JDBrink Books Blog

Character Interview: Solomon Dustwalker

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:51:30 GMT

I think I hear something but when I glance up at the door… Nothing is there. The noise of the tavern rises and falls beyond. It must have just been—

No, wait. I was right. A shadowy figure lingers at the threshold. A silhouette of a man, medium height, perhaps on the thin side. Hard to tell beneath the heavy black cloak and rather beaten-up top hat.

He glides into the room, apparently satisfied there’s no threat within. He removes his top hat and bashes it against the wall, collapsing it into an uneven disc. The folded hat slips beneath his cloak to be stashed away. The same gesture reveals a dagger on his belt. I have the distinct impression he’s showing me the weapon for a reason—to ensure there’s no funny business, I guess.

“Good evening,” he says, sliding into the seat at my table. He’s a handsome man with dark, piercing eyes, olive skin, and curly sable hair. “I hear you may be in need of… certain services.”

“Not true,” I tell him.

His suave demeanor becomes suddenly serious. “No?” His hand slips beneath the cloak, perhaps to the dagger’s hilt.

“No services,” I say. “Just a few questions.”

His dark eyes flick about, surveying the room.

I expected this level of suspicion with him. My hand reaches halfway across the table then withdraws, leaving a 50 scept gold coin for him.

His reflexes are remarkable; the coin is snatched in the blink of an eye.

“I’m listening,” he says.

Me: Solomon Dustwalker?

Solomon: Yes. You no doubt recognize me by my iconic top hat. Wearing it is similar to lighting a lantern outside the shop door, if I had a shop. It means I’m open for business and I am indeed the person you’re looking for. Not too many people around here sporting a stovepipe hat. So, tell me the nature of work you need completed.

Me: Uh, again, sir, I don’t need any work completed. Outside of answering a few questions. And I have paid you quite handsomely for your honesty.

Solomon: Honesty? Honesty is a fluid thing, sir. As well as rare, precious, and expensive…

Me: Well, for now, I’ll take the amount of honesty that a gold coin buys and we can go from there. Now, my first question: What brings you to the city of Overlook?

Solomon: Business, of course. I’ve brought my exotic talents all the way from the ancient and infamously brutal city of Five Kings. I first came to the Consortium by way of Westgate. That city is a nice blending of west and east. But after a lifetime in the arid lands of the Thirsted Plains, I thought a rise in elevation—and sophistication—was due. Therefore, here I am.

Me: And these services you keep offering for sale? I assume the “exotic talents” you mentioned have to do with that? What are your greatest skills, Master Dustwalker?

Solomon: How much time do you have? I’m teasing… mostly. Do you need an item acquired from some supposedly safe location? I am a master of stealth, sleight of hand, pick-pocketry, lock defeat. Perhaps there is special information you need and only certain people are privy to these secrets? I ooze charm and my tongue is plated with silver. I am as comfortable in the Goblin King’s court as I am a high-society ball or a tavern’s backroom. Should danger arise, I am an accomplished swordsman and am never short a dagger or two upon my person. And magic—did I mention magic? I even know a little bit of dark sorceries, should the extreme need arise. However…

Me: However?

Solomon: Well, those are forbidden arts, of a sort. The kind I know, at least. As I said, should extreme needs arise…

Me: Impressive, sir. I see now why you enjoy such a reputation for sinister services.

Solomon: Sinister? You wound me, sir. My business is as honest as a Silver Scepter.

A common saying. The Silver Scepters are the guild of bankers and money lenders…

Me: Um, yes. Well, I certainly appreciate your cooperation so far. My last question you may be less keen to answer, though. Do you mind sharing, what would you say is a weakness of yours?

Solomon: A weakness? Hmm… You know, I can’t think of a single one.

A woman appears at the door from the noisy tavern’s common room beyond. She is lovely with long blonde hair and dressed head to toe in black, similar to Solomon’s own style.

Woman in Black: Sol! There you are. I’ve missed you, dear. Come buy me a drink.

Solomon arches his eyebrows at me. Overly eager, he pulls his flatten disc from its hiding spot, pops the top open again, quickly slips free from his chair and is back on his feet.

Solomon: It’s been lovely speaking with you, sir, but it seems it’s time to go. You can find me again should you need more honest questions answered. Or any of the other services we’ve discussed. Coming, love!

I take his expedient exit at her call as answer to my final question…

I Can't Believe These Numbers!

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 19:03:29 GMT

Kickstarter is 73% there after just 3 days!

Stand back, mathematicians! Are you guys ready for this?

How's this for some math?

Only 72 hours since the Dragon Slayers' Guild Kickstarter campaign went active.

73% of the goal accomplished already. Almost 3/4 in just 3 days!
54 ebooks pledged to go out.
6 paperback copies, 2 of them signed by the author (that's me).
48 audio stories pledged to go out.
And all of that is going to just 13 backers so far!

So many goodies to only a handful of people!

I am so proud to be pledging 108 forms of fantastical fiction to you guys in just 72 hours, with all that accounting for just 13 readers/listeners signed up so far!

The mathematical entertainment quotient is mind-blowing!

I encourage you to share these numbers far and wide, my nerdly brothers and sisters. Let's see how many people's stockings we can stuff with entertainment goodies post-Santa season!

Thank you for making this possible!

Kickstarter Is Live!

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 17:55:23 GMT

Hop on the "dragon train" before it passes by!

First off, I have to apologize a bit.

I know I've been bombarding folks about this project. But it's a big deal for me.

I've spent the last year writing this book. And the last month putting this Kickstarter campaign together to help pay for the expenses of publishing a book and making it the best it can be.

To tell the truth, it's been stressful and today is a huge relief. Because it's finally LIVE! No more waiting and wondering if anyone will care. Because someone already does! So let's get this campaign started!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jdbrink/dragon-slayers-guild-a-heroic-fantasy-adventure

I'm happy to say that in the first 24 hours, we’re already 22% of the way to our final goal!

That's a way better response than I was expecting. I can finally stop holding my breath and just breathe it all in!

I will be sending along some more fun bits over the next 3 weeks, in my newsletter and as Kickstarter updates, such as character interviews and world-building background on this new realm I've created.

In the meantime, if you think you might end up contributing to the campaign, remember that the sooner you sign up, the more bonus goodies you get!

You can now see the (crappy) video I made, browse all the reward levels, and sign up for up to 3 extra audio-stories, all yours just for joining the cause!

THANK YOU for your consideration.

THANK YOU for telling other potentially-interested fantasy fans about this, so they can get all these rewards for cheap too.

And THANK YOU for reading!

What Can 10 Bucks Get You These Days?

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 21:41:36 GMT

A Full Novel + 4 Audio-Short Stories!

Just days from now, the Dragon Slayers' Guild Kickstarter will kick off! And if you sign up as a backer by January 15, you can get the ebook novel and 4 audio-short stories, all for just $10!

Read about the details in today's newsletter: https://preview.mailerlite.com/g1n0g2f5s0

And get notified of the launch here, on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jdbrink/dragon-slayers-guild-a-heroic-fantasy-adventure

Sample Chapters for You!

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 01:27:52 GMT

Fur days from now my Kickstarter will begin!

In the meantime, you can read the first couple chapters of Dragon Slayers' Guild via Google Docs here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_75RdsI54ON4jUKl6d3di0sbo6UMH1XT/view?usp=share_link

Enjoy!

Launches One Week from Now!

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 04:13:05 GMT

Don't miss your chance to join in!

Al long last!

It took me almost a year to write this book (which I started about 53 weeks ago!). And I've spent months prepping the Kickstarter to fund it's editing and cover art. And now that time has... almost come.

But you can check out the Kickstarter preview page. Go here and have KS email you when the project goes live! There will be lots of goodies to be had!

And since the video isn't live there yet, you can see it on Youtube by clicking here. (It's no high-dollar production, but it gets the point across.)

There's not much point in me typing any more than this. The video and Kickstarter page will tell you more than I can here.

Thanks for checking them out. Stay tuned, more details to come!

New Fantasy Cover Reveal!

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 16:11:16 GMT

(Hmmm... I hope the resolution turns out okay on that image there... Looks kinda grainy as I'm typing this...)

Another year down the time warp drain.

I don't really need to say it, do I?

Every year goes faster and faster, am I right?

None of us can believe the date right now. Nobody understands the every accelerating flow of time.

Let's just accept that we're all in a time warp and move on, okay?

The good news, though, is we all thought the AI Apocalypse would have taken over by now. And since there are no terminators stalking our neighborhoods for survivors, we can celebrate! Yeah!

And, of course, New Years is always a great periodic restart. An opportunity to look at how things are, what we've been doing, and give it a new tweak. Take a new running start at life. I'm definitely trying some new things for 2023 -- like a life-altering approach to making a living -- and we'll see how the Grand Experiment goes!

Speaking of new things...

At long last, I can show you my new book cover!

I went big for this one, hiring Rebekah's expert services at Vivid Covers rather than patching my own stuff together.

Most of the time, I hired the talented Mr. Erik (or Mr. Henry--he goes by both names and refuses to tell me which he prefers), who drew all the heroes for my superhero books and a few other cover images for me. But then I would take his work, or some stock images, and make do all the design work to make the final cover. And most of those, I think, turned out on the slightly better side of "okay" but... They certainly haven't been the best.

I'm hoping this one ranks a bit higher with the "oohs and aahs" factor.

So above is the official cover for Dragon Slayers' Guild , featuring Selene, the badass dark elf ninja!

If you'd like to get (better formatted) emails on news like this straight to your inbox, go to this link and subscribe to my "Conspiracy Newsletter". (Don't worry, that's just a fun name. There are no crazy conspiracy theories there.)

https://www.subscribepage.com/jdbrinkconspiracy

To check out this story on the newsletter, which includes 379 books on special offer right now(!) go here:

https://preview.mailerlite.com/d1m8t6p8e8

Thanks for reading!

544 Books for You!

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:15:24 GMT

More holiday goodies: 544 books!

I'm promoting my fellow authors with these four big promo deals! And yes, there are literally 544 entries between them.

Some are free, some are on sale, all are worth checking out!

Since it's easier to provide one link than four, click here to go to today's newsletter, where there are four nice little buttons for your convenience. :)

https://preview.mailerlite.com/q2x4h9w4q2

Why wait til Black Friday?? Save now!

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 18:13:43 GMT

Massive savings on three monstrous collections, right now!

The biggest shopping day of the year is almost here. But you can score three big scifi/fantasy hits right now, no elbow pads or crowd combat required!

I'll keep this short and sweet. (I'm supposed to be helping to prep the house for THXGVG after all!)

RIGHT NOW you can get all three of these books at a reduced price of $2.99 USD on Amazon. That's a 40-67% savings on three of my biggest books!

HERO CRISIS is the four-volume boxed set of mature superhero action-adventure. ( That's right, four books for just three bucks! ) Click here to check it out.

WILDCARDS is dark urban fantasy and gritty noir horror. It includes the novel One-Eyed Jacks and 8 more shadowy short stories.

GREEN-EYED MONSTER collects 18 novellas and short stories all across the galactic spectrum of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Perfect while you wait at doctor's offices or commute on the train, bus, or starliner.

Is that short enough?

Check them out and grab them fast before the post-turkey nap kicks in and robs you of your chance!

1st Draft Complete!

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 22:32:52 GMT

Just a quickie post here today. I have been too busy to toot my own horn about this but catching up now.

Back on Black Friday, 2021--almost a year ago now--I made the decision that this was the book I was going to write. Switching off from two other sci-fi ideas I had been mulling over. I was inspired to make the choice by some fantasy miniatures I'd scored for cheap at a local game shop during Black Friday pricing. The figures I bought represented the characters I had in mind for this book/series. And so inspired, I said, "It's time to give them life!"

I spent about a month thinking and planning and plotting. (And the next 10+ months continuing to do the same, sculpting and redirecting and reshaping the outline the story progressed.)

I started writing on the last week of December, 2021. And have now finished the first draft on the 2nd day of November, about 10 full months later!

Next comes my least favorite part: starting at the beginning and revising the whole damn thing! BLAAGGHH! I hope this process will only take a matter of weeks, though.

...And even typing that line out makes me scoff at myself. But I'm going to try!

(And actually, I screwed up putting the details on that image -- if you count the prologue and epilogue, the book has 41 chapters.)

Excelsior!

YOU Choose My Kickstarter Art Work

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 21:27:54 GMT

Help Me Choose By Answering One Survey Question

Hello and thanks for checking in!

In my most recent Conspiracy Theory Newsletter (which you can sign up for my clicking here) I posted the above options and have a survey attached.

Can I do the same in this blog?

No, unfortunately, I cannot. The limits of this platform. (Or maybe the limits of my cyber-skills??)

But you can click here to read the newsletter and take part in the survey.

In a nutshell, I'm launching a Kickstarter soon to gather funding support for my next novel, the heroes of which you see above! But I stink at picking fonts and titling. Which would YOU suggest I use???

Your answer is super-helpful and super-appreciated!! Thanks!!

ore on the Kickstarter coming soon. (And more great info in the newsletter itself -- it's really the superior form of info delivery here.)

Thanks for reading!!

Hypersonic Warfare and the End of the World

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 14:43:53 GMT

From the desk of the Conspiracy Theory Newsletter

The following is an excerpt from my cleverly-named newsletter. You're really better off reading it there. Especially since this blog entry isn't the full story. (Sorry, the blog engine is just an inferior mode versus the newsletter, and would require me to do a lot of work twice!) You can read this issue by following this link. Better yet, you can subscribe to the newsletter yourself by clicking here.

Holy poop, it’s October, Fellow Conspirators!

We are in the final quarter of 2022. Unbelievable.

I am also in the final “act” of my new fantasy novel. According to my plan, I have 6 chapters left to write, including the exciting double climactic battles and all the way through to the epilogue. I’m almost there!

If I’m able to maintain working from home (still locking in the future of my new day-job employment situation at the moment), I hope to possibly get books 2 and 3 written in 2023. That would be a huge increase in my ability to get writing done, as I generally have produced one new novel a year since I started.

Just about all of those previous books, by the way, are going to be featured as discounted bundles in my upcoming Kickstarter campaign. I hope to launch this during October as well. The crowdfunding Kickstarter will help cover the expenses of producing this new book and get it exclusively to backers before it’s available to the public at large.

I’ll be sending more info on that in the coming weeks...

Finish reading here.

FREE Urban Fantasy, Vampire Horror, & Crime Noir

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 18:48:12 GMT

New Looks, Free eBook for Limited Time, and COVID Strikes Back!

The headline above says all the important stuff. Now here's something less important but equally true: I'm LAZY when it comes to social media and, most especially, this blog!

I actually put a good deal of work into my newsletter, which I know is going straight to subscribers and people are actually opening and reading it. But when it comes to this blog way over here on my tiny little desert plot of cyberspace... To repeat all that work I put into the newsletter a second time here, when I have so many other things I need to do today... Ugghhhh!

But you can read all the properly written details on my newsletter -- without even be subscribed! Here's the link!

https://preview.mailerlite.com/y0b4o3h8w0

Know that Wildcards was #1 on Amazon last night in the free category of Fantasy Anthologies and Short Stories!

It's free on every Amazon site now through Tuesday!

Here's the US link. I included other country links in the newsletter above!

https://www.amazon.com/Wildcards-Urban-Fantasy-Crime-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B07YGP5GLP/

Thanks for reading and sorry for my laziness!

4 Books for 3 Bucks - Spring into Action Superhero Series Sale!

Thu, 12 May 2022 22:22:56 GMT

I'm going to keep this short and sweet and to the point.

(Mostly because I've been quite under the weather lately and my sinuses just sealed themselves off again like an airlock trying not to vent Ripley out the hatch!)

This weekend only!

4 Books for 3 Bucks!

Score the entire IDCU "Superheroes for Grow-ups" series:

Book 1 - FREE

Book 2 - 99c

Book 3 - 99c

Book 4 - 99c

The "Spring into Action" sale!

So do that (you know, spring into action ) before it's too late!

Just click the glowing text above or click here.

You can also get a fatter version of the skinny by checking out my latest Newsletter (just click here).

Huge Superhero Book Giveaway!

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 02:34:23 GMT

Today is National Superhero Day!

And to celebrate, we're having a big paperback and ebook giveaway!

Today, April 28, is National Superhero Day. And it's taken me til 10:30pm to get around to posting about this cuz my mild-mannered alter ego has too busy a life! (But don't worry, it's just DAY ONE of this HUGE book giveaway!)

Here's the pitch:

Want the chance to win 18 uncanny superhero novels? This National Superhero Day, Superhero-Fiction.com is giving one lucky winner the chance to win physical copies from 18 superhero authors. From action to romance and everything in between, this is a must-have prize package. If that's not enough to get you excited, we are also giving away two sets of ebooks. Enter between April 28th - May 28th at https://superhero-fiction.com/nationalsuperheroday/ for your chance to win!

98 Fantasy Books and Proof I'm Writing Something New!

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 19:05:36 GMT

It's probably no secret or surprise that I find it way easier to stay connected on my newsletter than on this blog.

Which is why I'm going to provide a link to view my latest newsletter issue instead of trying to rewrite everything on here.

To get a look at 98 high and epic fantasy books you may have never heard of, and a sample chapter of my new book , just click here! It'll take you to the Interweb limbo where my latest Conspiracy Newsletter is hanging out.

To sign up for the newsletter and get them straight to your email, just click here.

Thanks for reading!

44 Fantastic Reads for $0.99 and FREE

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 03:00:17 GMT

Get 'em While They're Hot!

Holy crap, how did it get to be March already?!?

Looking for something to read as you watch the snow melt (and come back again...)?

There are 44 fantastic fantasy books by 34 amazing authors on sale for $0.99 or even FREE right now, just waiting for readers to discover them! You might even find your new favorite author here!

Check them out here and enjoy:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free99fanread/eae754wazs

Quick and to the point. Good night!

Dark Paranormal Fantasy Sale

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 23:38:18 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

There isn't much time, so let's get straight to the point!

For a limited time, check out these Dark Paranormal Fantasy books on sale for 99-cents!

Lustful vampires and lady slayers, shifters, cyborgs, and detectives... Need I say more?!

See if there's anything here that tempts your dark appetites!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/dark_horror/wolew7f0ls

Halloween Treats!

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 14:15:04 GMT

99-cent sale ending, new era beginning!

Since the sale on the Grit & Shadows Omnibus ends TODAY, I'll cut right to the chase:

OMNI is only 99-cents and has been all week, ending today! That's 3 books of material for only a buck! Find it on Amazon by clicking here!

(Sorry, my blog is not a high-traffic area and I had a lot of other stuff going on this week. Hopefully you would have seen the notice elsewhere, like via my newsletter! Subscribe by clicking here .)

Also this weekend, Hero Crisis: the IDCU Superhero Boxed Set went live! For $9.99 you get 4 ebooks that would normally cost almost twice that much! Find it's home on Amazon by clicking here.

Both are also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, so if you're a subscriber there, it's all already paid for!

Happy Halloween!

Tis the Season for Scary Stories

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 16:28:06 GMT

Three holiday books promos to make your heart race!

Tis the season for scary stories!

Click the links below to check out these limited-time holiday book fests. They all end on Halloween so don't delay. Move like you're being chased by the Wolfman!

Haunted: https://books.bookfunnel.com/haunted-urban-fantasy/6ajb7iquxb

A Frightful Fall: https://books.bookfunnel.com/frightful_fall/u360ro45r9

Fantasy & Paranormal Boxed Sets: https://books.bookfunnel.com/boxedsetallprices/r5521oip2f

Forgive the bare-bones approach here. I only got one day off the day job this week and have to make every minute count! Enjoy!

Recent Reads: Books I've Read that You Might Like

183:844522139 (Jeremy Brink) — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 14:05:30 GMT

Book Reports

Pardon me, but I'm so annoyed right now!

Smart phone, my ass!

I took some lovely pictures of the books I'm about to tell you about but I can't get them from my damn phone to my computer to make use of them. I tried uploading to Google Drive, emailing them two different ways... There are people both 30 years younger and older than me who are better at technology than I am. I did it right, I swear! It's not my fault it didn't work!

Anyway... Sorry you had to "see" that, but... GGRRR!!!

Moving on...

I don’t read nearly as fast as most of you guys—I’m lucky to finish a book in a month—but I have been reading. Once I finish one book, I feel there’s a hole that needs filled if I don’t roll into something else.

But I don’t always finish them. I am notorious for dropping a book 50 or 100 pages in. Sometimes even further if I start losing interest. I feel like I don’t have time to waste on something I’m not enjoying, so I’m actually pretty quick to drop something. My “to read” shelf is always growing at warp speed compared to my “finished it” shelf, so why waste precious time on a dud when there’s so many more waiting to be discovered?

I thought I would share what I have read—finished or not—in recent months in case you might like to try them. And if you have something to recommend to me, by all means, let me know!

I’m going to keep them all simple and brief—no spoilers here.

First up:

The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham

This was just what the doctor ordered!

I was in the mood for something very space opera and I tried a couple other things before settling on this book. The first I don’t even remember—that’s how much I liked that one. Dead Space , I think? It seemed like a very smart mystery in space book, well written, but it was dark and broody and not what I was in the mood for.

The second was way too much of a kid’s imitation of Star Wars . (Like, not-even-hiding-it-imitation of Star Wars .) And I can't get into juvenile books, so didn't get past chapter one.

Then I happened on The Cruel Stars . It sounded like exactly what I was looking for and, Lordy, it was.

This was all browsing the shelves at the library, by the way. Yes, they still have them, people! Go use them. (Some of my ebooks are in libraries, at least for now. But that’s a topic for another email…)

What did it for me? It was an intelligent, adult book. There were several main characters we followed at different places who eventually all came together in the end. There was spaceship combat and military stuff; super-high technology; space pirates; mutants, androids, and AI; and plenty of both action and humor.

If that sounds like fun to you, I highly recommend it!

[insert next image here -- oh wait, I forgot, my damn phone sucks...]

The Cruel Stars deserved to be singled out and stand alone. These others, I’ll just give you a quick line or two on:

Thud! by Terry Pratchett – Very enjoyable, a book from his Discworld series. Satirical take on high fantasy: dwarves, trolls, werewolves, etc. all on a police force in a very modern-esque fantasy city. Entertaining and insightful stuff.

Killing Floor by Lee Child and The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy – I’d been wanting to read Red October for years and my mom passed me the copy of Killing Floor when she was done with it. At first I was into them and enjoying them, definitely wanted to read them, but… I discovered what I can only assume is a trend in most action-adventure/thriller books, as these both had it and they are staples of the genre. For me, they seemed… drawn out. Like, lots of detail, lots of research, but at the cost of a good pace. Which is surprising because you always see the "professional" reviews saying "break-neck pace" for all these type of novels. But for me, in my opinion... not so much. The author spends so much time on the details and taking every damn thing in that it takes 30+ pages to move on to the next scene.

Obviously millions of readers like that and there's certainly nothing wrong with it. But since I take so long to get through a book, I need it to move along to keep me going. If I read 10 pages or so in bed every night and it takes me all week to get to the next event in the story... I lose interest.

I’m sure some of you are aghast at my saying that. How could I think that these thrillers are too slow?? They’re pillars of perhaps the best selling genre of books ever (next to romance books). But, well… sorry, but I do.

Jack Reacher gets arrested for a crime he didn’t commit in the very first chapter of Killing Floor. A great hook. But 60 pages in and he’s still in a small town jail cell. Then they ship him off to prison to await trial. That did it for me. No way I’m wading through that too before the story actually starts to go forward.

I like detail, believe me, I like character development and a story you can sink your teeth into. But if I can sum up the progress of the first 100 pages or so in one line without needing more than one “and then”… it’s not moving fast enough for me. So I stopped reading those two. Probably won’t pick them back up. But that’s just me.

(Did I say I was going to only write one sentence about each. Damn, guess I lied to myself!)

[next non-existent image]

I tend to read a lot of comic books, trade paper backs, and graphic novels too.

For one thing, I like them! Grew up on them and am still a comics nerd. And for another, they move really fast. Since a picture is worth 1000 words, having a completely illustrated story saves lots of description time. I get finish a full story arc in a few days.

(I don't mean to sound like a lazy reader! I just feel like I need to squeeze every minute out of the day and I still don't get enough done, I certainly don't get enough writing done, so... shrug.)

Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Murphy -- I may have mentioned the first White Knight book before? I really enjoyed it and the sequel was also really nice. Kind of a new take on the Dark Knight and his world with very fitting, gritty-styled art work. There are several reasons why Batman is arguably the most popular comics character in the world. The dark gritty feel is one of them. And these books take the traditional stories we know and turn them on their heads a bit—alternate realities for the familiar characters—which I always enjoy. Especially in comics, where most of the heroes have been around for 80 years or so.

Heroes in Crisis by Tom King and Clay Mann - - This is a very smart and realistic look at something we should and currently are talking more about, given the recent end of the 20 year war: the traumatic effect of combat and all those super-duper heroics on the heroes themselves. It’s a fun, costumed mystery story that simultaneously spotlights the hidden scars of our real world heroes, too. And the art is amazing.

My only complaint about it is that the ending is such a cosmic, comic-book-physics kind of solution to the mystery, but… what do you expect?

Book 2 is Half Priced Now!

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 03:18:15 GMT

You got Book 1. Now score Book 2!

More than 2000 people nabbed Hungry Gods (ICDU 1) over the weekend.

Now you can get Secret Origins (IDCU 2) for half price. That's only $1.99!

And even if you missed HG for free, you can still get it for $0.99 and end up with both books for 3 bucks!

Nuff said.

Book 1 is FREE! Book 4 is out!

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 15:28:57 GMT

The IDCU Season 1 is complete!

I'm just going to cut the chase here: Book 1 HUNGRY GODS came out in January of 2015. Six damn years later (!) -- wow, has it really been so long???

Uh, anyway, six damn years later, the series season is finally complete. GOLDEN AGE HEROES hit the shelves on Thursday.

So right now Book 1 is FREE to download on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2N59Ws4

And I'll let you in on a little secret: SECRET ORIGINS (book 2) is going to be half-price next week!

So grab book 1 while it's free, then score book 2 at half price starting June 23 to June 27. That's 2 big books for only 2 bucks total!!!

Golden Age Heroes (IDCU 4) in on Pre-Order

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 13:31:33 GMT

The Season Finale is here!

It's taken nearly two years to complete this book. Or at least it feels like it... 2020 feels like a blur.

But, at long last, the Season Finale is here! Golden Age Heroes comes full-circle back to the mysteries of Book 1 and sends us on secret missions during World War Two! It also includes the new, exclusive Spitball and Sapphire story, "Speeding Dating."

To find GAH on Amazon.com and Kindle Unlimited, click here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096Z94GVD

To read the book's prologue, keeping it here:

September, 1939. Poland.

With the steady hand of a surgeon, Eliska Sadoski reassembled the tiny metal gears within the silver saucer of the pocket watch. They had to fit together perfectly, miniscule teeth matching teeth, layered atop one another in an intimate dance of unity. Her green eyes, young as they were, hardly felt sufficient for assessing the task. The tweezers, pinched between thumb and forefinger, were almost too cumbersome for the job. Yet she had a natural knack for the work that made up for all inadequacies.

She finished the delicate work, replaced the circular watch face and hands, then the final glass cap. Resurrected back to mechanical life, the hands ticked with precision.

Eliska smiled at her own work and at the small circular photograph of her deceased mother at rest in the hinged cap of the pocket watch. The photo was, of course, cast in shades of grey. She had no memories of her mother in the fleshtones of life. She’d died of fever when Eliska was not yet two years old. Now she was just days away from her fourteenth birthday.

Her father’s shadow appeared over her.

“Eliska,” her father gasped, his voice colored with (possibly exaggerated) admiration. “You fixed it. That’s amazing!”

“Papa, please,” she replied modestly. “It is not that amazing.”

“Well, it is to me.”

Eliska had always shown a natural aptitude for all things mechanical. Her father, on the other hand, had a very green thumb. Two of them, her mother had always joked with him. Although Eliska assisted her father in the flower shop and knew that someday it would fall on her to take over the family business, she held a secret dread for that destiny. Her thumbs were narrow and deft, but not green.

That inheritance also assumed his death, which she hoped would never come.

Mikolaj Sadoski was a stocky man with a sun-worn face, heavy moustache, and a bit of a belly. He wore an apron that was even more genuinely green than his thumbs. It went on every morning when he dressed and didn’t come off until he readied himself for bed each night.

A bed that he would never see again…

Mikolaj closed Eliska’s hand within his own, simultaneously snapping shut the silvery clam shell in her palm. “A miracle worker,” he told her, squeezed her in his other arm and kissed the top of her head.

Suddenly, woeful cries sounded from outside.

A few people ran by the flower shop’s large front window. Words were shouted down the street, muffled by a clutching panic in the throat that had forced them out. A man and woman across the way were like frightened rabbits caught between a dog and the fence, starting this way, then that, but getting nowhere.

A bearded man stepped into view just outside the door, placed his fedora over his heart, and stared to the east.

“It’s coming,” her father gasped, pressing her further into his embrace. “They’re here. I never really believed...”

Eliska slipped the watch into a pocket of her dress and they both went out to the sidewalk.

Her father’s rough hand encompassed hers.

The narrow brick street was choked by a column of soldiers and vehicles. The men were mostly young—not much older than Eliska herself—with short hair and shaven faces, all dressed in the khaki and brown uniforms of the Soviet Red Army. Russian officers and their attendants rode in roofless autos. A few came on horseback or in armored jeeps. There were large trucks and several tanks: armored behemoths like blocks of steel, moving squeakily forward on rotating tracks and bearing a huge cannon on their turrets.

Eliska was fascinated by the tanks, such powerful machines. She thought of the interlacing gears of the pocket watch and wondered what made the steel monsters work.

Father and daughter watched as the column continued into their town, filling the narrow cobblestone street. The marching, rolling army curved south, filling the village roads and alleys, and came to a stop.

Her father’s grip on her hand had tightened to an almost painful level of pressure.

A man approached them. His uniform boasted more decorations than the others, as well as scarlet shoulder boards and a red-ribboned cap. He eyed Eliska with a smirk on his hawkish face.

The officer addressed her father. Fear and confusion clouded Eliska’s mind; she did not register what the man was saying, only his tone of unquestioned authority. He spoke as if he had been here all along, empowered by the people of this town, not as a stranger just arrived.

He summoned more men to his side.

Now her ears worked again, unhindered by the confusion of how her world was rapidly falling apart. The officer wanted to come into the shop for tea and lunch. And he expected Eliska to serve it to him.

Her father could cook or leave, the choice was his, but the girl—the slender, blonde-haired girl not quite fourteen—she was to be his personal attendant for the day. She would serve them lunch. And sit on his lap while he ate it.

A cry of rage and despair gurgled from her father’s throat. She felt the crushing force of his hand on hers and then the absence of it when he let go. Her father was not a big man, never violent, but he was strong that day. He struck down the officer. A single blow to the face that caught the man by surprise and knocked him on his rear there on the sidewalk. In front of his men. In front of the townsfolk he meant to conquer.

She heard the gunshot and everything else went silent. The terrible crack was the only sound she’d kept in that several minutes of distorted memory. Even her own scream hadn’t registered in her ears or been retained in her mind.

Two men—boys, mere boys in uniform, barely older than herself—grabbed at her. She fought back, eluded them. Others gave chase.

She ran into the street, between hulks of steel. Soldiers were everywhere. They outnumbered every man, woman, and child in town. There was nowhere for her to run. She became trapped between them, among them. Some of the youthful soldiers’ faces were scared too, some serious. Others smirked at her, a frightened deer on the run from a pack of playful wolves, the way the officer had smirked at her.

Eliska backed away from those sneering, violent faces and came up against a steel-skinned monster. She pressed her body and hands against its cool, metal surface.

It was a Soviet tank.

And somehow, much like the watch, Eliska understood it.

With soldiers on either side, frothy from the chase, laughing and leering, she felt the tank move. The turret rotated and lowered, peering like a vengeful telescope at those that threatened her.

Men backed away then. Someone shouted at the crew inside, demanded to know what they were doing. Confusion called back.

There was a large truck following behind the tank, parked several yards in front of Eliska now. The driver had a chubby face and wide, white eyes. He dove out of the cab but his passenger did not. Nor did the dozen or so men riding in the back. They must not have understood what was about to happen. No one did. No one could.

The howitzer fired.

Eliska felt the concussive shockwave more than she heard it. Yet it deafened her.

The truck exploded. Shards of glass, steel, and stone struck Eliska’s face, arms, and body. Smoke and fire filled the narrow street. Men lay on the ground. Others fled.

By the time the smoke and chaos had cleared, Eliska Sadoski was gone.

Fantasy Readers, I need your help!

Sat, 15 May 2021 14:28:32 GMT

Which cover? Your opinion matters!

Fantasy Readers -- and even non-fantasy readers -- I need your help!

I've used a variety of covers for my fantasy novel Way of the Sword (formerly entitled Tarnish) over the years and I'm wondering which one is actually the best at hooking potential readers to take a closer look.

If you've got 2 minutes to spare, I'd love for you to take my survey and tell me what you think!

https://preview.mailerlite.com/s6e1a4

Quarantine-Con, plus Free & 99cent Books!

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 22:40:43 GMT

When you can't go to the Con, the Con comes to you!

Forgive me, but I'm going to do this the lazy way.

You see, I wrote a very nice email to my mailing list ( which you can join here ) and after 9 hours at the day job and dinner yet to make for my family, I just don't have the time or energy to make a nice blog post with all the same info and images.

BUT! If you click here you can read my wonderful email , which includes:

Links to the Con
Links to the Con's great big ebook sale, featuring 25+ authors, and
Buttons for finding my totally free for a limited time sci-fi/fantasy anthology which is actually NUMBER ONE in multiple categories right now on Amazon, including free cyberpunk, superhero, and sci-fi anthologies!

So again, really exciting stuff worth seeing, I just can't commit the hour-plus required to make it pretty right now. The pretty version with various convenient buttons is here:

https://preview.mailerlite.com/m3l9k1

And I'll actually be reading my short story "Green-Eyed Monster" on the virtual convention, via Youtube, LIVE tomorrow (Friday) night at 8:15 Eastern U.S. time. So tune in for that! :)

See you at the Con!

Complete Series Omnibus 99-Cents for Limited Time

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 02:03:33 GMT

When the full moon wanes, this deal will be gone!

Grit & Shadows Omnibus: Complete series of dark fantasy and detective noir in one volume. 99-cents for a limited time on Amazon!

Catch all three volumes of the G&S Collection -- that's ten tales, from short story to novel length -- for only 99-cents for the next few days.

What's it about...?

Enter darkened worlds escorted by an array of broken, gritty anti-heroes. And pray they can protect you.

Zeus Contreras: vampire-slaying paramedic. Harry Celeste: cyberpunk private detective. The Jack of Spades: ex-magician turned smuggler.

A fiendish witches’ brew of gritty crime, urban fantasy, vampire horror, and sci-fi noir. Ten tales of lust, bravery, and terror told with a sharp noir edge. So sharp, you might just cut yourself. And once the scent of blood is in the air, no one is safe.

Reduced to 99-cents for a few days only! Or get it on Kindle Unlimited before it comes off KU forever!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YGP5GLP

Aliens Meets Neuromancer

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 18:33:53 GMT

Happy Saturday!

I'm so darn glad it's the weekend. Not that I have anything planned specifically, other than finishing my taxes. I just needed a break. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

Last weekend I went down and visited my buddy Nate, who is one of my college roommates 20 years ago. He loaned me a graphic novel that he had that was literally Aliens meets Neuromancer.

It was a Dark Horse graphic novel based on the unused movie script for Alien 3 that was written by William Gibson.

Gibson is best known as the author of Neuromancer, which is basically the definitive cyberpunk novel, written in the 80s. He has since written a lot of near-future science fiction and espionage novels. I've read the Sprawl Trilogy, which begins with Neuromancer and also includes Mona Lisa OverDrive and Count Zero. They’re all cool in their own ways, but all three novels are totally separate from each other, other than sharing the same universe.

And now that I think about it, that's kinda how I write some of my books. So far, that's how I write most of my books.

But I have plans to change that in the near future . Once I finish book four of the Identity Crisis Universe, I'm going to go on hiatus from that series and start something with broader sci-fi/fantasy appeal. But it'll probably be 2022 by the time I come out with those because I want to write three of them before I publish any so they can all go out in quick succession.

Anyway, that was a tangent I didn't intend to go down...

So William Gibson was asked by the producers of the Alien franchise to script the movie Alien 3. He says he believes they were looking for his cyberpunk flavor to come into their world, but he was a big fan and wanted to keep it closer to the original two movies.

By the way, spoiler alert: the movie that you have seen is not his movie!

Which might not be totally terrible, because I have mixed feelings about the one I just finished reading. Which I'm going to share with you.

The actual movie Alien 3 that came out is perhaps my least favorite of the four. It's a close race between 3 and Resurrection, both of which were nowhere near as good as Alien and Aliens, which are sci-fi classics in every sense.

One of the disappointing things about the 3 is that the other surviving characters from movie two were all killed and made no appearance whatsoever, except the prime heroine, Ripley.

Turns out, strangely enough, Gibson went the opposite way.

Ripley spends the entire time in a coma while Hicks, Bishop, and Newt play small parts in his script. I guess you could kind of argue that they are some of the main characters, but no one character really plays a major role in the entire story.

There are several new characters, none of which are extremely important, sprawled across two different settings. One is the corporate-allied space station that recovers them, and the other is a communist space station of a different government, who intercepted their derelict ship, stole Bishop and an alien egg, and then later returned to Bishop completely unharmed and without memory of the incident.

I honestly don't know what the whole point of any of that was.

It was probably meant to include a Cold War aspect in there. I suppose there was something of the biological secret warfare going on with the using the alien. But it was very subtle and barely purposeful.

The other weird thing is the choice I already mentioned, which was choosing not to use Ripley in the story at all.

When the shit starts to hit the fan, Hicks shoves her comatose body into an escape pod and jettisons her out of the space station. I guess we just hope somebody picks her up later. Newt gets sent to earth to be with her grandparents. Hicks and Bishop stay behind and help the other characters we don't care about fight the aliens (and figure out the Cold War stuff, I guess).

There are some cool aspects to it but, for the most part, it was lukewarm at best.

Although I can't say that the movie that ended up being produced was much better. Well, at least it did have Ripley as the main character. And I did kind of like the idea of a prison colony and them getting stuck there.

Actually, not long ago, my 10 year old son became very interested in Aliens (mostly from Youtube, I think) and we purchased and watched the movies. And I decided that Alien 3 wasn't all that bad after all. Not as crappy as I remembered it. Okay, it was pretty good. Just pales in comparison to the previous two.

Overall, Gibson’s A3 is an interesting story and, hey, it's got aliens and action and gory stuff, so it ain't all bad. And honestly, as I said earlier, it's kind of in keeping with Gibson’s style: diverging stories in the same universe that emphasize new characters, or at least different characters, with some strange political background to it.

If you're a fan of either him or the Aliens flicks it might be worth seeking out.

What would YOU have liked to have seen in an Alien 3??? Let me know!

Personally, I’d have liked all those surviving heroes to have played a big part. Be a dream team! Except for maybe Newt... But hey, they could have spun off a new series of movies decades into the future with her all grown up. That might have been cool. Instead, they let her and the others die in their cryopods for no reason at all, save the casting budget, maybe?

P.S.

Stroll down memory Lane... I remember going to see Alien 3 in the theater. My friend Joe and I went to see it and his older sister dropped us off at the theater—because we were not yet old enough to drive. We were therefore also not yet old enough to go watch an R-rated movie without our parents. One of the ushers, who was barely older than we were, actually called us out on it and asked how old we were. I sarcastically told him something ridiculous like 25, which was probably the ballsiest thing I had ever done in my life up to that point. (Which is probably why I remember it to this day!) He did not kick us out. In fact, I think this was after we were seated and the previews had started.

When I got home that night, if memory serves, I watched Johnny Carson's last night on The Tonight Show with my dad. That was the same night that Jay Leno took over. (Well, I guess the following Monday was the night that Jay Leno took over. You get the idea.)

Ah, memories!

Enjoy your weekend, all.

Vampires for Valentines Day

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:32:49 GMT

Spaceships, Faeries, Superheroes, and Vampires for Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day, fellow conspirators!

Here in the Midwest of the U.S., we are looking at the coldest Valentine’s Day on record! An arctic blast is going to reach over with its cold claws from above and rake us with snow, ice, and biting winds! So much for my three-day weekend. I spent a vacation day on this?

But that’s okay. One less day at the day job means one more for me to rest, rejuvenate, and write!

A few weeks ago, I looked ahead to this lovers’ holiday and thought, “If I were going to run some free days on a book that weekend, which book would I do that for?”

The most appropriate (since I don’t write romance) seemed to be Kiss of the Maiden .

See, doesn’t that sound like something you’d see on Valentine’s Day?

Kiss is actually the second book of my Grit & Shadows Collection, which isn’t strictly a series in that each volume can be read all by itself and none of the three books are directly reliant on the others. The first two books are small collections of short stories while the third is a novel.

All of them have a dark feel about them: crime, noir, witches, vampires, mobsters, mummies, werewolves, sorcery, sex, murder… you know, all the cornerstones of good romance!

Now through Sunday, Kiss of the Maiden is free to download on Amazon.

(Right now, all of the Grit & Shadows titles are exclusive to Kindle Unlimited. They haven’t always been, and won’t always be, but for now and the near future, you can only pick them up on Amazon.)

I recently joined a site called Story Origins, which is for writers and readers alike. This weekend (meaning right now), I have teamed up with some other authors there to offer up Kiss and a few other books for free. You can check out these free Kindle opportunities by clicking here !

Whether you’re having a night out with your special someone, a night in with them, or just curling up with a good book by yourself, I hope you enjoy the weekend! (And if you still need a gift for that special person—like me… crap, I forgot to get her something—maybe one of these books will scratch that itch too!)

Stay warm!

(By the way, if you prefer home delivery of this content with more images and and comfier format, you can always join J. D. Brink's Conspiracy Newsletter - its not political, cult-like, or weird, just books and fun!)

Last Chance to Get in on Raffle

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:10:17 GMT

Trilogy Giveaway Ends Sunday!

That’s the Identity Crisis Universe Trilogy. Just go to this site and register:

https://www.subscribepage.com/idcutrilogy

Yes, I need you to enter your email address in order for me to find and notify you. (You'll also be signing up for my Conspiracy Newsletter. Don't worry, it's about books, not politics!)

On January 31st I will generate 3 random numbers that correspond to the entrants in that pool and those 3 folks will get free ebooks for all 3 of those books! And therefore be prepared for Book 4 , which I hope will be out this summer.

Even if you’re not generally a superhero fiction fan, you might like these. There’s some humor, horror, and heroics in there that appeals to sci-fi and fantasy readers of all stripes.

Good luck!

To Begin Writing

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 23:59:35 GMT

How to Start Writing

I recently traded a few emails with fellow conspirator Eric. ( That relates to my Conspiracy Newsletter -- it's about books and stuff, not politics. Click here to sign up. )

Like many of us, he has stories he’d like to tell but said he wasn’t quite sure how to get started.

Very common. Universal, even. All of us are there in the beginning for sure. My first degree is actually in creative writing, so I was fortunate to be in classes where the assignments were given to me and it was basically my job to do those guided assignments and work my way up. But it’s especially hard to get started when life’s in full-swing with jobs and kids and everything else.

So my suggestion to Eric (and anyone else) would be:

Start small.

Everything starts small and so should your writing. Don’t try to write a 400 page epic right out of the gate. Just like anything else, you have to build up to the huge projects.

An Olympic weightlifter doesn’t pick up a 400 pound barbell on his first day. He (or she) starts with those cute little pink dumb bells and builds up their strength.

A runner can’t go right into a marathon on day two of training. Alternate walking then running a block at a time. Then run the long sides of a track and walk the sort ones. Run a full lap. Do a half-mile. Then a mile. Et cetera. (I used a program similar to that at get into running shape when I went into the Navy, actually.)

I also suggested some ideas like these to develop writing muscles:

• Write a description of a place. A haunted house. A magical city. A huge space ship. An abandoned castle.

• Script a dialogue between two characters about something important. Whatever the crux of your story idea is. A debate, negotiation, argument, investigation, brainstorming session, etc.

• Write one-scene adventures or one-act plays. Episodes that are turning points for characters’ perspectives or beliefs about something. They could be a chapter from the middle of a future novel, the good part you can’t wait to write but know that, eventually, there will need to be 100 pages that happen before this does.

• Write short stories. They could be character origin stories about heroes you know you want to write novels about someday. They could be “a day in the life” tales. Twilight Zone episodes with bizarre twist endings.

I definitely wrote a lot of short stories before I got the gumption to write a novel. And I still like short stories, reading them and writing them. I don’t always want a long story that takes weeks to read. Sometimes I want to read something quick and fun that wraps up soon enough to fit my available free time. (And the same goes for writing them too!)

The picture above illustrates some of my short stories and short story collections. (Like I said, I wrote a lot of short stories!)

A Resolution You Can Actually Use!

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 11:25:30 GMT

We All Get a Redo!

I originally wrote the following in December of 2018. It was our first New Year out of the Navy and back home among friends. Back when we could safely have New Year’s Eve parties.

And now, two years later, I’m still using this revolutionary method for not driving myself crazy. And you can too! (Declared in my best infomercial voice.)

This morning I woke up too early, laid in bed trying to deny that I had to pee. When I finally rolled over and looked at the clock, I realized that I had gotten a good solid 6 hours of sleep, I wasn’t going to fall back asleep before my alarm went off anyway, and yes, I really did have to pee! So I got up, used the bathroom, showered, and had 1.5 hours of extra time to accomplish something this morning. So now I can mark one item off my list for the day! Two more and I’m golden.

What am I talking about? Read on...

* * *

On New Years Eve night, as the clock on TV was counting down the last 10 seconds, along with everyone in the room, I had a terrible thought.

“This is all crap. Nature and the universe don’t give a damn about this arbitrary clock and random date we’ve picked. It means nothing. It’s the same as the midnight before and the midnight after. Why is everyone so excited?”

What a party pooper.

I didn’t voice that to my wife or guests, of course.

But then—much like the Grinch whose heart suddenly grew three sizes more—I had a revelation. I saw the spirit of it, the function, the purpose. Sure, the night sky and the seasons and the universe don’t notice what day we pick to celebrate our calendars turning over, but we can.

The benefit of the New Year is as much a renewal for us as the spring is to the world around us. (And spring is less predictable these days than it used to be. At least we know when to restart on the calendar!)

It really is our chance—and our choice—to start new. To drop all that extra weight and stressful burden we’ve been carrying around for the past year, let it crash to the floor. Then take two steps away and turn and ponder. Get a good look. Say to ourselves, “Wow, no wonder I’ve been tired and my back’s been hurting! Look at all that shit I’ve piled up on myself!”

Pretty much all indie writers expect too much of themselves. And get frustrated when they don’t somehow manage to pull it all off.

“I want to write four books this year. And start a new mailing list. And do big promotion events. And put new covers on all my existing books. And join an online community. And I really have to start getting on social media more just to be present every day. Oh, and I guess I should still go to my day job that keeps a roof over our head and feeds the family. Oh, yeah, the family... I guess I should spend some time with them too. Hmmm...”

How the hell are you going to do all that stuff? You’re probably not. Not happily, at least. And then when you can’t squeeze 28 hours into every day, you punish yourself and get depressed.

But, of course, it’s not just writers. Everyone can (and does) think this way.

So we toss out last year’s calendar and hang a new one. A blank slate. A chance to reassess and set a new plan. Great!

Thus, the New Year’s Resolution.

And in having my epiphany, I went a little further: What is the main problem with the New Year’s Resolution?

The problem is, we don’t keep them, right? The gym fills up in January and is empty again by February.

But why?

I think one major factor is the scale.

Not the one you stand on and groan. It’s the proportion of your goals. They’re too big. We try planning for a year. A whole year! Who does that? And who can keep it up for that long?

Almost no one.

So my solution…

THE RULE OF 3

The solution is, you scale is back. You don’t set these big, lofty goals. You don’t load that big, heavy pack of shit back onto your shoulders and go right back to trudging up the mountain. Didn’t work last year, why do it again?

Instead, you set smaller goals. Smaller time frames. And no more than three of them at a time.

For example, when you make your list of things to do, how long does that list get? If you’re like me, there’s 8 to 12 items on there. And a natural law of the universe is “Everything takes twice as long as you think it should.” So I know I’m not getting them all done. No way. But right after I say that out loud, I then add, “Oh yeah, and fix the garage door. Put that on there, too.”

Not gonna happen.

As I look at my ever-increasing slate of writing activities and plans, I realize that I can’t swallow it all. There are so many items I’m putting on my plate, I’d choke.

How many pills can you take at a time? How many will get caught in your throat?

Rule of 3.

I’m going to make my overwhelming list. They are all things that need to be done. If I only get as many as 3 done, I’m good. I’ve reached my goal.

Now on a day off, I might even get 8 of those things taken care of. But during the week, when I work 9 hours and have to make dinner and help my son with homework and spend this much time on the road just getting from place to place... how much can I really expect of myself aside from the necessary day-to-day functioning of life?

And yet I do, and I chastise myself for not doing more. And that’s not fair and it doesn’t help me. It just makes me feel worse.

The solution: Set realistic expectations. Scale it back. Chunk it up into bite-sized hunks. Rule of 3.

Those 3 items can be whatever you say they are. For example:

• Work an 8 to 9 hour work day

• Make dinner

• Help my son with his homework

• Do the dishes

• Write 500 words before bed

There’s five. All possible in one day, but if I fall short, as long as I got 3 of them done, I’ve accomplished enough for one day and shouldn’t be hard on myself. Everything past 3 is bonus material and I can actually feel good about getting that much done. Yeah me!

This may seem overly simplistic, but simple is good. When you get complicated, that’s when things get messy. And hard. And frustrating. And you feel like you can’t do it all.

Keep it simple. Small bites. Easy steps. Doable mini-goals all add up over time.

In the above example, everything takes different amounts of time to get done. The work day is huge. It’s most of any given day. So if you don’t count it, you are expecting too much from yourself! I used to work 12-hour nursing shifts. Add in travel time, eating dinner, and spending any time with family, and your day is over! Expecting yourself to work on major projects on top of all that is asking for a nervous breakdown.

Some items are small, but necessary.

• Pay the electric bill

• Call mom

• Email that guy about the thing (that’s mobster talk)

They make take only a couple of minutes to get done. It may feel like cheating, they’re so quick. But that’s okay!

They needed to get done, right? They count! And at the end of the day, when you look at your list (or review the one in your head), you might have gotten 6 things done today. Good job!

It's about making small goals, completing them, and not punishing yourself because you didn’t do enough today.

You did do enough today. Congrats.

Now get a good night’s sleep and do more tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow.

As I said, I first started doing this (and wrote the first version of this) rolling into 2019.

It’s now 2021 and I’m still doing it. Pretty much every single day for 2 years.

And it works.

I hope this helps. Happy New Year.

Moving Past the Year That Shall Not Be Named

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 16:38:01 GMT

The year in review and moving forward

Happy New Year!

Let us close the door on and never speak again of The Year That Shall Not Be Named.

Looking forward to 2021…

Every year at this time, I take a look at my writing endeavors and business, see what went well over the past year and what I can change in the coming year. What did I achieve and what are my goals going forward? What ended up as unnecessary this year that I can trim down this coming year?

That last one is key. I almost always look for ways to reduce and simplify.

Although this past year, let’s call it 20XX (as we don’t want to call its true name lest it appear in a puff of brimstone), I didn’t really get time to do much. On top of the shared chaos we all had, I quit one job that “went to pot” (as some ancient ancestor used to say) and had to find another one (as you may know, most writers these days cannot do it fulltime and still feed the fam), my wife graduated into a new field and had to find a job, we enrolled my son in the digital-only side of school until this blows over and so we’re basically homeschooling him, my dad had multiple health episodes (ongoing), and grandfather passed away…

You know, 20XX.

Okay, so the year was sucky. We can all agree on that. But let’s get down to brass tax.

(Strap in, this is a long one. And honestly, is way more for me than for you...)

Kindle Unlimited

The biggest change I made was moving 90% into KU this year. Which is good and bad.

I hate the idea of having my ebooks only available on Amazon. Amazon is not a benevolent force for good in the universe but is multi-billion-dollar corporation whose purpose in life is to make money. While we indie authors owe much of our current existence to Amazon, it’s not like everything they do is for our benefit. They have already taken steps to increase the gain on their end and reduce the gain on ours, and more than once. I guess that’s good business, but I have no wish to feed this beast to make it a monopoly at my own expense.

On the other hand, what can one little nobody author do but try to survive? While I would prefer to go wide with all my books around the world, the numbers show without a doubt that I am doing better being exclusive to KU right now. I made the switch in May and instantly doubled the amount of books moving into reader hands, be that by raw sales or page-read borrows. I’d rather be everywhere, including libraries (!), but... Numbers don’t lie. I think until I have enough of a publishing business (meaning way more books written and way more recognition to move those books) this is the best route for me.

Publishing

I generally have an unofficial goal of 80,000 words published per year. This is generic length of most novels, a benchmark set sometime in the 1980s. (A novel traditionally need be only half that long to call it a novel.)

This year the only book I published was Secret Origins, which was 75,000 words long. Just shy. Actually, about 94%, which some nagging voice at the back of my head says, “Not good enough,” but I’m going to ignore it. Most of what was in there, though, had also already been written in other forms. Only the first novella in that book was written in 20XX and it accounts for about a quarter of the total volume of the book.

So my inner critic can attack that whole situation from various angles to say I didn’t meet my goal (which I usually exceed every year), but given the Year That Was, I’m okay with it.

I also started three other future books, only one of which I expect to finish by spring of 2021.

So, goal for 2021 is to publish Golden Age Heroes, book 4 of my Identity Crisis Series, which at the time of my typing this is about halfway through at 57,000 words. Plus another 9,000 words of a Spitball short story that I wrote this year too, which will be included in there. So that big tome alone will meet and exceed my publishing goal for 2021. It will also be a bookend to “season one” of my superheroes for grownups series. I have 4 or 5 more books already in mind for “season two” but plan to explore some other more mainstream genres for a bit. If the four books of the IDCU really take off and demand for the next season comes by readers, I’ll be happy to come back and provide that.

Which takes us back to the other two books I started this year. The trickiest part is picking which one I’m going to make myself stick with for a 3-to-6-book run. I have so many ideas and characters that have built up over the years while I’ve been working 40-80 hour work weeks that choosing is the hardest part. Imagine having several groups of friends but having to pick just one to see for the next few years and having to shun the others in order to spend the necessary time with group one. Sucks!

I also plan to start producing my own audiobooks. (When the heck are you going to have time for that, you ask?! I have no idea!) Hiring narrators and producers is tragically expensive. And thanks to Santa Claus, I now have my own equipment for recording them myself. Which I actually look forward to! I’m not much for doing different voices, but I did enjoy acting in high school and who knows my characters and stories better than I do? I’m going to start with the short story collections Green-Eyed Monster and the Grit & Shadows Collection and go from there. Shorter works will be good to practice on.

Reductions

What can I shrink? Pull back on? Save time on? Save a buck on?

I have my new website up now, as of just last week. It’s a better site for less money, which is win-win. As the inaugural blog post states, the idea was to keep it simple but effective, and I think it meets that.

So traded in one website situation for a better one. Check.

I have been a customer of Dropbox for my cloud back-up and file sharing for years now. It costs about $10 a month for 2 TB of storage. That’s really not that bad. Except that I am only using about 20 GB of it right now. So why pay $120 for another year to only use 1% of that?

I’m generally happy with Dropbox (except when they do upgrades that confuse the crap out of me) but I just don’t need that much storage and they don’t seem to have a smaller plan. I have shopped around a bit and found one for $4 a month for 500 GB, which should suit me fine. In fact, they have a lifetime membership at that level for $175. So basically, for about 1.5 years’ worth of Dropbox, I can get a lifetime on this other one… Sign me up!

Advertising, Promotions, and Campaigns

It’s pretty easy math to say that spikes in book sales generally correlate with big promotions and advertising campaigns. The down side is that they cost money and time to carryout. They also make me feel a bit too much like a sleazy car salesman when I’m trying to push a book sale all the damn time.

So going forward, I want to simplify and reduce the amount of these events that happen. This primarily means focusing on Amazon ads that run in the background and being more picky about what joint promotions I jump in on. I’m thinking once a quarter is plenty to plan on and gives a break in between.

And while holidays seem like the ideal time to run these kinds of events, that’s also when everyone else is doing the same! It’s hard to make gains when the ad costs go up and the market is flooded. So I learned this year that it might be better in the future to run my deals in the off-season when they are more likely to get noticed.

And speaking of joint promos…

This one started last month and is still ongoing, so I might as well plug it! The Superhero Mega Anthology is free to download now. 500 pages of both prose and graphic stories, plus 46 or so optional raffles to get in on too! One of which is a chance at winning my entire Identity Crisis Trilogy (3 books so far, 4th pending, as mentioned already) in ebook form. The SHMA is ending soon! My drawing will result in 3 winners on January 31st.

(Okay, so there’s the promo for the first quarter of 2021. Done!)

Newsletters, Blogging, and Social Media

The will-you, won’t-you. The damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Some of the worst and best for me.

I honestly like doing the newsletters. It’s a chance for me directly reach out to those who have volunteered to hear from me. It lets me speak to my readers.

The thing I don’t like about it is feeling again like that sleazy used car salesman. Unfortunately in a busy-busy life, I don’t always have time to write about other less pertinent stuff, like books I’ve read or other topics of interest. But I want to try to do more of that!

I also want to aim for about once a month on the newsletter. When there are other things to talk about or I have a new book coming out, it’ll probably be more often. But I’m hoping to have more conversational topics of interest to put out there.

The blog will mostly be a reflection of the newsletter. Although there will be some things in one and not the other, but once a month or so is all I really have time for and all I have to talk about. After all, if I’m typing that stuff, I’m not typing new stories.

Social media… The fall of civilization!

Okay, okay. Calm down, luddite cave man….

I really don’t like social media. Even if I did, I don’t have time to comment on anyone’s cat pictures. I would really, really like to do away with all my social media outside of my own newsletter and blog. The bad side of that is, there are a heck of a lot more people on Facebook and Instagram than there are on my mailing list. Like, millions and millions more. Therefore, if you want to reach new readers… You should have a presence.

I currently do, but again, the sleazy car salesman only has time to pop in on them when he has a promotion to push. So what’s the point? I started posting Warhammer 40K hobby stuff to my Instagram when it was new, but that was months ago and I haven’t gotten back to it since. (Or to the 40K either.)

So that’s how I feel about social media: ain’t good for you, ain’t good for society, and I ain’t got time for it. But if you don’t use it, no one will ever find your books. Kinda. So we’ll see. Still a hung jury on that topic, then.

So in summary (more for me than for you)…

Golden Age Heroes (IDCU Book 4) is finally going to be completed and published in 2021. (Spring. Ish.)

New audio books coming, starting with the short story collections/series.

Starting the next new series (Not sure which yet… Space pirates? Femme fatale cyberpunk in space? Heroic fantasy anti-hero campaign?)

Continuing enrollment in Kindle Unlimited for now.

New website, new blog.

Slim down newsletter and make more meaningful.

Limit promos to once a quarter and make more meaningful.

Drop Dropbox (or at least reduce holdings there to free size for now) and switch to something more size/price appropriate.

Welcome, 2021! We’ve missed the hell out of you these past 9 months!

p.s. please forgive any typos in here, I’m not really doing a second draft here...

New Blog: Launch!

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 05:11:07 GMT

(a first blog post about first blog posts)

You know, I actually remember launching my last website/blog, using that very same word and having a picture of a space shuttle taking off.

Or was that the one before that…?

It was the Wordpress site. I remember starting it in Japan, working on it at the base library. Before that was the Blogger account I had, which was mostly Warhammer 40K hobby posts and started in Texas. Then, after the Wordpress site, I simplified my two websites down to one and since it would be more work to start over elsewhere, I just converted by Fugitive Fiction site on Weebley into my one and only website. That one was always a temporary solution, and a free one. At the time I figured not enough people were trying to find me online for it to matter.

Maybe it still doesn’t? But one of the basic author career pieces I keep hearing is you really must have a website.

So… LAUNCH again!

My host this time is Ionos 1&1. I’m actually very happy with the builder function (as I am my own web designer and I suck at technology) and the price, to be honest. I have also finally come up with a URL that I think works as it is intended to: “JDBrinkBooks.” More direct than my previous incarnations of “Brink’s Chaos Theory,” although at the time I did think that an appropriate name. (And still do.)

It’s taken me months to get this put together enough to finally launch it. I endeavored to keep it simple.

On the home page you can find buttons to the 5 primary series/genres I have right now and the 6 primary retailers where you can find those books. There’s also a sign-up for my “Conspiracy Newsletter” which will send you a free digital copy of Frozen Heart, a military sci-fi novelette with some coming-of-age overtones.

The genre pages I again tried to keep simple so both you and I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on them. The cover art collage… I like it. They don’t show the entire covers, which I can see as being not so good, but I kind of prefer the intriguing snippet of each. Enough to draw your attention. Clicking any cover will give you options to find the book at a retail site. The listing of titles below each collage helps with that too.

I know I didn’t give each book its own page and full blurb. Again, trying to keep it simple and fast for both of us. Off the top of my head, I think I have… 23 or 24 individual novels, stories, and collections published to date (and that’s only counting works that are totally my own, i.e. no joint anthologies or box sets). If I tried to create 24 individual pages, with 24 blurbs and 24 sets of buttons to find them… It’d be another year before all this got done.

And I’m not quite completely done yet as it is. I did do a nice, schizophrenic biography page; I really like how that turned out, thanks again to the nice template here.

I also want to make a “cover art graveyard” where you can check out past incarnations of book covers I’ve used. Some of them I really liked and I hate to see disappear without a trace. Consider it a museum on the campus of this website, if you will.

I don’t know how often I will post a blog entry here. I always think I’d be lucky to do one once a month, and then I end up with three tropics in a week I’d like to muse about. So it will vary. Whenever I have something worth putting out there, it will either be here or in the Conspiracy Newsletter, or both. (This post, for example, will not be going out as a newsletter. Who wants to get this in the mail? I can’t believe you’re still even reading it!)

Wow, did I really just write 700+ words about starting a blog??!

Yup, I guess I did.

The main point is, of all the websites and URLs I’ve had over the last several years, I think I’ve finally found a place to call my author’s home. I hope you’ll check back here and there to see what’s new and to share your own thoughts on things from time to time.

Thanks for reading!

*image borrowed from Wikimedia Commons