A Serialized New Year
Jazz Monster Collector
“It’s supposed to be short, that’s why it’s serialized.”
There, I just wanted to say it…Excerpt:
107 AWM, the abbreviation stood for, After Worlds Merge, merge—ha! But that’s what they called it, they meaning just about every human but me. I called it as I saw it, an inter-dimensional hostile takeover, but then few were left that remembered the ID war. Most of my race’s survivors had willingly succumbed to a mass memory manipulation—the jerks. I remembered and I’m no jerk. I was called Jazz then, and worked as a ‘deferred species bond collector,’ that meant I collected monsters and I was all too happy to do it. Merth, as the dimensionally linked planets had been renamed, had become a Zion filled with idol, lazy, and easily manipulated masses, the masses were mindless because they wanted to believe the utopian lie they’d swallowed. But they were going to spit it out, it was going to hurt, and I was the one who was going to make them do it. This is how it started.
That’s how my second serialized story, Jazz: Monster Collector, begins, and from there on it’s a rip-roaring, twisting, turning, frenzied ride as Jazz battles monsters, avoids the Enforcer Corps, stalks the secret force behind the inter-dimensional takeover of her planet, and all the while struggles to earn enough for a sandwich now and again. Whew…welcome to the world of Mirth.
Now I’ve mentioned Jazz more than twice in this blog, and subsequently mentioned how much I like these stories, here’s a bit of why…but first, let’s talk serialized—and yeah, I’ve talked about this before, a lot. I won’t define the term again, but I am going to talk serialized fiction as it pertains to my Monster Collector.
A lot of people like Jazz, but one of the (disheartening) comments I sometimes receive is that the stories are too short. The length of these stories was intentional. As the average reader consumes about one a page a minute, I wanted to keep each episode around the 20-25 page range—just the right amount of time for a lunch break or commuter ride. I was looking to fill what I saw as a niche time market, and Jazz, being action centered and fast moving, was well suited to that story length.
But there was more that made Jazz serialized-story appealing. Her stories have a very pulp-fiction feeling to them, and that played well into the cliffhanger endings I wanted for each episode. Right from the start I’d planned this as an ensemble cast, and the ongoing series format allowed me the room to explore many characters. About that; despite that the individual episodes of Jazz are short on pages, the tale goes on from episode to episode (there is an eventual finale), giving me a pretty much open-ended page count—I can make this thing as dang long as I feel fits the story.
Besides, the story length just felt right…so there.
Now who wouldn’t like Jazz? She’s tough and straight forward, but also loyal and committed to what she deems right. She takes action and doesn’t take crap from anyone. She has a crew of loyal, although somewhat bizarre, associates and a bevy of the super-coolest weapons this side of the Batcave. On top of all of that, even though she hates it, she lives on a world full of fascinating monsters and magic—the stuff of dreams. This thing is just plain fun. Give Jazz a chance and I think you’ll like her too.
NEWS: Jazz, Season one: Earth’s Lament, the collected stories, will be available come late spring. Over the upcoming month, I’ll be releasing three new Jazz episodes, and I’ll have three more out before spring. Then I’ll release the collection in several options. One will be the ebook version, which will include a never before published Jazz story. A second will be the print version, which will include all the stories in the electronic version, and also include a bonus, exclusive Jazz story. The Third version is a surprise.
BETTER NEWS: All the current Jazz stories are available to you for absolutely FREE! That’s right, FREE!
Tallyho-yo
Now here’s some easy to use links:
FREE Jazz at Itunes Book Store
Jazz (possibly FREE) at Amazon
(If it isn’t free on Amazon, please click the ‘tell us about a cheaper price’ link at the bottom of the story’s Product Details section and share a link with Amazon where it’s listed free. After enough of us say something, they make it free)
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