Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 2: Stars in Far Places

About the Author/Acknowledgments

About the Author:

Elizabeth "ebearskittychan" Ree is an average-looking, young, female human with the hidden heart of a Star Warrior living in Iowa-aka-Cornland in the USA. She is a senior undergrad student of English and History (who also dabbles in Psychology) at some Iowa college somewhere. She studies the Japanese language in her free time, and has spent a semester studying abroad in that country. Currently, she's searching for any chance she can find to go back for the long term.

Her current career goals still include becoming a writer, and hopefully, one day, a mother. Now, though, she's also interested in becoming a college professor of History, with concentrations in what she calls 'Positive History;' that is, showing the good things that have happened throughout history, since so much emphasis tends to get placed on the bad.

She can usually be found either studying, cooking, baking, listening to/making music, reading, playing and/or streaming Minecraft, or watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood with her two youngest siblings.

This is her eleventh completed novel. You can find her self-published poetry collection on Amazon globally in both paperback and eBook form by searching either "Elizabeth Ree" or "The World According to a Starry Misfit."

She loves receiving fanart and other fanworks, as well as all (kind) feedback and critique. You can reach her pretty much anytime at ebearskittychan@yahoo.com, @ebearskittychan on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, @ebearskittychan#4231 on Discord, and, of course, @ebearskittychan on Wattpad.

Acknowledgments:

Before saying anything else, as always, I want to thank my Heavenly Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit for bringing me this far. Life hasn't been easy of late, but I know they still hold me. May all of my stories bring glory to His name.

That said... To say that I can't believe we're actually here is 'a colossal understatement,' to quote our mutual knightly friend.

This book should have been finished last summer, but last summer had a whole cavalcade of its own problems and issues. This summer has in some ways, as well, but despite an overall lack of sleep that was entailed, it's also been made better by constant escape back to the world of Dreamland. I hope to be able to start Book 3 soon, but if not, I'm at least glad to know that Book 2 is now, so to speak, in the books.

Just as at the end of rewriting Book 1, I feel a deep sense of pride at the fact that this book is finished. Though, now, it's less a pride at having polished what I already had, and more a pride of being able to speak into first being countless words, stories, and headcanons that had previously existed only in my mind. Giving Yuki a proper story, digging deeper into both Blue and Blossom's River Village experiences and psyches, and being able to develop Forest into a real, solid character have all given me so much joy. At the same time, though, there's a bittersweetness like there always is when I finish a book.

It's been going on six years since I started the original Heroes of Dreamland, and I've become a completely new person in that time. I've become a bit warmer in some ways, and a bit colder in others. I've become a bit sadder and a bit more hopeful. I've grown and changed some of my beliefs and values, and held tightly onto others. I've learned to stop taking it personally when friends come and go, and to stop expecting myself to fix everybody. Realizing some people just don't want to be fixed or refuse to acknowledge that there are parts of them that need to be fixed has been rather painful at times, but I'm starting to realize that I can't save everybody. I can still save—or at least help—some, or at least try, so that effort is never going to go away or cease.

I've also come to realize that I'm never going to be able to make everyone happy, so why try? It's so much more freeing and happy living in such a way that I can make my younger self proud, rather than worrying about what others think of me.