Hey everyone, Ingie here. For now, I'll just mention that I enjoy drawing and painting as well as writing, and you can check out my art by visiting my deviantART gallery.

To tell a little more about myself, I'm a college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree (English Major, Writing Minor). As of now I do not write professionally, though I do work for a book publishing company. I'd like to publish a book of my own someday, but so far fanfiction interests me more than anything original I've come up with. xD

Thanks for visiting/reading and especially for reviewing! :D

I've started a Fortitude club on deviantART, just as an official gathering place for readers. You'll find a great collection of Fortitude fan art there -- submitted by myself and other artists. :)

Also, I've started a series of profiles for some select characters in Fortitude, and the first one, Heather, has been uploaded here. Now you can see what she looks like. :D

For all you Tumblr users, I also have a Fortitude Tumblr blog. I post updates, sketches, Q&As, and sometimes excerpts there.

Update 4/17/2011: Well, after about four years of writing, Fortitude is finally complete...but not for me! Not quite, at least. Fortitude has been, if anything, a learning process. Looking over the older chapters, I see many things I'd like to change or improve (sometimes style-related, sometimes plot-related), and so I plan to do a complete revision of the story. To me the story isn't complete until I've written it to the best of my abilities, especially since I've come up with better ideas over the years. Revision is, in most cases, a very natural part of the writing process, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. There are some sections in Fortitude that embarrass me, and I want to be able to read through it again without cringing, lol.

So what does this mean, exactly? Well, it means only good things. Aside from fixing the style/flow/grammar issues, I will be changing parts of scenes, replacing scenes with better ones, or adding completely new scenes. Any part that feels forced or weak will be redone. Also, because I've put considerable thought into Link and Zelda's backstory over the years, it has changed quite a bit since I started writing Fortitude. Thus Fortitude will have to change too, particularly the flashbacks. One example is the flashback dream in Ch. 12, when Link proposes to Zelda. I've never been entirely satisfied with that scene (if fact I don't like it much at all anymore) because it felt forced the entire time I wrote it (which took forever). The circumstances of Link and Zelda's life during that time have changed somewhat, and so I must rewrite it. It will be similar though; I'm not changing it completely.

If anyone feels they're happy with the way Fortitude is and doesn't like the idea of a revision, I urge you to fear not; these changes are for the better. But if you want to keep the current version anyway, you'll have to save it to your computer or something, because once I revise a chapter, the original is gone for good. I will not keep both versions posted. I have no attachments to the things I'm changing, so it's gotta go. Out with the old and in with the new, I say. And as I approach more recent chapters, the revisions should become less and less noticeable.

I mentioned that I've been putting a lot of thought into Link and Zelda's past, and there's a reason for that. I've decided to attempt a prequel to Fortitude. Yup, I've already started an outline for it.

When I started writing Fortitude, I wasn't even an English Major--I was still an Art Major. I had never seriously studied writing, so the process of writing Fortitude was pretty messy. I was impatient and I started posting as I wrote, which was a problem because I need to know the entirestory before I can start writing. I thought I knew the whole thing in my head, but then I ran into some problems, and I was forced to take a long hiatus to create an outline and plot out a better ending. I want to avoid that this time around. So it'll be a long time before I actually post a chapter of the prequel, especially with the revision. If you want updates on my progress, you can check out the Fortitude group page on deviantART: http://fortitude-fans.deviantart.com/

What I can tell you is that the prequel will cover a period of time starting when Link and Zelda are ages 14/13 and ending when they are 17/16. So three years, more or less. Link's story will begin with him joining the military; Zelda's will begin when Ashton starts to take an actual interest in her (which she reciprocates o_O). The prequel will be written completely in 3rd person this time, not primarily 1st and some 3rd like Fortitude. I just feel that'll be the best way. I will, however, do my best to maintain that sense of immediacy in third person (getting into the character's heads) you see in Fortitude, so it won't be too objective.

Your support throughout Fortitude has been nothing short of amazing; never did I dream the story would attract as much attention as it did. You guys really inspired me to keep writing, and I really, truly appreciate it. I sincerely hope you'll check out those revisions and stick around for the prequel as well. :)