Moon Trek NEO III - Author's Notes

This could very well be the most epic story ever told if it weren't for the fact that I am such a bad writer.

What I mean by that is that I am 'technically' a bad writer, or so I have been told. (Insert smiley face here.) Seriously, when I posted what I thought was one of my better parts of Moon Trek II on my Facebook page for critique, I was told 'Technically, you need help.' 

It's come to be one of my favorite critique lines ever, and I think not only describes my writing but for me in general. 

By the time I am done with this story, I will probably have made over ten passes with it. Of course, that won't do a single thing to help my shabby grammar, since if I knew what the hell I was doing (grammar wise) I wouldn't have any grammar problems to deal with. However taking four years to finish a freaking story does have its drawbacks, one of which is falling out of contact with my prereaders.

I wish I could really say that it's taken me four years to complete this story because I wanted to make it perfect. That's not the case at all. It's taken me four years to complete this story because for about two and a half of those years I have had no desire to do pretty much anything but be a mopey asshole. 

The story behind that is uninteresting, but let's just say I am over that now, so for the past six months I have been finishing Neo Three and reworking and reworking and reworking it until I got it to where it is today.

Something I came up with early in the series was that there was going to be a conspiracy against Ranma involving the Vulcans and some dude on the Federation Council. You of course meet them at the end of Neo One, then get to know them a little better during Neo Two where they try and screw over Ranma in court.

Well, turns out if you don't plan your conspiracy out all the way to the end, you can end up with some massive cluster frack of a spider web that even the author who created it gets lost. 

Obviously, if I have no clue what the hell is going on, how can I expect you guys to, right?

So there was a lot of rewriting I had to do, and a lot more explaining and plot developing that needed to be done, which I hope explains why this story is a chapter and 60+ pages longer than the previous stories. 

I also tend to come up with scenes in my head for later in the story, so I write them, insert them, and then have to find ways to write them into the actual storyline. Sometimes that's easy.

Sometimes not.

Anyway, I really hope that I have made the story complicated enough for you to enjoy, but simple enough for you to follow. 

A couple more things I wanted to touch on.

First off, this story is not a slam against religion, regardless of whether or not it might seem that way. It's a slam against fighting *because* of religion. 

There is a difference.

Though I never specifically said the two races of Valerians were different religions. Really, it was more of a race war than it was a holy war, they were just using God to justify their racism.

So really it was a slam at racism and the corruption of religion to suit evil purposes. 

I tried to leave it pretty ambiguous which side could be considered the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'. 

Obviously, from the start it looked like the Westerns were the victims, being smacked by that ICBM. But without Valeria's Wikipedia, how do we know what the Westerns have done in the past to encourage Eastern ICBM development?

My point is, the Westerns tried to nuke the Sisko from their subs to trick them into helping them. They're not angels.

Secondly, I know Ryoga technically has Akari Unryu as a fiance, when I started the series, my familiarity with both series, Ranma and Sailor Moon, only extended to the animes (and with Sailor Moon, only so far as to the episode which had been released in the United States). 

Therefore, by my decree, in Moon Trek canon, Akari does not exist and therefore cannot interfere with Ryoga and Minako. 

Third and finally, I hope you will enjoy the fact that I switched the names on the Sailor Moon character to their Japanese names. I hope that (assuming anyone reads this) this will stop the angry letters, death threats, and kitty bombs.

Please think of the kitties.

So what's next?

Obviously Neo Four. The (obviously) fourth and final installment in the Moon Trek Neo series. I am assuming it will not take four more years to complete. 

If it does, that will be terrible, as it will have taken me, so far, one-third of my life to write seven fanfic stories. And only one of them has been very good. And even it wasn't THAT good!

Anyway, the plot of the next story is very simple.

Ranma and his crew have to unravel the massive conspiracy I have created and save the Federation before Resolution 77280-G is acted upon.

Simple, right?

Think 24, in space, with Ranma.

Oh, and I haven't used Ukyou yet, have I?

See you in 2014.

Just kidding.

Follow me on Twitter. 

Thanks for reading!

These author's notes were written with the story. Minor grammar edits were made, as well as the removal of a Facebook link.