Reasonable delays

I know there's been a significant delay between Chapters 59 and 60 (the coming chapter), but for those of you following on Twitter, deviantArt, LiveJournal, or Fanfiction.Net, you'll notice that I have not been completely slacking off with my writing.

I recently took part in the deviantArt Persona-pairings week, to which I submitted two short vignettes: "Firebrand" focusing on Yukiko and Souji, and "I Can't" focusing on Kanji and Rise. Both of these stories - like "1000 Words" - have links to the main "1 More Chance!" story. For those readers with particularly sharp eyes, you'll notice a very significant link between the events in "Firebrand" and Chapter 21 ("Just Like Magic"). And while "I Can't" does not have any direct correlation to events presented in "1 More Chance!", it does paint a pretty close picture of how I imagine Kanji and Rise to have come together as more than just friends.

That said, I had to take a bit of a breather with Chapter 60 (tentatively titled "Futures Imperfect"), to do some more in-depth research into Shinto than I had anticipated. Luckily, I have personal experience on which to draw, but it's still taken me some time to get a few of the (admittedly minor) details incorporated into the story for realistic flow of events. This chapter in particular I feel should read relatively true to life, and it's taking me time to push through that. (Yes, I've taken some gross liberties already, notably with Chie's and Yousuke's roles, but I also wanted to open up the traditional ceremony so that the A Team - and the reader - can see and experience the wedding for themselves. Naoto gets a bit of an upgrade, too, but I figured her situation was warranted by her precise personality and love of order.)

I did already cut quite a bit from the chapter (the gleeful drunk scene; the Rise/Kuma explanation; a minor sex scene recap), but I want to present this day as faithfully as I can, given the circumstances of it being these particular characters getting married. There's already a lot of talking and a lot of set-up, but I feel like it's worth it to present the story that I want to tell. If you're not a fan of that slow-moving denouement, I apologize that you'll be bored (potentially), but I don't apologize for writing the story the way that I want to do it.

I still hope to have Chapter 60 ready for reading before the full 2-month mark since Chapter 59 went up (8/18/2010), but I do hope you understand the issues involved with the delay.

Thanks!