Long story short, I am aware that there are people who come to this site, get overwhelmed by the sheer size of the story, and never dive in. And that makes bunny cry.

Then I noticed that the "Where do I start?" page DID NOT EVEN MENTION the storylines. D'oh! So I wrote a new blurb for the "Where do I start?" page, which I invite you to read:

"Where do I start?" -- Now 47% blurbier!

But as I was writing, I realized I am really ill-qualified to suggest to other people where and how to start. So I thought I would ask you all.

I presume it makes sense to recommend the Storylines to people who are frightened of The Whole Thing, but if you think this is actually NOT a good idea, let me know your thoughts.

And I have yet to write yearly summaries for people who just want to start in the present day and not read any of the backstory. Do you think that would be worth doing? Would KoL not be better served by pointing people at a few carefully-chosen storylines?

And finally my most important questions: What storyline or storylines would you recommend to new readers? Criteria for this could include such reasons as:

• the best way to get a taste of the story
• the best way to get a sense of the history of the place and who the characters are without being forced to read the whole thing
• the best way to get totally hooked
• the best way to skip over the early years of crappy graphics and crappy writing and just cut to the good stuff (I know, I know, I'm oversensitive about this)

I put down "Red Boots", "A Girl Called Crow", and "A Tangled Braid (AKA Vashmalaina)".

I thought about putting "A Love Story (AKA Malrua)" but since it is currently in such a state of not-being-resolved, it seemed cruel to launch that at a new reader.

I also thought about "Shadow of a Star" (AKA Egelnilda?) since that is the storyline that hooked a few of you... but it sort of peters out right when my pictures and writing started getting good, so that's kind of a shame.

AND if there are any storylines that I haven't done yet that you think would be PERFECT for a new reader, let me know. I haven't been doing storylines lately because the Politico-Sigefrithian is such a massive undertaking, and also since I've been working at home I've been using my lunch hour for other things. (Namely lunch.) But if there is one that would be great for new readers, I might... not eat or something.

Anyway, I would appreciate any advice or ruminations. I don't advertise this site, but when people do find it through word of mouth, only to get scared away because it is so big and scary and there are no shirtless Scots on the banner ON THAT DAY (it happens), many, many bunnies cry in unison. When what we really want is this: