TKO Creations

Okay… just the Kindle version currently… but oi did Amazon hit the ground running with that one.

Other versions should be updating soon, so keep your eyes open if the Kindle isn’t yer thing!

Nook and Print versions ARE LIVE!!!  Whoo!

Soon… very soon in fact.

Like within the week soon.

I won’t lie, I’m really quite excited about it.  It’s only been a few months since the first book dropped, but that’s far too long for my tastes considering how long I sat on the whole manuscript (The Sixth Prophet and The Broken Prophecy were written for the most part concurrently, you see).

Jorge Rivas (who did the color work for the first cover), takes his hand at the whole shebang this time around, and I think did a marvelous job.

Now… I know there’s a handful of people who bought the rough manuscript of both books, and want to know what’s changed.  Well, nothing much again.  It’s a lot cleaner, it reads a lot better, some character names got reworked to fit their proper theme…

Well… then there’s the whole added short story to the print version.

Oh?  I didn’t mention that yet?  Silly me.  Yep, as a special gift to those who order the dead tree version, it includes a never before seen short story, “The Head of the Beast”, which gives additional insight to the Endtimers, the person in charge of them, and helps to set the stage for the third book in the series.

Now, before you Kindle and Nook users get too upset, rest assured, “The Head of the Beast” will eventually be made available as part of an e-book compilation of all the short stories currently available, which print users won’t see in dead tree format (sorry folks, even all of them together winds up to not be worth the cost of printing in dead tree).  This was the best way I felt I could give both the dead tree AND e-book users a little something special… print readers get a little head start on never-before-seen content, while my e-book readers will be able to have all the short stories at their little fingers with the flick of a button… just a little while down the road.

It’ll be 99 cents.  Really.  I won’t be breaking any wallets here.  Promise.

Thanks again for reading… hopefully it won’t take too long for The Endtimer’s Legacy to be ready to read!

On November 17, 2011 I took the writing reins from Drowemos for this comic.  It wasn’t always the smoothest ride, to be sure, but I’ll have put a good two and a half years into this story when I hang ‘em up and move on.

It had taken a lot of thought, a lot of hang wringing, consulting with friends, family, and fellow webcomic creators… but I’ve made the decision that I am moving on at the conclusion of the Wild North storyline, which will at the current rate of publication be somewhere in late April to mid-May.

Why?  Wasn’t I setting up plotlines for the future?  Absolutely.  But the more I give it thought, the more I’m coming to the conclusion I’m not the fellow to tell those tales, or to be the creative mind behind this webcomic at all.  I have my own stories I want to tell, and I really don’t want to keep putting them on the side as I work through this one.  The real epiphany occurred during the final construction of my second novel, and being asked by reps at Amazon when they could expect the third.

I kinda went silent for a few seconds… because I realized I hadn’t worked on that manuscript at all since I started this story.  It wasn’t fair to me… nor was it fair to readers to have a quarter of my attention (along with other projects I’m taking part in as well as my day job).  As I don’t make nearly enough money to support myself on my writing alone; the decision was sadly easy.  That’s not meant as a slight to Exiern or its readers, mind… merely that of all the things I want/have to do… this was the easiest to let go of.

I won’t make this some long send-off piece, because I’m not going anywhere just yet… and don’t mind me if there’s a bitter aftertaste to this post.  I feel like I’ve failed in a way, not being able to press on and complete everything I wanted to say.  But I’ll have said enough, I think.  It’ll have to do.

Thank you.

And now, as we reach end of the penultimate “chapter” of this particular storyline (yep… the next segment is the return to the clan grounds and resolution of the Wild North storyline), we now reach the point where the mirrored glass bends about as far as it can go without breaking.

Some of you may find Osir’s monologue to be familar, and to be honest, it’s because it was inspired from a particularly chilling line from a much longer part of what was (and in some ways still is) one of my favorite video games:

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

At least until Bioware absolutely butchered the entire storyline, that to me was a remarkable bit of discovery for me as a developer of stories.  I create things just to destroy them.  I make people and worlds, then subject them to tortures for the sake of making a greater point to otherworldly beings.  What would those characters think to know that their every action is subject to the whim of something they can’t fully understand for reasons they can’t fully comprehend?  Would Tiffany think any better of her past to hear, “Well, you see… this is necessary for the theme of self-discovery and redemption I want you to have?”  I doubt it.

As a result, as I sought to delve more into the unique perspective the “Narrator” (or DOOM! guy) has within the greater Exiern story, the emotions that kept bubbling to the surface was fear and contempt.  He is aware of this vague being beyond the created world, that even the Travelers, Authorities, Beyonders, are strung to.  In a world of puppets, the Narrator is one that can see the strings for what they are, and I cannot imagine that would be a pleasant thought for anyone.  In fact, it almost makes you understand how his predecessor went a little nuts trying to cope with it.

For this one moment, his mask has cracked, and Tiffany sees what Osir really thinks.  I can only imagine Osir would think I’m a despicable, insufferable dick.

The mirrored glass will give way to a more solid wall shortly… at least for the moment.  Thank you again for helping me explore it.

Hello.  It’s community enemy #1 again.  Careful with the tomatoes, they stain the soapbox terribly.

The reader base of Exiern is a very varied group, perhaps much more so now than ever since I muddied up the perfectly decent waters and started bringing in new folks to the party.  There’s a old hymn that goes, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold.”  But how exactly do you do that, especially when the old friends will inherently feel slighted the moment the environment that at one time completely catered to them no longer does?  How do you dull that feeling of neglect or betrayal?

There was a fairly sizable readership to begin with, and what they liked wasn’t exactly a secret; they liked the fractured fairy tale, the aping on contemporary culture and fantasy tropes, the chuckles and the gags, and yes, they liked the fanservice (on both sides, though the ladies didn’t get nearly as much as the guy readers did).  They liked the theories they had spent years developing and sharing with other readers.

Then here I traipse in, and change the feel; exploring the serious, dramatic elements that were occasionally waved at, but not deeply delved (if not removed entirely).  I completely invalidate all the mental exercizes and experiments that readers had devoted to with something that is admittedly a more “simple” explanation that doesn’t seem to really do the character justice (though I would disagree with the benefit of knowing how the story will play out).  The gags, at one time prevalent, are now like the werewolf; showing up once a full moon.

With the changes came a different group of people who found the nudity as nothing more than click-fodder; who think a dragon taking a cleavage nap is a crude, base attempt at humor, unfit for the more serious tone.  They wonder why I would cater to such a group of blatant perverts rather than the true thrust of a dramatic story.

Well, the answer to that is two fold:

1) I don’t want to COMPLETELY discard everything that Exiern once was, but at the same time expand what has been under the surface.  I want to meet difficult, uncomfortable themes more head on, yes… but at the same time remind everyone there IS a more lighthearted and silly element to the world (even if I don’t do so as much as some would like).  Make new friends yet keep the old and all that.

2) I am more a Realist period writer than anything (though I won’t deny Modernist and Romantic influences).  My view of realist literature is that it should reflect something about well… the real world, even in a fantasy setting.  That means a world where peoples lives have a little bit of drama, a little bit of tragedy, a little bit of romance, happiness and sadness, love and loss, and yes… even a little bit of crazy comedy and laughs.

So just as I don’t apologize for giving Typhan-Knee a dark and perhaps despicable history (the reason of which I hope will serve to give merit to the whole character arc), I’m not going to apologize for a napping dragon finding a pair of amazing pillows to nestle in.  It’s all a part of the world, and it all belongs.

Thank you for your time.