Well, now that voting on the polls have died down, it’s finally time to discuss the results. First and foremost thanks go out to everyone who voted on the polls.
Let’s talk about the first poll, shall we?
[democracy id=”2″]So, it seems most readers would prefer a weekly serial with the next most popular option being some combination of a weekly serial, captions and flash fiction. The third most favored choice is the one I didn’t even see coming and which has nothing to do with the other options. In short, folks wanted me to remove the gray on gray text. Which I did a number of days ago. All text should now be either black or, if it’s a hyperlink, colored to match the theme of the website.
The remaining poll options were not particularly popular it seems.
So, given these results what does that mean for the future of the site? In short, I will begin posting a weekly serial and I might throw out an occasional piece of flash fiction if I have the inkling. I won’t say captions are completely out of the question, but the reasons I mention in the previous blog would limit the number I might create. So in short, expect a weekly serial with a possible surprise (you should definitely put particular emphasis on possible) here or there.
So, first up for the weekly serial is a story I started after Battle for Earth and which I’ve been writing at here or there. Originally, I intended to finish it then start on my Ragnarok Rising prequel and then Legacy of Earth, but I received so many requests for a sequel to Battle the desire to deliver overwhelmed those well laid plans.
So what is Psyren’s redemption? It’s a super hero tale set in what I’m calling the Exemplar Universe. I’m not going to lie, the universe is largely inspired by Morpheus’s own Legacy Universe and a certain cinematic universe, in that I intend to interweave a number of loosely-connected stories featuring many different character and eventually culminating in a big conflict between the heroes and villains I introduce along the way. There will be unique characters, of the heroic, villainous and ordinary varieties. I won’t say any of it will tread new ground, but I will my damnedest to make the characters and each of their stories enjoyable and, perhaps more importantly, memorable. In perhaps, the biggest departure from my usual style, the universe will be written entirely in third-person.
Psyren’s redemption is going to cover territory that just might make people a bit uncomfortable. Hell, in some respects it makes me pretty damned uncomfortable, but it’s something I sure as hell want to do. The hero of the story, is not exactly a nice person to begin with he is basically a racists, bigot and just an altogether huge flipping jackass of an old man. I’m doing my best to shine light on why he feels the way he does and hopefully humanize him. I don’t want him to be your typical one-dimensional hateful bigot. I won’t go into too much detail, but when he happens to witness a battle between some unearthly beings, he is chosen as a successor of sorts to one of them and well there’s some tg, some race change and a fair bit of age regression (old man to twenty-something).
I’m sure you all have puzzled it out, but the featured image for this blog post is a mock comic book cover I created that will be the cover image for Psyren’s redemption. There are a few hints to the story inside the image, and a couple of playful pokes at comic covers and comics themselves if you look closely enough. I’ve also added this image and a second one, that is basically the seal of the policing agency, AEGIS, that’s featured within the story to the gallery section of the website. So, check it out if you like. (Yes, I know, AEGIS is nothing but a thinly veiled tribute to a certain comic book agency. I’m sure most anyone familiar with the term can puzzle out which one.)
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, why don’t we discuss the second poll.
[democracy id=”3″]The second one, is one which I added at the last moment on a whim and regret putting up within just days of adding it. In short, I don’t want other author’s on my site. I thought about creating my own fiction site, with a number of hand picked writers sharing their work, but I’m not exactly paying for the most premium hosting plan and I worry that such a site might draw too much traffic and eventually force me to pay more and more in hosting fees. That being said, if I ever did decide to go down this route, I have a pretty decent domain name in mind.
In short, Danielawolfe.com will remain my home, and my home alone. As suggested by the user-created poll answer there is another possibility that I could see eventually becoming a reality and one which was the most popular answer. If a writer were to ever participate in one of my universes or if I happened to collaborate with another author then the results of those efforts would be well-welcomed on this site.
Let’s be clear here, there are only two story universe that I could see opening up to other writers. The first is Aethermysts, the subject of several of my Mixed Tape entries like Melissa and Gend-o-matic, but honestly the universe itself isn’t very unique and I’d doubt I’d attract many, if any, interested parties. I mainly created it so that I wouldn’t have to dabble into the likes of the Spells R Us universe. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate Bill Hart’s universe, but I wanted to do my own thing.
The second, would be Tales from Meridian, the stories themselves have enough of a disconnect that I think other writers could participate without stepping on each other’s toes. It might be fun to write a few tales dealing with the flip side of the coin within that universe, you know, deals with the devil sort of stories.
To hell with it! Let’s just make it official Tales from Meridian and Aethermysts are now open universes. In the coming days, I’ll update the site to reflect this change and will post a list of rules, but until then you are welcome to contact me with possible ideas via the contact form linked to on the left side of the website. Just be aware, any idea is subject to my approval, even after the rule lists are live.
All that beings said, I won’t say I would never let other authors delve into my other universes, but it would have to be a damn good story and one that didn’t interfere with my own plans. Even then, I would have to approve every little detail and I would probably restrict the writer to certain time periods within those universes so they didn’t overlap with my own tales.
It feels so good to finally get this matter settled. Look for the first part of Psyren’s Redemption in the coming weeks. I haven’t worked out a schedule yet and I want to get certain story threads resolved before I start posting, but I don’t think it will be more than a few weeks before it sees the light of day.
Everyone, as usual, have a delightfully demented day,
Daniel A. Wolfe
