Yeah, yeah, I know I've been AWOL for a long time, but I kinda have a good excuse. A year after my significant other died, I lost my job, then I lost my home, had to move into a really bad place, but after two years of unemployment and the darkest depression I've ever experienced, I finally found a job and was able to get back on my feet again. Nearly three years later, I'm slowly rebuilding my life again. Things are not perfect, but there are many things and people in my life now that I am thankful for.

So, with the TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Mystic Muse approaching (can you fucking believe it's been TEN FUCKING YEARS?) I figured it was time to jump back in and get things jump started to show that this site is not going anywhere. In fact, I'll probably be expanding it to include other fandoms. So stay tuned for some excited things coming to the Muse.

By the way, about five or six years ago, I added a counter to the bottom of the landing page and no one has EVER asked me what it's for. Does anyone out there have a clue as to what it's counting down? A virtual cookie for the first to send me an email with a correct guess.

I'm almost done with school--just a few days left in the semester. Once I turn in grades on Friday, I'll officially be on summer vacation. That means I'll finally be able to catch up on updating the site. Thanks for your patience!

I just wanted to apologize for the delay in updating. I've hit a super busy point in my work schedule, and I'm afraid it's not going to slow down for another month. Please bear with me. I will return and will get back to posting and updating very soon, I promise!

I just wanted to say thank you to Wispr for helping me with some of the HTML coding for the story posting here on Mystic Muse. It's been a great help! Many thanks!

I have gotten reports of eBook links not working or not importing properly. I don't have any experience with converting documents to eBook format, so at the moment, I can't address that problem. However, I will work on learning how to do the eBook conversions and will let you know when I've gotten a handle on it. In the meantime, if there is a certain story that you are just dying to have in eBook format, email me and let me know which story (give author's pen name and story title). Tell me what eBook format you want it in and tell me what kind of eReader you are using (Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc.) I will do my best to get the story converted for you. Email me at dragonwriter17@mysticmuse.net.

I have updated the Fiction By Author page. Please check to see if your author name is spelled, spaced, and capitalized correctly and if the link to your main story page works. If you find errors or need anything corrected, please let me know. Email me at dragonwriter17@mysticmuse.net.

I am now accepting new updates, new story submissions, and new authors. So bring 'em on! Please follow the Submission guidelines and the Hints for Authors; these pages have been revised. I look forward to hearing from you.

I've finally begun making story updates to the site. I've got a few more to do, and then I'll be caught up on what was sent to me by current authors during the transition period. After that, I'll post an announcement that I'm ready to receive any other updates. I haven't started making other corrections yet, though. I know some of you pointed out problems on other pages, such as the Contact Us page. I'll get to those as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience!

Sorry for the delay on updates. My real-life job is taking up all of my time, but summer vacation is almost here. I'll be able to get caught on the fun fan fic stuff very soon. Stay tuned!

Thanks to those of you who have replied to the bulk email about your stories on Muse. If you have stories on Muse but did not receive a bulk email from me about checking your stories, just email me here at my Muse address: dragonwriter17@mysticmuse.net. Tell me if your stories are up to date or not and what email address you want to use for this site. If you have new chapters or stories that aren't on the site that you want on the site, send them to the same address.

I have received several sets of updates that I am working on today, so watch for some new stuff later today (stuff other than my own, I mean. I've been using my own stories for practice).

Lilly has finished compiling the email list for me, and I'm about to send out that bulk email I mentioned in the previous announcement. I'll be asking you to double-check your stories and see what you need to send me. I'll begin accepting submissions/resubmissions from current authors on January 1, 2010.

With Lilly's help, I'm in the process of compiling an up-to-date email list of all authors who have stories posted on this site. As soon as I have it ready, I'll send out a bulk email and request replies to verify email addresses. In the meantime, if you're an author and you see this announcement, you can go ahead and send an email to my Mystic Muse address (dragonwriter17@mysticmuse.net) and tell me the email address that you want to use for Mystic Muse communications. There are quite a few email addresses that I'm sure are no longer valid in my list.

Please don't send me any story updates yet, though. I've still got a lot of things to do before I'll be ready for that.

I've set up a Mystic Muse email address for myself. It's dragonwriter17@mysticmuse.net (easy one to remember). If you have questions or comments or suggestions about the Mystic Muse site, please send them to this address.

Please don't send me any story updates yet, though. I need to get a few more things squared away before I can start accepting updates.

I've been tinkering with the site, making sure that I know how to update. I've updated all of my stories to get the posts here in synch with what I have on my personal site. I think everything turned okay--maybe not perfect, but it'll do for now. I haven't updated most of the pages with my new website address (since geocities was killed by Yahoo), but I'll get around to that eventually.

Hey everybody...DragonWriter17 here. Sorry for the down time. Susan's been ill and unable to care for the site. I've gotten the website reinstated, but I won't be able to take any updates right away. I've got to figure out how this website works first. I'll do my best to get it up and running--updates and all--as soon as I can. When Susan's feeling better, I'll hand the reins back over to her.