TLDR; at the bottom of this message. This is a revised message from the update on Royal Road where I switched platforms previously before entering this contest.
---------------------------------------
Hello everyone,
I'm sorry this is not the chapter update you might have expected, but the story is in fact completed. I heartily aplogize to you all for suddenly taking an extended hiatus. Life threw a lot at my face and then the pandemic happened. I don't want to be too personal, but as I'm sure many of you might have also experienced this, the quarantine and virus really cast a dark shadow just when I was graduating from university.
Although I am not upset by the lack of a physical commencement and ceremony, my life, like many, was turned upside down. Adding onto the depression that had been creeping in since last year, I was not in the best place in the last few months. Only recently was I able to pick myself up and slowly find the time to pick up the pen again. I think I am mostly ok now, and I thank you for your patience and understanding. No words can express how much every reader means to me, regardless if they dropped this book, will drop, or continue to support.
Part of my motivation to write again was that fact that I had given myself a New Years resolution of finishing the first book in the series. And seeing that Wattpad changed their annual contest to one that encompassed completed stories from 2017 to now, I challenged myself to finish and revise the story in time for the deadline of September 30 (legit, submitted it ten minutes before midnight lol!). Wattpad was the first writing platform I had ever heard of many years back and was the first one I ever tried publishing on. I didn't get very far in writing (haha) and ended up dropping my story very early.
Multiples changes have been made since this final revision, so even if you have this story up to this point in the past, I reccomend rereading it from the start. It's been a long time, so hopefully even the parts that have stayed the same will feel new. But since I'm entering the 2020 Wattys, that means I cannot post the story anywhere else in accordance with their submission rules. I will be taking down the chapters on Webnovel by deleting the text only, not the actual chapters which will still appear to be the same from the table of contents.
And so, finally, if you want to read the full, now completed (woohoo!) story, please go to my Wattpad by copying the link in the authors note at the end. As you will see, the title of the first book has been changed to "Promise of the World" with "Canaan" as the series title. Due to how long this story ended up being when I actually started writing it based off my finished series outline which details out every plot point and even some dialogue, I estimate that the series length will be eight instead of three.
This is a huge difference, but a much more conservative one as opposed to my ambitious trilogy (or is it the other way around? lol). Symbolically enough, I think 8 is an appropriate number for this story as it ties into the concept of infinite time. If you are curious, I roughly sketched out meaningful titles for each book in the series below.
Promise of the World - Beginning, life anew, hopeful
Halcyon - Rembrance of old idyllic days (referring to book 1 & 2 in comparison to the future)
Tempest - The storm, rising tension to the first climax
Reprise - The coming of a second hero
Eternity - A story lost to the ages but forever held by a few
Epiphany - Return to the ancient era, uncovering the truth
Requiem - The end of forever, building to second climax
Covenant of Time - Final promise, resolution
Thank you kindly, happy reading, and wishing you all the very best health and happiness!
\(^w^)/ <333
---------------------------------------
TLDR;
Quarantine happened. I'm back. I finished writing and revising book one and entered it into the 2020 Wattys. As per the submission rules, I need to temporarily make the story exclusive to Wattpad for the duration of the contest. Only the text of old story chapters will be deleted.