Writing News from Steve Karmazenuk

Well, I've been stricken with another bout of The Block as I work on Aeon's War. Consequence, I've decided to radically shift gears and finally finish work compiling the eBook version of Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind.

I'm already looking at a few different distribution points for Nevermind; owing to its non-genre storyline and "mature themes" subject matter, I'm thinking of putting it out there differently than I am the Omniverse. The next few weeks will see me largely concentrating on that project, though when I go to my cafe for a day's writing on Friday (Having the day off in honour of Nail Your Superhero To A Tree Day) I may very well be drawn back into the complex weave of The Aeon's War for a bit.

Music At Work On The Omniverse

Okay, this has been a rough week for me. Hence the late update. Work continues on the next book in The Omniverse, and I think the first act is coming along nicely.

I've been listening to a lot of motion picture scores, lately. Something about instrumental and symphonic music appeals to me when I write, lately. The scores to The Matrix series of films are among my favourites, as are the scores to Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and 2009's reboot of Star Trek. Massive Attack's soundtrack for Danny the Dog (AKA Jet Li's Unleashed) is another great one. But lately, what's been pulling me in is the original score for The Watchmen, a movie which, like V for Vendetta before it, I preferred to the source material. That's right: I liked the film versions of Alan Moore's greatest works over the comics. So sue me.

Anyway, although I had to reorder the tracks on The Watchmen to sequence with events on film and move the Philip Glass tune Prophecy over from the original soundtrack to the score in order to fully enjoy it, I have to say I have been obsessively listening to Tyler Bates' work for the film as I work on The Aeons' War.

Viral Darkness

So, as I'm wont to do, I spent a bit of time doing different Google searches for my name and the name of my books. The Unearthing has a huge online presence, and slowly but surely, Through Darkness and Stars is creeping up, too. I'm everywhere, of course, but I never have anything interesting to say that's not in a book or else I'd be getting paid for this.

What's really interesting is that Darkness is going viral; it's showing up on eBook sites that I didn't send it to. While traditional booksellers might go all apoplectic over the notion of someone redistributing their work without their knowledge or say-so, the fact is (1) I released it under a Creative Commons license and (2) I'm giving it away for free because it's more important for me to have readers than get paid to write.

What I like about the viral thing is that the book literally spreads on its own. Someone snipes it from an existing site and puts it on theirs, someone else does that to them, and so it goes. What I find strange, though not necessarily a bad thing, is that instead of using the eBook "cover" art, the sites where I found Darkness they were using the Queen of Light and Sorrow concept art which was truncated into the eBook cover. I wonder what their reasoning is on that one.

Here's what they look like, side by side.

Let's keep the momentum going!

Hi all and thanks to everyone for joining!

I really appreciate the readers and the fans, and I'd love to hear from you about the story! I'd also like it if you could spread the word, and get more fans!

The wall is open and so are the discussion boards, and I want to see this story get read by as many people as possible; so if you liked the Omniverse so far, please, tell somebody! Tweet about it, blog about it, email a friend and share the eBook.