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First, here are some links to each category. Unfortunately, it seems to start at the most recent, so the posts are backwards:
Raven’s Hold
Raven’s Game
Raven’s Dawn
Raven’s Wrath
First of all, I do regret not thinking up the 13 chapters and 31 sections trend when I wrote the original story. I’ve always been looking at it to see if I could add 2 more sections since it stopped at 29. To be fair, I began this adventure thinking I’d publish it, but my confidence never rose high enough to go that far. Instead, I was more comfortable making it a blog only story. Going to be having a bunch of those in the future, so I am wondering if that’s okay. This series started me on that path, which Bedlam and Ichabod Brooks might end up following. Anyway, this isn’t about them.
I did enjoy trying to come up with tense situations and creating suspense, which is different from my action adventures. Raven’s Wrath didn’t really reach the same levels as the others, but I wanted to see how things would go in a world that has gone utterly insane. I was having trouble making a new protagonist to face Dawn Addison too. So, I took the suggestion of someone and made her the ‘hero’. In a way, she’s always been her own worst enemy, so this worked as a final story. Dawn became more than the monster of the series and I think she ended with people getting a better sense of her as a character.
Will I ever try this genre again? I don’t know. I can’t even be certain I’ll leave Dawn Addison alone entirely. She won’t get another story, but I might slip her into a post as a cameo or check in on her from time to time. Wouldn’t be right to cast her aside while I keep thinking about the characters from Legends of Windemere. There may have been a difference in scale with the series, but I’ve learned a lot from both of them. The Raven Series helped me learn more about creating tension and writing a more condensed story due to time and size constraints. This will help me when I work on short stories in the future.
Anyway, what did people think of both the finale and series? I know I don’t have an audience who is big on horror and many have stated that they simply didn’t get into the series. Still, I really hope even a handful of people enjoyed this series.
Legends of Windemere 
As I have said, I loved all the stories. I saw a progression to what became the finale that was exciting and also very logical. I think much like Bedlem it is good to see you let your creative side have full sway with your keyboard. The Raven series demonstrated that you have the capability for a broader audience. I hope you had fun with it since it seemed that you did.
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Thanks. It is a shame that I never gathered enough courage to make this a published work, but there’s something to be said for blog only stuff. It keeps people interested and gives them a taste of my style, so maybe people will try out the other books. Good to see the progression was logical since I never knew what the next book would entail when writing the previous ones. Didn’t even expect to go for more than one at the start.
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I don’t think it was courage because on a blog or in print takes the same form of exposure. Maybe not wanting the hasstle of tight edit and Amazon is more the reason.
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Don’t have to pay for a cover too, which helps when funds are tight. That’s been a big factor since it means I have to direct more promo stuff to the big series instead of the side projects.
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Good point.
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I love horror and fantasy and I swing between both of them in writing and reading. I really enjoyed Raven’s Wrath, I mean really. I am a fan of both Bedlam books you wrote and am a fan of this.
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Thanks. Hope the next Bedlam story that starts next Thursday is just as well received. 🙂
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I was surprised to learn that this was your first foray into horror territory. You did so well at it. I enjoyed the series. It was very imaginative and exciting. I could tell that you enjoyed writing it.
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Thanks. I did horror once in college. Didn’t get a good grade on it, so I went back to fantasy and humor.
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For my part, I enjoyed them. I think it takes courage to make something a blog exclusive. When I start getting that kind of word count, I want to bundle it up and publish it. You may have gotten more exposure here too. Fallout from projects like this could last for months. A random search puts someone here, they read a story, they go to Amazon to check out more works…
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I haven’t seen much movement on the published books, but there was an uptick in blog traffic. The next Bedlam installment being blog only could have an effect on the published ones though. I’m curious to see what happens. Be nice to have more activity than normal since November is always a sales drought.
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Might be worth a cheap push on the Bedlam stuff while this is going on. FB push, free days, etc.
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I’m going to have a push for both Bedlam books at the start of each post. Along with a parental warning and a ‘More’ cut. Be nice to get those two books moving a bit. They’re already 99 cents each, so free seems odd when I’m giving Part 3/4 away for it. Honestly, I’ve noticed that my free book in Legends of Windemere is the only one that moves. It doesn’t seem to be leading to the others getting bought either.
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Free hasn’t done much for me in the last year either.
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Reviews don’t come in like they used to. Kind of sad how that arena has dwindled. I keep hearing that Goodreads is more active, but I haven’t seen it.
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There is a whole conversation about saturated markets. Plus we compete with all kinds of other leisure time activities.
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I’ve got an interesting post tomorrow about the rise of celebrity books and their effect on the publishing world. Read a few articles about it and thought it would make a good topic. I’m trying to think of January topics too, so maybe I’ll touch on the saturation issue. Then again, I was reading about how there isn’t a saturation issue. Seems nobody can agree on what’s going on with publishing these days.
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Just googled it. Amazon has 32.8 million books available. If only half that is fiction, we still have people we can reach. If we can pry them away from Halo for a few hours.
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I think Fortnite is the new Halo or whatever. Not to mention movies, TV shows, and web shows. It’s funny how all these things that are adaptations of books seem to be drawing people away from books. I wonder if there will come a time when new books have to rise to the surface in order to supply the other mediums with fresh ideas. Then again, Amazon bought the rights to Lord of the Rings to make a TV series for a billion.
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True. Maybe Lisa should write a celebrity book. Ha ha.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if you did that and made a fortune. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide.
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Thanks. 😁
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You’re welcome, Charles!
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I liked them, Charles! It was nice to get a peek at your work! It’s a teaser to get me to seek out other stories of yours in the future.
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Thanks. I’m happy that people see it as an introduction to my work. 😊
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They are great and they draw you in to what you’re trying to do!
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