Just put The Holocaust Star on Amazon Kindle

Right now I am waiting for this book, a sequel to The Byzantium Outcast, to publish. I will have to let everyone know when it goes live.

This Vexations novel has been a long time in the waiting. It’s never been quite ready.

Upcoming covers for Black Hat Magick Kindle-edition short stories

I am slowly working on filling out my Kindle store with e-book editions of stories I’ve written. I have quite a few and from what I’ve heard, the critical mass is about 30. That might take me a while to reach.

So here’s a pair of covers to enjoy as I work towards getting them into the Kindle store.

“I Am Forsaken” Looking Back at World of Warcraft

It’s been almost a year since I thought about an old fanfiction story that I wrote about Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. In the game, there’s a faction called the “Forsaken,” they’re a race of zombies who belong to the Horde.

Long considered the “evil” races, the Horde has a long tradition of races who have suffered some sort of hardship (often of no fault of their own) and overcome it.

In the case of the Forsaken, they’re a race of enslaved undead who have recently gained freedom and sentience.

As a result, I thought about how they handle an alien philosophy and a totally alien morality from living species. In fact, one of the quest chains of the Forsaken in the development of a plague that would give them the ability to kill other races and turn them into more undead.

Not exactly the nicest thing.

Why my fanction today?

This comes to mind today because I’ve received yet another favorite on my story on Fanfiction.net I Am Forsaken. The reason it’s important to me is that it takes a human perspective of death, returning as undead, and how some might feel about the alien morality of spreading plague and death.

After all, all the undead were alive once.

Link, via Fanfiction.net

Dragon Tamers by Kyt Dotson a █████ █████ Censored in Protest of SOPA and PROTECT-IP

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/5609/uncensor

Dragon Tamers
By Kyt Dotson © 2002
Dedicated to Corrin Ingold

The ██████████ was ████ and █████; a █████ ██████ ████ of █████ █████████. The ███████ █████ ████████ ████ the █████ of the ████ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ a ██████ ████████████. The ████ of the ███████████ █████ ██████ in ███████’s ████, as she █████ ███████ ████ one of the ████ ███████ of ████████ █████ ███████ at the █████ in the ██████. In the ██████ of the ██████████ an █████████ █████ had ████ ███████, it ████████ to be ████ ████ a ████ of █████ █████. In its ████ ███████ the ██████ ███████████ the ██████████ █████████ and ████████ ████ the █████ in the █████ sky. In the ████ ██████ of the █████ was ████ ████████ █████ be ███████ for: a █████ █████. The █████ was a ████████ █████; it ████████ ████ ██████ ████ it was ████ its lid ████ so ████ the █████ █████ ████ ████ its ████ █████ and ████ the ██████████. The ████████ █████ █████ and █████ ████ ████ ██████ its ████████ ████████ ███████ of the █████ of a ██████. The ██████’s █████ ██████ up ████ ████ its █████ and ██████ the ████-████ top for the █████, and its ████████—the ████████ █████ █████ of the █████—███████ █████ ███████ the ███████. ███████ ██████ a ██████ to ████ at the █████-██████ ████ her ████████ a ████ ████████ ████. “We are ██████ ██████,” she ████ to ██████. “████ is ████ we are.” * * * The █████ air was ████ ███████ ███████’s ████ █████████ as she ██████████ ███████ out of the van. It was ████ six █████ █████ she had ███████ the ██████████ ████—████ it was █████—but now it was ███████ to the ████. ██████ her, she █████ ████ the ██████ of the █████ ██████ who ████ █████ ████ her. ████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████████ ████ the ███████. ████████ ███████ █████████ and ████ ██████ to ███████ a ████ of ███████ ████ ████████’s ████████. ███████ had ██████ ███████ in a ██████ █████ ████ of a ██████████ ████████. A ██████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ of █████ and ███████, ██████ and ███████ ██████ her ████ ████ █████-███████ █████. An ███████ █████ for a ███████ ████████. For all she █████, ██████, it █████ ████ ████ ████ of █████ of fog: her █████ was the ████████ █████ ████ her ████. The ███████ █████████ her ████████. A ████ ███████ out to ████ her █████ and she ██████ the arm up to its █████’s ████████ and █████ for a ██████ at the ██████ █████ █████ of his █████. He was a ████ man, a ████ man, her █████. He ████ a ████ ████ ████ a █████ tie, ████ ███████; it ████’t ████ him at all. “Are you ████ ████ you ████ to do ████, Mel?” he █████, ████████ the █████ ██████, a man and a █████, ████ ████ ████ ████. He was ███████ at her but she ██████’t ████ his ████; █████ was too ████ ███████ in her. It ████ ████ ████ ██████ had ██████ her up, █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ but ███████ to ███████. “Yes,” she ████ ████ a ████ and ███████ did ████ his ████. ████ ████ ██████ ████. “████ is the way ████ I ████ to do it.” He ███████ for a ██████ as if ███████ and ████ ██████, █████████. ████ ██████ ████████ at her █████, he led her ████ ████ the van and ███████ the ██████████. She ██████████ the ██████████ ███████ and ███████ him to █████ her █████ her ████████ ████████. ███████ of ██████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ████ the ███████-lot and ████ the █████ to the ██████████. The █████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ and ██████ ██████ of ████████ ████ ██████ ████ the ██████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ █████. ███████ and the ████ █████ to ████ ████ and ████ for the ████████ of the █████ to ████ ████. █████ █████ ████ ████ up in a ███████, ████ the █████, so ████ ██████’t ████ to ████ ████ ██████, it was ████ ██████ to █████ the █████. The █████ ████ her ████ ████ to █████. The “█████ ██████” ████ her, as she ████ ████████ of ████, ████ ██████ her ███████. ███████ had to ██████ ███████ ████ she was ████████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ she ██████’t ████ ████████ ████. ████ █████’t her ██████████ ███████, but her ████████ ███████. ██████, she █████████, ████ ████’t ████ ████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ as if ████ ████ ███████████ to her. ████’d ██████ her for █████-████ █████. It ████’t ████ she ████ who her ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████, ████████ ████ █████’t so ███████████. █████ she was █████ to ████ her ██████ for the █████ ████, it was her ███████████. She ████’t ████ to ████ ████ she was █████████ her ████████ ██████ and ██████ by ██████ to ████ and ████ her ██████████ ██████…but it was █████ ████ in her ████. ███████ it was ████ ████ █████’t ████████ ████ her as ████ ██████; ███████, ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ and ████ her ████ her █████. ███████ █████ her ████ as she ███████ ████ ████ ██████. No one had ████████ to ████, ██████ was ██████ ██████. ██████ █████ ████ █████████ ██████, yes, but ███████ ████ ███████ ████’t ███████ █████ of. █████ a ██████ of █████████ the █████████ she ███████ ████ it was ████████ ██████ not to █████ █████ her ███████; ████ █████ ████ for ██████████ █████ all. █████ the █████ had ███████ ████████████, She ████████ her ███████ ███████ the █████ and ████ a ██████ ████████ ███████████, ██████ ████ █████ ████████ █████ in █████, ███████ for █████████, ███████ for █████████, and ███████ in ██████. ███████ in the day, ████ ████ was ████ as █████ as the ████ of the ██████████. It ██████ ███████ ██████ ██████ in it now. The ███████████ █████ be ████████ in ████ ████ ████ ███████. ███████ ████████ the ██████ ████████████, ██████ ██████ any ██████ all the way up. █████-q ██████████ ██████ the █████, ██████ ██████ to the ████ ██████ of █████████ █████ and ███████ the █████ █████ ████ ████ the █████████. It was ████ one of █████ ████ █████████ ████ she, her █████, and her ███████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ a ████████ of ████████ ██████. The ████ was ███████████ and it put her in a █████ █████ she █████ ████████ ██████ the ██████ ██████████, and ███████ the ██████ ████ it ████████ ████ █████ the ██████ █████ it was ████ to see. The █████ █████ █████████ up the █████ ████ its ███████ █████████, ████ █████ ███████ had ████ it. The ██████ ███████ ████████ on the █████; its ████████ █████ █████ ████████ her ████ a ████████. ████ █████ she was old ██████ to ██████████ ████ a █████ was, ███████ had ████ ███████. At █████, her ███████ ████’t ███████ how █████████ her ███████ ████████ was █████ to be, so ████ ████ her ████████ in the █████ in ██████ and let her ████ on it in her ████ ████. ████ ████ got her ████ █████ of █████, the █████████ ██████ ████ █████ for █████ ████ ████████. She ███████ ████ █████ of the ███████ █████████ in ████ and ████████ ████. ███████ ██████████, ████ ████ her █████ ███████ ████ a ██████████ ██████ ███████ who █████ in the ████████████. Her ███████████ ███████ █████████ ████ █████, and ██████ a ████, she had █████ ██████ her own ███████’s █████ and ███████ █████ ████ a new ███████. A ████ █████ ████ the ████. And ████ █████ ████. ███████, it ██████, was a ███████ ████ it ████ to the █████. She was ████████ now and she had ██████ to ████ a █████ ████ her ██████████ █████ ███████ █████████. ████ she was █████ to █████ ███████, her █████ was █████ to ██████, and it was a ███████ ████ to add ████ a ██████ bit ████ ██████. The █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ the ███████ █████ as ████. The ████ was ████ ███████ her █████ and it ████ ████ to █████████ ███████’s ███████ and ████████████. She’d ████ an ███████ █████ all of her ████; ███████████ █████ █████…██████ she’d ████ ████ ████ her ██████ did █████ a few ████ ████ her at the █████████ of her ████. ███████ ████████ if she █████ ████ ███████████ ████ she met her ██████—if ████ █████ of “████ is my ██████” █████ be █████. She ███████ it █████ be █████, the ████ of it █████ ███████ her ██████ █████ of the ████████, of ████ was █████. It was ████ █████ ████ ███████ her ████ in the █████ █████. It was ████ ████, ████ the ████ ███████ ███████ her █████ to █████████ her █████, ███████ ███████ on ████ it was ████ ███████ up. She ████’t ████ █████ for █████ “█████ up” by her ██████ to her ███████ ███████…and now ████ she was old ██████, she ███████ it was ████ to ████████ ████ ████ her...██████████…████?...████████?...██████ was ████. Her ████ █████ ████ ████ she did ████ █████ her. She was █████, █████████ █████, in ████, ███████ had ████ ████. ████ she was ████ her ██████ was too █████ and ████’t ████ any █████ to ███████ her and ████ her, so she ███████ to ████ her to a ██████ ████ █████. ████ was ████████ █████ ago. A ████████ ago for ███████ and her ██████ was █████ ███████, if not ███████████ ████ ████████, at ███████ her ████████ and ██████ ████ had ██████ of her. ████████ ██████ ███████ her ████ █████████ ████ her ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ she ███████ on ████████. It ████’t ████ ███████ ████’t ███████ of ████ ████ █████ ██████, it was ████ ████ ████ ████████ █████’t as ████████ or █████████. A ████████ ago her ██████ ██████ at her as a ████ ████ and her █████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ she ███████ ████ she ██████’t ████ ████ of her own █████████, but she █████ for her █████ so ████ ████ she ████ her a ██████ ████ ████ she █████ ████ █████ to ███████. ████ ███████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ she ██████’t ████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ it █████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ her ██████████ ██████, ██████ ███████ █████████...but it ████’t ██████ ████ way, so ████████ in ████ ██████’t █████ ███████ ████████. ████████ ████ ███████ had ████ ████ day was █████ to be ████████ ████ a ████████-████; █████ ████ she █████ ████████ █████ her ██████, █████ her, and ████ ████ her ██████. █████████ ████ she ████’t ████ in … █████████ █████ and █████ ███████ and █████ ████. The ██████ ██████ the █████ ██████ █████████ to ████, ████████ a ██████████ ████████ ████ █████ the ██████ ██████. ███████ █████ ██████ see it ██████ up █████████ to ████ its █████. The ██████ ██████ the ████████ ████ ███████’s ████, ████████, ███████, by her ████ ██████████ in the █████. The █████ and the ██████ █████ ███████ at its ██████. The █████ ████████ a ████████ █████-█████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ the ████ of the ████ ███████ ██████ █████. A ████ ████ ██████ the █████ and the ███████ ██████. The █████████ of the █████ who ██████ ████ one of the ████ █████████—████ ███████ ████ █████ the ██████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████—██████ █████████ █████████ in the █████. The █████ ███████ ████ the ██████ ██████ the ██████████ ████ ███████, ████████ her a ███████ ████. The ██████-█████’s ████ █████ to █████ ████, ██████████ in the ███████ ███████ ████ ██████, and ████ ██████ to █████ on the ███████████ █████. ███████ ███████. ███████. All █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███████’s ████ as she ███████—the ███████ was █████ to █████. The █████ ████ a ██████, ██████████ ████████, ████ a ████ of ██████████ ███████ ████████. Her ████ was ████ █████ and ████████ ████ her ████ in a ████ of ████████ █████. All ████ ████████ her as she ██████████ the ███████ of her █████: the ██████ in the ██████ of the ██████████. The ██████ ██████ up, its █████ ███████ ████ an ████████████ ██████████ in the █████████ of ████ and █████. The █████ ██████ up ████ her ████████, ████████, ███████ ████████ her ████ ████ the █████ as she ████ ███████ it ████ a ████████ and █████. The ██████████ ██████ ████ ████████████ █████ the ██████ ███████ her ████ █████████ ████. As she sat ████, her ███████ █████ █████ ██████ █████ the ██████’s █████; it ███████, █████████ to █████ to her ██████. ████ █████ ███████, she █████ to ████, and █████ ████ ████ the █████ of the █████, a ██████ ██████ out as if ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ its ██████████ █████ and ████ ████ the air. Her ███████ ██████ at the ██████’s █████ and ███████ the ██████ ████ its █████ maw in a ██████ ████████ of █████. The ████ air ██████ a ███████ ██████████ for the ███████████ ██████ ████ ██████ out ████ a ██████ ██████, ████████ ██████ and ████. It ██████████ ████ the ███████ ██████ of the ██████ █████ ████ ███████ the █████████ of █████████ █████████ and ████ ██████ █████ the ████████ and ███████ ████ █████ in ██████. The █████ ██████ ██████ up and █████ to ████ a █████ of a █████ far ████: █████ is a ████, ████ on a ████-██████ ████████, █████ █████ ██████ ████ the ██████████ of the █████ at █████. The █████ in its ██████████ ████ ████████ in a █████ ██████ ████, ██████ ████████ and all ████████████. 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The ██████████ is ████████; the ██████ ██████████ ██████████ to its █████; the ████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██████, all the █████ ███████ ████ ████ the ████████ ██████: the █████ of █████ ████—the ██████ ████ of the ██████. The █████ █████ ████ her ████ and the ██████ ███████ ████ her ████. ███████ █████ ███████ ███████ at the █████ in the ██████ of the ██████████; ████ █████ had ██████ ██████████ ████ her ██████. ████ ██████ the █████ █████ to bow to the ████ ████████, the ████ in the ████ ████ █████ to ███████: “████ was █████████—I bet ████ her ██████ is ██████ █████ of her.” ███████ ███████ up to ████ a ████ ████ █████ one of her ████ ████ as ████ ███████ ████ her ██████. “Yes,” she ████, “her ████████ is ████ █████ of her.”

Born to the Spectacle: The Nokia Anti-Experience by Kyt Dotson now exclusively on Amazon Kindle

Exclusive until I feel the need to put it up on Smashwords and break that fact; however, right now, Amazon Kindle is the only place you can find my newest book, Born to the Spectacle: The Nokia Anti-Experience.

Why should you buy it and read it?

Because, if you have a Kindle it’s only $2.99 and it’ll give you at least a night of enjoyment (if not several.) Plus, with Nokia in the news so many times recently, it should also be semi-topical—even if it is set almost a hundred years into our presumed cybertech future.

Who knows. Perhaps Nokia will take over the mobile industry and give us near-telepathy.

It could happen.

Link, via Amazon.com.

The Byzantium Outcast for sale at Amazon.com on Kindle

I just published The Byzantium Outcast e-book Kindle edition in the Amazon.com marketplace. Right now it's going for $2.99. For the moment, I'm going to make the Arsenal stories about that much, while I'll keep the shorter volumes at $0.99.

"In her ongoing search for magickal artifacts in and around Phoenix, occult detective Vex Harrow makes a strange discovery during one of her favorite hunts--at a yard sale. She procures a strange, bronze statue that seems to have a lot more going on than at first it may appear."

Perhaps I should also get some longer, better back matter written. It looks short and weedy compared to others.
The Outcast--as seen on the cover in that oddly torturous and twisted pose--is a bronze-copper statue that I bought at a yard-sale somewhere in Chandler. It took a bit to clean off all of the scabrous green corrosion and centuries of grime, but there are some stains that even TarnX cannot remove. If you are interested in what this has to do with Vex Harrow then I suggest that you visit the story and read up.

The cover artwork is the lovely work of one of my artists, Nicole Cardiff. She's also the artist who did the cover for the 5th volume of Mill Avenue Vexations, "Drum Circle."

Link to buy The Byzantium Outcast at Amazon.com's Kindle store.

REVIEW: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium, by Robert C. Rodgers

Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is a rock-solid, hilarious foray into a steampunk dystopian alternate past. It’s been getting some rave attention over at Web Fiction Guide and there’s some very good reasons why. Keep reading and you’ll understand.

What a calculating beast is man

Deep within the strong-beating brass heart of every steampunk aficionado is a vacuum chilled series of hopeful gaslit rooms filled wall-to-wall with books. And one day soon, one of those shelves in my heart will have this book.

Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is a tour de force of silly mixed with the macabre, scabrous copper tinge of blood. It manages to wind the dizzying height of humor and edge it aptly with careful cuts. From the very first chapter—and the chapter that hooked me—it makes its lighthearted swipes at the imagination and drew smile after smile. At first the steampunkish metaphor and simile seemed heavy-handed, overwrought in fact, but soon they became fuel for the whimsical engine of my delight.

Victorian attitudes abound in the brass-city, a dystopia in its own right but not in our future, but our accidentally forgotten alternative-past. A place where villains and heroes alike have an almost cartoonish bearing on a world that manages to tempt suspension of disbelief with daunting and brazen attitude but never ceases to both enchant and frighten at the same time. This tale has left me in fits of gooseflesh laughter more than once.

Expect strong humor mixed with the oil and grease of industry; expect grand legerdemain run through the cogs and wheels of progress and chewed up by clever antagonists, incompetently-competent protagonists, and even a bit of social commentary about the Victorian attitudes about gender wars. Why I even caught an almost-reference to the old television series “Remington Steele” (wherein a woman detective hires a male “face man” to pretend to be the investigator.)

Even people not inclined to the steampunk aesthetic will probably enjoy this story. It has a little bit of something for everyone. Little explanation is needed for much of the far-fetched mathematics and mechanics of the lunatic mind as it’s deeply buried in laugh-out-loud metaphors; allowing the conspiracy, detective work, and general slapstick amazement to drive the story onwards.

Link to review (via “Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium” @ Web Fiction Guide)

Direct Link: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium.

REVIEW: Wonder City Stories, Jude McLaughlin

For anyone who likes super heroes and days-of-our-lives style drama, this story reviewed over at Web Fiction Guide, Wonder City Stories, might be just the thing for you.

Superhero life has the mundane and profound too, you know

"Young Paranormals Christian Association of Wonder City, working with super powered youth since 1964!"

The parallels between the YMCA and the YPCA tickled the cockles of my heart when I read the first two chapters of this story (And to start when I saw YPCA, I thought of the YMCA. This simply got confirmed straightaway when there's a pool near the YPCA.) I guess I'm just a sucker for four-letter-acronyms. I also play City of Heroes and I like super-powered stories. This may color my review positive somewhat.

I enjoyed following the heroine through her day, coming to the city, and living her life in the strange shadow of her mother. It has all the hallmarks of young adult drama and romance, with some slice-of-life as well. Especially the parts where sometimes as a reader I forgot that our heroine is indeed taller than most.

In my reading I fell in love with the history of the characters as much as the history of their entire society -- the paranormals and their plight.

Readers who want well-rounded drama stretched over believable, and adorable, characters who dwell in a living, breathing world, will find everything they're looking for in this story. There's almost something for everyone. The conversations and scenes trace a lineage of heroism and paranormal lives from the young (in our heroine) to the middle-aged and elderly lifestyles of these magnificent and interesting people.

Link to the review (via “Wonder City Stories” @ Web Fiction Guide.)

Direct link: Wonder City Stories, by Jude McLaughlin.

REVIEW: Spots the Space Marine, M.C.A. Hogarth

Spots the Space Marine has received some well deserved acclaim over at the Web Fiction Guide. I’ve been reading it this week and it’s certainly shaping up to be a story worth the time of any space opera loving sci-fi geek.

Intriguing, bite sized slices of life from the front lines

War. War never changes.

Except maybe when your squad happens to be named Team Kitty and your callsign sounds slightly silly to remain thematically prudent.

The prose of “Spots the Space Marine” is spartan almost laconic, but the mood comes across loud-and-clear. It reads generally like a radio-play; but retains the solid impact of a heftier work. The presentation forces the reader to instead invent their own voice for each of the characters and imagine themselves into the situation that narrates itself from the screen. The chapters are also so short they can be read in a bite—a style allowing the entire series to be grazed casually, episode at a time, or swallowed in a huge handful as time permits.

Spots presents herself as a likable person, yanked out of her comfort zone and thrust into a war zone. A woman among the war. The story then plays out in the conversation space between Spots and other marines. Their voices resonate, with hers playing the following melody of the narrative. Spots isn’t your normal marine. She’s also a mom. A fact that makes her something different, something familiar yet out of the ordinary to read about.

The part of the story that really began to hook me, however—like any proper sci-fi geek—happens to be the aliens. Not just aliens: bugs. The introduction suggests that the insectoid aliens have brought technology and know-how to humanity to aid them in their upcoming war against invader xeno bugs; but the first time that one of the friendly xenos appears in the story happens to be during a vignette titled “The Violinist,” where one gets an introduction to Spots. I have a soft spot for aliens and xeno racial epithets (like the piggies from Ender’s Game.) The friendly xenos here get to be the “fiddlers.”

The hardcore sci-fi reader and drama aficionado alike will find something to like about “Spots the Space Marine.”

Link to the review (via “Spots the Space Marine” @ Web Fiction Guide.)

Direct link: Spots the Space Marine, by M.C.A. Hogarth.

Do AIs Dream?

About a year ago I envisioned a spin-off for Mill Avenue Vexations in the form of a spunky, geeky college student story and now it’s coming. Introducing the beginning strokes of Black Hat Magick.

Black Hat Magick is a series of occult noir detective fiction webserial novels written by Kyt Dotson. The stories follow the exploits and adventures of college student, computer geek, and occult detective Elaine Hadaly Mercer. She begins her career as an undergrad at Arizona State University majoring in Computer Science and Engineering; but comes from a long blood line of dabblers in the arcane arts with a strong bent for the scientific—hitherto that strange alchemy of genius courses through her veins and neurons.

It is going to start off with a miniseries webcomic called “Do AIs Dream.” The very first strip published this morning.

Wander on over there, let me know what you think, subscribe to the RSS. Let’s make an event of this new webserial!

Also, I think it would be interesting if people would like to write messages to the individual characters. I might even run a tiny contest (where people could win signed back-copies of Vexations.) So, during future posts, feel free to write commentary to characters in the story. We’ll have to see how that might run.

Do AIs Dream? a miniseries webcomic for Kyt Dotson’s Black Hat Magick occult detective noir webserial.

Mill Avenue Vexations gets a little love from the press

One of our local newspapers, the Phoenix New Times, has a blog and they just posted a book review of Mill Avenue Vexations.

Link, via the Phoenix New Times.

Project Updates

This is just a rambling update.

Mill Avenue Vexations editing and preparation continues apace. The comic should be coming out next year as it’s 1/3^rd lettered and completed and more panels are coming in weekly. All five next volumes are 95% done and artwork is 90% completed. We are in the middle of the editing phase. Should be pretty exciting. Especially with the favorable reviews in Web Fiction Guide.

Helljammer has the teaser site and a few short stories and series are being written up for hype. It will depend largely on funding and advertising to hopefully support a web comic and a novel. People who would like to be part of the launch of Helljammer are welcomed to provide suggestions and contact information.

People eager to see more about Helljammer can visit the Non-theist Nexus Webzine and see a short story from the series published there: Red Cross’d Bones.

Even beyond these there are still more projects I am working on including a suburban fairy tale novel.

Magick is in the air. Wait and see!

Helljammer Teaser Site

What is this page?

www.helljammer.com

You are probably here because you found the Helljammer teaser site. Which I have rather kept out of the limelight because it’s only one page at the moment. However, just for grins it was submitted to a couple search engines just so that it’d be indexed while things were being set up.

A “helljammer” is the returned incarnation of a seagoing vessel doomed at sea—yes, undead pirates are involved—some of these ships were merchantmen, some were from various navies or privateers for queen and country, and none too few were pirates. The truth of the matter is that no single naval superpower of the time (the mid 1700s) understands what leads to the resurrection of a sunk ship as a helljammer. Only that often it’s those who perished into dark waters during particularly violent battles that tend to do so.

No helljammer has ever been friendly to any other living ship, nor claimed fealty to any empire after its return—save one. By in large, helljammers have a healthy disrespect and dislike for all other boats on the water and are a hazard more terrifying than even ordinary pirates. Even navy flotillas and armadas are hard pressed to repel a single helljammer. Port towns often do better, having far thicker walls and often outgunning the ghost ships by wide margins.

The HMH Queen’s Salvation is a British navy ship-of-the-line destroyed during an ambush by Spanish forces. Upon her return she sailed directly into the nearest British port flying a union jack and white ensign—much to the terror of the wharfsmen and navy stationed there—and sent for the Captain of the Yard. In such her crew and captain re-swore their undying, now literally, allegiance to the Queen.

The story, Helljammer: The Hunt for the Burning Sails, is a tale of romantic revenge. It follows the military commission of Captain Nickolas Edgeworth as he chases the helljammer that destroyed his home port of call—killing his family—to the ends of the Earth, to the edges of Hell, and into a conspiracy far more vast than he ever expected his naval career to thrust him.

The actual story will be released as a serialized webnovel starting sometime in the Summer of 2009. And, if I am very lucky, will have a supporting webcomic.

I hope you enjoyed the teaser,

Kyt Dotson

Mill Avenue Vexations Reviewed Extremely Brightly on Web Fiction Guide

Brilliant news peeps! One of the editors over at Web Fiction Guide, Grace McDermott, has posted a review of Mill Avenue Vexations and she has awesomely given us 4.5/5 stars! If anything has vindicated my writing and hard work, it’s getting this sort of criticism from a critic I know has been slogging through the dregs and the crème of the web serial community.

Here’s her beginning:

Mill Avenue Vexations is brilliant. There. I said it.

Instead of reading the first few chapters, keeping a track of what I liked and what I didn’t, I was caught up in the story and was already at volume four by the time I looked up.

Read the rest on the site.

Other choice comments from other visitor reviews, I wanted to highlight for everyone and did so over on Mill Avenue Vexations.

There are many more wonderful reviews and we are ever adoring of our fans who issued forth to put them there for us! By golly, it is that we shall put Vexations on the map in one way on another!

And, if you haven’t yet, get along and post a review!

Mill Avenue Vexations reviewed highly favorably on Web Fiction Guide

I admit, I am coming into this one extremely late and the day. I am fuzzy with sleep—and probably about to retire into my strange bedscape shortly. But this one is too fun and awesome to pass up.

Mill Avenue Vexations has been reviewed on Web Fiction Guide and it managed a 4.5/5 rating! That’s huge. WFG is the premiere site for online fiction right now because of the demise of Pages Unbound and this is a very good thing. Having a high review puts me in for better ranking on searches.

I will write a more comprehensive post about the entire affair tomorrow or Sunday, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, the links are available for your perusal.

View the review here.

Bonus Vexations Story as Guest Content on Children of The First

Good morning beautiful viewers. There is a bonus Mill Avenue Vexations story for everyone to read: “I Don’t Do That Anymore.”

It has been posted as guest content on Children of the First while author Alex McGaughan is on hiatus. His webnovel will be the only place that it will be available for a few weeks, so you should go check it out while the getting is hot.

Go read the story.

Preserving the Narratives of Virtual Worlds

With the advent of the MMORPG came an entirely new magical method to interact with a world—and far more transient an effect as well. Unlike books, newspapers, and other physical world affect the MMORPG and all of its different progeny exist with an ethereal substance that is more difficult to capture.

An article posted by the BBC right now goes over some of the interesting facts of history and virtual worlds, Writing the History of Virtual Worlds.

To ensure that the big and small events in these fledgling worlds are not forgotten, erased or overlooked, the University of Texas, Austin has kicked off a project to study the best way to preserve their history.

"It's a huge challenge for archivists to deal with digital information," said project co-ordinator Professor Megan Winget from the School of Information at the university.

Prof Winget's interest in preserving massively multi-player games grew from her involvement in digital artworks that do not hang on a wall but invite interaction, and change as a result.

"One of the most interesting problems for digital preservation is interactivity and how difficult that is to preserve," she said.

"Video games offer all of the same problems as digital art," she said. "They are interactive, very complex and a lot of people get involved in making them happen."

Digital media, history, and keeping such documents intact are interesting problems for archivists. Archives in this day and age are not looked upon kindly by states and other organizations—they are relegated to the diminishing budgets of universities and private collections. Unlike physical repositories of papers, virtual/computerized repositories suffer terrible attrition when their money dries up—a physical repository of papers may be in a warehouse that gets shut up for a few years, disused, but generally intact when the proprietors come back (some elements of famous repositories have survived to this day because the workers took boxes home when they were closed.) This is not true with data centers, which, unlike warehouses, are at an absolute premium. Once they are shut down the data is obliterated, not simply set aside. Although valiant archivists could save data for future generations by taking it home also…this isn’t a common miracle for this field.

Virtual words are becoming an interesting insertion into the lives of the 21^st century. To the extent that entire recombination of the narrative occur in them, changing the very trademarks and internal structures of the stories that drive them. Much like any book or movie or TV series.

So the problem of recording and saving these events for posterity falls to the digital archivists; the strange heroes of virtual history who have taken up that mantle.

Vex Harrow vs. The Burger King

For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of getting into this story yet, thou should stomp on down to Mill Avenue Vexations and read “No, I Do Not Want Fries With That.”

It’s a very short story about how Vex Harrow met the Burger King in Yellow and what he tried to do to her and what she did do to him.