Category Archives: Non-Fiction/Documentary

Marketing, Non-Fiction/Documentary, Politics/Current Events

Back to the Roots

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This post was originally written on June 5 of 2021 and sat unedited, unpublished, and forgotten until February of 2024. Several paragraphs are deleted, a couple added, and a couple sentences tweaked. Other than that, it’s a reflection of my mental state after an extremely bad year on multiple levels. More importantly, it represents a reevaluation and rededication of Virtual Pulp.

 

Neither this blog, nor the Two-Fisted Blog, were originally intended to be political.  But I don’t subscribe to the typical center and center-right attitude of ignoring problems in hopes they will go away; and that the power of positive thinking will fix everything. (That’s probably a Boomer and Silent Generation subset of center-right, specifically.)

All that it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. My parents and grandparents, plus their peers, did nothing, and here we are.

“Cancel culture” isn’t new. It’s just at the point now where it can no longer be ignored. It was there when I was young. It was worse when I finally got into the book biz. I self-censored to an extent. When I did get political, I watered it down. Also, I was colorblind in those days and had an outlook on race that was more wishful-thinking than the cynical (brutally honest?) observations I now make.

But it became obvious that the dominant ideology was not even content to let people like me simply exist, harboring different opinions we avoided expressing. If we didn’t adopt their Narrative and Agenda, they intended to silence us. And since our parents and grandparents allowed them to hijack the reins of power, they have the means to silence us. If we didn’t become active sellers of their perversion; their disinformation; misinformation; deception ; and outright lies, they would take our voices away. They started doing it in a subtle fashion, with their thumb on the scale of algorithms to ensure nobody could stumble upon what we had to say. For those of us who outflanked them and found an audience anyway…well, they had to step up their efforts, to censorship, banishment, and beyond. And center/center right people, it turns out, don’t care about losing the culture, as long as as bread, circuses, and convenience are doled out on demand. Long-term oblivion for the culture and civilization as a whole is nothing to worry about, as long as their immediate gratification is catered to.

So anyway, the middle of the road was no viable option.

I could take the ticket and hope the Machine cut me some slack. Join the echo chamber about how racist America is; how we need more sexual degeneracy; how gender confusion, in all its forms, is psychologically healthy. Maybe if I put enough of that into a novel, they’d take their thumb off the scale and let it find an audience. Amazon reviews in the thousands! My book cover on the “also bought” lists! Parity with the talentless hacks who have “made it” because the thumb on the scale benefits them. Maybe, in fact, it would hit the NYT Bestseller list. A million-dollar book deal. Maybe it would get made into a movie. I could quit my day job and write for a living…

And then, overwhelmed with shame and disgust at myself, I’d probably look for some quick, painless means of death.

Obviously, none of that was gonna happen. So if I’m gonna get the raw end of the stick no matter what, other than bowing to Mammon, then why am I showing restraint? That’s when I started letting it all hang out–in my books, and on this blog.

The last however-many-posts I had written were all political–probably going back a year or two…or more. On the one hand, what’s happening to my country is too serious to ignore. On the other hand, all my ranting is just futile screaming into the void. Aside from the satisfaction of getting stuff off my chest, what good has it done? What good can it do?

Not that I’m done ranting about “politics.” My worldview has changed since I was a boy; but my Quixotic nature never has. But for now, I’m weary. I’m exhausted from having the Globohomo Narrative rammed down my throat whichever way I turn. I’m exhausted from scouring the alternative niche sources of information to find the truth, so that I can be outraged and infuriated by the extent of injustice, hypocrisy and downright evil that is encroaching on everything that was once good.

Over the years, there have been a few different contributors to this blog. Until Gio came on board, I was the only one still contributing with any modicum of consistency (sporadic consistency, you might call it). I don’t blame my fellow bloggers. I’ve considered closing up shop several times in the last few years.

Blogs were becoming passe` right about the time I got mine. I don’t know what the latest secret sauce format is now. The Internet gatekeepers make it nearly impossible to find any information not twisted or fabricated by Globohomo and its army of obedient useful idiots.

I can’t save the world. Can’t stop any of the idiocy or perversion going on around me. But I’m gonna do something for my remaining time in this world. And some of it I’ll do right here at Virtual Pulp. It’s not gonna be ranting about politics every time something infuriates me, or that’s all I’ll wind up doing…again.

God willing, I’m gonna write more books. And graphic novels. And, with Gio’s help, review some good books by other authors. And blog about other stuff, that will perhaps give me and you both some escape from the dystopian shitshow we live in.

And maybe (if I can find a payment processor that won’t eliminate my ability to buy or sell due to wrongthink) I will finally turn my “Books” page into that online bookstore I’ve long wanted to start.

Here’s my unilateral covenant with my readers & followers:  I plan to speak the truth as I see it, judiciously, but I’m not gonna engage in the backbiting, pissing contests, and character assassination you may have noticed happening among non-woke creators, lately. In fact, I plan to write my next post on that very subject.

I hope to provide consistent, relevant content for my original audience, and grow that audience. I encourage you to post comments, ask questions, join discussions, and contend with us, if you feel it’s important. Use the comment form to suggest reviews, or inform us of relevant new developments on our side of the pop cultural divide.

If you like the sound of all this, subscribe to the blog. The subscribe widget is on the upper right of this site. If you like what we’re doing, why not click that button?

– Hank

UPDATE: The Subscribe widget is not functioning right now. My apologies to everybody frustrated by this. It will be repaired or replaced as soon as possible.

Non-Fiction/Documentary, Politics/Current Events

Am I Part of the Iron Age?

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First of all, what is “Iron Age,” besides a hashtag and keyword?

Since (I think) it began after one of Razorfist’s rants, primarily among independent comics creators, let’s look at it through the lens of comics for a moment.

Action Comics #1, introducing the very first comic book superhero, is where I place the start of the Golden Age. I think all agree that it ended before 1956. I would place it more toward 1949, when all but a handful of superheroes disappeared from circulation. Because of the crude (sometimes downright childish) art and writing, few are as fascinated with it as I am. Still, that period is universally recognized as “The Golden Age.”

Experts identify the “reimagining” of the Flash, in 1956, as the beginning of the Silver Age. And though the Flash is a DC character, it was Marvel that made the biggest splash during this era.

The first comic book I ever laid my hands on. I think it’s from the Bronze Age.

Near as I can figure, the Bronze Age was when I first discovered comic books. It was the ’70s-80s, when comics could still be found on spinner racks in drug stores and gas stations, kids still read them, and the politics weren’t nearly as unbearable as they would become later. There were no cultural Marxist screeds yet–the writers usually conducted a Gene Roddenberry charade of balance, where those accursed right-wingers also had a right to their opinions.

Below is the Razorfist rant in which I believe the term “Iron Age” (as it applies to entertainment) may have been coined (as with all Razorfist rants, I apologize for the profanity but accept your gratitude for the humor):

Usually, “ages” of this, that, or the other are determined retroactively. If nothing else, The Iron Age is unique in that it has been named while it is ongoing.

In this video, Katie Roome gives an educational introduction to the Iron Age:

Even though there is a website called “Iron Age Media,” the Iron Age isn’t a publisher or an organization. It’s the age of entertainment we’re living through. More than that, according to many: it’s a movement by independent creators. The nature of the creations is outlined by Katie Roome fairly well.

Some of my readers might ask if I’m a part of this movement. Well, I started blogging, and published my first novel (independently) approximately a decade before the Wu Flu lockdowns. That alone might disqualify my work, depending on how rigidly one wants to define the Iron Age. My primary goal has always been to tell good stories and entertain, but I have offended many a leftist snowflake by pushing back against the woketard agendas and narratives that dominate pop culture so far. I do this increasingly in my bestselling Retreads series, for instance.

Along with the Detective Comics title above, this represents my very first comic book purchase–with change given me by whatever adult I lived with at the time. I can’t remember if there was added tax, so let’s say 50 cents for both.

However, my fantasy shorts and retro-pulpy boxing novella are exclusively entertainment, devoid of any contemporary politics.

So am I part of the movement? I am still publishing work, in the post-lockdown era, so maybe. In any case, I certainly sympathize with it (as I understand it) and applaud the intentions of the creators who are part of it. There is no single authority on, leader of, or governing body over Iron Age (setting it apart from “Comicsgate,” perhaps) so it’s academic, if not moot.

When I am finished with my current time travel series, I plan to shift my efforts from prose over to sequential art. My first graphic novel, a sort of pulpy space opera, will resume once I find a dependable artist with integrity. For now, a black & white “false start” (not intentionally such) is available for free on Arkhaven.

If the Iron Age is a movement, I’m looking forward to what is produced from within it.

Non-Fiction/Documentary, Politics/Current Events

Rorschach, Watchmen, and Alan Moore

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Alan Moore’s Watchmen, along with Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, are probably the most influential comic miniseries ever published so far. Both were published in the mid-1980s and were milestones for comic books as a medium, and for superhero comics in particular.

Comic books, which started as a medium for young boys, had already been drifting away from its original audience, and with these two series, fully embraced the new adult nerd audience. Some aficionados will tell you this marks the point at which comics became serious. Others might suggest this is when comic creators began taking themselves too seriously. Though not at the toxic levels of woketardery we see today, after the success of these titles, the creators at Marvel and DC were unleashed to inject their cultural Marxist opinions into commercial sequential art, in increasing doses.

And here we are.

For whatever reason, somebody on X brought up the character of Rorschach recently, and whatever comment was initially made, it ignited multiple threads of debate about the character.

Moore Fanbois Miss the Point

I analyzed Watchmen 13-14 years ago, including the ironies involved in Alan Moore’s Rorschach character. Others have also noticed the ironies, and have been pontificating about them on X for the last few days. Rather than revisit what I and others have already noted, let’s look first at something Moore said:

The fact that Moore chose to depict Rorschach as a smelly incel is the evidence de jour Woketards regurgitate in order to claim that Rorschach is not a hero, but a fascist, psychopath, murderer, etc.

Moore did indeed depict him as a smelly incel. Also a freeloader, socially awkward, an apologist for atrocities committed by the Comedian character, etc. One thing this proves is that Moore was fighting the culture war long before most of his enemies even knew a culture war was underway.  (A lot of people are still amazingly oblivious to the culture war being waged against them.)

It’s quite simple. All Moore did was present a literary version of a debate strategy the leftists/SJWs/woketards have been employing for generations. They’re still using it today.

Ad-Hominem Revenge by a Gamma Writer Against a Fictional Stand-In for an Ideological Nemesis

Try criticizing the invasion in public (whether you call it “illegal immigration,” “crisis at the border,” or some more watered-down, sugar-coated term). You will be called “racist,” “white supremacist,” “xenophobe,” “conspiracy theorist,” etc.

You probably never even alluded to race, national origins, or any conspiracy. But leftists want others to believe you did. They couldn’t care less what is true or represents reality, but they know others do, and Marxists do care what those others believe. Left-wingers will always care what others believe, whether they are celebrating their 35th birthday in their mother’s basement or manning a machinegun in the guard tower of a gulag. It is precisely because they care what you believe that they will gleefully herd your family into a boxcar when the time comes.

  • They have no affinity for the truth.
  • They obsess about what others believe.
  • They want others to hate and fear you.
  • Others won’t hate you (or hate you enough) based on anything you’ve actually said or done.
  • They must provide reasons you should be hated and feared.
  • Name-calling, insults, and false accusations historically have instigated the hate and fear they desire.
  • Those whose beliefs can’t be controlled deserve humiliation and death.

Who did Alan Moore hate? I suggest you examine the characteristics which cause so many Watchmen readers to recognize Rorschach as the hero of the story: integrity, determination, conviction in his beliefs, and veneration for what is true.

Moore recognized these traits in the right-wingers he hates so much. These qualities probably made him hate them even worse. For his cultural Marxist, deconstructive narrative, he wanted a right-wing voodoo doll to stab. He took several superhero characters who he associated with the aforementioned right-wing ideals (Steve Ditko’s Charleton characters The Question and Mr. A in particular), blended them together, and formed that voodoo doll into who we know as Rorschach.

The Secret God-King Wins Again!

Since Moore is the writer, he has control over every character and what happens in the “grim, gritty” universe he fashioned for this narrative. His objective is to make you hate and fear those who believe in objective truth, who don’t compromise with evil, and who are willing to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, to speak the truth. Hence the passive-aggressive ad hominem attacks on this voodoo doll of his own making.

Joe McCarthy might be a great example of the archetype Moore loathes so deeply. It turns out that McCarthy was right all along, but hardly anybody will admit to it because they’re still so invested in a narrative with him in the villain role. That’s how effective the character assassination of McCarthy was–and the emotional reasoning everyone was lured into. This is why Moore wrote Rorschach as a smelly, freeloading incel whose commentary triggers normies and NPCs.

Rorschach is the only character who didn’t take the ticket. Nightowl, Silk Specter and even Dr. Manhattan compromised with evil. Moore, the manipulative god of that perverse world, allowed them to live because they sold their souls. Rorschach had to die for his “sin.”

Since it is so important to Moore and other authoritarian Marxists to control what others believe, it infuriates them when we recognize the ironies, and Rorschach’s heroic attributes, despite how angrily they keep stabbing the voodoo doll.

UPDATE: Looks like other bloggers also figured this drama was worth weighing in on. Dark Herald probably cross-posted this on Arkhaven, but here’s his take on Fandom Pulse. And here’s yet another article on the topic, possibly by the very person who ignited this row. Both are worth reading. However, I was blocked from commenting and flagged as spam. Interesting.

Marketing, Non-Fiction/Documentary

A Tale of Two Blurbs

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Getting another promotion together for the first book in the Paradox Series. Hope to get some reviews, increase visibility, get readers to invest in the series–all the usual stuff.  Anyway, the outfit I’m working with rewrote my blurb, as part of their services.

To be honest, the existing blurb could be better. I didn’t slip in the time machine as smoothly as I should have, for instance:

Pete Bedauern began his life as a latchkey kid in a run-down trailer park with a single mom, living on stale hot dog buns and bleak prospects. Those were the cards Fate had dealt him, and Pete was on his way to becoming an angry young man. Then Pete’s estranged uncle burst on the scene to punch Fate in the mouth.

Uncle Si is scarred inside and out; he’s a hard drinker; painfully blunt; a little mysterious and maybe even scary, but takes an interest in his nephew that Pete’s father never took. Most of Uncle Si’s life is a secret, but through the part of it he shares, Pete undergoes a master course on life, love, and full-contact sports.

As it turns out, Uncle Si not only has tons of money, multiple businesses, and a fleet of fast cars–he also owns a time machine.

Paradox is one good-hearted-but-alienated boy’s odyssey into manhood, and Escaping Fate is the opening leg of that journey. Before it’s complete, Pete will learn the guarded secrets of history, take on a pan-continuum conspiracy, contend for a world championship, crack the code for success with women…and even save the world.

Well, one world, maybe…

And here’s the rewrite:

Plunge into the gritty reality of Pete Bedauern, a boy marooned in the desolation of a decrepit trailer park, his life a monotonous echo of neglect under the care of a beleaguered single mother. 

His days, a blend of stale sustenance and dwindling hopes, seem destined to mold him into a resentful youth. But destiny takes an unexpected turn with the explosive arrival of Uncle Si, a figure as enigmatic as he is transformative.

Uncle Si, marked by life’s brutal trials with scars both visible and hidden, emerges as an unlikely mentor. He is unapologetically raw, a man who’s tasted life’s extremes, from the depths of pain to the peaks of success. Beneath his gruff exterior and shrouded past, he harbors a profound interest in Pete, offering the paternal attention Pete has long been starved of. Through Uncle Si’s guidance, Pete embarks on a profound journey, a masterclass in the nuances of life, the complexities of love, and the adrenaline of full-contact sports.

But Uncle Si is more than just a mentor with worldly possessions and wisdom. He possesses a staggering secret – a time machine. As Pete steps into the realm of the impossible, he is catapulted into a thrilling odyssey. “Paradox” is not just a journey through time; it is Pete’s voyage into the heart of manhood. Along this electrifying path, he unravels history’s hidden truths, confronts a sinister pan-continuum conspiracy, vies for a world championship, and deciphers the elusive art of winning hearts.

As Pete navigates this labyrinth of adventures, he stands on the precipice of not just changing his own fate, but the destiny of an entire world. 

This is more than a story of growth; it’s an exhilarating ride through time and transformation, where a boy emerges not just as a man, but as a savior of worlds – at least one, perhaps more.

Me personally, I don’t see this as much of an improvement. Seems like they just jammed in as many SEO keywords, adjectives an “strong action verbs” as possible, without even knowing what happens in the book. In fact, I wonder if they used AI to come up with this.

“Plunge into the gritty reality of…”

“He possesses a staggering secret…”

“…labyrinth of adventures…”

Holy purple prose, Batman.

“…the nuances of life, the complexities of love, and the adrenaline of full-contact sports.”

Is that really better than simply “life, love, and full contact sports”?

Seems like change for the sake of change. When you look at something objectively, there is prose that works and prose that doesn’t work. The assumption here is apparently that absolutely nothing in the existing blurb works…that every single sentence needs to be cram-packed with adjectives and over-the-top verbs.

I don’t buy it.

Does this writing style really sell books?

With some changes, they’re trying to cast a wider net and attract every kind of reader. Note how they changed this line to avoid offending feminists, white knights and manginas:

My words: “…crack the code for success with women…”

Their words: “…deciphers the elusive art of winning hearts.”

But, see, my books are not for every kind of reader–especially feminists, white knights and manginas. This version of the blurb may not offend them, but what’s in the book still will. I learned from experience to intentionally put trigger words/phrases in product descriptions to scare the woketard Thought Police away. These folks are trying to undo that. And frankly, their version sounds lame.

“…beleaguered single mother”? Beleaguered by who or what? Why do they say that? I’ll tell you why: once again, they’re trying to avoid offending the Karens in our gynocentric culture. “See here, Henry! Single mothers are heroes and victims! In the problematic way you wrote it, you leave room for people to assume that being raised by a single mother might be less than ideal. You have to make it clear that any shortcomings of a mother raising a child in that scenario must obviously be somebody else’s fault!”

Maybe I should go ahead and run it close to how they wrote it, and see if it has an effect on sales. They may not know much about the book they’re trying to describe (in a voice completely unlike the voice of the narrator), but it might be a safe assumption that they know a lot more about SEO than I do.

If I were a reader/shopper, the existing blurb would have a much better chance of piquing my interest than the the version the professionals (or AI) came up with. But I also know not everybody thinks like I do.

Here’s the book in question.

Here’s the link to buy it outside of Amazon.

Fantasy, Interview, Marketing, Non-Fiction/Documentary

An Interview with Ernie Laurence, Jr.

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Virtual Pulp is pleased to once again host THE INFAMOUS REVIEWER GIO as he interviews the author of the Islands of LOAR: Sundered.

Gio: Book 1 came out over a decade ago, what exactly drove you to write it and then have it published? Looking back now, would you make any changes or have done anything different?

 

Ernie Laurence: The Islands of Loar series is the last series I wrote.  I have written over 40 novels-worth of stories, but never went through any editing or publishing.  When I married back in 2005, my wife found out and encouraged me to publish.  So, I began the long process of actually learning the craft.  I took several classes, mostly technical writing classes, and learned about editing and eventually publishing.  Since Loar was the last, I felt the most confident (and the least emotionally attached if I didn’t do well) publishing that series first.  I referred to Sundered as “my Isaac”, a child to be sacrificed on the altar of public opinion, so to speak.


I had been telling stories for a long time and they were always well received.  I am a forever GM when it comes to tabletop gaming and some of those elements have made it into my books, though I have expanded the stories well beyond that.  When I started down the road to publishing and let people know, I received a lot of encouragement from those close to me.  The initial versions were well received with some helpful criticism.  Thean, for example, came across as kind of flat to a lot of people and several told me to tighten the story by dumping him.  However, I knew he had a purpose and so I went back in and thickened his story a lot.  I’m glad I did that.

The only difference I would make, and actually have made, is to bring the book more in-line with what I’m doing with the tabletop gaming system I’ve been working on for 7 years now.  The other books grew more aligned with it as I began to develop it.  A couple of years ago, I went back and made some tweaks so that would be the case for all of them.  An example is that I changed Spenciel’s “class” from monk to kaisoma.  And I’m really proud of that word. Heh.

 

Gio: The first thing that strikes me as I read Sundered is the introduction of a multitude of characters, and not just minor characters but major players. Was that a conscious decision, to add so many characters as the story unfolds?

 

Ernie Laurence: Yes.  I read a lot.  I’m somewhere over 4000 books now.  And the ones that I really enjoyed were those with a rich cast – the Wheel of Time for instance.  In fact, I wrote the Islands of Loar right after Crossroads of Twilight published in January of 2003.  I read an article at one point that said, “write each character as if they were the main character” and it used Han Solo as the example.  Han wasn’t just the shuttle pilot for Luke, Ben, and the droids.  He had his own backstory, motivations, goals, and rich personality.

So every character in Loar is like that.  Even the minor ones have their own story.  As I have time, I fill in those tidbits on my wiki for readers to get more depth as they like.

Loar is a story about people in desperate straits.  The only way they are going to survive is together.  I needed a large cast to emphasize this point.  It wouldn’t just be one hero with extraordinary powers in just the right circumstances.  It would be an entire world of people working together to save themselves from annihilation.  Sundered sets that stage by showing the people as disconnected from each other as the Islands are from the original planet they used to be a part of.

 

Gio: Without giving out any spoilers, what is the ‘Sundering’ and what caused it? I ask because for example in Lord of The Rings we know at all times what the cause of all the troubles in Middle Earth is, but in Loar it seems like this is not as clear (at least not in book 1).

 

Ernie Laurence: The Sundering is the explosion of the planet.  Some force, or maybe several working in conjunction, literally tears the planet apart.  It is only through the elemental magic of the sorcerers that anyone survived at all.  The geomancers hold the twenty largest chunks where people have gathered together.  The aeromancers held the atmosphere over them.  The pyromancers channeled the heat of the explosion around the chunks, and the hydromancers used the specific heat capacity of the ocean to absorb what the pyromancers couldn’t redirect.  Once the cataclysm itself ended, they then worked together to stabilize their world.  I intend on writing more about all this and perhaps even turning the part immediately post-Sundering into a MMORPG where environmental changes the players make working together can become permanent.  It will be a much more cooperative MMORPG than standard titles.


I don’t want to specify what caused the Sundering here because that’s part of what the characters (and readers) have to find out as they move through the series.  There are a lot of hypotheses and the characters of the world think they know early on.  It isn’t revealed until later if they are right, partially right, mostly wrong, or if the Council of Wind is just making things up to control people.

 

Gio: There are a lot of politics involved in Book 1. This makes Sundered much more complex than your typical action/fantasy novel because we have individuals in power who basically play this game of chess with people’s lives. Politics and legislature seems to play a big role in this world. Was that also a conscious decision to go that route, and where did you get this idea of writing these pretty intense political debates from?

 

Ernie Laurence: A large part of the hook of the story is for the reader to figure out who the bad guys really are.  The politics are an integral part of the story because it sets the saviors of the world up as the initial antagonists.  They are a council of monarchs, tyrants with near absolute power who control the atmosphere around the Islands.  If you do not obey, they simply remove the air from around you and you die.  They can do this for their entire Island so there is no opportunity for rebellion.  This is in large part because the geomancers and pyromancers are gone.  The hydromancers, for whatever reason, have been relegated to river rats scraping a living out of meager fares carting people around on boats.

This intense political atmosphere drives against the work of the protagonists for a large part of the story as things get worse and worse through the series.  Ultimately, I set up a counter-plot to it, but that’s not in Sundered so I’ll say no more.  The politics and economics, though, are reflective of that overarching thought: Loar won’t survive if they are divided and the political actions of the aeromancers are dividing the people more and more.  Sadly, most of them are just too tired, too downtrodden by living on a broken world to fight back.  They need some jolt to wake them from their stupor, some shining light to guide them out of the darkness.  There’s even a chapter called “Boiling the Batrachos” (Chapter 39) where the Dhorens are introduced.  Its purpose is to show that the few people who are speaking out against the tyranny, the bards, are being systematically rounded up and silenced and no one is stepping up to defend them.  Batrachos means “frog” so it’s a familiar analogy for most readers.  The society has been on a slow-burn fall into tyranny and they are just accepting it so long as they have air and food.

There are certainly parallels with our own world, at least in the most general sense.  I don’t have specific political groups or individual politicians in mind when I write the aeromancers.  They are their own characters.  But the idea of tyranny versus liberty and America’s slow slide into the former certainly has a strong influence on my thinking and how I crafted the political climate of Loar.

 

Gio: Going back to the multitude of characters we encounter, it seems like there is no one main character here, but readers might find a personal favorite character as they further explore this world. In your mind, who is truly the main character or protagonist here?

 

Ernie Laurence: One of the conscious decisions I made when starting out on this world was that this story was bigger than one person, one hero.  The main protagonist is all the heroes working together and those who join them later (yes, the cast definitely grows).  There are three “main” threads in Sundered, each with its own cast.  Doogan’s group, Spenciel’s group, and Thean’s group.  In Sundered, they begin to cross paths as I set up the main conflict over the four book arc.  In book two, “The” protagonist, the group, starts coming together as choices and circumstances make that necessary.  In terms such as you are asking about, it is more helpful to think of the protagonist as the group and the antagonist as a question mark.

 

Gio: we’re now on Book 4. What do you have in the works for the immediate future and what can we expect to see regarding Islands of Loar? Are you planning to focus more on the novels or tabletop games?

 

Ernie Laurence: I have a lot of pots on the stove, so to speak. My main project right now is to finish the art for the Player’s Handbook for the tabletop system.  We already have an introductory module out for sale so it’s important to get the core rules out soon.  Yet, as far as novels go, I am going to polish a novella I wrote called “Steel” for publishing.  I’m also working on bringing my very first novel up to date maturity-wise, polish it and then publish.  This is the first book I wrote that turned out to be more than 350,000 words.  So it will be broken into a trilogy.  Right now it’s just called “Demon War”, but that will be the trilogy(?) and each book in the series will get its own name.

Plans to revisit Loar in the future are laid out.  There are unwritten novels from different time periods that I want to write.  The arrival of humans pre-Sundering, the Godswar that leads up to the Sundering itself, something immediately following the Sundering (maybe a video game), the War of Wind and Fire, and then another related series that I don’t want to say anything about as of yet.  There is a hint about it in Book 4 of this series that you are reading.

There are a lot of novels written already though that need polish and publishing so I will likely go back and forth between those and new works as well as continually writing modules and the other core rulebooks like the Creature Codex, the Game Master Guide, Manual of Mysticism, Economic Encyclopedia, and so on.

Marketing, Non-Fiction/Documentary

Book News

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Amazon has discounted Rebooting Fate to $2.99. Don’t know how long that will last, but based on experience: probably until the first few people jump on it.

Speaking of Paradox Book 2, it acquired a rating. A whopping 3 star rating. No reviews, just that. This is a 1st for my books. I don’t get a lot of reviews normally, but when I do, at first they tend to be from readers who liked the book in question. In that way, at least, I’ve been fortunate. Hell and Gone only had 4 & 5 star reviews for years before suffering the first drive-by 1-star.  “Ratings” have made it even easier for drive-by book-bombing. There’s a lot I’m tempted to say about ratings/reviews, but whatever. (UPDATE: While getting links, I saw that a second rating had finally come in–a 5 star, which pulls the average up to 4.)

The bottom line is, Paradox was written as one Tolstoy-length saga, not a series. But to sell it in today’s market, I broke it into a series. It was not meant to be episodic, originally. And though I did what I could to make it work better as an episodic tale, I knew there were going to be problems.  It’s not surprising that a reader would feel they only got part of the story–because any one of these books really is, in fact, just part of the overall story.

And along those lines, I’m mulling over an idea to possibly make the integrated, comprehensive saga available as a hardback and an E-book “box set.” I’ve never done that before, but I think it would be a good fit for this project.

Both of the Paradox books released so far were bestsellers. In fact, both became the #1 Hot New Release. Pleasant surprise, seeing as how I didn’t discount the 2nd one as deeply, nor promote it very hard. And it clung to that #1 Hot New Release spot for almost a week–even after I changed it back to normal price. So yay.

But it sure looks odd when a bestseller only has single-digit ratings/reviews on ‘Zon.  What can ya do?

Paradox Book 3 is scheduled to release in early February. It looks like the paperback will be available not too long after.  Pete/Ike is in college for Defying Fate. There’s a lot of football. As his mind matures, he also becomes aware of parts of life that never interested him as a kid (like politics). Though Uncle Si gave him a good head start, he still has much to learn about friendship, leadership, and women. Not all that learning is painless. He also gets into some sticky wickets that could not happen without a time machine.

It might do better than the previous books for those reasons. It might do better because there’s a nubile blonde on the cover:

Or it might not do better at all. I do plan to lower the price and run a promotion, so we’ll see.

There’s other developments regarding books going on. You may have noticed the new contributor, Gio, has begun reviewing and interviewing. He mines some rare nuggets in today’s literary landscape, and is helping others discover them. Personally, I plan to read Robert Victor Mills‘ old-school sword & sorcery books based on Gio’s recommendation.

I need to post my own review of Hans G. Schantz’s The Hidden Truth–a really good conspiracy thriller with a touch of speculative/sci-fi thrown in. Will look to do that, soon.

Right now I’m reading The Babylon Codex, which, being time travel fiction, is technically competition for my latest. I’m enjoying it so far. Not only is it well-written and plotted, but it deals with (and offers an explanation of) a phenomenon very similar to what I call “The Big Spooky” in Paradox.

With all the stuff happening in the world right now, and what looks to be a whole lot of bad news staring us in the face for the immediate future, there is still some good literature being produced. Embrace it!

Action, Aviation, Fantasy, Interview, Non-Fiction/Documentary

An Interview with Robert Victor Mills

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As in the recent review of the author’s latest, this Q & A is brought to you by the INFAMOUS REVIEWER GIO.

Gio: This being only your second publication, how long have you been writing and what made you decide to publish your works only recently?

RV Mills: Well, on leaving university in ‘94, I decided to have a stab at this writing game. Over the next five years I wrote two fantasy novels, submitting them to publishers and agents. A different business, back then, just before the birth of the internet, when sample chapters had to be printed out and mailed in big brown envelopes. I stuck at it for about five years of silence and polite rejections, but, life forged on; family, a full time job and more college. I don’t recall ever consciously giving up on the dream, though I definitely gave up on the reality. All those papers were thrown into a document box and forgotten about.

Nearly twenty years later, 2017, with both my parents gone and me in the process of selling the old family home, I came across that document box. It was, shall we say, interesting and informative. One experience that a writer can never have, is to read his own work completely cold, with fresh eyes. Reading the contents of that box was as close as one might get, because I’d forgotten almost everything I’d written! Of course, the tale would be wonderful if I could romantically announce that I had rediscovered some lost masterpiece. Oh no, it was all terrible! Just awful! But, with that fresh perspective and an older head, I could see plain as day where all my failings as a writer lay. A very useful experience.

Should you be wondering, I burned those manuscripts in the garden in a steel bucket. The world has no need of such horror!

I guess, that would have been that. However, once again, life happened. The virus came, and lockdowns. Like everyone else I read books, watched movies, listened to music, picked up new hobbies, slow tortured by increasing boredom. It drove me to again pick up the pen. I started scribbling science fiction stories, just for my own amusement, nothing else.

Towards the end of that very peculiar period, three things happened, all seemingly the same week. First, I read an article which essentially argued that many talented writers were being turned away by publishers and agents for the sole reason that they didn’t fit a desired demographic, and that this had been going some years. Second, I caught a livestream by the comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver. There’d been an incident with a movie director that had him really riled. And he persuasively called on his viewers to have a go at creating, something along the lines of: “If you can draw, draw! If you can write, write! We need you!” Thirdly, that same night, I had a dream.

I quite often have vivid dreams. Boy, this was one! An entire story played out in my head, like a movie, of a mighty warrior with hair like flame, and his companion, a poet and bard with a tongue like quicksilver. Together they were rescuing a princess snared by a snake cult. Vicious fights, monsters, gore, glory. No names, no dialogue, just images and allusions, but as real as if I were there, involved. I woke up, it was as if a switch had gone over in my mind. I got up, sat down, started writing. And that, eventually, became the first story of Rhoye and Astropho.

Gio: The first thing that we notice when reading ‘The Isle’ is your prose. How did you come to develop and hone such a brilliant prosaic style?

RV Mills: Well, firstly, thank you for the compliment, that’s incredibly kind.

I suppose the short answer is, a long lifetime of reading. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, youngest of eight children, in quite a traditional working class family. Having five older brothers, there was always a lot of stuff left lying around to read, not all of it of a suitable age rating, either. I adored reading. I would read anything I could get: Bond novels, horror, movie tie-ins, comics, magazines, but I always gravitated to more fantastical stuff, myths and legends. Then, for Christmas 1982, my eldest brother gave me a copy of ‘The Warlock of Firetop Mountain’ by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. That gift pretty much started me down the path I’ve followed since. From reading those fantasy gamebooks I progressed to Tolkien. I remember saving furiously for weeks to buy a paperback edition of ‘Lord of the Rings’ in 1985. And from there to Mervyn Peake, Anne McCaffrey, Robert E. Howard, and so on. Those books also got me started on a decade of Dungeons and Dragons, first as a player and then, while I was at university, as a dungeon master. I long since gave my rulebooks away, but I still have the dice! 

Naturally, I suppose, my love for reading channeled me in that direction academically, which led to a degree in English Literature. That opened me to a deal of far older material, such as Homer, Mallory, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and classic novels and poetry. That’s chiefly where my reading interests lie now, in older writings, in heroism and chivalry. I often joke that the most recent book I’ve read is ‘The Return of the King.’

As you can tell, my jokes are seldom ripsnorters!

Gio: Your novella seems to be paying tribute to the greats of pulp narrative such as Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft. How do you prevent modern progressive culture to leak into your work, as we seem to be constantly bombarded with it?

RV Mills: Part of it for me, I think, is modern stuff just doesn’t interest me. I’m engaged, as a reader and now as a storyteller, in older ideas, of nobility, of chivalry, of duty, of sacrifice. And I think Van Sciver and the creators in the Iron Age movement are right, there has to be representation of those older strains of literature and entertainment for those members of the audience that still want and desire them. That’s where I’m at, and, honestly, it’s where I’ve always been. That is what my fictional world of the Wandered Lands represents, I think, a place where a reader can become lost in pure escapism, like Middle Earth, Hyboria, or Lovecraft’s old Arkham. My creations are never going to be for everyone. And I’m fine with that. Plenty of other stellar creators out there doing great, great things to satisfy other tastes.

Gio: Rhoye is your MC, however your novel is so rich in characters that he really never steals the spotlight. Was that something you did consciously?

RV Mills: You mentioned Howard. One of the aspects of his Conan stories I really admire is that, in quite a few of them, Conan is almost a secondary character, while the heroine leads the narrative. Valeria in ‘Red Nails’ springs to mind. I like that technique. I think it broadens the scope of the story and grants fresh perspective to events as they unfold. So in ‘The Isle’ we see Rhoye’s standpoint, Astropho’s, and Aona’s. Each offers a unique flavour, I think, which allows the tale room to breathe.

Gio: Speaking of supporting characters, I must admit the crabs were my favorite ones. How did the concept of an island so very much dominated by these crabs come about?

RV Mills:

Another dream, a nightmare, and with a very specific source. I’d been reading Dr. Jordan Peterson’s ‘Twelve Rules for Life’. That opening chapter, the one with the lobsters, really stuck in my mind. That night, I had a dream of two swordsmen dueling to the death on this hellish shore just swarmed over with the most disgusting crustaceans, not just lobsters but crabs and horrid sticky slimy things. So vivid, I just had to weave it into a story! So I got me a cup of tea, sharpened my pencil, and set to work!

As it happened I’d been working on an idea for a pirate story which really had very little direction. And I had another idea for a tale about a lost shrine. Suddenly these three ideas fused as one in my brain, and that was that. I had no real conception of how long it would turn out to be. I tend to just let each story dictate its own length. It came out long! But I’m exceptionally proud of it. I think it’s a very entertaining piece.

Gio: Can we expect more longer format stories similar to ‘The Isle’?

RV Mills: Yes, I have another finished novella which I’m hoping to put out in February. I’m waiting on artwork for that. It is called ‘The Girl with the Fire in Her Hair.’ It was written before ‘The Isle’ and is a little shorter, but I’ve included a back-up story which is a natural sequel and companion piece.

I’m currently writing the sequel to ‘Man of Swords’, hoping to put that out at the end of summer, which will contain further adventures of Rhoye as a younger man, his wandering through Bruthulia against the backdrop of the war with the Sarkaenid. About halfway complete on that project, as we speak. 

Gio: What inspired the title of this novel?

RV Mills: I struggled to decide on the best permutation! I wanted to mention the ‘shrine’, because shrines are mysterious, and the ‘scarab’, because also mysterious, and also ‘sickness’ to add a pinch of peril, but also the ‘isle’ to hint at location. I wrote it all down, read it back, and yes, it is indeed a mouthful. ‘The Isle of the Shrine of the Sick’ning Scarab.’ But I love it. The ‘e’ in Sick’ning was the only edit I could stand to lose!

Gio: Any plans for spinoffs? Astropho seems to be a very complete and well defined character who could possibly branch out and have his own adventures.

RV Mills: Astropho will return in ‘The Girl with the Fire in Her Hair.’ I have half a dozen other completed stories featuring the two friends together, I’m just in need of some connective tissue to link them into a narrative that is itself compelling, rather than just throw out a collection of disjointed short stories. But, yes, there’s more to come from Rhoye and Astropho, for sure.

Regarding spin-offs, I have two other characters that I am very endeared to, and have written two long stories with a third in outline. They are two templars of Erishala, Vicatiora and her mentor Kionates of Dalathopos. They are essentially sleuths in a fantasy setting, with Kionates being observant and wise if a tad senile, and Vicatiora being green, yet headstrong and quick. Together they solve very peculiar mysteries which abound in the city of Altamantia, and which usually have a magical bent.

But, that is a good ways off, as yet. Watch this space!

Note from Virtual Pulp: Stay tuned for a follow-up interview of Robert Victor Mills by Gio!

Marketing, Non-Fiction/Documentary, Uncategorized

The State of Online Writer/Author Spaces

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I quit Farceborg and Twatter cold turkey circa 2013. Never got rid of the Twatter account. Had to dust it off when a friend gave me a lead on a possible artist for a graphic novel project. So I got back on and was surprised to discover there’s some right-wingers tweeting over there. Also a whole lot of authors and some readers.

There must be dozens of writers who host #shamelessselfpromotion threads there. Every single day, it turns out. At first I jumped on, because I could always use new readers, especially for my new series. Now it’s dawning on me that there probably aren’t any readers/buyers who look at any of those threads. It’s like most other thirsty writer spaces–a bunch of tryhards pimping their wares without even reading what others post.

It’s one heck of a reader-friendly market out there. Unfortunately, most of the literature out there is mediocre or worse, written by tradpub wannabes/imitators. And authors seem to outnumber readers by maybe 5-to-1.

I had a group on MeWe but didn’t have the time (or personality) to manage it, and it became one of those shooting galleries for thirsty authors. A ghost town where everybody self-promotes but nobody reads, responds, or even clicks “like” buttons. I didn’t want to have a bunch of rules or be the content cop, but human nature being what it is, I guess that’s what you have to do if you want a quality space with interest, engagement, value, etc.

The book-related groups on Gab (that I’m still a member of) are mostly the same–no conversations, no sharing, just thirsty authors shooting their full auto promotion guns into the ghost town.

In conclusion…just kidding–I don’t have a coherent conclusion.

I suspect a lot of us are Generation X, and even though we are on “social” media, we just can’t overcome our survivalist “look out for #1” mindset.  We’re not networking, or “building relationships,” we’re fishing. And we’ve depleted the fishing hole’s already-shrinking population of literate consumers by inundating them with bait and lures. I guess.

Too bad, It would be nice to have those conversations and take a break from the sellsellsell! mania.

Non-Fiction/Documentary, Politics/Current Events

When the Bullets Fly, How Will the Swamp Media Spin It?

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The sponsors of the invasion at America’s border aren’t even trying all that hard to conceal their intentions anymore. The military-age male invaders are bringing weapons across openly, in broad daylight, knowing nothing will be done to stop them.

The last, most daunting obstacle to enslaving the American people is that we’re armed. Before the coup de grace can be executed to finish our fundamental transformation, a strategy must be devised to defeat an armed population. Efforts to disarm us have progressed considerably since the Prohibition era, but haven’t completely succeeded in most of the country. Maybe 70-90 million people in the US keep and bear arms. If even 3-10% of them decide to actively resist the Great Reset, our would-be overlords will have their hands full trying  to subjugate all of us. So how do you deal with that threat?

Looks like the Cabal has decided to import and prepare (all at their intended victims’ expense, of course) a foreign army to make war on us. Cabal stooges are already revealing their plans to install the invaders as police and soldiers. “Defund the police” initiatives were one tactic herding us toward that mission objective. The Cold Civil War probably won’t turn hot until the Cabal is confident their invaders are sufficiently trained (and armed/equipped/organized) to shoot it out with the American people and prevail.

Lack of critical thinking in our dumbed-down population, public incredulity, and Swamp Media gaslighting, prevent most people from understanding what is going on all around them. But what will the Ministry of Propaganda do when the shooting starts? They won’t be able to deceive people about it anymore, right?

Wrong.

The Cabal needs as many of us as possible to sit on our hands “trusting the plan” or whatever until the invaders have locked down the initiative and secured crucial objectives. The reporting might go something like this:

“Crazed white supremacist militias (we told you those right-wingers were hateful and dangerous!) have organized nationwide in an ethnic cleansing campaign to rid the country of all non-white people! Oppressed, marginalized communities have no choice but to fight back. With the help of our heroic troops and police, the domestic terrorist forces are being split, enveloped, and neutralized in separate firefights across the country. If someone you know might be a right-winger, call this hotline.”

Even if, by some miracle, we could repeat 2016 and overcome the election rigging in ’24, a hostile foreign army will obey its masters, no matter who is in the White House, They are even less beholden to the Constitution than the criminals and traitors running our government now.

Non-Fiction/Documentary, Reviews

The State of Comic Book Fan Media

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According to Vox Day, the cultural Marxist Thought Cops are now taking over  BIC (Bounding Into Comics) too. News to me, though I should have expected it.

Anyway, a new online entertainment magazine has already stepped in to receive the baton.

First off, BIC was never a right-wing, right-leaning or culturally consoivative site to begin with. As mainstream comics became increasingly feminized and sodomized, BIC always struck me as firmly in the “not that there’s anything wrong with that” camp.  So I can’t even say that once they, too, are completely pozzed, it would be 180 degrees off from their founding principles (like I even know what those were). Will they begin gushing over comics that suck? To the extent they even cover comics: yeah, probably. More on that soon.

I went over to Fandom Pulse and looked around. What I found was in sync with online comics media and forums I’m familiar with.  I follow the BIC group on MeWe, a more Big Tent comics fan group on Gab (that I haven’t managed to get kicked off of, yet), read the Arkhaven blog regularly, and have BIC and Bleeding Fool bookmarked in a browser. This has been part of my status quo for a couple few years now. In case it is not for you, breaking story:

They hardly have any comic-related content.

Visit any of these sites and you will find all kinds of posts about manga, movies and toys, but not much at all about comics. After pondering this over a glass of wine at the country club (not really, but it makes me sound more sophisticated, don’t it?), I concocted a theory. The theory has two major components/exhibits.

Exhibit A: Mainstream comics/the Big Two are in a flaming death spiral, due to abysmal writing and utter depravity. Bloggers could fisk and critique DC/Marvel’s latest abominations on a regular basis, but that’s like asking them to spend their life sniffing turds and reporting on what they smell.

Why not write articles about the indie comics and graphic novels being produced? There’s decent work out there.

Exhibit B: From what I can tell, current SEO doctrine dictates that websites must generate scads and scads of content. (Please note my courageous stand here at VP that defies SEO doctrine.) From my brief perusal of Fandom Pulse, I can tell Supply Side Content Creation is their guiding philosophy, too. Content, content, content! More content! There’s just not enough sequential art being produced they can write articles about to meet this mad demand for 500-word articles.

Where is that demand coming from–the fans or the editors? That’s a question worth asking IMO. As somebody who loved comics as a kid and is stumbling toward creating some original graphic novels of his own, and is still interested in the medium and whatever good sequential art can still be found, I would rather read one or two relevant articles a day about comics/graphic novels than 50 articles a day about Hollywood inside baseball, action figures, videogames, film adaptations, and Bob Iger’s most recent brainfart.

But, as often is the case, my reasoning is much, much different than the prevailing wisdom.