‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 92% complete on the Writing phase. 21 Days remain until the deadline.

I’ve upped the projected word count from 90,000 to 100,000, though realistically I expect it to overrun that. I’m currently inserting a chapter into an earlier part of the book, a chapter I just realized needs to go there. Once I’m done with that, I’m on to writing the the scene with the fight against vampires in the torch-lit catacombs.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
92%

The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes™

There is no more important choice a man faces in his life than the his choice of waifu.

Before time runs out, I ask you to join me in contemplating—within the context of Jake and the Dynamowho is best girl.

This is extremely important.

Will you choose the brassy and cocky Pretty Dynamo? The arrogant but highly skilled Sword Seamstress? Or perhaps the delinquent Sukeban Tsubasa, bad girl of magical girls? … Or maybe you go for the tortured artist type, specifically a tortured robot artist, Grease Pencil Marionette?

Remember: your future, and all our futures, rests on your decision.

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‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

Featured image: “The Magical Girls!” by Smeoow.

According to my arbitrarily set goal, I am not “finished” with the writing phase of Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Writes, which is to say that the draft stands at 90,000 words. The story is not finished, however, so I think the final draft will be considerably longer.

I hope to have a review post up by tomorrow night. I was thinking of working on it today, but ended up working on my novel instead, which isn’t exactly a bad thing.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
100%

Laughing through Sorrow: A Meditation on the Magical Girl Aesthetic

I have a theory that I have a hard time explaining, one I have held for years and have constantly struggled both to articulate in essays and to encapsulate in my fiction writing. A recent Amazon reviewer of my novel Jake and the Dynamo has, I think, captured it well:

There are times when the laugh lines come so fast you can’t catch your breath and other times when the insight is so deep you can feel it all the way inside you. The author is very familiar with his source material and understands the consequences of its tropes far more than the creators that develop it. Jake is very identifiable and you really feel for him. The central magical girls—Pretty Dynamo, Card Collector Kasumi, and Grease Pencil Marionette—are deep and well-drawn. You feel their triumphs and their pain. Things you took for granted are exposed from entirely new angles. But it is also rip-roaringly funny.

I am still grasping at the proper words, but what I think I want to say is that the grandest or saddest stories should begin with comedy. I take my influence largely from comics, so if I were to name the comics that best capture how I believe stories should be written, I would point first to Bone by Jeff Smith and Amelia Rules! by Jimmy Gownley. Continue reading “Laughing through Sorrow: A Meditation on the Magical Girl Aesthetic”

Over Here Promoting Myself like a Narcissist

So Jake and the Dynamo just appeared in the pages of the October 22 issue of Publisher’s Weekly. Before you tell me that’s awesome, just know that I payed to be there.

Some of the venerable old book-related publications have pay-to-play schemes for indie authors, and there’s still an active debate over whether they’re quite ethical, or worth the money. There’s also the question of whether any actual readers pay attention to Publisher’s Weekly. But so it goes.

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far, I’m 98% complete on the Writing phase, based on a projected 90,000 words. I’m at 88,393 words and I can easily see that the book will actually extend well past 90,000, which means this volume will be considerably longer than the first one.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
98.2%

Wanton Violence, Public Nudity, and Sapphism: ‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I’m in the same position I was in while drafting the first book: I thought I’d get my protagonists into a restaurant by chapter five, but that ended up becoming the climax of the whole novel around chapter twenty. I’ve been trying to build to a certain scene I thought would happen around chapter four of book two, and I’m just getting to it in chapter sixteen.

Seven Weeks remain until the (arbitrary) deadline.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
93.7%

Ben Wheeler Reviews ‘Jake and the Dynamo’

Davidson balances that sweet, sweet line between humor, loli grimdark, and character drama to make for an enjoyable and gripping story. It has all the best parts of the light novel genres without any of the bad … namely, isekai.

Ben Wheeler, in the guise of the Reading Rainbow Emperor, has got his hands on Jake and the Dynamo. He has given it a glowing review, as you can see in the video above, but does not shy away from some pointed criticism.

I think the best part is where he quotes from the book and trips over his tongue as he attempts to read Sukeban Tsubasa’s dialogue. He also admits that Tsubasa is his waifu … so I wonder what he’ll think of the reveal of her identity in the next book?

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 92% complete on the Writing phase. 8 Weeks remain until the deadline.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
91.9%

Kind of a “small” update, because this was a second pass on a 65-page section for a writer’s group. Took me longer than it should have to craft this, largely because both an action sequence and a deliberately awkward love scene were giving me difficulties.

Marketing, Marketing …

At the moment, I’m looking into advertising, as I’ve about exhausted the free avenues. Particularly, I’m considering paid reviews—not paid Amazon reviews, which are a no-no, but paid reviews from services like Kirkus. I’m gathering my info before I open my wallet; there’s an active debate on the internet over whether paid reviews are legit, or worth it, or whether the formerly respected Kirkus still deserves its reputation.

Publisher’s Weekly, which nobody reads except librarians, reviews indie titles; they formerly had a paid service, but now do it for free, but also reject around 90% of submissions. I think it’s worth it to go for it (considering it costs nothing but time), but the ironic thing is that I may be ineligible because I actually have a publisher, whereas their indie reviews are apparently focused on self-published titles. At least as far as they are concerned, I’m in a sort of no-man’s land between the Big Three and the self-pubbed.

If nothing else, Twitter and Facebook ads are likely to make enough of a return to pay for themselves. I’ll probably prepare something on that front, at least.