Year-End Note from Hiro & Meia
"We'd like to take this opportunity to THANK YOU for your continued support to Fists and Lipsticks! This hard work won't be possible without readers like you who never ceased to give us the boost and the moral support to continue writing this story. Intricate planning, late night dates with Mr. Laptop to finish a chapter, tedious grammar, spelling, and inconsistency checks... they wouldn't be worth it without YOU. So again, thanks!"
From Meia:
Hi guys! Thanks for the support to F&L! 2009 is going to be so great! God bless and merry merry holidays! Kisses!
A short Author Note regarding Chapter 41
I don't want an overall depressing chapter, so yeah, best time for Saori and her 'weirdness' to come in. This brings us to another question - Why is Saori damn weird? First, she acts like a euphoric drunkard with some sort of champagne/bottle fetish. She sometimes act like a kindergarten, but then there are times where she kicks some ass. She even went as far as taking a bullet for Kosuke. She's in great pain considering her bullet wound on her left flank, yet in front of Kosuke, she acted so happy-go-luckily and cheerful. She told Kosuke that she saved his life, but she didn't tell him that she was seriously wounded in the process of doing so. With this, I'd like you to notice her peculiar actions not just in this chapter but also in the previous chapters. Who knows, you might just catch my little clues, hehe.
As for Ayane and Crosse, I'm actually glad that someone has noticed it (great job, Miss Jasmine). My plan is to actually make Ayane and Crosse communicate without using words. They conversed with each of their own reminiscences to their childhood, which they simultaneously recalled with the similar 'haircut incident'.
If you would imagine what was going on inside his mind during that time he was cutting Ayane's hair and recalling their good times together, even without words you will be able to understand fully why he cried in the end of the chapter.
And as you may have realized by now, yes, the Crosse Overload chapters would be composed of several reminiscence of their childhood and teenage years BEFORE they met again in Book 1. It's going to be one hell of a dramatic ride.
And remember when someone asked whether Ayane's going to have two wedding proposals? And I said 'Why not three?'. This is what I'm pertaining to. The truth is that long before Yoshifumi Rei proposed to Ayane, someone has already asked her the same question in the past. That makes Kosuke the 3rd wedding 'proposer'. The very first one is... Crosse Williams
.I'm actually happy with how this chapter turned out compared to the older version (before my laptop fell from the staircase and the motherboard just flew straight away to the puddle of mud). The old title was actually 'Silent Reminiscences', but then the new inspiration came from the fact that we have lots of champagne bottles right now at my aunt's home (which would be given away for New Years Eve). Yeah, the den looks like a bottle museum IMO, hehe.
F&L in 2009
One thing I can guarantee is that F&L2 WILL BE ENDED in 2009. We're half-way done already and with this, I'm now ready to drop the BIG plot twists in the next few chapters. As usual, expect constant updates (you know how much I dislike long update intervals. Works good for both the author and the readers to keep readability, I believe). Long intervals are a no-no for mystery genre fics, hence the fast updates.
The PM list will NEVER be taken down - it is 'public service' according to Meia, hehe. It keeps the readers updated of new chapters without giving the readers the hassle of clicking on our thread every single day expecting a chapter when there's actually none. Same old and simple rule apply for the PM list : You ask, you're in. You ask, you're out. See the index page for the note made by Meia.
Also, after numerous requests, I'm coming up with a .DOC version of F&L2 from Chapter 1 - 40 pretty soon. I'll do another round of massive revisions (grammar, spelling, and inconsistency check) for the uploaded chapters so far.
For the inquiries regarding translating F&L to Korean and Vietnamese, at this point in time, I would have to deny these requests because F&L is not finished yet. Thank you for the offers and for the understanding. Regarding the Chinese/Mandarin version, I MAY come up with one myself AFTER I finish the English version.
Again, regarding questions about my nationality. Yes, I'm a FILIPINO. Pinoy ako, pero kalahati lang. (I'm Filipino but I'm a half-breed). My mother's pure Chinese.
Future projects
I am actually starting to make the skeleton for a new fic I'm planning to write January of 2009. However, since it would be set in America and the characters would have English names instead of Japanese/Korean, I still have to decide whether I'll be putting it up in Soompi or not. Definitely it would be up in Fictionpress.com, though. Target release date is May 2009.
As I've mentioned in my blog, it's actually another mystery story, but with a supernatural twist. The protagonist is a female who one day discovers her 'unusual' ability. What is that ability? I'll keep it a secret for now, but I guarantee you that it's something new and, as far as I know, has never been done before. And no, it's NOT a vampire fic. I'm very excited about writing it. It's going to be cool (and I hope you'll find it cool too).
AGAIN, THANKS FOR THE GREAT 2008! THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, READERS BOTH SIGNED AND SILENT. THANKS FOR THE COUNTLESS EMAILS, REPLIES, AND MORAL SUPPORT.
-Mark (a.k.a. hiro0911/HiroLovesMeia)
