Tag: A. L. Buehrer's books

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Dronefall

Is Dronefall End Times Fiction?

Dronefall is a six-book series following a young Christian woman wo chooses not to be conformed to the ways of her dark twisted world, but instead to seek out the truth behind its web of lies and manipulation. It’s a futuristic world, but under its trappings of drone-swarmed skies, autonomous surveillance technology and centralized information control, it’s a familiar place.

I most often describe Dronefall as “Christian Futuristic Fiction” to laypeople, because I think that’s a genre everybody can understand without further definition. But at the same time, does that put it in the same genera as Left Behind? Is Dronefall “End Times Fiction?”

How would I classify “End Times Fiction?”

While End Times Fiction is Christian Futuristic, not all Christian Futuristic is End Times. Let’s nerd out about this a bit.

In this diagram, you can see I did something a little controversial. Here’s my logic. I find it easiest to categorize the broader genera of Christian Fiction by their time-periods—their settings on the timeline. Contemporary, Historical, Biblical, Futuristic. But if you think about it, End Times Fiction actually falls under Futuristic and Biblical.

Okay, so this graph isn’t perfect. You could group Biblical under historical, but I think most people who are looking for books would prefer it be its own thing. The events of the Bible occupy a different category in most people’s minds than some random story set in ancient Greece, for example. And in the same way, End Times fiction and Futuristic fiction are different things, in a way. End Times fiction, once again, deals with the events of the Bible.

The Rapture, The Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, Armageddon—actually, I would probably more accurately classify End Times Fiction as the intersection of Biblical and Speculative. Because, try as we might, we’re going to have to simply study and speculate to portray the events of Revelation in a literal fiction-story form.

But How Would I Classify Dronefall?

Well, the short answer is, it isn’t End Times Fiction, technically. It’s focused on a smaller scale, and doesn’t try to interpret the events of Revelation. Not because I don’t think we should try, but simply because I didn’t choose to build it around that. Here’s my chart-placement for Dronefall.

Speculative Fiction covers everything from fantasy to sci-fi to horror, in some cases. (Not all horror is speculative, unfortunately.)  There is a growing Christian booklist under all these categories. Futuristic spec fic would be any of these genres set significantly into the future. Dronefall is set in 2043-’44. That’s coming up fast, but it’s still futuristic enough for me.

Then there’s Dystopian. Now, there is, of course debate on what makes a book truly Dystopian. Some argue that it has to be a society that is built on Utopian ideas taken to the extreme to the point of becoming a terrible place to live. If you go with this belief, an apocalyptic story isn’t dystopian, but a post-apocalyptic one could be, if, in the wake of the world falling apart, society rebuilt around a rigid order that, while originally meant to solve a problem, ended up creating plenty more of its own.

The looser definition is just a nasty broken society, typically with too much control by the elites, whoever they may be. Dronefall easily falls under this umbrella.

So, if you ascribe to the second definition of Dystopia, most all cyberpunk would be a dystopian subgenre.   

What is cyberpunk?

When you look up what cyberpunk is, the phrase “high tech lowlife” comes up pretty often. Cyberpunk is a technology-saturated but typically run-down and chaotic world full of hackers, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and, notably crime. Cyberpunk typically focuses on a technologically advanced underworld with complicated confused morals and a lot of gray-area characters. Dronefall’s labyrinthine cityscape, overrun by semi-autonomous drones and fog-breathing trains, creates a fantastic backdrop for the questions and dilemmas Halcyon and her friends have to face.

Bringing Christianity into the cyberpunk world puts a whole new spin on it. While the genera is typically inhabited by antiheros and characters who will do what they can get away with by whatever means they have, the presence of an absolute moral right raises even more questions. Halcyon sees the oppression and injustice in her world and she knows there is a right and a wrong way to fight it. But where to draw the line? And when?

And who’s with her and who’s against her?

Is Dronefall set in the End Times?

Getting back to this question. Yes. Am I going to end by having all the characters Raptured out to escape their problems, so I don’t have to solve them? No, don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that to you. But people within the story aren’t afraid to talk about it.

Oddly, out of the Christian Dystopian books I’ve read, there’s very little to no mention of Jesus’s return, or the hope of Earth’s redemption ultimately being in His hands. I’m not sure why. It’s not natural for a Christian cast to not look for hope in the future that way. I want to bring that discussion back into the story.

Because when it gets dark, God shows up.

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Dronefall

A Travel Guide to the World of Dronefall

Readers know, even in the era of fancy collector’s editions and aesthetic bookshelf setups, at the end of the day, a book isn’t just a product—it’s a destination.

If you’re looking for somewhere to go, I have a recommendation for you. I’ve discovered a new place and time—a rare one, not overcrowded with tourists and hyped-up by reports from all your friends who went last summer without you. The world of Dronefall is something new, fascinating, and full of rich detail you’ll want to come back to for a second look.

So, what have you got to look forward to? What does 2040’s Budapest, with its historic architecture and drone-swarmed skies, have to offer the traveling reader?

Well, there’s more than I can tell you in a blog post, but let me give you my top recs for things to do on your first trip to the world of Dronefall.

7 Things You Must Do When Visiting Cyberpunk Budapest in the 2040’s

  1. Travel by “Blindworm” (jumping off not advised)

You won’t have much choice on this one, since the automated hydrogen train system has all but replaced any other form of transportation in the city. Still, you’ll find “Blindworm” travel extremely smooth and hassle-free. Coaches are comfortable and usually kept immaculately clean, and each one is furnished with both a speaker-system and an HD digital screen to keep commuters informed on the upcoming stops.

  On the outside, the trains are sleek beautiful—white and silver, and always breaking out billows of fog through the “gills” of their water-vapor exhaust system. Their haunting wails can be heard echoing through the city from far away.

2. Drone-watch

    In case you haven’t heard, most major cities in the world of Dronefall are ruled by drones. They watch the streets at all times, from all angles, constantly pacing along their preprogramed grid-lines. Aside from surveillance, drones are also utilized for basically everything else that could possibly be done by a UAV. Drones run deliveries, make repairs, put out fires, clean windows, and handle search and rescue operations all day and all night.

      They come in a dazzling variety of models, and at night, their lights make streetlights redundant in busy areas. From an apartment balcony or rooftop bar, you can watch them flowing by like a river of colorful fireflies. But don’t get too nosy about where they came from and where they’re going. Tracking drones is illegal.

    3. Ask random people on the street what Ambassadors of Humanity is doing

    This one’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but you can actually do it if you’re brave enough, I suppose. Mostly, it’s just going to get you a lot of weird looks. With all the public support for the elusive organization in Budapest, you’d think somebody might be able to tell you something about exactly what they do. Nobody can.

      They can’t even tell you why the Ambassadors are buying up the whole city, bit by bit. It seems like people would want to know. It seems like they would be asking. But they don’t ask. Maybe you shouldn’t either. Disregard this one, if you want.

    4. Visit the Barracks Café at midnight

    Let’s move out of the bustle of the heart of the city a bit. There’s a sort of run-down neighborhood between District 3 and District 4 on the Buda side of the river. This is where it’s at, secretly. The locals here will tell you the cool kids hang out at a place they call the Barracks Café. It’s called that because of the rather unaesthetic building that houses it, which sort of looks like some kind of military housing.

      Inside, however, you’ll find a surprisingly vibey place to chill, lurk and consume caffeine at all hours of night. It’s a lot like some of the city’s famous ‘ruin bars,’ but instead of serving the nightlife crowd who’s off work for the day, they typically serve the crowd that is just starting their work as the sun goes down. Don’t be intimidated by this crowd. They keep to themselves.  

    5. Go Roof-topping in District 3.5

    But if you strike up a conversation, you might want to ask for these people’s recommendations on the best roof-topping spots in the area. Large stretches of housing and business properties in District 3.5 are abandoned. If you’re into scaling buildings and free-running while enjoying beautiful Budapest nightscapes, you should take the opportunity to go roof-topping in this neighborhood. (3.5 is mostly unwatched by drones, so do what you can get away with!)

      From one location on a roof toward the edge of the residential area, you can get a fantastic view of the airport where, very occasionally, one of the huge space-planes from the world’s only commercial Exoliner airline will take off or land.   

    6. Seek out secretive Christian communities

    If you can find them, some of the most welcoming places in the whole city are the ones the authorities will likely warn you to stay away from. Though not technically illegal, Christianity is no longer socially acceptable to mainstream culture in the West. This has forced believers to form quiet communities where they can live and worship God in peace from the privacy of their homes.

      Barred from the city’s many beautiful historic churches, they have formed their own house-churches, where they gather weekly in supportive thriving groups of friends and family. Though they tend to be close-knit, they always welcome visitors.  

    7. Sneak out at night—who knows what you’ll see

    The fact slips by many people who stick to normal routines, but the city isn’t even the same world at night. If you thought 2040’s Budapest was a little strange during the day, wait until after midnight. Things come to life and start to wander around, hunting. Drones fly low and lurk by windows. Mysterious sirens echo through empty streets.

      Be careful. Nothing is safe when everything is anonymous. But don’t you wonder…?

    Ready to Book Your Ticket?

    Lucky for you, I’m paying your fare if you decide to sign up for my email list within the month of October ’24. If you join what I’m calling the October Club—my exclusive pre-release book club for the newly rewritten Dronefall, you will get the ebook free before anybody in the general public has access to it. I know. Not fair. But you’re invited.

    Sign up here!

    Categories
    announcements

    Join the October Club

    Dear Reader,

    With a rush of clear crisp wind and the scent of cinnamon, vanilla, and fallen leaves, October has arrived. Probably my favorite month of the year—and one I share with many book-lovers, I think. It’s a great time to pick up a new book (May I suggest The Boy Who Called the Foxes) or an old book (Hound of the Baskervilles, anybody?) But how about one that’s not even out yet?

    I’m looking seriously at November for the long-awaited relaunch of the Dronefall Series. As some of you know, I completely rewrote book one of my six-book Christian dystopian series this year. The relaunch is going to be a big event, but in the meantime, I wanted to give certain people a chance to be on the cutting edge—and an exclusive look at the new Dronefall One before anybody else gets it.

    What this isn’t:

    No, this isn’t a street team or ARC reader recruitment. I’m not doing this to enlist help for promotion or get flashy reviews for launch-day. Think of it as the formation of a book club—one with very few rules or obligations attached. I wanted to give readers who actually were curious about Dronefall an exclusive experience.

    Here’s the deal, if you join my email list in the month of October, in the year 2024, you automatically will become a member of the October Club.

    What this is:

    So, what are the benefits of joining the October Club, and where’s the catch?

    The benefits:

    • If you are on my email list already, or join anytime this October, you will be sent a free ebook copy of Dronefall—the rewritten second edition.
    • You can read it anytime you want—or ignore it.
    • But you might want to check it out, because during October, I’ll be sending extra emails, giving you a behind-the scenes look at the rewrite and the vision behind it, as well as a chance for you to send me your questions and get answers.
    • You’ll be tagged as the October Club on my email list, so there’s a chance you’ll get October Club exclusive emails and content in the future.

    The catch:

    • None

    You have no obligation to review the book or even read the book, if it turns out to not be your thing. Like I said, you’re not a launch team. This club is for you and your own cozy autumn reading enjoyment. Of course, if you want to review the book when it finally comes out, that would be amazing. Thank you in advance if you plan to. But the book is really just a thank-you and a chance to give you a look at my heart and vision for the series before you support it. I really want to give you that.

    How to Join

    If you’re on my email list already, you’re automatically part of the October Club. No action needed on your part, just wait for the link to the ebook to drop into your inbox. I’ll send it out as soon as it’s ready.

    If you’re not on my email list, go sign up! All I need is your name and an email address that works best for you.

    One final reminder—this is a limited-time opportunity. To join the club and get the book for free you have to sign up before November 1st, 2024. The earlier in October you join, the better, since I will be sending some exclusive emails in real time, but even if you join on October 31st, you’ll still get the book.

    So, join us for some cozy autumn nights in with a hot drink and a good book. Invite a friend or two to sign up with you so you’ll have some people to rant to, and I hope you all have the best October ever.

    Categories
    Dronefall

    My Reason

    I’m done being nice. I’ve been trying to write this post for days, trying to make it a manifesto, a story, an extended bio—but it wasn’t happening. Because it was supposed to be a rant. It was always going to be a rant.

    Over and over throughout my time working on the Dronefall Series, I’ve found myself asking the question, “All this for a made-up story? All this for a cheap paperback? Why?”

    Why?

    I absolutely love Dronefall. I love my characters, my setting, the twisted trajectory of the plot. But man, why do I put up with a process that’s hurt me so much? All that doubt and exhaustion, all that overwhelm and discouragement and raging sense of futility. It’s gotten worse and worse. I could have dropped everything like a lot of would-be authors do. I could have gotten married and moved to a new town and started a family and left this whole little non-sequitur phase of my life behind.

    But I didn’t. And I think I finally know why.

    God could have given me any calling. Anything He wanted me to do I could have done, and He would have used my work for the good of His world. But God made me a dystopian author.  Dystopian authors write what they write because they see things in the world that too many people don’t notice. We want to open people’s eyes to the reality they live in and give them the strength to fight it.

    We’re also just generally full of rage. That’s probably funnier to people who know me in person and probably think I’m one of those people who aren’t even capable of getting mad. It’s not the kind of rage that drives a person to blast their horn in traffic or go around picking fights on the internet, though. It’s something that keeps you awake at night and leaves your mind screaming, “this is wrong! This is wrong! God, please tell them this is wrong.”

    And God answers back, “You tell them.” And so, you go out like the disciples to find that one kid in 5,000 who packed lunch that day. Here’s what I’ve got. I’ve got a weird knack for writing made-up stories. I have no idea how this could ever work, but stranger things have happened.

    A Voice of Dissent

    This society claims to care about our voices. The benevolent media gods look down and see those of us who struggle to be heard. They elevate the ones they deem worthy and bask in the applause they get from doing it. But it’s all a show to distract from all the other voices they stifle in the dark.

    Because they don’t want anybody to think people like us exist. Particularly millennial and gen z Christians. We’re at the age where we’re starting to have some serious influence on the culture. They tried really hard to mold us and shape us into what they wanted the future to look like. The audacity of people like us even existing. It’s bad news for the Enemy.  We’re proof there are cracks in the reality liars have tried to create.

    The last thing they want is the generation that’s taking up the torch to keep carrying the light of Christ. That light exposes too much. And it’s too dangerous to the antichrist’s agenda.

    I wrote these six books because when you write, nobody can talk over you or tell you to sit down and shut up. The books are going to just keep existing and people just have to deal with it. Whole countercultures can be born from art. I have something for the people who are ready to see what’s happening. Or, if you already see it, I want you to know I see it too. You’re not crazy, and you’re not alone.

    The Reason

    And we won’t quietly fade into the background while the world crumbles. The Truth won’t be mocked, shamed and silenced when the light is needed most. We need young adult Christians—not just hidden away in their own little circles only to be seen by those in their community and the occasional passing scoffer—but also those who aren’t afraid to step out and exist boldly and brightly in the world at large. Jesus will never be irrelevant, obsolete or a thing of the past. He goes ahead of us into the future, no matter how bleak it looks. I hope Dronefall makes a point of telling everyone that.

    I don’t know how much sense I’m making. I just know I care intensely about my generation. We won’t be lost. God hasn’t forgotten us. I want my work to awaken the courage for us to live like we haven’t forgotten Him. Because you haven’t, have you?

    It’s because I know people like you exist that I haven’t given up yet.

    Please Join Me

    The rewritten Dronefall One still doesn’t have an official release date. But if you want to be a part of this, please join my email list. It’s the absolute best way to stay up-to-date on the progress and get all the backstory on what goes on. Plus, there’s the comic I made, which gives you a unique preview of the first chapter of Dronefall. You’ll get to download that when you sign up.

    Thanks for reading my rant. I hope, when you get to read the books in the near future, it will all be worth it.

    Categories
    My Books

    Escape Writer’s Block with The Burnout Journal

    A few summers ago, I got the idea for a prompt journal. It was around that time I realized my biggest adversary in my creative life wasn’t rejection, impostor syndrome, or people being rude on the internet. What gets me down the most is burnout. Writer’s block, art block, whatever you want to call it. Paralysis and lack of motivation seemingly from some invisible well running dry.

    I created the journal pretty quickly. Several of my immediate family members didn’t know I was working on it until the proof arrived. I wanted to make something to help other creatives—especially writers, artists, and poets like me, who might be facing the same things.

    What is the journal, exactly?

    It’s a collection of 101 prompts. But these aren’t the usual art or story prompts. They’re not one word or even one sentence written at the top of the page. I wanted to go deeper than that. I wanted to jump-start the creator’s mind by beginning to expand on the ideas before handing them over.

    Writing the prompts in the journal was a good exercise for me in itself. Each prompt is a suggestion—or multiple suggestions in one—of a story. These stories are both full of possible detail and wildly open-ended.

    But there was another element I wanted to address with this prompt journal. I know a burnt-out creative mind is easily overwhelmed, so I wanted to make sure that—while giving you plenty of fuel for your smoldering artistic fire, I also provided some guardrails to keep you from pushing yourself to make every prompt a whole project. I only give you two pages per prompt to explore your story. As a result, you should feel the delight of finishing a mini piece after completing each prompt.

    Another unique thing about the Burnout Journal is the fact that I intended the prompts to be used for whatever creative medium you like. You could be drawing, writing flash fiction, composing poems, experimenting with comic strips or even just rambling on in prose. Here’s an example or a completed spread, using prompt no. 2. I opted to draw a map and write up a little mock travel guide to my fictional self-portrait island.

     Who is the Bunout Journal for?

    Artists and creatives. I know. That covers a lot of ground. Though I’m not really in the camp that insists literally everything is a creative art (come on, now. Let’s not get silly.) I do think most people have a creative streak in them. It might not be highly developed as it is in those of us whose lives revolve around it, but I think a lot of people could get something out of this journal. Or should I say, put something into it.

    However, there is a reason I aimed it at artists and creatives. Here’s the thing: if you’re kind of more of a normal human, burnout is going to manifest in other areas of your life probably more strongly than your creativity. You might struggle with energy or motivation to do things or feel sort of blah and directionless at work or in your social life. But if you’re a creative artist, when burnout hits, the main feeling is going to be, “Help! I can’t CrEAtE sTUFF!”

    And maybe that’s the main difference between creatives and more normal people.

    Where can you get it?

    I published The Burnout Journal through Amazon KDP, so it’s available from Amazon right here.

    Hopefully I can be a part of your escape from burnout and provide you with a refreshing way to shake off the doldrums and get back to doing what you love. Feel free to reach out to me in the comment section if you’re feeling creatively stuck.  I’m working to make this blog a resource for frustrated creative types, so if that’s you, don’t hesitate to request post topics!

    You can get through this.

    Categories
    announcements Art

    The First Chapter of Dronefall is Now a Comic!

    I’m a novelist—most of you guys know that. I’ve studied and practiced that particular mode of storytelling for around 15 years now. That creates a lot of habits and expectations when I sit down to work on a story.

    But I’ve been thinking about branching out into comics for a long time. And it was while I was working on thinking up an idea for a newsletter freebie that I decided to finally commit to finishing a project. That project was “A Reason to Run: the comic.”

    The idea was, I wanted to give my readers a view of my story they couldn’t get just from reading my books. I set my sights on the first chapter of the first book of the Dronefall Series. I wanted to adapt it to the comic medium. But I really had no idea how I was going to do that.

    How Do You Adapt Novel Text To Comics?

    Of course, this is what I asked Google—actually, I asked Pinterest first, because I typically do, but when I didn’t find what I needed there, I took it to Google. And guess what? I also didn’t find a lot there.

    So, is this not something people do? Clearly, they do it—novels do occasionally get graphic novel adaptations, after all. But I was able to find very little guidance on how to do it online. And so, I realized I was going to have to log off and use my own brain.

    That’s a good thing to do sometimes. Kids, you don’t need people on the internet to do all your thinking for you. God created you with a brain that can think on its own. Sometimes you have to step away from other voices and remember you can figure things out for yourself. It’s actually one of the best things you can do for your creativity.

    But, having said all that, I thought it was too bad there were hardly any tips for how to do this on the internet. So, I’m going to share my insights with you. Read on.

    My Process

    Being an extremely visual writer who for some reason always knows exactly what compass-point everything in a given scene is facing, I had a lot of very strong imagery in my head already. This process would probably be a lot longer if you needed to make a lot of character and setting design decisions before you started. I dived straight in without writing out a script or anything. I just started story-boarding the whole thing shot-by-shot like a movie.

    Don’t do it this way.

    It was getting really long and tedious.  I was many pages into my thumbnailing when it occurred to me that comics are not films. So, that’s my first tip.

    Tip #1 Comics are NOT Film Storyboards

    Comics are their own medium. It’s possible to use way too many panels to show an action. It can actually make the action more confusing. I also didn’t want to make this a 30-page project. This was my first time trying to complete a comic for public consumption. I wanted it to be manageable.

    So, I scrapped the thumbnails and started rethinking things. I needed to think about what parts on this first chapter of Dronefall One actually needed to be communicated. What could I make clear? What could I get a casual reader interested in without a lot of exposition?

    I ended up selecting two passages of text that would end up appearing on the pages. One was that iconic intro about the Blindworm and train-jumping. The other was the conversation my MC Halcyon and her friend Reveille have as Halcyon is making a run for it. Off of that, I could build my pages.

    Tip #2 Draw your thumbnails—worry about page layout later

    Now that I had the text to use as a framework, I started drawing new thumbnails. At first, they were just a string of rectangle panels. I didn’t bother thinking about layouts and different panel shapes or sizes until I knew what panels I actually needed to tell my story.

    By rethinking my thumbnails in a much less play-by-play progression, I flew through the thumbnailing process and was ready to move on to page layouts. 

    Tip #3 Decide how many pages you want to draw

    I managed to condense the whole of chapter one into eight pages. I was able to guesstimate the number by knowing about how many panels I would probably be able to fit on a page, and then starting to mark out potential page-breaks in the thumbnail sketches.

    Staying flexible at this stage is helpful. None of the panels were set in stone yet. A lot would shift around and evolve as I got into sketching my tentative layouts. I ended up dropping and combining a lot of panels. I wanted to stay sensitive to readability and composition in the sketching phase.

    Tip #4 Stay noncommittal in the early stages

    Comic art is more than just a string of pretty pictures. It’s about telling a story.

    Once I was satisfied with the layouts, the scary part began. This was also the point where I realized I was going to do the whole comic in traditional media—also a scary decision. I went out and bought the biggest pad of Bristol board I could find. I don’t know a lot about comics, but I do know you’re supposed to work much larger than your print-size. And with all the pictures within pictures in the medium, I knew I would still be getting into some pretty small details if I wasn’t careful.

    Tip #5 Work LARGE

    The original pages of this comic are 17inx14in (43.18cm x 35.56cm) and I almost wished they were bigger. Still, working even on that scale has its challenges. If you’re not an artist, you might not realize how distorted a large page is when you’re sitting at a desk. I had to stand up and look straight down at it to keep it from getting too skewed. An easel or drawing-board might have been helpful.

    Tip #6 Use a medium you’re comfortable with for your first comic

    Kind of a bonus tip. Also, I didn’t do this.

    I opted to use alcohol markers for this project. For the most part, I like how it turned out, but I felt a little panicky the whole time I was using them. They interacted strangely with graphite. (Which I used to sketch the pages out before inking with alcohol-based fine-liners.) They each blended a little differently. And boy, I sure used some of them up. We took a couple of emergency trips to Hobby Lobby to replenish them over the two weeks I was working on this.

    I was using the store-brand ones, luckily. But you know they still weren’t cheap. That’s the thing about alcohol markers.

    Anyway. Once I had inked and colored all eight pages and a cover, I photographed them with my phone, cropped and adjusted them, and popped them into Canva where I added the text. I could have hand-lettered the text on the physical pages, but I didn’t. Because I kinda forgot. I got in the zone.

    Tip #7 Leave room for your text boxes/speech bubbles

    Mine got a little crowded. This probably takes some practice to get right. But in the end, I think I ended up with a totally readable, and even kind of cool-looking comic that gives my readers an exciting taste of the world of Dronefall. That was my goal.

    I hope you got something out of this behind-the-scenes look at my comic-making process. I’m obviously a complete newbie, but I wanted to share my experience with other complete newbies out there who might be just as lost as I was at the beginning of the process. If you have any questions for me, please drop them in the comments, and I’ll be sure to answer them as best I can.

    Want to see the full comic?

    Download it when you join my email list. I try to send entertaining, inspiring emails every other week. I want to make your inbox a better place, so if that sounds like something you would appreciate, welcome to my exclusive café.

    Categories
    announcements

    Surprise Project Reveal!

    Well, I’ve been working obsessively again. I got an idea a while back and have been refining it for a long time in my head, but finally, two weeks ago, I started working on actually creating it.

    I wanted to make something cool for my future email subscribers. Since I don’t use social media, my email list has become a top priority. I wanted to give you something you couldn’t find anywhere else—something unique to me and my skillset as well as my story-world. So, I started scheming up what I think is a perfect gift for readers or potential readers of the Dronefall Series.

    Has the pop-up interrupted me yet? Yep, that’s it. I created a comic adaptation for the first chapter of the first book in the Dronefall Series.

    Read the Comic

    I’ve got a dedicated landing page for it, too. If you check the menu and click on “Free Comic” it will take you there. The comic is 8 pages long (plus a cover and a bonus page at the end.) I drew the whole thing traditionally using alcohol markers in a manga-like grayscale. I’m still gun-shy about full-color. Alcohol markers are a new medium for me.

    I’m going to do a post on my whole process for adapting and creating the comic, so you’ll get more details on that, shortly. In the meantime, I’m really excited to share this rather unusual teaser with you. I’m a visual person, and I’ve always had very strong imagery in my head while writing Dronefall. This is a chance for you to get a uniquely visual introduction to my story in a way few authors could replicate. My lifelong love of sequential art made me do it. You’re welcome. *rubs migraine-glitter out of eyes*

    So, that was kind of intense. Especially coming right off finishing the Dronefall One rewrite. I finished that, by the way. I want to get it re-released toward the end of July. Another reason you need to subscribe to my newsletter is so you can know what’s going on with my crazy release schedule this summer. Book Five will be out soon as well. Six…hopefully early Fall.

    What about the blog?

    Where does it come in in the middle of all this chaos? I’ve got a few older unreleased stories I want to serialize—two of which I guess aren’t really unreleased. I’m going to post the two stories that were formerly exclusive to the “Secret Library,” which I took down in favor of something more streamlined. There’s another one, too. That should keep the blog active until Dronefall One relaunches.

    Anyway, thanks for waiting for me! I hope you enjoy the comic. And the subsequent newsletter. I’m putting a lot of effort into making my emails actually enjoyable to read. None of this sales-pitch after sales-pitch stuff a lot of email lists do. I’ll send you art and pictures and stuff. It will be worth it, I promise.

    P.S. Some of you faithful readers might wonder what’s going to happen to my Dreamscape, IN serial here on the blog. Well, I realized it was developing more of a plot than I wanted it to have. I think that was because I was trying to make it a regular series on a regular posting schedule. It’s supposed to be all vibes with multiple diffuse plot-threads that break off and pick up and fade out again. So, I’m going to try dropping an episode whenever I feel like it without warning instead.

    Anyway.

    Categories
    announcements

    The NEW Direction of UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com

    I have decided to do something completely different with this blog. I’ve decided to wreck its entire commercial potential as well as its community-building potential and make it a type of blog I can’t even find a niche name for. It’s not going to be an author blog anymore. But it’s not really going to be an art blog either. It’s not going to be a ‘life-updates’ type of blog, or a devotional blog, or a lifestyle blog or anything you’re used to seeing.

    UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com is going to go from a useful educational writing blog to an entertaining and hopefully inspiring outlet for all kinds of creative output. It’s definitely a risky move. I can’t even find anything online about how to run a blog like this. I’m going to have to totally wing it and figure everything out for myself.

    This is a terrible idea, right? We’re kind of doomed, aren’t we?

    Not if you read on. Not if you find anything here that entertains or inspires you and are interested enough to seek out more.

    What kind of content can you expect now?

    I have no shortage of ideas for what to share with you here. I’ll be sure to put my best efforts into learning how to create the most engaging content I can in this new style. I won’t be droning on dully about my WIPs or doing random sketch-dumps and calling it a post. Writing great blogposts is an art in itself, and I intend to perfect it.

    What type of post will likely dominate UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com going forward?

    • Fiction Posts

    I’m really excited about this. I’ve got some specific things planned, which I’ll talk about in a second. Probably about two-thirds of the posts on UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com will be fiction—like my own personal Wattpad website. I’ll do flash-fiction, bonus material from my books, and short-run as well as long-running serial stories. Some will be regular, but others will have random posting schedules to keep you guessing. I’m looking forward to the freedom and variety I’ll get to enjoy writing shorter more informal work. You’ll be seeing some brand-new worlds open up.

    Here and there, I’ll do other types of posts, including:

    • Art Posts

    Like I said, no sketch-dumps or single-picture with no caption posts. I want to do side-by-side comparisons of redraws of my old art, detailed character-design sheets and intros to characters (you’ll get to see some of my book characters in vivid detail and full-color for the first time!) my art-journaling pages and processes, sketchbook tours with full commentary, etc.

    • Tutorials

    No, I’m not cutting this category completely. Gotta do something to keep Pinterest happy, right? But probably not a lot of writing how-to. Things like multimedia art-journaling, beating creative block, and creating inspiring creative workspaces are in the cards. I’ll probably branch out into other things as my vision gets clearer.

    • Challenges and New Media

    I want to become more creatively adventurous. I want to try to do stuff I’m terrible at and see if I like it. Whether it’s creating art from random prompts using random materials, trying to learn a brand-new medium or technique in a set amount of time, or something significantly crazier, I want to take a tip or two from the “I tried____” trend and dive into some new and exciting experiences.

    And now, I’d like to introduce the first serial fiction series ever to come to UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com.

    Dreamscape, IN: a flash-fiction series

    “Everything life has to offer can be gotten by accident.”

    This is an ongoing flash-fiction series written completely on the fly. Not so much a story as an ethereal rhapsody of reoccurring themes and images haunting one main character. Anything can happen from episode to episode. Read one. Read every other one. Go back and read them all if you’d like. The story is whatever you remember when you wake up.

    What’s particularly unique about Dreamscape, IN is I’ve planned it to be a multimedia series. That means some episodes will be mostly writing, but will probably include illustrations. Some will feature multiple more detailed images with snippets of prose between them. Still others will lapse almost completely into webcomic form—some of which will be nearly wordless.

    It’s the story of a teenage girl living in some undefined Indiana town in the Great Lakes area. The visuals will be pretty, a bit lonely, sometimes surreal. Dreamscape isn’t a real town. It’s a place she goes in her mind where there’s always the hope of something more to be had but no guaranteed way to get to it. I think, when you’ve read a few episodes, you’ll start to remember you’ve been to Dreamscape, too.

    The prologue will be released on 8/11/23, so there’s something to look forward too. Hopefully, episodes will come out weekly.

    What’s Next?

    We’re about to jump into the regular posting schedule! Keep an eye open for my next post where I will be redrawing my art from years ago. Did I improve? Did I develop a distinctive style? Did I used to have significantly cooler ideas for things to draw?! Find out on 8/7/23!

    One More Thing:

    So, I’ve tried a lot of different creative and artistic media throughout my life. I’ve only actually gotten good at a few of them and there still some I’ve never tried at all. In the comment section, throw out all your best guesses on which ones I’ve never tried before. Go wild. I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong. If you can hit on one I haven’t tried, maybe I’ll use it to challenge myself and report how it went in a later post.

    Categories
    My Books

    Reasons to Read The Boy Who Called the Foxes This Fall

    “I’m trying to finish Dad’s song.”

      Sage looked up from her camera screen. “Huh?”

      “In the notebook Mom showed me. He left a song unfinished. Don’t tell anyone. Please? I haven’t written a song in a long time. I can’t even do it anymore.”

      “I won’t tell anybody. But why are you doing it? Seems like that wouldn’t be an easy way to start back up again. Seems like it would be easier to start with a clean slate and write something on your own.” She motioned for him to turn around and look out over the town. “Co-writing is really hard.”

      Co-writing. Yes, it was. Especially when your partner was dead. There was the constant overhanging question of whether the other writer’s vision was coming through at all. It was all the worse when you could never check in with him to ask. “I don’t have any other ideas.” He pushed his bangs back and glanced over at her. “It’s kind of—”

      “Sorry, do that again.”

      “Why are you taking portraits? I thought this was supposed to be a street-photography thing.”

      “You have to take the pictures you see. Anyway, I think you can do it. A lot of your stuff already sounds a lot like Dad’s stuff. It might take a little while to get back into it, but that’s understandable. Don’t give up on it.” She sauntered off away from him, apparently not seeing any more pictures there.

      “I wasn’t going to give up on it,” he said. And that was when he realized how close he had been to doing just that. “I was just thinking…it’s never going to be the song it was supposed to be.”

      “Cade, that’s okay. No song really is.”

                                                 Excerpt from The Boy Who Called the Foxes

    What is The Boy Who Called the Foxes?

    The Boy Who Called The Foxes was born from one thing, really: my obsession with the cozy, brisk, dreamy, eerie, exhilaration of the autumn season. When the idea sparked, all I really knew was I wanted to write a story that would be the literary equivalent of a rich pumpkin-spice latte on a crisp October morning.

    For a long time, that’s all I had. It was driving me a little crazy. I didn’t have any characters, no specific setting, no themes—I didn’t even know what genre it was going to be. But finally, the catalyst came in the form of a single image—a boy calling foxes.

    The Boy

      I didn’t know a thing about the main character at first. The title came before I had a name for him. At last, I came up with Cadence Kim—a guy who was kind of in the same stage of life as I was. He was a college graduate wondering where his life had gotten him so far. He was on his way back to move in with his mom and siblings again, since his job-hunt in Chicago was going nowhere.

      But most importantly, Cade was an artist. He was a musician who couldn’t seem to live life the way everyone else thought he should. He was a sensitive person who saw the world through different eyes and wanted something it couldn’t seem to provide.

      And he had lost his father—a similar person who, though an incredibly quiet man, had influenced his family to its core.

    The Vibes

    Obviously, a major draw for any potential reader would be the autumn aesthetic. I know I’m not the only one who lives for those short months toward the end of the year. The descriptions are loaded with the roar of October wind, the migrating birds, the changing leaves, the cozy coffee houses, caramel apples, autumn festivals, etc. I tried to make it as immersive as possible.

    While writing this book I was constantly surrounded by everything I thought could help me set the mood. I burned fall candles, drank a lot of chai, created a Pinterest board, and listened to ambient sound and playlists I curated for the project. So, the writing process itself was a kind of therapeutic experience. Almost like a vacation. I hope some of that comes through for the readers, too.

    The Themes

    Themes typically start emerging later in my planning for writing a book. They come from looking at my characters and their problems and their hopes and dreams. Cadence’s dreams have given way to disappointment in the beginning of the book. He’s disappointed in himself, and knows his old acquaintances are going to be let down as well. So, he spends a lot of time trying to hide from his situation and avoid confronting the changes that have rocked his world.

    I think it’s something a lot of people can relate to. Especially if you were ever one of those people who everybody said had “so much potential.”  Yes, there’s so much you could do, but what will you do? A lot of us don’t actually have our whole lives tied up with a bow by the time we’re eighteen. Don’t let the YA novels fool you.

    The Other Perks

    Of course, I could go on and on about how this book is worth your cozy autumn reading time. It’s fun, it’s lyrically written, it’s loaded with healthy best-friend relationships between siblings, introvert problems, settings you’ll want to move to, journal entries, original song lyrics, and just a hint of otherworldliness to set it apart from other general contemporary fiction. But rather than keep you here any longer, reading a blog post, I’ll send you off to read a book instead. (You can decide for yourself whether or not it’s The Boy Who Called the Foxes.)

    More On UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com:

    The Rise of “Gritty” Christian Fiction

    How to Survive a Creative Dry-Spell

    How to Write a Book Review that Actually Helps Readers

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