Category: Reader Group Archive

James McGowan Reader Group- The Backlog Dilemma

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Yo, yo!

I do believe most readers have a backlog. A stack of reading material that you intend to get to at some point. But if you’re like me, you end up stacking more on top of it. Not just books, but a manner of reading material like magazines. Or if you’re even more like me, comic books.

Months upon months of them.

I need to move them to the frontlog. Reduce the piles. Retake sanity. Okay, maybe not that last part. But catch up on things.

Honestly, part of why I’m writing about this is to force a little accountability for myself. I waste a decent chunk of time looking at YouTube videos about educational topics and tactics role-playing video games. None of it awful, but also none of it fantastic either. I know I’ll feel better about the stuff I put in my mind if I’m more deliberate about it.

And the stuff I put in other folks’ minds.

I’m also making the publication of Breakers part of my frontlog. Sometime in the first two weeks of August, likely on a Thursday. I don’t quite have a specific release date narrowed down, but it’s getting closer.

Fun stuff to add to your own aspirational reading pile.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
I had a few life curve balls and bouts of slogging through mental molasses this month. So my productivity is lower than I would have liked. I reached page 436 of Secret Fronts with 123,600 words. That’s 28 pages with 7600 words for this round. Better than last month, but I’ll strive to do more as the summer weeks tick away.

Also, as mentioned last time, I’ll be splitting this bonus novel in two. Book 5.5, which focuses on the fallout of the events of Book 5, will be called Unseen Scars. And Book 5.7, which focuses on other realms affected by the Game, will be called Secret Fronts.

I’m liking where the story is going, despite the manuscript mitosis. Plus there’s the above referenced August release of The Breakers, so that’s exciting too.

I shall keep walking the path.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

“Brunch.” Ed shook his head. “This is what maturity feels like.”

Fernallus turned his attention away from his friend. “Simply horrifying, isn’t it?”
Recommendation Corner
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

I always enjoy the dark humor of Abercrombie’s grim-dark worlds. And this dark setting is brand new.

A lost princess who grew up as a scumbag con artist finds herself in the middle of a succession crisis as events conspire to murder her horribly as the politics of nations and the church also conspire to put her on the throne of a Constantinople analogue.

And she can’t stop being a conniving, opportunistic coward.

Luckily, or more accurately unluckily, she’s protected by a suicide squad team called the Chapel of the Holy Expediency, led by a very weary knight, a rogue with far too much experience, a weathered vampire, an arrogant necromancer, a low-key elf. And a filth-minded werewolf who can’t tell friend from foe in her wolf form. Only that she has to eat the “good meat.”

I’m only part way through it so far, but I’m enjoying it a bunch. Steven Pacey’s performance is top-notch with his wry delivery.

Good stuff.

Murderbot on Apple TV

If you’ve been reading my newsletters for any length of time, you’ll know that I love the Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries novella and novel series.

The Apple series does a fantastic job of bringing the violent and absurd world to life. The banal evil of the various intergalactic corporations. The inane researchers who are way too touchy feely in their interactions with each other. All of it seen through the eyes of an android who would much rather sit by itself and watch its TV shows. Especially the ludicrous Sanctuary Moon.

Alexander Skarsgard does a great job of portraying the introverted Sec Unit with the secret name of Murderbot in all the android’s awkward glory. And the writing is very similar to the novels’ not-quite-comedy action as the humans ignore Murderbot’s advice and it has to continuously save them.

I think I still like the books a little more. But this is still an A-tier adaptation.

Check it out.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Cover Girl… and Guy

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Howdy, all!

Halfway through the year, and after many updates with the incremental crafting of various works in progress, I am ready to share the Breakers’ cover.

Take a look at it above!
Players of the Game Works in Progress
As predicted last time, various personal matters, which have thankfully turned out well, ate into my productivity. I’m up to page 408 with 116,000 words on Secret Fronts. So that means I only wrote 16 pages with 4800 words. I don’t feel bad about this at all. The past month has driven home that there are more important things in life than productivity goals. I’ll ramp back up next time around.

And I’ve come to a realization with this bonus novel WIP. It’s actually two bonus novels.

One focusing on the fallout from the events of Game War, and one showing a previously unseen long siege with other characters who will meet Ashe, Avril, Ed, Harry, and the rest in the sixth main book in the series. I had outlined a briefer exploration of the long siege, but the story of Gathiner and especially Nadia’s struggles against Corsis’s cruelty took on a lot of life as I wrote it, and demanded more story real estate.

So much so that the aftermath story and the long siege story each need a separate book, rather than a single bonus novel.

Right now, I’m guessing I’ll be designating them with Book 5.5 and Book 5.7. I still need to figure out a new title for the split bonus novel, but Secret Fronts will probably be the name of the latter one.

Onwards!

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Ashe and Crystala:

Crystala bent forward with one hand on her knee and the other raised with her forefinger extended upward. Pitch blackness danced at the edges of her vision. “Give me… give me a ten count.”

Ashe Stelfire crouched to meet her gaze. “Nuul Light is roiling around your eyes. You need more than a ten count.”

She huffed out a laugh. “You might be on to something there.”
Recommendation Corner
Dark Deity II on Steam

You thought you could escape mentions of tactics video games in my monthly missives, but you can’t. Grid-based game reviews are as inevitable as the passing of the seasons.

Dark Deity II has more of the same Shining Force/Fire Emblem-esque game play. Fun weapons, skill, and character class customizations. Too many characters, so you end up ignoring half of them. Though that’s better than ignoring 2/3 of them from the first game.

The voice acting is good. And the writing is mostly okay, though it gets a little wordy and melodramatic when they’re confronting the bad guy boss characters.

The tactical progression through the battle maps is the big selling point of the game. And it does that part quite well. So I’m happy with it.

The Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Final Architecture trilogy ups the stakes throughout this third installment. 

Idris discovers lots more about the nature of the universe. Specifically, the unspeakable thing in unspace that drives sentient minds insane and suicidal. And the masters pulling the strings of both it and the moon-sized, crystalline Architects. But he’s so mentally broken and twitchy that he has a hard time convincing the others of this bigger picture.

I don’t generally like whiny main characters, but Idris was compelling. And Solace, Kris, Havaer, and Olli were thankfully more assertive in each of their own ways.

But first the characters need to deal with Magda super thugs and their unexpected allies. And a weird empire that’s hung around the periphery that gets VERY pissed off with all the human factionalism and other more esoteric concerns, though their chosen means of multiple layers of interpreters gets in the way of communicating that.

One minor quibble. I wish more time had been spent with Idris and Solace’s quasi romance. It was mentioned in passing throughout the series, but never shown very much aside from a few interactions where they leaned on each other for strength. I didn’t really get a sense of actual intimacy between them.

But that’s not enough to hinder my enjoyment. I loved this book. And the whole series. Read it with your ears or eyes!
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

James McGowan Reader Group- Molecules and Electrons, Baby!

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Hey, hey!

I often make a joke/observation that lands about 10 percent of the time, but I like it so much that I don’t care.

Molecules are more expensive than electrons.

It means that publishing on paper costs more than ebooks.  And I’ve found that lots of my readers prefer to pay for that premium to have the physical book for all kinds of reasons.

To sniff when it’s brand new.  (What?  That’s just me?  I think not.)  To dog ear, to flip back to earlier parts and front matter.  To physically see your progress with an official or improvised book mark.

All great stuff about having a physical book to read.

And now, the Players of the Game series is available not just on Amazon, but also Barnes and Noble and Bookshop.org. 

If you have a local bookstore you want to support, totally do it.  Just swing in and have them order from Bookshop.org.  Or order online.
Paperbacks! Click Here for the Whole POTG Series
PLUS!

I’m experimenting with some Amazon ads with a new Repenter Collection. exclusive to ebook.  It collects the Repenter and Brigands novels.  Along with The Hidden Chapters and The Favor bonus novellas.

It’s also available wide on Apple, BN, Kobo, and the rest.

I’ll be altering its description, price, and possibly the cover as time goes on to see what praises the almighty algorithm the best.

Things shall evolve as I work on various initiatives to expand my audience.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Lots of plates spinning right now.  I launched the expanded availability of paperbacks.  And the ongoing experiment with the ebook collection.

And the Secret Fronts bonus novel chugs along.  I’ve reached page 392 with 111,200 words.  That’s 46 pages and 13,200 words for the month.  Pretty good.
 
I will almost certainly have less productivity in May with some various personal stuff on which I’ll be helping.  But any words on the page are a plus.

I’m still looking to release The Breakers sometime in the summer, likely in July.  So that’s also exciting.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

“You want me sick,“ Jarah said. “Never well.”

Corsis shot back with an immediate reply.  “Never stopping.”

She looked at him with eyes glistening. “Never loved.”

He didn’t answer for a long stretch of moments. “Love is beneath us.”

“Beneath us,” Jarah whispered. “As it always was.”
Recommendation Corner
Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Final Architecture Trilogy is rad.

I enjoyed this second entry in the series as much as the first.  Hugh (The Council of Human Interests) and the Parthenon should be getting along now that the Architects have returned.  Just as they did in the war in the distant past.

But they aren’t.

Factions within Hugh with the Magda families have a warped agenda.  One that sees a great deal of threat in the vat-grown Partheni sisterhood.

And Idris Telemmier and the crew of the Vulture God are caught in the middle of everything.  A middle that includes a frantic fire fight against Magda ultra thugs on a planet as a trio of Architects unmake it.  Or plunging into Unspace on a planet of radioactive super flora.

So good.  Highest possible recommendation.

Thunderbolts*

I have a soft spot for the original Thunderbolts team from the 90s with Baron Zemo as the fake hero, Citizen V, leading a team that was secretly the Masters of Evil.  Much of the team ended up becoming conflicted as they grew to like their lives of lies.

This movie has none of that, taking much more from the era when Norman Osborn led the team in the aughts.  Though Norman is not part of this team.

It focuses on a group of anti heroes who must team up after events conspire to end their lives.  And they encounter a seeming civilian named Bob, who becomes central to the conflict of the rest of the story.

Yelena (White Widow) is the main character, who’s carrying a lot of emotional damage from doing wet work throughout her life.  Red Guardian is great comic relief as the washed up Red Guardian and Yelena’s father figure.  Bucky and John Walker (US Agent) are also great in their roles.

I love how the movie’s stakes are more emotional with some trippy super stuff thrown in, rather than a villain who wants to blow up the ocean.  (Blue Laser Commander deep cut for all you Homestar Runner fans.)

It’s the best Marvel movie in a couple of years.  Good stuff.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Paper, Please

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Hey, hey! 

A few months back, I lamented the fall of Game Informer, a cherished video game news magazine.  Well, it appears that they’ve risen from the ashes.  Another outfit bought the IP, rehired all the staffers, and is planning to restart the publication in a few months.

Yay!

I haven’t mentioned this bit of geek news earlier, mainly because I didn’t know how it would shake out.  The main comics distributor, Diamond, declared bankruptcy earlier this year.  They had mismanaged much and a series of events following lock down really hurt them.  Other distributors had picked up the bigger publishers, but things were going to be most annoying for my local comic shop.  Thankfully, a separate toy distributor is poised to buy them.  I’m hoping this makes things less dicey for this other cherished print medium.  It looks cautiously optimistic.

Additional yay!

And I also have paper announcements of my own.

The Players of the Game series paperbacks will have updated spines and back covers in a few weeks. They’ll be wide.  Not just at Amazon.  You’ll be able to order them through Barnes and Nobles and any book store that orders from Ingram.

Triple yay!

Take a look at these proofs.
With my fingers making a guest appearance to steady the spine view.
And after a long delay, the first two bonus novellas will join the third in print.  Both The Hidden Chapters and The Favor now have expanded back matter sections.
Again with my fingers making a steadying appearance for the spine view.
These pics are from the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing proofs with their lovely “Not for Resale” stripes.  I’ll be getting the Draft2Digital proofs soon.  Once they’re ready to go, I’ll release them.

PLUS: I’ll also be releasing the Repenter Collection later this month too.  It collects, Repenter, The Hidden Chapters, The Brigands, and The Favor in one ebook bundle for just $1.99.

Here’s its faux boxed set image.
I’ll send an update with links once everything is ready later in April.

The paperbacks will ultimately get wraparound images that will cover the spines and back covers, so this color-coordinated variety are limited editions.

I’ll have you covered if you’re looking for snazzy molecules (paperbacks) or economical electrons (ebook collections).

Exciting stuff!
Players of the Game Works in Progress
As part of my season of intentionality, I have a bunch of other initiatives in the offing.

With Secret Fronts’ first draft, I’ve reached page 346 with 98,000 words.  That’s 42 pages with 11,700 words for the month.  Not quite as productive as last month, but not bad.

I think I’m on track to release The Breakers by June or July of this year.  I’ll be sharing more info and cover artwork with that release in upcoming newsletters.

I’m jazzed to get this one out in the world.

I’m also exploring Eleven Labs to see if either a voice clone of me or one of their other voices makes sense for putting out audio books. 

I’m kind of on the fence with that, but I’m leaning yes.  Producing an audio book with a voice actor is sadly out of my price comfort zone.  And I personally do a whole lot of my story consumption by audio books.

So it makes sense to put my series in that market. 

Right now, I’m leaning toward making another bargain bundle with The Repenter Collection.  I’d want to make sure it sounds good, so we’ll see where that goes.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Avril: “Did I become the Demonic equivalent of a baby queen bee?”

Solneena: “Maybe. But you’re much prettier if that helps.”

Avril: “I hate you sometimes.”

The Human-guised Sphinx kissed the air in Avril’s direction with an exaggerated smack of her lips.
Recommendation Corner
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is my favorite sci-fi space opera in a good long time.

I enjoy stories where humanity is one of many species, rather than the one alien race versus humans that we often get.  I prefer more of a cosmopolitan setting that mixes antagonistic and sympathetic aliens and humans.

This series has that in spades.

A race of vat-grown warrior women. Swarms of cyborg insects inside robot exoskeletons. Crab-like creatures with billboard advertisements on their arms.  Unkillable symbiote hybrids that can literally come back from getting ripped to shreds.  Giant clams with multiple tentacles that demand worship for their indifferent patronage.

Oh, and moon-sized planet destroyers called Architects that rip apart planets into atomically rearranged abstract art.

And Earth fell victim to that nearly a century earlier.

The Architects withdrew after the mentally altered Intermediaries managed to communicate with them and tell them: “We are here.”

Idris, one of the main characters, was one of them.  He’s a twitchy wreck who’s haunted by the past.  He doesn’t sleep and hasn’t aged.  And he can navigate Unspace.  The haunted in between that allows for FTL travel and drives people mad.

There’s something lurking in it that people insist is imaginary.  But Idris doesn’t believe it.

The various nations and criminal organizations all want him working for them.  Which is why he keeps a knife-wielding lawyer on retainer.  And the threat of the Architects looms large, even if everyone else pretends its history.

I LOVE this book, and will gladly listen to the other two books in this trilogy.  I wish there were more.

The names of the ships are great too.  TheVulture God, the Dark Joan, and the Pythoness being among the most notable.

Highest possible recommendation.

Mickey 17

I’m so glad they can’t unmake movies.

This flick was expensive and didn’t do well.  I think it’s already on streaming.

And I loved it.

Mickey escapes a loan shark by joining a voyage to another planet as an expendable.  His mind gets continually loaded into a series of clone bodies that are used as guinea pigs for alien atmosphere toxins, radiation, and even more ignominious fates.

Until some aliens spare him when his crew assumed he got killed.  And his 18th clone and the 17th now both exist at the same time.  Which is forbidden for a very hilarious reason in the backstory.

The Alamo pre-show revealed that Robert Pattinson based Mickey’s voice on Stimpy, the lovably dumb cartoon cat from the 90s.  And his delivery is fantastic.  Though Mickey is much more dejected than Stimpy’s confident stupidity.

Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette are also great as unhinged religious/political leaders.  They have an unhealthy obsession with sauce.

The caterpillar pachyderm aliens are also interesting and way quirkier than their monstrous appearance would have you believe.

Give it a watch.  It’s good stuff.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

James McGowan Reader Group- Previously in POTG…

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Hey, hey!

We all need refreshers from time to time in the media we consume.

Alamo Drafthouse often does that during its kitchy pre-show videos for various super hero movies.  Streamers will do that for new seasons of their shows with a “Previously in…” preview.

So I shall do the same for the Players of the Game (POTG) saga.

I cannot claim full credit for this idea.  A beta reader friend (Hey, Abe!) recently told me it would be really helpful to include such a wiki-style recap of the events of the prior POTG books.  Just to refresh the reader’s memory of the characters and the overall plot.

So as we edge closer to the release of both the Repenter Ebook Collection and Players of the Game Book 4: The Breakers later this year, I’ve made a new tab on my stelfire.com website.

Recaps.

The Quick Recap list option has a few paragraphs where Corsis recounts the events of the last three books.  I’ll also be including it in the front matter of The Breakers and make updates to it with each subsequent book in the series.

The Detailed Recaps list options have each book with in-depth bullet points that go into greater detail with the plot and character developments.

Warning: Spoilers Abound in this new section.

This is a great resource for returning readers to brush up on the saga with either a quick refresher or a more involved return to the series.  It’ll also help folks that just want to start with the newer books, and read the earlier entries later.  And for people who don’t mind spoiling the plot before they read a book. 

I know a few loved ones who read the last few pages of a book first to see if they’ll like it, so this helps that type of reader too.  Even if I philosophically and respectfully disagree with that story-consuming practice.

This new section will serve all my readers before, during, and after they read any books of the POTG saga.

Again, with spoiler alerts blaring in full, check out my website’s new recaps tab with the link below or on the tab above.
POTG Recaps Tab
Players of the Game Works in Progress
This month’s writing production of Secret Fronts’ first draft lands at page 304 with 86,300 words.  That breaks down to 47 pages with 13,600 words.

That’s a pretty good chunk of wordage.  The key will be keeping up the output to get this draft done sometime this year.

That’s one of my three big writing goals for 2025.  Releasing The Repenter E Book Collection and The Breakers are the other two. 

Assuming no curve balls, I’m think I’m on track for all three.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Ed:  “Where do you want these, Cassandra?”

Cassandra:  “I hate it when you don’t call me Cassie.”

Ed:  “You hate it when I do call you Cassie.”

Cassandra: “Don’t call me that!”
Recommendation Corner
Live Suit by James SA Corey

This was a quick novella read in the Captives War series.  And it presented a different galactic civilization of humanity.  One that didn’t get steamrolled by the aliens like the characters in the first book.

It focuses on a former paramedic who volunteers to be one of the Live Suit soldiers.  The armor is never removed, functioning as a second skin with a helmet that hides the user’s face.  It repairs all harm inflicted on its wearer.

However, its effects on the wearers’ sense of reality soon show themselves.  Forgetting little moments with loved ones.  The fanatical resolve to beat the aliens at any cost.

And the war is so vast that the soldiers fighting it have no clue if they’re winning or losing.

It’s a cool glimpse into the bigger conflict of the series.  And while the story is bleak for its characters, it shows that the aliens still have a long way to go before their ultimate victory.

Jefferson Mays does a great job as usual with the audio narration.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

This is a bit softer of a recommendation, but the characters were compelling enough to make me listen through large chunks at one go.  So the author was doing something right with this yarn.

It takes place in a world where people with superpowers are urban legends who hide on the fringes.  Extra Ordinaries.  EOs.

It focuses on two former friends who hate each other.  Victor Vale and Eli Ever.  They have a tragic origin that’s gradually revealed in flashbacks as they amass allies in secret to combat each other.

Neither are heroes, though one professes to be one.  Even as he becomes a serial killer of other innocent EOs.

They are both flawed and damaged people.  Victor is the book’s protagonist.  He is cruel and self-centered, but also quite compelling in his quest for vengeance against Eli.

And nothing will stop him from getting it.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

James McGowan Reader Group- Grind and Flow

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Hey there!

There’s a particular feeling I often strive to achieve whenever I’m creating stories.  Where the ideas transcend words, and I just go with whatever the characters are doing.

Entering a flow state.

Sadly, I can’t always achieve that.  The mental gears grind more than I’d like.  And honestly, I think that’s also fine.  For me at least, I think grinding is needed to make the times when words flow all the more rewarding.

It’s my philosophy on other up and down phases of life.  Post holiday winter drudgery makes summer vitality and extra daylight seem all the better.

Of course, that’s just me.  Certain loved ones in my life would prefer to skip to fall.

A meandering way to say that I always try to value the whole process, easy and hard.  And know that when times of grind present themselves, I push through them.

There’s always more flow state creation on the other side.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
This month’s writing productivity comes in at Page 257 with 72,700 words for Secret Fronts’ first draft.  That’s an output of 46 pages and 13,100 words for the first month of the year. 

Pretty good, all things considered.  I’ll see if I can keep up the momentum.

Plans are still afoot to release a Repenter ebook collection of the first two novels and first two novellas.  And also The Breakers following that.

All good stuff.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Gath:  “Is that misanthropese for yes?”

Quandric:  “Yes. You disrespectful @$$hole.”

Gath:  “You love me anyway.”

Quandric:  “I really don’t.”

Gath:  “Then I just have to love you that much more.”
Recommendation Corner
Radiant Black by Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa

This one is a recommendation due to its sheer ambition alone.  I heard the author Kyle Higgins talking on a podcast about his Massive-verse through Image comics.  His log line hooked me.

Power Rangers with adult problems.

It’s in the “tokusatsu” transforming hero genre with others like Ultra Man, which I have fond memories of watching as a kid.  I read the catch-up 16 page comic on www.radiant.black (best use of a non dot com ever), and decided to give it a whirl.

With the 6th trade paperback.  Halfway through the Catalyst War story line.  I do that sometimes.

I didn’t quite understand the objectives of the invaders, or what their win condition was.

But I really dug the dual timelines where the Marshall character went dark and amassed power and the other where he was powerless and his friend, Nathan, was Radiant Black instead.

This is not for everyone.  But I think I’m going to dive into the back catalogue on this.

I love discovering new comics series that I enjoy with a ton of back issues.

Icons Unearthed on Amazon Prime

The Nacelle Company of Toys That Made Us fame has a bunch of limited series on Prime that dive into the back stories of a bunch of movie series.

Some are better than others.

The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars ones had some interesting tidbits of which I wasn’t aware.  Anthony Daniels recollections of working on the original trilogy are especially compelling.  BTW- His name is pronounced “An-tony” without the “H”, which was news to me.

The Batman one was okay, but it really threw the old 60s TV show under the bus to prop up the Burton movies.  Basically saying it was worthless.  I think it has value as a comedy.  And they spent next to no time on the 90s animated series, which is probably the best version of Batman in my reckoning.

So your mileage may vary.  Still, if you’re into multi-part docu-series, you could do worse.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

A Season of Intentionality

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Happy New Year!

As has been my pattern for the past few years, I like to share a yearly theme that doesn’t have a fail state like a New Year’s Resolution.  So no specific “do X by Y date” type of stuff.  It’s more mindset and behavior based.  And even the timeline is not annual, it can be a season that’s shorter or longer than 365 days.

This season, I’m going with intentionality.  Personally, that means specifically making time for friends and family.  With my writing pursuits, that means to keep outputting words on the page.  And also getting new stuff released into the world.

To be intentional about sharing the epic Players of the Game saga with all of you. 

I’ll talk more about that in the works in progress section.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
As part of the intentionality theme for this year, I have both the Breakers and the Repenter Collection in the hopper.

The Repenter Collection is an e-book bargain boxed set that collects Book 1: Repenter, Book 1.5: The Hidden Chapters, Book 2: The Brigands, and Book 2.5: The Favor.  My graphic designer just gave me the cover components, and I’m hoping to get it released in the first half of 2025.

The Breakers will come out after that in both e-book and print.

With the Secret Fronts work in progress, I’m up to page 211 with 59,600 words.  Which makes it 23 pages and 6900 words since the last newsletter from a few weeks back.

It’s a shorter time frame on this round, but I’ll still aim to up the productivity for the next month.

The key is to keep moving.  So I shall.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Goodspeed:  “I’m in. But my reason for agreeing to this is not high minded. I don’t actually want to win so much as I want my grandfather to lose. The Game. And everything else. That’s what I want more than victory. More than a lot of things.”
Recommendation Corner
Mercy of Gods: Captives War, Book 1 by James S.A. Corey

The pair of Expanse authors have released a new sci-fi series under their Corey pen name. 

This time, it’s about a humanity that’s on an alien planet with a separate set of biological natives, but they’ve been there for thousands of years and they don’t know how they got there.

That ends up being more of a longer term mystery, because they are soon ruthlessly conquered by an empire led by giant sort of crab, sort of centipede aliens.  And in a pithy comment by one of the POV characters: “They are all assholes.”

Dafyd Alkhor is the main character of the ensemble that gets shanghaied to the alien homeworld, and he spends much of the book trying to figure out how their new alien overlords think.

The authors make a smart move with bridge sections that talk about how the aliens are ultimately brought low.  I generally don’t like “we’re stuck in prison” plot lines, so that explicit foreshadowing helped keep me engaged with the rest of the compelling story.

But humans are nowhere near that victorious outcome just yet. 

Humanity is thoroughly humbled throughout the book.  Dafyd and his brilliant scientist colleagues are tasked with figuring out how to make food edible from one alien flora to another alien fauna.  All while other competitor captive species try to sabotage them.  And the opposing side of the aliens’ war reveals itself in an invasive parasitic form.

Jefferson Mays does another fantastic job of performing the characters and narrating the story.

Good stuff.

Nosferatu (2024)

Robert Eggers’s take on the century-old, Weimar Republic-era silent film is incredibly well shot.

The movie riffs on the Dracula story with a lot of differences with Count Orlok played by with unearthly menace by Bill Skarsgard.  Including his epic mustache, that is a visual but cool departure from the completely hairless original version.

The movie’s use of shadows is really striking.  And all of the actors do a great job.  I’ll call out the doctor character played with understated grim pragmatism by Ralph Ineson.  Anyone who’s played Diablo 4 will also recognize him as the voice of Lorath.  Which was a cool bonus.

This movie really makes the vampire seem more like an animated corpse than an urbane killer.  And his influence on the town upon his arrival is depicted as a plague smashing through town.

The sound of him gulping down blood is just unsettling.

The climax also makes a cool twist to the typical “exploit a vampire’s weakness” solution. I’m not the biggest horror fan, but this was absolutely worth seeing.  Especially if you like creepy cinema.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Unexpected Upgrades

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Hey hey!

This has been a month-and-a-half of some technological and project pivoting on my part.

I upgraded my laptop.  I really like the feel of the new keyboard.  My prior computer actually had a pretty decent one, but this new machine is an upgrade I didn’t know I needed.  It’s a Sager in case you’re wondering.

I’m a person who customizes all kinds of stuff on new devices.  Very few out-of-the-box defaults for me.  Adjusting everything to my preferred specifications took a few days.

Plus I just discovered Libre Writer.  It’s an open source word processing program that can save .docx files.  It’s totally up my alley.  Fantastic for writing first drafts before they get moved into Scrivener, ProWritingAid, and Atticus for the next drafts.  But Libre Office too required a goodly number of configuring steps on my part.

Then I encountered a sudden need to type up a wiki document for the Players of the Game series for an editor who will be working with me on the Game War.  I churned out 73 pages or 23,500 words in a marathon session of about a week and a half, ran it through PWA, and sent it on its merry way.
 
I’ll be making some updates to the wiki and sharing a good deal of that content on my website and possibly Wikipedia down the road.

All good changes.  But they do result in pushing other projects later than expected. 

Such as monthly blog entries.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Wuf.  I mentioned above that other projects got pushed aside with my new writing gear adjustments and the sudden wiki project.

That definitely hit Secret Fronts’ productivity.  I’m at 188 pages with 52,700 words.  Which makes it 33 pages and 9200 words for the month.

BUT.  I also wrote 73 pages with 23,500 words in that Wiki.  So I was not slouching with the writing.

I’m guessing this coming month will also be lower with Secret Fronts’ word count, as I plan to have the next newsletter out shortly after New Year’s Day, so that’s fewer days between this one and that one.

I’m definitely not worried.  I’m writing.  Just not all with the latest POTG work in progress.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Nadia: “I swear I’m going to slap you if you keep invoking luck, Inventor.”
Recommendation Corner
Conclave

I think this smaller run movie is out of theaters, but I saw it last month, and I highly recommend it.

It surrounds the election of a new pope with a whole lot of infighting and political maneuvering.

Ralph Fiennes’s cardinal character is really compelling as a man who doesn’t aspire to the papacy and just wants the conclave to make the right choice.

His speech about the dangers of certainty really felt prescient to me.

This movie might rankle some folks with some of its plot twists, but I’m a Catholic, and I took no offense to it.

Either way, give it a watch on a streamer whenever it shows up if you’re in the mood for a tense drama for grownups.

Eversion by Alistair Reynolds

This was an interesting sci-fi novel that initially pretends to be a historical exploration adventure.

Dr. Silas Coade is on an 18th century ship exploring a remote icy passage once trod by another ship.  Writing novels in his spare time and dealing with opiate addictions.
 
Or is it on a steamship a century later?  Or aboard a dirigible journeying into a hollow earth?

Events seem to be looping.  Something to do with eversion, the geometric term for turning a sphere inside out.  And the doctor knows something is off.  But he’s not the only one.

The narrator on the audio book, Harry Myers, does a fantastic job as well.

Give it a try if you’re looking for something a bit mind bendy.
Promo Corner
Smashwords is running another sale.  And the Players of the Game series is part of it. 

My books are between 75% to 100% off and are available as part of a promotion on Smashwords through January 1 as part of their 2024 End of Year Sale.

This is a chance to get my books, along with books from many other great authors.

You will find the promo here and on the image above:
https://www.smashwords.com/she…

Feel free to share this promo with friends and family.

Happy reading!
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

James McGowan Reader Group- Need an Escape?

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Hey, hey!

Stressed about various world and/or national events over which you have little control?

Me too.

But I have a mental oasis that helps me.  Creating and expanding the Players of the Game series.

And I have a few cool items to perhaps help you as well.

First up, take a look above on the an epic rendering of Ashe Stelfire facing off against Svithe.
And Check Out the The Brigands to Witness the Ashe and Svithe’s Battle
Get The Brigands
Players of the Game Works in Progress
I was talking to some friends the other day, and I mentioned the latest stats of my work-in-progress bonus novella.  They kindly observed that this has crossed the threshold into bonus novel territory.

I can’t deny it.  I’m currently on page 155 with 43,500 words with Secret Fronts.  That’s around 43 pages and 11,900 words for this month.

Yes, this is definitely a bonus novel.  I’m maybe 45%-55% finished with it too.  The first parts deal with some disturbing hidden history in hidden worlds.  And the later parts will deal with the fallout from the events of The Game War.

Onward!
Recommendation Corner
Bicentennial Summer by Chris Poore.

Full disclosure: Chris is an indie writer friend of mine, so I fully admit that I’m biased.  I also don’t generally read in the nostalgia teenage drama genre.  I’m much more of a sci-fi, fantasy, or thriller reader.

But I liked his debut novel, Bicentennial Summer.  It features the main character, Cole, navigating through a tough couple of weeks leading up to 4th of July 1976.

Helping his friend deal with the death of his father, friction with a new kid in town who engages in a love triangle with Cole’s childhood friend, and dealing with the shady behavior of several adults in his small Nebraska town.

It made me immensely glad I left that stuff behind in my teenage years.  But either way, the story is a compelling yarn. 

Give it a read.

Babs by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows

I recently read through the first three issues of this series from Ahoy Comics.

It hooked me with a cursed ghost knight accidentally creeping on Babs while she was taking a bath in a pond.  And the ghost knight’s ghost girlfriend/co-worker mercilessly teases him for it.  All while they ask Babs for directions to the kingdom they’re supposed to haunt.

It’s a fun parody of a Conan Hyperborean world with a Red Sonja analogue main character who’s adept at killing and raiding.  But crap at everything else.

Some of the satire is a bit on the nose with a literal troll character who acts like an incel internet troll.  But it’s still enjoyable.

Her talking sword that bickers with her, and whines in pain when she uses it, is another stand out funny bit.

Give it a look.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.

Faux Praise from Faux Hosts of a Faux Podcast

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Hey there!

AI news and new services are inescapable these days. 

Scary stuff like deep fakes attempting to sow disinformation.  Anxiety with the implications of fast generated art and writing.  And uncanny interesting things.

I’ll be talking about the last one.

Google recently launched a new service called Notebook LM.  Authors or other users can upload stuff from Google docs or PDFs into a local/private instance.  You can do it with anything like emails or even bank statements.  I, of course, loaded up the PDFs of my three novels and three bonus content novellas.

You can then ask it questions about the aggregated content.  And it will come back with something that’s kinda right some of the time. 

It’s experimental and it shows.  Here’s an excerpt example when I asked it to give me a list of named characters from the series:

“Svithe: A mysterious peddler who deals in rare and valuable items. He is shrouded in secrecy, his true face concealed by bandages. He possesses extensive knowledge of Trojis’s history and political landscape, and often uses his knowledge to manipulate events to his advantage. As revealed in our conversation, Svithe is a guise of Corsis, a powerful, god-like being who orchestrates events for his own amusement.”

Not bad.  It doesn’t mention Sufrinzon.  But it’s decent.

“Avril: A skilled warrior and the daughter of Iuar and Zirva. She is introduced alongside Svithe at the docks. She is fiercely independent and possesses a strong moral compass.”

Misspellings abound, and Avril is introduced well before she meets Svithe.

“Gnorok: A red-skinned Merfenar (a race in Trojis) who is initially partnered with Rasphir and Runanker. He is interested in acquiring the “Ruul Kand,” a powerful artifact hidden by Uraulings.”

The misspellings completely screw this one up along with confabulations like Merfenar instead of Murdrake.

Yes, definitely not ready for prime time.  Very fascinating, even at this nascent stage.  However, there’s something that’s even more interesting.

A podcast summary hosted by two incredibly realistic-sounding AI hosts. If you want to give it a listen, the link is below.  It lasts about 10 minutes.  PLEASE NOTE: You’ll need to log into a Google account to listen to it.  Also, I might be having it try another iteration by October 18, 2024, so the link might be broken if you listen after that.
Check Out the AI Podcast if you have a Google account
I have a fact check commentary in the post below. But here are my big picture thoughts. 

You know that scene in Billy Madison where he completely BS’s his way through an oral test asking about the Industrial Revolution?

“The industry, my friends.  That was the revolution.”

And the moderator’s response: “I award you no points.  And may God have mercy on your soul.”

I kinda feel like that.  It deemed the heroes of the second book as the villains.  Epic fail.  And much of the praise was generic “what does it mean to be human” stuff that you could say about just about any story.

But I can’t award it no points.  The quality of the back-and-forth with the hosts, and some of the stuff it got right like the kliosts.

This is something that might be able to help out a lot of people writing large projects.  Not yet.  But it might.  I’ll be most interested to see where it is in a year or two.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
I’ve got a good flow going with Secret Fronts.  I’m up to page 112 with 31,600 words.  So that’s 41 pages with 12,000 words this month. 

I had a few off weeks this past month, but I’m still happy with the progress of the first draft.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

“I should have listened to him.” The Master of the Game slapped his hand on his chair’s leather arm. “I’ll rectify that mistake. And a few others while I’m at it.”
Recommendation Corner
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2

This is the softest of recommendations.

Yes, this show is overblown.  Some of the plot lines are borderline or beyond borderline pointless.  I’m still not sure I’m sold on feisty warrior Galadriel.

But by golly.  This show did something I didn’t think was possible.  (Minor spoiler ahead.)

It got me to enjoy a story line with Tom Bombadil.  His interaction with the Stranger was cool.  As was the test that ultimately yielded him the name I wanted him to say.  And the song they sang on the season finale.  I just liked it.

I thought Sauron’s manipulation of the elf blacksmith and later coercion in crafting the dwarf and human rings was decent, but a little plodding.

But dang, that Battle of Eregion was pretty cool.  I took a look at the LOTR Appendices, and I’ll be most interested to see how they finish out the Numenor plot line and the founding of Gondor beyond it.

This show is aggressively mediocre.  But I’ll watch the next season.

Unicorn Overlord

Oh, my.  I love this game.

An anime-style Ogre Battle homage.  Shut up and take my money.

It has squad based real-time movements with battles that occur based on the squad formation.  Promoting units.  Expanding the squads.  Liberating a continent town-by-town.  It is sublime.

It’s not completely perfect.  The writing is a little generic and the lack of an unhinged howl for the werewolf characters is a gargantuan missed opportunity.  But these are minor quibbles.

This is one of my favorite games of the 21st century.  It’s right up there with Symphony of War from a few years ago.

So fun!
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Click here to view the original format.