Christopher Keene's Blog, page 7

[Announcement] Paperback Release of Back in the Game!!!

Both Stuck in the Game and Back in the Game have been available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited for a few months but there are still people out there who prefer reading books the old fashion way. If you want a pretty cover and to feel the pages as they slide over your fingers, you can! Happy now? Click here to BUY MY FUCKING BOOK! *heavy breathing*

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Honestly, there’s been so many delays for Gods of the Mountain you might as well get into this series instead, book 3 is more likely to come out before it does anyway. The paperbacks have been released alongside the Kindle Unlimited versions on Amazon. Give it a go if you haven’t already, give me a scathing review if you have, or maybe a good one if you liked it, and then we’ll be best friends forever.

Chapter 4: Beginning a story at chapter 4 is not the best way to go about writing a book

Tessa Belle was lying on the back of Graytail listening to the new Shingle single when there was a flutter in the air. Maybe it was because she had never been this far out of the outer circle but she sat up in a panic and was suddenly on guard. If Graytail had been a real cat and not machine, its fur would have been standing on end. She pulled off her noise-blocker headphones and heard the rumbling of crunching armored footfalls. Panic hit her and she shot to her feet.

Marauders… this far out?

However, as she got a closer look at the dust on the horizon and pulled out her binoculars, she saw she had been wrong. Those silver and red colors could only mean one thing: a battalion of Clerics. They were coming at speed, five in all, their massive mechanized bodies with their singular red eye coming closer with every second. Tessa knew she wouldn’t be able to out run them, their armor was far superior to Graytail’s. Still, she pushed the release to open the cockpit and jumped into the seat as the visor lowered.

She hesitated before starting the engines. They can’t be after me, can they?

Trepidation filled her. She knew if she took off that not only would they outrun her, but her very fleeing would cause them to start the chase, thinking her to be a heathen on the run from Mason’s lessons. She had to find away to, if not make her invisible, then at least make he less noticeable out here in the middle of nowhere.

“Gray, activate top parachute.”

At her command, a massive gray chute exploded from between the armor’s shoulder blades and spread out over the length of its top half. She couldn’t tell if it covered all of Graytail’s long body but she didn’t have time to get out a check while sticking to her plan of not drawing attention to herself. She did the only thing she could do. She sat and she waited as the roaring Armors drew closer.

This ridiculous. I’m sticking my head in the sand and hoping a predator doesn’t eat me.

The rumbling grew louder along with her heart beat as she pulled her knees up to her chest and prayed. Not to Him, he was the reason for all of this, but to her mother, who she was sure she would meet soon if the Clerics saw her and thought she was any kind of threat. The noise continued to grow and grow until she was sure they were right on top of her and then finally it began to fade. She checked her scanner, seeing the specks of light getting further and further away.

“Thank you,” she whispered and pulled her head out from between her legs.

She waited another half an hour, still on edge as the engine noises got further and further away. When they had vanished entirely, she opened the vizor, pulled away some of the gray chute to make room, grabbed the zip line and jumped down. Bending down, she grabbed the edge of the chute and pulled it up from the hardpan. All she could see was a cloud of dust in the distance where they had moved off.

Hah, must have worked after all.

She spun about, feeling pleased with the realization that her parachute could be used to camouflage her Graytail when she needed it. However, as she walked around it inspecting the material for holes, she frowned as she saw the majority of the armor’s hind quarters and tail were not covered by the tail. That being said, the majority of the front was facing the Clerics and the body was similar enough to the chute to blend with it.

There was now no doubt that they should have seen her out here. That either meant that they were not only not looking for her, but that whatever they were really after was important enough not to waste time on her.

Still, I feel sorry for whoever they are after.

Whoever that was, she didn’t want to stick around long enough to let them turn around and change their mind. She ran around to the dangling zip line, hooked her leg in the loop at the end, and tugged it down. The cord retracted and took her with, pulling her up into the cockpit. She swung into the seat and lowered the visor again.

Inside, she checked the scanner in the back again, showing her the direction they were going from the last speck of light on the monitor. Wherever they were going, she was going in the opposite direction as fast as she could go. She started her engines and placed her fingers on four of the five buttons, activating the massive, all terrain wheels attached each leg.

Dust flew up behind them as she leaned her Graytail forward, it’s sleek puma-like for blasting off over the desert. For an armor she had made out of junk parts in the ruins of a battlefield, even Tessa was surprised how fast it could go on such rough terrain. Being one of the few junkers from the inner rim, she was an opportunist at heart. If it weren’t for the fact that the Clerics made her fear for her life, she would have been on their tail to see what she could scavenge.

Despite this, as her fear began to subside, her stupid began to build.

If I play it right, I could be the first one there. No! What am I thinking? They’re Clerics, if they spot me they’ll blow me to smitherings.

She ground her teeth, trying to fight the ideas rushing in. The risk may have been fatal, but the opportunity would be incomparable. As unlikely as it was, if the battalion lost one armor, that would make her enough credits to buy any parts she may want. She thought she recalled hearing that the village Daridin was nearby. If she did decide to tail the Clerics, the least she could do was head there and see if anyone else had heard about the raid.

I’m not following them, I’m just going in a similar direction.

She widened two fingers on the shifting buttons as the Graytail spun and then shot into the direction of the cloud of dust. It took her until evening to arrive at Daridin and she didn’t have to enter the village to see that place looked like a ghost town. Although he hadn’t been there before to make a comparison, she though a battalion of Clerics would do that to any outer rim town.

She was surprised to see a large forest of its outskirt and had no doubt that it was the reason such a place could have survived this long outside the walls. From the many wooden houses, it seemed the locals had put them to good use. What also impressed her was the size of the place. The town seemed to indeed be two towns connected by…

She then saw what she couldn’t have seen from the distance. The large bridge the once connected to two areas had been completely destroyed and there was smoke rising in the distance. She stopped and got of Graytail, using its height to see better. The battle seemed to be still going on. She had arrived too early.

Shit!

“Hey, you!” I man called from one of the homes.

Tessa looked down on him. He was a middle aged man, but held cane and walked with a bit of limp.

“Are you with the ones who blew up the bridge.”

“No!” she yelled down.

“Then you better help them.” The man pointed. “The orphanage is over that bridge, most of the victim will be children.”

Tessa raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know who you think I am. Just because I have an armor, doesn’t mean I’m a hero.”

“But they’re just children, youngins.”

“I know what children are! But I can’t do anything about Clerics, they outnumber me and… hell, I’m getting out of here. If you’re smart, you would do the same!”

Tessa jumped back into her cockpit and took off. Although instead of heading back into the wasteland, the smart thing to do, she circled around, narrowing the buttons on her dash so that her armor could creep between some of the trees. She looked over her shoulder, hearing the rumbles of battle behind the forest. She was surprised such a place could put up a fight for this long.

It didn’t matter. She had come this far and what junker mission didn’t have a little risk?

I’ll stand out like a sore thumb in this thing. Better I go on foot, by the time I walk there, everyone would be dead anyway. The scraps will be free for the taking, I just need to be patient.

Before she took the zip-cord down again, she leaned in a deployed her parachute. The thing had come in lucky the first time and she would take any luck she could get.

Ode to Joy [Anime/VN/Game Music Spotlight]

Each time I do a classical music spotlight for an anime and visual novel I always find a remixed version of it on G-Senjou no Maou. I think I’m going to have to do a post linking each of its BGM to the classical pieces of music that inspired them. Believe it or not, the first time I heard this masterpiece was the original piece of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes 25, and watching this scene haunts me even today.

And here’s the G-Senjou no Maou version, Hiru no Asobi. It is, without a doubt, a hell of a lot more upbeat in comparison to Evangelion clip. Like many of the songs on that OST, it’s fun to find the melody within the remix, which it seems, to do that post I mentioned, before I’m going to have to do. It’s always trip when you finally recognize it.

Watching Things More Than Once

[image error]Note: “Watching” in this post will apply to reading, listening, playing, and every other means in which people consume media.

We are flooded with a never ending, updating mountain of media to consume. It’s almost gotten to the point that people with limited time have to orientate their priorities around watching something to the point that it feels like work itself. So, when people say after you’ve watched some form of media, “It’s one of those things you have to watch more than once” a lot of us take this statement with a grain of salt and stick with our first impressions of that thing.

However, the fact is that some media needs to be watched more than once as the average consumer will not pick up everything that needs to be picked up from the first viewing. When people critically review these things without watching them twice, I take their review with a grain of salt in turn. For instance, if someone were to give Cowboy Bebop a negative review, I would assume they only watched it once. This is because many of the little quirks and character interactions don’t truly make sense until you have gotten to know them, which you can only truly understand once you have watched the whole series.

[image error]The fact is that these things have more depth than the average show and there are hundreds of works in other mediums that are just like this. Be it from some twist or reveal, the knowledge you have gathered from the media by the end will change your experience the second time round. Some media are designed specifically for this second viewing, where the things that are designed to seem incongruous the first time make sense a second time around. Yet because of the flood of media and lack of time to rewatch these, many of them are going unappreciated.

As an artist, this could potentially dissuade people like me from creating media with a bit more depth and subtlety than the average story, for we know that the likelihood of people appreciating it on that level is becoming smaller than smaller due to this oversaturation. Because of this, media that will hit you hardest and stay with you for a long time is becoming more and more scarce to that point that most films, books, or games are merely becoming flavors of the week until the next thing comes along. I think this is why, at least for artists trying to make a name for themselves, their art is becoming more and more shallow and niche audience targeted.

[image error]Of course, there is an attempt to create this depth in subtle ways by hiding them in character foibles or Easter Eggs. However, most of these only give us a glimpse of the self-awareness and depth that this work could have had but was too afraid to expand on because of people’s narrow attention spans. In reality, our inability to appreciate art on a level where we watch it more than once when it needs to be is also the reason why many forms of art lack this depth. The artists know that the likelihood of people appreciating it for these reasons is so low that it is unlikely to be taken seriously, or even be at a detriment from first-timer reviewers that it will be watched at all.

Publication Update and Advanced Reader Copies

[image error]After yet another cover image was declined (the one in the previous post), the release date of my book has been delayed until a third cover has been created. So this time I’m getting a proper, non-inhouse artist to do the cover for them.

There are two things I need for this, anyone who knows any artists willing to do cover art for reasonable prices please contact me so I can put them on to my publisher. Also any bloggers or authors willing to go through an advanced reader copy for review or quote for the front of the book (or know someone who would) contact me or leave something in the comments.

I have a few months leeway before the book comes out now, so those reading an ARC have more time and I also have more time to find authors and bloggers who might be willing to do it. Will this turn out for the best or will people just get sick of waiting? Who knows. Either way, thanks to anyone who helps me with this.

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I HAVE TIME NOW!

Epic Fantasy New Cover Art and Release Date Update

After discovering that there were TWO other authors who were using the exact same image as me for their cover art (one of which is being published by Harper Voyager!), I negotiated heatedly with my publisher to get another image for my cover – being five days left until the book’s launch! Don’t worry, the release date will still be the 7th, but whether or not the cover art will be updated in time for its launch will be left to fate and fortune.

Here’s the new cover art!

[image error]Whether it’s updated in time or not, I won’t be posting the launch on here until the cover art is updated. Of course, depending on if you like this cover art or the first version should tell you if you should wait until it’s changed or not. It’s really up to you, but the first version will only be up for a limited time, so if limited time, rare covers are your thing, I’d get in quickly. If you want the official cover, wait until I release the launch post with the Amazon link.

[Announcement] Release Date for my Epic Fantasy Book

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Chapter 3: Assault

It felt like I was fighting myself, like my body had become my worst enemy. My mind was a murk of pain that an object all of a sudden seemed to pierce. It jabbed at me like a blade, a malicious face behind it. Eventually the object parted my lips but couldn’t get through the barrier of my clenched teeth. I was safe.

The owner of the malicious face reached through the murk with its other hand, pinching my nose and making it difficult to breathe. Eventually I was forced to open my mouth to get gulp of air, and as I did, the object plunged into my mouth before withdrawing again, leaving something on my tongue. Whatever it was, it tasted okay, and my instincts told me to chew and swallow it, before the object returned to attack me again.

I was assaulted by the malicious presence several more times. I fought it bravely each time it forced the object into my mouth. Oddly, by the seventh assault, the murk around me began to clear and I felt like someone had just lit a torch in my mind. That’s when I looked up and saw that the person assaulting me didn’t looked malicious at all. She was smiling.

“Quite a stubborn one you picked up, Black,” the redheaded girl said. “But look at that, you finished it all.”

The Kiddie Catcher looked down at me, eyes as dark as his navy blue jacket. “You calling someone else stubborn is enough to praise him, Red.”

Red lifted the bowl of porridge to show me, the assaulting object revealing itself to be a spoon. A great sense of accomplishment accompanied the clearing the murk in my mind. I could help but mirror her expression, it was just such a charming smile.

“Welcome back to the living.” And that’s how I met Mika after my arrival at the orphanage.

The orphanage itself was a series of lonely abandoned buildings on the edge of a small village known as Lonanora, a backwater dwelling. What was once an educated clan where the Lona lived here, one of the few villages on this side of the plate that the Ologists had apparently visit years before.

I would learn this a year after I had arrived. Until then I was content  to grow up with other orphans and Mika, puzzling out the broken remains of new home with only speculation of how we arrived here. The older children like Mika took care of the young, and besides some of the adults from the village, our only contact was with the Kiddie Catcher, Black, returning every moon to brings us new brothers or sisters.

For seven years I stayed by Mika’s side, until the day she disappeared.

 

Assault

It felt like I was fighting myself, like my body had become my worst enemy. My mind was a murk of pain that an object all of a sudden seemed to pierce. It jabbed at me like a blade, a malicious face behind it. Eventually the object parted my lips but couldn’t get through the barrier of my clenched teeth. I was safe.

The owner of the malicious face reached through the murk with its other hand, pinching my nose and making it difficult to breathe. Eventually I was forced to open my mouth to get in a gulp of air, and as I did, the object plunged into my mouth before withdrawing again, leaving something on my tongue. Whatever it was, it tasted okay, and my instincts told me to chew and swallow it, before the object returned to attack me again.

I was assaulted by the malicious presence several more times. I fought it bravely each time it forced the object into my mouth. Oddly, by the seventh assault, the murk around me began to clear and I felt like someone had just lit a torch in my mind. That’s when I looked up and saw that the person assaulting me didn’t looked malicious at all. She was smiling.

“Quite a stubborn one you picked up, Black,” the redheaded girl said. “But look at that, you finished it all.”

The Kiddie Catcher looked down at me, eyes as dark as his navy blue jacket.

The redhead lifted the bowl of porridge to show me, the assaulting object revealing itself to be a spoon. A great sense of accomplishment accompanied the clearing the murk in my mind. I could help but mirror her expression, it was just such a charming smile.

“Welcome back to the living.” And that’s how I met Mika after my arrival at the orphanage.

The orphanage itself was a series of lonely abandoned buildings on the edge of a small village known as Lonanora, a backwater dwelling. What was once an educated clan of the Lona lived here, one of the few villages on this side of the plate that the Ologist had apparently visit years before.

I would learn this a year after I had arrived. Until then I was content  to grow up with other orphans and Mika, puzzling out the broken remains of new home with only speculation of how we arrived here. The older children like Mika took care of the young, and besides some of the adults from the village, our only contact was with the Kiddie Catcher, returning every moon to brings us new brothers or sisters.

For seven years I stayed by Mika’s side, until the day she disappeared.

 

Stuck in the Game Live Reading on SBTL

Maybe because it was my stuff he was reading but listening to this made me laugh a lot. It’s almost like hearing about yourself sleep talking with a word for word reenactment.