Jay Swanson's Blog, page 3

Kickstarter Tees and Blue Button Apparel – Global Neighborhood

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

It’s funny how many people have asked me about this feather in the last couple of weeks. What does it mean? Who is this “Walker?”

Perhaps the mystery alone is enough to draw a few new readers into the fold. But for those of you waiting to get your Kickstarter exclusive T-shirt, I bet you just want to see it.

More than that, I bet you’d like to wear it.

Well you’re close – really close.

Holding your new shirt is Shanna, who manages Blue Button Apparel, a subsidiary of Global Neighborhood in Spokane. Global Neighborhood is a non-profit that seeks to empower former refugees by providing them with education and work experience. Something few people seem to know about Spokane (if they know about Spokane to begin with) is that it’s a destination for a lot of former refugees once they’re finally granted entry into the US.

Most of those refugees are bound to struggle with moving to a new place, often facing language barriers with few connections if any to get them started. You can imagine this is pretty stressful – as someone who has lived in a few foreign countries along the way, I can empathize (and I spoke the language). Thankfully there are a number of programs in place to help them make the transition.

Global Neighborhood was started by my buddy Brent Hendricks. They operate a thrift store, a cleaning service, and now a screen printing operation; all of which employ and educate former refugees.

Jeanette is the resident graphic designer who put the feather to the T

They work to connect former refugees and their families with locals who can show them the ropes of their new American life (even things like grocery shopping in a new place can be incredibly daunting). They also provide jobs for a few people like Nuha and Thawng, who helped make your shirts! These jobs are essentially vocational training programs, with a little cultural education thrown in (Shanna told me that a surefire way to get Nuha to smile is just to talk about Americans for a minute – it works).

Thawng is from Burma, the country who sent the second most refugees to the US in 2012 (the most recent statistic I found). He works the screen press like a pro and is proud of what he makes. He was pretty stoked to hold a stack of shirts but I wanted to watch him in action.

Nuha comes from eastern Sudan, where fighting forced her family to flee. She expressed a little apprehension as she prepares to move on from Global Neighborhood’s program and look for a job out in the broader American landscape, but I’d guess she’s ready for it. She’s really happy to stay in Spokane, but sad to move on from her friends in Global Neighborhood and Blue Button Apparel. She wanted you to know she folded your shirts (and she did a dang good job).

This is honestly one of my favorite approaches to the challenges of poverty and cultural integration. Giving people space to work, to learn a trade, and supporting them both emotionally and with education is effective. It’s powerful, and I find it incredibly inspiring. I hope it helps you appreciate your shirts just that much more when you get them.

If you’d like to learn more about Global Neighborhood you can check them out on their website at global-neighborhood.org. And be sure to head over to Blue Button Apparel on Facebook and give them a like!

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Into the Nanten on Kindle and More

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

I’ve been told a couple dozen times that reading Into the Nanten on a computer screen isn’t ideal – this hasn’t kept a few hundred people from reading it, but I completely understand those who have decided to wait. Our Kickstarter backers have had a few weeks with their copies by now and I’ve gotten some good feedback from them already.

Now you too can have Into the Nanten on Kindle – and if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the ePUB version from Smashwords. Well, you will be able to as soon as I can get them to accept the file. Their uploader keeps crashing on me (and has for weeks).

That actually raises the main challenge I’m facing with Into the Nanten: it’s huge. The raw doc file for the ebook weighs in at over 113MB. To give you a sense of scale, Barnes & Noble won’t accept anything over 20MB. Even Amazon’s compressed version of the book isn’t that small.

From Pixel to Print

This is also the ultimate challenge in printing ITN Season 1. The book is shaping up to be over 800 pages at A4 (a page size roughly the same as your personal printer’s letter paper). I won’t know for sure until I’m done formatting it, but at my current guess of 850 pages, Lightning Source estimates the book will be almost 2″ thick and weigh in at 4.5lbs. That’s 2kg for those of you metric folks.

So feel free to hold off on that brick you were going to buy for self-defense.

I’m really excited to get it done, especially for our backers who purchased the recreated leather journals. I’m generally excited to get all of the perks out to you. Beyond formatting the print version, I’m just waiting on the prints from Nimit at this point.

As for next season, the plan is to open up a Kindle subscription for Into the Nanten so that you can read along on your Kindle from the beginning. It will also be a small way you can support the project.

We’re always open to more ideas on how to get this story to you in a way you’ll better enjoy it.

Like in a podcast – more on that soon.

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Dark Horse Winners – Books Shipped!

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

Yesterday we wrapped up the Dark Horse giveaway. And guess what? The books shipped. If you missed out, don’t worry, Dark Horse is available in paperback for $9.99 and ebook for $2.99 on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords for everything else.

All but one of the entrants got me their address within a day, so I figured it was only fair to ship their books in as little time. I made it to the post office with 15 minutes until closing, and had to address them all before they closed. Somehow, in a flurry of ink and padded envelopes, I managed.

So winners, be watching your mailboxes. The farthest flung today was Canada, but I’ll be shipping the last one to Australia soon.

The runners up who won an ebook should have received a coupon in their email – five of you have already downloaded your copy. If you’re missing that email, be sure to let me know. I hope you all enjoy the story!

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Dark Horse Giveaway – Oh Yes, Free Books

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

Three weeks ago I shared my new cover art for Dark Horse and was blown away by not only the outrageous reception, but the constructive feedback I received – particularly from the community over at r/fantasy.

As the discussion wore on, two things became readily apparent: the titling on the cover needed work, and the blurb sucked. I was surprised at just how deep we got down the blurb trail in particular, and within a few hours we’d crafted not one but two superior blurbs.

You can read both here – there wasn’t enough room on the cover.

Click for higher resolution

Writing the back-of-the-book material is my least favorite activity and, though I think I’m getting better at it, the input I received was invaluable. I couldn’t take all of the ideas tossed my way simply because by the end I would have had to write an entirely new book from scratch. You can’t please everyone. But I did take a lot of the advice I received, if not most of it. In all honesty it was a ton of fun.

Thank You r/Fantasy

As a way of saying thank you for all of your feedback, input, and general excitement over the artwork – and to celebrate the recent availability in paperback – I’m giving away ten free copies of Dark Horse today.

That’s right, this entire stack is going to find its way into new homes as quickly as the post office can adopt them out.

I’ll give you all 48 hours to enter the Dark Horse Giveaway, and then rafflecopter will choose ten of you at random. Ten lucky runner-ups will get ebook copies. The rest of you can get a high-five out of me if we meet at Sasquan.

Double high-fives if you read Dark Horse before then.

Finally: the Dark Horse Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You’re able to put up to twelve entries into the digital hat here. If you’ve read Into the Nanten and you leave a comment about why you enjoyed it, or what you’re excited for about Fall of the Arbor King in the comments below (and you win): I’ll include a special surprise with your book.

No snakes, I promise.

Photographic evidence: just in case you wanted to be sure there were actually words inside. Also, in case you were still wondering, the cover art was done by the magnificent Marie Bergeron. Check her work out when you get a chance!

Good luck to you all! And thank you again.

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King of the Prints – Kickstarter Fulfillment

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

We’re still missing about 11 backer surveys, but we’re going to get the ball rolling for the rest of you. Nimit has gotten started on the print process, and I got done tallying everything up a few days ago. It’s really interesting to see which prints got chosen. Out of 98 possible options, 54 were chosen at least once, with a few clear favorites. Which one was chosen 11 times?

The King of the Prints: Entry 42 – Naline

Entry 42 – Naline – Our most popular Kickstarter print

No surprise here. Perhaps it’s the Queen of the prints. Either way, she reigns supreme. 11 of you chose this print and I can understand why. She’s the lock screen background on my laptop.

In a close second, selected six times, we have

Our Runner-Up: Entry 146 – Marceles’ Ability

Entry 146 – Marceles’ ability to *SPOILER*

I still have a hard time naming Marceles’ ability anywhere for fear of spoilers. This piece was one we figured would be a clear favorite. Nimit had a few picked out that he thought would do best, and I think he was pretty spot on with these first two.

Unfortunately there was no clear winner for third place, so we’re forced to hand out a group consolation prize. All of these were chosen four times.

Tied for Third:

I know that a couple of these are surprises for me – and I’d wager they are for Nimit, too

Did you miss out? Which one would you have chosen?

We’re really looking forward to getting all of these sent out. I’m currently trying to get the feel of Marceles’ letter right before we print it. Legibility is the main issue with the different hand-written and inky fonts we’ve looked through. We’re also making some fun extras to include with your backer kits. Expect many good things!

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Dark Horse Cover Art Announcement

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

Dark Horse: “Chakra must survive the next two nights, or Melina will die. Melina has contracted a disease no one has seen in decades that will kill her in a matter of days. There is no cure – unless one believes an outcast known only as the woods doctor. Chakra has no choice but to believe.

Pitted against vicious monsters and lethal puzzles, Chakra must live long enough to gather seven pieces of magic armor and use them to save the woman he loves.“

I have some pretty cool cover art – I’m not going to bother with false modesty on that point (and it’s not anything to be modest about in any case because I didn’t actually make any of it myself). Out of all the covers I have, none capture the entire essence of the book like Marie Bergeron’s rendition of the Dark Horse cover art:

Dark Horse Cover Art

It was a pleasure working with Marie on the Dark Horse cover art. If you like her style and you need some work done, I can’t recommend her enough.

The paperback proof just shipped today and I’m nearly finished with the ebook. We can set an arbitrary official release date of, let’s say May 15, but you’ll see it up much sooner on Amazon. I’m proud of this book and am really excited to have it out and available. I’ve been working on it for over two years – a really long time for me to hang on to anything – but I think it was worth it.

What do you think of the cover?

EDIT: The book is now available on Smashwords and Amazon for download only. Paperback coming soon. Thanks to the Reddit community for freshening up the blurb! Those edits are reflected above.

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Into the Nanten Kickstarter Google Hangout

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

We got together last night for our Kickstarter Google Hangout and had ourselves a blast. Technical difficulties aside, we had a really fun time talking about Into the Nanten, the Kickstarter, and where we go from here. There are some surprise special guests, along with a few really fun announcements.

Check it out!

Into the Nanten Kickstarter Google Hangout

Who the heck is that? You’ll have to watch to find out!

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I’m Still Young – And Apparently Still Thinking About It

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

All of this makes sense if you read my last post.

I don’t know if you follow the speculative fiction world, or how closely, but there’s a raging controversy going on right now concerning something called “slate voting,” how it affects this year’s nominees for the Hugo Awards, and how it’s been organized by a group called the “Sad Puppies.” I’m not making that up.

I won’t go into the details – just Google “Sad Puppies Hugos” and you can educate yourself really quickly (GRRM’s personal take on it was particularly enlightening).

Reading up on it all brought me back to the thought that has been circling my brain for the last year or two, one I have yet to fully articulate. In my last post I talked about how grateful I am to be growing, because as I look back I realize just how little I knew and can therefore I assume I’m still bathing in my own ignorance. Thankfully I appear to be on a decent trajectory. This controversy over SF/Fantasy’s oldest and most prestigious award has proven to me just how little I really know all over again.

And this is why I have trouble blogging. Why I write stories in place of blogs now just to get anything out on a regular basis. Because I know that I know squat. I have so little to offer – on writing, literature, history – on anything of value really. Someday I hope to be experienced, refined, and conversant in everything that my literary heroes seem to be (try getting through anything by C.S. Lewis without feeling enlightened). I look forward to leaning in, offering perspective in the midst of a storm, and then getting back to writing my next bestseller.

I’m not there yet.

Perhaps I’m too hard on myself – maybe I really do have something of substance to offer – but the majority of people my age writing blogs don’t seem to. Not when compared to our elders. Most of what we write is fluff. There’s a reason for that.

Wisdom can only come with experience. Experience requires time. Therefore those who have accrued more time stand a better chance of developing and supplying wisdom. I have a lot of experience for a man my age, I won’t downplay where I’ve been or what I’ve seen, but I know that I have yet to sift through the chaos and come up with fully-formed thoughts.

I would say I’m stuck in listening-mode 95% of the time since developing this sense of self-aware paralysis. I’ll stand up when I really feel I know something, which definitely happens on occasion, but I’m generally trying to be a rational sponge. I feel far too young to speak in the midst of many a conversation.

When I was living in Africa, blogging was easy because I was relating stories. There was a lot of reflection in it, but that was to be expected for a volunteer living on a hospital ship. There was a lot upon which to reflect.

In pursuing a career in writing I feel pressure to produce nuggets that are worth reading on a consistent basis. “Dance monkey.” I see a lot of people [across genres and careers] gaining their followings this way – but a lot of those people offer very little of real value (in my very humble opinion). There’s just a lot of fluff.

One of my favorite books of all time (and exceptions to what I just wrote) is Rework – by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Why? Because they cut out all of the fluff. They even cut out tons of stuff that was probably very helpful, all to keep it concise. They had learned a lot in building a successful business, and they kept to what they knew was truly their wisdom to give. Every word had an impact of its own. I found it enrapturing (which is not a bad review for a tech-startup business book).

Books like this are rare. Blogs like this moreso.

At the same time, there’s a lot of noise out there. There are a lot of people vying for attention for attention’s sake – or at least they appear to – and do so in such a flurry of activity that I don’t feel it’s tenable as a career. I don’t want to be like that, though I certainly feel the pressure to try. I don’t want to demean anyone who’s working their tail off on a track like what I’m describing – to be honest, Into the Nanten is nothing if not a flurry of activity – but what’s been tugging me further and further from trying to blog has been that ever-present “Who cares?”

If I can’t answer that, then perhaps I shouldn’t be blogging.

TL;DR

I guess I’ve decided to accept my youth – 30 years in – and look to my elders to feed me instead of trying to do the feeding. That’s what they’re there for, after all, and a lot of them are quite good at it. I can feed the masses when it’s my turn. In the meantime I’ll continue to tell the stories I’m capable of. I’ll grow, I’ll learn, I’ll make mistakes, and then I’ll start all over.

Perhaps I’ll share a little from real life as I go along, but there’s plenty of time for that when I’m old and wizened. Right now I want to make friends, find mentors (whether or not they realize they’re mentoring me), and grow. I’ll spout wisdom when I’m good and ready.

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I’m So Young – Thank God We Grow

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

I’m going to turn 30 this year, so perhaps that title makes little-to-no sense for those of you who are still pining to get out of high school and into the “Real World” (spoiler: doesn’t exist).

One of the things I’ve come to realize over nearly 120 seasons is that I really don’t know much. That doesn’t mean I haven’t grown. I can look back at the decisions and assertions I’ve made and realize just how stupid I was. I can see just how much more patient I am in some situations, or perhaps how my insecurities rule me less in others. I see who I was with painfully clear eyes.

It leaves me with the unsettled feeling that I’m probably as blind to how I’m behaving now as I was then.

In the same way, I look back on things that I’ve written and cringe. I recognize the foolhardy desire to “write a book about nothing,” and stick it to all of those English professors who tried to tell me that the Wizard of Oz was a commentary on Marxism. Or an allegory for the Industrial Revolution. Or whatever the flavor of that semester was.

Stories are meant to be about something, but most importantly they are to be about something human. We learn and grow through the experience of the characters on the page – it’s what makes reading worth our time. Entertainment without learning more about the human experience feels hollow. I’ve learned that it is hollow.

I know that I have a long way to go in this craft that I’m working to claim as my own. I’m past the desires for sudden and total “success.” I don’t want to “be discovered” any time soon. Not because I don’t want to make a career out of storytelling – if we put my dreams against my current reality, of course I’m dying to get there. I just know that I’m not ready yet.

Perhaps I never will be.

Storytelling has become first and foremost a passion for me. I’ve always enjoyed it, but I used to want attention. I used to want accolades. I used to think I actually deserved some of each.

Now I know just how little I did – and I am incredibly grateful for what I happened to receive. What’s more important to me than achieving certain goals, or making piles of money, is telling a good story. Growing. Learning from my mistakes and improving on my craft. That’s where I’ve discovered satisfaction. There’s a healthy contentment to be found in knowing that I’m a better writer than I was one, two, or five years ago.

It also helps me to get over just how bad my first book really was.

One could argue that, like ugly people who espouse that true beauty is on the inside, I simply won’t understand what it’s all about until I’m a successful author. But unlike external beauty, writing is first and foremost for the self. Perhaps it’s vain, but the self in this equation is increasingly content with what he’s creating.

Success – the Elusive Beast

It also raises the question of what people mean by “success” in the first place. The fact that each of my books has turned a profit would be considered quite successful by some. The fact that they are not [yet] blockbuster films would be certain proof that I am a failure by others. In the end, the challenge of the modern world is creating or finding a definition for success and resting on it.

I’ve learned that, like any other object for which one might search, in order to find success, one must know what the hell it looks like in the first place.

While I know that I will never stop working at self-improvement, and I will always strive to rise to whatever the next level may be, I have my definition of success: When I can live comfortably off of my writing, with no need for a “day job” or other supplements, then I will be a successful author in my own eyes.

I write this now as much as a reminder to my future self as I do to share it with you. That’s how I find writing often functions in any case: whether or not you get anything out of what I have to say is almost entirely reliant on whether or not I can convey any sense of truth to myself in the process.

This is also a really freeing place to arrive. I can look at all of the great authors who have come before me and admire them without that annoying twinge of jealousy. I can learn from them, be happy for their success, and realize that I would be lucky to have even a fraction of the recognition they receive. I can write for the joy of writing, toss the pages in the air, and let the wind sort them as it will.

That’s a really weird analogy, but it made enough sense in the moment that I’m going to leave it.

Here’s the Point:

I’m really content not with where I am, but with the trajectory upon which I am set.

I have the rest of my life, as long or as short as that may be, in which to learn, grow, and write a lot more. I am so grateful for those of you who have joined me on this journey, and who have grown with me thus far. I would invite the rest of you to join us, and perhaps I can entertain you. If I grow a bit more, perhaps I’ll even shed what light I can on the human experience as I understand it.

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ITN Season 2 – Title and Poster Announcement

Written by the illustrious Jay Swanson

First off, let me say that I am so grateful for all of the support that has poured in for Into the Nanten – Season 2. It’s been a lot of fun to make, kind of scary to let loose, and really exciting to see reach full funding! But it’s not all over yet, we still have over two days to go!

The stretch goal I really want to make is for the smyth sewn book of season 1 – The Record of My Exile. It’s definitely a stretch, but a boy can dream.

And to inspire your dreams for Season 2 – it’s time to reveal the poster and the title. Without further ado:

ITN Season 2:

I’d be lying if I said I don’t squeal every time I see this. Nimit and I went back and forth on three options, and whenever we pulled others in the only consensus was that this image was powerful. Some people really liked one of the others, some swung the other way, but this one was always given a nod.

The whole process of choosing art like this could make a blog post of its own, but I’ll save that for another time.

In the meantime, let’s do what we can to make it to some Season 2 stretch goals! These are what we’re aiming for now – head on over to Kickstarter and help us streeeeetch!

Into the Nanten – Fall of the Arbor King.

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