Echoes of Erebus prologue video... and a cat.

Fun experiment I filmed yesterday while I had the house to myself. It gave me ideas for other vids in the future. This vid is less than professional, but it was fun, and hopefully interesting enough to watch.

Oh, btw, the music that comes in now and then was cannibalized from a composition I did quite a long time ago, and probably released with 'Sonic Equinox' under my old handle 'onyx'.

The appeal of Zombies

My first book deals heavily in zombies, and the following two don't shy away from them either. It's understandable if at first glance, people assume I'm a huge zombie fan. I'm kinda not. If you read Lifehack, you'll find it's not like a typical zombie book or movie. Lifehack isn't entirely about survival.. about a quarter of the book plays like that, but can you name the last Romero-styled movie that escalated into airstrikes on a dragon?

Seriously, name one. If there's one I missed, I wanna go see it. Otherwise, I'll go on assuming Lifehack is unique in that aspect. (as well as a handful of other aspects, of course)

Still, when Jersey's "the Star Ledger" called out about "The psychology of ... Zombies!" I felt I had to answer:
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When the hero of my first book [Alisia] first hit the page [as art], she needed a target. Not wanting to kill innocents, I thought, "Hey, what's a threat I can shoot the **** out of, and not feel guilt?" I considered robots, but zombies won out. Robots are too potentially powerful, and from a writing perspective, it's hard to draw a line in what they can do- and readers are likely to draw their own limits on what a robot can and cannot do. It's a far too easy fallback to say "Yeah, you just beat 100 robots... but now.... HERE'S ONE WITH A BIGGER LASER!!!! OOOOOOH!!!"

Zombies have limits, they are pretty well defined. Sure, now we have fast ones, but on the whole, if you see a zombie, you know what you're in for. Does that make them less of a threat? No, that's the trick. They're like you and me... that alone is a threat. And they're relentless, tireless, and hungry. The more you think of a person maniacally trying to bite into your flesh... at first you think of an angry little kid biting. Yeah, that can leave a mark... but make it an adult who wants more than to hurt you, and have the strength to tear parts of you away. To pull your familiar, comfortable body apart, bit by bit.

Now give this guy a couple hundred buddies that all want the same thing. Suddenly you're the last tray of nachos in the stadium.

Right now, guarantee for me that there isn't a zombie outside your house. There isn't? Did you look? Are you wondering? We know there isn't, of course there isn't. But doesn't a part of you want to give a teeny little glance? Did you smirk at your fence? How long would that fence stop them, you wonder? Hey, there's a mop nearby, would it... no, a shovel would be better.

Suddenly, you're casting yourself in a zombie survival fantasy. It's real enough that anyone can get wrapped up in it. When the musing is done, you chuckle to yourself, or thank that it's not happening.

It isn't, is it?

Did you look outside?

Just a quick peek? For me? We have to stick together.

Just finished "the Chrysalids". Oh, and here's a vid of me reading from a kiddie fairy book. :P

Mmmm, Chris salads.

Okay, I read Chrysalids way back when in highschool, in a "FORCED TO" capacity. I didn't remember much, I wasn't that into it, I had other things going on. I got about as deep into it as I needed to pass. I think. Heck, for all I remember, I may have moved before finishing it.

This was a bit over 20 years ago, just so y'all understand how my normally laser-accurate memory could be a tad foggy.

The student I'm hosting right now got forced to read it.. poor lass.. English isn't her first language, and it's doubtless that she got even less out of it than I did... but hearing her ask about it made me curious to go revisit it. I've been reading older stuff lately. Chrysalids, Catcher in the Rye, Dracula... but next I have a fresh book to read that I promised to review.. so stay tuned.

Chrysalids was way better than I remembered. A lot of that is certainly my maturity- the ability to grasp all the concepts, as well as the patience to not skim over it all. Not to mention my expanded exposure to the concepts of post-apocalyptia. The book would fit in well with a number of other works in post-apocalyptic culture.. which makes sense, as Chysalids likely established much the classic tropes.

Chrysalids is one of the few sci-fi books that was covered in school. (For all I remember, the only one.) That's a shame.. although I MIGHT have a bias. This book needs a movie. A good one, not the other kind.

In other news... FAIRIES!!!!

3rd editions launched!

Kindle, Paperbacks, and Hardcovers of all three books, Lifehack, Watching Yute, and Echoes of Erebus. They're all out now.

The paperback prices have been cut to 14.95... why? Just cuz 15.95 was stupid.

What's new in the 3rd edition? More spells for clerics, and.. no.. wait... A few typos removed, descriptions for Yute and Lifehack re-written, and a little mention of "Rubberman's Cage" coming soon in the back.. which means I'm officially committed to finishing that sucker!

And each book now has at least 20 pages of XXX lesbian erotica.

Did I fool ya? Nawwwww, there isn't. There's no real reason for people who already have em to re-buy em or anything, I'm just glad to have em out there! (ebook people might be allowed to get fresh versions free.. I'm not sure how that works...)

Oh, and at the ed of June, I'll be free of my KDP Select contract, and will be allowed to spread back onto createspace and other outlets.

Now... I was talking about serializing the books into little ebooks... I'm not super keen on that at this point, tho the notion of a huge uber-tome containing all three books is still kinda attractive...

Oh, and somehow I now have a kinda-fanclub that some ladies started on FB called "The Dicktree Girls". Like.. they're making themselves tshirts... they're kind of centralized on a graphic I released that's going to be part of the back cover for Rubberman's Cage...

it... it's kinda hard to explain... I don't quite, quite get it myself.

The not-a-trilogy trilogy... actually ... a TRILOGY? Shut your mouth.

Hmmm... Maybe I should just officially declare my 3 books a series. Like.. make the covers spell it out, and the writeup on the back.. the only real issue there is Watching Yute. While it's my fav of the three, it's decidedly the odd man out, with a lot less action, and a lot more emo. :P A well done back cover might be able to explain without being apologetic for it.

So yeah... how about Rubberman? The first of a new series? I don't want to expand on the Lifehack world any further, nanites are DONE. (he said while pondering ways to pull it off) so I have to keep in mind how I can steer Rubberman to leave room for a new book in that world, and still wrap up the first story sufficiently.

I already have an idea on that front... want a spoiler? My idea reminds me of the end of another book...Have you read Akira? (not watched, READ) What happens at the end?

No, not that. I said the BOOK. Yesss, that's a shot from the book, but it's not the ending, okay??

And I'm not saying Lenth develops horrific psychic powers, or gets a bike, or a laser rifle.. hey.. hey maybe those last 2 things. "Joe! You're ripping off Akira!" "No! The bike is BLUE, This is just a tribute! You gotta believe me!"

Jack Black singing Tribute live.

..... oh Mr. Black.. I can't make up my mind about you sometimes.

"Why do you write?"

A 'wandering columnist' set an open question to authors "Why do you write?" along with some peripheral questions. So I wrote in the following answer (bear with me, it's a bit of writery self-...something..) :

Because there are stories to be told. In my case, mainly sci-fi, which starts with "wouldn't it be cool IF..."

But invariably, my novels end up having a good deal of focus on the characters, why they do what they end up doing,and how they interact with every day life and how their methodology applies to the unusual things I throw at them.

How much do I read? Not enough. There's never enough time in a day for reading, writing, and everyday life. Finding the 'correct balance' is an ongoing, impossible feat.

Major influences? Daydeaming, which can chalked up to the slurry of subconscious experiences that is a slurry of books, movies, and everyday stuff. I try to not write things so obviously linked (even in my own head) to any specific inspiration, so it can be hard to peg down. One book idea came from a scab on my knee. You just never know what will lead your idle thoughts into something cool.

The Millions That Were - A clip from Rubberman's Cage

Just a snippet from Rubberman's Cage. Don't read TOO much into what's being said- it's just a theory.. but first, have a peek at the new 'working cover', in case you haven't seen it on my facebook page...

“I've read things,” Gabe said with a look and a tone that wiped away Lenth's smirk. “Things that don't make much sense at all. A place without a ceiling, people ripped like cloth. People by the thousands. Torn, burnt. By tools that I don't understand.”

Lenth scoffed lightly. “Whatever that was that you read... it must be written by someone as a joke. A dumb, mean joke.” Lenth waited for Gabe to agree, or at least entertain the idea.

“No.” Gabe said instead. “I figured that at first too, but there's just too many accounts of the past. It just got worse and worse. The people before, up there; they must have been some kind of... I don't know.”

“But wait,” Lenth said, “if they're so awful, why do they send us things that we need?”

“Maybe they don't.” Gabe shrugged. “Maybe they all finally killed each other off. Maybe it's just the messenger, finding things and bringing them down.”

Lenth glanced at Joints laying there, breathing slow by steady. “So do you think that we... the providers, the subjects, the managers... do you think we're all that's left from those millions of people?”

Gabe sighed and looked around. “I don't know. I have no idea. It all seems pretty far fetched. A lot of it makes an odd kind of sense after a while, but...a place with no ceiling?”

Lenth's smirk returned. “Okay, but let's pretend that's true. What would be the point of us being in this place?”

“I don't know about you, but I don't see any wars in here. Maybe we're protected here. And if they did all kill each other, maybe it will be our job to go back there and... and put people there. Oh, which reminds me, have you gotten your head around this human reproduction thing?”