Bill McSciFi's Blog

I, like all smart people, belong to a group that focuses on what it’s like to be a librarian. They trade tips on how they deal with library life, the constant threats from domestic terrorists who want this or that book ripped from the shelves, how to create family friendly events on a budget, and, most important to me, how and when to hold fantasy or science fiction conventions.

As I noted on the page yesterday, I haven’t done a “pay for table” sci-fi/fantasy convention in over a year. I’ve exclusively limited myself to libraries and private venues. While my gross take is less, my net is higher since I don’t have table fees, hotel costs, restaurant food, and so on. Also, library cons are full of dedicated readers. “Pay for table” cons have a lot of looky-loos who are just there to meet the celebrity guest.

Since my landlord won’t let me pay rent with celebrity selfies, not even one of Taylor Swift, this is not beneficial to me. My wife prefers them, too, since they tend to be less stressful and more fun.

If your library wants an oversized sci-fi writer based in Chicago who’s won a couple awards to grace your library’s basement, let me know. I’ve got three more cons booked until the end of the year and couldn’t be happier.

I’ve gotten a few leads out of that, so we shall see what we shall see.

This weekend, Hadithi Sambamba Comix will be getting some serious love at the New York Comic Con. Three issues of Legends Parallel and the debut issue of Bob: Sins of the Son will be prominently featured at the Vivid Panel booth. Vivid handles the distribution of numerous titles on the East Coast, and for the NYCC they want to feature the best of the best. It’s an honor to be chosen, and I know the atomic-powered sales bunnies at Vivid will do us proud.

If you read that again, you’ll see that our distributor paid for the table. We’re just along for the ride.

on October 26, I’ll bring my magic tushy to OPPLcon: A Celebration of Pop Culture. Located inside the Orland Park Public Library, this fest will feature a wide variety of artists and authors. Unlike me, this event is family-friendly. Since I’m one of the featured authors, and people can check out my website in advance, forewarned is forearmed.

This year marks the second anniversary of the Thornton Distillary Midwest Lit Fest sponsored by Rock Shop 60430. Last year’s event was a lot of fun. Not only was one of the vendor’s a fan of mine, don’t tell me – my head will swell, but another guy drove in specifically to buy the entire Brittle Riders trilogy. I would like to encourage more people to do that.

PS, just for giggles, I worked with VEED AI to see what a succubus would look like in full flight on her way to battle. While other companies fell pathetically short, one had hre using a parachute instead of wings, VEED knocked it out of the park. Check this out and prepare to be amazed.

Given that we have an amazing tone reel, I’m not sure we need to deep dive into AI for promo materials. But it’s nice to know the option is there

I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can, and thank you for your continued support.

Hi there. Just hopping in to share some quick fun. Thanks to the nice people at Spreadshirt, you can now get Heavyweight Letterman Jackets emblazoned with the Bill McSciFi logo or the logo from Legends Parallel. These are high-quality jackets and, due to people packing on a few pounds for winter, come in sizes ranging from small to 5X. One of them should fit.

As a quick reminder, on Saturday, October 26, I’ll be appearing at OPPL Con, which is held at the ORLAND PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 14921 S. Ravinia Ave, Orland Park, IL 60462. I’ll be there selling books, signing autographs, permitting selfies, and generally being that social bon vivant others pretend I am.

Lastly, as you know, we have been giving away FREE PDF COPIES of Book 1 of The Brittle Riders. Due to that, I was able to share this gem on Facebook today.

While dealing with a minor issue with Kim’s car, I fielded three emails from people who downloaded the free version of The Brittle Riders. As has been the case since the nice lady was upset to find out I am not, nor will I be, a black lesbian, there is a subset of readers who assume I’m either just like them or that I’m the right person to share all that deeply intimate stuff they’ve been hiding from their shrinks.

i.e., “You should slide in a little more BDSM.”

Yeah, “Hey, R’yune, we’re in the middle of a warzone. Did you bring the paddle?”

Maybe not.

“When that creature was covered in mud, blood and piss. Was it hot piss?”

Obviously, a plot point I missed.

And on and on it goes.

Still, it’s nice to know they’re reading it and becoming vested in the lore. There are worse things to happen to an author.

You’re all wonderful, so I’ll see you next week.

There are times when I fear for the future of the denizens of our blue dot. As you know, we’ve (Azoth Khem and I) been giving away free copies of The Brittle Riders: Book 1 in PDF format. I recently received an email that stated, “I wanted to get my free copy but saw no way to pay.” Maybe McSciFi isn’t for this person. Maybe many things aren’t for them. I hope they figure it out. They’re not on this mailing list, as far as I can tell, so I guess that makes me feel a little better.

For those of you who need to feel my warm flesh for proof of life, I have some good news. On Saturday, October 26, I’ll be appearing at OPPL Con, which is held at the ORLAND PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 14921 S. Ravinia Ave, Orland Park, IL 60462. I’ll be there selling books, signing autographs, permitting selfies, and generally being that social bon vivant others pretend I am.

Some of you have asked why I italicize Kirkus Reviews. The reason is simple. It’s in their contract. If you’re attaching their name to your book, or career, you need to make their name distinct, and italics is the preferred method. I also bold it to separate it from any other text. Since I have gotten nothing but good reviews from them for SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY and The Brittle Riders: Book 1 it seems only fair that I honor their request.

This is where I get to puff up my chest and humble brag that the percentage of good reviews they issue to indie authors is miniscule, and I’m two for two. I may even put a finger on my chin and act cute. Long story short, hard work has its benefits.

So, let’s take a peek at what the universe has to say about my scribblings.

Densely packed, SF-tinged high fantasy that mildly satirizes the genre. – Kirkus Reviews

The Brittle Riders: Book One (Second Edition) was Voted Best Sci-Fi Novel of 2022 at Critters.org

A very unique tone and world, reminiscent of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY meets a MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN/DIRTY DOZEN – type set up, but with a look, flavor, and lexicon all its own. – Garrick Dion – film producer

A brilliant man hosted a party. It was such a good party it culminated in the death of every man, woman, and child on the planet. That story is boring and oft told. This is not that story. This is the story of what happened next. This is what happens when Frankenstein’s monsters rule the world.

If you want to get your own FREE (I wanted to make it blink, but most email programs prevent that) PDF copy of The Brittle Riders: Book 1, just click the link and have fun.

All I ask is that you send nudes. No, wait, that’s old me. All I ask is that you leave a review, good or bad, on Amazon. When we did the upgrade and re-release of the series, they wiped our pages clean.

If none of this is enough to tempt you, then CLICK HERE to read other reviews from numerous sources, watch a tone reel aimed at potential investors, and see pretty pictures of people who have their copy.

Sorry, there are no nudes.

In the next newsletter I’ll update all the doings at Hadithi Sambamba Comix. We will be well represented around the country and in a major convention. The kind of stuff that makes me go mmmmmmmmm.

As you prepare for Halloween, my wife’s favorite holiday, I hope you manage to stay safe, sane, and avoid being kidnapped by one of the fae folk for their annual human sacrifice.

I haven’t been pumping out newsletters at my usual pace. That’s mostly because more stuff is happening behind the scenes, and there’s nothing I can share. However, several of you worried that I’d had another health issue and were kind enough to write me and share their concerns. Long story short, I’m fine. In fact, thanks to my fine physicians, I am in less pain than I have been in over a decade.

Still and all, fun things have happened. A famous metal act follows me on TikTok. The thing is, I don’t know if it’s the band members or just some staff running promo. The reason that’s important is they posted, in a conversation thread, “Real metal heads will read McSciFi.” I don’t want to credit the band and find out it’s not them. That happened to me a couple years back and things got messy for a moment. So, better safe than sorry. Nevertheless, that is one cool quote.

One fun thing I did was post an accurate history of Friday the 13th. You’ll be surprised to learn it’s a recent phenomenon, and it got its start in America after 1900. People just retrofitted prior events to make it seem like a historical thing.

The Kirkus Reviews thing is still going on and appears to be accomplishing our goal of bringing The Brittle Riders to a wider audience.

Anyway, thanks for checking in on me. I should have some real news to share in short order. As always, stay safe, sane, and keep coming back.

If you happen to be a prestidigitating paraskevidekatriaphobic then today is wrought with horrible magic for you. For the rest of us it’s another day that’s just as good or bad as any other. Today, if you watch the news, you will be assaulted with lists of all the horrible things that have happened on Friday the 13th through the years. The first will be the fall of the Knights Templar at the duplicitous hands of King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V on Friday the 13th in October of 1307. That one’s a juicy one since it features the only publically recorded curse attributed to God. Jacques de Molay, as he was about to be burned at the stake, claimed that God would strike both Philip and Clement dead for their deeds and, indeed, both men were dead within less than two months.

You will also hear from many noodle headed experts who will claim this is an ancient tradition, some will say dating back to the bible. These people are, using the technical term, deluded morons. Fridays have been bad news for a while, even Chaucer wrote disparagingly about them in his Canterbury Tales back in the 1,400’s. And the number 13 has, for reasons lost in the mists of time, been one to avoid since Babylon reigned supreme in the Middle East. It is even highly likely that Jesus knew about the superstition and selected the number of His apostles to prove the belief baseless. That would fit well with many of His reality based teachings.

But for any reference specific to Friday the 13th you need to be far more modern.

In 1907 an author named Thomas Lawson released a novel called “Friday the 13th.” In it a man uses superstition and greed to con a bunch of people and manipulate the stock market and cause it to crash. It was a popular book at the time and is also the first recorded use of Friday the 13th. So much for ancient and mystical. If you’re over 50, your grandparents could have had a slightly used copy of this book.

They may have even noted the eerie similarities in his book to the real stock market crash of 1929.

Still other featherheads will point to the 1993 study published in the British Medical Journal which compared the number of auto accidents on any given Friday the 6th versus Friday the 13thand said “Friday the 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying home is recommended.”

Smart people just went “Hey, wait a minute, that research is horribly flawed.” And they are 100% right. When you compare Friday the 13th with other stressful days such as tax day, major holidays and so on, the accident rate falls right into the norm. In other words, events that cause people to stress out also cause them to become distracted and those distractions lead to accidents.

You know that phrase “It’s all in your head?” Well, in this case it’s true.

Just FYI, the word paraskevidekatriaphobic comes from the Greek; Paraskevi means Friday and dekatreis means 13. You can also call the fear of Friday the 13th Friggatriskaidekaphobia in honor of the Norse God Frigga whose name is where the word Friday comes from.

Yeah, a little etymology to brighten your day.

Okay, now for some meaningless fun.

In Spanish speaking countries, people fear Tuesday the Thirteenth or Martes Trece as it is called. The reason is that that was the day that Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. That tradition does date back hundreds of years and is well documented.

In Italy, home of the Catholic Church and what many believe to be the root of the superstition, the number 13 is considered lucky and the day they avoid is Friday the 17th. So, go figure.

Some folks can’t resist tweaking their noses at superstitions. Black Sabbath released their debut album on Friday the 13th in February of 1970 and they did okay. The 13th book of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (a/k/a Daniel Handler) was released on Friday, October 13th, 2006 and he’s made goo-gobs (that’s a financial term) of money. And Adventure/Quest World, an online video game featuring the music of one of my faves, Voltaire, features famous guests every Friday the 13th.

Heh.

But, far be it for me to deny you something legitimate to worry about. On April 13, 2029 (a Friday), the asteroid 99942 Apophis (named after an angry Egyptian god) will come so close to the earth that it will be closer to our atmosphere than our man made satellites. If it gets caught in our gravity well it could do damage of apocalyptic proportions.

Or it could just ricochet harmlessly off into space.

I mentioned in my last newsletter how an event in South Africa I was to attend virtually disappeared off the internet with nary a clue as to what happened. It was a shame. I knew some of the other invited guests and had respect for all of them. Well, last week, the host reappeared. He’d had some sort of brew-ha-ha with LinkedIn, and they killed his account. I know some of the details, but the story is his to tell should he decide to do so. In the meantime, he’s got a lot of work to do should he attempt to try this again. I hope he does. It would be exactly the kind of event I could share with the teens at church. Educational, fun, and incredibly diverse.

Today begins The Brittle Riders featured appearance in Kirkus Reviews magazine. I will be listed as an indie author you should know, and will be promoted to thousands of libraries, store chains, and film industry professionals with the tag line, “Densely packed, SF-tinged high fantasy that mildly satirizes the genre.” I can live with that.

In conjunction with that, I have retained a promotion company to piggyback on the Kirkus promotion. The legitimacy of the former should give some weight to the latter and maybe, just maybe, ramp up sales and drive up interest in all the related books. People who read the series have nice things to say. I just want many more people to say nice things.

A brilliant man hosted a party. It was such a good party it culminated in the death of every man, woman, and child on the planet. That story is boring and oft told. This is not that story. This is the story of what happened next.

The Brittle Riders, apocalypses are funny that way.

Also, this October, Hadithi Sambamba Comix will be getting some serious love at the New York Comic Con. Three issues of Legends Parallel and the debut issue of Bob: Sins of the Son will be prominently featured at the Vivid Panel booth. Vivid handles the distribution of numerous titles on the East Coast, and for the NYCC, they want to feature the best of the best. It’s an honor to be chosen, and I know the atomic-powered sales bunnies at Vivid will do us proud.

Speaking of Hadithi Sambamba Comix, today is the founder, Brian Pitts’ birthday. Hoist a cold one in his honor when you can.

Until next time, stay safe and sane. It’s fun having you around.

Life is not all rainbows and unicorns. My, on again / off again, health issues are a good example. While I tend to dismiss them as “everything’s fine” the fact is I’ve been offered last rites twice in the last six months. So, maybe, less braggadocio and more paying attention to doctors is called for. And, since I promised my wife she could die before me, that is what I’m doing. Mind you, I’m in no rush to be single again. I want her to live a long and joyful life. We both had hard lives. Neither of us thought we’d find happiness at our age. And yet here we are.

Sometimes plans don’t work out. These things happen to all of us. But I have to admit, this turn of events has me baffled. I and several other authors had been asked to participate in a three-day seminar to teach writing to students in South Africa. Obviously, this would have been a digital seminar, but it still seemed cool. Graphics were created, schedules made, authors connected and then … nada. The host’s LinkedIn account has been taken down. All social media sites have been scrubbed. It’s like it never existed. Before you ask, none of us had put any money into it. In fact, other than agreeing to do it, we weren’t invested at all. Still and all, it was a strange turn of events.

A couple of months ago, I’d shared how a Japanese animator was interested in The Brittle Riders but felt he needed more background, so he had his assistant translate the trilogy for him. I have no idea what he pays her, but it’s not enough. Anyway, I hadn’t heard a mumbling word for about two months until a few days ago.

He wanted to know how I’d feel if he reset the story in Japan.

I asked how that would work since all of the social constructs I satirize are Western Civilization staples. Japan has never had anything like them. Even their version of capitalism is different. After some back and forth, it turned out he thought those things could be removed and just leave a story about the chimeras having battles, drinking skank, and being sexy.

I wasn’t thrilled but said I’d consider it if the price was right. And that was where we hit a roadblock. He wanted it to be something we developed jointly. I want to buy Kim a new home for Christmas. You can see the problem. The trouble with spec work is I spec to be paid. And I’m not giving up something I slaved over on a whim.

Anyway, I left the door open, but this version of his plan has been laid to rest.

All this being said, there are good things burbling too and I will share them when they get closer to the surface. Until then, stay safe and sane. I like having you around.

Today is the annual celebration of the birth of the most wonderful woman in the world. Some of you with partners of your own may quibble with my description, but I hope you’ll allow me the conceit on this holiest of holy days. I’m not sure what I had planned for the latter days of my life, but unmitigated happiness was nowhere near my list. I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the idea. My life is trebly blessed with her in it.

In unrelated news, the lovely and talented Keyla Damaer tossed a McSciFi Shout Out into her most recent newsletter. She provides a quick peek behind the McSciFi curtain and has a link to my latest book, Stuff About Things. For those unfamiliar with Keyla’s work, she writes ripping space operas, and you can check them out by clicking that link.

In the last newsletter I promised some updates on Azoth Khem, and I shall not disappoint. When you go to the Azoth Khem Website you’ll be greeted by a new menu page. It will make navigating titles easier and give visitors a chance to get familiar with all the new titles now being released. It’s not just McSciFi anymore, although there’s still plenty of that.

I don’t want to belabor things but for those who follow my social media pages, yes, I was in the hospital. My on-again/off-again battle with my kidneys went next level, and they shut completely down. This time, the hospital, where I know too many people by their first names, called in a specialist and did a deep dive into my ongoing woes. Long story short, I feel better than I have in a long time and am now beginning a path of treatments to keep this from ever happening again. Simply put, there will be more McSciFi in your future.

Before I wrap things up, I’m going to do something I rarely do, bitch. I put a lot of work into the presentation kits for The Brittle Riders and Legends Parallel. There are pitch decks, promo videos, scripts, and a variety of related properties designed to give investors and producers a clear idea if what we’re shopping. Moreover, I’m upfront about the target audiences for each project. There is a lot of time and money involved. That doesn’t include the efforts by the related publishing companies and involved artists. However, lately, companies have been requesting and accepting kits, holding on to them for a few months, and then announcing they signed projects that couldn’t be more removed from mine if they tried. One company said they were looking for something like Invincible and then released something that made Care Bears look edgy. They’re wasting the time and resources of creators for no reason I can discern. I don’t mind rejections I’m an author; they come with the trade, but I hate being jerked around. I’ve spoken with a few other creators, and they’ve run into the same thing. None of us know what to do about it. We can’t ignore submission requests, we aren’t Speilbergs, but neither can we keep leading on our partners. You see, every time I submit I must, by contract, notify the relevant publisher. If every notification turns into Care Bears like stuff, they’re not going to believe me when something legit happens.

If someone just wants to check out my projects, I am happy to share. I have done so in the past and see no reason to stop. Hell, if you want to check anything out, just ask. But, if you claim to have a budget and a need for mature content, then please actually have those things.

Until next time, stay safe and sane.