I'm very pleased to say that work has been done and progress is being made.

My novel, tentatively titled "Halcyon Days", is currently clocking in at slightly over 14,000 words. With luck, I'll have it at the 15K mark before the end of this week. After that, I take a break and get to work on three (count 'em, three!) re-edits! Those keeping track can guess which stories I'm tackling next.

Meanwhile, Christmas is swiftly approaching. I have every intention to post the next set of Cast Photos, updating up to "Fallen Angel" and giving glimpses of future plans, by Friday. Here's hoping I manage to do it, given the mess of stuff I'll have to go through this week.

And that's pretty much it. I don't know if anything else is gonna get posted before the end of the year, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Here's hoping!

UPDATE-AGE: By "before the end of this week," I apparently meant by today! Re-edits, ho!

It's that time again - time for me to bore you all with development details for T:A-R! Why am I boring you, you may ask?

Well, for one thing, I'm bored. So I may as well entertain to alleviate my boredom.

Anyway, development details.

Back when I was initially planning out the storyline (before Armada finished airing and before Energon and Cybertron had started), I knew that somewhere after the conclusion of Arc One, I'd want to give the Autobots some reinforcements. Jetfire and Sideswipe were definites, but one character that didn't make an appearance was Devcon. (For those who don't know who Devcon is, check here - [link] ) Anyway, he would have been pretty close to the original G1 version, but with a totally new alernate mode, something akin to this ([link]), and with two Mini-Con partners of his own (I don't recall their names, but both were going to take their names from Technobots and one of them was definitely going to be Scattershot). Devcon was eventually removed from my plans once Cybertron came along and we were introduced to Evac and Crosswise, who both filled niches that I wanted Devcon for (a Transformer with a helicopter alt-mode and an Autobot bounty hunter).

Another change was in the crew of the Acheron. It was always going to be found on Earth, and it was mostly going to be crewed by the BW remolds from Armada. However, Rhinox wasn't my original choice for the ship's commander - it was, in fact, Storm Jet (the RID version - [link] - rather than the Energon version). I suspect that when plans changed, his personality got shifted onto Longhorn by me subconsciously. Much smaller group of prisoners also - just Predacon and Terrorsaur. Needless to say, that got seriously expanded once I dove into the Universe line.

Finally, I had much different plans for what ultimately became "Combine and Conquer" - instead of introducing the Constructicons and the Aerialbots, it instead introduced Tidal Wave and Overload! And it was much more a direct adaptation of the "Key To Vector Sigma", so much that I initally planned on featuring Alpha Trion as a character. But again, Cybertron inspired me to change my plans - why have Alpha Trion when you already have Vector Prime? Ultimately, however, plans seriously changed - Tidal Wave and Overload got introduced much earlier than I'd originally planned, we got the Powerlinx Combiners in Energon, and so forth.

So many stories, so little time.

Novel's up to just past 13K - I've got a busy day tomorrow, so I doubt much will be done with it, but I suspect I will get up to 15K before the end of this month...if not this week. And once that's done, I'll be back to the re-edits.

My overworked and underpaid editor now has a large amount of my stuff on her lap to edit...enough that I suspect that if we met in person, she'd strangle me before greeting me. No idea when the next one will be posted, but I have every hope that it will be soon.

Though one thing's for sure, I'm going to have plenty of time to think things over for Arc Four...including a few choice additions to the arsenal courtesy of aftermarket productions. ^v^

Here's hoping!

And the first draft for the re-edit to "Forging Excalibur" is done...as of Wednesday. Some clarification, some rewriting, some new bits...and a bit of unintentional serialization. With luck, it'll be posted here in the near-future.

But now for the really nice news. I've gotten more done on my novel! Today, I've passed the 12.5K mark, and I fully anticipate getting up to 15K before the end of this year! And once that's done, back to the re-edits.

Good news, yes?

Also, I've got plans percolating for Arc Four - none (save , my able editor and co-plotter) will have any clue as to what I have up my sleeves! It shall be amusing! Perhaps even epic!

Though hopefully, not boring.

By tomorrow, I'll be done with the rough on the re-edit for "Forging Excalibur". I'll probably add a scene or two, but I don't expect there to be too many more changes. When it gets posted remains to be seen, but I suspect it'll be in a few months - all depends on :iconlonegamer78:'s timetable.

Once I'm done with it, I'll go back to the novel - with luck, I'll get another 5,000 words done on it by the end of next month. After that, I re-edit the Hot Shot-Wheeljack trilogy! Oh the plans I have in mind for that trilogy!

Meanwhile, I now have additional cash. I might even be able to buy Christmas gifts for myself. Now the question is...what do I buy?