glowleaf, Author at Mythography Studios

Posted on March 7, 2018March 7, 2018 by glowleaf

Binge-Worthy Reads: Return of the Aghyrians by Patty Jansen

Watcher’s Web is an exciting survival story set in an alien wilderness.

She is lost on an alien planet. He said he’d help her get home. He lied.

Jessica’s plane develops engine trouble over the dry Australian inland—and crashes in thick, unfamiliar rainforest.

A group she thinks is a search party shows up, but it consists of large-eyed not-quite people who kill all survivors except Jessica and a long-haired hippie named Brian.

No one is going to come to rescue her. In fact, they’re not even on Earth.

While the pair wrestle their way through the forest in search for help, Jessica becomes ever more suspicious of Brian. Why does he know so much about the world where they have ended up? Why is he so insistent on helping her?

Jessica has always been able to use her mind to tell animals what to do and now she’s hearing voices in her head. Another man is pleading her not to listen to Brian. Except this man can kill someone with a single look, and he uses his mental powers to order people around.

In this utterly strange and dangerous world where people seem to want something from her, who can she trust?

A gritty survival story in the vein of The Hunger Games, set in a Star Wars locality.

Start Reading Watcher’s Web for Free on Amazon US

On Amazon UK

The rich and powerful tapestry of world building captures the imagination and just doesn’t let go. The characters are full of life and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It is easy to identify with the peoples and through suspension of disbelief, this world was very real, as are the struggles being faced. Love books that make me think about what I would or wouldn’t do in that situation. Great strong female lead.

Hollywood, are you listening? This story should be made into a movie! Avatar, move over. There’s a new kid on the block! This story is well written and the characters have plenty of depth. The story flows from one page to the next, from one chapter to the next. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from page one til the end.

Get the 4-book series:

Find the entire series on Amazon, or visit the author’s page for links to other retailers.

Posted on February 26, 2018 by glowleaf

I Give You Permission To Have a Black Achilles In Your Story

If the script doesn’t contain at least one BBC joke, I’ll be sorely disappointed for a perfectly wasted opportunity.

Here’s something that should put your mind at ease:

I, George Saoulidis, give you permission to have a black/asian/latinx/whatever Achilles in your story. I also retroactively give you permission to have any possible combination of skin colour/sexuality/hero name from the Greek epics.

How the fuck can I possibly give permission for something like that, you might ask?

Exactly.

That’s my point. The same way that it’s nobody’s business to give you permission to do something like this, nobody can stop you from doing it either.

The Greek epics do not belong to me, you, or any other Greek in the world. They belong to everybody. So much so that the words “public domain” are too puny to describe them. They’re infused into our culture, shaped the very pathways in our brains. They have inspired endless creators for literal millennia (pause and let that sink in for a moment.)

So, do you want to take a popular myth and make it your own? Are you inspired by Odysseus or Achilles or Zeus and want to see yourself in their shoes, and you also happen to not be white and male? Do you want to cosplay as them, write about them, make films and games and VR experiences about them? Do you want to create and have found inspiration in the most influential and badass mythology of all time?

By all means, go for it.

That won’t mean that I’ll like your story. It won’t mean I’ll spend money on your story. If it objectively sucks, I’ll happily tear you a new one. Or worse, I’ll just ignore it. But if the story is good, if your vision is great, if your interpretation is modern and touches the souls of those around you, then go for it.

Nobody’s stopping you. Not me. Certainly not Homer.

Posted on February 23, 2018February 23, 2018 by glowleaf

Mythographers we Love: Stargate Command

In case you live under a rock, Stargate is a massive franchise that has heavily influenced quite a lot of media. It has also influenced a lot of our stories.

Stargate is resurrected after a few years of inactivity through an all-inclusive portal called Stargate Command. To kick things into gear they offer a brand new web-series called Stargate Origins, which is a prequel and an origin story of the discovery of the Stargate on Earth.

The show is well-made but low budget for now, with short episodes. You can watch 1-3 for free and sign up with a one-time fee for full access to everything, including all the movies and all the series before that.

By purchasing the All-Access Pass, fans will have access to exclusive content, including full episodes of the new STARGATE series, Stargate Origins, and fans will also have access to a library of STARGATE TV shows and movies, including SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and all three movies, Stargate (1994), Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008) and Stargate: Continuum (2008). All-Access Pass holders will be the first to view each episode of the new digital series Stargate Origins episodes.

Fans in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are able to purchase the All-Access Pass

You can use Opera VPN app to bypass the country limitations, though you should expect it to affect streaming.

The All Access costs just $20. That fact alone makes us really appreciate this modern move. Instead of going for a subscription model, this all-you-can-binge website has it all, trivia, interviews, forums, video that complete the Stargate mythos and promises more to come. Unfortunately, this access seems to be finite:

All-Access starts on September 20, 2017 and ends on May 15, 2018. After May 15, 2018, the All-Access content will no longer be available through your All-Access Pass, but you will still be a member of the Stargate Command community, which will continue.

Read the FAQ

So, it seems they’ll shift to a subscription model or something similar in the future, and just want to get a rush of fans to the site with this offer. We’ll see.

We love Stargate because it fits with our storytelling: Alien beings with wondrous technology that are consumed by their god complex.

Don’t worry, we won’t suddenly turn it all into an Ancient Aliens in Greek Togas theme. But Stargate has influenced a lot of our tales.

Technology that has created mythological details. Like the sarcophagus that restores human bodies indefinitely, or the teleporters that seem to be a beam of light from the heavens.
Clever people solving problems in bizarre situations.
Women that are both feminine and witty, saving their friends as much as they end up saving them back.
Beings so consumed by megalomania that they think themselves as gods.
Followers blinded by the aforementioned gods’ powers that fanatically preach their teachings and kill in their name.

The series has become convoluted and messy, as all long-running sci-fi seems to have. Thankfully, io9 has compiled a guide that will get you up to speed or simply remind you of the important bits.

Posted on February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 by glowleaf

Mythographers we Love: Ancient Blogger

One of the blogs that have popped up recently is that of the Ancient Blogger, a bloke from UK that writes about Greek and Roman mythology. He doesn’t just write, it seems there’s a wealth of pictures and videos and he shows us everything with a touch of humour.

You never get over your childhood fears… #Medusa #Harryhausen #TateBritain #clashofthetitans #ancientblogger

A post shared by Medusa’s Selfie (@ancientblogger) on Oct 25, 2017 at 12:23pm PDT

This is him telling us about the aspis, a hoplite shield. Don’t know what that is? Well, click the video then, duh.

And since at the time of posting this, Valentine’s Day is dangerously imminent, I’d like to point you to a specific blog post about Unrequited Love in Ancient Greece.

It all starts with, and on, the island of Lefkada which sits in the Ionian Sea (west of mainland Greece). It’s here where you’ll find a particularly vertigo-inducing white rock which gave the island its old name, Leucas. Apollo had a temple here and if you know your Greek love gossip then you know Apollo is never far from a tragic date.

When Aphrodite was grieving for Adonis it was suggested to her by Apollo that she jump off the white rock to cure her feelings. Whether this was sage advice or the sort of thing which siblings do to each other is unclear but as Aphrodite emerged from the sea she was indeed cured.

The famous Sappho apparently jumped from here to cure herself of love, but died, which isn’t exactly surprising. Strabo contends that the first mortal to attempt the feat wasn’t Sappho (as is sometimes stated) but Cephalus who had fallen for Pteralas (10.2.9). Whether Cephalus survived isn’t known but we do have a list of those who attempted and (mostly) failed thanks to a Greek grammarian called Conon who lived around the time of Augustus.

Keep on reading.

Posted on January 30, 2018February 2, 2018 by glowleaf

Sample Chapter: Girl Gone Nova

Image Credit Vitaliy Raskalov/Vadim Mahorov/Marat Dupri. Check out their daring and illegal climb atop the pyramid.

Sample Chapter

Guillermo rubbed his temples. Hard.
“You can’t just take ‘a pyramid.’”
Kyveli scoffed. “Why not? You have three of them.”
Guillermo breathed in deep. It was surprisingly chilly for being in a desert. “Because… It is an ancient monument to a Pharaoh, a tomb, actually. It has stood there for about three thousand years.”
The Teddy Bear held up a ridiculously tall parasol that only covered her from the sun, leaving him out to get a tan.
Kyveli tilted her head. “A Pharaoh?”
“Yes. Royalty. Like you, actually. You wouldn’t want someone to show up after eons and just pick up your tomb as if it was a vacation souvenir now, would you?”
She opened her pretty mouth to speak.
“Yes,” he interrupted. “I know, there won’t be a tomb left. There won’t even be a solar system left. But you know what I mean.”
Kyveli turned back to the magnificent view from atop the pyramid. Her eyes glinted as they darted around. Translucent images appeared in her field of view, and Guillermo was shocked to realise that she was actually looking up information on the Pharaohs. The ship’s Mind digested the volumes of data and gave her the highlights that it knew she’d like.
He let her take it all in.
He stood in silence, watching her. How would the Ancient Egyptians react to a visit from her? He had no doubt in his mind that she’d fit in nicely right next to Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Delicate features, thin fingers, red skin like velvet. Throw in one of those characteristic Egyptian crowns that frame the entire head and she’s a Queen now.
Worshipped by trillions.
The mind doesn’t just boggle, it shuts down completely. Guillermo tried to imagine what that actually meant. And he was no novice either, he had stood next to kings as they addressed crowds beneath them.
He spun around to watch the desert. Trillions of souls. What had they called them? Panhuman species, variations on the same theme and archetype of two hands, two feet, standing upright, across the stars. Like grains of sand.
Grains of sand at her feet.
Yes, that was the only analogy Guillermo’s brain could come up with to make the comparison.
He snorted at his thoughts. He was under the mistaken impression that the humans of today seemed somehow more advanced than the Egyptians were. But the difference of two thousand years of science was negligible next to the Ekrignontes. He squinted up at the shiny orb in the sky that called itself a silly name and had a silly Teddy Bear avatar and had the power to slice Jupiter up like an orange.
Humans were just playing with rocks, stacking them pretty.
Kyveli gestured and dismissed the AR data.
He smiled back at her.
“So I can’t take one? Not even the little one?” She pointed hesitantly at the smaller pyramid of the three and gave him the puppy eyes.
To force himself away from the urge to please her was like scratching a sunburn.
“No.”

Check out Girl Gone Nova

Posted on January 11, 2018 by glowleaf

Mythographers we Love: Netflix

Netflix’s marketing has been a blast. From Bright’s Orc auditions, to blending reality with Black Mirror episodes, to the upcoming Altered Carbon series with a real booth at CES promoting the fictional company’s services, they’re spinning their stories and firmly lodging them into everyone’s minds.

Netflix is doing exactly what we predict future corporations will do, meaning blend their own narrative into the real world and in the end it will become indistinguishable from reality. Of course, these are all PR stunts and viral tricks for now, but it won’t be long before these are used as real-world propaganda by more nefarious corps.

Happy New Year with Black Mirror

Orcs auditioning for Bright sequel

Psychasec Booth at CES

Image credit: Mat Smith at Engadget

Read the article.

When they ventured inside, an army of slightly too pretty attendants, dressed-in-white offered vague sci-fi responses to questions (“It’s about transferring your conscious to a new, better body”), while screens all around scrolled through the benefits of replacing your body for a new (sexy, stronger, smarter) model. The aforementioned staff clutched tablets to take email addresses with promises of more information come February 2nd. Plenty took the bait, genuinely curious of where this company was based and whether this was all even possible.

The twist, if you can call it that, happens once you turn a corner, and you’re confronted with a vacuum-sealed human. This is another mannequin, although with some carefully-placed condensation inside the bag, made it rather unsettling. Naturally, I had to poke the “person” in a bag. Morbid fascination.

Needless to say that, at this point we frickin’ love Netflix.

Posted on January 10, 2018January 12, 2021 by glowleaf

Binge-Worthy Reads: Feed – A Dystopian Collision With Reality TV

Start reading the Fooko series today for free. Feed 1 is a dystopian collision with reality TV. Don’t miss it!

I Wanna Get Dystopian

Seven years after the nanocameras switched on and the feeds began, nanoengineer Samuel Ramone becomes the subject of an addictive reality feed. As his heart sinks further into the crush he’s been nursing, his popularity rises. He is a married man, after all.

When it comes to the new world of the feeds, Enforcers are nothing but a rumor. But the Editors . . . they’re real. With every human monitored endlessly, Ramone hasn’t had anything to fear in a long time, except seeing himself in a feed. Or worse, seeing his wife in one. With another man.

That’s why he’s never looked. If you can’t see something, it’s not there.

But when Ramone finally plans a way to hide from the unceasing surveillance–disguised as entertainment, monitored and enhanced by those all-seeing Editors–he learns that his viewership is endangering his attempts escape the feeds, and soon the people he loves most.

Now he is hunted by an Enforcer. Running is pointless. But staying in one place means learning the rumors aren’t just rumors.

If you enjoy 1984, Black Mirror, and other dystopians about surveillance, Feed 1 is right for you.

Start reading Feed book 1 for free on Amazon

“Ms Grotepas has written a novel that has made me care about characters again. The intriguing subject and a look into the not so distant future are at once frightening and believable.” — Rita Kaye, Amazon reviewer

“This book is really, really good. It does not bog itself down trying to explain the science behind everything but is so descriptive in its simplicity that you don’t notice right away. It feels like a mix of Harry Harrison and Robert Heinlein.” — Joshua Allen, Goodreads reviewer

“Each of the characters is unique and interesting in their own way and watching the interaction and development of relationships between the characters kept me turning the pages.” — William Hall, Amazon reviewer

“This book drew me in immediately . . . Was so engrossed, I immediately ordered Feed 2 – at 11:15 PM – ready to read all night!” — Passing Pilgrim, Amazon reviewer

“The writing is polished, and the characters well developed. The world the author has created is believable and terrifying at the same time.” — Marcus, Amazon reviewer

“Not that far from the world we live in now with reality TV the opioid for the masses. She created great characters with intense passions and frustrations. Four stars for this one. Give me more.” — Dolly, Goodreads reviewer

I Wanna Read Feed for Free on Amazon

UPDATE

The boxset is available, check it out for an easy-to-get binge.

Get the Boxset on Amazon US

Get the Boxset on Amazon UK

Posted on January 10, 2018March 6, 2019 by glowleaf

Binge-Worthy Reads: The Coilhunter Series, a Sci-Fi Western

Welcome to the Wild North, a desolate wasteland where criminals go to hide—if they can outlast the drought and the dangers of the desert. Or the dangers of something else.

Meet Nox, the Coilhunter. A mechanic and toymaker by trade, a bounty hunter by circumstance. He isn’t in it for the money. He’s in it for justice, and there’s a lot of justice that needs to be paid.

Between each kill, he’s looking for someone who has kept out of his crosshairs for quite a while—the person who murdered his wife and children. The trail has long gone cold, but there are changes happening, the kind of changes that uncover footprints and spent bullet casings.

Plagued by nightmares, he’s made himself into a living one, the kind the criminals and conmen fear.

So, welcome, fair folk, to the Wild North. If the land doesn’t get you, the Coilhunter will.

New Release: Dustrunner

The third book, Dustrunner, completes the trilogy. Get on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited.

Nox is a wanted man.

While searching for a criminal, the fabled Coilhunter wanders into a tribal village massacre. He didn’t do it, but that doesn’t matter. He’s the only one there, the clues point to him, and he’s made a lot of enemies over the years. Many would happily see the tables turned.

Get the Coilhunter Series on Amazon US Get the Coilhunter Series on Amazon UK

New Coilhunter story!

Lostlander – A Science Fiction Western Adventure

Welcome to nowhere.

Nox, the Coilhunter, wakes up in unfamiliar territory, victim of a deranged man who claims he’s from another world, and who’s building an army of slaves to help him get back there.

The eccentric bounty hunter must face off the wild of the desert and the wild in men, all the while trying to piece together what happened from his fractured memory.

Some go to the Lostlands to find themselves, but the Coilhunter is on the hunt for the true Lostlander: the Man with the Silver Mane. Folk say those Magi are lost without their magic, but Nox has long found his own kind of mojo in his gadgets and his guns.

Posted on December 31, 2017 by glowleaf

Binge-Worthy Reads: Start With Star Nomad, Then Fall for the Empire

If you want to read a long series of space opera goodness, look no further than Lindsay Buroker’s Fallen Empire series.

You can start reading Star Nomad right now for free on Amazon.

The series is insanely deep and beloved by a ton of fans. It has also kicked-off a spin-off, so we’ll need Lindsay’s list of titles to keep track of it all.

Fallen Empire

Remnants — A short story that takes place 2-3 years before Star Nomad. It’s the adventure where Alisa and Mica first meet, and it’s currently only available in the You Are Here SF/F anthology.

Last Command — A novella that takes place 6 months before Star Nomad. It’s from Leonidas’s point of view and shows him carrying out his last mission before the fall of the empire. It’s currently available as a free bonus to those who sign up for the Fallen Empire newsletter.

Star Nomad — The first book and where the main adventure begins.

Saranth Three — A short story that takes place between Star Nomad and Book 2, Honor’s Flight. It’s currently a bonus for newsletter subscribers.

Honor’s Flight — Book 2 in the series

Starfall Station — A short story from Leonidas’s point of view. It takes place between Book 2 and Book 3. It’s currently available through the free Star Rebels anthology. (This is available on Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble, as well as Amazon.)

Starseers — Book 3

Relic of Sorrows — Book 4

Cleon Moon — Book 5

Arkadian Skies — Book 6

Perilous Hunt — Book 7

End Game — Book 8

Hope Springs — A honeymoon adventure that takes place after Book 8. It’s currently available in the Beyond the Stars: New Worlds, New Suns anthology.

Cyborg Legacy — This is a stand-alone novel that takes place a few years after the main series. It brings in a new hero, Jasim, but Leonidas also returns to go on the adventure.

Sky Full of Stars (Fallen Empire spinoff series)

A Sky Full of Stars takes place ten years after the events in Fallen Empire, with the next generation (Jelena, Thor, and Erick Ostberg) coming to the forefront for adventures of their own.

The Rogue Prince — Book 1