Discussion

Nathan Cabaniss · Author · added over 8 years ago
Thank you, Richard! You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. 
Rick Heinz · Author · edited over 8 years ago
I've shown this to all my City of Heros friends. All of them are into this kind of thing.  People liked that it's a choose your own adventure. Everyone read those as a kid!

21! We are 2% there! A big thank you to everyone who has preordered!

In celebration, I think it's time for a little fun: design-a-BOC-character-contest fun. That's right... I want you to pick a character from Beyond Order & Chaos and send in what you think they should look like, and if I like yours the best, you'll get a $10 Amazon gift card! Here's how you enter:

1. Read the sample above, pick a character or characters from it and whip up a spiffy design. A b&w sketch, a full-color image, cosplay if you want to go real crazy... all will be considered!

2. Send your design via attachment (jpegs would be preferable, but any format works) to beyondorderandchaos@gmail.com with the subject heading "Character Design Contest." Make sure you include the name of the character(s) in the body of the e-mail, so I'll know who you've designed. NOTE: must be a character from Beyond Order & Chaos  to qualify.

I'll be taking submissions until Sept. 23, after which I'll choose my favorite and post it here for all to see. If I get more than one that I like, I may post those, too, but only one winner will get the $10 Amazon gift card. There will be a winner no matter what - if I get only one qualified submission, then that submission will get the gift card - so you might as well toss the dice against the wall and send me what you've got!

ALSO: I've just uploaded a new chapter, numero 4.7, which introduces the premier super-group Super-Team-Six (and is probably my favorite of the entire novel, but that's just between you and me). Between that and the other chapters, you should have plenty of characters to choose from.

Thank you all, and good luck! 


All right, so I finally figured out how to keep the "interactive"part of the novel intact for the Inkshares sample above. As it turns out, I'm not a moron, after all!

The way it works is very simple: at the end of each chapter, you'll find yourself faced with two choices, each available via clickable link that will take you to the next chapter of whichever story-line you chose. I've checked the links over and over again, so they should be correct, but if you feel like something's in error, do not hesitate to let me know.

So, for those of you who are still on the fence on whether or not to pre-order, hopefully the whopping seven chapters now available will help you decide to take the plunge. I've only included up to the chapter 3's (and remember, kids, this here's a branching story, so there's two chapter 2's, four chapter 3's, eight chapter 4's and so on... have I mentioned that writing an "interactive" novel is the best course towards insanity?)  I'll probably add a few more in the weeks to come, but the sample above should give you all plenty to chew over for now. I'd love to hear what you think of this whole crazy affair.

As ever, stay tuned. If all goes according to plan, the next update should bring with it a contest. What? You heard me.

Just added a new promo video I threw together to help better illustrate the scope of the novel, which is pretty massive. I'm not kidding when I say there is a whole universe to explore with all the various ways the story goes, depending on how the reader chooses, and it was rather hard trying to boil all that down into a single synopsis. The illustrations in the video hopefully serve to show off all the different flavors of superhero fiction found therein, acting sort of like "concept art" for the book. I've always felt that superheroes work best when weaving through the various genres that inspired them and that they in turn went on to inspire, and that was something I dove headfirst into when writing Beyond Order & Chaos.

Anyway, stay tuned... I'm trying to think of an efficient way to give out free downloadable samples for anyone who's interested that would show off the "interactive" aspect of the novel, as that's something you can't really get across otherwise.