Mercurial > moonlitnights

     1 Author’s Note for “Dear Sakura”

     2 

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

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

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

     6 

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

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

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

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

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

    12 did. We hope you like it.

    13 

    14 Collaborating with Heather of Amazoness Duo is a delight. Creatively

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    25 more to me than I can say.

    26 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    38 place.

    39 

    40 G.P.

    41 

    42 

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

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

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

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

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

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

    49 collaborations with other authors exciting. But there are so many

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    57 delve deeper into the characters and the situations they found

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    78 much as they surprised me. 

    79 

    80 Heather of the Amazoness Duo