{ #1 } I Was Shooting For The Moon, I Hit Two Stars (MxMxM || 18+)

Welcome to the new version of IWSFTM,IHTS!

Hi there,

When I started drafting the Black Moon series, aiming only at three books (Aaron wasn't planned back then...) I was far from imagining I'd even complete one book. As a pure amateur, I was mostly writing for my pleasure, not even sure I'd ever publish my work, but I still made a lot of research regarding the themes I was going to broach.

And yet, this first story was truly lacking important aspects, things I couldn't correct as I was publishing because I had very few readers back then and to be honest, I've learned a lot from readers' comments. I Was Shooting For The Moon, I Hit Two Stars was written in barely two months and had a lot of flaws.

This is what brought me to completely rewrite it.

One was language. The style was heavy, there were a lot of grammar mistakes, but after writing four entire books, I like to think that my English has improved. I'm still my own editor, so there might still be a few mistakes here and there, but as usual, I really encourage readers to pinpoint them in comments so that I can correct them. I know some authors don't like this, but I do, and I truly appreciate corrections because this is also how I learn.

Another flaw was the plot of the story itself. I thought there was no real logic in the way Alex was joining Mark and Shannon in their relationship, or at least, it wasn't clearly shown. Hence the two new chapters I wrote (21 and 23). As many readers pointed, there was no public scene at the club of the trio, and there still isn't. Blame my lack of inspiration at the moment. However, there will be one in Aaron's books (I mean, one with Mark, Shannon and Alex), and although it'll be in Aaron's (or maybe someone else's) POV, I hope it'll make up for its absence in this book.

Also, it was the first story of the series, so all the characters and their backgrounds were not really clear in my head. Many ideas developed as I wrote I Would Give Him The Moon, Twisted Moon and The Darker Side Of The Moon, as well as while I planned Aaron's books and Twisted Moon 2. Therefore, if you are a rereader and remember enough what I Was Shooting For The Moon, I Hit Two Stars was like, you'll see that there are a lot more details about Joshua, Camden, Aaron, Liam and Noah, because it was much easier to add little things (teasers...) about them. It makes this book much richer (the former version had 275K words, the new one has 375K...), and as much as new readers won't get the hints, rereaders might enjoy all these little winks.

There were also a lot flaws in many aspects of the book, and here, I would like to thank all the readers who comment. I'm one of these authors who do read comments (and try to reply to as many as I can). These comments are really important to me because I also take them into account to edit my drafts when I publish. As I rewrote I Was Shooting For The Moon, I Hit Two Stars, I really took the time to reread all of them before starting each new chapter and they really helped. This has allowed me to correct a lot of things, like making Mark more rightful when he punishes Shan in chapter 17, or Alex not being tested against HIV when he joins, or the way Mark reacts with the abusive chef in his restaurant, and many more things.

Also, there were several comments regarding the interaction between the three main characters, saying that Mark was too lenient with Alex, stricter with Shan, or that he seemed to have sex more often with Shan than Alex. Now, let's make things clear (and I'll try not to spoil new readers...): Mark is a softie and will remain so, so don't expect him to turn into a Joshua or a Camden in this new version. The fact that Shannon gets punished more often than Alex is normal since they have totally different personalities and Shan is more prone to mistakes than Alex (though as you'll see, I've changed quite a few things here). And lastly, I considered changing the outcome of chapters 43 to 48 with a more severe punishment, but that would have been a problem for the rest of the story and its drama.

Anyway, I believe that the characters will sound much better in this new version. I wasn't aiming at perfect characters, because I love them with their flaws, but they're much more logic and hopefully – if you're a rereader – you'll find that the story now holds more emotions too.

Oh, well... Sorry for this long introduction. I just hope you will enjoy I Was Shooting For The Moon, I Hit Two Stars as much as I did. It was really a long work to rewrite this book and I thank you for your patience. Feel free to comment and let me know if some things still "shock" you, and also, since Wattpad often glitches when I republish or edit a chapter, please let me know if you notice weird things or paragraphs with spaces missing between words.

One last note to rereaders: like I said many times in the following books, please avoid spoilers for new readers! The Black Moon is a series with several "general lines" that I can't name here obviously, but you know what or which devil I'm talking about... And as much as I never delete critics or negative comments, I do remove comments that spoil the plots of further books ;)

That's it... Now you can enjoy reading (or rereading) the adventures of Mark, Shannon and Alex :)

With love from France,

Nath

Published on 29 June 2018

Temporary note: I still need to rewrite the epilogue, but it should be up early next week ;)