Tony Peak's Blog, page 2

Podcast appearance! B Cubed Press: Third Sunday with Cliff Winnig - AI art & fiction writing

I was on a podcast today with fellow science fiction authors Cliff Winnig and Thaddeus Howze, discussing AI art and its effects on fiction writing: Third Sunday with Cliff Winnig. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/Zk_0bYbk...​

New Medium essay: What Star Wars Means to Me

May the Fourth be with You!

Link: ​https://tinyurl.com/yckhj6j7

New Medium essay: Blame AI Art's Exploiters, Not the Technology

The AI/Clarkesworld controversy inspired me to write this, my latest essay on Medium:

​https://tonypeak78.medium.com/blame-a...

New Medium essay: The LitRPG Writer's Toolkit

My latest essay, 'The LitRPG Writer's Toolkit', is now up on Medium.

Link: ​https://tonypeak78.medium.com/the-lit...

New LitRPG series Hero Dawn Online is live on YONDER!

I'm pleased to announce the arrival of my first LitRPG novel, HERO DAWN ONLINE 1.0: SHADOW BLADE on the YONDER app! It's a Yonder exclusive, but other formats (audio, ebook, POD) will be coming in the future. I don't have a link, since you have to use the app to find it. I had a blast writing this series.

Series description:

Drake Steele is a new character in Hero Dawn Online, a fantasy MMO where he seeks loot and levels as a Shadow Blade, a thief that uses shadow magic. But can he find a life for himself in a world where his player is the master of Drake’s destiny?
 
Hero Dawn Online’s world is fully-realized, and even though its hero characters know they are in a game, they have little control of their existence within it. Drake, however, is capable of bending the rules due a strange exploit ability that only he has. Since he’s Level 1, he’s given a veteran hero to train him: Zesstra, a dark elf Shadow Blade who’s become jaded by her experiences in HDO. Drake slowly gains her respect, and affection, as he learns how to pick pockets, disarm traps, backstab, and travel through the shadows to gain the power to challenge HDO’s key villains: the Rite wizards, who summon creatures from other worlds to fight over the one where Drake and Zesstra live. The pair recruit other heroes to help them defeat the wizards: Azara, a demonkin Trickster that uses illusions; Zooka, an unpredictable gnome warp mage; Barnabas, a bawdy cleric of the goddess of love; and Kaalijan, a noble wyrmkin warrior.
 
Through guile, determination, Zesstra’s help, and his exploit ability, Drake will adapt to the rules of the MMO and the wiles of his player—while finding meaning for himself across HDO’s static yet vibrant lands.

New book release: Redshift Runners 3: Termination Vector

My latest novel is out! REDSHIFT RUNNERS 3: TERMINATION VECTOR is now available for Kindle, audiobook, and paperback from Aethon Books!. This book features my favorite ending that I've written so far. I'm very proud of this trilogy, but there are more stories coming in the Runners universe, so watch this space! https://tinyurl.com/b8njhm6w​

My Star Wars: Andor essay has been published in Journey Planet!

​My Star Wars: Andor essay appears in the latest issue of Journey Planet, alongside excellent articles by contributors such as Oghenechovwe Ekpeki, Carrie Vaughn, Rich Horton, Chelsea Mueller, James Mason, and others. Check it out! http://journeyplanet.weebly.com

New Book Release: Redshift Runners 2: Dying Suns

The second installment of my latest space opera trilogy, REDSHIFT RUNNERS 2: DYING SUNS, is out now from Aethon Books! Here's the back blurb:

After deactivating Parallax and restoring access to Earth, Deadeye and the Redshift Runners have become the most infamous pirates in the Orion Spur.

Yet the old order has its hands full with Dying Suns, a political movement calling for a return to Earth—while leaving the barren, ‘dying’ worlds they were forced to colonize. Miners, farmers, and other settlers petition the Runners to fly them to humanity’s birthplace.

This upsets corporations and nobles who profited from such exploitation, and Deadeye undertakes the deadliest missions he’s ever flown to save the frustrated masses. But Talon, his beloved captain, has her own vendetta against the nobles, and Deadeye must face his past—and hers—if they are to survive.

DYING SUNS is available on Amazon in multiple formats. 

New Medium essay - Andor: Star Wars Finally Grows Up

My latest essay on Medium, laying out what makes Disney's Andor a Star Wars story for adults: 
https://tonypeak78.medium.com/andor-star-wars-finally-grows-up-ecc27d5b6499 

New Medium essay - Braving the Infinite: The Pilots of Science Fiction

To celebrate today's launch of my new space opera novel REDSHIFT RUNNERS: PARALLAX, I prepared this essay for Medium--Braving the Infinite: The Pilots of Science Fiction.

Link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8hrzht