The Swamps of Amazon Self Publishing
The journey begins.
I, like many wannabe authors, have been writing for longer than I care to remember. Much of what I have written over the years is still considered drafts, and needing work. However its the anthologies that broke the spell of eternal editing. I was lucky enough to get involved in two fantastic publications Neo Cyberpunk and The Theater of Nok-Mondu.
Publications like these have deadlines, and there is nothing like a deadline to flush the constant revision edit cycle and actually stop and finalise a piece of work.
Once published, the inspiration and realisation that it was indeed possible for me to publish work, and having received positive feedback, I forged on to lead my own project. The goal was to release another short story, and to experience all that is Amazon and its self publishing engine swampland.
Navigating the various elements of book design, cover quirks, and file formats as well as deciding on a price and release date was a learning curve indeed. I found I enjoyed the process. Davene Le Grange was kind enough to share the journey with me and being more experienced, guided me and watched over my typos and vanishing italics.
The result of all this was a short anthology of two stories.
Neon Digital Darkness
I did little marketing besides shouting at people on Twitter, and asking my writerly friends to retweet at the launch. Soon after release I did a freebie sale. And that was that. We were pleased to get a few sales and some fantastic reviews.
Thank you to everyone who helped, tweeted, encouraged, and read Davene and my stories.
The Visceral Origins of Digital Jambi
Music sometimes has a big influence in the feeling and depth of what I write. In fact Tool have a tune called Jambi.
This heavy progressive rock gives me the sensation of a constantly driving world with its dark sides and light. There is little we can do to change the way the world is. Sometimes we feel like we are trapped in a spinning tumble dryer filled with the garbage of the worlds making. If we could only wish it all away.
Around 4 minutes into the song the driving riff is overtaken by a visceral cry that sends shivers down my spine, with the warning, be careful what you wish for. I identify with the sensation of the relentless harshness of the world and sometimes my actions are edged by this internal scream. The heavy beat and riffs drive and evolves into its angry conclusion, the lyrics speak of for me at least, I feel hope. Its a song about being broken, and its a song about being brought back together and rejecting the legion of things that pull us apart.
While I one day wish to write a story that invokes the strength of feeling an amazing tune like this can bring, Digital Jambi was my first attempt. In my opinion it fell well short of the pure genius of this song, but it is in there with its influence.
Sensations of the Conclusion
Another song that fits the sensation of the conclusion of Digital Jambi, is a heartfelt cry of getting what you wanted, and realising that its being with someone we love is what is more important than those ‘things’.
In the story, Jambi, I feel, goes through the emotions of this song at some point in the song, particularly at the end. The song begins with a similar theme, ‘I had a dream, I got everything I wanted’. There are some people, most people at their core, that don’t realise their own beauty and the wonder of their friendship. This is possibly the most valuable thing in the world.
I dream that one day I will write a story where every sentence will feel like the heartbeats of a beautiful song. Until then I hope you can join me on the journey. This is just the beginning.
I thank Davene for sharing her own story The Undercover Goth, and allowing it to be published together with mine. Her own work is a heartfelt story that has deep roots through the path of her life.
Beneath the futuristic mystery, and high tech adventure, it follows similar themes, but to much different tunes. It’s a search for identity, for truth, and ultimately hope. At its heart it is the realisation that it is those we love that are the most important things to us.
Both stories consider possible high tech futures and remind us not to forget, that we are still all human.
If you want more musings of my writing journeys, subscribe to email updates for free with the button below. Or follow either of us on Twitter. Or share if you enjoyed the read. Or hit up Davene and say hi, and follow her too. She has much amazing writing the world has not yet seen.
Thanks for reading!
If you got this far. Here are some links to older posts about the Anthologies I’ve been involved in.