Hello fellas. This ain’t a chapter, I do apologize for breaking my upload cycle again. I’m currently on a long stay abroad but also dragging a heap of trouble from both back home and here. I can still write at every chance I can, but the funny thing is I never seem to have the time to edit. As I got more accustomed to writing, re-reading them the next day became harder.

  I know things will get better. The going doesn’t get easier even with the acknowledgment in mind but I know it will.

  Life here is fast and I try to keep up. Almost every aspect has rapidly changed in the past 3 weeks or so.

  But those are just my blabbering. The purpose of this note is not about me. It’s about you guys.

  Once again, to whoever would bat their eyes on my work longer than a cigarette burn—I would like to thank y'all from the bottom of my heart. Reaching a 10k read was a big deal for me, but reaching the 20 in a shorter time brings me joy without words to describe.

  A few weeks ago, someone pm me some questions regarding my writing and reading. So I thought I might as well explain them here.

  For my favorite writer, I don’t have one. But my favorite poet is probably Charles Bukowski or William Blake, depending on the mood.

  For the work here on Faust, I did not pre-plan the city or the back story of the districts or certain characters at all. It was after maybe 15 chapters deep did I started drawing the city map out and connecting the dots between the factions and their unique positions on the larger scale of things.

  For inspiration in the locations or certain recurring buildings such as Lee’s apartment, Stynx, Piao Jie, ice breaker, downtown alleys, metro station kabuki. Those places are drawn from personal experiences and where I’ve been, hell I’ve lived in some of the places before I recreate them in Faust.

  The characters are a bit harder to explain, but I would say the best way to read these ballistic bastards is to keep in mind their environment and the people around them. We could come from the same womb but where we grew up and what we were fed will result in the most polar opposite persons in history. Some of the characters and events are, indeed written with my own history behind them, both the good and bad. But character creation is a very whimsical thing, I imagine the feats and the personalities that made the man before writing the man himself, and I try to let him break the expectation from both myself and the reader. And I love small interactions and motions that defines.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  To the next question in line, no. I have never taken any writing class nor tried to google the methods to do so. My major in college got no reach to anything close to literature or writing. Like I said a while back, this is the first thing I’ve written since school essays. It was my hobby, and now I treat it more and more seriously every day.

  Next, do I drink or smoke or do drugs as rapidly as the fellas in my story do? I drink about as much as they do in the fiction, smoking is….dependent on the mood again. I’ve never chain-smoked a pack like someone whiteout better things to do. The consumption could range from one cig per week to 3 per day. But no, not as much as the characters. I don’t do drugs (in most situations) but I have some run-ins with crack because of my friends but personally no. I can get high with just music. The next questions was about fights in the book, again I didn’t take something in particular for inspirations I just let my imagination run wild, but if I have to name one I would say from ‘raid2’ it’s a good flick. I do practice Muay Thai. And to connect it with a question from earlier—yes I was also a bartender for a while.

  Another throwaway thing is about the record player, some were telling me how the portable ones are the worst…yeah no shit. Give me a paper I’ll sign my full name on the statement. To be honest, the whole charade with the suitcase has nothing to do with itself at the moment.

  There were also some inquiries regarding my religious views, political stand, geopolitics problems, my own ethnicity, and my view on different ethnicities. To those I’ll answer it this way, please take a look at my profile pic, it’s a pendant of Saint Christopher. Patron saint of travelers and I do that a lot, I travel and I love to meet new eccentric sometimes scandalous, and dangerous people. I’ve seen and heard enough in my short life to get the ultimate answer to all those questions and all those to come— Chill, eh?

  Last question, is there any supernatural or magic behind the story unfolding? No. Not at the moment.

  Alright, that’s about all! Once again thank you for the support. It’s been the longest ride, I enjoy it plenty and I wish you all the best!