A change

The cool thing about self publishing ebooks is that if you don't like something about your book, you can change it it. You have complete control.

Joe Konrath preaches this over at his blog A Newbies Guide to Publishing. So I'm listening to his always solid advice. I'm gonna change the name and cover of my 'Dead Forest' novella series.

I'm doing this for 2 reasons.

1. There's already a whole bunch of similar titles.

2. I think the new title will really smack people over the head. In other words, you won't need to ask me or anyone else what the book is about. You will know it instantly.

I think that was part of the problem, at least for me anyway. For example, whenever I would try and sum up the plot of 'Dead Forest' I'd be all like.. "Well it's about the Kensei - the sword saints of japan. but it's also about these demonic ninja known as 'the immortals' and there's also zombies. It's like a paranormal young adult fantasy.'

As you can see that explanation is a bit messy. I've never been good with the dreaded synopsis. But I flat out struggled with this one.

The cool thing about the new title: it will say everything you need to know on the front cover. No more questions. No more awkward synopsis.

All will be revealed soon. As will volume 2 in the series. I can't wait. I'm so pumped. Like Arnie in 'Pumping Iron'. Yeah that's how pumped I am. Ok maybe not that pumped but I'm still pretty pumped. You should say 'pumped' as many times as you can. It sounds weird after awhile.

You know what's a good album?

Passive me, Agressive you by 'The naked and famous'.

Damn good album.

Songs of note include:

All of this
Punching in a dream
Young blood.

It's on high rotation on my computer and in my car.

First sale in the UK!

Call me crazy but I feel like celebrating everytime I sell an ebook. And yesterday someone in the UK bought my book. How cool is that?

I'm of the opinion that it's very cool.

And to celebrate I'm gonna go out to dinner at the pub and get a massive chicken schnitzel with extra fries. Aww yeah.

Comic Books + Sushi Train + Whiskey = Huge Weekend

And it was expensive!

I just blew about $120 on comic books. How on earth did I do such a thing? Well let me explain.... I happen to be of the opinion that 'The Walking Dead' comic book series is probably the single greatest example of zombie literature on the face of the planet (although WWZ is also a literary masterpiece) but as far as comic books go, The Walking Dead is the bee’s knees, the Rolls Royce, the Hulk Hogan, the Michael Jordan, the Wagyu beef... (you get the point).

And herein lies my conundrum. Up until last weekend I was in the possession of Volumes 1 through to 7 of the Walking Dead. And at the end of Volume 7 there is a huge cliffhanger moment – a huge OMG, I effing need to know what happens next moment. But for some reason, none of the book stores and comic book stores in my region were stocking the next Volume in the series.

So on Saturday, me and a few of my friends just happen to stumble into one of the biggest book stores in the middle of Sydney. And to my utter delight they had volumes 8 through to 13. So I had to buy them. I just had to. (Each volume cost about $20). I knew buying them all would cripple me financially (especially since I was in the middle of a ‘boys’ weekend which involves excessive drinking and gambling and eating) but I bought them anyway. And I would totally do it again.

I can’t wait to read them all. But I also can't wait till I get an ipad or some other tablet device. Then I'll be able to download the entire series as soon as humanely possible. And I won't have to worry about storing them in a safe place. I'm the worst at looking after comic books. Nothing I own is in 'Mint' condition. It's not like I intentionally mistreat them. But over time they start to collect dust and get bent out of shape. Or just go missing altogether. Prime example, I've completely misplaced some of my 'Predator' comics.

I mean, check it out...

How cool is that? I freakin own that comic. But I have no idea where it is. I can't wait for the day when I can download it and not worry about losing it (although I suppose it's not that hard to lose digital stuff anyway.) But I probably have a better chance of keeping track of digital stuff than I do of hardcopies.

So yeah, in summation I guess I have a comic book addiction. Also, I have a Sushi Train addiction.

On Writing and Self Publishing

I can't believe it. Secret Apocalypse and Dead Forest are selling! Not huge numbers, mind you (certainly nothing like Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath or HP Mallory) But it's still awesome to think that there are other people out there reading my books and hopefully enjoying them. (They could be hating them but I have to think positively or else I'll go insane.)

It's great motivation to hurry up and finalize the sequels. I love working to a deadline (even if it's a self imposed deadline). And believe me I need a deadline. I need the adrenalin rush it provides. I've always been a slow writer. I remember when I first started to get serious about writing. I would struggle to finish anything. Meanwhile my friend (who was the guy who first encouraged me to write) he would finish 2 books and be writing a third before I could even finish 1! I'm extremely jealous of people like this.

So one of my writing goals is to increase my productivity. I think I'm getting faster. For The Secret Apocalypse I used a combination of the Snow Flake Method and something I call 'fast drafting' (I think someone else coined that term but I can't remember where I read it).

So basically I get the main idea/concept for the story. And then I get a rough outline for the plot/narrative arc. I'll jump from different plot points and expand on them. If I get stuck on the intro but I've got a killer idea for something that happens towards the end then I'll jump to that scene and write in some dialouge or action or whatever. I usually have a few different word documents open at the one time. One will be called 'intro' and another will be called 'conclusion'. I'll name other documents based on what's happening in the scene. And before I know it i've got a pretty good skeleton of a novel.

I'm hoping to refine this method so I can write mo books mo quickly.

The Secret Apocalypse

My very second ebook!

The Secret Apocalypse is a Young Adult zombie-filled thrill ride.

And it's now available for purchase from Amazon's Kindle store.

Here's the story description:

Los Angeles
February 23rd

Sixteen year old Rebecca Robinson is the sole survivor of the Australian Apocalypse. The death toll is at an estimated 22 million. The entire world wants to know what happened down there and since the military aren’t talking, everyone is looking to Rebecca for answers.

Sydney, Australia
3 Weeks Earlier

A deadly new virus is spreading through an immigration detention centre in the outback. It is 100% lethal. There is no cure. As a precaution the Australian Government has ordered a nationwide quarantine. No one is allowed to leave the country. No one is allowed to enter. School across the country has been canceled.

Despite these warning signs Rebecca and her friends are in the mood to celebrate their extended summer vacation, blissfully unaware of the dangers that are coming their way.

Over the next few days, things go from bad to worse as the virus begins to spread throughout Australia, killing anyone infected and turning them into ferocious undead monsters. Worse, the military have been ordered to contain the spread of infection and to cover up all trace of the outbreak by any means necessary. Mass panic and hysteria grip the population as the plague reaches the outskirts of Sydney.

Rebecca and her friends realise that it's no longer safe to simply go home and lock the door. They need to make a run for it. They need to escape from Australia. 

Book 2 in the series - The 6th Level - will hopefully be released next month.

I'm pretty excited about this :)

Cool WIP's

I have so many goddamn Works In Progress. It's starting to drive me insane.
So I thought I'd list them in an attempt to exorcise my demons.

1. The Dead Forest series.

I started writing this series way back in 06 (or maybe it was 05?). Anyways, I'm a huge fan of ninja and samurai and zombies and demonic ninja and evil Shogun's and wise old masters. Dead Forest combines my love of all these things into one awesome and epic tale.

It's so epic I decided to publish them on Amazon as a series of Novellas. Dead Forest - Vol: 1 is available on Amazon and I couldn't be freakin happier about that. Vol 2 is due out soon. I can't wait. In volume 2 we get to meet more of the Immortals.

The Immortals = BMF's

2. The Secret Apocalypse

Did I mention that I really like zombies? The Secret Apocalypse is my version of the zombie plauge. It's not really a WIP anymore because I'm literally moments away from hitting the 'Save and Publish' button on Amazon but the rest of the series is still under construction.

Read the description for it here

I had so much fun writing the first book in this series and the possibilty for the sequels are endless.

3. The Last City on Earth

I'm also a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction in general (not just of the zombie apocalypse kind). I may also call this book 'Locust' or 'Swarm' or maybe even 'Locust Swarm'.
Basically it's about the last surving city on Earth. Everything and everyone else on the planet has been consumed by a pre-historic species of giant locust.

4. Untitled

This last WIP is untitled because it involves a book of spells and every single possible title I come up with just sounds way too much like a Harry Potter novel.
But it will be nothing like Harry Potter. It also has a post-apocalyptic slant to it. Not necessarly a post-apocalyptic wasteland type setting but more like how in the anime series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' some bad stuff happened (i.e. the 3rd impact) and civilisation has recovered or semi-recovered. And the story kind of revolves around preventing the bad stuff from happening again. (By the way, Neon Genesis is one of the greatest anime series ever made. And if you haven't seen it - you should stop what you're doing right now and go watch it.)