Concept Behind "Worth the Risk" by Alain Gomez



This particular story is a standalone I have available on Amazon, BN, etc. that takes place in my Muzik Chronicles universe.  Muzik Chronicles is my serial sci-fi blog I started it a little over six months ago.  It's kind of like a weekly comic strip only blog-style.  The goal is to eventually have it be a place where people could submit their own little mini adventures.

On the blog, all adventures are flash fiction in that they are under 1,000 words.  In an effort to help attract a wider audience, I created this longer short story featuring one of my reoccurring characters, Calen Natari. 

I really enjoy writing these stories.  They're just...fun... to create.  I guess they let me relive my Star Wars fandom from when I was little?  It helps me to unleash the geek within?  I dunno.  What I do know is that I hated it when the Star Wars books got really serious.  To me, that totally defeats the purpose.  There's just something very comforting about the heros that always make it out alive to save the day. 

As one quick side-note: I've been working with concept artist Andrew de Guzman to help spice up my blog.  He's been doing a fantastic job making me pictures of the various planets, weapons, races and ships I've described on Muzik Chronicles.  This cover art is his latest creation.

http://muzikchronicles.blogspot.com 

Comments

  1. Kevis HendricksonMay 17, 2012 at 6:25 PM

    That's a dynamite cover, Alain. Really inspires my inner geek! ;) I've visited muzikchronicles a few times and enjoyed the stories I read there. Come to think of it, I actually wrote a couple of stories for your blog last year, but they turned out quite bad. The world-building was pretty cool. But I never was able to figure out how to make the plot work. Looking at your cover makes me think it might be time to go back and make another attempt at fixing them. Who knows? I just might strike gold this time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alain GomezMay 17, 2012 at 7:11 PM

    Oh yeah, Andrew is totally worth every penny =)

    I don't know if this will help, but you can have multiple posts for the same story line. That's what I do. So each post kind of picks up where the last one left off so I can have an ongoing storyline. Hence the Calan Natari Saga vs the Calen Natari Story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kevis HendricksonMay 17, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    One of the things I love most about your blog is the serial story lines. In fact, that's how I ended up with two stories. Problem is the story was quickly turning into a novel and the word limitation had me ripping a few hairs out of my head. I always promised myself I'd go back and trim the story. Just gotta muster up the courage to get rid of all those those wordy star ship dogfights and fleet battles I wrote. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alain GomezMay 17, 2012 at 7:44 PM

    Oh man, that'd be so cool! That is one thing I've been kicking myself about lately is the lack of starship battles. I've been way too fixated on the on-planet action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevis HendricksonMay 17, 2012 at 7:53 PM

      Looks like round two of my epic struggle to deliver some new content to your blog is about to begin. Wish me luck!

      Delete
    2. Alain GomezMay 17, 2012 at 8:39 PM

      Yes! Good luck! That'd be so awesome. I really want to get that guest post thing going so as to encourage people to try flash fiction. My theory is that if I can just get ONE person to submit, others would be encouraged to try.

      I'm going to make a note in the submission guidelines that if you're an author you're welcome to provide a link for people to find your other work.

      Delete
  5. AnonymousJune 14, 2012 at 10:22 PM

    Has the professional cover art had much of an affect on the sales, Alain? Or is still it too soon to tell?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alain GomezJune 15, 2012 at 12:05 AM

      It has. Before the new cover art, I had not sold any copies of Worth the Risk. Now I have sold a couple.

      Do keep in mind that I released this story with "boring" cover initially and it basically sat on Amazon for a long time collecting dust for many months.

      If I could redo things, I would have waited to release the story with the snazzy cover art initially to take advantage of the "just released" list and the boost it provides. As it stands, the initial cover attracted no attention and now I imagine it will take twice as long for this story to filter into the also bought lists.

      I can't afford to have super nice cover art on all my stories. But the Muzik Chronicles thing is a pet project and it's a series (sort of). So hopefully future releases will help make up for past impatience =)

      Delete

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