Abscission moves closer to release

 Abscission is getting a lot closer to release, with a Steam pre-release page and new demo, and also a trailer. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi75C8xo60w

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2392160/Abscission/

Abscission Update - August 2020

 Due to the steep (but relatively quick) learning curve when using Adventure Game Studio, I have made some stylistic changes to Abscission, along with creating a more satisfying narrative.

I'm not going to say too much now, but I am really happy with how it is progressing and can't wait for it to be released (probably in around a year).

A Small Update

Abscission is coming along nicely. I have started to add new features, such as:

Comic style portraits for all characters (including changing emotions, blinking, etc)...

 

A map for navigation (with locations opening up when clues or connections are found)...

Cutscenes...

And a few other elements, such as classic late 80's cell phone to call up other characters, a computer parser system to use for searching for clues, a journal system to keep track of story points, and also some surrounding lore and immersive elements (such as TV news, etc) that will make the world richer.

 

It's great fun to do something new!

A New Venture - Abscission

After a while of moving between different writing projects (including some scenarios and campaigns for Call of Cthulhu, which may or may not see some form of publication) I have found myself doing something that I always wanted to do...

I'm making a point and click adventure game!

The first game I can remember playing as a kid was Monkey Island 2, on 14 or so floppy disks, on an Amiga at some weird kid's house (I can't remember him, but I can remember the game). It gave me the adventure game bug and I have played them all my life.

I'm using Adventure Game Studio to create it, a fantastic piece of FREE software (available here) that (unknown to me until a couple of weeks ago) sits behind some fantastic games (such as Technobabylon - available here at Steam). It has a pretty steep learning curve, especially since I have never really created any pixel art or done any programming, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

Abscission is a horror mystery at heart, telling the story of Detective Bill Stanhope, as he investigates the murder of Serina Challinor.

It's a relatively mature affair, so will probably be 16+ or 18+ in the end.

As it stands, the plot is fully outlined (though subject to change as I add more creepiness) and I have some rather ambitious ideas for story progression and a journal system, which may or may not happen depending on my ability to work out coding.

Anyway,  will post more as it develops. I have no idea how I will release it in the future, but it will be released, somehow, like an odd pixelated kraken.

An Unnoticed Year Off

Without intending it, I've had around a year off from being an indie author, or maybe even more. 

Don't get me wrong, I have been writing (a novel, a few short stories and an extensive novel plan), and a couple of stories have been published ('Worm' in A Haunting of Words, 'Little Boy' in This Twisted Earth) but I haven't been promoting anything, or pushing anything. Part of this apathy was down to other aspects of my life taking over, and part of it was due to the fact that I enjoy the process of writing far more than trying to sell it.

The bottom has well and truly fallen out of the kindle market for indie authors. The market is flooded, and eBooks seem to have had their moment in the sun. Hipsters are buying proper small-batch books on vellum to peruse on floating tea-houses while puffing on their artisan vape pipes*. With that in mind I partially threw in the towel, and consequently enjoyed the writing far more. I felt no need to sell, as there was no money to be had. I could just try and write a good story. I did feel one regret though. One of the joys of trying to get a solid career in writing is getting to know all the other suckers in the same boat. I've got to know some truly lovely people over the last five years since I published The Binary Man, and that stalled recently. So I'm going to get back on the networking, and post a lot more, but not in the vein of "BUY MY BOOK!" but rather commenting on books I've read, or other bits and bobbins that relate to my tastes of dystopia, sci fi, fantasy, horror, and coffee. It's an easy trap to fall into when you really want your books out there, but it's hollow and hackneyed and jive.

So onwards and upwards! Here's to a great 2017. (Yes, I know it's more than half way over but I've been tired). Also here's a picture my daughter drew because I love it.

*may be an exaggeration 

Hidden Productivity

I know I haven't posted anything for a VERY long time, but believe me, I have definitely been working.

Since the last post I have finished my first fantasy novel, delved about a quarter of a way into its sequel, worked on another long term Lovecraftian sci-fi project (which will take some years to sort out), done some very in depth planning on another more classic horror novel (the details of which I may or may not reveal one day), had two short stories accepted into anthologies (A Town Called Hell and A Haunting Of Words), and am working on finishing another short story to submit to the sequel to This Twisted Earth. 

The reason I haven't posted any updates is mainly due to finding my feet through a bit of a rocky time personally, but the worst seems behind me and the storm has turned into occasionally rainy weather with long bright spells prevailing.

The reason I haven't published the finished fantasy novel (despite having all the layout and editing done) is because I think that it is definitely solid enough for trad publishing, so I'm going to work on the rest in the series (potentially five books) while submitting the first and hoping that someone will give it a shot. It's a bit different to the normal fantasy fare in many ways, but hopefully that will be seen as a positive.

I'll try and post something before another eight months goes by...

Much love.

This Twisted Earth

I'm not quite sure how to start this post so I'm just going to dive in. 

Hooray!

Today sees the launch of This Twisted Earth at FantasyCon-by-the-sea. The book is a shared-concept anthology devised and edited by Dion Winton-Polak and featuring stories by (among others) myself, Mike Chinn, Jess Nevins, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Yes, that Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for his novel Children Of Time. Now, I know that I should be using this blog and site to promote myself, but this guy is solid gold. Find his books, buy them and read them. You won't regret it. I'm just happy to be crammed into a book with him! 

I had a blast writing my story for the anthology (titled Little Boy) and I hope the book does as well as it deserves to. I've only read a couple of the other stories so far but they were fantastic, and I can't wait to read the rest when I receive my paperback (and hardback) editions.

You can pick up a copy from here:

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01K7LIU08
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K7LIU08

To celebrate the launch (as I sadly can't be there) I'm giving away The Binary Man, former UK #1 cyberpunk bestseller for free on Kindle for the next five days (24/9 - 28/9). Pick up a copy at:

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00857DL5G

US:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00857DL5G

A New Career In A New Town

Well not quite a new career, but a new aspect to my career.

My first two books for children are now available on Amazon - The Wonderful Tale of Giraffe the Giraffe (who was also a superhero), and The Wonderful Tale of Billy the Lion (who was a little bit afraid of the dark). Whilst not officially being a series yet (can you have a series of two? Isn't that a diptych?) I am hoping that I can add to the Wonderful Tales series in the future, to attract some lucrative benevolent publisher to my wares.

So far they've been very well received (at least I hope so, I'm still waiting for the reviews to come in). They were great fun to write and draw, and the writing process didn't carry the lingering sense of unease that often sits at the back of my skull as I'm writing horror.

I have a few ideas for future books, including a longer story for slightly older children that can incorporate black and white ink illustrations, but for the moment I have another project that I'm trying to nail down within the next six to eight weeks.

You can pick up a copy or five of my children's books below!

The Wonderful Tale of Giraffe the Giraffe (who was also a superhero)

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1523387521
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1523387521

The Wonderful Tale of Billy the Lion (who was a little bit afraid of the dark)

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1530659183
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1530659183

Enjoy your April!

The Giraffe Lives!

It's alive!

My first book for children, The wonderful tale of Giraffe the giraffe (who was also a superhero) is now available from Amazon! It's only available in paperback because, you know, why Kindle?

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1523387521
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1523387521

I'm also at the painting stage of my second book for children, The wonderful tale of Billy the lion (who was a little bit afraid of the dark) before I get to the juice of writing it. As kiddy books are new to me it would be interesting to know if others write the story first or do the illustrations, but I found that I came up with ideas whilst drawing that then added to the story, so I enjoyed working that way around. It's just a working title at the moment as I haven't decided if I want to continue after this second book, creating a 'Wonderful Tales' series. It would be a good way to sub-divide my children's books from my other novels as I could do a standalone site. This will be mulled over.

So until the second book is done I will leave this here, separate but not separate, a ghost of a giraffe haunting my other books...

In other news, the writing is good right now and I'm making big steps towards my set of goals for 2016, stopping only to get a short story done for a particularly interesting anthology. Whether it's accepted or not is a different matter but it's a fun exercise.

Enjoy your day!

Looking forward

I had thought about looking back at 2015, but for one reason or other it wasn't my best in writing. I got a lot done, but I didn't get a lot finished, with A Fresh Start as my only release. I hope that the reason for the low production rate was that I became more discerning - as opposed to becoming paralysed by self-criticim - but only time (and eventual reviews) will tell. At the start of 2015 I created a list of 10 - 15 projects that I wanted to finish, and it was far too many. I did some on all of them, and even finished 90% of a novel only to decide that the premise was flawed and... well... a bit dull. It lacked humanity, and believable motive. If I'd written it a few years ago I might have put it out, and it might have done ok (I've read worse stuff, and I'm happy with the setting and some of the characters) but I have to be better now, otherwise there really isn't any point. 

It's all about progress!

This year I have set myself a goal of six projects, one of which is days away from being finished - The Wonderful Tale Of Giraffe The Giraffe (Who Was Also A Superhero).

It isn't horror or sci fi, sorry.

I wrote and illustrated it as a gift for my four year old daughter, and will do the same for my six year old in the next few weeks. I may have to create a sub-section in this site for it if it's worth selling. We'll see. It was definitely great fun to do!

I'll try to become a bit more regular with the blog posts too. I'll take some word fibre, or something.

Onwards!

The morning after the promo before.

So did it work?

After running my first paid promo of my writing career, the results are bittersweet (well, mostly sweet but I'm a natural pessimist).

I made my cash back after the first day, and had my highest day of paid sales. The downside? Sales dropped off significantly in the second day (showing that Amazon rankings do a lot less for sales than they used to). I also remember the Binary Man getting a lot higher in the bestseller lists three years ago with significantly less sales. This tells me that it's getting a lot harder to stand out in the over-saturated Kindle market. I'm at least hoping to get a few more reviews from my sales (freebie book readers don't tend to review from my experience). 

Would I do it again? Yes, maybe with another book to see the results in a different genre.

On the writing side (far more interesting to me than promotion) I am very close to completing my first draft of The Devil Has Dry Feet, and have finally reached the stage where the characters are fleshed out enough in my mind to drive the story on by themselves, which is the best part of the writing process. Every session at the keyboard throws up scenes that I hadn't planned and creates a much richer narrative. After it's done I'm going to try and let it sit for a couple of weeks so I can draft it with less familiar eyes, whilst working on a couple of other things

And finally, if you've read one of my stories, please review it on Amazon (my selling platform of choice). I can't stress enough how helpful each and every bit of criticism and praise is, not just for sales but also for nudging me in the right direction.

Have a nice day!

The End

- Imagine a typewriter with changeable font size! -

The End

Ok, the title is a little misleading. I'm not really ending anything (least of all writing... actually least of all overeating, but that's another story) I'm actually beginning something.

When I first self published The Binary Man in 2012 I gave myself the task of having a writing career without any cost to myself, be it on production or promotion. So far I have succeeded, but at a cost (ironically) to my visibility. Due to time constraints, I can't spend as much time on spreading myself through social media as I'd want, and consequently I've not really had much of an impact on the fantabulous world of books.

Blogger is telling me that fantabulous isn't a word, but I'm ignoring it. 

I haven't garnered many bad reviews, which is nice, but my books are hard to find, which isn't. So it's time to bite the bullet and put some of my royalties back into my writing. I'll (hopefully) be running a paid for promotion in the near future to test the waters, starting small (due to innate caution) with The Binary Man. Let's see if we can't crank this writing game up a notch.

In other news, The Devil Has Dry Feet continues to barrel onwards towards first draft completion, after which I'll spread it around some beta readers. While I'm waiting for that to be read and commented on, I'm going to either knock out a short story (I love those little fellas) or get right on with one of the two books that have been gnawing away at the back of my mind like brain rats, forcing me to flesh out their outlines when I should have been working on my current WIP - With My Eyes On The Far Sun (hard sci fi), The Alchemist & The Idiot King (quirky fantasy, more Gaiman than R.R. Martin).

- My inspiration/procrastination working covers -

We're through the looking glass now. It's time to get real. No pain no gain. No socks no shoes. Wish me luck!

PS - Check out the links to the right of my blog (or in the BOOKS section of my main site) for the three US freebies: Just One Day, The Real Thing, and Shred. Currently only Just One Day is free in the UK, apologies. Also check out (and like/follow) facebook.com/jakeprytherch for more tasty updates.

Progress

- Long overdue blog post - 

After a period of partial blackout, I'm finally able to give a couple of nuggets of news (some of which you may have already seen if you follow my facebook page - facebook.com/jakeprytherch). 

My current WIP thriller "The Devil Has Dry Feet" is on a partial second draft stage. I wrote 80% of the first draft before deciding to add elements which add to the strength of the plot but needed including from the outset. After this second draft is done I'll move on to writing the finale, before beginning another round of drafting. I can't give a time frame on completion yet as I've found that life has a way of pulling the rug out from under you, but it's on its way!

In other news, my long/short story A Fresh Start is done and will be released in some form or other in a few weeks (I'm exploring different avenues for release).

Lastly, I'm also working on writing an illustrating a couple of books for my daughters, which is proving to be a light hearted treat!

Ok, that's your lot. Enjoy your summer!

Making things that shouldn't matter not matter.

I was reading a post on an indie author facebook page today in which the author stated that sci-fi was inherently racist and sexist, and while it's a bold statement (and one that has been posed before many times) it may have some truth in it. Or it may not. Allow me to expand on my muddled and ill-thought-out point.

I must admit that I haven't read enough sci-fi to make a firm judgement on that statement, although I will agree that the majority of protagonists in the books that I have read are white males. Is this a reflection on the writers, the society they inhabit (or inhabited as the majority of sci-fi I read seems to be from before the 70's) or the publishers? I have no idea, and it's too damn complicated to go into here.

Well, I'll go into it a bit, and I'll start by looking at my own work.

Of the sci-fi novels I have written (The Binary Man, The Real Thing and Just One Day), all have had white male protagonists, although The Binary Man does effectively have three main characters, with the other two being a woman (Alice Howe) and Japanese by birth (Toshihiro Sato). Looking back on the story I can't recall race ever coming up as anything other than a brief initial description to add a bit of narrative juice (I chose Japan for his birthplace as I have visited the country a few times so can describe it with more confidence than most places, USA included), and Alice's gender only really came to the fore during a couple of minor plot points with Yannick and Mickey, before becoming irrelevant again. It was certainly never a hindrance, although she did require the clichéd "saving" by Yannick (but then again everyone did!). I must admit that my default protagonist always seems to be me before branching out (partly because so many of my ideas come from dreams, where I'm me, natch).

I have never considered race to be worth mentioning as a point of difference with regards to characters, and if any of my sci-fi had taken place further into the future then skin colour and birthplace would have been irrelevant anyway. If someone is born on Ganymede would they really have an issue with someone from a certain region of Earth? What if there were generational changes to bodies based on the location of human colonies, such as squat, hairy bodies from high gravity/low temperature worlds, or long gangly hairless bodies from the opposite conditions? Would that cause issues over and above other less drastic racial differences?

Are all races going to mix in the future to create a single skin colour? Maybe, or maybe not, but I would hope that in the face of a six legged insectoid silicon-based millipede, they would consider the human next to them as kin. My children are mixed race and trying to pigeonhole them is pointless (they’re just wonderful people). They play with kids of every culture and race with equal joy, and hopefully they will never learn the idiocy of prejudice.

I hope I’m expressing the point I’m trying to make well enough. Let me use an example: Red Dwarf had two black main characters in Lister and Cat, and it was never mentioned, either positively or negatively. Class was, and economic standing, and these are the things that will most likely endure (as great a shame as that is, and despite Star Trek’s moneyless wishing). Rimmer was born on Titan, which was mentioned, and Lister was born in Liverpool, which was mentioned, but skin colour wasn’t. Craig Charles (Lister) mentions this on the documentary accompanying the episode Dimension Jump.

“It’s a top rated BBC sitcom where two of its leading participants are of colour, and the colour of their skin is never mentioned, race is never an issue. It kind of says that in the future, where once we came from Africa one day we’ll come from everywhere. It’s all just a melting pot, and race won’t be an issue in the future.”

I tend to write dystopia, but having no racial issues is a utopian ideal that I happily put into my books.

With that in mind, I’d like to approach the idea of a protagonist’s gender in the same way, which is why the protagonist in my next sci-fi story is a woman. She is a woman, and this fact is irrelevant. Let me explain, or try to.

The premise of the story is a human one (I won’t go into more details as the plot is still in flux), not a gender specific one, so it makes no difference to make the protagonist a woman. Why do it then? It is most certainly not due to any notion of tokenism, but rather to make me less lazy in my writing. The character was initially a male early forties bodyguard with a beer gut, a colourful vocabulary and cybernetic eyes. None of this needs to change if the protagonist is a woman, but it adds something extra. It’s more interesting, and it’s less stereotypical from both perspectives. I’ve always hated stick-thin big-boobed sex fantasy heroines as much as square jawed ‘complicated’ heroes. How many heroines have you read with a saggy belly? Why would a woman who had been trained for as long as a man be any less capable of being a bodyguard? Ripley from Alien – come on now, she’s mighty, and not a ‘weak-at-the-knees’ romantic sub plot in sight (apart from a few glances between her and Hicks). Proof that going outside of the mould can produce some great results.

So yeah, after all of that rambling I’m no closer to knowing whether there truly is an issue or whether it is a trend, or coincidence, but I’m going to mix it up for its own joy anyway.

Introducing Verna Walden, bodyguard and badass, and heroine of (one of my) WIP. Enjoy!

PS – I know this is a contentious topic, and comments are welcome. Please note that any flippancy is not malicious, and I just love you all.

Small stories and progress

As I mentioned in my last blog post, after around a year of difficult writing and lack of direction I've finally found myself getting things finished, and enjoying the process a lot more.
Here's a list of recent events, including details of freebies.

Two of my books (The Real Thing, Shred) are now permafree on amazon.com as well as on B&N, Itunes etc. Here are the links:

• The Real Thing http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2PKOU6
• Shred http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009G6J5DW

At the moment they still aren't free in the UK, but my fellow Brits can pick them up through Smashwords.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=jacob+prytherch

I've also released a short story titled The Pattern Ends. It's loosely horror/metaphysical, a 5,000 word treat for a long lunch break. It's free on Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/536138), and should soon be free on B&N and Itunes. I will work on amazon soon.

I am not releasing these stories for free because I don't value my own work. I recently read through The Real Thing again and really enjoyed looking at it with the fresh eyes of forgetfulness. I'm doing it as a way to draw people into giving my writing a shot who might not have done so otherwise. I know I barely register on the scale of writing, but still hope to one day, so I'm trying to show you lovely people what my writing is about before you decide to part with your money.

My long short story/short novella A Fresh Start will also be released in the not-too-distant future, and I will be releasing it as "pay what you want" through Smashwords as an experiment. Maybe people will pay, maybe they won't. Maybe no one will read it, but I hope they do.

If you like my stories, please consider reviewing them, on whichever site you prefer. A few words of your own in exchange for mine is more than fine by me, as every positive review gets more people interested, and every negative review gives me pointers on how to improve.

I'm currently deep into writing a story that I started last year and drifted away from, but have recently re-discovered (along with an almost complete story plan, always nice). I hope to get it finished within the next three months, and am hopeful that it will be one of the better stories that I have written. It's quite different to my usual genres, so we'll have to wait and see.

As this post is (loosely) about trying new things, I thought I'd leave you with Neil Gaiman's brilliant speech to The London Book Fair in 2013. I think I've shared it before on facebook, but another go won't hurt. The guy is a great human being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6KB6-7uCrI

I'm off to be a dandelion.

The Art Of Writing Without Writing

First off, I don't have any reason to look as sassy/smug about my writing as Bruce Lee is about his Jeet Kun Do, I just liked the way I could mulch up his quote.

Now that's out of the way, what exactly do I mean by "writing without writing"?

Well, this will all come as little surprise to seasoned writers out there, but I'm still cutting my teeth after only three years of wrestling with books, so it was something of an epiphany for me when I realised that to truly improve in style, and to craft a decent narrative, I had to spend more time not writing.

Whoa, that's cray-cray, you might say!

Nope.

Writing has gotta be 33% thinking, 33% reading, and only 33% getting stuff down. And 1% coffee. 

I used to be a voracious reader (oh yes) before I started writing seriously, but once I'd started I got 'the nerves', and found that no time was enough time. Writing makes me restless, and now that I've taken the plunge I find it hard not to measure anything I do against time-I-could-have-spent-writing. So books went out of the window (not literally, I'm not a monster), as did relaxing. I've lived on my tiptoes for three years, bouncing off walls until I could get down to a screen, and after a while I found that I began to freeze. Where once words were easy (even if they weren't polished) now I couldn't even get a few sentences down without getting 'conga face'.

Whole mornings devoted to writing would produce less than 500 words. I felt like I was flushing my life down the toilet.

So this month I've finally decided to try something different. I've started reading again, sometimes even between 3 and 7 am (the golden hours when the kids are asleep and silence is possible). When I write in isolation, I lose sight of right and wrong. I second guess everything, revising and cutting until there is nothing left but ashes and dust. ASHES AND DUST. By reading the sentence structures of other authors, and analysing plots, I found that I could judge my own work far more easily, and objectively. I also lost the 'first draft fear', and let myself get some stuff down with the view to honing it later, which is a whole lot easier than trying for perfection straight away. It's like crafting a marble statue - you get the vague shape first, you don't go straight for the ball sack. (Disclaimer - I have no idea how to carve a marble statue. And not all of them need ball sacks.)

I've also allowed myself to think of time with my family as a positive for my writing rather than a negative, which is a small thing but it makes a big difference. I love my family dearly, and whenever I was with them and wished I was writing, I would feel guilty for even thinking it. Whenever I was writing and could have been with them, I felt guilty. Whenever I spent an enjoyable day with them and neglected writing, I felt guilty. I basically felt guilty whatever I was doing. Now I use the few seconds when my kids are off on the swings or scooting around the park as a chance to think about my plot, mulling over details and logic until my plot humps iron themselves out. By doing this I have managed to finish a short story that has been on my hard drive for a year. It's vastly different in tone to my original idea, but I like it, and more importantly, it's finished (well, almost. Always room for more drafting). I've also made sure that my mind goes over plots while I'm in the shower or cooking, rather than slipping into stressing about work, or money. Plots I can figure out, life is more of an issue, so lets get some small victories!

By doing all this, I have managed to get above 2000 words a day on a regular basis, which I haven't done since I finished Cuts Of Flesh.

In conclusion, I've devoted less time to writing, and got more done. Win-win.