The End of Growing Up a Master

Well, here it is, the end of the postings for Growing Up a Master. I'm actually sort of sad. Every morning I've been looking forward to posting the next chapter, and the inevitable comments that I get, especially from the hard core fans that tell me what they think of each chapter. I sort of regret speeding it up to two a day, though your opinion may differ on that.

For those of you who have reached the end, but have not taken the time to let me know what you think, please do so now. If you've made it, I sort of assume that you've liked it pretty well. As with my other stories, it's a pretty heavy investment of time to make on something that you didn't like. So let me know what you liked. The plot? The sex? A particular character? A scene that touched you deeply? A scene that made it so that you were forced to take matters in hand, so to speak?

I think the general consensus of the mails I've gotten to date is that people want to see more of these characters. Well, so do I. As with Tired and Favor, I've fallen in love with these characters, and I think that they have so much more to say. People certainly want to know what is to become of Helen. Most of the suggestions that I've gotten about where to take her have been far off base, but at least one reader nailed it on the head. She will definitely figure prominently in any follow up that I do. But I'm not going to put a timeframe on it, and don't expect it quickly. There are a few other stories that will come first.

After the experience posting once a day, and all the letters of gratitude about how people liked that I posted on a regular, short interval, I think I will maintain my method of finishing a story before I begin to post. However, I still miss the audience participation, so I'm going to take another reader suggestion (you might notice that I do that a lot), and set up a small subset of people who can read the chapters as I write them, and give me suggestions for the direction that the story should take. These chapters will come much further apart, and may actually be out of order in some cases, and reading it might diffuse the enjoyment that you get reading them in sequence as they are posted.

There are some requirements for getting on the list.
1) You have to tell me how you liked it
2) You have to tell me what you liked and didn't like about it
3) You have to tell me which parts spoke to you
4) You have to tell me how they spoke to you
5) You have to tell me where you think that it should go
6) You have to correct any errors you see
7) You have to respond in a timely fashion

As you can imagine, this means a bit of work on your part. You get early access, but you have to provide feedback in exchange. If you are interested, please drop me a note. This won't start until I start my next long story, though that may be relatively soon.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who stuck through and read it. I was thinking of trying to sell my work online instead of posting it for all to see, but the enjoyment that I get out of affirmatively knowing that so many people have read and enjoyed it far outweighs any monetary gains that I would make selling it. Thanks for giving me that enjoyment!

M.