What's New and What I'm Thinking About
One of the things I was excited about with having the blog actually on the main site was that I felt it would be easier to talk to all of you, which is really important to me. The blogs before had to be really planned out (that's what it felt like anyways). So I'm going to take advantage of the new easiness and ramble a bit about loads of things that are on my mind and see what you guys have to say! So here we go:
The Podcast!
I'm having a blast acting out all our favorite dragon shifters, though I'm nervous as we get these new dragons in the mix as my accents are... well... oh, boy, no professional voice acting here! But beyond loving audio and wanting to do this, as you guys know advertising Raythe Reign is... challenging. Though it is not porn, a lot of places act like it is. Oh, you write gay romance? Oh, you mean PORN! No, no, I don't. Really. I think my members would like more romance in it-- No, no, you write porn. That's all that "gay romance" really is...
SIGH. HEADDESK.
So we're constantly looking for new and interesting ways to bring people into the site. Not to mention that we love to actually MAKE things. Manga. Art. Stories. Hopefully, games and live action videos, too! We need more members for that!
Anyways, we combined a new art form, i.e., audio with advertising, i.e. listen to a great story for free but if you want to read more sign up, and voila! The podcast!
We have no idea how its going to do, but its really fun and I sincerely hope that you guys are enjoying. You'll get four chapters or so a month, and the podcast will be 10 chapters BEHIND what's on the site, because you guys get everything FIRST.
A New Serial
As you guys might have read in an earlier blogpost, I will be doing a "wrap-up" serial called Dark Magic that will answer all the outstanding threads in The Pact 1 and 2 and WHCC. While I definitely will be doing that, I really want to do something NEW. So I think I'm going to do that new thing first. We have The Fell to indulge our love of all the characters we already know for right now.
What stories are in my head?
A TON! So many different ideas, but I'm leaning towards another story in The Merman Universe.
This story takes place after The Merman 2 where the existence of Mers is now common knowledge. King Cetus and his Consort Zed are routinely meeting with heads of every country. They and all our other favorite Mers have become something like rockstars. But the existence of Mers and hybrids have caused some havoc in the world as well. People are routinely throwing themselves into the ocean--and many drowning--trying to see if they have any Mer blood in them.
But our hero knows he's a Mer. His parents are Mers. And they had long ago fled the Mers and having been hiding on an island, pretending to be human. Now, they must wrestle with revealing who they are--or not--to the local community. Their human friends and neighbors' reactions though are the least of what they have to deal with if they are found out by other Mer. It seems as if our hero's parents had good reasons for fleeing their Mer life, reasons that will come back to haunt them all.
Now, all of this is subject to change! Because I have a Cinderella idea (m/m obviously). I have a space opera idea. I have a Ghost universe idea with a rent boy rescued by Yakuza idea. A southern gothic witch family idea also snuck in there.
SO MANY IDEAS!
But I'm going to take my time on this.
The Shop and Dark Earth
Sylvia Frost who designed the new site is working on a totally new shop that will concentrate on our manga, prints and merchandise sales. People have been asking (and we've been promising) shirts, etc. for people to buy, but the quality sucked or it required us to ship and we simply didn't have enough people to do everything we wanted to do so we put the whole idea in the "future" pile where ideas go to die for years.
Anyways, with Sylvia joining the crew so many wonderful things have gone from the "future" pile to the "now" pile. Coming up we'll be debuting the site, some cool clothing designs, beautiful prints (she ordered one for me and its DROOL-WORTHY) and more. We'll be adding stuff based on your desires. You'll get to vote on designs, etc. I'm personally looking forward to finally have some RR t-shirts.
And, finally, we'll be selling The Dark Earth 10 there FIRST. We'll do a big sale and everything for you guys!
So that's...
All that's fit to print right now. There's more stuff I could ramble on about, but that's enough for this Raythe's Ramblings. Tell me what you are thinking about in the comments. It doesn't have to be about the site, but can be about movies, music, books, whatever! Go to town. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Comments
Great ideas here too! oh, no, I do not need more plot bunnies!
I really do want to do some shorts like the Tristan's boyfriend thing.
I'm so glad you are enjoying yourself! YAY!
I'm all for another story in the GHOST & Merman universes! I'm dying to find out how everyone's doing as well as new characters joining the fray 😄!! And I definitely haven't forgotten about Karasu our flirty, mischievous, and feather loving ghost!
Yeah, I feel the same way. I was watching Aquaman the other day and thinking how much I wished I had considered that they did. The Trench! The octopus playing the drums... wait... LOL!
And also not forgetting Kevin spreading chaos with the Cthullu statue as well !
Yes, I haven't forgotten Kevin!
I've been holding off on reading Mer 2 because I devoured the first series and knew it would be a good rainy day one. Having another in that series coming up is a good excuse to get to reading it!
Also I love Cinderella ideas so I'm gonna vote for that one too!
Normally if I have story ideas that are this strong I do them all, its more of the order that they are in. So you have to think about which one you want FIRST.
So I'm voting for the mer story!!!! Because I really miss them!!! But all story ideas sound interessting and I love to read whatever you write!!!! I can't wai tot see what you will ofer us at the shop!!! I'm so excited^^ And I absoloutly love the podcast!!! You can hear in your vioce how much you love your storys and that gives it so much more depth!!!! I really love theses posts where you tell us what you think and what you are planing!!!!
I think I will do ALL of them, its more the order... So that's a good thing!
I tend to think of the Merman Universe as the Winter Haven Universe (really the Unnamed One Universe!) - after all, we've now had several references to Cthulhu as a top-rank demon of the Unnamed One, as well as Winter Haven and Arkham/Miskatonic U. locales in the Mer stories. I wonder if we could get Xavier (and maybe even Flynn) involved with the Mer through his Next Society connection. Xavier (more as demon than as vampire) and Cetus would provide a really interesting relationship - especially since the Night Harbinger has a connection to Cthulhu through the Unnamed One!
I hope we don't leave this universe permanently, even if the stories are about new beings with different origins and powers. I like the unity created by having the Unnamed One underpinning all (well, except the Eldar and their offspring) of the varieties of the supernatural in his realm. And the witches have been sorely neglected for a while - they deserve better! - and Nate's uncle is still hanging around in the library like a massive loose thread - where did he come from, and why was he never mentioned before?
I like the mix of stories from new/alternative universes and stories from the Winter Haven universe (which I consider the base universe for Raythe Reign stories) - but I'm still a bit uncomfortable with two different kinds of werewolves!
Also, as a guy, I'd like to see a bit more strategizing and action in the stories, and not quite so much emotionalism, angst, and insecurity about relationships. Balance is key.
Get better, and keep the creative juices flowing!
- toughlove
I think I want to keep this new Mer story only really connected to the main Mer stories, instead of the greater universe so that people only have to read the other books if they want to (there will be spoilers for those) but they can enter this story without reading anything else.
I get you about the angst! I do love my angst. I'll think on this!
I do hope later in the future. You introduce the Unnamed One and other into the mixs. How long can they be separated when your reading reference of each other in the Mers and Winter Haven Universe.
I just can't let this slide. Your desire for more strategy and action has nothing to do with your gender, and others' preference for angst has nothing to do with their's. Or would you say that since I'm nonbinary, that's why I like action and hurt/comfort?
The biological differences between men and women are significant and profound, affecting many aspects of feeling and behavior. Please don't confuse group average differences with individual attributes - there are always outliers.
As many of Raythe's characters have discovered (after much hand-wringing, worry, and distress), denying reality doesn't make it go away. Accepting this fact is part of becoming a fully actualized human being.
I'd vote for the Mer story, although I'd love a Cetus and Zed novella (or full blown book ^^).
In general I'd love to see a darker protagonist, with loose morals, walking the line of greyness while needing their other half to keep them grounded.
Have you heard of the 16 personalities test based on the Briggs Meyers personality theory? It is amazingly accurate, and from the percentages allocations for each personality in the whole population it is incredible to see how many types of personalities are ignored or misunderstood due to having such a small representation and being so unusual from the norm of what is accepted as "normal". I say this because I wanted to thank and congratulate you for being one of the few authors I have read who has successfully created two characters from my personality group who are not (quite) villains: TUO and Cetus. For some reason everyone writes us as villains! And while it is true we have a wide range of grey area regarding morality and see the world as a chess game that doesn't mean we are honorless or evil. -Innocent puppy eyes-.
Whatever you write I am sure it will be awesome...although I always enjoy more your stories when they have an important "grey/ruthless" character.
This does give me ideas about the Mer Lord part of this. I know people want the same yet different for another couple so I'll consider a more ruthless character.
That one of the thing I find Cetus so interesting. Cetus fall in the grey of things. I'm hoping his son follow that trait because I think to be a leader. You can't be good and you can't be bad. You have to do what right for your people and that usually falls in the grey area. Not many people see that. They see thing as good or bad.
You know else falls in this category, Ciaran. I think he starting to see thing in grey. Luthien wasn't bad or good. He done what was good for his people. Even when other thought he bad.
Something I've been wondering, and you may have commented on this before so I apologize for that, will there be a revisit to the Kin? The Abyss is, in my humble opinion, one of your absolutely finest works. It's the story that I started with back when it was still being updated. Have you considered reviving the space-vampires with a new protagonist post-Black Heart reclamation?
I have thought of yet another remix. I swear I'm like the comics people like this. Always wanting to show different ways things could go!
I like all your ideas and I know whatever you decide will be great. I would love to see something more from The Curse series, I know many don't mention it but I love the shifters, and maybe you can't go anywhere with that because his shifting ability was a curse of some sort, but maybe bring in some sort of shifters into a story or base a story around one. Like Paul from Sanctuary, the Lynx? Love that and think you could really do a great story with something like that. Just a thought.