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The Day After

by Updates • Tags: , , , , , , ,

LG3_cover_smallHello and welcome to another Friday edition of Ye Olde Blog!

Yesterday was a busy day around here as we set an all-time record for hits to this site. My post about Kindle Worlds was shared far and wide, for which I am quite appreciative. I was surprised that most of the Kindle Worlds hate that I’d seen the day before didn’t pop up in response to my posting but maybe I was just so persuasive that I changed their minds ;-) More likely, cooler heads had prevailed by the time I actually posted my blog and people have moved into the “wait and see” mode.

Now, normally on Fridays I’ve been doing New Pulp Recommendations but I think that’s going to become just an irregular feature. Whenever I have something that I’m enthused about, I’ll post about it and encourage others to check it out. If I don’t have anything foremost in my head, I won’t force myself to come up with one. A perfect solution, at least for me!

Heard from Pro Se Press design guru Sean Ali yesterday. Looks like they’re in the final days of getting The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume 3 laid out and ready to go. This will be the middle chapter of a huge, sprawling epic that spans books 2-4. When you finish volume 3, you’ll see that the story is obviously not quite complete but I do think it stands well as a grand adventure on its own. With this one, we’ll introduce a major new hero named The Darkling and we also see the transformation of one Assistance Unlimited member into a much darker character known as Eidolon. The cover to the third edition is included with this post and it’s by the amazing George Sellas.

Considering that the second book in the series won Best Novel, Best Cover and Best Interior Art in the 2013 Pulp Ark Awards, I’m hoping that there will be a lot of interest and excitement over this next release.

I did type THE END on the first story that will run in Lazarus Gray Volume 5. After the big events of the previous three books, I plan for volume five to follow the model we had for the first book – five or six short stories, all with running subplots going through them. The first one deals mainly with a felonious financier (I like alliteration) and a zeppelin crewed by beautiful deadly ladies. At the end of it, we’re introduced to a larger threat that will wind its way through the rest of the book. Should be fun!

Now I need to put the finishing touches on this weird western tale for Mechanoid Press and then I can work some more on Gravedigger Volume Two.

Always busy!

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

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by Updates • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

vanessa_hudgens_fightSo… yesterday the Internet’s writing communities went to war.

You may have missed it, since a war in the online writing communities is easy to ignore unless you’re in the midst of the stinging accusations, pointed jabs and hyperbole.

What brought about all of this?

Well, Amazon, of course!

The multimedia online retailer is both the bane and boon of many a writer’s existence and yesterday Amazon either strode forth bravely, changing the writing landscape forever… or engaged in a bit of reprehensible behavior for which there is no excuse! It all depends on where you fall on the deciding line.

This is what Amazon announced:

Get ready for Kindle Worlds, a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games. With Kindle Worlds, you can write new stories based on featured Worlds, engage an audience of readers, and earn royalties. Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries, with licenses for more Worlds on the way. 

The Kindle Worlds Self-Service Submission Platform will launch soon and enable you to submit your original works for publication. Can’t wait to start writing? Learn more on our Kindle Worlds for Authors page.

In other words, all those Gossip Girl novels you’ve got hidden in the dark recesses of your flash drives can now be shared with the world — and you can even make money off of them! Yep, Amazon is willing to pay you 35% net revenue on each story/novella/novel sold. For some, this is very exciting! Assuming they eventually put up other licenses like Doctor Who or Batman, you could conceivably write a “licensed” novel featuring those characters. It’s kinda-sorta official since they’re saying you can do it and you’re potentially making money off of it. Many a fanboy and fangirl’s heart just went BOOM-BOOM.

How’s it going to work? Let’s see:

  • Kindle Worlds will accept novels, novellas, and short stories inspired by the Worlds we have licensed.
  • Using our Cover Creator, you will be able to design a cover for your Kindle Worlds story.
  • World Licensors have provided Content Guidelines for each World, and your work must follow these Content Guidelines. We strongly encourage you to read the Content Guidelines before you commit the time and effort to write.
  • Stories will be available in digital format exclusively on Amazon.com, Kindle devices, iOS, Android, and PC/Mac via our Kindle Free Reading apps. We hope to offer additional formats in the future.
  • You will receive monthly royalty reports and payments for all copies sold.

Now, the only “content guidelines” currently available are relatively minor and obvious – no pornography (sorry, shippers), no illegal content, no crossing over of worlds (so no My Little Pony meets The Vampire Diaries), etc.

There are some who see this as an awful, awful thing. They point out that some writers make their living writing licensed novels and this is basically taking a big old crap on what they’re doing. I’m not too sure about that — guys who write Star Trek novels, for instance, have always had to compete with people who wrote fan novels and posted them for free online (or even charged for them — go to Lulu.com and type in Star Trek… you’ll find plenty of Trek novels up there for $$). Heck, it seems like “free” would take away more sales from Peter David than “$2.99″ but maybe I’m being a fool.

If you want to get into the whole “but letting anybody write Captain Kirk devalues the work of real writers who work on the character,” then okay… but I think that Peter David will always have an advantage over any Trek novel I would write. His work will appear not only in eBook format but in print, whereas currently none of the Kindle Worlds works will. That means that the remaining brick and mortar stores (hi, Barnes & Noble!) will likely have Peter’s book but they won’t have mine and they won’t even have it on the Nook since the eVersions are amazon exclusives.

Plus, he’s Peter David and I’m not.

Some folks say this is “reprehensible” because Amazon is fooling gullible writers into thinking this is some golden ticket to success. If Amazon were charging you for the privilege of writing Gossip Girl, I might could see that. But they’re not. In fact, they’re PAYING you for the sales you’ll be getting.

That sounds a hell of a lot less reprehensible than the treatment I’ve gotten from some “real” publishers.

As for the intellectual property owners, this is absolutely brilliant, especially for dormant properties. Why? Because they have the fans creating new product for them and if the IP owners see something that clicks with the fans, they can monetize it as they see fit.

How? Let’s see:

We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you.

This means that if I write an Arrow novel and introduce an amazingly awesome villain named Mr. Cool Dude and millions of people download that story ’cause Mr. Cool Dude lives up to his name, then Warner Bros. can take my character and stick him on the tv show or even give him his own action figure and cartoon series… all without paying me a cent. Talk about your ultimate research & development goldmine! And if I publish my Arrow novel and it’s absolutely horrible – and Mr. Cool Dude becomes the target of internet wrath or (even worse) is 100% completely and totally ignored by the reading public…

It doesn’t hurt Warner Brothers in the least.

I’ve heard some people say that the fanfiction crowd “will never go for this” since most of them are very into the “writing for free” model. They’d be offended by the offer of money because they’re real fans, doing it for the love.

99% of the time, that’s absolute crap. They may say it but they don’t really mean it.

How do I know?

Because I used to say it, too! Writers say they’re doing it for the “art” and for the “love” to rationalize why they’re spending so much time on something that’s not making them $$. When Marvel came to my door and asked me to jump aboard, do you know how quickly I went from “But I do it for the love” to “How high should I jump, sir?” — about 3.5 seconds!

Any fan who loves writing Star Trek novels will adore having the potential audience for their work increased and the chance to make 35% of the net profits. Will some poor fool create the next Captain Kirk and basically give it to Paramount for free by including him in one of these novels? Maybe. But you can’t cure dumb, people, so don’t even try.

There’s nothing currently available that interests me. I don’t watch Gossip Girl or The Vampire Diaries or Pretty Little Liars. If they do add other “worlds,” I might reconsider. Man, I’d love to write a Batman novel and make a few pennies off of it. Even if I made no more than $30, that isn’t far off from what I’ve earned for things of my own creation that I’ve written! And if Conde Nast threw The Shadow out there, I’d write the hell out of that!

It’s not the end of the world. This is not the death knell of licensed fiction. Amazon isn’t looking for ways to shaft “real publishing.” But all the people involved in this are business folks. They want to make money. The fact that they’ve finally found a way to make money off stuff people have been writing anyway is brilliant — AND it potentially brings money to people who were writing the stuff for free anyway.

I say we back off and see how it goes. Maybe it’ll be a huge flop and a year from now, we’ll all be going “Remember Kindle Worlds? Hahahahahaha.”

But I’d be willing to bet that Amazon might have stumbled onto something here.

We’ll see.

Characters I Love # 6: Spitfire

by Updates • Tags: , , ,

spitfireEvery Wednesday, I focus on a character from adventure fiction (film, comics & prose) that I simply adore. This week we’re talking about: Spitfire, the super-fast Marvel Comics’ heroine. Spitfire first appeared in Invaders # 7 (July 1976) in her identity as Jacqueline Falsworth before debuting as Spitfire in Invaders # 12 (December 1976). Over the years, she’s been a member of not only the World War II-era Invaders but also of MI-13.

The daughter of the original Union Jack and the sister of the second man to use that identity, Spitfire was exposed to heroism and patriotism her entire life. As a teenager in World War II, she met the Invaders and was injured by the vampiric Baron Blood. Only a blood transfusion from the artificial lifeform that was the original Human Torch saved her, also endowing her with superspeed. After joining the Invaders, Spitfire operated throughout the war as one of England’s primary champions. After the war, she married Lord Crichton and bore him a son, Kenneth. Unfortunately, Kenneth would eventually be swayed to the side of darkness, becoming the second Baron Blood.

Spitfire eventually retired as a hero and focused on running Falsworth Industries, though a later second transfusion from the Torch not only restored her powers but also her youth. After this, she returned to active adventuring, working with both the New Invaders and MI-13. Unfortunately, the curse of vampirism that had claimed the lives of both her father and her son eventually played havoc on Spitfire herself as she manifested several unique abilities. She has vampire fangs that appear when she’s angered but she possesses no blood lust and does not need to drink it to survive.

I’ve always loved this character – not only because of her sleek costume design but because she’s such an old-fashioned hero. She wants to do the right thing so she does it! She’s a golden age hero through and through, with all that entails. I was a huge Invaders fan back in the day but I love seeing her in the modern world, as well — even with the darkening of her character brought about by the vampire business (which I’m not too keen on), she’s still a breath of relatively fresh air in what’s become a pretty seedy Marvel Universe.

Back in my fanfiction days, I wrote a LOT of stories featuring Spitfire, casting her as a member of the heroic Pendragons. Those were the days, eh?

Anyway, I’d love to see somebody treat Spitfire as a legitimate big gun in the Marvel Universe but I’m afraid that they’d just drag her through the mud like they have most of their heroes, so maybe she should just stay in the shadows for now.

Tuesday!

by Updates • Tags: , , , ,

lg_v3_abby_vs_femi_smallIt’s a Tuesday here at Ye Olde Blog, which is exciting mainly because that means it’s no longer Monday! We should always embrace the positive, right?

Uploaded Episode 32 of The Shadow Fan’s Podcast this morning. After taking a week off from it, it was fun to dive back into some Shadow talk. I reviewed an episode of the radio series and a classic novel from 1936 (“Intimidation, Inc.” – love the title!). If you like The Shadow, give it a listen, why don’t you?

Work continues on the current Lazarus Gray story, which I hope to finish before the end of this week. Then I can focus on writing the last few thousand words on my weird western story for Mechanoid Press… then it’s probably back to Gravedigger for a little while. I plan to alternate work on Gravedigger & Lazarus Gray until I finish both books.

Speaking of Lazarus, I know that the third volume has come through editing and should be out very soon — the image accompanying this blog post today is an interior piece from that book, drawn by George Sellas.

George, by the way, is currently working on the cover for The Rook Special Edition Volume Three. Volume Two has only been out for a few weeks so grab that one while it’s fresh.

Things never slow down around here, do they?

Don’t forget to join me on Twitter and/or Tumblr – you can get even more disturbing insight into my mental state by doing so!

Monday Morning Musings

by Updates • Tags: , , , , , ,

emma-watson-in-w-magazine-july-2013-02Welcome back to Ye Olde Blog! I have a number of things to share with you this morning so let’s get underway, shall we?

I’ve been splitting my reading time between Inferno by Dan Brown and Intimidation Inc. by Walter Gibson. Two very different writers but I’m enjoying both works. I took a week off from doing The Shadow Fan Podcast last week so I hope to get a new episode up in a day or two.

I now have a tumblr account, which you can access at barryreesepulp. So far, I’m not really sure what I’m going to be doing with it. I have my blog here and a Facebook page and a Twitter account so it’s not like I have a shortage of places to share my opinions. Nevertheless, I now have a tumblr, which so far I’m using to share pictures of my own work and other things that I just really like. We’ll see if it sticks around.

I hope to finish the Lazarus Gray story I’m writing in a day or two, which will let me then go back to finishing off this weird west tale I own Mechanoid Press.

Got my copies of The Avenger: Roaring Heart of the Crucible and it’s a gorgeous book. An amazing honor to write this hero a second time. I grew up loving The Avenger and he’s still right up there with The Shadow as my favorite pulp hero… now, if I could only get my grubby little mitts on The Shadow, I could die a happy man, pulp-wise.

So, I did two blog postings last week dedicated to DC’s obscure hero Pariah. A few folks responded positively but from the hits to my site on those days, i think it’s safe to understand why DC hasn’t given this guy his own solo series yet. But I do like the character and enjoy the opportunity to focus on some of my obscure loves on Wednesdays. I could keep up this Characters I Love column for another ten years and never scratch the bottom of the barrel. The Saturday Matinee thing is started to become a chore, though, as I’m running out of easy ideas for it. Any suggestions for it would be appreciated.

Our image today is the lovely Emma Watson, who has been doing some very glamorous modeling sessions as of late. She looks like she’d fit right into one of my pulp adventure novels, doesn’t she? In fact, she looks more than a little like Samantha Grace of Assistance Unlimited!

 

Pariah (Marvel Heroic RPG Stats)

by Marvel Heroic RPG • Tags: ,

pariahPARIAH
First Appearance: Crisis on Infinite Earths # 1.
“He has conquered all disease! His control over the weather makes our world a paradise. He is the greatest of the greats!” — Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

Affiliations: Solo D10 Buddy D8 Team D6

Distinctions: D4 (+1PP) or D8
It’s All My Fault!
Emotionally Unstable
Flair for the Dramatic

Power Sets:
My Powers Are a Curse!
Godlike Durability D12
Godlike Resistance D12
Teleportation D12
SFX: Invulnerable: Spend 1 PP to ignore Physical Stress or Trauma unless caused by Anti-Matter Energy attacks.
Limit: Uncontrollable – Teleportation automatically takes Pariah to scenes of mass destruction. Turn the power into a complication and gain 1 PP. Activate an opportunity or remove the complication to recover the power.

Specialties:
Cosmic Master D10 or 2D8 or 3D6
Science Master D10 or 2D8 or 3D6
Tech Master D10 or 2D8 or 3D6

Character Background:

tiny1Kell Mossa (he was, at various times, called by both names — I’m assuming his proper name is Kell Mossa for the purposes of this website) was born on a planet known to comic fans as Earth-Omega. He was, without a doubt, this world’s foremost scientist. He cured world-wide disease and invented machines that regulated the weather. He was seen as a savior and a hero and he reveled in the adulation.

But not all was perfect. Mossa had grown cold and arrogant, marrying out of convenience and fathering two children whom he discribed as “emotional nuisances.” While his wife was never named, his children are known to have been named Tarran and Mart.

Mossa’s greatest work was at hand, even as his marriage was crumbling — he had discovered the existence of a multiverse. Despite legends which warned that such probings would only lead to destruction, Mossa pressed on and created an Anti-Matter Chamber which would bridge all universes.

Mossa entered the chamber, hoping to witness the origin of creation — instead, he gave life to the greatest evil the multiverse would ever know. Mossa’s experiment awakened the slumbering being known as the Anti-Monitor, who eradicated Earth-Omega and began the events known as Crisis.

“Everything was gone. And I…was suddenly very, very… alone. My first million years were spent trying to understand the enormity of what I had done… I spent another million years in the nether-void understanding what I had lost. My wife…my children…The love I had successfully ignored. And for the next million years all I wanted, all I wished for, all I begged for, was to die. But the fates were far too cruel to permit me to so easily atone for my sins.” — New Teen Titans #81.

tiny4 The Anti-Monitor’s opposite number, the Monitor, chose to use Mossa as his agent. Giving him the ability to sense disasters, the Monitor used Pariah to track the progress of the Anti-Monitor’s anti-matter attacks. Pariah believed this was punishment for his sins — something which he dealt with in Crisis and resolved to move past. However, subsequent appearances have continued to have him spouting off about how this is an atonement for his great sin. Go figure.

Nowadays, presumably, Pariah is still bouncing through time/space (and Hypertimelines?), witnessing disasters. He’s been shown once in the New 52, as a prisoner of the US government in Vibe # 1.

For the record, Pariah is invulnerable to all harm (Superman was unable to hurt him in War of the Gods #2) and teleports across the multiverse with ease (but only when summoned to a disaster).

Saturday Matinee: Lara Croft vs. Nathan Drake!

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by Saturday Matinee • Tags: , , , ,

art-lara-croft-nathan-drake-wallpaperEvery Saturday I find a movie or clip that I think will appeal to the fans of this blog. Since most of you enjoy action/adventure, I tend to focus on something that falls into that category. This week we’re looking at an epic beatdown between Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) and Nathan Drake (Uncharted)! Both of these characters emerged from pulp-inspired video games that are quite popular with the adventure crowd. Obviously, most of the younger generation thinks that these heroes are basically variations on Indiana Jones but we all know that Indy himself was inspired by the movie serials and pulps of the past.

So – who’s going to win in this titanic tussle?

Click and see!

New Pulp Recommendation of the Week: Staff of Judea (Rogue Angel # 41)

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by New Pulp Recommendations • Tags:

judeaEvery Friday I focus on a New Pulp work that I think merits your attention. Sometimes it will be something that’s brand new, other times I’ll look at something that’s a few years old. This week, I’m encouraging you to check out Staff of Judea, which is the 41st book in the Rogue Angel series published by Gold Eagle. Before we launch into a detailed look at the book itself, let’s see how the publisher describes the volume:

The Staff of Aaron…the sword of Joan of Arc.After decoding an ancient scroll—one that purports to pinpont the treasure of the Jewish Temple, lost for two thousand years—archaeologist Annja Creed agrees to lead the party to recover the find in Judea. It’s a perilous desert journey through sandstorms and bandits, and complicated by mysterious sabotage within the group, to arrive at a long-forgotten fortress deep beneath a mountain. Only then does Annja discover that this archaeological expedition is really one man’s quest for the mystical Staff of Aaron, one of the Bible’s holiest and most powerful relics—a weapon they say can do incalculable harm in the hands of the wrong individual. She must try everything humanly possible to prevent the staff from being used for selfish purposes. Even if it puts her in the mightiest battle yet—sword against staff.

Rogue Angel stars Annja Creed, archaeologist and host of a television series, Chasing History’s Monsters. In the very first book in the series (“Destiny”), Annja becomes the owner of a sword that once belonged to Joan of Arc. This sword can be summoned to her mentally — when she’s not using it, it floats in another dimension, waiting for her call.

Rogue Angel is a consistently entertaining New Pulp series — and one of the most successful, to boot. New books come out every other month and you can find them at your local grocery store or convenience center. I bought this one at a K-Mart… how many other New Pulp series can you say that about these days?

At first glance, Annja looks like a Lara Croft ripoff and I’m certain that played a part in her creation. But despite her beauty, the series does not pander at all… in fact, it’s almost oddly sexless. There’s no romance to be found in most of these — it’s straight-ahead adventure fiction, just with a female protagonist. Plots vary wildly from book to book but are almost always based around ancient myths and relics.

This particular volume is written by Joe Nassise, though it’s credited to the house name of Alex Archer on the cover. The story moves quickly and, while it gives you sufficient historical detail about the Staff of Aaron and the various mysteries being explored here, it’s never a dry read. Some old faces from the series (like Roux) reappear but for the most part, Annja is with new characters in this novel and they play off of her very well. I sometimes worry when we delve into Christian myths that we’re going to somehow become a little too spiritual for my tastes but it’s handled well here, with little difference from how they treat any other mythology.

If you want some fun reads that can bring you back every other month, I heartily recommend not only Staff of Judea but the entire Rogue Angel series.

From the Vault: Great Pulp Villains

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by Updates • Tags: , , ,

The pulp heroes often faced villains who were memorably over the top. Though most of the villains only appeared once (mainly because they were either killed by the heroes or accidentally brought about their own demise), there were still a few that stuck in my memory. Here are some of my favorites:

  • Fu Manchu – How can you top this Oriental mastermind? His brilliance was unmatched and I enjoyed the fact that he didn’t consider himself a villain at all.
  • John Sunlight – The man who exposed the secrets of Doc Savage’s Fortress of Solitude, Sunlight was just as formidable as the Man of Bronze. The only thing that would have made him better in my opinion was if he’d had an interesting supporting cast, mainly as a counterpoint to Doc’s Fabulous Five.
  • Doctor Satan – I first encountered this guy in Ron Fortier’s Hounds of Hell novel and have enjoyed him ever since. Dressed as the freakin’ devil, this guy has a memorable group of servants and is so over-the-top evil that he’s fun to root against.
  • Fantomas – The brilliantly evil Fantomas was as cool as they came, but sadistic and ruthless. For years, I’ve thought using some version of this character in one of my stories. Eventually, I’ll get around to it.
  • The Prince of Evil – Benedict Stark was a twisted killer who battled The Shadow over the course of four novels. The first two are definitely the best – the depraved depths that Stark is willing to go to really makes him stand out amongst The Shadow’s rogues gallery.

What about you guys? What pulp villains could you never get enough of?

BTW, the Doctor Satan image at left is by Anthony Castrillo and features the crimson-clad bad guy as he was depicted in my Rook series.

Characters I Love # 5: Pariah

by Updates • Tags: , , , ,

Pariah_0001Every Wednesday, I focus on a character from adventure fiction (film, comics & prose) that I simply adore. This week we’re talking about: Pariah, the tortured DC Comics’ character first introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I really can’t describe why I love this character. On the surface, he’s almost comical. Cursed by causing the accident which released the Anti-Monitor onto the multiverse, Pariah would teleport from universe to universe, bearing witness to that reality’s demise. He would cry a lot and talk about how much he wished he could help but he knew it would do no good. Eventually, he teamed up with Harbinger and other heroes of the multiverse to stand against the Anti-Monitor. With that villain’s defeat, Pariah took to wandering the post-Crisis DC Universe, usually with survivors Lady Quark & Harbinger in tow (I also really like Harbinger). Pariah made a few appearances over the years, popping up in the Titans book during the Titans Hunt storyline, guest-starred in DC Comics Presents and eventually ended up as a Black Lantern during the Green Lantern-centric crossover, Blackest Night.

Pariah was a genius-level scientist and his powers included immortality, invulnerability and flight. I also assume he could translate any language automatically since he never seemed to encounter anyone he couldn’t understand.

I really love his crazy outfit — the funky belt, the long boots, the cloak with the hood that can be raised. I also like his guy-liner eyes!

I always had this strange desire to take this seemingly worthless character and do a whole series about him. I could make it work — I’d play up the redemption angle, having him seek out these disasters but allow him to actually intervene and save as many people as possible. It would never be enough in his own eyes to undo all the damage that his arrogance had caused, however. I think the notion of an immortal witness to disasters, both great and small, could have tremendous potential.

Pariah has popped up in DC’s New 52 Universe, as he was seen in one panel of Vibe # 1. Apparently, he’s currently a prisoner of the United States government. His current origin is unknown.