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Every Series, Every Episode!
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Ottawa-raised sisters Ilwad Elman, 23, and Iman Elman, 21, pose inside the Elman Peace Centre, a rape crisis shelter in Mogadishu....
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Zach Sobiech - Clouds
Written by Christine Erickson
Zach Sobiech is a 17-year-old musician who was diagnosed three years ago...
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Charlie Noonan was an amateur folklorist who travelled throughout the South and Southwestern United States during the early years of...
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Political Party Wordle for the Green Party of Canada. Created by Rob’s Digital arts - ...
The books I wrote!
The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider
Elven magic meets gunslinger grit. What happens when two elven travellers find themselves in the United States in the middle of the Civil War? The Adventures of Black Mask and Pale Rider tells the story of two elven women who’s curiosity gets the better of them.
The wild ride takes them from the Union to the Confederacy and back again. Along the way they make enemies and friends and learn a little bit about this world, and about themselves. An adventure of six guns and sorcery.
Canyons of Steel
What happens when an old gun hand makes a decision to turn his life around and set a new course? In Canyons of Steel, Johnathon Tiberius Walker makes the choice of turning his back on the underground military of the Red Hand and try to make right his own sins. All because he wants his daughter to live in a better world than he does.
Where to get them!
Lulu.com (where both books were published)
- Tim Holtorf Author Spotlight the front page store for my books on lulu.com.
Amazon.com (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.co.uk (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.ca (price not listed and currently out of stock)
Barnes & Noble (for the Nook)
iTunes iBook store
(via The Sincerest Form of Flattery (The Statford Chronicles) eBook: John Walker: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store)
Life was simple for private detective Tom Statford. Sure, being the Keeper, the first, last and only line of defense between gods and mortals could make for interesting times, but a mundane existence in south-eastern Virginia kept things on the boring side of life. Boring, until bodies appear with all the trademarks of ritualistic homicide. Now, the Keeper must not only stop a psychopath, but also the end of the world.
Easy enough, if the killer doesn’t find him first.
A novel by John G Walker.
(via The Blame Game (The Statford Chronicles) eBook: John Walker, Starla Huchton: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store)
In the third outing of private detective of the gods Tom Statford, a woman shows up in his office claiming to have been murdered. What’s worse is she’s a target of a fire god. With four other bodies involved, along with Chinese organized crime, Tom has to figure out who killed the girl, and who is using a god as an assassin. No big deal, right? Before it’s all over, this case will give the phrase “May you live in interesting times” a whole new meaning.
A novel by John G Walker and illustrated by Starla Hutchon.
(via In The Details (The Statford Chronicles) eBook: John Walker, Starla Huchton: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store)
Private detective Tom Statford has a problem. A priest has been murdered in Hampton Roads, Virginia. That’s bad. His killer is claiming the Devil as an accomplice, sending the forces of Heaven after the fallen angel. That’s even worse. Lucifer comes to Tom to proclaim his innocence, which makes Tom’s life more interesting than it needs to be, and he’s the only one who can prove the Devil didn’t make the killer do it.
But who would believe the Prince of Lies?
A novel by John G Walker and illustrated by Starla Hutchon.
A study of a character: Part One (by Tim Holtorf)
Instead of inserting a large number of pictures into this post, such as the one above, I decided a video might suit better to this cause. It details the different incarnations of one of the main characters from Black Mask & Pale Rider, Shani Wennemein.
It’s a history, of sorts, of where the character of Shani Wennemein came from. I could also produce character sheets for that, considering she originated as a character in Dungeons and Dragons. The first video game aspect of her came in Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights. She’s still there and active from time to time, as I played a lot on a persistent world server called Legacy of the North. The server’s still there, just hasn’t been as populated as it was in its heyday. In truth, Shani never started out life in the video game world as an elf. She began as a tiefling, the half demon creatures of the Dungeons and Dragons world. But, thanks to the fact I was a bonehead and never asked for permission for a tiefling character (the DMs were strict on those rules), Shani became an elf instead. Which is fine, really. Being an elf is a lot easier to pass off as human in the Union and Confederacy of 1863. Whereas a tiefling would probably have been hunted down with all intentions of killing her. The horns and tail would have been a major pain for her. As it stands, with her Neverwinter Nights version, it’s hard to conceal a pair of wings as she is a Red Dragon Disciple (dual classing is awesome) as well as being a bard. She still has her roguish nature, however, as she started off as a thief (and considering you can have up to three classes in Neverwinter Nights, thief is not out of the question to add).
The latest incarnation is in Neverwinter Online, Cryptic Studios entry into the fantasy genre MMO, and Neverwinter’s first appearance in an MMO (the was the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO, but took place outside of Neverwinter). As is the case in NWO, Shani is a thief, and uses all aspects of stealth and daggery goodness available to her. Sadly, NWO does not allow for dual classing, nor does it have a bard option (which I’d grab for Pania in a heartbeat). There are “coming soon” options, which includes a race (which I can only assume will be Drow) and a class (which I’m not certain of consdering many of the D&D classics like paladin, barbarian, sorcerer and monk do not exist).
I should add something about DDO, considering I did make Shani in that game, but didn’t get very far. She was rogue, and it was an interesting game, but it was very team heavy, which wasn’t always great if you just wanted to log on and run around for a bit on your own. Needless to say, DDO wasn’t very memorable for me.
Also, two other games that I don’t have in the video where Shani was created were both superhero MMOs. One I didn’t get Shani up very high in level, the other sadly doesn’t exist anymore, which next to Guild Wars 2 is possibly one of the best representations of Shani. The former is Champions Online, the latter is City of Heroes. In CoX, Shani was a dual pistols blaster, and she was a lot of fun. As I said before, it’s kind of sad that the game doesn’t exist anymore, considering it had it’s fun elements about it. I often like going back to a game I haven’t played in a while, even if it is online, and with CoX I can’t do that.
Lastly, which is the first part of the video, is Guild Wars 2. Quite possibly the best representation of Shani from what I’ve written in the book. A dual gunslinger who can swap out to dual blades should the need arise. A very acrobatic woman with the ability to cloak herself in darkness and disappear from her enemies. Unfortunately, there is no elf race in Guild Wars 2, but I managed to pick the smallest size available for Shani and gave her hair that covered her ears (which still stick out and she’s received the comment that she looks more like an elf than a human).
Shani did begin her life, so to speak, outside of the realm of the pages of a book, but did eventually end up there. But she still exists in the game world in many different facets. This happens to be where she began, and the constant aspect of role play developed the story that eventually did become The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider.
Next week, I’ll do part two to this which explores where Pania Alow came from. It’ll include a video as well.
And now, time for shameless self promotion.
Both my first book, Black Mask & Pale Rider, and my second book, Canyons of Steel, are available for purchase online through many different online book sellers.
Lulu.com (where both books were published)
- Tim Holtorf Author Spotlight the front page store for my books on lulu.com.
Amazon.com (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.co.uk (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.ca (price not listed and currently out of stock)
Barnes & Noble (for the Nook)
iTunes iBook store
There is more than one way to fan the financial fires of inspiration.
Arthur Slade, the Saskatoon author of youth fiction like Dust and Tribes, is crowd-funding his next project, a graphic novel addition to his Hunchback series. Modo: Ember’s End will feature the Victorian steampunk-style artwork of Berlin artist and Saskatchewan native Christopher Steininger, who drew the covers of the previous Hunchback books.
“This seemed like the perfect vehicle for that,” said Slade, who has cast his line in the vast waters of Indiegogo. Writers and artists set their financial goal and the website hosts the worldwide fundraising effort, taking a percentage of the donations.
Slade hopes to raise $15,000 by April 11.
Graphic novels already have an indie, underdog attitude, so appealing directly to the fans made sense for this project, Slade said.
“It’s more than just buying a book. You’re investing in that person’s career. You become part of the team,” he added.
After selling 100,000 copies of his books via traditional publishing, Slade’s first attempt at crowd-funding is more work than he first thought. Also, he’s going the extra mile for his fans, sending personal thankyous to each of his donors. Depending on the amount contributed, investors receive a copy of the book or an autographed copy, or a special edition, or limited edition piece of artwork and so on.
I’ve discussed this topic a few times before, so here’s part one and part two (part one includes LGBTQ people, while part two just focuses on women).
Women in Fiction is Important; Round 2!
I honestly wish I didn’t have to do this again, but it looks as though this is going to end up being a monthly conversation. The reason why is that a lot of people just still don’t get it. There is a reason why women in fiction, every medium of fiction, is important.
I’m focusing on women in this post, because there’s still this stigma that if a product has a woman on the cover, it won’t be as wildly popular than if generic, white, cookie cutter man is on the cover. That stigma is the problem, and some can’t get past it, which means that a lot of marketing for video games, movie titles, books, comics and so on drops off because the head honchos don’t believe a female lead title can sell. Which is weird because a lot of female lead products have been wildly successful in the past.
- Xena: Warrior Princess
- Wonder Woman
- Batgirl (all three incarnations)
- Birds of Prey (the comic)
- Spider-Girl (and a good deal of the MC2 universe)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
And quite a few more that I can’t think of off the top of my head (though, I’m sure others can add to this list). So why are we always taking a step back whenever a new female lead title starts to make it’s way through the press? Why are we forced to deal with the same nay sayers over and over again over female characters in print, film and digital media formats? Is it an insecurity that suddenly women will become more ubiquitous then men in fiction? I doubt that considering that the number of female lead titles that exist is still only a small handful compared to the number of male (and white) lead titles that exist in the world. Keep in mind, for decades it was always a male power fantasy to be the shining knight and save the damsel in distress. This was the way of things. It’s old and tired now, but those who like old and tired things are trying to hook up the white knight to a heart monitor and keep him alive via external machines. Well, it’s time to just let him die, he had a good life, now let him die with dignity and let the new stuff happen.
This is another reason why women in fiction is important (and this part doesn’t just cover female characters, but female writers, artists, creators, and not just white women, but women of all colours); women bring something new to the table. A different point of view that can bring about new stories and keep the world’s creativity alive. Let’s face it, we’re starting to hit the bottom of the barrel, creatively speaking, and we need new stuff. After all, why the hell are we doing remakes of Total Recall and Psycho in movies when we could be searching for something different. The main answer to that is business people really don’t like taking risks and they’d rather play with a sure thing. When they do take a risk, doing so with something that has a female lead is often way too risky for them to go through with it. And even when they do go ahead with it, they don’t promote it enough in order to allow that thing to work.
Bottom line, let more women be creative leads in every aspect. Let women be the main characters of popular culture. But make sure it’s not in some patronizing way. Make it believable. We’ll all be more creatively richer for it.
Just picked this up for Kindle.
Television singing sensation Calvin Hubbard has been caught with his hand in cookie jar. An illicit affair with a contest judge costs him not only the competition crown, but his musical credibility as well. Fleeing the media fallout, Calvin exiles himself to the backwoods town of Harvey, Virginia. With a little solitude and a lot of cheap beer, he plans to write the next great rock and roll album and resurrect his career. But Calvin doesn’t know that a man has just been buried alive in the woods outside of town, and that this quiet murder is just the first in a string of macabre events. As the town goes silently mad around him, Calvin is unable to abandon the record of his dreams. Drunk on inspiration and blinded by an inexplicable lust, he careens headlong into the maelstrom, only to discover that he may be the town’s only salvation. Something is alive in the trees—an ageless, nameless evil—and it’s coming for everyone in Harvey. Now Calvin has to decide whether to run or to stay and fight… if it isn’t already too late.
“…sexy and full of scares. Harvey is dark, well-crafted, and downright menacing.” -Philippa Ballantine, award-winning author of Geist
Phil Rossi breaks new ground with Harvey—visit http://www.harveythenovel.com for the Harvey Sessions—the very album that Calvin Hubbard is composing and recording at the Little Rock Motel. Listen as the record’s tracks take form and evolve from idea, to demo, to fully arranged song as impacted by the events in the novel.
Yeah, it’s been a while, so here’s a random round of shameless self promotion.
Books are a passion of mine. Both reading and writing. I’ve written a good number of words in my years (even counting duplicate words, somewhere over 500,000, which is more words than Shakespeare wrote), and I’ve read even more. I used to have a very large library at one time, and slowly I’ve been getting it back to that which I once had (vandals in Rosetown destroyed most of my books over ten years ago). To see what I’ve added, check out my goodreads profile.
From time to time I’ll post up information about the first book I’ve written, called the Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider. Here’s a little synopsis about the book, which is a western/fantasy.
Elven magic meets gunslinger grit. What happens when two elven travellers find themselves in the United States in the middle of the Civil War? The Adventures of Black Mask and Pale Rider tells the story of two elven women who’s curiosity gets the better of them.
The wild ride takes them from the Union to the Confederacy and back again. Along the way they make enemies and friends and learn a little bit about this world, and about themselves. An adventure of six guns and sorcery.
The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider isn’t the only book I’ve written, Canyons of Steel is also available. Here’s a quick synopsis.
What happens when an old gun hand makes a decision to turn his life around and set a new course? In Canyons of Steel, Johnathon Tiberius Walker makes the choice of turning his back on the underground military of the Red Hand and try to make right his own sins. All because he wants his daughter to live in a better world than he does.
Both my first book, Black Mask & Pale Rider, and my second book, Canyons of Steel, are available for purchase online through many different online book sellers.
Lulu.com (where both books were published)
- Tim Holtorf Author Spotlight the front page store for my books on lulu.com.
Amazon.com (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.co.uk (both in paperback and in kindle versions)
Amazon.ca (price not listed and currently out of stock)
Barnes & Noble (for the Nook)
iTunes iBook store
Finally, last but not least, is a current work. I’m posting it as I write it, so it’s all in first draft (complete with spelling errors and a few grammatical errors). It’s called Rocket Fox: Flight of the Nighthawk, and can be read in it’s entirety at wattpad.
Sometimes dreams don’t turn out the way one hopes. For the citizens of Vulpinia Prime, many dream of the race to the stars. For Left-tenant Senia Felix, it’s to become a fighter pilot in the Royal Vulpine Air Corps. But as events happen, she soon discovers that her dream of space will take a completely different direction aboard a vessel called the Nighthawk.
(via - Bare it for Books -)
This is something I originally saw on National Post’s tumblr (nparts) and it sorta piqued my interest because I wanted to see who was on the list (plus Canadian authors, how cool is that). As it turns out, today was the official website launch day for Bare it for Books.
Promoting Canadian books in a manner that is often thought of for fire fighters or ladies curling (look it up, past Olympic women curlers have posed in the buff for calendars to help promote the sport and if I recall, show support for breast cancer). But authors?
Well, they’ve got a list of authors who are willing to bare all for the cause.
Angie Abdou – Ms. January
Trevor Cole – Mr. February
Farzana Doctor – Ms. March
Dave Bidini – Mr. April
Miranda Hill – Ms. May
Daniel MacIvor – Mr. June
Yasuko Thanh – Ms. July
Terry Fallis – Mr. August
Sachiko Murakami – Ms. September
Vincent Lam – Mr. October
Saleema Nawaz – Ms. November
Yann Martel – Mr. December
With cover illustration done by Sarah Leavitt.
But the question is, what’s the cause being supported (with the notable exception of Canadian literacy)? Cruising over to the Indiegogo campaign page, started by Allegra and Amanda, two women passionate about Canadian literacy, really want to promote Canadian talent.
That is something I can totally get behind, though I’m not sure if I’d be willing to pose nude (with a possibly strategically placed copy of Black Mask & Pale Rider) just so I can promote my own book. Plus, I’m not in the same league as Yann Martel (even though we live in the same province).
I like going to the post office and getting stuff. Like today.
Two whole boxes of stuff. I already have an idea what stuff is in this. It’s books!
IT’S THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS TRILOGY!
Now I’ve got both the hardcopy version and the ebook version. The hardcopy will be to ask (beg) for an autograph should ever I meet N.K. Jemisin.
The second box looks vaguely like comics.
It’s is comics!
It’s volume one and two of Batwoman!
And ZOMG! They’re hardcover!
I had this idea kicking around my head the other day. What if you created an original world, whether it’s filled with Arthurian Knights, but instead of swords they carry pistols, or World War I was fought with steampunk airships and trench warfare was virtually unheard of, or even gunslingers of the wild west who instead of shooting bullets, had their high noon showdowns with magic and blasts of fire balls. Mixing and matching isn’t a bad thing, after all, some of the most interesting and creative works have come from mixing one form with another. MeLin Miranda’s Scryer’s Gultch, for example. Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Even Girl Genius.
Now, what if this fantasy world gained a bit of interest, readers naturally will want more. But we ourselves as individuals often can’t find the time to write, and exploring an entire world from the deepest darkest forest to the tallest mountain right down to the depths of the sea may become an absolute monumental task. Oh, some have done it in the past, but it’s very rare indeed. And we live in a world of instant, where text messages, replies over social networks and phone calls can be made from nearly every place on the planet. When you’ve got a huge team of writers for a massive production, it’s often funded through a major company or studio, so you’ve got the money, people and resources to create this grand world. But we (by we, I mean most of us who just write stuff online and maybe get something published) don’t have that luxury or privilege.
The Way I See It: Random Bits (by Tim Holtorf)
Just stuff.
I’ve mentioned this before that there are a large number of people on all the social networking and blogging sites that I happen to be a part of that say these things so much better than I do. Essentially, I’m merely parroting what has been said before. But if there are those who say these things better than I do, why am I talking (or in this case, typing), you might ask. Because it needs to be said. Because as I’ve learned, if you stay silent, then you end up not supporting those who look for change, but instead end up supporting the oppressors. A bit of a drastic comment, considering what I’m going to talk about, but it fits.
I’m all about books, writing, reading, collecting, hoarding and adding to a collection of dead trees sitting on a large number of shelves also made of dead trees (if I play my cards right, they’ll actually be recycled dead trees). This coming from someone who just got a Kindle. Doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on the hardcopy versions of books I own. Hell, I own a hardcopy version of Farley Mowatt’s Never Cry Wolf, and I still bought a Kindle version of it.
I want variety in my books, I want colour and flair and diversity. I want something new and different with each book I read. Sure, I’ll have favourites, to go back to and read again like spending time with an old friend. But I want new stuff.
So, I was intrigued when I saw this book.
I could have bought the Kindle versions, but I settled for the hard copy paperbacks. Mostly if I ever meet N.K. Jemisin and really like the books (yes, there’s three of them) I’ll probably want her to sign them. In turn I’ll give the updated copies of Black Mask & Pale Rider (which I should totally be working on instead of writing this blog post) to her, signed and all that fun stuff.
N.K. Jemisin happens to be a speculative fiction author who’s first novel came out in 2010, called The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (there we go, have to buy another now). She’s been nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award, the 2011 Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Her writing explores a good number of themes, which include but is not limited to cultural conflict and oppression, using the genre of science fiction and fantasy as the driving vehicle to explore these issues. Which is an excellent way to do such a thing. I am a firm believer that science fiction and fantasy shouldn’t just entertain but it should also educate. Gene Roddenberry did the very same thing with Star Trek.
Unfortunately, this book has garnered a great deal of backlash from one corner of the reader world. That corner being mostly from white people. One of the comments was “[as] a white chick, I think I’ll pass but thanks. I’m so done with being told I’m evil because of my skin color”. Which I really can’t understand why someone would say that, considering the book summary doesn’t even mention that any of the characters are people of colour, nor does it mention that white people are being called evil. So, I am unclear as to why this is felt like it should be a justified statement.
But it’s not just whiteness or skin colour that’s the deeper issue. N. K. Jemisin happens to be a woman of colour, who just happens to have written a series of award nominated books which just happens to include people of colour. This is her point of view and there’s going to be a lot of other people who are going to welcome it who also happen to be people of colour. Hell, there’s even a large number of people who are as white as me who will come to buy this series based solely on the fact it’s a fantasy story which might have a very interesting plot (I cannot confirm nor deny any review because I have not yet read the books, I only ordered them about an hour ago through amazon).
Diversification is just as important as having a strong (not stereotypically strong) female lead. Strong female leads should be strong based on merit, not because they meet a check list of tropes. The same goes for people of colour; strong on their own merit, and not following a series of tropes or stereotypes.
And I don’t understand why there’s all this complaining about a book series that features people of colour. If you want to complain about a book series, complain about Twilight and how it promotes girls to believe they should supplicate themselves to a stalker just to find worth and value. Complain about 50 Shades of Grey and how it meets most, if not all the requirements of domestic violence, all the while placing a harmful tag on the BDSM community.
But don’t complain about a book because it features people of colour and happens to be written by a woman of colour. That’s only showing everyone else exactly how racist you are.
