Catching up is hard to do! (WIP Wednesday)

You might have noticed my complete disappearance from blogging in the second half of January. It was not without good reason as I struggled to get things up and running with Patreon stories through a seemingly never-ending fight with sickness and general malaise. I used the time to get closer to back on track with all my projects so that I hopefully can keep steady releases throughout 2019.

A lot of focus went into making sure the next month's stories are ready or close to ready to go for their impending release. The Patreon site now comes with a handy image to let everyone know the release dates for the next couple months and this will update once a month to keep the schedule out in front of me.

It's nothing fancy, but it does let everyone have the dates for the impending releases of the next two Lightweight chapters as well as the first stories in Shockwave and the second volume of Quadrant.

I also used that time to wrap up a story for the new Pen & Cape Society anthology due in just a few months. I'm not going to reveal the nature of the new anthology or the story until the book is officially announced, but I will say it continues to develop the Secret Life of D.B. Cooper series without featuring Coop himself.

Right now, I've got a couple super-secret projects in the works, one on a tight deadline I'm not sure I'll be able to finish and another long in production and looking to finish by the end of the month. Plus I'm continuing edits and writing on the upcoming Patreon stories as I work to keep well ahead new of my new biweekly schedule.

Hopefully, this blog will be back on a semi-regular schedule for the foreseeable future, so you don't miss out on what's happening out there in the fine fine world of the Quadrant Universe!

Writing at not-nearly-pulp speed

Dean Wesley Smith has made a name for himself by producing interesting new content at a fast pace, often in huge chunks. He's taken that idea into the concept of Pulp Speed levels, not unlike Warp Speed levels in Star Trek. Pulp Speed Level One is 1,000,000 words a year or about 83,000 a month.

Starting on the 9th, he plans to start work on his next non-fiction work, Living at Pulp Speed Five, where he will chronicle his quest to write ten novels and that non-fiction book over the course of 100 days, for a grand total of about half a million words in less than four months. It's a lofty goal, but Smith has produced crazy large amounts of work on a monthly basis for years, so if anyone can do it, is certainly him. He helps himself along by including the count for every blog post he writes as well, several of which will then be the content of the book.

I look at that challenge and have to say it intrigues the hell out of me. Now, I know that with a full time job and a family, I'm not getting close to his 150,000 words a month. But my current output is somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 words in a good month by the same standards. I want to push that to 30,000 in September, 40,000 in October and 50,000 (of course) in time for that regular goal for NaNoWriMo in November. If I can succeed I'll have written the equivalent of about two full length books.

Can I do it? Heck if I know. But we don't grow if we don't challenge ourselves. So wish me luck as I start down the path of increased content creation. I'll keep updates coming every couple weeks right here on the site, much as I have always done with my WIP Wednesday updates. I'll also talk a bit more about my plans and goals over at the Patreon. So stay tuned as the writing gets crazy as I look to go above and beyond anything I've done in the last few years. First up: a whole heck of a lot of Lightweight!

Welcome to the new era of the Quadrant Universe!

I'm proud to have launched the Quadrant Universe over ten years ago now. I have stated time and again that 2018 is a rebuilding year for me. As part of that re-building, I decided I needed to make sure I had an infrastructure to deliver serialized super powered fiction to everyone through some kind of easy subscription format.

The easiest answer is Patreon.

A preview of what you will see at Patreon.

If you're unfamiliar with Patreon, the service is designed to allow fans of creators to directly support their work. Usually this comes in exchange for some kind of exclusive content. This will definitely be true for me as I go forward with my work. Starting in 2019, I plan to launch the new chapters of Lightweight and Quadrant as regular monthly releases to Patreon subscribers. Additionally, I'll debut new stories, such as a third series featuring a new continuing super-character I've developed over the last year. I plan to drop some short stories and novellas featuring other characters in there as well.

Of course, that launches in January. I'd personally love to see you sign up today however. You see, my plan for the rest of the year is to serialize every already published chapter of Lightweight and Quadrant over the next four months. Backers at higher levels will also see other bonus stories.

So if you love great super powered fiction or just want to support my work, this will be the direct line to do so and get all of my work faster than anyone else. Even if you don't have any interest in deep early content from yours truly, you can get exclusive thoughts, ideas and interviews over at the Patreon as well. Later this month, I will debut the first installment of BLOGGO, THE BLOG THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN! This feature will bring exclusive content from yours truly, sometimes in the form of articles like you see here (such as Influential, Best Character Ever, etc.) or as new content choices, such as deep dives into various things I just really, really love.

Learn more about all of this over at Patreon.

With the success of this project, I can guarantee years of content to come. Let's make new super powered fiction happen!

Support Super Powered Fiction on Patreon!

Patreon may be the most important platform of our time. It allows for immediate support of creative minds. Usually it comes with exclusive content by said creator. A number of great creators survive through Patreon: whether they be comic creators, musicians, photographers or some kind of multimedia pioneer.

Others are like me, and seek out patrons that might help Super Powered Fiction become a full time reality as a writer. I want to continue to have the time to produce all the great stories I currently have in various states of reality. Many will start appearing in just a few weeks, but I would love to devote more and more time to this site and my writing in 2017 and beyond. 

I am serious about this. I have grand plans to expand Walking Shadows and Lightweight should the fund-raising become more successful. I have eleven goals listed on the site should monthly funds continue to rise. They range from a dedicated domain name for Walking Shadows to paid spot art to the debut of a book tentatively titled Cosmic! as a second web serial. Higher tiers would turn Lightweight into an online for everyone serial as well, gain Walking Shadows a devoted server and beyond. I've actually crafted several more goals should I ever reach that elusive final mark. 

I'm a long way from there at Patreon.

I've got exclusive content over there though. As I'll talk about when the newsletter hits in a couple days, I plan to expand a ton of creative force in the next few months on creating new and interesting ideas, even as I expand upon Walking Shadows, Lightweight and F.O.R.C.E. 

You can help. As little as a dollar a month will get you access to the hidden blog which contains hidden content related to Walking Shadows as well as behind the scene details of the book's corner of the Quadrant Universe. Higher pledges can get you ebooks, website links and advertisements on site. 

If you have ever enjoyed any of my work, the Patreon is now the first and best place to access more of it. Give it a look and please if you can, consider a patronage. Only with your help can creatives like mine move onto the next level of great work in the year's ahead. 

River City History returns to Walking Shadows

A new River City History takes the stage at Walking Shadows today. Give it a look and consider supporting the Patreon for the project as well.

A change would do you good...

Sang by Sheryl Crow in 1997, those words now pass a certain level of judgment on Super Powered Fiction. It is simply time for this sight to change.


As a writer with a full time day job, time is of the essence. And as I continue to blog here and at The Wrestling Weekday, I have realized I am desperately cutting into the time I have to write actual fiction. Mixed with depression issues, I have often found my writing slowed to a crawl and that stops today.

Opale Suicide remains a perfect icon for time
in my eyes. Copyright Suicide Girls.

Time has become a terribly important commodity for me as I seek to have enough time to write, to spend with my family and to stay mentally healthy in 2016 and beyond.

This doesn't mean the site will dry up or go away. In fact, I hope it means it will become better focused. I will drop the content from five updates to an average of one to two a week. And while I will stop in occasionally for a new installment of Best Character Ever or Kickstart the Week, most of the site will focus on my personal projects, just as my writing time is now focused on those projects.

If you just can't get enough of my blogging, first thank you, and second, I'll still be out there. I will continue to update The Wrestling Weekday with three updates a week minimum while Walking Shadows will continue its Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday release schedule for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, I will be adding more extra content to the Patreon over the coming weeks as I will have more time to directly communicate with my supporters there. I have tons of plans in place should that program start to take off both for more content here as well, so please consider donating even a dollar a month to the program to help support my writing.

I will have a final way to contact folks interested in my content, but it will debut a bit later in the month. I will have more details on that one shortly, after I'm sure everything is set up correctly.

Kickstart the Week 38: The Specialists

World War II and superheroes go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's just a fact.

Shawn Gustafson and Al Fukalek clearly know that as they produce the weekly webcomic The Specialists. But like so many great web comics, it suffers from the need to make a profit. But like so many great webcomics, it also has the power of Patreon behind it now.

The Specialists tells the tale of the United States first gathered superteam, designed to stand against the Nazis in World War II. But it also delves into the racial and gender politics of the time period, with Jewish, black and female members of the team in prominent roles in the series.

Learn more about the great series at their Patreon site, or start reading the comic from the beginning and see why it deserves your support.

Kickstart the Week 37: The Revenger

Charles Forsman isn't exactly your normal creator. He is one of those guys that has stayed independent in his years as a writer/artist doing whatever he wants to the way he wants to do it. Because of this, he never has had a huge name in comic books, but he's started to get a lot more notoriety of late due to The Revenger, his self-published and digital comic.


The book is a fascinating book basically designed to look like the dystopian future of numerous 80s movies and TV series. The lead is a woman named The Revenger who travels across the wasteland to fight evil with her sword, gun and relenting need to right wrongs. Now several issues in, it is set to be collected by Bergen Street Press, the same small house that is making the amazing Copra collections.

He also has a Patreon set up to allow his fans to directly support his work and get his books directly from him. It works as an elegant way to support a creator while also getting to read his new work, the perfect use for Patreon as a whole.

Revenger issue one.

If you have any questions about the project, you can learn more about Forsman and his work at RevengerKills.com. Or head over to the Patreon for more information on how you can support it.

Walking Shadows and Super Powered Fiction - now on Patreon!

Walking Shadows is a passion project of mine. The six young heroes I've created in the series have tons of importance to me and I still have a lot of story to tell about them. But unfortunately, I only have so much time and because of that I need to ask fans to show their support for the site.

It doesn't take much to keep the site alive in its current form, but it is still not free. Because of that, Patreon is the sensible solution to allow fans to directly support Walking Shadows. Every supporter gets bonus content through the Patreon every month. Higher levels unlock digital copies of Lightweight, access to the entire Metahuman Press digital library and even print editions of Metahuman Press titles. Patreon is the go-to source to get every ounce of new Quadrant Universe and Metahuman Press content.

The cool thing about Patreon is that the more backing I get, the more access I have to adding cool features to the site, from a dedicated domain name to new serials to even the return of the SuperPowerCast podcast.

The full details on backing levels and unlockable goals can be found on the Patreon page.

To be clear, Walking Shadows will continue for free for months to come, available from the beginning for anyone and everyone to read online. But fans of the serial and of Super Powered Fiction can now directly support what this site is all about: great super powered fiction.

Thanks in advance to everyone that takes the plunge.

Kickstart the Week 34: Curveball

I decided to devote the month of November to focus on crowd-funded projects not at the big boy, so this month you will find some Patreon and IndieGoGo projects I think look great.

And the easiest place to start with all of that is a Patreon I already back. C.B. Wright has been producing Curveball for quite some time now. Now twenty-five approximately monthly chapters in, he has created over 200,000 words based around one character and the universe around him.

Did I mention he gives it all away free online?

Much like my own Walking Shadows, C.B. Wright produces Curveball as a web serial with collected editions available, including monthly omnibuses through the Patreon. It's dang good too, although I will let you decide if you want to pit both our works against one another.

While C.B. continues to look for regular work by day, Curveball is in danger of slowing down. More support on Patreon would surely help him keep the project going for weeks and months to come. Check out the work and see if you agree that Curveball is worth your support.