Modern Disciples Lost Volumes announcement!

I am pleased to announce that I have added an addition to my Modern Disciples series. The Lost Volumes will be a series of short stories that will give insight to things that happen in the world of Modern Disciples, but do not follow the same story line as the novels.

The first story entitled Deidre is about a woman who is placed in an asylum by her father. Later, when she is discovered to be pregnant, her doctor investigates to try to discover not only who the father is, but the secrete to the hallucinations Deidre has been having.

When I first started the series, I only intended doing the novels. As I write them, I find it difficult to put everything I want into them. There are parts of the characters backgrounds I cannot go into for the sake of time and book size. With these extra volumes, I can give my current readers a more extensive background on the characters they know and introduce some new ones.

These stories will only be available as 99 cent downloads for Kindle. If you need the Kindle app to read them click here.

If you already have the app, you can click here to go straight to the story on amazon.com.

Gods vs. Titans

Recently I did a blog interview with Summer Lane of Writing Belle. One of the questions asked was “What is the difference between gods and Titans?” I answered her question as thoroughly as I could, however to really do the question justice, I would need to write an entire term paper. Today I will meet the question half way and explain what I can in a blog post.
 

When we speak about gods in mythology, we tend to think of Zeus and his band of gods atop Mt. Olympus, or

we think of Thor and the people of Asgard. Essentially, the gods are shown as the beings overseeing our world. In most cases, they are benevolent until somebody violates a rule or shuns a value they hold dear like courage or kinship. In Greek mythology, the gods punished people who defiled their laws. Mortals had to live by the gods’ standards or they would be forced to push a boulder up hill, have their food stolen by monsters every night, or be cursed with some kind of deformity.

The Titans came before the gods. We essentially see them as forces of nature like a hurricane, typhoon, or a volcano. They are the basic aspects of the universe and our world in particular. Titans and mortals have very few interactions with mortals. If they do, it is for a specific purpose and the mortal will usually have to use his wits or the Titan will take advantage of the mortal. A good example of this would be Heracles and the Titan Atlas, cursed with the burden of holding up the world.

Some people might wonder why authors always seem to depict the gods and Titans as enemies. As an author who writes a series based on mythology, I can tell you that it is the easiest way to introduce conflict. Titans, or enemies similar to them, find their way into all mythologies. If someone wanted to introduce a new enemy, he or she would not only have to introduce somebody not only a legitimate threat to the gods, but accepted by the audience. Most people who know anything about mythology expect the Titans to rear their ugly heads. Some people read mythology to learn about it. They want as accurate telling of the old stories as possible.

Why is their struggle so enticing though? Family drama is one factor. As stated before, the Titans did come first and the gods are often their offspring, or at least their descendants. Children’s breaking away from their parents is a theme used in many stories including mythology and fairy tales.

What the gods and Titans conflict comes down to is a struggle for power. What will they do with their power? To answer that question we have to know what each fundamentally represents. The gods set rules for the mortals, they have a hierarchy, and they often punish mortals for not upholding the correct beliefs. The gods are essentially the embodiment of order. Order is usually associated with harmony and everything having it set place. However, order can be taken to a malevolent extreme. When this happens, order becomes tyranny. This is why authors seldom portray gods in a bad context. Some stories about gods, particularly Zeus, have centered on power being used for selfish reasons or giving the possessor of the power a false sense of entitlement.

Titans are forces of nature. As nature is unpredictable and often unforgiving, the Titans represent chaos. They go by no rules other than every man for himself. When the gods imprisoned them, it was essentially controlling nature, and therefore controlling chaos. When one thinks of chaos, they think of riots in the streets, the strong victimizing the weak and everything in flames, or worse. Just as there was a malignant side of order, there is also a beneficial side of chaos. In order to be able to live a life by one’s own wishes, that person needs freedom. The more tyranny grips us, the less power we have to make our own decisions. With the power to make our own decisions though comes the responsibility to allow freedom for others. When everyone is only concerned for his or her own freedom and not others, we see the destructive power of chaos. 

When we see a symbolic conflict between order and chaos, represented by the gods and Titans, we can see how their struggles relate to our own lives. Every day we ask ourselves a question that can be traced back to this conflict. Should we allow people to carry guns? What should we expose our children to? How much should the government regulate healthcare? The conflict is nowhere near as bloody as the gods war against the Titans, but we struggle just as well.

No matter what stories are told through mythology, today or in the future, there will always be an underlying theme of order vs. chaos. Neither force can really win in the end. The struggle to maintain the balance between the two shall rage on as long as mortal man draws breath.

I apologize for the pics going away. Go google+ 

Book Review - Hour of the Beast

4 Star rating – recommended for genre fans

Since it is the month of Halloween, I thought I would go with a horror story. I guess you could say Hollowland was also, but fighting zombies tends to be more fun than scary.

Werewolves are one of my favorite classic monsters. The cover was more than enough to entice me to read this story. From the very first chapter you learn that this is a story that does not mind the labels "dark" or "gritty." In the very first chapter, a woman has a disturbing encounter with a werewolf. If you need to know more, the cover should give you plenty of hints. The rest of the story follows her two children as they enter collage for the first time and have to cope with being who they are. This story however is not just another generic blood and guts rack up the body count horror story. There is also a good sense of mystery and mythology thrown into the mix. Science and history come into play while explaining the possible origins of werewolves. The ending has a good twist. This book is definitely not for young children, but if you like, a good horror story with some real meat to it, then you will want to give this a read.

Hunger Games vs. Battle Royale

One of the most popular stories of our times is The Hunger Games. It is destined to become a classic, the first book is already a movie, and even the more casual readers could have a long discussion on its impact in society. Yet despite how great it is, there is a dark cloud looming over it. Many people are saying it is just an imitation of the story Battle Royale.

 I have read both books, and have seen both movies. It would be stupid to say that they do not at least invite comparison. In fact if you have read Catching Fire, there is even more room for it. While I do believe there is plenty of room for both stories in our world, I do feel a need to address this idea of Hunger Games just being Suzanne Collins version of a story that has already been done, and if so, does it deserve the praise and accolades it receives.

First, we will look at the basic premises. Hunger Games is a dystopian future in which children are chosen from twelve distinct districts to meet in an arena where they must fight to the death. Once a year each district holds a public “reaping,” where one boy and one girl are chosen at random by drawing their name out of a hat (or glass bowl if you want to get technical.) At this point, another child may volunteer to take his or her place assuming the volunteer is the same gender. This option to volunteer becomes a major plot point for both the protagonist and some antagonists.

Battle Royale also takes place in a dystopian future in which children are chosen at random to go to the arena and fight to the death. There is no public reaping. Instead a class of students are chosen by the government. They are kidnapped and taken to the secrete arena while they are unconscious. There is no volunteering, and you are giving no warning.

In the case of the Hunger Games, the reason for the tournament, or pageant as they like to call it, is to keep the districts in line. They pay this penance for rebelling against the capitol many years prior. In Battle Royale, there is no real set reason for it. The beginning of the book mentions experiments run by the government. The movie talks about a law that was passed to try to weed out who, in the government’s eyes, are week. I have read rumors about population control coming into play. The truth is there is no real logic behind it. When it comes to premise, I say Hunger Games get the nod.


Next, let us compare our two protagonists. First, we have Katniss Everdeen, a young woman from the poorest district who struggles to survive while taking care of her younger sister and mother. She volunteers to participate in the Hunger Games when her sister is chosen. Battle Royale we have Shuya Nanahara. He does not volunteer. He is there because his class is. He does care about his fellow classmates, many of the girls have a crush on him, but in the end, he is just there to survive. If not for an alliance he forms, he would probably be dead. Point goes to Hunger Games.

Now lets look at some antagonists. I guess you could call each respective government the real antagonists. The immediate threats though are the people who the protagonists have to face in their respective arenas. In Hunger Games, Katniss must go up against volunteers who have been training their whole life to compete in the game. They are known as “careers”. To be honest, they are not the real threat they could be. They die quickly and when two of them are allowed to team up, they do not take advantage of it.
 

Battle Royale is about kids that are all from the same class. They have known each other for most of their lives and they had time to form friendships, relationships, and rivalries. The most dangerous classmate though is Mitsuko Souma. She is the beautiful mean girl that takes her game up about ten notches and kills a good portion of the class before she is taken out. Two students have been through the program before the story takes place. One is Shuya’s ally; the other is the most feared male antagonist who dies last. In the book, it is his first tournament. All of these enemies are far more threatening than anything the Hunger Games has to offer. The point goes to Battle Royale.
 
The Hunger Games has a love triangle in it…. Yeah okay, point to Battle Royale on that one.

I think what it really comes down to is which is really the better story? I think one needs to look at the two authors and ask which one did what he or she set out to do. Suzanne Collins is a television writer, so she has extensive knowledge on how television stories go. She is also an American. Many Americans think the Hunger Games is where we are headed, or at least could see us going there. The Hunger Games are televised for all of the districts and the capital. It is made public so there is a lot of pageantry and forced drama. Are today’s television shows very different? Nobody actually dies in them, but with shock value becoming more sought after, and yet harder to come by, real deaths may be the path we are headed down. Koushun Takami, the author of Battle Royale has a background in journalism before he became a novelist. He has lived in Japan his whole life. In his personal interview at the back of the book, he talks about how Japan has always felt constricting to him and how nothing ever changes because nobody ever demands it. The government makes a law that nobody likes, the people do nothing about it. Keep in mind these are the opinions of the author and not me. He has actually lived in Japan though and I have not. I guess his point was that traditions are going to lead to people being sacrificed by the government for no discernible reason. He also has a great history of being a horror fan. He is a fan of both Stephen King and HP Lovecraft. Battle Royale may not be a scary book, but it is dark and Takami is not shy about violence. As far as my original question of does the Hunger Games deserve to escape the shadow of Battle Royale, let me ask a question. How many of you would have heard of Battle Royale if not for this controversy.

Yes, Battle Royale did have a following before the Hunger Games came out. Yes, I am sure it was very big in Japan and that particular region of the world. Hunger Games though has reached a world audience. It is because of that sphere of influence that people are comparing it to Battle Royale. While Battle Royale, may have a deeper meaning, and more of an emotional impact as far as how the characters are effected, the Hunger Games is better written, is better at holding a reader’s attention, and has a more focused premise. Battle Royal may have done it first, but Hunger Games did it better.

Book Review - Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

 

Recommended for: Teenage girls who like kick ass females

4 Star Rating - Recommended for genre fans

Here you have it. A blog dedicated to independent publishing and mythology. I had red all these independent books and on day it suddenly occurred to me: I have not read anything by Amanda Hocking. She is epitome of what all independent authors stride to become. It seems fitting I do one of her books first.

The book is your basic post zombie outbreak story with a female protagonist on a quest to find her brother. She runs into the basic myriad of post-apocalyptic villains including, psycho cult leaders, marauders trying to kill everyone to take their food, and of course, plenty of zombies.

It is written in first person perspective from the female protagonist named Remy. A fast-paced book is even shorter than it looks.

If you are looking for a fresh new take on the zombie phenomenon, you will not find it here. However, there is enough action and the characters are likeable enough to get behind. The story though generic, is well written and has good use of internal dialogue.

This book was not written with young children in mind, as there is plenty of gore and a pinch of sex thrown in at the last moment. They are appropriate for the story though. I would recommend this for people who love their strong female protagonists, and for people who can never get enough zombie stories.

My advice to new writers

Every time I see interviews with writers or read about them on blogs or any other type of printed media, they always have to address the same question: What advise do you have for young writers? They always answer with a mixture of the “try harder” pep talk and some tips on how to improve writing. Having published three novels and going through the trials and tribulations that come with that, I can tell you that they are selling the young writers short with that answer.
I am not saying that improving your writing and perseverance are not necessary. Those are two very solid principles that need to be adopted. My main concern is some key points neglected by authors in these interviews. To be fair, most interviews you read are from the big name authors that have little to worry about at this point in their careers. The publishing world is a lot different from when Stephen King or Richard Patterson started. When they first got started, they wrote their manuscripts, sent them out to publishers, kept doing this until a publisher decided to buy their manuscript and publish. The process is a lot more complicated these days.
Today, new authors need a skill they did not in the days before the internet. They must have a working knowledge of marketing. Even if you go the traditional route of sending off manuscripts until one publisher understands what you are doing or can find a way to turn the story into something they consider marketable. Authors today are expected to set up their own blogs, have websites for their books, and have a presence in the social networking scene. The Stephen Kings, and J.K. Rowlings of the world can hire other people to do these things, but they still have to be done.
Knowing all this, I decided to do this entry to give new writers advice that you will not hear in normal circles. Please remember that I am basing this list on my own personal experiences so other people may have different opinions. I think a wise thing to do is get different perspectives on everything you do.

1. Learn how the language works.

This may seem obvious, but you would be amazed at how many people start writing without a solid foundation of how to. If you are serious about being a writer and want to make your living that way, you have to know sentence structure, punctuation, know how much dialogue is appropriate, and for God’s sake, do not use texting language. Also, learn the difference between passive and active language, and use active as much as possible.

2. Become a master of editing, and then find someone to help you.

Spell check is a great tool. Do not rely on it. One problem I have is that I keep interchanging the words they and the. Spell check will not find things like this. Editing is a skill you must learn, practice, and hone to perfection. No matter how good you get though, it is still imperative that you get a second pair of eyes to keep you honest. It is always hardest to critique your own work. Find somebody you trust to read your manuscript and find things that you could not. One thing I do is print out the whole manuscript on paper so that I can read the hard copy and write out corrections. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT send your manuscript out to a professional script editor and pay for them to do it. If you want a solid example of what happens when you do this, buy my first two books Modern Disciples Volumes 1 and 2. This may sound like a cheap plug, but when you read them, you will see what I mean. I sent Volume 1 to a professional editor. Volume 2 I edited myself, then my father edited it, and I edited it again. Take it from a guy who had to pay over $1000 to learn the hard way. Do the editing yourself.

3. Know the difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing.

Let me give you a brief summary of the two. Traditional publishing is finishing your manuscript, sending it off to a publisher, getting many rejections until one finally takes it. These days you have to send it to agents until one is willing to take you on, and then they send it to publishers until one takes it. Self-publishing is you send your manuscript to a company that does this, and you pay them to publish it for you. You can also just upload it to amazon.com and just sell it in E-book for if you want to do it that way. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I will include a link to a video that explains them both very well. When you do learn the differences between them, you will have to make a decision as to which one is better for you.

4. Learn about marketing, learn about marketing, and then learn about marketing.

As authors, we do not want to worry about setting up websites, author profiles, and several different social networks. The cyber age no longer allows us to rest on our morals. We have to be good writers, and good marketers, or know people who are good marketers willing to help for a reasonable fee. If you are planning to go to college, choose marketing as one of your courses of study. You do not have to make it your major, but do not take just one class. At the very least, make marketing your minor. If you are not planning on college, there are plenty of resources on marketing books. You can start on Youtube. There are also plenty of books on how to do market your book. Get an account on Goodreads and make as many friends as possible.

5. And yes, read.

Even if you are lucky enough to take some formal classes on the art of creative writing, there is no substitute for experiencing the real thing yourself. For writers, this entails reading books yourself. When you do read them though, seriously think about what you find good and bad about the book. This will help you develop your own style. Another important aspect is to move out of your comfort zone now and again. Read something other than what you usually read. Read some independently published books also.
I hope I have given you all something to think about for your future endeavors. If you find this discouraging, that shows wisdom on your part. If you really do want to be a writer, take what I have said to heart, but do not let it weigh on you. Please leave a comment if you have one.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkYFjT...

Christian Grey vs. Jessica Rabbit

First, this is not going to be a story of these two fictional characters in a smack down, although that would be funny. What I want to do here is compare the ideal female fantasy, according to fiction, and the ideal male fantasy. I do realize that these are generalizations and people have different tastes and priorities, but both of these characters are placed on pillars as the epitome of what women and men want. Both of their names are synonymous with sexuality. 50 shades of Grey is one of the bestselling stories of our time. The sales have exceeded Harry Potter at times. When women talk about why they like this book, what is the main reason? They touch on the love story briefly, some do get into the sexual parts, but for the most part their highest praise is Christian, aka 50 shades of fucked up. We have all seen the memes, “60% of wives wish their husbands would go Christian Grey on them,” gifs with women in bathtubs. Yes, there are plenty of women who say that he is abusive. His popularity among women overshadows his criticisms. When you Google for lists of top “Hot animated women,” the same character keeps topping those lists. Jessica Rabbit has not only become a staple of what men find attractive, but her name has become a literal term for female beauty. We have all met these women who have been referred to by their peers as a “Jessica Rabbit.” So what is the appeal of Christian Grey? He is a twenty-seven year old multi-billionaire with his own company to start with. He exudes power and control in every aspect of his life. His love interest is constantly calling him “a Greek god.” In addition to his overwhelming physical appearance, he wears cologne she likes and launders his clothes with the correct detergent. Despite all of his traits that make him the ideal alpha male, he still has a flaw that his woman gets to fix. A “crack whore” mother that left him with a pension to hurt women that look like her raised Christian. Jessica is an over exaggeration of the ideal female body type. Huge hair, legs long enough to make up 60% of her body, massive lips, a waist thin enough to turn any corset into a swimming pool, and yes, breasts that looked like they will not just burst out of her dress but throw the whole thing off of her. Her dress exposes different parts of her body depending on how she stands and how she moves. She is also a singer, and when she sings she has no shame in letting her sex appeal fill the room. Her one balancing factor is that despite her strength and resolve, she still needs protection from the bad guys. From these two characters, we can come to the standard conclusion that women seem to care primarily about the cerebral while considering the physical. Men primarily focus on physical while considering the cerebral. Is there anything though that connects these two characters? Is there any common ground women and men can meet on? Both of these characters have one thing in common: they both seem to be in a relationship with somebody who is beneath their station. Christian is in love with a middle class girl fresh out of collage with self-esteem issues and apparently eyes that are too big for her head. Jessica is married to an annoying, high-pitched, cartoon rabbit. Anybody on the outside of these relationships would look on them with confusion. Does this detract or enhance their appeal? We all fantasize about being with the ideal person. We all have celebrity crushes. We all have characters from books, television, or movies that we favor purely because of their sex appeal. When we see ideal forms though settling for people that we can relate to, or at least do not seem capable of getting the ideal forms, it gives us a sense of hope. “If Ana can get Christian, maybe I can get my own Christian.” “If Jessica Rabbit will marry Roger, maybe the prom queen will go out with me.” One could argue that this is a false sense of hope, and usually it is. The fact remains that in order to be in a relationship with somebody, that person has to agree to it. Maybe despite physical appearance, ability to provide, and potential for empathy, the most appealing quality a person can have is acceptance of our own imperfect selves.

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Ian Anderson. I started reading mythology at the ripe age of…well I was very young. I can remember my very first book of Greek Myths given by a tutor that my parents hired to help me with my English. Many of you may have heard of it: D'aulaires book of Greek Myths. All the pictures and different colors fascinated me. It was showing people doing things that I had never seen before, and for some reason that spoke to sense of being.

As interesting as it was however, it was still just a book. Even before PlayStation, X-Box, I-phone, or even the internet, books still had to compete for children's attention against things like television, Atari, and hand held electronic games that did nothing but beep at you and moved dots across a screen. Of course, by screen I mean a dark glass panel that would have an army of monochrome lights ready to light up at any given moment.

    I think the real turning point for me was an episode of the "Superfriends". For those of you who do not know what that was, it was a watered down kid safe version of the justice league. The vague recollection of the episode was that somehow they ended up on this island where they had to face off against monsters from Greek Mythology. Superman had to face the Minotaur, Wonder Woman went up against Medusa, Batman and Robin had to solve the riddle of the sphinx, and Aquaman had to retrieve the Golden Fleece from an invisible man. How talking to fish gets you out of that one, I will never know.

After that episode, I wanted my tutor to show me the stories that involved these stories. I also bugged my parents to take me to see the original Clash of the Titans. I will admit that it was a bit scary for me at the time and I did spend a fair portion of the movie with my eyes covered, but remember I was a small child at that point. From that point, I was hooked. I never looked back, I never regretted it, and it keeps getting better the more I dedicate myself to it.

As I got older, I began to branch out discovering that there was more to mythology than what the Greeks contributed. I first learned about Norse Mythology the same way most people these days are, the comic book Thor. I first read the books not realizing that there were tales as old as the Greek Myths that dealt with, Thor, Odin, Loki, and Baldur to name a few. To this day Greek Mythology is still my favorite, but the Norse traditions are a close second.

Eventually I started to learn the stories from Egyptian, Hindu, Aztec, and Japanese Mythologies. Lately I have delved into Irish/Celtic Mythology, and even read a bit about Voodoo. They have a few things in common, many gods that have different influences on our world and very human like personalities, emphasis on heroism, and an underlying warning against arrogance, nature, and death.

Fast forward to present day. Now I am a published author of a series called Modern Disciples. I have already published the first three volumes in the series. The story centers around six children of gods, each from a different pantheon. These children called disciples are the god's eyes, ears, and hands on earth as they protect humanity from the titans and their creatures called spawn. A small sample of the spawn include, maenads, satyrs, dark fairies, Nemean beasts, giants, even vampires and werewolves are thrown into the mix, although slightly.

In future, I plan to write more in depth of the characters from the story, where I get my ideas from, the myths behind the Modern Disciples, and I will do some reviews of books that I have read having to do with mythology and other topics that interest me. I may even write some supplement stories that add to the series. I am always open to ideas though so if there are any topics you would like me to discuss feel free to leave them in the comments below.


Ian Anderson