OnionBob on 1/12/2006 at 23:17

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did this really cost you over a thousand dollars

Strangeblue on 2/12/2006 at 00:17

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I like the anthropomorphized slippers.

Scots Taffer on 2/12/2006 at 03:28

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We knows it's the eighties because he steps over VCRS of MIAMI VICE.

But seriously, congratulations, I hope you get what you want out of the self-publishing route... despite not giving me the props for at least half as many shoutdowns as noid and RBJ have delivered over the years.

On the technical side, I found the writing extremely clunky and the dialogue quite unnatural (like these guys played basketball together on the same team but one can't remember why the other stopped playing? LET'S RECAP FOR THE AUDIENCE FOLKS.) Plus how many times are we going to have the fact that it's THE EIGHTIES rammed down our throat in the first chapter?

WAREAGLE on 2/12/2006 at 06:16

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so, according to the first page, one of the biggest stepping stones towards world peace, in your opinion, is the elimination of homophobia?



in all seriousness, congrats on a completed work.


even though i think you're nuts

Sypha Nadon on 2/12/2006 at 16:14

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doctorfrog and fett, the cover was designed by Grant Cook, an artist I know via the 'net. This is his website:

(http://www.afrenasia.com/)

But yeah, I'm very pleased with how it came out. Most self-published books have really cheesy covers, but I think he did a great job with mine.

Shayde: Again, I have so many on-line friends from so many different communities that it was impossible to remember (or even include!) everyone, and we hadn't spoken in awhile so your name probably just slipped my mind. What's this shoe-porn thing you speak of? Are you referring to that old foot fetish thread I posted years ago?

WAREAGLE, I think you're making the mistake of confusing the narrator with the writer. The first scene is more of Vinnie's narrative, and being something of a former radical from the 60's he's very idealistic. I don't think that homophobia would lead to world peace, but, I do think that less homophobia would be less negative energy, and I think the world has way too much negative energy at the moment (pardon me for sounding like a New Age hippy!)

Scots, you found the writing clunky? I will admit I found the writing in the first chapter pretty stilted and awkward, but I think that's probably because when I started the project I didn't really have a clear notion, in my mind, of where it was going to go (also, keep in mind, one of my biggest literary heroes is H.P. Lovecraft). There are quite a few "Miami Vice" references in the first half of the book, not because I'm a fan of the show, it's more a nod towards the video game "GTA: Vice City", which was the initial inspiration for the project. Having said that, I have an obsession with time and place in literature, and I don't see the book as a realistic depiction of the 80's, more like a hyper-fantasy tale variation of it (though most of the 80's references are factually accurate).

Onionbob, sadly I didn't write the back cover, which I feel is kinda crap and very misleading. Despite what the back cover and the first chapter would lead you to think, Vinnie is not the main character, and the whole basketball thing is just a Macguffin.

I don't see Sypha Nadon as a "Mary Sue" type. Frankly, I could have given the character any name, but I love the name "Sypha Nadon" so that's why I decided to use it. While he does share my taste in music, literature, and so forth, in terms of personality, he's the total opposite of me: That is, he's always out clubbing, doing drugs, having sex, and so on. But I think I put a bit of myself in all my characters (a lot of writer's do anyway), if anything to better experience the world in which the story takes place, which in this case I really wanted to live in.

Anyway, thanks for the responses, both positive and negative.