iBoy - A Movie Review

Holy... hell...

A Netflix Original for the ages. But of course, before that it was a story by Kevin Brooks (which I will be reading shortly).

I loved the heck out of this. I'm writing these words as the credits start rolling, that's how excited I am to share it with you. I'm so excited I don't even think I can find the right words to tell you how cool I thought this movie was. Netflix is friggen killing it recently, I'm so gorram impressed.

Ok. As for the overall theme, it was your typical boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl gets hurt, boy gets superpowers, boy tracks down the people who hurt girl and exacts beautiful revenge.
But it's so much more than just that.

~~~Spoilers~~~

The main character (Tom), while a high school student, thinks outside the box and finds elegant solutions to his complex problems. He still makes silly mistakes, as an human can and will, which adds an element of realism to the whole thing.

I guess trigger warning... the theme of the damage to the girl is a rape. The rape was not shown in any detail, but it is what it is. While that is in progress, the main character runs into her house to say hello, and catches the perps in progress. This leads to him getting shot... in the head... while on the phone with the cops.

He wakes up in the hospital with his grandma holding his hand. The doctor tells him he has fragments of his phone lodged in his brain. Tom asks if it hit any of the important parts... the doctor then says "Being a neurologist, we find all of the brain to be pretty important." I loled...

After getting home, Tom realizes he can accesses electronic devices with only his mind. The movie goes on to showing Tom training himself in hacking, hand to hand combat, and more. He communicates with "girl" (Lucy), to see if she's ok, and to let her know the perps would be getting theirs.
The dilemma rages on as she tells "iBoy", the vigilante attacking the gangs of the burbs, not to continue, to let it go. Tom must choose if he loves Lucy, or loves vengeance.

Soon Tom discovers there's more to it than just gangs beating up nerds and raping girls, there's drug lord undertones and a huge crime circle going on. I'm actually quite pissed, because we never get to know who the main perp is... every time Tom tries to hack his profile, he gets errors, and unknowns... WTF is that about!? I want to know so bad. I want there to be another one. I want Tom to be a superhero, because he totally is... AGH it was so good!

~~~End Spoilers~~~

The cyberpunk theme is maintained strongly throughout, and is a fantastic element in the movie. It's so well executed, I'm f*ckin jealous. Dear Netflix, please adopt me as your long lost daughter. I'll write for you endlessly. I love you. Bring my brain to life on the screen T_T

In closing, this movie was so cool, I'm going to watch it again tomorrow. Thanks Mom for chilling with me after my busy work life finally wrapped up. Ugh... I need to figure out how to replicate myself.
Night kiddies...

Networking & Genuine Fans

Hola kiddies! Months and months ago I was on Author's Row at MileHiCon; my best con so far for networking, sales, and fun. I'm calling out networking in this post because recently I've been chatting with one of the authors (James Hunter) who was near by at MHC and we've struck up conversation about what he's working on, what prospects look like in other genres, etc. These things are vitally important for authors to share with each other, and here's why:
When a market is about to explode, readers are hungry for the genre and consume everything in it too quickly. If demands aren't met, they start looking for the next genre to catch their interest. However, if there is a higher volume of available content, they'll stay in the genre. Proof of that, you can see on Google Trends.

Paranormal Fantasy popularity:

You can see there was a big spike for it in October 2009, and that date we saw a few paranormal fantasy/romance type books come out. However, the author community didn't respond with enough vigor, quickly, and the readership got bored. (I'd also like to call out that Kindle Direct (launched in 2007, not popular until late 2009) and other self-pub/indie-pub options were not as viable as they are now, so that could've hurt the market too.)

Because I wanted to share more of these interesting learnings, here's a light off-topic veer for a second.

Sci-Fi has spikes in November:

But only just recently when they started figuring out the release cadence, and they've slowed the degradation of the genre readership, possibly even turned it around.

This is a really good thing.

Fantasy has Spikes in September, and is very stable, whereas Urban Fantasy specifically has spikes in August and is tapering off.

So then, know when I show you this next chart what it could mean for the genre if we don't hop on the bandwagon fast.

Literary Role Playing Game, or LitRPG. James has already written and published his piece for the genre, and it's the best received book he's ever had. Here's the pudding, you find the proof:

What other graph does this remind you of? Paranormal Fantasy?

Let's not allow that to happen. Rally up, author's. It's time to blow the doors off a new market and bust in there! (but not get her pregnant because that would be rude)

There's obvious data about release cadences, they're structured and planned to keep readers locked in a genre loop, or genre juggling (reading the new stuff from one right as a new one comes out in the next genre).

Alright, enough about that. Next on the docket is Genuine Fans. Though maybe I should've broke this out into multiple posts, because I have plenty more to say on the above (I learned a few things at COSine! Which... I guess I'll blog about next >_>)

I met a gentleman named Vincente at MileHiCon, and he first approached the author next to me. I stood by quietly and allowed my boothmate to chat him up, see if he could make a sale. Vincente mentioned he liked sci-fi (my boothmate had none), which was right about the moment I noticed his SpaceX jacket.

With a little too much enthusiasm I exclaimed in a flurry, "ARE YOU WITH SPACEX?" No, he said, but he liked what they were doing. We discussed the recent launches, and what we were excited for, and then a magical thing happened. He asked me about my only sci-fi book on the stack.

We chatted a bit more and he decided, to my surprise, to buy it. I'm always a little surprised when a male buys my books since they typically feature strong, independent ladies (a girl's gotta have role models... and mentors... but that's another post).

Then another magical thing happened, he, of his own volition, wrote a review on amazon. And not the "It was good, 4 stars" review, but he looked at it critically, and gave (I hope) his honest opinion about it, which included some space for improvement and more research on my end (happening in the next book, promise).

Lots of parenthesis happening in this post.

So, you thought it was as magical as it could get at that last bit, right? Wrong. Turns out Vincente lives near Colorado Springs, which was where COSine is held. Magic and sparkles: he showed up to chat with me about Sway's Demise, and then bought both books in the Verge of Desolation series! It's less sci-fi in the first volume, so I'm hoping it doesn't bore him to death, but vol.2 is most certainly my most polished work so far (except maybe Inamorata which I love to death).

Wow! For the first time ever, someone came to talk to me about my book, and buy more of them because they liked the first! Someone other than my mother or friends, that is. I know it may sound silly for me to be so stoked, but this feels like finally crushing a 4 in bouldering when I've been trapped at 3+/4- for 6 months solid (that happened too, but I rarely talk about climbing, so I guess you guys aren't in the know about how much awesome that was for me =p)

I did it again. Seems like this has gone on for long enough, with way too many parenthesis. I'm off! Peace out kiddies, and thanks, Vincente, for being totally awesome =)

Why do a Giveaway? +Revolt Giveaway!

Hey there kiddies! I know I already did a little bit of a post on giveaways, but didn't include much info... before we dive into the topic, check this shiz out:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Revolt

by J.D. Harpley

Giveaway ends January 05, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

10 copies up for grabs, 16 days to enter and share... Get it!

Why are giveaways important for indie/small pubs, you wonder? Because we don't have the power of a huge publisher, with a massive network of subscribers and reader, we have to spread the word by giving the words away for free! I suppose "have to" is strong, but it's a good idea.
I like to run Goodreads giveaways because they're very simple, and nearly always the giveaway winner will write a review once they finish the book. That's pretty rare.
What are the main points, then!

Spread the Word About a New Release

Giveaways are a great way to get the public aware of an upcoming release. Doing a giveaway before the book launches is also an awesome incentive for the readers who like to have "seen it first" or "post the first review". Hipsters...

Using a platform like Goodreads will allow readers to happen across your giveaway without actively seeking it out, unlike Rafflecopter and many others where there's no "central giveaway depot" people can hang out in and browse.
P.S. You can use Rafflecopter for free, but the free version blows a goat. If you're little, start with Goodreads =)

Increase Visibility of an Older Title or a Series

Giveaways don't have to be for new titles. If you've got an older book out there that you:

• Just revamped (I'm in the process of doing that for all my works now!), or 
• You're just looking for more reviews, or 
• It's the first book in a series and you want to get people into it and buying the rest,

Then this is for you!

What Giveaways Can't Do/Other Cons

Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks to giveaways.

• Readers aren't required to leave a review
• You won't get bumped in the charts on Amazon/Apple iBooks/etc
• Cost is all up front and all on you
• The Post Office sucks

For small-time authors, the rewards far outweigh the cons, and for larger authors, the cost isn't a huge deal to them and it just increases their fan following. Overall, it's worth it. It also feels pretty good to know 500+ people want to read your book ^_^

That's all for now kids. Stay safe in these crazy times, and don't forget to Revolt =P

Peace out!

Tunes - The Auditory Stimulus You've Been Missing

Hey there kiddies! Are you visual writers? 'Cause I totally am. What better to bring an epic movie scene in your head to life than the power of some sick beats, chill ambiance, or a death metal screamfest?
As I write this I'm listening to some pretty chill stuff, but in honesty, I spend most of my time listening to heavy metal, rock, and electronica to write. I feel it helps inspire action scenes, which I'm writing a lot more of recently.
I almost feel as though this is a "duh" post... I mean, if it is, just tap out now, I'm not going to blame you.

So, I've been writing Revolt:

If you can't tell from the cover, it's a bit of cyberpunk, even a bit of adventure, and a whole lot of action. My super slick (and slightly crazy) heroine, Hopper, needs a lot of inspiration to bring to life.
For Revolt I listened to a lot of Celldweller (ok, I won't lie, I always listen to a lot of Celldweller/Scandroid/Circle of Dust), Bring Me The Horizon (Doomed especially, love that song right now), Starset (because space!), and then copious amounts of trance/techno from various artists (my current favs being Seven Lions, Tiesto never leaves the list, and DJ CHEFF ^_^)

I need to get back in the headspace of writing Earth's Peril, because the next book on the list to tackle is Eli's Revenge (tentatively named, I'm really not sure if I'll follow Eli or not. His story on Earth is a bit boring... lots of walking and survival stuff, Vendum telling him how much longer it's going to take and what the other robots around the world are doing etcetc... HOWEVER, Bedelcast's story is interesting as fuck.) That was a long sidetrack. Alright, so I'm a little tipsy... sue me. How I'm going to get back in the headspace of writing the EP series will of course be to read the first book, and then jam out to the same stuff I did when writing it, lots of epic alien and space movies too.

Back to the Duh part of this post from an even longer sidetrack.

1. Identify the mood of your writing

It's important to know what kind of feeling you want your readers to be experiencing when they're consuming your media, because then you can correctly select the tunes to stimulate that atmosphere! Writing a laid back, slow love scene? Probably going to want some Sneaker Pimps. Needing a main character who is about to defy a regime, likely want something mainstream and easy to digest like Five Finger Death Punch. About to go into an epic, final boss type battle; bust out the Apocalytpica.

2. Verify that your mood matches the music, matches the scene you're writing

If one of these components are not like the other, the scene's likely to come out a little janky. Which is fine, I guess. You can always edit later. But I honestly feel if you're not in the headspace to write a certain thing, you should not do it. Lots of author promote the "power through" mentality, which works... but you'll end up wanting to rework it later. I'm rambling... mostly because I, once again, feel like this is duh territory.

3. Lyrics can mess up your flow

I've noticed that some of my best writing comes when I've listened to a song so many times, I know all the words and don't even need to comprehend the lyrics, because I know them, OR when there are no lyrics, OR when the lyrics are in a different language. I've listened to a LOT of Eisbrecher, Megahertz, Oomph!, and Rammstein. But also, a lot of F(x), Boa, and other really silly Korean boy bands.

Welp, that's about as much Duh as I can handle. I hope this was useful for you, or entertaining at least... peace out kiddies.

MileHiCon: such a different experience!

Hey hey kids. So, if you follow my posts (which, I'm guessing the only person who reads these are my mom... HI MOM!) you'd know that I did MALCon in August. Well, that was an experience, lemme tell you what. But MileHiCon, holy cow... what a different kind of experience.
As you well know, I was in the vendor room for MALCon, but for MHC, I was on the Author's Row. Here's what I learned:

1. Respect your mates

My row was probably one of the best positioned, and it made a huge difference for sales. Unfortunately, my mate and I got trapped in a bit of a corner, and so traffic flow sucked when there was a ton of people. The most important thing to do it respect your mates, because A.) It's the right thing to do, B.) They'll respect you back, C.) You're gonna see these people again... likely at the next con...... and D.) You're all going to have more sales and a better time if you do.

Let me define what I mean by "respect" because it isn't just the courtesy of not farting in your booth space, it's much more.

My mate didn't have any sci-fi in his lineup. It was all zombies, murder thrillers, one military, and one high fantasy. I did not have any zombies, murder thrillers, or high fantasy in my lineup. When either one of us got to chatting with a person, and realized they didn't want to read our genre, we pointed them at the person we knew had what they were looking for. This was good for everyone. Instead of the person saying, "Oh I'm not into that stuff," and walking off, we passed them along to someone they would buy from, and typically they did.

Not only the above, but I had a good fricken time with my mates! We got a little tipsy, laughed, told stories, kept each other entertained during lulls, watched each other's booths when we were away (and even made some sales for each other!) and exchanged really useful information. All in all, this was the best takeaway and the best part, my new friends ^_^

2. Presentation is more than what's on the table... but that matters a lot too

I was not the only author without a mega banner hanging behind my head, but just about. They're not super expensive and they're really friggen cool looking. Get one.

The backs of my books are super boring... The art is cool, because the artist I had for each one was an illustrator, but not particularly awesome graphic designers. I'm a graphic designer (so says my degree), and it's about time I put that to work. Book backs shouldn't just be a wall of text. They need to have flavor, and personality. Because most of the cool illustrations are going on on the front, the back needs something else to keep it intriguing. Spice that shiz up with some InDesign layout awesomeness.

You'd think this one would be a no brainer... but make sure people can actually pick up your stuff and look at it. The first and second days I had my books further back so that all of the free shit (stickers, bookmarks, chapstick, candy, newsletter signup, etc) was all up front and grabbable. Wrong. Fucking. Move. I ended up (due to my mother's prodding) rearranging everything at the end of the second night, and it did result in a better pick-up-and-touch rate for people, but not necessarily a higher purchase rate.

Shiny shit at an angle is hard to see... Glossy book covers look friggen awesome, but gloss makes it invisible when there's reflected light pounding your potential customers in the eyes. Remove one of the three factors (light isn't really doable, so scratch that, two factors): Get some mat books (I have one and it seemed to pull some people in well!), and don't put your glossy stuff at an angle.

3. Medicine bag needs to be more inclusive

I learned from MALCon that I needed to carry tums, advil, and excedrin on me. I totally did that for MHC, but it wasn't enough. My medicine bag needs more... importantly, it needs purell... When you're on author's row, you shake a lot more hands than when you're a merchant. Purell... Purell your fingernails. Purell your wrists. Purell for your eyes sometimes because yes, you will see some shit...

Not really medicine, but medicine for my phone... bring a portable charger (and remember to update your Square software before the con, fortunately I did)

Caffeine and snacks.

Purell...

4. Don't be anti-social

Another duh moment, but if you don't step outside your comfort zone and flag some people down, you're never going to get a sale. If you don't get any sales, stay positive. There's nothing worse than a whiny little bitch on author's row. I sold least of the other 3 authors in my row, but kept my shit positive (mostly with dry martinis), and stayed upbeat, because I wasn't there to make money. Let's get that clear (wow we're diverging from the topic here). It's not about the money. It's not about the money. Cons are about meeting fellow authors and learning as much as you can from them, meeting fans (or potential new fans), making real connections, and selling a few books, praying the people you sell to will review them (or even read them in the first place).

So, don't sit in your corner and hope people will come to you and ask you what your books are about. They won't. Get off your ass, work up 20 seconds of courage, and say hi to someone. The common phrases we used were "What do you like to read?" or "What do you love in a book?" or even got specific because Stant Litore is fucking amazing and say "The eternal question: Aliens, Zombies, or Tyrannosaurus' in space." That always got a laugh out of people ^_^ Stant is the friggen best.

Alright, this is going too long... here's a few pics. Peace out kiddies.

It's time to Revolt

That's right kiddies, time to rise up against the corporations and take your life back, whatever life you have left after getting your arm and leg ripped off and replaced, your guts torn open and put back together, your... wait... who am I talking about here? Someone specific? Mayhaps... Alright, I can't hold it in any longer!!!

Jen has departed, leaving mechanically augmented Hopper at the top of a dimensionally phasing building wondering what's next.
Riding home, she encounters the strange but intriguing Ravin, a man so desperate to make a change in their cruel world, Hopper's never fully sure she can trust him. Her thirst for revenge against the doctors of The Mill shapes the revolt of their century as she adopts Ravin's quest for freedom and unravels a secret which cuts deeply into her heart.
Return to The Mill with Hopper and Ravin on their bloody adventure to destroy the source of the depraved experiments and save the world from the true evil that plagues it.

Welcome to the next installment in the Verge of Desolation series: Revolt.

The Neon Demon - A Movie Review

I know, I know... I'm books... but this is too much to pass up. The Neon Demon, an Amazon Original, starring Elle Fanning (didn't even have to look her up), Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, and Abbey Lee... 6.4 on IMDB, 54% on Rotten Tomatoes... f*ck all those f*ckers. PS for this paragraph, not censoring myself from here on in...

This movie was ridiculously good. An all too brief view into a world 99.9% of people could never understand with a sexy retro neon twist. I don't know how else to describe it than that.

So many of the scenes were undeniably perfect, the character behavior fantastic. Elle delivers a kick-ass performance, as usual (I love this girl). The very word narcissism quivers when it thinks of her. She is perfection, she is the embodiment of everything and everyone in the fashion industry. She is a goddess.
Until she soaks up her fame too far, casts off people she shouldn't, leaves herself open for ambush. A diabolical glance at what it is to be a model (fucking yuck), and what these psychotic bitches do behind closed doors.
Let us define beauty, absolute. This movie covers it in such a way that leaves you hollow and jealous. Fuck this movie. It's amazing.

I have no other words to say. See it.




~~
Night Kiddies.