An Important Notice About Josh Goes to College

I was naive. I sat on my couch one day, it was well over 100 degrees and I sat in my air conditioned apartment with nothing to do, there was NO way I was going outside in the heat. I was tired of TV, tired of the internet, there was no new stories on Nifty and I got curious. 'What if I wrote a story?' I clicked on the submissions button and read what they required, 'hey, I can do this how hard can it be?' the first chaper of Josh was written an hour later, no thought to where it was going or anything. Oh how naive of me. For those of you who are authors as well, I give you my utmost respect. I was one of those readers who bitched at authors who didn't update for several months, I don't now. I know what it's like to not have time to write and I know how I feel when I realize it's been way too long since I updated. My heart goes out to all of you. I've received more emails than I can possibly count telling me everything from "I love Josh" to your life stories, you have all touched my heart. I've laughed, I've even cried over your emails telling me about yourselves. What touches me, makes me hopeful are those stories where some of you have discussed having a partner for 30, 40, 50+ years, those are the ones I especially get teary eyed over.

I wanted to end Josh at their graduation but when I was feeling overwhelmed I sent out a notice that Josh would end with ch 14 and I got countless emails begging me to keep going and I decided that yes, since I did want it to end with their graduation originally, I made the decision to keep going, though I had no idea how to get to their graduation, I said I would take a hiatus to come up with ideas but as all of you know, I have yet to give you ch 14 and Josh hasn't been updated since January. At this point, taking a hiatus isn't right and I have not had the time to think about where Josh is going so what do I do? Write ch 14 and then make you wait several more months? No, I can't do that to you. Besides, I don't know if I have the time to try to think of where to go next. I have a lot of stuff coming up in my life over the next several months, stuff that will limit my time even more. I have decided to end Josh with ch 14. I know you are all probably disappointed, sad, angry at me and you have every right to be, I haven't been reliable. I will tie up all the loose ends, all the questions you could possibly have about the characters in the epilogue. My mistake with Josh and to a lesser extent Life as I know it, was that I didn't plan out the story (stories), I had no idea where I was going with Josh. I can understand if you avoid future stories written by me but I can assure you that I have learned from my mistakes and I will not post another story until it is complete or nearly complete so that you won't have to wait a long time nor will you have a story you like, ended before it really should be.

It hurts me to disappoint you all and I've disappointed myself as well, I truly was naive about what it took to write a story and ending Josh now definitely wasn't what I wanted to do but for my wellbeing and for the sake of all of you and the fact that I don't want to make you wait several months for me to figure out what to do with the story, I'm ending it with the next chapter instead.

Life as I know it will continue, for how long I'm not sure but it isn't even close to ending at this point. I can safely say that there are several more chapters and at the rate I update, that is a long time.

I deeply apologize for having to do this, my heart aches but I know that I made the right choice, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. Please give me another chance in the future, I will like I said, make sure I complete a story before I post. Ch 14 of Josh will be up soon, maybe a week.

I hope all of you are well

Sam