A New Reality

Finally, the big announcement. If you’ve been following my social media, it has been a few months of me suggesting on what I have been working on. With the only hint being that it is related to the Mental Damnation series. After five months of working, it is finally ready to be shared with the world:

All three Mental Damnation Novels will be retired.

You might be thinking: wait, retired? Yes, you read that correctly. Reality, Dream and Fusion will be taken off the market in eBook and paperback in early 2017.

Let me give you some backstory on this… After finishing the launch of Seed Me I had two routes I could go, either work on a new book, or finish the Mental Damnation storyline which had yet to be completed.

Why am I not working on the fourth installment?

Being away from the Mental Damnation series for two years, I was able to come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes, and able to forget most of the history and plot. I reviewed Reality and portions of Dream and Fusion. Approaching it from a reader’s perspective and reviewing compiled feedback gained over the years from other readers, I learned that these novels were not up to par with what my writing is capable of. The narrative structure, lore and the fictional world itself had potential to be drastically improved. Not to mention Reality was written five years ago, you can learn a lot as a writer within that time. This is why I decided to take a step back and critically edit the series and re-release them.

Yes, this is like George Lucas re-releasing the Star Wars trilogy over and over.

But no, I won’t re-re-release the novels. Plenty of novels go through various editions throughout time. The plan is to finish the Mental Damnation series from start to finish over the next several years with a final conclusion to the storyline. No third editions or re-re-releases.

Mental Damnation Reality: Second Edition

Naturally the first novel to be released under the second edition is Reality. The original 70,000 words have been rewritten with an additional 30,000, making a total of 100,000 words. So there’s a lot more backstory, character development, improved narrative direction and updated illustrations and an encyclopedia for reference.

This is the new book cover for the second edition of Reality. The new visual direction moves away from the tribal approach and compliments artwork seen in the renaissance time. More on the artwork will be shared in a future blog post.

Mental Damnation: Reality Book Synopsis

Having her family murdered by the humans during her people’s banishment from the surface world, Krista and her only friend, Darkwing, struggle to remain alive. The pair of reptilian street scum live in their newfound home, the City of Renasence, dictated by a fascist military known as the Renasence Guard. The two find themselves at odd ends when Krista puts her faith in the Five Guardians’ goal of unification, while Darkwing chooses to stand with a notorious gang, the Blood Hounds, who are known for their anarchist views

This divide in their friendship forces Krista to persist on her own as the Five Guardians become crazed from an unknown disease – Mental Damnation. After their infection, the Guardians develop a bizarre interest in her, claiming they must reap her innocence for their newfound master, the Weaver.

With a military dictatorship, politically-driven gangs and their guardians infected and on a hunt for her, Krista has limited options for survival: Does she fend for her life in the City of Renasence, against menacing forces, or risk leaving everything behind and enter the uncharted realm of the underworld?

Release Date

Mental Damnation: Reality release date will be confirmed, stay tuned. It will be this year though.

I have plenty of more to share about the series and it will come in due time. This is just a taste of what will be coming down the pipeline.

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