Well, not done with Superhero Nation yet, but done with this site. You can see my new site at www.superheronation.com . This will be my last post at www.bmaccomic.wordpress.com .

First things first.  I submitted the first chapter of Superhero Nation to the Critters online writing group.  Based on several thousand words of critiques, I’m pleased to offer version 3.0 of the book’s first chapter. 

Second, for the next few days I’m going to be updating the website heavily. 

I’m moving from WordPress. I’ll continue posting and updating here until the new site is ready.  As an additional perk, my next chapter will be ready within (hopefully) a week.   To pique your interest, here are some details… Lash and Jacob cross paths.  Lash discovers why dollar bills really have eyeballs.  The Manhattan Mangler is introduced.  A city is devoured by chemically altered snacks.

Hah.  None of those things happen in chapter 4, except Lash and Jacob crossing paths.  The Manhattan Mangler… sheesh.  Wait for chapter 5.

My header is finished, thanks to the artistic talent of Rebecca Gunter. For the record, I did the picture of Jacob in the middle, which… umm… might be a heavily Photoshopped photograph of myself. Haha. I assure you it was not easy turning my sublimely sensual face into a supervillain’s.

I’ve done my first rewrite of Chapter 3, mostly rewriting sentences to make them shorter.  It should be more pleasant to read.  As soon as I finish Chapter 4, I’ll go back and overhaul Chapter 3, probably adding around ten pages.

Check out these bad boys, with front and back side.  

I added a Foreword to the piece.  The main change is that the story is now being told by a journalist well after the story, rather than an omniscient narrator.

Foreword

Year Eleven

      I do not expect to win a Pulitzer Prize for Superhero Nation.  For one, it has a hell of a lot more gratuitous swearing, wanton bloodletting, inane adverbs and aliens than most Pulitzer winners. 

      I would like to deeply thank the people and agencies that made this work possible, particularly the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, and the University of Notre Dame.  I would also like to thank the US Marine Corps, Office of Special Investigations, Social Justice League, and Federal Bureau of Investigations and their representatives for being as open about their work with a failed journalist as they have been. 

      A purely factual account of my perspective of the last eleven years would be abjectly pointless.  I’m not telepathic, so I can offer at best informed speculation about what other individuals thought at any particular moment.  This work is designed to offer informed speculation about what actually happened, based on thousands of hours of interviews, but obviously Mr. Mallow and some other crucial individuals are unavailable for comment. 

      Finally, this book is dedicated to everyone conspiring on my behalf, whether domestically or over there.  These individuals know who they are; naming them would probably get them killed.  Names and any other relevant facts have been changed to protect secret identities. 

      Without any further ado, I welcome you to Superhero Nation.  You can read the first chapter here. 

Sincerely,

Tommy Thompkins,

Former Surf City Chronicle reporter

Version 2.0 of Chapter 2 (Only Human) is now complete.  Before it was around 15 pages, now it is fully 40. 

Within an hour, I will be done with the revision of Only Human.

Also, I’d like to announce that I am looking to commission a cover-art for this website.  If that would interest you, please click here for more details.

Something came up at home and my writing will be put off for a week or so.  I’ll try to complete Only Human as soon as possible.  But please keep in mind that I’m… only human.  Haha ok I’ll stop now.

It’s 4 AM and the revision of Only Human is coming a bit slower than anticipated.   I had thought I’d be finished by now, but I’m 75% done.

I updated my cover art again.  Hopefully this will draw in readers that have come to the site.

Additionally, I’m getting business cards printed.

The cards say on the front side…

Superhero Nation

The greatest superhero novel you’ve never heard of.

Read it for free at www.bmaccomic.wordpress.com 

Join the conspiracy today.

The back says…

How to become a superhero

1. Work in a chemical plant… the more leaks, the better.
2. Two words: government benefits.
3. Know any aliens?

How to survive as a superhero

1. Get a secret identity, ideally one that only puts you close to people you wouldn’t very much mind seeing murdered one day. 
2. Government benefits… like bulk rates on ammo. 
3. Trust only those that depend completely on your survival, a category that consists entirely of versions of yourself from the future.

The front is vaguely conventional, except that  most business cards sell a person but this card sells a book.  In fact, my card doesn’t say anything about me, not even my e-mail address.  I’m not entirely comfortable with giving strangers my contact information.  Besides, I’m writing under a psuedonym (it may surprise you to know that BMac isn’t my given name).  Although I’m not guarding my real identity with any real zeal, I think listing my name would make the book seem more banal.

The back is a parody of traditional business cards, which often include useful information so that people will hold on to them.  For example, my wallet has a dentist’s business card that has handy flossing tips and recommendations on how often you should see a dentist (hint: often).  Though I doubt that anyone will hold on to my card because they will value my tips on being a superhero, the backside samples my writing style pretty well and is funny enough that people might be tempted to see the site, which is what really matters.

These business cards will be fairly cheap, about 10 to a dollar.  I’ll probably go to comic book shops from time to time and give one to everyone inside.  I’m also toying around with the idea of a a small number of metal dog-tag business cards to give to people who have helped me a lot along the way and, perhaps more importantly (*wink*), employees of publishing companies.  Metal business cards cost ~$1.75 each to make, so I can’t just randomly give them out ten at a time, but if you’re particularly interested in having one, e-mail me at bmckenzie05-at-aol.com and I can probably mail one to you.  Two dollars isn’t going to cripple me financially, but I can’t do it for blind prospects.

Hi, right now I’m revising Chapter 2, Only Human.  I’m about halfway done and pleased with the feel so far.  It should turn out really nicely.  Version 2.0 of Chapter 2 will be available by tonight or possibly early tomorrow morning (should be no later than 3 AM of May 31).

Within a week, I should have version 1.0 of chapter 4 ready to go.  Then I’ll start revising Chapter 3 a lot.  Personally, I like 3 a lot better than the original version of chapter 2, so it shouldn’t take me so long to get working on it.

Today I crossed the threshold of 20,000 words, which is fully a fifth of an average novel manuscript and two thirds of what I was contracted to write this summer.   Of course, I won’t stop writing once I get to the magic 30,000– my goal is the vastly more magical 100,000– but it is nice knowing that I will have accomplished what I was paid to do this summer.

Hi again. I spent the last night working on trimming down posts I’ve already made. Now, the postings on the sidebar (particularly under the New Here? heading) are a lot more concise and useful.

A few people told me to do a character profile for Lash. Voila!

I’ve got the chronology down. Sweet.

• Year One:
  • Jacob Mallow starts grad school and starts to go evil.
• Year Seven:
  • Everything with Courtney/Lash.
  • Jacob is now an accomplished bioengineer.
  • Agent Orange and Oliver get screwed with indefinite guard duty.
• Year Ten:
  • Mallow finishes the mutagen and zaps Dr. Fox.
  • Oliver’s “son,” Rusty, is now three years old.
  • The plot to stop Mallow takes shape.