Crowdfunding a Book: Niven's War

 

Okay. This was something I didn't think I would do, let alone do right.

A long time ago, I tried crowdfunding a book, but it was a complete failure. I didn't have any kind of an audience and the project fell flat on its ass. I had never thought of doing it again, because, why? I was quite capable of funding my own work and getting it out there. But, after releasing Wasteland Vigilante, a free book on my mailing list, and releasing The Adventures of Furman Simms, I wrote my next book. It was the project that would become Niven's War. It was a new direction for me.

It was my attempt at a military science fiction novel, something I'd often thought about doing in the past. However, I always dismissed the idea because let's face it, military sci-fi books were everywhere. When the idea hit me again, I decided the only way I could tell it was to make the story as uncomplicated as possible. I wanted to focus the story on a group of survivors caught up in the struggle, as opposed to scenes of people pointing to positions on a map and a potentially bloated story.

But, why crowdfund? Two reasons, really.

First, I had run out of money for the editing of any more books. Second, I had established more of an audience and figured it could work. The great thing about crowdfunding is it can gauge an audience's potential interest in a project. At the time of writing this, I have raised sixty-one percent of the target goal. It's going pretty good so far.

I also chose to work with a different artist for my book cover. Don't get me wrong, Peta is awesome and we'll be working together till the cows come home. But, a little variety is a cool thing. I had seen Carla Tornielli's work on the Grim Reaper books (although I missed them at first) and the above SunSworn Visual Companion. The above was also what told me I had to work with her. I loved what she did with the character and the surrounding colours and mentioned it to SunSworn's author, Red Gaze, and how much I wanted to work with her. I didn't realise it, but Carla was tagged in the conversation and saw what I said. One conversation later, and we agreed on terms and she drew me the cover for Niven's War. It was awesome and a real winner as far as I was concerned.

Launching the book was a big event for me. I was a guest on the Bargain Bin Show, where I officially launched the project, but not without a few hiccups. I had a great time and got my first backers from the show's audience, and felt a little better at appearing on camera for interviews. Since that show, I have appeared on The Creators Outlet, Critical Blast, and Monday Madness. I had a great time on all of them. It's really awesome talking about the craft with other creatives and I've no doubt the conversations could go on for hours, given the chance. I'll be on more shows in the future, now I'm not so camera shy, but we'll see how it goes.

I'll be announcing a new launch soon, the first omnibus edition of my work. I've also signed up to be more active on GoodReads so I can engage with readers and build a profile, something I've been meaning to do for a while now. My future is a busy one and I like it.

If you haven't taken a look at the Niven's War Indiegogo, you can find it here. As always, thanks for reading.

Book Launch, June 25th, 2021.

 

Today, I am happy to announce the launch of my next novel.

This one has been a long time coming, born of a short story I wrote a while back for a magazine that ultimately didn't want it. Once I had the rejection, I wasn't sure of what to with the seven thousand word manuscript, and almost filed it away. But, on a repeat reading, I decided the character had a potential future.

Then my writing hit a major bump in the road and I deleted everything from Amazon. Once I pulled myself out of that slumb, with some help, I revisited the short story, Furman Simms and the Problem Princess. It had parts I didn't like, and I felt the ending needed improving. So, I spent some time on it changing what was needed, and gave it to my editor to look over. He returned it with his corrections, and I put it back on Amazon.

Then I got to work on the book that would be the first in the series.

It was a fun ride putting the words onto the screen, especially fleshing Furman out with his dry sense of humour and why he did what he did. My aim with the character was a more personal one. He was a tribute to my favourite Marvel character, Death's Head, written long before Marvel descended into the shit that it publishes now. He takes his first name from the creator and writer, Simon Furman, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a convention many moons ago.

I had wondered one day, what if he had been a human instead of a robot? The idea was born soon after. Since I finished Harem Nights, I decided I didn't want to do trilogies anymore, as it restricts the number of stories that can be told with a character. I see Furman's adventures having a minimum of four books, all laced with the same kind of humour, action, violence, and fun characters.

Of course, this series is also very un-pc, so if you're easily offended, I'd give this one a miss if I were you.

One of the authors I look up to and have spoken with on a few occasions, Isaac Hooke, was kind enough to provide a front cover blurb for the novel. I can't tell you how such a kind gift feels to a beginner like me. I doubt I will ever be able to thank him enough. Those interested in checking out his work, especially his harem novels, can take a look at his cool website.

So, I look forward to sharing this book with you. I'm really proud of it and can't wait to get started on the next. The Adventures of Furman Simms launches Friday the 25th of June and can be pre-ordered here.

As a final note, this book has an added personal attachment to me. It is dedicated to my uncle David, who passed away in February this year after catching COVID 19. I have many fond memories of him growing up and his passing was a painful one for me. I like to think he would have liked this book, and the character, as he was quite a character himself back in the day, as my mum will no doubt agree. Wherever he is up there, I hope he sees the book and smiles.

The Continuing Road

 

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, and with good reason.

I finished one book, sent it to Tim, my editor, and then started another one. The aim was to not only keep me busy but to also scratch a major itch I'd been having. For a while now, I've been thinking that it was a bad idea to limit myself to one type of science fiction story. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing Harems. They're fun, but I felt like I would be confining myself in the long run.

Thinking about it, I remembered the ambition I'd had to try my hand at writing a military science fiction story. I'd had the idea kicking around in my head for a while, unsure of what to do with it, until one day the solution hit me. I'd also had the idea of wanting to work with Carla Tornielli on a cover after seeing her work on her own titles, and with author Steve Lee (Red Gaze.) I also decided to give crowdfunding a project another try, backed up by some very kind folks within the CGUK community.

Aria Black was kind enough to have me on an episode of his Call-In Special to talk about the project, which I have named Niven's War. For those who wish to skip ahead, I appear around the 35-minute mark.

He was a great host and a pleasure to speak to, especially since I've not appeared on camera on Youtube for a very long time. Part of me felt silly being there because, unlike the other guests, I had nothing to show for my project. The manuscript was a work-in-progress and Carla was still working on the cover. All I had was my pitch. Still, I had fun being on there in the end and he invited me back for the launch. At the time of writing this, Carla is finishing off the last touches to the cover and it will be launched soon after. I'll admit I'm nervous about launching the campaign, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.

Whilst all this is going on, I decided to undertake a more personal venture and fix an old novel.

My writing got off to a rocky start with two novels I later became unhappy with. Both were taken off sale and nearly deleted, had it not been for my wife stopping me. The first was Praxis, a standalone science fiction story, which had many issues. But, that's a story for another time, preferably once I've rewritten it.

The second novel, its original cover at the top of this blog entry, was Like the Wind.

It was my attempt to combine science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I think I did an okay job, but I'd used beta readers to edit the novel as I couldn't afford an editor at the time. A little while after its release, I worked with an editor (not the same as the one for Praxis) who would later work on Crush Depth for me. I paid them to go over Like the Wind for any grammatical errors so I could update the already published novel. They came close to destroying the manuscript and made me hate my own work. After a while, I found myself unable to look at the book. Like the Wind was withdrawn from sale and remained on my hard drive ever since.

It wasn't a good time for me after that. I got depressed about writing anything and didn't touch my computer for months. I eventually came out of the slump and wrote Crush Depth. The idea of Fixing Like the Wind kept coming to me again and again, but I could never bring myself to do it.

That was until I had a conversation with Peta, my friend, and regular cover artist.

We had settled on a theme going forward for my covers and, again, I thought of Like the Wind. I wondered what it would look like in this new cover approach. I found it on my hard drive and, after a little thought, began the task of fixing it.

So far, it's going well. I have a little way to go but I am confident of the results. Peta is working on the new cover, and I decided to rename the book to separate it from other results on Amazon. All will be revealed soon enough. Suffice to say my confidence has grown with how this will turn out.

Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you to those who signed up for my mailing list back in April. It was nice to get the response that it did and I hope more people come along as my journey continues. Either way, I look forward to the future and what will unfold for my writing.

Presenting my Free Novel: Wasteland Vigilante!

 

I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

I decided a while ago that I wanted something special to go with my mailing list. Most authors do free short stories with theirs, even free novels that could also be purchased online. I wanted something unique. After NaNoWriMo 2020, I had the first draft of what would become Wasteland Vigilante.

I tried writing in a new style, commonly known as Writing into the Dark, to see how such a story would turn out. This book was the result of that, and I am very proud of it. My regular cover artist, Peta, did a wonderful cover for me with the direction of "something like Barbarella." I loved what she came up with and plan on printing it off to display in my house.

But, anyway, back to the book.

This book will only be available for those who subscribe to my mailing list. You will not see it on sale anywhere else. As I said earlier, I wanted to make a unique gift for those who chose to invest a little of their time in me and my work as a thankyou. 

Will there be other free works for my subscribers? Sure. I have a short story in the pipeline and if I have an idea good enough for a sequel to Wasteland Vigilante? Sure. But, time will tell. I don't think a one-off novel is such a bad thing in these times.

I will finish this blog post with the blurb for the book, followed by the link for new mailing list subscribers to find it.

By day, Isaac Pierce is a dedicated cop. By night, he is the vigilante Nightblade. His knives deal swift and brutal justice to any criminal he hunts.

Nightblade’s enemies set a trap to take him down once and for all. One that will force Isaac into a desperate course of action to survive.

But fate has other plans for him. A sudden intervention forces Isaac on an unexpected journey. One where his life will be forever changed and going back isn’t an option.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Wasteland Vigilante.

This is the Way? (Conclusions)

So, where has this all led me? After some thought about what I wanted to do with my future, and what I really wanted to spend money on, it became clear.

The so-called "Culture War" so many talk about online has just become one big war of words now. There are those like myself who just want good movies, games, comics, and books released for us to enjoy without the unwanted, on the nose political messaging. There are those on the other side, the progressives who want to see more matching entertainment and will fight tooth and nail for it, even doing their best to destroy those who argue for it.

After a long time of watching this and seeing numerous movies, comics, games, and books released that catered to this crowd, minus the profit they were after, I found my way forward.

I simply moved on.

I finished console gaming and now own a Raspberry Pi computer I've turned into a retro gaming machine, complete with a classic NES case. My friend Doug, whose YouTube channel you can find here, created a wonderful memory card filled with games from my childhood I know and love, plus a few I missed out on. I've enjoyed sessions of Alien Vs Predator arcade with my youngest son, especially when he was giving me tactical orders so he could attack the bosses. I've got hours of entertainment on one small computer, without having to pay out for another high-priced game ever again.

When it comes to comics, I've backed a large number of the Comicsgate projects found on Indiegogo, twenty-eight so far. My favourite has been Monster M.D, written by Von Klaus, with amazing art by Marco Maccagni and beautiful colours by Tanya Wicker. It was a large and satisfying read with characters I want to see more of. In modern mainstream comics, you just don't find that. I wait for book two with excitement. I just wish I'd purchased the art book that went with book one. Live and learn, I guess.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The answer isn't found in internet slap fights with people you don't know. It isn't found in making YouTube videos attacking people for whatever reason. It isn't even found in non-fiction books written on the topic.

The answer is two-fold: Vote with your wallet, and make your own stuff.

Watching all this has inspired me to work harder to get more of my work out there. I'm due to release a free book as part of my mailing list this week. I have another with my editor which will be out in a couple of months, hopefully, and I'm currently writing my attempt at a military science fiction novel. Carla Tornielli is illustrating the cover for me and I can't wait to launch it.

I take comfort in the releases of the past, seeking out old movies rereleased on blu ray with new special features. My Pi computer will never grow old, and the CG projects will keep on coming. As long as they do, I'll be there, money in hand.

For those of you who just want to show support, investing in these small creations is the best way. When it comes to the bigger companies and their releases, vote with your wallet. It's the only language they understand anymore.

This is the Way? (Part Two)

With regards to comics, I think I could go on for some time. I'd probably end up parroting the talking points of many others who have already commented on the whole situation, too. 

From my own point of view, I'd given up collecting comics when our first child was born. About eleven years later, I got back into it and was surprised how the landscape had changed. A lot of the big artists I knew and loved had either scaled their work back or gone onto different things, like Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, and Rob Liefeld. Hell, Jim Lee was helping run DC comics, which was a shocker. Comics themselves had gone through a big change, especially with Marvel. The stories were pretty basic, just the right length for a trade paperback and the art was now this cartoony style which looked shit.

This was picked up in an article in Bleeding Cool News. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the site and the guy who runs it, but the article itself told a grim story which I personally think wasn't taken too seriously at the time.

Then the stories of comic-book stores closing began to spread. These would usually beloved by the local communities, and it was a real shame to watch, especially as the movies would make a huge profit. As time went on, more stores announced closures, and then more, and then more.

Plenty of people have spoken about why this is happening, and the answer is pretty clear. The stories and art are not as great as they once were, so people weren't buying them.

The problem is, if you talk about this stuff online, you're called every name under the sun, from Racist to Sexist. I speak with friends constantly about it, those who have been reading and collecting for most of their lives, and they feel the same. Various YouTube channels have spoken about this, especially Richard Meyer, who became a focus of a lot of attacks for some of the stuff he said. When someone told him he should make his own comic, he did, and that was Jawbreakers.

That was like chucking a snowball down the hill.

Comicsgate was born. More and more, creators arrived and started launching their own projects. Go look on Indiegogo for comic projects and most of them will be Comicsgate related. 

One example out of the many is Bonds: The Drive. From new writer and artist Nyriam, the project had a target of $2000. She's pulled in (at the time of writing this) just over $20000. 

I've supported that project, and many others, because I support Comicsgate in general. They are producing new works, original works, and I love it.

When those already involved in mainstream comics did their own Kickstarters to keep themselves afloat during the pandemic's outbreak. It was noticeable none of them pulled in the same kind of success. Recently, writer Joe Glass launched The Miracles. With a goal of £35000, it looked set to fail, and one point and he threw a massive bitch fit on Twitter about it. The project was successful in the end, thanks to a huge push, but only just. The end result was £35864. Notice the difference?

When it comes to video games, I made my feelings know on them in a previous post. But one thing I found myself thinking about was, when did things start to go bad for it all? If I could put a finger on it, I would point towards the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation. Four games spring to mind, all published by EA, funny enough.

Kingdoms of Amalur had promise but fell pretty quick. The fallout for the company, especially the employees, is a sad tale in itself. Part of what did that, I think, was locking part of the campaign away behind the now-infamous "online pass," which drew some very strong criticism, especially since the game was offline.

Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 3 also spring to mind. Both featured unwelcome micro-transactions in them which affected the game in some way. With Dead Space, you could pay to receive more materials from scavenge hunts and built better weapons quicker. Mass Effect had them in the multiplayer. I noticed when I paid for the loot chests, I tended to get better weapons from them as opposed to earning the currency normally. Was it a coincidence? Maybe, but it was a sign of things to come for the world of gaming. Mass Effect 3 also became infamous for the Day One DLC, a small story mission for a character considered vital to the main story, obviously ripped from it to get more cash from people.

Battlefield 4 was another infamous title. Upon launch, the game had multiple bugs and glitches because of it being rushed out of the door. Along with the game becoming known for crashes during online play, EA had to pause the release of future DLC to fix it post-launch.

I look back on all this and am grateful I got away from the whole thing. Micro-transactions, constant DLC, games broken on release, all while the price of games and consoles continued to climb. Nah, no thanks.

Now, I have a Raspberry Pi with a huge catalog of old SNES, Megadrive, arcade, and so on. Games I can play to my heart's content, offline, with no need for yearly membership fees. No more expensive games and consoles for me.

Oh, and for those who say what I'm doing is games piracy? I really couldn't give two shits.

This is the way? (Part One)

 

I, along with many others, have been watching the decline of modern entertainment for a long time now. Don't get me wrong, the new stuff has its fans and fair play to them for liking the movies/games/comics, or whatever else comes along. For those of us who grew up with some of the stuff I'm about to mention, there have been many a discussion on what to do about the forced and unwelcome changes.

YouTube folks will make their videos on it because that's what they do. Topics like this will always bring in the clicks. I admit to having watched many of them. I admire the passion and the raw honesty of the YouTube personalities, because they speak like most people I know, without a filter. Paul Simon once sang:

"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence."

To me, I think of YouTubers when I hear that verse. It sounds stupid, sure, but they say what they think and with little care. Those of us with jobs we fear losing if we dare speak out, especially in this modern cancel culture, say our objections privately or in hushed tones.

But, what has brought me to writing this piece? A number of realisations, really. Seeing people from different backgrounds either make videos, write books, or speak publicly about this change in entertainment made me pay attention to it all. I chose to watch from a distance as opposed to getting involved in the whole "Culture War," as the constant fighting grew tiresome at times. But, one day, a friend of mine said something during a conversation that really got me thinking.

"This Culture War. I'm pretty sure it was lost a long time ago."

Was he right? Going through the examples I'm going to list, I became convinced that he was.

When it comes to movies and television, the choices are endless. I could write article after article on what I personally feel, but I'll narrow it down to these examples.

First off is one that is quite close to my heart, and that is Star Trek. I will forever curse Alex Kurtzman's name when someone mentions him. He is one of those hacks who cannot competently write his own material so he has to ruin other people's. I grew up watching The Next Generation and loved it with a passion. Some of the stories told were way ahead of their time, especially the episode called The Drum Head Trial. The Character of Picard was a man with such authority and respect, any man or woman would follow him into battle.

The Picard series turned this once fearless and strong captain into a bumbling old man who was bossed around by every person he came across. I'm told the stories were about "humbling him," but I got four episodes in and couldn't do anymore. This wasn't the Picard I remembered. The writing was piss pour, the acting cheesy, and the show clearly had too many cooks in the kitchen. The last time I checked, there were around eight executive producers on the show, including Stewart himself. If that isn't a massive red flag (or eight,) I don't know what is. I was later told of where the story went, but I didn't care at that point.

If anyone thinks I'm going to give Discovery or Lower Decks any serious attention, don't waste your time. The only thing that makes me laugh with regards to this was when the Lower Decks trailer got bombarded with comments, informing Paramount of the continuity errors and dishing out criticism, they turned the comments off. 

But, I suspect people may be waking up to the wolf in sheep's clothing that is Alex Kurtzman. A review was published on the series he was working on, Clarice, based on characters created by the great Thomas Harris. I invite you to read it because it really did put the boot in. Again, he was working with someone else's characters.

Yeah, you knew I was going to go there.

The Disney trilogy will forever be known as reboots of the original trilogy. The worst offender, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, pissed off a lot of people, including myself, to the point we swore off anymore Star Wars movies. For those who doubt me, take a look at the box office takings for The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker. Each one took less than the one before it, especially The Last Jedi. The characters were largely forgettable, the stories were poorly written, and they had to rely on the legacy characters to help the trilogy muddle to its eventual, and forgettable, conclusion.

Rogue One, while a pretty good movie, is hardly spoken about anymore, and Solo was a flop. Disney turned the franchise into the cinematic equivalent of Call of Duty, and people got tired of it. 

Note that I'm not including The Mandalorian in all this.

The two series released (at the time of writing this) were really good and had some great moments in it, especially at the end of season two. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but even though I knew what was going to happen, I still felt the touch of happiness watching it unfold. Nostalgia, too, granted, but happiness nonetheless. It was a shame Disney chose to piss away that goodwill with the fans with the firing of Gina Carano over tweets they deemed offensive. Something other cast and Disney staff have done without a similar fate. This led many people to cancel their Disney Plus subscriptions to protest what the company had done. I had already canceled mine a month prior because it wasn't worth keeping, but I was there in spirit.

The Transformers movies have also annoyed the living shit out of me.

The first was a lovely trip down memory lane and was full of some great moments, and some shite dialogue. Co-written, by the way, by Alex Kurtzman.

I can't seem to get away from that asshole.

I watched the second one and hated it with a passion, especially with what they did to Devastator, Jetfire, and how much of a whiney shit Sam had become. Not to mention, the arguably racist treatment towards Leo and portrayals of Skids and Mudflap. Dark of the Moon redeemed itself a little with the inclusion of Leonard Nimoy, but Age of Extinction shit the bed royally, and The Last Knight shit all over the floor on the way to the toilet. Bumblebee was a good prequel, by all accounts, but the damage was done by then and there hasn't been another movie since.

But, they make money. Lots of money, so I'm sure there'll be another somewhere along the line. I'll stick with my blu-ray of the animated movie, thanks all the same.

Next: Comics and video games.