Konn Lavery's Blog: Posts from konnlavery.com, page 18

I’ve Started a Patreon!

I am pleased to announce that I have started a Patreon page. It’s something I’ve tossed around amongst peers and friends for a number of years and I’ve finally made the leap.
With the launch of Into the Macrocosm, and just shy of 3 years of the monthly short stories in the newsletter/blog, it lined up well for a new phase in my writing.

Check Out My New Patreon!What’s Included?

It’s a single tier which includes:

A Copy of the Into the Macrocosm eBookA Continuation of the Monthly Short StoriesAudio Versions of Monthly Short StoriesAccess to drafts and works-in-progressHigh Rez Short Story Artwork for Phone BackgroundsEarly Access to Author Interviews

Check out the page for the intro video, explaining further why I’ve made a Patreon.

Check Out My New Patreon!

Thank you to the early subscribers from the newsletter, you rock. Check it out, share it, and I hope to see you join us in exploring this expanding universe of the dark cosmic, bizarre, and the fantastic!

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Will of the Shaper

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Audiobook: Fire, Pain, & Ruin – Episode 03

Episode 3 of the Fire, Pain, & Ruin: A Rutherford Manor Novel episodic audiobook is here. As with previous weeks, a new chapter will be shared on Thursdays. Enjoy the podcast below and share it around:

Missed the previous episode? Starting out? No worries:Episode Listing Episode 1 Episode 2Episode 3

Listen

Spalding makes it to fight club and can finally release the pent up frustrations of his family life. He longs for his past – a silly thought. His relationship with Nox needs mending, too, if Spalding plans to be a good father to his new twin girls. It’s time he talks to his business partner and settle their differences.

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Into the Macrocosm Novel Score and Editorial Review

With the release of my short story collection, Into the Macrocosm, I am pleased to release the complimentary instrumental score: Frequencies of the Macrocosm.

The album roots from improv jam sessions played over recorded readings of each short story since the first release of Runner on the blog. These tracks have been cleaned up, trimmed, and modified to create one cohesive LP. The tracks are themed around each story, ranging in mood, instruments, and emotion and are intended to be listened to while reading any book you please.

Listen to Frequencies of the MacrocosmFrequencies of the Macrocosm: Into the Macrocosm Short Story Collection Score by KonnartistInto the Macrocosm Editorial Review

An editorial review was provided by The Wishing Shelf Awards. Read the review below:

The Wishing Shelf Awards
Editorial Review

Title: Into the Macrocosm
Author: Konn Lavery
Star Rating: 5

TO SUM UP
‘Captivating characters and a cleverly designed, fantastical plot. A highly recommended set of shorts.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

REVIEW
After glancing at the cover for this book and skimming the blurb, I decided this is going to be very dark, very gritty, and very fantastical. And I wasn’t far wrong. Written by the talented Konn Lavery, it follows the Nameless One who is attempting to understand the deaths of 22 souls. What follows is a cleverly plotted story – divided up into 22 individual shorts – populated with intriguing, often charismatic characters who all seem to be in a different state of flux.
In terms of writing style, this is where the author truly excels. Not only is the pacing excellent, there’s also a good balance between powerful descriptive prose and realistic, well-written dialogue. This is a very atmospheric story. The author knows his setting – the mysterious Midway – and wants the reader, like the characters, to be immersed in it.
This set of shorts is not a simple read; the reader will have to work hard to keep up with what’s going on, why it’s going on, and even where it’s happening. But it’s intriguing stuff. It’ll hook you in. And I suspect, like me, you will end up determined to find the answers the Nameless One is looking for.
Who is the book for? Well, if you enjoy the later Clive Cussler novels full of lazy predictability, this book is not for you. But if you don’t mind working a little, if you enjoy being intrigued, of never knowing what will happen next but really, really wanting to know, this set of shorts will be right up your street.
Enjoy!

Into the MacrocosmShort Stories of the Dark Cosmic, Bizarre, and the Fantastic

This story is found within the collection.

Enter the expanding universe through the lives of 22 souls, as the Nameless One and their ghoulish companion attempt to unlock the mysterious past of how they died.

Order Today

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Audiobook: Fire, Pain, & Ruin – Episode 02

Episode 2 of the Fire, Pain, & Ruin: A Rutherford Manor Novel episodic audiobook is here. As with previous weeks, a new chapter will be shared on Thursdays. Enjoy the podcast below and share it around:

Missed the previous episode? Starting out? No worries:Episode Listing Episode 1 Episode 2

Listen

Nox is eager to finalize the government contract and provide for the Rutherford Manor family. The deal would also allow him to continue to feed his dark desires of experimentation. Billy is fully supportive. Spaulding, on the other hand, is not. He wishes for a simple life for his two newborn daughters while having conflicting desires for his old life.

Listen on your preferred podcast distributor:

Breaker

Google

Overcast

Pocket Casts

RadioPublic

Spotify

Apple

Enjoying the audio story? Get the book. #goodreads-widget { font-family: georgia, serif; padding: 18px 0; width:100%; } #goodreads-widget h1 { font-weight:normal; font-size: 16px; border-bottom: 1px solid #BBB596; margin-bottom: 0; } #goodreads-widget a { text-decoration: none; color:#660; } iframe{ background-color: #fff;width:100%; } #goodreads-widget a:hover { text-decoration: underline; } #goodreads-widget a:active { color:#660; } #gr_footer { width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid #BBB596; text-align: right; } #goodreads-widget .gr_branding{ color: #382110; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }Goodreads reviews for Fire, Pain, & RuinReviews from Goodreads.com

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eBook or Print Available

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Supernatural Thriller Author JP McLean discusses her writing career and The Gift Legacy series

For February’s guest author, we welcome JP McLean, who has always been fascinated with supernatural thrillers. Her work has earned honourable mentions at the Whistler Independent Book Awards and from the Victoria Writers’ Society. She grew up in Toronto, attended the University of British Columbia, and lived in many exciting places in her life. Now, she joins us to discuss her writing, The Gift Legacy series, and how she got started.

Let’s welcome JP McLean to the blog!

JP McLean, thank you for joining us. Can you introduce yourself?

I’d be happy to and thanks for having me on your blog. The “J” in JP stands for Jo-Anne, but because Jo-Anne can be spelled so many different ways, I decided to simplify and use JP instead to make it easier to find me online. I live on a small island on Canada’s west coast, or “wet coast” as it’s often called. I’ve been writing full-time since 2010.

I write what I love which are urban fantasy thrillers with a provocative edge. The tagline for The Gift Legacy series is “Everybody wishes they could fly—until it happens.” The books are set on the west coast in the here and now and are about a secret society of people who can fly.

You were always interested in urban fantasy. What got you into writing professionally?

I started writing professionally after my husband and I returned to the west coast. We’d spent five consecutive winters in the sunny south, two in Mexico and three in Arizona. It was late fall, and after we unpacked and settled back into the house, I found myself staring out at the cold, grey, rain-drizzled deck. The days were still getting shorter and the wet weather had just begun. I knew I needed to do something to keep from going stir-crazy. That’s when I started forming the story that would eventually become Secret Sky. And though there have been many bumps along the road since then, I’ve never looked back.

Initially, you were not planning on writing a series, but The Gift Legacy grew! Tell us about the series.

You’re right! I’d thought Secret Sky was a one-off book. But after I finished writing it, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters. Having spent so many hours every day with them for months on end, I missed them. And so I began imagining how I might grow the series. Something interesting I’ve learned is that flexing the imagination muscle makes it stronger. Soon I had enough material for a trilogy, and the series now stands at six books with a companion book that tells Secret Sky from a different character’s perspective.

Each book in the series ups the stakes for the protagonist, Emelynn Taylor, and her circle of friends. In the first book, Emelynn’s fall from the sky puts her in the hospital where she meets a doctor who recognizes the second lens in her eye that marks her as one of them—a Flier. He introduces her to others like her who teach her how to fly. She falls in love with one of them, but the more she learns about this secret society the more she questions their motives and just how dark their secrets really are.

In the second installment she finds and old book of her father’s that ties her to a powerful family with a sinister reputation. She learns of not one, but two new threats, and one of them aims to kill her.

In the third book, she learns that the man who tried to kill her is part of a larger, organized faction that wants to destroy the Tribunal that rules them. She’s forced to partner with a man she doesn’t trust in order to protect her circle of friends.

In the fourth book, Emelynn has been recruited to use her special skills and work with a police detective. Her first undercover case involves a grisly murder that implicates one of her own kind. To solve the case, Emelynn must get uncomfortably close to a drug-dealing murderer who has no qualms about killing again to avoid being caught.

In the fifth book, Emelynn continues to work with the police detective. This time she’s tasked with finding a missing newborn. But when Emelynn’s lover is the next to disappear, Emelynn suspects the two cases are connected. She and the detective defy orders to unravel this new treacherous scheme. And closer to home, a deeper deception simmers, one that Emelynn has spent her whole life perfecting.

The sixth and final book in the series puts Emelynn’s loyalties on trial. Does she believe the family of Fliers she’s come to love? or a mother she’s estranged from? Her choice is explosive and sets Emelynn on a collision course with two titans and a battle she can’t possibly win.

So, what’s next in your writing? Does The Gift Legacy series continue?

I’ve left a trap door or two in the series that I may open to write another book or short stories, but right now I’m exploring a new cast of characters in a new series. The first book, Blood Mark, is finished and I’m actively looking for an agent and/or publisher.

I quite enjoy your Five Fun Facts about you on your site, care to share a sixth?

Here’s one I haven’t shared before: When I was a teenager, I was so scared to take my driver’s road test that I renewed my learner’s permit three years in a row.

Any advice you’d like to offer new writers who read the blog?

Don’t wait for an idea big enough for a whole book to come along before you start writing. Begin with a small idea or an interesting character. Write a single scene. You’ll be surprised how that act of faith can spur more ideas.

Let’s thank JP McLean for joining us to talk about your work!JP McLean’s Novels

Website

Amazon

JP McLean on Social Media

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Goodreads

BookBub

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Audiobook: Fire, Pain, & Ruin – Episode 01

Following the weekly releases of the Seed Me audiobook, I am pleased to announce the next novel for the podcast: Fire, Pain, & Ruin!

Fire, Pain, & Ruin – Two Chapters Per Episode

The chapters, by nature, in this novel are shorter than in Seed Me and we get two per episode, bringing each episode to about the same length as the previous book.

Listen

Spalding witnesses his wife, Penny, giving birth. He is nervous, unsure if he can live up to the family name—the birthing shows concerning paranormal signs – something all too common with the Flesher bloodline. Rowan, one of the midwives at the birthing, and his friend Billy give him courage. Can Spalding be a good parent, as his father was?

Listen on your preferred podcast distributor:Where to listen

Breaker

Google

Overcast

Pocket Casts

RadioPublic

Spotify

Apple

Enjoying the audio story? Get the book. #goodreads-widget { font-family: georgia, serif; padding: 18px 0; width:100%; } #goodreads-widget h1 { font-weight:normal; font-size: 16px; border-bottom: 1px solid #BBB596; margin-bottom: 0; } #goodreads-widget a { text-decoration: none; color:#660; } iframe{ background-color: #fff;width:100%; } #goodreads-widget a:hover { text-decoration: underline; } #goodreads-widget a:active { color:#660; } #gr_footer { width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid #BBB596; text-align: right; } #goodreads-widget .gr_branding{ color: #382110; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }Goodreads reviews for Fire, Pain, & RuinReviews from Goodreads.com

Grab the Book Today!
eBook or Print Available

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Deferring Social Media

Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed the rise of social media. The new layer to the internet changed how we think of ourselves, others, interact with people, advertise, adjust laws – the list can go on. In more recent times, social media has swung entire election campaigns, been used as propaganda tactics, and even rock the stock market. None of this was its intent. Unfortunately, the tech has grown past its creators. As South Park so elegantly put it . . . “Thanks, Captain Hindsight!” Regardless of it making colossal changes to our politics, economy, and psyche, it is fused into our lives. Axing it all together is a significant challenge, especially during a pandemic where isolation is king. Deferring social media is a different matter, a tactic I’ve explored over the last half of 2020.

Living in the New Age

If you’ve followed the blog over the past couple of years, I’ve expressed more interest in futurism, resulting in some sci-fi horror short stories – and the consequences of the scientific advancements we’re making. Computer scientist Jared Lanier has made a bold claim about removing social media in his 2018 book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. He has also talked about the topic repeatedly over the years.

Jared brings many fantastic points about why we should remove it entirely. It certainly would be easier to do pre-pandemic, and I’m sure he could still raise good reasons why you should in this new age. Big tech has no plans of playing fair as we’re seeing with Australia’s shift in handling media. Working in web design and development, I am part of the problem by injecting Facebook Pixels and Google Tracking codes into websites, further extending big tech’s reach. Let’s not forget I sell my books on Amazon, and that’s a whole other can of worms.

Humanity doesn’t learn much from their past. Sure, we improve on the mistakes we make with new laws to prevent the old threat. Yet, we don’t have a crystal ball to understand the repercussions of our new inventions. When we invent some new technology – of any complexity – we think people will use it the way it is intended. That mindset can’t be any farther from the truth. Everyone sees the world from a unique lens, filtered by their brain’s processing, rendering a completely alien world from your own. Thus, we try to find common ground through language. Social media plays a significant role in that, changing definitions of words and inventing new ones.

Deferring Social Media

We know now how social media rewires our brains, yet we keep using it. It’s been proven to not make us happy. Social feeds favour negative posts over positive ones, as they get more hits and keep users engaged. It’s a vicious cycle. So, is it worth staying on? How will you know what your friends are up to while everyone is locked inside because of the pandemic? Some people you only see at gatherings, events, or other occasions, what about them? Oh, it’s easy. Just have Zoom calls with everyone! Right, there is Zoom fatigue, too – another thing the crystal ball couldn’t foresee.

Trimming Social

So, social media can’t quite go away. It’s a useful tool if you use it right – which I learned from deferring social media for seven months. I started experimenting with removing social media during 2020 and made a significant cut in the summer. The tricky thing is a lot of my readers and friends are on social media, and it’s the only form of contact I have with them. Yes, you can collect fan emails for newsletters and get your friends’ numbers, but that’s lots of people.

First, I knew I should stay on social media, but I wanted to separate myself from it. I uninstalled all of the apps on my phone. Woohoo! Most of them work on a web browser anyway. I can talk to my friends, engage with fans, and network with other authors. At the end of the workday, I tend to put the computer to sleep, so there is no temptation to “just check social media for five minutes” or anything like that.

Instagram’s Wrath

The trickiest platform was Instagram, which I prefer over the others, thanks to my graphic design background. It works primarily on mobile devices, and if you try to use the web version, you miss out on a ton of functionality – like posting. I fired up my old Android tablet to use social media. It worked wonders for writing at the bar in the Old World. The thought was: the tablet lives on the desk, and I can still do social media updates. At the end of the workday, it goes to sleep, like my computer. Perfect.

Then, I had to apply updates . . . which mutates a perfect tool into a paperweight. Software updates rendering good hardware useless is another topic entirely. Still, posting on this old device was frustrating as the apps crashed, and they didn’t work effectively, unlike on my phone. So, I tried some Android emulators on my computer, and that was a nightmare. In short – Instagram works best on the smartphone. Oh, and I couldn’t buy a new tablet; I need money to eat, pay rent, and fund the books.

Beyond Technicalities – the Mind

Letting the social media platforms exist only on the computer is liberating. Your mind interprets the feeds differently. Most of us have hundreds, if not thousands, of followers/friends on these platforms, and it is impossible to be engaged with all of those people. Hence, social media reworked feeds to be based on algorithms and not on a chronological posting order.

The first couple of weeks were exceptionally odd. I built a habit, like everyone, to check their feed multiple times a day. It got quite toxic when I was running promotional campaigns for a new book. I’d start reviewing the comments and eventually would drift off into a ludic loop of my feed, forgetting what the hell I was doing.

Once a day, checking social media, sometimes twice if I made an announcement, shifted my mindset to treat it like a PR system. Digitally, you walk up to the podium with your prepared statement, make the announcement, and then answer questions and comments – could that sound any drier?

In the morning, firing up social media to look at the feed started to appear as a giant static wall. No longer did it appear as an in-depth look into my friends’ world and the things affecting their lives. I had a new lens with social media, and it was peaceful. The noise of the internet simply shuts off when the computer goes to sleep. Bliss.

Downsides of Deferring Social Media

The biggest downside on a personal level would be the lack of interaction with my friends. It’s a weak argument as the pandemic is to blame more than not being on social media. Another downside has been my attitude. I haven’t supported friends as much, and the uninteresting messaging seen in my posts or lack of. From a business standpoint, with writing, the news I’ve shared with fans has been uninspiring as a whole. I’ve lost followers over this experiment, and a lot of big post announcements I’ve made have gotten sucked into the noise-wall because they’re not written well or executed as effectively as I used to. All because of how I perceive social media.

Learning and adapting is part of being human – no crystal ball, remember? – and making changes to better yourself is healthy for your mind and body. You’ll sleep better, you’ll be calmer, and you may even morally be at ease.

Is Deferring Social Media Worth It?

I have learned a lot from deferring social media since the summer of 2020, and overall it has had more perks than downsides. I’d love to cut it down further when we ideally soar clear of the pandemic. For the time being, it does have some positives while in isolation.

The interesting part of this experimentation is none of this has negatively affected my book sales. They’re better than before because I’m focusing my time on selective marketing and not living in ludic loops. This has always been the marketing argument online – pre ad time – such as the buzz of MySpace back in the day. Keep in mind, during this experimentation, I wasn’t launching a new book.

A new novel is on its way . . . chances are there will be a digital launch. Many friends and fans are on social media, so it is a useful tool. I have installed Instagram back on my smartphone, disabled all notifications, removed all background processes, and have pushed it off my home screen.

The trick is remembering not to let it consume your life and have it rewire your brain. These platforms are effective at applying slot machine logic to their systems, keeping that dopamine up. They want to mine more data from you and feed you more ads. As the saying goes: if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product.

To sum everything up, I’ve made a new Captain Hindsight quote to close off this blog post. “If you wanted to be healthy and morally sound, you shouldn’t have been on social media so much.”

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Taylorism Scifi Horror Short Story

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Into the Macrocosm eBook Download

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