James McGowan Reader Group- We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Newsletter…

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Howdy!

So. I’ve had an interesting week.

My area in the middle of the US got hit by what I’ve been calling a 30-minute land hurricane. It shredded through a bunch of mature trees in my city, many of which broke a lot of power grid infrastructure. And it resulted in a whole lot of houses being without power for days. Mine included. In 90 and 100 degree F heat. With stagnant, nigh-windless air, which made opening the windows an empty gesture.

I do not subscribe.

Thankfully, while widespread, the storm didn’t knock out the majority of the city’s power. So we’ve both helped other family members and leveraged help from others. We have a pretty friendly community and neighborhood, so we’ve not had to worry about jerky behavior.

This is sadly not my first rodeo with a lengthy power outage, though the last time was 16 years earlier. My wife and I slogged through a few days reading analogue media using daylight and then nice flashlights. But we tapped out yesterday. I’m currently writing this in a hotel room, leveraging my new Nord VPN service.

I’m counting my blessings on this. It’s miles better than it could have been. We suffered no property damage. It’s not winter, where we’d have to worry about snow, freezing pipes, hypothermia, and more. And we are hopefully closer to the ending than the beginning based on the last robo call I received from the public power company, which has been most impressive in their transparency and competent management of the crisis.

It knocked out my writing productivity for several days, but I’m back at it.

And immensely grateful that I can do so in a place where disasters are met head on by many helpers.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Despite the lack of electricity curveball from the past week, I’ve made lots of headway.

I finished the fourth draft of The Game War and sent it off to beta readers. It’s easily the most epic thing I’ve ever written with multiple POVs and some big status quo changes. It clocked in at 1102 pages with 295,240 words. Not as big as some of the Sanderson, Martin, or Jordan yarns, but definitely not a breezy read either. As I said earlier. It is epic.

I then finished outlining Secret Fronts in Scrivener and made use of Scapple to map out some longer term plot points with some of the later books.

PLUS! I’ve started the first draft of Secret Fronts in trusty plain-old Word with its infinite page-after-page of text. It remains the best way to get maximum words on the screen for me. I’m up to page 34 with 8942 words. It’s fun to get back into the saddle of first-draft creativity. It’s equal parts planning and improv.

I love it.

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

Gath toasted his shot glass to Nadia. “Wait till you get to the aftertaste.”
Recommendation Corner
Chosen of Chaos by Benjamin Medrano

This one is a softer recommendation, but I enjoyed it enough to call it out.

Evelyn Tarth is an ultra powerful elf warrior mage in a sci-fi fantasy setting where the characters use magic along with tech in space-faring adventures.

It kind of feels like she’s a new game + character who’s hanging around in the beginning stages of a video game. Nothing in the story challenges her. Nothing. She and her Irish-accented djinn friend swat down any who attempt to harm her.

Strangely, I didn’t get bored by it because of a few important things. Evelyn is kind when people aren’t trying to kill her. She frees a bunch of enslaved women and offers them help to get back on their feet. Some of them end up joining her crew. And there’s a lot of witty, lighthearted banter throughout that’s well-performed by the narrator, Abby Craden.

It’s breezy with low-stakes, but give it a try if you want a fun sci-fi fantasy romp.

The Ultimates by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri

I’m really digging this latest round of the Ultimate Universe that Jonathan Hickman set up with the Maker, a younger evil Reed Richards, who altered another reality of the Marvel universe. Preventing heroes from achieving their destinies.

The Ultimates focuses on the Avengers characters put together by that universe’s good Reed Richards, who wears the Doctor Doom mask and just goes by Doom. And a teenage Tony Stark who goes by Iron Lad.

The second issue’s focus on Captain America was poignant, especially with his learning that the US was dismantled in the 1960s by the Maker. As was a kid’s reaction. “Mom, what does that letter on his head stand for?”

Heart wrenching and compelling stuff.

The art is well done and I look forward to seeing how this alternate-reality Avengers team succeeds or fails during this run.
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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Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Jarah

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This is the ViRauni armor, but the person inside of it is not Mol Granz.

Another wore the crimson demonic plating before the Queen of the Grells.  Someone without kindness.  Without morality.  Without sanity.

Let’s peer beneath the helmet and see her face.
This is Jarah.

A Long Lived Grell who’s immortality slowly drove her insane over the centuries.  But another beheld beauty in her madness.

Corsis.

The Master of the Game delighted in the violence she inflicted in her mania.  And her passion.

The pair shared an unwed union for centuries.  She bore three children.  Tempes and two others.

But her neuro divergence worsened as time went on.  Corsis could no longer nudge or control her.  And he had no interest in finding her help.

So he granted her one last gift.  And a curse to go with it.  He rune raveled the ViRauni armor for her.  And he planted a seed in her mind.

An inane question a child might ask a parent.  One that never will have an actual answer.  One that she will destroy everything to carve out its truth.

She asked it as she went on a rampage centuries before the Eruption.  She asked it as she died at Vick Burnhelt’s hands.

And she still asks it as a spirit tethered in eternal service to her onetime lover.  Stalking those who have the misfortune of encountering her.  Such as a living ghost named Avril Enzali.

Jarah will ask the question.  And she will relentlessly hunt Avril to rip the truth from her. 

Whether she knows it or not.

Learn what question Jarah asks in The Brigands.

James McGowan Reader Group- Curses!

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Howdy, folks!

All of us have encountered situations where something you really didn’t want to happen comes to pass, either in the slow-motion disaster way or the out-of-nowhere way.

Stubbed toes being a prime example of the latter.
 
And there are a few ways to approach voicing your frustration with such events.  Suck it in.  Voice an edited exclamatory phrase like “darn it!”

Or you let loose with something worse involving f bombs, s bombs, other fill-in-the-blank bombs, taking names in vain, or combinations thereof.

Speaking for myself alone.  My philosophy is it’s sometimes best to not let the curse words fly if you’re at work, in a public space around strangers, or around kids.

Other times.

Other times, rightly or wrongly, I will indeed vent the curses with abandon.  It’s how I talk.  And it’s how most adults talk. 

And in fantasy and sci-fi worlds, authors will often take two different approaches.  The made up curse word route with “frak” being a notable example from the newer version of Battlestar Galactica.  “By the abyss” also being a go-to for D&D novels.

Or authors just use the actual curse words.  Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series is a good example of that.

I fall into the camp of actually using the curse words.  Even if that loses me readers who don’t like it.  It just feels more authentic to me.

More visceral.

I always drop an F bomb in the first 5-10 pages of any of my POTG novels.  I want the reader to know early on that these words exist in my series, and if that isn’t a reader’s bag, then they can pull the eject lever early on without investing too much time.

And for readers who don’t mind language amid the violence of my stories.

I’m deeply thankful that you strapped in and took the Players of the Game ride!
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Woof… 

The Windows Magnifier’s read aloud function is incredibly helpful at finding typos, grammar mistakes, and awkward sentences.  But my goodness do I wish Microsoft would use the more natural sounding voices from Outlook and Word 365 with this function. 

I will be most happy to be done with its flat monotone and mispronunciations.  ViRauni is my new favorite one.  It pronounces is as “Six-Rauni”, reading the “Vi” as a Roman numeral six. The robits are ridiculous at times.

I am nearly done with The Game War’s fourth draft ultra grammar run-through with the triple check of ProWritingAid, Google Docs, and the Magnifier Reader.  I just finished Chapter 95.  I’m hoping to finish up in a week or so with Chapters 96-109.

Then on to a spell check and sending off the draft to beta readers and the editor.

I’ll need to switch mental gears after that and start outlining Book 4.5 and possibly use Scapple to do more macro plotting with the back half of the POTG saga.

I’m looking forward to putting the pieces together.  I’d quote Schism by Tool, but I don’t plan on watching them fall away.
 
Great song, though.

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

“I was planning on sending up a giant flare to signal them,” Ashe said.

Celsis scoffed out a laugh. “Along with everything else on the field of battle. My way was smarter.”

Ashe sighed. He really wanted to do that for purely childish reasons. “I guess you’re right.”
Recommendation Corner
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

It is a tragedy that this movie didn’t do better.  But they can’t unmake it.

So, HAH!   I still got to see it.

No, it wasn’t as good as Mad Max: Fury Road, but that earlier movie is a modern masterpiece.  This prequel is still a 9 or 8 out of 10 in my book.

I love the chapter format and the far more expansive timeline.  The young girl Furiosa gets far more screen time as she is unlucky enough to cross paths with Chris Hemsworth’s very un-Thor-like portrayal of Dementus.

Dementus’s motorcycle chariots, verbose monologues, and fake-it-till-you-make-it incompetence are well done.

When Anya Taylor-Joy finally shows up as the young adult Furiosa, she does a fantastic job of conveying the stoic intensity of the character.  She ably mimics Charlize Theron’s voice.  I’d put it up there with Ewan McGregor’s imitation of Alec Guinness.

Tom Holkenborg’s (aka Junkie XL’s) score music is more of the same frantic and slow burn of deep chords with fast tempos.  It totally fits the flick’s post-apocalyptic vibe.

It’d be nice if this movie finds more popularity on streaming, but if it doesn’t, c’est la vie.

I’ll still be getting the Blu-ray.

Othercide

I got this game on Steam after looking at a Reddit thread for games that are like XCOM2.

I’ll admit that it took me a little to get into after a few months’ worth of false starts.

It centers on a neo-goth steampunky world where weird monsters hunt the city streets.  And the Red Mother dispatches her many white-haired, grey-skinned clone daughters to combat them.

All of them with posh hairstyles and leather armor.

There’s lots of turn-based tactics I like.  And it has the Darkest Dungeon mechanic of perma death.  So it’s more about filling in gaps in your A and B teams with class types rather than specific characters.  But you can resurrect the daughters if you spend the resources to do so.  And you can also have the daughters absorb/consume one another to power them up. 

Not at all disturbing.

I’m having fun with the game and really dig its black, white, grey, and red color palette.
Promo Corner
Smash Words is running a month-long promo.  And all the Players of the Game books are part of it.

They’re all free for the month of July.

Tap on the image or the button below starting on July 1, or you can save the link: https://www.smashwords.com/she…

Please share this promo with friends and family. You can even forward this email to the avid readers in your life.

Check ’em out if you’re a Smashwords reader, or even if you aren’t.
Happy reading!
Smashwords July Promo
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.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Thebes

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Thebes doesn’t mean to annoy his allies.  It just happens.

The Imp moves faster than bullets, which while tactically useful, the trait also makes him impetuous and motor mouthed.

Ashe Stelfire has little love lost with the toddler-sized Demon.

And yet.

Thebes is reliable.  He excels at reconnaissance and piloting.  He helps teammates under fire, performing acts of bravery that save lives of those on his side.  The Imp often slashes into foes before they even see him.

His daggers look like short swords in his grasp, causing corrosive harm to those he pricks.

While many of the Brigands might describe him as a little prick himself, he’s their little prick.

Read more about Thebes in Repenter and The Brigands.

Art by Moonarc.

James McGowan Reader Group- Jimifying

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Hey hey!

I’m reasonably sure every novelist out there at least partially writes their books because they haven’t read a yarn that has the specific ingredients they crave.  A particular character, or strange place, or weird power, or whatever else, a storyteller yearns to craft something unlike the stories that have come before.

I am no different.  

I’ve always wanted to read an epic story that’s equal parts comic book visuals, high fantasy politics, space opera interpersonal relationships, and video game kinetic action.  I’ve not yet come across a story with such a combination in the wilds of Audible and various bookstores.

So I write those stories.

It’s like the ultimate Choose Your Own Adventure story, where the options are limitless.  Though it does take a considerably longer time to craft it than it does to consume it.

And to the surprise of no one, I exercise such customization in all aspects of my life.  My wife and others call it Jimifying.

Is there a chicken casserole recipe online that calls for a set group of ingredients?  Then I’ll definitely be swapping French onion soup and adding broccoli.

Is my ISP offloading my old email address to some other subpar outfit?  Well then I’m not just going to take their shoehorned solution.  I’ll make my own domain and set up my own email.  I used Hover, in case you’re wondering.  No complaints so far.

And if my 25-year old key chain finally gives out?  I used that opportunity to get a new customized black leather key chain with a Grellish Claw on it.

Along with a Boulevard bottle cap opener that’s still going strong.
Whether I intend it or not, I often end up Jimifying most things in my life.

Including artwork I commission of my story’s characters. 

As is the case with Thebes above.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Well, The Game War’s third draft ended up being more of a full-on read through to make sure the plot is coherent throughout and adding in a lot of the chronology time stamps I put at the beginning of each chapter.  I had to include time zones this time, because the action is spread out across Jeea with events occurring simultaneously.

And the fourth draft is combines both typo hunting and making sure plot holes and character interactions are patched up.

It’s a three step process of using ProWriting Aid in a chapter on Scrivener, then pasting it into a Google doc and seeing if it can find additional grammar problems, then using the Windows + button combo to bring up the magnifier which reads the text in a stiff robot voice.

That last part is a little rough with its mispronunciation of Crystala as CRY-STALA and Celsis Kri as CHEL-SIS KREE, among many other proper nouns.  But it totally catches a lot of contextual typos that both PWA and Google Docs miss.

I’m up to Chapter 35.

Of 109.

I hadn’t been numbering the chapters in the earlier drafts because I knew that I’d need to jumble them around.  It’s epic.  But nothing worse than other similar fare in the epic sci-fi fantasy genre.

So I’m about 1/3 of the way there with the fourth draft.  I’ll export it to a Word doc following that and do a quick spell check.

Then it’s off to the editor and beta readers.

And I’ll start plotting book 4.5 after that.  Hooray!

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

Ed blurred to Candice and held out a metal-clad arm. “I can’t tell. Is this cool enough to touch?”

She held a hand over it, feeling warmth, but nothing scalding. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned her head against his shoulder. “It’s divine.”
Recommendation Corner
Fallout on Amazon Prime

I’ve not actually played any of the Fallout games. They’re on my list. Just haven’t gotten to them yet.

You don’t need to have played them to enjoy the show. The retro-future 1950s backstory. The vaults. Ghouls. Knights. Pip-Boys. All of them are well explained in the show’s narrative.

Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul/Cooper are all well fleshed out.  Walton Goggins in particular does a fantastic job both with nose and sans nose.

And for a show about the apocalypse, it does have a lot of humor.  Especially with the characters played by Chris Parnell and Fred Armisen.

I look forward to seeing where the story goes in season 2.

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 3 by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto

The quick backstory: An evil version of Reed Richards called the Maker went back in time and created an alternate reality where he prevented the Marvel heroes from gaining their powers or otherwise diverting them from their heroic destinies.

Peter Parker was among those who were denied.  He grew into adulthood, married Mary Jane, and had two kids.  He’s happy, but he feels like something’s missing in his life.

Then an a younger version of Tony Stark shows up.  And gives him a vial with the altered spider that should have bitten him in it.  And he must decide whether to take the plunge.

This is one of the more interesting takes on Peter Parker I’ve seen in years.  A guy who’s going through an early-mid-life crisis.  One who has zero experience with powers, but much more experience being an adult.

I look forward to seeing where this goes.
Check Out the Players of the Game Series on eBook and Paperback
That’s all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Skred

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Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Skred
Skred is not what he seems.

He looks like a Demon fused with a horrific form of ethereal cybernetics.  An ugly fighter who does ugly deeds.

He is a holographic alias used by Xax when he needs to mix in with rougher locales.  Something unlike his simplistic silver chassis.  But also similar.

Especially his smile.  Not ridiculously proportioned, but still most notable.

Even half-covered by a metal plate.

Find out how Xax uses his Skred disguise in The New Players.

Art by Moonarc.

James McGowan Reader Group- Just. Weird.

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Hey, friendly folks.

Players of the Game Book 4: The Breakers will be coming soon.  Still working on a few behind-the-scenes items with formatting and cover stuff.

But I got the back cover blurb description done.  And it was a voyage in the weird future of using AI tools.

I tried out ChatGPT with writing the back cover blurb.  It was a… process.

First, I typed up a summary of the book’s plot, which comprised a page and half of madly typed text on my part.  Then gave it parameters of how to sound: an excited marketing professional speaking to an audience of sci-fi fantasy fans.

It spit out something that I’ll describe as “neh”.

Then I gave it a prompt of pretending to be a prompt engineer and give me 10 suggestions of what else I could ask it to keep working with the information I provided it.  It gave me ten questions.

And I typed up another two pages of context, plot, and character info.  And it spat out something less “neh”, but a little better.

I tried having it try doing it like a movie trailer.  It, of course, gave me something starting with “In a world…”  Sigh.

But it did have some nuggets that I used to write something on my own.  I put it in and asked for 5 ways to improve it.  It gave me a few more concise sentences than what I typed.

Finally, I wanted to make this opening line shorter: “Hope got the tattooed goddess imprisoned in an unbreakable ice dungeon. It just might also get her out.”

It refined it to this: “Hope once imprisoned the tattooed goddess, but now it may set her free.”  I like it!

So, here is the version I’m currently planning on using, mostly from me, with a little AI feedback:

“Hope imprisoned the tattooed goddess for 1600 years, but now it may set her free.

Amid a world war spanning across a supercontinent, Ashe Stelfire and his allies embark on a quest to liberate her. But first they must battle the dark empire pounding on the door of a beleaguered frontier city with an arsenal of dark magic and bleeding-edge technology.

From the old soldier god’s forgotten lair, to the toxic red haze of a forest of madness, to the forgotten subterranean sea, to the icy depths of an extra-dimensional fortress, their journey treads on the precipice of disaster.

Knowing that their struggle is all part of Corsis’s Game, their only hope is to break its rules.

And to break out the tattooed goddess from her dungeon of unbreakable ice.

Prepare for an epic saga of redemption and courage. Join the fight against tyranny and dare to hope for better tomorrows in The Breakers.

Get it now.”

So I typed pages upon pages to boil it down to 157 words.  Writing is indeed rewriting.  And AI tools are going to make that…

Just.  Weird.

And also, far more important. I would rather write tens of thousands of words in a novel, than 200 words of marketing copy.

Neh.
Players of the Game Works in Progress
Due to other goings on in my life, this Reader Group email is a bit later this month.

And my last batch of second draft chapters is also bigger as a result with the added week or so.  I finished The Game War’s second draft with last remaining 22 chapters.  That’s better than the 13 chapters from last month.

I’m expecting the third draft to go faster with a bunch of chronology checking and last coats of paint for the story.  We’ll see how much I get in between now and my next update.

Scrivener did indeed make it much easier to split, move, and add scenes.  I expect to keep using it as a tool for editing and outlining.  I’m still leaning toward Word for first drafts. 

But we’ll see how I feel when I have an actual first draft blinking its cursor at me.

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

Hekati: “They’re all calling it the Game War now.”

Corsis let out a silent chuckle. “It does have a ring to it.”

“Hush.” She flicked a finger against his knuckle in reprisal.
Recommendation Corner
System Collapse by Martha Wells

Murderbot is back for more introverted awkward adventures.  It’s still dealing with the fallout from its encounter with alien invasive organisms from the last novel.  Including a panic attack induced by its organic parts, which it redacts from its retelling of the first half of the novel.

It and its humans from a research and education enclave must engage in a PR struggle with a devious corporation as both try to win over an isolated community of colonists at the contested planet’s pole.

And Murderbot’s love of all things entertainment media will come into play.

As will copious amounts of violence.

It wouldn’t be an installment of the Murderbot Diaries without it.

The Fall Guy

I dimly remember watching the old Lee Majors show as a kid with the “stunt man fighting crime” premise.  And of course the theme song.

This new movie with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt basically just takes the name Colt Sievers and makes a whole different character and story out of it.  But they keep the stunt man investigating and fighting crime aspect of it.

And it’s pretty fun.

The stunts were great of course.  And the humor was really well done.  Especially a bit where Blunt and Gosling discuss their estrangement over megaphones in front of the whole crew subbing in the movie-in-movie characters for themselves.

It celebrates stunt people and all they do.

And its a fantastic date movie with both action and a compelling love plot between the two main characters.

Give it a watch.
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.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Xax!

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Yes.  Xax gets an exclamation point for his long pending introduction.

Xax is something that looks like a robot with a ridiculously disproportionate smile.  But he’s actually something… weirder.  Something he is hesitant to tell the new people he just met.

He has bounced through history.  Showing up in the years since the Eruption.  Sometimes working alone.  Sometimes working with others like the Burnhelts. 

Or the Bucklers.

His depleted Irreality energy blasts and fist cones grant him immense power.  Enough to coldcock a Dragon God with a lucky shot.  His fighting style looks sloppy, like a rag doll tossing itself around.  Yet, more often than not, he lands devastating hits either up close or from afar.

However, the silver brawler is just as likely to talk his way out of a fight.  His jokes and strange maxims range from terrible to crudely humorous to prescient.

His stiff grin doesn’t move when he talks, though its expression will sometimes change. 

He’s been sighted in the frontier city of Findenton of late.  And he will certainly encounter a certain fort master and certain reluctant assassin sooner than any of them think.

Read more about Xax starting in The New Players.

Art by Hokunin.

James McGowan Reader Group- Breaking the Streak

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Howdy, all.

CHOO-AH!

If anyone ever tells you that sneezing isn’t normal, try doing it backwards, as my brother and I did as kids.  I can’t remember for certain, but we were plainly bored and likely dealing with colds or allergies.  

Once you try doing it backwards, you will quickly come to appreciate sneezing forwards as quite normal indeed.

Why do I open up with commentary on the “sneezing is not normal” / “Never Sneezer Scrooge” ongoing joke from the Green brothers, you ask?  I recently had a bout with the bodily function when I caught a minor cold back in mid-late February.

I hadn’t had a respiratory illness since well before the pandemic.  Likely sometime in 2019 or maybe even 2018.  It was a little leaky, coughy, and yes, a little sneezey.  But it wasn’t the flu or the vid, so I’ll count myself lucky.

Especially because I hate getting respiratory infections.  They sometimes turn into laryngitis for me, and I despise that dry and raw feeling in my throat even more.  And this cold thankfully stayed in my nose where I smote its ruin with copious numbers of Kleenexes.

Blessings.  They are counted.

That made me think of other personal streaks I’d like to keep going.  My overall mental and physical health.  My deep relationships with my family and friends.  And, of course, this little thing I do with writing a buncha epic science fantasy novels.

Everything comes to an end at some point, but I plan to do all I can to keep the ball bouncing in the game.

And speaking of the Game…
Players of the Game Works in Progress.
I totally forgot the end/beginning of the month was coming until I sat down to type the missive you’re currently reading.  How did that lack of me thinking about my “accountability deadline” affect my output this month?

Uh.  It didn’t. I revised and rewrote 13 chapters in The Game War this past March, which is the same number I wrote in February.

I’ll try for more next time around in the interest of not indulging complacency.  I’m close to the end of the second draft, having just started the epic climax section.

So the end is in sight!

Until I start over again with the third draft.

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

Fittingly, it’s Xax again: “You forgot marshmallows!”
Recommendation Corner
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy – Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

There was a Natalie Portman movie that adapted the first story.  I haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet. 

But I heard about a weird creepy bear.

And yes, that’s in the novel series.  Annihilation is cold and antiseptic by design.  It’s written as a journal entry from a character whose name has been reduced to her function: The Biologist.  But she has another name.  A term of endearment given to her by her deceased husband.

Ghostbird.

She is part of an all-female expedition into a section of the South called the Forgotten Coast that’s been overrun by alien flora and fauna.  It’s now known as Area X.  And the very land has changed.

There’s an organic tunnel.  Or is it a tower?  With glowing, living biblical language out of a nightmare written upon its walls.  And then there’s the old lighthouse.

This series honestly feels like it’s neo-Lovecraftian, with an alien presence so pervasive, that it alters perceptions and the very sanity of those who enter it.

Bronson Pinchot does a standout job of the three narrators, starting on the second book.

If you’re looking for something creepy and weird, this book will check off those boxes.

Nacelleverse 0 by Melissa Flores and various artists from Oni Comics

So the guy who produced The Toys that Made Us, Brian Volk-Weiss, bought the licenses to a bunch of 3rd tier 80s toy properties.

And his production business, The Nacelle Company, is making a bunch of cartoons involving the Rock and Ryan Reynolds.  They’ll be re-releasing new versions of the toys along with a series of comics from Oni.

And I used to have toys for a lot of these rebooted properties.

RoboForce, Sectaurs, and Power Lords in particular. 

My brother and I used Hun-Dread from RoboForce as a makeshift Decepticon.  Same for Prince Dargon from Sectaurs.  And I integrated Adam Power into our limited stint with Masters of the Universe toys.  I remember all of these “also ran” action figures fondly.

I have no room for new toys.  But this comic.  And probably the cartoons.  They totally hooked me with nostalgia.  The comic’s story with the character re-introductions was fine.  As was the art.  But the premise of restoring all these old properties in a shared universe, it’s just too interesting for me to ignore.

Even if it sucks.  I gotta see what they do with this stuff.

I gotta.
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.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Slader

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Slader just wants to get through the crazy.  Get on the other side of it.  That’s all.

The rot infecting his city has other ideas.

The Lan Thedin marine sergeant watches reports of grey-skinned mutations in the megalopolis’s subterranean sections.  And they’ve started coming up to the surface.  And they’re tougher than even his cybernetic arms can handle.

His boss wants to bring in some team of hyper-powered Grells to combat the horrors creeping into the streets.  Normally, Slader would have a problem with bringing in outsiders.

But right now, he’ll take help in any form he can find it. 

Read more about Slader’s interactions with the Burnhelts and their allies in The New Players.