Hey look, the gap in posting is over and there's a good reason - after going through all the annoying things that come with self-publishing a book, Silence In Numbers is actually up on Amazon! Yaaaaaaaay!
So here's how it is - my first book can now be purchased here. It's only four dollars, but Amazon Prime members can borrow it for free (and I still get money! How awesome is that?).
BUT! Here's the biggest part - for Friday and Saturday, August 23rd and 24th to be specific, my book will be free to everyone thanks to its inclusion in the Kindle Select program, meaning even if you don't have Prime you don't have to pay anything. And if you don't have a Kindle, no worries - you can download their app to the phone or computer you're reading this on (which I recommend anyway) for free in no time, and then pick up my book then also for free. That's a lot of free - who turns down free stuff?
In all seriousness, I would really appreciate anyone reading it and giving it a review, which would get it seen and read by more people. I'm trying to make a living off this, and I've already eaten one of my arms in a fit of hunger; don't make me take the other one!
If you'd like to know more about the book before getting it for free because you're just that cautious, I've got a little info about it on this blog you can check out. All I'm asking is that you give me a chance. I know you're a nice person; I know it.
After all, I've been watching you for quite some time.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
The Worlds I Live In, Part 2: The Characters of Silence In Numbers
Welcome back to the series in which I look at things I've written instead of judging those others have written, which is admittedly a bit less fun for me and even more insufferable for you. Today, we're going to look at the central focus of Silence In Numbers: the characters.
Katsumi Samakura: Our first protagonist, our heroine, the primary motivator of our story, Katsumi is a violet-haired woman with a past; granted, having a past is not quite unique considering every life form past the point of conception has a past, but Katsumi's is particularly interesting (unlike, say, mine). Katsumi is 34 years old, which is quite young considering the average human lifespan in 2068. Her priorities are her sister, survival, her team, and the public, in that order. She loves her sister more than anything, and hates her father more than anything else.
Katsumi's Cyber Percentage (CP) is 83%, and when 83% of your body is cybernetic it makes you quite a powerful threat; she's got beyond human strength, speed and reactions, as well as numerous technological upgrades that aid her in her work. She is not a people person, she's got a fierce temper when triggered (and it's fairly easily triggered), she's solitary (excluding her sister), and she doesn't share much, if at all, of her personal life. Despite these flaws she's a strong and capable leader, inspiring both loyalty and trust in her team through her skill, intelligence, and willingness to protect them when necessary.
Ayane Samakura: The second protagonist and the center of Katsumi's world, Ayane is three years younger than her sister and shares the exact same past. She spends most of her days in a hospital bed, keeping some semblance of a social life with a small circle of friends and weekly visits from her sister. Still, she misses the days when it was her and Katsumi all day every day, traveling and living together; on top of this she worries for her sister's safety considering the dangerous nature of her work and the fact that she's sick, as well.
Like her sister, Ayane has an unusually high CP, that being 71%. She has bright blue hair, and is the one who picked Katsumi's current hair color as well; this brighter color reflects her personality, which is far cheerier than her sister's and much friendlier. This often fools people, however, as Ayane is every bit the violent fighter that Katsumi is, brutally dispatching opponents with vicious speed and skill. She's done just as many horrifying things as her sister in the name of survival, and only seems innocent at first meeting.
Katsumi Samakura: Our first protagonist, our heroine, the primary motivator of our story, Katsumi is a violet-haired woman with a past; granted, having a past is not quite unique considering every life form past the point of conception has a past, but Katsumi's is particularly interesting (unlike, say, mine). Katsumi is 34 years old, which is quite young considering the average human lifespan in 2068. Her priorities are her sister, survival, her team, and the public, in that order. She loves her sister more than anything, and hates her father more than anything else.
Katsumi's Cyber Percentage (CP) is 83%, and when 83% of your body is cybernetic it makes you quite a powerful threat; she's got beyond human strength, speed and reactions, as well as numerous technological upgrades that aid her in her work. She is not a people person, she's got a fierce temper when triggered (and it's fairly easily triggered), she's solitary (excluding her sister), and she doesn't share much, if at all, of her personal life. Despite these flaws she's a strong and capable leader, inspiring both loyalty and trust in her team through her skill, intelligence, and willingness to protect them when necessary.
Ayane Samakura: The second protagonist and the center of Katsumi's world, Ayane is three years younger than her sister and shares the exact same past. She spends most of her days in a hospital bed, keeping some semblance of a social life with a small circle of friends and weekly visits from her sister. Still, she misses the days when it was her and Katsumi all day every day, traveling and living together; on top of this she worries for her sister's safety considering the dangerous nature of her work and the fact that she's sick, as well.
Like her sister, Ayane has an unusually high CP, that being 71%. She has bright blue hair, and is the one who picked Katsumi's current hair color as well; this brighter color reflects her personality, which is far cheerier than her sister's and much friendlier. This often fools people, however, as Ayane is every bit the violent fighter that Katsumi is, brutally dispatching opponents with vicious speed and skill. She's done just as many horrifying things as her sister in the name of survival, and only seems innocent at first meeting.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The Worlds I Live In, Part 1: The World of Silence In Numbers
So, I thought I'd put up some stuff here where I go a bit into the two series I'm currently writing. In this part, we're looking at the world of Silence In Numbers, the first book of which is finished and soon going online.
SIN is a series about the somewhat-near future (I can never tell where the line for "near" future ends), taking place in 2068. We've all seen the version of the future in science fiction where corporations take over, because to us today, that seems increasingly probable; SIN takes place during that transition, as the world is growing more privatized and national borders are being dissolved (there's no reason for countries to be so separated when they're run by companies, is there?).
There are a lot of advances in technology I could've gone for, but I decided on cybernetics because of all the possibilities it offers; cybernetics have now advanced to the point that they can be fully synthetic, allowing even someone with a high amount of cybernetics to appear and feel human. Synthetic skin, blood, warmth, digestion, breathing - it all works not only to help those with cybernetics feel like they're human and live normally (such as still eating food or drinking), but to minimize the risk of the body rejecting the cybernetics.
The amount of cybernetics a person has is referred to as their CP - Cyber Percentage. This means that if a person has a CP of 17%, then 17% of their body is cybernetic (that's seven times I've said that word, if you're keeping count. Cybernetics. Eight.)
The main story focuses around SIN-Unit 1, an elite unit under the Aegis Corporation, a private military firm that provides everything from private security to public security to disaster response to counter-terrorism, and everything in-between. SIN-Unit 1 is the first of its kind - the name stands for "Supernatural Invasion Null", and it was created by Aegis Corp to combat the paranormal threats that are kept unknown to the public through various means. These threats incorporate all sorts of things from ghosts to vampires to demons, but SIN-Unit 1 isn't limited to the supernatural - they also work as a counter-terrorism unit taking down the biggest threats using unknown methods.
Okay, I don't want to write an entirely new book here, so I'll cut this off here. In Part 2, I'll be going into the characters. I hope this stuff is interesting to someone, because I'm writing it anyway (neener neener).
SIN is a series about the somewhat-near future (I can never tell where the line for "near" future ends), taking place in 2068. We've all seen the version of the future in science fiction where corporations take over, because to us today, that seems increasingly probable; SIN takes place during that transition, as the world is growing more privatized and national borders are being dissolved (there's no reason for countries to be so separated when they're run by companies, is there?).
There are a lot of advances in technology I could've gone for, but I decided on cybernetics because of all the possibilities it offers; cybernetics have now advanced to the point that they can be fully synthetic, allowing even someone with a high amount of cybernetics to appear and feel human. Synthetic skin, blood, warmth, digestion, breathing - it all works not only to help those with cybernetics feel like they're human and live normally (such as still eating food or drinking), but to minimize the risk of the body rejecting the cybernetics.
The amount of cybernetics a person has is referred to as their CP - Cyber Percentage. This means that if a person has a CP of 17%, then 17% of their body is cybernetic (that's seven times I've said that word, if you're keeping count. Cybernetics. Eight.)
The main story focuses around SIN-Unit 1, an elite unit under the Aegis Corporation, a private military firm that provides everything from private security to public security to disaster response to counter-terrorism, and everything in-between. SIN-Unit 1 is the first of its kind - the name stands for "Supernatural Invasion Null", and it was created by Aegis Corp to combat the paranormal threats that are kept unknown to the public through various means. These threats incorporate all sorts of things from ghosts to vampires to demons, but SIN-Unit 1 isn't limited to the supernatural - they also work as a counter-terrorism unit taking down the biggest threats using unknown methods.
Okay, I don't want to write an entirely new book here, so I'll cut this off here. In Part 2, I'll be going into the characters. I hope this stuff is interesting to someone, because I'm writing it anyway (neener neener).
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Welcome to the Past
Welcome, future readers!
I say "future" because at the time of writing this, the only one here is me. Partially because this blog didn't previously exist, as it's difficult to read non-existent things (but not impossible), and partially because at the time of writing I am a completely unknown person typing out a few paragraphs to send out into the great void of the internet. So anyone that reads this post is most likely someone from the future, doing one of those binge-reading things you do when you discover a new site and go back to the first post to read the archive from the beginning. If you're doing that, please tell me I've improved as a writer. Also if I'm rich - I'd like to be rich.
Anyway, this blog with the cool name (it's cool, not emo, go away) is for me, Jake Taylor, to write... things. You know, stuff. Here you'll probably find everything from rants to comments on movies and games, just like every other blog out there because we all have our opinions these days and this is my blog so it's mine you get to see.
BUT! You will also find notes and ideas from my writing as well as writing in general and some other cool stuff, assuming you like my writing, and if you don't, well, what are you doing here?
If you've got anything to say, mosey on down to the comments and leave it there, I'll respond because I truly care about each and every person, and not at all because I have nothing better to do.
I say "future" because at the time of writing this, the only one here is me. Partially because this blog didn't previously exist, as it's difficult to read non-existent things (but not impossible), and partially because at the time of writing I am a completely unknown person typing out a few paragraphs to send out into the great void of the internet. So anyone that reads this post is most likely someone from the future, doing one of those binge-reading things you do when you discover a new site and go back to the first post to read the archive from the beginning. If you're doing that, please tell me I've improved as a writer. Also if I'm rich - I'd like to be rich.
Anyway, this blog with the cool name (it's cool, not emo, go away) is for me, Jake Taylor, to write... things. You know, stuff. Here you'll probably find everything from rants to comments on movies and games, just like every other blog out there because we all have our opinions these days and this is my blog so it's mine you get to see.
BUT! You will also find notes and ideas from my writing as well as writing in general and some other cool stuff, assuming you like my writing, and if you don't, well, what are you doing here?
If you've got anything to say, mosey on down to the comments and leave it there, I'll respond because I truly care about each and every person, and not at all because I have nothing better to do.
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