Intro to a LOOONG Author note

Well, my friends, this is the end of Spy School: Clash of Spies (which I kinda think now is a cringy name but too late ;)

I can't believe it. As of now, June 27th of 2019, the story reached 5.86K views and 276 votes. That is literally insane. The average (yes I'm a nerd so I calculated it) views per chapter (except the evident outliers) were 218 (ok the outliers really screwed up the average because I'm guessing around the 167 people per chapter mark.)
I'm not bothering with the average votes because of stupid outliers. Anyway, that is completely surreal and I owe everything to you guys.

I really grew as a writer throughout this journey. I mean, I started it officially on fanfiction in October of 2018. Now, we're in June of 2019! The story came along with me during this whole school year, going through the ups and downs I went through. Writing this, a lot happened to me. I lost two very close family members and completed middle school. I'm off to high school!

I was reading it back the other day and honestly cringing a lot. You know when you go through old papers or schoolwork and are like man, I was stupid back then. Or like why did I write that? That's what I felt like re-reading it. I mean, in the first few chapters, Erica was a bit OOC in her interactions and my writing tense was shifting all over the place. But as the year progressed, my writing got better (thanks Grammerly and maybe school...) and some chapters I'm so proud of. Your feedback as well really helped.

I became such a better writer this year so thank you for reading and reviewing my story so I can continue doing what I love. Heck, I went from a tense-shifter to being asked by Wattpad to submit a submission for Wattys2019 or the Wattpad Awards 2019. (I'm not going to win BTW these people have like millions of views and I'm over here with 5k.) But it's still fun to be considered! It's all due to people actually reading it and supporting it. And can someone give me a lowdown about the whole awards thing and what it means? I still I'm still learning Wattpad. Thanks! You've all helped me so much you're probably sick of it lol.

God I wrote way too much in the introduction.

Random story stuff

There were some stuff I put in that I wanted people to catch but no one did (haha lol maybe they just sucked idk).

I don't know how many of you are from the US but Rump (butt) Towers was inspired by Trump Towers.

And the chapter Tower of Terror was supposed to be foreshadowing for Rump Towers and the terror when they're locked inside with the bomb... ok now that I'm saying it out loud, it's
awful. Hahaha whatever.

Also, major plot points changed throughout the writing as I read comments and suggestions. Originally, Audrey wasn't Erica's long-lost sister, but just a boring, talented kid. But in the shower (why do all my good ideas come in the shower? Does that happen to anyone else?) I thought, why couldn't Audrey be her sister? And I started writing her in as a sister.
And I hated Stuart Gibbs' love triangle with Zoe and Erica so I ditched that one and created my own! (Hypocritical much?) But let's be honest here, I still think Zoe and Mike will become a thing.
And LOTS of stuff came on the fly, like Jacob Evanstein being Mr (or I guess Mrs now) E's nephew. Lots of it was inspired by theories and suggestions made.

Oh and side note, thanks for putting up with my annoying cliffhangers. I'm just so mean (insert evil laugh track from Physco).

Thanks And Acknowledgments

I would like to individually recognize everyone who reviewed and/or voted for any or all chapters. In no particular order, THANK YOU SO MUCH to:

OreosAreMySenpai
spyschool22
WarriorOmega
iMgRaTe
RushPossibility
DAOnIyMoose
chheze_boi
DefonotDOM
Lucaslopez77
SpySchool13
PickAnyName
MSORAR
JakePaulptarts
tam7hk
TamKee
DAOnlyMoose
Wowzers342
DestructiveGaming5
NatalieR05
Son_of_Olympus
Inkdud
SkyfoxXD07
kidkid225
Agent_Kalya
whodaone
KylerYRT
Reapertheking
Dalmatian1234dsr
Ravenclawmaisie
PeterJohnson12345
PurpleSeaweedBrain
wisegirl4life20
halefam
Erica_Winterhawk
HungKee
Northstar2734
PhantomGamer99
Lavaking598
Randomreader56789
Beagle_Bagle
bananag11
aYxAnboi
OOF_Kid
@viewlessknot170

A special thanks to those seven or eight people who review AND vote every chapter. You guys know who you are and by now I bet you know how much I appreciate it but I'll say it again: Thank you. Everyone leaves such encouraging, kind and sweet comments on my chapters. I'm not gonna lie, and I'll try to say it as masculine as possible, some made me shed some weird eye fluids that were a very close resemblance to tears. Haha all joking aside, thank you.

But to all of the unknown, unsung heroes who read the story! I get comments from 15 people, but 150 people read the chapter, so thank you to everyone reading each chapter. And to the people who are just surfing for a good read; thanks for stopping by!

Also thanks to the people DAOnIyMoose and SpySchool13 who read it on fanfiction and encouraged me to post it here. It was the greatest thing that happened to me as a writer, more people reading my stories. I still can't get over the fact that over 5K people read this! I still get excited when my cringy YouTube comment reaches 3.3K likes lol.

But overall, thank you to the whole spy school community who supported me, guided me and helped me through writing, life and Wattpad.

Future Projects

So I have a few ideas for other stories. I have a Crazy Rich Asians one (liked the book and loved the movie). I have a Ready Player One idea and even a Marvel Cinematic Universe idea... (But because of the result of Endgame I'm rethinking it). I also have an idea for a totally original story!

And, as much as I'm trying to ignore it, there is still yet another spy school fanfic rattling around in my head. This was my second and to do three in a row would be a lot, especially in only about a year's time. This has a good chance of not happening because it's really weird and different and wild. It has some interesting themes and I'm worrying about OOCness the most (the way to mess up a fanfic is if all the chapter are ooc). But it may be too tempting not to write so it might happen. The idea is so weird and crazy and will most probably not happen, but the glass is half full people.

I won't write the summaries yet in case they don't actually happen and people get excited or if someone copies it before I can write it (I know you guys won't do it but someone might. I learned my lesson on another project for a whole different writing thing. But if they are happening, I'll post about it in my Announcements.

The bad news is though that they might not happen for a long time. I'm starting high school and with that plus my demanding sports, updating relatively quickly is out the window. This story had some very long breaks that even I was getting annoyed at because I had NO time! I mean, for me, two weeks is WAY TOO LONG and I went three sometimes four weeks in between chapters. So if this is going to happen, I would like to write 80-90% of the whole story before I even begin to publish it. There's no pressure to get it out (the pressure results in sucky chapters) and I can tell a cohesive story that all fits together if I want to change something later. The chapters, when I publish them, will come out every three days or something.
Due to my annoyingly busy schedule, you might not see some new work anytime soon. However, I'll still be here reading your stories and reviewing them. I am truly sorry about that.

This authors note became way too long. Final Note

I really had a great experience doing Wattpad. I learned so much and got some support I never thought I'd get. You all are so supportive, nice and helpful when I was and still am, navigating this journey. I've built friends I believe in this wonderful community.

There isn't much else I can say because I think the past 1.3k words say it all but THANK YOU spy school community for accepting me, all these amazing reviewers, readers and voters and thank you Stuart Gibbs for this amazing series.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY: #BERICA FOR LIFE!!!

You guys mean the world to me,
-SMH204

Also, please check out my NEW SPY SCHOOL FAN FICTION called Spy School Reunion. It takes place 10 years later when all of the spy school gang has moved on, except Ben. Oh yeah, and Erica's a celebrity. Please check it out!!