I never thought I would say this, but I am honored to be a nucleus.

I'm not really sure how it happened, myself. I wrote for about 10 months before the first reader showed up, and since then (early fall of 2006) it has grown into all this. I feel like I haven't put any effort into it, which probably just means it has been so much fun I haven't noticed I have.

The most amazing thing to me has been watching my readers interacting with each other. Like, whoa, what did I make here? This is really real, and involves real people having real conversations... about my imaginary world. And sometimes even about other things!

It truly has been one of the most amazing experiences of my adult life. Obviously I don't have the Dark Lady to tell me about alternative timelines where I did not start this story, but it is quite possible that it actually saved my life, so that's pretty meaningful stuff.

So, thanks Tiffany for giving me the opportunity to say Thanks, everyone! Thanks for reading (I see you in my Web server logs, O ye silent ones ) and especially thanks for commenting and participating in forum discussions and making me feel really, really good about myself.

And thanks for letting little clones of my imaginary world live in your brain, and thanks for loving and hating my characters so much they make you laugh and cry and desire to either make out with or emasculate them. If you all love Alred hard enough, he acquires an existence outside of my mind. And that is my definition of Real.

I agree! I don't even own the game and I appreciate all the effort that you put forth. The positions, the angles, the downloads (my God!), not to mention getting your computer to handle all of that!

Aside from the visuals, you've made a believable story and your memory is impeccable! Your ability to balance several storylines and manage future ones months and even years ahead astounds me! But I guess what really makes me jealous is your community. You practically live with these people all day and they talk to you. What I would give to be able to hypothetically have tea with Alred or Gunnie! You have a great knack at writing and weaving in bits of lore into your story that everybody, regardless of background or focus can relate to. It's a marvelous thing you have here, Lothere.

I admit, I stalk your site everyday. My computer saves the last site I was
on automatically, so I keep yours minimized while I'm surfing the net.

Wow, same here! I have Lothere as my home page too, and every time a new chapter is out, I immediately click on it and comment about anything I can find. I visit the forum and the home page about 50 times a day waiting to see if anyone commented about anything or if a new post has been uploaded. I'm currently re-reading the first few posts and I have to say that your picture taking and writing style has greatly changed over the past three or four years you have been doing this. I love the stuff you have in the game and I know that I'm always on the watch for anything like a dress or a table that I could recommend, and I know that almost everyone who reads this probably does the same. I love how everyone gets so into the story and can even influence the outcome of the plot lines. But most of all I love how everyone is so kind to one another here, I haven't come across one argument here against any other reader, unlike the BBS or any other chat room I've been on. So, for that I sure am proud of everyone here!
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Smile Don't Frown, Look Up Don't look Down
oh you heart stealer, don't shy away, tell me your name!

I check Lothere several times a day; it's one of the first things I check in the morning and usually the last thing I check before bed. Sometimes I feel like I'm TOO addicted, but hearing about others making this their homepage makes me realize that I'm not any different from the other readers!

I also have one friend who has been reading the story and we've been getting together every couple of weeks to discuss what she's read so far. Her goal is to be done by Tuesday, and after that she'll probably join the forum and start commenting. I'm also trying to get my mom into it, too.

Lothere is going to spread like ca-razy!

I must admit that I am thoroughly enjoying reading your story and taking part in your forum too.

It was this story that inspired me to my own drama series Cloverdale (although recently I haven't had the time to update it much).
But the way you weave effortlessly the intricacies of folklore into every nuance of your story is truly outstanding.

Each character is multi faceted, and either you love them or hate them.
It really feels good to actually discuss at great length, which character you like/dislike, how we all anticipate what's going to happen in future chapters.

I know I'm waffling here, but my point is, that I am so glad to be part of this nucleus too.

If it hadn't been for my friend Taryn, I'd never have gotten so embroiled in such a heavily tapestried story. Nor would I have discovered and joined in your forum, to join with everyone else, discussing and (sorry to say, analysing) each character at great length.

Bravo Lothere for bringing us all a little insight into your medieval/fantasy world.

Wow, this is one of the longest speeches I've ever made *pats self on back*

I has Mad skillz

Thanks for saying all that. It means so much to me to know that there are people who care about these characters and this imaginary world the way I do. This is why I do it, really. Not until you read it does it become real.

Really interesting about the KJV... I hadn't thought to compare it to that even though I have a massive and gorgeous KJV sitting behind me on the bookshelf. (Barry Moser illustrated edition... a real page-turner cuz you're dying to get to the next picture) 783,137 words in there, the first google search result tells me. I have indeed written more than twice that already, in a little less than 3 years.

*wanders off, completely boggled*

I was feeling a little worried that the program I am using to count words (the venerable Unix utility wc) is skewing my numbers. But I just ran it on the KJV and got 789,844, which is less than 1% off from 783,137. So I really am that wordy. And I didn't even cheat by having page after page of "And M begat N, and N begat O, P, and Q, and O begat..."

Anyway, in Lothere Leofric begat just about everybody under the age of 30.

I have to say that À la Recherche du Temps Perdu is one of the most beautiful books ever written if you can handle the density of the prose. So I wrote more but Proust definitely wrote better.