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Archive for The Darkening Dream – Page 2

Order the Hardcover – sort of

Feb05

Amazon has put up the hardcover. More or less. They have a page, and you can order, but they list it as “Temporarily out of stock.” Still, I’m sure if you do order they’ll ship in a couple of days when they finish sorting out their internal business.

They also haven’t totally connected the product to the Kindle and Paperback editions. I find it interesting how their site puts things together piecemeal. The must have various background jobs that massage the data and not all of them run together on the same schedule. I.e. the “book importer” job puts books in but the “book merger” job later connects various editions together.

Related posts:

  1. Hardcover Mechanical
  2. Price is Going Up Soon
  3. The Darkening Dream for Christmas!
  4. Hardcover Proof & Paperback Giveaway
  5. The Trade Paperback is Launched!
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, E-book, Hardcover, IBook, Kindle, Paperback, The Darkening Dream

Games, Novels, and Story

Feb03

This article was originally written by me for Gamesajare.com and was published there on January 22 in English and Spanish.

 

Storytelling, the old fashioned way

Modern man has a wide variety of “pure” storytelling mediums, like film, long form television, and novels. While these have some very significant differences they all share the same basic focus on plot and character. Typically at least, good stories introduce a character with problems, get you to like them, then chronicle the struggle as they are compelled to change and adapt to overcome these problems. In the end, they either do so, or are defeated to teach us a lesson (a variant we call tragedy).

These elements: character, plot, and transformational arc, are completely central to the normal story (I deliberately ignore weird experimental storytelling). Really, they are the core of what makes a good film or novel.

Roman mosaic showing comedy (right) and tragedy (left)

But with a game, this whole business is secondary. The primary focus of a game is fun. And fun through gameplay. Does Tetris have any character or plot? Did even Doom? No. But they were fun games. Really fun.

Games such as Naughty Dog’s Jak & Daxter or Uncharted strive to bridge these gaps by offering both. This is very difficult because they don’t really serve each other.

The gameplay in Uncharted 2, for example, has three primary modes: survival gunplay, platforming, and puzzle solving. The player must assess the layout of the level, learn it, and navigate it without getting killed. This involves anticipating the enemies and taking them out first. You use the weapons at your disposal, the mechanics, and the terrain provided to do so. With platforming you need to come to understand what the character can do physical, find your way, and successfully traverse the route.

Some games do focus on story

When these are done well, when the design is varied, the levels pretty, the enemies cool, and the challenges measured, challenging and above all, doable – it’s fun. Uncharted 2 is such a game.

It also has a pretty darn good story which is woven in with the design of the levels and the challenges. This adds to the whole thing. Watching the next segment of story becomes part of your reward for finishing a segment. There is a tremendous level of art that goes into getting both of these to work at the same time, but certainly each is constrained at times by the needs of the other.

Content in games is expensive and difficult to make. Therefore it needs to repeat. You really do need to shoot the same enemy hundreds of times. Otherwise the enemy isn’t providing enough mileage to justify the labor involved to create him. The player is also in control and therefore the consequences of his play affect success or failure.

My first novel

But in storytelling, success and failure are the carefully monitored heartbeat of any good story. You bring the protagonist up, dash him down, grind him into the ground, lift him up, slam him sideways. I knew this intuitively when writing my first novel, The Darkening Dream. I’ve read so many books and watched so many films and shows that it seemed “obvious.” But at the same time, it turned out to be far from easy. Writing a good story has less constraints than making a good game, but it’s still extremely difficult. You need to be constantly balancing the issues of character, motivation, the logic of the plot, and the need to seesaw the dramatic tension. In the end stylistic concerns sometimes overwhelm dramatic ones (to the reader’s detriment).

In a game, it’s even more complicated, and there is barely a chance of hitting all the right dramatic notes. The player has a lot to say about this natural up and down pacing, so the story-based game tries to separate how well you are really doing from the actual plot. Usually death or failure in the game causes the player to merely repeat some segment of the game (and hence the story), when they finish the level and get the next segment of storytelling, they’ll get it regardless of whether they died once or 100 times. The better player merely proceeds faster.

This is different, but even more problematic in a less linear game such as World of Warcraft. There, the mechanics of the game heavily distort the conceits of storytelling. The story is even broadly linked to the chronological evolution of the game in real time. For example, in December of 2009 Blizzard released the Icecrown Citadel patch of Wrath of the Lich King, making it possible for players to finally reach and confront the ultimate boss of the expansion (the titular Lich King). But the fact is, in order to properly maintain the reward mechanics of endgame raiding, each character was and often did, progress through this segment of the story once, or even twice a week.

The Lich King

Now, two years later, the Lich King has been defeated, the world of Azeroth has been broken, yet it’s still possible to go back to Icecrown and take on Arthas again. And again. Ditto for any of the several hundred even older bosses. Players accept that they have random access to a long and convoluted story. In fact, the need to generate so much gameplay in WOW has created a body of lore that gives the Silmarillion a run for its money. But the way in which it’s experienced mutes the emotional intensity.

What really provides the excitement in WOW (and many other games), isn’t the question of whether the dragon queen Onyxia lives or dies, but the – shall we dare say – drama of whether she does tonight, for us, the group fighting her. And more importantly, will she drop the Nemesis skullcap (arbitrary cool piece of loot) one has been trying to get for six months.

 

This article was originally written by me for Gamesajare.com and was published there on January 22 in English and Spanish.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed
or the
video game post depot
or win Crash & Jak giveaways!

Latest hot post: War Stories: Crash Bandicoot

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Games, Writing
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arthas, Jak and Daxter, Lich King, Naughty Dog, Storytelling, Tetris, The Darkening Dream, Uncharted, Video game, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Hardcover Proof & Paperback Giveaway

Feb01

Glamour shot of my hardcover edition

The hardcover proof came in yesterday and it looks awesome! Now I just have to get it up on Amazon. As it’s printed via LightningSource this might take a few days. The trade paperback went through CreateSpace which is owned by Amazon, so it was fast.

This edition was more work than I thought — although it does look great — for a number of reasons. LightningSource has a rather peculiar and unintuitive process, although they make a nice book. Also getting the mechanical all finished was at the far end of a long chain of about seven contractors.

Anyway, it’s mostly done now. A whole set of pictures of the hardcover from every angle can be found at the bottom of the post.

For other The Darkening Dream related news: First of all, the book is now officially $4.99 and enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Select program. This means the Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Google versions are no longer for sale. Sales were 60:1 higher on Amazon, so it’s a bit of a no brainer and I’ll see how KDP Select goes and revaluate at the end of April.

I’m also running a quick “Vampire Valentines” giveaway on Goodreads. You can enter to win one of twenty copies of the paperback (sorry, if you want this sexy hardcover you’ll have to buy it, the manufacturing cost is almost triple the paperback). Winners will be decided by Goodreads on February 14th. The giveaway can be found here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin

The Darkening Dream

by Andy Gavin

Giveaway ends March 01, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway


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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Andy Gavin, Book, CreateSpace, Giveaway, goodreads, Hardcover, LightningSource, Paperback, The Darkening Dream

Price is Going Up Soon

Jan29

I want to give you all warning that the price of my novel, The Darkening Dream, is going to rise shortly to $4.99. The hardcover is almost ready and I’m about done with the introductory period. So grab it now!

Find it Here

Given how much money I spent on editing, proofreading, typography, interior illustrations, cover illustration, three cover designs, review copies and the like, $4.99 is still a steal. I’ve never been one for anything but the best and The Darkening Dream is no exception.

Additionally, if you read your e-book’s on anything but the Kindle or Kindle app then grab it now. I’m probably going to take down the Google, iBooks, and Nook versions shortly in order to enter Amazon’s Kindle Select. From what my author indie author friends report this is turning out (for the moment) to be a pretty effective marketing tool.

Or find out more about the book here.

 

 

Related posts:

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  3. All Things Change
  4. 11 reasons you should buy The Darkening Dream
  5. The Final Cover
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Darkening Dream, E-book, Google, IBook, Kindle, Nook, The Darkening Dream, Writing and Editing

Hardcover Mechanical

Jan25

The The Darkening Dream‘s hardcover mechanical came in and I submitted a proof. This is the third version of the book, the e-book and the trade paperback already being for sale.

Look for them here

As a long time book lover (over 10,000 books in my library) I wanted a hardcover, even though the paperback will be cheaper, and it’s unusual for a small imprint like mine to do a hardcover edition. Plus it’s even more unusual for the hardcover to come out after the trade (a few weeks in this case), but I’ve never been much for doing it the normal way. I just love the feel of a nice hardcover. I’m printing it through Lightning Source which is the only POD printer I know that does real dust jacket hardcovers. And some people say the quality is better than Createspace too, but boy the sign up and interface are 100x more obtuse — which is one of the many reasons Amazon will continue to crush the competition.

Anyway, Apple also turned up the iBooks version the other day — finally! The whole process only took them a month! (I had to make a new iConnect account, as for some mysterious reason app accounts can’t also sell books!). But in any case, if for some odd reason this is better for you than the Kindle version, here it is:

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Apple, Cover version, Dust jacket, E-book, Hardcover, IBook, IBooks, Lightning Source, Paperback, Print on demand, The Darkening Dream

The Magic of The Darkening Dream

Jan23

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, esoteric, Gabriel, Kabbalah, Magic, Occult, Supernatural, The Darkening Dream, vampires

Round 1 Winner Selected!

Jan17

I’ve official “sold” all 100 tickets in ROUND ONE of the Naughty Dark Contest. So I fired up the Ruby interpreter and asked it to compute the appropriate pseudorandom number, which turned out to be 6.

Counting from zero − I’m such a programmer − this turned out to be a ticket owned by Dorothy Beecher of New York!

She chose the following for her prize: A signed copy of The Darkening Dream!

Ain't it dreamy?

But just because ROUND ONE is finished, doesn’t mean you can’t win. Check out the rules and get submitting, round two is open. As soon as it sells out another 100 tickets, there will be yet another drawing. And the special prizes are available to anyone, anytime!

Which speaking of, Markus Grundnig of Austria is our latest special prize winner, having gone for the gusto and earned 25 tickets! He chose to get a signed copy of his (and my) favorite Naughty Dog game, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

Signed Crash 2 before heading East toward Austria

Crash 2, besides being the most painful year of my life (1997), represents IMHO the pinnacle of Crash gameplay. Some might enjoy Warped’s crazy vehicles (and they were fun), but I for one, like the classic platforming intensity of Cortex Strikes Back. Having cleaned up the crappy Crash 1 save system, revamped the technology, and smoothed the gameplay, Cortex really shines. Although don’t get me wrong, it’s a real close call.

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (20)
Posted in: Contests, Darkening Dream, Games
Tagged as: Crash Bandicoot, drawing, Naughty Dark Contest, New York, Pseudorandom Numbers, Ruby, The Darkening Dream

The Trade Paperback is Launched!

Jan17

Glamour shot of my trade edition

I got the latest proofs back from CreateSpace for my novel, The Darkening Dream, and they are looking great. While there are perhaps a few little tweaks possible to make them perfect, the presses are ready to roll, so I turned it on.

Now it’s winding through the mysterious process at Amazon.

You can buy it here!

Or if you’re an e-book person, those editions have been for sale for a couple of weeks and you can find them here. Amazon is in the process of linking the two versions together and the like. They have a big system where every component is on different server clusters and updated on different timetables. It might even take them a couple days to get the page 100% sorted. But you can still order.

Now I only have the hardcover edition to do. Because it’s print on demand there is really no reason not to do one for those who like hardcovers (like myself). The only extra hard cost is the dust jacket mechanical and some minimal Lightning Source setup fees (they being the POD printer I know that prints hardcovers). What we can’t really figure is the several hours of time it took to fill out their 80 page contract and application and fax it back to them. No web form! They need to get with the times.

You can the trade paperback front and back here:

or the spine here:

The interior looks great also with all the nice chapter heading illustrations and proper typography.

Related posts:

  1. Paperback Getting Close
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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Andy Gavin, CreateSpace, E-book, Hardcover, Indie Publishing, Lightning Source, Paperback, Publishing, The Darkening Dream, Trade Paperback

Paperback Getting Close

Jan12

The “beta” of The Darkening Dream‘s Trade Paperback cover has come in and I submitted another proof. With any luck I might get it on sale next week, the week after for sure. The interior layout has been complete for almost a week too. I can’t wait to see this puppy in the flesh. It should look great.

You can see some of the old paper test versions below. My long standing Lulu (ick) ARC on the left and an older CreateSpace proof on the right. Even with that hybrid cover the CS proof is looking and feeling great.

Apple also finally turned on my iBooks account today and so the iBookstore version should be up in… well however long it takes them to approve it. Given that it took ten days just to validate the account it might not be instant. All the sites except for Amazon and slow slow slow. For example, I uploaded the new cover to Barnes and Noble a week ago and it still hasn’t updated!

Related posts:

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  2. The Final Cover
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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Apple, Book Cover, Cover art, Cover Design, CreateSpace, IBooks, iBookstore, Lulu, Paperback, The Darkening Dream, Trade Paperback

The Final Cover

Jan05

And if you believe I’m really done, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…

But anyway, I’m done for now.

Click to embiggen.

As you may have noticed if you were following the last cover post, I went with the orange — again for now. The gray is perhaps prettier, but the orange pops. I also changed up the author font to a more vintage typeface to imply the 1913 time frame of the novel. And we made various other tweaks like brightening the girl which is mostly for shrunken E-Book versions of the cover where she got lost in the shadows.

Anyway, I’ve already uploaded the new version to all three E-Book sites I’m currently live with. Amazon has already updated, but the lamer, slower other sites will lag behind. If you downloaded the old cover and want to upload I suspect you can just “delete” the book from your Kindle app and retrieve the new one from the archives. I’ll test that myself soon.

So you should just go and buy it if you haven't

Related posts:

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  2. The New Cover Concept
  3. Cover Takes – Opinions Wanted!
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  5. Cover Commission
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, E-book, The Darkening Dream

Special Prize Winners

Jan03

The first round of the crazy Naughty Dark Contest already has not one, but two special prize winners! And these lucky guys are both from Crash’s home country, Australia.

Tyson Cleary of Tasmania

and

William Errey from Perth

For more info on the contest, a detailed list of prizes and rules can be found here!


Both guys also wanted copies of the original Crash Bandicoot and here they are prior to shipping. I signed both cover and CD, including my special unforgable “symbol.” Yes, like Prince, I have a symbol. But you’ll have to ask the Painted Man what it means.

Thank you both immeasurably!

It’s also worth noting that this has made the virtual hat for the first round even more lucrative for the rest of you. Due to their prize winning each first round ticket is worth at least a 2% chance of winning a prize now — and if someone else claims a special prize, it could be even greater. So read up on the rules and participate.

Start by purchasing The Darkening Dream!

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Contests, Darkening Dream, Games
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Australia, Contest, Contests, Crash Bandicoot, Giveaways, List of prizes medals and awards, Naughty Dark Contest, Tasmania, The Darkening Dream

For sale at B&N and Google

Jan03

My novel, The Darkening Dream, is now for sale at Barnes and Noble and the Google bookstore.

Buy it Now!

The Nook version is fine, but use Google only if the others don’t work for you. Google’s processing engine rips apart the EPUB and puts it back — with less than dazzling results. You can read it fine, but they mangle my nice CSS formatting and butcher the little chapter start illustrations. I’m still trying to get an improved version through their system.

Paper versions are coming in about two weeks.

Truly it’s no wonder Amazon is winning the E-Book war. I simultaneously started the process of uploading to: Amazon, B&N, Google, Kobo, Sony, and Apple. The results, from best to worst:

Amazon: Took 15 minutes, it was ready 7 hours later.

B&N: Took 15 minutes, nice previewer, took 7 days to post.

Google: Took 2 hours. The interface is one of the worst ever designed. I wasn’t even sure it was processing when I was “done.” Took 48 hours to post. Mangled the book and the price and have been struggling for days to get an updated version posted.

Sony, Kobo, Apple: Still waiting for my applications for accounts to go through. This should be instant! Haven’t even been able to submit the actual book yet.

As a note too, I refuse to use Smashwords until they allow a direct EPUB upload. Using their crazy meatgrinder is not appealing at all.

Find out more about the book here.

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By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Barnes & Noble, E-book, Google Bookstore, Novel, The Darkening Dream

Announcing the Naughty Dark Contest

Jan02

This is the kickoff post for my new experimental — and hopefully permanent — giveaway program. Via this contest you, dear reader, will have the opportunity to win signed copies of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter games as well as my books and cool toys. All you have to do is participate in my gleefully elaborate scheme to help sell and promote my new novel, The Darkening Dream.

A detailed list of prizes and rules can be found here!

Or by clicking anytime on the big contest icon in the sidebar.

So if signed copies of any of the following look up your alley, read the rules and participate! And even if you aren’t a collector they apparently have significant dollar value because a set of four signed Crashs sold on Ebay recently for over $453!

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By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Contests, Darkening Dream, Games
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Contest, Crash Bandicoot, free, Giveaways, Jak & Daxter, Naughty Dog, Prizes, The Darkening Dream

Cover Takes – Opinions Wanted!

Dec31

Even after the product launch has begun, I’m still tinkering — and such is the way of it in the new world of agile product development. My current cover (to the left) now has an awesome image, but the overall effect isn’t quite bookish enough. So in the interest of total transparency (or mind numbing boredom?) I’ll continue to let you in on these intermediate steps of the creative process.

My cover designer, Pete Garceau, has whipped up a couple concept sketches. To the right is a darker colored take and below one in the original color scheme. You can click them to embiggen.

These are NOT in any way finished. Just concepts.

What I want to know for you, reader, is:

1. Which color scheme do you like, and why?

2. Your opinion of The Darkening Dream font/logo?

Please let me know in the comments!

Discover more about my novel, The Darkening Dream here or on all sorts of other links in the left sidebar.

It’s worth noting, that in the specialized world of book design the book designer (interior), the cover designer (logo design cover layout), and the illustrator (who paints the image on the cover) are sometimes all different people!

NOTE: I updated this post at 10:43am PST with slightly newer takes on the covers. The “older” two can be found here and here.

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By: agavin
Comments (19)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Book design, Color Schemes, Cover art, Cover Design, Covers, E-book, The Darkening Dream

Kotaku Dreams

Dec30

Gaming site Kotaku has run a quick little feature on The Darkening Dream today.

What do you do after founding and retiring from one of video games’ most successful development houses? If you’re Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin, you write books.

The first of said books is The Darkening Dream, a shadowy fantasy novel about a young girl caught up in a battle that pits ancient supernatural forces like vampires and Egyptian gods against each other.

You can check out the full post here.

Thank you guys! And I’ve already seen a big sales jump. I hope all the fans of my old stuff love my new stuff too.

Discover more about my novel, The Darkening Dream, here.

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By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arts, Darkening Dream, Egyptian pantheon, Fiction, Kotaku, Naughty Dog, press, The Darkening Dream, Video game

The Look – Pastor Parris

Dec29

Pastor John Parris is the junior of my two point of view villains in The Darkening Dream. Given the kind of occult woodblock look I’ve been developing I tend to focus on the character’s magical nature to develop their icon.


With Parris I got off to a false start, drawn in by this classic image of Baphomet. It has strong associations with the occult, witchcraft, and demonology. All good stuff that Parris likes to keep close at hand, wrapped in black silk coverings. Or perhaps in a human-skin pouch.

I even had my artists do this rendition (above). But this was a red herring. Truthfully, Baphomet is a nineteenth century rendering, a reinvention of such things in light of 1800s eclecticism. It’s more akin to the effect this image has for us moderns, being cool, exotic, and devilishly naughty. Parris comes from a school of magic that is much more about really believing in fire and brimstone.


So I turned to this kind of image (above) showing a seventeenth century witches sabbath. This is totally apropos, but I didn’t know how to make an icon out of it.


Then I found this view (above) of the witches table. Parris is a ritualist and he often employs candles (lychnomancy) in his magic. The scene was too visually complex, but it was a start.


So I did a ghetto version for my artists (above), using Photoshop to strip away some of the excess and they came back with below, which was about perfect. This shows the tools of Parris’ trade: the candle, the powder horn, bowls for mixing, blades for bloodletting.

Discover more about my novel, The Darkening Dream.
To find out about developing a style for the interior art, see here.
Or for more information on Pastor John Parris, the warlock.

By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Baphomet, demons, John Parris, Magic, Occult, Parris, Pastor John Parris, Pastor Parris, Salem Witch Trials, Succubus, The Darkening Dream, Warlock, Witchcraft

11 reasons you should buy The Darkening Dream

Dec26

1. It’s a great book.

2. It’s only $2.99 — but the price might go up soon.

3. You loved Crash Bandicoot.

4. You loved Jak & Daxter.

5. I was a great boss, friend, or co-worker.

6. My vampires don’t sparkle.

7. There are several beheadings.

8. Decrepit ancient Egyptian gods are cool.

9. The girl on the cover is really cute.

10. I handed you a glass of $100 wine at some point.

11. The book includes a “cesarian by vampire scene.”

And 4 refutations to your protests:

1. I’m poor – but it’s only $2.99.

2. I don’t have a Kindle – you can read Kindle books on a smartphone, iPad, or the web.

3. I’m too lazy to click twice – bad excuse.

4. I don’t read – do you really want to admit that?

Buy it now!

Then after you do, retweet, share, like, or otherwise spam this post or a link to the book on all of your social media! 🙂

Related posts:

  1. The Darkening Dream for Christmas!
  2. The Darkening Dream – Soliciting Reviews
  3. The Darkening Dream
  4. All Things Change
  5. On Writing: Passes and Plots
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon Kindle, Andy Gavin, Crash Bandicoot, E-book, IPad, Jak & Daxter, Kindle, Naughty Dog, The Darkening Dream

The Darkening Dream for Christmas!

Dec25

As a surprise move, I’m stealth launching The Darkening Dream — right now! — although only the Kindle edition.

If your stocking has been stuffed with a brand new Kindle, or you already have one, or you read on the Kindle app anywhere (iPad, Android, etc.)…

Buy it now!

Stealthy introductory price of $2.99. Which is certainly a bargain given that it took me two busy years to write and a lot of work to produce the layout, cover, etc.

So, you might ask (after you have purchased your copy — hint hint), what is a stealth launch?

Well, firstly, while the book is totally done and the E-Book version is all typeset, I’ve only put up the Kindle version. In the next week or so I’ll try and get all the other E-Book variants up (B&N, iTunes, etc.). Also, I’m still finishing up the paper editions. These will look great but they take a bit longer because I have to wait for physical proofs (5 days), make changes, then wait again, etc.

But also, I’m bucking the marketing machine that over the last thirty years has moved more and more to “big launch and then go away” mentality. Pretty much all big products: movies, albums, books etc. are marketed this way now. The marketeers build everything up for a big launch, hope for the best, then turn elsewhere a few scant weeks later. Truth is, this serves the marketeers more than it does the customer. Novels don’t age very fast. I enjoyed The Maltese Falcon as much as any book I read this year and it’s 81 years old. And the potential reader who happens to stumble upon my book doesn’t really care if it was published today — or last year. And it will take me time to collect reviews, get the other editions out, build up more web linkages etc. Later, when I have more of that in place I’ll begin the bigger marketing push.

So try it out and see what you think. Afterward, please review the book on Amazon. Reviews matter!

If you’re still not convinced:

Find out more about the book here
or read the sample chapters
or even check out a bit about the characters.

Related posts:

  1. The Darkening Dream – Soliciting Reviews
  2. All Things Change
  3. The Darkening Dream
  4. Christmas is for Dim Sum
  5. The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Android, Andy Gavin, Christmas, E-book, IPad, Kindle, The Darkening Dream

The Look – al-Nasir

Dec24

In the process of developing the interior look of my book, The Darkening Dream, I wanted to create glyphs to represent each point of view character. In general, despite my big library of occult titles, I find a lot of references on the web (Google for the win!). Ultimately, I’m trying to produce original works, but reference art is very useful in communicating with your artists.

Let’s start with one of the easiest: al-Nasir, my 900 year-old vampire villain.


In life, al-Nasir, was a Moorish warrior who ruled over the Caliphate of Cordoba. If this floats your boat, check out his detail page on the blog. He’s a violent warrior, so a sword was a natural. The above weapon is a photograph of an actual Nasrid sword from the eleventh century. Contrary to popular imagination, Moorish swords were not curved, at least in this period.


As the style I’m going for is an illustrated, “old school engraving” style, I showed the artists this image, which is a similar kind of sword, but as an drawing was useful in demonstrating how to convert the photographic image into a more illustrated form.


But al-Nasir isn’t just any old medieval Moor, no he’s a vampire, and one who specializes in the flying bat form. So I found this odd sixteenth or seventeen century engraving. The bat wings are really cool and in just the kind of naive wood block style I’m going for.


I rotated the sword, then used Photoshop to snip out the bat wings and build a composite to show the artists exactly what I had in mind. I call this “ghetto art” and it might be ugly but it’s invaluable in communicating visually. Below is the resulting final image, which they got pretty much dead on (haha) with the first try.

For more about my novel, The Darkening Dream.
To find out more about developing a style for the interior art, see here.
For more information on al-Nasir, the badass 900 year-old Moorish vampire.

By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: al-Nasir, Nasir, Sword, The Darkening Dream, Vampire

New Cover Art is here!

Dec22

The new cover for The Darkening Dream is almost done! To the left is the current mockup (click the double spread below if you want to see a large version). It still needs a few tweaks and real titles (those are NOT final titles), but it’s real close.

As I’ve discussed before, I commissioned a new cover a couple weeks ago from artist Cliff Nielsen, worked through a whole batch of ideas and sketches, shot the model in the studio, and voila!

I’ve basically got the E-Book interiors done too, having learned over the last two days how to generate MOBI and EPUB files from my base HTML. I even caught and reproed a bug in Calibre which a super responsive programmer fixed in an hour. These files took a lot of work but they look really awesome with all the little interior illustrations and very nice, clean, formatting.

My last thing is to get real titles done and then I’m ready to go with the E-Book version by around the New Year! Although, titles and Amazon approval might drag that out by a couple days.

Please write in the comments what you think of the cover.

The old cover -- made by yours truly

To see photos from the cover shoot, click here.
For more info on the new cover artist, click here.
For more information on The Darkening Dream.
For more posts on writing, click here.

Related posts:

  1. The New Cover Concept
  2. Cover Commission
  3. Making of a Cover
  4. Untimed – The Second Cover
  5. Dreaming Along
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Art, Book Cover, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Darkening Dream, E-book, The Darkening Dream
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