Thoughts on sequels

While my novel is still in development (in fact the manuscript alone isn't even finished!), I have some plans made for the two sequels to Animator's Dream. They will be different from the first novel in more ways than one, with the third having the most radical differences.

Animator's Reality (Animator's Dream Episode Two)
-Western cartoons and comics theme
-Somewhat darker feel in spite of featuring lighthearted cartoons
-Different protagonist, named Lancer
-A pen is the artistic utensil of choice here
-Sidekick having more mature look and feel, while still being a female, and having a more tragic back story creation reason than Tigercat. She is also based on Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's western animation/games characters, and would be designed like that of Marvel Comic's Black Cat
-Four animated world sidekick characters based on Tara Strong, Lara Jill Miller, Steve Blum and Erin Fitzgerald.
-Industrial music a part of the soundtrack, similar to that of Frank Klepacki's work for the Command & Conquer games and Johan Skugge & Jukka Rintamaki's work for Battlefield 3.
-Introduces the western side of the Diablo's Darkness, led by Devil's Minister, based on Daran Norris and Timmy Turner's dad in Nickelodeon's Fairly Oddparents. They are not as evil as the Japanese side, but they are still dangerous nonetheless
-Also would introduce the western equivalent of the Angels of Light: the Demons of the Dark, to add a 'dark is not evil' motif to the fight against the Diablo's Darkness. They also follow a mythical god naming convention
-Keeping the grouping convention of poster boy hero and sidekick, genius strongman, sexy gal pal, and unique with a past-type character
-Characters pilot fictionalizations of real world tanks and aircraft as opposed to Japanese mechs and scrolling shooter space fighters, and the tanks and fighters evolve based on historical chronology
-Aircraft and tanks go in this order: two American, one British, one Japanese, one German, and one Russian


Animator's Requiem
-Kirk and Lancer's teams come together in the final novel of the Animator's Dream trilogy
-Sides representing Japanese anime and manga and western animation and comics are at war with each other
-Focuses on Kirk's and Lancer's missions as they fight ranked soldiers and special units
-A secret war is being conducted by two commanders on the Japanese and western armies, secretly in disguise as Devil's Mistress and Devil's Minister respectively
-Devil's Mistress and Devil's Minister represent the real life marriage of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Daran Norris
-Diablo's Darkness behind the war between the Japanese and western factions, but the Angels of Light and Demons of the Dark intervene to prevent further fighting
-Diablo's Darkness planned to weaken the two forces to conquer the animated world and the physical world, and eventually reality itself
-Zenaiva to join Kirk and friends after breaking mind control
-Noel will give birth to a new species of life
-Final battle between the animators Kirk and Lancer and the Diablo's Darkness
-Some Diablo's Darkness members revealed to be captured and mind controlled Angels of Light/Demons of the Dark members, but will be rescued
-Some characters seen in the previous two novels may be killed, but they will not be any of Kirk or Lancer's friends


Those are my ideas in a nutshell. Here's hoping that I can generate worldwide recognition for my work so as to make these sequels possible.

Obscure Video Games - Starblade: Operation Blue Planet

New to this blog is Obscure Video Games, a series that I personally created to show off games that are either rare or never even saw the light of day. Because a lot of influences in my novel include video games from Japan, this would be a fitting addition to my blog. For my very first episode, I would share Starblade: Operation Blue Planet, the sequel to Namco's Starblade. This is unique in that it would have been used in their cancelled O.R.B.S. (Over Reality Booster System) arcade cabinet, which would have immersed players inside the machine and give a spherical view. A shame it got cancelled, looked like fun. I just wished that Namco would broaden their development horizons and make more unique games like these. Angry Joe was right: better games have been canned and never released.
Oh, if you want to learn about O.R.B.S., go here: NAMCO MEDIUM SIZED ATTRACTIONS HARDWARE - O.R.B.S.

Chapter three finally done, plus new characters

Wow, it's been quite a while since I did a blog post. School and story work will do that to someone like me.

Anyways, I finally finished up chapter three and begun work on the fourth. This is where the fun begins and the mystery of the Diablo's Darkness begins to unravel. A romance sub-plot unfolds in this chapter as well, and a character is introduced that only enhances the mystery through an explanation that states he is involved with an organization called the Angels of Light. I'm not going to go deep into the chapter, but I will discuss the new characters introduced in this chapter.

Noel - A young lynx girl who was seeking refuge from the Diablo's Darkness. She states that she has knowledge of the Diablo's Darkness, but refuses to go into details about it. Noel is also aware of her sister Zenaiva, who is also with the Diablo's Darkness, through a locket that Kirk finds and gives her; this is where the romance sub-plot comes into play. She also has psychic powers, is able to shape shift her clothing and hair color at will, and can even speak Japanese. She also enjoys the hobbies that Kirk enjoys, too. There is really more to this girl than her appearance suggests, but what exactly remains to be seen. Noel is based off of N.I.C.O.L.E. from Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics and voice actor Cristina Valenzuela/Cristina Vee, who is also a cosplayer and singer, and is bilingual due to her ability to speak Japanese. Her default outfit is that of Haruhi Suzumiya, but she alters her outfit similar to that of Cristina Vocaloid, a custom character, and Anna Bosconovich from Tekken.

Vambrace - Noel's alter ego, she is a beautiful and powerful warrior with enhanced psychic powers and a katana that can freeze enemies. She also comes equipped with a magic grappling hook called the Chain Diver, which allows her greater mobility and effective use of her sword's freezing ability. She is really introduced in chapter three, but is kept a secret from Kirk until later on. Is based off of Psylocke from Marvel's X-Men comics, but her design is still the same as N.I.C.O.L.E.

Diablo's Darkness - The enemy organization of the Animator's Dream. They seem like a regular organization seeking to cause terror, but they also have a deeper history behind them. There are rumors about them that they have been around for centuries. Their members are noted for their bone-chilling color pattern; the outfits they wear are blood-red in color, as is their eyes, and their hair is of a jet black color. The group is based off of villain organizations like those from Pokemon, but also shares elements of Zone Of Endless from Ace Combat 2/Assault Horizon Legacy/3D Cross Rumble.

Devil's Psycho - The first member of the Diablo's Darkness that Kirk encounters. He is the Captain of the six main Diablo's Darkness members, and while he is the weakest, is nonetheless very dangerous. Design-wise, he is a mixture of Monkey Khan from Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics and Albedo Piazzollo from Xenosaga. Personality-wise, he is like Alucard from Hellsing and Albedo, though he is more psychotic and maniacal than those two combined.

Devil's Mistress - The second member of the Diablo's Darkness encountered, though she is really the commander of them. She doesn't make direct contact with Kirk, appearing as a hologram, as she only serves to deliver a message to him. Devil's Mistress is easily the most powerful of the Diablo's Darkness, given her ranking as commander. She is capable of copying other female characters and altering her appearance to appear like them, save for blood red outfits and eyes, and jet black hair. She also has some history with not only Noel, but Miyu Kusanagi, B.W., and even Kirk, but what kind of history is a mystery. Devil's Mistress is based off of various villains in anime, but also has elements of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's twisted sense of humor, and is basically an evil Miyu Kusanagi design-wise.

Cygnus - The spirit of the holy katana, he was encased in it by the mysterious Angels of Light. He serves as a guide for Kirk and an aid for him via a power called Holy Interface. This grants him enhanced sight and the ability to detect stealth units. Design-wise, he is a mix of Weregarurumon from Digimon and Bunshichi Tawara from Tenjho Tenge.

So there, that's the new characters. This chapter, and the rest beyond it, will be fun.

New feature available on the blog!

This blog has a new feature to your right. It's a poll, so now you can have a say in matters without having to deal with long blog postings. Yay! I might use this to gauge my audience and to figure out what people would like to see in my works. Might come in handy in the long run...

Novel Themes: Subs and Dubs

When I woke up this morning and went on my computer, the first thing I did asides from going on Swag Bucks to earn daily points for rewards is go on GameFAQs. GameFAQs is a website dedicated to cheat codes and walkthroughs for video games of any kind. It's saved my bacon many times when I needed help with a certain game or unlocking certain items. While it's a great website, you're probably wondering what it has to do with my novel. I'll sum this up with two words: today's poll.

I look at the poll section and find out that today's topic involves whether people prefer Japanese original voice work or English dubbed voice work in Japanese developed games. First place went to subbed work, second depending on the game, and third dubbed. The losers went to it doesn't matter and I never play Japanese developed games. The fact that first place went to Japanese voices cements the issue of subs vs. dubs in my novel further; that there are people who want subtitles and think any dub is inferior to the original voice work. One of the antagonist characters in my novel, Devil's Egotism, represents these people. He labels anything western as 'inferior', speaks Japanese in addition to English to taunt his foes, and is a representation of the arrogant anime and manga fans that think official dubs and translations are inferior.

I wanted to write this blog post because people say that voice work is the make or break part of video games, especially with Baten Kaitos on the Nintendo GameCube. I strongly disagree; I could care less about the quality of the voice work in a game, but if I can't get past a level or achieve a certain completion percentage because somebody in beta testing fell asleep on the job or the developers were really sadistic, we have problems. Mega Man X6 is an example of such scenarios; the game was localized in a matter of one week, and yes a week, not months or years, one week, and it shows. Not only did Capcom USA not bother to dub voice work, which showed how lazy they were, but they didn't bother with lowering the difficulty some. The reason the game is so hard and hated is because of awful level design and the rescue system of the game. To make a long story short, if you fail to rescue a reploid carrying an important upgrade for your character, your game is royally screwed and are forced to restart, unless you cheat and use the god armors, then you might beat it. The controls aren't a walk in the park, either, and if you get stuck in a level, you will get stuck and be forced to suicide all your lives. What was that about voice work ruining a game again?

It's a sensitive topic I wanted to talk about so I don't worry about my day being ruined over a poll. I just hope people will understand what I'm talking about without starting a flame war of sorts. By the way, I won't be talking about the sections of chapters in the novel, but I will be summarizing what happens in upcoming chapters. I'm not going to baby people with tidbits of individual sections.

Side story progress, and a dream anime cast list

Well, just want the world to know that the second side story chapter is almost completed. Now it's about the efforts of B.W. and Miyu Kusanagi as they momentarily split up from Kirk and Tigercat and take on the Germanians' training exercise while encountering two of the Germanian Empire's four elite IllusionCore pilots.

By the way, I've might have mentioned in an earlier blog post that this novel would feature an ambitious audio novel unique in that an industry veteran voice actor would voice it. However, a full cast is not practical for audiobooks; I'd only hire one industry veteran VA for such a project. I would, however, like to see my work turned into an anime film. So, here's my dream cast for this dream anime.

Personally, I want Cristina Valenzuela to do audiobook for this work, while Karen Strassman would do the sequel. Plans for a third and episode zero novel are still in the works.


Johnny Yong Bosch - Kirk/KFBAT/Kevin Redbeacon
(JYB is the classic hero/anti-hero type, which these characters are; he even prefers this character!)

Wendee Lee - Eloyse Floyd/Tigercat/Vulpecula/Canus Major/Canus Minor/Lyra/Cassiopeia
(Wendee Lee is a superb multirole voice artist, known for characters ranging from high school girls to young boys and older tough gal types. She would be suited for all of these characters as a result.)

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn - Melissa Williamson/Miyu Kusanagi/Venus/Anna Germania/Captain Atsuko Kurasagi
(Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is good with the sexy, tough as nails heroine characters.)

Cristina Valenzuela (or Cristina Vee, whichever she would prefer) - Noel/Vambrace/Suzumi Himoto
(Cristina Vee is good with young girls, but also great for the heroine characters, too. The characters that she would voice represent her in a variety of ways, but perhaps the most important aspect of Noel would be that she would be speaking Japanese. This is actually a part of the novel's theme and story, which will not be covered in this blog post. Cristina Vee can speak Japanese very fluently, and would be best suited for these characters.)

Richard Epcar - B.W./Mars/Pinnace
(Richard Epcar is good with the wise but strong characters, but perhaps the biggest trait is that he has a sort of relation with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in terms of career history. Basically, Miyu Kusanagi and B.W. are friends in my novel, Batou and Major Motoko Kusanagi are friends in Ghost in the Shell, and Richard Epcar and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn are friends in real life. It's a theme I'm following in this novel.)

Michelle Ruff - Georgette Germania/Mother Angel
(Michelle Ruff, like Wendee Lee, is a multirole type, but somewhat more condensed. She's most effective as a sort of commanding figure, though, so the roles of Georgette Germania and Mother Angel would go to her.)

Stephanie Sheh - Lepus/Devil's Mistress
(Stephanie is good with voicing young women, even though Lepus is more than just a young woman. Also, I wanted her to voice a villainess, so as to break out of her usual mold. [This role is a work in progress, as I want to draw a picture of, and have other female VAs to voice Devil's Mistress before I decide which one works best])

Lauren Landa - Zenaiva
(Lauren is good as the fanservice character, as well as young girls and boys, but this character would be the troubled sister who is forced to work for an evil army.)

Cindy Robinson - C.R./Circinus
(Cindy Robinson can not only voice young boys effectively (she's also the new official voice of Betty Boop), but also use a more natural voice for the more serious characters. That, and her Ordinance Quail character matches her initials.)

Kate Higgins - C.H./Hydra
(Kate recently got promoted to multirole voice artist status, but for the anime, she would be playing this Ordinance Quail character due to her initials matching Kate's.)

Yuri Lowenthal - Suzuki Roberts/Devil's Egotism/Crux
(Yuri is good with a variety of male characters, from Suzuki/Suzaku's Knight Templar style, to Devil's Egotism's maniacal and arrogant villain personality, and Crux's noble and heroic sense of humility. Also, Devil's Egotism and Crux can speak Japanese in addition to English, which is an important part of the novel's theme and story since Noel has some past with these devil characters [they are part of an organization called the Diablo's Darkness, by the way]. Yuri Lowenthal can speak Japanese fluently, which makes him best suited to these characters.)

Tara Platt - Lacerta
(Tara Platt is on par with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's warrior characters, but Tara has some compassion and kindness in her as well. Also, Crux and Lacerta are both husband and wife in my novel, just as Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt are married in real life. Yes, voice actor relations and parallels to fictional characters are a theme in this novel.)

Christopher Sabat - Feral Wolf
(Christopher is good with both the hammy and the aggressive villain types, but I wanted to match Feral Wolf's voice and personality with that of Wild Dog from Namco's Time Crisis series. The main goal is to try and emulate the old voice actor of Wild Dog in Time Crisis one and two, which I find Christopher Sabat to be best suited for the role.)

Crispin Freeman - McDougal Gottfried/Tokuso/Devil's Psycho/Pluto
(Crispin is good with a variety of male characters, but he is suited for Devil's Psycho because of his history of playing as psychotic characters like Albedo Piazzolla from Namco's Xenosaga and Alucard from Hellsing. He's also good for Pluto, a dark-themed hero, as he's played similar characters, too.)

Karen Strassman - Karen Strassfield/Devil's Seduction
(Karen, while achieving the status of multirole, would be voicing both an Ordinance Quail character and Devil's Seduction, since Karen is good with the seductive villainess voice. That, and her OQ character shares both her real name and a pen name.)

Steve Blum - Roger Smith/ORO
(While Steve Blum is a supreme special multirole, his character appearances are somewhat limited to that of a reporter based on a character from Big O and a ninja warrior like that of Time Crisis' MOZ but spelled out with the first three letters of Orochimaru from Naruto.)

Liam O'Brien - Sheruto Garra
(Liam can handle a variety of male characters, but I chose him to emulate the old voice of Sherudo Garo from Time Crisis. Also, the character design is a mixture of Sherudo, Gaara from Naruto and Liam O'Brien himself, which makes him suitable for this role.)

Sam Riegel - Samuel
(While having only a minor part, Sam Riegel would be best suited for Samuel due to his natural voice.)

John Kassir - Devil's Perversion
(He's mostly noted for Raymundo Rocket from Rocket Power and the crypt keeper from Tales from the Crypt and Tales from the Crypt Keeper, but his voice as Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance fits perfectly as Devil's Perversion)

Charles Forrest "Spike" Spencer - Devil's Maniac
(While Spike Spencer can voice a variety of male characters, I chose him for Devil's Maniac because of how the character is like that of Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion but has the personality of Arakune from BlazBlue. Spike really wants to play the psychotic characters, kind of like Mark Hamill and Joker from Batman.)

Patrick Seitz - Patrick Seitz
(He's Patrick Setiz. He's a voice actor. He's getting a small cameo in this novel. Need I say more?)

Rebecca Forstadt - Kiva Redbeacon
(Rebecca can voice sweet young girls, but is chosen for this role for reference reasons.)

Michael McConnohie - Michael Germania
(Michael can voice the in-charge and hammy characters greatly, making him a fit for Michael Germania.)

Julie Ann Taylor - Julie Samford
(This character role is minor, but it fits because Julie Ann Taylor is good with the compassionate women.)

Brina Palencia - Corona Borealis
(Brina is good with the young and older women, but would be suited for this role due to the character resembling Rei Ayanami, another NGE character. Of course, the big difference between Rei and C. Borealis would be that Brina would be using her natural voice.)

Tiffany Lynn Grant - Corona Austrina/Devil's Doppelganger
(Tiffany is basically Asuka Langley Soryu incarnate, which is what Corona Austrina is designed upon. Same thing with Devil's Doppelganger, but there's a secret involved with this character. Also, Tiffany would be using a natural voice and a deeper, more sultry voice for both C. Austrina and Devil's Doppelganger respectively.)

Kirk Thornton - Cygnus
(He can voice a variety of male characters, both lone wolf and wise, but in this case Kirk's character is in line with Gabumon from Digimon, voice wise, but design wise he's a mix of Bunshichi Tawara from Tenjho Tenge and Weregarurumon from Digimon.)

As you can see, the cast here consists of veteran voice actors that have experience in anime in one way or another, but some of the cast members don't get as big of a role as others. Nonetheless, as I have said before, this would be the perfect cast if this were made into an anime.

Publisher Reconsideration

I was scrolling around the web finding good publishers and self-publishing groups when I decided to look back at PublishAmerica, my first publisher choice due to supposed incentives involving free publishing and no upfront payments. However, after reading some info regarding an abysmal BBB rating and a class action lawsuit, I quickly changed my mind over the choice.

First, a simple Google search will reveal all sorts of negativity involved with the publishing company, such as how it's a scam and how they're not really getting your book into stores. A forum board even covers the negatives and debunks the myths on their website. I've read a lot of bad things about their services, but what really took the cake was the fact that they didn't even bother to properly edit accepted work. Hell, there were issues of errors being added to manuscripts as well. Not good considering I could do a better job with an online service. Even worse than that, PA openly stated that some of the books they sell don't even sell one copy. Sometimes, for the books that did sell, they didn't even pay any royalties, a big no-no in the industry.

For the too long; didn't read crowd, Publish America, based on my research, is of the lowest of the low. It doesn't help that they have an F ranking on the Better Business Bureau's website. Of course, the madness doesn't stop there. This month, a lawsuit was filed on the company, with the authors that submitted work to PublishAmerica serving as the plaintiffs. You know a company has royally screwed up and broken so many promises when a lawsuit has to be filed on the company. Now I can see why the BBB gave this company an F rank. Well, back to the drawing board. Maybe find other publishers that will accept my work or just self-publish my work. Might find a good book advertising agency that will hopefully widespread my work, too.