C.J. Carella's Blog: C.J. Carella's Casa Del Geek, page 8
August 20, 2013
Armageddon Girl Kickstarter
Well, the die is cast, I just released the Kickstarter page for Armageddon Girl:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/....
This is my first experiment with crowdfunding. I plan on publishing the book regardless, but the funds from a successful Kickstarter campaign will be very helpful in helping polish the book as well as promote it. I'm pretty excited about it, even if I don't love pimping myself out in the interwebbies (trying hard not to cross the line between moderate self-promotion and spam). We shall see.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/....
This is my first experiment with crowdfunding. I plan on publishing the book regardless, but the funds from a successful Kickstarter campaign will be very helpful in helping polish the book as well as promote it. I'm pretty excited about it, even if I don't love pimping myself out in the interwebbies (trying hard not to cross the line between moderate self-promotion and spam). We shall see.
August 14, 2013
Armageddon Girl Trailer
Uploaded a trailer for Armageddon Girl on YouTube; it will also appear on the Kickstarter project when it goes live (hopefully on Tuesday August 20th). You can watch it on the videos section here or go directly to the YouTube page at:
http://youtu.be/7VDBxIdMWaw
http://youtu.be/7VDBxIdMWaw
July 27, 2013
Epub Download Available on Goodreads
An epub version of the first seven Chapters of Armageddon Girl is available right here on Goodreads. Thanks to the good folk at GR for making this option available and being so helpful when I couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
July 25, 2013
Free Chapters Up
The first seven chapters of Armageddon Girl are up on my brand-new website, cjcarella.com . Hope you like them!
June 29, 2013
DIY: Cover Art
Just finished designing the cover art for Armageddon Girl. It's not going to win any rewards for graphic design (my Photoshop skills are rudimentary at best), but I think it does the job. Special thanks to model and performer Jesse Belle-Jones for becoming Christine Dark for the cover art.
You can view it at my brand-new Facebook page (and feel free to like it, of course):
https://www.facebook.com/CJCarella
Edit: One thing I definitely wanted to do in the cover was to have a female character who wasn't being shown off in skimpy clothing like so many genre covers do. Call it an "anti-cheesecake" cover if you will.
And yes, there is a misspelled word in the back cover text. I fixed it in the Photoshop file but forgot to do so in the .JPG I uploaded to FB.
You can view it at my brand-new Facebook page (and feel free to like it, of course):
https://www.facebook.com/CJCarella
Edit: One thing I definitely wanted to do in the cover was to have a female character who wasn't being shown off in skimpy clothing like so many genre covers do. Call it an "anti-cheesecake" cover if you will.
And yes, there is a misspelled word in the back cover text. I fixed it in the Photoshop file but forgot to do so in the .JPG I uploaded to FB.
June 22, 2013
Q&A, Vlogging, Cabbage and Kings
I did a Q&A chat courtesy of the nice folk at rpg,net where I got to talk about Armageddon Girl and the Companion book, as well as other gaming stuff. You can read the transcript here:
http://gmshoe.blogspot.com/2013/06/q-...
My Vlog entry is currently being considered (along with another 300+ submissions) at Geek and Sundry. If you want to see it (it's not a pretty sight, so be warned), you can find my entry at:
http://geekandsundry.com/vlogger/carl...
Remember, voting is an important right :)
http://gmshoe.blogspot.com/2013/06/q-...
My Vlog entry is currently being considered (along with another 300+ submissions) at Geek and Sundry. If you want to see it (it's not a pretty sight, so be warned), you can find my entry at:
http://geekandsundry.com/vlogger/carl...
Remember, voting is an important right :)
June 16, 2013
Short Stories and RPG Writing
It looks like the book sample may be delayed by a week or two, but we'll see. Meanwhile, I've got plenty of things to keep me busy. I set the sequel aside for the time being (I have about 95,000 words down, out of a planned 120,0000) to work on a companion book I will offer as a reward for the Kicstarter campaign and eventually as its own release.
"The Armageddon Girl Companion" will have short stories and fake historical essays set in the world of the novel. As a roleplaying game designer, world-building was my primary focus. "Armageddon Girl" started out as a setting for an RPG, and grew into a novel when I started working on the characters. The Companion will provide a lot more information on the novel's setting, as well as pointers on running RPGs in that world. The book will not contain any system specific notes but instead information that should help Game Masters use their favorite game system, whatever it may be.
I finished the first short story (set in the Spanish Civil War) last week. Most of the RPG background is already written, and the whole book should be done sometime in July, just in time for the Kickstarter campaign.
"The Armageddon Girl Companion" will have short stories and fake historical essays set in the world of the novel. As a roleplaying game designer, world-building was my primary focus. "Armageddon Girl" started out as a setting for an RPG, and grew into a novel when I started working on the characters. The Companion will provide a lot more information on the novel's setting, as well as pointers on running RPGs in that world. The book will not contain any system specific notes but instead information that should help Game Masters use their favorite game system, whatever it may be.
I finished the first short story (set in the Spanish Civil War) last week. Most of the RPG background is already written, and the whole book should be done sometime in July, just in time for the Kickstarter campaign.
June 7, 2013
About the Book
“Last stands suck.”
That’s how my first novel, Armageddon Girl, begins. Not exactly “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” or any great opening in the world of fiction, granted. But it’s a start.
Armageddon Girl is a science-fiction/alternate-history/superhero book. It fits the maxim that one should write what one knows, since I’ve spent the majority of my life steeping in those genres. The book is in many ways a salute to geek culture and the many fantastic worlds where I spent an inordinate amount of time to escape the oft unpleasant and almost invariably disappointing “real world.” And, hopefully, it will entertain its audience.
The titular character is nerdy college student Christine Dark, who is taken from our world to a parallel Earth where mystery men and superheroes have existed since the early decades of the 20th century. Once there, she meets a number of colorful characters while learning she has the potential to save the world or destroy it.
After finishing the novel, I jumped through the traditional hoops and submitted it for publication. The book didn’t make the grade. Whether it did not merit publication because it simply wasn’t good enough or because either its genre or style were not a good fit for mainstream publishers I do not know. I’m certainly far too invested in the novel to be an impartial judge. In any case, I am going to try to find an audience for it on my own.
The first step to find that audience will be to release the first 1/3 of the book (roughly 40,000 out of slightly under 120,000 words) as a free Kindle download and also available for perusing on my website (once said website is up). I hope the sample will be enough to help readers decide whether or not Armageddon Girl is something they’d be interested in finishing. I’m sure most of them will make their decision long before they get through all 40,000 words. If all goes according to plan – I’m having the book copy-edited by a few trusted friends, having discovered the hard way I cannot proofread my own stuff – the sample chapters will be out sometime during the second half of June, two weeks from now in other words.
Next time I’ll talk about other steps in this process.
That’s how my first novel, Armageddon Girl, begins. Not exactly “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” or any great opening in the world of fiction, granted. But it’s a start.
Armageddon Girl is a science-fiction/alternate-history/superhero book. It fits the maxim that one should write what one knows, since I’ve spent the majority of my life steeping in those genres. The book is in many ways a salute to geek culture and the many fantastic worlds where I spent an inordinate amount of time to escape the oft unpleasant and almost invariably disappointing “real world.” And, hopefully, it will entertain its audience.
The titular character is nerdy college student Christine Dark, who is taken from our world to a parallel Earth where mystery men and superheroes have existed since the early decades of the 20th century. Once there, she meets a number of colorful characters while learning she has the potential to save the world or destroy it.
After finishing the novel, I jumped through the traditional hoops and submitted it for publication. The book didn’t make the grade. Whether it did not merit publication because it simply wasn’t good enough or because either its genre or style were not a good fit for mainstream publishers I do not know. I’m certainly far too invested in the novel to be an impartial judge. In any case, I am going to try to find an audience for it on my own.
The first step to find that audience will be to release the first 1/3 of the book (roughly 40,000 out of slightly under 120,000 words) as a free Kindle download and also available for perusing on my website (once said website is up). I hope the sample will be enough to help readers decide whether or not Armageddon Girl is something they’d be interested in finishing. I’m sure most of them will make their decision long before they get through all 40,000 words. If all goes according to plan – I’m having the book copy-edited by a few trusted friends, having discovered the hard way I cannot proofread my own stuff – the sample chapters will be out sometime during the second half of June, two weeks from now in other words.
Next time I’ll talk about other steps in this process.
June 6, 2013
New Beginnings
If you're reading this, you're likely to have read one of the couple dozen or so gaming books I wrote over the last two decades and change. You may have noticed a lack of new books since the early years of the 21st century, and might have wondered what, if anything, I've been up to.
I didn't get much done for a few years. I played a lot of computer games (World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and many other time-sinks). I started half a dozen novels and promptly didn't finish them. I got a real job. I went into other ventures that made more money than I ever made writing games. I fell into a rut. I wasn't all that happy.
Late last year (2012), I finished a novel. For the first time in close to a decade, I felt I had something to live for.
After taking a look at the current state of publishing (and a couple rejection letters), I've decided to try and self-publish. It's a probably foolish and self-indulgent thing to do, but I've always been an entrepeneur as much as a creator, and the idea of keeping control over all stages of publication appeals to me.
I'm trying doing a few new things. This blog, for one. I've also joined 'the Twitter' and 'the Tumblr' just for craps and giggles and to be all social media involved and stuff. Here's more links:
http://cjcarellawriter.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/CJCarella
Sorry for veering into (tl/dr) territory. Next, a brief description of my novel and my plans for it.
I didn't get much done for a few years. I played a lot of computer games (World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and many other time-sinks). I started half a dozen novels and promptly didn't finish them. I got a real job. I went into other ventures that made more money than I ever made writing games. I fell into a rut. I wasn't all that happy.
Late last year (2012), I finished a novel. For the first time in close to a decade, I felt I had something to live for.
After taking a look at the current state of publishing (and a couple rejection letters), I've decided to try and self-publish. It's a probably foolish and self-indulgent thing to do, but I've always been an entrepeneur as much as a creator, and the idea of keeping control over all stages of publication appeals to me.
I'm trying doing a few new things. This blog, for one. I've also joined 'the Twitter' and 'the Tumblr' just for craps and giggles and to be all social media involved and stuff. Here's more links:
http://cjcarellawriter.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/CJCarella
Sorry for veering into (tl/dr) territory. Next, a brief description of my novel and my plans for it.
C.J. Carella's Casa Del Geek
Writer and game designer C.J. Carella (WitchCraft, The Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, etc) muses on various subjects and shares news about ongoing and future projects.
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