Hey, hey! 

A few months back, I lamented the fall of Game Informer, a cherished video game news magazine.  Well, it appears that they've risen from the ashes.  Another outfit bought the IP, rehired all the staffers, and is planning to restart the publication in a few months.

Yay!

I haven't mentioned this bit of geek news earlier, mainly because I didn't know how it would shake out.  The main comics distributor, Diamond, declared bankruptcy earlier this year.  They had mismanaged much and a series of events following lock down really hurt them.  Other distributors had picked up the bigger publishers, but things were going to be most annoying for my local comic shop.  Thankfully, a separate toy distributor is poised to buy them.  I'm hoping this makes things less dicey for this other cherished print medium.  It looks cautiously optimistic.

Additional yay!

And I also have paper announcements of my own.

The Players of the Game series paperbacks will have updated spines and back covers in a few weeks.

They'll be wide.  Not just at Amazon.  You'll be able to order them through Barnes and Nobles and any book store that orders from Ingram.

Triple yay!

Take a look at these proofs.

With my fingers making a guest appearance to steady the spine view.

And after a long delay, the first two bonus novellas will join the third in print.  Both The Hidden Chapters and The Favor now have expanded back matter sections.

Again with my fingers making a steadying appearance for the spine view.

These pics are from the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing proofs with their lovely "Not for Resale" stripes.  I'll be getting the Draft2Digital proofs soon.  Once they're ready to go, I'll release them.

PLUS: I'll also be releasing the Repenter Collection later this month too.  It collects, Repenter, The Hidden Chapters, The Brigands, and The Favor in one ebook bundle for just $1.99.

Here's its faux boxed set image.

I'll send an update with links once everything is ready later in April.

The paperbacks will ultimately get wraparound images that will cover the spines and back covers, so this color-coordinated variety are limited editions.

I'll have you covered if you're looking for snazzy molecules (paperbacks) or economical electrons (ebook collections).

Exciting stuff!

Eric Enzali holds no love for the Grells.

As part of the Krians, he led an invasion of Grelland in the conflict that resulted in the Eruption.  In its aftermath, Eric regrouped the sect of warriors following Celsis Kri's imprisonment by Starm.

And time has not been kind to the immortal warrior's organization.  The Krians have diminished.  All of his children and many others died in futile attempts to free their goddess.

Eric and those below him will never reclaim their former glory unless they can liberate Celsis Kri.  That's the hope.

Hope that just might be kindled by the infant Avril.

Her arrival in the hands of the Peddler of All Things Rare bodes ill, however. 

The Krians remain weak.  While they are fierce warriors, they are vulnerable in their diminished state.  Even if they get help from the Grells against common enemies.

Find out Eric's fate in Repenter and The Brigands.

As part of my season of intentionality, I have a bunch of other initiatives in the offing.

With Secret Fronts' first draft, I've reached page 346 with 98,000 words.  That's 42 pages with 11,700 words for the month.  Not quite as productive as last month, but not bad.

I think I'm on track to release The Breakers by June or July of this year.  I'll be sharing more info and cover artwork with that release in upcoming newsletters.

I'm jazzed to get this one out in the world.

I'm also exploring Eleven Labs to see if either a voice clone of me or one of their other voices makes sense for putting out audio books. 

I'm kind of on the fence with that, but I'm leaning yes.  Producing an audio book with a voice actor is sadly out of my price comfort zone.  And I personally do a whole lot of my story consumption by audio books.

So it makes sense to put my series in that market. 

Right now, I'm leaning toward making another bargain bundle with The Repenter Collection.  I'd want to make sure it sounds good, so we'll see where that goes.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Avril: "Did I become the Demonic equivalent of a baby queen bee?"

Solneena: "Maybe. But you’re much prettier if that helps."

Avril: "I hate you sometimes."

The Human-guised Sphinx kissed the air in Avril’s direction with an exaggerated smack of her lips.

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is my favorite sci-fi space opera in a good long time.

I enjoy stories where humanity is one of many species, rather than the one alien race versus humans that we often get.  I prefer more of a cosmopolitan setting that mixes antagonistic and sympathetic aliens and humans.

This series has that in spades.

A race of vat-grown warrior women. Swarms of cyborg insects inside robot exoskeletons. Crab-like creatures with billboard advertisements on their arms.  Unkillable symbiote hybrids that can literally come back from getting ripped to shreds.  Giant clams with multiple tentacles that demand worship for their indifferent patronage.

Oh, and moon-sized planet destroyers called Architects that rip apart planets into atomically rearranged abstract art.

And Earth fell victim to that nearly a century earlier.

The Architects withdrew after the mentally altered Intermediaries managed to communicate with them and tell them: "We are here."

Idris, one of the main characters, was one of them.  He's a twitchy wreck who's haunted by the past.  He doesn't sleep and hasn't aged.  And he can navigate Unspace.  The haunted in between that allows for FTL travel and drives people mad.

There's something lurking in it that people insist is imaginary.  But Idris doesn't believe it.

The various nations and criminal organizations all want him working for them.  Which is why he keeps a knife-wielding lawyer on retainer.  And the threat of the Architects looms large, even if everyone else pretends its history.

I LOVE this book, and will gladly listen to the other two books in this trilogy.  I wish there were more.

The names of the ships are great too.  The Vulture God, the Dark Joan, and the Pythoness being among the most notable.

Highest possible recommendation.

Mickey 17

I'm so glad they can't unmake movies.

This flick was expensive and didn't do well.  I think it's already on streaming.

And I loved it.

Mickey escapes a loan shark by joining a voyage to another planet as an expendable.  His mind gets continually loaded into a series of clone bodies that are used as guinea pigs for alien atmosphere toxins, radiation, and even more ignominious fates.

Until some aliens spare him when his crew assumed he got killed.  And his 18th clone and the 17th now both exist at the same time.  Which is forbidden for a very hilarious reason in the backstory.

The Alamo pre-show revealed that Robert Pattinson based Mickey's voice on Stimpy, the lovably dumb cartoon cat from the 90s.  And his delivery is fantastic.  Though Mickey is much more dejected than Stimpy's confident stupidity.

Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette are also great as unhinged religious/political leaders.  They have an unhealthy obsession with sauce.

The caterpillar pachyderm aliens are also interesting and way quirkier than their monstrous appearance would have you believe.

Give it a watch.  It's good stuff.

That's all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim