Random chunks of thought spewed on to the internet

Yeah, it’s been a bit since I actually threw out a nice little post about what’s up in my little world. My wife and I have been enjoying a week of blissful quiet as our darling daughter is now spending a week at Grandma’s house for her spring break. I love having these visits a few times a year because they really give me a breather from the whole parenthood thing. Sometimes you just need time away from the rugrat, y’know?

Her absence has given me some extra free time and I have used it to finish crafting the next Timeline story. I am really proud of this one as it plays off African myths to introduce the second major African hero in the Quadrant universe (after Bagheera in Epsilon). He is a fella named Sagai (Swahili for spear) and he will be a player in a few of my stories in the near future starting with the aforementioned Epsilon. I already have my next time line project in the works. It will be a ongoing story introducing heroes in the dark days of the early 90’s, where metahumans were hated and feared by all. It will be a connected epic, and every other Timeline will continue the 90’s saga. I’m not sure what story I will follow that one up in, but after Sagai (in April) and the 90’s (in July) I will have some time to think about it.

I have a new Living Legends and a new Mean Streets both up today. Living Legends is coming along nicely and you can expect it to start kicking in to the action phase in the next few months. Mean Streets has had a couple short chapters of late, but 3.4 amps things up and starts the build towards bigger and better things.

Having the laptop at work is given me way more time to write and now that I am gaining a nice lead time on my current stories, I am also hard at work on finishing Champion City book one and book two, hopefully by summer’s end. Expect a book edition of volume one while the second volume will find its way up on Metahuman Press. I also have plans to get My Name is Charon back with a new storyline and another new series that started its life as a submission to the Shadowline create a superheroine contest. More on that later.

Speaking of that contest, the five finalists have finally been announced, and I have to say I am a bit disappointed. None of them seem like the kind of characters I am going to have a lot of interest in. Hope is probably the most intriguing concept, but even it seems somewhat flat. I submitted four projects to this contest and I would rate at least three of them more innovative than these. Color me disappointed I guess. Anyone who wants can vote on that link, but you got to join the site to do so. I don’t really know if its worth the effort IMHO (although I probably will just to continue my support of indy superheroes).

Well, enough ranting for now. I will try to keep the personal and project updates a little more frequent if possible, but you know me. I suck at this regular blog stuff.

Superhero fiction review: Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Somehow I missed this book’s debut last year, and it’s a shame. While not any kind of classic piece of literature, Soon I Will Be Invincible is definitely a capable piece of fiction that delves deep in to the psyches of megalomaniacal villain Dr. Impossible and confused cyborg heroine Fatale. Grossman does this ably with a chapter by chapter revolving first person narrative between the two characters. Both delve in to their past accomplishments and failures while Impossible secures his latest plans and Fatale teams with her companions in the New Champions in an effort to stop him. The two narrators are original and engaging, and the other characters in the book twist around the usual Justice League stand-ins.

All in all though, Soon I Will Be Invincible becomes little more than a well told superhero tale without anything to make it a deeper piece of fiction. But what a super-tale it tells! Recommended.