Author Archives: AngryGames

About AngryGames

Noob!

A New Blogger Coming

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I’d like to take a moment to let everyone know that there will be another person that will be contributing to this site pretty soon. I know I don’t write enough here, and I guess I’m supposed to (some rule that authors have told me I need to stop breaking).

So…I’ve decided to allow Momiji (her pseudo, if she’s okay with it, I’ll explain it a little more) to begin posting articles and stories. Keep in mind the things she posts don’t always reflect my own personal views, but she won’t ever post anything ignorant or offensive (she’s too intelligent to do either of those things willfully).

Anyway, as for me, I’m hard at work on three novels + editing two more novels. These %#@$#@ novels that have been in editing…I swear it feels like they’ll never be published. I’ve held on to them for a long time, and they’ve been through multiple revisions and edits, but soon…however, if you are hoping they’ll be science fiction, you’ll unfortunately be disappointed.

But…the three novels I’m actively writing? All three are science fiction, with one of them being part of an ‘epic’ I guess (3 books total). Two of them are getting custom art by Daniel @ http://www.squaredmotion.com and I’m incredibly excited to see what he comes up with.

Okay…I’ve probably repeated all of this other than the new guest poster about a million times, so I’ll shut up now 😉

Travis

Stuff happened today…

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Welp…I guess I’ve had a good day.

A Christmas Tale: #38 in Horror – Short Stories (Free)

It’s Better This Way: #10 SciFi – Alien Invasion / #38 SciFi – Post-Apoc (32 reviews, Free)

Ability – Part I: #37 SciFi – Post Apoc (Free)

All this really means is people will download anything and everything for free. Good ego boost, but only if people get really drunk, break out the credit cards and buy some words. Come on booze! Work your magic!

In other news, I’ve finally finished Part III of Ability. The first two parts were around 14,000 words each. Part III is sitting at almost 29,000 words. Part III is the conclusion of the first two parts, plus it sets the scene for “Progeny,” which will be Book II in the series.

I have to warn you…Part III is where the story begins spiraling down into a dark tale of just how awful humanity might be with strange new abilities. Racism, religious intolerance, bigotry of all kinds begins to rear its ugly head. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And finally…Diabolus. When I wake up, I’m going to cruise down the final home stretch and get it finished. I’m very excited for this story, to the point I’m thinking of hiring a ‘real’ artist to create something custom just for me with his paint and canvas. This kind of thing runs into the $500 range, which is pretty damn spendy, but that’s how much I love this story.

I’m sure there will be plenty of the faithful that will hate it, mostly because I’m an atheist, even though it is written from the perspective of devout Catholics, and if anything, is a positive spiritual journey for anyone that believes in God.

The haters will of course focus on the hard questions that get raised. Hopefully everyone else, even fellow atheists and agnostics, will accept it as a story that makes the brain work hard, warms the heart even through tragedy, and makes the spirit rejoice that we are all God’s creatures, no matter which God we believe in.

It’s Better This Way – update

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Hello all. It seems that “It’s Better This Way” is popular enough that the most consistent complaint I’ve received (basically about 90% of everyone that has read it and didn’t hate it outright) is that it was too short, and readers want more.

It’s Better This Way

So I have some okay news, possibly good news. I’ve had Cherise Kelley, a professional editor, fix all of the nagging little problems in “It’s Better This Way.” I hadn’t read the story in months, and was looking through it as I needed some information for a new story I’m working on in the same universe…and I noticed how awful the grammar, punctuation, and such were. Sure, it’s a pretty decent read as-is, but I would like to be considered a professional writer at some point, and that means having work that is as free of those problems as possible.

Keep in mind that that book was the second thing I ever published, with the first being a test short story just to learn the interface at Amazon and Smashwords. I had very little help when it came to actual editing, and fixed the book up once on 6/11/2013, even to the point I convinced Amazon to send out an email to everyone letting them know the book had an update available.

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Ability – Part II now @ Amazon / Smashwords

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I’ve just published Part II of Ability. You can snag it here:

Ability – II

This is a big step for me, as it marks my real entry into the world of writing…since I’m actually charging for most of my books from here on. I feel like I’ve done pretty well with “It’s Better This Way,” and am hoping these other books I have either published, or will be publishing very soon, will capture readers in the same positive way.

“Alive, Or Just Breathing” is a full-length novel that is in final editing. It’s a very dark, adult-oriented story about two teenagers trying to make it through their last two years of high school. One has an emotionally absent father, the other has a drunken, physically abusive father. It’s a pretty bitter tale, to be honest.

“Enforcer” is the other full-length novel. It’s about a kid who was supposed to be a superstar in the National Hockey League, but before he was even drafted, a terrible on-ice accident nearly killed him. Eight years later, he’s still toiling away in the minor leagues as a fan-favorite enforcer. When the owner of the team, a Romanian mobster, offers him some work on the side, things soon spiral out of control.

There you have it. Those two novels, plus “Ability” are what I’ve been hard at work on for the last couple of months. Well, those stories and this other one that I’m really kind of excited to release. I’m about 85% done writing it. It’s about two Catholic priests who are tasked by the Vatican to do an ‘exorcism’ on a rogue nuclear-capable AI that believes it is Satan incarnate, and is looking to bring about the apocalypse.

I’ll keep you up to date without spamming you too much 😉

Something Stuff and Things

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So in an attempt to be a better blogger, I guess I will try to find random things to talk about when I’m supposed to be working. I wrote 2,600 words already, so now I want to write some words that I don’t have to think about too much (other than keeping my foot from being irresistibly tasty to the point I put it in my mouth).

#1 – There was a gay wedding at West Point. I’m kind of ashamed that I even have to post something like this. I’m already tired of talking about gay marriage. Not because I oppose it (if you think that, you’ve never read a single word I’ve read), but because it should die and go away, and the ‘moral’ part of society needs to get over themselves and realize the world has moved on, once again, without them.

These are the same kinds of wunder-minds that believe women should be subservient to men, that one race (usually the ‘white’ race) is superior to another/others, and that their version of God is the one and only true correct path. Gay humans have existed since we crawled out of the primordial soup. Go read some Greek classics. Actually, go read some bible. Jesus never once says anywhere in the New Testament that homosexuality is something that needs to be addressed (with lightning bolts, fire & brimstone, and eternal hell).

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Hugh Howey: The Conundrum That Baffles The Publishing World

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If you’ve never read Wool, then I urge you to get it from Amazon or your favorite e-book store. It is free for the first hit. The rest will cost you, but my oh my, they will addict you like textual smack. Black Tar textual smack.

Now that you’ve read that, or if you’re already a fan, you really need to understand why Hugh Howey is the hero to many self-published authors, including me, and somewhat of an anti-hero to the traditional publishing world, or at best, a conundrum that constantly evolves and cannot be predicted.

What is the beauty of having a physical book? Is it because it is made of paper? Is it the size? The smell of the pages and cover? The way the pages feel under your fingers? The memories of growing up with physical books? I still love physical books, but I’m also a huge Kindle fan (a fan of all e-readers to be honest, since that is the direction the literary world is evolving in).

The one thing e-books don’t have that physical books have, well, one of the things, but sometimes the most important thing, is a physical presence. So in a sense, without a physical presence, it can have no smell, no paper pages, and since it is so new, no real fond memories of sitting under a tree in the summer reading an epic story. Maybe some of you have had this memory with the e-readers, but I’m still working towards that goal.

But what if you could have an e-book AND a physical presence to remind you of it? Friends, this is why Hugh Howey is someone authors like me respect and publishers cannot predict:

What will the man think of next?

Piracy Is Not An Epidemic

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And let us take a moment to be completely realistic.

If one million pirated downloads of your book has occurred, yes, you could have lost one million sales. But come on…one million means you are EXTREMELY popular, and have more than likely sold a few million at Amazon and other outlets. And if you are that popular, you have publishers shoving contracts in your face, Hollywood bugging for the rights to your work for screenplays, conventions bugging you to attend, all sorts of other little perks and money-makers because…you are extremely popular.

Because there’s no one on this planet that has had their work downloaded one million times and is still a nobody, crying out in a lonely voice on the internet that he has nothing, barely any food to eat. If your name was “Game of Thrones – Season 3 – Episode 04” then you would be downloaded a million+ times, but you don’t see any of them (nor even HBO) making a fuss about it. HBO has even openly said they know their show(s) get pirated, and they really don’t care that much. Continue reading →

Believe In Yourself

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Right. So. I’ve spent the afternoon having an excellent conversation via Facebook chat with one of my readers. I hate calling them ‘fans’ as that sounds like I’m famous or important…and come on, we all know better than that. As the conversation went on, this nice young lady did a bit of a psych eval on me. I finally realized at some point that this was most likely because I am one of the most self-deprecating humans on the planet, and within seconds, another realization that to those that don’t know me, I probably seem like one of those types that truly is hateful of himself.

You know, the kind of Debbie Downer that makes everyone uncomfortable because when they say something like, “I suck”, everyone around them knows that the person indeed believes that he or she feels like a complete and total loser who has no value in life to themselves or to others around them.

The kind guy like me, who thought all through junior and senior high school my name was “Kill Yourself” because anytime someone said something to me, it always started with “Kill Yourself”.

So I decided I should write a new blog post to say a few things that I think are important. No, not about me, I’m definitely not important (I can see this nice young lady cringing at each self-inflicted insult I produce, by the way). Some of it will be about me, but that’s because there are many like me who use self-deprecation as a form of humor, and there are many more who use it as a defense mechanism for poor self-esteem, and then there are the majority who use it because for some reason or other, they truly do believe they aren’t worthy of any respect or compliment. Continue reading →