Forum:And, I'm back...

Given recent unfortunate news I've received that Subtank is resigning, I guess this is just a good time as ever — though I've never really formally announced it, I'm back on the site. I've been writing ardently throughout the past few months — and while editing HFFW at 4am for me today, I realized it — I'm back, and I'm happy to be! I have quite a long history with the site... I founded the site on January 11 2007, and as I look back, that's nearly five whole years for me that I've lived with this site, writing all the while...

To be frank, writing fiction and HFFW has been a surprisingly large fraction of my life for these past five years. I don't think some of you are familiar with my personal background; but while I've been tied up with lots of crazy things and research affairs, candidly I've had many a fond memory or a piece of fiction I've penned for this place, on the side... my fiction, my characters, and HFFW have always been in the background for me, a bit of a retreat for me through the ups and downs in the past five years.

My eye was drawn back to the site after I learnt that Unsung Heroes: The Delta Anecdote was being nominated as a "good article" earlier this year. I've actually been writing prolifically this year but off-site, in Microsoft Word; several hundred pages of fiction with Actene, bits and pieces of which are being uploaded en bloc into Halo: The Asphodel Meadows Chronicles. I guess I've never really "left" — though I never edited any articles, when I was writing my stories, I realized all the backstory; all the characters, events, and technologies were here on HFFW... I've been lurking here quite a long time after I supposedly "left", visiting frequently gather details for my off-site writing.

I'm pleased to say that on the other side, things have finally paid off from the many gambles I played. I graduated from my undergraduate, and am now a graduate student at Stanford — my past four years have been devoted to stem cell research. There's been a lot of struggle and uncertainty for me, but I'm grateful to say that earlier this year I published a prominent manuscript in Cell Stem Cell, one of the leading journals of the stem cell field. I was also fortunate enough to be awarded three fellowships (totaling >$400,000) that are enough to fully cover the costs of graduate school for me.

HFFW and fiction has been with me through the thick and thin while I struggled in my research and education to see things through, and I'm proud to be able to officially come back now that things in my research career have finally paid off. I look forward to much fiction with all of you again.

Sincerely yours, Relentless

Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Developmental Biology & Co-Founder, Halo Fan Fiction Wikia