Many of you noticed that Stargate Aschen as well as Sweet Surrender have been put on a little hiatus while I am redoing the already posted chapters. Let me first say: I know many of you will be annoyed by this, and I have never done something that drastic before. However, in this case it was unavoidable.

For starters, let me point out: The story is not abandoned nor will it be.

About three weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet a great author and an even more amazing editor, who agreed to do line-by-line editing for my stories–even though they are fanfiction.

Raven completely transformed my writing. I can’t express my gratitude about all the time she spends with me working on the chapters. The past three weeks have been filled by work, writing classes and a little sleep in between for me and it was incredible. Whereas the first 15 pages still took a good 20 hours to rewrite and edit, we’re now down to 2-3 hours for the same amount.

I am still not doing everything as you’re supposed to do it if you want to publish with traditional publishing houses–simply because at this point that’s not what I intend to do. For some reason, I always figured I’d self-publish–even my original fiction, because I knew it was too original for publishing houses.

A story like Stargate Aschen for example would never find a place in traditional publishing because it is too mixed-genre (set aside the obvious copyright/franchise problem). Stargate Aschen is romance mixed with adventure and science fiction.

Publishing traditionally (at least in the US) I wouldn’t be able to do that. I’d have to decide: is it a romance/erotica? Then I’d have to cut most of the adventure and the Aschen backstory out. Is it sci-fi or even adventure? Then I’d have to cut a lot of the romance and especially the erotic scenes out. I’d also have to adhere to structural plot guidelines. For example for romance: The hero and heroine have to meet in chapter 2 at the latest. (In Stargate Aschen, Sam and Jack meet in chapter 4.) First sex has to happen about 1/3 through the book I believe. (In Stargate Aschen it happens about 3/4 through the book.) And so on.

Publishing houses have very strict formulas according to which every book is published. That makes me understand why I got the feeling that I was reading the same story over and over again when I was still reading romances. ‘Cause essentially you are. ;)

So yes, I don’t think publishing traditionally just doesn’t go with the stories that I happen to ‘find’. And since I am not doing that, nor do I have any intention of turning my fanfiction into novels (as I was advised to with with Aschen by a couple of people) I am taking the liberty to break some of the established rules for plot creation, structure, genre etc.

I did need to revise my style though. And that brings me back to the Stargate Aschen rewrite. First of all, let me calm some angry minds here.

I will not alter the story of Stargate Aschen in any way.

So if you don’t want to read the entire story from chapter 1 again, you don’t have to. You can just wait a couple of months (if even that long) until I am done with the rewrites and then I’ll continue publishing the new chapters in the new style. In that case, I am just asking you for your continuing patience.

Why you might want to read Stargate Aschen again from the start though?

For those of you who do want to read the story again, there are a few surprises. ;) First of all, it’s been almost a year since I published the first chapter. So reading the story anew will refresh memories. But there’s more:

  • The Stargate Aschen rewrite comes with a new, much more concise style, that will still include all the detail you loved so much, but is a lot less clunky and easier to read (getting rid of wordiness)
  • The Stargate Aschen rewrite is now exclusively told from either Sam or Jack’s POV. (It’s still third person narrative, don’t worry.)
  • Increased UST due to deeper reflections
  • Newly added scenes and chapters during Sam’s training that add more depth to both characters and point out Sam’s character development
  • Less telling, more showing, wherever possible.

And a lot of other factors. Detailed revision notes are given at the beginning of each chapter if you read the story here on my website.

I have taken down the old Stargate Aschen chapters on most of the websites it was posted on (such as AO3 and fanfiction.net). Please don’t panic, it will be up and running again soon. I am updating chapters constantly as I get done with the rewrites. So far I’ve posted the first 6 chapters, and the plan is to post a new one every 1-2 days.

I hope that in November I’ll be up to chapter 36 again with Stargate Aschen (which is where you all left off). Sweet Surrender might progress even faster, seeing that it’s a lot shorter. Thank you all for your patience!