The Hardboiled Cat is Back! (Now With Fresh Covers)

It's been several years since Leo's books first debuted, and overall readers seemed to really enjoy the longhaired heavy as he navigated the treacherous underblly of New York's meaner streets. Both Marked Territory, and the second book Painted Cats have been my most popular sellers whenever I go to a convention, and I've had people ask when I'm going to write more stories for Leo.

And while other stuff has been a higher priority for me of late, I wanted to make an announcement this week... because my publisher got my books some fresh covers and I feel they really capture the feeling of what these books are actually supposed to feel like!

Seriously... LOOK at this art!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

A Fresh Journey To The Mean Streets of Leo's Books

Generally speaking the idea of gritty, gangland noir mysteries starring a big bruiser of a tomcat, and with all of the traditional character archetypes being replaced by other street beasts (the local ganglord is a huge, bloated rat, Leo's best friend Doc is a former pit fighting dog who got adopted out, the powerless client with no one left to turn to is a literal church mouse, and so on, and so forth) is a concept that's novel enough to get folks interested. I've had a lot of ways to describe it, ranging from the love child of The Maltese Falcon and Watership Down, to a far more hardcore story that might have been going on in a reimagined version of An American Tail, but the idea has always been the juxtaposition of a book series where we have all the noir beats, style, and feeling, but all of our characters are animals.

At the same time all the humans in NYC are referred to the way animals normally get talked about in mystery stories. They're present, but generally not an important part of the unfolding narrative.

Now, I have half a dozen other books I'd love to write for Leo, but I just haven't had the time to dedicate to them. However, seeing the new covers that came out does make me really wish I could start laying the foundation for some of these books.

Again, LOOK at how this turned out!

The reason I stopped working on novels in general was that it's just so damn hard to get people to buy them, or read them. They can take a year or more to create, and if there's no demand/earnings, I have to focus on other projects. I will be honest, though, part of the reason I feel like it was hard to make sales was the old covers just did not hit.

But while art is subjective, something that always bothered me was the covers showed the wrong kind of cat. Leo is a hefty Maine Coon, and his bottle brush tail and thick coat are mentioned repeatedly throughout the story (along with his size, as Leo is somewhere between 24 and 26 pounds on average). The original covers, though, showed a tabby who appeared to be relatively average size... and while you can't judge a book by its cover, that image is often what we have in our heads regardless of what the text tells us.

So, yeah... if you haven't picked up the books with their shiny fresh covers yet, consider doing so! And if you want to get more of Leo's stories then tell your family, tell your friends, and leave reviews to spread the word. Because if I get my royalty report at the end of the year, and I find out that each book sold a few thousand copies, you can guess what I'm suddenly going to find time and energy to start working on!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

When Your Framing Device Invades Your Story (The Subtle Brilliance of The Magnus Archives)

A while back I wrote about framing devices in the aptly titled Does Your Story Need A Framing Device? However, I recently came across a particularly clever subversion of expectations in a fictional series regarding turning the framing device (and the cliches that came with it) to really enhance the world building of the series in an interesting, meaningful way.

Mild spoiler warnings ahead for the subtle brilliance of The Magnus Archives.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

When The Frame Is Part of The Picture

For those who didn't listen to the first episode of the show, linked above, The Magnus Archives is an anthology horror podcast that follows the efforts of those employed in the archives of the Magnus Institute. Found in London, England, the institute records and catalogs encounters with the strange and supernatural, and the stories we're hearing are several of the written accounts being put on-tape by employees. This is why the audio has a strangely old-school sound, and why we can hear the day-to-day goings on in many of the recordings.

So far so normal for a horror podcast, right? After all, in a strictly audio format, this kind of framing device plays into the metanarrative quite well. We can keep the voice cast relatively small, because it's the same researchers over and over again, and we can focus on the tension of the tales as they're in (essentially) a journalistic format, with survivors of these events telling their stories to someone who will listen.

Pretty basic stuff, really.

Now, this format isn't perfect. Firstly, there's the way the narrator's voices and cadence alter when they read the stories from witnesses, giving us a more heartfelt performance to listen to. We can write that off, though, as just something that comes with the format. Not only that, but as the plot progresses the narrators get stuck-in with supernatural plots in their own right. They're chased by monsters, they have to make bargains with terrible creatures, and the tape recorder always has to have a contrived reason to be present in order for us to hear what's going on. Maybe it's someone surreptitiously recording a conversation with their boss (who may have ulterior motives what what he's doing), or they want to leave a record in case they disappear... but generally speaking, we overlook the presence of the tape recorder because if it wasn't running, we wouldn't hear the unfolding narrative as the audience.

What The Magnus Archives does, though, is take these things we've largely overlooked because they're a part of the format, and it weaves them into the narrative, and the world building.

This is where the minor spoilers begin, so proceed with caution.

For starters, it's revealed that not all the statements in the archives are recorded in this way... only the stand outs. Only the ones that compel the reader. And reading these statements is more than just an exercise in the strange and bizarre; it changes the one doing the reading. It brings them into the story, and into the person who gave the statement, which provides an organic explanation for what we all previously thought was just a dramatic performance to keep the audience interested. Additionally, while some incidents of the tape recorder being turned on surreptitiously are explained, other times the characters actually point out that they didn't notice it was running until that moment. They wonder where the hell it came from, and how it came to be there. This jars us out of our complacency, as the listeners, and it makes us question all the times the tape recorder's presence was never explained, and it makes us wonder why the mysterious force behind this device (for there certainly is such a force) chose for us to hear that conversation, or that interaction.

This twist sends us reeling, as the audience, because it uses assumptions we had made and ignored, which plays into the themes of the show. After all, so many of the strange and supernatural events aren't seen by most people, and they so often shrug and look away... it's only when something becomes too much for them to write off that they have to acknowledge something out of the ordinary is occurring, and this stab to our sense of structure and the place of the framing device throws so many of our assumptions out the window, and has us questioning everything!

There's no real advice in this week's update... I just wanted to call attention to this bit of sleight of hand because it's one worth hearing, and adding to your own toolbox if you can!

For Fans of Audio Fiction...

If you're a fan of audio fiction, and you are looking for some unique offerings, then I want to remind you to head over to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, as well as to my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary. The former has nearly 50 short audio dramas, many of which are interconnected, telling tales in dark fantasy worlds, sci-fi war zones, and noir back alleys. The latter has longer stories that are dramatized versions of several of the tales found in my short story collection The Rejects, which I'd also recommend lovers or short fiction check out!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

What Publishing Questions Would You Like To See Covered on "Tabletop Mercenary"?

Regular readers around these parts know that this blog is divided into the Craft of Writing, and the Business of Writing. However, I also know that there are folks who function better with audio or video than they do reading through text. And since the 13th episode of my show Tabletop Mercenary is going live this Friday, I wanted to ask everyone here to weigh-in on something.

What are some questions you'd like to see answered on the show?

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

What Would You Like To See?

For those who aren't familiar with the program, Tabletop Mercenary is a show on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and I usually put out between 1 and 2 episodes of the show a month. Not only that, but it's also backed up on my Rumble channel, The Literary Mercenary, for those who want to have multiple platforms to check it out on. I started the show about 8 months ago, and my goal with it is to (as the title of the first episode implies) pull back the curtain and explain what all goes on with the business and publishing side of tabletop roleplaying games.

Of course, tabletop RPGs are just a small section of the publishing industry as a whole. As such, a lot of the issues I cover, from affiliate sales programs, to getting good art for your books, to discussing community creation platforms, are things that will be useful for authors outside of the gaming sphere as well. So whether you're just starting out as an author, or you're an old hand with questions about how the landscape has changed over the past few decades, or you're just someone who has questions about publishing today, then my hope is this show will be a resource for folks like you.

So if you're the sort of person who regularly enjoys the content that appears on this blog, consider checking out this series. Not only that, but if there's a topic we haven't covered yet (check the link to the current playlist to see all the episodes out so far), leave it in the comments on one of the videos (or on this blog) so I can see it, and so my publisher can see it. Because those comments are far more likely to get turned into videos of their own in the future!

Lastly, we're currently trying to get the Azukail Games YouTube channel monetized, and we're only about 450 hours of watched content away from that goal! So if you want to do your part to help (and keep this little show going) please watch the episodes we've got up, and share the ones you like on your own social media pages! A subscription won't hurt, either, if you want to stay on top of all our releases, as well!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Don't Wait Until A Series Is Done To Check Out The Books

There is a common attitude among readers (and particularly readers of sci fi and fantasy) that if an author is writing a series that they aren't going to get into it until that series is over and done. They want to be sure that the author isn't going to die halfway through, or that the series isn't going to peter out before they get invested in it. And while that is a fair point, I want to address something that's extremely harmful about this attitude toward these specific projects, as well as the profession in general.

Because if the author can't eat because no one is buying the series, then they aren't going to be able to continue said series, and all the misgivings end up becoming self-fulfilling prophecies.

Something to keep in mind.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Authors Can't Do What We Do Without Audience Support

On the one hand, I very much see where readers come from on this issue. Because if you're the sort of person who likes to read series, then you like to really get invested in the story. So if there's only one or two books out, you might not feel like you're really on solid ground just yet. Even if the early entries are good, you don't want to jump in with both feet and get really into this world and these characters only for an author to leave the series on a cliffhanger, or for a publisher to decide future installments aren't worth publishing.

And this could happen all on its own. However, lack of participation practically guarantees the series will die before it really gets a chance to live.

For those who were curious.

This is the way the process goes. An author decides they want to write a series. They finish the first novel. That novel is published, either traditionally or through a self-publishing platform of some variety. The author is, essentially, giving the audience a sample of the story. They're saying, "This is the story I want to tell. If it's a story you all want to see more of, then I have more to tell you!"

Under ideal circumstances, this first book will get the audience's attention, and enough people will buy copies that the publisher considers it a success, and greenlights the next book in the series. The author will then get to work on the next book, using the earnings from the first one to help pay bills and stay afloat long enough to tell more of the story. This process then rinses and repeats until one of two things happens; the author runs out of story, or the sales peter off to the point that the publisher no longer considers it a valid investment.

The problem with folks who are, "Waiting until it's done to get into it," is that you're actively denying a series and its creator the oxygen they need to actually finish the project in the first place.

As a good example, consider my Hardboiled Cat series linked in the pics above. I've got a dozen more stories I'd love to tell about Leo and the other street beasts of his setting, as well as a whole spinoff series about the kitten Trouble when he grows up to become a streetwise stray in his own right. However, I'm not writing those right now because I literally cannot afford to. I sell a few copies online every quarter, and move a couple more at conventions, but overall these novels can take as much as a year of effort to write, and they just don't move the numbers for me to justify adding to this series, even though I'm very certain my publisher would happily take more books about the rough, brutal lives of this hard-nosed Maine Coon heavy.

However, if these books suddenly moved a couple hundred copies each? Or a couple thousand because someone on BookTok gave me a shoutout, or an influential furry told their fans how much they loved my novels? I would have a fresh notebook out and the plot of book three figured out down to the chapter by end-of-day tomorrow.

Authors Need Support Or We (And Our Projects) Die

I've said it dozens of times before, but audience engagement is literally what decides whether creators live or die, and whether our projects succeed or fail. It's not just novels, either. Everything from YouTube videos, to podcasts, to comic books depends on the audience turning up for installment after installment, giving us your eyes, your ears, and your approval. Whether that comes in the form of purchases, watch/listen hours, or straight up Patreon donations, your engagement directly translates into the money that we use to pay our bills, and keep telling our stories.

And if you don't provide that support until we reach the end... well, that makes it that much more likely we won't be able to afford to reach the end.

Now, that's not to say that you must support every creator out there who is writing a series, or that you owe anyone your purchasing power, your reviews, your engagement, etc. However, if a series has caught your interest, whether it's on Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, or it's good, old-fashioned print books, don't sit on it and wait. Authors and publishers alike judge whether a creative endeavor is worth pursuing further based on the reaction of the public, and the money it's making. So if something looks interesting, but there's only a few installments out, go check them out and see if you like it! If you don't, well, now you don't have to worry about it anymore. But if you do like it, and you do want it to keep going so you can see how things turn out, now you know this is worth putting in your efforts.

Yes, you might end up with a George R.R. Martin scenario where you're waiting for years on end for him to finish the damn series. But you know something? At least you know Martin didn't give up on writing it because it wasn't making money, and since no one seemed interested he moved on to another project, or had to go back to a job doing something else to keep the lights on.

Speaking of Series and Support...

While I'm on the subject of series and audience support, there's a project I proposed about a year ago that I've been trying to get off the ground. It's a dark modern fantasy audio drama series set in the Chronicles of Darkness that I've tentatively titled Windy City Shadows, the first season of which can best be described as fairy tale John Wick set in modern day Chicago.

If that sounds like something you'd be keen to check out, then you can get the details in Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, or watch the video I made on the subject a while back!

The short version is that, while the show would be a podcast available on a variety of platforms, one of those platforms will be on the Azukail Games YouTube channel... and before we start in on it, we need to get that channel monetized! So if you want to see this idea come to fruition, help us reach that first goal by subscribing to the channel, as well as watching and sharing our videos so we can get the final 500 and change hours we need for YouTube to agree to share ad revenue with us!

Because once we cross that goal, that's when I can start revving the engine on this bigger, more involved project... and I'd love it if all of you out there could join me!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!