In the Interest of Practicing What I Preach

I've always hated hypocrisy above all things. As far back as I can remember, I could stomach nearly anything, but hypocrisy was always the one thing I refused to excuse. Over the years, I've come to realize that, as distasteful as it may be, the truth is that hypocrisy can be found nearly anywhere and at almost any time. We're all hypocrites to some extent, and I know that I'm no exception. That fact hit me again today.

You see, I've been really into baseball this summer. I bought a neat little package from the MLB before the season that allows me to watch almost every game my favorite team plays. And while I've thoroughly enjoyed the deluge of baseball that has resulted, it's an unfortunate fact of life that my favorite team just so happens to be the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now, normally this would be, and has been, a great thing. I don't hide the fact that I'm largely a Cardinals fan thanks to the superb success the team has had over the past twenty years. Sure, it's also a lineage thing. Both my dad and my grandpa are Cardinals fans (when my grandpa was a kid, St. Louis was as far south as the MLB had gone). But the winning hasn't hurt. Sadly, it also hasn't continued to this season.

This is where my hypocrisy comes into play. For much of this year (and last year if I'm being honest), I've been in agreement with the portion of the fan base that doesn't think this Cardinals team is good enough. There's a certain curse in basketball describable as being caught in a holding pattern. In the NBA, all is dependent on stars, and stars are almost always found at the top of the draft. The teams who pick at the top of the draft are usually terrible. The teams who pick at the end are usually in the playoffs and winning series there. But the teams in the middle are just... meh. They don't win enough to feel good about their seasons, and they don't lose enough to draft a star who can lead them to championship contention.

That's kind of where the Cardinals have been for a while. The problem isn't as severe in baseball, and it's far easier to field a very good team without picking at the top of the draft (because the MLB draft is more of a crap shoot and because it takes more than one or two stars to make a good baseball team). But still, that's how the Cardinals have felt for a while, and I've been among those fans wanting to see the front office do something, anything, to change course. What was planned did not come to fruition, and it's time for a change.

So, what does this have to do with me, my writing, and my hypocrisy? Well, I realized recently that I've been like the Cardinals front office. I've been holding on to a dream despite all evidence in front of me. I've behaved like sheer will can be enough to make things turn away from their obvious course. But that's not the world we live in. I'm willing to accept that in areas beyond my control (such as with the Cardinals), and it's time I did so with those at least somewhat in my control.

In particular, it's time I admit that full-time writing isn't going to happen right now. It may happen at some point in the future, and I hope it does. That's the dream. But the world goes on despite our best wishes. It's not a tragedy that it does so. I write of gray worlds and the beauty they hold. I write of the inevitable evil that comes with freedom. I write of the need for bad to appreciate the good. And I do so because that's the world I see around me.

Full-time writing isn't happening right now, but I still get to write. I still live in an era in which I can upload a document and have it almost immediately available to billions of people. I still can follow my dream. I just have to do other things too. So, I'm going to do them. Over the weekend, I uploaded the final book in The Story of Bookland. That's two completed series now. I'm so glad that I wrote them both and that I took the time to write them this quickly, but I expect things to slow down now.

I don't know when my next book will be out. I still hope to have it done this year, but we'll see. I have other things I have to do now. I've chased this dream on a full-time basis. Now, I'm going to do so in conjunction with what I hope is soon to be full-time work of another sort. I cannot thank you all enough for reading this far, and I hope you'll stick with me a bit further. I think I've always been upfront with you about my main story, The Song of Creation, taking years to complete, and I'll reiterate that now. The Kinmark Saga was but the first step. This story is as big as I can imagine, and I hope you're still interested in following along with it as it slowly unfolds in its many parts. If not, just wait for the inevitable movies to come. I'm sure they'll be awesome. I can't wait to see who they cast as Vina.

A Sale is Happening

Funny story: I've been so caught up the past week or so in writing Bookland #4 (Which is going great, by the way. Thanks for asking! It should be out in June. Get psyched.) that I completely forgot that I had scheduled a sale on Amazon. A sale which starts today. Yep, fun.

So, with very little pomp or promotion, here's the deal. The Kinmark Saga's four books are each on sale for $0.99. That's down from $2.99 for the first and $4.99 for the other three. Also, both novellas set in its world, which are titled Ranger and Outcast, can be downloaded for free right now (until April 23) through Amazon.

The novellas absolutely can be read separately from The Kinmark Saga, in case you want a free taste of my writing before making a monetary commitment, but the whole world is also part of a larger work in progress. For more info on that, you can click the tab above here that says "One Story." It'll tell you about The Song of Creation, the overall story of which all six works on sale right now are a part.

Otherwise, feel free to click the Amazon link to the right or simply to search for Josh Brannan on Amazon itself. As far as I know, I'm the only one who will pop up.

Double otherwise, continue waiting for the next, and final, book in my Bookland series, The Story of Bookland. It's completely separate from my other works and has nothing to do with this sale. It is, however, pretty neat if you like weird things.

Now, get back to your taxes or post-taxes celebration! Maybe Uncle Sam will spend all your money on buying millions of copies of my books. It's for the greater good, people.

The Coming Calamity of Approaching Awesomeness

First things first, Kevin Keatts got the job as State's next basketball coach. He was the guy I wanted, and I think he'll do well. Let's hope so. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the fanbase needs some sustained success. I've been a diehard fan my whole life, and it's starting to feel like getting kicked between the legs might not be the best thing for peace and joy. Just win, baby.

In matters not involving sports, the world is changing. It always is. Duh. But for whatever reason, it's got me thinking this afternoon. Before I go any further, let me just say that I fall on the libertarian side of the political spectrum. For the most part, I'm a staunch capitalist. I think Ron Paul would have made a great president, and I'm generally against government involvement in most things.

You probably noticed a number of caveats above. I left myself room to breathe, and I did so for a reason. Despite my general beliefs that may or may not approach the level of Ron Swanson's love for the free market, I have to wonder what we're all doing. I have to think about the path we're on, and I have to ask myself if it's the best one. We're all rational beings, and that means we ought to think on these things. Thus, this post.

Let's frame what we're talking about first of all. In essence, our technological advancements are becoming quite extraordinary. Just to name a few, self-driving cars and automated factories are going to change the world in the coming decades. Self-service machines are already everywhere, and they're only going to become more prevalent. Technology is advancing, and as I'm sure you've heard, it's taking away jobs.

And that's fine. New jobs will take their place. New careers will be formed. The Industrial Revolution transferred millions of people from the farms, where the vast majority of the human population had been needed for millennia, to cities and towns and factories. New opportunities arose as fewer workers were needed to create the necessary food, and our species took a giant step forward. We've been doing so ever since.

Now, we've got cars and laptops and the Internet and smartphones. We can talk to people across the world in the blink of an eye and can send people into outer space. We've come a long way, and the quality of our lives has increased exponentially. And I'm left wondering how many more steps we should take in this same direction.

Then again, maybe it would be better for me to say that I'm left wondering if there isn't a better path to be on. We're heading in the right direction, I think, but I also think there might be a better road running parallel to the one we're on. So, let me explain rather quickly what I mean. Better yet, let me give you a quote.

“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

That was said in 1970 by R. Buckminster Fuller. Now, do I think the ideals embodied in that paragraph were doable in 1970? No. Do I think they're doable today? No. Does every fiber of my being want to rail against the whole notion of there ever being such a thing as a "free lunch"? Yes. Absolutely, 100% yes. It goes fully against who I've always been and what I've always believed (since I started thinking on these things at all), but it also makes perfect sense to me. I find myself contradicting myself.

I firmly believe that the free market, with only a limited amount of interference, will result in an astounding future full of marvels you and I can't even imagine. But I also believe that maybe we can sacrifice some of those marvels, delay a few others, and start moving toward the ideals put forth by Mr. Fuller almost fifty years ago. Instead of finding new ways to employ the maximum number of full-time workers with each change that takes away a significant number of those workers' positions, maybe we should be scaling things back at some point. Maybe we should start focusing a bit more on the leisure time for an individual and a bit less on that individual's productivity.

Again, I don't think we're there yet, and I don't think we'll get there for a long time. But I do think it's all something to keep in mind. Advancement is a wonderful thing, and I'm sure it will bring about true wonders in the decades and centuries to come. But I also think we need to start transitioning ourselves onto the path that strives for something resembling a paradise. At some point, technology is going to make that dream possible, and the notion of everyone having to work extraneous jobs will cease to make any sense at all.

Of course, that awesome paradise could also result in a mass existential crisis as people sit around and think about the sudden pointlessness of their lives and yearn for the order of having work to do, but that's okay. None of this is going to happen in the lifetime of anyone alive today anyway. Let our grandchildren's grandchildren worry about finding the true meaning of life. We've got jobs to do and entertainment to distract us. Come to think of it, they probably will too.

Release of the Ramblings

Well, I released a new book today. It's called Underland, and I hope you'll check it out. If you don't already know, it's the third in my current series, The Story of Bookland. If, on the other hand, you did already know that, it's still true.

In any case, read it if you wish. I haven't deluded myself into thinking it's for everyone. It's weird. It's parody mixed with grimdark. It's beyond ridiculous. I know. It's probably as much the opposite of my first series, The Kinmark Saga, as a fellow work of fantasy can be, and I think that was the point all along. Between the two, I think I've come to know quite a bit about writing in general. Experience really is the best teacher.

Aside from my own writing, however, there is something I think you should read. I've recently recommended Thomas Sowell and Terry Pratchett to you, and a friend's Facebook post just made me think of someone just as worthy of your attention. Just like with those two, I doubt I'll be revealing someone you've never heard of.

I first read Kurt Vonnegut during my final semester of law school. I took a literature elective because I thought it would be easy. In many ways, it was. It was also extremely rewarding. I'll admit that Slaughterhouse-Five wasn't my favorite of the books we read. No, that was Joseph Heller's masterful work, Catch-22. And in hindsight, I probably should be recommending that brilliant book to you, because it truly is absolutely, undeniably brilliant, and also because its style is so remarkably similar to my own narrative in The Story of Bookland (not that my quality does, or ever will, approach that of Heller [spoiler alert: it won't]), but let's stick with Vonnegut for now. If you have the time and the interest, read them both.

No, Slaughterhouse-Five wasn't my favorite, and I'm not even recommending it in particular to you. It was my first exposure to Vonnegut, but my friend's post today made me think of another of his works. This other work also gets bonus points because I'm fairly certain that it can be read for free online. Don't quote me on that, and certainly don't go pirate it, but I think I remember reading it on a website for free. And legally. Seriously, never, ever pirate a book. Unless it's mine. Read mine however you're able.

Anyway, Vonnegut wrote a short story titled Harrison Bergeron that I personally think should be required reading for all those who wish to breathe clean air. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but I do think it's a very easy read that will make you consider a few things. Like all extreme versions of satire, it's not directly applicable to the real-world forms of the issue it deals with (equality of outcome vs equality of opportunity). No, it doesn't leave much room for the gray areas, but that's not the point. It's a thought exercise, and it's a good one. It's reductio ad absurdum at it's finest (sorry, I had to throw in a bit of Latin), and it should be read as such. Maybe best of all, it forces you to provide your own nuance in extracting its lessons and applying them to the real world, and that's something we should all become better edumucated in doing.

See, I know some Latin and a bit of Hillbilly. You might say I'm a well-rounded individual. I blame the pizza.

Anybody Want a Peanut?

No?

Ok, how about a new book cover?

Yep, Wednesday is almost here. Hope you're all looking forward to Underland. Here's its cover.

The Ides of March

I think February was an interesting month for many of us. For a while there, it almost seemed as if the only thing worth doing was to watch the news, see what thing had been done, and then find someone to argue with about it. At least, that's how it seemed to me. I broke my social media rule a few times last month (no talking politics), and the results were what they'll always be. No one changed their mind about anything at all, and bad tastes were left in many mouths. There's a reason I wasn't on Facebook or Twitter before this whole writing thing started.

Anyway, a few other things did also happen last month. Some were better than others. On the bright side, it is, once again, the best of times for we unlucky few who call ourselves fans of Wolfpack basketball. That's right, folks, it's time for another State coaching search. Given the results of the last two, I'm trying to contain my excitement. And I'm failing miserably. You see, this is as good as it gets for us. We've lived on hope for decades, and there can be no greater hope than the prospect of an incoming coach.

Who will it be? The up-and-coming gamble from VCU or UNCW? The alum who's succeeding very well at Dayton but seems to want a different job that might open up? The long shot who would certainly be the dream come true if he can be pried from the hands of the Koch brothers in Wichita? I don't know, and I don't even know which one I would pick if I did indeed have my pick. I just know it's exciting. I also know it'll almost surely stop being exciting within a year or two, but that's alright. These are the good days.

On the opposite side of things, there was Alex Reyes and his golden arm deciding its time for the all-too-common Tommy John surgery had come. I think I'll leave that one be. At least we still have El Gallo this year, fellow Cards fans. May his own golden arm remain forever strong.

What else happened in February, dear reader? What else was done in that month of the strange and unnecessary letter that sounds like the noise a pirate makes? Ah yes, there was one more thing. It was the third thing out of what will end up being four things. In other words, Underland is now complete. I'm formatting it and going through one more edit now and hope to have it fully ready sometime next week. I think I'll shoot for the 15th. It's in the middle and a good and decent number to shoot for. Besides, it allows a title like the one of this post. Happy days.

So, to recap, State still sucks, St. Louis is still trailing the Cubs, and the third book in The Story of Bookland will be released soon. The first two, of course, can be found on Amazon. There's even a link to the right of this page. It calls itself what it is. I hope you can find it.

Oh, politics suck. Try not to think about them. Or it. I think it is best there. Who knows?

English teachers probably do.

A Little Recommendation

For many of you, this post is going to be a "Man Lands on Moon" moment, or if you're from another time and place, a "Golic to the Moon" moment. You might laugh at me for making such an obvious suggestion. You might cry over the fact that such a suggestion needs to be made at all.

 

You see, I'm here to recommend a fellow author. Except, calling this guy a "fellow" author almost feels dirty. I know I'm an author, and I know he was and forever will be an author, but the same word really shouldn't be used for the both of us. His books are on a higher level than I imagine mine will ever be. Don't feel bad for me, though; most authors would be forced to say the same.

 

Yes, I'm here today to recommend you start reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. I've recently started doing so, and as with all good things I do, I think you should follow my lead. A few months ago, I read one of his earlier works: Mort. It was great. A few weeks ago, I jumped ahead in the literary timeline and read Going Postal. Also great.

 

Like I said earlier, fans of fantasy are rolling their eyes right now. They know about Terry Pratchett. They know about Discworld. They don't need to be told. But some of you do. Some of you don't know. Therefore, here I am. For this one little blog post, I've found my purpose: to open your eyes to an absolute genius of a writer.

 

The two Discworld books I've read are clever and funny, but they're not just lighthearted comedy. No, there's substance there. Pratchett pokes holes in many of life's commonplace things that become ridiculous once you look at them a bit more closely. He delves into philosophy, and he waxes poetically. But none of that takes away from the best part of his writing: the stories themselves. In both books, the characters are real, and their struggles are the same. Read them as pure fiction. Read them as a means to think a bit more deeply. Read them for fun and for your betterment. Just read them. I promise you won't regret it.

 

By the way, Mort is considered a very good place to start with Discworld. It's not a series you have to read in order, but there are supposed to be a few books that are best for getting your feet wet, and Mort is considered one of those. Here's a link to it.

Maps! Maps! Maps!

So, I sometimes get somewhat bored. When I do, I think of non-boring things to do. Recently, one of these boring things was to try to prettify my map of Parvumor (and it's sister island, Parvumun). At some point, I might end up using maps in my books, but I haven't seen the need to do so yet. If I do, they'll need to be pretty, and this is the first step in me learning how to make them so. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I've done so. If you've been wondering where Riverland is or what shape Parvumor has, this is for you. Don't take it as completely to scale or anything, but the generalities are all there.

 

 

End of Days

So, I'm sitting here really not feeling like writing today's scene involving a character by the name of Izzy the Talking Squirrel. Now, you might be wondering about me having a character named that at all. You probably remember, after all, the terrible things I've written about in the past. There's been murder and mayhem, and not all of it has been in furtherance of the greater good. On occasion, I've even had characters who enjoy torturing other characters in the most horrific and yes-it's-actually-torture-in-the-physical-sense kind of ways. Now, on the other hand, I have Izzy. He's a talking squirrel.

 

Of course, you know by now that Bookland and its greater universe is only a place where talking squirrels and chosen ones are the highest and most visible layer of existence. Beneath the façade, there's all my typical insanity. Much like Disneyland, it's a bright and playful world, but we all know there's something truly evil going on there. They lure the children in like millions of Hansels and Gretels. What they do with them after that is still a mystery. Sure, they all come back out looking the same as before, but are they really the same? Are they really them at all? I think the most likely answer is a definite no. If your child has been to Disneyland and returned to talk about it, they're certainly a sentient robot sent by the Illuminati to control us all. It's the only thing that makes sense.

 

In any case, Bookland has talking squirrels (well, not technically, but Literalia does, and it's a sister world to Bookland), and I'm avoiding today's scene involving one named Izzy. Therefore, I'm here to tell you that Bookland, the first book in The Story of Bookland, a series where the characters know they're characters, is still on sale for $0.99 for the remainder of the day. Get it while it's hot!

Buy Yourself a Present

I know, I know, it's almost Christmas, and you're very busy. I get it. In all honestly, my mind is also on other things right now, so I'm going to make this update brief. All I really have to say is that Bookland is now on sale for $0.99. You can find it through the link on the right side of this page. Also, I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway of the paperback version, if you're into that kind of thing. If you're not, I'm doing it anyway. Happy reading!

A Mediocre Sale

I'm sure you remember Booktober. As part of my "Make Reading Josh's Books Great Again" campaign, I offered up a sale to end all sales. You got all 4 books in The Kinmark Saga, a package currently selling for $17.96, for just $0.99 per book, $3.96 in all. I always feel somewhat insecure when doing math these days, and doing math in the morning is particularly unwise, but I'm pretty sure that's $14 in savings. Feel free to figure out the percentage for yourself.

 

In any case, it was quite the sale, and many of you jumped on it. This next one is... not as good. Don't blame me, Bookland is but a single book. True, its sequel just came out (click on the Amazon Author Page link to the right), but I can't mark it down until it's been available for a month at least. There are rules, you see. Like always, I don't get to set them.

 

So, Bookland is but a book, the first in a new series. All I can do is put it down to $0.99 and see how many of you jump on that marketing ploy and buy it. I hope you all do, and I really do think it's worth the price. I even think it's worth the $2.99 it's selling for now. No one has returned it as of yet, so buyers must agree.

 

Anyway, it will be going on sale from 12/22 through 12/29. If you don't feel like waiting, the current price is still, in my opinion, quite the bargain. Heck, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear about someone paying a few thousand for a copy. It's just that good.

Your Fulornian/Booklandic Update and a Preview of 2017

Christmas is upon us. Not long after it becomes behind us, 2016 will do the same. Yes, the time of resolutions is nearly here. We'll all be off sodas and on treadmills. For a few glorious hours, or perhaps even days, our entire perception of reality will change. No longer will we be consumed by our own greed and lusts. We'll be better, better eaters, better sleepers, better souls. We'll become what we were always meant to be, and then, shortly thereafter, we'll remember that we enjoy eating pizza while binge watching whatever show Netflix chooses to put out. It's who we are, and it's who we'll be for at least 340 or so days in 2017.

 

Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't have goals for ourselves, and it's not even to say that those goals can't be tied to the new year. For me, for the portion of my life that I share here on this blog, I have writing goals. Looking back at the two years I've been doing this, I've written close to 300k words in both years. How the calendar worked out with publishing those words makes it look like 2016 was far more productive than 2015, but it really wasn't. My output went up marginally. I want it to do so again in 2017. My goal is to actually pass 300k words this coming year. We'll see if I make it.

 

So, what are those words going to be about? Well, let's look at what's happening now to answer that question of what's still to come. As a refresher, I write in two worlds. That number will grow in the future, but it's just Fulorn and Bookland for now. Fulorn, of course, is the setting for my first series, The Kinmark Saga, and the larger work of which it is the beginning, The Song of Creation. It's a serious world, and the stories set there are best described as gritty and character-driven. Aside from that first complete series I wrote, there are currently two novellas that take place there. You can read them before or after the series. For more information on all of that, go to the tab above labeled "One Story." After all, Fulorn is my first and primary world. Its story is the main one I'm writing and will take a long time to complete.

 

But I needed a break, didn't I? And that's where Bookland came in. Without rehashing all of history, let's just say that it grew from a very simple idea (What if the characters knew they were characters?) and it's a world more lighthearted than Fulorn. Now, I don't want to give off the wrong impression here. Bookland isn't some joke. The setting is parody, yes, and the world is slightly ridiculous. But the characters are very real, and some very real things happen to them along the way. Not all of them are pleasant. The thing I've said time and time again is that The Story of Bookland, that's the name of the series, is a serious fantasy story being told through the lens of parody. The humor is the highest level, the most obvious, but there are darker elements beneath that superficial front. They come out more and more as the story develops.

 

Speaking of that development, I have an update. Bookland, of course, was released a few months back. Well, Literalia, the second book in the series, is now also ready for publishing. I've edited it over and over again and can't stand the thought of doing so again. That's a pretty good sign that it's ready. So, I submitted it on Amazon and Createspace today. It should be available tonight or tomorrow or Saturday. We'll see. I'm really excited about it getting out there, and I'm even more excited about getting started on the next one.

 

I'm also rather nervous about that, however. It's going to be a challenge to write this next book. To call my plans for it ambitious would be a bit of an understatement. If I pull off what I'm going for, it could be the one that we all look back on as changing this series from a fun story into a truly explosive one. If not, it could be the worst thing I've ever written. I could see it going either way, because the elements coming up are really big and extremely weird. But, the great part of being self-published is that I can just go for it, and that's what I'm going to do.

 

By the way, if you haven't yet started this series, I suggest waiting a few days to do so. As part of Literalia's release, I'll be putting Bookland on sale for $0.99 at some point next week. I'll be sure to announce it on here when I know exactly what days that's going to be, but I'd hate for you to waste $2 in the meantime. Then again, I suppose it wouldn't hurt my feelings all that much. Perhaps you should just go buy all my books. Yes, I think that would be wise. In fact, buy them all twice. I'm always taking donations to the Feed-a-Josh Foundation!

The Growth of Bookland

So, I finished another book. Including my two novellas, that makes eight now. Pretty crazy stuff. I'm currently editing this new one and hope to have it out in relatively short order. You might have guessed by now, but I don't labor over a book after the first draft is done. I did that with my first book, The Last Kinmark, and I still don't think the overall product was improved very much. I like the way I write and simply use the editing process to look for errors and fix any big problems that might jump out at me.

 

Now, that's not to say that I just write willy-nilly and throw books up on Amazon (all my books can be found there through the link to your right). Rather, I do a lot of the traditional "continuity" editing while I actually write. If I don't like a paragraph I just wrote, I scrap it. If an entire section doesn't seem to fit, it's gone. Heck, I've got a ten thousand word beginning of a book from earlier this fall just wasting away on my laptop because I had to abandon it. The point is that I don't just fling crap against the wall and see what sticks. At least, I normally don't.

 

Bookland is different. More correctly, The Story of Bookland is different. I guess I should stick to referring to it by the actual series name now that there are two books in it rather than just the first, Bookland. You see, if you've read The Kinmark Saga or any of my writing set in Fulorn, you know that I keep it distant. I'm not in those books. The narration is strictly third-person and limited to one character at a time. For the most part, The Story of Bookland is like that too. On that level, it's not very different from Fulorn. But then there's another level to think about.

 

There are interjections in the Bookland books. There's a narrator, me, who pushes himself in here and there to add some things, and there's a reason for that. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that the series has grown well beyond what I meant it to be. This was supposed to be a simple idea and a single book. It was just me asking myself, "Hey, what if there was a world where the characters knew they were characters in a story?" And I ran with that idea. I'm still running. I just finished the second of what was supposed to be only one book. At this point, I know there will be two more, and I know the third one is going to be a doozy.

 

I don't really know why I'm telling you all of this. In a way, I guess I'm still in the habit of rambling. I do that some in the The Story of Bookland. It's almost a stream of consciousness experience for me, and that makes the editing process interesting. I want to keep that strangeness, that sense of the story itself being a weird ride, but a very big part of me also wants to rein it all in, to cleanse and purge my writing of its obvious excesses. I don't think I'll let that part win. After all, Bookland is supposed to be a strange and weird place, and if my plans for book three hold true, it's only going to get a lot weirder.

 

If you could use some weird in your life, go ahead and hop on the train. I think you'll like where it takes you.

Election Eve

There are certain things self-important people like to do. Actually, there are a lot. For instance, if you were a self-important person, you would probably choose to post a few political posts on Facebook. I get that, but it's not my drug of choice. No, I'm more of a "give me your money" guy. Even more than that, I'm a "my books are awesome" guy. Are they? Should you? Well, I can't really answer that question. I can only encourage you to give them a try. More specifically, I can only encourage you to go to Amazon through the link on the right and sacrifice your hard-earned money in order to read a bunch of words I've written somewhat coherently and formed into a few stories. Please do so.

Aside from that, let me just break the bad news that the Cubs won the World Series. It sucks, and we're all in mourning. Let's hope it never happens again.

Anyway, have fun voting tomorrow! Your vote totally counts. You know, as like .00000000000001% of the electorate.

Something Not Boring

Can I be honest for a second? That debate last night was boring. So were the two before it. Now, for some context, you should know not to trust my opinion on what's boring and what's not. After all, I'm apparently one of those weird people who doesn't like reality tv or professional wrestling. No, I'd rather listen to a podcast on Roman history going from before its republican days to the end of its imperial ones (link). I'm what you might call an odd duck.

 

Anyway, I would have loved to have heard a policy debate last night. I'm not going to get into my personal views or anything, but I don't think either candidate represents me particularly well, and I would have enjoyed having one of them prove me wrong/defend why their particular policies would be good. That would have been entertaining to me. The constant mud slinging of the three debates we got instead was not. It was boring in the same way Jersey Shore became boring after the first five minutes.

 

But I'm not here today to talk to you about boring things. No, I'm here to talk about something decidedly not boring. I'm here to talk to you about Bookland. I'm here to talk to you about Farmboy and Paladin and Heroine and Barbarian and Faith and Crone and Wizard #8. All of those people are characters in Bookland. All of them know they're characters in Bookland. They know that GOITS is telling a story, and they know that they play some part in it. They don't know if their part is large. They don't even know if they're destined to ever be on an actual page of the story. But they know the story is there all around them. They know that it is their entire reason for living.

 

What is the story, you ask? Well, there's a bad guy. His name is Villain. He needs to be destroyed. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, then you haven't read much, if any, fantasy. If it does, then you should know that there are always obstacles in such quests. If you want to know more, you'll just have to read the book. Like all of mine, it's available on Amazon. You can get to my Author Page through the link in the top right corner of this page.

 

One last thing, Outcast, my second standalone novella set in the world of The Kinmark Saga, is on sale for $0.99 this week. If you want to feel some soul-crushing sadness, as opposed to the lighter nature of Bookland, you should read it. Safrom might just be my most tragic character yet.

Wanted: Person of Any Sex/Age/Ethnicity (Literacy Required)

Meet Tango. Single and incredibly ready to mingle, this self-described man's man spends most of his time in the forest surrounding his home city of Ebonia. A woodsman by trade, Tango has been known to fight the varying forms of darkness and wildlife that resides in the forest. However, he insists that he has a sensitive heart just waiting to be discovered by the right person. Also a bit of a drug addict, Tango's best friend is a cat named Shadow, but she never enters the city with him, preferring instead to remain in the forest of her birth. In other words, dog lovers are welcome!

 

As Tango lives in early-26th-century Fulorn, he has no access to the Internet or any sort of cellular device. If you wish to contact him, check out his novella, Ranger. It's on sale today for just $0.99 on Amazon.

Booktober Continues (and some political ramblings/maybe a word of advice)

Despite the efforts of Matthew to flood us all out of our homes and make selling books a laughably irrelevant affair, the first week of Booktober was a resounding success. Many copies of my books were sold, and I'm hoping that will result in just a bit of word of mouth echoing around the many corners of the Internet. We'll see.

 

Last week was, however, the easy part of Booktober. All 4 books in The Kinmark Saga were on sale at once, and that generated a good bit of interest. Bookland was a brand new release, and that generated a little bit more. Moving forward, what I have going on for the rest of the month isn't nearly as enticing, but we're going to run with it as best we can. After all, Booktober is a month, not a week. Let us continue.

 

So, what's next? Well, Ranger, the first of two standalone novellas set in Fulorn, the world of The Kinmark Saga, is on sale for $0.99 this week. Next week, the second novella, Outcast, will be on sale for the same discounted price. If you've read The Kinmark Saga, you already know if you want to continue on with the world of Fulorn. If not, feel free to read either novella as an introduction to the world and my writing style. Neither one spoils anything of importance from The Kinmark Saga. Both are obviously far shorter. All in all, I think they're good starting points if you're interested.

 

What else? Not a whole heck of a lot, unfortunately. I'm going to be giving away a paper copy of The Last Kinmark, the first book in The Kinmark Saga, later this month on Goodreads, but that's about it. Of course, Bookland is still new for the entire month, and I really do encourage you to check it out if you at all like fantasy. It's a good palate cleanser from my more gritty, grimdark works. As with all my works, it can be found through the link at the top right corner of this page beneath "Amazon Author Page." You can also simply search my name on Amazon.

 

Now then, I would like to add a simple word about the ongoing political disaster taking place in America. You shouldn't and almost certainly won't care at all about what I have to say, and that's exactly my point. I'm amazed at how many of my friends (a politically diverse group thanks to my meandering path through life) "just can't understand" how anyone could support the candidate they oppose.

 

I'm simply here to tell you that that's life. In less than a month, tens of millions of people are going to vote for both major candidates. No, roughly half of those people aren't insane. We all just have different opinions on even the most important issues. For almost every topic you consider to be a "no brainer," there are literally millions of people who consider it to be exactly that from the other side.

 

I said all that to say this: think before you post something political on social media. If you're like me and trying to convince people to take a chance on reading your practically unknown books, think twice. After you've done that, think a third time. If you still want to post that rant you just typed out after thinking about it three times very seriously, just don't. Instead, go ahead and delete the whole thing. Erase it. Don't needlessly bring controversy upon your name.

 

Remember, for every person that nods at your paragraph about the idiocy of the other side of the political aisle, there's someone on that other side. And that someone might have ended up being a reader. They might have been the one to tip you over the edge and really get the momentum going. But you just called them an idiot. Good luck getting them to open up to the first page after that.

Just a Quick and Minor Update

Like the title suggests, you won't care one bit about this, but I feel like I should have it on here just to avoid any possible confusion. My new book, Bookland, was supposed to be the first in a series that shared that name. Unfortunately, Amazon can't process such dual identities on their product pages. Therefore, Bookland is now the first book in a series named The Story of Bookland. Nothing else has changed. In essence, nothing at all has changed. Carry on with your day.

Dream Chasing

The last two days were pretty awesome. I was hoping this whole Booktober thing would work out pretty well, but I didn't expect this. Both Monday and Tuesday saw me sell right around 35 books. For me, that's great. I mean, it's really great, and I've been really excited about it since I woke up yesterday and saw all those sales.

 

These two days have also reinforced some perspective for me. You see, those 35 sales, sales mostly of $0.99 books, have brought me in about $30 per day. That's... not exactly living-high-on-the-hog money. These two days, two days that I'm sure are in the top ten that I've had since I started selling books, are still not where I'd like to be. And, you know what, that's fine. They give me a perfect opportunity to write about today's topic. And that's better than all the money in the world. Not really, of course, but let's run with it.

 

You've probably heard these sayings your whole life:

 

"Chase your dreams."

 

"If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."

 

"When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if you paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what old Jack Burton always says at a time like that: 'Have you paid your dues, Jack?' "Yes sir, the check is in the mail.'"

 

Okay, so maybe that last one was just from Big Trouble in Little China (watch it if you haven't already; watch it again if you have), but the point still stands. You've heard people tell you to chase your dreams. You've heard it your whole life, and you either think it sounds great or like total hooey. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's both.

 

You can chase your dreams. You really can. I'm proof of that. But, in order to do so, you have to make sacrifices. And not just the ones you're thinking of, either. Sure, everybody knows about the money. You'll have to accept that $30 in a day is pretty doggone good when you're just starting to chase your dreams. You'll have to accept that it's still pretty good a year later. I've had to accept that. It's not been all that hard. I've always liked to say that I was blessed with cheap tastes. I don't need to be a millionaire. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I don't want to be one. It seems like a pain in the butt.

 

But it's more than just the money that you have to sacrifice when you chase your dreams. At least, it is if your dreams aren't particularly lucrative. Money, for all my hatred of it, is a pretty useful thing to have, and it's a pretty useful thing to have for a few very good reasons. I think the best way to describe what I'm saying is to talk about paths. There are many of them in life, but each one is a one-way street. Once you go down a path, you can still turn onto a new one, but you can never go back and take that one you passed right by. The sacrifices I want to talk about are like that.

 

Then again, I don't really want to talk about the sacrifices. I want to talk about the benefits. I want to talk about how freeing it is to do something you love. I want to stay positive, but let's be negative. After all, I'm all about honesty. I think.

 

You see, there's a reason I'm able to do what I do. There's a reason I don't HAVE to go out and get a job that pays better than what I scrap together from book sales and my other not-so-lucrative activities. That reason is that I have no responsibilities.

 

There were other paths along the way. Without delving into too personal an area here, let's just say that I didn't have to be single right now (I'm not being conceited or saying I had women throwing themselves at me left and right, just that I could have found someone if I had wanted to. Most people seem capable of that much, and I sincerely hope I'm not too different from most people. Then again, I suppose I could be unlovable. After all, not all my qualities are good ones. I have my flaws, I suppose. But this seems like a thought trail more fit for a diary than a blog post). Anyway, I didn't have to be childless. Many of my college friends aren't. Many of them followed their dreams and started families. Many of them have car and house payments. I don't. I'm poor. It provides a lot of flexibility.

 

You know, I read something somewhere sometime about delayed gratification. I think that's what this post is about. Admittedly, I've gone back and erased and started over and inserted new thoughts a few times already, so I've kind of lost track. But I think that's the point. What's the point? This is the point: if you want to chase your dreams, you might have to put a few things off. You might have to be willing to be a 27 year old who's poor with a law degree collecting dust. You might have to be willing to be single and not have a family to care for. You might have to be willing to drive around in your car from high school and live with your parents. You might have to be willing to sacrifice a few dreams to get at that really big one. Then again, you might not. Who can say for sure? Not me. I'm just a guy whose team didn't make the playoffs.

 

Lastly, let me just say one more thing. Buy my books! You still have a few days to get all four books in The Kinmark Saga for $0.99 each, and Bookland is still waiting there for you to come explore all its wonderful strangeness. Buy my books. Contribute to the Foundation for a Wealthier Josh. I'll be glad you did.

On books. Also, on life.

It's a big day for me. Any new release day is exactly that, and that is exactly what this is. Bookland came out today. Well, it came out Saturday, but I like to give myself and Amazon a few days to work out the kinks before I announce it on here. Anyway, it's available, and that's a big deal for me. You can find it by clicking that link to your right that says, "Link." But that's not all you'll find by clicking that link. As the words above it say, it will take you to my Amazon Author Page. That's sort of the portal for all my books. If you go to it, you'll also see, among a couple other things, the four books in The Kinmark Saga. If you then click on them, you'll see that they're all on sale this week for just $0.99. I'm hoping the combination of a sale (a huge sale, if I'm being honest) and a new release will make this week and month a special one. After all, it is Booktober.

 

I really do hope you'll try my books if you haven't done so already (duh). Those precious few of you who have tried them seem to have liked them so far, and I'm eager to see if that continues with Bookland. If you've been reading this blog the last week or so, you know that it's far different from The Kinmark Saga or any of my other works set in Fulorn. It's a weird mixture of parody and grimdark. Conceitedly, I could describe it as a blending of Terry Pratchett and Joe Abercrombie, but I'm not nearly full enough of myself to think that's true. At least, I don't think it is in terms of quality. In terms of style and feel, on the other hand, it might not be too bad of a description. Feel free to read it and let me know.

 

Now, that's enough about my books for the moment. If we know anything, it's that I'll be sure to tell you more about them later on in my eternal effort to fill my wallet with your hard earned dollars. For now, I'd like to relay an experience I had yesterday. First though, I need to tell you something else. Don't worry, I'll be quick.

 

So, I watch TV shows. You probably do to. You might even watch some of the same ones I do. You might have even watched the one I'm going to be talking about. What show, you ask? The Good Place, I answer. If you're not aware, The Good Place is a new show in which a woman dies and goes to the show's version of Heaven. The catch is that she's not supposed to be there, and things keep going wrong because she's basically crashing the system. Yes, it's a comedy.

 

What I want to talk about is the Heaven depicted on the show. Aside from the mishaps caused by the main character, the community looks quite a bit like suburban life in America or any other first-world country. There's frozen yogurt and communal events with friends and plenty of restaurants to dine in. Of course, there are fantastical things like flying, but the basic structure is very similar to the life most of us lead. And that's the realization I had the other day.

 

Here's how it happened - I was taking my dog out for a walk yesterday afternoon. It was slightly cloudy (with no chance of meatballs, unfortunately) and probably in the 70's. Pretty perfect weather. My neighbors were outside and huddled over the hood of the same truck they've been working on for years. There was a man riding bikes around the neighborhood with his son or grandson. Pretty perfect scene.

 

In that moment, I for some reason was reminded of The Good Place. I can't honestly say I particularly like the show. I mean, it's decent. I'll probably keep watching it for a while, but it's not like I sit around and think about it all day. But I did in that moment. It struck me then that we sure do have it pretty darn good. I know that's not true for everyone, and I know even our good lives are far from perfect. But I also know that I can take Hank for a walk whenever I want and not worry about being shot. I know my neighbors can stand there working on their truck or riding their bikes. It's easy to get caught up in all the negative stuff we see every day online and on the news, but life's pretty great. We should all remember that a little bit more and maybe yell at each other over politics or whatever else a little bit less.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that life is good if you'll just let it be. Of course, it'll be a lot better if you find a good book to read. I have several of those, by the way. You should read them.