Publishing Weekend Followed by Welcome to Wargaming Weekend

This weekend I finally published my children's book to Smashwords. It took a while to write, draw, paint and compile the thing. Still, it might have taken even longer to register for the international book numbers I needed to publish it how I wanted to. I'll post some details on my other blog, but for now I thought I'd share over here since my other audience has heard plenty through the facebook page. The kids that have read Bear with Me and those that have had it read to them have all loved it and asked it to be read a number of times in a row. The parents who have read it liked it too. I put a lot into making it appeal to both, because having become a dad this year I know what it's like to read kids' books that make me roll my eyes. Or that get boring to me quickly. Or that just kind of suck. It's pretty cheap at 3.99 and the first half is available as a free sample if you want to get a feel for the art. Really though, the story comes together at the end (as any story should). For now it is only available through Smashwords, but once it clears their vetter review it will be available through Apple, Sony, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I'll be uploading to Amazon myself later this week. The Japanese version will be coming this week as well. Smashwords is best if you just want to show your support as the royalties rate is much better, but you do also get access to every available file format, so it's a win/win for us both.

On the 40k front, next weekend is the Welcome to Wargaming event! God I can't wait for it. There are going to be a lot of tables set up for a lot of different games. There will be representatives from a lot of the hobby shops in Japan and I heard that Steve Parker of Black Library fame will be around too! I'd love to get a chance to talk to him. I had no idea any of the BL authors live in Japan.

For gaming, I opted to play a little demo game of Necromunda and 3 games of 40k at 1500 points. I haven't played 40k in a while. The last games I did get in were with Seer Council/Dark Eldar mech list variants. I picked up a few new lessons with my favorite unit in the game. Allying in Dark Eldar and using Wave Serpents, War Walkers and GJBs lets me shoot pretty darn hard in addition to having a truly obscene beat stick.

Good lessons, but I'm not sure if they're one's I'll be leaning on next Saturday. I have three different lists in mind: two competitive ones and one that is experimental. The experimental one has lots of aspect warriors and a mix of vehicles. One competitive one is my Council DEldar list and the other is a mech list that is tough as nails. I forget how well I can pack everything up. I'm pretty sure I can bring all three and then play each once since there are three games (it's not a tourney).

I haven't been up to date on all the Space Marine rules, but from what I've heard they sound in line with the newer books. I'll have a look before the event, but I can't imagine a solid TAC Eldar list suddenly can't hang just because SMs got some price adjustments and new toys. It should be a great time!

Changes to my Blogs and What's to Come

I have a lot coming up in the near future and in preparation of it all, I have decided to finally link my Blogger account with my Google+. So, nice to meet you, I'm Dan. Were I still only going to be writing 2d6D, I don't think I would link them, but it's all or nothing on Blogger.

I've just started a new blog that I will be using as my professional page as I release my self-published titles over the course of the next few months and it's for that blog that I linked my accounts. The first release, a children's picture book, ought to be done and available at all major eBook retailers around the end of August or beginning of September. The one to follow that will be an interactive picture book and educational tool for learning English and Japanese.

News articles and cool links that regard writing, 2D art and other topics that relate are going to be posted over here, on a blog that I have not yet configured at all. I'll also be blogging about works as they progress.

What does this mean for you, the reader? The first is that there will be more content, more articles and links. But more importantly in my opinion, they will be more sharply focused because non-40k material that relates more to writing, art and translation will be siphoned off to my other blog. So if you're only interested in one or the other, this should help filter out content that isn't pertinent to you.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but I'm really looking forward to it all because I think it will lead somewhere fun and interesting. Keep an eye out as there will be developments and updates all along the way. Cheers!

Resources on Self-publishing Novels

I just read this interesting article from Salon about self-publishing novels. Wargamers are a creative bunch and I expect there are many with their own ambitions, so I thought I'd share resources like this as I come across them. Here's another from CNET that I read the other day which covers many different ways to approach self-publishing ebooks specifically.

What I take away from these (and the excellent comments on the Salon article) is a couple of interesting key points:

• When self-publishing, you retain the rights to your work. You can publish the traditional way any time afterward.
• Books never go off shelves if published as ebooks. There is no need for them to be successful right away. They can earn you money for a long period of time.
• If you pursue traditional publishing later on, already profiting from your work can help in negotiations.
• It's still hard to be the success story that people focus too much on, but with hard work it more possible than ever to supplement your income with the hobby you love.
• You don't have to spend a fortune promoting. Find free and cheap avenues of promotion and be patient while working on the next book.

It's nice to see something encouraging on the very daunting business side of writing. There is a lot more to it than making the product. Even with good work finished in your hands, much more needs to be done to get any readers, not to mention getting some compensation for the effort. As I come across any other good articles like these, I'll share them. 

I'd love to see any that you have seen if you have some to share. Heck, feel free to plug your work and share your experiences if you have a self-published title yourself.

Post-script on BttF and Verne

"The hell was the point in that?" is what you're probably not asking because if you weren't into just reconsidering fiction in different ways then you wouldn't have made it through six paragraphs of wondrous, sparkly adventure with your inner child. But you should. I studied in a whole department full of people wasting time classifying and reclassifying fiction. I mean, classifying it is fine if you can do something with that. That's the point. Understanding the boundaries of a genre can help you write good fiction within it. And maybe even to write great fiction that pushes outside the existing limits.

Back to the Future is the first of those two. It is extremely good fiction that was created within the existing limits and frameworks that were already established. In terms of science fiction it did little that was new, simply tackling a subject that hadn't been explored deeply in popular media. It did so in film, a medium that at the time was getting much more attention from large audiences than print. The story also follows familiar patterns wherein the protagonist adapts to a new setting and overcomes conflict with the traits he acquired uniquely from his own culture, ultimately proving wrong those who criticized him in the beginning.

And despite not reinventing the wheel, Back to the Future was an instant success and remains a favorite just under thirty years later. So why is it that if you take a course in writing at a university they will chastise you for writing "genre fiction," as if that were the lowest of lows to which you could stoop? If someone can write greatly, then more power to them. But if someone else can only write well, then the same power to them too. I wish universities would quit trying to discourage people from making careers out of writing entertainment. Brilliant as a work may be, I'm more likely to spend time and money on the one that entertains me while it reminds me what the human experience is like. Even if it holds less technical merit.

On Adventuring in Science Fiction: Back to the Future and Jules Verne

I was watching Back to the Future 3 the other day and it got me wanting to read some classic science fiction. More specifically it got me wanting to read some Jules Verne. It's not just that his name comes up a few times in the film, but it's what I think Zemeckis and Gale felt when dreaming up the science in their story. I think they felt the same sense of adventure at exploring the unknown as you feel when you open one of Verne's novels.

If you've ever read Verne, you'll know what I meant when I said "dreaming." His stories embody a romantic fascination with possibility, with discovery, with exploring the unknown. They're a different kind of science fiction than the kind where the characters discover the unknown and then destroy it under relentless firepower and vorpal death. Or the kind where the opposite happens. It's not like they're without conflict, but I'd say thinking 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is about exterminating sea monsters would be missing the point.

Back to the Future has so much in common with the science fiction Jules Verne was writing. Verne's stories look to the unknown with wonderment; they look to the depths of the ocean, the center of the earth, and then all the way around it with an earnest fascination and sense of adventure. I feel like this is an approach to science fiction that not all writers can accomplish in their work because they just don't feel it in their hearts. It may be that you have to love not just science, or science fiction, but also adventure and discovery. It seems very child-like to me, like building a fort or camping out in your own backyard while feeling that you're in the middle of the forest.

I'm not nostalgic for classic science fiction. It's not like "back in the day" people wrote more fantastic, adventurous sci-fi. Look at H.G. Wells and his excellent, classic work. War of the Worlds contains scenes that bear war genre conventions and The Time Machine dips into the conventions of horror and post-apocalyptic fiction. Much of his work is not about adventure or feeling the thrill of exploration. It proposes scientific discovery and examines the limits of human morality. It's a very different kind of science fiction.

Obviously Zemeckis and Gale weren't trying to predict the course of scientific progress, as cool as it would be if the first time machine really were a DeLorean. And they weren't guiding scientists the way Arthur C. Clarke was. However the work they did bears great resemblance to Verne's, with them exploring time in a way that makes the reader feel ten years old again; Doc's words, not mine.

Verne, Wells, Clarke, Zemeckis, Gale and many, many others have written science fiction and they have all got their own perspective on what can be done with their genre. Part of the appeal to science fiction is the variety that comes along with it. And how well other genres blend into it. I don't know what Zemeckis and Gale saw in time travel that compelled them to write about it, but I think the ease with which I can watch and rewatch their films is testament to them feeling something very deeply. I found myself wondering after the film what that might have been. And how Verne must have felt when writing about what could be at the center of the earth at a time when no one had any idea. Well now there isn't a fun mysterious center to write about and people are writing about other planets. Other times. Other dimensions. When we have solved those mysteries (assuming they even can be solved), what will people be dreaming about? What adventure will there be for people to sense, what unknown for us to explore, and what will we be writing about it?