Austin Dragon's Blog, page 8

Signing Off For 2017

For 2017, I've gladly lived in the rainy world of Liquid Cool with its mega-skyscrapers, hovercars, cyborgs, and off-world colonies. We've gotten to watch our hero detective, Cruz, solve his crazy cases from Blade Gunner (Book 2) to the recent release of A.I. Confidential (Book 6) –all with tons of action and even laughs.

What's next in 2018? There will be more Liquid Cool to be sure and my epic After Eden series will be re-launched. However, what will probably dominate is the series that you, my VIP Readers' Club members, helped pick. I'm already in that new world of heroes, heroines, villains, monsters, mythical lands–writing away. I can't wait to have you read my upcoming epic fantasy.

So until then, I leave with you a teaser image below and…Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. See you in 2018! 

The post Signing Off For 2017 appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

National Novel Writing Month 2017

The fun, seat-of-your-pants creative writing event across the world returns

The National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, is an annual event for writers around the globe. Starting on November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. Clearly, having written and published 15 books in 5 years (the 15th comes on next month), I don’t have a problem with motivation or production. However, I did participate last year and wrote not one, but three Liquid Cool novels—Blade Gunner, NeuroDancer, and The Electric Sheep Massacre. Three novels in 40 days was a record even for me.

What do I want to accomplish this time around?

It will be all about my new epic fantasy series! This will be my fourth series and I’ll be doing something a bit different. Liquid Cool is like an episodic television series—each book is a self-contained major case. With the new fantasy series, I plan to release three of the books all at once because it is a much longer arc; it’s a journey—literally.

My writing begins!

P.S. Interested in beta reading my new #fantasy novel? #sneakpeek #betareaders

Contact me HERE! 

Interested in beta reading a new #fantasy novel? #sneakpeek #betareaders…
Click To Tweet

#NaNoWriMo

The post National Novel Writing Month 2017 appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Blade Runner 2049 Movie Review

Non-Spoiler Review – Overview

Blade Runner 2049 is a perfect example of a movie where the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. Sadly, as a long-time fan of the original Blade Runner, when the visuals of the new movie faded to black at the end, it is only worthy of a TWO STAR (Fair) rating.

This is sad because it had all the elements to be a four or five-star classic movie in its own right. Ryan Gosling’s performance is excellent! Also, top marks go to Denis Villeneuve’s directing, the music by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch and a special shout-out to Dennis Gasner’s stunning production design. However, the filmmakers forgot one basic thing above anything else. When the credits roll does the moviegoer feel they had a good experience—was it time well spent? It doesn’t matter how great the performances, or how beautiful the movie. When you put it all together, does it work? No. The first two acts were fulfilling, but more importantly, by the end I left the movie theater disappointed, dejected and not interested in returning their Blade Runner world again.

If you plan to see the movie, don't read anymore because there are spoilers below.

Spoiler Review – Details

So what happened? How do you spend $185M to make a movie based on a sci-fi classic and fail?

For any storyteller, the two most important parts are the beginning and the end. If you don’t hook your audience at the beginning, it doesn’t matter how brilliant the movie is, they won’t stick around to see it. Conversely, it doesn’t matter how amazing the beginning (or the middle) is, if you fall into a muddled, depressing mess at the end, that’s all the audience is going to remember walking out the theater, and that’s what they’re going to tell their friends.

The Good

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling’s performance as K is outstanding. The strength of his acting, much of it internal, uplifted the entire movie to the next level. He was the perfect casting choice and I can’t imagine anyone else doing a better job.

The Production

Denis Villeneuve’s directing, Hans Zimmer and Benjamin’s Wallfisch’s musical score and Dennis Gasner’s production design visually create a stunning world. They not only return you to the look and feel of the original Blade Runner, but expand on it. The movie is 2 hours and 43 minutes long, but never once feels like it.

Actor Mentions

I must also mention the great performances of Ana de Armas as K’s holographic girlfriend Joi and Sylvia Hoeks’s sinister replicant, Luv. Movie icon Harrison Ford (that’s what he is), and Robin Wright are always good in whatever they do, no matter how brief the screen time.

Technology

There are plenty of scenes in the movie of the technology of the world that is really amazing: the three-way sex foreplay scene, a  Frank Sinatra hologram juke-box, the A.I. hologram Joi sequence when they're shot out of the sky, the memory building virtual world sequence, and, my favorite, the Vegas showroom scene complete with holograms of Prince, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley.

The Bad

Jared Leto

Jared Leto’s Wallace was the main baddie in the movie, but every time I saw him, I felt he was nothing more than a prop. The writers were like, “He’s the bad guy so let’s have him give long, cryptic speeches like a bad guy.” That’s what he did—gave speeches that were supposedly deep and sinister, but I was bored.

Impossible Movie For the Uninitiated?

There was a nice little scene with Edward James Olmos who played his same character from 30 years ago in the original Blade Runner. As the scene ended with his placing an origami animal on the table, I smiled. However, if you didn’t see the first Blade Runner, the scene would have meant nothing. They wouldn’t have known who he was or what the origami thing was all about.

In fact, if someone hadn’t seen the original Blade Runner movie, I’m not sure they’d understand half of what was going on in the movie. That’s not a good thing. I’ve seen the original Blade Runner a ton of times and it inspired my Liquid Cool cyber-noir detective series, but you don’t make a $185M movie for Blade Runner super fans like me. You create a work that keeps the super fans and brings in new movie-goers.

The Ending

So many movies have been derailed because they take the audience where they want to go, the ending makes no sense, or worse, the audience could care less about how the filmmakers wrap up the conflict. Blade Runner 2049 ends with a bit of each. It introduces the concept of replicants who can be born—the pairing of a human and replicant. A replicant is an organic android, complete with serial numbers on their cells. The concept in a sci-fi world is believable, but procreation with a human is not. Further, the movie suggests that male replicant-female replicant reproduction is possible. Sorry, we aren’t God, and you don’t have to be religious to say that (say, ‘We mere humans don’t have the infinite power of the universe’). This was the big deal that the movie ends with, their payoff to the mystery—very anticlimactic for me.

The other two things connected to this “big deal” is the concept of a replicant Messiah who would lead a replicant rebellion against humanity. Oh, boy. Messiahs again—very Star Wars. And a replicant rebellion? What you’re really saying Hollywood is you want me to come back for another 3-hour Blade Runner movie. Sorry, not interested.

Bottomline is the movie’s ending was depressing and disappointing. So we, the audience in the theater, groaned and left the theater. Not exactly how you want Blade Runner fans to leave your movie. It doesn’t matter that critics gave it 89% on Rotten Tomatoes—they’re all a bunch of replicants themselves if you ask me. We came to the theater wanting to like the movie and we didn’t like it. If you can’t please us, it’s doubtful you can please a wider audience.

The Ugly

(Not ugly at all, just two other points)

Demographics

One aspect of Blade Runner that made it so unique and far ahead of its time was that it was the only sci-fi movie I can think of that accurately reflected the demographics of the future—that is, a much greater Asian population. The media talks so much about the growing Hispanic population. Yes, that’s true, but after that America will be much more Asian than any other demographic. Blade Runner 2049 seemed completely off the mark in this regard and regressed to join the masses of other sci-fi movies.

Naked Neon Holographic Women

I had a problem with this for a lot of reasons. Firstly, I’m sure regions of America will be more libertine in its sexual attitudes in the future, but I doubt America would have giant nude female holographic signs everywhere. Is it the same Hollywood objectifying women again? No. I wouldn't label this movie as such in any way because of the overall strength and quality of the female roles. They were just off-the-mark in their world-building. It struck me as the filmmakers saying, “Hey, look what we can do with CGI” rather than a plausible portrayal of the future. Second, the nude female holograms we see seem to be only of Joi. Okay, a powerful megacorporation wants the masses to buy its holographic A.I. product, but there are no other models at all, no other ethnicities? Not likely. Third, there aren't holographic advertisement of men, the latest hovercar, etc. No male Joi? Again, not believable.

There's my review. We waited for the new Blade Runner movie. It arrived with so much potential going for it but didn't deliver. Very sad, indeed.

The post Blade Runner 2049 Movie Review appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool Loves Blade Runner Kindle-iPad & Books Super Giveaway

In anticipation of both the US release of the Blade Runner 2049 movie and the Liquid Cool releases of Book Five (I, Alien Hunter) and Book Six (A.I. Confidential) on October 6th, we kick off our biggest giveaway yet!

Our new “Liquid Cools Loves Blade Runner” Kindle, iPad & Books Super Giveaway begins Friday, September 15th and ends Monday, October 9th at midnight.

All you need to enter the Giveaway is your email and verify your minimum age–that’s it!

However, if you want extra chances to win and spread the word, you have plenty of choices–as few or as many as you like.

Enter below for your chance to win!

Author Austin Dragon's “Liquid Cool Likes Blade Runner 2049” Kindle-iPad & Books Super Giveaway

If you win the giveaway prize, what is the first ebook/book you'll get — title, author, genre and why? Leave Your Comments Below.

#Win #FREE #Amazon #Kindle #Apple #ipad #Giveaway

The post Liquid Cool Loves Blade Runner Kindle-iPad & Books Super Giveaway appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool: Latest Novels and More!

It’s funny when I look back at it. I was first working on my new Liquid Cool cyberpunk detective series in 2015 and wanted to share, so I wrote a quick prequel (These Mean Streets, Darkly). It introduced readers to the Liquid Cool universe but…more than a few of you were annoyed and said “love it! But now what? Where’s the debut novel?!”

Well, I've more than made up for it. Liquid Cool (Book 1), the debut novel, has over 200 reviews on Amazon–most of them are 4 and 5 stars. I released both Book 2 (Blade Gunner) and 3 (NeuroDancer) in March of this year. Then in May, I released Book 4: The Electric Sheep Massacre. That’s a lot of product in a short period of time. A lot of you couldn’t be happier. If you’re wondering why I’m so focused on Liquid Cool this year, you’ll see next year—believe me (but I can’t say any more; this is a Liquid Cool post).

Here are the announcements:

A New Book Cover for Blade Gunner (Liquid Cool, Book 2). I liked the old cover, but I love the new one ! Why did I change it? For those who’ve read the novel, the Blade Gunner is a formidable force. My instincts were that the cover diminished that reality by featuring minor characters. The new cover keeps it simple: Cruz, the detective, and the Blade Gunner—that’s it. Much more powerful.
Name & Cover Reveal / Release Date / Pre-Order for New Liquid Cool Novel: I had mentioned in a previous blog post article that when I wrote Liquid Cool books 2 through 4, one after the other, that I was very tempted to simply write Book 5 too. In fact, I already knew the story, for both Books 5 and 6, but I stopped to write a book in another series. Well, Book 5 is done. Liquid Cool Book 5 is I, Alien Hunter! As many of you know, my Liquid Cool series was inspired by Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner, so Alien Hunter will be released the same day as the new Blade Runner 2049 movie—October 6th! You'll be able to get Book 5 at a discount price on Pre-order on  Amazon (Kindle) or Kobo (all others) up until the release date.
More! I have another big surprise for Liquid Cool fans. The same month I release I, Alien Hunter , I will also release Liquid Cool Book 6– A.I. Confidential . But that’s not the surprise. What is it? You’ll have to read the novel, but the moment you reach that part in the book, you’ll be saying: “No, way!”

How's that for announcements? What do you think about the new upcoming Liquid Cool novels? Leave a comment below.

The post Liquid Cool: Latest Novels and More! appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Top 10 Themes of My New Cyberpunk Sci-Fi (Liquid Cool: The Series)

There are a lot of sub-genres in science fiction and I’ll be writing in quite a few of them. However, for Liquid Cool, my sci-fi detective thriller series I chose cyberpunk. But it is my cyberpunk reimagined! Authors like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Neal Stephenson are the most famous; the singular greatest movie of the genre is Sir Ridley’s Scott’s classic Blade Runner from 1982. The cyberpunk genre is still well-regarded when its golden years, at least in Hollywood, ended back around 1985—that’s over thirty years ago now—though interest exploded again with the Matrix movie trilogy.

Why the interest in this category of science fiction? There was the utopian science fiction, “Star Trek-ian,” society, learning lessons and evolving into something better–or at least, wanting to. However, back in the ‘80s we were still in the Cold War—America versus the Soviet Union. Science fiction writers can show us the hopeful, but they can also show us versions of the likely, or what they feel to be likely based on the current society. Enter cyberpunk and dystopian science fiction.

The darker side of science fiction is not new. Mary Shelley gave us the first science fiction novel with Frankenstein in 1818 and it was a dark and frightening one. Classic science fiction on television like The Twilight Zone and The (original) Outer Limits more often than not showed very dystopian futures and science (or man) gone awry. But cyberpunk gave us a new twist that endeared not only me, but millions of others and has never completely gone away–a gritty science fiction on the streets.

With my new cyberpunk series, I put my own twist on the sub-genre. How? Construct a future from the current time into a cyberpunkish future? No. That’s not particularly creative in my mind. I wanted to re-imagine cyberpunk not as a writer in the ‘80s projecting out to 2015 and beyond. I would be a writer from that 2015 and beyond, pretend I was back in the ‘80s, and write a different dystopian future. Here’s my Top 10 List!

1) Old = Mega-corporations. New = Mega-corporations and Uber-governments.

This has not only been a staple of cyberpunk, but many books and movies, especially conspiracy ones. The ubiquitous, all-powerful megacorporations controlling governments or replacing them altogether.  Well, this is not the ‘80s and it’s okay to feature the dastardly megacorporation like the Weyland Yutani Corporation from the Alien movies, but we’re missing the big, fat elephant in the room—government! My series has its own “Cold War” but the antagonists are mega-corporations and uber-governments—both vying against each other for ultimate control. But interestingly, there are many people fighting to make sure that neither one ever does.

2) Old = Japan rules the world. New = Heavy Asian influence, including cool samurai swords.

Back in the ‘80s, there was also something else happening on the economic stage: the rise of Japan as a major economic global power. The first Die Hard movie, Rising Sun (Michael Crichton’s blockbuster book that became a mediocre movie), and Gung Ho. Americans really did think Japan was going to economically take over the world and cyberpunk seemed to incorporate this fear. Japan does plays a major role in my series because of specific industry—bionics, cyborgs! But the world of my series will read more like that of the old accounts of the New York urban, ethnic melting pot with one ethnic group dominating specific areas or industries, including China-Town and Old Harlem. As for Japanese samurai swords, they’re just cool so they’re in.

3) Old = Digital rules. New = Analog versus digital.

Much of the science fiction of that era was very prophetic. The big thing they missed was the pervasiveness of the cell phone/smartphone, but no one could predict Steve Jobs so that can be forgiven.  Also, since those writers were in the dawn of the computer age, they correctly foresaw past the Analog Age to the Digital Age, even if their view of digital was stuck in an old Atari game framework (a la the movie Johnny Mnemonic). The power of digital technology is quite astonishing, but so are the dangers. Hackers have gotten into the credit card records of major companies and even into the secret systems of the United States government–including the White House! We are in the digital age and we’re never going back, but my series does an interesting thing. It will have both technologies in its world fighting it out in the consumer marketplace and will provide a means to have some poignant examinations of technology as it relates to our daily lives.

4) Old = Robots, cyborgs and synthetic humans. New = No synthetic humans, but robots and cyborgs galore.

In the next book of my first After Eden series, there will be a scientific group that sets out to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is no God. They end up (according to them) doing quite the opposite. In cyberpunk stories, man is able to create biological humans and androids indistinguishable from actual humans, or create robots with such advanced artificial intelligence that they inevitably have to be classified as sentient beings. I personally believe we be able to create an illusion of the former, but never the latter. Unfortunately, I believe we will be able to cheat and create all kinds of things that we shouldn’t and will pay a heavy price for it. Futurist and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku said it best when he described our most advanced robots as having “the intelligence of a retarded cockroach.” On the machine side, we will continue to advance, but to get to the point of sentience, I think not. That is not to say that we won’t turn over large parts of our life to some version of artificial intelligence—oops, oh wait, too late, we already do—and will continue to expand that. We will also advance our bionic technology. I do look forward to that day when we can say we’ve eliminated paralysis, blindness, and deafness from the world. Yes, we will achieve those things. “Brain-reading” technology is science fact, not science fiction anymore. But plugging brains into machines and downloading a person’s life essence into a robot will remain science fiction. In my cyberpunk series, they spend no time on notions of creating life, but in the practical (and profitable) realm of improving life through technology, especially mechanical. The “higher end” fixes involving genetic engineering and manipulation is reserved for the upper class. For everyone else, it’s the $999.99 bionic hand.

5) Old = Flying cars. New = Well, yeah!

There are many, many reasons why even if we could make the technology economically sound that we would never have the flying cars as seen the Fifth Element movie or any of the Star Wars films. For one simple word: terrorism. In my new series, they find a way to make it feasible for the simple reason that they have no choice. They are just too many people packed into their urban cities that roads have to be the skies. There are also other peculiarities of their metropolis that make this path the one their society embraces which doesn’t apply to us.

6) Old = A dark and rainy world. New = Same, but for different reasons.

The movie Blade Runner has done more to burn an image of an authentic cyberpunk world into our minds than any other. It’s strange because the movie was not a box-office success when it was first released, but became the cult classic from video and DVD rental stores (remember those). I keep this tenet but the reasons are different. In cyberpunk stories of old, the dark skies and constant rain speak to environmental damage of us humans. In my series, the reasons are quite different and have nothing to do with environmental catastrophe but from millennium old struggles of social class.

But even separate from the reason for the look of a cyberpunk world is the fact it fits the cyberpunk underlying theme of “high tech and low life” – a grimy, neo-noir landscape where the powerful lord over the powerless masses below.

7) Up-Top

Another major component of the Liquid Cool series is that humans have colonized the moon and Mars and yes, Earth does call them Spacemen and Martians. But these inhabitants that live off-world are the super-rich alone. Off-world, or colloquially known as “Up-Top,” does incorporate much of the qualities of old cyberpunk in that their government is a single megacorporation, and the Founders are more ruthless than any Earth crime family when it comes to protecting their interests. And, they actually do travel in flying saucers.

8) Who Cares About Race?

Well, not Liquid Cool. The series is probably one of the most racially and ethnically diverse science fiction works out there and—no one cares. Class and status is what people care about. There’s every race, ethnicity, nationality, and language spoken that exists on Earth in the 50-million supercity of Metropolis, but the only mention of it is as a mere descriptive word or two, that’s it. Some of us might say: isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? It’s the future.

9) No VR

Virtual reality—called virtual life in the series—plays a major role in other cyberpunk novels, but not in Liquid Cool. It exists for gamers and “virtual lifers,” who spend endless hours living in virtual worlds of their creation, but other than one case (in a big way) it will not play prominently in the series. Why? The series rejects the science fiction premise that we will be able to plug our minds into computers, virtual or otherwise.

10) Film Noir of the Past, New Cyberpunk for Today

The very first full novel I ever wrote was a mystery when I was a child in elementary school. I loved a good mystery (I was a Hardy Boys reading fanatic), but also loved science fiction to the point that I was actually thinking of working for NASA by the time I was in middle school. In my Liquid Cool series, I get to combine the best of both worlds–a hard-boiled (actually soft-boiled) detective in a cyberpunk world.

As a movie buff, I’ve seen more mystery and detective movies and television shows than I can count, but as an on-screen detective, Humphrey Bogart still—seventy years later—still ranks as one of the best. I always did like film noir that really elevated black-and-white filming to an art form. The shots and shadows were like another character of the movie to create a gritty world more real than real.

If I wanted to merge that theme with a science fiction sub-genre then cyberpunk would be it. It’s far from only black and white. The colors are endless, bold, and in your face, but it’s all muted its own shadows of mega skyscrapers, ever-dim skies, and much of the time…the rain. The perfect combination to create a neo-noir setting for my detective; his friends, “frenemies,” and enemies; assorted clients, and very bad guys. A world filled with a lot of high-tech and a lot of low lives. The world of cyber-noir.

In it, crime never nies. Bad guys never go away. Liquid Cool doesn’t forget what the important struggle is in the series. This is a detective story! Our hero detective, Cruz, is battling criminals and solving crimes as a street-wise Metropolis private detective. That’s the core and the science fiction is just the backdrop for the stories. It thrills with the action. It even makes you laugh. But it never forgets that it’s a detective story in a science fiction/cyberpunk world, not a cyberpunk series trying to force a contrived detective narrative. That’s people love it and why over 80% of the reviews are four and five-star reviews.

We count down to the next two Liquid Cool novels this year. New release feature coming soon!

If you aren’t already a VIP member, sign up to my list HERE and get the ebook prequel along with three other novels FREE.

#Cyberpunk #ScienceFiction #BladeRunner #LiquidCool

What do you think about my “Top 10 Themes of my New Cyberpunk Sci-Fi” World of Liquid Cool? Leave a Comment Below.

The post Top 10 Themes of My New Cyberpunk Sci-Fi (Liquid Cool: The Series) appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

My “Smooth & Cool Sci-Fi” Group Author Ebook Giveaway!

Yes, I’m hosting something new! From August 7th through September 7th, 24 authors (myself included) are offering one of our sci-fi books for free through InstaFreebie. You can download as many as you like—your chance to stock up on your summer reading! Click HERE and join our exclusive group author giveaway for the month of August through after Labor Day.

The post My “Smooth & Cool Sci-Fi” Group Author Ebook Giveaway! appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Ask the Author: August 2017

As an author, I am very accessible to readers and fans. I make it easy to contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions. So, I’m not doing this special “outreach” for only this month. I’ve done this ever since I published my first book almost 5 years ago. However, I do want to take this month to highlight reader questions to the public here on my website.

Question from Doris:

When is the next Liquid Cool book coming out? Love this series!

I’ll be doing the big announcement next month, but to answer your question directly: October 6!

Question from Tony:

How long have you been writing & how do you come up with the [ideas for] your books?

I wrote my first book at 3 years old, was writing mystery novels in middle school (never published), but then when I graduated from high school that was it—for over 15 years!

As to my ideas, they come from everywhere. It could be an event, a desire to put my own spin on a favorite story or genre, the idea could just come to me in the middle of the night. There is never any shortage of ideas for me, and I never have writer’s block. The creative juices are always flowing.

Question from Scott

Why Liquid Cool for a name? And what brought you to the Liquid Cool world and why did you go with an OCD personality?

I’ve written previous blog post articles about Liquid Cool when I first introduced the new series back in 2016. I can’t remember where I came up with “Liquid Cool” from. It just came to me and I said “what a great name for a series!” Liquid Cool was to be a polar opposite series from my After Eden Series. I love both of them—After Eden would be the very serious sci-fi (the people and events leading to WW III) and Liquid Cool would be the crazy, fun, action sci-fi (and also blend another favorite genre, the mystery detective).

For any who have read the Liquid Cool series, it starts out in a unique way; the hero, Cruz, is not even a detective yet. We do meet Cruz, and a great cast of characters that are in his life. I don’t know how he came to be a germophobe with OCD tendencies. Why does he wear a tan fedora and coat, when the public wears blacks and grays? How did I come up with the idea of him building his own hovercraft as a kid? The answer to those questions are more is: that’s just the way I envisioned him. He and the entire world of Liquid Cool just revealed themselves to me.

Question from Linda

Would love to know where all your ideas come from in your Sci-Fi and Horror anthologies?  Dream about them?  Sit back and think?  

Most of the ideas for my stories simply come to me out of nowhere—I’d say 90% of the time, which is why I always make sure I have a notebook nearby handy to jot down the ideas. Lately, I’ve been seeing what I could do with creative talents beyond that by saying to myself: “come up with a story on topic X.” Actually, Liquid Cool came out of that direction. I wanted a fun, sci-fi-detective genre blend for a new series. I came up with Cruz and company. The same is true with my year-end Horror Anthology, which actually has to input of my VIP Readers’ Club Members—like you!

 

Got more questions for me? Send them my way and I’ll feature them in this post!

 

The post Ask the Author: August 2017 appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Austin’s Writing Madness. What’s Next?

With half the year gone, my VIP Readers’ Club Members got the full rundown of current and future writing projects. I did something similar last year, so maybe it’ll be an annual email.

So what is next?

This is my 5th year as a published author and I already have 15 unique book titles—and the year isn’t even over yet.

Liquid Cool. My sci-fi/Cyberpunk detective thriller series has gotten three new titles this year and by the Fall there will two more. It will be a nice arc for our hero detective who “fell” into the private investigation world of the supercity of Metropolis. Nothing has been the same since. Next month I’ll write an expansive blog post on the upcoming Liquid Cool novels.

Horror. I may not add to my Sleepy Hollow Horrors series until next year, but I decided to do something fun with my VIP Readers’ Club Members. I’m going to write a horror anthology, and they’re going to be characters in the stories. It also seems I have an over-representation of fans and readers who love zombies. But the anthology will be much more and will be my last book release for 2017.

Fantasy. Game of Thrones is all the rage, however, I am not one of those fans of the television series—very much the opposite. (Can’t comment yet on the books because after 4 years, I haven’t read the first book year which is sitting on my bookshelf—I have a problem reading books longer than 600 pages.) I never intended to do a fantasy series, though I have always been a Lord of the Rings fan–but I’m doing this one. Actually, I took the idea from a series I wanted to do and blended it with fantasy to make it even better.  I already wrote Book One and half of Book Two. I’ll kick off 2018 with this series.

After Eden.  The international sci-fi thriller series was my first and for my first two years, my only series. Three main novels and three companion novels with one or books in the following sub-genres: Christian Futuristic Fiction, Religious Science Fiction, Science Fiction Horror, and Cyberpunk. It started in America moved to Mexico, then to Russia. The series, set a century in the future, is the people and events leading to WW III.

However, I’ll admit it: I’ve been stalling. Why? I didn’t I was good enough as a writer for the next phase of books. Let’s say I’m a movie director and I successfully did a war episode on some historical fiction series. Now, I have to do the major movie picture version along the lines of John Ford’s The Longest Day and Steven Speilberg’s Saving Private Ryan.  My series goes from leading up to WWIII to being in the horror of it all. There’s more but needless to say, I’m ready. The idea for the multi-release of my Liquid Cool books came from wanting to do the same with my next After Eden novels. I already know when I start writing Book 4 that I won’t be able to stop until I finish Book 7, so I had to do a run-through. Those books will release in 2018.

Bottom-line is 2018 will be my busiest ever, but we're still in 2017 and there's plenty to do right now. So if you haven't sampled any of my work yet–two books of my Liquid Cool series are free everywhere and one from After Eden series.

Enjoy!

The post Austin’s Writing Madness. What’s Next? appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.

Liquid Cool Book Tour & Giveaway

Hosted by Silver Dagger Book Tours!

July 3rd to August 3rd, 2017

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts and a giveaway!

Featured Blog Tour Stops

July 3- Kickoff at The Silver Dagger Scriptorium

July 7- Susan Heim on Writing

July 7- Turning Another Page

The post Liquid Cool Book Tour & Giveaway appeared first on Official Website of Author Austin Dragon.