I read a lot - works from different genres and authors. The werewolf shifter books I've perused were just okay. Found a blurb on Facebook with your 9-chapter rough draft of "Gentle Predator" and was impressed. Whoever told you that it was bad needs to be slapped - hard. A little research landed me on this site and reading the current final draft along with "Scarred Predator" and your note about abandoning the works. After seeing that you wrote them as a teenager... I'm seriously impressed. This is one of a handful of works where, after reading the first part, I would buy the series. I strongly recommend that you:
- Ignore your critics. It's your story not theirs. Read the suggestions but only take what fits with your vision.
- Don't completely rewrite "Gentle Predator". Maybe a tweak here or there only if you think it adds to the story. It flows nicely into "Scarred Predator".
- Use a story board to help overcome your writer's block if you haven't already. Finish "Scarred Predator" and see if you can come up with a 3rd installment. However,
- Instead of publishing 3 small works with cliff hangers that everyone hates, I suggest you reduce the chapter count (combine some) in each volume & put them together as 1 work with a prologue that joins the pieces, perhaps spoken by a survivor of the last battle, as the flashback life review before death of a main character, as an elder telling stories to the next generation or as the goddess reflecting on her children. Too many authors publish 130 page novellas and do a disservice to their readers.
There is enough depth in the story to pull the reader in and hold them. Your main characters are solid. Good description of settings. Nice plot twists with potential for more following Keon's story. Potential to pull 2ndary characters like Michael back into the main story line. There are a few editing mistakes but they're easily fixed. Don't abandon this to oblivion. It's honestly too good to waste.
