Marc Johnson's Blog, page 6

My First Experience With Other Writers

I’m a loner.

Always have been. Always will be. That’s one of the reasons why writing has always appealed to me. I don’t need to rely on other people to do it and I can do it by myself, any time I want. Because of that, it might be why I’ve rarely met other writers over the years.

I’m also an introvert. Being around people tires me out. And the more people I’m around, the more I get tired especially when we’re not doing anything. Drinking doesn’t count as doing something. In fact, it’s frightfully boring.

So a couple of weeks ago against my normal actions, I actually went to a writer’s meet-up. It was interesting as I had no idea what to expect.

We chatted for about two hours as people said what they were working on, myself included. It was fascinating to see what other people were working on and what they had trouble on. I may not have written in the same genre they were in, but I learned some things especially since I was one of the younger ones there, both in career and in age.

As we talked, I noticed one major difference between me and them. They were mostly focused on sales. Now, that didn’t surprise me. I frequently lurk at a couple other writer’s boards and I’ve noticed that it’s the same everywhere. If you’re an indie author, which I am, you tend to worry more about sales. If you’re a traditionally published author, you tend to focus more on the craft.

I’m a man who’s learned to not worry about things I can’t control. It’s made my life a lot less stressful and I’m a lot less angry. This has carried over into my book sales. Yes, I can influence it by marketing, promoting, and advertising, but even then, it’s still largely out of control.

In any case, despite having different goals and being in different genres and of a different generation, it was still good to meet those writers. I got to see what part in their careers they are and how their mindset is. I’m sure I’ll go to another one. It’s just a matter of when.

Marc Johnson

Hollywood’s New Trend

It’s posts like this that I wish I knew how to use YouTube and record and edit videos. I do know a little bit of audio editing from my days as podcasting, but when it comes to video, I’m worthless. I also love watching entirely too many YouTube videos that deal with topics like this. But I figure if I learn how to do this skill, it will take a lot of time. I’d either have to write or game less, neither of which I don’t want to do.

There has been a trend in Hollywood these past few years, and it’s not exactly the trend you’re thinking of. Sure, Hollywood loves their adaptations, reboots, and sequels, but there’s this new trend that I’m not entirely sure what to call. Soft reboot? It’s as good a name as any but it has no flare.

This…soft reboot has been going on more and more. I think it got popularized since Star Trek 09. Now that movie made a lot of money and reinvigorated a languishing franchise. It was done in a unique way, at the time, because everything that had come before was still canon yet it used new actors in established roles. Normally, we’d see a new cast in a reboot but not in something that was still part of the timeline. It even had one of the old actors on, giving it his blessing. But surely, that only worked because it’s sci-fi, right? Well, no.

What’s interesting is that there was a period where Hollywood did nothing but pure reboots. Batman Begins might kicked this whole thing off as up until then, there wasn’t really an already established series where they started over. Yes, there were things that were rebooted but only decades later. I’m talking about things like The Planet of the Apes and Psycho. But there was nothing too recent. Nothing that was still fresh in people’s minds. After Batman Begins, they seemed to reboot everything that wasn’t 60+ years old. Things like Total Recall, Robocop, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. All classics and all movies that get shown in constant rotation on the various holidays. But those reboots all failed. Why did they fail? Was it because they were horrible movies? Well, yes, but there was something more to it.

I believe audiences are smarter than Hollywood gives us credit for. We don’t want to watch a watered down version of the movie we have on DVD or can watch on Netflix or is on TNT. Now, there have been some great remakes throughout cinematic history, but they were generations apart. They also did their own thing and told their own story instead of trying to rehash the same movie. Movies such as The Fly or The Thing.

Remakes are still prone to make money because of brand recognition. Hollywood didn’t want to lose that. Yet because of the success of Star Trek 09, they realized that they don’t need to do a full on reboot. They didn’t need to make a weaker version of a classic movie. They could remake the exact same movie but give it credence. I’m talking about credence by having the previous movies and worlds still exist instead of ignoring them, and even have a guest starring role with the actor and characters that were in the previous movies. Throw in some nostalgia and repeat the same story and you have a hit!

Here’s a short list of some movies you might have seen with comparisons:

Star Wars: A New Hope/Star Wars: The Force Awakens



Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters



Predator/Predators





Jurassic Park/Jurassic World



The Terminator/Terminator Genisys



Rocky/Creed



I can go on and on, but I’m just going to stop here. It’s not just with films either. And I haven’t even talked about TV shows such as Fuller House and Girl Meets World.

Now that’s not to say that these movies can’t be enjoyable. I loved Creed and The Force Awakens was OK. The problem is even if a movie is good, there’s still a lingering question or two. Did they not have anything remotely original in mind? Is this what my beloved franchise has come to? Do they just lack creatively these days?

I don’t know the answer to those questions…but the answer is yes.

Marc Johnson

Ghosting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a stay-at-home programmer living with her loving boyfriend, Mia lives a simple but good life. Like most people, she dreams, but unlike most, she has vivid dreams about her neighbors’ lives. One day, she realizes that they aren’t dreams—what she’s been experiencing is real. Mia’s able to “ghost” into anyone she chooses, take control of their body, and make them do what she wants.

Frustrated by the injustice and abuse she sees around her, Mia begins using her power to try to right the wrongs she sees. Her boyfriend, Amir, does his best to stop her, believing that no one person should have that much power, and that the system—or God—will bring justice to the perpetrators. Mia, on the other hand, has seen too much corruption in her life to believe in such naivety.

However, the best intentions don’t always work out as planned. The power begins to affect Mia in ways she didn’t expect—and turns out to have consequences she never imagined.

Ghosting is available at these fine retailers:

Keeping Track of Your Writing

About X months ago, I decided to do something I had never done in my 25ish writing years. I decided to actually keep track of how many words I wrote. It was a weird experience to force myself to do so, but I thought I might get a little more done if I did.

For years and years now, I’ve read and heard about how other writers keep track of their words. I never much thought about keeping track of my own. I always thought what was the point? And to be honest, it always felt like other writers were bragging.

Yet last year, even though I released both Reawakening and The Living Remnants, I felt as if my productivity was in decline. Of course, I didn’t release anything in 2014 so 2015 was basically the payoff of that year.

I decided to keep an Excel spreadsheet of how many words I wrote. I wish I remembered where I got the one I finally chose, but if you do a Google search there are literally dozens of websites with them. They even have themes attached to them. It was very hard to chose just one.

Well, once I finally decided on one, I set a modest goal of 250 words a day for 5-6 days a week. I like to go out and enjoy life for that 7th day. That goal is pretty much the bare minimum. Yet in the back of my mind, I thought I would easily blow that count away. I was like, “I write more than that.” Turns out, I was wrong.

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, I did write a ton. I had plenty of part time jobs and I went to school, but I also had time off from school. Not exactly sure why I don’t have time off now. Living in America sucks.

During those summer, winter, spring breaks, and holidays, I would pump out another manuscript. A lot of the time, I rewrote The Passage of Hellsfire into a “better” draft. Those drafts were still terrible, but it was good practice to write a 40,000; 60,000; 80,000 then 100,000 manuscript. Since I’m an adult now with those pesky things called responsibilities, I don’t have as much time to write.

In keeping a word count, I actually learned a few things. I learned that I didn’t write as much as I thought I did. So even if 250 was my bare minimum, there would be times when I would be short of that. So I just hammered out a few words to meet my goal for the day. Most days I would exceed it. I also felt like I wrote faster. It might have had to do with the fact that I just wrote consistently, but I think I wrote more than I normally would.

The downside of keeping track of my word count is that while it helps for writing, it doesn’t do much for editing. There’s no word count to keep track of. The only reasonable way to keep track of editing is time. But since I write and edit sporadically when I come home that makes it hard.

I hope to increase my word count when I begin writing the fourth book in my Hellsfire series, Eternal Darkness. I hope that I’ll be able to release Eternal Darkness far faster than I did in releasing Reawakening.

Marc Johnson

Catalyst Is Now Available as an Audiobook

As the title says, my first book is now available as an audiobook at Audible, iTunes, Amazon. My narrator did an excellent job so if you’d like to hear the other books in the series, you should support this one. Otherwise, there will be no more. If you want a code for a free audiobook from Audible, listen to a favorite podcast of yours. If you don’t have one, I can easily give a code.

Give it a listen here.

My Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

Since everyone else seems to be reviewing this Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I might as well throw my hat in the ring. Besides, sometimes, it’s hard writing blog posts and I need topics.

Now, I am not currently a Star Wars fan. I once was, and if you had asked me in high school what did I prefer: Star Trek or Star Wars? I would have hesitated then told you Star Trek. The reason was that there was simply more of it. Then the Prequels came along. Anyhow, I’ve read far too much of the Star Wars Extended Universe and played too many video games for someone who’s not a fan anymore. It’s kind of weird. That said, unlike everyone else in the world, I was not looking forward to this movie.

You know, I remember the four consecutive bad movies (don’t forget the Clone Wars movie, people), five if you count Return of the Jedi, which a lot of people didn’t like before the Prequels. I, however, loved that movie. I also remember the bad cartoon Clone Wars (but I hear it gets better). People have forgotten all of that. They don’t remember the disappointment of all that. Humans are fickle. Yet I never forget.

When I watched the trailer, I thought the movie might merely be all right. And that’s what it was–all right, at best. I still didn’t know what the plot was but after watching TFA, I learned it was a mashup of the original trilogy.

Now what surprised me were the new characters. Out of all the things I thought I would hate, I thought it’d be them. I found myself liking them and wanting to know more about them and spending more time with them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the movie started to be more and more like the Original Trilogy.

Abrams is a very weak but competent director. If you want someone who do a decent job at balancing nostalgia, but bringing nothing new, hire him. He’ll use characters you know and love but their defining trait will be turned up to 11. He’ll also retread what’s been done before and make it bigger, faster with more explosions.

There is one thing I think Abrams is good at–pacing. His movies move so fast that you’ll never notice the run time. Yet if you think about the actual plot or story of his movies, nothing ever makes sense. In that sense, he reminds me of Michael Bay. However, Bay in his early days had movies with a plot that made sense in that world. Also, he was a far better director.

It’s a shame really. I think if this movie were stretched out to two or three movies, and answered some of the questions it posed, it would have been far more interesting. So this is where a fish out of water character would have been in handy. Kind of like Luke. I guess Rey was supposed to fill this role but she was an excellent pilot and then excellent force user so I guess all of that went out the window. As I watched TFA, there were a bunch of questions that came popping into my head.

I liked Finn’s character and out of all of them, he had the most potential. Were ALL the Stormtroopers brainwashed? Did they force a draft on people? Were there planets and systems under their control? There had to be right? I mean, who funded a bigger Death Star? Finn also should have had more of struggle and character arc much like The Rock in The Rundown.

The Stormtroopers he ended up betraying and killing were supposedly friends of his. I mean, that’s why he turned because his friend died in battle, right? It was weird. He was sad that his buddy was killed but after that, he had no problem killing every Stormtrooper he ran into. Also, they should have shown some of the brainwashing that was supposedly done. The First Order didn’t seem too bad to me, but I don’t know what they did or didn’t do since it wasn’t shown. Clearly, they were just as dumb as the Resistance in whatever plan they had.

Kylo Ren was somewhat interesting until he took off his mask and became a little bitch. The whole Knights of Ren sounded awesome. Sadly, nothing was ever seen on screen for more than a flashback of two seconds. In fact, I thought Ren’s past about having betrayed Luke and murdering the other Jedi in training, would have made a far more intriguing movie. Why didn’t we see that?

Now I know there was some fallout because of how bad the Prequels were, but I thought the political scene should have been shown here if not made an entire movie about it. I didn’t understand how there was both a Republic and a Resistance? Once America beat the British, Washington’s army wasn’t still a bunch of rebels. Was there some kind of fallout between Leia and her army and the Republic? I don’t know. But I would have loved to have seen what happened.

And just because the Emperor was killed, doesn’t mean the war was over. Was there a civil war in the Empire? Probably. I think that’s what those ships on not-Tattooine were. I could watch a movie about that civil war. People have said that the First Order is like Germany in World War II. The Germans got stronger after World War I. That’s not accurate. They were soundly defeated by an alliance of other countries. I never got that feeling in Star Wars. Signs point to a civil war in the Empire and countries generally don’t get stronger after a civil war. And seriously, who funded the bigger, badder Death Star and why not end the movie with that ‘oh shit, this entire planet is a Death Star?’

Now over the years, the Star Wars universe has gotten smaller. That would probably be my biggest complaint. Everyone seems to know each other or is related to each other. The same handful of people have been at the center of or caused everything. Can we move away from them already? I thought we might in this movie especially in the beginning, but no.

Overall, TFW was an all right movie. I’m more interested in where they go next. Will they answer the questions they posed or will they leave us dangling like the Prequels did? More importantly, will they try to do something new and walk in their own footsteps or will they just do yet another mishmash of the original movies and some Extended Universe?

Marc Johnson

What Are Your Goals?

As 2015 comes to an end, I like to reflect on the past year, and of course, watch The Twilight Zone marathon. While this year may not have been my year, I feel like I finally came into a complete realization in what my goals are.

Part of me has always hoped that I would be a best seller. That people would adore my works and that I could make a living at writing. Those were probably the last fantasies of a youthful fool. Now as I’ve read various posts about other writers, I know that I wasn’t the only one. A lot of those writers were disenfranchised by not selling thousands of copies right out the gate. Over the past few years, I’ve come to realized that I’ve stopped caring about numbers.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe I sell an all right amount of books for an unknown and for someone who writes in a “dead genre.” But as I put together my books, I learned something. I can’t control how many books I’m going to sell. Sure, I can influence a bit with interviews, giveaways, marketing, ads, etc. Yet no matter what I do I still can’t force people to buy my books even if I physically put copies in their hands. The only thing I can control is putting out the best possible books. And before I knew it, that became my goal.

Money comes and goes, but creating something that has impact, value, and entertains people weighs far more to me than making a living writing. Though the two aren’t mutually exclusive, and it would be nice to be able to do both. While I’m thankful for those that have read my works, I wish more people would give it a chance. I believe they would enjoy my books and be entertained.

Now that I’ve finally realized my true goal of putting out the best work possible, it’s freeing in a way. It’s one less thing to worry about. I can just focus on my work now. That said, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop promoting or marketing it, but if it never blows up, then I’m not going to cry myself to sleep. I already have enough things to worry about.

See you next year!

Marc Johnson

Top 5 Disappointing New Shows of 2015

If you’ve read this blog for any particular length of time, you would know that I watch a lot of TV. Every year, I also write about my top five new shows of that season. Granted around three of those five tend to get cancelled. Forever, I still miss you. However, this season the majority of the new shows I’ve watched have been extremely disappointing. I could easily do without most of them and not care.

There are a few new shows that I really enjoy, and most of them are comedies. Shows like Ash vs. Evil Dead, Scream Queens, Grandfathered, and even My Crazy Ex Girlfriend are all pretty damn funny. Also, there’s a ton of shows from the last couple of seasons that are still good like The Blacklist, The Goldbergs, Fresh Off the Boat, and Sleepy Hollow.

Now I haven’t watched all the shows that premiered this fall because I don’t have that much time nor do I get paid for it. However, if someone would like to pay me to watch all the shows, even the shows I don’t like, I would accept that job.

Remember, the higher you are on my list, the worse the show.

5. LIMITLESS

I actually really like this show yet I can still do without it. You have no idea how tired I am of the detective with a supernatural, fantastical, sci-fi twist. That said, Limitless is still good. I think what I like most about it is like Sleepy Hollow, the two main leads have no romantic interest and have friendly chemistry with each other. Men and women can just be friends, and I like that. I also enjoy how light-hearted this show can be. It’s not all serious. But I think the best thing is that Bradley Cooper appears on it from time to time and he’s a villain(?)

4. SUPERGIRL

I wouldn’t say I like this show but I do love the lead. Melissa Benoist captures that hope, cheerfulness, and fun that Supergirl should be. She’s not like her dour cousin. I would like to see her in more stuff. I also enjoy Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen. Even though I hate it when they blackwash(?) characters, he does an excellent job at portraying a more mature Jimmy. I always thought Jimmy had a bit too childish in a naive type way when it came to the comics. But there’s none of that here.

The problem with Supergirl is…DC. If you think about it, DC is just too campy. Between the riduiculous of the powers, made of city names, cardboard villains, it’s all very Golden Age. It’s never quite worked for me like Marvel has. It’s too out there. It works on The Flash, but only in spots. If I think about it, it wouldn’t work. Batman only works because he’s a contrast to the entire DC universe.

In any case, I will watch Supergirl because of Benoist. I’m glad she’s the star because the rest of the cast, Jimmy aside, suck. Can’t tell if it’s the writing or acting.

3. BLINDSPOT

The premise about an amensiac, tattooed chick was pretty intriguing. While I only kind of care about the mystery and solving cases thing, the strength of this show is Jaime Alexander. She and her supporting cast do a good job. I like little Kristy from Growing Pains and the kid from Finding Forester. It’s a shame that the guy who plays Kurt Weller has the personality of a rock and no chemistry between any of the cast. Not sure if it’s his bad acting or the bad writing that’s making his character extremely one dimensional.

The mystery and the tattoo angle are a bit ridiculous and while I watch this show, I just miss John Doe. That show was far superior with it’s mystery, acting, story, and everything. I’d kill for that to be on DVD. I mean, it was only one season.

2. MINORITY REPORT

I enjoyed the movie, but don’t much care for the show. Yet I still watch it…for now. It reminds me of a weaker Sleepy Hollow. They both have a white male and black female lead. Black chick is a cop and the white male is not of the world. They’re both solving a mystery. There’s no romantic interest in them hooking up (thank God). But Sleepy Hollow has chemistry between its two leads and is a lot of fun. Minority Report is not.

The only reason I’m still watching it is because I like the siblings. They’re interesting and have intriguing arcs. Unfortunately, the siblings, especially Agatha, are barely in it.

1. THE MUPPETS

The only show on the list that I actually dropped is The Muppets. I also dropped Rosewood. That show’s not very good either. Now, I’m not completely against them remaking things from my childhood. While I hate the lack of creativity in doing so, sometimes they can do interesting things by taking it from a completely different angle. Sadly, a lot of the time they just rehash what has been done before but in a worse way.

However, The Muppets doesn’t do any of that. It’s different from what I grew up on, but it fails in the most important sense–it doesn’t capture the spirit of that childhood show. In fact, it’s mean. I guess in that respect it captures the feel of today’s spirit. It’s also not funny. I don’t know which one bothered me more but I stopped watching.

I’m sure they’ll be more disappointments this year like two of my favorite comic books in Lucifer and Preacher, and who knows what other shows I’m forgetting. If I didn’t watch so much TV, I’m sure I’d have a lot more time for video games. So what shows have disappointed you this season?

Marc Johnson

Book Tour Hindsight

When Reawakening dropped, I decided to do some marketing and advertising, which I haven’t done since Catalyst. Sure, when What Once Was One came out, I did interviews and giveaways, but I didn’t actually pay for anything. This time I did. Instead of paying for some ads, I decided to try out a book tour since it was cheaper, and I wanted something that focused on my target audience more.

After looking at a few sites, I decided to go with Enchanted Book Promotions. I went with them because I felt like I could get the most bang for my buck and they covered both the genres I write in–young adult and fantasy. I booked the package where I would be on tour for the month.

So what did EBP get me? Well, the sites on the above link ran interviews, giveaways, reviews, excerpts, and spotlights for my book. I didn’t want to do guest posts because those are a lot of work and I have no idea what I’d say. I never do.

It was great to have someone else book all the sites instead of me constantly emailing people and setting up dates. I only had to work on doing the interviews. I got to “meet” some cool people I never would have met before. I enjoyed some of the interviews, and I learned that people don’t need to have read Catalyst or What Once Was One to enjoy Reawakening. So it’s good to see my writing has improved in that aspect.

The major downside is that the majority of sites book one tour after another. That means they post at least one thing a day for a blog tour. I’m not entirely sure what their numbers are but inundating their readers/followers with posts means books get drowned out by all the noise. Also, since most of them didn’t read my book, some of their interview questions were rather dry.

Now with all those things in mind, would I book a book tour again?

Yes.

I think the positives outweigh the bad. It might not be by a lot, but it’s by more than enough, I think. It’s cheaper than say buying an ad through Pixel of Ink, Bookbub, or Kindle Nation Daily. You also don’t need to jump through as many hoops. While the people that have read my books is considerably less than the aforementioned ad places, I believe that the people that have read my books through blog tours are more of a fan…if that makes any sense. They subscribe to those sites because they love reading and they love books.

Here’s to the next tour! Also, next year I shall be trying something new and getting a table at a couple of conventions. We’ll see how that goes.

Marc Johnson

Extreme Makeover…for Covers

In case you haven’t noticed, a few months ago I changed my ebook covers and gave them a complete makeover. People love my new covers and while trying to get a print cover for my third book, Reawakening, I made the tough decision to have a uniform look in all my covers.

Now, I may have written about covers here, and while I still believe what I wrote, and still loved my old book covers, having my print covers be the same as my ebook covers is considerably cheaper. It’s also easier to release them all at the same time. Instead of having to work with different people’s schedules, I only have to work with one. The covers turned out a lot better than I thought they would.

Forgive the crappy camera phone shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty, wouldn’t you agree? The colors are far more vibrant that I thought they’d be and jump out. Didn’t think that would happen especially since I went with a matte cover. The interiors were also improved. While the meat of the book is the same, I did some tweaking such as with the title page and my author info, along with some minor tuning with the formatting. If it’s good, you won’t notice any of it.

f you want something that looks beautiful on your bookshelf and is a pretty good story to boot, you should pick them up. I hear Christmas is coming. The print books are available at Amazon and if you buy them, you’ll get the ebook free. I also hope to try to get them into a couple of local bookstores and plan to get a table at a couple of cons. Though unless you live in the Bay Area, that really won’t matter to you. But if you do see me, don’t be afraid to say hi and let me know what you think about The Passage of Hellsfire.

Marc Johnson