Okay, so first off, biggest question I get is “Who is the damn MC of this series?”. That’s paraphrasing many comments and even reviewers who don’t appear to like Daemon and his group being in the story at all. Let’s be clear about this, Daniel Sorres is the main character of the series, that’s undeniable. He’s in every book, we’re following him on his journey to instill peace in Eden, and he’s the envy of many guys out there with his apparent luck with the ladies. His story and path are important to the series. He is however not the only character in the story or for that matter the world. He is not showing us all of Eden on his journey. There are other lives out there that are taking place, and many as we’ve seen are contributing to the overall plot. Daemon and his followers, Max and his growing number of friends, Kindra and Flarah’s plotting, the Dark Queens. There’s other things going on than just what Daniel and his harem are up to or can see from where they are. Everything is connected, even if you can’t see the connections just yet. Their paths are all intertwined, that’s more than obvious as many have crossed each other one time or another. Daniel’s journey and development will continue as always, but there are other things that need to be fleshed out and brought to light along the way, and that means Daniel and his harem can’t be in every scene. This isn’t to say the cast is anywhere near as enlarged and complicated as that of Game of Thrones, but there are a lot more characters in the book than just Daniel and many deserve time to be seen, heard, and understood. That can’t and won’t be changed, so if the idea that Daniel isn’t going to be in every scene in every book really upsets you to the point that it makes reading this story unbearable, you may as well find another series to jump into. I won’t fault you for that, that’s your decision based on your preferences. It’s all cool.

Next off is another accusation many readers seem to fault me for while not seeing the entire picture first. This being “How the hell did the gemini get an entire army of followers so quickly to attack others with?”. Let’s look at this from what’s been seen so far. The gemini were cast to the eastern wastelands by Apoch and Astreal. There they plot to bring as many vicious monsters as they can to the land to annihilate Daniel’s dream of bringing peace to man and monster. That was at the end of Act IV. We again see them in Act VII at the very end leading a large army into Ruhelia to utterly decimate it. The time gap between these events is 6 days. To anyone paying remote attention that is certainly not enough time to draw an entire army together by handing out pamphlets of any sort. Now, it isn’t shown how the gemini recruit other monsters to join them, how they’re spreading the word. Magic could be involved, sure. So could messengers by horseback, carrier pigeons, and smoke signals for all we know, right? But still that’s a very short amount of time to recruit an army large enough to take down the centaur kingdom, even if the centaurs were poor fighters. So logically they couldn’t have sent word to all these monsters so quickly. That being the case many readers who noticed this are quick to jump to the conclusion that I screwed up the timing, that I wasn’t aware of the timeframe in my own books and made a big boo boo. After all this is a lot easier to think than, say, there’s more going on than what they’ve seen so far. Or what they’ve been paying attention to. Now that’s not to say the entire truth of everything that’s been happening has been made aware to readers, however there have been some clues that there’s been more going on for some time.

Who remembers this witch? Alice is her name and killing is her game (bad joke, I know). We first meet this nasty little monster in Act X as she murders- WAIT! No! Wrong! We actually meet this witch for the first time in Act II. For those who pay close attention they might notice that her staff is oddly familiar. The design is colorful, creepy, and made its first appearance when this witch confronted Alyssa towards the middle of the second book. Although her name wasn’t spoken as she was just ‘another witch’ who didn’t introduce herself or was questioned who she was, she is indeed the one and same from back then. However based on her introduction she gave in Act X she isn’t from this land. She and her sisters come from Zuyuan, which is located far east beyond the Opelega Sea. They’re from a different continent entirely. Sure, they’re joining The Sisterhood for the wicked party the gemini are throwing, but that’s not what brought them to the land in the first place. These evil witches, who technically are trespassing on Charlotte’s land, made the journey into enemy territory for another reason. And they’ve been around Daniel’s neighborhood since near the beginning of the series. Weeks have passed since Daniel began his journey, and long before the gemini even started calling monsters over for their party these wicked witches were already raping and killing humans with glee nearby. So what does this show? Not only would it have been easy for these witches to hear about The Sisterhood and their devious plot, but it shows that evil monsters can and have already been coming to this land without the gemini calling for them. Being drawn towards it even. Monsters that wouldn’t even normally play nice with each other, like the arachne and mites (or for that matter any of them as they all seem to be the kind that don’t make friends easily). Many of them joined The Sisterhood as it sounded fun and profitable for them, but its apparent, even just looking at it logically and timewise, that the gemini’s intentions are not what drew all these monsters into the land in the first place. Many readers have taken what they see at face value, and given the general theme of not believing in only what you see in Eden, that’s going to blind them from parts of the story. They believe that since we’ve only seen the gemini wishing to bring down everyone in the region that they’re the only ones causing trouble, that they’re the only bad girls in town. There’s an entire world we haven’t seen, other people, monster races, and very easily more villains that have yet to make an appearance with their own intentions. If something doesn’t make sense in the story (aside from Triska’s duffelbag, that thing’s a perpetual mystery) then perhaps that’s because you haven’t seen everything yet. Many people assumed Emily was something she wasn’t. Many people assumed Flarah was someone who she wasn’t. Sadly this is something many upset readers and reviewers won’t realize, but that’s something they’ll have to manage on their own.

Another thing I’ve noticed is many readers demand instant satisfaction. That whole bit about Daniel having to evolve as a character and earn the love of his mates and come to learn how to rise higher in the world with a power he didn’t even know he had? Many reviewers don’t like that apparently as he’s not strong enough or confident enough in the first book. The whole character development between Triska and Alyssa, from going to bitter rivals to companions and even lovers later on? Nope, their whole bickering aspect at first was too much to take for some. How any character development should be done with them slowly building a relationship and overcoming trials to make it seem more realistic? Wrong to many readers as they should just skip the whole fighting bit and just get to the sex right away. The first few books of the series suffer from poor criticisms such as these and that is unfortunate because these things that they all wish would go away are what helped build the foundation for the characters later on and for a great story to stand upon. That’s what the first book was for in fact, not to have Daniel become some powerful hero outright but rather to setup the world and introduce us to a few of the girls that would grow to become his family later alongside many others. To show his own growth into someone greater over time. A lot of people out there don’t seem to think so though. Still, the developments needed to be done and naturally, not forced for the sake of jumping to the later scenes and events sooner. People who are unsatisfied with that should probably stick to short stories, they’ll find them more enjoyable than long-running series.

I do get questioned very often if I’ve thought everything through by people who believe they’re seeing everything properly to make that sort of judgement. To answer this, yes, I have my story planned out from start to finish. There are parts that can be molded to different events if I choose to, but the overall plot, main characters, villains, and journey of them all has been decided in its entirety. I’m not making the whole story up as I go, as many would like to believe. What happens will happen for a reason, even if you can’t see the entire reason right away. That’s part of what makes reading a book fun, the journey of it all. Learning about the world, being surprised by twists and turns, cheering for heroes that earn your respect, cursing villains who you wish to see fall. That’s how these sorts of books go.

I understand my books aren’t made for everyone, no book is. Everyone has their own way of thinking and own preferences for what they like to read. These are just a few things that have been thrown at me repeatedly by others who, I think, just don’t understand how these sorts of stories work. Of course there are trolls and hateful people out there that just want to see authors burn, but I’m not making that judgement call on every harsh reviewer of my works. Some of them just aren’t the intended audience for these books and don’t agree with how it plays out, and that’s fine. To each their own. I’m still glad of the work I’ve created, the vast majority of those reading my books think they’re enjoyable, they’re all selling remarkably well so that proves people want more of this world, and that’s enough to make me sleep well at night.

To those who have asked about the topics above in emails or reviews I hope this sheds some light on them for you. And of course to everyone else that reads and approves of my stories, thank you all for your continued support. It really is appreciated