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well I just did some house cleaning AKA had to clean up shadowsblades story files and lay them out in large chapters
Please tell me if I goofed it and I will fix it best I can
But on today's RANT
where in the heck did all my readers go to?
Yep I do know and appreciate my hard core readers and thanks again---keep ideas coming!
Looks under Dorothy's pile of huggles---not there?
Looks at the pile--no mountain of Bike stories....if your are in there...I am not looking for ya!
I understood everyone was busy during x-mas stuff and was reading Santa cards?
But my counts have been steadily going down---FAST like I lost over 200 or 300 in a few weeks fast?
Did I lose some of ya with the 'clone' plot line?
this is a new part and a big change to the character, but give it time to grow?
Did I mess up on writing style?
Was it that art I posted that got ya mad?
Hey it was the best I could do, I can't draw past a stick figure! lol
That art was real hard to get my hands on, most artists these days only do digital media and finding one that does hand drawn hand colored is hard! REALLY hard!
Then add I wanted it sent to me?
Then finding a good one is crazy hard too, the good ones don't works sometimes and those that do?
Cost 100'$$$$ and that posted piece cost me 150$ ---not to mention several false starts with others paid and nadda to show?
but one reader, is trying to get art that fits better--reader to be named later! If it all works out? (crosses fingers!)
Maybe I will put Rohanna on the back burner and get Vantier out for a bit?
End rant just had to talk a bit
Comments
shadowsblade
I love the story and still reading
i love this
Storyline of Ro and the whatley universe. You do have fun with Your character despite putting Ro through hell.
She seems to be coping rather well.
cannot wait for more.
Matt
Still reading
Read Shadowsblade from the start and still with you so dont worry. I think ,though Erin could possibly confirm it, that things usually seem quiet this time of year.
out side
personaly, I stopped reading because I thought you went off track of whatley universe.
where was that?
where was that?
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
Count me in!
I read all your stories - multiple times - and you are one of the authors jump to when I see a story posted.
I have enjoyed the stories of both Rohanna and Vantier. I think it is good to show Rohanna heading off to do things away from school, am I sure she will have adventures in Hollywood.
Jeri Elaine
Homonyms, synonyms, heterographs, contractions, slang, colloquialisms, clichés, spoonerisms, and plain old misspellings are the bane of writers, but the art and magic of the story is in the telling not in the spelling.
Haven't lost me Hon!
If you write it, I will definitely read it!
D.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I'll read it twice, if that helps hon.
I love the story!
The major Demographic
If you want big numbers you have to write to please the major demographic population. They really like "Late Night Princess", that's for sure. And a lot of them like females who can kick a man's butt. I really like a lot of your other stories too.
I just write to please me, and if I had a site of my own, the top would say "Read it and shut up" because there would be no place for kudos or comments. I wouldn't even have a traffic counter.
Gwen
would go to a site
called read and shut up
ed
ed
Not attractive to new readers
Any long running serial needs to attract new readers, otherwise you're relying on readers from Day 1 of your series, who change their reading styles, come and go, get bored, get ill and die. (I know, life's a bitch.)
I've just had a look at your latest Part 1 and clearly, this is just part of another long running series I've stumbled on to. Kerching! Next story, and I've pressed the Back button and am reading someone else's work.
WTF is Whately Academy? I know I've probably shocked some aficionados to the core, but the problem with many universes is that the reader is assumed to know what it's all about. If they do not, then they read something else.Why not have a 50 word synopsis summarising the universe at the begining of every WA story? And why not have a synopsis of the story so far in Shadowblade?
If the new reader has to do homework in order to start a new series, then most will move onto another story.
I agree
I've tried to get into a number of long running stories (not even dared to try to get my head around Bike, perhaps when I have a spare month or so) and failed miserably. I suspect that I'm not alone here.
I see {insert title here} - Part 81 and pass it over.
I do admire authors who keep stories going for ages and ages but they don't appeal to everyone. I couldn't do it or perhaps I've not had the right story idea yet????
I resolved to make sure that
1) The story is complete before even posting part 1
2) I tell the reader how many parts there are.
Like a book, you can see at a glance how far you are through it.
Then there are some areas that are covered in stories here that just don't appeal to me at all. I really don't like any Fantasy. I tried for years to get to like authors like Anne McCaffery and Terry Pratchett but failed miserably. Classic SF for me.
There are all sorts of sub-genres being posted here. Not everyone likes them all.
Samantha
hummm
that is a great idea--and here is the but---some readers complain about the preface being to long?
add this to the top what I have below and is posted in nearly every story at the end and a running "our story so far?" and it would be a monster to get by --lol
any of my hard core readers want to take a shot at making me a run and gun synopsis of Rohannna or Vantier?
Whateley is a Prep School for different teens. VERY different ones. Where else could a kid go to a school that has a resident demon living in the furnace? Or meet magic users, mutants of every imaginable kind, get trained in how to handle some rather odd abilities, and worry about
flunking Freshman English? Come visit Whateley Academy, nestled in the
lovely hills of New Hampshire. Just down the road from a town named
Dunwich... (Mythos jokes purely intentional).
This is the Whateley Academy Universe, a shared universe with over a dozen authors and more than a hundred stories (and counting). The stories range in size from vignettes to novels. It's a Mutant High scenario with both a strong transgender theme and a slightly watered down Cthulhu Mythos theme.
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
like a comic book universe
The Whateley Academy is a bit like a long running comic book universe. Yes, if you want to 'get' everything about the 'issue' in front of you; there are years and years worth of backstory to look back to. But you don't always need to know all the back story to enjoy a given story. Especially a lot of the non-canon stories, like Shadowblade. And depending on how quickly you read... it can take anywhere from a couple months to more than a year to read the full backstory (the canon storyline is approaching if not recently passed 13 million words).
We actually have been having discussions and making plans for the Whateley Academy site to make things less just a story archive and a forums for the long time fans... because drawing in new readers becomes more challenging with every million words added. Some people don't even read the whole backstory anymore... they follow the stories of just a couple protagonists or those written by a couple authors. Much as not everyone reads everything by Marvel... just following a handful of heroes or groups and only occasionally following those specific brands into crossovers and spin offs.
It's going to be a big project and will take time; after all, even writing just one paragraph synopsis for 'story so far'... for a collection of stories more than 500 parts (most at least 20k words) long... would be the equivalent of writing more than half a novel. And that's just the canon stories! :)
So... noted. And not just in a 'ya, we get it move along' sort of way. It's just an issue that doesn't really have a 'simple' answer.
On the bright side, for those who don't have all the details at their fingertips from personally reading the stories... we DO have a group of fans who have, over the years, built an incredibly detailed WIKI. The wiki can be found at http://crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/Whateley_Academy_Wiki and is such an accurate and valuable resource, that even the canon authors use it as a reference source. :)
Huh?
The newest thing I have seen was posted last Sunday, Four Funerals and A Movie, part 2. Did I miss something? 'Cause if you are talking about this part, I'm at a loss to understand the problem. That part has 989 reads and 13 comments. Respectable numbers for anybody and better than most.
If I have missed a new post, please let me know!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
I don't know what you are
I don't know what you are referring to, but I am still here.
I believe I have been assimilated, because resistance is futile. Oh wait, that is another life form isn't it.
Regardless, I love Rohanna and can only wish her good luck as she teaches her new "twin" Rehanna the facts of life.