So, I'm Becoming... a Weeb.

 

Yeah. That is something I never thought I would write. But, it is strange how these things work out.

Of course, I was very much aware of the anime genre, as most people were. I had seen the likes of Akira, the first Ghost in the Shell movie, Apple Seed, and Wicked City, but had not delved into it much more than that. These days, I am all about seeking out new things to watch or read, either for my own entertainment or to draw inspiration from. For years, I have been friends with both Peta, my regular cover artist, and her husband, Andrew. The pair of them have been huge fans of the anime genre most of their lives, and have been prodding me over the years to delve into it more and more.

Well, I finally jumped in towards the end of last year. A small series appeared on Netflix, set in the Cyberpunk 2077 world, called Edge Runners. I was hesitant at first, since I knew little about the source material, but was soon glad I watched it. The writing for the show was brilliant, and I became invested in the main character, David, and his journey through the hostile world. The support characters were a mixed bunch, but my favourite, and that of many others, was Rebecca. She was a trigger-happy, slightly insane, member of the gang David joins, but was also intensely loyal and had the back of everyone around her. To say any more about it would risk spoiling the story, so I won't do that. But, I was so invested in it and the characters, that when the end arrived, it hit me like a sucker punch, finished off with a bittersweet finale. I have seen many other reviews, especially on YouTube, of how the series impacted the person behind them. This video summed it up best for me.

Next was the series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Andrew sent the complete series box set to me for my birthday last year. At the time of writing this, I have finished the first series and am trying to find the time to watch the second, but it has left a mark on me, nonetheless. The numerous missions The Major and her crew go on, especially those revolving around The Laughing Man, were some intense viewing. This was made cooler to me because, like Edge Runners, the episodes were around twenty minutes long. To be able to tell a good story in that time frame, and yes, there were two of three-part stories, was a show of some amazing writing. And, like Edge Runners, the ending of season one was something of a gut punch. Again, I will not spoil that. Check it out for yourselves.

This brings me to the reason I chose to write this blog piece. Andrew, being the nice man that he is, gifted me another anime to watch for Christmas. One that has had the most impact on me.

Yes. Demon Slayer really floored me. After announcing I had started watching it, Andrew and Peta were keen to hear my views on the series. As with before, the writing in this series has been so excellent that it sets a standard, especially compared to some Western writers. What captivated me the most was the relationship between the main character, Tanjiro, and his sister, Nezuko. He is dedicated to her, and his mission to save her, and she is both dedicated and loyal to him in their continuing journey.

Nezuko herself is a silent character, besides her little grunts and breaths, but the looks she gives her brother and those around her, speak a thousand words each time. One scene that forever sticks in my mind is when she is given a choice of whether to stay behind or continue on her journey with Tanjiro. She responds with a loving look to her brother and the gentle joining of her hand with his.

Beautiful. 

These days, I look for the small character moments in stories, and not the huge action sequences, because they are what makes a great story in my eyes. That moment has stayed with me, not only for the reason I said earlier, but also because I have not seen anything like that in western storytelling media for a long time. A lot of it seems so soulless to me and comes across as style over substance, usually made to shove on a streaming service somewhere. The writing in the animes I have watched is usually dramatic and endearing, much like Nezuko herself. Will it inspire me in my writing? I hope so, but time will tell.

I have heard numerous stories of how anime is beating western comics in sales, but I've not really looked into it too much. I would not be surprised if this is definitely true, but it certainly seems to be the case. The Demon Slayer movie took $506.5 million at the box office in 2020, making it the highest-grossing movie that year, pissing over everything Hollywood churned out. It has also become the highest-grossing movie in Japan, having beaten Spirited Away, which was an amazing feat in itself. I am definitely on board with this story and will enjoy watching it to the very end, whenever that will come.

Finally, I was reminded of something I saw on Twitter a while back when writing this. The post reported that a comic shop was closing, something which was obviously a shame. The pictures accompanying it showed what remained on the shelves. The western comic shelves were still full, but the manga was picked dry.

These scenes really do say a thousand words about what is going on in modern entertainment, much like Nezuko herself.

Hello, Again... Part Two.

 

So, what have I got planned for this year?

Well, first off, the audiobook of Escape from Crescendo Station One is being created as I write this. Candace Roman is narrating this as well because she left a lasting impression on me after the audiobook of Ataris Station was created. This rounds off what has been a very personal project for me.

As for future works, I have several outlines finished, and the one for my next book is almost done. During the recording process for Ataris Station, Harem Nights, and now Crescendo Station, it wasn't a good idea to start another book because I needed to focus on any revisions needed. So, now that most of them are out of the way, I have more projects to write than I expected. It's a nice feeling. It feels like I really have come a long way since my first release.

A reader asked what platforms I had, such as a blog or Patreon, during a nice exchange on Facebook. At the time, I had been setting up a Patreon but it wasn't ready yet. Well, it is now, I am just waiting for some content to launch it with. The tiers are what I would like to think as reasonably priced, compared to some that I have seen, and will allow readers to see written chapters before an editor has, as well as my covers as they progress from line art to the finished piece.

No damn A.I art here, thank you very much.

Top-tier backers will receive digital copies of my books before they reach Amazon, and will even be offered Audible codes for any released audiobooks.

Of course, I should point out that supporting me on Patreon is purely optional. Please do not feel in any way that you are obligated to. We are all living in hard times at the moment, and I consider it a blessing if someone even buys one of my books.

For those of you who read this blog and enjoy my ramblings, I thank you for your continued support and apologise for the lack of entries. I will do my best to keep on top of that in the coming year. See you on the journey.

Hello, Again... Part One.

 

I said to myself a while back that I really should keep up with my blog more. That was in September or October, I think. Then, a lot of different things fell onto my plate, and I fought to clear them. That included a novel release I shall cover shortly, the release of Ataris Station's audiobook, the making of two others, and a writing course I ended up taking. I haven't written a manuscript in ages, but I have several outlines ready to rock.

But then, I realised it was 2023, and almost the end of January. People might be interested to know what I have been up to. So, for my first blog post of this year, I thought I would fill you all in on what I had been up to.

The above picture is the front cover for my last release, a very personal project to me. I had always wanted to write a story that paid homage to the underwater science fiction movies I loved growing up, such as Leviathan, The Abyss, and DeepStar Six. The inspiration came after playing Subnautica, and having the idea hit me as various scenarios ran through my head. The result was Escape from Crescendo Station One, something that was a joy to write. The editing, however, was nothing short of a nightmare. The first editor had it for around six months, which was way too long, and had missed several mistakes, so I had another take a look at it. The drama surrounding that I will spare you the details of, but it left a very bitter taste in my mouth that took some time to shift. Seeing it out now, and getting some good reviews, makes me feel better, given how personal the book is to me.

After Crescendo Station was released, I became aware of the launch of the BBC Maestro site, and the numerous courses it had to offer. At first, I wasn't bothered, because it had nothing I was interested in. For those who don't know, Maestro is the BBC's version of the Master Class website, but with British creators. Then I became aware of a course on the site that taught writing popular fiction, from none other than Lee Child himself, the man behind the Jack Reacher novels. Someone I know once said to me, "every day is a school day," and he was right. So, I purchased the course and went through it.

Listening to Mr. Child talk about the craft and the lessons he had to teach was awesome. It was like I was sitting in the room with him, a cup of tea in hand, an audience of one with a master of storytelling. After it was finished, I was buzzing with ideas, but still had other things to clear off my plate before I could jump into them. But, I do hope the day comes when I can meet Lee Child and shake his hand as I thank him. Is that possible? I don't know, but you never know, right?

After Ataris Station was published, I knew I wanted an audiobook made. So, I submitted it to ACX and waited to see if I could attract any narrators. Sure enough, the auditions started flowing in. They were an interesting listen, especially when it became clear most of them did not have a good microphone. There was even one guy who tried getting a text-to-speech sample by me, but I picked up on it.

By the way, if that was you, and you're reading this, fuck you.

Finally, I heard the audition of Candace Roman. She had such an easy-going voice that was pleasant on the ear, and she read the part well. Upon checking out her profile, I saw that she added music to other samples she had narrated to show what she could do. When I asked if she could do that for Ataris, and she agreed, I gave her the job. It turned out it would be Candace's first audiobook, and she knocked it out of the park. I took such joy in listening to what she submitted, and I only made two revision requests during the whole time. She recorded the work at an amazing speed and I was thrilled to see it released.  I think Candace will go far as a narrator, and I look forward to the day she can do it full-time.

The audiobook for the omnibus of my Harem Nights trilogy had been in production for a while but was paused when the narrator had to move home. It was strange listening to very old pieces of work, but it helped me realise just how far I had come as an author. At the time of writing this, the finished audiobook is going through ACX's quality checks before release.

However, it wasn't all good.

One series I wanted to push forward with was The Adventures of Furman Simms. But, in revisiting the written text, I knew too much time had passed since I last ventured into that world. As much as I tried, I just could not reconnect with it. So, as a result, I chose to leave that one behind. One thing I said to myself was to keep moving forward. Furman had no place in my future plans. I don't like the phrase, but it very much fell into what is known as, "killing your babies."

What are my plans for this year? All shall be revealed in part two of this blog post, which will be published this week

Looking Back on Crush Depth in a Bikini

 

It has been a while since I had even thought about this book or its history. This was, in part, because I did not like remembering the crap I went through to get it out. But, I had once written that I would write about what I went through with it, so this blog entry will tell that story.

After a really crappy time, when my first book had done terribly, thanks in part to a poor choice in an editor, and a second that sank without a trace, I had not had any ideas or inspiration for a book for a long time. I loved science fiction and still do, but the ideas were just not coming. I had always wanted to write a mix of a science fiction movie and a disaster one, but still, nothing arrived. Just as I thought about shelving the idea, a strange and interesting story appeared in the news.

Mikaela Kellner was an off-duty cop in Sweden who was sunbathing with a friend when she nabbed a thief who had stolen from them. The news spread because she had done so wearing a small bikini. She acted without thinking and became an Instagram star. Last I read about her, she had quit the police to become a bodybuilder. 

Respect to her.

The story stuck in my mind and I played with it. What sort of situation could I put someone in, where they had to act without thinking, while stuck in a bikini? From that, Crush Depth in a Bikini was born.

Writing it was the fun part and I had a blast. The editing process was what turned it into a nightmare.

First, I tried running an Indiegogo campaign for the book's editing and production. That failed, mostly I suspect, that I was a complete nobody and had no real following. But throughout the process, I had come to know an editor, a lady who had done the work a long time ago (she told me) and wanted to get back into it. I thought I was in luck with finding her. Jesus, how wrong I was on that one.

Now, for the sake of this story, I will not refer to her by her name. Why? Because I know how the internet works and I really don't want anyone going after her.

She had my book for about two months, if I remember correctly, and returned it with some good notes. I went through them in the space of a day and sent them back to her. She assured me that they would be returned in a month's time. I thought this was great and went about my business.

Four months later, I get them back. What awaited me was nothing short of a red-marked blood bath.

I couldn't understand where the newer edits had come from. She had found those parts fine in the first draft but was now tearing them up in this one. I accommodated them in the first draft, but there was one I ignored. The scene was a homage to a moment in Aliens, where the characters begin a fight to the death after the creatures break in through the ceiling. The editor told me it would work better in a different way, but I did not agree, so I ignored the comment. In the second draft, she had seen that I ignored the comment and demanded to know why I was fighting her on it. Later on, she instructed me to remove another scene as she found it boring and that it added nothing to the story.

This was where I got annoyed with her.

I responded that, if I removed the scene, one character would disappear without explanation, and two others would arrive at a new destination, also without explanation. Her response? "Oh, yes. I see your point there. You might want to get someone else to take a look at it."

I got so angry at that response. I had no money to pay another editor and my patience had run out. So, I edited the book as best as I could, but my morale had long since dried up and I did a terrible job. There were many grammar mistakes that remained in the book, ones I completely missed, and I kicked myself about it for a long time. My confidence was at an all-time low and it would be almost a year before I would write again.

To be fair, she did improve some parts of the book, I have to acknowledge that. I did try working with her again, thinking the experience was a one-off, but it was just the same. Peta, my cover artist, and her husband suggested she had been this way with me because she was trying to write the book by proxy, something I thought was not far off reality, but I never investigated further. I haven't spoken with this editor in a long time and have no idea what she has done since, besides publishing a book of short stories.

Fast forward to this year and I remembered Crush Depth shortly after publishing Ataris Station. I had such a wonderful experience working with my editor, Ellen Klowden, that I asked her to take a look at the old manuscript. She did her thing, but in retrospect, the story was very much an imperfect one. There are a couple of plot elements that are a bit of a stretch, but I decided not to change those as I still look fondly on the book.

I added some of my own fixes, like splitting the chapters and formatting it better, but ultimately, it will always be a learning experience for me. The main lesson? Pick your editor well. They will make or break a novel, in my experience.

Crush Depth now sits on Amazon at the lowest price I can make it and is now part of Kindle Unlimited. Will it encourage new readers and break the bank in sales? I doubt it, but at least there is now a version of it out there I can be happy with. I know people say you should always be looking forward, but I have found it is good to look back once in a while, and I know I'm going to do that at least one more time.

Presenting: Ataris Station!

I will always thank Marc Secchia for this.

Why? A long time ago, we were talking about the craft and what I wanted to write next. This was while I was writing Niven's War and was going to tackle Escape From Crescendo Station One after. He suggested I try writing a LitRPG novel, probably after I mentioned I had been a gamer in the past. At the time, I didn't know what the genre was, so I decided to do some research and see what it was all about.

Over the next few months, I found a number of titles and purchased them, all while getting to know other authors in the field. I listened to audiobooks like J. Arthur Klein's Extra Credit, Justin Monroe's Zee Locked In, Josh Walker's They Think I Invented Pizza, David Bushman's Darklands Online, and Ben Ormstad's Daemonorg Prison-Lab, to name a few. The authors themselves were amazingly helpful with advice and were also very encouraging. It is the one thing I will forever love about authors, we encourage each other to no end. After getting through a few of the books, I grew a massive love for the genre that invoked many memories of my time gaming, but there was one problem I could not get over.

I had no ideas.

As much as I tried to think of something, nothing came, so I eventually forgot about it. It's never good to force out an idea. They always end up crap.

At that time, Escape From Crescendo Station One was still with my other editor, and I was surfing Youtube to find something to watch. I came across a series of retrospective documentaries from a channel called Avalanche Reviews and found he had done a series on Dead Space. I had enjoyed the series very much when I had my Xbox 360, many moons ago, and decided to watch them. As I was watching the video on the first game, a single thought ran through my head:

"What would I do if I were in such a situation as Isaac?"

Before I could continue watching, my eyes went wide as an idea popped into my head.

Over the next week, I worked the idea into an outline I grew increasingly excited about. Finally, I began working on it, knowing the book would become the biggest manuscript I would write.

During that time, I spoke with the other writers about who I could get to edit such a thing, feeling that I needed an editor that knew the genre well. One of them suggested a lady named Ellen, informing me that, not only was she good at what she did, but she worked at an amazing speed. He introduced me to her via a message chat and we spoke at length about what I was writing, and that it was my first time writing in the genre. Ellen asked to see the chapters I had written, so I sent them over and called it a night. About a day later, she returned them to me, edited. She asked when she could have the next chapters, and my mind was blown. From there on, she became my editor.

Over the course of the following two months, she would keep me on my toes with questions about the story, characters, and anything else she could think to ask. It was a wonderful experience and one I came to learn from a great deal.

The manuscript was completed, polished and edited, and is now available for purchase. I'm hoping it does well. I feel like it was one of the best things I have written, and my beta readers who have read my previous works say the same thing. Time will tell.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Ataris Station. A science fiction LitRPG novel.

UK readers can find it here.

USA readers can find it here.

Thanks once again, Marc.

Opportunistic Practices.

I have never liked TikTok. I tried it a while back as a way of advertising my works but just did not like it. If any of you reading this do, awesome. However, users of that platform decided to post videos that would start off an ugly, wrong, and blatantly opportunistic trend.

Those people, who I will refer to, as kindly as I can, as... individuals, posted videos suggesting that people can return ebook purchases to Amazon after reading them, provide whatever reason is available, and get their money back. I will not post links to the videos here for two reasons. First, I do not want to give the individuals or their videos any more attention. Second, I know how the internet works. I don't want this turned around on me and be accused of "bullying" the individuals in question. Needless to say, this has had a negative impact on the authors caught up in it.

One author had (at the time of writing this) forty-seven returns last month. This month, which has yet to end, he has had ninety-seven. Another author had twenty-one returns in the last thirty days. There are many other examples out there. I have even seen one of an author who was put in a position where they owed Amazon money as a result. That is insane.

We authors all share a dream that one day, we can make a living from our writing, especially us indies. We pour our hearts and souls into our work, pay editors to fix the mistakes, pay artists to design a cover for us, and even pay for advertising when we can. We want our books to reach as wide an audience as possible, because we want to entertain every reader who buys our work. When people do things like this, it is stealing, pure and simple. Don't try to make up reasons or excuses to defend such a practice, because there will never be any that I will take seriously. For those who will try and play the "can't afford it," or the "we're living in tough times," cards, don't bother. We are all living in tough times. Authors need to pay bills and put food on the table. You are stealing from us.

But, I have hope. For those of you who are still happy to continue stealing from authors, pay attention to this last part.

You may think you are happily gaming the system by stealing like this, but do not count on it lasting. A petition on change.org has gathered a large number of signatures, including mine, and is almost at its goal of 75000 at the time of writing this. Hopefully, Amazon will take notice soon.

You must also be made aware that this constant theft of our work may get detected by Amazon and could put your account at risk. Yes, I am aware that this is a hypothetical, but it is something that I am confident of. As far as I am concerned, that sword you're swinging cuts both ways; it is just a question of when.

Finally, remember the controversy surrounding John Locke. He was an author who thought he could game the system.

Ironic, I know.

For those who don't know, Locke purchased reviews for one of his books and was catapulted into the limelight before the truth was revealed. For further reading, I would suggest checking out this article. When that scandal hit, Amazon came down like an anvil on the review process, but the damage had been done and other indie authors took the brunt of it. As far as I'm aware, Locke is still writing, but his credibility was forever tarnished.

Please take notice of these examples. It is not too late to stop what you're doing. And, please don't try debating this with me or any other author. Your chances of justifying it will be low, at best.

It's Been a While.

 

I had planned to write at least one blog post a month. Sadly, I failed at that this year, but it was with good reason. Allow me to explain.

Another author had recommended that I try writing a LitRPG novel some time ago because I used to be a massive gamer growing up. I liked the idea of it, but I had no ideas for a story, so I let it be for the time being. Well, one day, the idea for a novel hit me a month after I had finished writing a passion project of mine. This would be titled, Escape From Crescendo Station One, but I will tell that story later.

My debut LitRPG novel was written in two months. Titled, Ataris Station. It is something I am very proud of. I ended up working with a new editor, a lady who specialises in the genre, and she helped shape the manuscript into something wonderful. I am looking forward to releasing it when the time comes.

Other ideas for stories in the genre hit me while I was writing Ataris Station, including two more standalone stories and two series. I decided I needed to change things around to reflect on where I would be taking my writing. So, I wrote a prologue short story for the first series, called Annex of Alhena, that tells the origin of one of the main characters. It will be a mailing list exclusive, replacing Wasteland Vigilante, which will get its own proper release shortly.

As a result, the next two months will be busy ones for me with three releases in total. I am excited about it, because it feels like real progress for me. I have also developed working relationships with other authors who have been encouraging me along the way. It is so nice to have such wonderful people cheering me on.

For those of you who have stuck by me throughout this time, I thank you for doing so. I will do my best to keep entertaining you.

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