And now... seventeen racoons in a trench coat

'Tis Beltane, the first of May, and tonight will be a full moon. What a day to finish uploading all of the chapters to WildSong Book 2! 🥳

What a journey! This is probably the longest I've worked on a project for in my life, so far. I may very well just beat that record with Book 3 😅 so we'll see. But it's also the first project I've been able to stick to quite solidly in my life, so I'm a little proud of myself for that. Long may it continue!

Thank you to all of those that have read and commented. I've gotten a few new readers for Book 1 too, since starting to post Book 2. Welcome to the new readers! Hope you enjoy your stay 😁

So what's next from here? Well, I'm going to take a long and well deserved break from writing and editing now I think. Just in time too. The summer months tend to be quite busy with life things for me, and things are really kicking off in my day job, so I'm kind of running out of steam a little 😅 I may not necessarily take the whole summer off, but it is rather appealing if I'm honest.

That said, I'll probably pop back on here occasionally. I've got a few titbits I'd like to share in posts, so those will go up as and when. Also, I don't know, maybe you all want to know what a fanfic writer is up to in her everyday life? 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

I've also previously written some older fics that I posted on fanfic.net years ago. I'm still hoping to loop them into my AO3 account, so if you all see some new fics pop up on my page, they're not that new 😂

Anyway, that's that for now. Thank you again for reading and following along. I'll paste in a link to Book 2 again below. If you haven't read it yet, or are currently reading it, all of the chapters are now online and ready to roll. Catch you all at the next one!

Hello hello hello!

After 1 year and 8 months, Book 2 of WildSong is finally complete! 🥳😭😂🤩🥰😫😴😵😸 I won't do a recipe blog and ramble before the good stuff, so here's the link now:

So yes, no progress report today, because I've finally finished and posted the first chapter on AO3! What a bloody long journey 😂 Honestly, the difference between the writing the first book and this one is so vast. I really can't believe the power of my hyper-fixation that must've carried me through the short time it took to write Book 1.

The effort into writing and editing this one was felt. But... honestly so worth it now that I'm finally at the top of the mountain. Boy I can breathe.

So, as mentioned, Chapter 1 is up. I'll be posting one chapter a day like I did for Book 1. I've finally also lumped them together in a series on AO3. I'm still churning up better titles for the individual books, so hopefully I can make that change soon.

Anyway, thanks for those following the process, and thanks for reading! Hope Book 2 was worth the wait 😊

Oooooo, been a while! This is the first Progress Report of the year, so I guess technically… Happy New Year! 🥳 Even though we’re already half way through February 😂

So, I know you’re all probably hoping that a long bout of silence means a chunk of progress on the editing Book 2. In a way, that’s true! But also, probably not as much as I’d hoped 😅

So here’s what I’ve been up to:

I’ve had to take a break from editing the fic over Christmas etc. For obvious reasons. But also… I did pick up another beta read again! I know, I know. I really should stick to editing my own writing first before reading anyone else’s. Well, I have promised myself that that would be the last one I do until I finish Book 2, and so far I’ve stuck to it!

On top of that, my January was also surprisingly busy! Which is unusual, given that January tends to be a lull for me. But I did eventually get back into the swing of editing again.

In more fic related news, I was talking about the unforeseen length of Book 2 with a friend, and after comparing the page count of my fic to the page count of the first and second books in the Lord of The Rings trilogy… She suggested that perhaps Book 2 does need to be split up XD Honestly, after that eye opening revelation, I did seriously consider it. However, after glancing over the plot, it all feels too cohesive to split up! 😭 So, I have decided to stick to the original length. Unfortunately, that does mean I won’t be publishing it any sooner!

Progress wise, I would say that I’m in the final sprint though! I’ve patched up a lot of the big gaps, changed a few things, randomly learnt how to play poker (It is relevant, I promise). I’m roughly over half way through a 4th comb through editing the whole thing. So, safe to say… I think I’m at the phase where I can move into a final edit before I upload them to AO3 👀 For Book 1, I was reading through the chapters a final time before uploading them day to day and I think I’ll do the same. So the end is nigh!

In semi-related fic news, it was Cadence’s birthday this weekend just gone 🎉 Yep, that’s right. Cadence is a February baby. An Aquarius. And yes, her birthday is the 14th of Feb 😜 By this world’s standards anyway. I don’t think Faerûn shares our calendar months.

I didn’t quite have time to bake a cake, but I did make some cherry and prosciutto bruschetta for lunch in honour of Cadence’s favourite fruit!

Excuse the horrible plating 😂 They weren't as photogenic as I had envisioned. But they did taste good! Maybe next year I'll be able to bake a cake. Or maybe I'll have time to bake one for Dace's birthday in the autumn 👀

How is it December already? 😱

I actually meant to do an earlier progress report, but time may have pulled fast one on me.

I'm going to declare it: unfortunately, I will not be publishing Book 2 before the end of the year.

I have definitely reached a point where I won't be meeting that soft goal, I'm afraid 😅 December is always a busy time, and I may have spent too much of November working on other projects. I picked up one too many reading projects I think... Which I may have also done for the next month as well 😂 Also, I fell ill last week and that really stalled life for me for a long time so I'm even more behind on editing Book 2.

The good news is, I am still making progress on edits! I'm still chipping away at it, bit by bit. I want to say that each draft I edit, it just gets easier. But this last draft took me so long...

Do you want a laugh? One of my new years resolutions coming into 2025 was to actually finished Book 2 AND Book 3 of WildSong 🤣 How deluded. Well, I can safely say Book 2 at least will definitely be published in 2026! (Although I can't help but feel I've just jinxed myself saying that...)

Anyone else's October been mad busy? 😅

Sorry to say I've really slowed down on the editing process this month! Which is impressive considering I went on a writing retreat one weekend and everything. To be fair, there were a fair few of us that didn’t actually get much writing done at that time.

As we barrel into November, the soft goal of publishing Book 2 before the year is sort of starting to fade away a little! 😰 I’m still aiming for it, but there’s just so much to go through and this book is so long…

A friend of mine mentioned that perhaps it should be shorter? As in I end it a bit sooner than where I ended up cutting it off from. But after reading through it once, it kinda feels a like everything that happened should all fit into Book 2. If that makes sense...

You’re all just going to have to bear with me a little bit longer! Here’s hoping it’s still worth the wait 💛

Hello! 😁

I'm aware it actually hasn't been that long since my last progress report, but I figured this required an update.

I've been on holiday the past few weeks! My partner and I went to sunny sunny Philippines. I have family there, so it was more to see them. But, as you can imagine, it has delayed the editing of the fic slightly.

I did try to get some done during some downtime, using my phone. Sacrilege, I know 😅 But my laptop is 18 years old and too big to take with me all that way. So I was making itty-bitty progress, but I got to a point where I needed a laptop to shift a lot of writing around and change chapter/perspectives.

Last progress report, I mentioned that I'd hit the character limit of a google doc. I did look into a few writing tool software, but I didn't quite find what I need. Something web-based, no doc limit and ideally free/cheap. So, I did end up splitting the Google doc in the end. I know Google isn't without it's problems, so perhaps a move off of it will happen in the future. But for now, this will do!

Anyway, as much as I enjoyed Philippines and not having to work, I am glad to be back to some form of routine. I'm actually looking forward to getting stuck back into editing!

I'm still a little jet lagged, and also I have a cold on top of everything. But I'm powering through! And I'm happy announce, as of today 🥁🥁🥁 I have finished editing the first draft of book 2!!!

Yep! I'm finally onto draft 2. It feels a relief as much as it does a celebration. Gods, this book is really taking me ages to finish 😂 If you've been patiently waiting for it since I finished book 1 more than a year ago, thank you for sticking out!

I've been trying not to set goals. Long story, but goal setting hasn't really worked for me and my creative projects in the past 😅 But, I am going to give myself a soft goal for this! I'm hoping I've already written as much as I want for book 2. I still have the songs to write up, but that should be easier than whole extra chapters or re-writes. So, with that in mind, the rest of the editing process should be a lot quicker! I'm hoping I can get book 2 all up and complete on AO3 before the end of the year 😤

So, I discovered a fun new thing today. Apparently, Google Docs has a character limit.

Yep. You read that right. Safe to say my editing of book 2 is going as well as I'd hoped 😂 For those of you curious, that limit is over 1.5mill characters. The worst part is, it's not even all the fic! I have about a page an a half of editing notes 🙈

Also, I'm using google docs because this broke bitch couldn't afford a Microsoft license. Although, at this rate, I may have to start looking into this... Unless of course I just split book 2 into two separate documents.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a progress report because that was fun to discover in the middle of a writing swing. I'm aware it's been over a year since I finished publishing book 1 on AO3, so thanks to those who've been patiently waiting for book 2.

I'm hoping I can start publishing it before the end of the year!

So you know how usually, with editing, you cut a bunch of stuff out? At least with Book 1 I did. Well, I'm about a quarter of the way through editing book 2 and I'm pretty sure I've just added about another 20K words...

Granted, I've axed a few things, but I thought a piece of work is supposed to condense when you're editing, and not grow 😅 To be fair, I think I was in a bit of a 'rush' mode when I was writing and skipped to some scenes I really wanted to write. But looking back, I definitely need some extra context earlier on to build up to later chapters and make them more impactful. Oh writing.

Well, I'm making slow but steady progress. I guess the editing process is being hindered by the fact I'm still partially writing it too. Also, I have to remember, this is draft 1. I'll definitely need to go over this again!

Also, some BTS for the first book: I didn't add/write the songs until after the 1st edit! So I'm doing a similar thing for book 2. Which means I'll need to put my creative hat on again for those parts 😂

Oh, I've also realised, I'm going to have to do some planning! "But why are you planning now, after you've already written your first draft?" I hear you ask. Well, it's time for my unseemly confession: I'm a pantser. An organic writer. I just write and see where the story goes and what the characters do. It sounds fun. It's not. Dace and Cadence are chaotic and the story line swerved so many times during writing book 2. They torment me so 😂😭 But now, I'm getting a bit confused with some timelines, which, of course, I overlooked during the writing phase. And now it's finally time to actually make it make sense. Sigh.

In other news, I'm also thinking about renaming the fic... WildSong book 1, book 2 and book 3 just doesn't hit as well. I want to call the whole series WildSong, but give the books individual names. But I still need to think of those. Hooray! More Thinking!

As of the 15th of June, the first draft of book 2 is complete! 😱 Dun dun dun!

I'm taking a break away from the fic for a bit before I dive down to editing it. Honestly, it was the only way I could get time to set up this Tumblr page and so forth.

There's also been a bunch of work and life stuff to do. June has been a busy month! So it's been nice not to be hard core writing during my free time for a bit.

I do miss the fic though, and that first week of putting it down and not touching it was hard. I'm obsessed. All I can think about is Dace and Cadence. Also, I already have a ‘to edit’ note as long as my arm.

But I am sticking to the break! I was only planning to take a week break, but June is the month that keeps on giving. I haven't stopped since after I put the fic down I think.

Hopefully I can get back to my writing routine next week! 

I suppose I better start with an introduction, like most things do.

I am Karumeru. Feel free to shorten that to Karu, or however you wish. I created this tumblr as an offshoot of my AO3 account so that I'd have somewhere to interact with my readers. Because of that, I'll assume that that's why you're here. So, welcome!

And if you've somehow stumbled upon this randomly, as life often does, then welcome to you too. I hope you enjoy your stay~

Oh yes, introductions. I'm a 30-something, short, Filipina woman. She/her pronouns. A nerdy, pansexual, extroverted gremlin. I live in England. Arguably the worst of the three countries that make up not-so-Great Britain, in the not-so-United Kingdom.

Because we live in a society, I have a day job working as an office manager for a local charity in my city. Outside of that, I spend my time slowly reading my ever-growing tbr pile, playing video games, playing D&D and of course, writing smutty fanfic.

I live with my partner and my cat. Here is a picture of Scooby, my cat. I hear the internet loves cats.

Anyway, I think that's me! I'm a fairly chaotic person, which I'm leaning more into now in my adult life. I won't have a regular posting schedule and I'll kind of just pop on here as an when. There may be long swathes of nothing for months. You're more likely going to see a reblogged post than anything new. But I will try to post regular updates on any writing progress! It's something that's stuck in the past year and a half, so I'm fairly confident there'll be a lot of that.

But also, I'll leave my asks open in case you want to give me a poke, check that I'm still writing or even just ask me what my favourite ice cream flavour is. I don't know, I like talking about myself and my thoughts I guess.