To those that want to know what happened to HOFY & DA:

I feel it imperative to preface this statement with a little backstory. As some of you may know, before fan fiction, I had never written anything creatively. I'm a stay-at-home mom in my late *cough-thirties-cough* and hadn't written as much as a short story. I was bored. My children are in high school now, and my husband travels a lot. I needed something to occupy my time. I found fan fiction through my love of Twilight and Stephenie Meyer's website and decided to give writing a go when the Sexy Eddie contest was created. I was the perfect definition of an accidental author.

Once I had discovered this hidden ability, I wrote for the sheer joy of writing and exploring characters and human nature. Holding Out for You was a means for me to write a story about two people who had dealt with adversity and heartbreak in their lives to eventually learn to love again. I used Stephenie Meyer's characters to tell a tale of something that touched my heart, and over the years, I've been told that it has touched others as well. For this reason, I wanted more than just the Twific community to be able to read a story that means so much to me. So, I rewrote HOFY into an original story to share with my readers. Yes, that means that those of you who were too ashamed to tell your family and friends that you read Twific (just like me) can now send them to read HOFY, which is now called Ready to Love Again, on my website as an original story without shame.

I have to admit that the thought of publishing HOFY has crossed my mind since it's been a huge trend in the fandom. I originally started reworking it for that purpose over a year ago; however, with a lot of soul searching and some tears, I had to determine what would be best for my possible career as an author in the future. Once I had a clear picture of where I want to be in the next five years, I had to figure out what I wanted to do with HOFY. If my main goal is to share this story with more than the Twific community then I could still do that by posting it in its new form on my original fiction website. So the speculation can stop. I'm not publishing HOFY other than posting it on my personal website under a different title and not as a derivative work.

When I began writing HOFY, I always knew that once it was on a public website that people would be able to download it and share the story. At the time, I had no qualms about that. I'm sure that HOFY is floating out there in cyberspace, and I've accepted that, even if I wish now that it weren't so. Since I'm coming out of the closet with my writing to family and friends, I've pulled the original forms of HOFY and DA for personal reasons and hope that any copies will stay behind closed doors. LOTK and Molto Bella will remain on the FF site.

The new story, Ready to Love Again (originally HOFY), is in my opinion, better written. For the most part, the plot is the same, but I am confident that my writing style has changed so much that the same message is given in less words. I took a year, rewrote the story into third person, cut more than 70%, had an awesome beta look it over, condensed the scenes that I kept, had a group of awesome readers/writers/editors from Fictionista Workshop critique it to death, and then added a whole heck of a lot of new stuff. My hope is that even a previous reader will be able to enjoy it again. I hope you'll accept it as a replacement for the original version.

The next question that will probably be asked is whether I'm leaving the fandom. The answer to that is no. I love this fandom—even with the unbelievable amount of drama that I've witnessed recently. I have made too many wonderful friends to ever be truly gone. Friends are great and keep me motivated and focused on writing, but what I treasure the most are the amazing readers with whom I have had the opportunity to interact. I appreciate and love every one of you that left a little bit of encouragement and critique over the years. Your input has helped me become a better writer and also recognize the emotions a reader goes through as they immerse themselves in a story. That alone has been invaluable.

The last question I will address is whether I'm publishing anything? That remains to be seen. I'm working on a few original stories that I hope will be published someday. For those that will speculate about what publisher I will pursue, I will put those rumors to rest now. I am determined to go the traditional route to see if my stories can stand on their own. That means once my story is complete, I will look for an agent that will find a publishing house to fit my needs as an author.

I have started a website for my original stories, and I encourage those that want to know about my writing to sign up for updates.

You can find my new website at http://annalyseknight.com

You can follow me on twitter http://twitter/AnnalyseKnight

You can send me an email here: ObsessingOverEdward@gmail.com

Thank you, and I appreciate your support.

Annalyse