Nicholas Forristal's Blog, page 9
May 27, 2014
Days of Future Past (No Spoilers)
I liked this movie. Was it spot on with the comics? No. Does it matter? No.
I'm opening this review with something that I really hope catches on. A perspective on the whole concept of film adaptions. Rather than piss yourself off and miss out on a completely good movie of something you love, stop comparing it to the source material. Think of them as alternative versions, in an alternative world from the book, comic, etc. In the case of Marvel, even they reimagine characters, plotlines, etc in their work. That's why we have The Spectacular Spiderman, Ultimate Spiderman, Amazing Spiderman, and if you're old enough to remember Spiderpig. Get over it, enjoy the movie for what it is, be happy that what you're into actually made it to the big screen and move on.
That being said: I enjoyed this movie. It was a good blend of action, story and a pinch of humor that doesn't try to make sense of the X-men/Wolverine movie franchises, but figures out a way to simply deal with them. The gist of the comics was there, just handled a bit differently with different characters. Does it matter? Not really. I'm not going to go into what this movie is about, as the trailers handle that just fine. I simply wanted to say it was a good movie and you should check it out. If you're unsure you want to spend the money, mostly because of x-men 3 and Wolverine: Origin, I understand. Do yourself a favor and watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR1P-... it's the cartoon version of this from the 90's. It'll give you a good idea of what the movie is like. Keep in mind, it's not exactly the same as the movie....again think of it as an alternate universe from the movie and comics.
I'm opening this review with something that I really hope catches on. A perspective on the whole concept of film adaptions. Rather than piss yourself off and miss out on a completely good movie of something you love, stop comparing it to the source material. Think of them as alternative versions, in an alternative world from the book, comic, etc. In the case of Marvel, even they reimagine characters, plotlines, etc in their work. That's why we have The Spectacular Spiderman, Ultimate Spiderman, Amazing Spiderman, and if you're old enough to remember Spiderpig. Get over it, enjoy the movie for what it is, be happy that what you're into actually made it to the big screen and move on.
That being said: I enjoyed this movie. It was a good blend of action, story and a pinch of humor that doesn't try to make sense of the X-men/Wolverine movie franchises, but figures out a way to simply deal with them. The gist of the comics was there, just handled a bit differently with different characters. Does it matter? Not really. I'm not going to go into what this movie is about, as the trailers handle that just fine. I simply wanted to say it was a good movie and you should check it out. If you're unsure you want to spend the money, mostly because of x-men 3 and Wolverine: Origin, I understand. Do yourself a favor and watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR1P-... it's the cartoon version of this from the 90's. It'll give you a good idea of what the movie is like. Keep in mind, it's not exactly the same as the movie....again think of it as an alternate universe from the movie and comics.
May 23, 2014
Death Squad Sketches
Here are a few (3) sketches my friend, and artist Chris Yarbrough sent over to me this past week. Personally, I prefer Aeneas #2. I like the militarized look of the Death Squad and it seems very fitting for what they do. As more sketches come in, I'll post them. We still have Wynda and Lorna to finish out the Death Squad, as well as some sketches of goblins. These sketches only represent the idea of the characters and not the overall design of the book cover, which will be a wrap around.
May 21, 2014
Rewrite Recap
I'm about 1/2 way done with the rewrite of book 1. It should go a lot faster from here, because it was mostly the beginning that needed the changes. Once the meat of this book begins, it becomes a lot more descriptive and stylized, especially in the non-Samuel chapters. I plan to go ahead and look them over, but I expect they won't be wildly changed.
On a side note: I forgot how awesome Dixie was/is/whatever.
On a side note: I forgot how awesome Dixie was/is/whatever.
May 18, 2014
Networked Blogs
This is a fairly minor update. A few seconds ago I added a link for network blogs to this page. You can find it at the bottom on the right margin. If you're in to that sort of thing add me. Otherwise, you may check it out anyways, it seems to be a good way to find blogs on whatever topic you may be looking for.
May 16, 2014
Rebuilding the foundation
Due to some upcoming things in the world of writing and such, I've decided to step away from The Lord Wars writing for a moment to restructure and rewrite Book 1 of CoM. Am I changing the storyline any? No. Characters? No. What I am doing is this:
1. Rewriting the Samuel chapters.
- I had written him to be as normal and boring as possible. The idea at the time was that he was supposed to be the everyday man, the eyes and ears of someone who had zero experience with the supernatural and was essentially thrust in to it. Through the book his writing style changes somewhat. Initially seeing everything for what it is (a park, a bank, etc) he would end up looking at things from a new, more detailed perspective as his life changed from the book. Unfortunately, I went a bit far on the stagnant side. So, I'm rewriting his parts of the story.
2. Chapter clean up.
- Originally, this first book was written as a series of short stories that I had planned to publish on a monthly basis for 50 cents each. It wasn't until after I had written about half the book I found out that Amazon wouldn't allow you to sell at such a cheap price. As such, the short stories became a book. What I've done (last night) was split up the content by the scene, rather than the story. So what was once 8 chapters is now 16. I know a lot of readers, myself included, like to stop at the end of a chapter, rather than in the middle of one. There's a sense of completion and it's usually easier to walk away from a book that way.
3. Possible Prologue
- I'm still debating this one. What I'm considering is having a prologue that's set in the first scene of the book, but by main characters from the distant future (time-traveled back). I'll probably write up something and show it to a few of the readers that have chat with me on a regular basis. You're more than welcome to do so, that info is on the contact page of this site.
I suspect that this whole ordeal won't take more than a couple weeks, if I keep at it. The artist working on the Death Squad cover has agreed to do one for this book as well (the entire series, really, but that's Kickstarter dependent). So, I'm hoping to get this all out at the same time, but we'll see. Keep in mind, if you already own the book this update will be completely free. The cost of the book isn't going to go up, this whole restructuring thing is just something I want to do. I've written 5 books since this one was published and I look back at it and shake my head. I have the technology. I can make this better, faster, stronger.
1. Rewriting the Samuel chapters.
- I had written him to be as normal and boring as possible. The idea at the time was that he was supposed to be the everyday man, the eyes and ears of someone who had zero experience with the supernatural and was essentially thrust in to it. Through the book his writing style changes somewhat. Initially seeing everything for what it is (a park, a bank, etc) he would end up looking at things from a new, more detailed perspective as his life changed from the book. Unfortunately, I went a bit far on the stagnant side. So, I'm rewriting his parts of the story.
2. Chapter clean up.
- Originally, this first book was written as a series of short stories that I had planned to publish on a monthly basis for 50 cents each. It wasn't until after I had written about half the book I found out that Amazon wouldn't allow you to sell at such a cheap price. As such, the short stories became a book. What I've done (last night) was split up the content by the scene, rather than the story. So what was once 8 chapters is now 16. I know a lot of readers, myself included, like to stop at the end of a chapter, rather than in the middle of one. There's a sense of completion and it's usually easier to walk away from a book that way.
3. Possible Prologue
- I'm still debating this one. What I'm considering is having a prologue that's set in the first scene of the book, but by main characters from the distant future (time-traveled back). I'll probably write up something and show it to a few of the readers that have chat with me on a regular basis. You're more than welcome to do so, that info is on the contact page of this site.
I suspect that this whole ordeal won't take more than a couple weeks, if I keep at it. The artist working on the Death Squad cover has agreed to do one for this book as well (the entire series, really, but that's Kickstarter dependent). So, I'm hoping to get this all out at the same time, but we'll see. Keep in mind, if you already own the book this update will be completely free. The cost of the book isn't going to go up, this whole restructuring thing is just something I want to do. I've written 5 books since this one was published and I look back at it and shake my head. I have the technology. I can make this better, faster, stronger.
May 12, 2014
the midget death squad lie in wait
You remember how I said that I only had a couple chapters to go over for Five Man Midget Death Squad & Other Tales of the Tungri Clan? Well, they are done. I got a fire up my arse yesterday and now the book is ready for a real editor to look it over. Now its back to full on writing mode of Lord Wars part 1. I believe that deserves a Fonzie thumbs up of approval, don't you?
May 10, 2014
Updates of the varied kind
Book 5 is in full swing now and coming along nicely. Since I stepped away from it for so long (for me anyways) I decided to go back, re-read what I had previously done and go from there. All in all, I think I'm about 10k into this book and loving it so far. Since this is the 2nd book in the 2nd trilogy, there isn't a lot of backtracking to be done, so the content is new and to the point. It's also mostly action and the bringing together of characters from the entire series. It's fun to see everything come together like this for the first time.
Chris Yarbrough, artist of Radiation Day (https://www.facebook.com/radiationday...), has begun sending me sketches. So that ball is now rolling. Which means I need to start spending a lot more time deciding what freebies to give away during this Kickstarter. Yes, I finally decided on Kickstarter. The reason is that it's more widely known and when it comes to small projects ($500 and less) it appears to succeed more often than not. Since $500 is what I'm actually going for ($300 for the cover and $200 to help me with the editing) I'm hoping this will go over without issue. The stretch goals will be for the covers of books 1-4 and Hitori. I'd like to see some consistency with the main series covers and handled by someone with a LOT more skill than I. As soon as I get permission from Chris, I'll post the sketch he's sent me so far. I'd like to ask, simply because it's not finished work and he may not want something like this in the wild.
I have maybe a chapter left to edit in the Five Man Midget Death Squad, but that honestly won't take long. I just need to do it.
Ohhh, I almost forgot. Until the end of the month, Chronicles of M is 99 cents now. If Itunes, kobo, etc haven't updated yet, give it some time. Otherwise, it is 99 cents on amazon and smashwords for sure. As soon as I finish the rewrites of book 1 (again, just redoing the Samuel parts, not the plot) I'll get that out. It'll be a free update to anyone who has already bought it. I'll let you know when that officially happens. I know sometimes ebook readers don't like to tell you there are book updates to be had.
Chris Yarbrough, artist of Radiation Day (https://www.facebook.com/radiationday...), has begun sending me sketches. So that ball is now rolling. Which means I need to start spending a lot more time deciding what freebies to give away during this Kickstarter. Yes, I finally decided on Kickstarter. The reason is that it's more widely known and when it comes to small projects ($500 and less) it appears to succeed more often than not. Since $500 is what I'm actually going for ($300 for the cover and $200 to help me with the editing) I'm hoping this will go over without issue. The stretch goals will be for the covers of books 1-4 and Hitori. I'd like to see some consistency with the main series covers and handled by someone with a LOT more skill than I. As soon as I get permission from Chris, I'll post the sketch he's sent me so far. I'd like to ask, simply because it's not finished work and he may not want something like this in the wild.
I have maybe a chapter left to edit in the Five Man Midget Death Squad, but that honestly won't take long. I just need to do it.
Ohhh, I almost forgot. Until the end of the month, Chronicles of M is 99 cents now. If Itunes, kobo, etc haven't updated yet, give it some time. Otherwise, it is 99 cents on amazon and smashwords for sure. As soon as I finish the rewrites of book 1 (again, just redoing the Samuel parts, not the plot) I'll get that out. It'll be a free update to anyone who has already bought it. I'll let you know when that officially happens. I know sometimes ebook readers don't like to tell you there are book updates to be had.
April 23, 2014
Lords War update 4/23
Still not sure on that name, but we'll go with it for the time being. As I wait for my artist to find some free time to get some sketches to me for indiegogo (think: kickstarter) I've decided to move on with the writing. I only have a chapter, or two left to edit in The Five Man Midget Death Squad, but I feel like I need to start progressing the next story as well.
With a night of notes and overly deep thoughts behind me, I've got the next 4-5 books planned out. Not entirely, but well enough to know the main points and some of the overlap. Book 5 (Lords War #1) is well into the writing process, sitting at about 10k words that I've been re-reading and editing, mostly to remind myself where I left off. At this time, I have no plans on making this book worthwhile without the previous book. As I stated at the beginning of this series, I wanted to write these in trilogies, or sets of some kind. Book 4 (Consequences) was the first of this set. So, if you are new to the series and have the urge to skip ahead, you could technically start at #4.
Book 5 is going to be fun book to write. It starts with action and will remain action packed for the bulk of it. That's pretty standard with this series, but I think even more so for this part. At present, I'm trying out a change in technique with the writing to include mid-stream backstory. By that I mean a short paragraph, or two of how the characters met, lacking in most description and explanation. How the frak am I going to do that, you ask? I wrote a short chapter prior on how two other characters met, giving the place and setting, left it off with the feeling this scenario happens regularly. This way, when I bring up the mid-stream backstory later, you (the reader) already have all the necessary information you need to imagine the quick character introduction. I think it'll work out just fine, but I'll have some people beta-read it for me, just to be sure.
For those of you reading this, wondering why I would change the style in this book when its the 5th one in the series, the answer is simple. I've done it in every single book and will probably continue to do so. I like long series with well understood characters and a living, breathing world to watch them tromp in. I am not overly fond of the consistency that comes with a long series, when it comes to writing style and sometimes unchanging characters. I'm writing this series in such a way that I hope I can avoid that, but the reasoning for this (beyond my own taste) will also make sense from the story standpoint.
If you pick up the Death Squad book when it comes out, that'll give you a hint of the overall plan with the writing. Down the road of this main series, it'll all be spelled out. For now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the bizarre ride with me.
With a night of notes and overly deep thoughts behind me, I've got the next 4-5 books planned out. Not entirely, but well enough to know the main points and some of the overlap. Book 5 (Lords War #1) is well into the writing process, sitting at about 10k words that I've been re-reading and editing, mostly to remind myself where I left off. At this time, I have no plans on making this book worthwhile without the previous book. As I stated at the beginning of this series, I wanted to write these in trilogies, or sets of some kind. Book 4 (Consequences) was the first of this set. So, if you are new to the series and have the urge to skip ahead, you could technically start at #4.
Book 5 is going to be fun book to write. It starts with action and will remain action packed for the bulk of it. That's pretty standard with this series, but I think even more so for this part. At present, I'm trying out a change in technique with the writing to include mid-stream backstory. By that I mean a short paragraph, or two of how the characters met, lacking in most description and explanation. How the frak am I going to do that, you ask? I wrote a short chapter prior on how two other characters met, giving the place and setting, left it off with the feeling this scenario happens regularly. This way, when I bring up the mid-stream backstory later, you (the reader) already have all the necessary information you need to imagine the quick character introduction. I think it'll work out just fine, but I'll have some people beta-read it for me, just to be sure.
For those of you reading this, wondering why I would change the style in this book when its the 5th one in the series, the answer is simple. I've done it in every single book and will probably continue to do so. I like long series with well understood characters and a living, breathing world to watch them tromp in. I am not overly fond of the consistency that comes with a long series, when it comes to writing style and sometimes unchanging characters. I'm writing this series in such a way that I hope I can avoid that, but the reasoning for this (beyond my own taste) will also make sense from the story standpoint.
If you pick up the Death Squad book when it comes out, that'll give you a hint of the overall plan with the writing. Down the road of this main series, it'll all be spelled out. For now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the bizarre ride with me.
April 6, 2014
To Kickstart, or to Indiegogo....
My friend, Chris Yarbrough and I have been discussing covers, comics and minecraft a lot lately. Here in the next few weeks, when a couple of his current artist projects come to a close, he is going to start sketching up ideas for "Five Man Midget Death Squad" book cover. To cover his cost I thought I'd try crowdfunding on this. Pretty much everyone has heard of kickstarter on some level, however I may go with Indiegogo. They seem to have a more novice friendly design. Novice as in very few people know who the heck I am! There'll be several stretch goals, spanning the entire CoM series, lots of goodies for everyone who invests, etc. Anyways, below you'll find some of Chris's work. Half of it are just some simply "warm-up" sketches I thought were cool. You can find more of his work under "Radiation day" on this site, or at:
Radiation Day Facebook Page
Radiation Day Facebook Page
March 26, 2014
Ash Wednesday
Originally done as a pun on the real holiday, Ash Wednesday was a silly picture I made on facebook with a picture of Ash from Evil Dead/Army of Darkness. If you don't know what this is, I'm surprised you're reading my books. Seriously, how did that even happen? Go watch (at least) Army of Darkness. Don't worry, I'll wait...
Okay? Anyways, one of my friends/fans believes that all Wednesdays should be Ash Wednesday and I'm inclined to agree with him. So, until I either get bored, forget, or run out of bad jokes, I'll be posting a new meme on here for Ash Wednesday. Since I'm a picture behind, today will be a 2-fer. You can also find these posted on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NicholasForr...). Like, follow, and don't worry, I don't spam nonsense on there. It's mostly cheap books I come across, silly pictures and these updates.
Okay? Anyways, one of my friends/fans believes that all Wednesdays should be Ash Wednesday and I'm inclined to agree with him. So, until I either get bored, forget, or run out of bad jokes, I'll be posting a new meme on here for Ash Wednesday. Since I'm a picture behind, today will be a 2-fer. You can also find these posted on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NicholasForr...). Like, follow, and don't worry, I don't spam nonsense on there. It's mostly cheap books I come across, silly pictures and these updates.
