Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Weekly Rants: September 26, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of Weekly Rants. 'Arcana Magi Universe 2012' Season is around the corner and so is New York Comic-Con.

'Shell' on Kindle: So I got good news, Kindle Direct did reset my free promotional days back to 5, wish it would be more. Which means I am going to set up a schedule on next weeks 'NEWS and NOTES' so you will all be ready scoop up a free copy of 'Shell' on Kindle. And make sure you get yourself a copy of 'Duality of Horror' so you can read 'The Geolyth Equation'. Plus Halloween is right around the corner.

About last weeks rants: I kind of made a little error to correct, I did write a little backstory on Sora, and I stress the word little. I really did gloss it over in a few sentences but it happened at the end so Sora still was static either way. However, in Volume 3 I am exploring Sora's story and man will it be big. Bigger than I had expected. I really like the direction I am taking Azure, Sora and Ciel and I am confident that the series will get even more stronger after this Volume.

Future plans on Weekly Rants: I really liked that I wrote a a bit on my thoughts on writing, and I decided I will continue to do so in future installments of Weekly Rants. Just share my thoughts on writing and so on. It really is fun and I look forward to sharing those thoughts with all of you.

Well that's all for now on the Weekly Rants. This was very brief because I'm really focused on writing and I am very axious to share my stories next week. Thank you all for stopping by.

Until next time...

See ya.

Monday, September 24, 2012

NEWS and NOTES: September 24, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:


- Coming this October on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Universe' 2012 Season**.

'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' Schedule -

Friday, October 5, 2012:

Sora has decided to tell Azure something she had been keeping from her, but she was about learn something from Azure that will she never imagine.

Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate wave if you see me.

Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Weekly Rants: September 19, 2012

Greetings Fellow readers! Welcome to another round of random rants. It's pretty much a slow week, but I had something in mind in past 24 hours as I wandered the internet, and figure that maybe I should share these thoughts.

NOTE: What I am about to share is not an absolute word nor intended to be educational. I neither have any form of college degree in philosophy, or creative writing, or anything else for that matter. All my statements are based on my personal experience so far in writing, and if what I say has a source, it will be duly noted and credited. Keep in mind that I have only have conviction in two things in the field of creative writing, Communication and Foreshadowing. Everything else I talk about are subjected to change as I gain more experience through constant writing of new stories and research of the sources that my works could be influenced or based on, like technology or medicine. Why I am writing this if I have this much crutch on my shoulders. It's because I am a writer and I have lot on my mind to write about... If that makes any sense. So on to my rant.


-Characters-

So as I have mentioned before, I had something in my mind. Characters. You see when I outlined 'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' in preparation for a first draft, something hit me. Something that bugged me. You see, I want to make Volume 3 about Sora because I haven't explored her character yet and I really messed up adding in Ciel as new character without giving my readers a chance to get to know Sora. I found this be a bad writing error on my part and thankfully given the way 'Memorial' is written, I knew I could make this up as early as possible before getting into the meat of this series. Of course I started asking myself regarding the plot, what should happen to Sora? See Sora was made into a Static Character. Basically what this means is that she is set on this single line with no room to grow or develop. This stems from the fact that, A) she has no backstory, a big mistake for an important character to the protagonist, and B) there is no motivation established for her to be in this story.

Let's look at Azure and Ciel.

Azure has motivation, unlocking the power of the Circle of Four Elements. Wants, to harness this Circle of Four Elements. Needs, to not die at the hands of the poison from the unstable mana. Mission, to protect the Mana she possess from external threats.

Ciel's motivation is to live a stable life. Wants her Blood Circle to be protected. Needs to harness the power of the Blood Circle due to its power.

Now I look at Sora. Motivation... I don't know. Wants... I don't know. Needs... I don't know.

Yet her back story is that, she is Azure's best since Azure arrived at Memorial Academy and she summons Golems.

Azure's back story is that she stole the Circle of Four Elements, has to see a doctor to purify her mana, and she barely knows the four mysterious creatures that punished her for stealing their Circle.

Ciel's backstory is that her parents are diplomats, her brother is loyal to her mother, and her mother tried to marry her off to advance social status.

So basically the point I am trying to make is simply, don't create a character you're not going to use. Now I have the benefit of writing 5 Chapter stories so I am capable of recovering from this error with Volume 3. In fact if any of you new writers out there, doing this kind of method of writing, particularly on the internet, and you realized after a couple of short stories that one of your characters is static, make a short story around that character. The earlier the better.

Now where did this thinking come from. Well I'll point to show I have been watching that got me thinking about Character usage. The show called Phi-Brain. It is currently airing on Crunchyroll.com and Hulu. It is a story of teen prodigies who solve overly elaborate puzzles that will kill people who fail. What caught my attention was the character Nonoha. Unlike all the other characters and protagonist, she does not solve puzzles. Its because she is not a prodigy. However, it was established in the first episode. THE very first episode, that she has the ability of total recall. When she something, like say a map, she remembers it in detail down to the last letter. For team of puzzle solving prodigies, this is actually a very good ability to have on their team.

And that ability was used only once. And this series is 2 seasons in.

On top of that, we barely have any back story. Sure she may have some depth to her character, but its static. She barely grows and when there is an chance for her to grow, it either is forgotten the next episode or belittled by the other characters. Her purpose there is irrelevant.

So staring at Sora, I realized she has an ability that is very useful, but how did she build the golems, when did she build golems, why did she build the golems, why is she at the academy? I went two volumes never establishing such things, and I found myself a bad writer as a result.

This is where I came to the conclusion...

Every character has a purpose, even the crowd.

I don't know how many characters I either neglected or ignored throughout my years of writing, but I feel not establishing a character like Sora is a big mistake. I am offering readers to invest their time in Azure and Ciel, and I should offer Sora as well. She is important to Azure in so many as I have established in Volume 1 and should be explored.

Now logically writers cannot cover every character at once, and that character will be static no matter what. I feel that is wrong a mindset and bad writing. You bring a character in, we must know about that characters, or else it is a waste of story space that could be used on other characters that are more interesting. Even if by chance that one character is just gonna end up being nothing but action fodder fro the rest of the story, give the character purpose and a back story. In fact it only takes one or two lines of summary, action, or showing to establish this character and give readers an understanding that this person is part of this story and not a waste.

Wasted characters are bad.

I think I am repeating myself or going all over the place, so I will end my rant here.

Thank you all for listening to my rant. I hope this give you all insight into what I have learned in writing. I'll be back next week for another round of rants.

Until next time...
See ya.

Monday, September 17, 2012

NEWS and NOTES: September 17, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. The first Free Day for 'Shell' did very well, so for now I'll keep this up. 

NEWS:

This weekend on September 21, 22, and 23 on Kindle: 'Shell' will be available for Free via KDP Select. It's a FREE WEEKEND DEAL. So get ready to snag a copy. And if you like 'Shell', then go grab a copy of 'Duality of Horror' to read the sequel to 'Shell'... 'The Geolyth Equation'.

- Coming this October on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Universe' 2012 Season**.

'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' Schedule -

Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012**

This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. If you want to say Hi, don't hesitate wave if you see me.

Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- In October, if I get get a reset of 5 new FREE DEAL days from Kindle, I'll post up a schedule of Free Fridays for 'Shell'.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Weekly Rants: September 12, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of random rants. It's been a slow week so I'll just be making small coffee talk and keep this session brief.

'Shell' on Kindle:

Well the first the weekend of offering 'Shell' for free went fine. So I will be doing it again this Friday and next week. However, the KDP Select Cycle will nearing the end soon so I only have one more week to offer 'Shell' for free before the reset. So I will be deciding my next move for the remaining Free days I got. Stay tuned.

'Arcana Magi Universe':

The new season is coming up. 'Arcana Magi Universe' will be entering it 3rd year on October 30 and boy did this series come a long way. From a single Short Story to a small franchise of sorts. And to think I thought this was the 4th year. That's how long I've been at this. But it is exciting looking to unleash Volume 3 of 'Memorial' and Volume 3 of 'Pure' onto the internet world. I am very much looking forward to entertaining all you 'Arcana Magi' fans out there once again.

New York Comic Con 2012:


It is that time of year again. I'll be wandering the halls once more. Which will be fun. Unfortunately, I decided not to file a form for holding a Panel. I had been too tied up with side projects to try to set one up. However, if any of you are interested in stopping me to say hello, I am more than happy to shake your hand.


Well that's all I got on my mind for this week. Hopefully I'll have something more constructive to talk about next week. You all have a good weekend and don't forget to pick up your FREE copy of 'Shell' on Kindle this Friday.


Until next time...


See ya.

Monday, September 10, 2012

NEWS and NOTES: September 10, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. The first Free Day for 'Shell' did very well, so for now I'll keep this up. 

NEWS:


This Friday September 14, 2012 on Kindle: 'Shell' will be available for Free via KDP Select. It will be free for 24 hours. So get ready to snag a copy. And if you like 'Shell', then go grab a copy of 'Duality of Horror' to read the sequel to 'The Geolyth Lore'... 'The Geolyth Equation'

- Coming this October on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Universe' 2012 Season**.

'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' Schedule -

Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - Starting Friday, November 9, 2012

This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. Sorry there will be no panels, but if you want to say Hi, just don't hesitate wave if you see me.

Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown

** Dates are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Weekly Rants: September 5, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers!

Welcome to another round of Weekly Rants at my Blogspot page. A change of venue from Facebook to make it easier to read. However, these won't be in semi-real time like on Facebook. Hopefully, though, this will be a much better improvement from here on out.

About the Weekly Rants:

For those of you new here, my Weekly Rants is just me talking about everything I do here in the writing world, from Behind the Scenes to Kindle Publication to anything relevant in the Writing world. Eventually I will be expanding myself with other projects that will be included on Weekly Rants. I used to hole Weekly rants on Facebook to have a semi-real time to it, but chose to change venue to make it easier for me to type and for you to read. You will always find the Weekly Rants on Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST depending on how much I have on my mind. So shall we begin.

On 'Shell':

Now I've announced this weeks 'NEWS and NOTES' that I will be making 'Shell' FREE on Kindle for the next couple of Fridays. For those of you who read my Weekly Rants before I went on vacation, my plan for releasing 'Shell' on Kindle was to make it available for free to read and encourage you all to pick up a copy of 'Duality of Horror' which features 'The Geolyth Equation', the sequel to 'Shell'. Well I didn't realize that there was a limit to allowing 'Shell' for free and it really angered me. 'Shell' clocks in at 5 pages on Kindle and I have to charge $0.99 for it, because Amazon won't let me set it for much cheaper, cheap as in $0.00. Thankfully because I enrolled it in KDP Direct program, I can offer 'Shell' for free for 5 Select days, and if I read correctly, each 90 day period that 'Shell' remains enrolled.

So the plan is for now, to offer up 'Shell' on select Fridays for FREE and I encourage you all to pick up a copy. This is my way of introducing my writing to all of you and for you to have a taste of what I got to offer in Speculative Fiction. Right now because the first 90 Day cycle ends on September 26, 'Shell' will be FREE for the next 4 Fridays, then they will go through a rigorous schedule that will be posted on 'NEWS and NOTES' so you can be ready to pick up a copy if you have not done so. The FREE Friday deal will only be on for 24 hours of that Friday.

I really encourage you all to pick 'Shell' up for free because THAT is my intention for putting it on Kindle. If you pay the $.99 to pick up a copy, I thank you from the bottom of my for your support.

So that's all I have on my mind this week. I hope everything works according to plan with 'Shell' on Kindle and I look forward to all of you adding my story to your Kindle Libraries.

Until Next Time...

See ya.

Monday, September 3, 2012

NEWS and NOTES: September 3, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. Have you all had a great Labor Day Weekend? Well I am back from my Summer Vacation with plenty of NEWS ahead.

NEWS:


This Friday September 7, 2012 on Kindle: 'Shell' will be available for Free via KDP Select. It will be free for 24 hours. So get ready to snag a copy. This will be my first attempt doing this because I really want 'Shell' to be FREE on Kindle. And if you like 'Shell', then go grab a copy of 'Duality of Horror' to read its sequel 'The Geolyth Lore'.

- Coming this October on Fictionaut: 'Arcana Magi Universe' 2012 Season.

'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 3' - October 5, 2012

'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' - November 9, 2012

This October 12 - 14: I will be roaming the halls of New York Comic Con once again. Sorry there will be no panels, but if you want to say Hi, just don't hesitate wave if you see me.

NOTES:

-Wednesday Rants return this Wednesday but will be on my Blogspot rather than on Facebook. Facebook will just focus on providing links from for Facebook users now on. This week I will focus on 'Shell' and whole KDP Select debacle. Yes I am calling it a debacle and hopefully I will try to pull this off to make my plan work.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.