Upcoming Champions [League of Legends: Arena]

With variety of fixes and visual enchantment, alpha version from my recent project - League of Legends: Arena is over, and moving on into beta state. However since the project is still a long go and I haven't fully animate some of the champions yet, I decided to made a sneak peek post on the blog which I didn't do anymore since my Fairy Tail: Battle of Magic project last time. So here is it, starting from the champions list - from the current available into some of those whose currently on my list to be included in future releases:

Currently Available: Katarina, Garen and Miss Fortune

Currently Available: Sona, Master Yi and Ezreal

Currently Available: Vladimir, Janna and Nasus

Upcoming Releases: Zyra, Nautilus and Graves

Upcoming Releases: Ashe, Leona and Ahri

Boss Mode
Boss mode will be implemented in future release as well, currently I have one between two champions on mind that has to be decided as a Boss: Hecarim, the Shadow of War or Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths.

Boss Mode illust with Nautilus as the boss

Read More

Heroes & Shifters: Urban Fantasy and Super Powers Book Bundle #3

I'm happy to announce that I'm in my first book bundle with other authors - Heroes & Shifters: Urban Fantasy and Super Powers Book Bundle #3!

While I already have boxed sets of my own books, working with other authors on this bundle was a different experience, and I really enjoyed it.  Hopefully readers will enjoy the bundle - 12 great stories from established fantasy authors for only 99 cents!

Read More

Snazzy Tech Tools for Indie Authors

A few weeks ago, I called my barber to schedule a time for a haircut, and he admonished me for not using his app to make the appointment.  Yes!  His app!  My barber has an app!  With a QR code and everything.

Needless to say, I was a little surprised.  I guess I had always thought of barbering as being one of those professions that stays the same for the most part, with little change over the years.  It hadn't really occurred to me that technology could affect - if not barbering itself - the ancillary matters related to it: communication, scheduling, etc.  This, of course, got me to thinking of technological tools out there which might be beneficial to writers, a few of which I note below. 

QR Codes

Aside from an app, one of the things my barber had was a QR code, which was printed on his business card. 

A QR code (the QR stands for "Quick Response") can be thought of as a square-shaped bar code. It can provide information about a product or service, connect to an app, link to a web page, etc. Most smart phones have the ability to read QR codes. 

In the case of the QR code to the left, it's one that I created for my own business cards and links to the Books page of this very blog.  Just scan it, and it will take you to where you can find out all about my novels.  (I suppose I could also create distinct cards for each book, with each of those having its own QR code as well.)  

In essence, QR codes can be a quick and easy way for authors to connect with readers. You can make your own QR codes on sites such as kaywa.com.

SmartURLs

Next, as a writer you really should be making use of smartURLs.  Practically speaking, a smartURL is one which manages internet traffic by directing it to the most geographically appropriate online site.  For instance, here is the smartURL for my most recent release, Terminus:

http://smarturl.it/Terminus

Someone in the U.S. who clicks on this link will be taken to the Amazon product page for my book.  However, someone in the United Kingdom would be taken to Amazon's UK page.  A person in Canada would be directed to the book's Amazon Canada page.  And so on.

As with QR codes, smartURLs are a great way to help your readers find you and/or your work.  You can create smartURLs at: https://manage.smarturl.it/.

Voice-Recognition Software

Voice-recognition software is, of course, a well-established tool for authors.  Unlike QR codes and smartURLs, such software is focused more on making the writer more efficient rather than connecting him or her with readers.

As implied, voice-recognition software will, ideally, simply type every word you utter, saving you from having to type it yourself. Since most people can talk a lot faster than they can type, this is seemingly a way to exponentially increase one's output.

Personally, I find that it makes my thinking too linear when I'm writing, but many authors love it. If it works for you, it is a chance to become far more prolific.  Thus, rather than being able to write, say, three novels per year, you might suddenly find yourself able to crank out nine or ten of them.

All in all, there are lots of cool tech tools out there which can be fairly beneficial for authors. The trick is simply finding which - if any - work best for you.

Read More

Achieving Low Size On A High Visualized Map

People often asked, how do I achieve such low size projects while most of the materials I'm using are normally a highpoly products. So I decided to made a short tutorial out of it, hopefully can be helpful for certain people who needed it, especially those who care much about size.

These points I'm mentioning are what I often do and based off from personal map making experience in order to achieving low sized, yet visually high quality looking maps:

1. Models
No doubt that model can enchant your map looks into something different and eye pleasing. But too much polycount ain't necessary for wc3. Therefore Polycount Reduction is needed to do, this is a polycount reduction example on a mesh that I did:

Blackhand from Warlords of Draenor - Before: 4,57 mb | After: 298 kb
(Model mesh size only, not including texture size)

Notice the difference? Polycount Reduction meant removing unecessary parts of the mesh in order to obtain lower size. This can be done in Mdlvis or Milkshape.

Short Note: In milkshape you can do reduction for various kind of model files other than .mdx. In my personal opinion, Milkshape is also a base modelling tool to build your modelling fundamental before move on into professional modelling tools like 3ds max or Maya.

The next part we'll talk about Animations, normally WoW models had plenty of animations which is not needed as every single of keyframes here are counted as kb.

1. Try to remove every single of animations that you not needed on the model and see the size difference. Especially on a model that you use as an NPC or Vendor role, leaving only stand animation on them is pretty much a good idea.

2. If you create the animations on your own, create only animations that you needed, beside lower the size, it's also way more time efficiency.

Last but not least, remove unnecessary keyframes on each animations, normally WoW animated models had hundered of keyframes on a single animation, remove them until 8-10 keyframes. Make sure you remove a correct keyframe or else the animations would be messed up.

From that Polycount Reduction and Keyframes Reduction method above I'm able to made the model on the pic down from 4,57 mb into 298 kb.

Blackhand in-game, comparison between
30% and 100% texture quality

2. Texture

For custom texture usage only, skip this part if you using in-game textures. Reduce your texture quality under 40% using BLP Lab.

If  you using custom seperated model potrait, you can just reduce yours into 20% instead, as with wc3 normal camera distance, texture quality is not really that noticable, unless it's for huge sized doodads decorations.

As for texture resolution, 256 pixels-below is the best choice, never went higher than that for your size efficiency. Changing a texture resolution can be done in Photoshop or BLP Lab.

And for ground tile textures, I usually have them in 60% of their quality so their looks ain't broken as a ground.

3. Icon
Normally it's 5 kb below for BTN, and 4 kb below for DISBTN. If your icon size is more than that, you did the conversion wrong. I'm using Photoshop most of the times before converting all of my icons, and then using Button Manager for converting them into .blp file.

Sound Cut, because every single second
taking quite alot of kbs

4. Sound
Sounds sometimes made the map rather more alive, right usage of BGM often can made the map vibe more intensive especially on battle arena themed one. I often cut any unecessary part of the sound/music which I'm using with Adobe Audition, after that compress them into 64 kbps, lower than that only causing a broken sound. I personally use Xilisoft Video Converter or Switch Sound File Converter for compressing the sound kbps.

For BGM, you can cut certain repeatable part from the music to cut down the size instead of using them in full length.

Those are vital parts I often do in order to obtaining a lower size, other than that you guys probably already know what to do. Doing the model part (polycount reduction and keyframes reduction) would be the more time-taking out of 4 points above. Creating from scratch or editing the materials used would need even more time.

But the visual and size result? I can guarantee it's worth it rather than have oversized kbs on something that can be achieved waaay more smaller! Except if you don't care at all about the size, of course.

Read More

League of Legends: Arena

Beside World of Warcraft total conversion projects series which I finally had the chance to achieve, since around 2 years ago I've been always planned to create a project based off from League of Legends for fun, and especially because I wanted to see a League of Legends visually converted into the game which anyone haven't done it (I meant the whole visual). Since I recently having fun creating hero arena-of sort, kind of map, I've decided to making this League of Legends project into an arena instead with League of Legends: Arena as it's name.

Perhaps an RPG version would be made in the future, as I had quite plenty of terrain concept to try on. It is the visual possibilities what wc3 can achieve which made me still enjoy making maps until today, aware of the fact that wc3 is already pretty old and it's started to pretty much dying day by day.

Miss Fortune in-game

The project terrain featuring experimental method for the tile, with higher resolution and dimension which I haven't tried with my projects before, and really had fun during the process of making it - as terraining is one of my favorite part on making a project. So if you enjoyed seen my terraining on my projects, make sure you tried this one as well!

Current Available Champions
here are currently few champions of choice that available on this current state: Garen, Master Yi, Miss Fortune, Sona and Katarina - which of course there will be more of it on future release! Champion audio voice clips also included when they cast their Q and R ability. These champions are on my mind right now to be included in next versions: Vladimir, Nasus and Jana. Beside those, there are also some pending champion list which I currently haven't animate, including: Ahri, Azir, Leona, Riven and more other. I made a sneak peek about some of them here.

As an arena type, the map featured fast paced, quick-to-learn gameplay like one of my previous project, enchanted with rich visualized, HD battlefield conversion which is my strong points as a visual person myself. Mediocre AI is included, enough to entertain on the whole game. Here's some ingame preview of the project:

Katarina preview in-game #001

Katarina preview in-game #002

Katarina preview in-game #003

Katarina preview in-game #004

Download Version 1.2
Version 1.2 has been released on February 6th, 2015. Featuring new champions: Alistar, the Minotaur and Mordekaiser, the Master of Metal joins the arena! As well as mass revison on the previous champions available, and some more new stuff. Full changelogs available in-game menu.
Version History: 0.6.a, 0.6.b, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2

Download Now

Latest Release Date: August 5th, 2015

Current Map Size: 4.3 MB

Read More

The Real Strength of Indie Authors

Back in the late '80s/early '90s, someone described actors (and I use the term loosely) like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal as sort of "in-between" action stars:  they were able to slake the public's thirst for more action movies by headlining films that debuted in between releases from major stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  It was a tactic that served them well; Seagal, for instance, became a household name thanks to films like Hard to Kill and Marked for Death, the latter of which I rank as among his best work - despite the now-laughable trailer below.  (Hey, 20 years ago this was bad-ass.)

In essence, there was room for more movies with other action stars.  Someone just had to make them.

In a similar vein, there's room for books other than those published by the traditional establishment.  In fact, the public has proven to have a voracious appetite for the written word, and the mind-boggling success of so many self-published authors demonstrates that readers have been grossly underserved.  This, to a certain extent, has helped many indies achieve incredible success. (It also didn't hurt that they wrote great stories, too.)

The hunger of readers for good books really wasn't being satisfied by legacy publishers.  In fact, you might say they're still starving when you consider the fact that - from the standpoint of traditional publishing - it was generally considered highly productive if an author released one book per year. Their slothful practices, however, are a boon for indies and play right into what is probably our greatest strength: the ability to get our books written and released at a comparatively rapid-fire rate.

Consider, for example, the following:  between March and December 2013, I wrote and published 6 books.  Six!  That's 6 books during a 10-month period (which is nothing compared to a lot of other authors).  There's no way I could have done that with a legacy publisher - the lead times are just too great. However, I believe that being able to write and publish quickly allowed me to reach readers and swiftly grow an audience for my work.  It is this ability to be prolific - much more so than most writers at traditional publishers  - that really make indie authors a force to be reckoned with.

That said, self-published authors have to take advantage of this dynamic by writing constantly.  You can't get bogged down by things like how your latest release is doing, the fact that BookBub rejected you, etc. Sure, some indies will experience tremendous success with just a single novel (and sometimes right out the gate), but for most of us this is going to be a volume business. You're probably going to have to crank out a fair amount of product in order to obtain a modicum of success.  How much does that equate to?  Well, in a previous blog, I posted about making a living by selling 3 books per day, the gist of which is that if you can publish 20 books, with each of them selling roughly 3 copies per day at $2.99 each, you could earn $50,000 per year.  

Bearing that in mind, I'd argue that - if you're serious about wanting to be an author - publishing 20 books is a good goal to have.  Why 20?  Frankly speaking, one book simply isn't enough to hinge the concepts of success and failure on.  It's certainly not enough to hone your craft, develop your style, or mature as a writer.  I don't even think that 5 books would be enough, and I'm not certain that 10 would do the trick either.  In short, I believe that the magic number actually lies somewhere between 10 and 20, but I say shoot for the latter in order to be safe. (It also wouldn't hurt to have a business plan, which would include things like a release schedule and a marketing budget.)

Of course, I'm not saying you have to write all 20 books in a year, but I would suggest that you not quit, give up, lose faith, what have you, until you get book number 20 out there. At that juncture, hopefully you'll be seeing some form of income, but more importantly, you'll have made a serious effort in the field of writing (not that writing fewer books means you didn't try).

In short, the speed with which indie authors can get their material written and released is probably the best arrow in our respective quivers.  Try to fire early and often.

Read More

New Book Release: Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1)

After a far-longer period than I ever anticipated, I am happy to finally be releasing a new book: Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1).  The description is as follows:

Master Sergeant Gant Maker was a highly-decorated and well-respected Marine - until his last mission left him as the sole survivor of an encounter with a vicious race called the Vacra. Served up as a scapegoat and drummed out of the military, he has since lived a life of seclusion with only an adopted alien as a companion. 

Now the Vacra have returned. As the only person to have ever faced them and survived, Maker is reinstated in the Corps and given the onerous task of finding this enemy on a world located at the edge of known space. Assisting him is an unlikely band of military rejects, including a blind sharpshooter, an unstable psychic, and a genetically-engineered killing machine who refuses to fight. 

Given that the Vacra have superior weapons and technology, Maker recognizes that his team is at a distinct disadvantage. But Marines are nothing if not resourceful, and Maker has an audacious plan that just may level the playing field – if it doesn’t get them all killed.

This is a novel that, in all honesty, had been eating away at my brain for a while, so the options were either to write it or go crazy.  (I'm sure my wife would say that the latter had already happened, so might as well do the former.)  Of course, that meant putting some other projects on hold, but now I can turn my full attention to them and focus on getting them finished - starting with the next Kid Sensation book.

As always, I feel blessed to have readers who are interested in my work, and I'm thankful for the support. Hopefully those who read it will enjoy this book.

Read More

Back to Basics: Fixing Your Cover and Blurb

Recently on one of the writing forums that I visit, another author bemoaned the fact that they weren't getting many sales. (In truth, you can find many authors making this same statement across many forums - all day, every day.) As is typical in such situations, one of the first things that other posters in the forum pointed out was that the author's covers needed work. Basically, while the covers weren't completely horrible, it was difficult to look at them and get a sense of what the book was about: you couldn't decipher it from the image, the name of the series, or the novel's title. Others pointed out that, among other things, the blurbs needed work. 

Needless to say, the cover and blurb are two of the primary lures by which you hook readers. If those aren't up to par, you're going to have a tough time gaining any traction.  (It's not impossible, but you're likely to have an easier time teaching a fish to walk a tightrope.) Thus, it's a good idea to occasionally revisit the basics with respect to these elements.

When I was in the military, we had a 3-step process that was applied to any presentation that we were going to give:

1)  Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em.

2)  Tell 'em.

3)  Tell 'em what you told 'em.

I think the same concept applies to things like covers and blurbs.  For instance, take the novel Seven Unholy Days by Jerry Hatchett.

First of all, there's the title. While Seven Unholy Days might refer to a number of things, the author follows this up with a subtitle: A Thriller. Once that's there, there's little doubt as to what the book's genre is.

Next, there's the image itself.  All alone, it might put me in mind of something religious or perhaps a spiritual awakening of some sort; I might even come to the same conclusion when viewing it in conjunction with the words Seven Unholy Days. However, with the subtitle clearly indicating it's a thriller, it now makes me think of something apocalyptic. (And I won't even go into the fact that it's actually very nice cover art, because it's a given that we're all shooting for that.)

In short, the  cover has clearly conveyed to me the genre of the book (spelled it out, in fact, which I have no problem with), and introduced an image that I can relate too on several levels.  Frankly speaking, you can't ask for much more than that.

Moving on, there's the blurb. Without going into a lot of detail, it mentions things like a "ruthless maniac," the Book of Revelations, and Armageddon. In combination, those phrases shout action/adventure/thriller to me. Likewise, your blurb needs to convey the essence of your book - not just the genre but the overall conflict.

All in all, the author has done a great job of baiting the hook in my opinion. Good cover art, nice blurb, etc., all of which do their part in letting readers know what they'll be getting in exchange for their hard-earned dollars. 

Basically, getting readers interested in your book is a lot like going on a blind date.  Your cover is your headshot, and you really want it to be attractive and say something positive about you. Your blurb is your introduction, giving those who like what they see a little more insight into what you have to offer. Bearing those facts in mind, I'd encourage writers to make an investment in a great cover (like getting a professional headshot as opposed to photoshopping a grainy pic of yourself taken at a toga party in college). It may not be cheap, but it will be money well-spent - as is money for other things like editing/proofreading.  

In all honesty, though - unless you are immensely talented in all areas of publishing (eg, cover art, editing, formatting, etc.) - I don't know how you can publish a book for less than several hundred dollars.  (For those interested, I discuss a lot of the costs in another blog post: How to Beat the High Cost of [Indie] Publishing.)  As the old adage goes, it takes money to make money, and you have to be willing to invest in yourself. (You could also raise funds on various platforms, but that's a post for a different day.) That said, you most certainly can have sales on a book with a bad cover, a poorly written blurb, and so on, although I wouldn't bank on it.  To quote the film Inception, "[I]t's perfectly possible. It's just bloody difficult."

If you would like to be notified when I release new books, please subscribe to my mailing list here.

Read More

World of Warcraft: The Battleground

Fourth title I've finally able to release this year from World of Warcraft total conversion project series of mine. A fun-to-play Hero Arena playstyle in a huge, rich visualized battleground inspired from the actual battleground from World of Warcraft itself, spiced up with RPG-like elements for people to play. Join up the iconic battle conflict between Team Alliance and Team Horde! AI included for the fun, enough to keep you entertained the whole game.

Available Classes
Play as your favorite role: be a davestating warrior battling on the front line, or powerful spellcasters who use magic to inflict damage on their enemies from afar! There are currently 14 available classes-inspired from original World of Warcraft available to play, including Hybrid Monk, which is a class I thought I'd never include.

Tauren Warrior

Arms Warrior
"A Battle-hardened masters of heavy weapons, using mobility and overpowering attacks to strike their opponents down."

Abilities:
Siegebreaker, Thunder Clap, Mortal Strike, Hamstring, Piercing Howl and Battle Shout

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Mace, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Undead Rogue

Assasination Rogue
"A deadly master of poisons who dispatches victims with vicious dagger strikes."

Abilities:
Mutilate, Wound Poison, Vendetta, Envenom, Stealth and Garrote

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather

Undead Death Knight

Frost Death Knight
"An icy harbinger of doom, enchanting frost power and delivering vicious weapon strikes."

Abilities:
Frost Stike, Death Coil, Remorseless Winter, Howling Blast, Anti-Magic Shell and Shadow Infusion

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Draenei Frost Mage

Frost Mage
"Frost specialization spell caster, able to freezes enemies in their tracks and shatters them with frost magic."

Abilities:
Cone of Cold, Frost Armor, Blizzard, Frost Nova, Deep Freeze and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Draenei Paladin

Holy Paladin
"Guardian of the righteous. Invokes the power of the light to protect and to heal."

Abilities:
Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, Holy Light, Flash of Light, Divine Shield and Devotion

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Human Priest

Holy Priest
"Master of healing and preservation. Uses magic to shield allies from taking damage as well as heal their wounds."

Abilities:
Penance, Power Word: Barrier, Holy Light, Inner Will, Mind Blast and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Night Elf Warlock

Affliction Warlock
"A master of Shadow magic who specializes in drains and cursing spells."

Abilities:
Shadow Bolt, Drain Life, Howl of Terror, Soulburn, Malefic Grasp and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Orc Death Knight

Blood Death Knight
"A dark guardian who manipulates and corrupts life energy to sustain himself in the face of an enemy onslaught."

Abilities:
Death Strike, Scarlet Fever, Strangulate, Unholy Fever, Anti-Magic Shell and Vampiric Blood

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Blood Elf Mage

Fire Mage
"Fire specialization spell caster, able to ignite enemies with burst of fire and combustive flames."

Abilities:
Pyroblast, Flame Strike, Molten Armor, Combustion, Polymorph and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth

Blood Elf Paladin

Retribution Paladin
"A righteous holy knight who judges and punishes opponents with weapon and holy magic."

Abilities:
Templar Verdict, Divine Storm, Holy Light, Binding Light, Divine Shield and The Art of War

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Worgen Rogue

 Combat Rogue
"A swashbuckler who uses agility and guile to stand toe-to-toe with enemies."

Abilities:
Revealing Strike, Expose Armor, Vitality, Gouge, Stealth and Garrote

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather

Orc Shaman

Elemental Shaman
"A spellcaster who harnesses the destructive forces of nature and the elements."

Abilities:
Lightning Bolt, Static Shock, Earth Shock, Lava Burst, Healing Surge and Absorb Mana

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Staff
Off Hand: Shield
Armor: Cloth, Leather

Dwarf Warrior

 Fury Warrior
"A furious berserker, unleashing a flurry of attacks to carve his opponents to pieces."

Abilities:
Bloodthrist, Crazed Berserker, Whirlwind, Colossus Smash, Avatar and Berserker Rage

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Axe, Mace, Dagger
Off Hand: Axe, Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Plate, Leather

Pandaren Monk

Hybrid Monk
"A martial artist without peer who pummels foes with hands and fists."

Abilities:
Jab, Dragon Fist, Stance of Fierce Tiger, Breath of Fire, Zen Meditation and Fists of Fury

Equipment of Choices:
Main Hand: Sword, Mace, Staff, Dagger
Off Hand: Sword, Dagger, Shield
Armor: Leather, Cloth

Some attachments in-game

Features
♦ Total Conversion Materials from WoW
All materials has re-created, poly reduced, geomerged and edited by myself for the multiplayer project usage purpose.

♦ Huge Battleground, Detailed Terrain
The project provide a large, eye-catching detailed battleground for you to see while enjoying the battle against your enemies.

♦ Choosable Attributes Points
You'll receive 15 attribute points when starting the game, and 3 attribute points each time you leveled up.

♦ Attributes Scaleable Abilities
Q-W-E-R and D-F active abilities with comfortable hotkeys to use featuring fancy, describing tooltips. All abilities are scaleable by attributes!

♦ Custom Main Hand and Off Hand Attachment
You can change your weapon and shield attachment visual now as you change your main hand and off hand type item. Featuring some fancy World of Warcraft weapon and shield attachments with lowpoly revised, including legendaries: Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, Warglaive of Azzinoth and Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest!

♦ Limited and Upgradeable Items
Additional RPG element, Player can only carry 1 type of equipment, all items are upgradeable up to 2 levels by Ore which you can bought on blacksmith!

♦ And More!

Screenshots Preview
Since the theme is about Mist of Pandaria, the terrain featuring a large arena battleground with design based off from Lost Isles mixed with ancient chinese Pandarian style, while the creeps are made via geomerging with Zandalari theme. These terrain design might be change and improved from time to time as the project progressing by.

Battleground Preview #1

Battleground Preview #2

Battleground Preview #3

Battleground Preview #4

Download
World of Warcraft: The Battleground latest Version 1.1 has been released on August 23th, 2015. Visit the main page on Hive Workshop for more detail.

Latest Version Release Date: December 9th, 2014

Current Map Size: 4,29 MB

Download Now

Read More

Kindle Unlimited = Criminals Unlimited

Having partaken of a buffet or two in my lifetime, I'm well-aware of the fact - as are most people - that businesses tend to serve up fare in this manner because they think it makes economic sense.  The restaurant thinks that patrons will pay more to eat than the vittles actually cost. On the flip side, customers think they will eat more than enough to get their money's worth.  Both sides walk away happy, making the situation a win-win.

Amazon's new Kindle Unlimited program is the same kind of all-you-can-eat offering, but for books. For $9.99 per month, readers can have unlimited access to over 600,000 books. Moreover, authors with their books in the program get paid whenever a subscriber reads more than 10% of their book. ("Payment" in this instance means receiving a share of the KDP Select Global Fund, which is a pool of money originally set aside by Amazon to pay owners whose books were borrowed as part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.)

In a perfect world, this would be a nigh-ideal scenario: avid readers could satisfy their voracious appetite for books (as well as take a chance on new and unknown writers), while authors would have another outlet for sales and visibility.  However, leaving aside the issue of whether KU is a good deal for readers, authors, or both (or neither), one of the first things  that occurred to me was that there were going to be people trying to game the system.

Let's face it, KU presents a massive opportunity for scammers of every ilk.  There are probably as many ways to scam on KU as there are insects on this planet, and it just seems to me that crooks are - and will be - taking advanatge.

For instance, one of the first things that occurred to me when I heard about the program was, "What's to prevent an author from opening a sham KU account and then reading (or rather, just quickly flipping through) 10% of their own books? Or doing it every month?" It appears to be a quick and easy way to get some cash if you're unscrupulous.

Also, since an author gets paid as soon as a reader has read past the 10% mark, I've heard that some "writers" have essentially thrown together 10 pages of gibberish and published it as a book that is part of KU. As soon as the reader opens it up to page one, that's 10% of the book read and the author can get paid.  The reader could complain, but it's not like they're out of any money; they'll probably just move on to the next (and hopefully legitimate) book.

Perhaps even more egregious, one person went so far as to publish scores of books - each only a few pages long - but with the titles (as well as the blurbs) of more popular works. Clearly, this was done to intentionally mislead readers and the tactic was initially successful: because Amazon's algorithms incorporate KU selections, this person's books were actually ranking very well! (Not to mention they were going to get paid.) Thankfully, enough people complained for Amazon to take notice, and I believe the offender's faux books were taken down (and presumably any earnings are forfeit.)

In what appears to be yet another scheme, a person offered a book promotion service whereby they guaranteed that your books would get at least 75 borrows in KU. I have no idea how anybody could legitimately make that kind of guarantee, because it sounds too good to be true.  (Note to self: if something sounds too good to be true...) More than likely, this is a person who set up a KU account (or several) and will simply use their status as a KU subscriber to borrow the books of those who pay them. (It's not a whole lot different that buying reviews on Fiverr or the like, I guess.)

Basically, there are a ton of ways to scheme and scam with respect to KU. The good news is that Amazon is quite likely to find out about it and take swift, decisive action. But in the meantime, until a permanent solution is found, KU will remain the land of milk and honey for brazen criminals.

If you would like to be notified when I release new books, please subscribe to my mailing list here.

Read More

The Best Paranormal Novels You Probably Never Heard Of

***As I mentioned elsewhere on my blog, Squidoo - a site where I had previously published a number of articles - has gone the way of the dodo.  (Or rather, they will in the very near future - I think they shut down on October 1.) That being the case, I've been transferring some of that content to my blog here, including this post. Disclaimer: this is several years old and has not been updated, but I don't think much has changed.

Paranormal is the New Normal

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when reading paranormal novels - outside of Dracula and Stephen King books - was something other than mainstream. Now, thanks to the success of series like Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse novels, there's a glut of them. So many in fact, that there's an entire section at Half-Priced Books devoted to this new genre called "Paranormal Romance." (And it's a big section.)

Still, a deluge of paranormal novels doesn't mean that they're all great reads, and there is an abundance of awesome stories that probably get lost in the process. With that in mind, I thought it might be worthwhile to mention some paranormal series that I felt would be worth your time and attention if you're trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in this arena.

Sandman Slim (The Sandman Slim Series)

James Stark is a young man who can perform magic – real magic – when he is dragged down to Hell (while still alive) and forced into gladiatorial combat for the entertainment of Hell’s denizens. Although – as a mere human – he was not expected to survive, he does the impossible and not only manages to stay alive during 11 brutal years in the arena, but develops a supernatural toughness in the process. Garnering the nickname “Sandman Slim,” he also becomes a feared supernatural hitman. After 11 years Stark manages escape, returning to Earth and vowing vengeance on the men who sent him to Hell and killed his girlfriend.

This is actually one of the best series I’ve come across in a long time. Needless to say, Sandman Slim is more of an anti-hero, combing the seedy streets of an L.A. underworld filled with magic, monsters and supernatural beings while seeking revenge. He is hard and completely fixated on revenge – but surprisingly humorous (which helps make such an uncompromising character likeable) – and tough enough not to take smack from anybody. For example: after beating back a surprise attack, Stark stands bleeding in Lucifer’s penthouse hotel suite. (Hey, Old Scratch has got to stay somewhere when he’s in town – you thought the devil camped out?) Stark is about to take a seat when he is told by Lucifer – the devil himself – “Don’t get blood on my couch.” Stark replies, “It’s not your couch,” and sits anyway.

Equal parts mystery, paranormal fiction, and high-octane adventure, the books in this dark urban fanatsy series (by Richard Kadrey) are as follows:

Sandman Slim

Kill the Dead

Aloha from Hell

(On a side note, the first book, Sandman Slim, is purportedly being developed as a feature film.)

Staked (The Void City Novels)

In the supernatural world of Void City – which includes, demons, werewolves, witches and more – vampires come in four flavors:

Drones – Barely immortal

Soldiers – Tough, but not too hard to get rid of 

Masters – Very powerful 

Vlads – Top of the food chain, and almost impossible to kill for good. Cut their heads off, and they can be reattached; blow them up, and their bodies eventually reform; etc. 

Which type of vampire a person arises as after being turned is somewhat haphazard, although it tends to be related to force of will and personality. And there really isn’t a way to rise up the ladder, e.g., a vampire that arises as a drone will stay a drone forever (or until he gets killed).

Eric Courtney is a vlad famously known for having blackouts and an extremely poor memory. He chalks it up to having been embalmed before arising as a vampire. He can’t even remember how he came to be undead in the first place, and no other vampire has ever stepped forward to declare himself Eric’s sire. His legendary blackouts are usually the result of someone making him angry, and whenever he comes out of it there’s usually a dead body (or several) nearby. In fact, the first novel opens with Eric shouting at someone as he comes out of a blackout, looking at the decomposing vampire body and wondering who he’s killed. Moreover, he soon finds himself framed for the murder of a werewolf, who just happens to be the son of the local pack leader. Now he just has to prove himself innocent, find out who set him up (and why), and – among other things – avoid the werewolf assassins that he knows will be coming after him. Not the easiest thing to do for a guy who typically can’t remember who he ate the night before.

In the Void City novels, the author – J.F. Lewis – has created something other than the typical vampire storyline. His is a dark and gritty world with its own unique vampire mythos. It’s a world where a magical veil over the city keeps normal humans oblivious to the monsters in their midst, and a corrupt police force gets rid of bodies and covers up crimes for supernaturals with enough money to pay the “fang fee.” Moreover, nothing is what it seems: one of Eric’s associates, Talbot, resembles a handsome Black man, but – as he tells a female character who doesn’t like his behavior towards her, “You keep expecting me to act human. I’m not…” (Talbot is, in fact, a rather unique creature, but to say more would be to risk spoiling it for some.)

The action is fast-paced, fun, and totally engrossing. The Void City novels are:

Staked

Revamped

Crossed

Child of Fire (The Twenty Palaces Series)

The Twenty Palaces Society is a group of warlocks dedicated to rooting out the use of magic by people trying to exploit it to gain power. Basically, there is a myriad of horrific, otherworldly beings – any one of which is capable of stripping all life from Earth – who generally promise power to any person who calls them forth. Needless to say, these creatures are nearly impossible to control, and death and destruction usually follow in their wake. Thus, the Twenty Palaces Society ruthlessly exterminates anyone they feel is guilty of the unauthorized use of magic, which basically seems to be any use of magic at all - other than their own, of course. (Their attitude towards other practitioners reminds of a line from one of my favorite video games, Fallout 3, when a villain tells his henchman, "Shoot anybody that isn't you, and isn't me.")

Ray Lilly is a small-time crook and petty thief who serves as a driver for a member of the Twenty Palaces Society. Because he betrayed her once, his boss doesn’t trust him and wouldn’t mind seeing Ray in a pine box. (In fact, Ray is designated a "Wooden Man," which essentially means that his job is to literally get himself killed if it helps his boss complete her mission.) When his employer gets hurt, Ray – with a single spell to his name and a few magical tattoos on his arms and chest – must go alone after an otherworldly monster capable of controlling not only people, but also time itself.

The action is fast and furious from the very start. Like the other novels in this post, this is dark urban fantasy – no lubby-dubby supernaturals here. It’s tense and violent, but utterly enjoyable. The books in the Twenty Palaces series are:

Child of Fire

Game of Cages

Circle of Enemies

Dying Bites (The Bloodhound Files)

Jace Valchek is an FBI profiler whose specialty is tracking down serial killers. Because of that talent, she is ripped from our world into an alternate reality – one where creatures such as vampires and werewolves are the norm. In fact, they are the majority: 33% of the world’s population is vampires, 47% are werewolves and 19% are golems (artificial constructs magically brought to life). Normal humans number less than 1 million people – the result of various activities over the years, including the forced transformation of millions during the alternate reality’s version of World War II.

A serial killer is stalking and killing supernaturals in this new world Jace finds herself in. Because vampires, werewolves and golems don’t suffer from mental illness, the killer – presumably – is human. Moreover, the lack of mental illness means that the authorities have no skill in this area, thus the reason for “borrowing” Jace from her own reality. In tracking down the killer, Jace also has to adjust to a world where she’s suddenly part of a dwindling minority, and the supernaturals have cute little nicknames for normal people, like “O.R.” (which stands for “original recipe”). Not to mention the fact that, in many ways, she sympathizes more with the killer she’s chasing as opposed to his victims.

This series makes a nice departure from the typical paranormal stories, where all of the things that go bump in the night are kept under wraps and hidden from plain humans. Here, all of the supernatural beings are out in the open, and it’s Jace who has to masquerade as something else – a werewolf, courtesy of a specially formulated body spray – in order to avoid detection for what she truly is. All in all, it’s a good read with great supernatural elements, mystery and action. The novels in the Bloodhound Files are:

Dying Bites

Death Blows

Killing Rocks

Needless to say, there are plenty of other fantastic series out there. These are just a few that I've come across and found worthwhile, but I also welcome any suggestions others may have.

If you would like to be notified when I release new books, please subscribe to my mailing list here.

Read More