Polls: Content You'd Like (And Would Pay For), Tubi Movies, Show Reminder
It'll be awhile before ANUNNAKI, but here's a chance for feedback I can act on more quickly. And more recommendations from the Tubi morass, shows today and in March, and a very steampunk discount.
Awhile back I put out a poll about what fiction my newsletter readers would be willing to pay for. The ultimate winner was Anunnaki, a novel or novella set in the world of The Thing in the Woods during the 2003 Iraq War. Think Generation Kill, but with the Men In Black (MJ-12) riding alongside the Marines to fight aliens. :)
Although I’ve written most of the Anunnaki prologue, my priority now is finishing the third main-sequence novel in that series The Walking Worm (you can see the cover art and book copy here but beware spoilers for the Thing sequel The Atlanta Incursion) and it might be awhile before you get it. However, here’s your chance to give feedback about content you’d like to see more of that I can act on more quickly.
Book reviews, movie reviews, and writing updates should be pretty self-explanatory. Podcasts include both Myopia Movies episodes, podcasts I’ve been interviewed about my books, broader genre podcasts like the episode of Blasters and Blades I was in about Battlestar Galactica, and even podcasts I’m not in that my readers might find interesting. Fiction tie-ins would include things like in-universe historical entries (think the one connected to “The Beast of the Bosporus”) or an upcoming in-universe newspaper article tied in with my novella “Son of Grendel,” information about the characters not revealed in the text (i.e. Thing in the Woods protagonist James Daly’s family used to live on Channing Drive in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta), etc.
And while we’re at it…
Although writing something as long as Anunnaki will take awhile, I do have some short fiction already written and writing new short stories shouldn’t be that hard. However, if I post them here, they count as previously published and become much harder to sell to collections and magazines, so I need subscribers to make that happen. More elaborate fiction tie-ins might be more effective — in addition to written material, I could also do audio like The SCP Archives, only it’s based on events, beings, etc. encountered by MJ-12 (from Thing and TAI), organizations from the Wastelands world like Grendel’s Obsidian Guard or the Merrills’ intelligence service, or from any fiction I’ve written. Newsletter subscribers would get them first and I could put them out as a podcast once I had enough for a full season.
Since Thing e-books are already wide-release, TAI will be in March, and TWW will be wide from the beginning, a general podcast could be a way to expand worldwide (Kobo alone serves a ton of non-US English-speaking markets and I’ve already sold a Thing e-book via Tolino in I assume Germany), but you my loyal readers will get first crack.
If people are paying for movie and book reviews, I can watch and review more — including current ones like the one I just did for Out of Darkness, not just whatever Netflix or Tubi fodder I’m already watching at the gym or books I got from the library on my own. I’ve already done several “how I would have done it” posts for movies by now and can keep up with those if more people are willing to pay for them. If people are willing to pay for fiction tie-ins like the ones I described above, I could write more of those as well.
So let me know. The poll will be open for the next week or so.
More Movies I’ve Been Watching on Tubi
In a previous email I discussed some of the movies I’ve been watching since I discovered the free streaming service Tubi. Here are some more:
Harbinger Down (2015)-Think the 1982 version of The Thing on an Alaskan crabbing trawler with genre stalwart Lance Henriksen as the cranky old captain and some creative twists I didn’t see coming. It’s a bit obviously derivative in places but it’s fun. And per the almighty TVTropes it was made for $380,000 — they sure did a lot with that little money.
Forbidden World (1982)-This is one of many Alien ripoffs from the 1980s, produced by none other than B-movie king Roger Corman. It’s not the greatest film in the world but it’s got some good ideas, so tentatively scheduled for May is a “how I would have done it” post for my premium subscribers. Sign up for a paid subscription below or join my Patreon to see it when it comes out. I even rented the Blu-Ray with two versions of the film (there was another cut that had more humor), better sound quality, and a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff so I could learn more about it for the article. All hail Videodrome!
Rampage (2018)-This stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and is based on a 1986 old-school arcade game featuring giant monsters. Although video-game adaptations have a terrible reputation, I enjoyed it. Notably it includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Walking Dead’s infamous Negan, as a swaggering federal agent and he’s a lot of fun.
The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)-I remember newspaper ads for this when it came out, but although I knew the film by its terrible reputation, I never saw it until now. David Thewlis, who played Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films, didn’t really impress as a lead but it was an all right movie overall with excellent special effects and costumes. Notable for being one of the legendary Marlon Brando’s last films. And Tubi also has a documentary on the film’s troubled production — among other moments of insanity, at one point the fired original director snuck back on set and ended up an extra wearing a beast-man suit.
ConPossible Today (and Tomorrow) in Peachtree Corners, Georgia
Just a reminder that today (2/17) will be my second day vending at ConPossible, formerly the Atlanta Steampunk Exposition. The event has grown to include all the various -punk fandoms like dieselpunk and cyberpunk, so if airships or the color brown don’t interest you, there’s still a lot to enjoy. I will be on two panels today, one at 11:30 AM on researching alternate history in the Peachtree Corner room and the other at 5:30 PM on content creation and social media in the Medlock Auditorium. The event will continue tomorrow (2/18), but I’ll just be selling.
(I’m also going to be at Charlie’s Collectibles’ first comic con in Stone Mountain, GA on 3/3 and a new Atlanta con 3/15-17, but more on those in a future newsletter.)
Here’s my ConPossible inventory: The Lovecraftian The Thing in the Woods and its sequel The Atlanta Incursion, my steampunk military fantasy Battle for the Wastelands, its prequel novella “Son of Grendel,” its sequel Serpent Sword, the horror-crime farce novella “Little People, Big Guns,” and the short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire. Thanks to a suggestion from fellow author Lynette Bacon-Nguyen, I’ve gotten book-cover banners you should be able to easily spot. :)
As part of today’s show, I have made the Battle for the Wastelands e-book only $0.99 on Amazon. The deal started yesterday and will continue until 2/22. If you’re a Kindle user, here’s a chance to try it at a steep discount. If you like it, check out the rest of the series.
(Also, Battle and “Son of Grendel” are now available in audio. I was selected for an Amazon pilot program that used computer-generated voice-over and decided to see how it worked.)