A Few Thoughts

Thus ends the first part of Tom's Diary. My original intention was to tell the story this far and no further. A young man did a lot of growing up; he found something he wanted to do, people he wanted to be with and could face the future with faith and hope that he could deal with it.

A writer hopes that reading a story they wrote will change their readers. I was a little surprised at how much writing it changed me. Like a lot of people, I find myself not wanting to let Tom go.

Thus, being the softhearted, romantic softie that I am, I'm not going to let Tom go. I started writing about Tom last summer, so that's what I'm going to do again. Later this summer, when I've had a chance to think about Tom and his friends, I'll start on a new installment of his life, and come fall, I'll start posting it.

Of course, that's months and months away. I do like to get nice emails from people telling me how much they like my stories. Well, maybe not like so much, as horribly addicted to them. So, there will be more stories here, shortly.

Choosing exactly which of my current projects that I've been working on to go ahead and post, has been tough. I've finally decided which one, and in a month or so, I'll start posting it. It is something I wrote almost eight years ago, when I was new to writing; since then I've learned a lot about simple grammar and punctuation, characterization and plotting. I thought it would be relatively simple to fix it up, but it's been tougher than I expected. Still, it's come along nicely and I think you will like it.

But the bottom line is that for about a month, I'm going to not be posting new stories. Tom's Diary ran to a quarter million words, more than half of which were done before the first post. I do like to post on a regular schedule; I'm not fond of a deadline ahead that I don't have something ready to meet it. As an aside, I've tried to write shorter stories, but it's a real stretch for me. So, you will have to deal with lengthy stories from me.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate all of the people who've written to tell me how much they like Tom's Diary; I appreciate those that simply read and enjoyed it. Next time, I'm going to try to be even better!

Gina Marie Wylie, April, 2004

A belated postscript: Above I said I'd start posting a sequel in the fall. Well, it's the fall and the sequel is nowhere in sight. Now, I'm thinking early next year. I'm currently posting two series and it's been very time-consuming. I apologize to all my fans who wanted this sooner, but if you're patient, it will happen!

Gina Marie Wylie, October, 2004

Another belated postscript: First I said I'd start posting a sequel in the fall, then I said early in 2005. I'm sorry to say it's looking more like it will be summer. I'm sorry about the delay and once again I apologize to all my fans who wanted this sooner, but if you're very patient, it will happen!

Gina Marie Wylie, February, 2005