So I've started up the mailing list

That's what all the gurus say to do. Get a mailing list going in order to get more people interested and latched on to your brand. Well, there is one phrase that definitely does not work in this business;

If you build it, they will come....

Not so fast. You have to go find them and while I've had some fellow authors croon to me about how easy it was for them.. I have had no such luck.

It's literally the ''superhero age" in movies and books even though comics have suffered. I can't think of a time my brand could possibly be more relevant.  But in a world that wants Spider-mans and Captain Americas how does an Indy brand get noticed?

Well, I'm still struggling to follow guru advice, but I can tell you it is practically never as cut and dried as presented. I'm saying this to you, fellow Indy creator because we live in a tough market. So what am I doing about it now?

Well, opting onto my mailing list (upper left corner of my blog page) will net you a free book. But it won't stop at that. I'm going to make sure my mailing list gives cool updates, more freebies, new artwork, and whatever else I can think of to stuff into that package until it bursts. I want every email you get on my list to feel like you're opening a birthday present. I want fun in your inbox.  Maybe some puzzles or coloring pages you can print out for the kids? Or totally keep them to yourself, I won't mind.

I'm changing the cover of Chaos Rising today. It may take a couple of days for that change to go live, but it will and I will make sure people know about it. Eventually all the covers will be changed. Yeah, you're getting to see that cover right here as the header to this blog post.

And soon I think I'm going to offer a chance to have yourself drawn as a superhero or fantasy character straight from a photo you send me. More details on that if we can get this off the ground.

That's what I'm doing about it now. My next steps are more writing and art of course. I have to keep creating and keep things moving. Direction has always been hard for me. I can wind up with too many projects on the plate but that's easy to do as a one man band.

So that's the update for now. Off to do more creating.

Pre-Summer Update! Seriously Good!

There is a ton of stuff going on and it is seriously good. Let's kick things off today with the drawing that is still gathering names for this pile of goodies (plus a sweet black coffee mug!). I've decided there will be runner ups for additional prizes because this has gone pretty well in gaining interest! To spell out what's in the picture (or what you get so far) it's a copy of each of my games; The Galaxy Zento Adventure game and Marshmallow Fight (the links will take you to their Gamecrafter pages), a complimentary bag of marshmallows, a sample card for GZ's first expansion set, a cool magnet, and all four of my books that set the lore for GZ. The edition of Marshmallow Fight is a prototype edition but it still looks and plays great.

HOW TO GET IN ON THE DRAWING: You just visit the GZ Facebook page and follow the instructions in the pinned post. It's really simple. You make sure you hit "like" for the page and share the pinned post. That's it! I'll get an alert and put your name in! Sorry, for US residents only this time.

If you don't want to deal with all that but Marshmallow Fight looks like crazy fun to you, it's on sale NOW for 23.99 on TheGamecrafter. Just hit the link above to order your copy! Of course, I'll be signing everything from the giveaway (wink). You do get an improved game in several ways with ordering though, I must admit. Only in a few small ways though.

So let's talk about Marshmallow Fight for a second. What is this? The name alone sounds like crazy fun. Well it is! It's a game for 3-6 players (but you could feasibly have more than that) ages 6 and up that last for about 15 minutes per game. The win condition is achieving 10 points before anyone else. You do that, by completing stunts with, you guessed it, marshmallows. Each player takes a turn revealing a card from the 36 card stunt deck and doing the stunts that they reveal. It's just that easy! There are two things that the game calls for that don't come with it; a bag of marshmallows and a clean dry coffee cup. But marshmallows are cheap and everyone has at least something like a coffee cup right? Oh, I neglected to mention that you will be throwing them at each other at some point in the game, possibly more than once. Hence it's name!

The game is easy to learn but the stunts may just have you rolling.

In additional news, I'm nearly finished with the first draft of Chessmen book two, The Queen's Gambit where the Chyssian solar system is in greater danger than ever when a plot to kill the Chessmen backfires. If you read the first book and though it was packed with action, book two will positively blow you away.

After that it's time to get to work on the first expansion for GZ the Adventure game to make it even crazier than it already is. That's the awesome thing about making this game customizable. This set is going to add so much to play.

That's it for this update, stay tuned, there is always more on the way!