Hello! If you're here, it means you've finished "I Breathe Salt," and for that, I just want to express my sincerest thanks that you stuck around, and I hope you enjoyed the read! It really does mean a lot. All the comments and kind words I've received throughout the process of writing this first draft have been extremely motivating and usually I'd come on and always wind up smiling at some theory or nice message so for that, I want to thank you so, so much. Without the consistent motivation, I probably would not have finished this (at least, not at the rate I did), so I want to acknowledge that, first and foremost, here. Even you silent readers out there. The rise of reads on this - another unprecedented thing; we're at over 20,000 at the time I write this, holy hell - was also highly motivating. Thank you!

I also recognize this might get a little sappy, but bear with me here, I've just finished my very first first draft. There are some specific people I want to mention. First, Andi, at , you've been pushing me and congratulating me for little milestones throughout this whole process, and without your "Write As Rain" course, I absolutely would not have finished this first draft. You helped get me into a consistent schedule - I really, really have to thank you for that. Next, Levi, , you offered to be a sounding board for ideas, and I definitely took advantage of that. Without you, some of the more complex plot points and series of events here would've fallen flat or just not made any sense, so thank you for tolerating my spam! Both of you also made memes aplenty for this book and those are probably just as motivating as everything else (memes that I will be sharing in a separate post after this one because c'mon they're golden they must see the light of day).

A few more thanks I will extend to , , ,, and , just some friends who were also big sources of encouragement throughout the process, either for the whole thing or just a part of it, so thank you! All of you, for dorking out. Also and for letting me pop off at literally any point in time about anything about this story - I appreciate you too! And, although she probably won't see this, Addi, who unapologetically fangirled over this story and also kept me writing during the school year.

I obviously also can't go without mentioning , who made this gorgeous cover. It's been a while and I still marvel at how good it looks sometimes. Beautiful work.

I'll also go ahead and shout-out the profile here to finish up acknowledgements, who've had "I Breathe Salt" featured since around the end of November. Thank you for selecting this story!

Let's backtrack a bit: this is, as I've mentioned, a first draft, which means there are still a whole lot of issues that I'm gonna have to go back and fix once I finally decide to stop shelving it. In the past, I've asked friends not to provide feedback just yet, just so I could get through the first draft without feeling like I have to nitpick at everything before moving onto the next scene, chapter, all that. But because we're done, that's not an issue anymore!

Therefore, literally anyone, hit me with all the feedback you want! Critiques, criticisms, I am opening up the floodgates and I want y'all to flood me (rip me to shreds, baybee), because I am going to look at every single note/comment I'm given when I go to rewrite this story. Trust me, all 218,248 words of this story need work. Everything is valuable! Tell me your thoughts about the story as a whole, about certain scenes, about plot points and characters, about small details you did/didn't like. I'll also leave a few questions to get the ball rolling in this "chapter," if you will, just a few things that will really help me in the future.

i. Who was your favorite character, and why? Least favorite? Any you felt you should have connected to more, but didn't?

ii. What was your favorite chapter/scene/portion of this novel? Least favorite?

iii. Were there any chapters/scenes in this book you found to be extraneous and unnecessary? If so, which?

iv. Did you feel that the pacing dragged on too long in some places? If so, where? (Alternative: where did the story get boring? Did you find yourself skipping pages?)

v. Was the description/detail written into the narrative excessive, or did you find it satisfying?

vi. Did you feel that you understood the specifics mentioned about the paranormal universe (aka: did the worldbuilding make sense)?

vii. How did you feel about the opening of the story? What aspects of it either put you off or hooked you?

viii. Did the story hold your interest from the very beginning or did it take some time for you to get interested?

ix. Did you connect to Lacey Waits? At what points did you, or did you not, relate/connect to her most?

x. What initially drew you to begin reading this story?

xi. Do you have lingering questions or uncertainties about the story? Did you find any plot holes, or did anything not make sense?

xii. Did you feel that the stakes were high enough? Was the conflict interesting, and the story tense?

xiii. Thoughts on the reveal of the murderers/accomplices? Did you find the reveal to be believable (could you pick up on clues throughout the story that made the reveal make sense)?

xiv. Was the ending satisfying? How did you feel about the ending?

Of course, these are all optional (duh), and if you only want to answer a select few or a portion of a question, feel free! And if you want to comment on something I didn't ask about, again, hit me. It all helps.

Now, I've asked you some questions, but I'll also open this up the other way. If you have any questions for me - about literally anything - feel free to ask and I'll definitely have an answer!

Just one last thing before I let you all go (unless you plan to stick around for the update full of all the IBS memes)! So, I decided about halfway through this story that I wanted to make it part of a duology. So surprise! This is not the last you see of Lacey and Gideon!

I have no exact date for when I'll start to write this - I'd have to figure out the rest of the plot, and I have a schedule with different stories I want to get into before I get there - but I do have a few detail-crumbs to drop!

Part II of this duology will be titled Meadow of Dead Flies. In this one, we see Lacey and the gang ten years later. So far, I don't plan for them to return to Carrick, Iowa, but we do see her in Boston and a special little place called Tegicae Pike (also maybe Louisiana at one point, we'll see). So far, this part of the duology will be heavily based in the paranormal worldbuilding of this universe, and Lacey will have to combat Malevolence again head-on, in more intense conflict than we saw here (remember how they were trying to get her to pretty much lead lost souls to waiting mouths? Yeah, keep that in mind). There'll probably also be a big mystery aspect to this half, too, just to keep true to the vibes of the story. Second half is definitely gonna be grittier, I will say that. Grittier and more mystical.

I'm also really excited to introduce a few new characters that I think you're all gonna love. If you want to stay tuned in for that, I suggest either giving me a follow purely so you can see when I do wind up posting MoDF, or keeping this book in your library/archives (this is probably the least annoying option) since I will probably add a chapter here announcing that MoDF is going up...whenever it does. However, it should be able to be read as a stand-alone, so if you don't want to mess with that, it doesn't affect this story.

In the meantime, I will say I'm working on rebooting another story on my profile called Nature Boy (novella). If you happen to like the writing style and the general aesthetic/atmosphere of this story and you don't want to wait ten thousand years for MoDF, I will say the atmospheres are very similar. I've pretty much just gotta do some light edits and I'll have those first couple chapters up and then I'll be adding new starting April 17th.

Okay! Big mouthful of crap I just spouted at everyone! Thank you for dealing with me; this is pretty much 46 chapters worth of author's notes all compiled into one spot, I know it's a lot.

One last thank you for reading this story. I hope someday I get to share a much improved version of it.