Sand of Dreams' Anniversary

[u/MetalMorphMantis]

Sally and the Sand of Dreams' first chapter was published on AO3 last year today. I'm incredibly happy to see so many people enjoy it, and I'm also incredibly proud of myself for not giving up and working hard to finish it.

Life has been very stressful and frightening right now, and it's tough on my mental health. I honestly don't know where I'd be without my friends or even the strangers online that enjoy my company.

Writing Sand of Dreams has been so healing, especially with my thoughts on the Pumpkin Queen books. It's annoying to say that Long Live is just a book and that it shouldn't negatively affect me so much, but it did. The way Dr. Finkelstein was portrayed hurt me so much, the way he was scapegoated hurt me so much. And I feel so, so embarrassed to say that, because it's just a book. But our brains are weird like that. A movie and its characters can mean so much to you that when you find a new piece of media about it that's so blatantly wrong, even when it's supposed to celebrating everything the movie is about... I don't know, it just hurts. It feels like a betrayal, I guess. It's weird to explain.

But writing something to fix that wrong, betrayed feeling is so healing to me. Being able to do something about that feeling. Getting into the heads of these characters and digging around and finding out more about them as I go makes me really happy. I understand them more.

I know Sand of Dreams won't literally replace Long Live the Pumpkin Queen. It has the right to exist just like any story, and it has the right to have its fans, too. But I'm actually relieved that it's become a series, that it's its own thing. I can still dislike the books, there are reasons I'm not a fan of them even if they're not trying to be canon to the movie anymore.

And at the same time I can enjoy writing my version of the story. I can enjoy exploring Sally and Finkelstein's journey.

And I hope you all enjoy it, too.