Diversity in writing done right

You want your work to be accepted by as many people as possible. You decide that you want diversity in your work. Well, my friend, there is a right and wrong way to do that and we're going to give some examples today.

First of all, what does diversity in creative works mean? It means that you have a healthy variation of cultures represented in your work. This includes ethnicity, religion, and yes, sexual orientation. While diversity and being inclusive are important, going too far can get you labeled as an SJW and cloud the story. Let's use some live examples while realizing that opinions will vary.

During Capaldi's run in Doctor Who, there was a companion named Bill. Bill was gay. I feel comfortable saying 'was' because she was turned into a Cyberman and eventually killed. Uh oh, spoiler warning? Too late. There is nothing wrong with Bill being a gay woman or lesbian if preferred.  The problem was that Bill felt the need to announce this fact in practically every other episode to the point of boring it into the viewer's skull. What's wrong with that, you ask? Well, what is Doctor Who about? Is it adventures through time and space or being gay through time and space?

Now let me give you an alternate view. There is another show (okay okay, spoiler warning) called The Rookie. It's a show about becoming a police officer staring Nathan Fillion as the 'main rookie' though he has two cohorts with him. One of them is Officer Jackson West. During the Valentine's day episode he asks a male nurse out on a date. Through the series we saw several times that Jackson referred to problems with his mother over him being a cop. While you could entertain suspicion, it was never a flagrant and in your face issue. When it finally comes to be, it's casual and basically just like it would happen for any straight person. You don't feel like 'gay' is being shoved down your throat. See the difference. Now we will see more of Jackson's relationship, I'm sure, but presenting them as people rather than a label will always be more successful with your audience.

Another well written example is in the show 911. Hen Wilson is a married gay woman with a child. It never needs to be explained because if you can't tell that Hen is gay by the time her wife is introduced, it's on you. Thanks to letting the characters simply be the people they are, no one ever has to make a big character point of waving a flag and going "SEE THIS CHARACTER IS GAY" which is really poor writing to do so.

This goes the same with any form of culture you are including in your story. If you story is all about how to live in that culture, then that's great. Otherwise remember to keep to what your story is about. Let your character show who and what they are rather than waving the flag.

Please keep in mind that I only use being gay as an example here. Thank you.

One of my main characters in my hero works is from Egypt. That alone suggests that he may be Muslim. I leave that for the reader to decide (but he is Muslim). He has the likeness and powers of the god, Anubis but his human half still has feelings, concerns, and culture. It's not easy to mix that in to a story with multiple characters, but I definitely want him to be seen as a person, not a culture.

Thanks for reading and keep writing!

No Trespassing (Blog fiction)

The great fan of the air boat roared in their ears as they sped across the waters of southern Louisiana. They held their guns ready for anything in their path on the way to the meetup. The buyer wanted sufficient tree cover in the swamp for the purchase. Lemmy didn’t like the idea but he had drugs to sell. A buyer’s eccentricity could be tolerated most of the time. The coordinates led to an arrangement of shacks on stilts over the water. No one lived in them. They were entirely for deals like this. They were meant to look like some swamp person’s little hideaway. Something people in those parts left alone on general principle.

“There. There they are. Pull right up to them.” Lemmy said to his pilot. He adjusted his tie and tapped a finger on his machine gun strapped over his shoulder. Two more boats of Lemmy’s boys followed them in.

Booker and his guys were in row boats and pirogues. They came out of a part of the swamps you couldn’t take an airboat through. He preferred using thick trees to cover his exploits and knew he was tough to follow. He smiled revealing gaps from missing teeth and the sun shined on his bald head. Lemmy and his boys were suits and ties. Booker’s were scrap shirts and jeans. Lemmy liked machine guns while Booker’s guys carried rifles and shot guns.

Lemmy gave a friendly salute as his boat came nose to nose with Booker’s.

“You think you could pick and uglier place to meet?” Lemmy joked.

“What? You don’t like the greenery?” Booker gestured in a wide sweep of his arms. “This is home. Don’t talk bad about my home now.”

“Take it easy. I’m just busting your balls. I got your order here. Two waterproof plastic crates of white gold, just like you asked.”

“Excellent. We have your money the same way.”

A loud and low growling sound echoed through the shacks and across the water. All the men did double-takes of their environment to see what did it. They saw nothing.

“What the hell was that?” Lemmy said.

“Probably just the rugaroo. Legends around these parts say there’s a monster. Oooooo. Ha. I don worry bout it none. It’s not real.” Booker laughed.

That’s when a shack exploded off its stilts and flew over their heads with a savage snapping of wood pillars. Lemmy dropped to his knees while two of his men went into the water. Booker fell off his boat with a splash. The beast in the shack’s place stood 14 feet tall and nearly as wide. It had the head of the biggest alligator you could dream of and stegosaurus plates reached up from its back. Gator hated evil in his swamp. The legends were true.

Gator had been watching Booker and his men. He knew these men were up to no good and in his swamp to boot. Ever since evil men used science to make him into a monster, he patrolled his swamp. Not even littering college students escaped his wrath. But he only scared those. These men needed more convincing. Gator was happy to oblige. With a whip of his thick powerful tail, he turned the shack he hid behind into a flying arrangement of kindling.

Men yelled in terror at the sight of him and opened fire in panic. It didn’t matter what kind of guns they had, the bullets were worth less than falling acorns. Gator let out a roar that rippled the water and pushed boats away. Then he charged into their midst. He snatched a rowboat out of the water with one enormous hand, flinging its occupants into the air. He threw that boat at one of the air boats, smashing both to bits. More men were thrown into the drink. Two were severely injured.

Gator didn’t want to kill anyone. He did want to make sure he left a lasting impression on these men to never come here again. Another whip of his tail capsized every one of Booker’s remaining boats with a powerful splash and wave of swamp water. Another stilted shack collapsed into so much driftwood garbage. In moments, only Lemmy remained on his boat and all others were trashed. Booker stood up in the water choking for breath.

Gator grabbed Booker up out of the water and put him on the airboat next to Lemmy. He took up both plastic containers of drugs in one huge hand and showed them to the men. Gator cocked his arm back like a professional baseball pitcher and threw the two containers out toward the Gulf of Mexico. The two shocked men watched as over a million dollars in cocaine flew out of sight into the distance.

Gator turned back to the men and roared in their faces as they screamed like children. Lemmy felt himself defecate.

Gator left them with one word before turning and lumbering away.

“GO.”

Before disappearing into the trees, Gator picked up some wreckage and threw it at the last standing shack, reducing it to splinters.

Now they knew the legends were true. Word still got around. It’s his swamp. No trespassing.

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.

All the links!

Hey all you awesome people out there! Today's post is a special one. I've been having trouble with my author's page lately. Not all the books are attached to it properly. I've written to Amazon and haven't had any luck. On Goodreads they are pretty much all together, but not where it seems to really count. Naturally this causes confusion issues. So I've decided to create a post where you have all of those together in one place. But not only that (because just a set of links would be boring), but a recap of what you get and what the stories are about. It seems like the perfect time of year for this and folks have asked me where the best jumping on point is among my books. So, for your convenience I will also make a note of which those are. The name of each book will be linked to it's page on Amazon (for the hardback, but they are all in Kindle too). So just click on the name to get the book you want.

Chessmen: Opening Moves:  The queen died in childbirth and the king has been murdered. When the Royal Guard is framed for that murder they have no choice but to go on the run to protect the infant princess from the real killer. Pursued by mercenaries and assassins, attacked by monsters, and forced across the stars; the heroes soon discover a plot overshadowing their own problems and threatening their whole solar system. This is the origin story of a unique team of heroes. [Good starting point]






Chessmen 2: The Queen's Gambit:  Having survived what they thought was the worst, the Chessmen prepare to take the fight to their enemies once and for all. But Queen Margel has invited a new threat to do her dirty work for her. The Maker has come for the Chessmen and will take anything he wants in the process. He is a threat that neither side my survive. This story carries maximum action from beginning to end on a spiraling roller coaster ride with all new characters. Witness fantastic feats of power and survival. Will the Chessmen finally return to Chyssia?

Chaos Rising: When the Earth is enveloped in darkness bands of killers with strange weapons attack all the police precincts of New York City. Nothing seems to stop them short of taking off their heads. But that's only the tip of the proverbial ice berg. The White House is taken hostage and bizarre acts of evil erupt across the country. Hakim only just got his powers in the likeness of Anubis and will have to learn as he goes. A new team of heroes must band together to hunt down the cause of their problems before something even greater comes to destroy them all. [Good starting point and these events occur before Chessmen 2]

GZ Tales Vol 1:  Assassins with a mystery target, an imaginary friend that kills, the core of time and space, and a demon that serves Death himself, are just a few of the short stories that wait for you in the first volume. This book includes the short story, Tale of the Gator that won honorable mention in Writer's Digest. Some stories are origins that carry on and others are about heroes that appear in the novels. Either way, they are action packed and full of fun. [Good starting point]

GZ Tales Vol 2: Even more awesome stories about GZ heroes and villains. Meet Maestro, the King of Demons, take on poachers with Killer Whale, and see what a day being a psychic is like. Read stories that pick up where some left off in volume 1. You'll read about heroes in unlikely places with the strangest of problems.








Galaxy Zento, the Adventure Game: You've read the stories (or even if you haven't), now play the board game! Travel the universe for good or evil and race to complete your mission before anyone else. The characters from Chessmen are there as enemy or ally. Face beasts and obtain artifacts. Escape from dangerous traps. You never know what the deck will throw at you next. About an hour of fun for 2-6 players, aged 10 and up. This game is customizable so you choose what goes in the deck.

Galaxy Zento, Expansion One: Lots of great cards to add to your board game. Check out the all new Monsters! More spells, more characters, more artifacts! Comes with a tip guide on how to customize your game!

Marshmallow Fight!: (I would be remiss if I didn't put a link here even though it's not GZ). This is a great family party game! Perform stunts with marshmallows for points and be your household champion. You can finally play with your food! This game has been reviewed by PalladinElliott and FatherGeek with approval from both!


And there you have it! This will be the ultimate guide to all the links that I will share in a few places. If you haven't jumped in on GZ yet, you've been missing out. It's a universe of unique and original characters. People have said some interesting things about it:


- It's like Star Wars met Marvel.
- It's definitely not Disney.
- A new kind of space opera.

And the story is really only getting started. Big thanks to all my readers! More to come!

Creators: Understanding your audience

It's not magic

Your audience is a collection of the people who follow your work, taking interest and ultimately buying your product. So how important is it to understand your audience? Well, if you don't have your own marketing team or money to dump into advertising, it's fairly important. If you aren't already considered some kind of guru or master of your craft, it's fairly important. Your audience is how you make a name for yourself. But how do you manage that?

Right now, you can break your audience reach into three forms; internet, local, and in person. Internet offers connections to far more people at great distances, but can be super difficult to navigate and gain the acceptance of those audiences. Anything in person is usually much simpler because you have the human connection that the internet lacks, but you are limited in access to people based on who is physically at whatever event you are part of.

Let's look at the internet audience. Everyone goes to the internet. You practically have the entire world at your fingertips. Or do you? You certainly have access to a great diversity of consumers. But there's a huge catch. Unless you are paying for advertising (and this session of my blog assumes you aren't) you can't just jump into some forum of people and say, "here's what I'm selling, everyone!". It won't work. That's because the one thing you have to understand about the internet audience is the universal bloody eyed hatred of spam. This hatred is so strong that it makes internet social marketing a veritable mine field.

This is even if you are talking to people of a group that is all about the product you have created. That's even if the forum you are taking part in, has clear rules that allow you to share your project in certain time intervals. It's not evil to be excited about your product. It's a great achievement for you. But this is the rule you need to follow.

Be a person first. People on the internet want to know that you are personally a human being they can take interest in. That means the want to have idle chat and basic entertaining post share. They are going to want to that for a significant amount of time as well. After all, how long does it take to get to know someone. They want to know that you aren't just a market bot on the net. No, just saying you aren't isn't going to work.  This is how you market yourself as a person. Just take part in the average discussions and present yourself as an interesting human being. Be yourself as much as you can.

Local audience is important too. This is audience you can go out and spend time with in person. Making local connections branches out into more local connections. But what's the secret? Be interested in other people. Learn about them and their projects. Be supportive of their projects. Often enough that will come back around to you. Be social and prepared to just shoot the breeze. Be personable. Remember that in many situations where you are approaching other people, the dynamics are the opposite of the last point I'm about to make.

The best way to find that "in person" audience is at events like conventions. The primary difference is that people are now coming to you to find out what your product is. It's a big part of the exact reason they are there. If this goes well, word of mouth will carry news about you. The more events you can go to for your book, game, etcetra, the better. This is practically the polar opposite of trying to market via social media outlets.

To sum up, remember that your audience is made of people. You need to understand what they want. They want you to appeal to their interests. Find the people who have the interests that match your product/project, and you will move forward (so long as you remember they are people first).

Meeting Challenges

Brave the hurricane

No matter where you try to publish anything in any genre, there are an army of challenges to face. A lot of them are in marketing, gaining an audience, and taking rejection. The greatest of all challenges however, are in yourself.

Completing projects are typically the number one hurdle to scale. If there's one thing we authors do well, it's procrastinate. But that's not the only factor to work with. Self doubt, writer's block, and changes in ideas are all common demons of any creative work. Challenging perceived norms is another hurdle, if that's something you do. I know I do because I write stories and apply my universe to board games as well. Some people seem to think that's like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters.

As if the natural layout and environment of challenges weren't enough, you have to challenge yourself. What do I mean by that? I mean you have to push yourself. Whether it's coming up with that new idea or just finishing an art piece of chapter. You have to give yourself deadlines and push for them any way you can. We all know, if we get to that plateau we dream about, the deadlines will be imposed on us. We have to ready ourselves. Practice those deadlines now.

And don't get too down on yourself when a deadline doesn't work. Don't succumb to self doubt.

"If you begin to doubt your power, you lend power to your doubt." Yes, I just quoted an old movie, Mystery Men. Laugh away, but you know he was right.

I have multiple projects on my desk all the time. I have challenges of time management, completion, and self imposed deadlines all over the place. How do I handle them? I put my head into the game and just keep forging forward. It's the only direction worth going in. Right now, as many of you know, I'm pushing work through on my first expansion set for my board game, but that's not all. There is a cool surprise coming right along with that. It's been an additional challenge to keep my mouth shut about it. Then Chessmen2 is in final edits.

I have the challenge of appealing to varied audiences (something I will get more into later on). Board game audiences and book audiences are very different. But if you are a game designer, this advice holds just as true to you as it does an author. You have a lot of work to do in components, rules, and theme. You have management in development and manufacturing depending on how you follow through and what sources you use.

Not unlike being burned alive

Our age of self publishing ability can actually lend to a dangerous level of laziness because it's so damn easy to just publish whatever you want. This means you have an additional challenge of surpassing an ocean of crappy work that's all around you. And all the audiences for all aspects can be not only critical but unforgiving.

There is a lot of wonderful advice out there on developing board games, writing books, and publishing all of the above. I think, the best advice possible, is to just DO the work. And keep doing it. You have to have a special love for this too or you won't be able to handle it when someone says you suck. Another challenge, bad criticism hits hard. But keep doing the work, even if you fall flat on  your face. Your refusal to give up will eventually speak in your favor.

Next time I'll delve into understanding audiences and how diverse they are while being very much the same. Keep creating!

New Art November!

Heck yeah! I'm doing  new art while practicing my female forms. You can see three of these pics right here. More to come for sure. I have to admit, drawing the female form has been super tough for me. But then when my hands come into the mix with my cognitive state, things get screwed up. That's why my artwork is so simple in its form today. But I am putting in extra efforts, I do want it to look good. So I've added backgrounds to liven up the pics. I think the best one I've done so far is Lypsii the Althamite as she bursts through the faceplate of a Rotanian soldier. Second best goes to Traveler with  her fire staff. Of course I'm drawing straight from the stories.

Speaking of the stories, I have some junk to clear out of my laptop and I'll be forming up PDF files of the books done so far. Those will be going out to people for free in certain places. You have that to look forward to. The second book of short stories is coming SOON. You can bet there will be a giveaway to commemorate the occasion.

I'm quite a ways into the writing of Chessmen 2 as well. Over 40k words! The action is way over the top and more than anything seen in the first Chessmen. It's a gathering of characters that will blow your mind. Characters are coming in that will show up in future stories of their own.

Speaking of future stories, the baddest of the bad villains of GZ make his official book debut in GZ Tales vol 2. Maestro is the highlight attraction of the book and he will bring an evil to the table that is undeniable and menacing. More excerpts will be on the way this month from all the books.

Trying to use social media is not easy. Trying to get my stories out to people is also not easy. I've managed to increase Twitter numbers significantly, but it's a slow slow process. When I have those PDFs ready, I hope to get them out to reviewers. I also hope that's easier than getting reviewers for the board game because that's proven nigh impossible. Won't stop trying though.

As for the board game, remember that the special custom card offer ends on Thanksgiving. I do have some cards going out. You can still get into it. It doesn't matter what you want as a character (except I don't do porn). You can have super backwoods lawnmower dude if you want. But really, this game just needs to get into peoples hands.

That brings me to the awesome news announced by Geekonomicon that Galaxy Zento will be demonstrated there. It's cooler news than I've had all year. Big thanks goes out to Steve Huckabee who is running those demos. I'm going to make sure he has a little something extra to hand for free.

So there are good things coming up in GZ. Bit thanks to all you awesome readers for being there.

End of summer update

Lots of promising things going on as Summer draws to a close. I didn't give away half as many things as I wanted to, but there was no helping it. This summer's accomplishments have been few but very good. Releasing Chaos Rising (novel) and the board game were no small potatoes. Both were long in the making. Now it's time to get the next book of short stories done along with some artwork for the first game expansion.

Recently there has been a lull in development as I get my son ready to go back to school. I get the feeling this is going to be a big year for him. Primarily he's in 8th grade, but the school works with him where his actual strengths are. His math is back a couple grades, but the plan is to catch him up so he can go on to high school. If that means another year at the school he's attending, it will be worth it.

Sports season is coming in full swing and my wife will be doing scoreboards at the radio station. Weekends are going to be fairly closed off for a lot of things. But I'll use the extra time to keep on creating and writing. I have plenty to do.

Come January, we hope to make a trip to New Orleans for a new place that's opened up there. I've med the owner on Facebook and I'm excited about checking it out. It's called the Bad Wolf Bar and Grill. They are going to have gaming and other nerd geek ventures going on there. My game may be making an appearance. Be sure to check them out.

In the coming months I will be getting my game out into people's hands and into cool places. Exposure is promising. Speaking of exposure, my books got into people's hands this summer with three freebie specials. I can only do a freebie giveaway like that once every 3 months for each book, but it was a success.

It is not easy to be seen in the endless ocean we call the internet. I strive to learn all I can about acceptable ways to market myself and my work. Sometimes I think it would be easier to defuse complicated explosive devices, but one can never give up. You give up and guarantee you'll be invisible before you know it.

With my son at school, I'll be taking advantage of some quiet time to really get some stuff done. At least that's always the plan up front. You never know what's going to happen to challenge your efforts. Best laid plans right?

Writing: How to choose an idea and go forward

It's the creative's curse. You have so many ideas in your head for a story that you just can't sort them by thinking. So what do you do? I had this awesome question recently and realized I needed to put it here to help others. Here's my suggestion.

When you have so many ideas crashing around in your head that you can't sort them just with thought along, you need some writer's tools to help you out.

Get a notebook and label it "For Writing Ideas Only". Feel free to decorate it, color on the cover, whatever. But inside, is only for your writing ideas. Keep it where you can always find it.

Make a list. Jot notes on each idea as you remember them. You don't have to make it long winded half story length stuff, just notes. That way, when you do pick a project and complete it, you can come back to your notes and pick another one.

But how do you choose? That's on you. There is really no best way to choose what your first project is going to be. All of them are likely begging you in your head to be completed. You will have to make your choice and then focus. Yes, focus. One of the hardest things a creative can try to do. But do it you must in order to make any headway on that first project or any after it.

One thing I suggest, after you've brainstormed all those ideas and written them down; is to put them away and leave them be for a few days. Come back and look them over later after writing them down. You may find new perspective on your ideas that needed time to gestate. You may find the act of writing something down as a resolve to the mind storm. You've given your ideas a kind of tangibility that allows them to be dealt with easier.

Will this make the ideas stop whirling through your head? Um, no. I'm afraid there is no cure for that. You can only hope to organize them a little and find a path to move ahead.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your notebook and get to jotting down those ideas!

Building your workspace

For the longest time, I've been doing my typing and art in the dining room that we don't use for anything else. The office was split diagonally for my actual work space and my wife's computer. Then my wife made me an offer to go ahead and just move my artistic stuff to the dining room. I went a touch further and converted it to an official space.

I don't know about you, but when it comes to being creative it helps to surround yourself with your creations. Past that, things that inspire your imagination. Heroclix, for example, is my favorite game. I put quite a few on display as inspiration and my collection will actually be moved under the table soon. You can see the heroclix all over the two white shelf units on the right side of my work space. Those shelves also hold dictionary, thesaurus and art books. I'm not done with the organization yet, but you can see where it's headed.

On the left side you can see my geek shelf. It has all sorts of cool geekiness that has been randomly collected. Some are gifts, like the Monty Python rabbit and some are from Loot Crate. There's a giant heroclix figure because he doesn't fit anywhere else. But then we

get to the most important parts of this arrangement. That would be the creations of the Galaxy Zento universe. In the white shelves there is a copy of the role playing game. You can see the art posted all around.

Then there's the table. I built that table from a solid wood door and banquet table legs some 10 years ago. I burned a mural of my universe in the top of it. It was in the office but I had two strong guys from across the street move it for me. No way I can move it myself anymore. It's blasted heavy. A hundred pounds easy. When I work at my table, it's like being there. It's a solid piece of my creativity. It inspires.

Now on to the shadow box you see on the left wall. That's also very special to me. In it are custom heroclix figures of my characters. Yes, it's a little known dream that one fine day I can have a heroclix set of Galaxy Zento. Alas, my characters need to be a lot more popular for that to happen. Still, it was fun to make them back when I could do that sort of thing. And they are for my own enjoyment, not meant to infringe on Heroclix in anyway. The cool thing  is how tangible it makes my characters. Sadly, it's not their exact features, but pretty darn close.

It did wear me out to do all this, but it sure feels worth it. Today I'll finish sprucing it up and then I'll getting to more creative work.

(click on images for closer view)

For better views of the table go HERE.

Open Challenge to Graphic Artists or...

In the past week, I've been hit with enough unhelpful negativity to dig ten graves. Allow me to explain while simultaneously issuing a serious challenge.

I've been trying to follow the advice of the gurus and blogs by going to certain web pages (Facebook and elsewhere) to get feedback and more advice on moving forward with making Galaxy Zento the Boardgame. What I got, I was in no way prepared for. On two pages that I will not name, I was immediately told that my work:

"will fail"
"looks like a child did it"
"is awful"
"sucks"

And several more fine gems of pure "your work is so bad you should get someone else do it".  Should I? Well, here's a little clue for you. If you are going to talk to me like that, it won't be you.

Yes, I've admitted I can't pay anyone, but you didn't know that before my explanation. For all you know, I could be up for a small business loan tomorrow. I'm looking for people who can uplift, not put down.

I was told to go to these pages for advice. I didn't get that. No one tried to suggest formats I could learn. No one tried to explain WHY a layout didn't work. Only that it's awful. Sorry, that's not helpful by any means. It also does not fit my situation. I was talked to like I should already know all about graphic art. But if that were true, why would I be there asking advice in the first place? Try to figure that one out.

NOW> If you can read through all that, check your ego at the door and still give me two cents of your time, this is what I actually need and what my actual situation is.

Important note: I do not expect to be the sole artist of  my project. I'm losing my abilities to Multiple Sclerosis. As painful as that is, I know I can't be the one and only and I know it hurts my artwork. I don't need reminders of it.

But I have a universe of serious opportunity for the right person or team. I have a cast of amazing characters and I'm about to release my second novel (third book total). I have plans for a series of customizable and interlinked board games. Play testing has been overwhelmingly successful at three venues. There are plans here for more than even just that.

I need someone or a team to take up the job with me, hand in hand to take GZ to the next level. If you think you can do that, then we need to talk. But first, go to my page and get to know my universe. I'll send you my books OR you can get them for kindle for just 99 cents. We can skype or talk on the phone and get to know each other.

Now there's one more thing. I want GZ to help kids. I want to inspire kids with disabilities like autism to never give up. Think you can get on board with that?

By the way, my awesome wife is my business manager and we are a geek gamer family. I'm actually easy to work with and willing to take all your design ideas into consideration. I'm not a tyrant. I want your talent to shine with GZ. You lift me and I'll lift you.

You need to be serious and ready to roll up your sleeves. You need to be ready to be a part of the grand design. Think  you can handle it?

Other places to go with GZ: Card games, graphic novels, and apps. I have the idea building blocks for them all.

If I can't find anyone I have no choice but to go forward myself, win, lose, or fall. I'm not getting any younger. So if you don't want to be on board, but still want to lend your advice, fine, but I don't need to hear how I'm going to fail. So save the negativity if you please.

Time for a new update

So much has been going on that it's been hard to keep up. Sadly, things like my blog here got neglected in the process. How much can you put on your plate along with what life gives you before you get too busy for your own good? It's not hard to do. I'm a chronic multi-tasker and it gets me in trouble.

But a whole lot is going on in my life and GZ is just one great part of it.

On May 10th, I attended the first annual bookfest here in Monroe. The assortment of authors in one place was great. They even came from near New Orleans to where we are in the Northern part of the state. There were several religious/inspirational authors, maybe two other fictional authors and one who wrote of a life after Vietnam. There was one who had a historical look at one man's life here in Lousiana. It was a fine combination of people.

Quite a few people came by including a couple of local friends and I think some new interest was created. The only drawbacks I give the day are that it was HOT. My dear wife has quite a sunburn. Sadly, the crowd was also sparse. I had really hoped to see more people at the Rivermarket. Some people folded up and left early which is a big NO NO in the agreement with the market. I folded a few things up in the last hour, but remained available to sign my books and talk to people until 4 as advertised. Once the day was done, my wife and I were both exhausted. Forget cooking dinner, we went home and ordered a pizza.

All in all, it was a good day and I met some incredible people.

So what about GZ Legends?

Honestly, I'm not sure. I am writing the second storyline and the first is compiled with new edits for the book, Chaos Rising (coming very soon!) but I have to decide what I can most reasonably do with the time on my hands. I have a lot and I mean A LOT of artwork to do for the card game coming up. I have Chessmen 2 still in writing stage and another book of short stories to compile. And it's not just being a one man band, life itself has stepped in. My son has needed me and I'm about to be a Grandad for the first time. I don't think I've ever had so much happening at one time ever in my life. It's quite amazing.

The next thing to come out, should be Chaos Rising if all goes according to plan!

So it's time for me to get back to building and get the activity rolling again! Stay tuned, you never know what's going to happen next!

Artist(s) wanted for Galaxy Zento project

I've got the writing so who has the art?

As many of you know I just got back from the New Orleans Comicon. The prime mission of the trip was to take my son to meet his celebrity hero Stan Lee. Many people donated to that cause and it happened. I'm forever grateful. My son has a wonderful memory that may shape his future.

Since we achieved that mission on the first night of the convention, that left all day Saturday to just fun around. Well, we had lots of fun but there was quite a bit more than that. I scouted an article for HCRealms on HeroClix. After that, I went networking.

My third mission at the con was to meet artists. I can't tell you how many of you wonderful people, including a couple of agents, have mentioned that my stories should be graphic novels. I agree!

I'm looking to form a partnership that will bring GZ to life. I'm looking for someone I can work with for these projects.

I know what some of you are thinking. "Dave, you're a pretty good artist, why don't you do it?"

I have to be honest, there are some skills that I lack and small details with my hands are virtually impossible. Having MS has made it so that I have to literally use both hands to do any small details. My hands shake so badly, that my only hope is digital. Even then, I have problems with some forms. I've gotten better at drawing women over the years, but I'm not good enough at it that I want it in a graphic novel. I'm better as the writer (not that I'll give up drawing).

So what do I want from an artist?

If you are one of the awesome artists I met at the convention (or you just came across this out of curiosity); the first thing I want you to do is take a look through my universe. Check out the characters and see if they appeal to you. Do they look like characters you can really get into? Check out the stories. GZ Legends is actually taken from my novel, Chaos Rising and it could make a good graphic novel. The short stories could make for a compilation piece. I would like to have someone who can really become a part of the GZ universe.

Also I would like someone to bring more than just drawing and coloring to the table. Experience is nice. I would like to take our work to agents or publishers and get GZ out there and mainstream. What ideas and experiences can you bring to the table?

Approaching other artists is fairly new to me. I have quite a few questions that I will be asking soon. But if you are reading this and you like what you see of GZ, talk to me.

I also still accept guest artists. If you want to do a picture for the blog (for GZ Legends) let me know because I will promote you as an artist!

GZ Legends number 1

The Showcase short stories

What is the plan for Galaxy Zento?

After all, to try and take it all in, Galaxy Zento is huge. So I want to take a little time out of the schedule to address my plans and goals. I post this especially for anyone who may want to join the Galaxy Zento project. If that pertains to you or you are an agent I recently contacted; THANK YOU for visiting!

Goal #1: Publish a book. Yep, just one book to get started. I'm sending my novel, The Chessmen out to agents for this purpose. If any agent sees this, I want them to know that I don't expect them to try and take on all of Galaxy Zento in a big fell swoop. Let's publish a book to light the fuse and then see what comes next.

Of course, I can't just sit here on  my hands while I wait for an agent or publisher to answer me. Consider this, dear readers; I just sent out an exclusive (means not under anyone else's consideration at this time) to an agent who's website tells me it make take a month to respond. These guys are busy and I'm trying to be the beacon that stands out in an ocean of paper. In the meantime, I have to keep building and working.

Goal #2: Catch up and keep posting the online story of GZ Legends. The first installment promises to be long with lots of action. I need to not only write but do the illustrations. Right now, I'm a one man band. My hands can't do the panels for full comic book style, but I can still provide some entertaining pictures. I promise you, that is coming!

Goal #3: Even more illustrations! I actually have a list of character and alien race illustrations to do so that Galaxy Zento is as complete in its online form as possible.

Goal #4: Short Stories. I've been looking at doing a compilation of short stories. I already have quite a few. One of them even won honorable mention in a writing contest! I don't know if it will hurt me with agents if I do a compilation and put it on say... Amazon? More homework needs to be done here.

Goal #5: Be ready to rip into writing Chessmen 2. I'll still be working on it between all else and I'm 10,000 words in. But if the first book takes off, I gotta be ready to deliver on part 2!

At the end of it, I want to revise the role playing game and develop the card game, but these things are admittedly on the back burner and as time allows. The possibility of graphic novels is always on the table for discussion too!

Remember folks, you are on board with the growth of a new universe. I told you it would keep growing and you can see all the evidence of that on the Facebook Page. If you really like the artwork and would like to support GZ in some way, most art is available for purchase in one way or another at DeviantArt, CafePress, and Zazzle, all under the Galazy Zento name. Feel free to browse and see what all is available and and what prices. Each site carries some things that the others don't. For example, a while back, I bought myself some King Falcon postage stamps from Zazzle. How awesome of a marketing tool is that?

Okay, time to get back to creating!

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Working on the pieces

What I'm working on. Click for full image.

I know it's hard to see the pencil work in the photo. I'm working on what they call, a "mash up". That's where several characters are drawn in a single picture. Most really big mash ups have a hundred or so characters in them. Imagine a poster with every single hero in Marvel or DC standing in one big group. That's a  mash up. I doubt I'll have that many characters in this picture but it's coming along pretty good.

I've had some really great feedback on my last post and I appreciate it. I seems to me that the "run on" sentence is more of a tool than something to be banned. They have to be used properly or they can become awkward. I can understand that. So as we go through to take a look over the story as posted so far, we'll weigh these things.

Truth of the matter is, once all is said and done, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No one can write in a manner that will appeal to everyone. Yet, plenty of authors who mastered the run on sentence, are very well known. JRR Tolkien and Lovecraft are prime examples of the use of run on sentences.

So the run on sentence by itself is not to blame for a work not being "tightened up" after all. I have to look at it from another perspective. Is my work flowing well? Are there awkward spots that need to be "tweaked" a little? Numbers on my blogs are rising and most say they enjoy the story. So I can't be doing all bad, right? Big smile following that sentence!

I have also been asked if I consider the postings of GZ Legends as "chapters". In a way, yes. I prefer to call them "blog chapters". They aren't as long as a chapter from my books as I write them. I aim at a size that's more apt to suit readers of blogs. I can make them longer if people would like, but I thought between 1000 and 2000 words was more digestible. I figured the size easier to take in, low on time consumption, and hopefully enticing for more.

Really though, GZ Legends as you've seen so far, is just the tip of the iceberg. I have hundreds of characters, many alien races, and scores of adventures swirling in my head. So it's back to the writing desk and art tablet  for me!  As I go through a resharing of what's been done so far, I'll be preparing what comes next. I promise it will be extraordinary!

Oh, and in other news, more guest artists may be popping in! I'm still waiting for some news on that myself. Guest artists are welcome!

What's happening with GZ Legends

King Falcon

My aim with the stories has been to put a new part up about every three days. That has worked out pretty well. A long time ago, I asked if there were any folks out there who could critique. No one really stepped forward until recently.

The main suggestion was that I need to tighten up the writing. What is this "tighten up the writing"? I've heard it before. I've sought out answers on the internet. Like many things in writing, not everyone agrees on a solid definition.

Elimination of run on sentences is a  common suggestion. Creating more active writing is another.

Looking at some of the story entries now, you might wonder how I can have a novel going out to agents. Is my novel written the same way? Well, here's the catch. I have been doing this blog without the assistance of any editor but myself. On my novel, The Chessmen, I had the help of an editor who's very good. That editor is none other than my awesome wife, Lisa. Not only is she a published author, but works in radio. She does the fun work of making sure that radio ads fit time slots and get their message across. On top of that, it's her voice in the ads, well most of them.

My problem is that I have a big ol story in my head. I can get it on paper, but miss some things. Even in the re-reading I miss them again. Lisa has been priceless in helping with those things.

I've given Lisa my offline copies of all the GZ Legends work so far. She has agreed to read them over and jot some notes on what she sees. That would be just like she did with Chessmen. I will also be mulling them over from part 1 on up. Once touched up, they will be re-shared.

I would really like to get some of you to jump in and give your thoughts on the improvements. I know I can do this. I know that I can make this work.

For all of you following along, thank you! As always, more to come!

December update

Wow, is this month getting started off with a bang!

First, I'm getting some of my best art yet done and moving on towards my big goal of all those illustrations. My Christmas shopping is very close to done, yay. I just bought a new artpad with 100 large pages for those illustrations and....

I have my first official guest artist, Brian Rogers! Be watching for my posting on him, it's in prep now!

This month I also plan to launch the website! Oh yes! There will be lots of awesome information and activity going on there! I plan to have character bios, artwork, short stories, and a forum too! So I really hope that all the Zento fans and more will join in! I'm pretty excited about this, can you tell?

I've about got the flavor of the query letter ready. Yes, it takes a while and should for a good query letter. You really want the ideas to simmer in your brain for a good two or three weeks before you finish them on paper. That includes writing and rewriting until you think it's good enough. Fortunately, I'm not doing it alone. I have some great support here and proofreading help. I have people to bounce ideas off of. It's really great.

So, I hope you stay tuned in, some great activity coming this month!

A marathon project

I wrote out a list yesterday of all the characters I need to draw. It's not a short list. I've developed over 400 characters and only a portion of them are on the fan page or DeviantART. Put that with all the writing I want to get done and it's a marathon project.

I'm still working the kinks out of the query letter for Chessmen. I look forward to getting it out to be looked at by agents and publishers. Becoming a graphic novel would be awesome too, but I need more artistic help in that area. Most of the time, I'm okay with my own artistic talents, but they are slipping. The kind of work needed for a graphic novel is not the kind I can do.

Speaking of artists, I'm happy to say there has been interest in the guest artist program. It will still take a while, but eventually I think we'll see some cool guest work with articles here and postings to show it off. So off I go with lots of work to do. Back soon with more to show!

Touch ups

I'm almost through the touch ups on the Chessmen novel. I've found a lot of problems with my "it's" and "its" being mixed up. I really don't know why I keep doing that. Good ol grammar program does help by marking it at least.

We have a copy of this years Writer's Market and I need to start going through it and seeing what there is in information on agents and publishers.

There's still a lot of illustrations to do and I'm adding pics over at Deviantart. For the fan page, I've actually caught up with myself and now have to post my custom miniatures to fill in while I do more illustrations.

I have had a couple of artists show interest in the Guest Artist project. It will take time.

The current count in three weeks at Deviant art is 359 page views and I'm on four peoples watch list.

On the Facebook fan page, current likes are at 38. I would really like to see that number climb some more. People are looking and I love that. I've had some very nice correspondence and I love that too. There has been a very nice show of support. It's still a good start, and still early too.

So, it's just a short update today as I catch up on a few things around here. We just got our dog home from heartworm treatment and I had to make a hundred mile trip yesterday to a neurologist. As for that dr trip? There's more testing to do. I had lots of blood drawn to do an "auto-immune" panel. An auto-immune" condition is a disease that causes your immune system to attack itself or other points of your own body. MS is an auto-immune condition, but we still don't know if that's the one we are dealing with.

Looking forward to posting more soon!

Writing and rewriting

It's a constant process. You may get all the way through your writing project and realize some portion needs a total rewrite. Maybe the opening isn't working for you or something just doesn't match up to the character. Either way, rewriting is a necessity in all writers' lives.

Currently, thanks to having a couple people to read and critique, I've discovered that the opening to the Chessmen, just doesn't work. It doesn't have enough of a hook to keep the reader into it. The idea was sound and makes sense, but I've likely just chosen the wrong place for it. So, it's back to the drawing board for the opening. Not too much trouble really. I know what I'm going to do.

What I did, was explain what Chess means to the planet Chyssia. As I've discovered, explanations as openers just don't cut it. Not enough action and not enough of any hint to what's coming in the real story.

What your writing has to grab a reader from page one. The very first sentence can make or break you. Well, maybe more like the first paragraph or page, but you get the point. Of course you have to consider your audience and what they may be looking for. People who want romances aren't necessarily looking for an opener with someone fleeing down a hallway in stark terror (unless that's what the story involves, of course).

That's the bottom line, what is your story and what emotions do you want to convey? How can you stir up your reader and keep them interested? So that's where my rewriting is. I am about to go through my book again to look for derailments and fix the opener. That's the process of writing. You tweak it until you get it right.

Soon, I'm going to go into another series of characters that deserve attention to explain how interaction gave birth to many new characters. I also want to do something interactive with my universe to get people involved. The idea for this came from that other group of characters.

Till then, be sure to visit the fan page for Galaxy Zento! New art posted there daily! And, as always, support autism education and awareness.