Hazardous Road.

To say this year has been easy for me would be a lie.

At the end of my last post, which was months ago, I touched upon being made redundant from my job after seventeen years. I'd lined up a new job to walk into after my final day, literally across the road from my soon-to-be-old job, and had a two-week break to look forward to before starting. It all sounded like I was going to land on my feet.

The problem was that, over the two-week break, it gave me too much time to think about the whole thing. In the end, I felt that I'd been royally screwed over. Especially since there had been other people more deserving of being laid off than me. I became angry and miserable and did nothing besides sulk on the couch. Starting the new job was not a lot of fun, either. In retrospect, it wasn't a good idea to work across the road from my old job, still have to see the place daily, and even handle similar goods. My misery got worse as a result.

At the start of February, I told all this to a friend, Mike, who had also been made redundant from the same company I had, three years earlier during the pandemic. He offered to help get me a position where he worked. It was in a different part of my city, and it was totally different work in a different environment. I accepted and made the switch. I've felt better since, even though I'm still a temporary worker. I'm keeping my head down and hoping they'll take me on permanently, but it's been a long, bumpy road.

But during all this, my writing of Detective in Mind 2 suffered. I didn't write for just over two months, and when I eventually started up again, the words came out in drips and drabs. Even at the time of writing this blog, I'm still struggling, but I'm picking up the pace. I owe my return to some form to Mike and his helping me, but like I said previously, my writing suffered. Even though I get some good word counts down some days, it takes a while for me to get going, and I hate that.

2024 will be a write-off for me in many ways, but if I can get Detective in Mind 2 released, I'll consider it a small win.

Onwards and upwards, I guess.

 

Celebrating the Good Stuff: The Guy Who Accidentally Started the Apocalypse.

 

While I only have one LiTRPG novel under my belt, I plan on doing more. Everyone has their favourite in the genre and usually, it tends to be Dungeon Crawler Carl. I love that series, but they are not my favourites. Mine is the above title, by David J Bushman. As many know, science fiction will always be close to my heart and when I knew this title was on the way, I was eagerly awaiting it. Why? Because David was trying something new. Not a LiTRPG, but a LiTFPS.

I grew up loving First Person Shooters and having one in novel form was exciting to me. Coupled with the fact that it was science fiction was a real draw. So how was it?

On his way back from getting a sandwich, Cameron exchanges a free coupon with a hobo for a 'wishing stone.' This leads to him inadvertently setting off a chain of events that sends the world to shit. The next thing he knows, he's fighting in a war against an alien invasion to prevent the extinction of the human race. 

Sweet.

Boasting a cool cover by Stephen Landry, the book was an awesome story and I flew through it, which is always a good sign. But, as you've probably guessed, I listened to the audiobook.

Respect to David for getting a top-notch narrating duo for the audiobook. Daniel Wisniewski and Jessica Threet absolutely knock it out of the park with their performances,  particularly Daniel as Cameron's companion throughout the story. At fourteen hours and thirty minutes long, the audiobook is plenty of bang for your buck, especially for those who enjoy a long listen.

David has told me he is working on book two and I can't wait for it. For those looking for a good read or listen, I suggest checking this one out. It's a great start in what hopefully becomes an equally great series.

Find it on Amazon here for US readers,

and here for UK readers.

2023 For Me.

 

Most of the folks I follow on YouTube have done their usual takes on the previous year and what was good and bad. I decided to come at such a thing from a more personal point of view because I had a really mixed 2023.

I'll start with the bad first.

The Harem Nights omnibus was released in February and should have been something to celebrate. But the narrator took much longer than expected, and that was partly my fault. I gave the guy the best part of a year to do it because I wasn't too bothered about the whole thing and as it later turned out, mistakes were still in the manuscript that I had missed. What I didn't expect him to do was take most of the year to record it. At one point I was sure he had ghosted me. Eventually, the audiobook came out and I ended up filing it away as a loss, but more on this later. I should pause here and ask that please, nobody contact him about this. I don't want an argument of any kind here.

My faith in crowdfunded comics took a major dent and I have become much more strict on what I'll back. Why? Books Like Cyberfrog Rekt Planet and Peregrine: Wings of the Falcon arrived massively late, around two to three years overdue. While I read Peregrine out of a morbid curiosity, Cyberfrog is still in its box and I don't know if I'll ever read it. There are other books I backed that are still massively late, and I have a growing pile of ones I'm going to sell. It's also become apparent to me that certain creators have treated backers as pay pigs by sitting on their money, doing stupidly long live streams, or going after people on Twitter (I'm not calling it X) instead of doing their work. I hate that and simply will not support such behaviour.

Finally, I got made redundant at the end of last year from my job. Three days before Christmas, to be exact. I took it as best I could and I was sad to go. It was ultimately closing a chapter on seventeen years of my life and I wished it would have been handled better by the company, but the atmosphere in the place as my final days approached made me glad to get out. I start a new job soon and am looking forward to it but I will admit, I'm a little weary.

Now for the good.

The audiobook for Escape from Crescendo Station One was released, narrated by Candace Roman, who had previously narrated Ataris Station for me. Despite EfCSO not being my most successful book, it is still my favourite to this day. Candace did a wonderful job narrating the book, especially when she added background music for the more tense or action scenes. The story became much more dear to my heart after that, and I owe her a lot for it.

While the Harem Nights audiobook came out and was a bad experience for me, it sold really well. I had come up with an outline for a harem story crossed with LitRPG but I couldn't get it to work, so I forgot about it. The previously mentioned sales made me look at it again and see what wasn't working, namely the LitRPG part, so I ripped it out and wrote the book, but at a much slower pace than usual as I fleshed the story out. Edie Skye was even kind enough to give me a front cover blurb for it.

That book was Detective in Mind.

It became my best-selling book and my most critically reviewed. It was one hell of a way to end 2023, released before my redundancy, but providing some cash after it to see me through December and the start of January. At the time of writing this, I am working on the sequel to DiM, a book I plan on making into a series.

What about the future?

I am also considering breaking into audiobook narration of my own works. The money from my redundancy will certainly cover the costs of the equipment, I just need to do my research on the rest of it. I don't know of many other authors who do this, and it also gives me something to really get my teeth into.

Will it work out? Time will tell, but I am full of confidence about it. Bring on 2024. 

Celebrating the Good Stuff: The Titan Mage Series.

 

One of the problems of being online is the waves of negativity. YouTubers have some of the worst culprits for this. If a crappy movie comes out, especially one from Disney, it gets dumped on from a very high height by several different channels. Are they right? Most of the time, but it gets tiresome after a while. The newer Star Wars movies got torn to shreds by these channels, rightly so in my opinion, but it still got tiresome. This resulted in folks like Larry Correia complaining that they never celebrated anything good.

Sadly, I added to this trend lately with a tweet criticising a very late comic book I backed on Indiegogo in 2020. It had been due in 2021, but I received it on the 25th of November this year. To add insult to injury, the book was poorly made and the first page came away from the spine. The tweet I wrote took off and was even mentioned in places like Kiwi Farms (for those who don't know what that is, don't ask) to my surprise. I felt bad about that tweet, but deleting it would have been pointless.

So, I decided to start talking about the stuff I was enjoying or had enjoyed. My first attempt at this, a tweet about some wonderful comics I received promptly, did not get nearly as much attention as the last. That was a shame. For my next celebratory piece, I chose to write about it here.

Titan Mage is a book series anyone and everyone should read, or listen to. To summarise briefly, the main character, Locke, is a man who dies and is reborn in another realm as a powerful mage and mech pilot. All the ladies want him, too, which is an added bonus. He goes on many fascinating adventures with the ladies by his side, or on top of him, or underneath him, and let me tell you, the sex scenes sure as hell are anything but boring. Now, I'm being vague on the details because I want to avoid spoilers. You really should check them out. But, I should point out that I did not read the books. I listened to the audiobooks.

The narration team of Daryl Mayfield and Jess Trepanier do nothing short of an excellent job with the material. Personally, I love the dual narration approach to audiobooks and feel it elevates the performance. Every time one has been released, I purchase it with either an Audible credit or money if it gets released before my credit is due. As I have said to the author, she brought back my excitement for a new release, something I haven't felt in a long time.

These releases are among many that should be talked about and enjoyed. It is reasons like the Titan Mage series that my head is more in books and audiobooks than it is in cinema or comics. Why? Because I feel the passion is still there for such storytelling, especially from us independent authors. I feel that authors like Edie Skye are showing others how it is done, and I always feel honoured that she gave me a front cover blurb for Detective in Mind.

Long may she continue.

You can find Titan Mage books on Amazon here for US readers, and here for UK readers.

Out now: Detective in Mind.

 

Wow, it's been so long since my last release.

A good chunk of the year was spent with me wanting to come up with something interesting, something different to what was out. I came up with nothing for a while, and it felt like the well was dry. Then one day, Andrew, the husband of my wonderful cover artist, Peta, suggested I take a page from the book of the legend that was Chuck Jones, and find inspiration. So, after watching Dark City out of impulse (the director's cut) I developed a real taste for the noir genre and what I could possibly do with it.

At the same time, I had an outline I couldn't get to work that mixed science fiction, LitRPG, and harem. It felt like there were too many ingredients in the stew. After removing the LitRPG aspect, changing a lot of the characters and their motivations, I had the rough outline for Detective in Mind. So, I cautiously started writing it.

Did it go smoothly? Nope. Not in the slightest.

I cannot remember which author said the following, but it was something along the lines of: the story writing itself using our fingers on the keys. My God, did that prove to be correct here. I had to pause writing two or three times to adjust the outline because the story kept going off in a different direction. I had never experienced anything like it before but I kept going.

Months later, here we are.

I have found a real taste for the noir genre and will be sticking with it. Will I write other stories in my beloved sci-fi? Sure. I don't like to stay in one place. I just hope the readers don't mind me hoping about.

Detective in Mind can be found here for UK readers, and here for the US readers. Thanks for reading.

What's That Saying?

 

So, I wasn't going to write about this whole thing. I wasn't going to join the YouTubers and other bloggers/writers who showed their utter disdain towards the news about The Punisher issue 12. But, this one pissed me off more that I wanted it to.

I had read the original Punisher comics growing up, as well as loads of the graphic novels and one-shots that were released. I remember borrowing a friend's copy of one issue, reading with delight when the Punisher attracts a bunch of criminals to a fair ground, and then mows them down with uzis while riding a roller coaster. I even have a copy of Punisher Warzone issue one, signed by John Romita Jr, something I'm more proud to have, given the recent events. An old friend of mine has all the Punisher comics, across the series before they were cancelled. He did not buy the Marvel Knights run, as he had stopped collecting by then. I offered to buy them off him, but he never got back to me with a price...

I stopped collecting comics a while back, something I'm not too bothered about, given how crap most of them became, but I always found myself watching from a distance. The story appeared back in 2020 of Gerry Conway wanting to reclaim the iconic skull symbol, claiming it had been used as one of oppression by cops and those folks on the right. I dismissed the story, thinking that the Punisher would just be phased out, or cancelled altogether. But, oh boy, was I wrong.

The above image circlated on the internet, accompanied by the story that the Punisher was given a redesign, swords instead of guns, and joined The Hand. The funny part of the article is that it makes out the change had to happen, because the symbol was adopted as one of hate.

Uh huh.

Myself, and many others who read the comics, never believed that. It always stank of politics to me, especially as a lot of folks on the right, like Sean Hannity, were fans. John Bernthal even said in an interview with Conan, "the character resonated deeply with members of law enforcement and the military." He even states he was warned by a fan not to mess it up when playing Frank Castle. For the record, he didn't. He did an amazing job.

So, when the latest series launched, I didn't pay it any attention. That was until issue 12 released, and people found out what happened in it. In particular, the images below, which are part of the scene where Franks resurrected dead wife sees him, after she's shot him.

Yeah. To say it pissed off a lot of the fans was a mild understatement. I looked at that scene and saw not only the deconstruction of Frank and his history, but also an outright character assasination on him. With Maria telling Frank she was going to divorce him before getting killed on that fateful day, it essentially made all of his stories pointless. But, I suppose it goes with everything Marvel are doing now, given the way their comics are being written. However, while I ignored and shrugged off previous changes and storylines that wrecked other characters or their universes, this one hit a nerve.

It was a prime example of how a lot of the mainstream writers out there destroy more than they create. And, as they have shown in comic books alone, it is much easier to do just that. Of course, it spawned plenty of YouTube videos on the subject, which I won't bother linking as there's so many of them. As much as I agreed with their reasons for doing so, they failed to realise they were just giving more attention to the whole thing. And, yes, I see the irony that I am, also, but bare with me.

These occasions show to me that companies such as Marvel don't like sections of their audience. They put stuff out like this to spite them, to tell them what they loved is dead and to move on. The phase 'Get Woke, Go Broke,' is appropriate here, as Marvel isn't the powerhouse it once was in terms of sales. Recently, the writer for the Scarlett Witch series admitted sales were struggling, along side the whole industry, and his book would probably be cancelled. As much as I feel bad for him, I can only shrug my shoulders.

In response to the Punisher news, Chuck Dixon, one man who wrote the series so well, back in the day, announced the Black Warrant series through Vox Day's Arkhaven Comics. Time will tell if that does well, but I hope it does.

In closing, I can't help but fear for the writer of this series, Jason Aaron. For those who don't remember, he famously wrote the relaunched Thor series, where Jane Foster became Thor, a series that did not last very long. Like Dan Slott, who killed Peter Parker and had Doc Oc become Spiderman, and like Tom King, who had Batman go to marry Catwoman, only to call it all off after a massive buildup. Writers like these will mainly be remembered for what they have screwed up, and not what they have created.

For any writer, that is a real shame, and it is a one lessons should be learnt from.

What's Coming This Year.

 

I've been having a lot of fun with my writing as of late, but it's also been a bit of a struggle. After publishing Escape from Crescendo Station One, I had a number of ideas for my next book. But, they simply were not working as I had originally planned them, so for a while, I was stuck. After some careful thought and analysis of what wasn't working, I had two ideas, two outlines, of which to choose as my next project. Unable to decide what to work on, I started writing both.

Crazy, huh?

I thought so for a while. But, bouncing in between two manuscripts has been quite a fun and liberating experience for me. Why? Because, if I ever got stuck with one project, I could let the night watchman do his thing while I wrote the other. This approach has worked well, especially with allowing me a little more time to write during my weeks. I used to keep to a pretty strict schedule, trying to get a thousand words a day written, but that worked against me quite often. Why? Because I didn't need the added stress. Something else that has really helped.

As for what these projects are? Well, the first is scratching an itch I have had for a while now. A hint to the type of genre (mixed with sci-fi, of course) is the picture above. The second is more underwater science fiction, born after a good influence of anime. More will be revealed when I announce the launch of my Patreon, which will hopefully be next month, as I am currently waiting on some artwork for it.

Stay tuned.