Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp, page 6
October 31, 2019
NaNoWriMo 2019
I've only just now finished a short story called (at the moment) Twice-Shot Star. I was a little worried I might not be able to make it, and had to stay up a little late, but in the end, here we are.
Now I can start NaNoWriMo from something fresh. I've two or three short bits to write - no real single novel, as such, but with luck these will add up to the goal when put together. So I'm not overly fussed. I've written a few more short ones in the meantime, too: I think I'll pile some of them together into a nice big short story collection for you to read.
I've also got this one short story that does not really fit in with anything else - kind of unique in a way - that I'll likely just have to publish all on its own. But I rather like it: I think it can stand out. We'll see, sometime this month, if I feel like it.
Now to bed.
Happy Halloween.
Now I can start NaNoWriMo from something fresh. I've two or three short bits to write - no real single novel, as such, but with luck these will add up to the goal when put together. So I'm not overly fussed. I've written a few more short ones in the meantime, too: I think I'll pile some of them together into a nice big short story collection for you to read.
I've also got this one short story that does not really fit in with anything else - kind of unique in a way - that I'll likely just have to publish all on its own. But I rather like it: I think it can stand out. We'll see, sometime this month, if I feel like it.
Now to bed.
Happy Halloween.
October 19, 2019
Giveaway Statistics
Last year, I put my debut novel on a Goodreads Giveaway, over the course of a month racking in 1264 requests of people wishing to read it. I was pretty surprised so many people would want to give it a go, and quite happy with the final number.
Now my second book has surpassed that number - in less than a week!
So that's pretty cool, but I wonder how it could have been? Is it because this is my second attempt, and more established authors are more favoured by the readers - or by the Goodreads site itself - than complete newbies? Is it because I'm throwing away print copies this time, and those are in higher demand, or again propped up in better position by the site? Or is it because of a more appealing cover and/or synopsis?
Hard to say. I suspect I'll never find out. But I'm happy.
The giveaway is still going, if you want to take part. I appreciate all those expressing their willingness to read something I've tossed out there, even if I cannot throw a free copy to literally everyone asking for it. Thank you all.
Now my second book has surpassed that number - in less than a week!
So that's pretty cool, but I wonder how it could have been? Is it because this is my second attempt, and more established authors are more favoured by the readers - or by the Goodreads site itself - than complete newbies? Is it because I'm throwing away print copies this time, and those are in higher demand, or again propped up in better position by the site? Or is it because of a more appealing cover and/or synopsis?
Hard to say. I suspect I'll never find out. But I'm happy.
The giveaway is still going, if you want to take part. I appreciate all those expressing their willingness to read something I've tossed out there, even if I cannot throw a free copy to literally everyone asking for it. Thank you all.
October 17, 2019
Kull - Exiles
I was never the one for black metal, but I still enjoyed the somewhat more symphonic interpretation of Bal-Sagoth. And I was always a bit sad that they'd stopped recording new stuff by the time I found them.
Well, only yesterday it turned out to me that they'd since regathered and reformed, and recently threw out something brand new in this realm of ours. It's pretty much all I've been listening since then, and is doing a great deal of good for this ocean short story I've been writing lately.
If you like this sort of stuff, give it a spin. I like Vow of the Exiled the best myself.
(Oh, and Scourge of the Silver Wings is currently in a Goodreads giveaway. If you live in North America and haven't picked it up yet, you could participate and maybe win a print copy.)
Well, only yesterday it turned out to me that they'd since regathered and reformed, and recently threw out something brand new in this realm of ours. It's pretty much all I've been listening since then, and is doing a great deal of good for this ocean short story I've been writing lately.
If you like this sort of stuff, give it a spin. I like Vow of the Exiled the best myself.
(Oh, and Scourge of the Silver Wings is currently in a Goodreads giveaway. If you live in North America and haven't picked it up yet, you could participate and maybe win a print copy.)
September 3, 2019
Bad Parenting
I think I finally tackled an analogy I've been working on for a while now.
Picture you had some terrible parents. They're constantly at odds with each other. It's not for certain that you're biologically theirs (though many believe you are), or that they didn't have you by accident.
A lot of people would not even be aware of these parents existing, and go along with their lives as if this was the case.
But others would take sides.
Let's say you went along with your dad. You agreed with him in everything, partly because you believe what he says, and partly because he gives you great rewards and weird powers. It's up to you which one of these is more important. In turn, you shun your mother and oppose her wherever you can.
Then it gets wonky. The thing is, you yourself are made of your two parents, more or less in equal amounts. But the more you go along with your dad, the less like your mother you resemble.
Say you had once her eyes? Well, not anymore. Her very genetic code gets slowly but steadily erased out of you. Eventually there's nothing but your dad in you.
This is what it would be like to follow either the concept of Law or Chaos too far. To think that the world would be better off with full order, or disorder, and forget that it needs both to exist. By mortal reckoning, the champions of either aspect are pretty legitimately insane.
Peal, in this analogy, would be well aware of his parentage, but choose to avoid both sides. Whenever one of the two is getting too powerful, he punches them in the groin. Peal is a problem child.
Picture you had some terrible parents. They're constantly at odds with each other. It's not for certain that you're biologically theirs (though many believe you are), or that they didn't have you by accident.
A lot of people would not even be aware of these parents existing, and go along with their lives as if this was the case.
But others would take sides.
Let's say you went along with your dad. You agreed with him in everything, partly because you believe what he says, and partly because he gives you great rewards and weird powers. It's up to you which one of these is more important. In turn, you shun your mother and oppose her wherever you can.
Then it gets wonky. The thing is, you yourself are made of your two parents, more or less in equal amounts. But the more you go along with your dad, the less like your mother you resemble.
Say you had once her eyes? Well, not anymore. Her very genetic code gets slowly but steadily erased out of you. Eventually there's nothing but your dad in you.
This is what it would be like to follow either the concept of Law or Chaos too far. To think that the world would be better off with full order, or disorder, and forget that it needs both to exist. By mortal reckoning, the champions of either aspect are pretty legitimately insane.
Peal, in this analogy, would be well aware of his parentage, but choose to avoid both sides. Whenever one of the two is getting too powerful, he punches them in the groin. Peal is a problem child.
August 17, 2019
Print Copies now Available!
Grab yours here.
Or if you haven't gotten a Kindle copy yet, remember that those are still free.
I'll post a picture of a fresh solid physical book sometime soon. It always feels nice to hold those.
Or if you haven't gotten a Kindle copy yet, remember that those are still free.
I'll post a picture of a fresh solid physical book sometime soon. It always feels nice to hold those.
August 13, 2019
My second novel is out there for you to grab and read - from tomorrow on, for free!
You can go and grab Scourge of the Silver Wings now for like three dollars, if you'd like to support my efforts, or wait till tomorrow to get it free of charge. I won't mind.
As you can tell by the cover, this one is pretty heavily naval-themed. You've got pirates, swashbuckling, sailing ships and submarines, cannons and flintlocks, storms and mists, mystery... and two gangs tearing up a small town and a stranger coming in to pin them against one another to be rid of both. You may have heard that story before.
I'll be getting print copies available sometime over the week. I'll let you know as things develop.
Till then, happy reading! I hope you'll like it.
As you can tell by the cover, this one is pretty heavily naval-themed. You've got pirates, swashbuckling, sailing ships and submarines, cannons and flintlocks, storms and mists, mystery... and two gangs tearing up a small town and a stranger coming in to pin them against one another to be rid of both. You may have heard that story before.
I'll be getting print copies available sometime over the week. I'll let you know as things develop.
Till then, happy reading! I hope you'll like it.
August 8, 2019
It's good to not rely on material possessions too much
I like it when a hero winds up shipwrecked on a beach, or enslaved in a mine, or imprisoned, or otherwise brought into great trouble with no equipment on them save their wits, always ready to grab a new sword - or make one of their own - and go out there swinging it and taking names. This happens to Conan a fair bit, for instance. Or Lara Croft about once in each of the games I actually played.
But it is a bit of a problem in that my own heroes tend to be heavily tied on a few items of great magical or historical value. Being unable to get rid of these things in any lasting and meaningful way locks out a great few stories for them. I've written myself into a corner, a bit.
Then again, even as I've now begun thinking about it, I'm already coming up with solutions. So that's nice.
But it is a bit of a problem in that my own heroes tend to be heavily tied on a few items of great magical or historical value. Being unable to get rid of these things in any lasting and meaningful way locks out a great few stories for them. I've written myself into a corner, a bit.
Then again, even as I've now begun thinking about it, I'm already coming up with solutions. So that's nice.
July 14, 2019
A Tempest
In terms of the weather, I fear I haven't done my setting justice.
It's a tiny moon hovering around a vast gas giant, with many other moons all around it. It has sixteen different seasons, based on how the sun shines on its and how much its planet parent gets in the way, over the course of a good thirty years. And all those moons and planets are most assuredly going to wreak havoc with the tides.
And so far my writings haven't explored almost any of it. The Straggler's Mask has a couple weather-related hazards, but the next two take place almost entirely outside of the concept (one of them mostly underwater!), and then the next one is all in the single hellishly-cold period of riftwinter. It doesn't do much with the concept.
I believe I shall fix this matter. I will write something all about weather. All about the winds, the storms, the lunar tides, the eclipses, the sun, and the bizarre unnatural chaos of it all. It would have to take place over the course of twenty years, at minimum, so it would also make for an opportunity to see how the characters and the world develop in long term.
Should be fun.
(Art by Fel-X and Beauty Disrupted)
It's a tiny moon hovering around a vast gas giant, with many other moons all around it. It has sixteen different seasons, based on how the sun shines on its and how much its planet parent gets in the way, over the course of a good thirty years. And all those moons and planets are most assuredly going to wreak havoc with the tides.
And so far my writings haven't explored almost any of it. The Straggler's Mask has a couple weather-related hazards, but the next two take place almost entirely outside of the concept (one of them mostly underwater!), and then the next one is all in the single hellishly-cold period of riftwinter. It doesn't do much with the concept.
I believe I shall fix this matter. I will write something all about weather. All about the winds, the storms, the lunar tides, the eclipses, the sun, and the bizarre unnatural chaos of it all. It would have to take place over the course of twenty years, at minimum, so it would also make for an opportunity to see how the characters and the world develop in long term.
Should be fun.
(Art by Fel-X and Beauty Disrupted)
July 11, 2019
Wildcard Rule of Magic: Careful with Christ
First noticing with King of Elfland's Daughter, now reaffirmed by The Broken Sword, I think this is worth noting down: you could make magic as whimsical and unknowable as it gets and I might still judge it too harshly - all thanks to our good Judean boy.
It'd be something of an addendum to the first rule, I suppose, about sciences and analyzing and quantifying, about the universe around us imposing itself to the sorcerer. It's not a hard-and-fast type of rule magic like Alchemy or Allomancy or what have you, though - it's more of an underlying implication underneath, an invisible rot that sets out to put all fantasy into decay.
Faith magic can on its own be as mysterious and unknowable, as wondrous and fantastic, as-
-as the best magic system out there... but at the end of the day, it all still relies on the premise of one true God, the creator of the world, the high being, omnipotent and omnipresent and omnieverything. The child outside the sandbox. And this being, by its very definition, always stands superior. Any other type of magic and monsters and fantasy will have their roots on pagan gods or outright devil worship, will always lose in the end - and is but an inferior shadow of the true path, trickery and lies, foolish, childish even. This kills a lot of the appeal for me.
Many other old faiths of the world - Hinduism, Greek and Norse Pantheons, etc. - don't have this issue, on account of the more polytheic nature and their capability of coexisting peacefully. They each have their version of the story of Earth's birth, how it all came to being, and you're free to come to your own conclusion and sacrifice to whichever daity you like. But Yahweh is a jealous one, and suffers no other gods or truths.
With brutal efficiency, He and His disciples set out to the world to reshape it all in their image. Pan, Loki, and Perkele, among many others - once perfectly fine and respectable deities - ended up as nothing more than an aspect of Lucifer Morningstar. Others, such as Brigid, were reduced in power to Saints, each subservient to the Lord. He is the one above all, and so His magic is above all other magic and fantasy.
Both Elfland's Daughter and Broken Sword seem to be taking this for granted. C.S. Lewis sinks deep into the same pitfall by his heavy use of allegory. Even the Vertigo line of comic books holds this as a truth, though it has other sets of gods as well. Other works can avoid the trap, but they'd typically have to go out on their way to establish Christianity as just another belief among the others, no inherently better or more truthful: the automatic assumption seems to be that if Jesus and God are out there, then they're the best and the highest. Watch yourself among them.
The Broken Sword is still a great book, though.
It'd be something of an addendum to the first rule, I suppose, about sciences and analyzing and quantifying, about the universe around us imposing itself to the sorcerer. It's not a hard-and-fast type of rule magic like Alchemy or Allomancy or what have you, though - it's more of an underlying implication underneath, an invisible rot that sets out to put all fantasy into decay.
Faith magic can on its own be as mysterious and unknowable, as wondrous and fantastic, as-
-as the best magic system out there... but at the end of the day, it all still relies on the premise of one true God, the creator of the world, the high being, omnipotent and omnipresent and omnieverything. The child outside the sandbox. And this being, by its very definition, always stands superior. Any other type of magic and monsters and fantasy will have their roots on pagan gods or outright devil worship, will always lose in the end - and is but an inferior shadow of the true path, trickery and lies, foolish, childish even. This kills a lot of the appeal for me.
Many other old faiths of the world - Hinduism, Greek and Norse Pantheons, etc. - don't have this issue, on account of the more polytheic nature and their capability of coexisting peacefully. They each have their version of the story of Earth's birth, how it all came to being, and you're free to come to your own conclusion and sacrifice to whichever daity you like. But Yahweh is a jealous one, and suffers no other gods or truths.
With brutal efficiency, He and His disciples set out to the world to reshape it all in their image. Pan, Loki, and Perkele, among many others - once perfectly fine and respectable deities - ended up as nothing more than an aspect of Lucifer Morningstar. Others, such as Brigid, were reduced in power to Saints, each subservient to the Lord. He is the one above all, and so His magic is above all other magic and fantasy.
Both Elfland's Daughter and Broken Sword seem to be taking this for granted. C.S. Lewis sinks deep into the same pitfall by his heavy use of allegory. Even the Vertigo line of comic books holds this as a truth, though it has other sets of gods as well. Other works can avoid the trap, but they'd typically have to go out on their way to establish Christianity as just another belief among the others, no inherently better or more truthful: the automatic assumption seems to be that if Jesus and God are out there, then they're the best and the highest. Watch yourself among them.
The Broken Sword is still a great book, though.
July 5, 2019
Kindle edition of The Straggler's Mask available for free, from 5th to 9th of July
I would set it as a free book forever if I could - I'm not concerned with taking your money - but Amazon won't let me. So grab it through here while you still can. Even if it's not exactly your genre. It's still free stuff. Tell all your friends too. Maybe it is their genre.
Now I just wish there was an easy way to inform all those 1100+ people who have my book as to-read... maybe I'll private message each of them, individually, about it?
Now I just wish there was an easy way to inform all those 1100+ people who have my book as to-read... maybe I'll private message each of them, individually, about it?
Pankarp
Pages fallen out of Straggler's journal, and others.
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