Days Too Dark - Price Drop

Like most things in my life, annoyingly, this involves booze.

I sell booze for a day job, I only recently started drinking again because I hit 5 years sober and my new partner said she'd like to have wine with me on occasion. So I do that, but I'm still not that much of a drinker, which is pretty weird considering I'm around alcohol all the time.

What I see, as someone who sells booze, is the patterns that people go through when they're making their purchases. I never thought this would be useful to me in my actual career as a writer, but then the best lessons in life always sneak up on you. 

We'll take two different beers, Hollandia and 150 Lashes. Hollandia is a cheap shitty Lager that sells for $30 a carton and never goes on sale, while 150 Lashes is a popular Pale Ale that hovers around $50-$60 depending on the sales. Now, without a doubt, 150 Lashes is better than Hollandia, some might even go so far as to say it's twice as good. A shitty beer for $30 or one that's twice as good for $60, it seems like they should be selling at roughly the same rate when quality and price are taken into account.

But the thing is, Hollandia is outselling 150 Lashes like crazy... because most people, even those who can afford it, just aren't willing to pay $60 for a carton of beer. It doesn't matter how much time and effort when into its development and manufacturing, how much it costs to produce it - people just don't want to pay that much money. 

Especially when you take into account the fact that you can get two cartons of Hollandia for the same price as a single carton of 150 Lashes.

Hollandia is "good enough," and there-in lies the issue. You drink beer to get drunk, you can try to make it fancy with your craft beers and what not but at the end of the day it was developed to keep the peasants in line and it's always going to taste like shit compared to what else is out there. 150 Lashes may taste marginally better than Hollandia, but it's the same percentage of alcohol so it's not going to get you any more drunk.

It was something of a shock, as I was standing at work watching the regulars walk in to buy their 3rd carton of Hollandia for the week, when I realized that this applies to eBooks as well.

It doesn't matter how much time and effort you've put into a project, people just want something that's going to distract them for a few hours. This is especially true in the indie-market, where the bar is so low. Low quality isn't just what people are expecting when they purchase an indie author's ebook, they expect to pay low quality prices. 

Now, obviously everyone thinks their own work is great, but you can look at a project and gauge how much time and effort has gone into it. That's never going to be a perfectly fool proof method of sorting the good from then bad, but generally speaking, the more time a creator has spent polishing and perfecting something then the higher quality it's going to be. 

But just like with the booze, the customers don't care how much time, effort and money you pumped into a project, they just want a distraction. And a distraction that costs $10 may be great, but there's a $2.99 distraction over there that's just good enough and that's a whole lot cheaper. 

I've spoken to a few other indie authors over Twitter and some of them are hard working and talented, they put their heart and souls into their work and it really shows. I love talking to these people who are really passionate about the craft of writing, I always learn something when I have a conversation with one of these people.

But then there are others, they talk of writing a single draft, editing it and then publishing. That just sounds fucking horrific to me. I may be coming at this from an artistic standing rather than a money making one, but putting out a product that quickly just sounds lazy and cheap and I honestly don't know how anyone could publish such a rushed creation and comfortably put their name on it.

But that's what we're dealing with, you can put all the time and effort into a project but if people aren't buying it then nobody is ever going to read it.  Of course, everyone would prefer the 150 Lashes to the Hollandia, it's just that they're not willing to pay for it. If they cost the same then they'd no doubt chose 150 Lashes, but they don't so they go for the cheaper option. As much as I'd like to say that I'm solely doing this for the art, I would also like to live off this art as a full time job some day so I do have to learn to play the game. 

Nobody cares how much it cost me to pay for the editing and the artwork of Days Too Dark, nobody cares that I literally spent years of my life writing and re-writing this story. The truth is that the vast majority of my friends and family can't even be fucked buying a copy, let alone going online afterwards to give it a review. The amount of people, so called friends, that have asked me for a free copy of my book is absolutely sickening. If I can't even get people I know to pay for the book at full price, what hope do I have of getting the wider world to give enough of a shit to dip into their pockets? 

I'm never going to be the type of indie author who pumps out trash in the hopes of making a quick buck. I'll keep taking the hard road and putting in the effort, I'll take the time to work my plots and make sure everything is water tight and if I find errors then I'll go back and fix them, even after release. Because that's what I need to do to be able to look at myself in the mirror and call myself, not just a writer, an artist. The only difference is that I'll be lowering all my prices to the bare minimum, to compete with those that don't put in the time... or the effort. 

It's my fault for assuming that people would be willing to pay more for my work, definitely a sobering lesson in humility that I won't forget. From what I can see, even those who have been in the game for a long time still mostly sell their content for pennies. It seems that that's just the way it is these days, indie-stories are the new pulp fiction. Cheaply bought and quickly forgotten. It seems like a hard industry to adjust to, but it's what I've been aiming towards, because I appreciate the creative freedom it affords me.

It's a tough pill to swallow, but I've got to take the good with the bad. The good thing is though; I can afford to play this game because I currently have a day job, where people buy the inferior of two products simply because it's cheaper... because one distraction is just as good as another.

If you want to check out Days Too Dark then head on over to the Amazon page, it's now a whole lot cheaper that it initially was. 

Van Helsing - Poorly Executed Post Apocalyptic Feminism

So I was chatting with a mate on Twitter about Van Helsing, it's a Post Apocalyptic TV series about vampires. He's been trying to get me to watch it for a while now and I finally caved and started watching it with my girlfriend. We're only up to the second episode and I took issue with a scene in particular. Don't worry, I'll still watch it all the way through... my girlfriend loves it, and I need to study it.

Basically, Vanessa, the protagonist, arrives home and we hear a domestic going on in one of the other apartments. A couple is arguing, we hear strikes, then a man storms out into the hallway. After a short altercation with Vanessa, the man proceeds to get his arse handed to him.

Now, as previously stated over and over, I've got no problem with strong female leads. You couldn't have a show like this without the main character being a badass, so that's not the issue. My issue is that we learn she's a badass by way of seeing her kick the shit out of a guy who is clearly an abusive partner. It's not enough for her to be able to beat the crap out of a guy who is much larger than her, she's got to beat the crap out of a guy who is proven to be abusive towards women. 

That's my issue.

I get what the show is trying to do but the whole thing, to me, lacks subtly. The writers want to show off Vanessa as being a competent fighter and someone who is willing to step into harms way in order to protect the ones she cares about, that's fine. But they took it a step too far in their attempt to virtue signal, because now Vanessa isn't just protecting her friend... she's beating a guy who beats women, she's "striking back against the patriarchy" so to speak.

But in the scene before this one, she's rebuffing a guy who asks her out while she's giving blood, so straight off the bat we've got this anti-male sentiment that has a high probability of turning away male viewers. Now, we could go down the road of "the show isn't written for you, a straight, white male, so stop complaining!" but I'd say that it should be written specifically for me. It's me, and people like me, that you want to convince to watch this show!

There's no use in preaching to people who already believe the same things you do, that's just wasted breath. What you want is to convey your message to people who don't believe the same things you do, to try and sway them to your way of thinking. But to do that, you've got to deliver your message in a way that's palatable enough for them to sit through and willingly swallow. Annoying your intended audience by forcing them to roll their eyes in amusement or disgust is not a good way to get your message across. 

Vanessa is a badass, there's a female doctor whose sister works for the military in some capacity, while the leader of the military unit that comes to secure the hospital is also female. All of these female characters are great representations of strong and capable women, one of them even has a whole unit of trained men who follow her orders. That's how you get your message across, with subtly and nuance, by simply having women who are clearly competent, respected and holding positions of power. This is not a hard pill to swallow because it's not in your face with some "girls rule boys suck rah rah rah" message, it just is. 

Have your female protagonist beat the crap out of a guy, that's awesome. Have a whole bunch of men defer to her trained judgment, that's cool too. But the second you make her beat a guy who's an abusive partner, that's saying something. It crosses the line into the territory of moralized preaching... and nothing turns viewers away quicker. 

I've got no problem with the message these shows are trying to convey, there's been a serious shortage of great female leads in shows and movies - especially in action roles. But there's gotta be a smarter way of going about it than what I've been seeing. You don't need to pull men down to raise women up, that's only going to foster resentment and resistance to the idea of seeing women as equal. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is kind of the opposite of what the creators of these shows would like to happen.

As I stated at the start of this post, I was talking to a mate about this over Twitter and one of the writers of the show popped in, then the showrunner did as well. We all kind of got into it and I got accused of mansplaining (which is just the weakest form of rebuttal) and pretty much told that my subjective views weren't viable.  The sad part is, we're all wanting the same thing, better representation and an improved society. But judging from the fact that I got told by the show runner that "this is TV, not Tolstoy" they evidently don't care enough about their own show to put in the effort required to tell a half decent story.

I want better stories. I want shows that manage to stay on the air for more than two seasons to take more care in the manner in which they deliver their messages. Considering how easily great shows get cancelled these days, it's almost a responsibility to tell a good story and to convey the right message. Considering how many people watch television these days, it's not something to be taken lightly. 

But of course, it's far easier to take the populist route and reinforce the opinions of the baying masses who already agree with you, rather than challenge and attempt to change the opinions of those who stand against you. So maybe they're less interested in social change than they purport themselves to be and are in fact simply interested in appealing to as many people as possibly to maximize revenue...

...yeah, that's probably it.

Note - there’s an update to this post - here.

Dark Earth - an Old School Post Apocalyptic Video Game

I've been between houses for a while now, and my plans have changed a fair bit recently so I'm shuffling stuff around and sorting through a lot of my books. My last post about Metanoia had a photo of some of my library packed away in boxes, as well as spilling out of them onto the floor. One of the books visible is the game guide for one of the stories that cemented my love of the Post Apocalyptic genre - Dark Earth.

Released in 1997 by Kalisto Entertainment, Dark Earth was a fantastic RPG that had some pretty impressive graphics... for the time. The backgrounds were fully detailed art pieces that your animated characters moved through - so while there was a high level of disconnect between all the characters and the world itself, it was still a pretty impressive game visually. 

The basic premise of the game was that the old world was wiped out by a meteor shower when a comet passed by close to earth, and most of human civilization was destroyed. Dust clouds were thrown into the air and, baring a few sacred areas, the earth was shrouded in darkness. It wasn't just any old meteor shower though, as the stones from space brought with them a dark power - one the Shankr. The Shankr are a race of dark beings that wish to destroy all, and they're opposed by the Runkas, beings of light that slumber beneath the earth.

So while most of the earth is shrouded in darkness and twisted monsters roam the shadows, there are areas where light breaks through the clouds and reaches the ground below. Thanks to the Runkas, these illuminated areas are safe for human habitation and are the last bastions of humanity, three hundred years after the old world ended.

As the game starts, you play as Arkhan - a Guardian of Fire in the city of Sparta. Your role is to protect the Sunseers, priests that lead worship of the holy light, and ensure that the fires which protect the city from the Shankr beasts never go out. You're caught up in the eternal battle between the light and the dark however, and you find yourself poisoned by the Shankr Archessence - a poison that slowly turns you into a Shankr beast.

Despite your role as a protector of the city, the fact that you're turning into a monster turns most of the cities inhabitants against you. You discover ruins of the old world, harness old world weaponry and discover an ancient organisation and the reason why light pierces the clouds at specific points. You've still got a few old friends, in the Guardians of Fire as well as the Sunseers, but these are few and far between.

You've got to unravel the a plot to overthrow the power structure of the city, discover who is working with the Shankr as well as find a way to cure yourself of the Shankr Archessence before it turns you into a slavering beast. You progress through the game and explore the city of Sparta and the world of Dark Earth, encountering devout yet poor citizens and dastardly rogues. 

It's one of my favourite games, despite how old it is. I'd love to see Dark Earth remade, because I think the world has a lot of potential. There was so much that was left unanswered! You get outside the city, for a very short time, and there's a whole world out there still to explore. There are Wanderers who brave the Darklands, nomadic tribes that travel between the few remaining human settlements to trade and bring news. The battle between the Shankr and the Runkas is eternal and the conflict presented in the game is just between one member of each group, so there's plenty of fertile ground there for further exploration.

If anyone out there is ever looking to purchase an established IP and put some work into it, I couldn't recommend Dark Earth highly enough. It's got a simple set up that's still prevalent to this day, look at Destiny's "Light vs Dark" story, and it could easily be built upon.

Till next time.

Metanoia - Tales of Layers and a Forced Hand

A few years ago I jumped the gun and commissioned a bunch of eBook covers for an upcoming post apocalyptic series that I was... am still, working on. Metanoia -Tales of Forlorn Liberty is a post apocalyptic series that was announced years ago but one that I've never gotten around to actually writing.

I've been world building for a good... three to four years now, and for a series that started out as one that I could just pump out short stories for, it's certainly grown into something a lot deeper and involved. I've always intended to write this series and I'm always working on it, I just got a new text book today that's meant to help me with this endeavor, it's just that it's getting more and more complicated. 

See... I'm one of these people that like layers - in the stories I'm consuming as well as in the stories that I'm creating. It's like I used to say to my dad about digging holes - "what's the point of digging if there's nothing worthwhile down there?" Of course he'd tell me to shut up and dig the damn hole anyway - but that's besides the point. The point is that I like there to be layers of meaning to a story, that's how you create depth and depth is what makes stories stay with people. 

So while Metanoia started out as something simple, it totally spiraled into something complex that has me literally inventing a new style of writing. Which... you know... is not great, when I'm not even that established as a writer. But, you gotta jump in to find out if you can swim in the first place, so why not just jump in the deep end? So anyway, there I am minding my own business and taking my time to add layer after layer of complexity to this series when this happens.

Yeah... some random fan of Weilard's, the artist who drew the covers for me, legit went out and made a goddamn fan page for them! Now, it's hard to be angry at someone who is excited to read your work, but this totally forced my hand in what project I was going to work on next. While I was originally going to write the sequel to Days Too Dark next, I'm now shifting gears and going full speed with the Metanoia anthology.

This is not a bad thing, by any means. There's noting like someone lighting a fire under your arse for motivation - and that's definitely what I needed here. While the world has definitely benefited from the increased complexity that the extra time has allowed for - at some point I'm just going to have to start writing the damn thing. And thanks to this guy, it seems like that time is a hell of a lot sooner than my procrastinating arse had intended. 

Days Too Dark - a Post Apocalyptic Update

Sorry for the massive gap since the last entry, life has a way of happening. I've been working on the digital and physical proofs of my upcoming novel, Days Too Dark, and there have been some interesting complications. Beyond that there's been a massive spanner thrown into my plans in the form of a new girlfriend, so I've been trying to get to know her while also trying to figure out just what the hell I'm going to be doing with myself next year. With all that's going on, I haven't really had much time to do much of anything remotely video game related, which is just...  

For those who've been following, my book, Days Too Dark, will be released next month - just in time for Christmas, so why not buy it as a gift for the post apocalypse fanatic in your family? But seriously though, I have been putting some serious time and effort into it, and it's proving to be a really interesting and challenging project. I've had a great team working on it though, so even though we've encountered more than our fair share of hurdles we always managed to find a way over, or around, them. The biggest hurdle, that we're all going to have to deal with though, is how much I'm going to have to sell it for.

The thing with Amazon is that they're a business and they're looking to make a profit. Shock horror, I know. I'll give you a minute to collect yourself. The point is that they're happy to print my book and sell it for me, but they're going to make damn certain that they'll make a profit on it. Now, this set up isn't that big of a deal for most books - they're simply a cover and a word doc with some fancy formatting. This is an easy sell because because the amount of effort and costs involved on Amazon's part are relatively low, which means they can sell it for a relatively low price as well, but this just isn't the case with Days Too Dark.

My book is an epistolary novel, which means that it's laid out like an actual real world journal and that each page is made to look like an actual hand written journal. Now, some epistolary journals, such as Warday (thanks again Evan C. for the great recommendation) are epistolary novels but set out like a typical book - which is fine. But I wanted something that was more than a normal book, I wanted something that readers could pick up and engage with in a way that revealed more to them about the world they were reading about than just words alone could. Days Too Dark has a story, obviously, but it's also cram packed full of artwork and other artifacts from the world that have been crammed in there. If you just read the story on it's own, you'll get a pretty great story... if I'm allowed to be so humble, but you'll be missing out on a lot of detail. There are details that are placed in the drawings and inserts that give hints to the narrators state of mind, or of the truth of a matter that he's unaware of or simply not willing to write about. 

So I didn't fork out thousands of dollars for artists and graphic designers just for shits and giggles, I actually paid all that coin to create a deeper and more enriching experience for those that read the story. The downside of all this is that I'm not going to be able to charge the same sort of prices as others who sell eBooks and print books on Amazon - not even close. Even with the price differences between eBooks and print books, there's going to be a massive difference. For Amazon to make money on this goliath of a book, which has a full color picture for every page and comes in at over 600mb for the eBook, they're going to have to sell it for a pretty steep price.

Now, straight away that means that I'm going to lose out on some readers - which is fine, I get that. There's going to be a large percentage of people who will see the price of this book, which is published by an indie author, and just refuse to even think about it, and that's cool. It's stupid, but it's cool. If you're comparing this book to *just* a text-based book, then yes - the price does seem absurdly steep. But if you take into account all the artwork and other visual elements that're included, you'll realize that you're getting more than *just* a text-based book.

So you'll pay more but you'll also get more - which always makes sense. I'm also working on a competition with some mates over in the states to give away a few copies of the book as well, but we're still finalizing all the details there so I'll have to keep you posted on all of that. Beyond that, everything is progressing as it should and I'm already looking at the next project that I'll be working on, which thanks to an over enthusiastic fan, has been decided for me. I'll have to tell you about that next time though, because this post has already spiraled into much more than I'd originally intended.

I was going to write about the new girlfriend, but then common sense came up and beat the shit out of me - who wants someone writing about them on the internet when you've only been dating a month? Madness...

Until next time!

All the Best Shows get Cancelled

I just finished watching season 3 of Dark Matter, and as the trend goes of late, it's been cancelled. I've enjoyed a lot of shows, especially sci-fi shows, that end up getting cancelled after two or three seasons. Beyond the irritation of having to hunt down a new series to get into, it's quite disheartening when you take into account the sort of tripe that gets 10-12 seasons these days.

Dark Matter was a fantastic sci-fi series; a group of scoundrels are forced to work together when they all wake up with amnesia. You could see the sources of inspiration from countless other sci-fi shows in this one, and it really paid off. But, just when the stakes couldn't get any higher...

Stargate Universe only got two seasons, and considering the fact that I've already written a rather long blog post about this series I won't got into it overly much. I'll just say that it's still my favorite series ever, it was the perfect amalgamation of a few different sci-fi shows. It may come back one day, but it's looking like the comics are where it's at for the foreseeable future.

Revolution was a great post apocalyptic series that only got 2 seasons before it was canned, it was all about electricity suddenly disappearing one day and the ramifications of that. I really don't know why it was cancelled; it had a young female lead, a great cast of supporting characters around her and it was always action packed. It seemingly had everything it needed, but still it was canned.

Jericho got two seasons before it was canned, but Jericho has a seriously dedicated fan base that pushed for two follow up seasons in the form of graphic novels. I really dug this series, despite how over the top all the Americana was - it had this "small town against the world" feel to it.

Dominion, again, two seasons before it was cancelled. Heaven invades earth and humanity is forced back to a few strongholds, and their only hope of survival is an archangel that sided with them and the Chosen One that walks among them. It had it's weak points in terms of story, and the special effects were always budget, but it was always interesting.

Jeremiah only got 2 seasons, but that was released so many years ago that it barely counts anymore. All the adults are killed and the remaining children grow to shape the world. The creators knew the end was coming so they managed to rush a proper ending in, which was good.

Dollhouse is another post apocalyptic series that saw the end coming, and thus managed to get in a half decent ending. This show had so goddamn much potential that I'm simply stupefied that some jackass decided to cancel it. Body hoping technology aside, this show explored some heavy issues and the cast was superb - this is legitimately a point of confusion for me. 

Defiance got 3 seasons before it was cancelled. This show was about this zany earth where aliens invaded and terraformed the planet, so it's earth but just a little bit different... with alien monsters running around. It was pretty good and had a good selection of species that the cast were comprised of. It wasn't always top notch but it was always original. 

Outcasts got a single season before it was cancelled, and this one is a damn shame. Earth is becoming uninhabitable and so humanity is colonizing this distant planet, but it's not as uninhabited as they first thought. A great setting and an interesting cast of characters played by some A-grade talent, I was keen to see where this show would go.

Zoo is another one that I've just found out got cancelled after three seasons. I wanted to avoid this one at first, it looked ridiculous, but a mate on Twitter talked me into it and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Just when it was getting good, boom. Just like with Revolution; Billy Burke and the post apocalypse don't mix.

This list goes on, and I could sit here all night going on about how many times I've been let down by a great series being cancelled... but I wont. At best you can take this list as a suggested watching list. While you're waiting for the next season of Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead or Westworld to start, hunt down a few of these and give them a watch. They may not last long, but they're always worth the effort. 

A Writing Update

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past few weeks, I've become strangely busy of late. 

Beyond the fact that I managed to complete the first draft of an entire project last month, one month ahead of Nano, I've also been trying to decide which project to start next. I've also been studying and practicing for my TESOL assessment and there's a tiny Taiwanese woman who keeps trying to kill me, for some reason...

So, I've been busy - but it's always been the good and productive kind of busy. I tried to play a video game and I couldn't, it felt like a waste of time. You know you're in a productive state of mind when something like that happens.

The two projects I could chose from were sort of neck and neck, and they're in the same setting but I decided to go for the bigger of the two. This will be book two to the book I'm about to release, so it makes sense to get a start on it as soon as I can since I know how slow and pedantic I can be. The other project was a much smaller side story to this trilogy, I may still do it down the line but it's just not necessary at this point. Better to focus on the main event and get it out and done with, that's where the action is. 

I've really got to learn to be smarter with my time and money, that's one thing getting this first book together has taught me. I am an absolute dunce when it comes to time management and finances and I need to get better if I plan on staying in this industry. I suppose you've got to make stupid decisions at the start so you can make smarter ones down the line, it's all about the learning process... and all that jazz. 

So my plate is kind of full and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to be doing next on a number of fronts. Not all of these decisions are as simple as choosing which writing project to start next either, so hence the blog has suffered. Sorry about all that, my bad. 

I am looking at getting the new Fallout board game though, I'm strangely excited by that. I've been meaning to lean into my nerdy side a bit more recently, it's a part of myself that I've rejected and ignored for far too long. There's a few people I know that can just enjoy whatever they want, however ridiculous, and I kind of envy them that ability. Board games and other aspects of nerd culture are just two things that I've always wanted to get more into but never managed to allow myself to do. It probably sounds stupid, but it'll make sense in a few weeks for anyone who reads this upcoming book.

On another note, this diet I've been on for the past three weeks has been paying off big time. I am seeing some seriously fantastic returns for the amount of effort I'm putting in, and once my six weeks are up I'll be able to tell you all about it. I'm still taking it easy because of my back, and I'm learning what I can and can't do these days, but at the gym I'm reaching the maximum weight that the machines have. There comes a point where you've got nowhere to go beyond just upping the reps you're doing, and so pretty soon I'll have to head back to the free weights. I'm just hoping that everything is in place and stable before then. 

Beyond that, my book is nearing completion and I've been doing the old back and forth with the graphic designer on the other side of the world. We're only awake at the same time for a few hours each day, but we're hammering through it to get it done. It's still looking good for a release this year, I just hope that everything stays on schedule for that to happen. I'll let you all know when the exact release date is when we're closer to completion, there's all this complicated behind the scenes business these days. Multiple platforms to release on, marketing and advertising, networking, all these different fields that I know nothing about but which I'll have to master at some point. 

Ah well, it's all part of being a writer.

The Last of Us 2 Looks Amazing!

So a trailer for The Last of Us 2 has been released, and I for one think it looks fucking badass. I like that we're seeing a cast of new characters and we're already getting hints of new conflicts. There was some serious religious overtones in the trailer, so I'm thinking we're going to see a fair amount of intolerance in the next game. At this point though, I don't even care if Joel or Ellie never appear again - I just want to play as *that* chick.

I don't know who she is or where she comes from, but I *want* to know! I don't know where she's gotten the food to be that goddamn rig in a post apocalyptic world, but she is a fucking machine! And it works too, she reminds me of Scarlett Johansson's Major from the live action Ghost in the Shell - she's this bulky warrior who just stomps around. You would not want to get into a fist fight with this chick because chances are that she'd just decimate you and all your friends. I really hope we get the chance to play as her, she's got this physicality that would let her go toe to toe with any Hunter.

I'm quite interested in these other two characters as well, they were both named and they're both Asian. For all the praise the first game got for inclusivity, there were no Asians on the roster, so it looks like Naughty Dog are getting on top of that right off the bat. With all that's being going on in Hollywood lately, with titles like Aloha, Iron Fist, Ghost in the Shell and Great Wall screwing over Asian American actors in favor of white actors, it makes sense from a casting perspective.

The young boy's hesitance to cut the warrior woman down, and his line "but she's one of them" could potentially mean Naughty Dog have written the absence of Asians in the original TLoU into the story. It's possible that where they were blamed for the cause of the Cordyceps Virus and ostracized by others, and that's why we never saw them in the first game. Or maybe it's got nothing to do with race and this warrior woman is just part of some group that nobody likes, I don't know. The powers that be have said that the second game will be about hate, and we already know there's a high level of religious intolerance, so some sort of race-based conflict it's not beyond the realm of possibility. 

Of course, not even a day after the trailer was released people have been writing articles about how it's far too violent and how it's disturbing that women are involved in the violence. The fact that two men are killed is overlooked and the focus is brought around to the broken arm of one woman, and the smashed in skull of another. Killing is fine as long as it's straight white men doing the dying, apparently, but we can't have women or children getting hurt. Never mind the fact that this is a post apocalyptic world where there are raging mushroom zombies that eat people... and humans that eat people... and humans that kill children because they're ordered too... and humans that try to kill children because they're sca- okay, you get it. It's a crapsack world, is what I'm trying to say.

I don't want to spend too much time raging about this topic again, except to say that this stops being an issue when you stop trying to make The Last of Us into something that it isn't. The world has gone to shit, but there are still good people out there and sometimes they have to do terrible things to get out alive. Stop trying to politicize it and spin it so that it reinforces your pre-existing views, just let it be its own thing. If you twist it and make it less dark then the overall story will suffer for it, the emotional pay off at the end is linked to the amount of risk involved in getting there.

A lot of people die in post apocalyptic stories, and even more get hurt, this is because they're not meant to be nice stories. They're tales of hardship and struggle and about making it through to the other side against all odds, the pay off is only worth it if the danger is real and the cost is high. Nobody cares that you walked across a field of daisies, but if there were ten Clickers and a Bloater on that field of daisies then that's a story that people are going to get invested in.

Anyway, I'm damn keen to see where they take this narrative. That warrior woman looks like she doesn't take shit from anyone, I'm sure she'd make for a powerful and conflicted protagonist. Maybe we get to see Joel and Ellie again, maybe not, but from the looks of things it seems like we'll be in good company either way. 

My Post Apocalyptic Project

So I was meant to come home and start working on my secret project tonight, but while at the gym I ended up talking to this lovely woman... until 1:30am. So, obviously nothing much has or will be written tonight. However, I will be damn sure to get at least a blog post out!

I have big news in relation to my upcoming book; after an overly long time of faffing about - it's now all in the hands of the graphic designer who will be putting it together for me. This is the last stage of the project, I can't even edit it any more. This  fact alone is terrifying the shit out of me. Just to give you some context, here's a pic from my computer. 

March 2011 is the earliest copy I've got, but I know I started this story in late 2010. So that's a good seven years that I've been tinkering away at this story, building and adding to it. Now that it's out of my hands I'm obviously relieved but also freaking the hell out - I've been able to work with it for so long!

Those are some interesting jumps in word count there, each time the story has grown in complexity as I've thrown more and more into it. It's not like I've been working on it for seven years straight either, it's done a lot of sitting around while things peculate.

The thing with this story is, and part of me is screaming that I'm even writing this down, it's mostly based on my life. The original inspiration for the story was a dream I had, and the setting never changed, but the plot has grown over the years as I've dug deeper and deeper into a lot of childhood issues that have left some damage. I don't know when exactly, but at a certain point it stopped being just a story and became an outlet for me, a way to deal with some of the stuff I'd been through while growing up.

The main character is based on me, but he's not me. It's a worse off, never tried to fix himself, version of me. My worst case scenario, if you will. I don't know why I even though it possible to write a story about myself and keep that fact a secret, but I've been operating under that delusion for a few years now. But I've been looking at the artwork... and there's pictures of me in there and there's just too many anecdotal stories for readers not to notice something was going on. 

I think I needed to tell myself that I could hide the fact that it's based on my life, but this close to release I can't maintain the lie anymore. The vast majority of characters in this story are based upon people I know, and the vast majority of situations are real events that have happened. The world didn't end though, well... not for you lot, so you're going to have to use some common sense to figure out which parts of the story are true and which are fiction. I think you'll be surprised by the ratio, however.

You don't end up in therapy, for three years, if everything went as it should have. There are going to be some characters in this story who are not shown in the best of lights, and the protagonist is definitely one of them. He's just at the start of his journey though, so cut him some slack.

For other people who don't like how they're portrayed in the story, well... take comfort in the fact that you had an impact on my life, even if it wasn't for the best. I'm not out to get anyone specifically, I should clear that up, but certain individuals are going to get called out for certain things they've done in the past. How they chose to take this is up to them... 

But, to end things on a lighter note - I've got something of an announcement. To kick off the count down to completion, and hopefully, subsequent release - I'm doing a cover and title reveal! 

Days too Dark is the name of my upcoming novel, it's a Post Apocalyptic Log set after the world was plunged into darkness. It's an exploration of the narrators background as well as the end times - and why the former makes him so suited to the later. This is his actual journal mind you, so it's going to be jam packed with his scrawled writing and there's some fantastic artwork in there from a few very talented artists. 

What this means though, is that I had to get creative with the cover. He can't have an awesome picture of himself standing outside some ruined building, the tattered remains of civilization scattered about, because this is his actual journal. It's got to look like something that a person would be writing in after the world ends! So this is what I came up with... I managed to get a little creative with the symbolism, and I get that it's not the most flashy cover but it meshes really well with the overall project. 

There's still a little way to go before I'm ready to announce the release date, but I figured that I'm all giddy with excitement so I'd give an announcement.

So that's it! What do you all think?

Politics and Writing

Sorry for the radio silence recently, I've been swamped with a few projects all coming to a head at once. I'm having to pick up some slack in several locations for a really massive project that is nearing completion, and as annoying as that is I've actually learned a lot from the experience so it's not all bad. But it signifies that some changes are needed, I can't keep going like I've been going. 

In other news; I've been pumping out a metric shit tonne of words recently, for a project that I'll be releasing early next year some time. Besides that, I've been doing a final edit of the big one that will be released before the years end, as well as planning what I'm going to write for NaNo WriMo. I've been planning to do this challenge for years now but every year something pops up and I miss the chance, so this year I've been planning ahead.... and that's where the trouble started.

I had this idea for a Dystopian story.

See, in terms of the political spectrum, a Dystopia is often a Right-leaning government oppressing individuals who are more Left-leaning and progressive. The Handmaids Tale is a great example of this; women's rights are swept away as a Christian totalitarian government takes over the United States and calls itself 'Gilead' for some reason... it's all very inspiring for the modern day feminist movement, and there have been rallying cries of how it's a tale that needs to be told, and how gosh darn relevant it is in the era of Donald Trump.

And that's all fine, but...

People on the Left aren't the only ones who can experience a Dystopia - it's not a genre that's bound to any one view point or ideology, here - I'll rip a description straight from Wikipedia.

"A dystopia is a society characterized by a focus on that which is contrary to the author's ethos, such as mass poverty, public mistrust and suspicion, a police state or oppression. Most authors of dystopian fiction explore at least one reason why things are that way, often as an analogy for similar issues in the real world. Dystopian literature is used to "provide fresh perspectives on problematic social and political practices that might otherwise be taken for granted or considered natural and inevitable"

A Dystopia can be experienced by anyone, it's all relative. One man's utopia is another man's dystopia. For a long time, the focus has always been on how bad things could get if the Right gain too much control, but that's not the only Dystopia out there. What would a Dystopia *for* Right-wingers look like?

That's what I was going to explore, and I was going to grab a bunch of different ideas and current fears of people on the right and make this world that would be horrifically alien to them.

• Sexbots - it's been popping up more and more lately, this is an absurd topic that has people from all walks of life freaking the fuck out.

• Equality run rampant - Straight White Males have had generations of privilege, now they've entered an age where they're paying off that debt.

• Feminism and Islam - because I felt like ruining my entire life by making fun of this team up.

• Universal Income - because if we're getting laid without effort, why not get paid without effort as well? Another topic that people are talking a lot about.

• New World Order - Globalism run rampant to the point of there being no borders anymore, the Right-winger's worst nightmare.

• Self Grading College Degrees - because how couldn't this absurd trend cause problems?!

I had a vague idea of what the plot would be, it was going to be about this guy who is more white than most people can be in this world, and he's an ex-serviceman looking to find a partner despite a few issues he's got. Men don't marry anymore because divorce courts are so in favor of women and instead they just bang sex robots. Women have taken over the workforce but since they're allowed to self grade they're mostly totally unqualified and the global economy starts to crash as men simply bow out and women under-perform too much to be able to handle it. The worlds population is down below 3 billion, despite it being 2100 or something like that, people just aren't having kids anymore. Men don't want the risk and the burden while women put their careers ahead of children and see motherhood as a joke.

The protagonist would see all the issues with this ailing society and seek to end it, by destroying all the sex-robots.

He'd go on some merry adventure until he came face to face with the president of the world, she knows things are failing but she refuses to give up power and go back to the old ways of things, she'd "rather rule in hell than serve in heaven." And just as he's being carted away to jail, to become breeding stock to help boost the dying worlds numbers, he's rescued by a rebel group. They don't plan to stop the government, they just want to let it die so that they can step in and rebuild from the ground up. 

The rebels wouldn't have been pro-male or anti-women or anything stupid like that, just a basic egalitarian group that recognizes that one extreme is no better than the other, and that both groups need one another, that they *are* one another. And the story was going to end with the protagonist walking off into the wilderness with these rebels, not bothering to try and take out the Dystopian government but simply letting it fall on its own, like they inevitably do. 

So that was the idea.... absurd to the nth degree, like all the best dystopias are. 

The thing is, though... I hung out with my cousin and her two girls on Friday, and I got to thinking. Even though I classify myself as a Centrist, there's no way that this story couldn't be construed as Right-wing. And that's the point, obviously, I was going to write a Dystopia that bucks the trend and goes against what people are used to.

What happens when gender affirmative action and safe spaces go too far? Beats the hell outta me, but I'm sure it'd be just as bad as if Nazi's start marching down main street, just for different people. One extreme is just as bad as another. The very fact that it's your idea of Utopia means that it's another person's dystopia, that's how life works.

And so I'm going on a bush walk with my cousin and her two girls, we're talking about Wonder Woman and looking at water dragons and all that good stuff, and I realized that I just don't want to invest so much time and negativity on such a story. It would be a pretty shitty world to live in, but then I don't want to live in world of Nazi's either, and I think that such a book would only give them a stronger foothold in the world.

I'm not here to support either the Left or the Right, I've got a little bit of both in me. I support gay marriage but I also want people to stay the fuck away and not interfere with my own rights. I like a free economy but I also think there should be a safety net for those that need it. I'm all for multiculturalism but I also see the benefits of nationalism... sorry I don't fit into one camp or the other, I'm kind of complex. I find people who support either camp to be like sock puppets, hollowed out and someone else's ideas with someone else's voice.

And everyone thinks Centrists are wishy-washy fence sitters who lack convictions, so what the hell would I know?

But mainly I decided not to write the story because I don't want to be the guy that writes a Dystopian story about how horrible it would be if roles were reversed and women ruled the world... and nose dived it into the ground. As interesting as that story might be, it'd cop so much flak from everyone, everywhere, that I'd be hearing about it until the day I die. And honestly, I don't want my cousin's girls to read that story one day and wonder how I could write something like that when they were already in my life.

I'm not just a Centrist for shits and giggles or to save myself the trouble of having to pick a side, I chose to be a moderate because it allows me to observe. As a writer, I need to be able to step into anyone's shoes and try my best to think like they think, to feel what they feel. I can think as a Nazi one day, and as a radicalized anti-establishment freedom fighter the next. I try to keep my views out of a story when I'm writing it, and instead allow the characters to have their own views. That's kinda hard when you're bringing a viewpoint that's been warped by propaganda and inhereted beliefs. 

I will be the first to admit that I've had some issues over the years, issues with trusting women included. You don't spend three years, and thousands of dollars, on therapy for no reason at all... But I'm trying to move on from all of that, and this story would have been a massive step backwards for me. I'm focused on moving forward these days, and although that doesn't mean I'm ever going to become a flag waving feminist, is does mean that I'm going to try to live with love and respect for others, and treat them how I'd like to be treated. 

Except the characters in my post apocalyptic stories, I am going to make each and every one of their lives an utter fucking nightmare...