3 More Sales (+Sick tips...or Tips for the Sick?)

Been in the holiday spirit? I got 3 sales! I haven't been keeping track as the past two weeks have been pretty crazy, but just checked it out now and--BOOM--sales!
That takes us up to 35 total! Thanks guys/gals! I still haven't made $10 from the royalties (you need $10 before they send you the money), but it's the thought that counts (or at least that's what I tell myself).

I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, but it's been difficult.
Still sick. And there are still events to attend and people to...uh...entertain.

Just a quick recap of the situation.
I've been working on the sequel to the Judge for the past month or so. However, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest is just around the corner, so I'm going to dedicate my time to that. I have until the end of January, so I need to make sure everything is perfect by then. If you don't know what that is, it's a competition of sorts for novels. You have to have a novel ready for them, then you just send it in. The novel is pit against thousands of other novels. And only a few emerge victorious with a grand prize of...getting PUBLISHED!
As no one wants to publish my books, this is really the only way to fight for it. So I'm going to try.

Anyway, since I've been sick, I thought I'd do a little piece called
SICK TIPS (TIPS FOR THE SICK!) Note: These are personal tips and since I'm not an expert at all in health, these are probably really stupid. So...don't rely on them!

1) Stay at home -- There's a story behind this one, and it starts off with...being sick...and going to a lock in(stuck somewhere with nothing healthy to eat and a bunch of people who do not go to sleep). Yeah. Home is the best place to be when you're sick. I went to a lock in when I was still okay, but perhaps due to the extreme cold of winter and lack of ventilation in areas with a bunch of people...things got worse...fast. Also, it didn't help that there were only two bathrooms and over twenty people...and when you drink lots of fluids because of a dry throat...you have to go to the bathroom...A LOT. There are probably lots of other stories to tell, but I won't go into detail. I'll just say I felt like I was dying. Best to stay at home and rest.

2) Medicine? -- I'm the type that believes that medicine should only be taken when needed. In general people say that medicine is a cure. But when it comes to basic sickness, like a cold, all the medicines do is remove symptoms. But...symptoms are often the bodies way of removing the sickness. So I think that medicines are best taken when needed, like if a fever gets too high or if you need to sleep but it feels impossible. And don't forget to sing: "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down" You don't even need the sugar. Just the song makes the medicine go down.

3) Hot shower/Bath -- Does this work? I don't know. Sometimes it makes me feel better. And I think the steam/humidity from a hot shower or bath makes my nose run better to clear out the congestion. Might just be my imagination. But it can get pretty disgusting in the shower when your nose starts dripping.

4) Natural Good Stuff -- I'm pretty sure this is obvious, but any sick fellow needs access to good nutrients. A hot bowl of soup/broth is great for this. Tea has some nice properties as well. Whenever I'm sick I have a nice hot bowl of ramen. And of course, drink plenty of fluids (because you lose plenty too).

5) Sore Throat Remedy -- My most hated part of any sickness is the sore throat. Congestion, stuffy/runny nose, cough is annoying. Fevers suck. Chills and aches are despicable. But, for my money, Sore Throat is the worst. Nothing hurts me more than a constant UGH feeling in my throat that makes me not want to talk, drink or eat. That's why I take all measures to nip it in the bud before it gets too dangerous. From what I understand, sore throats are caused by germs in the throat. Perhaps an infection or inflammation of sorts. So...to destroy the sore throat, you must destroy the germs. I go all out. Here is my method:
a) Gargle with salt water (put salt in water, stir it well)
b) Gargle with mouth wash (Should kill something...I think)
c) drink hot lemon, honey tea or have a spoonful of pei pa koa (this is for preparation of next step. If you don't know what pei pa koa is...check google)
c) eat/drink hot, spicy, salty foods/soups (it'll hurt like heck and you'll be sweating like fifty testosterone-overflowing men trapped in a sauna while running on treadmills...but...maybe it'll help. Make it extra spicy and extra salty. Don't go overboard...or you'll die. Maybe.)
d) wait a few hours, if problems persist, rinse and repeat. if you're suffering even more...stop.

*cough* *sniff* *wheeze*

I think I caught something. Maybe a cold. Don't know what. But it's stuffing up my nose and giving me an annoying cough.
It's been a few days and my book is almost up to 15,000 downloads! Was that a goal? I don't remember. All I can think about is how messed up I feel because of this sickness. I can't think straight.

Christmas has come and gone. I'm glad and thankful that on Christmas I was okay. But the day after Christmas my whole body started acting up.

Did anyone else celebrate Christmas? Did anyone else enjoy their time?

I got a few presents. I don't usually ask for much. And I don't usually get much. But this year was an especially good haul. Very thankful that I got a lot of awesome gifts this year. There's just not enough time to enjoy everything.

Well, time to keep on celebrating! New Year's is just ahead. Maybe things will be normal by then. Until that time comes, I'm gonna try and recover.

Ah, Home Sweet Home

After locking myself up in a closet for 6 days, I am now free!
It's been about a week and the Judge has been maintaining its pace.
We're at 13850! Almost 14000 and about a 1k jump from when I disappeared.
Time to get settled now.
I hope everyone has a great time with the holidays and vacations and things. It's a time of resting, relaxing, spending time with family, and spreading love and joy and peace. The best stuff on Earth.

Christmas is coming up real soon so...Merry Christmas!

Time To Vanish

I'll be home for Christmas. Isn't there a song like that? Well, that's the deal.
I shall disappear now, but I shall return! However, before I head off into the unknown(or lock myself up in my own room for several days), I'd like to thank everyone who downloaded my book, who bought it, who read it, who gave me a review somewhere or told their friends about it. That's a mouthful.

We're up to 12,608 downloads for the Judge! Just think, I've had it out for a month and a half. It's been an amazing ride to see how fast it has spread. Our next goal is a lofty one. With over 12,000 votes, Judge is on page 2 based on hits. We'll need over 20,000 to be on page 1.
Yeah...that's...uh...ridiculous.

I'm going to go prepare for the trip now. See ya next week.

A Mixture

Doing something different today...as I prefer to do everyday.
It will be a super short edition of posting. It's going to seem weird.
But here at CC...weird...is good.

First:  @Free-ebooks.net. New milestone. Hit 12k on Judge. Great. Thank you.

Next: Humble Indie Bundle. Pay what you want, for limited time only. Get 5 cool indie games. Very sweet.
Here: http://www.humblebundle.com/
Braid--okay. Machinarium--awesome. Cortex Command--interesting. Osmos--good. Revenge of the Titans--fun.

Next: Final Informative Doggy Post.
Dogs eat a lot of stuff--even stuff they should not eat. Keep in mind. Be safe.
List of No-no foods: Bones(risky), mushrooms, avocado, onions, grapes, salt, sugar.
More obvious no-no foods: alcohol, drugs, hard objects(large fruit pits), rotten/spoiled/moldy.

Fleas are also a problem. To deal with fleas:
1. Vacuum rugs and spray flea killer on rugs--fleas hide and lay eggs there.
2. Wash dog, soak them good--fleas drown in water.
3. Flea collar/flea treatment--repels fleas.
4. Fleas have different cycles. You may kill most, but when new eggs hatch, more will come back.
So vacuum and wash dog once every two-three days to keep them under control.

And Finally: Youtube Video of the Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5AqJww06bw

Embed not working.
Wow. New Pirates movie!
There you have it.
Bye.

Going on...a...vacation?

I'll be gone next week. I know, you'll probably miss me (no, you won't). But that's the deal. Where I'm going...I don't think I'll be able to access the Internet. What's life without Internet? Terrible. TERRIBLE.

What's that? You want to know where I'm going(no, you don't)?
It's a warm place(no, it's not a fire place). That's all I care about.
Sun. Waves. Uh...more sun...and more waves. Fantastic...but still terrible without Internet.

You know what'd be cool? A telepathic form of Internet that could be accessed anywhere in the world. Your mind's pretty much like a computer anyway. But it'd suck if you got hacked. Yeah...now that I think about it...it'd be a horrible idea. Like what happens in that movie...Inception. MIND HACK!

Anyway, I'll still be here for about two more days. Gotta get ready for the trip. I'll try to get some work done while I'm away. I was gonna finish up my doggy post. But it's getting late. Tomorrow maybe.

A New Post so Soon?

This isn't the post for today. I do those later. This is a celebration post! Two more sales of my books on kindle!
Updated the total books up top. Just think, over a month ago we were only at about 20 books sold.
That's a 50% increase!
Ceeeeleebration time, come on!

All right, that's it! Time to get back.
Thanks again for buying my books guys! I hope today is just simply splendid for everyone!

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest

Sunday was awesome. We actually had a bit of snow today here in the South. Not much. Just some flurries. But it was beautiful...and cold. I love watching snow drift to the ground. Snow and fire are really beautiful things of nature.

Before I get to the main topic, I thought I'd give a little update on the situation.
It is the beginning of (quite possibly) the end.

Have you ever heard of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?
Basically, it's a book contest on Amazon, sponsored by a publisher--the Penguin Group.

Yours truly entered the 2010 contest with THE JUDGE!
I had high hopes...only to be shot down:
(BANG, BANG, BANG--"UGH! You got me!")  :(
It wasn't a pretty sight. I was very depressed to know...that I didn't even get past the first round!
Yup, they cut me out of the contest based on just my--erm--description of the book.
*sigh* Water under the bridge at this point.
Dirty, yucky, muddy, infested, black, brown, gooey, barfy (not a word) water.
But still water under the bridge. (gotta hold back the tears...)

No, there is no time to weep! Because it is the time to enter again! 2011! The contest submission period begins Jan 24th...or so. I need to make sure my final product is ready by then. What I'm trying to say is that progress on the Guardian is going to slooow down. Why? Because I'm gonna need some time to fix up S3 for this contest.

S3...is my last hope. It is all I've got left. I still haven't been published once. (all my books are self-published)
The Judge failed. Awake failed. S3...is the final battle. *clenches fist*
We've got to fight...once more...with EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!
And by we...I always mean me...unless you want me to include you...then...
YES, WE WILL ALL FIGHT ON TOGETHER AS ONE!

If I can just get published once...I could die...a happy man.
Even my skull, after my flesh has rotted away, will be smiling for all eternity.

Anyway, wonderful, beautiful denizens of the Internet...you're great people and all...but that's not going to help me out here. I don't know if there's any kind of voting thing that happens in this contest (because...I didn't get past the first part...so I have no idea what's really in store). But if there is any kind of voting...your support would be much appreciated.

Begging for votes?

But of course, I'd invite you to take a look at the preview of the book first... and if you like it, vote for it. As usual. Who knows? Maybe you'll like it.
This is...Akel...signing off.
For those of you at night:
Good night, sleep tight and don't mind getting up in the middle for an early morning bite.
For those of you in the day:
Have a most spectacular, awesome and wonderful day!

Dealing with Dogs Part 2

Ah, yes, a beautiful Saturday! It's still cold, but perhaps that could be remedied by wearing a few more layers.
Guardian Progress: 25%

Anyway, let's continue our Dealing with Dogs segment.
Last time I talked about...stuff that I don't want to talk about ever again.
This time I'll talk about a few more things(so general and vague).

All right. Topic: Feeding your puppy/dog. How many times should you feed them? As a human, we eat three times a day. But dogs are not humans. Their digestive system is different...and pretty flexible. What this boils down to is convenience! There is no right answer for this(except for maybe the fact that you should probably feed them more than ZERO times a day).

How many times do you want to feed them? And how does your dog handle the feeding? Some people just fill up the bowl and let the dog eat however they want. There is a possibility that some dogs are overeaters and some are not. If you're worried about obesity(especially when you're busy and can't keep playing with your dog), it'd be best to manage their diet. Most people just feed their dog once a day. We feed her twice a day.

The more times you feed it, the more times it'll go do the number 2. Convenience. One time a day is easier to deal with. On the other hand, food will stay within a dog's stomach for about eight hours. By dividing the meals you'll make it more...pleasant for your dog. Of course, in the end, a dog is still a dog. It survives as it needs to in the wild...but now it is family. Perhaps keeping things pleasant will be good in the long run. 

Dealing with Dogs Part 1 (D-D-D-D-Deworm!)

Does everybody know what time it is? TOOL TIME! (ah, a good show back in the day)
Actually, no. It's random blog posting time!
Anyway, denizens of the Internet, I recently discovered something new at Free-Ebooks.net!
As you probably know (I feel like I've said this one million times), I've got my books up on that site. It used to be on the Featured Ebooks, right on the homepage...but those days are long gone (it's been about a week).
I was kind of bummed out about it since the number of downloads took a nose dive.
But now I've found out that they have a new category--Top 10 ebooks!
And guess what book is in the top 10 fiction? *cups hand over ear*
*crickets chirp* *mice squeak*
*cockroaches continue to be disgusting little vermin that needs to be stepped on, burned and vaporized*
You don't know? You don't want to guess? Fine, I'll just spoil it. THE JUDGE! THE JUDGE IS IN THE TOP TEN!
Dun, dun, duuuun!
Not impressed? Well, I thought it was cool. I'm not going to get into stats anymore (trying to quit. cutting the cold turkey.). But let's just say that the downloads have been going back up! Hooray!
_____________________________________________________________
Anyway, let's get down to business with a topic I'd like to call: Dealing with Dogs.
I've got a dog. She was just a little puppy last year. Now...she's a huge puppy. But that's beside the point.
For you people who consider getting a dog, I thought I'd give a few life lessons.

First of all, if your dog is a puppy...make sure you deworm (unworm?) it. This is not a pleasant topic. But it's a very real topic. Worms live inside the INTESTINES! Put your hands over your ears and say "lalalalala... I'm not listening" if you don't want to hear more(like that'll help). It doesn't matter where your puppy came from. It doesn't matter if the mommy dog has no worms. Your puppy can still have worms. WHY? Mother nature. apparently, even if your dog is dewormed, some eggs or something can still be living in there...only to show up during child--er--puppy birth. Disgusting? Vile? Putrid? Despicable? Say what you will. Doesn't change the facts. Some people are against over-the-uh-store de-wormers. But here at CC, we used one and it worked like a charm. Our puppy looked like it was pregnant even though it was like two weeks old. But now...ah...those pesky worms are gone. Those...things...that look like spaghetti...in doodoo.

AAAAH! THE IMAGERY! NOOOOOOOO!
For God's sake, do not google image those worms! DO NOT DO IT! PLEASE!

I'd continue talking about these tips. But...right now...I kind of want to throw up.
and perhaps go to the bathroom for some other things that nature calls my cellphone for.
Maybe next time I'll continue with some more...pleasant topics.
Until next time, denizens of the Internet.... Until next time...
*retches*

Updates? Best Free Indie Games

Yay, another sale of Awake! I've decided to update the counter and include sales of Awake too. I'll just put sales of all my books there so I can have more to update...and that way it'll look more impressive (or really sad, depending on how you look at it)!

Anyway, today I'm going to make a laaaaazy post, because I'm laaaaazy(and it's late, and I'm tired/not feeling well, and it's been a loooong day).

Yesterday (or perhaps the day before that. can't remember) I made a post talking about PC gaming. I thought I'd expand upon it today and talk about Free Indie Games.
Yeah, I know, it's easy to pirate games (and thus make every single game in existence "free") but come on. People worked on this stuff, and just as you like to earn money for your work, they do too! However, just like indie me (Indie author me), some indie developers make their games free because they want everyone the chance to appreciate it (and feel good about not having to actually pirate it).
So let's celebrate indie gaming by showing off some of the best FREE indie games that I've enjoyed!
(hey, maybe it'll get me some new visitors to my blog...! Or...maybe I'm too hopeful)

Super Crate Box
http://www.supercratebox.com/
Let's start out with Super CRATE BOX! This is a fun little title that will waste your time. But then again, aren't all games a waste of time? So...this game is very much like an arcade game. You collect crates while dealing with constantly respawning enemies. But every time you collect a crate, you get a random weapon (some are awesome, some are very situational, and one in particular sucks like nobody's business). For every crate you collect, you get a point on your score. If get hit by an enemy, you die.... And if you die...well, YOU DIEEEE! And the game is over. The goal is to get as many crates as you can without dying. It's frantic, it's simple...and it's VERY FRUSTRATING (and maybe it's fun).
I give it a 3/5.

Cave Story
http://www.cavestory.org/
Next is a classic. Everyone should know Cave Story(Everyone who searches for free indie games). It's considered one of the best free indie games out there. And quite possibly for some...one of the best games...PERIOD. It's made by a single Japanese guy (pretty talented guy. handsome? I wouldn't know.) That's right. He did the graphics, music... gameplay... design... uh... game stuff... etc, etc, etc, all by himself. It may look like a DOS game (or an NES game), but doesn't matter what it looks like. It's still a great game. You play as some robot dude (I think he's a robot) that lost his memory (awwww). He runs around a dark cave, steals a gun(hey the game forced me to do it!), shoots cute monsters to death(it's either him or them), and defeats some crazy evil scientist guy.
5/5! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. NO DOUBT.

Warning Forever
http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/index_e.html
Here we go. Ever heard of SHMUPS? I didn't make that word up. But it's not a real word either. It's sort of an abbreviation. It stands for: Shoot THEM UP! Not very impressive, I know. But if you say shmups ten times fast...it sounds...stupid? Anyway, back to the point. Warning Forever is an interesting take on SHMUPING. It's all about boss fights. You've got a dinky ship with a pretty powerful gun, and you fight boss after boss after boss (after boss...). It's time based. You kill bosses fast, you get more time and points. You die...you lose time. And when you run out of time, GAME OVER MAN.
I give it a 3/5. (Deja vu? or Copy Pasta?)

Ben There Dan That

http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17
A point and click adventure in the vein of...uh...Lucasarts Adventure games of Christmas Past. The game looks like it was drawn by a five-year-old. But rest assured, I don't think the game was made by five-year-olds. But if it is...THEY ARE SOME DARN TALENTED AND INTELLIGENT FIVE-YEAR-OLDS(more intelligent than me, that's for sure, but not necessarily a big accomplishment). It has some issues. But overall, not bad. If I remember correctly, there's a bit of uh...foul language. Just a warning.
4/5.

Hedgewars
http://www.hedgewars.org/
Total, shameless, worms clone. What's there to say? It's a turn-based strategy game where you...move hedgehogs and use a variety of weapons to...um...eliminate...the enemy. Total rip off of a more well-known game. So for that...I give it a:
2/5. It's not bad. It's just...kind of wrong.

Spelunky
http://www.spelunkyworld.com/
Now here is a game that is very...interesting. Two words: AMAZING. Wait...that's one word.
How about: AMAZING GAME? And now it just sounds lame. Anyway...you're a spelunker. What's spelunking? It's cave exploring! What's that you say? I already went over a game called Cave Story? And now there's another cave game? And it's AMAZING(just like cave story)?
Apparently, caves are awesome and fun places to be!
This game is pretty...um...crazy. Graphics are kind of SNES like. You go down a cave, and the levels are all randomized, which means every level will always be different, even if you start over from the beginning. The goal is to survive while journeying deeper and deeper into the...uh...cave. But this isn't your ordinary cave! There are zombies, killer monkeys, piranhas, exploding frogs, crazed cavemen (cavemen in my caves?), hot (and very pixelated) damsels in distress, giant spiders, a really grumpy merchant with a shotgun, and TONS OF BOOBY TRAPS. Big ones. Really big ones. Lots of big, huge booby traps. (Will this get my blog more hits? It's a sad world...and what I'm doing is even sadder ;P )
There are some really weird aspects to it as well. But I don't want to talk about it.
Anyway, I'm going to sleep. 5/5.

REALLY ROUGH

Okay, so here we are at another day. Guardian Progress: 24% (If you're wondering why it goes up a percent every now and then, it's because it's a REALLY ROUGH estimate. There's no easy way to calculate this.)

Ahh, what should I talk about today?
When I was little (maybe about 8 or 9), I used to get really paranoid around my family and friends, because I wondered if I was really human. I wondered if life was real or not, or if I was just sitting inside some simulation controlled by robots that pretended to be humans. I wondered if anything else outside of my own existence was actually happening. Perhaps, things only happened where I was. And everything else in the outside world, beyond my sight and presence, was merely fiction. (Yeah, I was a bit of a nut)

Another thing I used to think about was when you put two mirrors together. I wondered if every reflection constituted another world. Perhaps we are just part of a reflection and the other reflections are just as real as we are. If I wave to myself in the mirror, perhaps the "me" in the mirror was waving to me and I was merely the copy! (Yeah...it's doesn't make sense...or does it?)

And another thing I used to consider is the possibility that some things might exist even without our knowing. Just how far does everything go? If we look at cells (living organisms) we can tell that they are EXTREMELY ITSY BITSY TINY THINGS. You can't see them without a microscope. Yet, they are made up of tiny parts. Are those tiny parts made up even tinier parts? And those tinier parts made up of even tinier, tinier (you get the point) parts? But even our world is part of a system, the solar system. And our solar system is part of many of other systems, and part of a galaxy, which is part of many other galaxies....and all these galaxies make up our universe...yet we cannot even fathom just how many galaxies there are out there! Perhaps these galaxies are just building blocks for something else. Maybe our massive universe is just a tiny part of an even bigger universe!

Anyway...I stopped thinking about that silly stuff, because well, those are just the silly thoughts of a kid. When you're older you just think...life is just what it is. No point in worrying about anything else.

And so I shall shift topics!
TOPIC SHIFT

PC games used to be sort of a big thing (at least, as far as I could remember) a long time ago. I remember going to an electronics store with a huge selection of PC games. Even normal retail stores would have a huge aisle of PC games. But now, all that has changed due to, presumably, two factors: Piracy and PCs.
Piracy is particularly easy on the PC. All it takes is three easy steps. It definitely makes it less appealing to develop a game for PC when you know that everyone can just grab it for free. The other issue is that normal people don't really care about upgrading a PC. With consoles you can buy a console and know for sure that a game will work on it. But such is not the case with PC gaming. You need to make sure you got a good video card and a decent processor if you want to run intense applications like games.

HOWEVER, things have changed yet again. While PC gaming may have been somewhat dead a few years ago, it has taken a new life of its own. Digital distribution is now the way of PC gaming. While piracy still exists, PC games can still sell very well through DD. STEAM in particular has been reaping the benefits by providing solid working products, anti-hack measures on their major online games, a good selection of both major and indie titles, and TONS OF SALES.

http://store.steampowered.com/
On holidays, steam has big sales, taking off anywhere from 25% to 95% off!
They even have a very devious event going on right now. IF you complete objectives, you'll be entered for a chance to win any game of your choice. And of course, completing objectives require buying games on sale...it's a two fold attack!

Anyway, that's all for now.

A long day

looks like there won't be any more stats.
We are dead in the water, like a sitting duck (or a dead duck).
There are a few downloads here and there, but...pretty much negligible at this point.
But rest assured, even without stats...I can still waste time with more blog posts!
I'll probably do a post tomorrow.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Today is a sad day. No, no, I will take no consolation. There is nothing that could lift my spirits today. For today, is the day that we have lost our place on the homepage of Free-Ebooks.net.

Yes, for about a few weeks now, Coranite Chronicles (Judge) has been on the Featured books section. It was a blessing to have it up there. But now...that time has passed. THE END HAS COME!

*sigh* Oh well(z), it was great while it lasted. Not much we can do now.
And because of what has happened, we have noticed a huge drop in activity.

STATS -
Judge 10058 - Broke 10,000...however it only went up about 200. It is dying! Noooo!
Awake 10401 - went up about 100. typical.

The fight must go on! But...I don't really know what to do now. What choice do I have?
Oh, the humanity!
How can we keep the hopes and dreams alive?

Oh well, we can rejoice tomorrow, I suppose. Nothing better than a sunny Sunday.

Current Situation -
Pitching S3 to agents.
Writing the Guardian(coranite chronicles sequel).
Preparing S3 to enter Amazon Breakthrough Novel.

I'll try to write something more uplifting tomorrow. But today...is a day of sorrow.
There is a time for rejoicing and a time for mourning.
Good night.

The Process Part 6 (FINAL)

9857 - Judge (300...slowing down again)
10316 - Awake (100...better than yesterday)
Guardian Progress: 23%

So, I've been thinking, a lot of times people ask me: "Why do you have an afro?"
Actually...no one has asked me that. I tend not to unleash the afro unless absolutely necessary, because I have discovered that my afro is quite frightening.

I just needed a way to start this blog post and THERE IT IS!

Anyway, I thought I'd divulge some of my past experiences in the Final Part (PART 6) of the Epic Blog Post Series - THE PROCESS (Great title for a movie, eh? There probably is a movie called that).
We've had a long journey...coming to this part. These are pretty much pointless facts about my writing process.
So...without further ado.

1) When I first wrote the Judge, I had the story planned out in my head. However, I found that it was difficult to keep focus. Like...I'd get bored of writing the same chapter. And that made things slow. So what did I do? I decided to jump around. I would write the first few pages of a chapter and then move on. I wrote the first half of EVERY chapter. And then I went back to the beginning of the book to write the second half of every chapter.

2) When I was writing Awake...I wanted to confirm the difficulty of staying awake for long periods of time. So I tried not to sleep one night to see how well I could handle it. I caved in at about 7am. Pathetic. WEAK.


3) To get inspiration, I usually stay up late. By the time 2-3-4am rolls around, my mind goes totally crazy. No, I don't get hallucinations. My mind just gets filled up with a lot of random weird stuff. The Coranite Chronicles is the only series that I've written off the top of my head. The stories for my other books: Awake, Faerie Epoch and S3, all came to me during this phase of late night mind randomness.

4) I take hot showers when it's cold. And cold showers when it's hot....
Wait, this doesn't have anything to do with anything!

5) Planning for my books is best done all the time. I think about what I'm going to write when I'm doing menial tasks or when I'm just pacing around in a constant circle.

6) I'm really hungry and need to eat. Like right now.

ANOTHER SALE

YES! YES,YES! Aaha! Another person just bought the Judge on kindle! Thank yooouuuu!
All right! I'm getting fired up! This is awesome! Nothing better than to start your day with a sale!

If you bought a book and think I missed it, just tell me through any way you can (comments, forum) so I can update the counter above. I pretty much only check kindle sales, and even then I only check them once a week or so.

Anyway, today is a beautiful, wonderful day! Have a great day, everybody!

Sci-fi? Fantasy?

Hey guys and gals. How are you all doing today? Great? Great...(Just talking to myself)
Stats- Judge 9560 (a good 400 up)        Awake 10209 (50?)
Guardian Progress: 22%

Okay, today I decided to talk about something that kind of bothers me a bit. That is--putting a genre to my books. As you probably know, I put my books Awake and Judge on Free-Ebooks.net (and some other sites too). I just write whatever I want to write. I don't put genre limits and restraints on it. And so...I found it really hard to put my books into a genre. You'd think it'd be easy...but really...the problem is that the Genre's usually have stereotypes. And when you get out of these stereotypes...you're left with something really confusing.

I guess I'll talk about the Judge first. I've heard someone say that it's kind of like Eragon. Eragon is most definitely Fantasy, because it fits within its trappings. In Eragon, you've got your dragons, your wizards, your elves and dwarves and the like. That's Fantasy, and that's usually what people think of when you think of Fantasy. Magic. Swords. Mystical, mythical creatures.

But the Judge isn't quite that simple is it? For starters, it's set in space/the galaxy, almost like Star Wars. You've got starships, space stations, lasers and missiles.
But you've also got something akin to magic--anti-law. But there are serpents and monsters.
*spoiler* there will also be dragons in the second book. *spoiler* 
There are spirits called Guardians that rain down fire from the heavens. There are even swordsmen and archers...people with psychic powers...fairies...werewolves... It's set in space...but it's also set in a post-apocalyptic (and as a result, primitive) world. Is it Sci-fi? Or Fantasy? Or truly...a mix of both that shouldn't be?

And to be honest, I really don't want to call my books Sci-fi, because when I think of Sci-fi....Science-fiction... I think of science. Now, science-fiction may be all speculative, just like Fantasy, however, Science-fiction should REALLY have an element that says "SCIENCE!"
Right? Just because we talk about traveling through space...does it really turn it into science-fiction? In my books, I don't go into details because I'm not really a science person. The science is strictly for setting, because I love the concept of space, starships and the like. There is no science to it!

But then...do we just call it Fantasy then? I'd like to think so, but at the same time, even stuff like Star Wars is considered Sci-fi, even if that is also very...fantasyish (Jedi force powers and stuff like that isn't really science).

I have the same issue with Awake. It's modern Fantasy. But it's set in a city...so it's urban fantasy? but urban fantasy has more to do with vampires and werewolves. But then...the dream wave stuff...the Internet AI stuff...is that...Fantasy? Or Science-fiction? But...animals talking and transforming...dragons...spirits that govern the world (Mother Nature)...those are Fantasy...

And in the end...I can't narrow it down. There's no real specific genre for things that blend a little bit of both. From what I've researched, Fantasy is when something is purely of the imagination and Sci-fi has some possible grounds in Science. My books are purely of the imagination...and that's why I'm more inclined to call them Fantasy, even if it's in space...or with talking computers...or in starships...

Yes, yes, here am I rambling and rumbling once more. If you ask me what kind of books I write, I'll tell you FANTASY. But then...people are always like...
"Fantasy? Like Eragon? Like Lord of the Rings? Like Narnia?"
Nooo! Not quite like that...It's...more like...I DON'T KNOW!

And if you were wondering...yes, S3 also fits this bill as well. It's more sci-fi with Time Traveling...but... the time traveling is very fantasy like...so...I don't know what that is either.... Same goes for Faerie Epoch. Sci-fi-ish setting with a very Fairy-taleish setting as well.
And with that, I shall end this post on a very confused note.
Faerie Epoch has giant robots and a Utopian futuristic cybernetic world! But it also has centaurs, anti-law, ghostly creatures, etc.
What...do...I...call...these...things?
Fantasy...with some sci-fi stuff...with some utterly ridiculous stuff...

What do you think my books are? What kind of genre is this?
Leave some comments below if you've got an idea.

Congressional Progress

Another day means more stats. Keeping it short.
Judge 9141 - 400-500? It's still really steady for some reason.
Awake 10147 - And there we have it! Our next goal? 12000! With 12000, Awake will be able to be on page 2 when the list is ordered by hits. We've come a long way over this past month and a half.

And what's more amazing is that the Judge is on track to surpass Awake! I think Awake had about a two week head start, and the difference now is only about a thousand.

I just want to take this time to thank everybody! People who've bought my books, who've read them, who've reviewed them, or even suggested them to other people. You've all been very helpful! Thank you!

Keep spreading the word any way you can: Twitter, Blog, word-of-mouth, etc.

We want victory!
Guardian Progress: 21%

OHHHHHHHHHH

BREAKING NEWS:
Two more copies of the Judge has been sold on Amazon Kindle! YES! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
Time to FREAK OUT! Aaaaaah! Another two copies have been sold! One in US and one in UK! SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! AMAZING! AWESOME! SUPER! SPECTACULAR! UH--RANDOM ADJECTIVES OF VARYING CRAZY EXPLOSIVE EXCITEMENT!

*breathes heavily* Okay...okay...I think I'm okay now. Yeah, that's really all I wanted to get off my chest.
I had almost given up on sales entirely...and speaking of sales....

SALES TIME [Official Report Edition of this may never happen again]:
2 copies of the Judge has been sold - YEAH!

Stats time:
8679 Judge -about 400? pretty stable.
9948 Awake -sooooo close to 10,000

There we go. Guardian progress: 20%

Happy...Cyber...Monday? (And my ways of dealing with a Post Apocalyptic scenario)

That website's working again. And I know how much you all missed the stats from yesterday(I know, I know, nobody cares  :( )...so here we go:
Judge: 8257 - Aw, now we can't compare on a day by day basis. But between the two days, about 600 up. A slow drop again? Bummer.
Awake: 9799 - almost 10,000!

Anyway, now on the pointlessness. Today is Cyber Monday! To be honest, I've never heard of cyber monday. Nobody I know has ever told me, "Hey, Happy Cyber Monday!" But then again, nobody really celebrates Black Friday either...because they're not holidays to begin with! What exactly are they if they aren't holidays? Shopping days apparently. While people storm the stores in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday, sacrificing life and limb to get GREAT savings, people just sit at home...clicking away at their computers on Cyber Monday. Convenient. Deals are okay too. I mean, sure it doesn't go as low as Black Friday, but still you might get things 40-50% off. So there you have it, another day in the guise of a holiday...only to just be a SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY(as if we haven't spent enough over the weekend) day.
Depressing for the wallet (and whatever you hold money in), but perhaps good for the economy?

And now for the main event: My ways of dealing with a post-apocalyptic world. [BACHELOR EDITION]

Picture courtesy of Fall Out 3.

You've watched them in movies. You've played them in games (pretty popular theme as you can see above). But what would you do in a post-apocalyptic world? What if computers deemed humanity as a parasite to the Earth(Matrix, Terminator, I, Robot)? What if World War 3 starts and nukes are fired all over the Earth?

Today's topic: Food. Every post-apocalyptic bachelor knows that in order to survive in such a world...you need food(and you need food all the time)! Of course the tricky thing is not to eat food, but to acquire it. If you're smart (and perhaps a bit crazy) you'd already have stocked up on supplies regardless.

1) So...first of all: Preparation. Before the apocalypse happens (i.e. TODAY) What kind of goods would be good (...) to stock up on? We need stuff that lasts. And bachelors are the experts in this category.
a) Canned goods - spam, baked beans, soups, tuna, fruits, pasta. These are OUR food groups. You can get some pretty yummy stuff canned. Although canned vegetables are kind of...not that great. I see some good sources of protein here.
b) Cup-a-noodle, Ramen noodles - People rag on this stuff because it's mostly oil, salt and carbs. But while it may be considered kind of bad in everyday life, it's great food for surviving the p-a world. Combine it with some canned food, and you've got yourself an awesome meal! Plus, you don't even have to cook it if you're desperate and don't have time to make a fire. Just eat it raw (it tastes much better cooked).
c)  Cat/Dog food - I've never eaten it myself. But I can't see how this wouldn't be fine. Some are canned, but you've got some nice dried versions as well. Hey, you've got to survive. And it can't be too bad. Besides. You're a bachelor. Cooking or no cooking, you'll survive on anything.
d) Grains - Cereal lasts. Assuming you can't get any milk (well, I guess you could try to start a farm, but not sure how well that would turn out), you can just eat it. And it'll taste better than dog food and dried ramen.
e) Sealed food - almost like canned...except not in a can!It comes in a plastic container. Just heat up (or not) and enjoy.
f) Jarred food - Pickles? Peanut Butter? Okay, so some of those things are more of spreads for foods. But due to their edible status, I'd say..go ahead and eat a jar of peanut butter if you've got nothing else.
g) Bagged food - Potato chips for a meal? Hey, it's like eating a potato...actually, it IS eating a potato.
h) Frozen food - Wait a minute! If we don't have electricity (and a possible nuclear winter might make solar power less effective), how are we going to keep our food frozen? Simple. Go live in either the north or south pole.

2) So you've got all that yummy dog food stocked up. Now what? Let's say the world ends tomorrow (no more stats?!).  You want to save as much food as you can. The next step is to start practicing your hunting skills.
It's a dangerous world out there. Due to radiation, all creatures have become butt-ugly mutants that resemble pig fetuses. How can you tell what's good to eat? Do you go for the chicken with two heads? Or the cow with five butts? I'm assuming the laws of nature will still apply, regardless of how disfigured everything is. So here are some basic tips when hunting for food.
a) Always cook it! Be on the safe side.
b) Avoid bright colored and spotted and striped creatures
c) go more for herbivores. why? it's tradition. deers, rabbits, chickens, cows...what do they have in common? besides, if that goat is man-eating, you wouldn't want to take your chances.
d) Always test the food first - take a bite. wait a day. if you're feeling fine, that food is good to keep on hunting for.
e) keep a record of safe creatures to eat
f) make sure you have benadryl on hand. even if something isn't poisonous to eat, you never know if you'll get an allergic reaction.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. Enjoy your Cyber Monday!

Nothing Saturday

Happy Nothing Saturday, everyone! Or maybe just Happy Saturday, when the only thing to celebrate is another day of life.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all stuffed full of turkey...for days and days.
And you've probably spent all your money in hopes of saving it (that's what deals are all about!).
So while your stomachs are full and your wallets are empty, welcome back to the blog(and to the grind)!

The Holidays really haven't made much change in my downloads. Still about the same I suppose.
Judge 7620 - 400ish boost? Still good.
Awake 9464 -200ish boost? Its got legs, y'all! (Southern talk, which I'm terrible at)

We had a feast this year! 15 attended our annual Thanksgiving feast (including dogs and babies of course).
But that's bigger than normal.

To be honest I didn't get much writing done over the past two days. But I did do some story planning. The Guardian isn't exactly shaping up nicely, but I do hope, after some heavy revision, that the final product will be worth it.

Still debating whether to make the Guardian free, or just make it cheap.

The Blackest of Fridays

So it's Black Friday today. Whoop-dee-doo. Okay, yeah it's not really a holiday, so I don't care much for it. Although there are some really good deals. People say it's Christmas shopping, but we all know they just want those deals for themselves :P

Anyway, my books are getting more downloads!
Judge 7227 - Over 7 thousand!
Awake 9229 - Wow, it was going so slowly before and now it broke 9000 overnight!

Still quiet though. Anyway, I hope you people enjoy your Black Friday (that's not really a holiday but I guess it kind of is?). Be sure to check out Amazon.com for some really awesome deals! I mostly shop amazon online, but I always check up on newegg as well (they've got some good computer parts and service).

And if you like my books, please don't forget to put up some reviews somewhere, either Amazon or Free-Ebooks.net. Thanks.

It's Thanksgiving!

No stats again. I guess it goes down in the morning from time to time. Oh well.
Today is Thanksgiving! It's an awesome day to just give thanks...because, well, thinking about the good things in life will lift your spirits.

Just a moment ago, I smelled smoke. Something was burning! I ran to the kitchen as fast as I could and saw smoke everywhere! But now I can be thankful that I caught it on time. Crisis averted! Although...my nose still smells smoke. I think there are smoke particles or something in my nose holes. I wonder if it helps with congestion. Probably not.
So there! There's one thing to be thankful about as I wait for the smoke to clear out of the windows.

There are all sorts of things to be thankful about!

When you're okay and just living a normal life...be thankful you don't have to endure strife!
If you're still alive and well, that's perfect and just swell!
Sure, you might not have the wealth, but who cares about that when you're in good health!
Bah, I hate rhyming.

Anyway...if you think about your troubles and your worries, you'll be grumpy and bitter.
That brings to mind Disney movies, doesn't it? Hakunamatata and the Bare necessities!

Sure, I might look at my situation and be depressed, thinking stuff like: my books will never be liked, or nobody cares even though I put all my heart and soul into these books, or I've only sold about 20something books, or why won't any agents help me get published, or why aren't there any people reviewing my books, or why are the downloads slowing down, or I can't even tell if people are even reading my books-- You get the point.

But at the same time...I look at how far I've gotten and think...who cares? I know at least like five people have read my books. And that's better than none! I've got nearly 9000 downloads on Awake! and I've only put it up a month ago! In terms of hits, it's already surpassed so many other books that came out before it! And the same goes for the Judge!

Slowly (very,very,very slowly) I'm getting exposure. A few people might actually be reading my books! So I gotta be thankful!

I'm not famous, I'm dirt poor, nobody buys my books--But who caaaaaaaaares?
It's been such a blessing to write these books. And I'll never regret doing it.
I may never hit it big time, but at least I know I gave it my all.
I'm going to do my best to finish the first trilogy of the Coranite Chronicles as fast as I can.
And then...unless some miracle happens and I get published for real...I guess I'll just move on.
And I will have finished...my greatest dream and passion in life....

EDIT: Numbers are in.

Judge 6758 - a nice boost!
Awake 8910 - yeah, this...ain't going anywhere.

More Time-wasting

8811 on Awake! Will we break 9000 tomorrow? Probably not. I'd say chances are about 50/50.
And 6004 on the Judge! That's like 400 downloads.
Steadily slowing down? Or totally random?
You decide(I hate when people say that).

Thank you people for downloading my books. If you like them, please leave reviews and spread the word about them. While it's nice to get downloads, I often wonder if anyone is actually reading them.

Ugh. The sickness has returned and it's getting to me. You know the drill: sore throat, congestion. It's not too bad. Nothing a few hot showers and hot soup can't fix.
Anyway, keeping it short again today.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I don't know if I should bother taking a break or not. Probably not necessary. Breaks are useless. Must...keep...moving!

Guardian Progress: 18%
Going to slow down now. Here comes the hard part.

Maybe I'll do a little piece or something tomorrow. See ya then.

Lost Tales of the Judge

8658 on awake...but...
We've hit 5600 on the Judge!
Not a bad jump if I do say so myself. Like a 500 jump in one day? And it's already been out for a while. Nice. I don't know how it happened, but who knows, maybe we're getting popular!

Anyway for today, like I said, I'd put up a bit more information on the Judge. I added a few characters to the character page and some character art. I just wish I had better art skills...or someone with art skills made their own designs, I wouldn't mind posting those up too. But most of all, today I decided to talk about what I had to cut and the changes I had to make to the Judge.

For those of you who've read the Judge, you probably know that it's a big book. It averages about 122,000 words. But at one time it was over 150,000! The only reason I cut out some parts was because it was not really necessary to the plot and I needed to keep it condensed for printing. (Plus, publishers don't like big books, so I thought I'd get a better chance of publishing it if I kept word count down. Too bad...it didn't help anything at all.)

So the first thing you'll probably notice is that I cut out the prologue. You can find the prologue on the sample chapters on the Coranite Chronicles page on the right. The prologue was the tale of the Judges, intended to set the mood for the story. It is canon, part of the main story as well. But it takes place thousands of years in the past. The first Judges were not assassins who hunted criminals. In those turbulent times, all the nations were at war. They were powerful warriors who fought to protect their small nation. This elite twelve could slay entire armies in order to keep their king safe.

The next thing I cut out was the first meeting between Darek, Azura, and Sorren. In their first meeting, Sorren and his companions, Windzer and Hortmel, actually found Darek and Azura in the abandoned city. Darek was still attacked by Thedes. However, when Thedes discovered Windzer approaching, they quickly retreated. This first meeting was not as simple as falling into a river. It was much crazier!
A giant storm passed overhead, causing a giant flood with waters that rose over thirty feet high! The group tried to hide in a house...until they realized just how bad the storm was, as it flooded straight through the windows, filling up the house. They were washed by the flood and ended up in a small empty village where Rathos took care of them until they needed to dive into a waterfall in order to reach the hidden cave where the Mansion was.

The other big thing I cut out was a small adventure that Darek and the others had when they in the desert. While they were in the desert, they stopped by a small oasis to freshen up and look for animals to ride upon. They waited in the sand, hiding themselves from view. But when Darek gets up to give Thedes a piece of his mind, he finds himself surrounded by large, upright lizard creatures. The lizards carry him away, taking him into some secret lair of an insane immortal who lives there. They throw Darek into a pit that he can't escape from. Sorren and the others go to help him. But Azura falls down there too. While Sorren goes to look for a piece of rope or any other solution, he comes upon a water reservoir and cracks it open, sending a surge of water across the lair, sweeping Darek and Azura out of the pit. Sorren also steals the map of the immortal so that they can traverse the desert by going from oasis to oasis.

I feel like I probably cut some other stuff out, but that's all I can remember for now.

Guardian progress: 15%

Have at thee, sickness! I spit in thine face!

A late post today. Normally I try to just make a post in the morning, but today was a bit different because I felt a bit sick in the morning. But it's gone now, I think. I don't like to take medicine for sickness because I feel that medicine inhibits the body from doing its duty...and thus you'll be sick longer (that's what I think, but feel free to disagree). So I just gave it the full natural force of anti-sickness: herbs, hot tea, nap, hot (and spicy) soup, water, weird concoction of orange mush of only-God-knows-what, some prayer. And now I'm fine and it's back to business.

So...once again, just a few reminders. I was thinking of doing that contest thingy to promote my books. It's going to start in December and I'll make a full announcement of rules and everything then. Next, downloads:
Judge:5075!
Awake:8580!
So, we did it! We reached 5000! Woohoo! Yay! Yes! Yah! Yatta! Hurray! Wonderful! Spectacular! Awesome! Amazing! Super cool! Super everything!

The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles Sequel) Progress: 10%.

For those of you new here, check in everyday for more stats, updates, and everything. I might put up some more information on the Judge. But that'll be for another day. MAYBE TOMORROW.
And as always, if you've got any questions, comments, just put them on up. I'll try to reply to everything. Thanks for visiting and have another super awesome day!

Another Beautiful Sunday

I'm taking it easy today, as every Sunday. In case you missed the announcement (THAT'S IN GIANT LETTERS BELOW THIS POST!) I'm MAKING THE SEQUEL TO THE JUDGE! I'll see how fast I can finish it. I'm going to full speed and hopefully it'll be done by January.

In the meantime, I was thinking of doing a little...contest thing? Maybe not really a contest. I don't know the word for it. Anyway, here is the situation: NOBODY(well, almost nobody...very close to nobody) KNOWS ABOUT MY BOOKS. And that's where you guys come in (if there are any of you out there. or maybe I'm just imagining things)). I need you guys to help spread the word. And what better way to do it with a little incentive?

So...I was thinking about this contest thing. Basically, I'm assuming you've read one or two of my books. If you have done so, I'm going to do this thing, where, if you help put a review of my book on amazon, OR add my book to something like Shelfari and make a comment about what you think of it, then I'll enter you in a drawing. And if you win, I'll send you a paperback copy of your choice of either Awake or The Judge. Of course this is only for US, because dealing with shipping elsewhere will be trouble.

So...what do you guys think of this idea? Sounds easy right? Simply just give me an honest review(you don't have to give it 5 stars...but I'm assuming that if you want a copy...you liked the book) on a public site like Amazon or Shelfari...and I'll enter you in. Anyone interested? If you're interested please leave a comment below. I'll only do it if we can get a total of 10 entries (one per household).

And before I close out: STATS!
No sales, as usual=SUPER SAD PANDA.

 

And...Downloads?

Judge: 4676 (getting closer to 5000!)

Awake: 8485 (10000 on the other hand...)

So yeah. Here's my super encouraging speech of the day:

Have a super awesome day, everyone! I hope today will be great for you and that you'll enjoy life more and more as time goes on. If you're in a bad time (and we all know those will come), I wish you the best and hope you cope with any struggles or difficulties you may come across. If you're feeling down, REJOICE, because life ain't over yet...and around every corner is a brand new start...just waiting for you to take the chance.

SO HAPPY SUNDAY, EVERYONE!

Why should only holidays be joyful and celebrated?

EVERY DAY SHOULD BE AWESOME DAY!!!

SEQUEL TO THE JUDGE

[BAD NEWS]
You'll never guess what happened!
I was going to check Free-Ebooks today to see how the situation was...
And it's DOWN. The website doesn't load! It was working fine yesterday.
I never thought it could go down. But there we have it.
Maybe it's maintenance. Or maybe they had some bad natural disaster at the server.
Whatever it is...now we have no stats to check!
Well, this sucks.

Uh...so...today...I don't know what to do...
I mean...STATS were everything! And now...without STATS...uh...uh...

[NEWS?]
Today is Saturday, and, um, it's a not so beautiful day. It's okay.

You know what? I guess I'll make my BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.

Before I do, some kind words for you people out there:
Thank you for checking out my blog, for downloading my books(perhaps reading them too), for reviewing or commenting on websites, and for those of you who bought my books--Thank you so much!

As you probably know, I don't really have any marketing push(requires MOOLA). And I'm not really sure how enjoyable my books are. But I do hope everyone is enjoying them and...just spread the word. I need all the exposure I can get.

[GOOD NEWS]
Right now, I decided to make a change of focus. I'm trying to get S3 published, but it's been difficult. And in the meantime, I decided to continue working on the sequel to the Judge.
That's Right! Lemme spell it out for those who skim through:

I'M WRITING THE SEQUEL TO THE JUDGE (CORANITE CHRONICLES)

I know I said that I would finish it if I got the sales, but now I figure I might as well get it over with.
The sequel to the Judge will not be free (sorry for those of you who only go for free stuff...but I would like to get paid for this work).

[BAD NEWS]
However, I know that my books were planned for 9. But since not many people really care about Coranite Chronicles...it's really not feasible to keep on writing. And so...this sequel to the Judge, which I call the Guardian,...will probably be the last book in the series(And sadly, it will end on a REALLY crazy cliff hanger. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.).

Unless there's suddenly a surge of interest over my books(and people start buying my books), I really don't think I have the motivation to continue writing. I guess...Coranite Chronicles...will be one of those bittersweet things. I was glad to be able to put it out for people to read. But it's kind of sad to see that even if it is free...there's just not much interest in it. Oh well...
While this may be bad news to some (mostly me), let's turn this Sorrow into JOY!

Keep a close watch on this blog as I desperately write like my life depends on it! I'll give updates on how I'm doing with the sequel and I might even throw in a few teaser chapters for those of you folks who really care! I'm also thinking of running a few contests. I have some old copies of the Judge that I need to get rid of (You're not taking my only copy of Awake though :P).

So now, here we go!
Current Progress on the Guardian: 6%
Partial Editing Phase.
Let's see how fast we can get through this!

Confessions of a Serial Spider Killer

Good morning, everyone. Our current situation is...strange.
The Judge got one favorable review. However, downloads seem to be slowing down.
Yeah, it had to slow down sometime...but it's only been a day! And too many youtube videos takes a while to load. Maybe I'll keep those videos to a minimum.
Status (because we know you all love numbers):
Judge: 3549
Awake: 8319

I think Awake got more downloads because it was closer to Halloween(and somehow it seemed Hallo[WEENY]!). But it seems more people prefer The Judge, which should be right...I think...as Coranite Chronicles is my main series. Awake was more of an experiment.

Well...let's continue with the main event in a piece I'd like to call:
CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL SPIDER KILLER!

I hate bugs in general. There was the invasion of 2004...in which an army of ants stormed my room to escape a deadly flood. Perhaps retribution for all those years that I pretended to be their dictator (I was terrible at it. I punished them with the garden hose when they refused to obey me. And rewarded them with sugar when they were good.) At first ants were only minions to serve. But then they turned on me...and I'll never, NEVER look at an ant the same again. You don't know the TERROR of waking up...and all around...ANTS, ANTS, ANTS! Ants in your drawers! Ants in your pants! Ants on your bed! Ants on your window(well...maybe that's not really much of an issue)!

But I digress(don't we all?).

And then there was the infestation of 2005...in which a hungry horde of moths lived inside our cereals! YUCK! YUCK, YUCK, YUCK! And no matter how many you kill...THEY KEEP COMING BACK! The madness wouldn't end. Every morning I'd wake up...and see them...the little evil monsters that hung upon the ceiling, taunting and taunting...! They'd lay eggs in the cereal and let the larva hatch and eat and cocoonify (I don't think that's a word) and THEN SPROUT WINGS AND FLY TO THE HEAVENS WHERE I CAN WATCH IN HORROR AND PLOT THEIR DEMISE--

But I digress again(sorry about that).

Ugh...why I am talking about bugs? I don't know. I hate them so much. Just sitting here typing this makes my blood boil.

So perhaps there is regret...when in the end...I am also...A CEREA--SERIAL SPIDER KILLER! After all, don't they teach you when you're young to love spiders(is that true? I don't know.)? Spiders are your friends. They eat bugs. But...aren't they bugs themselves? Other things...perhaps cuter things...eat bugs too! Like bats(I think bats are cute). Or...well forget about that. Anyway, here's my random(very fake and crappy) speech:

"Ah, dost thou hear that? I do not. No, we hear not. For they are not to be heard."

"I see it, I see it. The blackest, vilest monster to roam the recesses of this great hall. The corner...it shelters them. The light...it unveils them! Shine your light, o' weary man--lest you fall prey to their threads of deceit and villainy!"

"O' vile creature...a thorn in my heart...why dost thou seek my hatred? why dost thou enrage my soul! O' my soul within me...it cannot bear the very image...of you...the dark ones who creep in the night, who make there homes to ensnare.

"O' blood sucker...a dagger in my own mad thoughts...why dost thou stir my wrath? I do not hate thee...vile creature, for the greatest hate is for thine image. Leave! Begone! O' despised one, Begone! And you shall live to see another fair, beautiful day. If thou remains...your guts...your blood...THEY SHALL BE SMITED!"

Well...that was weird.

Another Day...Another...Email?

All right...uh...just a quick update on things. Free-Ebooks put my book on the newsletter email thingamabob. That's right! We can only hope that the effects are just as great.
Right now we're up to:
Judge: 2312 (Let's see if we can break 5000 in a couple of days!)
Awake:8396

Here's another ATTACK OF THE DRAWINGS!

Were you expecting something better? I'm not going to bother with a piece today. So I'll just give you random Youtube vids!

The Time Has Finally Come!

Do do do do...oh that laser-blasted Keyboard Cat. It's been over a day and I still can't get that infernal song out of my head.

Anyway, hey, you lovely/handsome denizens of the Internet! How [are] you all doing today? You may be wondering why the title of today's blog post is: THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME (dun dun duuuuun)!
It's because Free-Ebooks.net has finally put my book in the spotlight. I've had my book out for how long? I don't know. I think it's been maybe a week or so. I thought they'd never get around to it. But here it is!

http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Coranite-Chronicles-The-Judge

Now...if you were around during the ancient days of when Awake first went free (it was a couple of weeks ago)...Awake was sloooooooowly (slowly,slowly,slowly) getting downloads until one day they put Awake on the Halloween Edition of the newsletter... andwegotafrigginexplosionofdownloadsofepicproportions!!!
It went from like...a couple of hundred...to over FIVE THOUSAAAAND! It was crazy. Crazy, I tell ya.

Now...the Judge has been going very slowly....and well, the boost isn't much(I guess the newsletter is just more effective), but it's still good. So...yeah, it's time to begin the overly optimistic wishing. Rally yourselves as we wait for the results of boost. At the moment:
Judge:491
Awake:8041
Not bad, eh? Much better than SEVEN(first day results, no joke). I hope we don't get knocked out the spotlight soon.

And lastly, some news. As you can see I made a few more additions to the site. I changed my Facebook page into Coranite Chronicles because that's what I'm focusing on now. And I put a little "You-likey?" box on the side. If you want to help out with my plans for world domina--I mean, uh, just spread the word.
And as usual, if you have any questions or comments about anything, you can just leave it here on my blog/forum, I'll try to reply in a timely manner. I do check the other sites as well like feedbooks and Free-ebooks.net. However, free-ebooks.net doesn't really allow me to comment on other comments, so that's a bummer.

3 Ways to Brighten Your Day

Here at CC, we (and by "we," I mean "I." But "we" sounds better.) understand that life isn't always that great. Some days are better than others. But at this blog, we try to keep things happy and fun! Because everything else in the world pretty much tries to get you down. So forget the world and enjoy your time here!
Here's a piece for all of you that are tired, depressed, and just not enjoying yourself.

1) Random Youtube Videos of ALL SMILES - The Cool Cat DUO. Piano Cat vs. Keyboard Cat



2) Nice News of the Day - Let's face it, people, news is mostly bad. So when we finally see something good for a change, let's HIGHLIGHT IT! So today it was announced that President Obama wrote a kid's book for his daughters...and is selling it for charity! Awww...isn't that sweet? Now I know what some of you are thinking: "WHAT IS THAT GUY DOING WITH HIS TIME AND OUR TAX DOLLARSSSSS?"
But rest assured, he wrote this book before stepping into office. And whatever your stance is on his presidency, just don't forget, he's human like the rest of us. You can hate how he's doing his job, but don't be hating on everything. Don't hate. Be happy.

3) And...for the grand finale...STATUS REPORT--just kidding (well, still gonna include it)
For real this time: Random Image from the Internet! There are lots of weird, funny pictures on the Internet. So let's just check one out today, shall we?

"GLOBAL WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMING!"

And last and still least...Status Report:

No sales. *tears fall*

Downloads?

The Judge: 243! Moving up!

Awake: 7981! IT'S ALMOST OVER EIGHT THOUSAAAAAND!

Enjoy your day peeps, and don't forget: we're living for a better tomorrow!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

In opposite world...the mirror doesn't reflect you...YOU REFLECT THE MIRROR (Opposite world's starting to sound a lot like Soviet Russia).

I figured it'd be easier to interpret a bad drawing through straight lines rather than mouse-scribble.

Anyway, forget opposite world. Today I will tell you all about a fantasy story I imagined while I was growing up in a segment I'd like to call: REJECTED STORY IDEAS!!!111!!!111!!!
So...when I was in middle school...I made up this really stupid story. Basically it starts off with this kid that falls into a hole at a construction site. It was a portal into another weird fantasy world. While he's there, some crazy woman, dressed as an office lady, turns out to be a powerful wizard(ess?) and tries to roast the poor soul with classic fire balls. Then some dude on a staff flies into the sky and, spinning the staff around like a fan, deflects the fire balls..and then disappears.

I'm not going to go into too much detail. But here we go with the super-fast-very-shortened edition!
So the kid (we'll call him Cole...'cause that's what everybody calls him)finds out he's the CHOSEN ONE(WHOA! SHOCKER!) and begins a quest to destroy the dark lord that terrorized the land. He meets a cute girl (WHOA! DOUBLE SHOCKER!) and starts looking for other companions to join him. He finds a lightning sword (WHOA! A REAL SHOC--never mind...it got old fast) and uses that to toast up all the monsters. Then, with all his companions, he flies into the castle in the sky and launches and all-out assault...in order to DESTROY EVIL!

He thinks all is fine and dandy, and so he goes back home after celebrating the victory. However, as he begins to readjust to normal life...monsters start arriving all over the world! A portal was opened from the fantasy world...and the master of the dark lord has come back to GET HIS REVENGE! The world is overwhelmed as monsters begin destroying everything...and even the armies of the world cannot win against the might of the horde. But Cole won't let this go down without a fight! Picking up his lightning sword once again, Cole rallies his friends from the other world and begins the next world-destroying war. He manages to save some armies from being destroyed and begins to build an army of his own. After rescuing a group of scientists from annihilation, Cole gets his hands on an experimental laser cannon and protective mechanized suit. He has his army mass produce this equipment and uses these super soldiers to clear the way to the master dark lord's lair. And then he...uh...beats him up.

To be continued! (Or not...)

In the Opposite World...

As I go deeper and deeper into insanity, I shall create a new short segment, which I call: Opposite World.

You know how some people say, "It's opposite day!" just to tick you off by being totally unfair and screwing up all the natural laws and rules that we adhere to? Well...in opposite world...every day is opposite day!

In the Opposite World...
Men are women and women are men--wait...WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Sun of the Beach

All right. Now this is getting awkward. What is going on here?
Just yesterday I was pretty sure no one was visiting this blog.
Now...I'm flabbergasted (do people really say that?).
Ah, who cares. I'll continue with my usual waste-of-time blog posts.
Current Sales status: No Change. :( :( :(
Current downloads: We've hit 100 on the Judge! WOW...sloooow.
Getting 7600 downloads on Awake now seems like a complete miracle.

I guess I'll do a personal top ten list for today.
(People like top ten lists...or so I've heard. Everybody's doing it.)
So here are my top ten common words that sound weird when I think about it:

10) Wow - Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this way. But I imagine Wow to have an extra sound to it. Wow(ooo?) Not an "oh" sound but an "oo" sound...or maybe "uu"? Wowuu? Wowuu? Uh...Okay, time to move on.

9) Titular - People use this a lot, online. I'm just glad this word isn't all that common in everyday life.

8) Menial - Eeny, meeny, miney, mo? Catch the tiger--okay, that's enough of that. Menial sounds mean (Neal?).

7) Penalize (see 9 for related awkwardness) - Granted, there are two ways of saying this word. But I will always remember the way my teacher used to say it. "PEENALIZE! YOU'LL BE PEENALIZED!" God bless him.

6) Shampoo - There's perhaps a trend forming here. Soap's okay. Lotion's all right. Conditioner sounds a bit...mechanical, but he's fine too. Body wash is...simple. But shampoo? I really should look up the etymology for this one. Well...regardless, some days I'll just take a bottle of shampoo and stare at it. And then I think to myself...why...why shampoo? Sham...poo? Sham...poo? Shams are poo? Shamu? Does Shamu use Shampoo?

Speaking of killer whales: Hmm...they say dolphins and whales are mammals, right? Aside from the...er...mammas...is hair/fur a requirement for mammals too? Do dolphins have (tiny) hair? I need to google this. But at the same time...I don't care that much about it. I want to know...but I'm not dying to know(and I'm kinda lazy)...so maybe it's best to just leave it up to the wonderful world of imagination.

Oh gosh...maybe I should've just left this as a top 5 instead. This is killing me. Yeah. I think I'll just end it there.

Have a good Sunday everyone. And don't...don't bother saying Sun of the Beach out loud.

Whateverization: Open Windows

For today I figured I'd do something different for a change...although I do do (oops?) something different every day.
And so...I shall call this new blog post: Whateverization! It used to be Whateverzitation...but I think Whateverization has a better ring to it.

It's Whateverization and it's [not] sweeping the nation!

Here at CC, we're always quick to make up words that make no sense.
And here's today's fake word of the day: Whateverization.
It's like Whateverizing...but with a tasty "zation."

*waits around in absolute silence*
A-hem...sometimes it feels like I'm talking to myself....

Anyway, for today's Whateverization: Open Windows.
Well, maybe not OPEN windows.
What's the word? Not blinded? Revealing? Scantily Clad?
You get the point. Windows let in light. It brightens your day. Ah, but there is a catch. For you see...Windows (Why am I capitalizing it?) are transparent...in TWO WAYS. You can look out...but others--*shudders*--can look in. You think you're peeking at random strangers through the privacy of your own home...but the same is also true!
So says the wise man of the east(coast)--
"Ah, what a predicament. Ah, what a problem. Whatever shall I do? How can I change in broad daylight? How can I pick my nose without the world and google maps knowing?"

Here are some tips to dealing with this conundrum:
1) Cover windows when you need to - Here's the most logical method. You can cover up your windows! Be it with trees, bushes or other vegetation...or perhaps a less organic way through the use of blankets, blinds, dresser/drawer, etc. However, this is really not all that practical. Unveil, cover, unveil, cover. It's a vicious cycle. Especially if you pick your nose often.

2) Stare back at people - Give them the ol' I'M-WATCHING-YOU-SO-STOP-WATCHING-ME stare. Make'em feel uncomfortable. Might work if your street is in an empty suburban/rural area. It's more effective one on one. Otherwise, you'll be stuck there for hours staring at people who could care less about you.

3) Ignore everyone - This is the laid back approach. You just...um...ignore them. You, like, don't do anything and just go about your day. I can't really explain this one as it's pretty self-explanatory. And yeah...not really a solution either.

And there we have it! I hope you (the only person who reads this blog) learned something today. Lemme put up a quick picture to illustrate my point. Blogs look nicer with pictures don't they? But it's too bad that I don't have a camera...so I'll just have to use MSPaint. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Here we go again...

http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Coranite-Chronicles-The-Judge

Here we go again...my other book is now up on Free-Ebooks.net

If you enjoyed Awake...I think you'll enjoy the Judge as well. Although they are different, my style remains. And...let's begin the slow countdown once AGAIN!
As of this VERY moment, we have 7 downloads! WOOHOO! YEAAAAAH!
We'll start with the same goal. 5000. What will happen when we reach 5000? Another book? Probably not. It's not that I don't want to keep throwing out these books...but it's more like I don't have any left...
Low sales, zero fanbase, low motivation...spells: no more books.
Oh man...must not get depressed!
What do we got? 7 DOWNLOAAAAAAADS! YEAAAAAAAAH!

THE PROCESS Part 4?

7400 downloads on Awake. We're tiptoeing all the way now. I've decided to keep at S3, polishing it and revising the materials. So far...no favorable replies from the agents. I'm trying to stay optimistic...but *sigh*
Sometimes I wonder if maybe my stories just aren't interesting enough. Well, there is a LOT of competition out there. Even putting out my books for free doesn't seem to draw any attention. It's like pitting a little itty bitty ant against the biggest dinosaur that ever lived.

Bah hum buggy, buggy, buggy. :( :( :(

Oh Welch's grape juice (not a fan...).
And now...for the MAIN EVENT!

So...once again I've forgot where I last was. But that's okay. Right? I've probably beat that stuffed toy horse to death (keeping it clean) anyway.

When I first started drawing up the concept for the JUDGE, it wasn't for a novel. It was for a graphic novel. I wanted to DRAW the JUDGE and enter it into some tokyopop competition. For eight (EIGHT!) years I trained myself to draw. I was not born or gifted with any artistic talents. Still, I really, truly desired to create a story...and it was either books or comics. And I preferred visuals.

Day after day, night after night, class after class...training and training (I couldn't write legible notes in class anyway). I studied the world around me, I mimicked art styles...I cramped my hands...until I could finally draw something that I was...really not all that proud of....

And that was when I realized: I CAN'T DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW(or draw good at least)!

Desire...passion...all that fueled me...was extinguished when the grim reality of my predicament struck me down with its bare, bloody fists.

All I was left with...was a concept. THE JUDGE. The assassins of justice! People who could appear at any moment, silencing villains without anyone knowing, purging this universe of EVIL. But I had no way of bringing it to life...

*sigh* and *sigh again*

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen--oh forget it...I'm not breaking into a song.

Uploading to new websites

I had no idea there were so many ebook publishing websites out there! I'm going to try to put my books all over the place. All of this is wearing me down, but I might as well give them all a try.

ATTACK OF THE DRAWINGS Fake Edition

There's a little bird outside my window.
Anyway, I thought I'd start a new segment.
Gotta keep this blog as random as possible.
I thought I'd put up some drawings.
But today is a bit different. I'm just going to put up some of my artwork.
Just because it's there. Here's a picture of Sorren.

Ways to Support the Cause

I know it's been pretty quiet here (so quiet even crickets dare not chirp), but I'll just keep on posting anyway!

As you (whoever you are) probably know, my books aren't very popular. I've just been trying various little ways to get the word out there. But apparently it's not too effective. That's why I need your help (whoever you are)! Even if you can't or won't buy a book, you can still help (whoever you are)!

Here are some simple ways to SUPPORT THE CAUSE:
1) Tell people about it/Pass on a copy of a book
2) Give reviews. You can do that on Amazon, on the Free-Ebooks site, on your own site/blog, or even something like Shelfari.
3) Post recommendations on message boards.
4) Twitter? Okay, so I don't really know how this one works. But try a hash tag. Whenever you make a new Tweet, just tag on #coranite
In fact, I think I'll go do that right now.
5) There is no five. HA.

And that's all for today. Until next time, random denizens of the Internet...HAPPY WHATEVER!

And it's here!

As promised, I have uploaded the first book of my Epic Sci-fi/Fantasy series...The Coranite Chronicles! You can get it right off the downloads page. I'll be working to put it up on Free-Ebooks as well since I can get more exposure there. And (never forget) you can still buy them on this page.

If you enjoy them and want to see a sequel, just buy them up!

And if you're wondering what happened to Faerie Epoch...well, it's hard to keep writing it when there's not much support/readership. So...it's on...uh...what's it called...whatever. It's postponed indefinitely(whatever that means).

Coco's First Episodo?

http://www.teamcoco.com/


Conando has finally had his premiere episode of his new show: Conan!
It was a good first episode and it's really just an eye-opening experience to see him back again on TV. I'm a huge fan of his show and his style of comedy. And it's such a relief that he's back. Seriously, I don't watch much TV at all...and this is one of the few shows I do watch. The problem? I don't have cable. But that's just fine because they put the full episode up on the website! I'll now have one more smile to add to my everyday life.

As for our current situation.

Sales of the Judge have returned to normal (in other words...not really selling? *SAD FACE*).

Oh well, October was our best month in months. Thank you people who have bought my books on Kindle. You guys are THE BEST AND THE SUPER AWESOMEST. I'll flatter you all 'til the day I die...so keep buying!

Downloads on free-ebooks have broken the 7100 barrier. Our next goal is 10,000! So if you like it, please recommend it to all the people you think would like that kind of book.

And finally, if you remember a while back, I said that if we reached 5000 downloads I'd put up the Judge for free? Well here we go! I'm going to put it up on this site first. I've decided to just call it Coranite Chronicles for now because the main title might throw some people off. It's a fantasy series with some sci-fi elements. And calling it "THE JUDGE" doesn't really have that kind of feel. I mean, the title makes sense for the story, but for those who judge(haha) a book by its title or cover, it'll be a hard sell. So HERE WE GOOOOOOOO! Coranite Chronicles for free! Of course buying the books will not be in vain because I need YOUR support if I want to keep on writing. So don't hesitate to grab a copy any way you can (and if you know me personally I got a few paperback copies left that I need to get rid of).

The Process Part 3

Broken News: One more sale of the Judge! It's taking a while, but we're moving on up!
Broke 6000 downloads of Awake on Free-Ebooks! Once again, if you want me to just make random posts, just buy my books! They're on Kindle!

Now...for the main event...

Okay, it's been a while. So, I forgot what I was talking about. And I'm not going to go back to read my posts and continue that. If you REALLY want to know the WHOLE story, you can tell me and I'll think about it. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

When I first decided to write the Judge...I knew nothing about reading or writing. I mean, sure, I used to write out reports and stuff for school, but that was it. Writing a story was foreign to me.

I pulled out some old books from when I was a tiny little...thing and began to read. It was a painful process. I kid you not. I had to learn everything from scratch. I'm not going to talk about the little details. Let's just say that it took me about a week of analyzing writing styles to understand the basics of writing: sentence structure, grammar, dialogue etc.
I discovered that most people wrote differently. And that made things even more painful, as I tried to understand why people wrote the way they did.

While I was doing this, however, I finally decided to read Harry Potter. And then came the understanding. I liked the Harry Potter series. If you've read my previous blog posts, you'd understand that I didn't like to read. But upon reading Harry Potter, I finally understood why I didn't like to read: I didn't like the stories! I was extremely picky. In fact, one of the books that turned me off of reading was a series called Chronicles of Narnia. You may like Narnia, and that's perfectly fine. But I like it when books are nice and simple and easy and fun. I never thought that books could be like Harry Potter. It was just...pure entertainment.

After picking up books here and there, I realized that most books are just not interesting to me. That is why...in my mind...I knew I had one thing left to do. I had to write a book that I would enjoy reading....

The Moment

5644...

Well, we hit our goal a while back. So I'm just going to go over some things and then I'm going to put the Judge up.

Thanks, everyone!

Nice!

5009! Just by 12 AM in the morning!
Well, we hit our goal. That's good enough for now.

Good gravy

http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Awake
Countdown commencing. 4977!
Almost, almost! It's going reeeaally slow. But it's going!
Will we reach 5000 today? Only time will tell!

To keep things simple, I'll just keep updating this post!

The Process Part 2

(OBLIGATORY!) I never would've imagined we would reach 4800 downloads for Awake in just a week and a half: http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Awake
Of course it was due to the Halloween boost, but what a good boost it was! Who knows? Without that Halloween boost, it might've taken the whole six months to reach this goal. If you've already downloaded it, I do hope you read it and enjoy it.
It's not scary at all...or at least I wasn't intending for it to be scary.
Just please leave some feedback when you're done. You can make a comment here or leave a review on Free Ebooks, or even Amazon. I just want to know what you thought of it.

And now...back to the story...

So, yeah. I wasn't really interested in reading and writing.
A Quick Note: I don't have anything against reading or writing as I do think they're very good things for the growth and development of a human.
But, let's just say, I'm easily influenced.

Growing up, my peers didn't really care for reading. They said reading was boring. And so I went along with that. If no one I knew was interested in reading, I wasn't interested either. If being smart was a strange thing, I didn't care to be smart either(which would be the source of my underachieving). So I did what I had to do to get by and I pretty much gave up on reading entirely. When I was in the early years of elementary I read quite a bit(those simple books), but by the time I got older...and books got larger...I became too intimidated by the books to care.
Watching movies, shows, cartoons(and maybe even reading comics/graphic novels)...those were the things I used for entertainment. To me, at that time, books were just not all that interesting. Every book was a struggle...a battle...one that I did not want to win.

I didn't really know what was good either. Sometimes I would try to get into reading: I'd pick up a book at random and check it out. When the book wasn't fun for me, I'd just give up on reading altogether.

However, I did love stories. I loved watching movies. The Star Wars trilogy was my favorite. I just had a tough time getting into books. And since no one I knew would read, I wouldn't exactly get any recommendations from anybody. The library is huge! And I'm quite picky about stories. For me...getting into reading was...impossible!

And...that's it for today...
See you next time.

The Process Part 1

I figured my usual blog posts are pretty much a waste of time, so I thought it'd spice things up if I talked about the writing process that I've gone through. Look! It's got PART 1 in the title! A series! I don't know how many parts there will be, but whatever.

First things first. My quick typical message: For those of you who have downloaded a book or bought one, thank you. (We're up to 4400 downloads/21 sales!) For those of you who haven't, well, I recommend you check out Faerie Epoch or Awake to get a sample of my writing. My writing style is still rough and my ideas can be silly or strange, even so, I hope that someone out there will enjoy my works.

And now...for the main event...

Let's travel back in time, shall we? All the way back...to the 1990's.
I was a young lad then. Naive, stupid, weird, etc. (Not much has changed). Back then I didn't care about writing. Terrible grades in English all through elementary. That may be my most prominent memory: an F on a writing assignment. Really. I still remember holding that piece of paper, dreading to go home. I wasn't the best student in class. And while I didn't care too much for grades, I always wanted to just keep my head above the water. That's what I aimed for. I was an underachiever. I did enough to get by.

By middle school I tried my best(as best as an underachiever could)! And I ended up with a B mostly, sometimes a B+ if I was lucky. The coveted A was never in my grasp. NEVER. To be honest, it wasn't just writing. I never liked to read either.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "WHAAAAAAAT? Why would someone who doesn't like to read or write (and isn't even good at it) become an author?"

And...we're out of time. I'll continue this pointless story about my life later.