LNH/REVIEW: Kid Review's Roundup - September 2014

[Tom Russell]

On Sunday, October 19, 2014 3:20:14 PM UTC-4, Andrew Perron wrote:
> <---------------------->
> 
> 
> 
> PREHISTORIC PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
> 
> 
> 
>    =================  -------------------------------  =================
> 
>    ><><><> | <><><><  || K I D     R E V I E W ' S ||  ><><><> | <><><><
> 
>    =================  || ========================= ||  =================
> 
>    ><><><> | <><><><  || R * O * U * N * D * U * P ||  ><><><> | <><><><
> 
>    =================  || ========================= ||  =================
> 
>    ><><><> | <><><><  ||    September   2014       ||  ><><><> | <><><><
> 
>    =================  || ========================= ||  =================
> 
>    ><><><> | <><><><  || By:     Andrew     Perron ||  ><><><> | <><><><
> 
>    =================  -------------------------------  =================
> 
> 
> 
> In This Issue:
> 
>      Chevalier: The Queen's Mouseketeer (September)
> 
>      Godling #42
> 
>      Nonfiction #4
> 
>      Orphans of Mars: To Bell the Cat #6
> 
> 
> 
> Also Posted:
> 
>      The Continentals (September)
> 
>      Dynamite Radical: This Is Where You Start #1
> 
>      Mighty Medley #9
> 
>      New Bosnia #3
> 
>      Octo-Boy #2
> 
>      Powernaut 1969 #15-18
> 
>      Red Hart #4-6
> 
>      Ripping Off King Arthur #205-207
> 
> 
> 
> <---------------------->
> 
> 
> 
> Chevalier: The Queen's Mouseketeer
> 
> "The Tides of War"
> 
> A webcomic [WWW] series
> 
> by Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton
> 
> 
> 
> "Webcomics Nation's archive system continues to be a struggle, but never
> 
> mind. Chevalier continues on his journey to rescue the Princess from her
> 
> captivity and prevent the war that's being waged in her name."
> 
> 
> 
> "Chevalier and Tom-Tom are surprisingly good at fighting humans. I
> 
> figured they'd have to trick or outwit the Princess's guards, but
> 
> they're able to bounce about, swordfighting them with very little
> 
> problem. Interesting."
> 
> 
> 
> Godling #42
> 
> "The Rise of the New Godling part 2: The New Model"
> 
> A Miscellaneous [MISC] series
> 
> by Jochem Vandersteen
> 
> 
> 
> "It occurs to me that, now that there are three series going in the
> 
> Godlingverse, Jochem should see about getting his own imprint!"
> 
> 
> 
> "Anyway, the new Godling continues to be kind of a terrible person,
> 
> creeping on women and not even realizing he's at the center of an evil
> 
> plot. Meanwhile, Quentin Alexander realizes that the new Godling may not
> 
> be able to take care of the things that the old Godling built, and sets
> 
> out to check on them - with disastrous results!"
> 
> 
> 
> "I wonder if it's a character point that Quentin built a place that
> 
> goes to attack mode a non-attacking person so easily? If it isn't, it
> 
> should be. Of course, the reveal for why he doesn't die might mitigate
> 
> that, but it's still surprisingly aggressive."
> 
> 
> 
> Nonfiction #4
> 
> "Top 5 Explanations For Ranovia and Why They All Suck"
> 
> An Eightfold [8FOLD] story
> 
> by Tom Russell
> 
> 
> 
> "Tom's tour of nonfiction formats delves into one of the more
> 
> popular-slash-profitable ones of the 2010s, the Cracked/Buzzfeed-style
> 
> snarky numbered list. (Personally, my favorite version of this was in
> 
> the early '00s, with Lore Sjoberg's Book of Ratings.) In this case, it
> 
> deals with the nation of Ranovia, which doesn't exist now, didn't exist
> 
> originally, but *did* exist - on some level - for three days in July of
> 
> 2012."
> 
> 
> 
> "The article itself takes a really interesting perspective, looking at
> 
> various reasons why an entire nation could seem to pop in and out of
> 
> existence. Many of these are fairly standard science fiction ideas;
> 
> others are more metafictional, including a reference to one of the
> 
> original Eightfold series, Jamie Rosen's unfinished Template. The unique
> 
> part comes from putting them together as a category and looking at them
> 
> in-universe, not from a sense-of-wonder perspective but from the
> 
> viewpoint of someone trying to hash out the truth, or, at least,
> 
> eliminate untruths."
> 
> 
> 
> "As a side note - the article is written from the perspective of 2017,
> 
> as indicated by a line referring to 2012 as 'five years ago'. This
> 
> doesn't seem to influence the information in the article any; the only
> 
> reason I can think of to do that is to put it - perhaps - after the end
> 
> of the Pulse War arc..."
> 
> 
> 
> Orphans of Mars: To Bell the Cat #6
> 
> An Eighthfold [8FOLD] miniseries
> 
> by Tom Russell
> 
> 
> 
> "The final issue of the miniseries, and indeed, apparently the final
> 
> issue of the series as a whole on RACC. It seems that Tom is moving to
> 
> ebook-only releases after this. As you can tell from the Dynamite
> 
> Radical posts, this isn't a strategy I'd go with. I absolutely respect
> 
> Tom's decision, but I'm curious about the reasons why, and what he
> 
> thinks is the best strategy for us small-scale self-publishers - or even
> 
> if he thinks there *is* a 'best' strategy."

Well, a quick correction-- it's *not* e-book only. The primary format is actual, physical media, and indeed I've sold something like four times as many of those than I have the e-book versions. I don't even have an e-book reader myself.

As for the reasons why-- well, there's a few...

(1) Writing for a book/novel is inherently different than writing for serial publication. Not better, necessarily, but different-- and more in keeping with where I want to take the characters and their world.

(2) I'm also trying to write more, and I found that creating something with the aim towards making money is a better motivator for me, and more likely to get me working on something consistently/regularly.

(3) People are more likely to buy something if they can't find it for free, and less likely if they can. To be clear, I of course have no problem writing fiction without being paid for it, as a hobby or community service, and I'll continue to write free fiction for a long time, I think. But if I want to get paid for this particular fiction-- the Orphans of Mars-- it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to make it all available for free. Cheap, yes; free, no. 

I figure with the current amount of Orphans material already available here on USENET, a curious reader can gauge whether or not it's their kind of thing, and then pick up the new books (or not) as fits their fancy.

> 
> 
> 
> "As for the story itself, it's pretty great. The characters are deeply
> 
> screwed-up, but manage to semi-accidentally help each other despite
> 
> that and get a little better as people. It's taken a while for us to get
> 
> to the point where we can feel the characters as simultaneously
> 
> sympathetic and awful, but it's working well, and the ending is
> 
> satisfying."

Thanks!

==Tom