Amaranth Angels

Neopatronage Ascendant

Big news broke in the indie comics world this week as the upcoming manga Amaranth Angels met its ambitious funding goal. The brainchild of Ascendant Fiction writer Yakov Merkin and artist Philip San Gaspar, this sci fi adventure features all you could ever want ... Cute girls in space. Watch…
October 20, 20234 Comments
Writing Spiral

Escape the Writing Spiral

Look around the pop culture moonscape, and you'll notice that former titans of entertainment like Lost and A Game of Thrones have become bywords and lolcows - grim warnings to writers about the price of failing to deliver. Everybody says that these shows disappointed viewers because their storylines devolved into…
October 19, 2023
Actraiser

ActRaiser

The onset of fall has made me inclined to nostalgia in recent years. It could be the turning of the leaves serving as memento mori, or Western civilization's accelerating slide over the brink. Either way, this time of year gives me the itch to play classic games. And few games…
October 18, 202315 Comments
Tales From the Darkside

Tales From the Darkside: The Movie

In honor of the Spooky Season, and to give my regular readers a sample of the fun they're missing out on, I here repost a patron exclusive from last month: my review of Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. Don't let the title fool you. Tales From the Darkside: The…
October 17, 2023
Victorian landing

It Was on the Landing

The people of Rockford, IL just called it the Penfield House. Built sometime in the 1870s, the rambling Victorian mansion was first called home by its builder and his new bride. But all was not well in paradise. Whispers circulated of an affair. Only a year into the young couple's…
October 16, 2023
Twitter X Ban

Burned Book Banned?

A year ago, I went on record speculating that Elon Musk may have bought Twitter to destroy it. If the latest wave of censorship on the embattled platform - including dissident account ban waves and the apparent implementation of a subtler "social credit" style policy are any indication, Twitter's demise…
October 13, 202311 Comments
Influence

How to Manage Your Influences

The influences that shape your writing can be a boon and a challenge. Striking the right balance between drawing inspiration from others and staying true to your unique voice is an essential skill for new authors. Let's explore some practical ways to help you manage your influences while writing without…
October 12, 2023
IndieScan 11

Ironage IndieScan

One unexpected but welcome windfall of my recent public commitment to neopatronage is the number of fellow authors who have likewise embraced the concept. Launching my patron pages and my latest crowdfunding campaign has given me the chance to talk with many other authors. Once they understand the new model,…
October 11, 2023
Camille Montfort

Vampire of the Amazon

When most people think of vampires, they imagine insular Eastern European villages huddled in remote valleys at the wooded feet of craggy peaks. Or beautiful monsters haunting the inner rooms of gaslit salons. What almost nobody thinks of is the Amazon. Yet in the late 19th century, this Old World…
October 10, 20231 Comment
Book Boomerang

The Book Boomerang

What goes around comes around. But somehow, the book boomers didn't see the book boomerang coming. In 2021, avid readers notably increased their reading.  However, in the first six months of 2023, print book sales in the US declined by 2.7% compared to the same period in 2022, decreasing from 363.4 million to 353.5 million.…
October 9, 20238 Comments