Day 4 of the Doubt – Among Us Trilogy Blog Tour
The Bunny’s Review – guest post Anne-Rae Vasquez @write2film
How I made writing “Doubt” fun and interactive with fans
Doubt (Among Us Trilogy) is a story told in a young/early adult voice
about former child prodigies Harry Doubt, creator of the Truth Seekers
online game, and Cristal Hernandez. Harry decides to take the game
offline when his mother and other gamers’ loved ones family go missing.
Their search for the truth uncovers supernatural forces among them which
inadvertently triggers the beginning of the end of the world as they
know it.
The story mixes social media communications such as text
messaging and video messaging as a form of communication between
characters as they go on missions to find their family members.
All characters have aliases and avatars which is displayed as a
splash page image at the beginning of the book. The official
website of the book (amongus.ca) also has detailed M.O.’s of the
characters so readers can also view and interact with the characters on
the website.
The story although geared to young adult/ early adult readers is
also entertaining for general readers who are interested in the
supernatural, sci/fi urban fantasy, apocalyptic genres with themes
similar to the TV show Fringe (by J.J. Abrams).
As a filmmaker, journalist and web design programmer, I tell
stories in multiple mediums. Doubt (book 1 of the Among Us
Trilogy) was literally created from an interactive online reality game
that I created with the help of my developmental editor (Josefina
Rosado).
The official website AmongUs.ca interacts with
visitors allowing them to participate as Truth Seekers following the
theme of the story.
I wanted to give readers another way to connect with my
story. Entertainment does not need to be contained in one medium. I
believe in telling your story in many mediums. How do we do this?
One way was to entice readers to participate in the experience of
the story as it is being written.
Putting Theory to the Test
Here was the plan I used for fan recruiting for my new novel Doubt, Book 1
of the Among Us Trilogy:
- Design website for the book series using the theme of the story
(Theme:
Truth seekers who are online gamers use the internet to communicate
with each other and also hack into global networks to save the world
from catastrophic events caused by an unknown entity.) - Entice beta readers to read drafts of the chapters as I write them but only awarding the first 10 who register
- Assign characters from the novel to each beta reader.
- Provide the beta reader with their assigned character’s
strengths, weaknesses, personality traits and physical characteristics. - As more chapters in the book are written, the ten beta readers
will be asked to provide input with the incentive that what they write
may be included in the next chapter. They will not know until the next
chapter is released. - Release each new chapter to the first ten fans as an award for having joined early.
- As more beta readers register to the site, ask them to create
their own character and post the character’s 3 strengths and 3
weaknesses and 3 physical characteristics on the website. - Entice additional beta readers to complete simple mission
assignments related to the story with the incentive that their character
may be chosen to be written into the Book 2 and Book 3 of the series. - Give beta readers a Thank you credit on a Thank You page on the site and also on the credit page when the book is published.
- When the beta readers pass a mission assignment, a chapter will be released to them.
Using this approach to write Doubt, I also allowed fans to
participate and shape the story. This has helped build the fan base and
also promote the book launch. The release of the book was November 9,
2013 and because of this approach, Doubt was featured at the Rain
Dance Book Festival in Canada.
If you’re a reader, what do you think of this approach to writing? If you’re an author, how did you write your novel?
About Anne-Rae Vasquez
Anne-Rae Vasquez is a freelance journalist for Digital Journal.com,
author, film maker and web design programmer. Her latest novel,
Doubt, is the the first book in the Among Us Trilogy series. Her
other works include: the novel and screenplay for the award winning
feature film and web series Almost a Turkish Soap Opera, Salha’s Secrets
to Middle Eastern Cooking Cookbook Volume 1, Gathering Dust – a
collection of poems, and Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week,
published by Sams.net (a division of Macmillan Publishing). Almost a
Turkish Soap Opera was her feature screenplay and film directorial
debut. Anne-Rae Vasquez is available for interview.
PR Contact Details
J. Suarez c/o AR Publishing 7360 137 Street #517 Surrey, BC Canada V3W 1A3 +16046085747
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Buy Now @
Genre – Young Adult, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Thriller
Rating – G
More details about the author and the book
Connect with Anne-Rae Vasquez on Facebook & Twitter
Website http://amongus.ca
Join us on our tour of the Blogosphere!
New Blog Post ~ Anne-Rae Vasquez – How I made writing “Doubt” fun and interactive with fans @write2film http://t.co/ayMWBjSvRK
— kybunnies (@kybunnies) January 4, 2014
If you stumbled here and don’t know what this is about, don’t leave!
Here are some details about Doubt, book 1 of the Among Us Trilogy.
Do you love shows like J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and read books like Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones?
“Doubt” mashes fringe science, corporate espionage and paranormal encounters to catapult you into an out-of-this-world experience. At 21 years old, Harry and Cristal are fresh out of university with their PhD’s. Labeled all their lives as being ‘weird’ and ‘geeky’, they find true friendships with other outcasts by playing online virtual reality games. Harry Doubt, a genius programmer and creator of the popular online game ‘Truth Seekers’, has a personal mission to find his mother who went mysteriously missing. He enlists his gaming friends to join in helping him find her and their own missing loved ones. During Harry’s missions, Cristal and the team of ‘Truth Seekers’ stumble upon things that make them doubt the reality of their own lives when they realize there are supernatural forces living among them. This triggers the beginning of the ‘end of the world’ as they know it.
Wonderful fans of Doubt (book 1 of the Among Us Trilogy)
Author and Developmental Editor
My developmental editor, book launch team and I had the pleasure of launching my latest book, Doubt, book 1 of the Among Us Trilogy at the Rain Dance Book Festival.
Take a sneak peek at some chapters… don’t worry, you’re not obliged to buy… just share and tell your friends – hey, we had to try, right?
great!!!!