Heroes Return!

Find it Here!

Ever since publisher Silver Empire unfortunately closed its doors, several very good projects from very talented writers sort of got waylaid and lost in the shuffle. One of these is the shared Heroes Unleashed line of books.

For those unaware, Heroes Unleashed was a planned universe centering around superheroes that focused on books where each individual hero shared their own tale. Yours truly wrote a trilogy around a pair known as the Gemini Man, which I will get around to addressing at the end of this post. First, I want to talk about another series that is currently making its comeback through crowdfunding as we speak. That would be Paula Richey's Penance.

Despite Heroes Unleashed ostensibly being about "Superheroes" every series was very different from the other, which a much different focus. Espionage, military-style action, interdimensional madness, and high adventure, were just some of the sampling of what the tragically cut short line offered. We tended to not really write "cape" stories but modern pulp adventures in a world where powers existed. Once such weirdness was Penance, the story of a henchwoman and . . . aliens? Yes, it is as bizarre as you might expect.

Now she is relaunching the series, starting with reprinting the first book. Obviously, since the authors involved no longer have publisher backing, we require your help, the readers, to helps us get it off the ground and running. Paula Richey has in fact done a Kickstarter for just this. Want to know more about Heroes Unleashed? This is a very good place to jump in.

You can find the description here:

Penance Copper won't be a tool for evil any longer!

For as long as she can remember, Penance has belonged to Acid, a criminal boss with his hands in everything from superpower-enhancing drugs to human trafficking. She's tried to escape before, but her ability to generate electrical frequencies with just a thought make her too valuable as an electronic lockpicker to let go. Now, she's gotten strong enough that there's a new use for her powers - as an assassin.

Penance doesn't want to be a murderer. But when she breaks away from Acid and tries to join up with the heroes she had been sent to target, she becomes embroiled in an intergalactic conflict.

Meanwhile...

Kail ip ibak, Supply Officer for the Emperor of Hylinek, has enough problems trying to overcome his low birth status and instill discipline in his newly assigned troop. His job is to make sure the upcoming invasion force has support and supplies to subjugate and civilize Earth. He had a great plan to get those supplies, until this upstart alien female stood in his way and challenged him in front of everyone. As he learns more about Penance Copper and her planet, however, he begins to wonder if he's really on the right side.

Here is why the Kickstarter is necessary to help get this project off the ground:

Around the beginning of this year, I discovered that if getting published was tough, staying published could be twice as difficult. The news of my publisher's closure hit me in the middle of a string of other, equally overwhelming events both professional and personal. It's a long story, but the result is that I've spent this year learning how to take over previously outsourced tasks and expenses for both Penance and my comic series SoulBound, as well as unrelated-to-publishing things such as how to file an appeal with an insurance company and a whole lot of other things I never expected to need to know.

So, Penance was put on the back burner.

Now, it's time to dust myself off and get back on the horse. Publishing is more accessible now than ever, but it's still a pricy endeavor. I've already poured my personal savings into getting everything ready, and I'm still a tad short of being able to print copies. I didn't want to run a Kickstarter without offering something new for my readers, but I was elbows-deep in a children's book commission on the art side and somewhat burnt out on the writing side. (Red tape will do that to you.)

Now that I'm done with the commission and the insurance paperwork and mentally adjusted somewhat to the other stuff, I'm ready to give Penance everything I wanted it to have from the beginning. Bit by bit, I have acquired the ISBNs, the software, and the contacts to publish Penance and my next books and comics entirely through my little studio. Why not cram in everything I, as a reader and artist, love?

She is working on getting print, audio and illustrated versions out there for readers. Be sure to check it out and see what interests you. She also needs the funs to help produce the complete trilogy she has in mind, so be sure to look over all the tiers and stretch goals.

Once again, you can back the Penance Copper campaign here!

As for me, older readers might be wondering where Gemini Man as, and newer readers might not even know what that is, so let me clarify.

Gemini Man was my entry in Heroes Unleashed. I wrote three books a few years ago before the pandemic even started, and two were completed, one was published, and one was almost out before Silver Empire shut down. The third I only recently got the edits back for and still need to go through it myself to finish. In other words, I'm basically sitting on three completed (more or less) books at this point.

The thing is, I'm just one author with limited resources and time. The reason I agreed to do Heroes Unleashed originally was because things like the editing, cover art, and promotion, could be done while others while I could simultaneously put out more work. Unfortunately, it clearly didn't work out that way.

Gemini Man as it stands is basically a complete story as far as the main characters go. the first three books tell their story. However, that doesn't close off the entire shebang. In order to do that, I plan on combining all my ideas for one final book that I will work on after re-releasing the trilogy in full. But I can't do it alone.

So next year I will most likely be running a crowdfund of my own for the trilogy. I'm still figuring out what to do--this sort of thing is new to me and I'm not a very number-minded person. Nonetheless, it will probably involve an omnibus of the original three, and all funding will go towards a fresh cover and editing for the (big) final book. It won't be for some time--I still have other projects and obligations to work out, but I think I've let down readers of the original book for far too long. I apologize. You will get to read more! I promise!

Anyway, that is all for today and this special post. Heroes Unleashed is very much still alive, just in a different form. Don't count us out yet!

Enjoy the controversial work that tells the truth about the genre wars of the 20th century!