Jon Michael May's Blog, page 9

Star Trek Into Darkness…poster

The official post and website were released today.

http://www.startrekmovie.com/

As others have noted, the general style is lifted from the Dark Knight Rises poster and shows some sort of future London likely being attacked.  It nice to finally get some sort of official advertising for the film and hopefully we’ll get a trailer soon.

Returning to the Final Frontier…again

New screenshots from the upcoming Star Trek game. I think they’ve done a fairly good job capturing the look of the Abrams era universe. They’re still rocking that Mass Effect look though, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t remember if it was here or somewhere else, but I remember someone saying Mass Effect was the best Trek game ever made and to a large extent I agree with that. I remember playing the first one and thinking at the time, how well a Star Trek game could have been adapted to that style of gameplay. It’ll be interesting to see if they’ve just borrowed the look from Mass Effect for this new game, or it there are similar gameplay elements as well.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3205621/new-star-trek-screens-surface-and-then-launch-into-the-final-frontier/

The New Haven Chronicles History….redux

Because I don’t have enough to do already within this one man created sci-fi universe, I’ve decided to rewrite the timeline.  The old bullet-point timeline will still exist and will continue to be updated as things progress and it may even be streamlined some to make it more easy to digest.  The new timeline/history will be more like a history text book from the POV of some observer after the war has concluded…probably.  It will also be much more conclusive and in depth, though at this point I’m not sure how long it will be and through what means it will be released.

I’d like to create some sort of New Haven companion (an actual book with all sorts of art and filled with detail) and I could see it being part of that, but that is still a long ways off.  So for the time being I may just put it up on the blog, if and when it’s done.  I’m not sure yet and there’s still the little matter of actually writing the thing so there is plenty of time to figure all of that out.

I’m still working on the edits for Orbital Decay.  It’s looking more like the release will be pushed to early 2013, possibly January, though no later than February.  I want to have plenty of time to go over it at least one more time after I finish this round of edits and I’d like another set of eyes to give it a once over as well.  Since this is the first book in the series and will set the standard which the rest of the series will follow, as well as setting peoples first impression, I want to get it right, rather than putting it out there before it’s ready.

When I get closer to knowing a firm date for the release, I’ll start running promos and advertising the release date as much as possible.  I hope that I can count on many of you to help me spread the word when the time comes and I’ll get into that more when I know the actual date of release.

I’m also working on a short story, that will serve as a promo itself.  The idea being that many may not purchasing the full book to make the decisions if New Haven is their cup of tea, so instead they can read the short story to get an idea of my writing style and how things will work in the series.  I’ll have more on this later as I get closer to having Orbital Decay finalized and start the whole promo process.

For those that might be waiting (anyone?  let me know.) it won’t be long now.

Sometimes I draw things…

This is a WIP for the AR-558 weapon system, a series of rifles used by the United Nations Expeditionary Forces, in the New Haven Chronicles series.  This is a work in progress and likewise, still needs a lot of work.  It’s coming along though.  The AR-55s platform is a semi-automatic weapon with a combines gas operated bolt and mass acceleration chamber.  This allows the weapons muzzle velocity to far exceed that of any ordinary rifle without experiencing many of the drawbacks associated with typical rail guns.

p.s.  I’ll try to do better about posting more art and things…for anyone that’s interested.  I’ve had a cold for the past couple of weeks and haven’t been all that creative.  I’m nearly over it though and starting to get back in the swing of things.

My novel, Method of Life, a tale of survival in a post apocalyptic future not brought on by war, zombies, technology, robots, the Rapture, or giant asteroids; is currently for sale on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093JL7ZQ

 

Setting Short Time Based Goals To Do The Things You Dread

Everyone is faced with doing things they’d rather not do. For some, that may just be going to work everyday. For others, it comes down to something a bit more serious and difficult to accomplish. Whatever the thing is you dread having to do, perhaps this will help.

Throughout my twenties, I was not well. I suffered from a number of illnesses, which I won’t go into during this article, but needless to say I was hospitalized frequently and spent an above average amount of time being poked and prodded with one test or another. I’m relatively healthy now and finding that some lessons I learned during that time can be applied to other situations. At the very least I can share things I’ve learned which can hopefully help others in similar situations.

Few people if any like going to the doctor, even when your well, perhaps even more so when you’re well. It’s not a cheery place and generally if you’re not well off, you leave feeling no better than when you arrived. Being tested for anything, be it a mere blood test or something more invasive is merely icing on the cake of awfulness. You already feel like rubbish and if you have any kind of aversion to blood, or depending on the test in question, some of the more colorful varieties of prep required before the test can be administered, than it just makes you feel all the more poorly.

There is no trick to getting through this. You just have to do it. There is however a better way to think about getting through it and that’s to stop thinking about the thing you dread and instead think about the time the task will take. Whatever qualms might hold you back from completing your task, time will not stop, baring some unlikely rupture of the space time continuum. Because of this, you can count on the finite certainty that the end of the day will eventually come and unless you put a stop to it or simply chicken out, the thing you dread will be completed.

So rather than focusing on the thing you dread, focus instead on the estimated time when it will be completed. If you’re having a wisdom tooth removed at noon and you know the procedure will take one hour, but you’re dreading it, than simply think to yourself, ‘by one O’Clock, it will be done and over with.’ Granted, their will be some after effects, but the worst of it will be over. And once you’ve reached the first short term goal, you can set another. Today the pain is bad, but tomorrow it will be a little less and the day after that it will be even less. When you break it down, this is the one day at a time scheme, focused down to minutes and hours if you want to get that precise.

Now granted, you still have to do the thing you dread for yourself. In many cases this falls onto your own ability to stand up and do what needs to be done. If you can’t do that, than this is practically meaningless. In a situation like mine though, where most of the time it wasn’t me doing something, but rather having something unpleasant done to me, this works like a charm. At least it did for me.

They say time waits for no man. I’m not sure who they are, but they are correct. Time will not stop and once you’ve started the thing you dread, it will be finished. Focus on the time it takes, rather than the task itself and you may just find what you need to get through it.

Spreading the word…

You can now find me, and my book on Goodreads. If you’re a member, help me spread the world by liking the book, rating it, reviewing it, and telling others about it. Thanks.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6553371.Jon_Michael_May

Voltron for sale…

I’m selling my Voltron Lion Force 20th Anniversary Collector’s Set, which was purchased when it first came out.  While the collectors ‘book’ has been removed from it’s original packaging, it’s been sitting on my shelf since I bought it and is in excellent condition.  The Lion figures themselves have never been removed from the case or touched by anyone.  As you can see in the pictures, it comes with the certificate of authenticity, with this being number 10255 of 15,000. I’ve seen these online for prices as high $800, so this is your chance to get one in excellent condition on the cheap.  Don’t miss this chance, because it looks awesome.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150921880255

Reviews…

It’s been one month since Method of Life debuted and I’d like to thank everyone who purchased a copy and helped spread the word over Facebook. Now I have one more favor to ask. If you’ve read the book, it’s important to leave a review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be an entire book report or a thoroughly comprehensive essay. A few sentences and a star rating will suffice quite nicely. And most importantly, be honest.

Many thanks.

A Map and a Starship

Here are a couple drawings I’m working on.

The first is a Star Trek related drawing, an upgrade of the Galaxy Class USS Venture.  It’s a rather large image, so I won’t be imbedding it here.  If start Trek is or ever was your thing, then by all means take a look. Galaxy Class USS Venture

The second imagine is a New Haven Chronicles Map, because I know how much people love maps.

This is mainly just a reference, but it also show just how enclosed and vast an area New Haven will cover.  For a space opera, New Haven is rather small in scope because it’s contained within our inner solar system and even then it’s really only unfolds between Earth in Mars.  What people don’t realize though and what I’m trying to do with New Haven, is show just how big space really is.

This map is all about orbital dynamics, around which gravitational body you’re orbiting, your place in orbit around that body, and the time/power/fuel/energy/ needed to travel along an orbit of that body to achieve a better position to deploy your weapons.  Orbital Dynamics play a vital role in the depiction of combat in New Haven. Almost all space oriented combat occurring during the series, takes place with both sides in orbit of a large gravitational force, whether it be a planet, moon, or Lagrangian point.

So there’s that.  There’s also this, Method of Life, an action, adventure, comedy, sci-fi tale of survival in a post apocalyptic wasteland.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093JL7ZQ

Writing breaks & goals, and the new tv season…

I’m taking a break from Orbital Decay, for at least a month. I’ve been working on it for over a year and I’m getting a bit cross eyed. It will be good to get away from it for a while and come back at with a fresh set of eyes. Even with a month away from it, I should be able to make my end of the year release goal.

In the mean time, I will turn my attention to a number of other things:

Updating a short story I wrote several years ago that isn’t connected to any other project

The New Haven Chronicles Timeline needs some revision and I’d like to get it squared away before Orbital Decay is released. There are also a handful of New Haven related short stories that I want to try and work on. Some that require completion of a first draft and others that need revision.

Most importantly though, I need to start work on the second book in the Fall of Man series, the sequel to Method of Life…or rather I need to take what I have written already and start putting it towards the final story I want to tell. I’ve got about sixty to seven thousands words already down, but I’m not sure how much of that will survive once I really get into it. It’s a good amount to start with and work through, so I’m hoping that the next installment won’t take as long as the first one; which took several years.

I started putting together ideas for what I would eventually become The Fall of Man, when I was still in high school, back in the late 90′s. It’s taken from then to now to get the story contained within Method of Life down on paper, so to speak. Along the way, much of the rest of the series was planned out and some of the books are already started and well into development, so any large changes or massive rewrites, it shouldn’t take as long for the next book to see the light of day.

So if anyone has made it this far into the post, what do you think of the new fall tv lineup? Any new decent shows on the horizon? I’ve seen a couple new ones already, through legal means, Revolution and Last Resort. I enjoyed Last Resort and I’ll probably keep up with it, simply for mindless fun. Neither show however is exactly pushing any boundaries.

Of course the big draws are on HBO and AMC. Boardwalk Empire and Treme are back. They’re not my personal favorites but are worth checking out. The Walking Dead will also be back soon, though because of the falling out between AMC and Dish Network, I won’t be seeing it. Hopefully I can find an alternative method to get my zombie fix this fall/winter.

So what are you watching?

Method of Life awaits your discovery.