tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45205284867280080712024-03-17T18:18:09.839-04:00Wasteland And SkyThis is a place where writer and author JD Cowan discusses stories and entertainment as well as his own works.JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.comBlogger730125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-47290855286903628762024-03-16T16:53:00.003-04:002024-03-16T16:58:54.355-04:00Weekend Lounge ~ Preservation Problems<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T3ovUB-OavE" width="320" youtube-src-id="T3ovUB-OavE"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend!</div><div><br /></div><div>Short one today, and it's mainly a warning for all you collectors out there. The above video centers on a problem in regards to preservation. We're dealing with a very real problem these days known as disc rot, and it's more common than you might think.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much like in the CD world, there are specific eras and companies which cheaped out on manufacturing which led to whole runs of discs simply not being able to withstand the passage of time. So if you've been collecting since the format started, or maybe you got your start with old used discs, it would be very smart to check them and see if they are holding up.</div><div><br /></div><div>This disc rot issue also heavily hit a particular distributor in a specific era. If you have any DVDs made by Warner Bros. between the years of 2006 and 2009, I would suggest checking your discs ASAP and ripping them for yourself as soon as possible, because they are at the most risk for rot.</div><div><br /></div><div>The above video talks about the issue in detail, but the point is that a lot of what we were sold on in regards to preservation wasn't true. So if you are a collector, you need to be aware of the fact that what your were sold as "collector" items may in fact be nothing of the sort.</div><div><br /></div><div>Retroblasting also sources another channel as to where he was first alerted to the issue, which is linked here:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ufALjleweoA" width="320" youtube-src-id="ufALjleweoA"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><br /><div>Said channel also compiled a google doc of discs with known issues, so check them out <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CyLGHyuhA2mfhPr4Bkyj8RAapl_0LTmN/edit" target="_blank">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just remember that no matter what happens, keeping the past alive is important. Keep yourself up to date on how things you were told might not always be so. A lot of the people and institutions we were told to trust back in the day simply weren't quite as trustworthy or competent as we thought. So it's up to us to make sure to keep the flame alive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back around the time streaming first took off, for instance, many physical collectors and online services simply gave up the ghost thinking that streaming meant everything would be preserved forever. However, as a result things that were easy to find as recent as the mid-2010s have now nearly fallen to obscurity, and streaming programs are quickly becoming some of the most common forms of lost media. In other words, we're going to have to do it ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've said before that despite my generation's faults, the one thing we are very capable of, and most suited to, doing is preserving things that which everyone else has taken for granted over the decades. For whatever reason, in an age where preservation should be more possible and easier than ever, the opposite is occurring, and we need to get on that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep an eye on the things you were given, the reminders of a past that might otherwise be lost, and keep them safe. Who knows how important they might be in the future? There is no way to know now, but that could very easily change.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for this week, and I will see you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank">Two stories of high adventure and crazy action for $0.99!</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYiuamJ7spE6j_8SZavxcgec_OySLBi0bF4gHG16dVq-R8Jz-2YjH1FfctX6ta08BGbFrQJyIpBgb7koNnUYZA-bFsrPsjkro8lU1XDjjoM-EMOjnnnhNvvBcGA6wFaJbgD3ZU94Nh-vUH_L2jM83rTKK3NmZ7eqi0BWYkEScLVoZrYL4bRsSIpEQe11f/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-84428243240824818542024-03-09T14:22:00.002-05:002024-03-09T14:22:37.227-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ Attack of the Geeks!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U1NKSkCofjQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="U1NKSkCofjQ"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend! Today we're going back to the past, but not too far back. This time we're not even going back to the 20th century.</div><div><br /></div><div>Do you remember television? If so, you're probably old. It's fairly irrelevant as a medium now, but back in the 20th century, it was king. However, much like cinema, it's currently on the way out as popular entertainment, relegated to the history books.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, I digress. Let us put ourselves back in a time when it mattered.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2002, a TV network called G4 launched into the world, and it ended up shaping the tastes of a lot of Millennials who grew up with it. It was a cable network focused on video games, at least at first, before becoming the first geek culture hub on television. But what you don't know is a lot of the behind the scenes weirdness involved with the network's creation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back in the early '00s, a channel called TechTV was one of the biggest cable networks for tech nerds. This was back when TV was so big there were niche channels for just about anything. TechTV flourished, for a time, finding its own audience. That is, until it was merged with the upstart network G4 after being bought by Comcast into being one of the first Geek Culture network, in 2004. To this day, the TechTV merger is still looked upon as a sore point for a lot of tech bros from back then, and it, in a way, was a harbinger for wider things in the culture to come. Everything would be pounded into the same mud slick or disposable entertainment.</div><div><br /></div><div>But this is about G4 itself, and not the controversial merger, so lets keep it on topic.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you were a young Millennial gamer, you probably have a lot of fond memories of the network, if you were a computer nerd or an older Gen Y/X gamer, you probably hated it. Especially since it influenced such programs as <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> and the pop cult that formed around it as the 2000s wore on. That was a strange period of television history whose reverberations are still being felt today, well over a decade after G4 ended.</div><div><br /></div><div>That means this is a topic well worth exploring and looking into. Thankfully, someone actually has done this, and recently.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last year, Chris Gore, one of the people who were involved in the original cable network released an extensive documentary about G4, covering its beginnings in 2002 up until its end in 2012. by mainly focusing on its flagship series, <i>Attack of the Show</i>. This documentary is also interesting from the perspective that G4 itself represents the end of television itself as it is more or less the last original cable network to launch to any sort of success. In essence, it works as both a snapshot of a time and place, and the story of how an entire era of mass media ended.</div><div><br /></div><div>It also presents a timeline of events in a specific era in pop culture from its beginnings to its endings by the time the network was shuttered. Even just starting with the last remnants of '90s style extreme design and font in its beginnings that slowly fell away to the big and bold '00s style of "edge" and degeneracy that was popular at the time, it represents the shift in tone very well. It's no wonder so many Millennials fondly remember the network--it encapsulates what the decade was like for those around at the time who lived through it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I do recommend watching the above documentary if you are curious about what it was like back then, even if the time period was not your favorite. It shows exactly what people were interested in at the time and what exactly they wanted out of entertainment and their products. You can't look at G4 and not just see the 2000s in every facet of its existence. This is also why the network relaunch was always doomed to fail, because it was built around personalities that hated what the network was built on and the people who made it while forgetting that times have changed and the social climate is much different, and worse. Many such cases, unfortunately.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even G4 itself never really recovered from <i>Attack of the Show</i> losing the last of their two original hosts in 2012, just before the network ended, a signal that the hangover that was the 2000s was really over and the 2010s were just ahead.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's just no going back. That era is over.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HnNo2UijPEak9qF97NWGnMRo0zeJajHHwgWWiN2Vqj6pVNNqoJBjUOLTLVNhKV1KoqtcMl6PlyPzISW73fqDKerX1nuaCpMfZybqQ6atxEv6N_PmIDQlRt8Cm2fKwGgprrnayuEtCVlQti-B3FPJSubAsDztif3MTyqqUM_-CctpmEdf10Ji0UPVim-C/s1074/Untitled.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1074" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HnNo2UijPEak9qF97NWGnMRo0zeJajHHwgWWiN2Vqj6pVNNqoJBjUOLTLVNhKV1KoqtcMl6PlyPzISW73fqDKerX1nuaCpMfZybqQ6atxEv6N_PmIDQlRt8Cm2fKwGgprrnayuEtCVlQti-B3FPJSubAsDztif3MTyqqUM_-CctpmEdf10Ji0UPVim-C/w640-h387/Untitled.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><i><blockquote>"G4 is to TV what the MCU is to movies." ~ Quote from the documentary</blockquote></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>As for my opinion on the network . . . it wasn't for me. I've never really liked corporate geek identity, and have always been puzzled by people who desire to live clichés others give to them. I hated that infamous 2010 Kevin Butler speech at E3 where he listed a bunch of stereotypes and declared this is what gamers were to thunderous applause. I loathed Big Bang Theory and its checkbox geekery, and I detest the idea of products and brand as a personality that was really embraced during that time period and fully flowered into the lifestyle brands of the 2010s.</div><div><br /></div><div>All around, just a bad era culturally and socially, and it led to an even worse one in the decade after.</div><div><br /></div><div>The documentary even tries to bring up the old canard that only geeks and nerds read comic books, played video games, and engaged in tabletop games back in the day, something that is a <b>HEAVY</b> revisionism of what it was actually like back then for those like me who lived through it. Everyone in my schoolyard, for instance, played a collected <i>Magic: The Gathering</i> and every single person in my class played video games. This was <b>BEFORE</b> the 2000s, and I keep being told that liking this stuff was some sort of taboo back then. This revisionism to make "geeks" a separate cohort that were bullied for the products they consumed is simply not the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>What this sort of talk does is foster an ingroup outgroup dynamic based on half-truths that lead others to think they have to behave a certain way to be accepted into a club. This leads to today when you can look at any Geek Culture podcast or stream and be amazed that not only does everyone look and dress the same but they all have their apartments/rooms decorated in the exact same ways while they spout the exact same opinions on everything else.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>G4 didn't cause this, to be fair, but it was the starting point for where a lot of this weird lifestyle brand attitude showed its early form.</div><div><br /></div><div>It turned a hobby into an identity.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not how it was back in the 20th century.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fact of the matter is there were only two weird kids in my class growing up: one who awkwardly brought up wrestling all the time and another one who was an antisocial thug. The first was not weird because he liked wrestling, but because he had bizarre thought patterns no one understood. He was not hated or bullied over it, either. The second was a weirdo because he attended political protests and threw Molotov cocktails at government buildings. That dude was also a fedora and seethed to himself a lot. Needless to say, the second one was the only one the other kids outright disliked. Neither were considered odd because of corporate products they consumed, because even those people had an identity beyond entertainment media.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had a guy in our class that installed emulators on the school computers and once printed out porn of a video game character and even he wasn't the target of bullying. Believe it or not, the world wasn't such a simplistic place where your interests defined your identify back then. It was how you treated other people and conducted yourself in public. <i>Revenge of the Nerds</i> is a deranged revenge fantasy of people who probably should have been stuffed into lockers. Even then, however, watching popular movies didn't make you part of a social class.</div><div><br /></div><div>You are never going to convince me that the giant merchandizing blockbusters of <i>Star Wars</i> up to <i>The Matrix</i> were not enjoyed by normal people, because they were. <i>Super Mario Bros. 3</i> was a multimillion seller and the NES one of the highest selling systems of all time--ever kid and teenager played them or knew what they were. <i>X-Men</i> comics used to sell around one million per issue and I knew a lot of people who read them. All of this stuff was normal. You were not weird for engaging in this stuff. Again, this was all before the 2000s before people were bringing Death Notes to class and Naruto-running in the hall in their porn hoodies. Take a guess as to what was actually different about the times. Hint: it was not the entertainment itself but the attitude behind those consuming it.</div><div><br /></div><div>All that happened is that the brand overtook identity and consumed social interaction. It was no longer about things you like, but about things you obsess over to fill a spiritual vacuum in a way of putting Us Vs. Them.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that is really what happened in the 2000s. All forms of real identity fell away and became little more than a question of what products you like, which then folded over into other groups trying to inject their poisonous new morality systems into this climate to lazily change the world through classroom theories made by people with no authority over anyone. Hence, the G4 network relaunch's failure. That era was transitional, to a time before the poison had set in, and there is no going back to a time before the audience had been tampered with.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 2000s time period felt like a generation of people who gave up on any sense of identity or ambition beyond the products they consumed. This lead to a lack of perspective and a way for those in charge to have a way to press down on new morality systems to those who let their old beliefs fall away. Without any immune system, it was a perfect chance to revamp these people into what they wanted. Even with the network itself you can see it get strangled with more and more restrictions as time went on, eventually leading to the point that there was no way to retain its original identity. If you want to talk about the problems for or against gatekeeping, it's been an issue for a long time.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, <i>Attack of the Doc!</i> is an important documentary to watch if you want an idea of what it was generally like back then, or at the very least what a certain generation grew up with in their mass media. It might help understand exactly why the pop cult has such a hard grip on them today in a way older generations do not seen to quite be affected. And I would assume, any younger viewer might find the entire thing straight up bizarre. After all, television has never been relevant in their lifetimes, so seeing how it affected a whole generation of people might be difficult to process.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's just it. Television is over, and its affect from the Boomers up to the Millennials is pretty well fading. It's difficult to describe just how it has changed since the 2000s.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much like when we talked about <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/11/weekend-lounge-video-revolution.html" target="_blank">Nickelodeon</a> and the like, there was a period of time that affected a lot of young people, one that is no longer around and will never return, and should be understood as such. At this point, the remnants of pop culture are more or less antiques of an old civilization that is currently being swept away by progress and the winds of change.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is up to us to preserve what works and discard what doesn't, and now is the best time to do just that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a good weekend and I'll see you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Get yourself some high-octane adventure for a mere $0.99!</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5kQVZdNiQqEFFQCuBSmcCGBQCcmE9lpTJeWJq9yMICJB2c5Peag3kvesKpktCN6QuzUU2eNPBaK1WKvSC25CP5IwGq_EPQr8PM91LTm_ku4rmurEQ5PHBiRrQowaVzh7wExU_oOBk8KZUV3swQ-qcM86vmpDXT8XUJi8C16wQhH7ihjFp-KvIqZvC8e2/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-68730446021847749502024-03-02T13:58:00.002-05:002024-03-02T13:58:41.552-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ Mac Tonight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jp35RSGt_Dg" width="320" youtube-src-id="Jp35RSGt_Dg"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend! I am back for a small post.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, I wanted to share with you what is actually one of my favorite videos on YouTube, this one made by EmpLemon, about the figure of Mac, the old McDonalds mascot. This is a story of twists and turns you might (or might not) expect, but what fascinates me about it is how it epitomizes a lot of what was going on in the culture at the time the inspiration for the character was created all the way up until the modern day turn, showing how much has actually changed since he was first conceived.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, if you're young enough, you might be most familiar with Mac's status as a meme, but he oddly enough didn't get there by chance or complete randomness. There is actually a bit more to it than that, one you might not have considered. It was a painstaking process of cultural shifts and the rise of the internet that, also, seems to highlight a lot of what people think of themselves and how it reflects into the landscape they create for others.</div><div><br /></div><div>What you are left with is a tail of how creations not only go beyond their original makers intent, but are actually held onto by audiences how push them forward into their next stage of being, carrying them forward to a future no one expects from the outset.</div><div><br /></div><div>You could cynically shake this all off, it's only a silly commercial mascot hijacked by edgy anons, who cares? But that's part of the interesting aspect in all this. How that change came about is through a series of coincidences that not only shows that God has a sense of humor but also the way we use art in its many different forms to express what truly resonates on a level we might not even think about. If anything, this character is another obvious proof that art is truly communication, and not always in the ways we might expect when we start the creation process.</div><div><br /></div><div>The whole story gets wilder as it goes, because that's how culture was throughout the 20th century--always trying to go bigger and top itself and what it did before. There was nowhere to go but up, as anyone who lived before Cultural Ground Zero will tell you, until it all (not-so-suddenly) came crashing down.</div><div><br /></div><div>What you are looking at is just one of many examples of what the 20th century was and what it valued filtered through one mascot character that never even had a concrete direction through his many incarnations.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's what makes how it all comes together so very fascinating.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, I highly recommend this video, especially for a relaxing weekend watch. Watch how a simple one-note character carved out of a parody of a satire ended up becoming a pop culture hero then became subverted for commercial gains only to end up a goof on all that caused him to exist in the first place before settling in on a vision of a past long since gone. It really does epitomize the past century of pop culture trends exceedingly well--and it's all done through one single character that you've probably never given a second thought to.</div><div><br /></div><div>It leads me to wonder what exactly is coming next up the pipeline, especially now that Mac has more or less settled back in to his original edgy form again. Are we truly about to enter a new era divorced from this interminable one, or is he about to make yet another shift into something even more wild and dangerous than he has before? I suppose we will find out sooner than later. Considering all the wild stuff the '20s has been through so far, anything is possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, enjoy the video and your weekend, and I will see you again next time. March is finally here and spring is just around the bend. New experiences and changes are definitely on the way.</div><div><br /></div><div>The seasons of new starts is just ahead of us. One has to wonder if something like what happened to Mac going to happen again.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll just have to wait and see.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Don't forget two adventures of derring do and mighty heroes across time and space! It's still only $0.99!</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlMo-afOAWdGpxih6K73-78nixtyQJCYTDLk2RqAo7X59_7ThyphenhyphenL7ftuZ1qfHIukJK1MxZUwYVzy4XrtOCuBa3aGI1TCOxa0Qn5QYOcWsXTCjjtSAwIETum1aquQDyJKACYU2tL_sVUAfI1Vi2T9FS3woGCjCyFI7yQ6u3Xu3xE9dkSgmDnlOm3_stzuGG/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-49707510557923535202024-02-24T13:21:00.002-05:002024-02-24T13:21:36.549-05:00Small Update for 2024<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXesggVe1RX0QmZLBSUQZmiHOCOGSqJ9nDsD_aPdeUZnevTcIDMWAPcIGUZEUppGBoLIYHD1kRnmJj-i_D2KV2tik-rcSt3Cg0L3cWrFfywcGhQe_MRgRXO9CfLukWB1aX28JxVQJ0JeUF1p093taej8nIuwnSR5Lm_vLOjaZmUOqjQc5Z7hb3ivQIuWyc/s918/And%20Between%20the%20Wasteland%20and%20Sky%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="918" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXesggVe1RX0QmZLBSUQZmiHOCOGSqJ9nDsD_aPdeUZnevTcIDMWAPcIGUZEUppGBoLIYHD1kRnmJj-i_D2KV2tik-rcSt3Cg0L3cWrFfywcGhQe_MRgRXO9CfLukWB1aX28JxVQJ0JeUF1p093taej8nIuwnSR5Lm_vLOjaZmUOqjQc5Z7hb3ivQIuWyc/w400-h305/And%20Between%20the%20Wasteland%20and%20Sky%202.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>This isn't going to be much of a post, you can read the one from a few days ago for that, but just for a quick update on current events.<div><br /></div><div>You might have noticed posting has been a bit light this month. That will have to continue a bit for the foreseeable future. There are several reasons for that.<br /><div><br /></div><div>I'm currently working on a few writing projects at the same time and also trying to work through Lent. As a consequence, posts around here will be very light for awhile. That said, I'll still put out a few Weekend Lounge posts in the weeks ahead, but that will most likely be all. I want to focus more on getting things done in both a physical and spiritual sense in the time ahead.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, after this I am considering starting a Patreon of some sort purely for writing projects and updates for readers, including possibly having short audio updates and episodes much like I do for Cannon Cruisers. I am toying with the idea of making my next book a serialization, but am still deciding on just how to do that. </div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, I also want to take this time to think that out as well. I want to be sure to give readers as much as I can in a way they can feel most comfortable getting it. Amazon is quickly looking like it won't be enough, especially with how broken the algorithm has gotten, so looking ahead and in new direction seems important in order to continue on.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a reminder, my most recent release is available for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hP3Z18a_hTY0lGQqr3K4D4eAzJ5zhrZpPdBnbjXhh0uy5LF6YfB9DeM-ORfNwlavXYnYfgNyEFppmhE_4r-B46kRl-cwlHiPeA_v_H3eFYqPFEHc6rRqV2YBpQCryXhjqYFrYJeJnnm3ztyKfRLSmetTj94wXRY0bB1jhEsYFkmyCS9AdAPHcVObBzLlrQQ9UTa79J8OybO1ahYkU4swRSUGuaRaUqkXlRaRv_fUJpU.h3kJFY8ytxTMt486CRspbI7yOYN1CFl-bpPbTqMTENY&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">$0.99 on Amazon</a> as well as <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">a Lulu-exclusive pocket paperback edition</a>. It's wild to think about, but that ended up being my 12th overall book release. Of course, God willing, it will not be the last. There is more on the way.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzuB3HEU5xl0DcyE5wxdhMY8fe7ixs7EOfcds0SVMmRQqczKF7TFeOOXKswHdlx-uTm9w6hf_ugUBEsC3URXqEKS-BH_oarB6u6YKXp7c3T3Q3cOP3RBdQOjk4KHpjsEn8YIdopj-QT_81yAfVKLLx-qHIHVlH4ldCZjE46hu3gQbeSLpk_S6GDWkr1Dp/s3508/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="2480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzuB3HEU5xl0DcyE5wxdhMY8fe7ixs7EOfcds0SVMmRQqczKF7TFeOOXKswHdlx-uTm9w6hf_ugUBEsC3URXqEKS-BH_oarB6u6YKXp7c3T3Q3cOP3RBdQOjk4KHpjsEn8YIdopj-QT_81yAfVKLLx-qHIHVlH4ldCZjE46hu3gQbeSLpk_S6GDWkr1Dp/w283-h400/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" width="283" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of Cannon Cruisers, we just recently put up <a href="https://cannoncruisers.blogspot.com/2024/02/top-cannon-lists.html" target="_blank">our lists of favorite Cannon movies</a> after we put up <a href="https://cannoncruisers.blogspot.com/2024/02/episode-170-cannon-countdown-top-100.html" target="_blank">our 300th episode and big finale</a>. But that's not all for Cannon Cruisers. There will be an update on the usual day tomorrow about our future plans and what we hope to be doing next. Long story short, it's not over, but it won't be the same podcast you remember. Things will be a little different, but we enjoy the podcast too much to do <i>too much</i> tinkering. It's not quite over yet!</div><div><br /></div><div>It's also bizarre to think about, but 2024 is also the 10th anniversary of Wasteland & Sky, by far the longest digital footprint I've ever left online, and it is weird too think about. I'm not quite sure what I'll do for said anniversary, but it's nice to have been able to make it this far. Here's hoping to many more ahead, assuming the internet doesn't die in the near future. Maybe I should collect some posts in an eBook or the like? Something to think about. I've done a lot here, much more than I ever expected I would, so I do have a soft spot for this place. I'll also be here until I <i>can't</i> be here anymore, if that makes any sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, part of the reason for this entire update at all is due to you, the reader. If it wasn't for your support I wouldn't be able to do this at all and it still blows me away that anyone is reading at all. So it stands to reason that if you have any comments or suggestions that you should send them my way. Both the internet and the industry have changed so much over the last decade that deciding what to do next is going to take some time. As I've said, the '20s is the decade of change, so it's time to try to adapt to that in the best way I can. I want to be sure to keep moving forward in new and interesting ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, that's all for today. Not a big post or update on how things are going, but a bit of a teaser on possibilities for the road ahead. As always, feel free to send your comments and I'll try to get back ASAP. Otherwise, it's time to get back to the mines, both words and other.</div><div><br /></div></div><div>Have a good rest of February and I'll see you in March!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" target="_blank"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" target="_blank">There are only a few days left of Cirsova's Kickstarter of a this wild classic-style adventure story of the dead and the living! Back it for both a cool book and helping to fund the best short story magazine currently running!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="680" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7puOEhGJN40IsmafX34MWdZk0JgZSfHgjKDC_chSYSq-KurCi7ntlobjOTxGiEIcXnlkgy4cU_ZfAAwq9RZf6d426EuEiSCRdOyjeoCJCvGDh1dmrzeAep1kFY_ESZaJUO2nclSqvDS5mfGn0lfCUyfzhgEoH6pSDhyphenhyphenp4gRd8rbGC5RF-P3jaL6CbGNn/w640-h360/m9Qdhhiq.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-85336798745168796322024-02-22T14:21:00.003-05:002024-02-22T14:21:46.779-05:00Generations of Fakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJg38BywIXKTAo7MQTsQA04GXvnqi6SQ2Zfn20eHn2I5UBlMDRgeGNoarBbuEF9lc3Mq3RhP29OO5qewOhOlei5jhTCZvUGpqmYGJmvHnl0JIu7jEkKOVsP7XwMyXIldt8LeAahtJXyK8ZOPizlKoPAjN46Md5ogAGF1dvMQ9laWsetziLxh_QSnIrE7e/s1024/deadmall1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1024" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJg38BywIXKTAo7MQTsQA04GXvnqi6SQ2Zfn20eHn2I5UBlMDRgeGNoarBbuEF9lc3Mq3RhP29OO5qewOhOlei5jhTCZvUGpqmYGJmvHnl0JIu7jEkKOVsP7XwMyXIldt8LeAahtJXyK8ZOPizlKoPAjN46Md5ogAGF1dvMQ9laWsetziLxh_QSnIrE7e/w400-h316/deadmall1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes it's hard to believe the mid-90s was thirty years ago. It definitely doesn't feel like it's been that long, and in the grand scheme of things I suppose it hasn't. Nonetheless, it is an entire lifetime away from the world in 2024.</div><div><br /></div><div>This year has been a very bizarre one so far. I've noticed a trend with the "younger" generations, particularly as half of Gen X has now reached their 50s, half of Gen Y has now reached their 40s, half of Millennials have reached their 30s, and half of Zoomers have reached their 20s. That pattern being either internal implosion, or a tightening of grit and effort to move beyond the failed past and build something new. It's one or the other, not much in the way of variety.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ones that have imploded the worst, I've found, are the ones still clinging to Geek Culture as their only real identity and questioning why that emptiness rules inside of them. The hole that only the Boomers seemingly could ignore, refuses to be filled by materialism.</div><div><br /></div><div>The overwhelming suicide and depression rates make sense in this framework, but that's not really what I wanted to touch on today. The fact of the matter is that we are halfway through the '20s now, and the mood of the decade is starting to take shape and become its own thing. The defeatism of the '10s and the malaise of the '00s are making way for an era of change and cautious hope. Though it's not quite the change one can sell as bumper stickers or slogans on posters, it's a shift taking place internally. It's one that has to happen to escape the clutches of the late '90s and finally move on from the mistakes of the early 21st century.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been over a quarter of a century since <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2020/12/cultural-ground-zero.html" target="_blank">Cultural Ground Zero</a> and there are many lessons we have learned from it. I've written about many of them here, and there is little sense rehashing any of it now. However, there is one part of it that does need to be reiterated because it is holding back an entire sector of Western Culture from regaining any footing. That is the continuation of the myth of Geek Culture and its harmful legacy on both art and general lifestyles. If anything ever hopes to improve, we're going to have to finally shed this dead weight and accept a very important truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here it is: Geek Culture isn't real, and it never was. Clinging to a lie, a false identity, prevents any growth or change from happening. It's been said many times, but it has to be reiterated here, because very slowly are people from these relatively younger, but aging, generations. The key to growth is to have something sturdy to build on, something your ancestors could build on before you rejected it for what replacement the TV and then internet told you to believe in instead. It is time to admit that experiment was a failure and get in line with reality again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why beat this drum? Surely everyone reading this now knows that modernity and materialism has to go, and everyone knows it is a crutch for <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/10/ten-years-gone.html" target="_blank">the absolute failure that was the 2010s</a> for those so-called younger generations to claim what their parents said was theirs. When you see just what happened to those formerly misled kids, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to stay on this track. There is nothing ahead but misery and death.</div><div><br /></div><div>The wake up call of the 2020s is to finally accept the way things <i>are</i>, not the way things <i>could be</i>, and especially not the way things dying corporations and media apparatuses tell you they <i>should be</i>. What is coming ahead is not an era that will be gotten through by spouting knowledge on zombie mega franchises from the 1980s--it is one that will require you to even remember what that era was like in the first place in order to carry on into the future. And you will have to do is break free of the influence of people who hate you.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCVp17XV5zgXJsMFQI3z0jPo2tTpvr9Ageo5qpkqSOrJ6JNRsa_iBmgdK5Uk387f6W0xDIYO8sLNEQNzxpXi26BirmlVUpukbsYtYi3eR8q4qgs2d90tKSm9tHClU0SjluZ51gLj4Cx9V8Jnz0eDUvG3BFiQgQfGXX2BWhKMnO_bDJcF-KiOLhdXHsT6Z/s750/brand.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="750" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCVp17XV5zgXJsMFQI3z0jPo2tTpvr9Ageo5qpkqSOrJ6JNRsa_iBmgdK5Uk387f6W0xDIYO8sLNEQNzxpXi26BirmlVUpukbsYtYi3eR8q4qgs2d90tKSm9tHClU0SjluZ51gLj4Cx9V8Jnz0eDUvG3BFiQgQfGXX2BWhKMnO_bDJcF-KiOLhdXHsT6Z/w400-h393/brand.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This era is over. We just have to finally realize it.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>The fact of the matter is that no one alive today will ever have the life the Baby Boomers had, and judging success or failure based on those old and dead standards is a losing game. This isn't to insult or bemoan anything said older generation did or didn't do, but to point out that the future is not living like your parents and grandparents did from now until the end of time. The myth of progress does not even rise to the level of a myth--comfort is not advancement. Also, as comfort is very rapidly and easily being taken away by those in charge, it becomes clear that it is not something that can be earned or maintained, nor is it the path to a fulfilled life.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've noticed this myself since the end of the pandemic that Baby Boomers, of all generations, are the ones that are imploding the most violently. It's not so much that they are waking up to the artificiality of the lies they were sold in their youth, but more that their health is tremendously worse than that of their parents were at the same age. Their hard living and bad choices have left them in an objectively worse state than the older generations were in, and they are both far sicker and dying at rates absolutely shocking to anyone paying attention.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is because they made the wrong turns and choices, and are now paying for it. I don't want this to turn into post ragging on an entire generation of people, especially one not doing that great, that's not really the point here, but to point out that this is the generation that raised the relatively younger ones currently trapped in uncertainty and dead ends. The fact of the matter is that it was always going to end this way.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now we can admit as much.</div><div><br /></div><div>The uncomfortable truth is that the lives Baby Boomers lived were anomalies in the grand scheme of things and, unfortunately, the way they taught the younger generations was to lead them on with false hope and promises they themselves were fed through their own mass media. Whether they had good intentions or not, today there is little advice to take from them compared to the older generations that came before them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This isn't the same sort of weird anti-tradition mindset the Baby Boomers grew up with and poisoned much of their thinking (and still does to this day), but a wake up call that they were tricked as much as you were to accept a frame of life and position in so-called modern society that simply isn't real, and the remaining illusion of that false paradise is very quickly dispersing. By the 2030s there will be no trace of it left. At that point, options to move on will be limited to destruction or blindly looking around for pieces in the wreckage to rebuild from. This is why we need to start reconstruction now, before it is too late.</div><div><br /></div><div>Entire generations have been raised around mistrusting neighbors, running from job to job across the country (and even the world), and chasing their tail for a sort of comfortable success that would allow them to spend their vacations in places without snow while they kick their feet up and worry about little more than waking up in time for their job while everything else around them just Works Out. Sounds wild, I know, but that's what the utopia was going to be, as long as you kept your head down and did what you were told.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that was never going to happen, and we're quickly learning what the price is of following bad advice based on unreality.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY0gvOGC5WB-Q_jqUtS_6-YgTZfBJgs5Rzevif1G894Islop72ieIonlQykh8gZ_dLtgC8r4AbLLUBlj6kIZFN7YuDqOj54VVVUU-pcxPSEH69RmRJZtc1jRz3V6QCf4zVycmhL-yGtn-5fI-w2tcBZeTjbfzZjIos6st4P3GyrKYYQqnO8SIgYQpyL3t0/s1000/geek.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY0gvOGC5WB-Q_jqUtS_6-YgTZfBJgs5Rzevif1G894Islop72ieIonlQykh8gZ_dLtgC8r4AbLLUBlj6kIZFN7YuDqOj54VVVUU-pcxPSEH69RmRJZtc1jRz3V6QCf4zVycmhL-yGtn-5fI-w2tcBZeTjbfzZjIos6st4P3GyrKYYQqnO8SIgYQpyL3t0/w400-h400/geek.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The meme that made a million bugmen mad</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>It took a long time to get to the overall point, so here it is. The mass media culture that was built up starting in the 1960s and up to the early 90s or so was built by Greatest Generation money funding Baby Boomer projects. Much of the so-called importance and mass market profitability was due to the fact that A) there were no other options for audiences, and B) they were built on then accepted societal truths everyone shared and a frame they all operated in. Neither of these are the reality of how things are done today.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, there are now too many options, to the point that art is completely disposable to most people and consumed passively as if it were oatmeal. Gotta watch something when you come home after work, right? Who cares what it is as long as it hits the broad minimum barrier for Current Year moral acceptability. It's hard to be ambitious when no one cares about ambition.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for societal truths, well, I don't think I have to point any of that out. We are currently at the point where words and notions spoken by people from a mere decade ago is now taboo. I grew up in a world where 80s kids watched things from the 1950s without blinking and now there are <a href="https://twitter.com/wastelandJD/status/1752742874876178447" target="_blank">full grown adults who can't even process movies made before 1995</a>. (Seriously, do a search in any search engine and marvel at the amount of people who can't watch anything before that time period--it's an epidemic). Forget anything older than the 1960s (the saying "Don't Read Anything Before 1940" exists for a reason, after all), which severely limits the scope of "acceptable" art in Current Year--we are being taught that everything old has an expiry date on relevance, and that is very dangerous.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pair these above problems together and you get a greater sense of how things became what they are today. While art is more readily available and has greater reach than ever before, the audience is also simultaneously less and more picky about what ends up on their plate because it exists as more convenience before anything else, as long as it follows the formula dying megacorps have set out for them as acceptable.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time, they have been trained to funnel only modern corporate product down the belt-line in order to avoid encountering anything outside the acceptable societal frame (Hence, the "Don't Read Anything Before 1940" year becomes "1980" and, more recently, "2000"). What this leads to is exactly what the old industries now are, living in a detached void from the past and the wider world, and it's why they are dying.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just like the Baby Boomer generation that spawned them, these systems were not made as sturdy and strong as you were told they were, and are now on their last legs. All it has left is a giant mess of confused and lost people in its wake.</div><div><br /></div><div>What's coming next? Well, that is what we must prepare for, and the best way to prepare for it is to get an early start by ditching the system everyone knows is already dying. Cultural Ground Zero is unavoidable now to anyone with ears and eyes, but it's still clung to because there is no obvious path forward. While that may be true, it is obvious that pretending this dead system is still viable only leads to mental stress and eventual self-destruction. You know it's dead, I know it's dead. It's time to stop pretending otherwise. It is the 2020s, not the 1980s--mass media is not going to lead you to utopia. In fact, it is currently trying to lead you to the grave.</div><div><br /></div><div>Utopia is not possible. Everything built on a lie eventually collapses, and that is where we are right now. We can't rely on the lie of Progress to carry us on anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>We need to build foundations based on sturdy things. That is the only way to make anything truly worth creating and preserving.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUwsmUw2QiVij03mmEDulmG-JnuTFuyKo7l9sHE8s3SSRX9qVQA1aiv_MP8zvhwRa-ygtRXPp9VTwkjViVdU9oSfb4_SK73gpIqixFgZ95AD7sZURRC3BBJznF9CwKaC2n53CcJrn_3VGTeYwHEFR1HWABRBdFrgdyngsdcs7pH_K9uMsKum5UbNJpAod/s1200/nostalgia.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="953" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUwsmUw2QiVij03mmEDulmG-JnuTFuyKo7l9sHE8s3SSRX9qVQA1aiv_MP8zvhwRa-ygtRXPp9VTwkjViVdU9oSfb4_SK73gpIqixFgZ95AD7sZURRC3BBJznF9CwKaC2n53CcJrn_3VGTeYwHEFR1HWABRBdFrgdyngsdcs7pH_K9uMsKum5UbNJpAod/w509-h640/nostalgia.jpg" width="509" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This was an anomaly. It's not normal.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>The greater point here is that this is not culture. "Geek Culture" is not real. Just like Progress, it is also built on a lie.</div><div><br /></div><div>Geek Culture is a mutation of 1960s to 2000s Baby Boomer mass media consumption twisted in a way to fill multiple purposes that Art was never meant to fulfil. What was originally supposed to be a way to distribute art and entertainment on a wider scale to more people became a way to shape tastes, opinions, and beliefs, of the people consuming it in new and increasingly warped ways. It's no coincidence more people live off pills and medicine than ever before.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you doubt it then find yourself a modern Hollywood movie where every character doesn't have the same general beliefs and worldview (and the villains don't all have the same bland motivation and lack of drive beyond wanting to be mean for mean's sake), or a historical film where people who lived differently than the superior people of today aren't treated as two dimensional cartoons we're meant to "learn from" and look down on from our superior modern lens that isn't color tinted to murky colors and made overly ugly. It's all the same.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everything in mass culture, OldPub, Hollywood, Big Tech / Silicon Valley, and AAA video games, are all run by groups that want to control thought and change public morals and discourse. They do this because they hate people as they are. Just the fact that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231105200250/https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/17ok60p/so_this_whole_sweet_baby_inc_thing_its_beginning/" target="_blank">Sweet Baby Inc</a> exists, a group that offers no value to art or entertainment except to enforce corporate morality on projects they didn't create, should be proof enough that quality is not the factor here: thought control is. The whole reason they can do this in the first place when decades ago it would have been pointed out for what it is, is simply because entropy has rotted away at the foundations of what once was. You cannot sneer at Jack Thompson while accepting someone doing the same thing as him, just from a different political position. In fact, within a few years I'm sure many will soften on him, as well. That's how decline and decay works, after all. We're on a downhill slide.</div><div><br /></div><div>We are also not rolling the clock back on this--Baby Boomer mass culture is over. All that's left is for the parasites to suck the blood dry and devour any carcass that is left. Anyone paying attention at all can point this obvious truth out all they like, but the fact is that the mass audience was demoralized long ago and have already long since walked away. They are not what is keeping this vapid apparatus alive and kicking.</div><div><br /></div><div>This system is only kept alive by those who refuse to move on. This leaves the Geek Culture adherents, the ones that haven't yet been filtered into this death cult still fighting the pointless fight to roll the clock back before it imploded as the last holdouts on this dead system. And at this juncture, it has to emphasized to these poor souls: it's over, bro. You need to move on and take your business elsewhere. You are no longer the customers of this rickety system. They don't want customers--they want cultists for their <strike>lifestyle brands</strike> new religion, and they don't need to be reminded that you exist. Because for all intents and purposes, you <i>don't</i> exist to them. You're a relic of a bygone age that is not coming back, one that was used as a stepping stone to get to where they are today. Either get in line, or be destroyed by Progress.</div><div><br /></div><div>All the more reason why this artificial frame must finally be scrapped.</div><div><br /></div><div>Geek Culture is not it's own culture--it's the transitional state between Mass Culture consumer and the modern Death Cult. No matter how many snarky jokes you make at how bad things are, you are a dying breed and they know it. You know it. Normal people are gone and your number is dwindling as the 20th century falls further and further away from living memory. Eventually, all that will be left are true believers, just as they want. Your Geek Culture identity was never anything more than an artificial replacement meant to sever you from old normality. It was done to make you easier to filter into the fake identity centered around products and consuming they had prepared for you instead. It only makes sense that the next step after earning your loyalty would be to make sure their <strike>walking wallets</strike> customers would be warped to think opposing them is a moral wrong. Give your life to the cause or get out. They don't see you as human, because none of this is human at all. It never was.</div><div><br /></div><div>The world is moving beyond the <a href="https://davidvstewart.substack.com/p/the-corporate-period-in-the-arts" target="_blank">Corporate Period of Art</a>, and what you are seeing now from it is the dying gasps of a sick patient on his death bed. A last furious and desperate grasp for control over that which they do not control, their delirious state blinding them to their reality. In the end, it will all still die out, but what will take its place after its gone?</div><div><br /></div><div>What will <i>you</i> be after Geek Culture dies?</div><div><br /></div><div>Marshall McLuhan once said that the modern era was defined by megaphones. Once a person hears a voice booming from an electronic speaker, his entire disposition changes, as does how he takes in the information being sent out to him. As a result, you gain the most people's attention at the same time, and should, theoretically, be able to hold their a focus to impart whatever you want on them. Back then, this was seen as the obvious future, and it was. For a time.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what happens when burnout and exhaustion takes hold? What happens when the megaphone is no longer effective? What happens when people, as they always do, build up a tolerance to it, and begin to tune it out. What comes when the megaphone fails?</div><div><br /></div><div>We are beginning to see it right now in the modern day. The old era is not only over--there is scarce trace of it left.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7L8FYyqNXA" width="320" youtube-src-id="_7L8FYyqNXA"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A livestream on what the Corporate Era of Art <strike>is</strike> was.</i></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>All of this is a way to say that falsehoods and little white lies have already done their damage and have led to generations that take the megaphone for granted. It no longer works on everyone some of the time--now it only works on some of the group all of the time. This cohort of true believers are the last water carriers for a dead system, and will do whatever they can to keep it alive. This is why they have little left but to spout slogans of "ists" and "phobes" holding back Progress by not supporting corporate products meant to educate the rubes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those are the only people left who care, and their very support is destroying them. These are <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/10/ten-years-gone.html" target="_blank">the ones from the 2010s who lost their way</a> and now spend their time striking out at everyone else for their mistakes and dashed hopes and dreams. It is an ugly place to be in.</div><div><br /></div><div>But everyone else aside from the true believers and the older geek culture hopefuls already have moved on. They already know this fake culture is dead. This is why insulting "normies" is a losing game. They are the first to always abandon something once it rolls off the track, the canaries in the coal mine of dead trends and milked ideas, and they are always the first to leave. They might not be the first ones at the party, but they are always the first to depart once things get too rowdy, and it should tell you a lot that normal people have almost entirely checked out of modernity, especially since the pandemic and the ensuing fallout shattered so many lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know what comes next. No one does. There are those convinced the future will be done through a neopatronage system similar to what it once was. Maybe they're correct.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, something will eventually fill the void of the corporations, though how long that take or what form it will come in is anyone's guess. For now it's enough to point out the obvious that what we once took for granted, and what many have based their identities around for decades, is over. Whatever comes next could be better or worse, but it will not be like what we just had. Just like how <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2024/02/rock-n-roll-is-dead.html" target="_blank">Rock n' Roll is Dead</a>, so is mass media and pop culture buried in a grave. You can't base your identity on a dead era with no future.</div><div><br /></div><div>What awaits you in the future is much more than corporate products.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8a-uS-Zy1hs9TaxDBUFVDMDqkpnd_G2kJryAzzhPchExetQLeW2TolOFr_ez8jK9oQMDFR_LnI_fQCw7LveoDnTrkxXnz0NDLKWc1ab1kcYLoqc6liU3WNaBMmSo2PdDgeDC1ayRxGR9ysEIumB3WCu4FhiJjRIhVCKc034JNe3I24PwbOZhocEwp8Td/s4096/YSignalBryceCover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4096" data-original-width="2803" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8a-uS-Zy1hs9TaxDBUFVDMDqkpnd_G2kJryAzzhPchExetQLeW2TolOFr_ez8jK9oQMDFR_LnI_fQCw7LveoDnTrkxXnz0NDLKWc1ab1kcYLoqc6liU3WNaBMmSo2PdDgeDC1ayRxGR9ysEIumB3WCu4FhiJjRIhVCKc034JNe3I24PwbOZhocEwp8Td/w274-h400/YSignalBryceCover.jpg" width="274" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Y-Signal-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0BMVRKJNM?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hP3Z18a_hTY0lGQqr3K4D4eAzJ5zhrZpPdBnbjXhh0uy5LF6YfB9DeM-ORfNwlavXYnYfgNyEFppmhE_4r-B4yeaWG_lnB5cGX-yxUkddCJXDqGl-7UVtdEau8zDfV0dqYFrYJeJnnm3ztyKfRLSmetTj94wXRY0bB1jhEsYFkmyCS9AdAPHcVObBzLlrQQ9UTa79J8OybO1ahYkU4swRSUGuaRaUqkXlRaRv_fUJpU.0qRZJ4Z2nGY_1k-Yi_DUCkelXr2YMZ9nojqHH6kcNEM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">A document of an era long gone</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>As a Gen Y kid, I am the best candidate to speak on moving on from dead worlds. It is where my entire generation was born and raised, a wonderland of unreality. When the dream we were sold died, we were left without direction by a leading generation who decided to stop leading and instead squeeze every penny out of their head positions until the lights finally turn off and nothing is left for even the locusts to take. That rude wake up call is even still now affecting members of this cohort that are still locked into that delusion that the Future is almost here. they just need to hold on a bit longer!</div><div><br /></div><div>I was there in the 1990s when all those forms and mediums were first abandoned by audiences who got sick of them. I watched them all decline into the parodies they were by the '00s as sales declined and more and more normal people walked away from them. It's important to note that nothing in mass culture actually increased in popularity in the '00s. Even the now-booming Japanese manga scene had a bubble burst at the time. It was a terrible era for art and entertainment, and it led into the 2010s: the period where the dying corpos took the gloves off and decided to wage war against their customers and force them in line.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you doubt this, I suggest re-reading the Sony e-mail leaks from back in 2016 where the internal e-mails outright state they were planning on weaponizing discourse against those who thought the 2016 <i>Ghostbusters</i> movie looked like garbage (and it was) before it even released. This is because they knew it would be bad and figured out they could weaponize True Believer cultists against everyone else, a tactic they still use for every single movie they release today. And this is exactly what happened. It can't even be denied. The James Rolfe incident alone is enough to prove that it was a coordinated effort to shame the outgroup for not indulging in what the ingroup tells them to indulge in. Again, this isn't arguable. Everyone knows this happened, and it still happens today.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been eight years of this divisive tactic, and nothing but outright bombs have resulted from this hateful strategy. So why do they keep doing it and persist on attacking non-believers? It isn't just about money anymore. That should be clear when a near decade of nothing but financial failures doesn't lead to either bankruptcy or any change of course. They simply hate you for not being the cult member they are programming you to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>And this entire issue is a remnant of an old failed order that has long since died out. It died out with Cultural Ground Zero back in the '90s.</div><div><br /></div><div>My generation was told that all you had to do to get by was get in line and do what you're told. Firm handshakes, they say jump and you ask how high, and work smarter not harder. You will be rewarded for all your efforts. If it doesn't work, well, you're clearly doing it wrong. After all, you had an entire "successful" generation who had it all work out for them. Surely, if you can't do it then you must be a failure who just isn't pulling on their own bootstraps hard enough. History ended back in the 1960s and the rules are now solidified from now until the end of time.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with this is that everyone knows it isn't true, but only about half the people will say so. The rest are like Geek Culture adherents, hoping to live in the ashes while still pretending they aren't living in Current Year dystopia. They are being shaken awake, but they are still fighting it, praying they can prolong the dream world of their youth when the future wasn't what it turned out to be. Reality is not what they were promised, and that is a hard truth to accept.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it can be better, if you fight for it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRAj-ZinxC2AnnKMaspD4-sr-QbHaJU3r-TDNiTlDxOT15ZxNfSCgMQMNXx77frpGLQZD63RVpKAaT4Ygo75MYwFzOf7sgKzRolw7Ruz79RpbEQf9m-7P2F1hnqKQ-T-wSZg-r-ulV5hBDku8wC5q3ZjpDLQXSALQoyjHvve8DdHZYQ7O0V_E9uR0skpQ/s4096/open-field-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="4096" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRAj-ZinxC2AnnKMaspD4-sr-QbHaJU3r-TDNiTlDxOT15ZxNfSCgMQMNXx77frpGLQZD63RVpKAaT4Ygo75MYwFzOf7sgKzRolw7Ruz79RpbEQf9m-7P2F1hnqKQ-T-wSZg-r-ulV5hBDku8wC5q3ZjpDLQXSALQoyjHvve8DdHZYQ7O0V_E9uR0skpQ/w640-h338/open-field-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>And now is the best time to be fighting.</div><div><br /></div><div>New platforms and ideas are springing up everyday. New creators and audiences are showing up to the scene all the time. The old system might still be around, but it's irrelevant in the greater scheme of things, and, as we've just discussed many times, is over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Artificiality always eventually falls away. No man can maintain an illusion all the time, and all tricks wear thin after extended usage. What we are seeing now is what happens when something is stretched out past its expiration date instead of being allowed to die a peaceful death. You are left with cultural necromancers who cannot create, who only live to prolong the shadow-play of their corporate masters further. And that is not going to end anywhere good.</div><div><br /></div><div>What can be done is to put things in their place and accept the world we have now instead of trying to revive an era long since gone and dead. There are creators right now trying to create while dead corporations are rehashing dead IP with no new ideas. The gap between the two has never been more obvious before, and never before has it been easier to move on to greener pastures. It is time to finally let the dead rest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course we can't quite know where everything will end up in a few years time, never mind a decade, but as of now, the path forward is clear: NewPub over OldPub, indie over mainstream, and taking in art over consuming product. The difference is clear.</div><div><br /></div><div>As we move on into the mid-20s, the change is already upon us and more obvious than ever. Don't get left behind in a graveyard while the parade passes you by. Life is for the living, and now is the exact time to live.</div><div><br /></div><div>The era of artificiality is over. Now is the time to build.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_2119789507"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" target="_blank">A story of pirates, zombies, inquisitors, vampires, mermaids, and necromancers! Back a Bad Case of Dead by Jim Breyfogle today!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="680" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF2uSIEr7oZ48Du7qrhMc9quFQS6QuPsJcUhNk58yuR7sKC17ulq4w72-BTsEGroESRvQxh517DUWuzUAKcH1ZjTwn8WnD4H4NeWtarRokyOpXJxuRRGJ8tWcA8PA9rRc8Vt8I6kYgiCfqBnB-8MJKTSQwbNiZIQ3W4cs9B6bnu0DlMvGYU5DOLDMPmTSG/w640-h360/m9Qdhhiq.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-28558187043077720892024-02-10T13:27:00.002-05:002024-02-10T13:27:26.981-05:00Rock n' Roll is Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/reesdiAbvk4" width="320" youtube-src-id="reesdiAbvk4"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend! </div><div><br /></div><div>Today let us look into a topic not touched on much these days: music. It's a subject not given much thought in recent times. Whatever happened to pop music?</div><div><br /></div><div>Before we begin, let's ask a larger question.</div><div><br /></div><div>How long has history itself been around? Recorded history can be tracked, more or less, but I'm referring to the history of larger things, such as the universe or the human race itself. Regardless of your belief system, or what current science can explain, everyone agrees on one thing: 100 years is a drop in the bucket. It is barely even the lifespan of one human being living in modernity, never mind enough to cover the scores of ancestors that lived centuries before you even existed.</div><div><br /></div><div>So why am I mentioning this? To give a sense of perspective.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now roll that 100 years back half a century. Is 50 years a long time? In the overall arc of history, however long that might be, no. No, fifty years is not even the lifespan of your average Baby Boomer adult in the modern age. All things considered, it's barely considered middle-aged anymore since people live so much longer on average.</div><div><br /></div><div>So it might come as a shock to anyone younger that 36 or so (anyone who can feasibly remember anything about the 20th century at all) that Rock n' Roll is dead, and it died at the relatively young age of fifty. I say this because the genre was <i>the</i> music of the 20th century, more or less its soundtrack for males, beginning in earnest around 1956 or so before it was dealt a deathblow in 1996, and rotted away in a hospital bed until it passed from this mortal coil around 2006, not even surrounded by loved ones. Rock n' Roll is dead, and no one has really noticed. </div><div><br /></div><div>And, oddly, no one really seems to care, either. It's just over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite being such an important and integral part of western culture (Yes, all of it, not just American) throughout an entire century, no one really seems to notice that it is simply gone. If they notice, then they definitely do not seem to care.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much like the habit of reading, a hobby obliterated in the late '90s from uncool librarian scolds and the fussy uncool aunts running OldPub, it just more or less vanished one day and people just forgot it was even a thing to begin with.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's all gone now.</div><div><br /></div><div>A bit of a sad fate for a genre (incorrectly) known to be about rebellion, but an obvious one for the grifters that willingly sold it as such. Thankfully, the music still does exist, and people do still make it, but Rock's relevancy as a wide cultural force is long over, much like many other mediums and artforms we took for granted in the 20th century.</div><div><br /></div><div>And it's not coming back.</div><div><br /></div><div>I linked the above video by professional Rick Beato because, as a musician involved with the music industry, he has had quite a lot of insight into the way things are, how they were once done, and how they are even done today. I would easily suggest his channel for anyone who wants to know anything about musical trends, past and present (mostly past, because musical trends are dead in Current Year), and those who maybe just want to know a little more about what made popular music what is was, and why it's so different now. That is because the 20th century, the trends that made it, and the institutions built to carry this stuff, are all gone themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>You know this very well with other industries. The main difference in this case is that the music industry, unlike, say, OldPub, itself admits that it's dead. Not only that, they have also accepted that the good old days are not coming back.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the events Mr. Beato has been tracking for years is the death of Rock music, what led to it, and where can it go from here now that we know it's dead. The video above gives a pretty open and shut case for those of us who were around for the Clear Channel nonsense back in the late '90s and how it fed into the wave of file sharing that eventually bottomed out with streaming. It's all connected, and it all contributed to where we are today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pandora's Box is not going to be closed anytime soon. But now that we know how we got here, we can start constructing ways to move forward from these mistakes.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT8EzT6e8_enbOHW_IJ_JqDfIcdTDhd98V4CUjYBWEPdmWBatL5N2p2BJ8XiaLrIZWR3CFBCN0qzj-ZgFpCVu1srX-HMnphPLLxM41-LTSlMxkIWbAJFFLVOUU1ml2Xvp0yhMlyzdNyUclIZBik9wVbcdhNpw0cXdPXL71CQxd8NTL67zlg5-e0TN71JnG/s640/closed-record-store.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT8EzT6e8_enbOHW_IJ_JqDfIcdTDhd98V4CUjYBWEPdmWBatL5N2p2BJ8XiaLrIZWR3CFBCN0qzj-ZgFpCVu1srX-HMnphPLLxM41-LTSlMxkIWbAJFFLVOUU1ml2Xvp0yhMlyzdNyUclIZBik9wVbcdhNpw0cXdPXL71CQxd8NTL67zlg5-e0TN71JnG/w640-h320/closed-record-store.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>It's over.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>But the greater issue at hand is the conclusion reached near the end of the video. It isn't just memories of walking into record stores and meeting new people with similar musical tastes, or buying that new Smashing Pumpkins CD and hearing comments from the clerk on its overall feel. It's more of wide-encompassing collapse. The era of the rock star is over, but so also is a shared cultural musical identity that can be built on, reacted against, or even given a different spin.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the video even mentions, the current most popular musical artist in the world doesn't mean the same thing in once meant decades ago, it merely means the most popular <i>cult</i> artist. This woman is a cult artist because there are millions upon millions of people who have never heard her music and never actually will, because they have no reason to. Her music is not played in movies, TV, or streaming, (if it is, no one watches those same services/programs anyway) nor does anyone listen to the radio anymore. In regards to the radio, you are more likely to hear an oldies station played in the mall or the supermarket than anything new. The last new thing I heard played on radio, oddly enough, was random synthwave music. For being the biggest musical star in the world, her music simply is not very important to the culture, regardless of its quality.</div><div><br /></div><div>Contrast this with The Beatles, Michael Jackson, or Led Zeppelin, at their height back during the 20th century--they were inescapable. Everyone knew who they were, but they had <i>also</i> heard their songs everywhere. It was part of interacting with a wider culture and they were staples to the medium itself. You had to know who they were to navigate the scene and medium itself. You do not need to do that with anyone these days, and that's partially because the scene is dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a long way of saying that Rock music will not return, because it is a 20th century invention that is tied to an ecosystem that hasn't existed in decades and represents a class of average male that has their head in other spaces and occupied in other areas of life. The combination of factors that would have to exist to bring the genre back to its former fame requires a system the youth can trust and a sound a mass of people can agree to build off of. This isn't possible with the way things are today where alienation and atomization prevents people from coming together on just about any issue, big or small. Those days are gone.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps there will be a far off time when the cultural climate is different and a bunch of bored kids will get some cheap instruments together, and be able to have a career path to embark on by doing so, but that time is not soon. Today, pop music is over, as is the way things once were. Right now, the dying system has to be worked around.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not the worst thing in the world to have had a fifty year lifespan and affect so many lives in so many ways as Rock did. The pulp era lasted about as long, too. But just like that period, Rock n' Roll is not coming back, at least not in the same way it once was. It makes sense to miss that time, to prefer being able to have things in common with people you might otherwise not, but for now that is an impossible dream. You can't built on a demolished foundation.</div><div><br /></div><div>But we still have the good times, and we still have the music. It's still there and easy to find, more than ever before. The era of having to scrap for CDs online and at used stores is also over. You can find anything out there, even bands you might have missed the first time around, just by looking around. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, we're in a better place now. The shallow era of <i>High Fidelity</i> and <i>Almost Famous</i>, and the era of music cultism over personality, is over. Now is the time for the medium to be put back where it belongs, as a significant piece of a greater whole, and one of the best things to come out of the 20th century. And that's more than enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep rockin' out, and I will see you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sfIw1NgkNiM" width="320" youtube-src-id="sfIw1NgkNiM"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1972028582"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Two high octane adventures of thrilling action for $0.99!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMOT6eXGGHGUnbNH6P0_phFnV2b02AmOCLKwcQOEHIbbBPFE-bnL-0fxAw2MisssXCiojrtfno0dHsGxN9aBpvVWI_I_iCsDotWGWMx0bR1Ir-pRiu0uwMSdHzaD4BFQwc1jlFVO7ozjSA5IHlKmQxjCN50IVTRnNKf66Qq4XULJ_nAE6j0-lNFfac2bV/s938/TwoAdventuresAd.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMOT6eXGGHGUnbNH6P0_phFnV2b02AmOCLKwcQOEHIbbBPFE-bnL-0fxAw2MisssXCiojrtfno0dHsGxN9aBpvVWI_I_iCsDotWGWMx0bR1Ir-pRiu0uwMSdHzaD4BFQwc1jlFVO7ozjSA5IHlKmQxjCN50IVTRnNKf66Qq4XULJ_nAE6j0-lNFfac2bV/w640-h533/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-80587620676937969522024-02-08T13:12:00.000-05:002024-02-08T13:12:02.234-05:00Quick Update: More Pocket Paperbacks!<div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmY24phQmsjpiJdqGBT_pg3K15CEq7wUUHgo019FgOIq6i_MD-5qZSdk-XuYKklpGvnZ7HIQgn9qeXopmTKuEag-_vjIsxfrLDPNTuiD7azna31Eg8jTQAtkYm7IDEIhatzH7VVUGs7v3zG_1esAQLu8HbKvuqooZ0lR8PTG9RnJgj9iuXQwGSj87TQhm/s1200/paperback%20rack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="478" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmY24phQmsjpiJdqGBT_pg3K15CEq7wUUHgo019FgOIq6i_MD-5qZSdk-XuYKklpGvnZ7HIQgn9qeXopmTKuEag-_vjIsxfrLDPNTuiD7azna31Eg8jTQAtkYm7IDEIhatzH7VVUGs7v3zG_1esAQLu8HbKvuqooZ0lR8PTG9RnJgj9iuXQwGSj87TQhm/w254-h640/paperback%20rack.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>It's been long enough, ladies and gentlemen. Now is the moment you have been waiting for. It's time for more pocket paperbacks!</div><div><br /></div><div>That's right, I've finally got more newer editions out on the Lulu store. I recently told you all that I was working on a way to get both <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Aiming-You-Other-Adventures-ebook/dp/B083QNK2WD" target="_blank">Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5NRFDKP/" target="_blank">The Last Fanatics</a></i> out in pocket paperback format, which I have finally done. I had to work on these for awhile because they were longer books than the others I've published so far without making them unreadable in the format. Well, I've finally solved that conundrum. I did it by splitting the larger books up into smaller volumes.</div><div><br /></div><div>I did this because it helps contribute to the convenience of the smaller size. This way it makes the books portable without having to compromise on form factor. This also makes the books in question easier to share with loved ones and friends you want to pass the books on to them, or maybe you want to leave them in a used book store or waiting room for others to find. It's all up to you. This is, after all, what makes pocket paperback so unique.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, let's get on with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have divided <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5NRFDKP/" target="_blank">The Last Fanatics</a></i> into three pocket paperback volumes. <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan-and-jeffro-johnson/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-one/paperback/product-7kkgkz6.html?q=" target="_blank">Volume 1</a> contains the original foreword and the first two parts, <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-two/paperback/product-kvvkr75.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Volume 2</a> contains <i>Part III: Science Fiction Doesn't Exist, </i>which is the longest part of the entire book on its own, and <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-three/paperback/product-q66kv7p.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Volume 3</a> contains the rest of the material as well as the afterword.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the overall description for <i>The Last Fanatics</i>:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>Once upon a time, there was a tradition of storytelling that went back into the Gothic romances all the way through the fairy tales into the classics. It was a world without genre boundaries, checked boxes, and corporate writing workshops. This tradition created all the things you grew up with, the stories and ideas you hold dear, and the beating heart of adventure that has sustained us since the beginning of recorded history. </i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>And then it was destroyed. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Learn how a gaggle of Fanatics poisoned the well of discourse and imagination by turning storytelling into mechanical formulas with rules and boundaries that never existed before. Who gave them this power, and how much of their garbage still taints discourse and the industry today? In The Last Fanatics, all will be laid bare. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>It is time for the truth to be shouted out loud! </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>*Contains the collected and edited series of Fandom essays from Wasteland & Sky*</i></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgab0H5v3Cx2SKSwyUwTdS2mG-XMDaHw8WYwcjPSpF9s63XKb9zKUN7w-WEJSqg3XIOUVlV3KCYWz4VuQ3unz_-pV2wJQQulbh66svEtsvjTyo2F6tcdmlfrHs1MVxW-l4Nc5FM0aAS3eUqiBSpNXA1bp-iscSt7r9Wkwwv0QsVR0ufCs14OlebQZxYY_QS/s3559/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3559" data-original-width="2546" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgab0H5v3Cx2SKSwyUwTdS2mG-XMDaHw8WYwcjPSpF9s63XKb9zKUN7w-WEJSqg3XIOUVlV3KCYWz4VuQ3unz_-pV2wJQQulbh66svEtsvjTyo2F6tcdmlfrHs1MVxW-l4Nc5FM0aAS3eUqiBSpNXA1bp-iscSt7r9Wkwwv0QsVR0ufCs14OlebQZxYY_QS/w286-h400/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover1.png" width="286" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pocket Paperback available <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan-and-jeffro-johnson/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-one/paperback/product-7kkgkz6.html?q=" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjYZaO4XHh0V4QoMwRt8Rz3Neye6D6bm3vGvUHYImVGbGBZ9WJYs8P9ma-USR_xLcPCeUWtJnXewbN2jS13Z3JmiaMhAXkqDhe7YAQrHbOEnpKOEBBTveRTla7RSI_MFQluiah6nxrRLMmXE9UOaY-hZvF_A9FbkmuuC361VT-nPMMegKBuuJAE79YSSm/s3559/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3559" data-original-width="2546" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjYZaO4XHh0V4QoMwRt8Rz3Neye6D6bm3vGvUHYImVGbGBZ9WJYs8P9ma-USR_xLcPCeUWtJnXewbN2jS13Z3JmiaMhAXkqDhe7YAQrHbOEnpKOEBBTveRTla7RSI_MFQluiah6nxrRLMmXE9UOaY-hZvF_A9FbkmuuC361VT-nPMMegKBuuJAE79YSSm/w286-h400/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover2.png" width="286" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pocket Paperback available <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-two/paperback/product-kvvkr75.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Here</a>!<br /></i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1tVfhUL9z7K8pvE0XLfD4WKmZcSz0HEn1Dl0_uQPc2d_RthHxRTAe9b6qOjmNFrT67C69YCQGhRfd7q2rYsXpjl3RJv_ldHg4NFdqP-i0CtbbTdAYyjx_j9Doi46D7saeVUG_5-HgsTk8_r4TVW7d5P8zUXA4FiFkXwJkuFgABq-7yQog8ipftzs8mN9z/s3559/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover3.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3559" data-original-width="2546" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1tVfhUL9z7K8pvE0XLfD4WKmZcSz0HEn1Dl0_uQPc2d_RthHxRTAe9b6qOjmNFrT67C69YCQGhRfd7q2rYsXpjl3RJv_ldHg4NFdqP-i0CtbbTdAYyjx_j9Doi46D7saeVUG_5-HgsTk8_r4TVW7d5P8zUXA4FiFkXwJkuFgABq-7yQog8ipftzs8mN9z/w286-h400/LastFanaticPocketPaperbackCover3.png" width="286" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pocket Paperback available <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/the-last-fanatics-how-the-genre-wars-killed-wonder-volume-three/paperback/product-q66kv7p.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Considering the entire work was over 500 pages in trade paperback/hardcover, the individual volumes are shorter, just under 200 pages each.</div><div><br /></div><div>On top of <i>The Last Fanatics</i>, as mentioned above, I have also split my short story collection <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Aiming-You-Other-Adventures-ebook/dp/B083QNK2WD" target="_blank">Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures</a></i> into two volumes. This one was much easier to divide up since they are short stories linked together into one long piece and can be easily jumped between should the reader desire to.</div><div><br /></div><div>How I worked it out was that <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/someone-is-aiming-for-you-other-adventures-volume-1/paperback/product-655q2gd.html?q=" target="_blank">Volume One</a> contains the first four stories in the larger collection. That would be: Someone is Aiming for You," "Endless Nights in Villain City," "Under Suspicion in Summerside," and "Knives in the Night," as the main feature.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/someone-is-aiming-for-you-other-adventures-volume-2/paperback/product-kvvkr9e.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Volume Two</a> contains "Last Exit to Shadow City," "Lucky Spider's Last Stand," and "When the Sunset Turns Red," as the story contents.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the overall description for <i>Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures</i>:</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote><div><i>Vigilantes fight from the shadows. In Summerside, Dark Magic poisons the dying city of cultists and gangsters. This is where heroes are made. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>A man with a deadly touch, an ex-hitman, a concrete teenager, an invisible myth, and an indestructible knight, are but a few of those who stalk the midnight hour. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>In these seven stories you will meet those fighting for the soul of the city, and those hoping to bring it to a brighter future. But is there anything left worth saving in a world of death? </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Powers or Magic. Only one will win this war.</i></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclSulRMQtg779WfOPiIFNUvShyr_0HHSGJk0QOzvt3VZVUj9Bil-umS7D1oc_YrrZvle5UiVjxO4o14-VRWOrtpDIryk2-bIUFx3kEajyodp9gWQBprP-ENhrFhhAVXl7-ax-__Qb88kPOMpIswfWaE-tqnhoQKrpoJA6EiX0TVXJ3tyjfXHKRdAByh1M/s621/655q2gd-front-shortedge-384.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="384" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclSulRMQtg779WfOPiIFNUvShyr_0HHSGJk0QOzvt3VZVUj9Bil-umS7D1oc_YrrZvle5UiVjxO4o14-VRWOrtpDIryk2-bIUFx3kEajyodp9gWQBprP-ENhrFhhAVXl7-ax-__Qb88kPOMpIswfWaE-tqnhoQKrpoJA6EiX0TVXJ3tyjfXHKRdAByh1M/w248-h400/655q2gd-front-shortedge-384.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pocket Paperback Volume One is <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/someone-is-aiming-for-you-other-adventures-volume-1/paperback/product-655q2gd.html?q=" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXAnldJ4M9A5ThwgHC8Boq_zR3AS58PthNEUnVDXfRCALysVxz8DHfAoXpM3NfBiNuj05psdOyO8xMvRt4LWsHaTkrVQtY3SaJ1qFeVPB4hVw0Q5ns7rl5zuk1exaaZYaXePDHu8qLBblDNwcA_YnFNA4aHSeSVx1PH-01WeL12z-8EoWEaRKXaua3fU1/s621/kvvkr9e-front-shortedge-384.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="384" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXAnldJ4M9A5ThwgHC8Boq_zR3AS58PthNEUnVDXfRCALysVxz8DHfAoXpM3NfBiNuj05psdOyO8xMvRt4LWsHaTkrVQtY3SaJ1qFeVPB4hVw0Q5ns7rl5zuk1exaaZYaXePDHu8qLBblDNwcA_YnFNA4aHSeSVx1PH-01WeL12z-8EoWEaRKXaua3fU1/w248-h400/kvvkr9e-front-shortedge-384.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pocket Paperback Volume Two is <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/someone-is-aiming-for-you-other-adventures-volume-2/paperback/product-kvvkr9e.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>With that, almost all of my books have made the jump to the pocket paperback format. I say almost all, because as you are probably aware, there is still one four book series remaining. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's right, I still have to transfer the <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gemini-Warrior-Man-Book-ebook/dp/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hP3Z18a_hTY0lGQqr3K4D799JbVXaYgH_mgFfW7pFJoDl0_C5COV3fM5x3BgoLZ16utMyL4FUYt7JVUXcexGS1bKO6prbTpCrUaj5oC2zDMcwQ_xV_wOUOLe916tcGigddYUEKziYwkHkSNgeYabMfwKJ4LjgoP-YRFLXEwFFWVHkC9Z6Uldl-QbNUwxiJtkUTa79J8OybO1ahYkU4swRSUGuaRaUqkXlRaRv_fUJpU.uwDIu2CgcKAGyKQUOXG2Z0pxYEuKGt5evaLhAIK6jCM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Gemini Man</a></i> series to pocket paperback. Because they are a bit longer than my usual books, but not long enough to be broken up like the above two, I still have to work on the formatting and send out test versions to tweak, which will take longer. Until then, of course, you can still get them in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163" target="_blank">omnibus format on Amazon</a>, which I recommend, since the entire story is contained in one mega volume there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, that's all I've got for you today. I'm still working on new material and still considering new options to distribute them to readers in unique ways in the future. Those options will be weighed a little longer as I try to figure that out, but my newest book will probably show up sooner than you might think. Keep an eye out--you're definitely not going to want to miss that one!</div><div><br /></div><div>I've been waiting to put that out for ages.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time, have a great week!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i></i><blockquote><i>Two Adventures Across Eternity is available for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">$0.99 in eBook form</a> or as an exclusive <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Pocket Paperback edition</a> on Lulu!</i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDY_zOKKtmZRhfs-tEZNt0prDpJ6GNhUXX-EWWa6WA7_F5aRE3VR84MyO0YxfKT39rk75rJSHTccRJTZQfi0VaekqaFi-zhNP55RiH46O1r1JRU0p1yw9IN3zzmhKfts_6iKSNs_1rPqMg6Yvl1eNwBU9nNlJQAgWIdm3l_bEwYeQa-IM8fhqvV5vebPHF/s938/TwoAdventuresAd.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDY_zOKKtmZRhfs-tEZNt0prDpJ6GNhUXX-EWWa6WA7_F5aRE3VR84MyO0YxfKT39rk75rJSHTccRJTZQfi0VaekqaFi-zhNP55RiH46O1r1JRU0p1yw9IN3zzmhKfts_6iKSNs_1rPqMg6Yvl1eNwBU9nNlJQAgWIdm3l_bEwYeQa-IM8fhqvV5vebPHF/w640-h532/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-34099931213268954332024-02-03T14:44:00.007-05:002024-02-03T23:59:17.628-05:00Big<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aoCmWFusqRk" width="320" youtube-src-id="aoCmWFusqRk"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend!</div><div><br /></div><div>It's finally February and, <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2024/01/super-signal-boost-welcome-to-2024.html" target="_blank">as the most recent post has shown</a>, the year is already starting to roll along. 2024 is off to a strong start.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, today I wanted to talk about scale and ambition a little bit. Let us think Big!</div><div><br /></div><div>There is something about the Epic in storytelling that attracts us all, isn't there? We all want to be wowed and awed, even if we say we couldn't care less about such a thing. Though it's a feeling the mainstream entertainment industry and art world lost through the paint worship of the 20th century, preferring obsessing over aesthetics, disjointed parts, subversion, vague moralizing, and weird nihilism, we still appreciate the large than life more than ever before. There is something to the scale of even the most simple thing that inspires wonder and joy in all but the most cynical of all of us.</div><div><br /></div><div>We all want to see the greater things in life reflected in even the smallest objects, but along the way we've lost the ability to not only imagine it--we've also lost the ability to even look up in the first place. Instead we've been trained to look at the mud and think ourselves superior to both our neighbor and the rest of the world that we can't even imagine higher things anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>When did this hope for greater things start to fall away? I would say it most likely began around the 1960s and rotted away in the 1970s to be replaced with crass commercialism in the 1980s and bottoming out into irony poisoning before the 1990s ended. By the 2000s, all that remained of wonder was perversion, emptiness, and a hatred for life. In half a century, art became the exact flipside of what it was meant to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think this destructive bottoming out can be summed up in the subgenre created by the fallout of this vapid culture, dubbed "Reddit Carnage" by Mystery Grove Publishing, the former book publisher and now full-time newsletter writer.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's a relatively new term, but I'm sure you have an idea of what it means. "Reddit" of course refers to the social media site, infamous for its trumpeting of group think, reinforcing of anything popular culture pumps out, and general misery of the sort that could only foster in such an echo chamber. "Carnage" is hyper violence. Put the two together and you get Reddit Carnage. Murder porn made for the terminally online, emptied of humanity.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you've never heard the term before, here are some uses of it:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLfW3mVJAV_LzSsq-Aa52ua37AnAnQBEGmh43hZzXZDrXq5EuPErjt4KEEvm9l6ilWQhSOjYTusZG0NqhvsDQKI97k5NbZTzRj6IYa4wNPDSbM5q-bqJJq-RRkJNVqPvTA7nS1ceP7IkKKE87U_8i9lKdSdrHSV39p4QU0iWOJRIBRmwqGzme_VdjDBzLz/s593/RedditCarnage2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="593" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLfW3mVJAV_LzSsq-Aa52ua37AnAnQBEGmh43hZzXZDrXq5EuPErjt4KEEvm9l6ilWQhSOjYTusZG0NqhvsDQKI97k5NbZTzRj6IYa4wNPDSbM5q-bqJJq-RRkJNVqPvTA7nS1ceP7IkKKE87U_8i9lKdSdrHSV39p4QU0iWOJRIBRmwqGzme_VdjDBzLz/w400-h363/RedditCarnage2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjn6qfKjhn3GOxh-RfBZQgvuSfL6tJc-A8oxn8keG4ZlgvVZrKIcPbVo98434Dz0X1uxwSEzb5Isq8pMQBw_hh9bA94Y6UIRIlEFAbt-ossEVZi_NMeSeRRH9LYhBZ920mQqe8x9_BLwa_fzpA_Z47_tRuEyHkuPtY-_8vfdJClmw4UEWgLnABdvzF42m/s588/RedditCarnage3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="588" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjn6qfKjhn3GOxh-RfBZQgvuSfL6tJc-A8oxn8keG4ZlgvVZrKIcPbVo98434Dz0X1uxwSEzb5Isq8pMQBw_hh9bA94Y6UIRIlEFAbt-ossEVZi_NMeSeRRH9LYhBZ920mQqe8x9_BLwa_fzpA_Z47_tRuEyHkuPtY-_8vfdJClmw4UEWgLnABdvzF42m/w400-h206/RedditCarnage3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpfuE3u0WTHb-RqdXu7MHESctBq_BPsTxzfHh3G-McYFAPYntQ_ZGQMW97jaAWYLXFhYIR98TCkohrNSvuNLrdh0mGiGBT0Q3kS04PzyZYNQLaFNn-agkRBQEVgMa6dwMW3MlSRgQ0Ww6-4UjCcQism8O__wM7BUMaKxdG-Mhm8TVlzXBP_DdiSu10J3A/s590/RedditCarnage.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="590" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpfuE3u0WTHb-RqdXu7MHESctBq_BPsTxzfHh3G-McYFAPYntQ_ZGQMW97jaAWYLXFhYIR98TCkohrNSvuNLrdh0mGiGBT0Q3kS04PzyZYNQLaFNn-agkRBQEVgMa6dwMW3MlSRgQ0Ww6-4UjCcQism8O__wM7BUMaKxdG-Mhm8TVlzXBP_DdiSu10J3A/w400-h393/RedditCarnage.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>The long and short of the term is that is empty hyperviolence meant to desensitize you to the purpose of violence, the sanctity of life, and to demoralize you in general. There is no purpose to any of it accept to condition you to accept meaninglessness and think of other people as little more than meat sacks who explode real good. In essence, it's anti-human.</div><div><br /></div><div>I should explain this further. It's not an easy idea to get across.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a sort of "genre" that did not exist before Millennials, because it couldn't have. Reddit Carnage is a story where everyone is a cartoon character who treats the lives of other people as disposable, especially if they are the generic bad guy (whose motivations themselves are usually vague beyond "the government/good guy/girl boss says so"). And you know it's all silly and meaningless because the title is silly and meaningless, the action sequences are silly and meaningless, the characters are 2D flat stereotypes that are silly and meaningless, and the costuming and accents are silly and meaningless. All that matters is the carnage of seeing Bad People ripped to shreds and the World Order run by the Good Guys preserved. There is something intentionally inhuman about this subgenre, and that is because it is an inversion of a style of film that used to be more prevalent before the 21st century. It's a warped misunderstanding and interpretation of what an action story is.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is the 1980s action movie stripped of any pathos or sense of justice beyond vague shadows of what once used to be there. It is the anti-wonder approach to action storytelling, replacing the eternal with the temporal.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Reddit Carnage" is a way to reinforce vapid bugmen consumerist morality through carefully prescribed dopamine releases not-so-secretly aimed by the producers of the film on groups of human beings they do not like and portray as "correct" targets to brutalize and dehumanize. This is different from casting villains as terrorist groups based on real life like action movies used to do, because they are frequently not based on real terrorist groups at all. These films are not even subtle about this, but for whatever reason modern movie-goers (however many of these that still exist at this point) cannot seem to see it beyond grinning at Bad People being diced up.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to know why these projects are "still allowed" to be made by Hollywood when other types of action stories aren't, it is because they aren't true action movies. They are murder porn simulators where audiences can see Hollywood approved bad guys get their heads blown up by walking automatons that vaguely resemble what a person they think should be. It is every old parody of action movies on late night TV, but made real.</div><div><br /></div><div>Reddit Carnage is the parody version of what people who hate action movies used to say they were, made by people who think those critics were right and aim to rub their noses in it. "Yeah, it's blatant murder porn! Who cares! Listen to that one-liner. It's so bad it's good, am I right?"</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not what action movie ever were. That's a fantasy concocted by people who hate you telling you what you should think about something you like, and you've let them infect the way you see not only your entertainment, but the world.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekLtEcL3phK1SKb-gnKuZ3o8UluYzh-whJvp6M_1JynkSBH9Hu2B2b0uURhc3kFGAU5z2xKzPAlXV4jlQBv9xWe8_EsfVpHZdLXtbI5a5JY0V9Z7IuyOCyCstHXYXc7KFyATSS_oCIFVfzBh2flP39bR-Zv9GWENFs5ykSijWbMc8CN2z2WLo6ocldPIv/s1024/Cannon%20logo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="1024" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekLtEcL3phK1SKb-gnKuZ3o8UluYzh-whJvp6M_1JynkSBH9Hu2B2b0uURhc3kFGAU5z2xKzPAlXV4jlQBv9xWe8_EsfVpHZdLXtbI5a5JY0V9Z7IuyOCyCstHXYXc7KFyATSS_oCIFVfzBh2flP39bR-Zv9GWENFs5ykSijWbMc8CN2z2WLo6ocldPIv/w400-h211/Cannon%20logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Over the years, Cannon has gone from being a joke to being beloved.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Take Cannon Films, the B-movie masters who were considered the makers of pure shlock back in the 1980s. They were considered bottom of the barrel and were hated by Hollywood despite (but actually probably <i>because of</i>) the fact that they only ever wanted to make movies that entertained, not lecture the audience. Finding an anti-human message in a typical Cannon movie is actually very difficult, despite the fact that they were hated so much by the establishment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Watch a movie like <i>Death Wish II</i>. Yes, it's sleazy. Yes, it's grimy. Yes, it's violent and dark. Yes, there are horrible happening things in it. However, the film still has a point. Life is difficult, justice is not only real but is necessary for a safe society to function, and evil must be pulled out at the root. It's a heavier version of the original <i>Death Wish</i> meant to show the decay that occurs after nothing changed (and nothing did change) after the events of the first film. This goes even further into apocalyptic insanity with <i>Death Wish 3</i>, but I'm not getting into that one here. Regardless, I think the series deserves more credit than it gets.</div><div><br /></div><div>The last theatrical movie Charles Bronson made with Cannon (he would retire not long after this) was called <i>Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects</i> which is about human trafficking and the dehumanization aspect of it on everyone involved. The movie isn't one of the strongest Bronson ever made (not even with Cannon) but its ending is still surprisingly powerful, asking what justice would have been in this situation. For a final theatrical release, Bronson still tried his best to create something. Meanwhile, Harrison Ford and Baby Boomer stars of the '80s and '90s have been spending their retirement years destroying everything they built up back then.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that is a whole other subject. The point is that there were more going on in these simple old movies than you think.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even Chuck Norris movies, the nexus of lazy punchlines for years, all have moral cores. Yes, even the Cannon ones. <i>Missing in Action</i> is about a man who will do anything to undo a near-fatal mistake and put things right again. <i>Invasion USA</i> is about how even in the face of tremendous odds, good remains stronger and will still prevail against encroaching evil. Even <i>The Hitman</i> is about how good repaid with evil eventually leads to self-destruction, ending with good standing on top again. There is nothing empty about any of that because it's all based on truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>The best example is probably <i>Sidekicks</i>, not made by Cannon. <i>Sidekicks</i> is the story of a physically sick kid who uses his dreams and fantasies and his hopes to improve his life condition to become a stronger human being. Despite being a silly movie meant for younger audiences, there is a very good moral core at the center of it all. Our hero's plight cements both imagination and effort as two of the most important aspects of personal growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is nothing negative about any of this. In fact, this is all healthy messaging. But it was twisted by those in charge into being considered "wrong" and backwards from reality. This is why they were turned into punchlines by those in charge. The last thing they want you to imagine is any greater purpose to anything in life. Just consume, give them your paycheck, and keep your head down. There is nothing else to life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Reddit Carnage, therefore, is the opposite of what wonder stories are intended to be. It has no relation to how action stories are meant to be.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsEjqfBz4IolsTMx5lxcWJxqcvoTHXViIhBZsoK1wKbBtChkChiJL29b1P0P3R8BsgS74vbkDQ4yyfkxppOnNbCcoqbdsch5rgnzUXJvjzAcX9Jg8VPCBh9nUT8ZbRV9sAy57XEC_lMbtvTDjVuxht0-a9_pAhylhETuj8PPovzXW7CkTgDq1-maQkPlY/s400/Combat%20Frame%20Xseed%20SS%20eBook%20Cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="266" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsEjqfBz4IolsTMx5lxcWJxqcvoTHXViIhBZsoK1wKbBtChkChiJL29b1P0P3R8BsgS74vbkDQ4yyfkxppOnNbCcoqbdsch5rgnzUXJvjzAcX9Jg8VPCBh9nUT8ZbRV9sAy57XEC_lMbtvTDjVuxht0-a9_pAhylhETuj8PPovzXW7CkTgDq1-maQkPlY/w266-h400/Combat%20Frame%20Xseed%20SS%20eBook%20Cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Find Combat Frame XSeed <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Combat-Frame-XSeed-Brian-Niemeier-ebook/dp/B08LL7Y3B3/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=brian+niemeier&s=digital-text&sr=1-10" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><br /><div>So what is a good example of something on the opposite end of the spectrum from Reddit Carnage? What is the sort of story where large ideas and concepts are portrayed as such, where looking up is considered important, and the good is always shown as just that?</div><div><br /></div><div>The above image should give you a clue. I am talking about Giant Robots. There is a good reason for that--it is action storytelling meant to make you consider Big things through portraying Big things in clear visual language. It is the exact mirror of Reddit Carnage, to the point that the two have never met in the same project. I am not convinced they ever properly can without turning said resulting idea into a mess.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I digress.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, were I to bring up something like Giant Robots in casual conversation, I am liable to get one of two general reactions. The first is of excitement and child-like joy at the very idea of large objects engaged in epic actions, and the other are eyerolls from mature adults who prefer to spend their time golfing on the weekend away from such juvenile things. In other words, your appreciation for the idea of Giant Robots probably aligns with how much you appreciate wonder and the potential for life itself. It's a litmus test: much like how much your appreciation for space opera goes beyond multi-billion dollar brands shows how much you appreciate the general idea of the genre in the first place, or just how much other people are talking about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>But even in the giant robot space (if one can call it so) there is a bit of misunderstanding as to what they are, what their intent is, or even what makes it a "real" robot story.</div><div><br /></div><div>The above video highlighted at the very top of this long post delves into the history of the giant robot genre through where it really flourished--Japan. the history goes back far. Particularly important is how it was an invention of post-WWII Japan for a country that wanted to dream big (and did) while finding their footing in a world unlike anything they knew before. In the process they stumbled into something that morphed into a worldwide phenomenon for those lovers of the overblown and the epic. Because it is an idea anyone can understand.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course I'm not going to say Japan created them all on their own or are the sole creators of the style, but they ultimately put their own stamp on the idea, just as they did with superheroes with their own tokusatsu. Therefore what influenced them became reflected back out into the world and influenced everyone else. This key aspect of communication and back and forth is what makes art and entertainment so very interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most fascinating part of the whole thing is that they can't really be subverted. Don't get me wrong--you can try. You can try to inject modern values into the genre, you can try to make the good guys lose, and you can even make it so there are no good guys at all--but it never seems to matter. What remains at the end of it is still the idea of Big, or scale, or romance beyond the mundane. It can never quite be gutted out because by default <i>that is what is</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_HInWqc-1hNFdTo7Cm6aAEk43nKkYOJEivek8O4q72-2CM_aqZLOj8VogWuG3IRuRiOr-NRSYT-e7SGRoKqko1YUoR5qMNqjFAwOpwXov1-WxdALTs3sAAUumvdQRcbVtP2AERKzG4Fwhr8YfXTJs8kmrT9nF-562Es-Ww9XTFLUgec008swN-to-Lbp6/s1055/VotomsGod.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="682" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_HInWqc-1hNFdTo7Cm6aAEk43nKkYOJEivek8O4q72-2CM_aqZLOj8VogWuG3IRuRiOr-NRSYT-e7SGRoKqko1YUoR5qMNqjFAwOpwXov1-WxdALTs3sAAUumvdQRcbVtP2AERKzG4Fwhr8YfXTJs8kmrT9nF-562Es-Ww9XTFLUgec008swN-to-Lbp6/w259-h400/VotomsGod.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Big is embedded in the genre.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>And perhaps all of this is why, despite the crumbling of mainstream culture in the West, there still remains plenty of joy and life in those who create and those who want to enjoy the creations of others. Those who still appreciate the Big, the truly weird, and the epic, refuse to be shaken off by the dead trends of those who are supposed to be in charge of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>You've certainly noticed it yourself, the tide changing. The air is no longer quite what it used to be even a few years ago. We're in the mid-2020s now, and the decade is finally taking shape into what it is meant to be. The shackles of Cultural Ground Zero are breaking apart. As long as we stay the course we can finally break the downwards spiral and aim up once again. All we have to do is keep thinking Big.</div><div><br /></div><div>There isn't anymore room for Reddit Carnage and its empty promises. It is time for better ways: ways that we are finally rediscovering for ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let us keep going back at it and we can then look back on the '20s as the decade where everything finally changed for the better.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just remember to never stop looking up. There is always something bigger than you can imagine, just waiting to be discovered.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1285234969"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=ZZVei&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=134-9364152-2741410&pd_rd_wg=wJPxk&pd_rd_r=9a252d08-438b-4902-b811-ae2b2889a76e&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank">I have my own Giant Robot story in Two Adventures Across Eternity!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=ZZVei&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=134-9364152-2741410&pd_rd_wg=wJPxk&pd_rd_r=9a252d08-438b-4902-b811-ae2b2889a76e&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGwBSc3LD2dT3MKWUQvcsc6pbOj1WBgdG-5w0qAior26MfSdBMQpbSpGgSVQZLz5SjT1rgLWWBVEuKjVCgFv6zOq3K1015Exj3g6-tr0dglQvx47xd-xAUyGmgABolk3Li2bxQSekUuHY2dXyAnV-0kfm__P-DTKlRVPrPR9R9hvKNpnfSluVZy02NKpL/w640-h532/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-20651072688604270652024-01-30T14:40:00.001-05:002024-01-30T14:40:18.060-05:00Super Signal Boost ~ Welcome to 2024!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/768/870/5bc0f53628406b718f173f5f085ffb89_original.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&crop=faces&w=1024&h=576&fit=crop&v=1706059558&auto=format&frame=1&q=92&s=918f668ef3ed6f7b1e0d973d90a6e023" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/768/870/5bc0f53628406b718f173f5f085ffb89_original.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&crop=faces&w=1024&h=576&fit=crop&v=1706059558&auto=format&frame=1&q=92&s=918f668ef3ed6f7b1e0d973d90a6e023" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" target="_blank">Cirsova's New Kickstarter!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>January is almost over, so it's time to highlight the real beginning of the year in regards to new projects. Everyone knows the first month of the year is basically a dead zone in just about every aspect of life, but once you get past it, wheels start rolling. Today I wanted to highlight some of those exact projects now coming to life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Strap in, because we've got a few to go through. There is something for everyone.</div><div><br /></div><div>Up first is a new Kickstarter project by Cirsova and Jim Breyfogle, the pair who worked together on the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Mongoose-Meerkat-Vol-Pursuit-ebook/dp/B08BNTSVPG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jim+breyfogle&s=digital-text&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Mongoose & Meerkat</a> series. This time, the project is a standalone novel, and just like the rest of Mr. Breyfogle's material, is reminiscent of the classics.</div><div><br /></div><div>This time he's got a brand new book that's once again, just a bit different from what you might expect.</div><div><br /></div><div>The project description:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div><i>Edward has caught a bad case of Dead!</i></div><i><br />While hurrying to his clerking job in London, Edward is attacked by a strange creature in an alleyway. Feeling ill, Edward consults his apothecary neighbor who informs him he's been infected with zumbiism, and is now among the Dead!<br /><br />There is still hope, however! Sent on his way with a potent elixir that will stave off the effects of Dead, Edward must seek out the aid of a Necromancer in the Narrow World, a hidden realm of forgotten magic beyond the sea. But the next ship leaves in only an hour!</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Want to know what happens next? Well, so do I.</div><div><br /></div><div>Check out more about the project, as well as available formats <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/jim-breyfogles-a-bad-case-of-dead" target="_blank">here</a>!<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71geY2pjR3L._SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="618" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71geY2pjR3L._SL1500_.jpg" width="309" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CTBLNJJX?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_1&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">Find the collection here!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div>Now for something a bit different, let us go to the wild lands just outside of accepted normality. Last year I highlighted the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXFSJ8XR?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks&sr=1-2" target="_blank">first volume</a> of Jacob Calta's ambitious <i><a href="https://365infantry.substack.com/" target="_blank">365 Infantry</a></i> project, so it only stands to reason that this time we would see the second volume. And here it is.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those confused about what 365 Infantry is, it would best be described as an ongoing serial focused on one world in multiple parts and subseries. The first volume started these different series' off, and the second continues them with all the work released in 2023, plus some bonus content. The original works are housed in the <a href="https://365infantry.substack.com/" target="_blank">365 Infantry Substack</a>, where one can read new releases as they come out.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the description of volume 2:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>Back behind the wheel are the 25th century's most daring and courageous hounds! With the looming threat of the mad electric machine A.C.E.S., the scum and villainy of the Wastelands, and a mysterious new faction in the ongoing fight for freedom, the 365th Infantry and their many friends and allies are in it up to their necks. But all is not lost, not when these wolves are on the scene!<br /><br />Writer Jacob Calta returns with another white-knuckled trip through a metalhead power fantasy future, armed with brisk storytelling, stylish prose, an enveloping world, the dynamic art of Kevin John Jacob, and a breathtaking cover illustration by the talented Temiree. Join the daring soldier Gibson, the sage General Knox, the tormented huntress Valentina, the mad-cap vigilante Lita, the wild-eyed lawman Nic, and the scores of colorful canine characters that populate the world of Haven and the Wastelands in 22 electrifying new stories of action, suspense, crime, romance and more</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>I've said before that the major advantage with NewPub is the freewheeling spirit of fun and unabashed excitement to do anything, and this project shows you exactly why that is. Also, while we're at it, Mr. Calta also released a new single you can hear <a href="https://t.co/pa6QXRUIba" target="_blank">here</a>. He just doesn't stop!</div><div><br /></div><div>You can find the second volume of <i>365 Infantry</i> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CTBLNJJX?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_1&storeType=ebooks">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/185/635/4930f2f6676e0dd10bc21eb34ba68ee1_original.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&crop=faces&w=1024&h=576&fit=crop&v=1700944036&auto=format&frame=1&q=92&s=6d045f603b708eaeaba5b34d8bbc8120" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/185/635/4930f2f6676e0dd10bc21eb34ba68ee1_original.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&crop=faces&w=1024&h=576&fit=crop&v=1700944036&auto=format&frame=1&q=92&s=6d045f603b708eaeaba5b34d8bbc8120" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daniellaacera/all-eyes-on-ashley" target="_blank">You can find All Eyes on Ashley here!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Now for something a bit different, again, Let us turn to the <i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daniellaacera/all-eyes-on-ashley" target="_blank">All Eyes on Ashley</a></i> project, just launched on Kickstarter!</div><div><br /></div><div>This comic project concerns a hopeless young man who wishes to woo a beautiful woman, but just doesn't know how to do it! Will he figure it out, or is he doomed to being ignored forever? You'll have to read it and find out!</div><div><br /></div><div>The description:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>Everyone in the office drools over Ashley, and Spencer's had his eyes on her ever since she broke up with her successful boyfriend. But would she even pay attention to a guy like him? <br /><br />Spencer is willing to try anything just to get her attention, but he has to become his own man before he can be worthy of her. <br /><br />Read this new sweet 20-page romantic comedy comic by romance author Daniella Acera and DC Comics' Injustice artist Mike S. Miller with multiple beautiful covers for you to choose from.</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Check out the campaign page for more about formats and extras, including an add-on for a novel!</div><div><br /></div><div>You can find <i>All Eyes on Ashley</i> on Kickstarter <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daniellaacera/all-eyes-on-ashley" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81GvCsiXJsL._SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="517" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81GvCsiXJsL._SL1500_.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Havoc-Julie-Frost-ebook/dp/B0CSX9DJK7/ref=sxts_entity_rec_bsx_s_def_r00_t_aufl?content-id=amzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a%3Aamzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&crid=F6SLL6Q9ZNR4&cv_ct_cx=julie+frost&keywords=julie+frost&pd_rd_i=B0CSX9DJK7&pd_rd_r=5ce50643-4191-4de1-8619-88fe39c4ca85&pd_rd_w=AJeP0&pd_rd_wg=kLZC6&pf_rd_p=a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&pf_rd_r=DKQBKYPCRPNM4RGS2TZB&qid=1706639046&s=digital-text&sprefix=julie+frost%2Cdigital-text%2C97&sr=1-1-ef9bfdb7-b507-43a0-b887-27e2a8414df0" target="_blank">Find Cry Havoc Here!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div>Author Julie Frost is no stranger to wild tales of werewolves, and her new book is definitely no different. I hope you like action and horror, because you'll find plenty of both here. Just launched today, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Havoc-Julie-Frost-ebook/dp/B0CSX9DJK7/ref=sxts_entity_rec_bsx_s_def_r00_t_aufl?content-id=amzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a%3Aamzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&crid=F6SLL6Q9ZNR4&cv_ct_cx=julie+frost&keywords=julie+frost&pd_rd_i=B0CSX9DJK7&pd_rd_r=5ce50643-4191-4de1-8619-88fe39c4ca85&pd_rd_w=AJeP0&pd_rd_wg=kLZC6&pf_rd_p=a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&pf_rd_r=DKQBKYPCRPNM4RGS2TZB&qid=1706639046&s=digital-text&sprefix=julie+frost%2Cdigital-text%2C97&sr=1-1-ef9bfdb7-b507-43a0-b887-27e2a8414df0" target="_blank">Cry Havoc</a></i> looks to be as wild as its cover!</div><div><br /></div><div>The description:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>Nate Cassin, the alpha werewolf of Missoula, Montana, finds his little city has a big wolf problem when shredded bodies start showing up all over town. Faced with a hostile press and even more hostile hunters, he tries to protect his innocent pack of eight at the same time they try to track down two elusive killers in an area of 35 square miles with a plethora of hiding places.<br /><br />He's seen this before. And the hunters always, always go overboard and decide the only good werewolf is a dead one, no matter who's actually responsible. His pack will be collateral damage unless he can find the enemy wolves—and stop their broken alpha—before they turn his hometown into a human buffet.</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>You can find <i>Cry Havoc</i> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Havoc-Julie-Frost-ebook/dp/B0CSX9DJK7/ref=sxts_entity_rec_bsx_s_def_r00_t_aufl?content-id=amzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a%3Aamzn1.sym.a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&crid=F6SLL6Q9ZNR4&cv_ct_cx=julie+frost&keywords=julie+frost&pd_rd_i=B0CSX9DJK7&pd_rd_r=5ce50643-4191-4de1-8619-88fe39c4ca85&pd_rd_w=AJeP0&pd_rd_wg=kLZC6&pf_rd_p=a36c3969-f821-4d5b-a8e8-be129cf4aa4a&pf_rd_r=DKQBKYPCRPNM4RGS2TZB&qid=1706639046&s=digital-text&sprefix=julie+frost%2Cdigital-text%2C97&sr=1-1-ef9bfdb7-b507-43a0-b887-27e2a8414df0" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.fundmycomic.com/api/image/campaign_detail_large/campaign/36/bc/da/CB5BB32A-A772-11EE-92DB-F37ACE8206F8-image-6b127e99f87c70659b34583cc63aa07c9b9d3647d327c2dd4b199933e1b6591b.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://www.fundmycomic.com/api/image/campaign_detail_large/campaign/36/bc/da/CB5BB32A-A772-11EE-92DB-F37ACE8206F8-image-6b127e99f87c70659b34583cc63aa07c9b9d3647d327c2dd4b199933e1b6591b.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.fundmycomic.com/campaign/418/paper-doll-veronika-part-i-forest" target="_blank">Paper Doll Veronika can be found here!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div>For something, once again, a bit different, check out this comic crowdfund for Part 1 of the Paper Doll Veronika comic series. It comes with an incredible 230 pages(!) and a unique artstyle for the first part of this project.</div><div><br /></div>The description:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><i>Veronika Bosch has never left her father's estate. But one day, seven jealous animals invade her home and kick her out! What lies ahead is a whimsical journey of magic and adventure.<br /><br />A cross between collage and puppetry, every page of this comic is made by arranging articulated hand-drawn paper dolls on backgrounds collaged of decorative paper and ephemera.<br /><br />This first printed book will include Part I - Forest, which is 24 chapters, approximately 450 images.</i></blockquote><br /><br />There is also more about the different page formats, so be sure to check out the campaign for yourself and decide which is more for you.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can find Paper Doll Veronika <a href="https://www.fundmycomic.com/campaign/418/paper-doll-veronika-part-i-forest" target="_blank">here</a>!<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81xQLM4mlEL._SY466_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="291" height="466" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81xQLM4mlEL._SY466_.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS2TXYWZ" target="_blank">Find the Catgirl in Pink & Other Short Stories here!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>One of the advantages to the NewPub scene is that you truly can do anything, and I mean anything. Take this new project, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS2TXYWZ" target="_blank">The Catgirl in Pink & Other Short Stories</a></i> by Edmund Miller. Here you get 22 short stories you'd never see anywhere else for pocket change, all as bizarre as the title story might suggest they are.</div><div><br /></div><div>The description:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>A lonely man meets a mysterious catgirl at a bar. A homeless man ingests pills that allow him to see the past and future. A female cyclist goes missing in a forest. A scientist tries to unravel the secrets of astatine. These stories and more can be found in this volume.</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Once again, you can find <i>The Catgirl in Pink & Other Short Stories</i> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS2TXYWZ" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6e6SXHJmASsHXQDybyWV6Y_JBWEvgmQ218eS6codI52FjM39g42hMb_kFgsPic9U9HmPq5wlFcI4bfxScwxVr-59cAjEWmG6aoOQodnXRZSZtOQ-22VHcMj0ePUcXYmjX_xkp2iTlAL25KmC_aW1ZMRKsbk1VQeubFE2rX2CO0W9H3yWKugpIh8SkYgHg/s393/13bdc0af-213f-456a-8bb6-4efa7709f50b_432x648.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="262" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6e6SXHJmASsHXQDybyWV6Y_JBWEvgmQ218eS6codI52FjM39g42hMb_kFgsPic9U9HmPq5wlFcI4bfxScwxVr-59cAjEWmG6aoOQodnXRZSZtOQ-22VHcMj0ePUcXYmjX_xkp2iTlAL25KmC_aW1ZMRKsbk1VQeubFE2rX2CO0W9H3yWKugpIh8SkYgHg/w266-h400/13bdc0af-213f-456a-8bb6-4efa7709f50b_432x648.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://dl.bookfunnel.com/u5mmes0u4e?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">Find Defending the Wood Perilous here for free!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, I want to <a href="https://dl.bookfunnel.com/u5mmes0u4e?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">Defending the Wood Perilous</a>highlight a free book from an extremely talented writer. That would be the above <i><a href="https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/cb0c75a4-cfa5-4d64-9bbc-0f1aee334fab?j=eyJ1IjoibHA2ZnAifQ.1OoXo4QQID9aQyZahWFpFqlX8JUh3jieBLe_aZeQ8Sc" target="_blank">Defending the Wood Perilous</a></i> by my editor and excellent author, L. Jagi Lamplighter!</div><div><br /></div><div>The description:</div><div><br /></div><br /><blockquote><i>You live in a fairytale.<br /><br />You know the one, where a boy or a girl wanders into a strange land, unable to find home again. It is a story of darkness that crushes the spirit and of hope in the midst of the darkness.<br /><br />That fairytale. The one where you are the hero.<br /><br />People tell us that reading fantasy is escapism. But do you ever feel more alive, more real, than when you are reading? When we are reading a really good story, don’t we feel as if it allows us to burn with the bliss and suffer the sorrow of others? To come out of ourselves and be more than we would have been?<br /><br />If your heart burns for brighter things, if you are one who yearns to venture Beyond the Fields We Know, this is for you.</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Once again, you can find <i>Defending the Wood Perilous</i> for free <a href="https://dl.bookfunnel.com/u5mmes0u4e?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for today, but I think this sufficiently highlight how packed the start of the year already is for new projects. We've barely begun, and already there is a stack of new creative projects just waiting for audiences to dig in and enjoy them.</div><div><br /></div><div>And again, 2024 just started! There is much more excitement to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>So keep your chin up, because you've got an exciting year ahead full of fun surprises, including from yours truly. Just wait and see!</div><div><br /></div><div>Until then, enjoy the new projects and I will see you next time. There is much more to look forward to, even beyond the year ahead.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_824506816"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9hmZt9rTO7WoPUt4KU6beg4FukUKqjx1xSFvDuuipdGFsa9GYNp3zWEN02xNi4C16utMyL4FUYt7JVUXcexGS08IglD_5WZJds0TpyhnWueDrT2S3-9dIEw9wtSbTQBXs1srHM-GchmJoRSgw3H8tWwXEJTp1WJciBZ1Kq3DwWyz10-bhSRW4hpoyrYmlqZ8UTa79J8OybO1ahYkU4swRSUGuaRaUqkXlRaRv_fUJpU.OuaAEw3QjZhXMN3QZhUVsOrcGFmgqEifbFXZEALqNOE&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">You can also get two adventures of sorcery, mecha, guns, and blades, for a mere $0.99! There is nothing else quite like it!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9hmZt9rTO7WoPUt4KU6beg4FukUKqjx1xSFvDuuipdGFsa9GYNp3zWEN02xNi4C16utMyL4FUYt7JVUXcexGS08IglD_5WZJds0TpyhnWueDrT2S3-9dIEw9wtSbTQBXs1srHM-GchmJoRSgw3H8tWwXEJTp1WJciBZ1Kq3DwWyz10-bhSRW4hpoyrYmlqZ8UTa79J8OybO1ahYkU4swRSUGuaRaUqkXlRaRv_fUJpU.OuaAEw3QjZhXMN3QZhUVsOrcGFmgqEifbFXZEALqNOE&dib_tag=AUTHOR" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzsxps1bmyq7M2U1ubirsy1Kjk75-Ixn829egaVmNs6vHW_jE96FsU2_gGym1KlJpeGN5knNUDOVsTs6JfQt5pDwqWQFDykmNXXTwimjAr2YdizOaba2ak6IAim8hWHDrHOovcOUxAiXYg4pAuCgjl8YH_HJdVsyPSCWtMTKrNBR-NogTGSrW4Riw6Ieu/w640-h533/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-79656259471348075762024-01-25T11:07:00.002-05:002024-01-25T11:07:57.766-05:00Story Sheets: "Three Gifts of the White Wolf"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOC4gbKCXRKrJKD4wKqQ4ivpus_9OR08t7R3AcQ0Ip17Fxq8u8iACmTd0FH2hxTRCcgGk36PT7cvlLQ8GLqEIJU427_28Vp6ksxSWI9U3KC7o0cEGghUj0bb0LOFPlDg7ArisUJhRQHXVQuZMpNB5ALTjmUufg_350GjN2ooEmrejuLzZyoqJYHN1We3P/s568/StorySheetslogo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="568" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOC4gbKCXRKrJKD4wKqQ4ivpus_9OR08t7R3AcQ0Ip17Fxq8u8iACmTd0FH2hxTRCcgGk36PT7cvlLQ8GLqEIJU427_28Vp6ksxSWI9U3KC7o0cEGghUj0bb0LOFPlDg7ArisUJhRQHXVQuZMpNB5ALTjmUufg_350GjN2ooEmrejuLzZyoqJYHN1We3P/w640-h310/StorySheetslogo.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Surprise! We are already back with a new Story Sheets! Bet you didn't expect one quite so soon, but it was obvious it was coming, wasn't it?</div><div><br /></div><div>After our <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2024/01/story-sheets-duel-on-dalpha.html" target="_blank">last entry</a>, it only made sense to jump right into the next one this week. As you well know, there are two stories (naturally) included in the collection <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C">Two Adventure Across Eternity</a></i>, and you already know about "<a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2024/01/story-sheets-duel-on-dalpha.html" target="_blank">Duel On Dalpha</a>" and the story behind that one, but what of the second story? Well, let us get into it.</div><div><br /></div><div>As you might have guessed from just the title of today's story, this isn't another space opera tale of gun fights and mecha battles like the last one. No, it's very much the opposite. This is a story of swords, sorcery, and cursed lands. So why is it even here, being paired in a collection with a seemingly very different story? Well, I will explain that part a bit later on. For now, let us concentrate on the tale itself. What is "Three Gifts of the White Wolf" and where did it come from?</div><div><br /></div><div>Believe it or not, it's actually a pretty old story I recently edited myself to completion. Since I was a much improved writer by the time I wanted to publish it, I sharpened this older tale up a good deal, though nothing in the piece itself has changed. That said, since this was never published before or looked at by other eyes, it is the readers who get to dive into this one fresh. Therefore I spent a good deal of time tempering this one up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, enough of the technical details. What about where it came from? That is actually a very simple question to answer.</div><div><br /></div><div>What happened is something that occurs every now and then where I will be writing or editing a story, novel, or even blog post, and I will be struck with an idea and have to put everything aside to write it down on the spot. For example, when I was editing <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two Adventures Across Eternity</a></i> to get it out by the end of 2023, I found myself in this same predicament. There was another piece I just had to write, so I dove into said story and came right back to editing again afterwards. When that story releases, I'll share the culprit that nearly delayed the collection. Either way, it happens more to me than I'd like to admit. I am not an organized writer in the slightest.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with today's entry is mostly that I don't remember quite when exactly I wrote "Three Gifts of the White Wolf" because as soon as I was done I put it aside for later. I don't even think I properly self-edited it at the time. The reason for this is that, much like "Duel On Dalpha" and a few other stories I've written, there isn't much of a market for tales that fall in that novelette groove between novella and short story. Most magazines are desperate for space and the cost of eBooks makes selling them on their own against longer pieces look like a bad value proposition. So I decided to put aside until an opportunity arose where I could finally give it to readers.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now you've got it!</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm happy to finally get this one out because it marked a bit of a shift in how I consider writing stories. I believe I wrote it after reading a bunch of Andrew Lang's <i>Red Fairy Book</i> because I wanted to write a tale in that vein but, obviously, not quite so short. That ended up being the story we are discussing as today's subject. Since then I tend to have a lot of fairy tale influence in everything I do, whether I intend to or not.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYjsgPo4Bvo5q5UVD8YM4bEaWQrN-YA3ag6PIrOk3FRHKy0gFXlWvgLNv8CG_kpEiQEahNVokXMKoK1Ul9MoBmT71G4aRO5dZOvwm7GP9ApXjkE9qRK0S2iaysYZnk7j0Kcq-2vNFgqUT3zVB2epaqKskUBX5Uyh2Ny4mLixtzQ8EuA021aj3mYSJFRBh/s6400/ThreeGiftsoftheWhiteWolfCover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6400" data-original-width="4428" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYjsgPo4Bvo5q5UVD8YM4bEaWQrN-YA3ag6PIrOk3FRHKy0gFXlWvgLNv8CG_kpEiQEahNVokXMKoK1Ul9MoBmT71G4aRO5dZOvwm7GP9ApXjkE9qRK0S2iaysYZnk7j0Kcq-2vNFgqUT3zVB2epaqKskUBX5Uyh2Ny4mLixtzQ8EuA021aj3mYSJFRBh/w442-h640/ThreeGiftsoftheWhiteWolfCover.png" width="442" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Custom cover similar to the one for "Duel On Dalpha"</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>As it might be evident from the above art, a classic painting used for the cover (the art is actually used for the back cover for the <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">paperback version</a>!) sets the tone for the story. For those curious, the painting in question is Eugene Boudin's "Coast of Brittany" work from 1870, only a bit darker and more twisted than the original piece was intended to be. This is because the setting for "Three Gifts of the White Wolf" is the same as an earlier story, "Inside the Demon's Eye" which ran in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J5RV36W" target="_blank">StoryHack Issue Three</a> a while back, and the location is the same as that one.</div><div><br /></div><div>You might be wondering if this means the stories take place in Brittany--why else would the cover be like this, after all--but that's not quite the case. No, these stories don't even really take place in the <i>past</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll have to explain this the best I can.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have to be careful here, because a lot of what the Black Lands are, the setting of these two stories, is properly revealed in this very piece, because it is the lynchpin to the tale itself. Please be patient if any of the following explanation sounds vague, as I like to avoid spoilers in this entries if I can. I'm assuming not everyone has read the subject of today's post yet and are perhaps deciding on reading them afterwards.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Three Gifts of the White Wolf" is about a dying warrior named Sagest wandering the lands, searching for a place to die. His time is up, and he only wishes to stop his suffering and move on from this place where only horrors roam. What he meets along the way are challenges he did not expect and revelations he never considered, all before ending his quest in a way the Black Lands never would have allowed. It's a quest of a different sort.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've not been very subtle in the past as to what I consider the true name of the Nameless Kingdom, (which has been mentioned in stories outside of these two) or where it comes from, but this tale reveals it all, so I will leave that bit of trivia for readers to discover for themselves. Regardless, the titular "gifts" are meant to be permanent, always there, even if not visible to the naked eye, and are obtainable by those who are willing to seek them out. There are always answers and paths we might not have thought of in our lives that can lead us the strangest of places. All we have to do is keep alert and always get up again. There's always another way out.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Three Gifts of the White Wolf" is part fairy tale and part sword and sorcery story, but I don't consider those things all that separate from each other in the first place. Mainly, this is a story that needed to be told, and I'm glad I was finally able to finish it and deliver it to readers. As mentioned before, I'd been waiting for my chance for a while. The idea for this release thankfully came to me in a way that gave both these stories proper exposure to readers. And in this story's case, you can read it for yourself for the first time ever!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJuyhUQbE8cSYTjzk3snW29L1LIisT4U6Roj4cA5JtA-USJ3sdDW6uwEC5UOHx2zz-RQBM9CL3VPb8FlfLLOS2Dhf3ycCHh_VP1CleMxl2wQPjePd3PRohwfD-bKWEbkfOlZh6leSC6qXJqlX1l4S1aB_7tmO9KfbWXGxWhVj_0eG2fr1_hcucuqqzW1AX/s612/gettyimages-1304442517-612x612.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJuyhUQbE8cSYTjzk3snW29L1LIisT4U6Roj4cA5JtA-USJ3sdDW6uwEC5UOHx2zz-RQBM9CL3VPb8FlfLLOS2Dhf3ycCHh_VP1CleMxl2wQPjePd3PRohwfD-bKWEbkfOlZh6leSC6qXJqlX1l4S1aB_7tmO9KfbWXGxWhVj_0eG2fr1_hcucuqqzW1AX/s16000/gettyimages-1304442517-612x612.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The original painting of the "Coast of Brittany" by Eugene Boudin, 1870</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>As for why this story was specifically chosen to be in a package with "Duel On Dalpha" instead of anything else, such an explanation is not quite so obvious on the surface. However, I can assure you that the two of them have connections under the surface.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aside from the endings having much in common with each other, and both dealing with certain epic events of history that happened long before either protagonist were even born, each story is also about the fact that mistakes of the past, some of which said protagonists had no control over, will always roll out to affect the present in unexpected ways. How we deal with those mistakes also carries on into what the future will be like for those who come after us.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am very proud of both of these adventures, and am more than pleased that I found a way to release them to readers in a unique package. For the longest time, it felt like I would be sitting on them forever. Thankfully, you can now not only get them in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">eBook</a> form, but also in the unfortunately rare <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Pocket Paperback</a> edition. Now anyone can finally enjoy two tales taking place across eternity from the other, yet both with the same general ethos and sense of place. All in all, I'm fortunate to have been given the inspiration to write them at all in the first place.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for the Black Lands themselves, they might very well return in another story in the future, but the stories set in it aren't a proper series like say, the <i>Galactic Enforcer</i> or <i>Night Rhythms</i> stories are. They are, after all, hinted at in other tales I've written. Perhaps even in <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/knights-of-the-end/paperback/product-844n464.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">the first book I ever published</a>. It is just a setting that may potentially be visited again in the future.</div><div><br /></div><div>For now, however, we shall leave them behind.</div><div><br /></div><div>Don't let this release or these entries fool you into thinking that I don't have plenty of material on the way. There are a few more pieces on the side, in production, and waiting in the pipeline still to be jotted down. I've got a lot to put out even still.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the <i>Star Wanderers</i> publication coming in the near future in tandem with a tale in Cirsova issue #20, as well as other projects yet to be revealed, I am looking to having had put out around 25(!) total short stories by the end of 2024. This does not even include the novels still backlogged in the process. Suffice to say, I have many more on the way even after these, but I still have to get back to them and get them ready for you. That said, obviously more <i>Story Sheets</i> entries will be on the way when I do finally put them out. I look forward to sharing more stories with you when the time comes. This series is always a fun time.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for today! Thank you for all your support and for reading these stories in the first place. It is only thanks to you that I can keep it up.</div><div><br /></div><div>So lets reach even higher. Next time we'll stretch out touch the stars themselves. It'll be quite the journey, just you wait and see!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Three Gifts of the White Wolf is available in Two Adventures Across Eternity in both eBook form</a> as well as <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">an exclusive Pocket Paperback edition!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7g-uMFCS1UQZKfFErb13rELyI2OrDPzK7a9P0rDAaSLFeEaTCXIZmS3tjxIoCQa8h0HTEw7PHSRNrxCV3ayaIvwu-ntV3LakmIBxx3i1WN8jMC1_jMfyRrJViJLay2vfl8sPeNI-9AV-U3iQXUa6CSs7h6ZV4pHREdAjFhRFBJn-ADmAz1ypsyi5NeuZJ/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-76831936838743608872024-01-20T13:51:00.000-05:002024-01-20T13:51:00.245-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ It's in the Game!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qoVVB3Va5kw" width="320" youtube-src-id="qoVVB3Va5kw"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>It's the weekend! Let us talk about something a bit different.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've talked a lot here about decline over the years, and that is a subject worth addressing, but now it is the time to finally discuss what it takes to reclaim what has been lost. Now that the 2020s are rolling out, we're going to make this the decade where everything finally changes.</div><div><br /></div><div>While we've discussed the NewPub phenomenon many times before, we haven't quite discussed another medium that, while commercially successful, is in the final stages before its own collapse. That industry, of course, is video games.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though video games have been decried for many years as frivolous and useless (as every medium has at one point by the people who provably cannot preserve culture at all), there is a very real formula and meticulous design process that comes from them. Despite current trends, there was a lot more to video games that poorly written Z-movies that contain a few button presses to make scripts happen. In fact, when the industry ran on arcade design was when it reached its peak.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, if you've played video games since the death of the arcades, you've noticed a decline in creativity since the Sega Dreamcast died and arcade faded from prominence in the '00s. I am not talking about technology or graphic fidelity, I am talking about the gameplay itself. Gameplay loops (such as they are today) barely exist anymore and have been replaced with carrot on a stick drudgery to get from one cutscene to the next--a trend that began with the first 3D console generation but only started to take over once HD consoles came in.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvWqxy_y2J5akx9-ALOyEk9tSaHeyATwwHjsFBuvH9Au_bR3T00TSdMyNUGZ7IkUGDGWHob8E592cCyrYPtjtf5zVRzD1umHlhS0Sge7672webLZ4VjbXbmRMHs-NMUpd9RuVBUdCSWMwUlvKD94PwoNNOLjrNcxUPQ5LW35n2SMQBCCyrLkPwSmVWlhf/s1061/1995nostalgia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvWqxy_y2J5akx9-ALOyEk9tSaHeyATwwHjsFBuvH9Au_bR3T00TSdMyNUGZ7IkUGDGWHob8E592cCyrYPtjtf5zVRzD1umHlhS0Sge7672webLZ4VjbXbmRMHs-NMUpd9RuVBUdCSWMwUlvKD94PwoNNOLjrNcxUPQ5LW35n2SMQBCCyrLkPwSmVWlhf/w422-h640/1995nostalgia.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What is missing from today that we used to have isn't that obvious</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>This was the era when countless middle market publishers and developers closed up shop, parting the medium in two between AAA cinematic experience and low budget indie game. In other words, this killed creativity almost overnight. If you can think of a big name AAA game in the last three console generations with a new gameplay experience (that isn't made by Nintendo) then I would be surprised. Even more so if you can name more than five. It simply doesn't happen anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a result of this shift, the industry has been in a creative rut, praising pointless downgraded remakes of old perfectly fine games because they have pointless modern bells and whistles. You should not be buying a new $599 US Dollar console and expecting to play remade and dumbed down games from 2004 on it.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what caused this? I would recommend watching the video above. It is the loss of arcade design that the entire medium was built off of. Just like "pulp" became a dirty word in OldPub in order to denigrate adventure stories, arcade design has been sold as cheap and lesser since at least the mid-90s thanks to water carrying game journos. In other words, you were sold a lie. the entire collapse that video games are about to suffer through (or already are, depending on your perspective) will be caused by this abandonment of what made the medium what it was.</div><div><br /></div><div>This has happened more than enough times in other mediums for anyone to understand it at this point. The further you stray from your roots, the more you risk losing them, and video games have definitely lost that link and have lost it some time ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though you might be wondering, what about indie? Well, it's not as easy as all that. Check the video yourself and see why simply being 2D and having pixel art isn't quite the same as classic arcade design and why it's not quite enough. There was more to classic game design than "tightening up the graphics on level 4" as the old saying goes.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you're a developer yourself, definitely take in the above information and think it over. How much have we lost along the way that we don't even consider anymore? How far can we really push forward without solid ground to stand on? Food for thought.</div><div><br /></div><div>All of our industries are going to have to start asking those questions if they want to have a future. There is little choice left but to look back and carry forward again. The only other option stagnancy has, is death.</div><div><br /></div><div>That should be the last thing we want for any medium. We've already lost a lot, at some point we're going to have to start gaining again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, have yourself a good weekend and I will see you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1818753454"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two tales of high adventure across time and space for $0.99!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkUK8OZrPDY5ASEO_9h-1k88V8kJ405iPLZBIRBq3KpWsCc5jXuJt2ykQ6lSPhFw3Ctgin_Ac0PbU0_OUip4BrusObc_YlPgFNuRKZMnE9yC-V18PehKSLNuU4bV9E4ImTFEBUVhwZ2Xoywx6uzB8SeR98BpdhUo4DVR1UnwDak5Fq-aYmHYXMHOPBsJqc/w640-h532/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-32023660081731957662024-01-18T14:09:00.003-05:002024-01-18T14:09:34.406-05:00Story Sheets: "Duel On Dalpha"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOC4gbKCXRKrJKD4wKqQ4ivpus_9OR08t7R3AcQ0Ip17Fxq8u8iACmTd0FH2hxTRCcgGk36PT7cvlLQ8GLqEIJU427_28Vp6ksxSWI9U3KC7o0cEGghUj0bb0LOFPlDg7ArisUJhRQHXVQuZMpNB5ALTjmUufg_350GjN2ooEmrejuLzZyoqJYHN1We3P/s568/StorySheetslogo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="568" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOC4gbKCXRKrJKD4wKqQ4ivpus_9OR08t7R3AcQ0Ip17Fxq8u8iACmTd0FH2hxTRCcgGk36PT7cvlLQ8GLqEIJU427_28Vp6ksxSWI9U3KC7o0cEGghUj0bb0LOFPlDg7ArisUJhRQHXVQuZMpNB5ALTjmUufg_350GjN2ooEmrejuLzZyoqJYHN1We3P/w640-h310/StorySheetslogo.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Finally I'm free from the doldrums of January for a few moments! I don't know what else to say except there is a reason I try to put more uplifting and hopeful posts out this month because it tends to be a very lousy time both weather and morale-wise. So today we are going to talk about something a little different than we have recently.</div><div><br /></div><div>I just realized in the last week that it's been awhile since I've talked about stories themselves around here. Mostly it's because I've been distracted writing about other things and dealing with current WIP projects, but that doesn't mean I can't spare some time to talk about a tale I've never really gotten around to discussing even though most of you are very familiar with it by now.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's time to bring back "Story Sheets," my post series focused on the stories I've written. It's more than due.</div><div><br /></div><div>What better story to restart this series with than the recently re-released "Duel On Dalpha" in the collection <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two Adventures Across Eternity</a></i> that I put out as a bonus at the tail end of 2023? Discussing this one has been a long time coming.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, I'm not so certain I can reveal a whole lot beyond the surface level. It's honestly just a really cool story that I think more people should read.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be real, I actually don't know why I never wrote a piece like this on "Duel On Dalpha" before. It must have either entirely slipped my mind, or maybe it was the fact I didn't want to spoil it for non-subscribers to the newsletter back then. It could be anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's enough of that, let us get into the heart of it. Where did this story come from and why exactly does it exist?</div><div><br /></div><div>For that, we have to go back to 2020!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupg0fW-oP5Vkeh5VN6TzqZBNrQ9G51poSs54bz9ZiUw4NIpfvjrlBMLviuHKBR62MfrCM3JhNvJSLB9bZQCuhLm6TvM0JfqBgnXXsu2ZS-8N8XwLJ64XM7aRGW2pPTxW5PGyDmsPk2_Z9boMr49H19OpPlG18aq0wn9ylj6xcVPoIzyiNU5Zrm_U3NCK8/s1600/Duel%20on%20Dalpha%20Cover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1131" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupg0fW-oP5Vkeh5VN6TzqZBNrQ9G51poSs54bz9ZiUw4NIpfvjrlBMLviuHKBR62MfrCM3JhNvJSLB9bZQCuhLm6TvM0JfqBgnXXsu2ZS-8N8XwLJ64XM7aRGW2pPTxW5PGyDmsPk2_Z9boMr49H19OpPlG18aq0wn9ylj6xcVPoIzyiNU5Zrm_U3NCK8/w283-h400/Duel%20on%20Dalpha%20Cover.png" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The original release, cover by ArtAnon</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Those who have read any of the short stories I've written know that I tend to set them in obscure places in the corner of nowhere starring regular people. I frequently choose bizarre places one might never come across outside of their imagination, or maybe somewhere they do but never consider for anything other than what it is on the surface. I do this because it's fun to highlight that the incredible, the weird, and the amazing, can truly happen anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Duel On Dalpha" is like that, but was a bit more ambitious for me at the time. If I recall correctly, I believe this was the first story I'd written that takes place on another planet. It hasn't been the last, but it definitely set the blueprint for the type of intergalactic tale I enjoy writing.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a reminder, it was recently re-released in the $0.99 collection <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two Adventures Across Eternity</a></i>, due to the fact that I had no other outlet left to give it out to subscribers. Also, I wanted to get it in print properly.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, back in 2020 (Wow, it's been almost half a decade), I put "Duel On Dalpha" exclusively out for subscribers. It ended up being very popular among subscribers, but it's also been nearly half a decade. It is time to both give it a proper look back and make it more readily available.</div><div><br /></div><div>I said this about it <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2020/05/goodbye-oldpub-welcome-to-newpub.html" target="_blank">in this post</a> at the time it was first released:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>"I was inspired to make this via many different sources. Mainly I liked the idea of a western horror in a swamp with aliens and giant robots. There's plenty of action, of course. Don't think that I don't know what my readers enjoy.<br /><br />"To explain where this came from is a bit tough. Most ideas I have for stories are just ones that come to me when I least expect them. This is one I had a while back but had to put on the back-burner while writing so many other things last year. As I let it simmer I had more and more of an idea what it was to be about."</i></blockquote><br /><br />Even at the time, it was difficult to describe the origins of this story. Usually in "Story Sheets" I go through the entire process of what lead the tale to its final state, but there was no clear process here. The long and short of it is that it just came to me one day in a dream, as the saying goes. To be serious though, I just had the story pop into my brain one say and decided to write it.<br /><div><br /></div><div>The only thing I really remember about where this story came from was that I was listening to a specific track from the PC Engine <i>Ys IV</i> soundtrack and for some reason this setting came to mind. The game itself doesn't contain this location, it's just what arrived in my brain as I was listening to it. Inspiration can be difficult to describe, in this case it's more or less the entire background of the tale.</div><div><br /></div><div>I saw a backwater planet, swamps, hidden temples, and a tucked away treasure deep inside the bowels of the world that was . . . alive? What the story eventually turned into, however, is still one barnburner of an action piece that still has those more eerie elements I first imagined. It was definitely different for me at the time, but the pieces of my older work are still quite visible.<div><br /></div><div>"Duel On Dalpha" is one of the most straightforward stories in my style that I've ever written. Shootouts, monsters, mecha, and mystical weirdness, all packed together in the tale of one old sheriff who is running low on time to do the job he needs to do. At the same time, the world he knows isn't quite what it seems--and neither is he.</div><div><br /></div><div>You might be wondering why I didn't submit this to a magazine or anthology. To understand that would have to realize that state of the market in 2020, four years ago. "Duel On Dalpha" is a full-on novelette, and there was just no market for those at the time. Much as I enjoyed writing this story, I didn't know how else to get it out to readers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unless your story was either sub 9k works or short novel length (40k words), any story that slides in that giant chasm just had no market to exist in. Even now I'm not quite sure there is one. Stories of novelette and novella length are too long for the short story market and too short for the eBook crowd. So, writers are kind of stuck here.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I continued in that old post:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><i>"I never submitted it anywhere, but I knew one thing for sure: nobody would buy this story. It is too long for the markets I usually submit to, and there is too much action for any of the other outlets to give a second glance to. This is pure entertainment, and doesn't exist to lecture the audience about anything. There wasn't any way to sell it, despite how much I love this story. That's just a reality of the modern market. Only certain types of stories are profitable, ones that fall in a specific formula, other types are simply out of luck. There is nothing normal about </i>Duel On Dalpha<i>, but I still wanted to get it out there."</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>You see, while "Duel On Dalpha" is normal for me, it's still not very normal for the market. Not that I am the most unique writer out there, but I do not write industry standard fare. Nothing I've written would be looked at twice by OldPub, and even smaller publishers would not appreciate the fact that I don't really write standard novel series. That's why this story could only really exist and be presented to you thanks to the way NewPub is now. If you want to know why I am more positive about the state of things than a lot of my peers are, it is because I've lived through this change in the market and see it more clearly now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Believe it or not, selling action stories was a lot harder back then than it is today. I was also still new enough at the short story game that I didn't have that much experience with how it worked at the time. This led to me releasing it as a bonus for newsletter subscribers. Hey, I had to give it to them somehow, and what better way than as a thank you for their support? The only reason I'm doing this is thanks to them, after all.</div><div><br /></div><div>After finally getting this tale cobbled out, I got <a href="https://brianniemeier.com/" target="_blank">Brian Niemeier</a> to edit it for me and ArtAnon to do the cover, selling it as if it was on par with my normal size books, even though it was for free.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I still think it is on par with my other works. When editing it over one last time for <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two Adventures Across Eternity</a></i> I was amazed at how well it turned out even back then, and it's still a blast to read today. In fact, I might say this would be the story to read if you've never read any of my stories before. And now you can get it with a bonus story packaged in.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Duel On Dalpha" holds up very well, but I never managed to put it out in print and after moving my newsletter to <a href="https://jdcowan.substack.com/" target="_blank">Substack</a> I also didn't have much reason to keep an older story like that up as a bonus. But I also didn't just want to start charging for something that was free before, therefore I bundled it with a new story (which I will talk about in another post) in order to justify the $0.99 it would cost on Amazon, as well as give me the opportunity to try out the <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">pocket paperback option on Lulu</a>. So now there are more ways to read it than ever before.</div><div><br /></div><div>All that to get it out again and make it more easily accessible to readers again.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2T-wNIyRRoY" width="320" youtube-src-id="2T-wNIyRRoY"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The theme that originally inspired the story</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There isn't much to talk about behind the creation to "Duel On Dalpha" because there wasn't any rational path or logic behind its creation. The story is based on a feeling, a notion, an emotion, and glimpse of a world far beyond this one that I want to catch in a passing moment in my mind. I'd like to think I did just that. When you read this one, you are transported to an alien place where things aren't quite where they seem and danger lurks about every corner. It's a glimpse of a world hidden just out of reach, but one we can find traces of if we squint hard enough.</div><div><br /></div></div><div>The 2010s was not a very imaginative decade, in fact it was very bleak overall. One of the things I wanted to do with my writing was push through the darkness encroaching on everything and bring readers to those lands of the imagination that make life so very much worth living. A land of light beyond the black lands.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, now that I think about it, this story is probably the one that most resembles where I would like to take my writing in the future, tone-wise. It's a sign of things to come. For now, however, I have other projects to get to. But that doesn't change how much "Duel On Dalpha" means to me as a story. It's why I wanted to put it out for readers again so badly, after all.</div><div><br /></div><div>The setting is one I will probably return to for other tales in the future, too. The idea of legendary knights at the end of time that were actually giants fighting forces of decaying darkness across the entire galaxy is not one that will go unused, I tell you. There are more knights than Gawain, after all. Though, again, it'll probably be awhile.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, the world of "Duel On Dalpha" is one of wonder and mystery, danger around every bend. Come visit it and see for yourself.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">"Duel On Dalpha is available in Two Adventures Across Eternity in eBook form</a> & <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">in print!</a></i></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwwYC_L6-15hBJviwb8R4cOlti0QGv0afEXGokxUTsZT8AN_MJli7dd54oHx7-3i_f1gzljD1H1poCfltPCyJOjmOzbIE1e-G1MXPl51gPgAuvpDxWGNV1iRKOZHRKQQe-Zq7IJ7dmvd3C2NxEI56SMA3LIFXxAVH-ZJTMyg-fqdfLEgchRmHMb93pBWF/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-48549290395116910372024-01-13T14:40:00.000-05:002024-01-13T14:40:41.497-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ Old Tales Spun Anew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iBoe50-U0mM" width="320" youtube-src-id="iBoe50-U0mM"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the weekend! Let us talk about adventure, though not the sort one usually talks about these days. We're going way back to the late 20th century today.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't think I have to reiterate how big the Disney Afternoon was in the late '80s and early '90s. While the company itself did not do so hot during the 1980s, they still tried whatever they could to try and stand out from the crowd. Some of that stuff holds up better than others. One of its projects was to create a block for syndicated cartoons (airing every day of the week) called the Disney Afternoon which had the goal of producing near theatrical quality animation for an entire two hour block at 65 episodes. They carved out a two hour block on the ABC network (this was before they bought it) and spent the next decade more or less owning the after school timeslot. As a result, it ended up being one of the most impressive projects of its time.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what was more impressive were the series it produced. You see, a bunch of simple gag cartoon series wouldn't be enough to hold kids' attention every day of the week (a lesson they would unfortunately forget by the end of the block's run), so why not make full-throated adventure series in the style of popular Disney comics from years past? You could also mix and match it with well known Disney characters as well as new creations. That is exactly what they did, and the final result was a smash hit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much has been said about some of the more popular entries of the block, though truth be told it was all uniformly great up until the time of <i>Gargoyles</i>, which would end up being its crowning achievement and the peak of the entire project. Believe me, that one is still great today. However, you've heard about most of these many times before: <i>DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Bonkers,</i> the aforementioned <i>Gargoyles</i>, and even the more slapstick-inspired <i>Goof Troop</i>. But little is said about what is probably the hidden gem of the entire block: <i>TaleSpin</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though the series was based on the movie based on the Kipling stories, it took quite a bit of inspiration from other sources to produce its unique setting and style. It's not quite as comedic as <i>Darkwing Duck</i>, as high energy as <i>Rescue Rangers,</i> or as full of danger as <i>DuckTales</i>, but it has its own groove where it comfortably sits in the middle of them all and can bend in different directions depending on the episode airing that day. This makes it quite an interesting series to revisit because you never quite know what you're going to get.</div><div><br /></div><div>The interesting part about <i>TaleSpin</i> is that it was probably every kid's least favorite series on the block at the time it aired, but now as adults they would easily consider it one of the best if not <i>the</i> best one. It wasn't even that kids didn't like it at the time--they liked it <i>a lot</i>. It was more that it was surrounded by <i>DuckTales, Rescue Rangers,</i> and <i>Darkwing Duck</i>, for most its run, series that appealed more to their youthful sensibilities. It's really as you grow to appreciate things like pulp adventure serials, screwball romance comedies, and general wonder, that you truly grow to <i>get it</i> in a way you couldn't when younger. It's aged extremely well.</div><div><br /></div><div>I linked the above video talking about the show's production and how it was received when it aired, and you could tell that critics even at the time disliked adventure stories. The number one criticism of the series (and pretty much the block as a whole) is how it was aping and reheating "Spielberg/Lucas adventure stories" for dumb kids. Such a thing, again, is indicative of the hatred of the pulps the mainstream press has pretty much always had, since they did not even know <i>DuckTales</i> did not originate as a cartoon in the first place. None of these series were reliant on movie formulas--they were reliant on old comic book and serial storytelling that had worked countless times before them. It was an attempt to update an old style for newer audiences. They also proved that it could still work on audiences that had no nostalgia for the format.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Disney had major success in the '90s thanks to moves like this, but it would eventually go to their heads and by the 2000s would almost implode in on themselves, relying on John Lasseter era Pixar to carry them for a good while. But for my money, the studio itself peaked here with these productions and would never quite hit these highs again. Many people consider <i>A Goofy Movie</i> a swansong to the Disney Afternoon era (since it had so many of the same people working on it) and I'd probably agree since not long after the film the block caved in on itself, dying out with the very decade it helped usher in. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, if you've not seen these old series in a while, or have young ones or relatives that have not experienced any of them, they really do hold up surprisingly well. Check out the video above for proof of that. I would still call them some of the best things the studio ever put out.</div><div><br /></div><div>Adventure and wonder never fall out of date.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for this weekend, and I'll see you next week!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1072380340"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Two more wild stories of wonder across the universe itself-- all for $0.99!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjXF3iwyC3JcHxl8T5dD-njerZvDA2MACArTMXZCqMCRiLU8Xp34tTNNpdu_YVii-FMJdWB78MbzYmi8rE-zLbcRGxzCMINuA4uDAoumq7pmSudPtNl91O3Nw94fHuH83byemGKv5H-yV4jESCKOVbikTlsX5qc-gZHj3p6aWVmJj45bQHhy7OLOl9n5qN/w400-h333/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="400" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-82935341954569425202024-01-06T13:47:00.006-05:002024-01-06T14:51:38.369-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ Mechs, Blood, and Rock n' Roll<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-_8QbncxR7s" width="320" youtube-src-id="-_8QbncxR7s"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>January might be the coldest and most boring month of the year, but it doesn't have to be. Typically it's the time to form new habits because there isn't much to distract you yet before the year starts rolling on. At the same time, it is also the time to revisit old forgotten things and learn from them before they get lost in the flood of everyday life.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the first lounge post of the year I wanted to focus on one of the strangest, yet perfectly understandable at the time, phenomenon of the late 1980s and early 1990s. No, not the Japanimation boom you might or might not remember, but s specific popular creation from it. I wanted to share with you the story behind the very unique and of its times anime OVA, <i>Bubblegum Crisis</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the story of four women working as mercenaries wearing specialized mecha/power armor called "hardsuits" to battle evil threats in a cyberpunk future world. There is also a lot of killer music, action, and heartfelt emotions along the way. It only lasted for 8 episodes before production troubles split the team of this once in a lifetime project up, but it has still remained a classic of the genre for anyone who remembers it. The series was also highly influential in ways that are still felt in the industry today.</div><div><br /></div><div>How do you appeal to guys? Pretty simple. Incredible action directed by some of the best animation of the time, attractive women that still blow away the ones in the mainstream industry today, and some of the most exciting music of the time period (in ways you might not expect), all team up to form a complete package of cool.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPCXRtzxB_56lwzL5-jkaqS2QsTnOsM9ftLjSlIgjcanp0lvk-wfAU1Qs1TWURICJxTIACllIC58yFDBfOzjyk6qPgDmeQxZJrLr_9vBO_WL-6m3G4A2QC6S8s6Jla2wV94UHcRfHQiShI8gQHV9rRhdxXRvhg7yxQiXsMLXUxsyXEWL3W7Wl13lQJPTl/s480/BubblegumCrisisBike.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPCXRtzxB_56lwzL5-jkaqS2QsTnOsM9ftLjSlIgjcanp0lvk-wfAU1Qs1TWURICJxTIACllIC58yFDBfOzjyk6qPgDmeQxZJrLr_9vBO_WL-6m3G4A2QC6S8s6Jla2wV94UHcRfHQiShI8gQHV9rRhdxXRvhg7yxQiXsMLXUxsyXEWL3W7Wl13lQJPTl/w400-h300/BubblegumCrisisBike.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Motorbikes, power armor, and beautiful women!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Appealing to the male audience can sometimes lead to things you might not expect. <i>Bubblegum Crisis</i> is one of those seminal works of Japanese anime that will probably never fully disappear. It's simply too unique and too well done to over be forgotten.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, saying <i>Bubblegum Crisis</i> is of its time seems redundant. It looks 80s, feels 80s, and oozes 80s from every orifice. That said, its roots go back further than that, and its impact lived on beyond that cultural high decade for Japan.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is why I am sharing the above video with you detailing its entire wild production history. It's a crazy story, unlike any other, and in it you will see not only the importance of cultural osmosis, but the importance of imagination and wonder to really affect people in ways that truly count. This is why younger guys can watch it today and still find a lot to take from it while being blown away by what it does.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nonetheless, if you are either a creator yourself, looking into a very specific time in culture like the 1980s, or just generally enjoy wild real life stories, I highly recommend the above history of <i>Bubblegum Crisis</i>. There was nothing quite like it and will never be again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course that doesn't mean there is no anime worth your time today. Last year's <i>Pluto</i> was excellent and one of the best anime releases in recent years, and this year seems to have than a few interesting projects on the way.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's just not quite the same as this era, and will never quite hit the same way. Not that it can, but that makes this time all the more valuable to remember. The past might be a different country but it should still be the same world. We are meant to carry on from it, and help build in new directions for generations to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, <i>Bubblegum Crisis</i> is still very cool today and you should still watch it. And really, that's all that matters.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for this weekend! See you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="goog_1172218924"></a><blockquote><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">For more stories of wonder, get yourself two for only one dollar! Journey to unknown worlds in these stories of high action and exciting adventure!</a></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Across-Eternity-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0CQY91B6C?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77LiduljZdX3cgW6i_g9WdinnlYFkgWhryjlaQIaastEF-pY6ONaVEOPPZW0MTFKK5LmUnOQamLZVIzPqQ4dWVt5Bfn06XyD8735rGz-AfP_6aKO2sty_GPq5C7_YlzokFf_ZuyAObFQgb94bWyXeW6X1IgiZ13dfCycI_x8I6zqjiznCFuunQAznBKF1q0Z9PEgV2xBhW8HEskVJNv_w9-M.vRxKqe8JdbgO24XGPDK36PemmwIjhiUZhKrfpGOVbFM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnwKNKEoHJU5rPGPPhlKa00Y6Q3b9Hq8CHxl2qMtkPqbJ7t8vElkHL9NILnROnJUjPCIiBwVKl2TtiMM8sdLXgep8kCRnwLZBh4htMJjBFxndmIB2VLhLxUx0LLt1FsLhAhTEDZcNlPuVD3eiEH3xRUGNd1RP6FhoSBZcYF52c2iUfqJL30ADxvDSfacm-/w640-h533/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-50519096495068435632024-01-04T16:52:00.000-05:002024-01-04T16:52:11.114-05:00Extinct Eagles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lT-dVa9MEt0Wfolf0U8rKafrHQ8dnK4WKzvLr9bFFrSAfqsvznQAFBfv_gLO6ukGodt8ReRmTa2KECUlNwBRtWdJGSoCGtFgy7xRMkduE4gopf09LJ0JKeGeTloZTxFoPEFCnwgl9ZoWns-GghrGdRqhAkQYWJ-9cGWsjwgR6JnjSGXWdqF3NpeNcjZh/s450/Golden-Eagle_Photo2_Michael-Ninger_Shutterstock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="450" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lT-dVa9MEt0Wfolf0U8rKafrHQ8dnK4WKzvLr9bFFrSAfqsvznQAFBfv_gLO6ukGodt8ReRmTa2KECUlNwBRtWdJGSoCGtFgy7xRMkduE4gopf09LJ0JKeGeTloZTxFoPEFCnwgl9ZoWns-GghrGdRqhAkQYWJ-9cGWsjwgR6JnjSGXWdqF3NpeNcjZh/w400-h289/Golden-Eagle_Photo2_Michael-Ninger_Shutterstock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to 2024! I hope the first few days have the month have treated you well! </div><div><br /></div><div>Let us bring in the new year with a bit of a curveball. Instead of <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/12/2023-year-end-review.html" target="_blank">talking about the previous year</a> again, we will instead discuss something entirely different.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm sure if you're reading this at all, you are very aware of Harlequin Books. Formed in the frozen wastes of Winnipeg way back in 1948 (That's a quarter of a century ago, folks) as a paperback reprinting company, they didn't stop there. Harlequin eventually grew into a titan of paperback books in the women's romance arena, where they still remain to this day. If you are a female, or know any who read, then you have certainly encountered this company before. They more or less own the entire market.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that isn't what I want to talk about today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back in 1971, the Gold Eagle line was born. Harlequin created it after the huge success of <i>The Executioner</i> books by Don Pendleton and wanted more of it. Ostensibly a men's adventure line of books, Gold Eagle existed to cultivate males in the same way Harlequin had so clearly captured females with their own books. Such a move made sense, who wouldn't want both halves of a demographic, after all. And it ended up being a great success.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I would like to tell you more about Gold Eagle itself, but finding any information about the line online is tough. Considering the nature of the internet, that should say something. There is no wiki entry, no oral history, and no traces left of it online except lists of published books. When it was closed down it feels like there was an attempt to go scorched earth of its existence entirely. So much of this you are reading today might well be based on generalization or speculation. I apologize for that, but there is little I can do on the matter.</div><div><br /></div><div>For whatever reason, it is as if the Gold Eagle imprint, and everything about it, were deliberately erased from the timeline we live in. So we will just have to go off assumptions today. All I can tell you for sure is that <i>The Executioner</i> lasted from 1969-2020, outliving Gold Eagle itself, before the industry stomped out even that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless of all of the above, I have decided on this topic because this year is <a href="http://www.jamesaxler.com/Forums/tabid/238/aft/1334/Default.aspx" target="_blank">the tenth anniversary of the closure of Gold Eagle</a>. Back in 2014 was when it was announced that the line is dying, being shut down nearly the second Harlequin itself was bought out by HarperCollins. Because, as you remember, that is how Cultural Ground Zero works and how OldPub operated back then.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the original announcement on the James Axler (the co-creator for <i>Deathlands</i>) forums a decade ago:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmTLPrXu9KAxnLh-Pnrja3erayRAo481L7gLsUGbM7A0Y__SYcR3WGiXoiOK7cSub2VBcaqsM3QHUydr-O63aMfyJzSvH-Nw2CgQ1RgU5HEHCxP-G9T9pGUtEigP_DzE4G_yiQHW4YjUBAjq0DJUHXv3rS1HcKJWtAm6rGOpVyb5F_ixhUOGiA3fzjByv/s1042/Untitled2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="1042" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmTLPrXu9KAxnLh-Pnrja3erayRAo481L7gLsUGbM7A0Y__SYcR3WGiXoiOK7cSub2VBcaqsM3QHUydr-O63aMfyJzSvH-Nw2CgQ1RgU5HEHCxP-G9T9pGUtEigP_DzE4G_yiQHW4YjUBAjq0DJUHXv3rS1HcKJWtAm6rGOpVyb5F_ixhUOGiA3fzjByv/w640-h394/Untitled2.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>For those unaware, Gold Eagle was the premiere men's adventure line of books since it was first properly established in 1971 up to the announcement of the closure in 2014. For over 40 years, nearly half a century, it was the premiere place to find men's adventure books, even when the genre was abandoned by the mainstream back in the '90s. Gold Eagle clung on long past the death of its own niche.</div><div><br /></div><div>One might figure this would be a bigger deal, attracting some sort of in depth lamentation or funeral service online, but the most that exists are posts after the fact speculating on why it died. Aside from the above short thread, there is little commentary to be found. As said before, it is as if they were just wiped clean from the industry.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what exactly was the sort of men's adventure Gold Eagle published? Well, they most invested themselves in series. Much like The Executioner series (the most popular men's adventure book series ever created), Gold Eagle focused on a franchise crafted around a character, or small cast, that dealt with episodic adventures of daring and doom. They had ghost writers writing under one pseudonym (think <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-mystery-of-missing-past.html" target="_blank">the Hardy Boys</a> or Nancy Drew), who frequently rotated which books would be written and when they would be released in what order. This, as you might imagine, led to series with as many as several hundred books in them each.</div><div><br /></div><div>No one can ever say these fellas didn't produce!</div><div><br /></div><div>There were no consistent "genres" here, either. The Mack Bolan books were action movies before the film genre fully formed (and the series itself lived decades after it died), the <i>Deathlands</i> books were post-apocalyptic adventure tales of survivors after the end, and there were also a whole slew of series that didn't make it beyond their initial three book launching stage, some of which are better than you might think. These books all had varied ideas and premises from time travel, war stories, spies, mysteries, and even <i>Tomb Raider</i> style of adventure tales. If you want to know more about some of what Gold Eagle, and other publishers of the time, put out then be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.paperbackwarrior.com/" target="_blank">Paperback Warrior site</a>. They go heavy on men's adventure book coverage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, the point is that adventure mattered first. You bought a Gold Eagle title to be thrilled, not to check boxes to be allowed into special literary clubs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Entertainment came first.</div><div><br /></div><div>It should also be noted that Gold Eagle were not alone. You can fine all sorts of such series from the time period (some of which are out of print now) such as the cult favorite <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casca_(series)" target="_blank"><i>Casca</i></a> series. The point is that there was an entire industry of men's adventure once upon a time. Gold Eagle were simply at the top of the heap.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_T2kIMCtsIERr3crVeoqdNzzanFgphRWfff3h0iTal3XwqQYVGxWEG8tiwLQ-e5hodKCTGsXj_-wT9MOwqwDSvpHzdNqifhZDRTrNGEz-J2aiABamvt_7Ox-kiwpT-j1gWD2TpdOAramBJADezUotaKesJC0pFWcnwkPih-maczodPFXY1-aG0rvQtzpA/s1319/Untitled3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="1319" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_T2kIMCtsIERr3crVeoqdNzzanFgphRWfff3h0iTal3XwqQYVGxWEG8tiwLQ-e5hodKCTGsXj_-wT9MOwqwDSvpHzdNqifhZDRTrNGEz-J2aiABamvt_7Ox-kiwpT-j1gWD2TpdOAramBJADezUotaKesJC0pFWcnwkPih-maczodPFXY1-aG0rvQtzpA/w640-h216/Untitled3.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>An example of some of their output</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>So what happened for HarperCollins to shut the line down, ending around a century of work overnight? No one really knows the reason, but there has been plenty of speculation, from competing mediums (video games and movies are always the scapegoats, despite any conclusive proof or data), to shifting tastes of the times, to publishing's abandonment of particular reader demographics, to the very real problem of falling male literacy rates thanks to poor education. Though one could agree they all have their contributions to make, the real problem is that the 1990s were where a lot of things died. <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2020/12/cultural-ground-zero.html" target="_blank">We've covered this before.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>It merely took one of the titans of OldPub getting around to buying up the last of the little guys and finally putting a stop to them before the final domino fell. Since 2014, men's adventure in OldPub no longer exists. It's dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>If I could offer my own theories as to why this happened, I think it is because the publishers have always been a bit misguided in why they were being read in the first place. They also never thought to course correct, either stubbornly clinging to antiquated ways or chasing trends to keep up with other mediums. In other words, they fell into formula head first.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't believe either movies or video games were a major factor in this. These mediums always get brought up, despite the fact that, as stated earlier, <i>The Executioner</i> was a high selling blockbuster before, during, and after, the action movie boom. It outlived that entire peak. Movies had no bearing on the success of men's adventure, if anything it attracted more readers to the books.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for video games, <i>Goosebumps</i> was the biggest thing in the world when kids were running around 3D space for the first time in <i>Super Mario 64</i> and when <i>Quake</i> was blowing people's minds. Let us not forget that video game franchises such as <i>Resident Evil</i> and <i>Halo</i> had very successful book tie-ins years after this. Not to mention there is the very successful Warhammer 40K universe which has tie-in video games all the time as well as many books on top of it. More than likely, video games also had little effect on the literacy issue. Once again, it just simply doesn't look to be the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what was the cause? It would obviously have to be the industry itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's more likely kids stopped buying books because OldPub deliberately stopped making any books for boys. By the time they hit the age to read there was little left for them being made, and their tastes had already been soured by schools pushing emasculating slop on them for so long. It's no wonder younger generations never moved on to what little men's adventure was even left by the 21st century (almost none) and never got into reading as a hobby at all. (Speaking of Goosebumps, <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2020/10/reader-beware.html" target="_blank">that was also sabotaged not long after its commercial peak</a>. OldPub really didn't want males to read anything.) How are males supposed to get into a hobby that doesn't want to appeal to them?</div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time as all this, men's adventure fell prey to the same problem comic books did. Ongoing overly-corporate stories without ending points kills any sense of drama or excitement out of a story when you know nothing really matters in the end. While this doesn't effect characters like Mack Bolan or James Bond, characters that are made for standalone, pick up and read fare, it does effect ongoing stories meant to carry on into epic book lines. And most of what men's adventure was putting out at the time were ongoing stories in the mold. Imagine how it must feel like to read all 125 books of <i>Deathlands</i> to find there is no ending and that the survivors will most likely be doomed anyway. That was part of the dwindling interest, I'm sure. Stories need endings, and they have to matter. At a certain point, it's almost like collecting brand merch for the funko pop wall instead of reading stories. And that's a problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now those old men's adventure stories are all gone, relegated to the corners of used book stores and marked up in online stores. Or they can be found on Amazon with new eBook versions that contain, of course, far inferior cover art to what came before. It's a bit of a sad end to the men's adventure era in OldPub, but that's where it is at today. Considering the entire field is now run by old urbanite women, it is no surprised they didn't see the appeal to selling to half the population that isn't them. OldPub has had an ego problem for decades.</div><div><br /></div><div>In case you forgot:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHTDiqMYoaufQS7PTBvmHZrf5FOAsjun5ZigQ3K1zW-trULA9fIbb6EULae6fJVX4Y40EC69kzOSlKSwJ4KWaGw8gbACz4cq2f4GZBtZiLQgnXQzjZfqhsau5WyvEPtVfPGdZDmHEtHCWMCjOHxAW8L9J4U9_r8DopweE6vH2JL2eGqU5yF2YJQmpiPTX/s757/WhiteWomenPub1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="757" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHTDiqMYoaufQS7PTBvmHZrf5FOAsjun5ZigQ3K1zW-trULA9fIbb6EULae6fJVX4Y40EC69kzOSlKSwJ4KWaGw8gbACz4cq2f4GZBtZiLQgnXQzjZfqhsau5WyvEPtVfPGdZDmHEtHCWMCjOHxAW8L9J4U9_r8DopweE6vH2JL2eGqU5yF2YJQmpiPTX/w640-h240/WhiteWomenPub1.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4d0u1hHfuniEDe4oaAM5RGnm04ZvwCyv9FvkKqctP8zSzNVsGKI6ZADd7ifTU8KZLHalm8QUjuWBVBSJ2-8A0jB409WGTwZcT4Ep2zyftKl5lw8abGt5IFuKExjCAfhWQRKwaNh-fD64vo0MGx4AtJXXoabnYeEJg8hSttCbJ8xq2wdxL9wWkedTlbCX/s783/WhiteWomenPub2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="783" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4d0u1hHfuniEDe4oaAM5RGnm04ZvwCyv9FvkKqctP8zSzNVsGKI6ZADd7ifTU8KZLHalm8QUjuWBVBSJ2-8A0jB409WGTwZcT4Ep2zyftKl5lw8abGt5IFuKExjCAfhWQRKwaNh-fD64vo0MGx4AtJXXoabnYeEJg8hSttCbJ8xq2wdxL9wWkedTlbCX/w640-h202/WhiteWomenPub2.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>In other words, men's adventure is dead as far as OldPub is concerned, and it isn't coming back. That era is over.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it's not dead in NewPub.</div><div><br /></div><div>All over this very blog are examples of signal boosts from <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/search/label/promotion" target="_blank">authors concentrated on putting the story first</a>. Men's adventure is very much alive. Here you can also find ideas that no one would have tried back when OldPub was the only game in town. You can find series, trilogies, short story collections, and evens standalone novels, all of which were thought taboo in the old industry. You will no longer find this level of excitement and fresh creativity on the racks of the dying chain book stores. And that is why they are dying in the first place. Readers simply have too much choice now to settle on what the people in charge tell them they can have.</div><div><br /></div><div>We don't live in the 20th century anymore. New ways are here.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been a decade since the last vestiges of male-oriented storytelling was wiped out of OldPub. Ae they doing better now? Have sales increased? Are more kids reading than ever before? Are new chain book stores opening up? Are people on the street excitedly talking about the new big bestselling book? You know the answers to all those questions. OldPub is over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even as just one simple example, StoryHack has turned to putting out <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sidearm-Sorcery-Two-Bryce-Beattie-ebook/dp/B0BZ979S7R?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PYrhzMaCmbp9AqcK_Qy77D9LxvTGFGG1MdIFDAJ__sAaEKhH1UNPZF0k8JPT5ZiUcbXLCx9CKx_cu7JSO9onQOJWt6BBdPVxH8bcNStf5OQnuxue87J8TWNPsgaS3DeUmMX0KsJR79WhMc6LkWFq_69uwcGA1QaOfheIQqfBu_EJ9v5qL50K9-Ako4mpbexRRzyEnahKgHYRCdU77W40CHbYzXs13ebSazsjMUlZHhM.FpF5TEjXiTFeQxKmJVsbusDmypxfNP6k28QQtTPpeOs&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Sidearm & Sorcery</a></i> anthologies (with a third one currently in production), focusing on hot blooded adventure masking up urban legends with sword and sorcery of the old sort. That is just one project. There is no more tired formula to be found in NewPub, it's all uncharted territory.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cirsova is one of the more infamous examples of putting <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CMD8XMZF?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_16&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense first</a>, even beyond its magazine releases. As a publisher they release off-kilter books of the sort OldPub can only dream about. <a href="https://dmrbooks.com/" target="_blank">DMR Books</a> is yet another example of this as is the recently launched <a href="https://anvilmagazine.com/anvil-magazine/" target="_blank">Anvil Magazine</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>These are also only the publishers. I haven't mentioned the <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/search/label/promotion" target="_blank">cavalcade of authors</a> pumping out new worlds and fresh characters for you to follow.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's just the very tip of iceberg.</div><div><br /></div><div>So ten years after the death of Gold Eagle, the last bastion of men's adventure in OldPub, where are we now? In a better place.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you need more signs of things turning around, you can find them. It's just not always in the places you expect. Things do not always stay the same forever.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before we leave I wanted to share this one last post from a poster on the above James Axler blog ten years ago. You can judge for yourself if things have improved after reading this ancient post. Trust me, it's a good one.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WBWRl43ImjeD42A0XmNL6cpKNPpayKKuQXN764x2nizD0luuws8eml5JR-Gwpu3TaxULaN_eJnKjY7G6tDztWWQazGsrSXMa87u-NfryOyfHG_0tOHiIuxO0v_FjAlS0blpjV1MWwlhHl_6bWfk0x61Pw-YJuoStEnBJPSq73QpDljAjXQWV5R0l4rPM/s1054/Untitled1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="1054" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_WBWRl43ImjeD42A0XmNL6cpKNPpayKKuQXN764x2nizD0luuws8eml5JR-Gwpu3TaxULaN_eJnKjY7G6tDztWWQazGsrSXMa87u-NfryOyfHG_0tOHiIuxO0v_FjAlS0blpjV1MWwlhHl_6bWfk0x61Pw-YJuoStEnBJPSq73QpDljAjXQWV5R0l4rPM/w640-h241/Untitled1.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>And this is exactly what ended up happening.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a happy new year, everyone!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1289542296"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Two extraordinary high adventures for an extraordinarily low price!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRoHgLFJP5QbJ3ktArH0n0CPdmR6bkoW49gojcet0OK6OuHFVTabXFI08ARoe9VqmzwRNspmuheBSD2PBzPZvUkTS9cMx1Wzj3qjMzGdTFy0xfhSwHe-8_XWnqY-3XPI_bYVDvmDmLnWASW_K0-7HxzgBNiYhPdCZpxAnDfE2xK2_-y82Lg2ftSu2GGH3l/w640-h532/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-35821343102342427942023-12-30T14:44:00.004-05:002023-12-30T14:44:53.637-05:00Lost Saturday Nights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0QGPQV_pZw" width="320" youtube-src-id="K0QGPQV_pZw"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to both the weekend and the end of 2023! Hard to believe it's finally over, but you made it through. Took long enough, I'd say. This has been a long one.</div><div><br /></div><div>For this last post of the year, I wanted to take you through a real blast to the past all the way from 1997. Several people online have been kind of enough to upload entire TV blocks from the last time television was worth watching, and one of them includes the Snick (Saturday Nickelodeon) block from the 1990s. It includes their entire block, commercials and all, from a time when there was still cohesiveness left in the overall culture. You will get quite the culture shock watching this today, because it really does feel like it comes from another planet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clear one of your lighter weekends aside, and spend the Saturday night doing what so many millions did decades ago when they all watched the same thing. It's quite a trip seeing such a thing today.</div><div><br /></div><div>So why did I choose to share this, never mind do so as the final post of the year? What relevance does it have now?</div><div><br /></div><div>Truth be told, I wanted to highlight what it was Gen Y was watching back in the day and why they still pine for a time that is long gone and not coming back. and make no mistake, it was all primarily Gen Y kids who were watching this back then. Millennials were rug rats or toddlers in the late '90s and Gen X were already out in the world for years at this point, so none of what you see here is aimed at them. It is aimed at a specific demographic deliberately lost to time (<a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/p/generation-y.html">though one that you can rediscover for yourself right now.</a>) What you will also see here is the last wave of television programs with actual effort put behind them, because this is the last time anyone would think they should have to work to gather audience attention instead of coast of brand worship for over two decades. This is a peek into a strange window of a time that only existed for the briefest flicker of the past century, yet it has somehow lived rent free in a generation's head ever since.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure it'll ever fully go away until Generation Y themselves are gone. This era simply impacted them too deeply.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, much of this could be just nostalgia worship, not unheard of for a member of Generation Y, as there is no shortage of such a thing rearing its head these days, but one viewing of even a segment of the above block will show you that it is more than that. There you will see the only thing Gen Y kids had for themselves: their entertainment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nickelodeon in the 1990s was a beast, <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/11/weekend-lounge-video-revolution.html" target="_blank">as we've discussed before</a>, and their success was no fluke or misplaced memory of how things were: there was a lot of effort behind the scenes to get things running. The commercials were the same. Effort was put across everywhere to make things come across so effortless. Though these are commercials, one can see by the energetic camera sweeps and angles, the dynamic music, and even various mediums from live action, animation, and even Claymation, on top of many other forms, that they meant business. Now if you look at a commercial it is the same rehashed State Farm one from twenty years ago only with quirky Millennial dialogue and winking humor that was tired back in the '00s. They truly don't make them like this anymore. To be honest, it's probably because they can't. A lot of this seemingly simple stuff is not being passed on and is falling into obscurity. Eventually we're going to have to reinvent the wheel, yet again.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I digress.</div><div><br /></div><div>You could be cynical about this old era and say such things were created purely for monetary gain and contained no artistry in them, and that would be fair to an extent, but that's underselling how much work was put into this stuff. They still had to use attractive aesthetics and elbow grease to get this stuff off the ground, and you can find no shortage of behind the scenes footage now that will blow you away with the amount of effort put in. Modern programming, but contrast, might as well be made by AI (and, honestly, probably already is) due to how lazy and predictable it has become. None of it carries over anything made back then.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I'm saying is that I'm not just sharing this for nostalgic reasons. Though Nickelodeon would, in a few short years after this, fall off a cliff into mediocrity after handing the reins to weird perverts and suits that truly didn't care at all about anything but rehashes for an endless money pipeline, there is a reason its life up until the end of the 1990s engendered much respect from its audience. No one celebrates the Nickelodeon of today, not even they do, it is always the '90s that is remembered. Their entire image today is built upon your memories of the 1990s, for instance. That is how much they know they have little to offer otherwise.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, after being bought by Viacom in the mid-90s, the network slowly devolved to the point where it became a walking corpse of mediocrity and stale product. That is where it remained for around two decades, but it says a lot that those early years still are fondly remembered long after everyone stopped watching the network.</div><div><br /></div><div>And long after kids stopped watching TV at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcJwQeqVUQCTadaSf3p9jy2T1maFo3ya-UvGOotPzR4mo_XEUoLqOw_WMx-vwMeNYO9wCJe6le9VDVsdvG5PIBy_FIMCMzJyHIPVlLtT5YOyBGUdK97tN_HhJAvwAtKpahoCvSxnXrtaUhtsfPLzaQm_is-sJdXPpnJA3MXXcN51kDPaXb3PpqWHIVwBi/s744/CartoonsAreDead.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="744" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcJwQeqVUQCTadaSf3p9jy2T1maFo3ya-UvGOotPzR4mo_XEUoLqOw_WMx-vwMeNYO9wCJe6le9VDVsdvG5PIBy_FIMCMzJyHIPVlLtT5YOyBGUdK97tN_HhJAvwAtKpahoCvSxnXrtaUhtsfPLzaQm_is-sJdXPpnJA3MXXcN51kDPaXb3PpqWHIVwBi/w640-h258/CartoonsAreDead.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>So what this post is meant to do is give you one last look at a time currently fading away into the past as we also move into a new era. We're about to leave the early 2020s for the mid-20s, closing in on 30 years from Cultural Ground Zero and wrapping up the epilogue of modernity. In a sense this is meant to put this rapidly disappearing era into context of where we are today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though I do believe there are clear examples of us <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/12/2023-year-end-review.html" target="_blank">finally moving out of this dead state</a>, there is still much work to be done. Only by looking into and remembering that which worked in the past can we even hope to build something better to begin with. As mentioned above, I think we're on the road to doing just that now. It's only by recognizing where we've gone wrong that we can find the right point to build from again and start from there.</div><div><br /></div><div>You might wonder why something as frivolous as children's television blocks and restaurants that had their peak a quarter of a century ago matter today, and I can tell you the simple reason why--everything matters. Not everything is the equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling or the Iraq War in how it affected world events going forward, but events that affect those on a personal level also affects how they will act in the future and who they will eventually become. Though their past was weaponized against the same generation in order to save Brand Names and corporations run by those who had nothing to do with any of said products' success in the first place, it doesn't change the fact that they were able to do this <i>at all</i> for a good reason.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even more than aging Gen Y kids, it is the corporations that cannot risk having their customers forget the past. It is all they have left after spending two decades dismantling everything that built them up. They need these Pizza Hut Classics now because they have no future without them as all else melts into a generic grey goo nothingness. And even the more oblivious and out of touch executives have to know this by now.</div><div><br /></div><div>That Gen Y still remembers so much of the entertainment they grew up with when most every other generation doesn't, is partially because theirs was made by craftsmen at the peak of their game using everything that came before them to make something fresh. It wasn't just one area of the world, either. Remember that the 1980s through 1990s was also the peak popularity period of Japanese anime which also cracked the market overseas for the first time before their bubble burst, not to mention this was when video games also broke out big in a way no one expected. It was also the last period the record industry had any relevance outside of psyop'd urbanite teenage girls (and wannabe urbanite teenage girls) and the last time the blockbuster movie could guarantee a huge return due to the ubiquitous nature of rentals as well cable airings pumped into their coffers, despite the clear overall drop-off in quality from the decade before. In other words, Gen Y still remembers what it was like, even when they were told they are remembering it wrong by those who should know better, and don't. They grew up in the best toybox the world has ever seen, and it's hard to put that aside now that the toybox is long since broken and left empty.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, as has been pointed out before, we are at the end of the irony age, where Gen Y is now making the decision to finally be sincere for once or face the growing suicide rate that they currently lead in. This has been a long process of decay that's finally hit rock bottom. Remember also that <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/10/ten-years-gone.html" target="_blank">Gen Y spent the 2010s destroying themselves</a>. Now they are either waking up, or choosing to do the worst to themselves to avoid facing the truth of the situation. The toybox is not only gone, but it's all they have left. The only solution, therefore, is to build something better.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 2020s, in other words, has to be the period in which Gen Y finally becomes the generation we need them to be. This is their last chance, and I think they all know it. It is truly do or die time. No longer can we afford to be the butt of a long-lasting joke by people who hate us. We need to put them aside and start building our own future.</div><div><br /></div><div>My generation grew up with the greatest toys of all time, but we also grew up with the worst personal and spiritual life up to that point in modernity. We didn't know how to fill the void we were left with when the material world dumped us around the time 9/11 showed us that there was no promised Utopia of endless progress coming. This might be why so many Millennials might not realize just why the '00s was hated as much as they were. They weren't around to see the overnight switch from a hopeful future into a misery mire of poisonous vitriol that clung to our souls for the past two decades. So many of them think it was always this way, because it's all they've ever known, but it's not. We have to do more than just expect misery as the baseline.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nonetheless, it continued like this for a long time. The future looked as bleak as the present was, and with the ever-common zipper blues and the growing destruction of cohesive communities through legalized vice and mix-and match replaceable population, you are left with no one to trust or believe in as the ceiling caves in on you. Where else was a Gen Y kid supposed to go in this bizarre wrong timeline they could never have possibly seen coming? So they hid in the corner with their toys. And that's where they've been holed up ever since.</div><div><br /></div><div>But screaming about how you want to be left alone with your old toys is not going to save you from the people who abandoned you in the first place. And with the current meltdown of just about every entertainment industry, as less and less people partake in it, it appears that we are finally learning this truth. Those days are gone, and they're not coming back. We need to create better ones, ones built on more than the mistakes of the past.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwihPNlOvXIuDTq9KwpHftpISzcjBo3o45b0KX1-0PocWOMo0uUPFvYhDGK5pXUZYTZUkmlQIwOU8kJzWC0gNy3lptju_L-hL9TCJaYNtzrnRxCbdW5QB9aUeFnsUDC5OlzLTG3qZn-vb1C-Sfw_m14Oxp7zFWSr5kUtPuoPt0EqxDwSxLZTCHZDAnZEM/s1600/download%20(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwihPNlOvXIuDTq9KwpHftpISzcjBo3o45b0KX1-0PocWOMo0uUPFvYhDGK5pXUZYTZUkmlQIwOU8kJzWC0gNy3lptju_L-hL9TCJaYNtzrnRxCbdW5QB9aUeFnsUDC5OlzLTG3qZn-vb1C-Sfw_m14Oxp7zFWSr5kUtPuoPt0EqxDwSxLZTCHZDAnZEM/w640-h360/download%20(6).jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Though there are still some signs we are trapped in a prison of our own making. Some of us simply do not want to leave the 20th century behind, and it shows.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was a recent blowup on social media about a poorly made pinup calendar that was ferociously defended on the grounds that late '90s sexual morals is actually wholesome and pure and that anyone against it must be a prude who hates sex, or whatever lazy outdated cliché you can think of. They simply wanted to excuse vice through bad craftsmanship because they want to continue playing in that broken toybox. They cannot let it go.</div><div><br /></div><div>The truth is that these Gen Y kids weren't just defending the poorly made calendar itself, they were defending their dead ideals and hopes of keeping performative Man Show parody masculinity alive, because it's all they know. They don't want to build a better future, they want to preserve the trotted parts of the past with everything else. Even now, so many of us live off dead stereotypes of the 20th century and think there is a future here. </div><div><br /></div><div>There isn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to live in a healthy society, if you want to grow, and, most of all, if you <i>finally</i> want to move on from the ever-present ghost of the 20th century, you have to put the past where it belongs. This means building off what worked, discarding what didn't, and remembering what ideals and chosen paths lead to which end result. Those defending an awful calendar aren't doing that, they just want to be left alone with their old broken toys. Woe to those who call a spade a spade.</div><div><br /></div><div>But if we're looking at the 20th century objectively, and where the populace is now. How they live off of sugar, alcohol, pills, and porn, in a world of alienation and atomization, then we can safely conclude this path led to where we are now and is a failure. Therefore, that is not what we should be looking to preserve from that time period. It is that simple. There is no argument here.</div><div><br /></div><div>When you look at something like an old Nickelodeon block from ages ago, you do it to see what was there back then that isn't anymore. What was lost along the way, what can be salvaged, and what can be left to the mists of times. You do not mindlessly rehash it wholesale or throw it all away in the trash, because that is not how anything is built. The past is more than a freezer of dead memories to be thawed out and refrozen whenever you desire, and it is more than a skinsuit to be worn to manipulate others. It is a buried treasure chest that contains just as much gold as it does rusted pieces that didn't survive through the ages. That's just how it goes. It is up to us to parse through it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Humanity is built on traditions carried forward just as much as it is on ideas tempered with over time. We do this to cast off what doesn't work while keeping what does. That is how we grow at all. The 20th century was defined by Doing The Opposite, and as a consequence, ended up being a failure overall. I'm pretty confident that we are now far enough removed from the era to finally reassess it as such. If we want to salvage that time as more than just a mistake worth burning to the ground then we are going to have to preserve the things that matter, and not continue on with old mistakes. A lot will have to be ejected before we can build right again.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've long since passed the point where we can afford to keep traveling that dead end path. It's time to take from the past and build in the present for a brighter future. It is time for better ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>As we head into 2024, and reach the mid-20s, let us finally make our mark on the present and build for the future. This time we'll do it right. I know we can.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a Happy New Years, and I'll see you in 2024!</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep your chin up. Good things are on the way!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cd-ch_nFZUA" width="320" youtube-src-id="Cd-ch_nFZUA"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_506021303"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Get yourself on last treat for 2023! Two stories of adventures across the span of space and time for $0.99!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglyAlHw8SJxYvT_cuIOQwZZeceUn284UsIKOxEJM-2P-GDGDC-SW4YVJn6yLQUX_frTdQWqqEBzF_t9zY2pY9OUhGbsO1N9suEs78tWH-oxsTzMddwzwG7nCQIRVXBYwH3zf-CE7LCC_twLxzqZdtWZ3YHcEXzz7kfp_U6Inwdf7f-YRJN26piS-RTGfrY/w640-h532/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-44003390384022984172023-12-28T12:30:00.000-05:002023-12-28T12:30:15.109-05:002023 Year End Review<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVsc05Zh5h7pQCeWedqdP512AZ9hUp6HWfvAH7Wq-xVvodzNxVHer9BYHBie5EIH2QiBBBuP6YQStp2O8LaVPAwEqNYdLIw0_OjH8HnLM-vCuobjlU_exT5yXOrvgOm6iF03Bg5wTwWxG_Y7FYagX269ZeN9Ti1w0SI_VVhRLRrIEXw_2ClHl-y_vTyJy_/s5438/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="3600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVsc05Zh5h7pQCeWedqdP512AZ9hUp6HWfvAH7Wq-xVvodzNxVHer9BYHBie5EIH2QiBBBuP6YQStp2O8LaVPAwEqNYdLIw0_OjH8HnLM-vCuobjlU_exT5yXOrvgOm6iF03Bg5wTwWxG_Y7FYagX269ZeN9Ti1w0SI_VVhRLRrIEXw_2ClHl-y_vTyJy_/w265-h400/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">Where most of my effort was put towards</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Well, we did it. 2023 is just about over. We somehow got through another year. It's a bit hard to believe, because 2023 felt rather long to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though the blog was surprisingly active this year, it didn't actually take up a lot of my time. As mentioned above, most of my focus was on both my successful Kickstarter campaign which tied into releasing four books to readers, as well as fulfilling reward tiers. I am proud to say now that as 2023 wraps up, every backer has been fulfilled and the campaign has been completed. I also sent out quite a lot of books, which was nice. If you missed it, you can still get the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn" target="_blank">eBook versions</a> of the <i>Gemini Man</i> series on amazon, as well as a physical <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">omnibus version</a> of all four in one package. Writer Ben Espen even wrote an excellent review of the third book recently that you can check out <a href="https://www.benespen.com/gemini-outsider-book-review/" target="_blank">here</a>. He plans on covering all four eventually, but they are all worth reading.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of the <i>Gemini Man</i> series, I should remind readers that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gemini-Destroyer-Epilogue-Man-Book-ebook/dp/B0CLNHWG31?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9hmZt9rTO7WoPUt4KU6bersJVmdVpuHA-chaNHNTHd15YEnIdcaBnFJBwWI7lrfq4mFJ2cIQuCWZwpCuzr_qxlKoTwx8uUPG4xKPb0yb3I2tBIOKFdXkmkXGdUCAzauQfw_aNKOmApGI-w9yQhr0UrBqlsT_0JtcObo4Wfqjc-feyI-c_8d_EqwXhGI31U3X_3cse94VXoUSQXBc0M73yKge1TZPaxGRYTEANBZwdag.4g2v7ZumoeIMdA_czWACV44jJwRA6lpUghyXDS-QvaM&dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank">Book 4</a> will no longer be $0.99 when January rolls around. Its price will return to matching the other books in the series. So you better jump on it now!</div><div><br /></div><div>But there are other things to discuss.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I wanted to do today was look back at the previous year and see if any of my hopes or predictions came true. Unlike some of the previous years, however, I wanted to look at the scene more generally. Going point by point would not only be boring but very repetitive. So let's go back to January and see <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-is-here.html" target="_blank">my very first post of the year</a> and give it the once over. What ended up coming true, and what ended up never happening?</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, right off the bat I can say that our <a href="https://cannoncruisers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cannon Cruisers</a> podcast did not end like I predicted, but it is still ending . . . <i>kind of</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>You see, since 2017, we've done Cannon Cruisers almost weekly on a pretty tight schedule. For over half a decade we recorded 300 episodes and covered about as many movies, both Cannon Films and not, but also mostly centered on that specific time period when they were around. In my opinion, we successfully captured and analyzed an entire era unlike any other in the film world. Once we finish our final run this month, the fifth episode of five is due out this New Years Eve, we will then continue into January and February with our big blowout final episodes as we finally hit episode 300 between our Cannon and Non-Cannon episodes. Then the original series will come to an end.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reason for this is that being mainly about Cannon Films, we've more or less run out of movies to cover on a consistent basis. At the same time, there are other types of similar films we want to go over, so after our 300th episode, we will combine our two subseries and episode counts into one and start over with episode 1 instead of episode 301. This way we can cover just about anything we want to and take the series at a more leisurely pace. That said, we will still focus more on older films and probably still from around the same era. Neither of us really watches much that is new anymore, so our interests won't stray too afield of what we are doing now. Regardless, Cannon Cruisers <i>is</i> ending, but it also <i>isn't</i>. Please enjoy our last batch of normal episodes coming soon. They're all already recorded and in the queue.</div><div><br /></div><div>As far as writing, I'm sure everyone reading this knows that what I publish is rarely ever my most recent writings. This year I wrote a good bit of stories, some of which will hopefully be published in 2024. If not, then hopefully sooner than later. In fact, as I'm writing this, last night I lost my internet for about an hour and spent the time writing a short story. When I finished, the internet returned. Needless to say, I've got quite a lot of material still left to publish.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtO0Epcr4M2QjAaEfYgHJcPNVM4gAVpUSObluUoQJAgMnl1ON5GUVdETvdWYpQXh588FGYMBzI35ccMlZcshcWV7KpgCzutrxOOt7_kF7Q5gcyWLq8uNYrfgI0wixXVghxCcMG2Uz6b56ihQi8mN6QnjXzqa054U5wfgI5jSKV3PvnL9MZhHC9OrkuZRN/s820/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="582" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtO0Epcr4M2QjAaEfYgHJcPNVM4gAVpUSObluUoQJAgMnl1ON5GUVdETvdWYpQXh588FGYMBzI35ccMlZcshcWV7KpgCzutrxOOt7_kF7Q5gcyWLq8uNYrfgI0wixXVghxCcMG2Uz6b56ihQi8mN6QnjXzqa054U5wfgI5jSKV3PvnL9MZhHC9OrkuZRN/w454-h640/Untitled.png" width="454" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/search?contributor=JD+Cowan&page=1&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00" target="_blank">Six of my books in Pocket Paperback format!</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>One of the big things coming in 2024 is going to be <a href="https://cirsova.wordpress.com/2023/12/26/merry-christmas-whats-in-store-for-2024/" target="_blank">Cirsova publishing my next book</a>, <i>Star Wanderers</i>. This is a collection of stories, some of which you might have read, but most definitely not all. You'll learn more about it as the year goes on. I'm really proud of this one. I think these are some of the best stories I've written so far.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of Cirsova, I also have another story coming in issue #20 of the magazine. It is called "Mirage Carousal", and is a wild one. This will be my second appearance in the magazine, which is very exciting to me. I also have other stories ready to submit to other publications, but nothing is open for submissions right now so they will have to wait.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since January is usually incredibly slow, that is when I tend to spend the time writing a project that I wouldn't have the opportunity to in the busier times of the year. I have just the sort of project in mind ready to so. Once that one is done, it is time to finally move on into my next proper series. It's been a while, and I really want to get to it. Problem is, the muse is telling me other things must be done first. I can't just ignore that.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those who don't know, before Silver Empire went under and handed me back <i>Gemini Man</i>, I had already began the work on my next series. I had even written the first book. However, after putting out the entire previous project via crowdfunding, I am now a year older and wiser and now have solidified more things about it that I was unsure about before. The vision for the series is clear, and I am excited to finally get to it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Therefore, I will go on to write the second book and then return to the first for appropriate rewrites. Luckily enough, the changes do not really affect the first book very much, just the rest going forward. Like <i>Gemini Man</i>, this series will also be four books long. Unlike <i>Gemini Man</i>, however, it is being planned that way from the beginning.</div><div><br /></div><div>If all goes according to plan, Book One of this new series should hopefully be ready before the end of 2024. As long as nothing else goes wrong, that is! I can't say I expected to have to put out an entire series over the course of 2023, after all.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, returning to <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-is-here.html" target="_blank">my first post from 2023</a>, there were some premonitions made that are quite interesting reading them over again today. Let's go over them right now.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"The mainstream's obsession with reboots and subversive relaunches has more or less run out of gas. Trying to pretend the newest <i>Ferngully</i> remake is going to have any sort of cultural impact today when it didn't over a decade ago is a cope to the fact that the old era is already over. The wider culture has moved past that era, even if those in charge want to continue to pretend it hasn't. We are in the position to build something new, and a lot of us are doing just that, but the overall energy is shifting. I can't say if it'll be this year, if 2023 is finally going to be the year it starts, but I feel like we are on the cusp of something really breaking out big to shake up the status quo. A lot of things were put to bed in 2022, the 25th anniversary of Cultural Ground Zero, and new avenues are opening up ahead of us. There is an excitement building, pointing us in new directions."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Boy, was this right on the money. The <i>Ferngully</i> remake made money, yes, but it had, again, absolutely no cultural impact and disappeared as quickly as it came. In video games, the same thing happened with the newest Bethesda game. You will have a cadre of consumers and paid shills try to rile up discussion and insist the newest corpo slop is actually Great and Important, but every single time it falls to the wayside and is forgotten within a month.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thankfully it seems that most people realized what the Geek Culture Consumer Crowd hasn't, and that's that this stuff is ultimately empty.</div><div><br /></div><div>2023 was also the year Hollywood utterly collapsed. No new hits, no cultural shakeups, and no trends. Just bomb after tired bomb. That's not even putting into account the strike itself that was never really resolved, just put off like everyone said it would be. Next year they will have even less as a result of this.</div><div><br /></div><div>It turns out that my prediction was right--25 years after Cultural Ground Zero appears to be the limit we can sustain ourselves on the fumes. The old spell no longer enchants, and the so-called rubes see how the trick is played.</div><div><br /></div><div>And they don't like it.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, there has been signs of positive change recently.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>"For too long we've put up with and excused blandness and emptiness because wanting more is considered novelty or childish, but that has never been true no matter how much it has been asserted or pushed in the media that has long since turned against us. It isn't silly to want a chain restaurant to look good because it's a corporate product, everything should look its best, especially when customers are involved. Why should you put up with less just because a corporation made it? That is silly. We should want to live in a society where trying to be good needs several qualifiers and asterisks beside them, not one that excuses decay."</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>This ended up being prescient, especially as my own local Pizza Hut did this exact thing, using the pandemic (of course) as an excuse. Now almost every restaurant in my area is like this, a characterless brutalist box that ships product to consumers, usually with increasingly worse delivery drivers. The human experience was stripped, and now it is little more than a product beltline with none of the charm or flavor that used to exist.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is much the same with stores like Walmart which used the turbulent times as an excuse to push forth automatic cashes . . . which is now backfiring on them years later.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6DnXlHTDKMBEeO-IipcP3a-kCzogf50qmIx5O6bYg4A21Nv8J237Dy6LX8gLT2IH62789IlP5w2j8dDNwss5Lzmm93I0w_ncH4Edz37MZWQ15vqbIQW3sZqAhv4KwvdeXRuIXG2WhcNduo0fNVAWB39OO9Ey5sJPEKSPoQHAhInFreMvjsEMw2tVAbhS/s807/Untitled1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="807" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6DnXlHTDKMBEeO-IipcP3a-kCzogf50qmIx5O6bYg4A21Nv8J237Dy6LX8gLT2IH62789IlP5w2j8dDNwss5Lzmm93I0w_ncH4Edz37MZWQ15vqbIQW3sZqAhv4KwvdeXRuIXG2WhcNduo0fNVAWB39OO9Ey5sJPEKSPoQHAhInFreMvjsEMw2tVAbhS/w400-h278/Untitled1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What happened in 3 years that turned them around so fast?</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div>Needless to say, this change was more of a hope than an expectation, but it appears as though the customers themselves have realized this, too. People aren't as dumb as the nihilists think they are, even if they can't always express their displeasure. Sometimes certain people just happen to notice shifts before they happen.</div><div><br /></div><div>That is pretty much the case here. This is a change that was more necessary than you might think, even amid a culture that worships dead corporations from yesteryear.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I went on here:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"I suppose I should expand on the above example. You've probably seen more than a few jokes centered around how anyone thinking that chain restaurants like Pizza Hut or McDonalds should look good are silly or something, but that misses the point of the complaint. Why shouldn't they look their best? Why shouldn't everything? The fact is that if things can be better than they are, then they should be better. Why should you, why should anyone, be trained into wanting less? Why should you be made to expect less because it is easier for a corporation to not bother? It isn't about the things themselves, but about the lack of any ambition at all."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I have to admit I didn't think there would be any turnaround on this one for years. Thankfully, however, my estimation was wrong. More people have noticed this decline than you'd think.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you're on social media then you might have seen the following news making the rounds recently. Believe it or not, this is a bigger deal than you might believe, because this is the first time any of these companies have even attempted an about-face on a bad decision.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1V1PJUGp3YZWThw36jhsM5upxY1JcI_eVJNvyYI4xsuNsa5zg1iBLGfcQQ7DfNhBvblXrR7SF4cz1Uj8-a54Hw_uQzFGY_GttZDCfKpGgO7btm-bFuoflshWW0pYF7-2wkvDz7S6H6ITp8PImWVpzz2Y5rtkMtOTJwFIR41ELiah-v-eqnWZ-Srn3HCei/s860/Untitled2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="489" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1V1PJUGp3YZWThw36jhsM5upxY1JcI_eVJNvyYI4xsuNsa5zg1iBLGfcQQ7DfNhBvblXrR7SF4cz1Uj8-a54Hw_uQzFGY_GttZDCfKpGgO7btm-bFuoflshWW0pYF7-2wkvDz7S6H6ITp8PImWVpzz2Y5rtkMtOTJwFIR41ELiah-v-eqnWZ-Srn3HCei/w364-h640/Untitled2.png" width="364" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The archive is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231224014335/https://twitter.com/WGTabletop/status/1738267995464421396" target="_blank">here</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Can't say anyone would have expected this a year ago when I wrote my post. It really did feel like this sort of simple thing was gone forever.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course one can be cynical about this, but remember what I said a year ago. Everyone knew how sterile and corporate things have been getting over the last few years. This has been a complaint for a long time and yet nothing about it had changed or even had an attempt at improvement. Aesthetics getting uglier, spiteful anti-corporate people gleefully welcoming the pro-corporate changes to own the chuds, prices only going up as quality went down, and the same miserable anti-social atmosphere in all of these establishments.</div><div><br /></div><div>This isn't to say the above picture is a sign of victory, but it is a sign that there has been an attitude shift since I wrote the original above paragraph. Such a thing was unthinkable then. One can even read the <a href="https://twitter.com/WGTabletop/status/1738267995464421396" target="_blank">original twitter thread</a> to see that there is a lot more to this than originally thought. They aren't doing this test for no reason.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what does this mean going forward? Maybe not much, but it does show that not only is the problem real--but more people know it exists than we were led to believe.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I said a year ago:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"And it feels as if most people understand this by now. The bare minimum of effort is not only not respectful to yourself or others, but it's also boring. The biggest problem to come from Cultural Ground Zero was how everything melted into a pile of bland goo and no one appeared to care if they even noticed in the first place. You can look at photos from 2006 and then from 2018 and you won't find much different between them, even though you'll also never find anyone who thinks what was produced during that time being ideal either. Now, however? It's not enough anymore. People have decided they deserve more, even as those in charge decided they should have nothing instead. We are hitting a low, even as we are beginning to aim high."<div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Even in 2022, it was obvious that people were reaching their limit with this sort of unambitious laziness we've allowed to foster since the 1990s. Especially after about three years of a global pandemic and the disastrous fallout from said event, we are realizing we can't let the realization of how far things have crumbled get in our way forever. We can't lay down in bed depressed forever. We're eventually going to have to get up again.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a reminder, Coronavirus started at the tail end of 2019, but it became a worldwide issue as early as January 2020. We are only now leaving 2023. This effectively means the '20s has been molded and shaped by the pandemic and the reaction to it. We've still yet to fully shake it off, and it seems like many want more than mere status quo from a few years ago to return. But at the same time, the '10s were awful, and everyone knows it. People want more than the sterile pit of dead ends that was the 2010s, and to get it we're going to have to start aiming higher again.</div><div><br /></div><div>We're going to have to stop accepting the bare minimum in everything. Eventually there won't even be a bare minimum to accept--we'll just be accepting whatever is shoveled out to us. That's not going to lead to better things.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thankfully, as noted above, there are signs that a better direction <i>is</i> being sought out. But is that going to be enough to pull us out of the post-pandemic rut?</div><div><br /></div><div>As I went on:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"So what exactly will the legacy of the 2020s be? From what we've seen so far, it appears to be a transitional era between the death of modernity, Cultural Ground Zero, and the first step towards something grander to come later. We are on the precipice of change, but what that change will be is still up in the air. Where it'll all end up is anyone's guess, but those paying attention have seen attitudes shift, especially over the last three years, desiring more than the bare minimum and reaching out to higher places. Ambition is what they want to see again. I think we all do."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I still hold this to be true. Cultural Ground Zero is fading away with the death of modernity. It's going to take some time and some effort, but there are plenty of signs that where we were going is no longer the road we want to go down. The 2020s, in my mind, is an era of changing course. We can't sustain ourselves on our current trajectory, we all know that, so it is time to finally make the big decisions on where to head next.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's pretty much what 2023 was composed of: a lot of boiling off and a slow change finally beginning to show itself on the fringes of western cultural as a whole. Does this mean 2024 will be more of the same, or will we backslide? All we can do is wait and hope, and build.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's where we'll leave this year in review off.</div><div><br /></div><div>2023 was a weird time. I managed to release 5 books this year, far more than I expected to, and also am ready to start off next year with motivation to spare. I didn't slow down for 2023, so here's hoping I don't need to do so for 2024. I've got plenty of things yet to do. I'm also <a href="https://www.lulu.com/search?contributor=JD+Cowan&page=1&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00" target="_blank">putting my books up in pocket paperback format</a> over on Lulu. There's something for everyone!</div><div><br /></div><div>There are also plenty of surprises ahead, so be sure to keep your head up. You never know just what might happen next.</div><div><br /></div><div>Either way, I hope 2023 was fruitful for you and yours, and that the next year is even more so. We're finally entering an era of real change. Let us all turn this ship around together.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because slowly and surely, it is beginning to do just that.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Two adventures of high action and creeping terror for only a dollar!</a></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="938" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-3UaB4a-GN-9gGz1xkWtcW170BapfbwCfvsLCLTtkn4AqnKmGdV41fn6qcFdtZrtdTEe8kT8E46YmwxPLbjueiF_1eDhI0mNa2AYYW7GOYgsC0maJHLrKAaBN6GnNaQdRNyCbxCiQupmNdDIfzc2R3iVhZgTdrJ86H12D-X4Ys5mqHLgQvRpXQ1f0X67/w640-h533/TwoAdventuresAd.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-34270910146230127212023-12-26T12:03:00.000-05:002023-12-26T12:03:36.810-05:00New Release ~ Two Adventures Across Eternity + An End of Year Surprise!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3l6sNqzNuwTCIwGibqw6xzyz6J2Zok8OOuU1c9RlDYPEdAZDD_VuC0LcjtXgUQ9T47K8r8dmGCZVqdWbNzH2vCnUNdkL6SOiTSDY6L79xlsbcLL8cGN1LO2AZi3e0g45C5xU21TpFaAwQz48crHaJ1QCnkeDa8ksM4azJ2KfNgEpO61ySrqLVf_h_Kgr/s3508/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="2480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3l6sNqzNuwTCIwGibqw6xzyz6J2Zok8OOuU1c9RlDYPEdAZDD_VuC0LcjtXgUQ9T47K8r8dmGCZVqdWbNzH2vCnUNdkL6SOiTSDY6L79xlsbcLL8cGN1LO2AZi3e0g45C5xU21TpFaAwQz48crHaJ1QCnkeDa8ksM4azJ2KfNgEpO61ySrqLVf_h_Kgr/w283-h400/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">Here</a>!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Today is the day! I promised one last treat for readers before 2024 hits, and here it is. Today, for only a dollar you can get yourself not just one, but two, entire stories! Not only that, but you can get them in multiple formats.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> is available as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">an eBook</a> on amazon, as well as a special <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">pocket paperback</a> edition on Lulu! That's right, there is physical version of this one. This is also the first time I've ever offered such a thing, so be sure to check it out for yourself and pick the format you prefer the most.</div><div><br /></div><div>The description:</div><div><br /></div><div><h4><u><b></b></u></h4><blockquote><h4 style="text-align: center;"><u><b>TWO ENDS OF ETERNITY</b></u></h4>The past and the future are at different ends of the spectrum of existence. But what about that which lies underneath it all? Some things do not age, no matter the era.<br /><br />Here are two stories where eternity lies just out of sight.<br /><br />In <i>Duel on Dalpha</i>, the future of another world lies in uncertainty. Sheriff Simon Gareth answers a distress call in the wilds. There he finds a rogue military force in search of an ancient artifact and, despite his failing health, he is their only opposition. But what will he do when his very blood is the key to it all?<br /><br />The Demon Eye scours the Black Lands in <i>Three Gifts of the White Wolf</i>. There in the Nameless Kingdom lies the exile Sagest, a man as dulled out as his axe. As he lies dying he is visited by a white wolf who directs him deeper into the darkness. Can he rescue lost innocents, or are they all doomed to be consumed like all else in this evil land?<br /><br />*This collection contains two stories: Duel on Dalpha and Three Gifts of the White Wolf!*</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>You can find <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQY91B6C" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember, it's only one buck for two great adventures from across the boundaries of eternity itself. In this package you get both the futuristic and the mythic, along with plenty of wonder and adventure. Check it out today!</div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time, as mentioned above, <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> is being made available in a special pocket paperback edition available only on the Lulu store. This will be the only place these stories will be available in print for the foreseeable future.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a reminder, you can find the pocket paperback edition <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/two-adventures-across-eternity/paperback/product-nvv6wky.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">here</a>! I've made sure that this edition is definitely one you can carry around in your back pocket and hand out to anyone you wish. What else are adventures stories for if not sharing the fun?</div><div><br /></div><div>However, that is not all.</div><div><br /></div><div>On top of <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i>, I have created pocket paperback versions of <a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/grey-cat-blues/paperback/product-4jvp79.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank"><i>Grey Cat Blues</i></a>, <i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/brutal-dreams/paperback/product-zmmm62m.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Brutal Dreams</a></i>, <i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/y-signal/paperback/product-4555pv4.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Y Signal</a></i>, <i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/knights-of-the-end/paperback/product-844n464.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">Knights of the End</a></i>, and <i><a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/jd-cowan/the-pulp-mindset/paperback/product-57794rp.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">The Pulp Mindset</a></i>, all available on Lulu! That's right, you can now buy six of my books in the pocket paperback format!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2SPxtACZhVQjhiVhWrUlW3xKKojTPjIHJ0N9A7KvMgevvPkWdF2DvFqEHGn9ig3Fp1M7AcNHWyzGb0L6ZDJmzhFAFSMGhOuMJxRi3fNgaDzMSmFQQn2pL7ZsNhZ0bQq2IX4EaDlWp7YHL0b_Ht96rr60ftpXGZMbs6R9_6aHeBYl3hI2a9kTnkfp2LPA/s1788/KnightsPocketPaperbackCover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1788" data-original-width="1132" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2SPxtACZhVQjhiVhWrUlW3xKKojTPjIHJ0N9A7KvMgevvPkWdF2DvFqEHGn9ig3Fp1M7AcNHWyzGb0L6ZDJmzhFAFSMGhOuMJxRi3fNgaDzMSmFQQn2pL7ZsNhZ0bQq2IX4EaDlWp7YHL0b_Ht96rr60ftpXGZMbs6R9_6aHeBYl3hI2a9kTnkfp2LPA/w254-h400/KnightsPocketPaperbackCover.png" width="254" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Some of the covers are even tweaked</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>It's hard to believe it myself, but you can now also get yourself physical versions of my books in the author's preferred physical format. They may cost a bit more than on amazon, but the print quality is improved and it is also far more portable and easy to pass on to others!</div><div><br /></div><div>You can see the entire listing of available pocket paperback editions <a href="https://www.lulu.com/search?contributor=JD+Cowan&page=1&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00" target="_blank">here</a>. I am more than pleased to finally offer these to readers just before the end of the year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Are these the only books coming to the more compact format? Well, despite some of the books being a bit longer I have looked into it. Let's just say there will be an update as we cross into 2024 concerning <i>The Last Fanatics, Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures,</i> and the <i>Gemini Man</i> series. We're not done yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>For now, enjoy around half of my books being released in the author's preferred physical format, finally! Now you can finally see for yourself why I prefer such a form and why it is the best one for adventures stories.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope you consider that a big note to end 2023 on as far as publishing goes. Exporting half of my catalog into a new format on a new store as well as giving readers one last book feels like a fine way to end the year, especially one as crazy as this one was.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for now! I will see you next time. I'm just glad that I was able to bow out of this year in style with a gift to you all.</div><div><br /></div><div>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">Don't forget that the Gemini Man series is currently out in both eBook and omnibus form!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="13954" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0KAvzdqlglM44y-oMZ_KYcJXD48JlkQ2QMUJqeszt8j_xpmNYlhWppmJtyHIze5VAYpE9HbLrsLPvWXD43tSah2ckvANiVmaY_QGPO_sdCnZL4l6usV1mATXmYgv_s_7JtiIkW2hhFQPUao7RFqVdjrGYnWXOOU51fgamZ1pCYf6Ngf1tq1a_SWRosm0/w640-h250/GeminiManSeriesBanner.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-57714009037235432072023-12-23T13:45:00.002-05:002023-12-23T13:45:54.342-05:00Christmas, Imagination, and Wonder<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZqbJOtJ03oFUH5eeJ1zHkxsKsxFULUxmwaPwMxPhja1aeA-lPp7ApPdJG2olynKItawSA-U_i6OX8QKjZOKEXT-5eGmR10KyVoDmd_876gRcXYWGTSI7F1hbWEzF2Mre8CoQe61dj3wycdGc1g7z0EjXgBqhRdk0eN_av-03mHw8Va29W28SJupfh74A/s1062/WonderStoriesPurpose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="688" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZqbJOtJ03oFUH5eeJ1zHkxsKsxFULUxmwaPwMxPhja1aeA-lPp7ApPdJG2olynKItawSA-U_i6OX8QKjZOKEXT-5eGmR10KyVoDmd_876gRcXYWGTSI7F1hbWEzF2Mre8CoQe61dj3wycdGc1g7z0EjXgBqhRdk0eN_av-03mHw8Va29W28SJupfh74A/w414-h640/WonderStoriesPurpose.jpg" width="414" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.benespen.com/wbh-weekly-digest-2023-12-22/" target="_blank">Art by Boris Vallejo, taken from Ben Espen's blog</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>Merry Christmas!</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't have much to share this weekend since it is the dead center of one of the most festive times of the year, but there are a few things I wanted to mention. The first is the above image and how it perfectly encapsulates what adventure writers are trying to do. It also shows exactly who we are and what we strive to become.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is more to life than the hamster wheel. Don't let anyone tell you and different. The only ones who don't want the prisoners dreaming of the outside world are the prison guards, after all. That said, it isn't always escapism to dream of such things. Sometimes it is just longing for the supernatural end of the natural world we were given. It is longing for what we can already know is out there but just have little idea of how to reach with our own power. Human beings both over and underestimate ourselves to strange degrees. It is what the comedy and tragedy genres are both about, after all. Sometimes we get lost in our own ambitions or vices.</div><div><br /></div><div>Escapism can be a bad word. When being confronted by the harsher elements of reality, one can use it to avoid their problems to a harmful degree. Think drugs, alcohol, or addictions. All of those things that can be used in healthy moderation can in turn be made a vice if put on a pedestal above other things. One can really do this with anything to the point of obscuring what is important. They might even need to outright neglect of important things, in the end.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, the above image by Boris Vallejo perfectly encapsulates the importance of both imagination and the core mission of writers such as myself. It is to remind readers that there is more to life than this. there is more than you see on a daily basis. That is not to say there is nothing valuable in everyday life and that it all must be escaped, but to show that you as an individual are a valuable thread in the tapestry of our society and that it all connects together as one whole in ways we can't even imagine. Everything matters, and there is more to it than what you can see. Though you might think your everyday slog is worthless and a waste of time, it is not and neither are you. And just like the above barbarian, you are also secretly a strong warrior capable of much more than you or others think. It's not so much escapism, but a reminder of who you really are.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wonder stories exist to present this key truth in the mystery of existence in ways the audience might not expect. Though we might not always see it, and those leaders in charge might forget it themselves, you do matter and you have much to offer. The job of writers is to show that there is meaning in everything, even what might seem mundane is secretly much more than that. The land of the faerie exists around every corner, behind every tree, and down every strange alley, just out of sight. Wonder tales are reminders of greater things that await in the smallest things.</div><div><br /></div><div>Christmas does this, too. In a manger in some lowly country off in the middle of nowhere, covered in dirt and surrounded by animals, there is a Baby most would never even know was there, and that Baby is the Greatest of us all. Where you least expect it is the most valuable discovery you will ever find. This is true wonder.</div><div><br /></div><div>So this holiday season, please remember that one truth, no matter who you are and no matter where you are in your life. We may think that we're alone or that we're fighting an endless battle, but we're really not. In fact, we've already won the most important one, and we didn't even have to do anything. In comparison, our everyday squabbles and troubles, regardless of how big they might seem to us right now, aren't quite so bad. This will all eventually pass. Besides, we're fierce warriors, aren't we? We're capable of so much more than we believe we are.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let us, hopefully, never forget that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have yourself a Merry Christmas, and I will see you very soon.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hNtVL1umZQQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="hNtVL1umZQQ"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1855578468"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gemini-Warrior-Man-Book-ebook/dp/B0CB1SN8VW" target="_blank">I spent my year putting out a four book adventure series of magic and heroes! Check out the entire thing today!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gemini-Warrior-Man-Book-ebook/dp/B0CB1SN8VW" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="13954" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMwZCCwQtvOYVM42PwslyEf9X7LvWGE8fcTZ2D959gLQkB6SQDSvxNuLKZ-i0p2qA6ngQC_1mUfYDYhit5D6pKqd4jD2FV0nxygc2mcanhiclq9GIxTwq0dq4nyO9lC8QObktIHjHIsQoWeWOt2sm5Bb5cSjyVexqqj7RkuBmb-Or6ZuZzSz2Jz4KvfxA/w640-h250/GeminiManSeriesBanner.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-83963642755274331592023-12-16T15:27:00.001-05:002023-12-16T18:40:16.222-05:00Some Kinda Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tngA205-4Bg" width="320" youtube-src-id="tngA205-4Bg"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Some day you'll remember me</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And picture my face</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Some day you may smile at me</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And I'll walk awa</i>y</div><div style="text-align: right;">~"Picture My Face", Teenage Head</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Anyone who has read anything I've written for any length of time knows that I am a big fan of Rock n' Roll music. It's no secret, and I make no apologies. The genre itself is wide encompassing, a sped up version of the Blues tied with the heart of Country music makes it, in my clearly expert opinion, the greatest of the "genres" in regards to music. While you might pick and parse after that as to which subgenre of the genre you prefer (hey, it happens with writing all the time!), if you are a male you probably like at least some Rock music. It is, after all, the music meant for guys.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, much like everything else over the course of the 20th century, it was torn apart by hedonists and subversives until all that remained of it were local covers bands and quietly monitored pages on Bandcamp and YouTube. After half a century in the sun, Rock has more or less died and been left in music purgatory aside Jazz and Classical. That's probably where it will stay for a long time before some distant generation attempts a revival divorced from our modern concerns of trends and empty gimmicks.</div><div><br /></div><div>All that is to say that part of the reason the genre died is because it detached from its roots. Let's be honest, by the end of the '00s, what was actually left to listen to? No new bands were coming up and the old ones were either quietly quitting or running out of steam. Meanwhile subgenre specific ones basically left to their own scenes and kept to themselves, shrinking their own appeal in the process. No more would Rock dare to darken the door or the mainstream or attempt to reach people. It was time for retirement and then the grave.</div><div><br /></div><div>But where did it truly all go wrong? That's a loaded question and not really one I can go into here. Suffice to say, it took decades of bad decisions to lead it to this place. But I would posit that it didn't just make a bad turn. It deliberately fractured itself long ago and now we are finally seeing the results of the choice to do just that.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can argue all you want about where Rock went after the 1950s, it's still a controversial subject all these years later, after all, but one thing that can't be denied is as soon as the 1960s hit there was a division set down that split the genre. Much of this was caused by advertising campaigns that stretched all the way until the 1990s, determined to divide the genre up and create fanatics that would forever buy the Good Genre's products. This ridiculous red vs blue team war went on as far as the '00s internet on old message boards. Your band sucks, your genre sucks, buy Geffen's new Nirvana best of and rub it in the face of those hair metal losers!</div><div><br /></div><div>All of that first began in the 1960s. The record companies learned much from Elvis and all wanted their own cash cow artist. What better way to do that then create entire ecosystems around them? You can even name a movement after these groups and label anything outside of it uncool and unworthy to be listened to. And you want to be cool don't you? Being rebellious is cool, just ask our spokesman before he tells you to give us your money. Just ask the Beach Boys how tough such a climate was to navigate in back then. Many garage bands that would have hit in the 1950s, as a result, never had a chance. Many never left the garage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, that is where much of the division in the industry originated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Not long after that era, all these manmade subgenre icebergs would slowly drift away from each other on their own paths, never to reunite again. What this meant was that these newly formed subgenres could only iterate on themselves to diminishing returns until . . . well, until we have the dead genre we have today. There isn't much else to see if you only want to look at yourself in the mirror. And that's what Rock became. That's what just about all the genres became.</div><div><br /></div><div>I maintain that the only way Rock will ever return is when the subgenres are finally destroyed and bands are free to meld their sound with whatever they want and bring back the freedom that defined the sound to begin with. These small exclusive clubs of hipsters with outdated dress are not what music was made for. This won't happen as long as stodgy scene kids (adults now) sneer at the wrong song structures and fashion choices. It really shows how weird and outdated this is when modern kids will listen to anything regardless of lame scene kid crap from the past, but I digress. Nothing will change until they are in charge of this and impose their own rules.</div><div><br /></div><div>All that is to say that Rock music started as party music, first and foremost. You might think that odd if you look at the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly at the start versus Kurt Cobain and Jack White and where the genre ended, but it's not as odd as you think. This is still the same genre, and that is because all four of them are writing about the same things from different perspectives in different ways. This is how wide and versatile the genre once was. In order to explain what that means, we have to define just what Rock is and isn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the record company astroturfing, Rock n' Roll is not about rebellion, trends, saving the world, Satan, nihilism, politics, or hedonism. As I've said before, if your lyrics can be changed to being about bananas and the song remains the same otherwise then the lyrical content is meaningless. A lyric as a weapon is bad art, because Rock music is not about demonizing enemies--deliberately making enemies implies the opposite of connection and, therefore, art. It is about the opposite of what advertising conglomerates of have sold you for decades. Rock n' Roll is about suffering, and suffering starts with the self and moves outward both for release and connection.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what does all this nonsense have to do with party music? I am glad you asked that, because this is the key to understanding Rock n' Roll that many missed back in the day when trying to ban it. The entire purpose of Rock music as a man's genre is to mock your problems as nothing and dance the night away like they don't matter, because you will get beyond them. Not only can <b>you</b> get beyond them, but so can your listeners.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is an extension on both Country and Blues, genres focusing on expelling the inner turmoil and pain by transforming it into a passionate piece of art, showing just how strong the human spirit can be even under the crushing inner pain of suffering. Rock music instead translates that into active energy, like going for a run at the end of a long and stressful day. Dancing is meant to be the social release, and how better to do that then among a community? There is nothing evil here.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is where the genre begins, and what defines it from all the others:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SEPvoNA1OGw" width="320" youtube-src-id="SEPvoNA1OGw"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>All of this is to put into context the subject I wish to talk about today. In the mid-70s, there was a group of high school kids in Hamilton, Ontario, who loved music. One day they formed a band, not just any band, but one that wanted to go back to that energy and spirit of those early days of Rock before it became the mess it was by the early 1970s. So they decided to follow after their heroes the New York Dolls and formed a Rock n' Roll band, They called themselves Teenage Head, after the classic Flamin' Groovies song and album, and the rest is history.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, "history" is relative. The chances you have heard of this obscure Canadian bands, never even mind heard their music, is probably thin. They never became world famous, and I'm fairly certain they never even toured overseas. Nonetheless, they were a very influential band for a lot of people despite the fact they never broke out big, even in their home country. They were just another garage band played by the record companies trying to set trends.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, the exemplify today's topic.</div><div><br /></div><div>The above video at the top of this post, <i>Picture My Face</i>, is a documentary about the band, how they started, how they almost broke out, how misfortune knocked them aside, and how they struggled on for over forty years afterwards despite little more than their local community and nearby areas keeping them afloat. Despite it all, they survived.</div><div><br /></div><div>As strange as it is to say, this is probably where most bands should stay to get themselves grounded and focused on the entertainer aspect of their job. On the other hand, the 1970s and 1980s were Rock music's commercial peak, so it was probably not on their minds at the time. Just think of how many bands you never heard because a stodgy record exec decided you shouldn't. I'm sure there are countless numbers of them.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I'm a monster</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Got a revved-up teenage head</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Teenage monster</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>California born and bred</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Half a boy and half a man</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I'm half at sea and half on land, oh my</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Bye-bye</i></div><div style="text-align: right;">~ "Teenage Head", the Flamin' Groovies</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtnrEYSWdCCadZCD0NvZmq1v4ZCRMFD-yeSq5ZTLGVrSWj8GXo74wetHZgzsn7UrzcWeFC1DpqLsfgIPbU_AEsPZ-E60s8H0tlBI8yqEz-Lv5tTAdE3XmCoMTwha5psgcEmEp5BDkqwsfz2Zce2fw_QFAkI3pFaRR0Akr8CBUcGA9aMguego9QEcU-sYE/s941/TeenageHead.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="941" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtnrEYSWdCCadZCD0NvZmq1v4ZCRMFD-yeSq5ZTLGVrSWj8GXo74wetHZgzsn7UrzcWeFC1DpqLsfgIPbU_AEsPZ-E60s8H0tlBI8yqEz-Lv5tTAdE3XmCoMTwha5psgcEmEp5BDkqwsfz2Zce2fw_QFAkI3pFaRR0Akr8CBUcGA9aMguego9QEcU-sYE/w400-h399/TeenageHead.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The classic lineup from L to R: Nick, Gord, Stephen, and Frankie</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>A large part of the documentary centers on guitarist Gord Lewis' long-lasting depression over the death of his best friend and their singer, Frankie "Venom" Kerr, back in 2008. This was filmed almost a decade after that, and the feeling of loss punctuates the entire affair. It is difficult to play party music when there is nothing to celebrate, isn't it? Well, that is the thesis statement of the documentary. What exactly do Rock bands exist to do?</div><div><br /></div><div>Rock bands, believe it or not, rely on brotherhood bonds to get by. It is that undefinable chemistry between them that creates the art they make and it defines their relationship with the audience. There is a reason when I focus on bands that I focus on lineups first and foremost, because each member of the band is indispensable for it sounding as it does. It is that combination of personalities that come together as a whole that transcends themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps this is how Rock music mistakenly became a religion for so many throughout the 1960s into the '80s before bottoming out in nihilism in the 1990s and irony in the '00s. So much of this chemistry and mastery over the form gave the wrong impression about how these were golden gods not to be trifled with ("Clapton is god" being a very famous example) instead of a group of normal guys making art because it is how they can connect with their audience to reach higher things. At some point, the genre became a false idol instead of what it was.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that sort of mentality never ends well. In fact, it is what eventually ended up killing the genre, in the end. They all bought into the record company hype instead of the reality.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, fraternity and brotherhood is the main appeal of a band, not superstardom, drugs, or women. Teenage Head seems to have had to learn that themselves through experience, hardship, and, yes, suffering.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a very striking scene where Gord Lewis' brother is interviewed, him a Roman Catholic priest, and his insight is very keen on both the genre and his brother. Though they chose different paths, in many ways they are two sides of the same coin. Rock n' Roll is suffering, embracing it, overcoming it, and looking forward to what comes next. We're going to make it, bros. Always remember that you can get up again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rock is about showing how deep your darkness is and how trivial it still is in the end because there is always a way out. You might be infected, but there is a cure. You just have to keep striving for it.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is no coincidence that the genre came out of Christianity, just like its parents Blues and Country did, because at the end of the day Rock is a celebration of life and joy over the inevitable defeat of darkness. We need levity and introspection to get by, but we need them <i>both</i>. This is what critics on each side of the old debate over the genre miss entirely. It's not about cliques or fashions, and it never really was. To quote a hoary old line, it actually <i>is</i> about the music, man.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the story of Teenage Head contains more tragedy. Since the documentary was filmed, Gord Lewis was murdered in his home, leaving only one member of the original band left standing. They fought long and hard, and the band is still going on with friends that have been there for ages, which is a credit to their resilience even to this day. I would hope the name lives on as a message of triumph--the core point of the entire genre in the first place.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the flip side, thanks to the internet and much easier visibility for music away from the payola practices of radio, the band has been slowly rediscovered over the years. Now that people can hear what they're missing, a lot of older groups have had a bit of second wind in this new climate. Rediscovery of the band's first two albums in particular show a group destined for great things and, though they never got there in this life, there is hope that they will in the one to come. It's hard to listen to them and not crack a smile that they can see something we hope to see ourselves. Regardless, their sound is timeless in a way it wasn't at the time because they strove to connect to a tradition older than they were before anything else. And they succeeded.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I can recommend the band to any fans of the genre, the documentary too, the wider point today was to discuss just what the genre itself is capable of and why it exists in the first place. Without that levity, without that joy, without that reminder of lightheartedness, we would be left stranded in the dark with no bearings to even begin to look for a way out. There is more to strive for than just the next paycheck or a bit more fame. At the end of the day, that doesn't really matter much at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a lot more beyond all of this, and what makes humans great is that we implicitly know that there is. That is what keeps us going.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is why we will always keep getting back up.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N1MqEXDMgw4" width="320" youtube-src-id="N1MqEXDMgw4"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="goog_2126759268"><i></i></a><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank"><i>For adventures beyond this world, check out of the Gemini Man series! Out now!</i></a></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB1SN8VW?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="3600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq57H_F_aQweuFy-zm4n9ZBkVrM746ZB8Xn0xrPD_lb05cfPmlm1nvRLhyphenhyphen_yT1iCAFhCDtdfQM9PzsGngfEWGdSHp2YdaP1SM4P-lTiAPcffS1GrY7F6GJdUUphtnOMzWrWJs5c47lLqSN5vtwm1dXRwp39XMgUEEt8p3h4x4jNBW986HsA78yk-mbcCmI/w265-h400/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" width="265" /></a></div></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-35398654056333915782023-12-14T13:03:00.001-05:002023-12-14T13:03:40.922-05:00Two Adventures Across Eternity!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhou2VaSPMRmS0MYf-W3bh4j9rP8sK812KoPpEXdb8oBp2-NXnMqKuy4quslRSD_DK-TGUldybMizdzjZQ6O9jrKiZ_wacbTD5qU9E3BO67g04-5TOsCGI1qjdZEeO91ekfvErZVmSr9rIhmAeOxfX9j1d1ug7ZoxI9_xqF8M8ZtRhgtmck8rwk-_EECt3j/s3508/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="2480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhou2VaSPMRmS0MYf-W3bh4j9rP8sK812KoPpEXdb8oBp2-NXnMqKuy4quslRSD_DK-TGUldybMizdzjZQ6O9jrKiZ_wacbTD5qU9E3BO67g04-5TOsCGI1qjdZEeO91ekfvErZVmSr9rIhmAeOxfX9j1d1ug7ZoxI9_xqF8M8ZtRhgtmck8rwk-_EECt3j/w283-h400/TwoAdventuresAcrossEternity.png" width="283" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><div>Today I want to announce a new small project getting released soon. That's right, it's a new book, albeit a small one. <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> will include two novelettes I've written and decided to bundle together in one package.</div><div><br /></div>This is a bit of a surprise announcement, I know, but it also comes as a shock to me. A little while back, I was just sitting there looking at at my stories and what I had and hadn't put out and realized that despite being in between projects and at the end of the year that I had not one, but two stories that could be delivered to readers that wouldn't otherwise fit any other upcoming project. Therefore, I decided to bundle them together to give you more bang for your buck.<div><br /></div><div>And I mean that literally, because this will be put up on Amazon for a dollar. As for a release date, well, that will be soon, hopefully before the end of the year. I'm still in the process of editing the second story, and this being the time of year that it is might make that difficult to finish off before the fireworks go off. Nonetheless, it won't take that long to release despite that.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what exactly is included in this package? Let's go into that. First up is a story that newsletter subscribers might remember from a few years ago. That would be "Duel on Dalpha"! I'm finally going to put it out again, this time for everyone.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the description:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>In </i>Duel on Dalpha<i>, the future of another world lies in uncertainty. Sheriff Simon Gareth answers a distress call in the wilds. There he finds a rogue military force in search of an ancient artifact and, despite his failing health, he is their only opposition. But what will he do when his very blood is the key to it all?</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Those who remember this one know it gets a bit crazy as it goes. Check this one out if you like gunfights and mecha. I had a blast writing this one.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second story is different in that it has never been released at all before. "Three Gifts of the White Wolf" is a tale I wrote a while back, but it ended up being too long for any magazine or anthology to take. Therefore it sat in the archives without any way to get it out. This one is also a bit different from most of my other stories, making it a hard sell to editors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the description:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote><i>The Demon Eye scours the Black Lands in </i>Three Gifts of the White Wolf<i>. There in the Nameless Kingdom lies the exile Sagest, a man as dulled out as his axe. As he lies dying he is visited by a white wolf who directs him deeper into the darkness. Can he rescue lost innocents, or are they all doomed to be consumed like all else in this evil land?</i></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>You might recognize some of that terminology. That's because it is related to one of my early published short stories, "Inside the Demon's Eye", which was published in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/StoryHack-Action-Adventure-Issue-Three-ebook/dp/B07J5RV36W" target="_blank">StoryHack #3</a> way back in 2018. This isn't a sequel or a rewrite of that one, however. It's a whole new adventure set in the Nameless Kingdom from that story. In this one you will learn a whole lot more about what this place actually is and why so many seem trapped in the so-called Black Lands under the Demon's Eye sun.</div><div><br /></div><div>The two stories included in this package aren't directly related except that there was no simpler way to get them out to readers. What's a story if no one can read it, after all? I also didn't think one of them alone would be enough story to satiate, nor would it be enough to full a pocket paperback.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I mean by that statement is that I am planning to release <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> in pocket paperback, exclusive to Lulu. This is the perfect opportunity to finally put out a book in that form, perhaps the first of many, on the only store where it would work. This also means it is small enough that a physical would be exclusive to that form and that store, at least for the time being.<br /><div><br /></div><div>So yes, this is one final gift for readers as we wrap up the long year that has been 2023. I put out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">four books</a> (bundled in an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">omnibus</a>) so lets try to go for five! Why not? You can always have more fun stories to read. There's no limit on wonder.</div><div><br /></div><div>That aside, there isn't much else to report. I've got several things in the oven for next year, and I literally just randomly wrote a new short story a few days ago in the midst of all this, but otherwise it is mostly going to be quiet on that front until the new year. I put out quite a lot in 2023, and I can't imagine releasing that much material in a single year again.</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, like I mentioned, it's not quite over yet! So please look forward to <i>Two Adventures Across Eternity</i> as we wrap up 2023 in style.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been a strange year, but at least it's been exciting.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1842295423"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">All four of my 2023 books can be found in one omnibus here!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0&storeType=ebooks" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="3600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2kPNkN6CtH8vS3bePkaUO3q5b-zZ4l5YAn4gX-6F0KRRj8ki0cUnruU0hU45OmmDRrpb4MsJMcXV1RnRTw4FcJi-PwUSZ7Z9FKeFphGe1Xl34Zk78O9Vpw7kNWaE4uSjxZfQnK8J-zppYq992dsQqjlhrKRFOssbqsMnEPMGUbQ42E9jh-Qt3DJgHVsG/w265-h400/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-29647342179494764962023-12-09T12:50:00.002-05:002023-12-09T13:55:35.888-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ The Era of Shift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hFUB5Xau59g" width="320" youtube-src-id="hFUB5Xau59g"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><br /><div>Welcome to the weekend! Let us look at a bizarre subject today, and one of been wanting to put my two cents in on for awhile--a sort of change that almost happened but never did.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 32-bit console generation of gaming nowadays is usually seen as transitional if not seen as a pale imitation of the one to come right after it. Rarely is it ever considered one of the best these days unless someone grew up with it. There is a reason for that. However, it does contain my personal favorite Sony console, and you will soon see why.</div><div><br /></div><div>Considered the Fifth Console Generation (though it would be the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220928201628/https://www.gamesradar.com/ea-quickly-learns-it-has-no-idea-what-console-generation-were-in/" target="_blank">First Generation</a> if EA had its way), this era has become increasingly controversial over the passage of time, though for many reasons, both valid and not. These days it is rarely anyone's favorite.</div><div><br /></div><div>One area that was undisputedly a step down from what came before was in sheer performance of the systems themselves. No gen is quite as dated as this one has, and its mostly due to its own short-sighted choices. This is probably what has aged the fifth generation worse than any other before it, and makes it difficult to return to. As far as games that are hard to go back to, this is probably the gen with the most offenders, and it isn't even close.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before this console generation every single game was expected to be 60fps, unless it had consistent slowdown problems due to mediocre programming or planning. These frames per second helped define gaming as fast-paced and smooth, allowing a feel that perfectly accentuated the arcade roots of the medium even at home.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the fifth generation, all of that took a hit because everyone wanted shiny 3D graphics before anything else. As a consequence, you would be lucky to have a lot of the games even reach <i>30</i> frames per second consistently, never mind 60. This dramatically changed how video games were expected to play because to this day, 60fps has been warped into an unachievable prospect for selfish gamers who are never satiated. In other words, it was excused away so they could see you less for more.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time, the basic technical issues of these consoles were all over the place. PlayStation 1 games were full of texture warping and low res graphics, N64 games were covered in fog and blur, and Saturn games that couldn't even handle transparencies. On top of it, all of them suffered from early 3D problems of camera issues, unsure controls, and games made more as vague sandbox ideas than any idea of traditional arcade play. In just about every way, this is the generation that led us to where we are. For both good and ill, though the good would decay a good bit with the usual entropy and diminishing returns this path was built on.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there is a hidden part to that transitional era that's been lost amidst the rush for higher tech and even more shiny bells and whistles plastered on top over the years. Even with the change in focus that happened during this time period, there were many who <i>did</i> use the opportunity to use the new tech for the gameplay. You don't hear about these so much because the era was more focused on the graphical arms race that reach a fever pitch (and an incredible low) in the <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2021/04/anatomy-of-implosion.html" target="_blank">first HD generation</a> two gens later. This was the period where focus on gameplay became lost, leading us to the pit we're in where we are now basically in Gen 7, part 3 . . . or Gen 5, part 5.</div><div><br /></div><div>What used to define a console generation wasn't just a new system with new bells and whistles, but by the new gameplay styles that were <i>impossible</i> on older tech. Not just in regards to more polygons and enemies on screen, but in the new experiences that could be delved into.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the reason why the comedy behind the old "$599 US Dollars" meme in regards to the PlayStation 3 has been lost over time--the system wasn't actually offering anything new at the time when the meme was made. you were just expected to jump in because it was Sony, and the graphics were prettier. That's it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now it's just expected new systems will not offer anything except bells and whistles, and you will fork over that $599 US Dollars for a system that gives diminishing returns in exchange for pushing more shiny graphics and nothing else. The industry became the meme and you are expected to consume only a beltline of warmed over and stale seventh gen console games forever. The consoles no longer having creative or unique names should have been the tip off to that.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pRqKffIjCDU" width="320" youtube-src-id="pRqKffIjCDU"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>However, the video at the top of the page is different from all of this. In it, we can see the sparks of an era we could have had instead. There you see a smattering of 60fps PlayStation games, but beyond that almost every single one of them offers gameplay of the like that was not only new at the time, but has never been expanded on in the decades that followed them. This was the path a truly new console generation could have brought us and a path we could have gone down.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is funny to think of what the industry might be like had the Sega Saturn focused primarily on being a 2D powerhouse, the PS1 on these sorts of new 3D experiences, and Nintendo a balance of both, instead of what they actually did do. The industry would be in a totally different place. Not only that, but the systems all would have aged much better, because it would have been the gameplay that carried them, not the soon-to-be-outdated tech. Everyone could have got what they wanted.</div><div><br /></div><div>Alas, it wasn't to be!</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless, there are plenty of indie and middle market developers now creating their own games and forging their own paths. Perhaps this was all inevitable, but it might have happened much sooner had we not all been suckered in by bells and whistles over what mattered--new gameplay experiences. We should demand more, because ambition should be rewarded over complacency. But that era is over, and now it's up to the smaller guys to lead the way forward.</div><div><br /></div><div>We need less of whatever tired 2006 rehash with a new coat of paint that nu-Naughty Dog is pumping out and more of this:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B48V6GARGdM" width="320" youtube-src-id="B48V6GARGdM"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>That is what I'm talking about! Things are looking up again, and it's about time.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">Traverse unfamiliar worlds, fight uncompromising villains, and face magic of the like no one has yet seen before. Full series omnibus now available!</a></i></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="3600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6a3pqqLwDRvY_FHUm5p7m48ZIyiwXzXfi6EN33L1Pnq8Zky7nVVRIS8iaZnspP6I25xUiM82GJmL6q_KIHLdFa9q44KVykAU-dWlkaNnXswhyqLjzGeN4ZFf8Quy_KHCMGJUUB_sOtcMFDlMf0qEQKrO6CJHU-VdnITj6n9-RoB77gP8sKc4vr4pKR_Wg/w265-h400/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-4967372500740269582023-12-02T15:44:00.004-05:002023-12-02T16:17:57.837-05:00Weekend Lounge ~ Believe in Getter!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B8OKlITEXRQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="B8OKlITEXRQ"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to December! Not long left to go in the year. Not only that, it's Advent season and then we go into Christmas, and that's it for 2023! We're in for some good times ahead.</div><div><br /></div><div>For some updates from <a href="https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-short-2023-update.html" target="_blank">my last update post</a>, as I informed Kickstarter backers, the final books have been shipped out and the campaign has now been fulfilled. If you are a backer you can see the details for yourself in the most recent update. For everyone else, the reason I state this is because the paperback omnibus version of the Gemini Man series is now available on Amazon via KDP <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0" target="_blank">here</a>! I know some of you were waiting for it, here's your chance.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today's subject is a bit of a wild one. Recently, mecha series have had a bit of resurgence, especially in the prose arena, with projects like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Combat-Frame-XSeed-Brian-Niemeier-ebook/dp/B07MHFXKX7/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=combat+frame+xseed&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Combat Frame XSeed</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Collateral-Damage-Thriller-Adam-Furman-ebook/dp/B08GJ9MQZ5/" target="_blank">Collateral Damage</a>, among many others, have shown there is still much life left here.</div><div><br /></div><div>What you might not know is one of the most unique, and influential, franchises that have been here since Japan themselves embraced the concept back in the 1970s. I am of course, speaking of the great, yet massively underrated in the West, <i>Getter Robo</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the most common ways to describe <i>Getter Robo</i> is Lovecraft with mecha, but that description might be lost on people today because "Lovecraft" has been turned into a synonym for undercooked political thought and rehashed tentacle monsters. That isn't what <i>Getter Robo</i> is. What Getter Robo does is take the cosmic horror aspect and turn it on its head, keeping both the mystery and the horror while also managing to turn the madness into a weapon for the heroic.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though its origins came from a simple place (legendary creator Go Nagai needed a concept for a new series with three transforming robots and Ken Ishikawa created the franchise under him), it soon transformed into what is one of Japan's best entries in the form, up there with <i>Tetsujin-28/Gigantor, Giant Robo,</i> <i>Mazinger Z, Patlabor, Gundam,</i> and <i>VOTOMs</i>, and it also maintained a surprisingly high level of quality throughout the decades and up to Ken Ishikawa's unfortunate early death.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are unaware of <i>Getter Robo</i>, I highly recommend the above video as an introductory crash course, especially if you enjoy giant robots. It is long, but you can put it on 1.5-2 times speed of you want. You will not miss out on much. Regardless, the first three parts alone are invaluable to see above all else. I can definitely say it has influenced a lot of what I do, and many others over the years. Learn exactly why it retains its popularity and influence even to this day. There is nothing quite like <i>Getter Robo</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for this week! Have a happy beginning of December and I will see you next time!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_118305095"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0" target="_blank">The physical edition of the Gemini Man is available here!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1990320163?ref_=dbs_mng_crcw_0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="3600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFL_ZBC8yA7d_OTi_sBGV12ylf4XNc7RmBVnon8t2KHRvkUIWzO3sNtj6vuimLpIf0TVmUYAhrzxgNfb4KJHv08bfiTQxvCkLbqn-x0Mb_MLTZJ-2k9Wt3u0nsuOTTufJDJtMardIv7UsGOHX-aeDV9nnptuAV4_DJGxo7XF1I_UI8z1XnzPCUfAXc8dEr/w424-h640/Gemini%20Man%20Omnibus%20Art%20w%20Title.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-66402210226466727042023-11-28T14:53:00.001-05:002023-11-28T14:53:24.160-05:00A Short 2023 Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FxjKEZBhwos" width="320" youtube-src-id="FxjKEZBhwos"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>It's been a bit hectic around here recently, so I wanted to pause a bit on what's actually been going on behind the scenes. It's time for an update on some behind the scenes stuff!</div><div><br /></div><div>As you can see above, I was recently on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ironagemarketing" target="_blank">Iron Age Marketing</a> channel on YouTube talking about recent projects. The information a bit old since I was still crowdfunding at the time, but still is quite the discussion on just about everything story-related that I can remember. I don't get the chance to talk about this stuff that much so feel free to watch the episode for yourself! Nicky was quite the courteous host.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of stories, aside from the entire <i>Gemini Man</i> series being released this year (which are available <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">on sale for only one more day</a>!), you might not know what else I've been working on. That's mostly because I haven't had the chance to share it with you. Thanks to real world business and the online world really trying to implode on itself this year, it's been quite the time just trying to produce the work I've wanted to.</div><div><br /></div><div>Though this year I have put out four books, the most I've ever released in a year before, I've also been working on other stories in the background as always. Let me talk about a few today, because it will probably be a while before I can do so again! I prefer waiting until stories are completed to discuss them in full, so I'll just briefly touch on them as projects in the pipeline. If you know me, you know I always find a way to give readers my stories. These will release, one way or another!</div><div><br /></div><div>One of these tales, called "Mirage Carousal" will be in <a href="https://cirsova.wordpress.com/2023/10/30/cirsova-2024-lineup/" target="_blank">Cirsova</a> magazine next year in issue #20. This has all the hallmarks you know from my stories, but it's bit weirder than the norm and, like "City Eater" from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sidearm-Sorcery-Two-Bryce-Beattie-ebook/dp/B0BZ979S7R?ref_=ast_author_dp" target="_blank"><i>Sidearm & Sorcery Volume Two</i></a>, more modern in its setting and apocalyptic in its concerns. That said, as always, expect the action packed and the bizarre in one place!</div><div><br /></div><div>Another project is a story I'm currently polishing up for submission to another publication. This is happening at the very moment you are reading this, assuming you're not from the future. This one continues a recent theme I've been writing about, which you will probably guess by the time the above Cirsova story releases. That said, it's becoming surprisingly long . . .</div><div><br /></div><div>After that is a sort of novella trilogy I want to begin writing this winter that is completely unlike anything I've done before. This won't be like <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Y-Signal-J-D-Cowan-ebook/dp/B0BMVRKJNM?ref_=ast_author_dp" target="_blank">Y Signal</a></i> and it's interstitials, which were deliberately spaced and cover a year in time, or as loosely interconnected as <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Someone-Aiming-You-Other-Adventures-ebook/dp/B083QNK2WD?ref_=ast_author_dp" target="_blank">Someone is Aiming for You</a></i>, which forms its own narrative upon completion. This story is more or less a complete three part serial that goes right from one part to the next as if it ran in Weird Tales back in the day. This one will probably take me a while, and might even have to go on the backburner for a bit, but it's a project I am very excited to dive into. Prayers that I can do so!</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm also working on another surprise, currently in personal editing, but first I want to polish the above short story and get it finished first. This will be my next release, if all things work out. Regardless, I am still not done for the year.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those who missed the campaign, the paperback version of the <i>Gemini Man</i> series will be on Amazon shortly, I am just juggling many projects at once and KDP is slow to release things. That said, I will put out a proper announcement for it next week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those are my writing plans for the rest of 2023. But what about next year?</div><div><br /></div><div>The first confirmed project to mention is that I am releasing a collection with Cirsova called <i>Star Wanderers</i>. I do not want to go into any details before they are ready to share them, except to say that I am very proud of this one, and it's not quite what you might be expecting. It's a perfect project to crossover with Cirsova.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank"><i>Gemini Man</i></a> is finally wrapped up, you might remember that I mentioned a new series I was working on back in 2022 that I had to put on the backburner to get this one out. I don't know if I mentioned it since, but I even finished the first book and was ready to send it to an editor before I got hit with the <i>Gemini Man</i> series to be put out first. Thanks to the crowdfund backers (seriously, many thanks! It could not have been done with you!) I was able to put this one together all nice and tight and get the entire series assembled in a shiny package, as well as the stretch goal novellas compiled into Book 4, which allowed me to complete it as best as I could manage to. All of that, however, allowed me time to reconsider a bit of the new series.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can let slip a few details, the first being that it will be four books long, much like the <i>Gemini Man</i> series. Unlike the <i>Gemini Man</i>, however, this series is not going to be very standard. I have different plans with each entry that will lead up to the finale in the final book. That said, the project is still on the backburner and will come off of it when I finally finish the above 2023 projects and can give it the focus it needs. I have a lot I want to do with this one, so it's going to take a little longer to finally focus on what I want to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile I have a lot of things in the pipeline beyond that, but there's no point going into those until they are much further along. Needless to say, more <i>Galactic Enforcer</i> and <i>Night Rhythm</i> stories are still on the docket and are in production, as well as others beyond that. I've even updated my <a href="https://jdcowan.neocities.org/" target="_blank">Neocities</a> page to more accurately reflect the works I've put out thus far which should maybe give you an idea of what I want to do next. I'm working to fill that out a bit more next year.</div><div><br /></div><div>2024 will also be the 10th year anniversary of Wasteland & Sky! I have to admit, I didn't think it would last as long as it has back when I started, but it's been quite a ride. Hard to believe its been so long since I decided on a whim to make this place, but we're still here! I'm not really certain what I can do as a celebration, but I'll see if I can think of something fun. If you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see, let me know.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's about all I have to say for today. I wanted to thank you for all the support you've given me and I hope to continue writing as best as I can for as long as I can. I truly couldn't have done any of this without the readers. As a consequence you also deserve the best stories I can conjure up, and I plan to keep taking it to the next level with every project.</div><div><br /></div><div>2023 isn't over yet though, so keep out for a few more surprises before the calendar changes over. We're not quite done, and we've got much more to see!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="goog_1088170327"></a></i><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">Reminder that the this is the final day the Gemini Man series is on sale!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="13954" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaTDSVuudqIlU8rt6Lr0awZtByZGzO2MOgtxf3mpwhKW3Wz5RbxArQNMXwxxZS9r9T2CFTKHMCyJzEyma5U6Rukys_qxgqt4S6L_4K-NAQt_d4CmQK_lyKMQf7t6mqW0jDl0BVsAcCcWbj-EYTvjnonui9gvD5ASQt8CRf-EgFWIVql8yYIe0O7_1Vr8c/w640-h250/GeminiManSeriesBanner.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-24867798142203781632023-11-25T13:16:00.003-05:002023-11-25T13:16:20.881-05:00Too Many Books, So Little Time!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jHt1HUk8UMo" width="320" youtube-src-id="jHt1HUk8UMo"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>I recently mentioned the <a href="https://aetherczar.com/black-friday-cyber-monday-based-book-sale-starts-soon/" target="_blank">Based Book Sale</a> going on, and how there are so many books in it. The total is easily over 200, which is quite crazy to think about. What I haven't mentioned is just how do you sift through so many books for something to read without scanning the entire list multiple times? After all, that is a lot of books! More than anyone could possibly decide between before the sale ends, especially when you have other things to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/T.-J.-Marquis/author/B087RLN18G?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true" target="_blank">author TJ Marquis</a> has done exactly that. In the above video, he goes through the over 200(!) books on sale chooses some of his highlights. Glance through it yourself and see what you can spot. Mr. Marquis has great taste, and I'm not just saying that because he recommends my work. He has a keen eye for out there and exciting stories.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is at this point I should give the reminder that all <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">four Gemini Man books</a> are on sale, as well. <a href="https://amzn.to/3MVCYc5" target="_blank">Book 1</a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/3QOzLMy" target="_blank">Book 4</a> are each a buck, on top of it! Book 4 will keep its lower price up until the end of the year, so you better jump on that one, because it ain't going this low again!</div><div><br /></div><div>But enough about me. I'm going to highlight a five projects in the sale for the first time that you might have missed! Here are some interesting projects in the sale, not in any particular order:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Book of Seasons & Feasts</u></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81DrDCCSmzL._SL1500_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81DrDCCSmzL._SL1500_.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BG1KDZKQ?&linkCode=sl1&tag=uwbantennacom-20&linkId=a087db4f731cba083066fbefb1a135a3&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Here</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Book of Feasts & Seasons is a beautifully mind-bending stroll with a grandmaster of science fiction through the annual Catholic calendar. Over the course of the year, from January to December, the author takes his inspiration from 10 different holidays and explores their meanings in a series of stories of marvelous imagination. The book begins with New Year's Day and "The Meaning of Life as Told Me by an Inebriated Science Fiction Writer in New Jersey".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin is represented by "A Random World of Delta Capricorni Aa, Called Scheddi", while "The Parliament of Beasts and Birds" is the story for the Feast of Pentecost. The calendar and the anthology culminate on Christmas Eve with "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"John C. Wright is not only a deeply religious man, he is also a devout Catholic philosopher who regards reason as an intrinsic aspect of his faith. The Book of Feasts & Seasons is an imaginative embodiment of that faith, taking many different shapes and forms throughout the vast expanse of God's creation."</div></blockquote><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Wild Souls: A Werewolf Collection</u></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91W1zg0YyQL._SY466_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="299" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91W1zg0YyQL._SY466_.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Souls-Collection-Julie-Frost-ebook/dp/B08BJD7664?&linkCode=sl1&tag=uwbantennacom-20&linkId=7245fbc4a8facb37563e685ae53406e7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Here</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote>"Julie Frost is best known for her Pack Dynamics series. However, in this collection, she explores other aspects of lycanthropy, with stories running a gamut of timelines from the ancient Celts to American weird west to modern day—and even into the outer reaches of space. Ranging between humor and horror, with a cast of characters varying from witches to hunters to soldiers to angels and demons, there's something here for everyone. Stories of families lost and found, new packs and old, love and loathing and loneliness...<br /><br />"And, above all, what makes us human, and who the real monsters are."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>The Mighty Sons of Hercules: Volume 1</u></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Dc4kLA1zL._SL1463_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Dc4kLA1zL._SL1463_.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Sons-Hercules-1-ebook/dp/B0CGXZMQHG?&linkCode=sl1&tag=uwbantennacom-20&linkId=5e4eedee8dff0f64be4e747780d729cb&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Here</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">"Long ago, in ages past...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There were men who travelled the world, seeking adventure, fighting injustice, defending the weak and the helpless, looking to right wrongs wherever they are found:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"These were the Mighty Sons of Hercules!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Cirsova Publishing invites you to join eight of the Mighty Sons of Hercules on their daring adventures!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You’ll be amazed by their impressive feats of superhuman strength. You’ll be dazzled by the exotic and dangerous beauties who would seek their downfall. You’ll cheer as they save the innocent from peril and mete out justice to dastardly villains.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Wherever righteousness must have a champion, there you will find the Mighty Sons of Hercules! Whenever there is need and no mortal man can suffice, a Mighty Son of Hercules shall appear!"</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Gods in Darkness</u></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81AvrC6C5dL._SL1500_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81AvrC6C5dL._SL1500_.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN37LTMT?&linkCode=sl1&tag=uwbantennacom-20&linkId=b49dc8a7f66030f809769c8d1a570b66&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Here</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b></b></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u></u></b></div></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>The Balance of Wonder and Terror</u></b> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">"Learn the truth of the secret war in space with both the Soviets and dark technomancers bent on world domination in Gods in Darkness. Thrill to incredible truths buried in the sands of ages or in our own Area 51 in The Dig. Ride along with some crazed truckers dealing with Lovecraftian horrors in At the Highways of Madness. Know the stark terror of reading a forbidden book of the damned when the stars are not right. Love knows no bounds through time and space--especially for one of Lovecraft's Elder Things in The Queen in Shadow. And finally, go beyond the past and future in The Sleepers of Tartarus. All these and more lurk at the edge of reason waiting to pounce."</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Jiao Tu’s Endeavour</u></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jHuIq6SBL._SL1500_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="501" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jHuIq6SBL._SL1500_.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Find it <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jiao-Tus-Endeavour-Kidnapped-Mousling-ebook/dp/B0B19MZSPF?crid=36DADO41KE09T&keywords=jiao+tu%27s+endeavour&qid=1700071388&sprefix=jiao+tu,aps,239&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=uwbantennacom-20&linkId=f516005c85d33c4e463fac31da5769b1&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank">Here</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote>"Jiao Tu has been hired to rescue a young kidnapped mousling. A tip leads him to the Below, home to the engines that keep the world in motion. His mission has hardly begun when an encounter with a monstrous being plunges him into the midst of a struggle not only for control of the Below but for the world itself.<br /><br />"Teamed with an untested ratling warrior and the ratling leader of a gang of thugs, Jiao Tu must stop the monster and save the mousling—and the world—before it is too late.<br /><br />"Drawing inspiration from sources as diverse as Leigh Brackett’s planetary romances, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the Long Sun, Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane stories, Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, and the wuxia tradition starting with Water Margins and Journey to the West, Uitvlugt has created a world all his own that promises a far-future adventure unlike any other.<br /><br />"This volume contains the complete first story arc compiled from the web serial Jiao Tu’s Endeavour, as well as the bonus stories “The Festival of Sweets” and “The Last Oracle.”"</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>On top of this, there are a few books in the fan favorite section you might have missed. Cirsova's edition of three Julian Hawthorne books are on sale. That includes <a href="https://amzn.to/3CEMYkc" target="_blank">Sara Was Judith</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/3NlYqGe" target="_blank">Doris Dances & Fires Rekindled</a>, and <a href="https://amzn.to/3NkMxQW" target="_blank">Absolute Evil and A Goth from Boston</a>! Jacob Calta also has the first volume of his massive <a href="https://amzn.to/3Pm2MP1" target="_blank">365 Infantry</a> project in the sale, as well. Lastly, all three of Alexander Hellene's <a href="https://amzn.to/2EvA7qj" target="_blank">Swordbringer</a> books are a buck. Those are just some of what is available in the <a href="https://aetherczar.com/fan-favorites-black-friday-cyber-monday-based-book-sale/" target="_blank">Fan Favorite section</a>, there is plenty others I have missed.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are even more books to browse through beyond these, but I thought I would give a bit of a boost to projects that might get lost in the flood otherwise. After all, as I said, it is over 200 books. Chances are you are going to miss some.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a lot of great stories out there, so it's always nice to be able to highlight them every now and then. NewPub has more than enough good stuff worth sharing. You can't built a tower without a foundation, after all. We're going to be building this puppy high into the clouds. Every now and then we just have to point out just how valuable the bricks themselves are.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for this time! Have a great weekend and I will see you soon enough!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="goog_1779964275"></a></i><blockquote><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZYH28V?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi" target="_blank">The entire Gemini Man series is on sale RIGHT NOW!</a></i></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkXpHEIQD6sq1Qn4-yUkOBgnAnhxJQ25-cLIum0EGe1Ll2LYhUefrdlZF88wLmKh53S5sSOz4E-a-pMbCzFM_LD0t4FhPuTmaxwYyF5GR5eT1YsI1VWv04qk0c6wyko2xYN3TC8yhS3UlyqCMN8jX3sLda_hCcjKmGwqt0o1E7iRgVq9JGRbfY_FQuA_j/s13954/GeminiManSeriesBanner.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5438" data-original-width="13954" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkXpHEIQD6sq1Qn4-yUkOBgnAnhxJQ25-cLIum0EGe1Ll2LYhUefrdlZF88wLmKh53S5sSOz4E-a-pMbCzFM_LD0t4FhPuTmaxwYyF5GR5eT1YsI1VWv04qk0c6wyko2xYN3TC8yhS3UlyqCMN8jX3sLda_hCcjKmGwqt0o1E7iRgVq9JGRbfY_FQuA_j/w640-h250/GeminiManSeriesBanner.png" width="640" /></a></div>JD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.com0