Randy Blackwell's Blog
July 9, 2014
2 more days 4 ebooks for a 99 cents. Rise of the Magi http://amzn.to/1m3lxDD Deep Flux http://amzn.to/1qbxlFA Keep Solstice http://amzn.to/1lt3OkC Soterion the Official RPG http://amzn.to/1m3lQ1f
2 more days 4 ebooks for a 99 cents.
Rise of the Magi
http://amzn.to/1m3lxDD
Deep Flux
http://amzn.to/1qbxlFA
Keep Solstice
http://amzn.to/1lt3OkC
Soterion the Official RPG
http://amzn.to/1m3lQ1f
Rise of the Magi
http://amzn.to/1m3lxDD
Deep Flux
http://amzn.to/1qbxlFA
Keep Solstice
http://amzn.to/1lt3OkC
Soterion the Official RPG
http://amzn.to/1m3lQ1f
April 3, 2014
3 days 4 books
For the first time ever Lamplight Media is offering free copies of all of our novels and Bridgeworlds: Soterion The Official Roleplaying Guide. It’s true that nothing is truly free, but all we ask in return is reviews on Amazon.
These books will be available for download Thursday the 3rd, Friday the 4th, and Sunday the 6th.
Keep Solstice
http://amzn.to/1hiNzEk
Rise of the Magi
http://amzn.to/1ow2XXS
Deep Flux
http://amzn.to/1mAH1pT
Soterion RPG
http://amzn.to/1gp6pta
Of these books, I am most excited about Keep Solstice… A story of one man, his struggle against a legalistic up-bringing, his struggle to survive against all odds, and his realization of grace and what it means.
These books will be available for download Thursday the 3rd, Friday the 4th, and Sunday the 6th.
Keep Solstice
http://amzn.to/1hiNzEk
Rise of the Magi
http://amzn.to/1ow2XXS
Deep Flux
http://amzn.to/1mAH1pT
Soterion RPG
http://amzn.to/1gp6pta
Of these books, I am most excited about Keep Solstice… A story of one man, his struggle against a legalistic up-bringing, his struggle to survive against all odds, and his realization of grace and what it means.
October 1, 2013
On Breaking Bad and its ending...
SPOILER ALERT
Yes, I have been watching Breaking Bad for the past 2 years. I found it online and caught up. The first episode I was iffy but after 3 episodes I was sold. I could tell what the writers were doing. I have been asked by some, how can you watch a show where the main character is a bad guy? I have also been told its a show where they try to gray the lines between good and bad.
This is my take having seen all of the episodes.
Breaking Bad reminds me of Oedipus, Antigony, or the Odessey.
These were sad stories where the main character paid grave consequences for their decisions and sometimes not even because of their own decisions but the decisions of those around them.
Odysseus Angered Poseidon
Oedipus thought he was above everyone else, even the gods, and that he could escape his fate.
Walter White? What did he do? Did he deserve cancer? No. But it reminds me of Job's wife when Job was being tested. She challenged him to curse God and die. Is that not what Walter White was doing?
I challenge you that the show had nothing to do with Meth and everything to do with a man, his pride, and his downfall due to his pride.
Walt was too proud to tell his family about his cancer. He, a genius scientist, looked at his life where he had been cheated by his friends out of a fortune and worked as a high school science teacher who got no appreciation where the school was making cuts in sallary so he had to work a second job at a car wash. He worked hard and always followed the rules. Pride came in when he found he had Cancer.
Walt asks himself. Cancer? On top of all of this? No. I refuse to admit it. I refuse to lay down and die. Im going to build an empire and Im going to leave something for my family. Im not going to be Walt who just lets life control him any more. People wont remember me as the cancer victom. Im going to control my life. Im going to have power and people will fear when they hear my name "Heisenberg".
His excuse was always "I did it for my family" but in the end when what he has done has destroyed him and his family he admits the real reason he did it. "I did it for me. I liked it and I was good at it."
I retained judgement of the series for the final episode. Does Walt get what is coming to him or does he get away with all of it... again? That was the question I wanted answered and the answer depended on weather I liked the show. Did I feal for the fictional character? Did I relate to him at first on some level? Yes. But very quickly he went too far.
I knew why I was watching when I saw the episode where his brother-in-law, the DEA, figured it all out. Hank struck him and before I realized it I did a fist punp and said "Yes! Get him!"
I wanted to see Walt get what he deserved. He had gone from a guy that I sympothised with to being a monster. He had to go down. We see his humanity again in the last episode where he comes to terms with his sins and the consequenses of them. He knows the final outcome and has accepted his fate.
And the show ends with a song: Badfinger's "Baby Blue".
Guess I got what I deserve
Kept you waiting there, too long my love
All that time, without a word
Didn't know you'd think, that I'd forget, or I'd regret
The special love I have for you
My baby blue
Yes, I have been watching Breaking Bad for the past 2 years. I found it online and caught up. The first episode I was iffy but after 3 episodes I was sold. I could tell what the writers were doing. I have been asked by some, how can you watch a show where the main character is a bad guy? I have also been told its a show where they try to gray the lines between good and bad.
This is my take having seen all of the episodes.
Breaking Bad reminds me of Oedipus, Antigony, or the Odessey.
These were sad stories where the main character paid grave consequences for their decisions and sometimes not even because of their own decisions but the decisions of those around them.
Odysseus Angered Poseidon
Oedipus thought he was above everyone else, even the gods, and that he could escape his fate.
Walter White? What did he do? Did he deserve cancer? No. But it reminds me of Job's wife when Job was being tested. She challenged him to curse God and die. Is that not what Walter White was doing?
I challenge you that the show had nothing to do with Meth and everything to do with a man, his pride, and his downfall due to his pride.
Walt was too proud to tell his family about his cancer. He, a genius scientist, looked at his life where he had been cheated by his friends out of a fortune and worked as a high school science teacher who got no appreciation where the school was making cuts in sallary so he had to work a second job at a car wash. He worked hard and always followed the rules. Pride came in when he found he had Cancer.
Walt asks himself. Cancer? On top of all of this? No. I refuse to admit it. I refuse to lay down and die. Im going to build an empire and Im going to leave something for my family. Im not going to be Walt who just lets life control him any more. People wont remember me as the cancer victom. Im going to control my life. Im going to have power and people will fear when they hear my name "Heisenberg".
His excuse was always "I did it for my family" but in the end when what he has done has destroyed him and his family he admits the real reason he did it. "I did it for me. I liked it and I was good at it."
I retained judgement of the series for the final episode. Does Walt get what is coming to him or does he get away with all of it... again? That was the question I wanted answered and the answer depended on weather I liked the show. Did I feal for the fictional character? Did I relate to him at first on some level? Yes. But very quickly he went too far.
I knew why I was watching when I saw the episode where his brother-in-law, the DEA, figured it all out. Hank struck him and before I realized it I did a fist punp and said "Yes! Get him!"
I wanted to see Walt get what he deserved. He had gone from a guy that I sympothised with to being a monster. He had to go down. We see his humanity again in the last episode where he comes to terms with his sins and the consequenses of them. He knows the final outcome and has accepted his fate.
And the show ends with a song: Badfinger's "Baby Blue".
Guess I got what I deserve
Kept you waiting there, too long my love
All that time, without a word
Didn't know you'd think, that I'd forget, or I'd regret
The special love I have for you
My baby blue
September 13, 2012
Holy Worlds interview with Rise of the Magi Author Randy Blackwell Part 1-3
Holy Worlds interview with Rise of the Magi Author Randy Blackwell Part 1-3... more to come:
http://youtu.be/xAPgg6ddbow
http://youtu.be/zRzCCl4b4IE
http://youtu.be/3z4-vQ-0oeQ
http://youtu.be/xAPgg6ddbow
http://youtu.be/zRzCCl4b4IE
http://youtu.be/3z4-vQ-0oeQ
September 12, 2012
The Publishing Process
The Publishing process as I have experienced it:
First I will say that from what I have read, it is rare to find a publisher as fast as I found one. I started off creating a fantasy world for a game. As I grew my company, I got on facebook, myspace, linkedin, twitter, and youtube gaining followers of my company through social media. After 5 years of this I had over 11k followers on the various social networking sites. This was very appealing to publishers as writer marketing is very important to the success of a novel. It was not only evidence that I would market the novel, it also was a market base already there for any product with my fantasy world.
Marketing is key in the selling of any product and I think we as consumers underestimate the power of marketing. This is how I like to put it. How many bad movies have you seen in the past 5 years? The most common answer is “I can’t even count them all”. Why is this? What got you into the movie? Most likely marketing whether it was the creation of a good brand name, good advertising, or a misleading preview. The point is that the reason you spent your money to see the movie is that you had the belief or hope that it was a good movie.
Like any investor, the Publisher wants to know “How am I going to make my money back and make a profit from this?” It’s the first consideration because publishing is a business and business is about making money. I know I am stating the obvious but sometimes it necessary.
After I got a literary agent it took us 2 months to find a Publisher. A bit of advice I received from a New York Times Bestselling author (Orson Scott Card) that I would like to reiterate and pass on: Do not pay a literary agent one cent up front. If they ask for money, run. It’s a scam and they don’t believe your novel will make them money.
Next was the contract. Once the publisher was interested, I met with the CEO. It’s a small publishing company which I think is a good thing for a first novel. Im blessed that the exec VP for my company is an attorney who specialized in contract law. But your literary agent should be able to review the contract to be sure that nothing shady is going down.
The next hurdle which was very hard for me was coming to agree on a name. The original name for my novel was “Secret of the Magi”. That had been the name for the year I had written it. I had my fan base familiar with the name and they were attached to it already. But I had to realize that this was an investment for the Publisher and I needed to be open to changing the title. Just like any relationship I believe it is important to pick your battles. I was willing to debate the title because I wanted to save digging my heals in if I needed to for the content of the novel. We passed around a lot of names. Some of the suggestions by the Publisher freaked me out but in the end we came up with “Rise of the Magi” which I liked and felt was appropriate for the book content. It took us a month or two to come to an agreement on a title.
Next was the book cover. Normally all of this is done by the publisher. But my publisher had been an Art Director. He saw the art that was done for the video game and realized the talent there was worth utilizing. So I introduced him to my best artists and they worked out a contract where he would pay my artists for the cover. This also took about a month to a month and a half. Normally it should take about a week or two but there were some hiccups in the process that we got past.
Then came the edit. My novel went through a very in depth editing process. Im no English major so I feel sorry for the poor guy who was given the task of editing my novel, but he did a really good job. Placed where he re-worded things were perfect. This took two to three months. The editor worked up the first 2 chapters and they sent it to me to give an example of what they were going to do. I approved it and they moved forward with the rest of the novel.
Next was the first proof. A proof was sent to me and I was asked to mark any changes I would suggest. There were a lot of things that I found that needed to change. Places where things were re-worded but incorrect to my fantasy world or didn’t keep true to the characters. It took me a month to comb through my novel. This was about the 5th time I had read my own novel and I struggled through it getting a little bored through it because I knew this story.
At this point I m waiting on the 2nd proof. I made my suggestions using Microsoft Word which I find to be best because you can use comments and change tracking. This will help when they send me the 2nd proof because I will be able to get through the changes I suggested, find if they took the suggestions or not and move through it quickly. I won’t have to read the whole thing over again.
First I will say that from what I have read, it is rare to find a publisher as fast as I found one. I started off creating a fantasy world for a game. As I grew my company, I got on facebook, myspace, linkedin, twitter, and youtube gaining followers of my company through social media. After 5 years of this I had over 11k followers on the various social networking sites. This was very appealing to publishers as writer marketing is very important to the success of a novel. It was not only evidence that I would market the novel, it also was a market base already there for any product with my fantasy world.
Marketing is key in the selling of any product and I think we as consumers underestimate the power of marketing. This is how I like to put it. How many bad movies have you seen in the past 5 years? The most common answer is “I can’t even count them all”. Why is this? What got you into the movie? Most likely marketing whether it was the creation of a good brand name, good advertising, or a misleading preview. The point is that the reason you spent your money to see the movie is that you had the belief or hope that it was a good movie.
Like any investor, the Publisher wants to know “How am I going to make my money back and make a profit from this?” It’s the first consideration because publishing is a business and business is about making money. I know I am stating the obvious but sometimes it necessary.
After I got a literary agent it took us 2 months to find a Publisher. A bit of advice I received from a New York Times Bestselling author (Orson Scott Card) that I would like to reiterate and pass on: Do not pay a literary agent one cent up front. If they ask for money, run. It’s a scam and they don’t believe your novel will make them money.
Next was the contract. Once the publisher was interested, I met with the CEO. It’s a small publishing company which I think is a good thing for a first novel. Im blessed that the exec VP for my company is an attorney who specialized in contract law. But your literary agent should be able to review the contract to be sure that nothing shady is going down.
The next hurdle which was very hard for me was coming to agree on a name. The original name for my novel was “Secret of the Magi”. That had been the name for the year I had written it. I had my fan base familiar with the name and they were attached to it already. But I had to realize that this was an investment for the Publisher and I needed to be open to changing the title. Just like any relationship I believe it is important to pick your battles. I was willing to debate the title because I wanted to save digging my heals in if I needed to for the content of the novel. We passed around a lot of names. Some of the suggestions by the Publisher freaked me out but in the end we came up with “Rise of the Magi” which I liked and felt was appropriate for the book content. It took us a month or two to come to an agreement on a title.
Next was the book cover. Normally all of this is done by the publisher. But my publisher had been an Art Director. He saw the art that was done for the video game and realized the talent there was worth utilizing. So I introduced him to my best artists and they worked out a contract where he would pay my artists for the cover. This also took about a month to a month and a half. Normally it should take about a week or two but there were some hiccups in the process that we got past.
Then came the edit. My novel went through a very in depth editing process. Im no English major so I feel sorry for the poor guy who was given the task of editing my novel, but he did a really good job. Placed where he re-worded things were perfect. This took two to three months. The editor worked up the first 2 chapters and they sent it to me to give an example of what they were going to do. I approved it and they moved forward with the rest of the novel.
Next was the first proof. A proof was sent to me and I was asked to mark any changes I would suggest. There were a lot of things that I found that needed to change. Places where things were re-worded but incorrect to my fantasy world or didn’t keep true to the characters. It took me a month to comb through my novel. This was about the 5th time I had read my own novel and I struggled through it getting a little bored through it because I knew this story.
At this point I m waiting on the 2nd proof. I made my suggestions using Microsoft Word which I find to be best because you can use comments and change tracking. This will help when they send me the 2nd proof because I will be able to get through the changes I suggested, find if they took the suggestions or not and move through it quickly. I won’t have to read the whole thing over again.
