Author's Retrospective

Originally posted on my blog, shortly after the posting of Case 11 - Graduation on my blog.

Well, that was it, folks, the last two (planned) stories for After-School Detectives have been posted.

I hope everyone enjoyed it. This was the first web serial novel that I've completed. I actually didn't have an overall plan for the series, when I started. Originally, it was a spur of the moment thing, where G.S. Williams suggested that I rework my Sheryl Holmes series into a child sleuth series, so all I had plan were the first three stories, the last of which (Annabell) was actually a "retelling" of Sheryl Holmes' The Case of the Missing Cat. Afterwards, I was pretty much trying to plan and write each story in the two weeks that I had given myself. As evidenced by the eventual schedule slip, this wasn't the best way for me to write stories. I was tired from the constant need of having to come up with stories for every two weeks without a grand plan outlined, so I decided to end the series.

Still, I enjoyed writing about Sheryl, Samantha, and James, and I wanted to give them a good send off. Rogue Detective was my way of bringing back most of the characters from past cases, and was my sort-of-homage to the Sherlock Holmes story, The Final Problem (of course, the series is supposed to be rather light, so no one died).

With Rogue Detective being my climax, the last two stories, Katie's First Case and Graduation were the denouement (I won't go into too much detail, since they were just posted up).

And with that, things came to a close.

Again, I hoped you all enjoyed the series. :)

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Additional comments, made for when I transferred this story to my website.

The entirety of After-School Detectives was actually posted while Sheryl Holmes' 221B Baker Detective Agency was on hiatus (that would be between Sheryl Holmes' Case 3 and Case 4). Hence, that's why I had written that it was the first web serial novel that I had finished in my original retrospective, even though Sheryl Holmes' 221B Baker Detective Agency is listed before After-School Detectives on my Writings page.

Funnily, I had originally planned to just abandon the original Sheryl Holmes series at Case 3, leaving things on a somewhat sour note between the protagonists.
However, after finishing After-School Detectives, I got the inspiration to wrap up the original Sheryl Holmes series as well.
Thus, we leave both Sheryl Holmes on a happy note. :)