For Nevermore Season 1

good!”

    It’s like telling people “Hey, it’s broccoli, but it’s good for you!”

    The young adult genre has some baggage because of a glut of bad YA fiction out there. A lot of people hate the genre and dismiss it immediately, seeing only the negatives associated with it. So we had to battle those preconceptions. At the same time, we had to deliver something that YA readers will actually like!

    We billed ForNevermore as a dark romantic fantasy, but in the first season, we’re still getting to know Noella, and the romantic tension between her and Dante doesn’t really exist yet. We are going back and re-writing the book descriptions to downplay those elements and play up the horror a bit more.

    Sean: Yeah, we shouldn't have front-loaded the audience at all. We should have just published the book and let readers draw their own conclusions. Beyond the label, I think we had a slightly bigger challenge with our writing process. We started out approaching the same way we wrote Yesterday’s Gone , but only once we found a new rhythm, did we really start finding our fluidity.

    But I’d say the biggest challenge of writing ForNevermore also became its biggest benefit. We were able to find an ideal flow that we’ll be carrying forward to our next title, WhiteSpace . And because of the awesome energy we found at the end, I’m already looking forward to revisiting ForNevermore for Season Two .

    Ray: Did ForNevermore meet your expectations from a personal satisfaction point of view and did it meet your sales goals?

    David: From a personal satisfaction point, I love the story! It’s a bit tough to get a real feel for it so soon after writing it, of course. Usually it takes me a few months to discover what I don’t like about something, what I’d do different. But as of right now, I love what we’ve created. As for sales, it’s too early to say.

    The first season of Yesterday’s Gone was a bit of a slow burn sales-wise until we had the full season compilation out and properly marketed the book. And things really took off with the second season. While we’ve not sold nearly as many copies of ForNevermore as YG , I believe that we’ll find our readers in time.

    Sean: So far it looks as though all the sales, success and word-of-mouth for a series happens with the second season. To do our best work, Dave and I have to play a long game and think as publishers as much as we have to think as writers. Now that the full season of ForNevermore is available, word will spread. But out real momentum will happen once Episode 7 from Season Two is available.

    Ray: If you had to do it all again, what would you do different?

    David: Other than the marketing, I’m not sure of anything I’d do differently. Of course, I could change my mind in a few months.

    Sean: I would have liked to have had our writing and publishing flow more settled from the beginning, but then again, finding it (like finding the story) is part of the process, and much of the joy.

    Ray: I really dislike the teenage girls in episode 3, thrashing their schoolmates... any regrets?

    David: No. We wanted readers to feel what Noella felt. So if you hated the other girls, we did our job.

    Sean: That’s a reality of high school, and life in general. Part of being a writer is observing, and interpreting the world around you. The fantastic part of the world building is fun, but I believe anchoring it to the real world behavior of some catty teenage girls gives the fantasy a depth it might not otherwise have.

    Ray: What prompted the inclusion of the centaur in episode 3. Will he be back?

    David: Wait, centaurs aren’t the next big thing in YA fiction? I was as surprised as anyone as I was writing that scene. I sent it to Sean for the second draft, thinking for sure he’d hate it or ask me why a centaur? Instead, he loved it.

    Considering that this was the episode where we were really changing things up by introducing fantasy elements to a horror story, I was afraid I was making a disastrous choice. But it felt right, so we went with it.

    One thing I’ve learned in the past year is to trust my instincts. Usually, when I start to second guess and try to make “safe” story choices, it winds up complicating the story and making it worse.

    Finn also made an appearance in Episode 5 where Dante and he were hunting bandits. And yes, he’ll be back. I love his character, even if we haven’t explored it too deeply yet.

    Sean: The centaur was a