LONG ROAD AHEAD

Apex Predator ends. This arc was meant to show what Ever was doing between the Ukraine and Silver Bay, and to give some context for his behavior. I hope it did both those things.

As you know if you’ve been following for a while, I’ve been trying to take this story legit for a long time, but all I did was make a mess of things – sequels and prequels, some books, very sloppily released from a badly-chosen publisher, and so on. It’s a big, confusing story, and half of it isn’t available. And it still isn’t finished.

The good news is that I’ve learned a lot working on this story, and I’m going to fix it. You will get Elizabeth Belle’s complete story in its final, most evolved state. You’ll get it in the form of a simple series of novels in chronological order. It'll start at the beginning, and it'll end when the story is done. No prequels, no funny business.

The bad news is that it’s going to take time. I’ve said that before, and I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. All I can offer as proof of my sincerity is my major league debut, which should show you that I’m doing work and making progress. It’s not Elizabeth Belle, but it’s an important step on the road of getting Elizabeth Belle onto bookstore shelves. I’m totally committed to seeing her story finished, and done right.

This is it for regular weekly serials, at least for now. To go legit I have to get away from anything copyrighted, so there’s no point adding more to the canon as it is on this blog. Don’t worry, the legitimized adventures of Elizabeth Belle, Velvet Valmont, Frank the Biker, and Ever will be very familiar. They’ll deliver what you want, but they’ll deliver it without directly touching Tarkovsky, the Strugatskiys, or GSC.

That said, I still have some ideas for this blog, so it’s not shutting down. This is not the end – I say this with a completely straight face – it’s the beginning. Those three hundred chapters, and all those books that aren't for sale anymore? Think of them as practice, and I won't leave you hanging on the story forever.

If you’re the sentimental type and you’ve been following for a while, you might remember that I always considered this song to be the theme for the Zone. I still do, and it fits the next iteration just as well. You can listen to that song and pour one out for fanfiction Elizabeth if you want, but she’s not really gone, she’s just going to the next level.

My author site is evagard.com, and I’m active on Twitter – so if you have what it takes to make it all the way to the other end of the meat grinder, keep an eye on those for the latest. I’ll also shamelessly ask you to consider reading my non-Elizabeth Belle stuff once it’s available.

I wanted to keep the walls of text from getting out of hand, so I tried not to go into too much detail about exactly how I’m handling the next step. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer.

I won't say anything like it’s been a long road; there’s still way too much road ahead for that.

Thanks for reading.