The Endless Wars: The Descent

The Endless Wars: The Descent lulu.com amazon.com barnesandnoble.com itunes (coming soon) The Endless Wars: The Descent

On sale now!

20110820

On the Road Again

I'm taking a break from exploring the endless expanse known to some as 'the Midwest' to bring you some exciting news.

The first novel in my 'Endless Wars' series is FINALLY available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

This has been a looong time coming, and I'm glad that we're finally here.

Also, it'll soon be up on the iBookstore. I'll blast something out when that happens.

To clarify, this is the same novel I released in 2009 with a different cover and a different font. If you wanna double-dip, my son's college fund thanks you.

Also, lulu.com still has the paperback and ebook available, and I actually make more money if you buy it that route.

Lastly, the ebook that is available through Lulu is fully compatible with Kindle and Nook. It's a DRM-free .epub file, so you'll have no trouble moving it from your computer to the ereader via USB.

If you haven't read it, it's the first book I wrote, way back in the 90s, and it may have accidentally triggered that whole 'urban gothic fiction' thing, though it actually has more in common with Star Wars than it does True Blood.

True Blood is a fine series, but it's not the kind of thing I'd ever write.

A Matter of Perspective


So, I'm fleshing out the story of my 'interactive novel' phone app, and I'm still going back and forth about the perspective in the writing. First, second, and third person are all on the table. I have a natural dislike for second person, because I'm not a pretentious fuckwad, and omniscient third person just doesn't seem right for a tale that's relying heavily on mystery. A lot of the game will be the reader controlling where the main character goes, what the main character says, and ultimately, what situation the main character ends up in. What do you think?

I've even given thought to breaking the fourth wall a bit, and forging a relationship between the main character and the reader, but we'll see. How do you feel when the author breaks the fourth wall.

I'm also still hashing out how to have a 'save game' that will a) save the reader's place AND choices, and b) port into the next volume and carry over the reader's choices. Anyone got any pro-tips?

Wedding Receptions


LOOK, if you're going to ask a guy to drive his family and three dogs across the midwest for your wedding, I would like it, NEIGH, I demand that you not serve ONLY diet vegan rabbit food at your reception. I get that you're into the whole 'fitness' thing, but GODDAM! I'm dieting, yes, but I'm doing so by eating normal portions of normal food, not by punishing my taste buds. The next time I walk up to a buffet table and see only carrots, cauliflower, strawberries, and other wild animal food, I may just flip the motherfucker over.

Sitting through a wedding is tough enough. Weddings are a whole lot of 'hurry up and wait.' To then symbolically knee someone in the groin by trying to ram bunny food down their throats is just uncalled for.

ON TOP OF THAT, if you're not gonna have soft drinks ... I don't know what to tell you. I'm an alcoholic meat eater. It's as if this reception was designed specifically to repel my presence. I don't drink and I eat good food. Bizarro Me would've been fine. The version of me that pounds the booze, wolfs down veggies, uses a Mac (oblivious to the irony of being a computer geek and using a Mac), pounds other man butts, and drives American cars would've been just fine at this reception.

Alas, this me has fucking standards, and was saved only by the courage and determination of a kind soul that must've seen the agony rippling through the crowd as the reality of the food selection eventually took hold.

In a single act of bravery, someone whipped up a white sauce chicken pasta, and delivered all of us from the evils of the Vegan Empire.

It was as if Bill Pullman burst into the kitchen and began yelling, 'WE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT! WE WILL HAVE CHICKEN ON THIS DAY!'

I wanted to hug someone.

Understand, as well, that I was dealing with some things. There's a lot of drama at work right now, we are watching my parents' dogs, one of whom can make noise all night, we drove through horrid St. Louis traffic, right into two-hour Indianapolis construction traffic, followed by our dog keeping us up all night, and then I woke up with back spasms, so I took three Tylenol that were in the Tylenol bottle, except they were actually Tylenol PM, and it was a couple hours before the wedding, sooo ... yeah, the whole thing was kinda screwed up. I'm just glad that my relatives are super-cool and put up with my ass-ness.

That is all. If you haven't bought a book, please take a look at it.

Thanks, all! Leave a comment! I love to have discussions!

-Blaine