Adam Oster's Blog, page 32

Fat Mogul vs. 2016

I’ve already written two posts with the same title already…that’s just how much of a year 2016 really was.

I’ve already talked about how I’ve declared 2017 to be a year of rebirth for myself, a year where I make sure everything which didn’t work about 2016 doesn’t happen again.

But to be completely honest, I feel a little bad about bashing on 2016 so much.  Sure, it started out by snatching a job out of my hands, forcing a mad scramble to find new employment which led to nearly a year of feeling out of place until I found something new.  Yeah, we got a new President who seems to be the key in splitting this country further and further apart.  Yes, we lost such amazing cultural icons as David Bowie, Prince, and Carrie Fisher.  We also lost two of our beloved family pets.  And yes, I may have suffered from one of my greatest bouts of depression in remembered history…but there was so much good stuff that happened too.

And so…I aim to take a moment to focus on some of the good that happened to me and my family during the course of 2016.  Just to show how much better I expect 2017 to be.

 My wife and I took a trip sans-kids to Ireland and the U.K. (and I really want to go back…)
My wife, kids, and I took a trip to L.A. and learned that although the smog is real, so is the Wizarding World.
We added two new family pets to our family, Flash and Iris, the two craziest cats in town.
My daughter performed in her first musical, The Wizard of Oz.
Went Christmas caroling for the first time in 20 years.
Sent out an early beta edition of my children’s book to kids across the country and got overwhelmingly positive response (including a bunch of the most adorable letters from a classroom who read the book…who I then had a fantastic Q&A session with).
“Ran” my first 5K.
Tried haggis and am absolutely in love.
Watched some great friends get married.
Became an uncle yet again.
We finally got a dishwasher.
Batman v Superman was awesome, don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Started a blog with my kids (which fell by the wayside due to the busy nature of 2016, but is on the schedule to come back very very soon).

Look, the list could actually go on for quite some time.  I only made it back to June in my Facebook review of the year, meaning there’s still a half of a year (outside of the items I remembered off the top of my head) to look through for reminders.

But 2017 is going to be far superior.

That’s a promise to you, but mostly to me.

Have fun out there!

 

Fat Mogul vs. The Agora Files Soundtrack

One of the things people like to talk to me most about my books is the music inside the pages of The Agora Files.  I have one reader turned friend who likes to reference the earworms the book placed in her head throughout the book.

Those who read Part II definitely noticed the lack of music throughout.  As I’ve mentioned before, this was a necessary move for the purposes of the story, but all the same, disappointing.  Even to me.

A couple weeks ago I put the first words to electronic paper for Part III, but before I could do that, I decided to sit down and piece together a soundtrack for the book.  Tracks will change and more will be added as the series moves forward, but one of the most important things for me with this book was to not only bring back the music, but to make sure the emphasis was even more on the music, because of how heavily it will play into the theme of the entire series.

And while I was searching, my biggest focus was on what song I would most like to open with.  A big dilemma, obviously.  Whereas Part I could start out low key with something as simple as Low Rider, Book III needed to start out hard and fast and fun, while also matching the theme I was developing (a theme I’m not going to disclose,as it could tend to serve as something of a spoiler).

And then in my perusal of all songs ever, I happened upon one which just seeing the name for put a smile on my face and happy curse words of acknowledgement that there really was only one possible song with which to open this series.

And I’m so excited about it that I decided today was the day where I just needed to share it with you.

So, without further word making…the opening of Agora Files – Part III.  Enjoy the earworm

Fat Mogul vs. Expectations

Hey folks, now that the Make 2017 Great sale is all done, it’s time to get back to business.  And the business, of course, is writing.

But I thought I’d take some time on here to reflect on 2016 a bit, giving you a glimpse of my personal life a tad.

Why?  Well, you know, because I can.

If you’ve been following along, you are probably aware that early in 2015 (almost exactly 2 years ago today), I left my place of employment of nearly 8 years to spend time time at home with the kids and to reboot my system a bit.  During nap times and off hours, I managed to get some writing done, and even released 2 books over the course of 2015 (although one was actually released before the major life change).

At the end of 2015, I took a job as a mail man.  It was a pretty sweet gig, but since it was the Christmas season, I simply had absolutely no time with which to do anything outside of work.  I nearly missed seeing my kids at all on Christmas Eve.  I loved the job, but I couldn’t handle not seeing my kids, especially during the Christmas season.

So, I found a new job…which then dropped out from underneath me due to some odd paperwork issues…

But, within a couple weeks I managed to nab myself yet another new job and was back at the life behind a desk.

And for nearly a year I worked at this job.  And was able to get some writing done in the off hours again, but those few months as a mail man had done so much toward taking my family off track that it took most of that year to actually get things back into a certain order.

Finally, a few months ago, I started feeling on top of things yet again.  And began putting my (writing) house back in order.  And to start things off, I went through all of my old projects, the released ones, and polished them up.  I decided that when I actually came back into the game, I wanted to do so with everything feeling refreshed, not just myself.

Which is where the Make 2017 Great sale came into play.  I had set myself to get back to work at the top of the year, and the sale and focus on each of my previously released works was, for me at least, a sense of rebirth, a newly formed call to action to get my butt back to writing.  That meant that I spent the majority of the past few months editing books which were already released, instead of writing anything new.  But while re-reading them, I also took notes about new story ideas or about where those series might be headed next.

Which means that now that all of that is done, I’ve got a whole host of ideas on how to move forward.  And I’m mighty excited.

Of course, since we’re talking about my personal life here a bit, 2017 is a year of rebirth all around.  At the start of the year, I took on yet another new job.  Getting back to the business/data analysis that I tend to excel at.

And, we bought a new house.  We haven’t actually closed on it or anything yet, but by the summer, the Osters will be living on their new 12.5 acre farm approximately a half hour away from where we live now. We’ll be out in the country, enjoying the fresh air, the wide open spaces, and maybe a chicken or two.

It seems so amazing to me that a few months ago I had decided to take 2017 by the horns, and already so many things have come to fruition…and we’re only a quarter of the way through the year.

Which actually gets to the real answer of WHY I’m telling you all this.

2017 is going to be the best year ever for this guy.  It will be a year of change, a year of rebirth.  And part of that year is that I have already begun renewing my focus on the writing which, unfortunately, had to take a back burner over the course of 2016.

And I promise you won’t be disappointed in what I’ve got coming down the pipeline.

More details on that to come soon.  For now, I just wanted to take a moment to say, I’m back.  And I have no intentions of disappearing again for the foreseeable future.

Have fun out there!

The Future of Adam Oster, Adventure Novelist

This weekend marks the end of my Make 2017 Great Sale, where The Agora Files – Part II is still on sale for just 99 cents!

Although this is the week to focus on Agora Files – Part II, I’ll admit that I don’t have much more I can say about The Agora Files series at this point.

But I do have a lot to say about the future of my books.

As you might be aware, it’s been quite some time since I’ve released a new book.  The Agora Files – Part II was released in November of 2015.  Considering my aim has always been to release two books a year, and I missed all of 2016, it can be easy to see that I’ve fallen behind a bit.

And I’ll admit…I have.

The past two years have been one of some pretty big changes, meaning I’ve been a little behind on the writing, although not completely out of it.  I do still have two books which are basically complete, which just need a hefty helping of editing to get out the door, I’ve been developing three others which are nearing the point where I’m going to actually begin writing them.

And there are still stories which have been getting out there.  The Cake and Quill group have been hard at work releasing anthologies and we’ve got another one coming out in the next month which I’m ready to start promoting here as well, which features a story I’m quite happy with.

And there have been other things I’ve been working on, such as my early reader chapter book and my screen play for The Long Chron and…well, let’s just say I haven’t been completely unproductive, just haven’t been able to put in the time to do final edits on any of these things as of late.

But that’s changed in the past few months.  Since November I went through and did some hefty polishing edits on all of my released books, including some of the tricks of the trade I’ve learned since they were released which can make them stronger, while also cleaning up some things which shouldn’t have ever made it into final versions in the first place (something which happens to even the most revered of authors, I promise).

But looking forward, I’m ready to kick some butt on getting new material out to you, which I hope is obvious by the sudden spurt of new material here on the blog (which I don’t intend to stop just because this silly sale is over).  I’ve got a lot planned.  Making 2017 Great isn’t just about putting my books out for cheap, it’s about bringing the writing back, because 2016 was just too damned busy to get anything out.

So, look forward to the future.  I’ve got plenty planned for you all.

Have fun out there!

My Favorite Thing in Agora Files Part II

Hey, The Agora Files – Part II is still on sale for 99 cents!  Get it now!

I mentioned a few of the cool things you’ll find in the pages of Agora Files – Part II on Monday.  Things like skydiving and ziplining.

But what I didn’t mention is my absolute favorite thing in the entirety of the book. The power plant on Pirate Island.

You see, I’m a big fan of the concept of alternative power sources.  I’m also a big fan of conspiracy theories.  And one of my favorite conspiracy theories is that of the HAARP plants placed all across the globe.  Primarily, they’re big set ups of what basically looks like lightning rods, and there are a bunch of them.

The details behind what they are for are relatively minimal, unless you head out into conspiracy theory circles.  Then you’ll find all sorts of ideas of what they’re used for, the primary one being, weather control.

Folks like to think that these massive devices have been used to create storms like Hurricane Katrina, in order to…well, actually, the reasoning behind why anyone wants to do such things is relatively weak, but who cares?  Weather control, guys!

But what if they really are about controlling the weather, just in a local area.  What if they are used to create gigantic thunderstorms for the purposes of harnessing the energy which comes from lightning.

Okay, so, if you do even a modest amount of research on the subject, you’ll find that there have been plenty of groups which have attempted to harness the energy of lightning, and the failures are so widespread that all except the absolutely most optimistic consider it a lost cause.  The reasons are plentiful, but number one among them is just developing a method to process all of that sheer power in such a brief period of time.

It might be possible…we’re just not anywhere near that point yet.

All the same, I couldn’t help but have a little fun with the idea.  Solar panels and wind mills are cool and all, but how cool would it be to power your house with the power of lightning?  Just think of the branding opportunities.  At some point in that future we would have the battle between the Zeus Electric Corporation and the Thor Cooperative.

But terrible names I’ve developed off the top of my head aside, I really really really liked the idea of a lightning-powered power plant so much that when I developed it early on in the process for the first book, I spent every second looking for a moment to insert it into the series.  When Book Two came about, it seemed like the perfect location for a prison break.

Because prison breaks are cool enough already (you know, as long as the good guys are the ones getting out, right?), but what if you’ve got the power of lightning being what keeps you from escaping?

In summation: If you could let me know when someone has a legitimate method for harnessing this energy, let me know.  I’m willing to invest some capital…you know, until my wife says no.

Have fun out there!

Make 2017 Great Sale: Week 6

It’s the final week of my sale to Make 2017 Great, and this week we’re focused on my most recent release, the sequel to the book which puts you out of breath, The Agora Files – Part II, now on sale for only 99 cents!

Following up the first book in this series was no simple task.  The first Agora Files was filled with non-stop action and very few answers.  Obviously, when moving into the second book, a few answers were required.

But at the same time, there was still a need to keep things flying forward with all sorts of action, crazy locations, and a whole host of weird things getting in Cyrus’ way.

And if you’ve read the book, you’ve no doubt found exactly that, as well as even further questions which need answering.

All in due time, my friends.

In fact, I’m currently working on the final book in this series, getting ready to actually put some words to paper after plotting out all of the action which needs to occur in this final book in the series to make sure that all the important questions are answered, as well as, hopefully, plenty of the less important ones.

But for this week, we’re focused on book 2 in the series, a book which is missing something I really hated not having in there…the music.

In Book One, Cyrus spent a fair amount of time solo, running by himself, and, well, just plain running.  In Book Two, we don’t have nearly as much running, nearly as much alone time, or nearly as much opportunity to just craft the fun soundtrack we got to have in the original.  It was a necessity of the story telling technique, not only because of those reasons, but also to set the tone of book two, which is that things have changed.  (I’m really excited to bring the music back for book three though…)

Book two also ups the ante on everything.  Where the first one just introduces us to the idea of a corrupt government and those who oppose it, book two shows us that there are a whole lot of folks in the mix, that there isn’t just a simple answer of who is good and who is bad.  And that Cyrus may have to do a lot more than just finish the run if he hopes to stay alive.

But it also brings Eve and The Geek into a much stronger focus, showing us further details on their backgrounds as well as how they play into the whole game Cyrus has found himself in the middle of.

Ultimately, book two, as with most second books in trilogies, is stuck with the terrible effort of setting up the finale.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of action to go around.  Seaplanes, skydiving, underground caverns, high dives, invisible labs, and ziplining across Boston are but a handful of the crazy activities Cyrus finds himself doing in this action-packed sequel.

And you can be sure that book three will have to take things even further.

Which if, of course, a terrible prospect to put onto an author.  But I promise you I’m up to the task

The Future of The Long Chron

Hey, there’s still time to pick up your 99 cent copy of The Long Chron!  Go get it now and figure out what the heck I’ve been talking about this week.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, this story originated as an ongoing series and then morphed into something which would be self-contained, until I finished it and began coming up with all sorts of ideas of where the series could go.

If you’ve read the book, you’ve no doubt realized that while there is (at least in my mind) a fairly solid sense of resolution, there’s still a ton of other questions which might come to mind.  Questions which Chelle herself poses in the final pages even.

Obviously, some of them are intended to be simply questions.  If the book were to explain all of the greater details of how this time travel stuff actually works (which, for the record, is based quite heavily on solid conceptual experiments for time travel which exist), or how the whole thing was actually put into motion, or at what point certain people were switched out for *spoilers*, well, let’s just say that the book itself would have been a lot longer and a lot more filled with exposition which, although might be interesting, would ultimately come out as being boring.

But one of the pieces placed in those closing pages which does beg further review is where we learn that Chelle has a whole bunch of adventures through time yet to come.  As in, we learn that they have happened/will happen (depending on your frame of reference).  And we learn a heckuva lot about where all of them end up, but we don’t learn much about the adventures themselves.

And…well…let’s just say that I have a full design on the concepts of what happened between the Chelle we see at the end of the book and the Chelle we learn about in those final pages.  And I have to admit, there’s a lot of fun time travel-style craziness to be had.

But since I can’t quite dig into it without spoiling future books, I’m going to talk about one of the major themes in the book itself.

As can be seen, even with the book’s cover, this novel takes some themes from The Wizard of Oz.  There’s a cyclone which whisks you away to another land, there’s a Wizard, and if you dig even deeper, you’ll find yourself a scarecrow, lion, and tin man hiding in there as well.  Although the similarities began as a coincidence, once I saw them, I couldn’t help but run with them.

But Chelle’s story is separated from Dorothy’s in one major way.  Her travels take her across the actual world, not some fictional land which may or may not actually exist even in Dorothy’s reality.

And…we already know the final state of Chelle…although even she doesn’t know how she gets there.

I honestly have no clue whether I’ll return to the world of The Long Chron.  If there are enough folks looking for it, probably.  But what I can tell you is that Chelle has an amazing life before the end we learn about.  And that she serves to be quite the spectacular figure in defining what all happens throughout the pages of The Long Chron.

But for now, enjoy the adventure that exists.  That’s the whole point.  To enjoy the present, no matter what the future may hold.  Because the present can be pretty sweet itself.

Have fun out there!

How the Long Chron Became Special

Hey, we’re talking about my time travel novel, The Long Chron this week, which is on sale for the very low price of 99 cents right this very moment!

For the Christmas of 2015, my wife and I decided to forego the traditional gift exchange for the purposes of buying ourselves a trip, sans kids.  Considering how much we had traveled before we had kids (not to mention how much we’ve traveled since we’ve become parents), it seemed the perfect idea, to plan something where it would be just the two of us, like it used to be.

Not that we don’t like traveling with kids or anything, just that sometimes, you know, it’s nice to have some time away.

After a lot of discussion, we planned on travelling to Ireland and the U.K..  That didn’t really trim down our options much, since there is obviously a great deal of country to explore in either one of those alone.

But we finalized our plans, and I convinced my wife to spend a night (actually two) in York, which just so happens to be the city where most of The Long Chron takes place.

And then, much to my surprise, my wife ended up booking us a couple night at a lovely little place called the Lamb & Lion. Inn  What she didn’t know is that the place where this hotel/restaurant/tavern was located is precisely where the tavern Chelle and Griff wind up, which I called The Goat and The Mare.

In other words, this part of our trip had suddenly become a trip where I would explore places I had spent a lot of time in…but only in my own little fictional world.

When I was doing my research for The Long Chron, I spent a lot of time researching the city of York, the old portion of it anyways, within the walls and whatnot.  I used Google Street View to get a sense of what it was like to walk down the cobblestoned streets, I used the websites of places like Lamb & Lion and York Minster to get an idea of what it would be like inside these ancient buildings, and overall, I had a fairly solid grasp of what it might feel like to actually be in that city.

But, of course, things are quite different when you actually step foot into a place, verse seeing the pictures.

The feeling was more than surreal, to walk from the Lamb and Lion to the imposing cathedral that is the York Minster.  It felt like I had been there before, while also feeling completely different than I could have expected.  I was always happy when I had guessed certain details correctly, surprised when things were slightly off from my expectations.

And then, when walking around York Minster, I couldn’t have been more happy than the moment when I found Saint Christopher, a pivotal character in The Long Chron, places within the stained glass.

I was quite simply giddy.

Obviously I’ve been to other places I’ve written about.  The Agora Files takes place in many locations I’ve spent time in.  My home town makes an appearance.  And I took the experience I had of seeing Niagara Falls when I was a kid as a jumping off point for when Cyrus and Eve arrive there.  And driving from Chicago to western Wisconsin, as Bert and Guy do in Daddy of the Dead is something I’ve done countless times over the years.

But walking  the streets of York was something I had only done in my mind.  And doing it for real, even if it wasn’t a bucket list item for myself, was simply an amazing experience.  And having only my wife along, meaning I got to explore the little corners and crevices I had written about which would only serve to be of interest to me, made it that much better.

And then, for The Lamb & Lion Inn to be the amazing little hotel it was, with the best food in York, and the most spectacular view from their beer garden in back, well, let’s just say that this little side trip ended up giving me a place I want to go back to.

Like today.

And reading through The Long Chron again, now that I’ve visited the locations within, made that read so much better for myself.  It brought back all those memories of the trip I took.

It was almost like traveling back through time

Book Review: The Automation by G.B. Gabbler

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

G.B. Gabbler’s The Automation is a hard book to categorize.  It’s a little experimental, a little goofy, and a little science-fiction-y, while also hosting a bit of Greek myth and hard boiled detective novel-style narration.  And on the whole, I think it does a fair job of combining this hefty grouping of categorizations well.

It was suggested to me due to my enjoyment of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.  And while the use of footnotes and the rather odd conversational tone between the narrator and the editor definitely give it an experimental vibe, I’m not sure I could put these two on the shelf next to each other.  That’s not a statement against The Automation, but rather a statement about how different these two books are.

And while I did enjoy the concept of the editor and narrator working together (or more often than not, against each other) throughout the text, I feel as though it was more of a detraction from the greater story than something which adds to it.

Yet, by the end of the book, there is a reveal regarding the two of these which leads me to believe this interaction may play a greater role in future books in the Circo del Herrero series.  So, I’ll hold off on being completely against the concept, considering that knowledge.

But the meat of the story really revolves around Odys Odelyn and his introduction into this odd world of Automatons which serve as a separate body for a person’s soul.  To give an incredibly brief summation, Odys, one day, is given a penny by some odd dude who kills himself shortly after.  The penny ends up being Maud, a creation by the god Vulcan, who, upon being touched by Odys, is inextricably linked to Odys for life.  This connection brings about tons of benefits, mostly health and length of life.  But it also brings about a ton of negatives, mostly a rather Highlander-esque situation involving a secret society and a guy who wants to collect all the Automatons for reasons I’m not entirely clear on, but mostly involve power.

So, Odys gets into this world and is led around by a series of odd individuals who all have their own Automatons which are basically another version of themselves.  So, these other versions take on a lot of the attributes of the person they are linked to, but are still separate in a lot of ways.

And as I’m sure you’re aware by this point, the entire concept is incredibly dense and filled with necessary exposition to explain everything in a way which makes sense to the reader.

Which is where my main issue with this book takes place.  It doesn’t really feel like much happens throughout this incredibly long book.

That’s not to say things don’t happen.  People are kidnapped, deaths are faked, buildings burned down, and there are more than enough M. Night Shyamalan-style twists to keep you turning the pages, but between those moments are extensive series of explanations regarding this world Odys found himself in, which cause the moments of activity to feel a side note to the world building.

So, as you can probably already tell, I have a difficult time reviewing this book.  It’s certainly interesting.  There are some incredibly fun concepts being brought forth and a whole world of intrigue that I feel is worth exploring.  But the result of this complexity is intense expositional moments which cause the book to read quite slowly.

In the end, I have the feeling that future books in this series could have the possibility of being much more action-packed, now that the heavy lifting of exposition should be out of the way, but I also have my concerns that without a solid editor, there could still be issues with pacing.

If you like being introduced to new worlds and fun characters, this is definitely a book for you.  If you are one who expects more momentum in a story, this one may leave you wanting.

But then again, everyone reads things differently.  And it’s definitely a fun book, even if it’s a little slow.

Buy it now!

Make 2017 Great Sale: Week 5

We’re in the final stretch here folks!  The second to last week of the sale to ring in 2017 right.  And this week we get to focus on a book which has gained a special place in my heart since I wrote it (more on why later this week), The Long Chron, now on sale for only 99 cents!

The Long Chron was a book that took a lot of percolating before I finally figured it out.  As I had mentioned in an earlier post in this series, it broke off from the same initial inspiration which developed into The Agora Files, yet, of course, this is a far different book than the action-packed running-themed adventure novel.

Not that it doesn’t have it’s own action-packed moments.

The basic concept I worked with on The Long Chron was simply to put these characters who might have something of a shady past, on a path they may never return from.  In fact, I had initially conceived the story itself as an ongoing serial, where the main characters would find themselves farther and farther from home.  Where each step intended to get them back, would take them even further away.

I could go on for a while about how the story developed from a film I had been developing, but, to be completely honest, I’m not entirely certain I won’t use that story concept yet, so I’m not going to go into too many details about that part of the development of this project.

But ultimately, I had this idea for a serialized story, where these two characters would continue on a seemingly neverending adventure, somewhat similar to things like the old TV shows Sliders or Quantum Leap.

But then I realized that I already had two ongoing series in development and I really just wanted something which would serve as a single story.  Something I had no intentions of doing anything more with.

So, I trimmed the concept down into a simple little adventure tale where two con artists get lost in time and find themselves in the midst of another con’s scam, which they have to manipulate in order to get home.

At that point, I still had no clue of the actual ending of the story.

In fact, I didn’t have an actual idea of the ending of the story until I got to the end of writing the first draft.

And then I realized that there is so much more story left to tell.

Which means that, although I wanted this to be a one off book, I keep finding myself considering the other stories I could tell about Chelle and Griff…

But that’s for another time.  Well, you know, maybe later this week…I haven’t decided on how much  I can get into the future of this series without giving away the ending of the book…

For now, pick yourself up a copy of the book which became much more ridiculous than I would have expected, considering it originally began as a story about two guys who happen upon a DeLorean which can actually time travel…

And have fun out there!