I know, it's been four years since I last touched this story or wrote anything on Fanfiction, but I am still active. I still care about the stories I have written on here- they are all precious and important to me. The REASON I have been MIA for the past for years is due to University. I last updated this story June 2016; shortly after that I started applying for and then began college. That took over my entire life for four years straight. After four years of hard work, at the end of July this year (so a month ago), I graduated with a BA in History and a Minor in English. Despite being so busy with University and life, I have kept up with things on here. I have read every single PM and review for every story that I have received over these past four and a half years and have been so happy to find so many people finding my stories or even coming back and rereading many of them, leaving a review about it all. I have seen the many, many reviews asking for me to continue writing, to update my stories again. I wanted to speak and assure everyone that I was not abandoning ANY of my stories, but life was busy. I also didn't want to clog up my stories with author notes, hence why I have not put one up at all these past four years. I don't even want to put one up now, but I have to address something I just came across.

I just received an anonymous review for this story that shocked me. I understand that I have been gone for years and that many of you love this story and wish for me to continue it, and yet I haven't. But UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE, are these stories free for pilfering. I spend hours and hours pondering and writing on all of my stories. I joined this website on August 25, 2010 (HAPPY BELATED TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY FOR ME) and have been writing Fanfictions pretty much since that day. Fanfiction is what led me to realize just how much I love writing stories and how much I want to be a published author one day. I have dozens (and I mean DOZENS) of stories on my computer of Fanfictions that I have written over the past decade, many never even published. Just because I haven't updated, doesn't mean that I haven't been writing Fanfictions these past four years. I honestly never stopped; any time I had free time, I would try to write. Even if I was exhausted and tired of writing- Because being an History Major/English Minor means writing A LOT OF PAPERS/STORIES which can get tiring and make you hate writing anything more -I still loved Fanfiction too much to truly step away. I care for EVERY story I have ever written on here, whether published or not.

So, I published this Author's Note to say that I am not dead or anything else; I am fine and alive and am not abandoning ANY of my stories. This story in particular, Zayden Blaze, is a story that I have enjoyed writing from the moment the idea came to me. I have wanted to update this story so badly over the past four years and have SEEN all the reviews asking for an update, but I want to do my love and other's love for this story justice. So, when I got hit with a massive surge of writer's block for this story right before I started college, I held off and didn't add anything here because the last thing I want to do is send this story somewhere that doesn't fit the hard work and effort of the first Eighteen Chapters. Even more, I fell away from the Percy Jackson fandom during this time and started exploring other Fandoms with my writing, making it even harder to continue this story again as I wanted my focus to be all there on this story so that I could continue it right. AND I DO PLAN TO!

So, I want to make it clear and can be if I haven't already, that ZAYDEN BLAZE IS NOT FOR SALE! I started this story in 2012 and created each chapter of this story because I loved the idea that came to me one day reading the one-shot 'His Return' by NikiD1233 (which has disappeared off Fanfiction last I checked for it). I ASKED HER PERMISSION if I could start a story based on the foundation of her story about Percy being banished and going to Chaos. So, I started this story eight years ago. I have been away from it for four years, but have no intention of abandoning this. I still plan to come back and continue this story. This is for all Fanfiction readers out there- each author loves the stories they write and each author has created their stories and worked hard on them- the ideas are theirs. If someone wants to create a spin-off of sorts from the story you HAVE TO GET THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION. I have had people over the years come to me asking to build off of Zayden Blaze- to go from the idea of the first chapter and create their own story from that foundation and have said yes. I've had people explicitly not do this and try to publish this story as their own. Luckily, these times truly amazing fans of this story pointed such things out to me, leading me to address and stop the plagiarizers. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN YOU TRY TO ADOPT A STORY WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S EXPRESS PERMISSION THAT THEY ARE ABANDONING IT. That is a complete misstep in terms of the etiquette of writer's.

If an author does not update a story for two, four, TEN years, you cannot assume that the writer is dead or abandoning their story and choose to adopt the story as your own especially as an anonymous reviewer. That is not how this works! Each writer has created and cared for their stories and, honestly, writing clear and concise and plot filled stories/chapters is harder than it looks. All authors work hard on their stories here- they are all doing it for fun with no payment from it. We CHOOSE to create stories and put them out here for people to read, see, and enjoy. I do not want to come across as mean or angry here in this message, I am merely trying to be firm and clear in addressing this concern that I came across from a review to this story that I woke up to this morning. Yes, it has been four and a half years since I last updated this story; I understand the frustration and sadness people have expressed in reviews as to the stopping of this story being updated and have been sad myself about it too. But, University and life take precedence over Fanfiction as it should for everyone with anything! I worked my butt off for the past four years at University and was finally rewarded a month ago with my BA and Minor, even finishing it all despite this Pandemic going on right now.

I plan to come back to my stories on here as I still care for many of them, but I will do it at a time that best fits the life that I have now. This Pandemic has made life crazy for us; I just graduated from college during a job freeze, just finished moving to a new place only days ago, and am now trying to map out my life and future during all of this chaos. I want to come back to my stories on here, but I have to be realistic. So, I promise that I am not abandoning my account or any of my stories on here; I have read every review I have gotten for my stories these past four years and have been so happy that so many still cherish and love my stories and want to read more. The reviews I have gotten over the years have often brightened my day or made me long to be back on Fanfiction when I gain a sad review or a review asking for an update. So, sorry for this crazy long author's note- I am here, I am not dead, I am not abandoning anything, and I hopefully will be back on here soon with a nineteenth chapter for this story! I thank you all for the reviews and love you have shown for this story(for all my stories) and wish you all good luck in life until I can update a story on here again!