Phantom Mission has Begun!

Note: my next book has begun serializing on Patreon! Check it out here!

Hey all, I'm sorry that I've been focused on this one project so much recently, but as you can tell, there is a good reason for it. And we've got an update in time for the weekend! As of Friday, the first chapter of my next book, Phantom Mission, is now out for patrons of the brand new Patreon! It's been a long time coming, but it is here.

What I wanted to do with today's post was describe what exactly Phantom Mission is, what it's about, and why exactly I've decided to release it this way. I'll try to not get too into the weeds about it, after all, reading is part of the fun, but I still need to get across the general intent.

First off, this is that "crazy project" I've been teasing for awhile on the blog and elsewhere. I'm finally able to unveil it to you all today. It started as a lark one day, a decision to make the most "me" story I ever could, tempered with my interests as a kid, teenager, young adult, and even now, and turn it into a book. In other words, I wanted to put out the most high octane weird adventure action tale only I could. Every single trope and cool thing that stuck with me, recontextualized and made into something original and exciting.

And that ended up being the project known as Phantom War.

If you're confused at the title, don't be. Phantom War is the name of the series; Phantom Mission is the name of the first book of what is looking to be three (though the second one has taken on a life of its own, so we'll see what comes next) and its kind of overwhelming me a little as to what this story seems to want to become. That's one of the reasons it took so long to release. That and everything else going on in the real world over the last couple of years.

The story covers a race of beings called Phantoms that landed on Earth half a century ago during the Dark Year when humanity slept, unaware of what occurred or why they were put there. Phantoms seem to be just like normal people only with a weird purplish tint to their skin, but there are rumors that there is more to them than originally thought due to their strange alien-like knowledge. They are practically human as it is.

However, despite nearing 50 years of supposed unity, things still seem to be falling apart at the seams. The fragile peace that has held things together is breaking down. Phantoms are starting to disappear, leaving half-bloods as the most common Phantom you will see, and an indescribable menace is bubbling below the surface of the planet. Were the Phantoms really the saviors of humanity, or are they something more sinister at play?

Phantom War takes place in Miami II, post-reconstruction, on Menace Beach (formerly Miami Beach before the new location was built and expanded over the ruins of the old) where the Outlaw Games are held. This legendary location, once a paradise for wanderers and starry-eyed travelers, is now little more than a slum for the broken down and forgotten, where gangs fight over territory and the old buildings are remnants of a better age that never came. Now, as the world looks to be ending--this Golden Age of unity might truly never arrive at all.

Phantom Mission stars a team of four Mavericks, participants in the Outlaw Games, who are tasked with going to Peace Island to find a mysterious doctor that should already be dead by now. The completely man-made Island, based on the reconstructed Menace Beach, at least initially, was formed into a walled city where the two races were meant to coexist as one. However, decades back a terrorist blew it to hell and everyone inside supposedly died, leaving nothing but an empty oversized city sealed off from the world. And now the four Mavericks are being sent in, unofficially and unarmed, to broker a peace with this supposed doctor.

What will they find on the scrapped island in the middle of the sea? Will it bring the peace they desire, or will they unearth a past that should have stayed dead with the old world?

You'll have to check out Phantom Mission and see for yourself!

But that's not all. For non-patrons, I've recorded myself reading the beginning of Chapter One. It's not the whole thing, but a decent chunk to get an idea of the tone of the tale and where exactly I'm planning to go with it.

This is also to help give you a tease of what is to come:

Please excuse my reading. I'm not built for voice work!

I hope that gives you all you need for now, because this one gets a little wild, and book two even wilder. But we're not there yet so please enjoy this sampling of the new dish I'm preparing for you all. I promise it's going to be worth the wait. Have I steered you wrong yet? After eight years of putting out books, and a decade of Wasteland & Sky, I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. We've got more worlds to visit!

Regardless, if you want to read more, check out the Patreon! I'll also be talking more about Phantom Mission itself in the proper Episode 1 of the podcast which is coming out next week. And in case you missed that bit of news, Episode 0 was released for free on the 4th! Everyone can listen to that one right now on the Patreon!

Okay, that's all for this one, folks. I want to thank you for being patient with me as I get this new project sorted out. I've also had some personal stuff get in the way a little, but I'm still trying to put my best foot forward on this. I've been wanting to share this one with you all for years, and now it's finally happening!

Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time!

You can check out Patron for both my new serialization & podcast!

Letters from the Wasteland is Go!

Hello, all! It's a short update this time. The reason for that is that I have an entire podcast episode to share with you today!

It's also completely free to give you an idea of what the podcast included in the Patreon will be about. So give it a listen and let me know what you think.

You can hear the premiere podcast episode for free on the Patreon here!

I'll also take this time to mention when of the things announced in the podcast regarding the next book, since it pertains to here as well. It's no big secret, but it's coming out this week.

On Friday, July 5th, the first chapter of Phantom Mission, my next work will be put up for serialization on Patreon. Every week after that, for all of July, there will be two chapters a week. Really getting into that summer spirit for a book that is very summer influenced. It will then drop down to one chapter a week until we reach the end. All of this is beginning this week! So you can see why I've been so quiet around here recently.

That's all for today, I hope you had a great fourth of July and I will see you again very soon!

Don't forget that Sidearm & Sorcery Volume 3 is out! Classic action in a modern setting!

Ten Year Celebration!

Did you notice the changed banner above? We've got a lot to celebrate!

In case you haven't noticed the slight renovation to this place, I suppose I should let you in on it. We've reached the tenth anniversary of the Wasteland & Sky blog! Hard to believe it's been so long. We've come a long way since that unassuming initial post a decade ago.

Wasteland & Sky's first post went up on June 13th, 2014, and was originally meant to be a silly little project I wasn't expecting to last very long while I was still learning to write. I'd tried starting blogs before over the years, as anyone older than a Zoomer has at some point, but they'd never gone very far because I simply got bored of them and had little to say in those younger years. But as I was learning to write at the time (and it would take two more years to publish my first proper book, Knights of the End in 2016), I thought it pertinent to try and communicate with any potential readers and putting myself out there.

Over 750 posts and 10 years later and it seems as if I've succeeded in doing that much! Hard to believe it's been a whole decade since I finally made that decision to begin. So much has changed in that short time and yet so much more is still to come.

I wanted to bring this up last month, but there was still preparation to do to get ready for it. For one, I didn't want to do anything right after Star Wanderers had just finished funding and waited specifically until shipping had already begun and was underway. I didn't want to keep to many irons in the fire or confuse readers. I seem to have a bit of a problem doing that, though at least it should be much clearer going forward. But now that Star Wanderers is in the middle of fulfillment I can finally announce the next project.

As of this post, I have published 13 books (14th coming very soon, keep reading on!) and have published over 20 short stories and have no plans to stop anytime soon. All have been written in the years since Wasteland & Sky began. However, despite the amount of material put out, I have just as much more without a proper avenue for release. There just isn't enough places to put what I want to put out.

For instance, short stories only have so many opportunities to be submitted to magazine markets during the year and others have hard word limits for their submission guidelines. At the same time, funds for editing books and commissioning artwork for book covers not only takes much time but also takes funds on a razor tight budget. (I wouldn't have been able to complete Gemini Man without all of you! Thanks for all your assistance!) This leaves a lot of material in a bit of a limbo and a lot of things I just plain can't do without setting it aside for some nebulous future release.

Aside from that, a lot of the mechanisms in the industry for reaching wider audiences are in the process of falling apart. As an example, I've had many writers and behind the scenes personnel tell me that Amazon is burying their books and getting reviews is becoming more and more difficult, despite however many sales they might have. At the same time interaction on the site has been dwindling in number which also hampers the ability to reach new readers. These things that were so straightforward and obvious a decade ago are now very quickly no longer becoming viable. Even OldPub authors are now dipping their toes into NewPub waters. In other words, we need to start thinking outside of the box a little.

So what do we do moving forward?

The above realization is why I've been working on my next project, hinted at in the preview video a while back, called Phantom War. It's a three book series, though it's different than the books I've done to this point--in fact, it's actually a serial in many parts split into three volumes. I'm planning to put it out in chunks to get it out to readers more easily and to help make them the best books they can be. The first book is called Phantom Mission.

This is where I will announce how these books will be brought out: through Patreon! I'm planning on starting with putting out the first chapter of the first book within a week of the Patreon launching. I'm planning on putting out two chapters a week for July then one a week until we hit the end. Then after the first book is done, we will take a break until the second is ready to go and we will commence again until it is done. When the project is ready to go I will go into the story details itself on the blog and talk in greater detail on the Patreon. There will be a lot of writing on the way!

Author Brian Niemeier called this process Neo-Patronage, and I believe it's the best way going forward in the ever-changing market.

But I also want to focus on the fact that my next work isn't the only thing coming to the Patreon. Yes, there's more!

It's also going to be the place where I put out my essays first. I've been spending so much time writing scattershot for awhile that I want to get back on track again, but it's difficult to find the time balance between everything I have to juggle. In order to do focus, I want to make a centralized spot to write towards and an audience who knows exactly what they want from me.

This doesn't mean anything else stops. Posts will still come out here (and the Weekend Lounge posts will continue here as usual), books will still become available on Amazon, and short stories will still show up in magazines and anthologies. This is just a centralized place where the majority of it will be available first far ahead of time.

On top of the above, I am planning on creating a podcast called "Letters from the Wasteland" which will be available exclusively on the Patreon. If you've listened to Cannon Cruisers or my appearances on other podcasts/streams then you probably know what to expect. The difference with this one is that it will feature exclusively myself and be centered around the modern scene of art and entertainment as well as my takes on what works and what doesn't. I will also discuss my own work and advice/opinions on general NewPub activity ala The Pulp Mindset. If patrons desire it we might even answer some viewer questions at the same time. I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile and I think using Patreon to do it is the best way forward.

I also included a free copy of Two Adventures Across Eternity for backers at every level as a welcome gift. So not only are you getting a free book, but a new serialization, a podcast, and posts (though these might slow down during serialization periods--there are only so many writing hours in the day), and you will get the finalized eBooks of anything serialized on the Patreon when the time comes. In my opinion, I think it's a better deal than waiting to pick up one eBook from Amazon every half year or so. Though I suppose I'll have to let the readers decide that.

Of course, this is just the beginning. If anyone has anything they might want to see added to the Patreon itself then please be sure to let me know. Comments are always open. You can find the Patreon page here! *Just keep in mind that the Tip Jar level is only for tips! Aside from a copy of Two Adventures Across Eternity there are no other extras--you want the Maverick tier for that.*

I've now got a Patreon!

So what does all of this mean going forward? It simply means more. I will still be working with publishers like Cirsova, and submitting to anthologies like Sidearm & Sorcery, as well as magazines like Anvil, and I will still put books on Amazon, so nothing really changes for anyone who doesn't want to join up. That work continues on as usual.

However, I'd much prefer having a centralized place where I can produce as much as I can, so it is most definitely a good option for those who want more everything of what I do. I'm also eager to try a new challenge, something that will give me an opportunity to spread my wings and soar new skies. And anyone who backs will be a part of it--they won't even need to go to Amazon to get the eBooks (at least the ones I publish on my own without any publisher involvement.) Everyone wins. This is why I believe it's the best course of action going forward.

I'd also like to say that none of it would be possible without any of you. Back when I started Wasteland & Sky I had no idea what I was doing. I hoped I might get someone reading eventually but I never expected much to happen, so I just focused on doing whatever I could. The fact that it lasted this long--easily the longest lasting project I've ever indulged in online, never mind the writing world, has been incredible to think about.

And we're going to keep moving forward with plenty of projects on the horizon. Thank you for helping me make a whole decade on the blog. Here's hoping for another decade ahead! God willing, we'll go far.

You can join the brand new Patreon here!

*For Star Wanderers backers, I have to remind you to fill out your surveys so Cirsova can get your address to send it to you. The eBooks are already out, next comes shipping! You'll be getting your books very soon!*

Twelve Tales of two-fisted adventure through the darkness of modernity!