Zoe E. Whitten's Blog, page 63

Another sales update…

I had a fatigue attack and dropped on the couch, and I woke up to another sale notification, with someone buying a whopping six titles from me, including Dogs of War. Wowee. As a result of my weekend ranting about Smashwords, I've just racked up enough money to buy another cover. One of my Twitter followers had been joking that my sale do better when I'm pulling aggro and being oppressed. Well it seems that's true. =^)

I told hubby that this puts me in a problem spot. People don't like angry folks, but I get my best sales after I've gone off on a rant. The trick is, I have to be negative, but not bitter. Bitterness leads to lower sales, but negativity leads to higher sales. Man, there's a tightrope act for you. =^D

Joking aside, whatever decisions comes out of Smashwords in the next few days, I want to make it clear that I am totally feeling the love and support here, and I thank you for the help. Don't worry, I'll get back to ranting soon enough. And besides, it's rare that I'm in the mood to take a knee and start smooching butts. But if I may say so, your butt, it is nice. And I don't say that to every butt I smooch.

I really do appreciate all the recent support, so no matter what Smashwords does, thanks for being in my corner on this.

Now, as a separate update…

I want to separate this post from the bad news I got this morning and talk about how the launch for Dogs of War went. I got four sales, and quite a few RTs. It's difficult to say exactly how many because of Twitter's wonky interface, but I saw a lot while I was seated in front of the computer, and I did my best to thank everyone as soon as I saw them. But if I missed someone, I want to thank you here too.

I'm trying to remember more often to point out when I'm getting support, and to say thanks to the people who are lending me a hand. But this writing thing, it's not so easy as just putting down words and finishing projects. There's a lot of constant struggles to self-publishing, as you've just seen in the previous post, and this doesn't include the difficulties I face in finding readers, or in getting reviews. This is always an uphill battle, but while I'm fighting with everyone, I still have to keep pushing multiple boulders up a hill. So it's easy for me to get distracted by all the bad junk and forget to look at the good things that went okay.

I've had several releases recently that either didn't sell any copies opening day, or didn't sell anything more than two. I can probably think of which two those are, cause those are my super fans, the folks who will buy almost everything I release. So like I said, for me, four books sold on day one is a good number.

Now the book is on Amazon for the Kindle, so tonight, I'll be trying to get four sales over there to match. I feel pretty good about getting some RTs for promotion, but the question is, will those RTs find any curious Kindle readers? I dunno, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for four. =)

This thing with Smashwords pisses me off, but this situation is not the fault of my readers, or my Twitter followers, so I'm going to try not to snap at y'all when you're doing your part and offering your support. So, again, with feeling, thank you everyone for the recent RTs, sales, and reviews. Words alone cannot express my gratitude for your continued support.

Censorship is about to silence my voice on Smashwords…

Some of you know that this weekend, Smashwords dropped a press release during the time when they hoped no one would notice. Effective immediately, Smashwords has embraced censorship, though they claimed this would only affect erotica titles. In my opening email to Mark Coker on this, I pointed out that this so-called erotica ban would also hit titles of mine that weren't erotic. I said that if I had to drop a few of my books, I might as well drop all of them. I also pleaded with him to drop PayPal and move to a different bank.

However, I calmed down in the days of silence that followed because some folks said, "Oh, surely they'll only want you to take down the one erotica book." BZZZT! Wrong answer. Today, Angela answered for Mark and said that he'd "lobbied" really hard for us, but that ultimately, Smashwords was going to accept censorship and not leave PayPal.

Let me be clear: I'm aware of the paperwork and time involved in setting up a bank account for a business in the US. I know what it takes to get a new credit card vendor too. I had to do it while living in a foreign country while setting up my own failed online store*, so I know what I'm asking isn't easy. (*It failed because no one ever bought a book through the site, only through other vendors. So it was a waste of money.) But what Smashwords has done is casual acceptance of censorship in the name of financial convenience.

It gets worse, though, because Angela said that they want me to unpublish ALL books that have objectionable materials. By Angela's interpretations of Smashwords rules, many of my books should have never been published. But, by her interpretation, the site could not sell Stephen King's IT, or many of Anne Rice's titles, like Lasher, Belinda, or that godawful Claiming Beauty series. What's fucked up about her stance is, you can walk into a book store and buy these books, as a kid, and without ID, but you can't buy them online even if you're an adult because the moral standards online these days are higher than they are for a real book store.

In my answer, I told Angela that her interpretation would allow for banning books by King and Rice, and I told her that I will not unpublish my titles. If they wish to remove my books, they will have to ban my account from Smashwords altogether. I have no doubt that they will, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure where I go from here. But I want to make this post so you understand: Smashwords isn't just banning a little porn here and there. They're about to embrace censorship wholesale because Mark Coker is too lazy to get a new business account at another bank. Period. Don't heap sympathy on his company and claim he's an innocent party. The innocent parties are the authors who Mark has already censored in the name of maintaining the status quo.

And I need to be clear that I have spoken to Mark before about his site design, and about the large volume of hardcore bestiality and incest porn that was showing up on the front page. That was two years ago, and Mark never changed the site design. He barely acknowledged that the front page could be off-putting to new visitors. He just didn't care. One year ago, when I asked him about it, he whined at me that they were only a few people.

And on this point, Mark is a constant see-sawing hypocrite. He loves to brag about how big his site is in his blog posts. He loves to say how many more authors were added, how many more words are on his site. But when it comes time to point out all the flaws that still haven't been fixed, suddenly, Smashwords is so small and helpless.

And so it is here with PayPal. Mark is using the same tactic that they're so small and frail, they couldn't possibly survive the move to another bank. They couldn't survive just taking credit card orders, even though that's how Amazon became a giant, by taking credit cards. So no, I do not buy Mark's story that he has no choice. He has a choice, and he doesn't want to do the work needed to protect his authors. Soothing the offended sensibilities of his cash supplier is more convenient, so that is what he will do.

Like I said, I fully expect to be banned from Smashwords soon. I have no recourse, and the only person who could have helped me is siding with censorship. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but over this last year, we've seen corporate control seep so far into the creative process that even little shit indie artists like me cannot avoid corporate censorship. But it isn't happening just because PayPal is a big meanie. It's happening because Mark Coker can't change banks. That's laziness, people, and it's how all censorship is accepted. Because it's easier to censor than it is to fight for what's right. Mark chose his path, so don't you people let him believe his own hype that he's really one of the victims here too. Mark had a choice and a chance to do the right thing. He chose to take the easy path to the money instead.

Dogs of War now available

Today, I'm going to talk about my new release, Dogs of War, available now at Smashwords, and coming soon to Amazon, but before I go all rambly, let me cover the important parts. First here's the cover:

The first cover featured the main character Peter, and this second book is showcasing Alice Culpepper, Peter's girlfriend. Now, here's the book blurb:

After moving in with the Preston family, lycanthrope Peter Holmes is finally coming to terms with the side effects of his parents' sexual abuse, his cursed animal nature, and the death of his twin sister Heather. But Peter's steps toward a more peaceful life are halted when school rival Jake Forrester tells him that his sister isn't dead, and that Heather has been held prisoner, forced into a lifetime of torture porn.

Feeling guilty for his past attacks on Peter, Jake is offering his help in finding Heather, and he's bringing along some of his friends for backup. But even if this ragtag group can mount a rescue mission, the ancient creature keeping Heather prisoner is too strong for anyone to fight. Someone will have to pay the cost for Heather's freedom. Peter is prepared to pay anything, but Heather's owners have a price in mind that even he may not be able to pay.

Along with this burden, Peter must also sort out his relationship with Alice, maintain a perfect poker face around his other friends, and keep the peace between Heather and his foster family. The stress causes Peter's wolf to act out, and as Peter's self-control fails, his family and friends pay the price.

When the time comes to pay the final price for Heather, will there be anyone left to stand with Peter?

I've avoided spoiling the first book as long as possible, but now that the second book is out, readers will know that Peter's twin sister is alive, and that the early part of the story will revolve around rescuing her. This will be a slightly different book than the first in the series, and has a bit more action and a lot less "squick." (Not to say there isn't some squick, like cannibalism and talk of sex, both gay and straight.) I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that this story introduces a pack of weredogs and a werecat to the cast, among a few other mystical creatures. Peter also locates his pelt in this book, leading to his first transformations and to new struggles against the wolf spirit he bonds with. This book ends on a shocking point, and given my editor's comments about how evil I am, I'm sure readers will want to know that book 3 isn't far behind. Well, it isn't. The book is currently with my editor, and if I can make a few sales on book 2, I'll soon have the funds for a cover for book 3, Roll the Bones. I'm also slowly writing the fourth and final installment, Thicker Than Blood. So even if I'm always whining about quitting, don't worry. I do plan to finish this series for y'all.

I'd like to be honest and explain myself to y'all. I've had a lot of problems in the last year with releases, and this series is my make or break watermark. I need to do something more with this series and make it a low-level success, or else I will have to consider packing the keyboard and giving up on my pipe dream of being a writer. I mean, I'll still blog and review other peoples' stuff, but I'll just stop writing new fiction and let the queue empty out.

I don't want to do this, and I still strongly feel that Peter's story has merit and is worthy of more attention. The reactions of my editor and several new readers of book one only adds to my belief that this could have success if I could just find the right audience. Maybe not Hocking sized success, but it could pick up a small fandom and make a little noise.

For this reason, I plan to attempt some extra promotions to raise awareness. I will also request that early readers consider leaving reviews or ratings. Reviews can be as long or as short as you like, but with a story like this, other readers will need some assurances that this isn't total crap. I can't convince them. I'm the writer, and so of course I'm biased and think the story is worth attention. So those hesitant readers could use a bit of testimony from an impartial source saying, "I read it and I thought ____."

As with Confessions of a Zombie Lover, I've made efforts in Dogs of War to explain past events in short snippets, so if a new reader buys book two without reading book one, they won't feel lost. But the information is delivered in a scattered manner, and so it may still be a bit confusing for people who like more detailed and direct answers. If you need that, you really need to read Peter the Wolf first. But in theory, y'all can skip book one and move into Peter's hunt for his sister without feeling penalized for not reading the first story.

On a completely random note, I see that I now have 333 total sales on Smashwords, so I guess that means I'm halfway to being evil. =^D Bad puns aside, I want to thanks people buying all my titles, not just this one. And by the way, thanks to those of you who already picked up copies of Dogs of War. I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the story.

Launch review: PS Vita

I got a PS Vita on launch day. Woohoo! This, for me, is very exciting because I usually have to wait a few years for a price drop before I can afford the price of entry. To put it in perspective, I couldn't get an Xbox on my own until July of last year. But I saved up my Christmas money and added a bit of extra cash to pay for the system, a 16 GB memory card, and one game. (And I am now totally broke, so please, do consider buying copies when Dogs of War is released.)

I had my heart set on Gravity Rush, but it appears the reports claiming it would be available in PAL markets were inaccurate. It won't be out until May 29th as near as I can tell, so I had to go with an alternate launch title. I chose Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which looks gorgeous. But I'll wait to review it only after I've completed more levels. It's too early to critique the game beyond a few impressions about the control scheme and graphics quality. For now, consider this ONLY a first impressions review of the PS Vita device, and not as a critique of any games I mention here.

First, the screen is gorgeous, whether I'm playing a video game or watching a film. The sound system is also top notch, and the equalizer presets seem to work okay. Once I sorted out how to get my music library loaded, I found that I could play my music as the background for my games too. This is a feature I love on PC games, using my own MP3s for backing tracks, and here it's available on every game. Awesome.

I've sampled sound using the free earbuds I got with my pre-order, with my own set of AKG headphones, and through the system speakers. Obviously, my AKGs sounded the best, but they're 79 euro speakers. You'd expect that. But the quality of the system speakers is very good, and unless I was gaming in a noisy restaurant, I could probably keep the volume set at about half without missing any sounds or whispered dialogue. I wouldn't throw out the free set of earbuds, as they'd make fine backups to the earbuds I already own, also from Sony. (Actually, I own like five pairs of headphones in two styles. Some women get a fetish for covering their feet, and I got a fetish for plugging my ears.

Let's say you hit a song in random shuffle that isn't right for the mood of the game, like getting Blue Danube in a fighting game when you wanted Of Wolf and Man. Well, you hit the PS button on the lower left side and the game pauses and drops back to a tabbed app. Tap the lighted arrow on the side to open the music app that's still running and tap the next play button. Then flick back to your game and tap "continue." If I made this sound complicated, it took me all of five seconds to do this. (I debated just playing through, but it felt really wrong to be killing mercenaries while Justin Bieber is singing "If you give, give the first dance to me! Girl, I promise I'll be gentle, but we gotta do it slowly!" (Okay, actually, I skip that song almost every time it comes on, because I don't know if my mind ever takes the lyrics the right way. *>_> (Don't judge me.)))

Moving along, the controls feel good, and though the little analog sticks look wimpy, they have a good sturdy feel under my thumbs. Also, they don't get slippery unless I've been playing way too long and get sweaty hands. The four face buttons are easy to find, and despite their small size, I've had less cases of fat thumb syndrome with these than I do with the face buttons on my Xbox gamepad. The shoulder buttons are made of smoky semi-translucent plastic, and that looks a look weird to me. But the buttons sink in comfortably from any angle, and they have a slight clicking feel, though not much sound. This, at least to me, is a good thing. Some gamers like a little more click in their buttons. And, that's okay. (Even if you are wrong. KIDDING! (BUT U R. No, U.))

Ahem, the alternate controls are very interesting. I've heard a lot of traditional gamers sniff at the new touch features as all gimmick, but some of these guys sniff at everything new. They're like geezer gamers, and everything new isn't like "the good old days." Fooey, geezers. Seriously though, I'm only now coming to console gaming with a gamepad this last year, so I have no ingrained ideas of how a console controller should function. (I just know that dual stick gamepad controllers are VASTLY inferior to mouse and keyboard. (Whoomp dere it is.)) I found the touch screen and rear touch features to be pretty cool used in the right situations. Like in Uncharted, instead of having to keep pressing buttons over and over to cross a cliff, I just swipe my finger along my desired path, and voila, my character is a speedy monkey leaping from one hand hold to the next. I can tap my enemy to start a fistfight, and I can assemble puzzle piece by easily moving them around with my thumb. I can pet the back touch panel to climb ropes, manipulate 3D objects, use a zoom on my camera, or dial the zoom on a sniper rifle scope.

The accelerometer is a major improvement for fine-tuned 3D movements. I've said in some game reviews how I hate doing FPS with the gamepad because it feels clumsy. This uses an almost identical control scheme, but in addition to making larger moves with the right stick, I can then move the Vita around to get a precise target lock. Head shots with any Xbox game are uncommon for me because I've resorted to aiming for center mass to reduce missed shots. So if I DO get a head shot, it's a lucky shot. But here, I'm picking up trophies for being able to string together as many as 10 head shots in a row. The accuracy is that much more improved by letting me wiggle the controller a bit to find the sweet spot right between some poor schmuck's eyes.

I got some free games to test the Augmented Reality cards, and frankly, I'm not impressed. Part of this has to do with the size of the AR cards versus the crap quality of the camera chip used. I have to admit, I don't grasp why Sony made all this other sweet hardware, and then they put in a crap camera. But the problem is, to play a game of Fireworks or Table Football on my floor, I have to huddle over the cards. If I move back even one foot to sit on my couch, the camera loses the cards and shuts down the game. On this point, I MIGHT be able to print larger cards on A4 paper and use them at a distance to make a larger play field on my floor. But I know that for right now, the AR cards are a cheap gimmick that need a LOT of work from a high dollar developer to make a game worth laying out the cards for. For right now, I'm packing those suckers up until a game comes along that makes me NEED to unpack them.

What else? I got the wifi model, so I can't tell you how the 3G version works. That's no knock to Sony's 3G model, either. We just can't afford adding another sim to our plan with Vodafone. My plan is already more expensive because I use a data-centric plan and only have a few hundred minutes a month in talk time. (I've never run out of talk minutes, but I burn up about 1.8 of my 2.5 GB limit every month. This is almost all traffic to Twitter or to chat clients. (Because, if you haven't already figured out by now, I like to "talk" a lot.))

I found signing up for the Playstation Network was painless, and using Near the day after my purchase, I was surprised to find 9 other people in my neighborhood have also picked up the portable on opening day. Sadly, I have not made any friends among these 9, so I can't tell you about the social features. Probably not likely in the future either, but I won't say never, only "we'll see what happens."

I really like the hardware, the feel of the unit, the home interface, the "peel away" UI design for closing multitasked apps, and the size of the screen. Is this a "pocketable" portable? That depends on what style of Levi's you're wearing. If you've got on 501s with regular pockets, then yes, the Vita fits snugly in the hip pocket. But if you're wearing something a bit more form fitting, you may want to toss the Vita in a travel bag or purse. If you've got on cargo pants, this will fit easily. And if you've got on Hammer pants, STOP! Hammer time!

Oh right, battery life. With the volume set about two-thirds, I got around 4 hours of play time per charge. I did notice that while tethered by the too short charging cable, moving the Vita for gunfights becomes tricky. I'd try to swing around to catch someone flanking me, and the cable would snag with my aiming sight just a hair away from my actual target, who laughed and then made me eat bullets. But that's not a valid complaint, just a niggling "gotcha" that's slightly amusing the first few times it happens. (Later on tonight, I was growling "fuck you, fucker" every time the cable snags resulted in me increasing my lead intake.)

So, call this a partial but favorable initial impression of the Vita platform. If you're asking, "Is it worth the 249.00 price?" my answer is, "Yes, I think so." I hear tell that Sony REALLY doesn't want you to get the wifi model, and instead they want everyone tethered to a cell phone network. So, is it worth $299 AND an additional cell contract with its associated monthly fees? Not for me, no. Maybe for others with more luxury income, there's a different answer. But for me, the wifi model is good enough. No, it's way more than good. It's a great system that can compete with my Xbox and 42 inch TV for cranking out pretty pixels. From a unit this small, this light, and with this many touch features built in, yes, I consider 249 more than fair.

Initial score: An enthusiastic 4.5 stars, though I may upgrade to 5 if the A4 AR cards work out and grant me access to gaming in the physical plane.

Game review: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

I picked up Enslaved: Odyssey to the West because I'd heard it got an award for best game of the year from a writer's guild. I did some research and found the developer talking about how they wanted to make a game where character development was just as important as good graphics and game play. These were all siren calls to me, but what I discovered was a game so good, it's going to spoil me to have high unrealistically expectations for other developers. This will be a long review, and one prone to gush. But trust me, I will have some complaints to balance out my squeeing. The game isn't perfect, but damn it's really close.

Let's starts with what the designers did right consistently, which is the character's "acting" skills. The Unreal engine is used to animate the world, and I have never before seen 3D models in a game with such expressive and "alive" eyes. Often video game makers botch this and don't add any secondary motion to eyes during cut scenes, resulting in staring "dead eyes." Also, a lot of the times a voice actor is aiming for an angry voice, yet the character's expression doesn't fit. Or worse, the game makers don't bother with any expression and just make a sloppy 3D puppet show. This is not so with Enslaved. The expressions are so realistic, and this combined with their eyes makes for an acting experience on par with a Hollywood film.

But there's more to the eyes than just realistic movement. Take Monkey's red war makeup for instance, which makes a strong contrast to his blue eyes. This is an intentional artistic effort to draw the viewer's attention the character's eyes, and it makes one even more aware of their depth and realistic appearance. Trip's green eyes are just as lovingly rendered and during certain  scene, I found myself dawn into her eyes as effectively as Monkey was in the game. So yes, fantastic art skills went into making these eyes, and as a lover of expressive eyes, this game was totally pushing all my happy buttons.

Something else I liked about this game was having mechs for enemies. This is because it frees me from a complex moral quandary. When I'm fighting people in games, I always wonder if the game might give me other options to just sneak around instead of using the kill 'em all approach. In Enslaved, you do have that choice available. You can fight all the mechs, or you can sneak around most of the clusters while they're still inactive.  But either way, there's no guilt for blowing up a robot that's express purpose for existing is exterminating me.

Now on to the plot, the meaty, sweet, deep plot that rarely had to resort to clichés to keep the tension and pacing. On a slave ship, a prisoner, Monkey, sees another prisoner, Trip, escape her pod and hack the ship, resulting in the ship beginning a crash course. Monkey gets out of his prison cell, and the first level is his attempt to chase Trip to the escape pods. This plays out like a blockbuster film, and when Monkey accidentally destroys one on the ship's engines, the look on his face is perfect for the moment. It's one half of the classic Urkel "Did I do that?" look and one half, "Now what, stupid?" Brilliant.

Monkey is forced to ride outside Trips escape pod and makes a hard landing on a well placed old mattress. When he comes to, Trip has fitted him with a command headband, drafting him to get her safely back to her village. A great deal of the early game is Trip and Monkey crossing New York to get to the crash site and recover Monkey's motorcycle. After that, the story picks up a third character, Pigsy, and now I need to pause for a moment of culture.

You see, Monkey, Pigsy and Trip are actually Songoku, Pigsy and Sandy from the classic epic Journey to the West. "Aaaah," you say, "so the name of this game is a hint at what the inspiration was." Yes, exactly, and the visual clues are all there if the naming convention of the men didn't make it obvious enough. Monkey has a sash acting as his tail, but in all other respects, he's a proper Songoku. He has an extending power staff, a monkey like way of moving and a number of martial arts moves at his disposal. Oh, and he rides a "cloud" although this only works in certain segments of the game. (More on those later, both bad and good.) But if his appearance and affectations aren't good enough, Pigsy has some cyber additions that help drive home the pig theme, in more ways than one. He's a proper male pig, which here is used to some comedic effect well enough that I was laughing at his attempts at machismo.

Trip is kind of like Bulma from Dragonball, in my opinion. Being the tech head of the team, she hacks computers and throws switches that might be out of Monkey's reach. Early on in the game, she hacks a "dragonfly" droid, and she feeds this camera-linked information to Monkey through his head band. This also explains the HUD in a way that doesn't feel silly, and the dragonfly's flyovers provide a logical way to look ahead at a level that fits in nicely with the rest of the sci-fi elements of the story. The game interface and story elements are fused so nicely that there's only a few times when a misinterpreted jump sends Monkey flying back at the platform he'd just left, resulting in me being kicked out of the "flow" of the story. (And also possibly sending him into harm's way if that handhold was crumbly, or worse, already gone.) Later levels also involve more classic platforming tropes like dodging gears and jetting exhaust flames. In between the platforms are combat sequences, but as I said, many droid are initially inactive, giving you the chance to sneak around them rather than slog through a battle.

Nevertheless, there are times when you will have to fight, and the combat system is pretty simple to understand. I don't care for trying to shoot using a game pad, but then I'm still weak when it comes to FPS games on the Xbox game pad. This is why I preferred beating mechs to pieces over blasting them to bits. Still, I found that many sequences were set up as shooting set pieces, and once I got into the right rhythm, the gunfights were as much fun as the martial arts flurries.

After returning to Trip's village and finding the place ransacked, Trip swears to kill whoever is responsible for the mechs and their constant assault. She then commands Monkey to come with her. But by then, Monkey isn't hanging around because of the headband. He and Trip grow closer together over the course of the journey, so much so that at one point when he is offered freedom, Monkey chooses to say with Trip. This is not some attempt at a fast wishy-washy romance, but rather the slow development of a relationship based on interdependence. Over time, both characters come to care for each other, and while this is not love, the story gives the impression it could be, someday, if only the world will give love a chance to blossom. I really, really liked this aspect of the story, and could probably spend a few pages gushing if I didn't rein myself in.

A lot of games have tried to make me feel something for the main characters, but this was one of the few that successfully instilled in me a deep concern for the characters and for the story. Where does this story end? Will Monkey forgive Trip for using him as a slave to get revenge? Who is behind the mech attacks, and why are they enslaving the surviving humans? These are all questions I NEEDED to know, but I wouldn't have felt so keen to know more if the main characters weren't so interesting. It's a combination of great writing, voice acting, and facial animation.

As an example, Pigsy's reaction to seeing Trip all grown up is pure elation, and yet his face crumples only seconds later when he learns that his best friend has died. His chubby face projects these emotions so clearly that I got choked up over his reaction. No other game has managed to make me feel this much over the death of a bit character who I never meet. That's writing talent so good, I have to give props, but it wouldn't be nearly as effective without some talented animators backing the writing up. So this is a quality team effort.

And, since I've pointed out how Trip isn't opposed to using the tools of her oppressors to make Monkey her slave, it should be obvious that these characters are not instantly likable. Monkey comes across as a dick only interested in surviving and caring for himself. And Trip comes across as an aloof technocrat with no idea of how terrible the world around her has become. But as the chapters wear on, both characters reveal inner layers of conflict. It's really fantastic to see the relationship develop between Monkey and Trip, especially when the writers did so without resorting to too many cliché tropes.

Pigsy too is a flawed character, but his flaws are played up a bit for clownish effect, and it does come off as a bit clichéd at times. Also, near the end of the game, he  pulls a dick move that's so awful, I can't understand how Monkey or Trip shrug it off the way they do. He still redeems himself later, but I did feel it strained belief in what was otherwise a near flawless plot.

(Side note: I also wanted to give kudos to the writers for finding a way to slip a classic scene from Romeo and Juliet into the game. It was just another nice touch in a game full of little artistic flairs.)

I do have some complaints about the cloud and how it was used in a lousy way TWICE in the game, but before that, I want to heap praise on the places where the cloud was fun. The first time the cloud is made available, you're given a wide open space with lots of ramps to experiment with. Think of the cloud like riding a short hoverboard. Pass over an energy source, and it will cause the cloud to accelerate for a short burst. While this is loads of fun in a wide open space, the game makers quickly restrict this to a form of movement while facing bigger mechs in tightly confined fighting areas. At these points, I found it almost enraging to try and use the cloud when it required shutting down the cloud to use my staff.

Then the other use of the cloud IS enraging. In two chase scene set pieces, Trip suddenly loses her brains and must be rescued from a giant mech. Monkey chases after on the cloud while Trip screams at him to hurry. I failed the first chase about forty or so times before finally getting a single chance to catch up. But the second time around, I hated the circumstances of the chase just as much as I hated the chase itself. Thus, everything that occurs after that second chase, I saw by watching a walkthrough on YouTube. Later on, I plan to go back and play the game on easy to see if this slows down the chase scenes to the point where I can complete the game. But on normal difficulty, I'm incapable of doing with the game-makers want. These sequences gave me sore hands and a mean temper flare-up, and little else.

And I have to say, I find it REALLY annoying how Trip, a woman who had the presence of mind to bring down a fucking mech slaver ship by herself, suddenly becomes so panicky and helpless in these two scenes that she forgets the EMP device she's wearing. It was repeatedly seen that even while being attacked by mechs, Trip had the presence of mind to activate her EMP and shut down the mechs long enough for Monkey to arrive and lay a beat down on the incapacitated droids. Yet, both these scenes take away Trip's brains to give Monkey another reason to use the cloud in a clumsy race. It also reduces Trip to the princess who needs saving, and in a story that mostly avoids this trope, having it show up like this is glaringly annoying.

I know the developers were trying to aim for a sense of urgency, but this sudden shift for Trip was out of line for her character. Plus, me having to do those scenes over and over tainted my enjoyment of the cut scenes that came right after. I was still too busy fuming to pay attention. In short, the game itself kicked me out of the story by working to be too hard relative to the other sections. Everything else had a flow to it, so that even if I might die once or twice, once I've seen where my mistake was, I could just keep going through the rest and still feel like I was into the story. But those chase scenes kicked me out so hard that even later, I was still going, "Man, I hated those levels!"

I won't spoil the ending, but there's some shades of The Matrix mixed in with Journey to the West and Mad Max. Also, there's giant robots. Which is awesome. I liked how the story ends, and I feel it brings a sense of closure while at the same time implying that there's a lot more in store for Trip and Monkey in this desolate world. Trip's final question in the game is a great closing line, and it's even better because Monkey doesn't have an answer ready.

So let's add this up: great voice acting, great story, great dialogue, great animation and character design, and great game play only occasionally marred by a challenge being made insanely painful to complete. Based on these factors, I'm going to give Enslaved: Odyssey to the West 4 stars and recommend it to gamers looking for a meaty plot to go along with great graphics and solid combat and platforming set pieces. I really wish more game companies cared this much about their stories and character development, and like I said, this will probably spoil me by setting a new watermark in terms of game quality. If it hadn't been for those chase scene woes, I'd be ready to give this game five stars and offer free sex to the writer and the modelers…okay, to everyone involved in the game, except whoever acted as the model for Pigsy.

I'm back from Cannes

No sooner had we rested up at home before hubby asked if I wanted to visit a game con in Cannes, and since I've only been to France once, I decided to pack up clean clothes and head out be train with hubby and his coworker Valentina.

First, let me say that the French know how to throw a con. The convention center was nicer, being fully heated and in nicer condition than Fiera Roma. There were more vendor, more demo tables, and more presence by video game companies. It was a smaller con than Lucca, but it was organized well for heavy traffic, and there was rarely a long line to sample games of any sort.

I bought a new puzzle ball called Perplexus Epic, a strategy game from Africa, Awele, and a few used Xbox games, Red Dead Redemption, Prototype, and Resident Evil 5. I would have bought more, but I pretty much blew my budget on day one. Oh, did I mention that I bought a jacket and a new pair of gloves? Yeeeeah, way over budget.

The food was fantastic, although obviously being Cannes, it was expensive. Still, I couldn't complain about anything aside from sore muscles. The people were friendly and extremely forgiving of my goofy behavior. The hostess for our meals both nights seemed to love us. Can't imagine why. But the food, so incredible. My only regret is, I don't have two stomachs.

But of course, I'm paying for two days of walking, even if it was walking on level terrain in pleasant weather. Today my legs and hips are screaming at me, and I'm suffering a massive headache due to sore neck muscles. I think two cons in the same month is my limit. The other nice thing about this con was, no one was waking me up and telling me to rush. On the second day, even taking things at a casual pace, we still had to wait outside for an hour. Which woulda sucked if it was cold, but it got so warm that I took off my coat and scarf. Then I unpacked a book and read until it was time to go inside.

I'm tired, but I'm still really hyped about games of all kinds, and I find I'm so keyed up on how great that con was, and how much I want the next Ludica Roma to be more like that con, or more like Lucca. I'm so fired up on this, I'm going to do the unthinkable and approach hubby's boss to discuss better organization and more pushes to invite game makers instead of just the platform makers and used game vendors. Ludica Roma was fun, but it was badly organized and didn't used the space it had very efficiently. Cartoomics and Ludica Milano aren't much better. There's no attempt at grouping vendors together for better traffic control, and there's no obvious signs up indicating what is where. This was not the case in Lucca, nor in Cannes, and it shows how much more involved the organizers were in thinking about foot traffic and congestion.

This is not to say I don't like Ludica or Cartoomics. I love them, but I can see from other cons how ours are suffering from inattention. I would love for Cartoomics to be as big as Cannes' efforts, but from what hubby tells me, the Italian commune offices actively HATE setting up cons, so they do everything they can to discourage organizers. I'm told this is the case in Lucca too, and this attitude drives me nuts.

Anywho, that's the latest update. Didn't want you to think I'd dropped off the planet. I just went to France, is all.

About crowd funding…

Over the last few weeks, a number of stories hove broken out about Kickstarter funded projects that have had great success. But while the media's attention is on the game companies and their bigger results, I was watching the fast rise of funds for MeiLin Miranda's fiction project, which surged way past the author's stated goals and gained her over $5,000 from just 102 backers. This kind of money means the author will be able to afford polishing her ebook to near perfection before release, handle a promotion budget, and still have money left over for stuff like bills and paying the dentist. That's a respectable finish, in my opinion, and it's an amount I'd be boasting about if I'd had similar results.

Sadly, I can't use Kickstarter, being outside the US. But I could use IndieGoGo if I could just think of a project that I could find 100 or so backers on. But I'm not really thinking about using these services so much as I'm interested in seeing how other authors are able to use these services for presale orders and promotion. With MeiLin's story, she originally started the project as a web serial, so some of her backers are past readers who are donating to help polish the story and make it even better for new readers. That they get a book out of the deal is just gravy, because they've already read the story, and they already know how good it is.

But these backers also promoted the Kickstarter project and brought in new readers, and then there's backers like me who haven't read the series online yet, but who knew about it and we were waiting for the ebook. So for me, I figure I'll send in some funds, and now I get a download link to the book with a discount code for 100% off. Now, in truth, I paid $10, and the book is $4.95, so I paid more for it than I had to. But it's a good project, and I'm happy to support a fellow indie artist, even if it means paying more than the sticker price on her book. We can even call the other fiver a tip.

In the future, I see crowd funding working as a model for lots of writers, where they put out the rough draft on a site or blog and then go promote it to their online friends in an effort to build an initial readership. Once the series is completed and ready for polishing, the project is moved to one of the crowd-funded platforms, where the author appeals to their regular reader to both donate and promote the project to find new readers and backers.

A lot of readers my cringe at this and ask, "Why would I want to read the typo-heavy rough draft?" I dunno, because some people may be interested in seeing the creative process of writers? Because checking out a serial this way gives readers a chance to say what did and didn't work for them before the book is finalized and considered canon? No, the best reason is, it encourages development of a fan base as the story is being written. If a project is good, even as a rough draft, it's going to pull down a small core group of fans who will love it, warts and all. But those same fans will also get a chance to point out the warts to the writer and say, "But maybe that could be fixed?"

Once the writer has taken their counsel under consideration and played around with the story a bit, the resulting polished ebook is likely to be more appealing to a larger audience. And once again, those early readers become key in helping the launch of the title, because they can help with the promotion work.

One of the problems with just dropping an ebook on the market is that there's no pre-promotion phase. Using a web-serial for the rough draft means that while the book is being made, the writer is always promoting and looking for readers. If the story is good, then in theory, by the time the story ends, there should be enough readers to fund editing, cover art, proofing and layout, and a proper promotion budget. From there, the crowd funding stage becomes more about finding new backers and new way to get the title in front of people who haven't seen it before.

This would also make the case that writers who skip the WebLit route and just write an ebook should also consider putting together a crowd-funding project, but not for the pre-sales cash. Rather, it's that two month pre-hype phase that allows you to keep putting the project name out in front of your people for a good reason, one that hopefully won't annoy them. The project keeps bringing your book up until your fellow tweeters and Facebook friends can't forget about it, and they know the release date and are watching for it.

I admit, this is a major component lacking from my own writing plans, the pre-release hype phase, and so I'm watching other crowd funded projects to see if these platforms might help future releases. In 2013, when I have something to sell that won't piss you off, I mean.

And now, a journal entry…how novel…

Winter is showing an impressive display of constant sub-zero temperatures, so this poor chick hasn't left her shell of the apartment in close to three weeks. But, hubby asked nicely for me to go to Rome with him for Ludica, a gaming convention, and I will be getting out before my cabin fever gets worse. There's not much for me to do on the trip, but this will be my first chance to visit Rome, and at long last, I can sing the lyric "I've been to Rome, Dallas Texas, man, I'd thought I'd seen it all." I have not however, been to Cabo San Lucas, nor to the Cabo Wabo. But, I lived in Dallas, and this week I'll see Rome. And that is something.

So, I made my attempt at a short promotion phase, which I'll continue on Twitter for one more day. But currently, the results are…predictable. There were two sales, and three preview downloads. And being honest, I think one of those downloaded samples was me, when I was proofing the first few chapters. But given the topic of the book, I expected this, and like I said, no hissy fits. I've had quite a few RTs from a wide variety of followers, I think mainly because I've been posting a tweet every hour, or every two hours. So I'm getting more people when they're online to see the tweet and run with it. So the promotion signal boost is there, and I want to take a moment here to express gratitude to any of those followers who also read the blog. What I'm saying is, the problem isn't with the signal strength, but with the book.

Sadly, I wish I could say, "Better luck next time," but I totally queue-screwed myself. I held back a lot of titles over the years because I was still working on writing problems in each book, like not enough visual details in establishing scenes or character description, or because the plots still felt inconsistent or lacking, and I just hadn't stumbled across the best way to fix them. My queue filled up with other newer work, but since these titles were missing that little something extra, I couldn't go back to them. I let them stew while I worked on projects that I felt more comfortable polishing after a few months of thought here and there.

The fact that every book I was holding back also had controversial material probably factored into my decision, because I suppose I wanted to follow the general market advice of establishing myself with other safer titles first. Plus, I always work faster on stories that I feel have a stronger chance of being liked by more people. I'm usually wrong on this, though.

Part of what makes this frustrating is that, being queer, there's so much fiction that creates a straight white "everyman," denying the idea that people from less likeable perspectives can still have a compelling story. So I wasn't trying to make stories to say, "Hey, these are good guys too!" I was writing these kinds of stories to say, "Hey, these people may make you uncomfortable to be around, but it doesn't mean they can't have compelling stories." The mainstream erases and invalidates every other identity, and the only thing left is this projected false morality that has nothing to do with reality. It's not a reflection of our culture, so as art, it's pretty fucking banal.

So I put it in my head to do things that wouldn't fly with mainstream books, and my whole point is making a counter-culture protest. My message all along was: "You may not want to think about these people, but they do have stories to tell." So yeah, I'm writing about the straight sexual predators and pedophiles right along with the trans, bis, lesbians, and gays. But the joke's on me, because the market is perfectly happy reading for happy escapism, and my desire to see stories outside that mainstream spectrum is not shared by as many people as I had thought.

I think the flaw in my plan with pushing safer titles first is, nothing I wrote after The Campaign Trail has enjoyed continual growth of the fan base. What I mean is, the kind of readers I interested with that safe series had no intention of crossing over to read my more challenging works. For example, there's no regular sales for the Zombie Era books, even though they got just as many good reviews as The Campaign Trilogy, and a few web sites were even kind enough to interview me and do other guest promotions. Bubkes, because the books are bout a gay nerd. Both stopped selling a few months after their releases. I kind of hoped releasing Confessions of a Zombie Lover would lead to more sales of the first book, but no, that plan was a bust too. And, should I write the last two books in the series, I'll lose the gay readers because the second half deals with the gay nerd's adopted straight zombie daughter.

And okay, the series had gay characters and gay sex, but those were titles with less controversial themes, and they at least sold a decent chunk before the niche dried up. The books in the queue are in the same awkward themes. Even the second City California book is about Terry, a superhero character with a child-like appearance engaging in all kinds of adult behavior. I swear to you people, I wrote these books years apart from each other. In between, I wrote about all kinds of other people and topics. I'm not just a one dimensional freak fixating on one topic. But the editing queue of 2012, made up of titles spread out through years, looks like I've gone on a kick for little kids. (y_y) Right, like I need more help with my popularity.

An answer isn't so simple like "just write something new." You may have forgotten, but every pitch the muse has made recently goes someplace I don't want to go. I'm struggling to complete some projects, and she's making rumbles about new story ideas. But while not about minors, I don't like any of her new ideas because the stories are so bleak and mean-spirited. I can't just drop what I'm writing to make a new book and stick it between these controversial release either. Any book I wrote now would need two months to "cool" before I could start a second revision and address flaws. At a minimum, it would take me eight months to get a book written and polished. Or I can just finish these books that are nearing completion and accept that all of 2012 is gonna suck for my new releases.

But hey, it's not all bad. I have older titles still making sales, and maybe in 2013, I'll release something more easily digestible in the casual market.

Now available at Smashwords

Now on sale at Smashwords:

When eight-year-old Penny Sterling becomes the child bride of Nicholas Rumpelstilts, she expects the worst. Instead, she's free to go to school, to have friends, even to see the mother who gave her to Nicholas before her birth–and her new husband never lays a hand on her. But however pleasant the cage, she's still a prisoner.

As Penny grows, she learns why Nicholas may want her: she's a witch. She must hide her abilities or risk the world's fear and hatred. Penny always thought Nicholas was the monster, but when a real monster leaves her scarred emotionally and physically he is the one who offers safety and comfort in a world where she's likely to find neither.

When Nicholas disappears in dangerous circumstances, Penny faces a hard choice: take her freedom, or search for a captor she's come to love.

A dark fantasy exploring themes of child marriage and Stockholm syndrome, "Penny for Your Debts" contains graphic violence and sexual situations, and should not be read by anyone under the age of eighteen.

—

I spent some time pondering how I would handle the release of this book, because I'm not wanting to do a lot of promotion for any release. But this title is flagged in Smashwords as containing adult material, as as such does not show up in a search or with casual browsing. It is not possible to stumble over the book, so unless I want to ensure that no one knows it exists, I need to at least put up links to the book. I'm also going to engage in a minor Twitter campaign, making a few regular tweets for this per day to put out a low-level awareness of the title. I most likely won't be following reviews good or bad, so we'll call this my "toss and cover head" approach to marketing.

Penny for Your Debts is $3.99 at Smashwords. I'm not yet sure if I will upload it to Amazon or not, and I think it depends on the initial month of reactions through Smashwords.

Right, so the release is done, and now the flop sweating can ensue.