James McGowan Reader Group- Telling the Good Stories

Hi there.

So much of our lives involves stories.  Not just the fictional ones we consume in various media, but the non-fictional ones that we’ve each lived.  The ones that we recount when we gather with friends and family at happy occasions, and also sad ones.

I recently attended the funeral of my grandfather.  While he had been in decline over the last few years, he passed away somewhat  quickly and it was thankfully non-Covid related.  One thing that really heartened me was all the stories that recounted his wry and stoic personality.  A quintessential cowboy who lived 93 years, who could recite poetry he learned in school, and still had a hankerin’ to ride a horse, though he wisely stopped a few years back.  He also had a sweet tooth for off-brand lemon Oreo’s, which grand kids and great grand kids also greatly enjoyed.

He’ll certainly be missed.  And I’m glad the good stories of his life will be told for years to come.  Next time,you wander down memory lane with those you care about, take a moment to appreciate everyone who’s telling the tales and listening to them.  They won’t be there forever.
Recommendation Corner
The Suicide Squad (2021 Movie)

I’m part of the problem with this movie’s box office under performance.  I watched it on HBO Max without guilt, and I loved it.  This movie lived up to it’s name much better than the 2016 version.  It involves a large team of conscripted villains who must carry out a mission in a fictional Latin American country in exchange for reduced sentences, or get their heads exploded.  Despite the ridiculous characters, you actually come to care for them.  King Shark is sure to be many people’s favorite with his line: “Num num?”  My favorite was Polka Dot Man and his mom.  Hilarious and awesome.  Check it out.

Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tcalkovsky

This book has a cool twist on the typical fantasy race fare.  They are all human with insect “kinden” sub groups.  Flies are short and can conjure wings, Beetles are stocky and persistant, Wasps are flying, stinging @ssholes just like their insect counterparts, and so on.  The story revolves around an over-the-hill Beetle spymaster/professor who  must recruit some of his brightest students for a secret mission against the encroaching Wasp empire.  It also has an interesting debuff for a lot of the characters where some cannot figure out how to use any form of technology, while others cannot acknowledge magic even when its effects are used in plain view.  There are many more books in this series, so I’ll likely be recommending other parts of the series in future installments.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Food Faves

Hey hey!

I have been enjoying a bit more fun in the sun with friends and family.  I’ve also been returning to get some take out from some favorite restaurants.  The Central Great Plains and Colorado have a regional outfit called Old Chicago.  They make deep dish pizzas that are fantastic.  The Thai Chicken pizza is my favorite.  It has sweet Thai sauce instead of pizza sauce, so it’s more specialty than traditional, but oh my do I love it.  So good.

Backyard barbecues have also been something I’ve sorely missed this past year.  My wife and I hung out with some friends recently on their patio where they made us some A+ burgers and Polish sausages.  I announced that I would eat the h*** out that grilled foodage.  And eat the h*** out of it I most certainly did.

I’m also marinating some steaks with a mixture of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce and brown sugar.  I’ll be searing them and then using the trusty sous vide.  It shall be epic.

These are all summer treats for me.  I usually skew more on the herbivore end of my omnivore diet.  I enjoy making black bean rice bowls and a soup concoction that I call chili veggie soupy.

Do you have any fave foods that you recommend either from restaurants or that you make?
Recommendation Corner
Reckless by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

I’m a a big fan of this creative team’s crime comics.  This hardcover trade focuses on a man named Ethan Reckless in the early 1980’s.  He’s sort of a low-grade, sloppy, one-man A-Team.  He was once an FBI undercover agent that infiltrated a violent anti-war group in the late years of the Vietnam War.  It ended badly, leaving him with a scar.  He now makes ends meet by working out of a closed movie theater and hiring himself out to people who need help with a non-advertised 800 number.  People who are often shady with conflicting agendas.  Things start going sideways when a woman from his undercover past reaches out to him.  Great dialogue, gritty art, and realistic violence.  Check it out.

The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie

The First Law series is always fun for a grim-dark fantasy world.  It’s a mix of steampunk colliding with a more savage land of Norse vikings.  The wry humor in the narrative and dialogue is my favorite part.  The POV characters all think they’re in the right, but almost always do the wrong thing that achieves the exact opposite result of their intentions.  This is most true for Leo, a heroic idiot who is easy to manipulate, especially by the ambitious Savine.  The foppish Prince Orso emerges as the most likable character as civil war creeps closer and closer.  Steven Pacey does a great job with the audio book reading with many distinct voices.  Give it a read or listen.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- The New Players Are Here

Howdy.

The New Players is now available on Amazon in print and Kindle Unlimited.  Give it a look.

It’s a big expansion in the Player of the Game saga with characters like Ed Burnhelt who face off against Corsis and the Game.  The New Players will interact with Ashe and Avril in the upcoming books.

I’m excited to share it with you!
Grab the New Players on Amazon
Recommendation Corner
Invincible

I binged through the cartoon on Amazon Prime, then I binged through the comic series on Comixology.  Both had Robert Kirkman’s involvement.  He created the Walking Dead comic and show.  At a very high level, the blurb for the series is what if a Superboy-type character had to take over for a Superman-type character.  Both versions are very graphic, showing the gory consequences of what a super-powered fights would do to bodies and infrastructure.  The ensemble cast is great.  The character of Amber in particular is vastly better in the show with far more depth than her comic counterpart.  I’ll be interested to see where they take that character in future seasons.  Walton Goggins as Cecil is also a standout performance.  Watch the show first, then read the first 12 trades of the comic for free on Comixology Unlimited.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I loved the Martian and liked Artemis.  This novel surpasses both of them.  The story centers on an amnesiac astronaut named Grace who has figure out why a single celled organism is feeding on the sun and how to stop it.  He’s both an anti Walter White from Breaking Bad and an anti Mark Watney from the Martian.  If you’re able, grab the audiobook version.  Ray Porter gives an excellent performance and a particular character definitely benefits from the audio aspect.  Very good stuff.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Shaking the Magic 8 Ball

Howdy!

Things might be looking up.  Or maybe we’re actually upside down and we’re looking down.  I have no idea.

Will things get to a point where we can… gasp… safely visit friends in family in small to medium groups?  Will the quaran-times endure?  Let’s find out with the magic 8 ball.

Me: “Magic 8 ball, when shall the plague at last break?”

(Shaking motion)

Magic 8 ball: “Outlook hazy.  Ask again later.”

Me: “Some help you are…”

In all seriousness, find fun and happiness where you can.  Sooner or later, this season shall end.
Recommendation Corner
How To by Randall Munroe

XKCD is one of my favorite web comics.  Munroe’s prior book, What If, asked absurd questions such as what would happen if the oceans of Earth were transferred to Mars.  This book takes the opposite track by asking sensible questions and providing absurd answers.  One of my favorites is how to throw things.  It eventually devolves into an exercise where quarterbacks are throwing blenders, and singers throwing microwave ovens.  Silly stuff that’s absolutely worth a read.

Powers: The Best Ever by Brian Bendis and Michael Oeming

This graphic novel is most likely the conclusion of the Powers saga.  I’ve been a fan of this comic book since the late 90’s.  It’s a street level homicide detective story that takes place in an exceptionally violent and unsafe world of superheroes.  One of the detectives, Christian Walker, used to have powers that granted him flight and strength.  But those are gone now, and he is aging.  An old enemy with an old grudge doesn’t care.  He will make Walker pay. It’s a great send off for the characters of the series.  Really well done.  Check it out.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- The New Players are Coming.

Hey there!

Things just might be turning a few corners.  The weather’s getting warmer.  I got my second jab.  And I got a new book coming out next month.

It’s called “The New Players”.  They live in a brighter world. But their future is dark.
 
Here’s a preview of its cover with Ed Burnhelt and his ally Tamona facing off against the cyborg goddess, Hekati.  It’s part of the promo below and you can also purchase it on Amazon in June.
Recommendation Corner
The Unmade Podcast

I got into this podcast a few months ago and it is fantastic.  Brady Haran, an educational Youtuber, and Tim Hein, his old buddy from grade school, each talk about ideas for new podcasts.  But that’s just the frame work.  It’s mostly about two old friends joking around with made up sports, spoons of the week, and a glorious number of renditions of the Sofa Shop jingle.  Their jolly banter is very much something the world needs right now.  Give it a listen.

Later by Stephen King

Say what you will, but King is a first-rate storyteller.  The story involves a boy who can see dead people.  King steers into the skid by getting the Sixth Sense comparison out of the way early.  Jamie is a great character, and his interactions with both living and dead characters are believable and gripping, especially with a particular mad bomber.  The audio book narrator, Seth Numrich, gives a great performance as well, both nuanced and punchy.  Check it out.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- LitCon Weekend

Howdy, all. LitCon is this weekend.  If you’re interested in taking a look at the works of other indie authors, feel free to take a look at their site and the Youtube channel.  I’ll also be participating in a panel or two. Also, check out the books on the LitCon 2021 Giveaway.  Cool stories await!
LitCon.org LitCon on Youtube LitCon Book Giveaway
Players of the Game Artist Spotlight
I work with a few artists for cover and website content with my Players of the Game series.  Mikhail Palamarchuk is especially good, and I’ve featured a few of his finished works in the past.

I’ll provide him a description of a character along with images that match the vibe of what I’m wanting.

Here’s a great example with Violet.  She’s a Skin Bot, an android-type character who appears in the upcoming New Players novel.  First, I get a rough sketch:
Then I give Mikhail feedback, and he provides me iterations based on my notes to arrive at the finished version.

I have him give me a variety of styles, either a higher-detail airbrush style, or a lower-detail comic book style. 

The finished version of Violet is the latter. Mikhail’s stuff is just plain rad.  That’s right.  Rad.
You can view more of his even better stuff including several of my Players of the Game characters on his ArtStation page.
Mikhail Palamarchuk’s ArtStation Page
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Looking Down the Road

Howdy, all.

Much of my neck of the woods got the deep freeze treatment for the past few weeks.  If you were affected by the polar vortex in the US, I hope things have gotten better for you as time has gone on.  Things seem to be getting better as somewhat warmer temperatures creep back in.

As spring peeks around the corner, I have a positive outlook for the future right now.  After months of being cooped up indoors with the cold, and many months more of doing the social distance thing, I am hopeful that things might get back to some form of normalcy toward late summer and fall.  More vaccines appear to be ramping up in the US, which is a welcome development.

I will be attending another virtual round of LitCon in early March (5th through 7th).  Check out their site.  It’s free to attend.  I have a virtual booth in the fantasy section.  In April, I’ll be attending the Nebraska Writers Guild virtual conference as well. 

On top of that, I’ll be releasing The New Players in March or April.  It will focus on new characters who must contend with Corsis and his ally, Hekati the Unmaker.
Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Hekati
Hekati has many guises.  The cyborg goddess is but one.  She cultivates flowers that twist bodies and minds to her will.

She is featured prominently on the upcoming New Players cover.  More on that next month, or you can get an advanced peak of it on my LitCon virtual booth with the link above.
Recommendation Corner
Onward

This Pixar movie came out last March just as the pandemic was really hitting the US.  It’s a shame that it didn’t get more recognition.  My wife and I recently watched it on Disney+.  It takes place in a world populated by mythological people like elves, satyrs, and centaurs where magic was shunted aside by technology because tech is easier.  The plot focuses on two elf brothers voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt who go on a quest involving their deceased father.  If you want to see a buddy/brother movie with Spider-Man and Starlord (or at least their voices), check it out.

Autonomous by Amalee Newitz

This novel takes place a few hundred years from now where nations appear to have reorganized in alignment with giant pharma companies.  Human life has been extended, but inequality still reigns with designer medicines largely unavailable to the larger populace.  One main character, a female rogue scientist named Jack, tries to help the downtrodden with free medicine that she pirates from pharma companies.  She finances it with her side business of selling recreational drugs, but that goes wrong when people start working themselves to death as a result of a side effect of a drug she pirated.  Eliasz, a stoic government agent, hunts for her while having an increasingly confused working relationship with his robot partner, Paladin.  It’s a believable future that could totally come to pass.  Good stuff.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- The New Music Binge-o-rama

Happy New Year, everyone.

Winter is here.  Lots of snow.  Lots of fear and anger.  Show someone that you care about them however you can. Perform a little act to kindness. If Gandalf says it keeps the darkness at bay, then I think it’s worth a try.

I’ve been trying out other new inputs as well.  I go through phases where I listen to music while I’m writing.  Other times I need it quiet.  Right now is definitely a music kinda mood for me. 

The big trends for me right now are epic sounding instrumental stuff like the Mad Max Fury Road soundtrack, Archangel by Two Steps from Hell, the Darkest Dungeon soundtrack, and many others.  I will also admit that I’m fond of some non-screamy metal these days.  I’ve been digging some classic Iron Maiden and another band I’ll specifically call out in recommendation corner below.

If you have any epic instrumental music that you like and want to recommend, feel free to let me know.
New Players of the Game Release
The Brigands: The Favor is now available on Kindle for just 99 cents.  The novella focuses on ViRauni.   You can’t go home again, especially when it’s infested by a brain-hacked horde. Get it now.
Recommendation Corner
Theater of Dimensions by Xandria

I’ll preface this with the admission that metal is not for everyone.  This German group transcends the genre in my reckoning.  The leader singer channels powerful operatic melodies akin to Tarja, with a lot of cool riffs and drums from the rest of the band.  Wikipedia says that the band is inactive after the lead singer left the group.  If the band is done, then they left on literal and figurative a high note.

Thin Air by Richard K Morgan

I do enjoy dystopian cyber punk when it’s done right.  This novel definitely falls in that category.  Hakan Veil is an enhanced human enforcer called an Over Rider who is stuck in the urban sprawl of the Mars colony.  He gets drafted by a local cop to babysit a colonial auditor, and conflicting agendas from multiple sources quickly raise the stakes.  Colin Mace reads the audio book version with world-weary grit.  Very compelling stuff.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- A Season of Better Inputs

Howdy, Party People.

As we stare back at the sucknado that was March through December of 2020, I think it’s a good idea to keep a few things in mind.  Just as 2020 did not immediately start as a rancid dumpster fire (at least in the US), it will not stop burning just because paper calendars have been replaced and electronic ones tick forward to 2021. 

Still, there is something to be said for the symbolic turning turning of the calendar page. And that is better than nothing.  Let us hope the vaccines help get us out of the “gap” and into the new and improved normal.

As part of this, I personally am going to try striving for a season of better inputs. 

For me, here’s what that means: Keeping most news at arms length and averting my attention from the anger and fear like they’re part of a horrible traffic accident.  The truly important stuff will find its way to me in one way or another.  Wasting less time on social media and more time reading the books and comics in my backlog.  Consuming only compelling video content, not filler.  While I do a halfway decent job of eating healthy, I could be better, and I’ll aim to do just that. 

Will I stumble?  Definitely.  Will I keep on trying?  That’s the theme for the year.  Get better inputs in my life.  An off day does not mean the season is ruined.  It’s just an off day.

As a side note, I totally stole this idea from a CGP Grey Youtube video I saw earlier this year.  Type in “CGP Grey Themes” and you’ll find it.

Perhaps you can think of a personal theme of the season as well.
Players of the Game Updates
I plan to release The Brigands: The Favor novella sometime soon.  It will be for a buck on Amazon in Kindle form only.  It focuses on ViRauni as she returns someplace she long ago abandoned.

I’m finished up with the latest draft of the Breakers.  I have it sent out to beta readers and will soon send it off to my editor.  I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out.  And the preliminary cover is quite neat too.  I’ll share that down the road.

Currently, I’m working on the next “.5” novella, “The Breakers: Jagged Pieces”.  It’s an extended epilogue and bridge between Book 4 and Book 5.  I’m enjoying it so far.

Here’s an image of Nirva Iniv, one of the main villains from the series.  She is Avril’s sadistic mother.  She wanted to save the world once upon a time.  Now, she wants it under her heel.
December Recommendations
Pearl Harbor Minute By Minute by Time Ghost

Time Ghost’s World War II channel put together one of their best real time documentaries yet with this five-hour recounting of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  As a History major, it’s right in my wheel house, or at least my home office.  It was really well done and did an excellent job of remaining objective, while showing the darkness of modern war.  It also presented FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech in its entirety.  Say what you will about the man, he could orate with the best of them.  A very well done series.  As the hosts like to say: “Never Forget!”

Gideon Falls by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino

This comic series is almost over with an issue to go, so it might be worth waiting for various collected editions.  I’ll avoid spoiling too much.  It starts with a focus on two main characters.  A seemingly-unstable person named Norton wears a surgical mask (this comic was made pre-Covid) and searches through garbage heaps for splinters of a dire black barn in the city of Gideon Falls.  An alcoholic priest named Wilfred is assigned to a small town, also named Gideon Falls, and has to team up with a local sheriff when bad stuff involving a black barn also starts creeping into town.  If you like mind-bendy sci-fi horror, this series is for you.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe. 

And Happy New Year!

Jim

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James McGowan Reader Group- Tales from LitCon

Hi, all.

This past weekend I virtually attended LitCon.  It was a gathering of indie authors that had several interesting panels, and break out discussions.  I attended a world building panel moderated by AF Stewart where we talked about social structures, classes, and other fun stuff.  CL Gaber was also part of the discussion, which was a treat.

I also chatted with several other very engaging authors like Richard White, Joe Compton, and Karina Kantas.  It was an invigorating experience.

Lots of the panel content and discussions are posted on the LitCon Facebook Page.  Feel free to give them a watch.
November Recommendations
Mandalorian Season 2.

I’m current up through episode 4.  This is the best Star Wars iteration of the Disney Era.  Hands down.  They do a fantastic job with the western in space vibe.  I loved seeing Timothy Oliphant in it.  And Baby Yoda (aka The Child) remains very cute and continues to eat all kinds of… well, basically anything that moves that is smaller than him.  I gotta wonder if the Yoda race is some kind of group of apex predators.  The effects are also very close to movie quality.  I enjoy it.

Interrogation.

This is a game on Steam.  It’s a visual novel that takes place in a city that’s under threat from a domestic terrorist organization.  You play a cop who’s the head of the task force that’s trying to stop them from blowing up buildings.  The writing is very tight, and you get in some very morally grey situations in your drive to try to zero in on the terrorists.  A compelling game for those who liked Choose Your Own Adventure novels back in the late 20th century.
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

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