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.
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
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.
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.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
This week is the last webisode of Outbreak Undead for my RPG Storytime series for this season. Star Wars will begin in December, and I'm heavily in the process of finishing that up so it'll be ready. I find myself strangely more excited about working on these than any of my books.
RPG Storytime is my Youtube show where I take the stories from role playing games I've been running and turn them into narrative stories complete with sound effects, music, etc. and visually told with images and miniatures.
I feel a bit guilty for being so much more excited about doing videos using toys to tell stories about games rather than writing books. After all, I'm in my 40s and should be striving for something more adult, shouldn't I?
But in thinking through why I enjoy it so much, I've come to realize just why I enjoy it so much. RPG Storytime is a combination of my three favorite things to do,writing, filmmaking,and gaming. I get to create a cooperative story with a group of people playing a game. I then get to write it up into story format. And finally I have to figure out how to tell that story visually.
I do wish more people would see them. I've been discouraged by the small number of viewers, and it sometimes makes me wonder why I'm spending time on this. But I can't help myself. Even now, I'm wanting to get through this blog posting so I can continue to work on Star Wars. It's a thrill I get like no other; probably because it combines everything I enjoy doing.
You can find all of the RPG Storytime webisodes on my channel Bandwagon Games.
On my Bandwagon Games Youtube channel I do a series called RPG Storytime. In it we play role playing games and I tell the story through narration, sound effects, and miniatures. One of the games we do this with is called Outbreak Undead. In it, players take the role of survivors during the zombie apocalypse.
One of the interesting features is a method by which you can create a character in the game based on yourself. So you can literally be a character in the game. This made for an interesting element in the show where the players on screen were the characters in the story.
We were all excited about this at first as none of us had ever played ourselves in an RPG before. But the joy of this wore off as the realities of the concept set in. When the players were faced with the reality of a zombie apocalypse and everything that came with it, the game became much more stressful as they were forced to think of all the people they would have lost in such a situation, and all the things they would need to do to survive, and save those they cared about who hadn't died yet.
When we play fictitious characters, and even, to an extent, when we create fictitious characters, we often don't think about all the aspects of life. For instance, when you have a character in a game or a book, you don't think about all of their parents, their siblings, their cousins, their friends, etc. You think of a select few of them. The characters in this game had cats at home they were concerned about, and the thought of them being eaten by zombies was too much. Had they been playing fictional characters, they wouldn't have that stress on them.
The high and low of it was that, though they went into the game excited to play themselves, the stress became too much, and one by one they wanted to switch to fictional ones so they could just enjoy themselves; and you see that reflected in the game.
Outbreak Undead, Second Edition is now on Kickstarter in case anyone is interested in taking a look.
Wonder Woman has been out for so long now it's actually on DVD at this point, so singing its praises is a bit past due, but I think it's important enough to say something even if it's late rather than never.
Like so many people, I had expected this movie to be terrible after all the other DC bombs. Arrogance by the filmmakers had gotten in the way of those. However, it really seemed like they understood the importance of Wonder Woman as a symbol, and got their act together when they made it.
One scene that had made me cringe in the trailers, but brought me to tears in the movie, was when Wonder Woman climbed up out of the trench and led a charge. I still can't put my finger on why it bugged me at first. It just seemed... tacky for some reason. I think it's because the trench warfare at that time was SO grim. All of war is grim, of course, but there are some specific points that just go beyond a fun movie. For instance, Captain America didn't go to a concentration camp. That would have been just... too much.
However, the way it was portrayed in the movie was to have the trenches represent the stubbornness of the commanders, and their unwillingness to do something that needs to be done. Wonder Woman going over the top represented the same thing as when she was scolding the commanders in their plush office; something has to be done now.
Most of all, what moved me about the scene wasn't that she was fighting a war, it was that a woman was standing up for what she believed in, and doing something herself. It was a call to action to women, not just to men. A lot of feminist programs and writings point fingers at men and complain about how things have been. That's fair enough, as chauvinism has been prominent in humanity for as long as it's existed. But nothing is going to change if women don't stand up for themselves and get active.
I've been very disappointed in a lot of entertainment in our culture that's been held up as either feminist, or has been popular among women. Much of it is centered around the idea of women manipulating men to get ahead, rather than having the strength to do something themselves. Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight were all about women whose loftiest goals were to score the hot guy, and they were considered strong for having won them over enough to get the men to do everything for them. Sex and the City, for all its hype about portraying independent women in New York, at its heart, was all about what sort of rich and famous men they could get into bed. I've even been bothered by Beyonce being held up as a feminist icon after listening to the song that made her famous, Crazy in Love. What bothers me so much about that song is that, after she sings about being crazy for a guy, that guy jumps into the song and sings all about himself! He doesn't support her song or anything she's saying, it's all about HIM.
It's been discouraging seeing women be their own worst enemies as they hold up these non-feminist shows and people as feminist icons. True feminism should be about women being allowed to have the equal chances as men to get as far in the world as their talents and skills allow. Not to see how much they can manipulate men into doing things, then allowing them to take the lead.
Wonder Woman was all about a woman taking the lead to DO something, not manipulate a man into doing it. This movie embodied a lot of what I was trying to get across in my documentary about women soldiers in the Civil War. I didn't do that because I praise women who dress up as men, or strictly because they go to war; it's because they stand up for THEMSELVES. They prove themselves as true equals, and we respect them for that.
Wonder Woman is the hero we all need in this day and age.
