I know the same story gets old after a while, but I am in fact alive and well...just VERY strapped for time. Nutshell version: as economy weakens, employees must do more (and do it better) just to keep their jobs. My wife and I are both in this situation, or at least perceive ourselves to be, so we're busting our asses with 50-60 hour work weeks. This leaves precious little spare time.
If I was just belting out 1/week short episodes like I did in the early 1990s, without any thought toward the larger plot and what came net, I could still do that with the current time constraints. But since I need these last 27 episodes to be ultra-high-quality, I am taking my time and doing them right. Unfortunately, that means less-frequent output.
Tell you what, though: if people start discussions in www.peldor.com/noise/ then I will participate. I'd suggest the "Next Week's Chapter" forum (near the bottom of the page) but I will try to monitor all of them. Things like this, I have a little more time for.
If all goes well, 974 will release sometime this month. Thanks for hanging in there.