Quite fond of writing and even fonder of making a happy reader out of someone like you.
Baby Freya is now 2 months old! Jeez! The past few months has been a whirlwind of love, excitement, family, and sleep deprivation!
(Full post can be read on my blog HERE to see future posts sign up to my newsletter HERE)
Despite the newfound groggy-eyed joys of fatherhood, I have still been hard at work not only on RUNE’s sequel (Oath of the Apprentice), but also on an exciting new Indie Video Game project called Shadow of the Moon (which takes place chronologically between The Rune Chronicles books 1 and 2). I’m so excited to tell you about this game I’m shaking... Or is that the coffee which is currently keeping me awake?! The world may never know...
Many of you might remember Shadow of the Moon from the collaborative Inkshares video game anthology I was a part of called Too Many Controllers. Yes, that same book which "won" the Nerdist and Inkshares Video Game Publishing Contest. (And yes, thanks for asking, I am still sore about the book being canned.) Well, some friends and I were talking about how TMC being canceled shouldn’t be the death of such a great story. We were sad, however, because Shadow of the Moon was written with video game mechanics at its core, and therefore, did not really read well (make sense) as a stand alone literary work.
I kept on trying to figure out a way around this because Shadow of the Moon’s female protagonist, Zera, is featured heavily as a main character in The Rune Chronicles Book 2: Oath of the Apprentice. I could not get over how cool Zera’s background and unique motivations were and desperately wanted readers to have a chance, if they were interested, to know more about her and why she was such a bad ass. Sadly, try as I might, I could not find a good fix to the logistical story problems and was stumped for months!
Well, during the days following Freya’s birth I came to the crazy conclusion that if I could not "write" a solution for the story dilemma, the only "logical" course of action was to actually turn Shadow of the Moon into a full fledged indie video game! GG EZ Fix!
I must have been profoundly sleep deprived because changing mediums would add a huge, exponential multiplier to the amount of work required. Like, There are no words which can adequately describe how much more effort making a video game, even an indie, will be. But I have been working on this project for two months now, and trust me folks, Zera’s story is, hot damn, well worth it! Truly.
Seen above is Zera, the protagonist of Shadow of the Moon, and I have so much more I’m dying to share with you all! We have art, game design mechanics, real to life martial arts, and even code for our custom SDL game engine (which should run a playable demo soon.) Its crazy awesome how much cool shit will be in this game! And the story, oh how the story has grown and evolved!
All of this is thanks to our amazingly talented team. Despite my sleepless nights, I have been able to gather a super dedicated group over at Apotheosis Studios to help me transform my novella into a Rogue-like Action-Adventure, 2D Top Down, RPG Video Game of epic, pixelated proportions! (Think Hyper Light Drifter meets Darkest Dungeon meets Bastion. Yes, you heard me right--we are not fucking around. This game is the real deal.)
I am leading this fearless indie dev team as Creative Director/Writer and so far we have 2 other writers/designers, 1 programmer, 1 editor/marketer, 2 "interns", a wolf, and a viking baby! What could possibly go wrong?!?! If you want to join our ranks, hit me up at @StoneJamison (Currently we are looking for a pixel and/or sprite artist, and music composer, btw!)
I’m also super excited to say that I will documenting our game progress on my blog HERE with an Apotheosis Studios Indie Game Dev Blog Series! I have so much more to share (and some really killer art) but will save those additional details about the game for the "official" blog series, so stay tuned! And yes, I will be doing all of this with a new baby. Many believe I have lost my mind, which if true, should make this game and RUNE’s sequel pretty freaking awesome, haha!
All jokes aside, buckle up Masters and Apprentices and get ready for many more blog posts to come. I am so excited to not only share developments and updates on Shadow of the Moon game development, but also how my wife and I raise our Viking Ninja baby girl.
And in case you are wondering how one raises a little Viking Ninja baby girl in 2017... Well, I’m not really sure, but I figure age and gender appropriate toys (swords, obviously!); good role models (bad ass active duty Army musician mommy and Zera of Shadow of the Moon!); and a loving, strong, and supportive daddy (I’m still growing out my "Ragnar Viking haircut") is a good place to start!
Stay tuned via my news letter HERE and I’ll let you know how it all goes!
Oh, and P.S. if you have not yet posted a review for Rune of the Apprentice on Amazon Dear god, please do so! We currently have 66 reviews, but need 100+! It really helps! Seriously! Thank you!
Hey All!
Oh boy, do I have a rad illustration for you today! Art master Jack Katz has outdone himself. I am in love with this composition for the new poem "Suits". It’s something straight out of The First Kingdom! Hope you dig it too! -Matt
Greetings, Hexers!
Good morning and Happy Anniversary to Women Like Us, because today is one year since Pub Day!
Here’s a look back at me holding the book for the very first time. I still pick it up, leaf through it and find it amazing that it actually exists.
A lot happened around this little book in the past year. Here are a few of my favorite things.
It made it into the top 100 of its top sub-genre on Amazon (still pushing to get it into the top 10, though).
Some nice folks did interviews with me about the book. Here’s a couple, in case ya missed them.
http://www.theindieview.com/2017/05/11/indieview-with-jason-pomerance-author-of-women-like-us/
http://renderositymagazine.com/the-art-of-story-interview-with-author-jason-pomerance-cms-759
Also, the book made The Malibu Times!! This may not seem like a big deal, but we lived in Malibu for a short while, and First Point Malibu is still a favorite surf spot, so it just makes me smile. Here it is--
http://www.malibutimes.com/malibu_life/people/article_0dea1256-283f-11e6-b17a-8bda111c1653.html
We’ve given away many signed copies on Goodreads (a favorite thing to do...in fact one is going on now so go over to Goodreads so check it out) and given some away to our nearby free Local Libraries too.
p
The push to the thousand mark in print and ebook sales is getting slowly closer. That was always a sort of goal on this book but, you know, if we go well into the thousands that’s good too. Don’t stop spreading the word, people! Sales happen when marketing happens but reviews are still so vitally important. If you’ve read and not reviewed, please leave a few words on Amazon (remember I still donate 10% of my royalties to the Beagle Freedom Project so helping with sales helps free more beagles). Remember you don’t have to say anything more than "Great book" (or "Crappy Book" works but we prefer great). Here’s the Amazon link--
Meanwhile, the biggest recent news is that an audio version of the book is in production right now!! It’s being narrated by a wonderful voiceover actor, Yolande Clark. I’ve heard the first 15 minutes and it’s amazing. The audible version should be available around September. Stay tuned.
Finally, just to demonstrate how it’s not all sunshine and daffodils, in doing some research for this post I came across this really not nice review on some blog...ouch!!
https://www.reynoldsreviews.com/single-post/2016/12/18/Women-Like-Us
You gotta take the good with the bad, huh?
Thanks all for the support. Seriously. And Happy One Year Since Pub Day Women Like Us!
Hey there readers!
Well, I said I’d have some updates coming for you soon. So guess what? I got updates. :)
If you haven’t already spotted me plastering these all over social media today, here are some progress photos of the artwork for the book!
These come courtesy of the artist, Jessica R. Van Hulle, who is in fact creating AN ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING for the book cover! Why? A) Because she is fantastic, and B) Because I am a crazy person and decided "go big or go home". She is without a doubt creating something that truly captures the old-school fanciful sci-fi spirit that I hoped for with Dax. Can’t wait to see the final piece! You can check out more of Jessica’s work at theladyjessica.com.
Also, while we still do not have an exact publishing date for the book, the editing team says we may likely be looking at sometime in October. I will keep you all posted as soon as I have more to share.
Until next time!
-Tony
