Stories are only half complete until someone reads them. They come alive not in the telling, but in the receiving—when readers pick them up, hold them close, and breathe life into them by believing. By feeling. By sharing.

For years, I watched something that broke my heart: the slow, deliberate erosion of trust between me and the readers I cherished most. Not because of anything I’d done—but because others spent years carefully chipping away at the bond between us.

They made it personal. They made it painful. They made it surreal. They painted me as something I never was and never could be. And for a while, they won.

But the story doesn’t end with loss. It never does. The story—my story, your story, our story—ends in the moment we choose to take it back.

Trust Isn’t Taken. It’s Earned.

Rebuilding trust isn’t easy. It’s not something you can force. It’s something you earn, word by word, moment by moment, reader by reader. It begins by telling the truth—even when the truth hurts. It begins by giving the story back to those who deserved it all along.

So, I’m stepping back into the conversation—not with accusations, but with openness. With humility. With honesty.

I’m giving Ruin Mist—and every story I’ve ever written—back to you, the readers. These stories never belonged to the critics, the gatekeepers, or the trolls. They belong to those who loved them, believed in them, carried them, and shared them, even when doing so came at a cost.

Thank You for Keeping the Stories Alive

To every reader who wrote to tell me how Ruin Mist changed your life—thank you.

To every teacher who passed along a worn copy to a struggling student—thank you.

To every parent who read Bugville Critters stories to their child through difficult nights—thank you.

To every veteran who saw themselves in my pages and found strength or healing there—thank you.

And to every reader who quietly held my stories in their hearts when the rest of the world tried to take them away—thank you.

Trust Yourself First

I’m not asking you simply to trust me again. I’m asking you to trust yourself.

Trust your experience of the books that spoke to you, that moved you, that felt true. Trust the memories they hold for you. Trust that what you felt was real, even when others tried to convince you otherwise.

Because that’s what they tried to take—not just my voice, but yours. They tried to erase your experience. Your memories. Your truth.

But truth, once felt, can never truly be lost.

This Isn’t About Me—It’s About You

This isn’t about me anymore. It never truly was.

It’s about you—the readers who held on when letting go would have been easier. The readers who refused to be silenced. The readers who believed the books meant something, even if the world tried to say otherwise.

Today, the story belongs to you again.

Let’s Write the Rest Together

You’ve carried Ruin Mist this far. Now let’s give it a future worthy of your loyalty.

From this moment forward, you’re not just readers. You’re co-authors of the story that never gave up, that never went silent, that never truly ended.

Because stories are only half-written until someone picks them up again.

And together, we’ll write the rest.