Gonna pile onto your apology by saying I’m sorry for not hopping back on until now, just finished another crazy week at work. 
YESSS! And there is now an excellent chance that I’ll spend the rest of my day finding an original copy…
OH MY GOD thank you!!! 
I’ve been meaning to edit and republish Bait for years now, so if you have any suggestions on how to make it a better story just let me know.
Gonna read this tonight, I’m super excited!!!
Can you link me to this? I tried to find it the other day, couldn’t, felt like a moron, and now I’m officially swallowing my pride and asking you directly 
@Requiem Reading this absolutely made my weekend. Thank you so much.
Not a problem, Elena! Here’s my Fanfiction profile page. 
Ravenclaw Midnight Blue | FanFiction
Please read whatever you wish, and review!
PS: Work on my latest story is going…slowly. I’m planning the path to the (more or less) halfway point, at present.
I don’t get the heart system here, I’m already out of hearts to give for the next 13 hours. 
Thank you very much! It’s been a long time since I’ve shared something creative like this, especially something I connected so strongly with. It was fun to take the two characters and just freewrite with them to see what they ended up wanting to do.
Haha no worries. I’m trying to use extra moments to steal time for reading and writing between working at home while taking care of my kid. I think that’s why it feels like life is powered by coffee and fever dreams. 
There’s never enough time or energy to get everything done in a day.
It’s still another year away before my kid can start school and I’m tired of waiting for uninterrupted moments to do anything creative. I don’t think I’ll ever have an uninterrupted moment again so I better adapt. 
Funny thing, there was a recent announcement from Jason that included this book. I was like, hey, I was just talking about this!
You could duel him for it, maybe… 
Gah, it’s so well done I don’t think I would change much, if anything at all. I do remember feeling really uncomfortable with one Richard scene where he’s making fun of Lenore’s Xanax habit but I realize that was likely the point. When a character is being an ass, it’s okay to feel uncomfortable about what they’re saying.
If you ever wanted to write them, it would be really interesting for me, as a reader, to see different scenes from both Rich and Paul’s perspectives. I just love the dynamics of never truly knowing where Rich and Paul stood at any given moment. So, actually, maybe this isn’t a good idea, afterall.
The dichotomy of what they would say versus their actions always had me second guessing their intentions and motivations. It’s difficult trying to figure out when Paul is telling the truth and when he’s being manipulative but I also think he’s really good at mixing up the two so that lies end up becoming half-truths.
You’re welcome.
I just finished “Behind the Old Maple Tree” and I freakin LOVED IT. So so well written. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face when Paul started reciting The Raven to Lenore as he chased her around the sofa. Literally perfect.
The last line gave me chills. 
Here’s wishing Lenore/the MC happy birthday for tomorrow! If the game’s Ending 1 was canon, would she say she’s 28 again? 
Aww, thank you very much!
The first thing I thought of when I heard Lenore’s name was Poe. If that wasn’t intentional, it’s perfect anyway. Made me wonder if Lenore’s parents had an appreciation for classic literature.
Hadn’t initially intended to include it, but when doing edits, I realized they needed something to do while circling the couch. Hey, there’s this poem with Lenore’s name in it…let’s see if there are any fitting lines that would work here. Went back and also made Lenore experience a tiny bit of wonder, fear, and doubt to fit in with the first lines of the verse.
I knew that had to be the last line of the story, since he was finished counting to ten. 
I think he realizes just how often he’d be able to win at this game, and he’s happy to play it. And Lenore’s happy to lose.
Thanks for creating such fascinating characters and allowing your audience to play around with them. It was so much fun dropping these two into a scene and seeing what they ended up wanting to do.
Settled for the kindle version, btw… couldn’t justify it.
TOTALLY intentional, which is why her last name is “Edgars” - the name just feels tragic to me for some reason.
Thank you again for sharing!
Lol yes indeed
Read your Dracula fanfic, btw, and it was awesome. I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because I haven’t played the game, but I loved that you heavily featured his wives, who I’ve always felt were the most interesting characters in the story.
Thanks Elena! Glad you enjoyed it.
To clarify, my Dracula fanfic is based on 1) the (brick sized) Ace gamebook ‘Dracula, Curse Of The Vampire’ by Jonathan Green (a Choice Your Own Adventure-type of gamebook, where the reader can play Dracula, or Jonathan, or Mina, or Dr Seward). And 2) the Dracula novel, which I picked up in whilst on holiday in Whitby, last year! Whitby, of course, being the town where Dracula comes ashore to Great Britain in the novel.
Incidently, on a previous visit to Whitby, years ago, I also got by chance a board game called ‘Dracula’ (by Kosmos). Nice, strategic, memory game.
As for Dracula’s lady companions, yes… I’ve read a series of short Dracula stories by Assimbya (on both the Fanfiction and Archive Of Our Own websites), which acted as inspiration. But I wanted both the Harkers and the vampire ladies to break free of the Count’s control. So, remembering that in ‘Dracula’, the ladies accuse Dracula of not loving them, I wondered ‘what if they are desperate for love, and can be sort of redeemed’?’ So ‘Love Never Dies’ was written, shortly after I came back from Whitby!
Also, another good game that’s relevant here is ‘Van Helsing’ by Sirius. Difficult to track down a copy of it, so I was sneaky and copied out the floor plan of Castle Dracula and game pieces from the internet. The hunters (Van Helsing, Lord Godalming, Jonathan, and Mina, seek to kill Dracula or 5 vampire brides - whilst Dracula tries to find 4 brides to take back to his coffine, or kill/vampirise all of the hunters! It was another inspiration for my Dracula fanfic!
I’d lose a duel before it started, myself. I didn’t know these were available on Kindle! I never thought to check. My brain is still floating around in 90s nostalgia so sometimes I forget that the rest of the world has pretty much become fully digital.
Well, kick me in the pants, I totally missed that! I did not put two and two together here. How did I miss this? That does have a tragic feel; sullen, sorrowful.
Hi Elena!
I’ve been meaning to write this message to you since I finished the game for the first time and found out that there’s this thread and forum. This is also why I set up the account here in the first place.
I was so enamoured with the game, with your fresh take on vampires, with the amazing pacing of the story… also, I just had to get all the achievements! And still, I believe there are many things I haven’t yet seen.
The minigames were so cool to play and sometimes sent a chill down my spine – which is NOT something I say often. More often than not, I am bored or neutral to things that people find scary, but you shoving me into Lenore’s shoes and perspective was a game changer. Though I was not a fan of gender-locking (and I still do not like it), I believe that in this game it worked quite well.
To be honest, I read through the whole thread here. It took me three days and I regret nothing. I have so many comments in my head that I would probably need to write a whole book to get it all out.
I was amazed by the fact that the story could go anywhere from friends to enemies and anything in between without this feeling forced or out of place – the characters were still themselves, no matter the outcome.
I absolutely love how much of this was done in the background, in your mind. It could be seen when you were replying to the comments on the forum. Every single one of the main characters has a unique backstory, set of skills, everything.
About the Xanax use. I saw that it was not well received by some people. I personally liked it as a game mechanic (I never saw something like this and creativity is always a plus in my books) and I really understood it as a coping attempt. If I (real me, not Lenore) were to hunt for Paul, my low humanity would allow me I believe, but the part where I have to TALK… Let’s just say it would be easier for me to just drug and drag somebody :’)
I am also one of the few people who enjoyed a no romance book. I know romance could be done without all the Twilight’s glitter, but presenting them as predators and not cuddly buddies made the atmosphere very dense and I loved it. I loved it all so much that I still think almost every day about Rich, Paul and Lenore (sorry, I hate Charles – if I got him, he would be begging to swap me for Richard as a tormentor).
The endings were awesome too. My favourite one would have to be the one when Lenore becomes a vampire. This is what I tried to achieve before I knew if it was possible. I like that she stays more or less friends with the guys (as Stockholm syndrome-y as it sounds) and they become more of equals, I love that Charlie is dead and I can imagine her adapting to this new kind of life, no longer lonely like before she met Rich and Paul, but also no longer tagged a meal-to-be. The scene when she kills her lover and Paul comforts her was great (and sad, honestly).
Aside from that, I think that the most believable and suitable one would be the one where she runs away from Richard and Paul drains her in the diner. A very sad one but it also seems the most realistic. Or the one where she takes Paul down but dies in the process.
This is all to say - I am totally impressed. Thank you a lot for this experience. No joking – this was one of the best games that I have ever played. If I collect enough thoughts to write another meaningful comment, I surely will.
And I definitely need to read Donor and Bait now.
First off: HOLY SHIT THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I can’t tell you how flattering that is.
I’m so glad you liked them! It was important to me that the minigames served a purpose (in this case, driving up the suspense), and weren’t just added as an afterthought. The only one I regret is blackjack because, in hindsight, luck-based games should probably have no place in IF.
It’s funny, sometimes I’ll scroll back to look at my prior responses in order to find a page reference or link that I directed someone to in the past… and the next thing I know I’ve been rereading the thread for three hours. The readers here posted such amazing questions/comments that I can totally understand how you got sucked in.
Thanks for that. In my head these characters are very real people, and I’m glad to hear it came through in the story.
I could probably talk for hours on this topic.
In a nutshell – and this speaks to the gender-lock issue as well – my idea of IF goes back to the forms that I grew up with (CYOA, the old Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound) where you don’t choose your character. The fun of them for me was getting into someone else’s head and seeing challenges/consequences from their perspective. And (just speaking for myself here, I know I’m in the minority) I often find the consequence of hyper-personalization is that it makes the story feel less personal.
For example (sorry for the ancient references here): Skyrim is an AMAZING game where you can customize the living shit out of your MC, but I never became attached to any of the characters, couldn’t get into the story, and eventually put it down. When playing games like the Witcher or The Last of US, however, I developed deep feelings for all the characters even though I never had the opportunity to customize the MC. I want to make games like those.
Again, this is just a personal preference – I’m not saying either format is “right” or “wrong.” I think there’s room for both types of games under the COG/Hosted Games label, though, and some folks happen to disagree. That’s okay too.
So I’m grateful for the negative reviews that mention the gender lock, or the fact that the MC uses Xanax and smokes cigarettes. It’s important that people don’t feel “tricked” into playing a game where a female MC with MH/SA is forced upon them, and it’s helpful for them to see that feedback from other readers. All good, I promise.
The only review that made me flinch was one where someone said the game implied that all people with anxiety disorders need to cope with drugs. This truly wasn’t my intention, and I certainly don’t think fiction should shy away from characters who struggle with MH/SA (underrepresented IMHO, and when included they’re often portrayed as comic relief, crazy, or immoral), but I could certainly understand the criticism. As a writer, it would be insanely limiting to treat all of your characters as “representatives” of their gender/race/mental health/nationality/etc because you’d never be able to give them any flaws, but I do agree there needs to be a balance, and I clearly didn’t reach it for that reader. 
OMG me too. I’m embarrassed to say that I’m a failed vegetarian (I live in a house of carnivores, and I feel weird throwing out leftovers when the animal gave its life – personal struggle of mine that I won’t burden you with), so I reluctantly eat meat from time to time. I could NEVER actually harm an animal, however; I can’t even kill bugs.
I’d probably be too afraid to turn Paul down on his initial request, go out hunting, and chicken out big time 
Yet another place where I failed to strike balance with the reader
THANK YOU. I really struggled with that ending because I had such a hard time imaginging Lenore as a vampire, but in the end it became one of my favorites as well.
I know I’ve mentioned this in the thread before, but that was the original ending I had in my head for the book… then just like the MC chickening out on her hunting trip, I couldn’t go through with it. Probably for the best, anyway, this story is supposed to take place in her “perfect” universe after all.
I’m impressed. Thank you for taking the time to craft such a thoughtful post. And I’d love to hear back from you if you have any additional thoughts after reading the books.
Elena, since you are not considering doing a future spin-off for it, could I get your blessing to do a vampire hunter fanfiction based on your story? absolutely no worries if not. Just thought I’d ask.
Hi @Kirschtein! There’s actually a decent possibility that I’ll create a future spin-off, but nothing I’m ready to move on just yet.
With that said, I’d be THRILLED with any vampire hunter fanfic you want to write!!! 
All I ask is that you let me know when it’s finished. 
Thanks for reaching out, and happy writing!
–Elena
I can’t access Bait on my phone 
I’m dying to know what happens with Paul specifically in it. I’ve always liked Paul more than Richard, but after reading all of these comments about him… well, maybe I can use this an excuse to reread the story and pay extra close attention to the scenes with Paul. I’ll try getting the Bait file open on my computer as well.
But it did hurt when I was trying to save Charles, failed, and Paul left Lenore on her own with Richard 
sigh, I wish Lenore would’ve written Paul a note beforehand about Richard wanting to kill Charles… but I can see why she’d be scared to do it, because of the possibility of Richard finding it. And then Paul does kill you too easily if you bore him too much during the games
The only reason why I even want to save Charles was because of Paul, honestly. Charles doesn’t strike me as someone that’d be the nicest of vampires and he’d probably get worse and worse… but Paul cares about him, so.
But honestly, if Paul really is abusive in any way and I kept missing it, then sure I’ll join up with Richard to kill Charles, because fuck abusers, and Charles really wouldn’t be the best vampire in the long term, at least in my opinion. I mean, he threw his humanity away so easily. I think it’d be cool to be a vampire too, but not if the price was killing humans like that. I’d want to be a vampire and drink from willing “donors” only, and no deaths on my watch.
But yeah, Paul, I’m onto you… maybe I should be more loyal to Richard.
This thread’s been going for a while, but I think this is the first I’ve heard of someone being unable to open the file - let me know if you had any luck with your computer. If not, maybe I could export a pdf for you 
It’s entirely possible, btw, that you’ll like Paul more after reading Bait. So please do reach back out and let me know if/when you finally finish reading the novel.
Not gonna disagree with you there. Paul can be really unpredictable… especially when he’s hungry
OMG I love this, and so does the version of Paul that lives in my head 
Go back and befriend Charles (if you haven’t already). You just might change your mind
WRT Paul being abusive, I’ll say this: He’s a character who wants to do the right thing but ultimately can’t overcome his (predatory & sadistic) nature. At the end of the day, none of these characters (including Lenore) are either good or bad. They’re all just as deeply flawed as the rest of us.
Lol that’s how it starts… 
Thanks so much for reaching out @Alex1897 , and please let me know if you were ever able to access Bait!
Charles has an incredibly satisfying ending.
But I still hate him.
He’s a prick and don’t mind if Lenore kills him. I don’t care if Pual loves him, he’ll get over it.
Hi Elena. Hope you and yours are okay. I’m posting my message here, as I had already posted it via fanfiction - but you might not have received it, as the messaging for my FF account had been blocked (some technical glitch).
Just a brief update. I was hoping to have some of my latest Sherlock Holmes story on fanfiction, ready for Halloween - but I’m still proofreading my way through what’s already been written (about 110 pages on computer), and the remaining parts of the story haven’t fully been fleshed out. I don’t like to start releasing parts of a story onto fanfiction unless I have a completed draft. There’s been too many times I’ve started to read a promising fanfiction story - only for it to run into an abandoned dead end - and I don’t want to do that to my readers.
To summarise, I’ll write what I can, when I can!
Anything on the writing horizon from yourself, at present?