Marc Johnson's Blog, page 8

The Renaissance of the Indie

I think in a few years or maybe after I’m long dead, when we look back at this period in history, I believe it will be known as the Time of the Indie. I’m not specifically just talking about indie authors, but indie filmmakers, indie game developers, and indie musicians.

As I think about it, I’ve been reading, watching, and playing far more things created by indies. The Internet is partly responsible for this. The fact that we’re all interconnected across the globe is something that never would have happened previously. But that’s only one half of it. The other, maybe bigger half of it, is that the barrier of entry is a lot lower. You can record whole movies or songs on your phone and easily upload it. Whether these products are good or bad isn’t the point, the fact that it’s even possible is amazing.

Going to Youtube or Vimeo or Steam is sadly the only way to enjoy some of these things. Companies used to take chances, but as companies swallowed other companies, and budgets blossomed to company-breaking territories, those chances have disappeared. It’s the reason why music has now become homogenized; movies and games put out sequels, remakes, and prequels; why channels renew shows that are long past their prime.

Everyone’s scared.

They’re scared of failing and scared of losing. It’s just a fearful world we live in. I feel it every time I step outside. People are scared to know their neighbors. Parents are scared to let their children walk the streets. People are scared of getting doxxed. For the people that work for companies, they’re scared they’ll lose their job.

There is a different kind of fear when you’re an indie. You’re scared you won’t succeed but more in a, “Does anyone even care” kind of way. Yet that freedom is oddly satisfying. You have no one to blame but yourself. And even if you fail, you did want you wanted to do. There was no one saying no to you. No executive saying no, no one catering to children, no one saying that’s going to cost too much money. Sure, you have limitations, but you have to use your brain to work around them.

It’s an amazing time we live in. Creatively, I think anyone can do what they truly want to. All it takes is a lot of time and a little bit of money. There’s nothing holding us back…except ourselves.

Marc Johnson

Looking Forward to 2015

As a whole, 2014 sucked. I had to move twice, haven’t gone out on a single date, didn’t release Reawakening, didn’t cross anything off my list, my bow broke, didn’t start the Deadlands RPG, didn’t reach Legend in Hearthstone, and didn’t go out on a single date. I feel that last one needed to be repeated. When I think about it, it feels as if I didn’t accomplish anything. And that’s a terrible feeling, quite possibility the worst feeling. There is one thing I managed to do though. My diet that I’m on is actually working and I’ve lost quite the few pounds. So there’s that.

On the bright side, it looks like all those things I didn’t quite do will actually come to fruition in 2015. Well, except for maybe that dating one and reaching Legend. I like to think that I’ve been preparing for 2015 by getting ready in 2014. Is that entirely the case? Probably not. But it does set my mind at ease just a little a bit and makes me think that 2014 wasn’t a complete waste.

Now, I’m not saying 2015 will be a GOOD year even if I do accomplish all those things. But sometimes that doesn’t actually matter. Whether Reawakening will flop, whether I go broke from traveling, whether I have women who hate me, whether I die from the hot air balloon ride, none of that actually matters. What matters is that I will have completed what I desired. While it can be about the journey, sometimes I’m all about results and the ends justifying the means.

Time to see what the new year will bring!

Marc Johnson

Maturity

Recently, I had to skim/re-read my first book, CATALYST, for something I’d love to talk about, but won’t come out til next year so I won’t. There was something that immediately struck me as I read the words I had written years ago. Hellsfire is young.

I don’t mean that he’s young in a chronological way. He’s young in a maturity way. The voice in CATALYST is extremely young compared to WHAT ONCE WAS ONE and REAWAKENING. It makes sense. Hellsfire has been through a lot since that first book, and there’s still more to come.

I started THE PASSAGE OF HELLSFIRE when I was 13. My goal was that as I would age, he would age in “real time.” At the time, I thought it genius and unique. I don’t remember knowing of anything like it. I also thought it would help me in my writing. I knew that as I grew older, I would emotionally, physically, and mentally mature.

Now, while things didn’t quite go as planned (they never do), the idea behind what I had thought is more or less the same. Hellsfire has been through a lot: war, love, responsibility, death, battle, and so on. As the books go on, all of that will heavily weigh on him. In fact, all of those things, and more yet to come, may break him.

Thinking about how young Hellsfire was, reminded me of some of the unfavorable reviews I received for CATALYST. Some of those reviews hated my book because of how young Hellsfire sounded. They were right. He did sound young. But that’s the point. He’s supposed to be immature and inexperienced. Of course, he may have come off as too young for them.

Just because I don’t think they got my book, doesn’t mean that they’re wrong in what they thought of it or how they felt about it. Maybe I didn’t do a good job explaining it to them, maybe it wasn’t what they were looking for. Who knows? But it’s a shame they didn’t stick with the book or the series to see him grow and mature. They might have liked it.

In any case, reading how much Hellsfire had matured has reminded me of how long I’ve come. And I still have a long way to go.

Marc Johnson

Top 5 Influential Childhood Authors

Like many, many writers, I grew up reading a ton when I was a kid. T It saddens me that I stopped reading their books as I grew older, but their impact still stuck with me.

Without further adieu, here is my top five influential childhood authors.

5. BEVERLY CLEARY

While I eventually read Cleary’s Ramona books, the ones I started off with and loved the most were the ones that had to do with Ralph. Ralph was a mouse who loved to ride motorcycles. How awesome was that? And Ralph wasn’t content with a simple bicycle. No, he had to have a motorcycle!

What I took away from Cleary was that the fantastical could be introduced in the mundane world, and it could be done well in small doses. And that if you look at things from a different perspective sometimes the mundane can be fantastical.

4. LOUIS SACHAR

While Sachar may be known most for Holes, a book I’ve never read, to me he will always be known for the Wayside School series. I remember ordering this from one of the Scholastic book ads they gave out in school, and thought it was the craziest thing I had ever read. The school itself was built upwards, there’s no 19th floor, everyday words are bad words, and all sorts of other stuff I can’t remember. I also remember wishing that my school was halfway as interesting as Wayside School. Yet no matter how many different schools I went to, they never were.

What I took away from the Wayside School is that it’s perfectly OK to write something completely insane, as long as you have fun with it.

3. RL STINE

I grew up watching Eerie, Indiana; Are You Afraid of the Dark; Tales from the Crypt; and all sorts of late night horror movies. As much as I love Stephen King, I’ve always thought of him more as a fantasy writer than a horror one. Yet when it came to books, I would say the scariest things I read were by RL Stine.

Stine was able to perfectly capture what it was like to be a kid and what was scary to them. It’s pretty standard stuff from a dummy, a Halloween mask that won’t come off, a camera that predicts horrible futures, and so on, but Stine was able to do it in a way that always felt fresh. Plus, it was terrifying without being graphic, and the endings weren’t necessarily all rainbows and sunshine. The show was also a good and faithful adaptation too if you’re too lazy to read a book.

2. BRIAN JACQUES

Another great writer I read because of the Scholastic ads. I wonder if they still do those? What caught my attention was the picture of a badger and thought that book looked cool. I do have a thing for anthropomorphic animals and I loved the Wind in the Willows animated movie I had.

I grew up reading a ton of books on Jacques’s Redwall series. What I love most about the series was that it didn’t matter if you read the books in order or not. I know I didn’t. Each book was a perfectly contained story. Yes, they were all interconnected, but only in the fact that they all took place in the same world. Books bounced around from character to character or took place decades or hundreds of years in the past. Very few that I read had an impact on the others.

1. ROALD DAHL

If you know me at all, you should know that my number childhood author is no surprise. Roald Dahl mixed the fantastical with the mundane in a delightfully wonderful and charming way. While a lot of the authors on my list did that, Dahl also dealt with some very mature and heavy themes. He was so good that I always related to them but I never felt as if I was in over my head or that he was talking down to me. And that’s what great children’s writers do.

Even though I’m older, far too cynical and bitter now, these five authors influenced me a lot–both in my writing and in my development in growing up. I wish I could capture the magic of reading them when I was a kid again, but I can’t. The next best thing I can do is share them with my kids…if I ever have any.

Marc Johnson

Locked Into Amazon

As a consumer, I am a HUGE Amazon fan. I love their cheaper prices, fast shipping, and excellent customer service. Yet despite all that, when it comes to being a published author, I’ve never much cared for them. Sure, I love their extremely generous royalty rate, monthly payments, price adjustments, sales reports, and pre-orders, but I don’t like how they want you to be locked into their system.

When I first published a few years ago, Amazon’s system wasn’t how it was today. There was no borrowing or setting your price to free. There was also a lot more competition such as Sony, Diesel, eBookwise, etc. Today, there are basically only four major players in the ebook market: Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and to a far lesser extent, Nook.

When I first heard of KDP Select, I never thought that the pros outweighed the cons. The fact that you could make your book free for five days and get money for letting people borrow it wasn’t worth it for me to not allow my book be on other sites. Even though Amazon added a little more to their program as time passed, I still hadn’t pulled the gun on completely joining Amazon. And I’m glad I didn’t.

While my sales in Amazon’s store have decreased, my sales in their biggest competition have increased–Kobo. Up until a few years ago, I had never really heard of Kobo. Originally, they were a primarily Canadian company. But with all the mergers and acquisitions, Kobo has become quite the major player in the rest of the world.

I’ve not done any marketing or promotion in the last year probably longer. As you might suspect, my Amazon US sales have decreased. Luckily, that doesn’t bother me too much since I only check my sales once a month. I have no idea why, but my Amazon sales in Canada and UK have picked up, and as I’ve mentioned my Kobo sales have drastically increased until they’ve over taken my Amazon sales.

What can I take away from this? I haven’t the foggiest. But what I do know and am glad for is that I didn’t put all my eggs in one basket. Look, I will probably never be a big name author, but for those few (potential) fans that I do have, I’d like for them to be able to read my works on ANY device and format they choose. Because of that reason, and that reason alone, I will never be fully dependent on Amazon and locked into their system…unless they dump a truck full of money at my house.

Marc Johnson

My Top 5 Greatest Cartoons

I’ve come to realize that I have grown up in a golden age. Whether it be video games, movies, TV shows, music, or cartoons, I was there through it all as some of the best stuff was ever created during that time period.

I love cartoons. You’ll often find me tweeting about them, which means I’m watching them. While they have gotten worse over the years, there are some that will always be awesome and that I will show to my kids…if I ever have any.

5. DUCKTALES



WOO-HOO! While this isn’t my favorite show, it probably has the best theme song of any cartoon ever created. It would be ranked higher if it wasn’t for the terrible character of Bubba Duck.

What I love about Ducktales is that it’s all about adventure. Uncle Scrooge takes his boys across the world all in search of treasure. They have lots of fun doing it and thwart everyone from the Beagle Boys, Magica the Spell and Flintheart Glomgold. My life has been relatively boring, but I would always imagine myself doing what they did.

And of course, there’s nothing like swimming in a huge bin of money!

4. DOUG



I love Doug for a very similar reason that I love Ducktales. While both go on adventures, the key difference is that Doug’s adventures all take place in his mind.

Out of all the cartoons, I probably related with Doug the most. He never got the girl, his imagination worked overtime, he was the new kid, and he constantly talked to his pet. Even though he wasn’t an only child, it always felt like he was to me.

It also had some greatest fiction within a fiction in Quailman and The Beets!

3. GARFIELD AND FRIENDS



I’ve always been a huge fan of the fat cat. And I believe I started reading the comic strips before I ever watched the TV show. The show captured the comic brilliantly. So much so that I think in some ways it did a better job than the strip.

But what I love most about Garfield and Friends isn’t Garfield, Odie, or Jon. It’s Orson’s Farm! And that surprised me a bit. I had never read those comic strips and Orson’s Farm has such a great ensemble. They each have their own personality and bring something different to the table. I had wondered what it would have been like if they had their own cartoon.

2. BEAST WARS



I’ve always been a huge Transformers fan, but when I first heard of then watched Beast Wars, I was very confused. It had a bunch of smaller Transformers that turned into animals. The two main characters were Optimus Primal and Megatron but they weren’t the characters I had grown up with. It took place on a planet that looked like pre-historic Earth but it was seeded with energon and had two moons. It was all very weird.

Yet somehow, Beast Wars became the greatest Transformers show ever!

What made Beast Wars great is that unlike G1, there wasn’t a cast of characters constantly coming in just to sell toys. Because of that, they were able to have an over-arching plot and deep characterization. There were no annoying humans to save or help them. It also did an excellent job at balancing humor and seriousness.

1. JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED



When it comes to comics, I’ve never been a DC fan. There superheroes are all basically boring gods as opposed to Marvel’s more down to earth characters. Yet when it comes to their animation line, they’ve put out a far superior product over Marvel.

While the first two seasons of Justice League (most notably two) were good, JLU was great. One of the reasons that JLU was better was that it shortened the run time. While it still had overarching plots, because of its twenty minute run time, plots were tighter. They didn’t waste in time with dead air. However, I think the best thing it did was focus on the rest of the DCU.

Justice League focused on the heroes everyone knows–Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkgirl. JLU focused on a bunch of lesser known characters such as Huntress, Vixen, and my favorite, The Question. I learned a lot about the DCU and it made me more interested in it.

Now those are my favorite cartoons. What’s great is they all still hold up. Sadly, there’s a ton of great cartoons that just didn’t make my list.

I would love to hear what some of your favorite cartoons are.

Honorable Mentions: Batman the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Dragonball Z, Gargoyles, Jackie Chan Adventures, Monster Rancher, Reboot, Rugrats, Transformers

Update on Book 3

Lately, I’ve been hearing from people through email, Facebook messages, tweets, and the like. I’m grateful for it because I actually know that people are out there reading my work. Since I don’t hear from most people, I have no idea how many people are actually reading my work. While I can kind of judge from sales, I’m certain there’s a percentage of people that buy my book but don’t read it. Yet no matter how they contact me, they all ask and want the same thing and that is, “When is the next book coming out?”

Now, I had planned for book 3, titled Reawakening, to be out in late 2013/early 2014. Unfortunately, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

For the past three months, I have moved not once, but twice. Moving, as I’m sure you well know, takes a lot of time. And time is the second most valuable asset a person can have. Between packing, putting stuff in storage, filling out rental forms, checking out places, meeting with people, emailing, calling, driving, and eventually moving, that’s all taken me away from writing. I love to write, but having a place to live is probably more important. Also, I’ve been working a lot.

Aside from life getting in the way, writing has been…difficult to say the least. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I thought that by having already written the first four books for The Passage of Hellsfire, that I’d have some lead time. Sure, there’d be editing, but even then, I’d figure that at most, I could get out a book once a year. And that’s on top of writing the fifth and sixth book.

Boy was I wrong.

Even though I go over my manuscript before I give it to my editor, she still comes back at me with major suggestions. Of course, they’re good and logical to the story so I follow them. Instead of tweaking scenes here or rewriting characterization there, I’m basically starting from scratch.

This being my third book with her, I’ve noticed a pattern. The first half of the book requires me to start over. Every. Single. Time. While where I want to go remains the same, everything else is different. The second half of the book requires far less rewrites. A lot still gets changed especially since B is no longer B because I’ve changed A, but I’m not starting from scratch. I can actually use some of the scenes and dialogue I’ve written in the second half. That may have to do with me. Maybe I’m just a slow starter.

If you’ve been wondering where Reawakening has been, that’s why. Don’t worry. It WILL come out. Now that I’ve settled into my new place, I shall be working on it more. It also helps that I’ve almost reached the halfway point of the book. Things tend to pick up from that point.

Don’t worry, guys. I’m still alive…



Marc Johnson

The Real Voting Power

I don’t vote in any sort of traditional sense. I don’t go to voting booths and choose who I want to get into office or what proposition I want passed. Since I don’t vote people say that I shouldn’t be allowed to have a say in what goes on. Why would I vote in a system I don’t believe in? I’m many things but not a hypocrite. It’s bad enough I live in the system. Not to mention that my vote won’t count because I don’t have any true power.

This will be the most political I get on this blog. I do have a point that I shall be getting to.

I’m a geek. That’s no surprise. Geeks have this weird thing where they go and support whatever geeky item they love even if it’s not as good as the previous one. One example are movies. I love movies, but I don’t like going to the theater to watch bad ones. But geeks will go no matter what. They want to support it even though it’s bad like watching an Amazing Spider-Man or a Hobbit.

It’s not just geeks. Living in the Bay Area for many years with bad sports teams, I’ve learned that sports nuts will go to games and buy their merchandise even if they don’t make the playoffs or sign the worse players or coaches.

In either case, it’s if humans have this innate need to justify their faith(?), trust(?), belief(?) in what they love. It’s like they don’t want to shatter that illusion and will always hope it’s good. It’s a foolish notion and one I’ve dismissed many years ago. It’s saved me much money and time and unlike my friends and family, I’ve had my hopes dashed.

There’s really only one vote that we, the average person, has and that actually matters, and that’s with our wallet.

It’s a sad thing to say but society is still all about accumulating wealth. It’s not about bettering ourselves or enhancing our minds, it’s about the all-mighty dollar. Because of that simplistic and selfish motivation, you’ll have to speak in a language companies will understand–money.

If you don’t like a company because if it’s business practices or you’re tired of a rehashed and sub-par product, you shouldn’t support them. If their bottom line drops or stock prices fall then and only then, they’ll realize they’ll have to do something different. They’ll realize that they have to change and do something different.

However, if you continue to give them your money for services or products you don’t like, they’ll have learned nothing. And they’ll just keep doing what they’ve been doing. And you will get exactly the same, bland, spoon fed stuff that you deserve.

Marc Johnson

The Jealously Monster

There have been many things I’ve learned since I’ve published my books. I’ve most certainly become a better writer and I’ve become more comfortable with promoting and talking about my work (though I still could get better at that). Sadly, one thing I’ve learned is that writers are insanely jealous of other writers.

It’s human nature to be jealous and envious of other people. We all wonder why our house isn’t as big as the neighbors, why we can’t get a woman like that, or why he makes more money than me. Yet over the years I’ve grown weary of writers acting this way towards other writers. I’m not one who believes we’re all in some sort of community and have to work together or even get along, but this jealously part bugs me. Writers aren’t loud and boisterous about their jealously, but it’s there nevertheless.

This jealously will often take the form a passive aggressive “joke.” Whenever there’s a quip or snide remark about Stephanie Meyer (Twilight), Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) or JK Rowling (Harry Potter), I never see it as being funny. Sure, it was funny the first two times I heard it, but after hearing the same joke dozens and dozens of time, much like gum, it has lost its flavor.

Sometimes I want to scream to authors, “WHO CARES WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING???”

I’ve come to a rather early realization in my young career that I don’t care what other writers are doing. I’ve learned a lot time ago that I should only worry about things I can control or influence, and I can’t control or influence other authors. Worrying about the things you can’t control will do nothing but stress you out. And this life is entirely too short for that.

I love writing! I will always love writing and I will always write because I have this need to get the crazy stories out of my head. While I do treat it as a business, I am primarily motivated by heart and art, not head and cash.

Now I know that I will (probably) never make it big. Most people will never know who I am or about any of my works. And that’s fine…I guess. Since I have come to accept what I am, I don’t feel the need to hate on other writers. Since I’m human, I will always feel jealous of what other people are doing. I just won’t let it affect me. Otherwise, I may turn into something I don’t like.

Marc Johnson

Planting Seeds

Writing a series is hard work. I knew that going in but decided to write one anyway probably because I’m a fool. One of the hardest things about writing a series is making sure the books are interconnected. That mostly has to do with plots and subplots and carrying those from one book to the next. But I’ve always believed that to make a true, lasting series, you have to plant seeds.

What I mean by planting seeds is that you have to put things in one book that will eventually be explained in another. They don’t have to necessarily be plot points. Odds are they will be but they could just be minor things that may seem unimportant. For my own meager example, in my first book, Catalyst, people kept wondering why is Hellsfire is named Hellsfire. I give a reason in Catalyst, but explain more in What Once Was One, and will do so again. There are also other things like Hellsfire’s father’s dagger, a guardian, a wizard’s robes, or it can even be a place mentioned such as the Netherrealms.

I like to think of those things like the proverbial gun on the mantle. People say that has to go off by the end of the book otherwise it’ll be a red herring, but I think when it comes to a series it doesn’t have to.

The way I picture series is one gigantic book much in the same way Lord of the Rings was one huge book. Because of that, I may not return to something I mention until a book or two or three down the line. It also drives my editor a little crazy.

The reason it drives her crazy is a valid one. I tend to not mention it until the time it becomes important again. That makes for bad writing. People aren’t going to remember what I do two or three books ago. Ergo, it’s best to drop in hints to remind people. While in my mind, it’s all relatively fresh and one continuous story, other people aren’t going to be involved with my work as I am, no matter how much they enjoy it.

I don’t think those little things or seeds, will necessarily be the thing people remember. But I do think that while they’re reading it, they’ll get a little sense of satisfaction when they say to themselves, “Aha! I KNEW that would come into play later!” I know I do.

And with a little luck, planning, and skill, one day that seed you plant, may grow into a tree.

Marc Johnson