The Royal Thief

The Last Author's Note

I have a few things to go over in this so bear with me.

(In the media are the original cover and then the cover I used for a long time after that, for old time's sake)

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First off, remember my whole theory contest thing? Where I was attempting to bribe people to give me their theories? Yeah, that. Anyway, as per usual I really just wanted to list everyone who commented any theory at all but I can only do so many prizes, so... I limited it to people who didn't abandon the book half-way through, and from there to a few of my favorite theories.

Not necessarily correct ones. Just to be clear.

But I couldn't decide on first/second/third, so in no particular order: Lavenderstar, HazelGraceWaters, and sombody_random! (I went through almost all seventy-three chapters to decide this, guys. And I still wanted to pick like five more people).

So the prizes are:

-Once I see you've read the epilogue, I will pm you the blurb, title, cover and possibly preview of the first chapter of the second book so you get to see everything first! (Unless you take too long to read the epilogue... I won't post-pone the official posting of book two just for one or two people, but you'll still have all the other prizes!)

-Some kind of graphic, either a banner or character drawing or other media-thing if you have a book or if you don't have one, an icon or profile header (I know I may not be the best designer but the good thing about it being a prize is that they're completely free and you are in no way required to actually use them :P)

-Dedications (one person gets the last chapter, one person gets the epilogue, and one person gets the first chapter of the second book)

-Get to submit a prompt for an extra story!

I'll pm you guys about all of this :)

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Now about that extra story thing— the other thing I have to say is that though I will mark this as complete when I post the epilogue, there will still be updates: both in Fire and Ashes, as well as little extras added on after the epilogue, including but not limited to: short story prologues (for example the Midwinter story, which I will move to the end so it is no longer smack in the middle of the book), some random talking about how the book was supposed to go but didn't, possibly some Q&A sessions if you guys were interested in getting some non-spoiler answers about the TRT universe (would you?) and a few other things I have planned.

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I have posted book two, so after you read this go to my profile and add it to your library! It's also in the external link (I'm scared of losing some people in the transition lol so don't abandon me just because you don't have the book!)

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Less exciting: I will be un-publishing the other two authors note chapters because they're no longer relevant, though I'm sure that doesn't affect anything. At some point, probably (hopefully), I will also be tackling the huge editing list I've compiled from all of your helpful comments, and after that submitting it to be a featured book— definitely a (very) long shot, but I'm excited to see!

I've also been considering creating a French translation, just as practice because I'm always wishing I was better at French. It will probably (definitely) be terrible, and I may chicken out of it, but if I don't that will probably happen over the summer as well.

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Finally, I just need to say thank you. To my sister who put up with me bugging her to JUST READ THE UPDATE ALREADY and threatening to kill characters, to @vivian_mendes for introducing me to wattpad in the first place, and to everyone who has ever voted or commented or even just read a single page of this messy story, even if you have no idea I'm thanking you right now because you dropped it halfway through— thank you anyway. I honestly never thought I would get past the second or third chapter of this story, much less finish it, and it's only because of you guys that I did. I can't believe we've come so far from my first major authors note, when I could actually list every single person who had commented and voted— I wish I could name each and every one of you for being so wonderful. Every comment on this story about how it could be improved or answering my panic-questions or just telling me you liked a chapter meant the world to me, and it still does. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me and Morane this long. I hope it's been exciting and funny and entertaining and worth every cliffhanger and late update.

Even after seventy-three chapters worth of practice with words, I have no idea how to express just how much it all means to me. But to be honest, I think writing The Royal Thief changed my life. I think about it every day, all the time— I think about the fact that you guys actually read it all the time. A year ago I was scared I would never finish this book. Not that long ago, I was scared of what would happen when I did finish it. And right now, well, I'm scared of what might happen with the second book. But I think I'm getting over my fear of writing, because thanks to you, it's changed from something I like doing to something I love doing, even when I hate it, even when it seems like the hardest thing in the universe.

So I guess... on to the very end, and from there to the beginning! Thank you for making even the idea of The Royal thief possible. Without you, it wouldn't exist.