Author’s Note for “Dear Sakura”

 

 Aside from a brief sentence or two, I’ve never done author’s notes

 before. I’m also still new to fan fiction, so your patience really is

 appreciated. Thanks seem to be in order, so we’ll start there.

 

 Thank *you* for reading the story. It’s a bit long, and it’s coming

 out in several parts over a period of time, so Faithful Reader’s

 dedication is very much appreciated by the authors. We didn’t plan on

 it being this long, but then we didn't plan on it being any shorter,

 either. We just wrote, and tried to let the story tell itself. It

 did. We hope you like it.

 

 Collaborating with Heather of Amazoness Duo is a delight. Creatively

 speaking, we make a very harmoniuos pair. We share a similar

 viewpoint on a lot things, and both got on very well in our work. She

 was the reason I began to do fan fiction last year. I was inspired by

 her work and thought, “I would love to be able to write like that.”

 Well, I still can’t write like she does, and don’t expect I ever

 will. I have experience in non-creative writing, but she has genuine

 talent. As she gains experience, she pushes the limits of her

 ability. It’s astonishing to see what she’s done in just the year

 I’ve known her. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to assist her in

 writing this series. Thank you very much, Heather. It really means

 more to me than I can say.

 

 Finally, thank you, Clamp. Card Captor Sakura is a luminous series,

 filled with magic and passion, humor and adventure, and tinged with

 the sadness of ephemeral beauty that is so distinctly Japanese. Their

 work is a beautiful creation, a rare gift for readers lucky enough to

 discover it. The characters are vivid and alive, so real they attract

 our thoughts, stir our feelings, and fill our dreams. Fan fiction

 covers a lot of imaginative ground, but we wanted the characters to

 be true to Clamp's original vision. Thre story takes place six years

 after the end of the manga, and about 3 months after Sakura has

 married Syaoran and moved to Hong Kong. It begins when Tomoyo writes

 a letter to her friend, who is settling into a new life in a far away

 place.

 

 G.P.

 

 

 Hello, minna-san! ^-^ The story you are about to begin reading has

 taken something around half a year to write, countless e-mails sent

 back and forth to develop, and many a sleepless night. And it's

 longer and much more satisfying than a story that took me two years

 to write on my own. I've had a lot of fun being a part of this and I

 hope you'll have as much fun reading it. ^-^ I've always found

 collaborations with other authors exciting. But there are so many

 problems with it. If one of you loses interest, the entire series can

 collapse. If you have a conflict of interest, then the story can

 suffer. If you're writing styles are too dissimilar, then the whole

 thing looks painfully welded together. But none of that happened with

 this. I got to cowrite a story with my favorite CCS fanfic author and

 it went unbelievably smoothly. Through our e-mails, we managed to

 work out the direction of the story and more than that, we managed to

 delve deeper into the characters and the situations they found

 themselves in, getting a deeper look at Clamp's masterpiece as we

 went along. G.P. and I both view writing as more watchful than

 forceful, so I believe our styles went hand in hand. This was the

 most enjoyable time I've had writing since I started years ago. I'm

 extremely happy with how things have turned out. I never could have

 done this story on my own. The sheer scope alone would have been

 daunting, but G.P. always kept me inspired and eager to continue

 forward towards the stories inevitable conclusion. I didn't want it

 to be over, but all good things must come to an end. Even if no one

 reads this at all, I was simply delighted to have worked on it. G.P.

 is a magnificent writer and I hope that we can collaborate on another

 story in the not so distant future. This story was very emotional for

 me and even I had no real idea where it was going at times. I found

 myself crying while writing parts of it, lost in the swirling

 emotions surrounding our lead characters. This is Tomoyo's story.

 This is Sakura's story. I never wanted to impose my will upon it. I

 simply wanted to document it. I hope that we've done them proud. The

 turning points in the story, and even the ending were surprises for

 me. The characters wanted to go their own way and I was more than

 happy to see where they would lead. I hope they'll surprise you as

 much as they surprised me. 

 

 Heather of the Amazoness Duo