Yeah, sorry. At least this time it's no one's fault except mine. I decided to try an experiment of writing outside my usual comfort zone, and I combined that with my usual plan of trying to wing it re: plot, and doing both at once was overly ambitious to say the least.
So after I stalled on that I listened to the excellent suggestions that were being made after I pulled the failed chapter 8, and tried to implement them, but when I spent the past couple of days getting zero inspiration on so much as 'designing a regular NPC for Sophia to play off of' (it was going to be her new bodyguard, because she was getting to where a security detail for their new golden goose was a thing)... well, when you can't touch the slightest bit of inspiration for so much as creating a sidekick, that's when you know your muse is giving up.
Fuck it, I
really want to make a tech-wank fic actually
work sometime given that this is my third failed attempt after "A Ghost of a Chance" and "The Light of the Forge", but I am going to have to figure out
how the hell I do that before I actually do that. And given that I am a classic seat-of-the-pants writer (every time I have attempted to create a full story outline before posting the first chapter online, I haven't come up with anything except such fragmentary puree of shit I never tried to post it at all), well, I'm going to need to figure out what kind of story best plays to my strengths instead of trying to write directly into my weaknesses.
Ah well, I've never pretended to myself to be a top-tier writer like, well,
ShaperV (thank you for your feedback) or several others, even if I do consider myself to be a solid mid-carder, so I'm not really that disheartened at finding that out nope, not really.
tldr; As I have the reputation of 'the author who quits stories because the fans drove him nuts', let me underline yet again that this is
not happening this time. I'm giving up on this because I'm stuck, no other reason, I freely admit it.
Thank you all for your support.