Presenting My Game at Wondercon

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!

Coming to Realize How Important an Affect Princess Leia Had on Our Culture

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.

Serializing All the Relic Worlds Books

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.

Star Wars 2.0

We all had problems with the Star Wars prequels.  The reason for the passion is because of the extreme potential that was lost.  There could have been so much to it, and they could have been some of the best movies ever made, but the opportunity got wasted.

But rather than just complaining about them, I choose to do my own version of them; what I believe could have made them great.  I set out to write them a couple years ago, and got several chapters into the first story when I ran out of time to write them.  I felt bad about dropping this story as I had gained a few fans.  But it turned out to be a blessing because when I saw Rogue One, I had a whole different vision.  I call it Star Wars 2.0.

Initially, I was writing the prequels as episodes 1-3 and was finding ways to sort of dodge around revealing Anakin as Luke's father to preserve the surprise for Empire Strikes Back.  But I happened to see some old interviews where some of the actors from the original series talked about how the movie after Empire was supposed to be a flashback to the prequels.  Having learned that, and seeing how good Rogue One worked as a precursor to the original, I determined to follow this pattern:

Episode 1 - Rogue One
Episode 2 - A New Hope
Episode 3 - The Empire Strikes Back.

Then my story, episode 4, begins as a flashback.  We spend the next 3 episodes learning about Vader's past and the fall of the Jedi.  It's mostly a story of two brothers, Anakin and Owen; both of whom have the force, but one has turned away because he knows how much damage he could do, and the other has joined the Jedi order despite the danger.

Finally, episodes 7-9 will come back to the present and it will present the Rebellion's strike back at the Empire, and the fall of it.  Instead of the Death Star being rebuilt, the rebels will go after the clone facilities, and try to kill the emperor.

Below are the prologue and chapter 1.  Chapter 2 should come out tomorrow, or soon after.

Star Wars 2.0 - Episode 4 - Prologue

Star Wars 2.0 - Episode 4 - Chapter 1

Relic Worlds, Book 3 Will be in Three Parts

The third Relic Worlds book will be releasing the end of next month, but instead of coming out as one full book, I'm releasing it in 3 parts.  Part 1 will release March 23rd at Wondercon.  Part 2 will release three months later, and part 3 will release three months after that.  Then a paperback will be published with all 3 parts included.

The real reason for this, unfortunately, is because I didn't have book 3 as far along as I'd have liked it.  I found that I'd be rushing to get it done in time, despite having 2 years to complete it.  But then it occurred to me that I've always meant to do Relic Worlds as a serial; and with serialized stories doing well on Netflix and Amazon, I thought this would be a good idea.  So I'm releasing it in these three sections with cliffhangers and such.

This will have the added benefit of being spread out over time so more people can learn about it.  In the world of independent publishing, you want to remain in people's faces as much and as long as possible.  So the best thing for me to do is have material spread out over time.

We'll see if that works.  In the meantime, part 1 is now on pre-sale at: Relic Worlds 3, Part 1

Showing Relic Worlds Showdown at Orccon Game Convention This Weekend

This Saturday, February 17th, I'll be running my game Relic Worlds Showdown at the Orccon Game Convention in Santa Monica.  This is a miniatures game where players take the role of a faction from Relic Worlds and search for treasure, avoiding traps and fighting monsters as they do.

The game was recently released on Wargame Vault and Drivethru RPG, so this will be the first showing of it since its official release.  I'm planning on releasing more for the game as time goes on.

You can find more about Relic Worlds Showdown here: Relic Worlds Showdown

You can find more about Orccon here: http://strategicon.net/

RECALL NOTICE - Relic Worlds, Book 2

I discovered something very embarrassing yesterday.  The Kindle version of book 2 had the book 1 file associated with it.  This means that anyone who downloaded Relic Worlds 2, Lancaster James and the Secret of the Padrone Key will have downloaded Relic Worlds 1 instead.  This is an incredibly embarrassing mistake, and I don't know how long it was there.  But if you were someone who downloaded this incorrect book, PLEASE tell me so I can send you the correct copy of the book.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who downloaded this incorrect book, especially if you already had book 1, and ESPECIALLY if you paid for it.  This was an embarrassing mistake that I hope never to repeat, and I hope it hasn't caused anyone to stop reading the series.