Nick Bryan Dot Com: fiction

Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts

New Stock Photo Comic! About geese!

So, another comic is coming for you, only a couple of weeks after the last one. However, because I'm not made of money, this one does not have specially commissioned art. Instead, it is made of stock photos.

Specifically, as you may have seen from the image on the right, stock photos of geese.

Yes. Click here now to read my five page story about a goose having an identity crisis. Trust me, it's great.

If you particularly enjoy the story, or desperately want me to be able to afford to pay more artists so I do less weird stock photo comics, you can back me on Patreon and help make that happen. If you back at the necessary level, you even get a nine-minute podcast of me discussing my inspirations for this story.

Now, here's another sample from the goose comic.

New comics! New Patreon! New!

Yes, after a sparse year on the blog, I'm back with new fiction! And it's more comics, which should tell you something about where my head is this year.

But this time, it's not a comic story in an anthology - we now have a new 'Comics' tab at the top of this site, or you can just click here, where I'll be posting a few short stories I've been working on with some very cool artists. We've got three in progress, a fourth hopefully joining them soon.

As someone who likes his comics a lot - you may have noticed - I'm pretty excited. The very first story is called Transcendental Rental, with fun art by Chris Caesar (sample panel above, yes) and features a wizarding mishap. Basically, it's a short comedy bit. Subsequent stories will have beefier plots, but this seemed a fun start.

P-P-P-Pick Up A Patreon

All of which brings me on to our second bit of news - like many an internet creating person, I have now started a Patreon page, to help me hire still more artists and draw still more comics. I've got a few up-front to get us going, but if you'd like to see more without along wait - or if you just particularly like me and my work and want to chip in - there is now a way.

Patreon, for those who don't know, is basically a way of 'subscribing' to a creator you like, paying a monthly amount of your choice. In return, they provide a few perks - I've listed a few on the site, including a short commentary podcast about the process of making each comic. The first is up now!

But yeah, obviously, this is a service I'm providing, so if there's any further perks I can (reasonably) provide to encourage patreonage, do get in touch.

Or if you'd rather stick to a one-time donation than a full patreonisation, there is also this PayPal thingy.

Anyhow. I don't want this site to become a constant beg, but just FYI, the Patreon option now exists, there are perks available. If you enjoy the free comic stories especially, it will definitely make it much more likely that there will be more of them. We'll see how it goes.

"The Half-Baked Sacrifice" - new comic anthology story out now in print and digital!

My latest venture into comic writing is out now! It's called The Half-Baked Sacrifice, with art by Lukas Kowalczuk and features in the new anthology Something Wicked 2016 from Futurequake Press!

Basically, it's a four page story about a slightly unstable toaster and its important mechanical religious beliefs. There's also a rodent. I think the story's pretty fun by itself, but the the art by Lukas is absolutely excellent.

Seriously - buy the comic, look at it. Or there are a few small samplers available in this very post! (Yes, they are quite small samples, but it is a four page story. I don't want to give away the farm.)

And if you wish to buy it in print, you can go to Futurequake Press's website here for £6.50 (plus postage)!

Or, for digital comic readers, it's also up on popular digital comics platform Comixology for the knock-down price of £1.49.

My bit starts on page 74, if you wanted to know.

So yes, check it out. It may not shock you to learn that writing comics is a long-held dream for me, and seeing it realised in such a beautifully drawn way has come close to making my entire 2017 even though it's only just started.

Oh, and if you want to see more art from Lukas Kowalczuk (and fair enough), his website is right here. Cheers to Futurequake as well, for making the whole process fun and painless. If you're an aspiring creator and the chance comes up to work with them, absolutely do it.

Hobson & Choi v4 - Blood Will Stream - OUT NOW!

Today is BWS day! No, not "beers, wines and spirits" (my friend Paul used to work in Sainsburys BWS section), it's Blood Will Stream!

The fourth Hobson & Choi book is out today, featuring our heroes investigating the locked room murder of a YouTuber. Who did the deed, and can Hobson and Angelina find the killer without making the whole situation much worse? For once? Maybe?

I could type a lot more, but since I'm doing YouTube videos at the moment to tie in with this YouTubey book, I'll embed a video instead. Here are my release day thoughts. Ready yourselves.

(Or if you just want to buy the damn book, there's a grid of buy links just below the video. Go for it.)

There we go. Hope that stirred something in you. Aside from the thought "Man, that guy needs to stop waving his hands around."

Anyway, down to business: here are all the places you can buy Blood Will Stream in print and digital! Check it out! Hope you like it! Tell your friends! Etc! Release day woooooooo!

Hobson & Choi - Case Four: Blood Will Stream - COVER AND PRE-ORDER DETAILS

Hello.

After many Twitter mumblings and late-into-the-night formatting sessions, I'm excited to report that the fourth book in the Hobson & Choi series is happening! It's called Blood Will Stream, it's about the locked-room murder of a YouTuber and it should be with you on 4th October 2016, just under a year after the third one.

Which is exciting in itself, but also means another cool part of any Hobson & Choi book launch - a new cover by Design For Writers! As you can see, they've very much taken the online streaming theme and run with it.

To go alongside that, here's a nice sales blurb:

“I used to think knowing people just by online handles was totally cool, but these internet murders might be changing my mind.”

After YouTuber GrazGrim is found dead in his locked bedroom-studio, the police are ready to write it off as a suicide.

The online fandom only have one chance for justice: John Hobson and Angelina Choi, internet detectives!

But can Angelina persuade Hobson to take the case on? And will anyone like what they find?

Blood Will Stream is the fourth book in this darkly comic London crime series. The detectives are back in whodunnit territory, revisiting their love-hate relationship with the internet.

Hobson & Choi has been #1 in Dark Comedy on Amazon, broken records on Jukepop Serials and now returns with an all-new mystery never seen anywhere else!

So there we go. This is really happening. As the blurb implies, this is the first H&C book written specifically for book format, rather than forged from rewritten webserial chapters, and I think it's the best yet. Although it does mean I haven't had any pre-validation from online comments.

Still, if you want to validate me, you can always pre-order using the links below! (Seamless...)

And it's also on Goodreads here for those of you who go there. If you have a blog, YouTube channel or other book reviewing outlet and want a review copy, email me at nick@nickbryan.com and we can probably work something out.

Probably some more stuff to come - it has been pointed out that one suitable promo campaign for this book would be to do some YouTube videos, so you might get to see that over the next few weeks. You lucky, lucky people.

Now, as has become tradition, it's 3D time...

Trapped In The Bargain Basement - Hobson & Choi Case Three - OUT NOW

One of those blog posts that kinda writes itself - Trapped In The Bargain Basement, the third book in my mismatched-detective-duo London crime series Hobson & Choi comes out today! It should be out now!

In this third book, the team look into the dark heart of a massive towering shopping centre. But how is it evil? And why? And whose fault is it, and can it be proven? All these answers plus romantic subplot complications in this third volume!

I'll be honest, it's a very plot-heavy series, so I'd recommend starting from the first book (The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf) if you've not read any before. Helpfully, said debut book is currently free and you can get that from the links on the main Hobson & Choi page.

However, I do think Case Three could be one of the best yet and you don't have to just take my word for it. The first review went up yesterday on fellow indie author Virginia McClain's blog, which you can see here accompanied by a nice guest post by me about how to turn your serial into a novel.

Here's a nice pertinent quote from Virginia's review: "This third installment of the Hobson & Choi mysteries delivers just as much fun and whimsy as the first two books, but with the delightful addition of more wolfhound. My favorite thing about all three books is the characters and their engagement with each other.... Whoever's perspective we're following, there's a good chance that we are going to be forced to take a good look at our own privilege, even if we aren't forced to stare at it too long, and can safely return to pinning things on the 'bad guys' a few pages later. It's this odd but compelling mixture of dark humor and introspection that keeps me returning to Bryan's books."

(It's weird being referred to by my surname again, by the way. Reminds me of being back at all-boys grammar school.)

So there we go. Trapped In The Bargain Basement is out now in both print and digital and below should be a rank of buttons to help you buy it. Enjoy!

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - FREE AT LAST (on digital)

The first Hobson & Choi book, The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf, has been around since early 2013 in various forms: on Jukepop Serials, podcasted, in the self-published book and recently in serialised form on Wattpad.

Well, as the H&C Empire begins gearing up for its third installment (and I've already written the first draft of Case Four), I'd like everyone to at least give my grim-yet-fun urban crime book series a shot so I can have some chance of buying that heavily armoured central London fortress.

For that exact reason, the very first H&C case is now free on all major ebook platforms that I could upload and set it as free on.
So if you've been meaning to try the series but held back by money, it now costs nothing. How long this price will last, I don't know - I am a man, not a publishing machine - but at least the rest of 2015, I think.

I considered announcing this on Tuesday with the cover reveal, but because I ~~didn't get it set up in time~~ wanted to maximise the impact of the strategic announcement on the internet content media #landscape, here's the freebie news a few days later.

If you've already read the first H&C story arc in one format or another, consider grabbing the freebie anyway for Book-One-only bonus short story The Left Hand Is Always Right, which I enjoyed writing muchly.

Anyway, that's enough text considering all I'm announcing is The Free Thing Is Free. Below are the buy-buttons, begin yoinking from your ebook retailer of choice. And if you enjoy it, you can move quickly on to Case Two and (soon) Three, feeling good about your real contribution towards my fortress.

Hobson & Choi III: Trapped In The Bargain Basement - COVERS & PRE-ORDERS

After a long editing process, the third book in the Hobson & Choi series is absolutely happening! My darkly-comic crime series in which a world-weary private investigator and his curious teenage sidekick confront the dark side of every modern institution I can think of!

It's grim, it's fun and I like it more than most other things - yes, even Batman. (Sorry, Bruce.)

In this third book, our heroes stumble into an evil shopping centre. Yes, even commerce is wrong now, but how is it awful? Find out on October 6th 2015, when Trapped In The Bargain Basement opens for business in print and ebook form!

Of course, a new H&C declaration means a new lovely cover from Design For Writers, the great folk behind the last two. Without any further burble, here's the cover alongside the blurb, and below that, some pre-order links and review opportunities.

Trapped In The Bargain Basement - THE TRUTH

“You've heard of conspiracies within conspiracies? I wish conspiracies WOULD hide inside each other, instead of turning up everywhere I go."

Angelina Choi returns for her final day of work experience at the Hobson Agency - is there a job waiting afterwards? Should she walk away for her own good?

While she mulls it over, they're hired by the massive EastVillage shopping centre to investigate a spate of muggings. But do the management know more than they're letting on?

As Hobson and Choi wrestle with commercialised corruption, will Angelina finally squeeze in her first date with Will the Hot Receptionist? Can anything emerge from the smoking crater of Hobson’s love life?

Trapped In The Bargain Basement plunges grimly comic London crime series Hobson & Choi to new depths, after climbing to #1 in Dark Comedy on Amazon and breaking records on Jukepop Serials.

Also included: Wuff! - The Markus Tail, a book-only bonus short story. Discover the bone-gnawingly tense origin of H&C’s furriest, friendliest character.

Want to pre-order now?

Want to secure your copy before they... run out of books or something? Here are the places you can already get your order in! As ever, there will be a print edition too, but I can only get pre-orders working on ebook for whatever reason.

If you want to formally declare your intentions to read the book, you can add H&C as want-to-read on Goodreads too.

Lastly, if you have a book blog (or other outlet) and want to review Trapped In The Bargain Basement, get in touch with me at nick@nickbryan.com and I'll set you up.

OUT NOW: Phantom Of The Space Opera - a novel team-written in 75 minutes at Nine Worlds! Guess my chapter and WIN STUFF!

Lovely cover by Sally Jane Thompson!

As mentioned during last week's Nine Worlds 2015 round-up, a highlight of the convention was NaNoSessionMo, in which myself and twenty-eight adventurous co-authors wrote a book in only seventy-five minutes! Not as catchy as an hour, but we needed every second we could get.

After compilation by the excellent people responsible, the resultant masterwork has now been released onto the internet! Along with a photo showing me apparently drawing inspiration from my forearm! And a lovely cover by Sally Jane Thompson which you can see to the right! It's called Phantom of the Space Opera!

Yes, there's a play on words in the title. I approve. Keep reading for a few more words about the experience and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to guess my chapter and win stuff!

Hobson & Choi Case Two - "Rush Jobs" - out now!

Today, my friends, the second H&C book goes forth into the world, where it hopes to be received with open arms and warm love. After meeting in the first book, John Hobson and Angelina Choi further explore the world they've found themselves in, and find it to be a strange, grim place.

So, here is a picture of the cover - for more details on the actual plot, go to the Hobson & Choi homepage, where you can also find links to buy a copy of Case One - The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - for a newly super-cheap price.

For the new book, you can add it on Goodreads here if you so wish, and if you feel like leaving a review and/or rating there, on Amazon or on your own blog/social media, that would be pretty sweet of you. Continued growth plays a big part in helping me continue to get these out there.

Speaking of heading on out there, we're also doing the Hobson & Choi Blog Tour to coincide with the book launch - check out the details here if you want to follow along. If you follow me on Twitter, I'm sure the blog posts will also be retweeted there as they happen.

You can buy Rush Jobs in both print and digital from various venues using the rack of buttons below. I'll also be dropping off a few copies soon at the Big Green Bookshop, if you're a fan of buying things in person.