The third Relic Worlds book, entitled Lancaster James & the Shattered Remains of Antiquity is off to a start with part 1 now available on Amazon. There will be three parts to this book, each released three months apart. When they're all complete, a completed paperback will be released.
The Shattered Remains of Antiquity follows Lancaster as he tries to collect three important pieces to a powerful artifact. This artifact was believed to be the only solution to the dangerous Sigueran civilization, which is believed to be what killed off so many other alien races throughout the centuries.
Lancaster James and the Shattered Remains of Antiquity is 99 cents and is available on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2EnzSML
I'll be going to Wondercon again this weekend, and this time I'm doing things a little differently.
Rather than getting a booth and trying to sell books that way, I've got a big table in the gaming area. The main presentation there will, of course, be the Relic Worlds miniatures game, Relic Worlds Showdown. The setup I made for this with the big volcano and everything (Breakup Mountain) always gets the most attention, so it's probably the best thing to grab attention for the series as a whole.
So I'll be putting on the game, but I'll also have flyers, and copies of the books. I probably can't sell them since I don't have a booth, but I learned a while ago that I never make a profit at these conventions; it's about exposure. So the whole point will be to get attention and to hand out flyers to get people into the Relic Worlds series.
Since part 1 of book 3 will have just released, I'm giving out business card sized flyers with a link for readers to download it for free. Book 1 will also be available for free on Amazon Kindle that weekend as well, so there will be flyers for where they can find that as well.
And there will be presentations of the game all day, which recently released, and it more or less premiering at that convention.
If you're there, drop by our presentation in the game area. You won't be able to miss the giant volcano!
I began last season of RPG Storytime: Star Wars with a tribute to Carrie Fisher, who had died the end of the year before. It was a bit of a late tribute, but so was my recognition of her character's effect on our society.
I had never really thought about the impact the character of Princess Leia had on our society. It is odd that such a feminist icon came out of the mind of a man who also said "there are no bras in space," but Leia made a huge impact on the way female characters were portrayed on film.
It's easy to look at it today and say of course women are supposed to be right there in the action. But if you look at other media at the time, including other movies, TV, and even games and books, women were the "romantic interest" to be saved by the heroic man. Star Wars began with that trope where the heroes were supposed to save a princess from the clutches of an evil empire. But then it upended that idea by having the woman snap back at the men, criticizing them for their lack of planning.
Most of the time, the imagery of her was not as a victim needing to be saved, but as one of the heroes along with them. Her very first action in the film is to shoot down a stormtrooper. She wasn't intimidated by the lead villains, despite them scaring the crap out of the audience.
I say "most of the time" because there were advertisers who displayed her as the sexy damsel in distress. One of the most famous posters is of her sprawling at Luke's feet, clutching to his leg for protection. But that was by people who were still thinking in that period of time.
The presumptuousness of the film taking for granted that Leia is strong and in charge caused an entire generation, my generation, to grow up with an assumption that women can be in charge. We've barely argued the issue because we know women's equality to be true. Typically, these sorts of social changes are credited with some sort of more prestigious event or person. But the simple fact is that EVERYONE saw Star Wars. And it's that sort of huge impact that truly changes a culture.
I wish I had recognized all of this while Carrie Fisher was alive. I know she didn't create the icon, but she deserves credit for breathing life into her, and carrying a torch of dignity and intelligence throughout her life.
Book three in the Relic Worlds series is the first one I'm doing that is truly serialized; meaning I'm releasing it in parts rather than as one full book. There will be a completed book at the end that will be available both as an e-book and as a paperback. But I'm first going to release it in three parts scattered throughout the year.
I was originally doing this mostly because I realized book three was going to take longer to do it right. But then I realized that this is the best format for Relic Worlds. First, the whole series is supposed to reflect the feeling of serials, where you follow your characters through multiple stories, each of which getting more severe, and often ending in cliffhangers. When I watch Netflix series, I often feel like they are exemplifying the feeling I want to get across in Relic Worlds; catching their attention, then hooking them at the end to make them want to keep watching.
So I'm purposefully shifting Relic Worlds to have this style. I already had some short stories like that, but now I'm going to bring it to the novels. I'll also be giving them more of a sense of suspense between sections. Up until now, and to an extent, even including book three, I've had a tendency to wrap up chapters and entire sections without any suspense or immediacy. That's a habit of mine where I want to complete things. But the model of hooking the audience that's been exemplified in "binge-worthy" television is to always end making the audience want more.
In addition to breaking up the stories from now on, I've also gone back to the first two books and broken them into three parts. Each one is 99 cents, and the completed book is 2.99. I just think this will be an exciting way to read it. You can find the first one at Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2nYTStU
This isn't entirely a business decision. I genuinely feel the most enjoyable experience for an adventure story like Relic Worlds is to leave the audience on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen next. And so that will be more of the format from now on.
