One of Those Days

It's one of those days when I have nothing particular to say but I feel like blogging, so I'm just going to wing it here, folks.

I reached a total of 106 free downloads of my short story The Hundredth Kill. Thank you to all of you who downloaded it and helped spread the word about it. The story is back up to 99 cents now, unfortunately. As far as I know, there's no way to lower that price until I run another promo on Amazon, and I can only do that once every three months. Happily, some people have actually decided to pay for it, though honestly if it was up to me it would be free all the time. But then I suppose Amazon wouldn't be able to make any money, and for the service and platform they offer indie authors, they should make money, obviously.

The Longbow Hunters

Back in 1987 was the second time I really started to get into comic books. The first time was when I was a little kid and a neighbor who used to deliver books and magazines for a living started bringing me home copies of Spiderman. It's funny how you can remember what kicks of periods of interest in your life, because back in '87 was when I heard about The Longbow Hunters. At the time, a friend of mine who was really into comics took me to a (now defunct) comic store where I saw the poster for it. The picture of Green Arrow in his cool new costume captured me immediately.  The Longbow Hunters was a three part graphic novel written by Mike Grell, a reinvention of the character of Green Arrow to make him a bit darker and more serious.  So long trick arrows--hello pointed, deadly ones. 

On Writing--Cover Trouble

Here's the cover I can't use.

I never thought that making the transition to becoming an "indie" author would be easy. Frankly I never would have made the decision if I didn't have to, despite some obvious benefits to being truly independent. The fact is, if I'm going to keep writing I'm going to have to do it on my own. But one of the things that's had me worried from the start wasn't about writing, but about artwork. Specifically, cover art.

A few weeks ago I decided to take one of my old short stories and use it do finally dip my toe into lake indie. I quickly learned how to format the story for the Kindle and make it available for sale on Amazon. All that was pretty much a piece of cake, but when it came to slapping a cover on it I knew I'd be in trouble.

The Avengers

Blogging is a weird thing. You don't do it for a few days and suddenly you feel out of practice. Which is why I'm glad I saw The Avengers last night--it gives me something real easy to talk about. Right now the internet is full of people talking about and reviewing The Avengers, but I enjoyed the movie so much I really wanted to chat about it myself.

First off, there was no way I was going to miss the movie. I wasn't going to wait for the DVD to come out--this was always at the top of my too-see list for the summer.  But I did have my doubts about it.  I wasn't sure how they would manage to get all those great characters to coalesce into one decent movie, and I wasn't at all confident about the story because there never seemed to be one in all the trailers. I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago in fact.

Friday Rant--In Defense of Fun

A guy I work with made a face at me on the elevator today.  He's a nice guy, and the face wasn't really directed at me, but rather at a suggestion I made.  You know those information screens they have in elevators now (and food courts and gas stations and everywhere else you don't want to be bothered)?  Well this one was playing an advertisement for the Avengers, and when I casually asked him if he planned on seeing it, the face came out.  It was kind of like, "what, are you crazy?  I'm a grown man.  I'm not going to waste my time on a stupid movie like that."

I let it go.  Mostly.  I kind of shrugged and told him that I was definitely going to see it, because I see all those kinds of movies. And guess what dude?  I love 'em.

You never know where you might run into that kind of weird elitism.  The other day I was at Target with my son, sitting in their little cafe area sharing a pretzel.  A woman and her young daughter sat down near us and started chatting.  I don't know why--if you saw me you wouldn't think I'm the talkative type.  But there we were talking when somehow the subject turned to books.  Being a fantasy writer, I'm always on guard for the snobs.  So I told her I was an author, and she lit up with excitement (as the uninitiated often do), and I knew I was in trouble.  Naturally she asked what I write, and when I answered her face fell.  "I write fantasy novels."  That was all she had to hear.  Conversation over.

But I answered her with a smile.  You know why?  Because screw her, that's why.

The Perils of Diana

So, how's this for a change?  I was going to write about the last issue of Wonder Woman, and how good I thought it was, and how I've come to enjoy the direction the book has taken after it's relaunch. But then I saw this cover for the next issue and, well, I don't know what to say.  If you're one of those people who Google "Wonder Woman bondage pics," welcome to the Happy Nerd!

Seriously though, this cover really took my by surprise. It's been a long time since I've seen Wonder Woman depicted this way. It reminds me of an old cover where she has a gun to her head and she's flinching and sweating. Now honestly, if I had a gun to my head I'd freak out, but Wonder Woman?  No way.  At least in this picture she's facing the noose like a champ.  But it's the kink factor that makes the whole thing interesting.  The artist had to know what he was doing.  It's certainly eye-catching, I'll say that.  Oh, and that little guy with the candles on his head is Hades.  He's interesting looking too, but in a goofy way.  It'll be interesting to see how much the inside of the issue matches up with the cover.  I'm betting not much.  But it'll definitely have people picking it up for a look.

On Writing--The Golden Age

A couple of years ago I started work on the fourth book of my Tyrants and Kings series. (For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, you can check out the My Books tab.) I had toyed with the idea of writing a fourth T&K book for a while, but was waiting for the right time and the right ideas to come together. Finally I settled on a story that excited me and started working on it.  Turns out, though, that my previous publisher wasn't interested in it and passed on the new book after showing some initial interest.  I turned to a small press called Night Shade books, and although they did make an offer for the book, it took them a while to come around and by the time they did I wasn't keen on working with them any longer (though I should say that I was and remain grateful for the interest they showed).

The book, called The Golden Age, has been languishing ever since. It's been completely outlined, but only two chapters of it have ever been written.  I've gone on to work on other projects since then, but every once in a while someone asks me if I'm ever going to write another Tyrants and Kings books.  So for those of you who are curious as to what that book would have been like, I have posted the first chapter of it here. Give it a read if you're so inclined. If you're not, that's okay too :)

It's hard to say whether I'll ever finish writing The Golden Age. There are times when those old characters like Richius and Biagio cry out to be heard again. At other times, they're just distant voices in my head among so many others.  Time will tell, I suppose.