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Well I've been working on my story-writing ways for many moons now, going back at least to the halcyon days of 1999!

To cut a long story short I'm going to be trying to create a massive universe set in a post-apocalyptic world!

The challenge is great, the goals are worthy but the obstacles monumental.

I've set myself the goal of 12 full-sized novels, each progressing the greater story arc and encompassing the transition from Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Fantasy, to Sci-Fi Fantasy in the new age. The overall theme is adventure and adult maturity though. To those that have ever read Heinlen and Robert E. Howard, that's kinda my style - with a bit of Lovecraft thrown in! :)

There's a lot of folks out there yearning for this sort of thing, especially from the grass-roots up.

The good news is I've managed to get my first book buzzed into the dizzy realms of Amazon and Createspace at least. Editing it was a test of nerves and sanity, especially at 114,000 words but I managed it! :)

What's Post Apocalyptic America like then? Here's a taste of just a few of the factions...

Stay tuned for updates as the adventure continues...

This is pretty cool!  I'd like to see more!

Thanks lion, if it wasn't so late here I'd buzz you all some more cool stuff, right now I'm trying to get the adventure story done for here.

Just working on the endings right now, I figure that will be easier so I can work into it, than just make the story go and then try breaking it up.

Basically the adventure story I want to write on here will take place at the start of book 1 where the main protagonist is trying to get his people to safety. Depending on how well the player does in the adventure game, depends on what ending they get. :)

I EVEN am thinking about recording it onto video for YT but that would be incredibly challenging to video as it would take about 50 uploads to cover all the eventualities.

Yeah.  I found that writing the endings for these kinds of stories seem much more "efficient" than to write it all from the beginning.  Well.  Good luck!

Really nice world-building so far, though I do find that your opening description finds itself a little more than just slightly repetitive (which, to the common reader, would irk him/her).  And while I can see you're trying to stretch beyond the current day-to-day vocabulary, I might want to point that I also found out that you tend to use the same words quite a lot, like "dark" or "to come..." or "freedom".  Of course, as you said in your synopsis on Amazon, the novel will be similar to Tolkien's in terms of the clear-cut themes of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, etc., but be careful not to bore your readers with the same facet of a multi-sided prism, even if the prism just happens to be synonymous with Halcyon.

Of course, I haven't read the book yet.  If I do, I'll take more notes on it.

Yes, those are the long trailers, the Hyperborean one isn't my best by a long shot and the long story text is not ideal either.

When I first wrote Mountain Hold there was a serious case of repetition and a multitude of mistakes (1st draft which went out in early 2013). However since then I have blitzed the book many times with editing and bringing in a friend who has excellent skills for reading the work as an outsider. Eventually I too was an 'outsider' to the book and was able to read it as a stranger.

This may seem strange for an author to do yet if you leave a book for even six months after completion your mind 'drifts' from what it was when you were typing the story down etc. Basically it became even easier to edit via proof reading.

Here is a video some of you may enjoy, it's how I actually wrote the darned thing and what it takes to do so. :)

Heinlen, Howard and Lovecraft? Preposterous... 

Well, I'm intrigued... 

Well it's the closest I can come up with right now, I like some of Lovecraft's as he was able to capture a sense of 'civilization under threat' and actually fuelled horror-writing (S. King often states he was an inspiration).

Heinlen has that ballsy, gutsy vibe while not falling into any pigeonhole (people call him ultra-right wing, yet in many ways he's ultra-libertarian), he made military sci-fi a very notable genre too.

Robert E Howard has the very stuff of adventure flowing from his pages, the essence and panoply of a warrior on his way in the world can be found instantly with his works. No messing about either with the PC niceties entangling many writers these days, he's right down the bones of it and liberals can weep tears of oceans! LOL

Someone compared my work to Tolkein's LOTR but in a post-apocalyptic age. I'm not so sure about that entirely. Perhaps when I get the other books written and get a whole global conflict thing going (like Tolkein did with Middle-Earth in flames etc) then maybe I can explore that further...

Editing the story is tricky, but perseverance is essential, along with a relentless grind to find near-as-dammit every little error.  With large books this can be a challenge indeed...

Last part of the video series:

Post apocalypse LOTR?...
 

"You have my sword, Frodo." Said Armand Gore, son of the President.

"And my sniper." said Lincoln.

"And my Chainsaw!" Said Jim Lee.

"Good morning!" Said Bill, sitting outside his bunker. And he mean it. The sun was even brighter and hotter then usual, the sand was very red.
Professor Randalph looked at him with bushy eyebrows through his gas mask, "What do you mean!?"

So the story so far...

To The Mountain Hold story is going along nicely, albeit a bit sluggish.

Chapter 1 is almost done which means there's about 2 more chapters, one that will be a full and richly diverse one with two main branches to explore, then eventually back to one branch to lead into chapter 3.

More to come later, watch this space. :)

Well folks, I've finally gotten Part 1 done and finished.

It's my first ever online adventure game. It's pretty bare-bones with no pictures, just text. I'll be adding bits to it though. The links all work and it reads pretty good.  It's about escaping a prison-town successfully to try and flee away into the Mountains where your base is.

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/To_The_Mountain_Hold!_Part_1.aspx

Good Luck

To get you in the mood here's a little video I made earlier. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf173SRcXO8