Winter Returns

Chapter 44 Remarks on the launch
Hello everyone, I am the author of this book, Sherry.

what--

Now that we're here, I'm sure we've already exchanged greetings.

The first sentence of this book reads:
"After eight years, Zhang Shutong returned to the island where he grew up."

For me personally, this is the first time in three and a half years that I've written a review for a book launch. I'm very excited, which is quite pathetic.

If you have the patience, I would love to share the story behind the creation of this book.

First and foremost, I want to thank all the readers. Without your support along the way, this book, which has had a tumultuous history, would not have made it this far.

Although the current results are not great, compared to the initial collections of only four or five, or even fifty thousand words, or less than a hundred, it is already quite surprising. It is everyone's support that has brought it to where it is today.

Alongside that, I must thank my editor, Canaan. Canaan is a humorous, witty, gentle, insightful, and incredibly talented editor (I promised to rave about him when the book is published, but I'm at a loss for words, please forgive me).

Okay, that's all for the praise, let's call it a day.

Well, to be honest, the editor from Canaan is my benefactor; he has shown me great kindness and support.

I say this not to fawn over or flatter, but to responsibly tell you that without Canaan editors, this book would not exist.

Back then, I submitted that opening paragraph of over nine thousand words to various internal editors, but it was rejected by three editors in a row. The comments I received were all the same: it didn't inspire any anticipation, no readers would want to read it, the subject matter wasn't good, and so on.

I'm not a newcomer; I'm an author who has achieved some success elsewhere. If you were to ask me what my expectations were for this book's performance, I certainly wouldn't have been optimistic. My own answer would have been 500 first subscriptions, which would have been a victory.

Judging from its style and subject matter, this is destined to be a book that cannot be popular. However, it is truly disheartening that it is not even given a contract, and even when asked by the editor whether it can be sent directly to their team for a chance to try, it is politely declined.

So, even I gave up and started writing a new beginning. It was around 3 PM, and I had already written nearly a thousand words in the document when a red dot suddenly appeared in my QQ email. I clicked on the message, and this time the content was completely different from before—

"You can approve my manuscript. Add me on QQ."

The rest is self-explanatory.

Actually, I can still say something. For example, I initially thought that this editor especially liked to baile out struggling writers and gave them a chance, but even if they were signed, they were basically left to their own devices. Of course, being "left to their own devices" is the norm for authors when writing books.
To my surprise, on the very day we added each other on QQ, my boss chatted with me for a long time, recommending many works of similar themes. Before I published the book, he even helped me revise the synopsis. I thought that was responsible enough, but after only a few days of writing, he helped me get chapter recommendations and kept encouraging me to write well and not to worry about the initial data. From then on, we kept communicating and he provided a lot of awesome inspiration.

Even now, if you ask me who I've chatted with most on QQ these past few months, I take a closer look and, holy crap, it's my editor.

You can now link your accounts to close friends.

I would like to thank Canaan again for his guidance. Since the book was published, he has called me several times to chat, the longest of which lasted for two hours and the latest until 1 p.m. Moreover, he is a gentle and refined person who never swears on the phone and always makes me feel happy.

It also recommended many works that were beneficial to creative writing, such as a romance novel where the female lead is actually a effeminate man, or a pure love comic where the female lead suddenly pulls out a fake penis to perform four kinds of love on the male lead... It was truly nutritious, but thankfully I managed to block them all thanks to my strong willpower.

Lastly, I must sincerely thank those three editors; this isn't meant to be sarcastic.

Thank you for not signing!
Sometimes fate is just that wonderful. If they had really signed me back then, I would never have met the Canaan boss.
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The remaining content concerns the inspiration and characters associated with the book itself.

When I started writing this book, probably around April, I drove to a small island near my hometown to attend a funeral. Yes, you read that right. Although I know everyone thinks the beginning of this book is very similar to Summer Revisited, it actually borrows the least from Summer. I didn't even finish watching the anime; it was based on my own personal experience.

The island is called "Weishan Island." Some of the geographical features described, such as "the largest inland island in the north," "you can drive onto the ferry from the pier," "the ferry runs from 8 am to 6 pm, and you can't get in or out at other times," and even the "college student incident" mentioned at the beginning, are not fabrications but real things. Of course, there is no Green Snake Temple, no temple keeper girl, no young lady, and certainly no murder case, which is truly regrettable.

But the island in the book doesn't have these regrets. Everyone's attitude towards creation is different. For me, the ultimate goal is to depict a group of living, breathing characters while creating a real world. It's about making readers feel that these are real people, only their stories take place in another world.

If you ask me about my job, you can think of me as a photographer. Some photographers go to Africa and shoot an "Animal World" documentary.
So I took my camera to the island and edited together the story of Zhang Shutong, the two girls, and his best friends.

When I started writing the book, I included brief character biographies, but they were actually only one sentence long, something like this:
Ruoping is a flower fanatic;
Qingyi is a form of chuunibyou (middle school syndrome);
Du Kang had a baby face;

Gu Qiumian has a pair of very bright and beautiful eyes;

Lu Qinglian appeared in her complete form;
Zhang Shutong is a nostalgic person.

Ultimately, their images evolved from these words, becoming vivid and dynamic.

I've always been someone who gets easily bored. From childhood to university, I've given up on many things after a short time, but I never get tired of stories.

But I often feel pained by my own poor skill level and often feel powerless. All I can promise here is that each chapter I publish will meet my current standard.

A musician I admire once said that creating a song requires the spirit of ants gnawing at a bone. The creation of this book is similar. For example, I know some friends might think a certain chapter is too weak, but it's much easier to write something weak. An article is about conveying information. Sometimes you can convey a 6 out of 1000 words, but what if you want a 7 or 8? Add a hundred or two more words? In fact, it often requires doubling the amount.

To me, it's more like making shoe insoles. The result of stitching and piling up stitches may be a crooked and ugly thing, but it's ugly in a very... well, you can't say it's ugly in a unique way.

Well, thank you all again for your kindness.

Of course, as an author, I can't just get carried away. My next writing goal is to make the necessary setup interesting, write plots that everyone will enjoy, and control the overall pacing.

Some longtime readers may know that in my last book I was a lazy dog ​​who would occasionally skip updating 4000 words a day. Now I've suddenly evolved into a tentacle monster who can easily update 5000 words a day, and 6000 words a day is nothing special. Sometimes I can even break out with 8,000 or 10,000 words. It's really amazing to think about it now.

Ah, if only I could use the launch message as an update. Unfortunately, that's impossible. It's 23:14 PM as I write this, so I'll just end with a line from the description:

"Deep mountains, great lakes, temples, underwater shadows, a serial murder case from eight years ago, and the girl's gradually cooling body;
This is a coming-of-age story set on a small island in winter, about a group of teenagers—a story filled with warmth, suspense, and romance.

That's the overall tone: romance, youth, suspense, and adventure.

Let's wait and see what happens next!
I'm creating a book club group. The group number is pinned at the top of the book club page. Everyone is welcome to join and urge me to update!
Then comes the special thanks section. I would like to thank my operations officer, Teacher Abai, for patiently answering all my questions about the new book process.
Also, thanks to the experts recommended by Zhang (listed in alphabetical order by pen name):
The Corpse Retriever: The Pure Little Dragon Boss
"Reigniting the Youthful Days" Honey Princess Boss
"My Avatar is Becoming the Final Boss" by Master Xichi

"No Way, Even Gentlemen Are Wary" - Boss Yang Xiaorong
(That's all I know for now. I apologize if I've missed anything.)
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Finally, let's talk about updates. Don't worry about me being lazy. As long as I can get into the mood, I'll write like crazy. I'll post 6000 words right after midnight, and the rest of the updates will be on June 1st during the day.

And the most important thing—

Monthly pass.

The operations manager told me to do everything I could to climb the June New Book Monthly Ticket Chart. For this chart, the book even skipped the Sanjiang Awards and missed two rounds of recommendations before being rushed to release. So, I'm shamelessly asking for your monthly tickets again. (Note: This is for June's monthly tickets.)
Finally, here are the rules for extra chapters:

[Starting from midnight on the 1st, one extra chapter will be added for every 200 monthly votes. Results will be settled at midnight on the 2nd.]

(Rest assured, as an author with integrity, the extra chapter on June 1st will not be counted.)
Write until you drop dead!
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

Happy Children's Day!
—A bowl of stewed pear tea is served!
(End of this chapter)