Vincent Berg: Blog

I've posted a new chapter 2 for The Demons Within, which provides new background info. which helps explain WHY Phil gets so crazy, hides everything from his family, and doesn't get along with his wife.

I recommend you go back and reread the chapter, as I think it adds a lot to the story. It was only because a ready commented no Phil 'not making sense' that I went back and reexamined the subject.

In case you're curious, the new section in at the end of the first section, so you won't have to read far to find it. You'll notice is as soon as you run across it, as it's entirely new (a new (undeveloped) story thread).

As you may have guessed, The Demons Within does turn fairly dark, in time. Without including any story spoilers, you'll want to continue reading, whatever happens, because there are a series of surprises at the end which alter the storyline.

Not to toot my own horn (toot, toot!), but my sister thought that this was my best story to date, yet still didn't want to read the end (I'm waiting to hear what she thought of the ending).

Just so you know, the sequel, Speaking With Your Demons is nearing completion (my editors are working on it) and it is much brighter than this story, which sets the stage for what follows.

Given the dark nature of many of my stories (where I tend to kill off many favored characters), I decided I'd best quit my 'heroic sacrifice' motif, but decided to have some fun with it before I did (hence the dark theme of the story).

I'll talk more about this once the story concludes, but again, I've already given away too many spoilers, and you'll enjoy the story much more without knowing what happens.

As I suspected, despite the low downloads and low initial scores for "Zombie Leza", the scores have risen consistently as it's posted. Now that "Zombie Leza" has concluded, the scores have risen even more.

Despite having trouble getting readers to invest time in it, hopefully now the skeptics will take a second look at it. I knew 'yet another zombie story' wouldn't be an attractive genre to tackle, but I found a way to wrap a fascinating story (imho) around the basic genre.

Now I'll have to wait a few days and see what happens on SOL, where the story had the lowest score of all my stories (it's now back up to 3rd worst, ahead of one of my classics (my first). Hopefully it'll bounce up another spot or two. ;-D

Now that I've completed the story (at least on FS and Sci-Fi), I've gotta ask. While I've been bitching about how unpopular the story is (few readers), despite people enjoying it once reading, I'm curious what specifically is preventing people from reading the story (since it's likely to impact my next books, as well).

Is it the zombie genre, the story description, doubts about the topic? I've had complaints of "not another zombie tale" as well as "Oh, no, this isn't a typical zombie story", so I'm still unsure what's throwing readers off.

I never expected this to be a popular book, as zombie stories are notoriously poor sellers, but I'm stumped by readers' refusal to even consider it, despite knowing how I approach stories and typically turn them on their heads, taking them in unusual directions.

What kept you from picking up the story, and what might have convinced you to give the story a chance, if you were just seeing it for the first time now?

(Sorry to sound whiney, but the reception to this story is bugging me.)

It's interesting, but "Zombie Leza" is now both my highest (on FineStories) and my lowest-rated story (on SOL). That reinforces my 'age differences on the different sites' supposition, though I have no basis for the claim.

However, as I suspected, the scores have risen significantly. Hopefully this will reassure skeptical readers when the story finishes--as it's NOT a traditional zombie tale.

On another positive note, someone pointed out an typo in chapter 11 (it was a homophone: "grizzly" instead of "grisly", so it was easy to miss), but noted it was the only error he noted in the story so far. That's always reassuring, while also pointing out that readers are still looking out for me--pointing out the easy-to-correct mistakes.