The SPELLPUNK experiment!
I’ve been working on SPELLPUNK off and on for the last twenty or so years. It’s odd that with all the changes and mutatations I’ve taken it through, it’s still roughly the same thing I started with. Yes, it’s gone from third person to first person narration and back again. It started on an alternate earth where people went once they discovered their magical abilities, to a completely different world, to essentially our world with a twist. I added gods and spirits and took them out again. Several characters got sex changes. The main character got a name change and a little change in his back story, depending on which change I made to where the SPELLPUNK world actually was. However, with all these changes so much has stayed the same. I won’t give too much away, because we’re only in Chapter 3 in the “Sample” section of the blog. Just know that I’ve been working on this particular piece for a very long time. Currently, “Jaludin’s Road” is the only piece of mine that’s had a longer, and even greater level of modification than SPELLPUNK.
This story is one that I’ve truly felt compelled to tell. I came upon many moments in Tears of Rage when I could have easily tossed in the towel, walked away, and not looked back. A couple of times I was close. The closest when I was 1,400 pages into the original manuscript and wasn’t even within spitting distance of an ending – that was back when I thought all that I’d written was all part of “book one.” I’ve walked away several novel projects I’ve started (and won’t name or go into details on). SPELLPUNK is different. I’ve gone years without touching it, as in physically working on it, but it’s never been far from my mind. It’s been back there in the corners percolating, whispering, and sometimes screaming at me, “Write this scene now!”
So, here we are, getting the great SPELLPUNK experiment going.
What is it, you ask?
It’s an ambitious and risky project – one that I hope will pay off. If you’ve been paying attention to this blog for the past few weeks, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve posted a few chapters of SPELLPUNK. I’m going to keep posting them, first here and then over at the official SPELLPUNK website once it’s up and running. Every Monday and Friday will see a new chapter until the whole book is online. So…if you are patient enough, you will be able to read the whole massive thing. All 180,000ish thousand words of it for free. Long before that, I will publish it in print and ebook formats, for those who aren’t patient and don’t want to wait.
But wait! There’s more!
I’ve also got the very talented Alyxx Duggins working on the web comic series of the book, and I’ll be doing a podcast reading of the book. You’ll be able to get these free as well, once the official site goes up.
What’s the point? Well, honestly, I ‘m hoping that people won’t be able to be patient enough to wait for SPELLPUNK to be posted chapter by chapter. That it will be so awesome that they will need to buy it to see what happens next. Will it work? Who knows. But that’s the beauty of the times we live in. The game is changing on ALL levels. It’s an exciting time to be an artist in any medium, because there are so many ways to get our work in front of people. All you have to have is a little courage, faith, and a metric crap ton of chutzpah!
