The Undiscovered Country … Here There Be Dragons

I know that you have all heard this before but I am scared.

I am making a giant leap into a realm that seems like a foreign country to me. I am about to become a bona fide publisher people and I am feeling a nearly sexual level of excitement and a fun house full of zombie clowns level of terror. I had never considered doing something like this before, and I probably never would of if it had not been for two people that became very important to me when I had lost all confidence in childhood heroes.

Kevin Smith is the man I have most admired for a long time. Whether you like his work or not, and to be honest I could give a flying fuck if you like his work or not or whether you think I am an idiot for holding him on a pedestal, he is very successful at what he does. Kevin’s story is fascinating and if you have not read his book Tough Shit I suggest that you do, it is an inspirational read.

Kevin has inspired me not because he makes movies or that he writes comic books but because the man always does what he wants to do and not what others want him to do. Everyone makes compromises when they are trying to create something but I think Kevin compromises much less than others in this world. Instead of continuing to work for others Kevin has decided to do things himself and has been building a multimedia fiefdom that is the envy of the Geek World. Kevin has convinced me it is possible to succeed big on your own if you are willing to work at it. Of course Kevin did have some name recognition and a grub stake to finance his ventures, he wasn’t starting from the bottom.

Most of you have heard of Mr. Smith but I am not sure how many of you outside of the world of Roleplaying Games know the name Eloy Lasanta.

I have told the story in the past about how I was ready to say fuck it to writing after the ride I enjoyed at Palladium Books. I have also told the story of how an out of the blue email, on MySpace for fucks sake, from a publisher I had never heard of changed the future of my career. I have done two projects with Third Eye Games to date and there are currently things brewing in the Freelancer Pipe. It has been an amazing experience and it’s because of Eloy.

In the gaming industry Eloy and Third Eye are Indy as fuck! He is the entire show and he juggles so many balls that I have heard the Clowns Union has an open hit out on his head. Eloy is the man that has shown me that a regular guy can do it without any help from a big publisher. Eloy Lasanta has built up his little company from a one title startup into one of the most well respected small press publishers working today. Because I have seen the path that he has blazed on his own I can see the outline of the route I need to follow on my own journey.

These days Eloy is the man I most want to be like.

So here is the big news that I have been talking about for a few days here and there on the internet. I am founding my own publishing company (the name of which will announced after I do a few things) and the first projects that I will be putting out will be my Shores of the Dead Trilogy I will be putting up a Kickstarter in a few days after I do a few things behind the scenes and I will be whoring the fuck out of it online. After the novels I will also be publishing a variety of fiction and gaming books by myself and hopefully others.

So that’s it, I am moving in my own direction and I will not be beholden to anyone else again … we will see how that works out.