Bill McSciFi's Blog

I, like some of you, seem to have a family and they want to spend time with me and my lovely bride this holiday season. Mostly her, but I’m allowed to tag along. It’s okay, they feed me and let me watch TV.

Before I wander off and start mumbling again I want to thank all of you for sticking around and supporting me on this journey. I not only appreciate you reading this newsletter, I enjoy the interaction you feel comfortable enough to enjoin. Every week I get a nice variety of messages ranging from professional inquiries to questions about hot sauces. Since I know other authors whose newsletters are shot into the ether with nary a peep in response, I realize how blessed I am to have each of you.

Today, unrelated to anything else herein, Poland is facing Mexico in the World Cup. Since half of Chicago is either Polish or Mexican, or in the case of my alderwoman – both, this city is going to shut down. Bars are opening early to handle the expected influx, restaurants will have the match on every TV, and many families are hosting cookouts or parties. Even if you’re not a fan of soccer it’s kind of hard not to get caught up in the excitement.

Nevertheless, while you’re all spending quality time with loved ones, I will be doing that and taking meetings to see where my next career steps might be headed. It is both exciting and daunting to consider the possibilities. And, as I always remind everyone here behind the scenes, it could all go nowhere. But, the fact I’m having these conversations with people who have their names rolling by in the end credits of major films, tells me we got something right.

Fingers crossed, and all that.

If you’re still looking for the coolest holiday gifts, fret no more. ICC Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide is out and features the works of hundreds of indie creators, interviews with famous people you need to know better, and articles written by professionals and me.

ICC Magazine showcases the best and brightest stars in Independent Comics and offers tips and advice for upcoming artists from the pros. If you thought there were no inspirational material or resources for Independent Comic artists, let us be your guide! Independent Creators Connection is your creative nexus!

ICC Magazine: Where Legends Are Born!

This is fun. The world’s fourth coolest human, Erich Hayner, fed my name and the title of one of my stories into an AI graphic program, and it spit the image immediately below out. He tweaked it a bit on his phone, but I have to admit I’m a fan.

Until next year, remember you can always get the latest editions of my books at Azoth Khem, grab some fun McSciFi gear at the McSciFi Shop or festoon a loved one in Legends Parallel propaganda from the Legends Parallel Store. Of course, nothing’s stopping you from doing all three.

Whatever you do, please have a safe and joyous holiday season, hug someone you love, and I’ll look forward to chatting with you all again next year.

I know we live in a fun filled world where facts are liquid and all news is fake, but we don’t really. Facts are facts and news stories can be sourced for accuracy. Normally this would apply to politics but, apparently, my newsletters are fair game too. So, I’m going to take a minute to try and set some records straight.

Try. I’m not sure how successful I’ll be. But one must try, mustn’t one?

For those who follow me on social media, the previous rant makes perfect sense. For those who don’t, context clues should help you follow along. However, some background will help either way. Over the last couple of weeks I have been noting how Azoth Khem Publishing has been reworking and repackaging my books. Part of their motivation has come from the fact major film studios have started sniffing around. This is an understandable development. In the six years since book one of the original trilogy was released it has been a steady seller, released in multiple markets, and has small (but mighty) fan clubs in England, Germany, and Japan. There’s also a nice lady in India who thinks it’s the bomb. But, circling back to the film companies, they have been nice enough to provide written critiques and summaries for us to use.

And that led to a unique problem. Their vision of what it should be was better than what the book actually was. As noted by the sales and the fans, it didn’t suck, but it could go to the next level. And now, after months of hard work, heavy drinking, and loud swearing, we’re there. The Brittle Riders: Book One (Second Edition) is out and it’s amazing. With brand new art by Ian Bristow, forty some additional pages, and edits so tight you could bounce quarters off them.

However, and this is why we can’t have nice things, to some people all of this proved (PROVED I TELL YOU) nefarious things were afoot.

Here’s a link to the reviews and comments in question. So, away we go.

• Just because someone famous said something nice about the book doesn’t mean they stole it, own the copyright, or anything else. It just means they liked the book.
• Shopping for a film deal, and even generating initial interest, is not the same as having someone cut a check for millions of dollars. We’re all still eating Ramen over here.
• Yes, we are updating our ISBNs. We are doing this to better track each second edition as it comes out. This is not some weird tax scam. I don’t even know how that would work and am sure I’d rather not find out.
• And, finally, for the kazillionth time, the reason I’m not shopping SPLCE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY is because it’s not mine to shop. It’s owned, one hundred percent, by ©Watchdog Entertainment®, LLC. They hired me to write a script and a book, and I did that. If you’ll allow me a moment of hubris, I think I did a hell of a job. That book has garnered awards and killer reviews from all around the world. But, just because I did my job well doesn’t give me any extra rights. That’s not how anything works.

Hopefully this straightens things out. If not, it will provide an easy to point to article once its gets posted on my blog. That way there can be no questions. It will be public and set in stone. After that I got nothing.

Until next week, stay safe and sane.

I know a lot of you are asking “Golly gee whillikers, Mr. McSciFi, why am I tied up naked on this bed and slathered in oils?” Ooops, sorry, wrong email. Try this. “Golly gee whillikers, Mr. McSciFi, now that I’ve read everything you’ve written for public consumption, I have me the sadz. Will there ever be any more McSciFi for me to read?”

The short answer is you have no reasons to suffer the sadz. First and foremost, the incredible concept album The Mekadisco by industrial music legends Go Fight will have a McSciFi short, Tikka Wants a Lolly-Cat, released in conjunction with it. The album contains a 180 page graphic novel dedicated to a unique new universe, and there are several music videos featuring barely clad adults dancing and having a ball. All of the costumes for the dancers and models were designed by multi-media mastermind, and leader of Go Fight, Jim Marcus. While the release focuses on the creation of the Mekadisco, my short looks at one possible ending. Simply put, if you like some groove when you move, and think your dystopias could use a little sexing up, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

If you prefer your McSciFi in a longer form, I’ve got that covered too. At the behest of Azoth Khem Publishing I am writing a conspiracy theory fueled UFO story set in the present. Currently named It Came on the Darkling Wind, a title I like so I hope it sticks, it covers a wide swath of paranoid territory and is my first novel to actually contain footnotes. It will be more in the tradition of SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY as opposed to everything else I have written. By that I mean there will be non-stop action, shorter and tighter chapters, and characters you’ll learn to love despite their myriad flaws. Well, it will be all that if I write it right. As of this newsletter I’m over 10,000 words in and am enjoying the heck out of it. The working tag line is “You’ll never look at nana’s senior center the same way again.”

Yeah, that should win me friends somewhere.

If you want pretty pictures to go with your words, you’re in luck. Bob: Sins of the Son is finally freed from my tiny mind and is being brought to life by one of my favorite artists, Ghoulbeanz. Long time fans will remember her gloriously liquid graphics on Svarozic. If not, click the link and read it for free online.

Also, the critically acclaimed series Legends Parallel is rocking back to life. Featuring art from the world famous Leslie Tejlor, whose new art book of erotic gods and goddesses is out now, the dark social satire continues to follow the life and adventures of Tom Hill a/k/a Siafu. Purposely built on common tropes, to give readers a foundation, it continues to deal with racism, classism, and other social ills all while telling a mature superhero story. You can check out issue #1 for free online if you missed it the first time around.

Until then, you can sate your McSciFi needs with the second edition of The Brittle Riders: Book One, the revised release of SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY, grab copies of the many anthologies I’m in, check out select comics for free online courtesy of Nerdanatix, and, of course, you can festoon your hot bod with custom McSciFi gear. Send pics if you do.

I’ll be back next week, here’s hoping you will be too. Have a great day!

Last week I brought you up to date on all the cool stuff going on with my novels. Both SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY and The Brittle Riders: Book One have been completely updated and, in the case of The Brittle Riders, repackaged and released as a completely new edition. As the McSciFi brand gets dragged kicking and screaming into the daylight we want to ensure anything with my name attached is as good, if not better, than anything from a major publishing house.

This week I have the pleasure of being able to reintroduce you to the comics I slave away on. A lot of behind the scenes planning went into what I’m sharing today. Some titles, no matter how beloved, are being left in the past. Others, are being brought in and developed. Still others, bare fever dreams a year ago, are now trundling to life. All of that means we had to come up with something to get you interested again that you could share with friends, family, random strangers, and the occasional psychic kitten.

Here’s hoping you like this.

As we start rebuilding our comic book empire, there are four titles you can read for free. All you need to do is go to the Nerdanatix website and click on any title you want to read. If you like it, click the little heart on the cover. We’ll be adding titles to the list as the year progresses. Bookmark the site so you don’t miss a thing.

1) Marcie’s Marvels – the character was inspired by the real life Marcie who took her life after being bullied and abused. This Marcie helps kids who are in trouble. It’s aimed at teens. While it tackles difficult subjects, it does so in an age appropriate way.

2) Legends Parallel – The title that started it all. A man, his mom, and her lover, have to save the multiverse. No one said this shit would be easy. Lauded for its insightful social commentary as well as its flaunting of social norms.

3) Svarozic – The story of a transgender woman who is inhabited by a Serbian fire god. Somehow they need to help save the world. As a bonus, there’s a gypsy circus in Russia because ….. why not?

4) Ruh Roh Rangers – A scandalous take on the old Scooby cartoons. It will ruin your childhood and make your day. This is not safe for work. And we’re damn proud of that.

Last night I was looking at pencils for one upcoming title, inks on a second, and finalizing a deal to secure an inker for a third. All of that means new comics, new adventures, and new universes, are being created for you and your loved ones.

Make sure you bookmark Nerdanatix and Hadithi Sambamba Comix so you can read what’s out and see what’s coming.

Until next week, keep on being awesome.

If you want to get to the business end of this happy missive, just scroll down a couple of paragraphs and have fun. To the rest of you, I want to thank those who reached out with their concerns regarding last week’s missed newsletter. We had just gotten back from our honeymoon where I had shared my sexy best with Kim by getting sun poisoning and having a series of blisters on my face burst and ooze blood. A good look for Halloween, not so much for a honeymoon. I was also in excruciating pain. It was a half mile from our room to the bar/restaurant center and the only way there was to walk – up and down stairs, over ramps made by demented squirrels, and across uneven terrain. Given that I suffer mobility issues this was not a paradise for me. Plus, I somehow irritated a sinus infection and now sound like Froggy from the LIttle Rascals.

Long story short, in order to leave Cancun I ended up in a wheelchair at both airports, we were forced to pay a tall person tax to get me more leg room, and we learned the hard way that eating at Guy Fieri’s trash chain of mediocre food is a huge waste of money. We will not be doing that again. However, all the fun stuff my wife and I did manage to fit in will go on the “let’s do that again” list we keep.

Okay, on to the cool stuff. Those who follow along know the nice people at Azoth Khem have been burning the midnight oil along with any slacking employees (that’s legal in Alabama), all while doing deep dives into everything I’ve written and assailing every false comma, purging any logical incongruities, and crimping the prose until it’s tighter than a virgin in the back of a Chevy.

That’s tight.

We’ll be doing a public release on November 1, 2022, but for cool people like you the 2nd Edition of The Brittle Riders is live and online at Amazon, Kindle only at the moment. Also, thanks to the fun loving trolls who rule the world of Amazon we are being forced to remove the first edition, and all reviews attached to it, to post the new second. After suffering a suitable amount of angst, we decided we didn’t care. While a presence on Amazon is a must, it’s not where we generate the majority of our sales or garner the most reviews. Those come from third party blogs, emails, and social media posts. People seem more inclined to share their thoughts with their friends instead of strangers, so we just roll with that.

Unfortunately, that means that people who bought Book 1 on Kindle will not get an automatic update. We are working on a way to get them the new version, at no cost, but there are still a few more flaming hoops to jump through. If you purchased a Kindle version of Book 1 and would like the 2nd Edition, just respond to this email and we’ll get you set up.

In related news, SPLCE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY has updated, sort of. While the preview still shows eighty-five chapters, that seemed like a good idea once, if you purchase it you will get the version with five chapters, each one a section of the story arc, and the updated text. It will update previous purchases if the buyer has “allow updates” selected in their settings. This new version is tighter, more cinematic, and more propulsive than its earlier iteration, and the earlier iteration was voted Best Sci-Fi Novel of 2020 in the Critters Readers Poll, so it didn’t exactly suck the first time around.

Long story short, your favorite McSciFi is being positioned to tackle the multiverse on a larger scale than ever before. It’s not just the heads of film studios who are now paying attention, although they have been an incredible boon, it’s also the foreign literary agents, and promoters who couldn’t spell McSciFi if I spotted them the M-C-S-& I who suddenly want to tell me how awesome I am and how much awesomer they can make me, and so on, if, and this is a big IF, we can just nudge everything to the next level. As noted above, it’s not that everything sucked, but that it could be better. We needed more than an abstract idea to embark on that much work, and now we have it in the form of written communications that point out, clearly, what they are hoping to see.

So, while we whittle our fingers to the bone in the background, tangible results of our efforts are now burbling up for you to see and share.

Until next week, stay safe and sane.

Kim and I met on September 4, 2016 and have been together ever since. During that time we have been forced to stay in hotels from time to time due to issues at our old apartment, like broken pipes or fires, but we never really had a vacation. We did try one weekend during the height of the pandemic to go to Lake Geneva, but it was freezing outside so all we could do was watch the ice fishing from our window. I also got trapped in a bathtub, but that’s a story for another day.

We got married on Saturday, July 9th of this year but she had to be back at work on Tuesday so we didn’t really have a chance to do much other than catch our breath.

However, as fate would have it, Kim’s cousin is having a destination wedding in Cancun and got an amazing deal that fell within our humble price range. Quicker than you could say “flibbertygibbet it’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” we’d booked flights, a room, and locked in a ride to the airport.

In other words, next week it’ll be back to the grind but, this week, it’s all about the fun. I’m not taking a computer or any writing instruments. All my attention will go to Kim and the Jacuzzi. That’s all you need to know.

Until next week, you can still spend your hard earned money online at my website, which I strongly encourage, or you can just stay safe, sane, and happy. Or, you can do both. They’re not mutually exclusive.

TTFN

A quick refresher on the history of The Brittle Riders. If you’ve memorized past newsletters, feel free to scroll to the bottom to see the cool new cover graphic.

Back in September of 2016, Azoth Khem Publishing released The Brittle Riders: Book One on an unsuspecting world. The majority of the world, in its unsuspecting way, said “Thanks. Now get off our damn lawn.”

But not all the world said that. A Russian bootleg site snagged a Kindle version, turned it into a PDF (screen shot below), and began reselling it like it was the most amazing thing since naked people started doing naked stuff for money.

Before we could stop them they sold around 30,000 copies of Book One.

And, no, we never saw a penny. Plus, due to its salacious content, according to Russia’s prudish standards, it’s banned there and I was advised I should probably not visit until Putin’s body is cold.

On the plus side, we ended up with a lot of new fans, Jiba Molei Anderson’s cover art won admirers before Amazon labeled it as porn and made us come up with new graphics which led us to find Brhi (Perez) Stokes who came to our rescue with new art, and stores seemed to think anything worth stealing should be worth selling so we ended up on shelves and people actually paid money to keep a copy.

As time as trudged on Books Two and Three followed in order, and people seemed to like that.

Since Amazon, with Amazon Japan being the only – and inexplicable – exception, didn’t allow people to buy all three books with a single click Azoth Khem released a 948 page Omnibus Edition so people could just click that and have it on their reading device.

One year later Amazon changed its mind and now allows one-click purchases (graphic below). They’re even bargain pricing Book One to entice people to buy the trilogy instead of the Omnibus. None of us know why they’re doing that, since it seems (being polite) odd, but no one asked any of us either.

Since whatever deity is in charge seems to like having fun at my expense, despite Amazon’s efforts, stores started purchasing the Omnibus and letting their customers buy it. Intrigued by this development, a small group of professional critics reviewed the Omnibus (all 948 pages of this beast) and deemed it to be the kind of poop that doesn’t stink. They even rated it as a 97.92% adaptable story (graphic below). Anything over 60% is deemed worthy of making into a movie. 97.92% is freaking insane.

One thing led to another and suddenly there was real interest in The Brittle Riders and all it could be. Real movie producers, the type who have the kind of money that allows them to buy villas for their staffs, started saying nice things about it. People who name drop without even trying started saying “So and so would love this” and being able to back that up by delivering a copy.

All of that brings us to where we are now. The Brittle Riders is being re-edited, repackaged, and will be festooned with new artwork from the legendary Ian Bristow. If you scroll down a little bit you can see the new template for all things Brittle Riders going forward.

Once completed, early 2023 is a good guess, new promotions will be enacted and you may never escape the Multiverse of McSciFi. The only multiverse scrubbed completely free of Benedict Cumberbatch.

I have no idea where or how this will all end. And I no longer try to guess. The amount of variables that go into making a film see the light of day are myriad and daunting. And none of us involved with the book can control any of them. What we can control, the upgrades and increased promotions for example, we will and are.

It all comes down to this. Just like with SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY, if you have the Kindle version you will receive a free upgrade as edits come out. If you own paperback versions of any of my stuff, excluding Goptri of the Mists: Kitaab Ek – at least for now, you now own collector’s editions. Feel free to abuse e-Bay and make some cash.

Until next time, stay safe and sane. I like having you around.

We’ll start with the oops. Last week I embedded two videos I thought you might enjoy. And, for about thirty percent of you, they were appreciated. Sadly, for the remaining seventy percent, email providers ripped the videos out for fear they might ….. I have no idea why. But they did it. So, if you want to see the videos, just CLICK HERE, scroll to the bottom and enjoy. The first video is a look at upcoming comic book releases and the second is a nice look at the pretty novels I have written.

Speaking of novels, I wrote one called SPLICE: HIT BIT TECHNOLOGY. It won an award, got some amazing reviews, and has been developing new fans every week. Not really bad things to happen to a book. Or to most anything, if you think about it. You can see everything when you click the link.

All that being said, as many of you know, I have been getting some attention from humans who have stupid amounts of money and seem to think I know how to string words together in ways other humans will find pleasing. Or entertaining. Hopefully both. And, although SPLICE is exclusively owned by ©Watchdog Entertainment® LLC it is still listed on my site as something I wrote and, because of that, has started getting attention too.

Which is a good thing.

I’m sure if someone wants to throw money at them to get SPLICE made into a motion picture, especially since the script already exists, the nice people at ©Watchdog Entertainment® LLC will listen.

That said, you can’t gussy up one title without gussying them all up. So, SPLICE got a brand new edit, a tighter table of contents which got winnowed down to five chapters instead of eighty, and a spanking new promoter who’s pushing the book on various sites aimed at book buyers who like sci-fi and action stories. To make all that work we loaded the Kindle version first, which you can get when you CLICK HERE. That link is updating internationally so it may not be live in your neighborhood as of this moment, but it will be soon.

For those of you who already own the Kindle version, your copy will revise automatically. Think of it as getting a free novel just because you’re awesome.

While I’m pleased with all my novels, SPLICE holds a special place in my heart. It came to me via an unexpected set of circumstances and the amount of trust I was shown as I dabbled in the IP of another creator was unprecedented. The end result was a character readers can sympathize with who lives so far outside the law no one knows his real name. That was not an easy tightrope to walk. But I did and people got it. That’s all any author can really ask.

McCormick offers a blood-soaked tale of upward mobility … An engaging dark comedy rife with retribution.
– Kirkus Reviews

SPLICE is a non-stop thrill ride, taking the reader on an edge-of-your-seat experience through the military and organized crime worlds. Bill McCormick absolutely captures the senses of the military and combat from sight to sound to smell and leaves you only wanting more at the turn of every page. This book gets it right and keeps it coming!
– Josh Grenard, Former Infantry Captain/Combat Veteran, U.S. Army

Until next week, stay safe and sane.