month. If by some chance people really are interested in what I wrote, there's a really small excerpt posted here in my profile for the NaNoWriMo forums.

Witness my perfection!

Ok, this web page isn't really perfection. But at least it's up and mostly done. You'll have to pardon us if there's a link or two that doesn't work, but for the most part it should be functional. Most noticeably missing are the character bios. They should be up soon. I got rid of a lot of the empty pages that didn't have anything in them, and hopefully the site is a lot more streamlined and easy to navigate. Also I threw in a gallery :). Hopefully, I'll have the final bits and pieces that are left done by the next update, but I hope you guys like the new site. (See...I wasn't missing for three months for nothing)