Pulp Science Fiction from USPS

Today the print version of Mythik Imagination #1 finally came in the mail :) It's a collection of three short science fiction stories in pulp magazine format of the 30s & 40s. If you wanna check it out, you can find it at Indy Planet for only three bucks. If you want the free eBook version, there is a handy graphic in the sidebar to your left with links to all eBook formats (including Issuu, which is basically an on-line version of the printed pages.)

Look what's peeking out of the envelope.

Hey why does my new magazine look all old and worn out?

Keeping Up With The Mythik

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I have been neglecting the blog - although some might consider that the good news ;) The good news is that the reason I have been neglecting the blog is because I have been busy writing and working on cool projects.

Free eBook Update

Well it has been about a week since Amazon changed the price of Mythik Imagination #1 to free. Although it hasn't had the massive tsunami of downloads I've heard about for other free eBooks, it has been fun to see it high up on the charts. It went up all the way to #6 in Science Fiction, and I think it's still in the top 50.

So if you want to check it out, now is a good time, and you don't have anything to lose :)

Soon I'll be making another surprise announcement (heh, well not too much of a surprise) just in time for Halloween.

Stay tuned, stay Mythik and thanks for reading!

Mythik Imagination #1 Print Preview

The print version of Mythik Imagination #1 is just about ready. To see what it will look like, here is an on-line print preview:

Open publication - Free publishing - More magazine

You can also view it by going to Mythik Imagination #1 Print Version.

Thanks for reading!

Mythik Imagination #1 is a Free eBook

Mythik Imagination #1 is now a free eBook on Smashwords. It's also free on Barnes & Noble and iTunes. It's not free for the Amazon Kindle yet, but if any volunteers out there would like to let Amazon know they should adjust the price to free, that would be way cool. Thanks to Savvy Self Publishing for the tip on how to make Kindle eBooks free!

I'm not quite ready to announce a release date for Mythik Imagination #2 Weird West Edition just yet, but hopefully it will be ready soon.

I'm trying to make up for time lost over the summer, and if all goes according to plan, the next issues of Mythik Imagination will be much closer together :)

Mythik Imagination #1 - Three Pulp Sci-Fi Short Stories On Sale Now

Wahoo, Mythik Imagination #1, the first in a (hopefully) long series of Pulp Sci-Fi Short Stories is now on sale at Amazon and Smashwords :)

It will also be available at Barnes & Noble soon, as well as a few other places.

But you, dear readers, shall be rewarded for having eyes on this screen. Umm, at least hopefully it can be seen as a reward... Anyway, just for being a cool Mythik Blog Reader, you can get MI#1 for free! Just check out the Free Stuff page for details. You don't even have to do anything for it. Really.

If ya wanna see the blurb and whatnot, check out the Press Release page. And for an up-to-date look at what else is coming down the ole' Mythik freeway, take a look at the Books page.

I have to say, it has been a heck of an interesting (and totally fun) experience. Those of you who have already been through the process know it's not just a simple matter of writing something and then hitting the upload button. I've definitely had to learn a lot of new things in the past few months. One very cool thing about the internet is that you can almost become an instant expert in a new field of study (although I use the term "expert" very loosely, and "instant" is an exaggeration.) But you know what I mean.

We're not quite to the point where we can become a Kung Fu master overnight or learn how to fly a helicopter in a few seconds like in The Matrix. But, by visiting the right web sites, you can learn a heck of a lot about independently publishing an Ebook. I've had a lot of help from people who have been successful at this sort of thing and very graciously willing to share their experiences with the rest of the world. So I'll be having an upcoming post with some thank-you's to those kind folk. For those of you who might be considering a dip in the indy epub world, I'll also try to give back a bit by sharing my experiences, workflow, and tips and tricks. Ha, not that I'm an expert, but I can at least point out some stuff that seemed to make things easier, and things that were mistakes ;)

Since I started this blog (which I think is about  6 years ago in "internet years" - kind of like "dog years" but goes by even faster,) I've had the notion that the line between reader and author is very blurry. I still think that's true. After all, it seems that everybody has a blog about something, which makes everybody an author of some sort. So I'm thinking the Mythik Blog audience is:

1. Readers of my books (ha ha, well hopefully)
2. People with curiosity about the blog posts
3. Other writers

What I think has the most potential for coolness about all this is the possible interaction between all three types. Readers can suggest new things and also get a peek at the behind the scenes writing world. Writers can chime in with their observations. The curiosity seekers can demand that Weird Wednesday not be postponed again. ;) It could turn into an alchemical mix that becomes magic. Ha ha.

Finally, I have a funny story. When I was (ahem) somewhat younger, I was in a race with Isaac Asimov. You see, I had read somewhere that he sold his first story when he was 21. (Ha, I just looked it up. It appears he was only 19 when he made his first sale. I lost the race before I started and didn't even know it.) So my ambition was to sell my first story before I was 21. Well that came and went. Heh, it's been a few years since then - okay a lot of years since then, but check this out: As I was publishing to Kindle, I noticed that someone had made a purchase from the UK store. So I took a look, and for a fleeting instant, my little book was in the UK Science Fiction/Short Stories top 100. Here's a pic:

Yep,  #94 just ahead of Phillip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov.

Thank you, unknown UK Amazon customer :) 

Well, MI#1 is out there, as good as I can possibly make it. Hopefully, it won't be too embarrassing. When Terry Gilliam first screened The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he said "Remember, keep your expectations low." He can get away with that - heck, he's Terry Gilliam. If I say that, people will think, Sure, I'll keep them so low I won't even bother to look.

But I will just say that if you do give Mythik Imagination #1 a try and don't like it, well hopefully it will get better and you'll like the next one ;)

Thanks for reading!

Jon

June 1st is right around the corner!

A quick update of Mythik covers & content. For some reason, it really helps me to see what the end result is while I'm working. Don't tell anybody, but I even cut & pasted my thumbnail covers into the Kindle Top 10. That's right, I'm visualizing my way to success ;) Hopefully people will like the stories, too.

Okay, we've got a preliminary cover for issue #3.

And this is how the thumbnails will look:

        

I've also sent off the files for a test print of the old-fashioned dead-tree version of issue #1. Hopefully it will look sufficiently pulpy, yet readable.  With Baxter's help, I've mapped out issues 4 - 6, too.

Here's the tentative plan:

June 1 - Issue #1

July 6 - Issue #2

August 3 - Issue #3

September 7 - Issue #4

October 5 - Issue #5

October 28 - 10 Guns Against the West (Mythik Weird West Novel - crossover from characters & story in issue #2)

November 2 - Issue #6

December 14 - Secret Novel (sword & sorcery crossover from characters & story in issues #3 & #4)

Some time next year - Secret Novel (science fiction) & more Mythik Imagination

Also in there somewhere will be a graphic novel (or is it comic book?) and podiobooks. The podiobooks should come relatively soon.

There, now my vast multitude of fans know what to look forward to! Ha ha.

Hmm, I suppose I should get back to working on actual content ;)

eBook Cover Art & Release Date

Happy fantastic friday.  The underwater cave-dwelling sea-monkeys in the 'ol Mythik Art Department have been hard at work.  They've put together a rough composition of the Mythik Imagination #2 cover.  It is a work-in-progress, but here it is so far:

What do you think?

All three stories will follow a Weird West theme.  Everybody may be gaga over Cowboys & Aliens and Cowboys & Zombies and Zombies and anything, etcetera, but "The Silver Skull" will tell the tale of a Bounty Hunter who doesn't hunt zombies, but IS a zombie.  'Tis sort of a Zombies Are People Too kind of perspective.  "The Schofield Crew" is about a scientist in the 1930's who sends a detective back in time to the wild west to investigate one of the world's greatest mysteries.  "Requiem For The Wild West" shows us what happens when an elderly gunfighter has a showdown with a Nazi officer in WW2 era France.

I know what you're thinking.  That's great, but what about Mythik #1, right?  Well that's the second part of today's post.  The official release date for Mythik Imagination #1 is June 1st.  Kind of like a space shuttle launch, I've been setting dates in my head and then postponing them for various reasons.  But now it's official and no more postponing!  Wahoo, June 1st.

And finally, I've decided that Mythik #3 will also follow a theme:  Savage Sea Stories!  Yep, pirate ships and UFO's and a lot more ;)

Thanks, be Mythik and stay tuned!

Opening Scene From "The Figment of Doom"

I thought I would post the opening scene from a story in the upcoming eBook Mythik Imagination #1:

The FIGMENT OF DOOM

I woke up in a gutter, face down in a pool of muck.  It was a miracle I hadn’t drowned.  I spit out some sludge, coughed, slowly sat up and considered the situation.
It was raining, and I was soaked, freezing and aching all over, but especially my head and feet hurt.  It was dark, and I was on some deserted city street I didn’t recognize.  The only light came from a feeble street lamp that projected an icy cone of illumination in the rainy mist across the street.
Oh yeah, I had absolutely no idea how I got there or even who I was.  My pockets were empty.  I was wearing cowboy boots.  That was odd.  They were also about two sizes too small.  I guess that explained the aching feet.  As a matter of fact, the torn jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket all seemed too small.  Either I had spent so much time in this rainstorm my clothes had shrunk, or I was a man with a serious wardrobe problem.
Over the soft rain sizzle I heard footsteps.  I stood up and felt a blazing pain in my head.  I made a note to miss the gutter mud puddle if I fell back down, but managed to stay on my feet.  Okay, this was a headache the size of New Hampshire.  Why, did I think that?  Was I from New Hampshire?  Had I ever been to New Hampshire?  This really sucked.
I remembered the footsteps and tried to focus.  Yeah, across the street was a man standing under the light.  Trench coat, some kind of hat.  He looked like somebody out of a Mickey Spillane novel.  He gave me a quick glance and pulled something out of his coat.