A Heartfelt Thank You and Presenting the Brand Spanking New Den

Thank you all for your kind words of condolences. I’m deeply touched by your thoughtfulness and compassion. To know I’m surrounded by such caring friends gives me another reason to be grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

❤ ❤ ❤

I know I’ve been very quiet lately. Besides having been in a less cheerful mood from the recent sad happenings, I’ve also been busy both at work and at home. Historically speaking, September has always been a hectic month for me and our family, so the sharp spike in activities is sort of expected. The month strikes the beginning of several countdowns. Countdown to Thanksgiving. Countdown to Christmas. Countdown to the holiday season. And countdown to the New Year–do you know that there are less than 100 days remaining before we say farewell to 2015 for good?

BUT there’s another reason why I’ve been inactive as of late. Unfortunately, it’s not writing. Instead I’ve allocated the majority of my free time working on something that doesn’t require a lot of writing yet is still quite demanding to accomplish.

Before I tell you what it is–have you noticed anything new with the site? So? What do you think? How do you like the bright and airy layout? After having been cooped up in the dark for three years, I finally decided to come out to play in the light 😉

If you recall from my anniversary post, this is one of the changes I’m working on to improve the site. A new layout is just what the site needed. Yet it’s not the only thing–there’s more.

Do you remember how I contemplated about moving the site out of the public domain so that I could share more things in a private setting and bringing the fanfics back? Well, I’ve come up with a plan that essentially will allow me to do both and more.

The current Beautiful Illusion site will stay as it has been for the last three years as a personal, fandom-centric blog, but some of its original materials, which include all my fiction and non-fiction writings, will be relocated to another place–to The Den. Those of you who attempted to access the translations last week might have discovered the existence of the new place.

What is the den? The den is a new site that will host all my works and other materials I want to share with you. Just as the name implies, It’s like the cozy den or reading nook in your house, a place where you run to after a long, stressful day at work, a place for you to relax and enjoy reading without any interruption. Unlike this blog, it will be free from my whimsical and long ramblings, so that you can immerse yourself in the content, and I’m trying to make it as intuitive as possible so that you could navigate your way around the site with ease.

Eventually, it’s also going to serve as a repository for all my writings, something that this blog has failed to achieve even though it was its original purpose. That means soon you can read all my fics in The Den, in addition to AO3 and FF.net. However, the fics will not be available in this blog anymore–but I’ll continue to give links for the updates as I’ve been doing.

So yeah… Now you know. This is the other reason why I’ve been quiet.

The place is still a work in progress, but it’s up and running. And you’re welcome to take a peek anytime 😉

If you’re curious, why don’t you come by now and check it out yourself. And while you’re at it, you can see if there’s anything I missed, or if you have other suggestions to make it even better. Ultimately, the place is for you to enjoy so I want to make sure everything there is to your liking.

🐻 Go to The Den 🐻

Lastly, I’m leaving you with a drawing by one of my Albert-Candy favorite artists oekakicandy. As I mentioned before, I don’t typically post fanart here, but I’m willing to make another exception. Oekaki’s works have always managed to enchant me. Although the strokes are not as refined and polished as works by other artists and the drawings look more like sketches, oekaki never fails to depict Albert and Candy’s image to perfection, from Albert’s gentle yet playful nature to Candy’s sweet spirit. And I truly adore the one below to bits. It’s the perfect visual for a scene in the future chapter of All I Want, when they’re in Paris 😀

Albert & Candy by oekakicandy

PS – Yes, I know, I still OWE you replies and updates. I haven’t forgotten them. I’ll work on the replies first and the updates later, once my mind is less cluttered, and I can write properly.

A Gothic Twist

Hello!

In case you’re wondering, I’m still here, alive and well, finally fully recovered from the stomach flu bug.

I’m sorry for being absent for a while and for the lack of updates. On top of the bug, these last few weeks have been rather hectic, and it seems it’ll be like that for another week or so. There are so many RL things that are happening right now with the summer slowly winding down. The extreme arid climate doesn’t help either with my allergy symptoms, leaving me feeling lethargic every night that I barely have the energy to do anything else other than lying down on the bed.

To those of you who sent messages, emails, and dropped comments on the blog , thank you. I truly appreciate you taking the time to write to me. I’ll respond to each one of you as soon as I can.

I know a lot of you have been waiting for new post and updates. Not to worry. Now that I’m feeling much better, rest assured an update is coming soon. In fact, I’m currently working on a massive post that I expect would create quite a stir. (Lucy–I think you’re going to find this post interesting :D) If all goes well, I’m hoping to be able to publish it by end of week, if not the following week. So stay tuned for that.

Before I sign off, take a look at the beautiful image below.

What do you think? Do they remind you of anyone?

Our favorite blond couple perhaps? Albert and his sweet Candy 😀

I don’t usually post artwork by other artist in this blog, but this one is too breathtaking not to share. It’s created by the super talented SatelliteGhost

Even though the couple resembles our beloved couple, they’re not really Albert and Candy. If you zoom in on the neck of the woman, you’ll see (vampire) bite marks.

That can’t be Albert’s. He isn’t a vampire.

Or is he?

Have you noticed how Albert doesn’t seem to age? Could it be that he’s actually a vampire or a descendant of that? Vampires are immortal beings that don’t grow old. Now that would surely explain his youthful looks. Wouldn’t that be an interesting twist? A Gothic spin on the Candy Candy story 😉