The first is that David V. Stewart's NewPub Talk returned! This is a series on his YouTube channel where he discusses the state of art and entertainment with authors in the NewPub sphere. He started again last week with Brian Niemeier in the above episode.
In case you are unaware, the two of them, as well as myself, put out a FREE book on Generation Y this year. They discuss it in the episode and you can find it here! David also has more news on the Gen Y topic in the show, so be sure to tune in!
In his second episode he continued the series with Alexander Palacio. You definitely will want to catch these episodes. David makes them very fun and informative for those into storytelling and the new era of art itself.
In other news, Alexander Hellene has also started a Kickstarter campaign for the third book in his Swordbringer sword and planet trilogy, The Final Home!
For those unaware, he began with The Last Ancestor in 2019, and continued with The Second Sojourn in 2020, and now to get the final entry out he has decided to test out the crowdfunding waters. Starting with a third book might be daunting, but he offers tiers to newcomers who wish to purchase the entire trilogy in one go! That is definitely a good move for newer readers.
He lists out where the funds will mostly go (unsurprisingly, cover art and editing which are always the most expensive parts) which you can find on the campaign page itself. If you wish to know about the project itself, then read the description below.
Exciting Sword-and-Planet Fiction!
My name is Alexander Hellene, and I'm a writer. My only goals are to entertain you and make you think. Along with the rest of the PulpRev indie writer scene, I'm on a mission to bring back the fun and adventure of thrilling stories of yore for modern audiences, using the past to create something new . . . something timeless . . . something like The Swordbringer.
I've long been a fan of epic fantasy and sci-fi by authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Frank Herbert, and Dan Simmons. But I also have a love of authors whose works have too long been forgotten or maligned, titans of the pulp era like Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A.E. van Vogt, H. Beam Piper, and Jack Vance.
These writers had no limits, no rules. They created new worlds and characters ready to throw themselves into thrilling adventures on them. Genre mash-ups were common because there were no genres. Everything was fair game with adventure being the featured item on the menu.
That's the kind of writing I love to read, and that's the kind of writing I want to create.
The Swordbringer is my love letter to this forward-moving spirit, an homage to the sci-fi and fantasy tales that fire my imagination combined with other influences ranging from the action/adventure cartoons of my youth like Thundercats and Masters of the Universe and retro videogames like The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy.
I took all of these things, threw them together, and added what the best books of all eras do, whether they be by Burroughs, Vance, and Howard; Herbert, Tolkien, or Simmons; Dostoevsky, Homer, Melville, or Cervantes; and that is explore big ideas.
And what's a bigger deal than faith and the meaning of it all? In other words, how would the religious respond to finding intelligent life on other planets?
The Swordbringer is my attempt to explore this question, but with swordfights, freaky monsters, and intrigue on an alien planet.
The Swordbringer is, at heart, a tale of friendship between two very different young men: human teenager Garrett Nestor and Ghryxa, a member of the planet Yxakh's dominant species, the dog-like Growlers.
As for the story itself:
In the near future, the last remnants of Christendom flee Earth after its hostile takeover by the Global Union, whose ambition to consolidate power led them to exterminate all world religions. Yxakh was the first inhabitable planet, but to the faithful's misfortune, their ships landed in Kharvalar, land of a hostile, warlike race of Growlers who do not tolerate outsiders or their strange ways.
Book I, The Last Ancestor, focused on Garrett and Ghryxa's friendship and coming of age, and how the two young men helped stave off a resumption of the war that nearly destroyed the humans eight years prior.
Book II, The Second Sojourn, detailed Garrett, Ghryxa, and the rest of the colonists' finding safe harbor in the seaside city of Pysh. However, this peace was broken when a Global Union expeditionary force tracked them to Yxakh, hellbent on recovering a secret the humans did not know had been smuggled off of Earth in their ships.
Book III, The Final Home, chronicles the Global Union's final attempt to recover the stolen secret of immortality, with the only thing standing between the human race and total enslavement being Garrett, Ghryxa, and a handful of allies on a desperate mission into the heart of enemy territory.
I want to make fiction that explores themes of friendship, faith, and meaning . . . and I want YOUR help!
Read the campaign for yourself, and back it, here!
I should also give you hearty welcome to October! The year is finally almost to the finish line and we are about to hit the highway of holiday seasons just around the bend. Nonetheless, you made it this far, and there's only a bit more to go. Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you again soon enough. It is time to really get cracking on putting stuff out for you to read!
2022 might almost be done, but NewPub isn't. As you can tell from the videos above, there is still much more to go. We hope to see you on the journey going forward!
Also, a reminder that the most valuable resource on the decline and death of genre storytelling is out right now! Be sure to leave a review and let readers know the truth of what happened back in the day! It's only through spreading the truth that it can be known.
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