Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

Mythed Connections now FREE on Smashwords.com

By Leave a Comment

Mythed Connections

I’ve never been big on writing short stories. It’s not a completely alien concept, of course. I’ve published a few. “Finding Victor,” even won an award. But if an idea excites me enough to get me writing, it’s usually something I want to take some time to develop, and that usually means novel-length.

So I suppose it’s fitting that three of the short stories I’ve written had a similar theme that eventually did lead me to turn them into an entire novel. That novel, which I’ve mentioned here before, became Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet, a comedic contemporary fantasy set in our modern world where reality TV heroes slay actual monsters and gods have their own Twitter feeds. (It’s as yet unpublished, but I’m looking to change that soon via independent publishing.) As for the stories that led to it, I’ve decided to release them together in a free ebook titled Mythed Connections: A Short Story Collection of Classical Myth in the Modern World.

It’s ironic, perhaps, that my shortest book has the longest title.

Of the three stories in Mythed Connections, two have been published before, and one is newly released for this collection. All three share in some way the underlying concept and (to varying extents) the comedic bent of Murdering Zeus: Greek gods and their fellows are still out there, hiding in our forests, hanging out in Hollywood, and getting angry at Al Gore for inventing the Internet. But while Murdering Zeus explores what happens when Zeus is murdered and they make themselves known to the world, Mythed Connections has them still in hiding, for as we all surely know, Zeus commanded them all to withdraw from the mortal world some 3,000 years ago.

You could consider it a prequel. As the foreword states, certain elements and characters from the stories did make their way into Murdering Zeus, after all. Some more than others. And you should probably take anything Hermes says with a grain (or a bag) of salt. Here’s a preview of what you’ll see in this collection, but hey, it’s free, and in multiple formats! Why not grab the whole thing?

“The Atheist and the Ferryman”

An atheist named Marcus learns the hard way that just because the old man living a hovel along a river that flows through a giant cavern in his basement is crazy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s not telling the truth about being the ferryman to the land of the dead.

“Snipe Hunt”

Janette’s older brothers have ditched her in the woods. Again. But when Hermes takes a liking to her, vengeance is hers.

“Playing with Hubris”

A young man a café finds himself stalked by a man who claims to be the god Apollo, who says he wants to help him, and who won’t take no for an answer

It should appear on Barnes & Noble’s website, as well as iTunes, but that takes a few more days. It’ll still be free then, though. So enjoy! And watch this blog for more information about Murdering Zeus for Fun and Profit…

A Shadow in the Flames: Available Free 6/10/13 – 6/13/13

By Leave a Comment

It’s official. The revised edition of A Shadow in the Flames will be available for download for free starting Monday, June 10th. The promotion is in effect until midnight on Thursday, June 13th. After that, it will return to the regular price of $2.99.

This is my first experience with publishing on Kindle, but if things go well, I’ll soon publish the (completed) sequel to A Shadow in the Flames, A Memory in the Black.

Don’t have a Kindle? You can still read Kindle books on a computer or mobile device with their free reading app.

I leave you with a review of the original edition, from an Amazon reader review by Wanda Phillips:
“I don’t know what I expected when I started this book. I think I was leery of a first novel, but within a few pages Munz had me hooked. The story is remarkably philosophical without being pedantic or rhetorical. The blending of perspective, a sort of speaking stick between characters gave you a chance to see each event, character, and situation from several sides. It was seamless.

The character at the true focus of the novel matures and grows over the course of the story (one of my favourite things, I love adventure and so on but I lose interest in characters that are so wooden they are left unaffected by the most mind-numbing events). The maturation of the primary character, starting from his sense of confusion and hope, to one where he stands not just on his own (another fantasy, the solo superhero), but as a member of a society that shares his values, his ideals, and gives shape to his imagination.

The characters least explored are the violent ones. In truth, no amount of justification in a character study allows me to see the value of violence. Munz treats his characters with a generous heart and even those characters from whom the human heart has been eviscerated, Munz treats with a strong, delicate touch. I felt for everyone in the novel (except, of course, the true evil master mind whose presence was rare and yet pervasive).

There was pretty much a bit of everything in this book, action, adventure, intelligence, thrills, chills, and romance. No book is complete without characters that don’t develop feelings for each other. It just wouldn’t ring true.

Munz hints at events more complex than those witnessed in the novel. He does this with the deft touch of a story teller, what is needed in the scene is seeded in the scenes before. He gives you enough to be pleasing, not so much that you need a score card in the book to track what is going on. Besides, who said we had to understand mad men and their ways?

Munz ties things up with an opening. Brilliant.”

Get it here!

In unrelated geek-news, last night I won a tribble by knowing the rest of the phrase, “Greetings, Starfighter. You have been chosen by the Star League to defend the Frontier against…” (It was “Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.” Yes, I know. There’s something terribly wrong with me that I remember that even after having not actually seen The Last Starfighter for over a decade…)

A Shadow in the Flames now on Kindle!

By Leave a Comment

As promised, the revised edition of A Shadow in the Flames is now available on Kindle! Note the snazzy, updated cover that includes the name of the series: The New Aeneid Cycle.

Northgate is a city in turmoil. Decaying, violent and corrupt, it is a common enough place in the mid twenty-first century, yet discoveries beneath the Moon’s surface have marked it with their first distant echoes.

Into Northgate has come Michael Flynn. Jobless and down to his last few dollars, Michael still dreams of making a positive difference of his own. Yet he has no family, no friends save for the freelancer known only as Diomedes, and tonight the apartment they share will burn to the ground.

When Diomedes becomes his mentor in a search for the arsonist responsible, Michael gets his chance to realize those dreams. But he must face dangers far more personal than fire if he is to succeed, for like a shadow in the flames, neither arsonist nor mentor may be what they appear.

And the ones who search the Moon will be watching him.

The current price is $2.99, but look for a free promotion to happen very soon. The great thing about the Kindle edition, besides the polished prose and correction of some typos from the print version, is that I can update it after you’ve gotten a copy. I plan to include a teaser excerpt from the sequel just as soon as I choose something that’s properly enticing.

Don’t have a Kindle? Read it on your computer, tablet, or phone with the free app…

A Shadow in the Flames: Revised Edition coming to Kindle

By 2 Comments

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I have news regarding my first novel, A Shadow in the Flames: A newly revised edition is coming to Kindle, likely within the week.

When I first published ASITF in late 2007, it was to good reviews, but to say my writing has not matured in the time since would be a lie. I’ve opened the print version of ASITF a time or two over the past few years, read a passage or two, and found myself still wanting to make little tweaks to things that I once felt were just fine. I eventually stopped opening the print version, or, I confess, even mentioning it.

I retain the rights to ASITF, however, and lately I’ve been wanting to give people a less expensive way to read the book than the admittedly high-cost print-on-demand version. Kindle therefore feels like a perfect solution to this. The version of A Shadow in the Flames released on Kindle will be very much the same story. Characters have not changed. Plot elements have not changed. But things are now tweaked to fit the evolution of my writing style. It’s not a major overhaul, but nor is it simply a word changed every other paragraph.

And now it’s in electronic form!

The (U.S.) price will be $2.99, however I do plan to make it available for free for a brief period after release as well.

Another, perhaps more interesting element to this is the fact that I’m seriously considering making the sequel (previously titled Legacy of Memory, but now more likely to be called A Memory in the Black) available on Kindle as well. It’s been mostly complete for a number of years now, but its status as a sequel to a self-published novel meant I let it sit in the drawer rather than try to sell it. It does seem a shame to simply let it languish there forever, especially when people have asked me about a sequel. But I’ve yet to decide. If I do release it (which, I confess, is tempting), and it somehow goes viral, then I suppose I might even have to write a follow-up to that one, even though my main writing focus is with pitching A Memory of Dragons (yeah, so I have a thing for memory) and working on fleshing out a comedic fantasy novel that I plan to write next.

I’ll post more in this space when A Shadow in the Flames is actually on Kindle. I expect it won’t be more than a few days…

Writing Update (and Mass Effect)

By Leave a Comment

Blogging note: I’ve decided to try to update this blog once per week on Thursdays, so be sure to check in every week for writing updates and general geekery!

I’m looking at (let’s see, what day is this?) eleven more days before my self-imposed deadline to finish writing Legacy of Memory (pre-polishing). At the moment, I think I’m doing pretty well. The denouement of anything is always a difficult thing for me to write; having to tie together so many things and give a little resonance to the entire thing without it coming across as cheesy or forced is a challenge.

With the help of a mocha, I just finished the “final” chapter, and have only to write the epilogue. Once that’s done, I go into full editing mode, polishing language, fixing continuity issues, and generally making sure the characters are both ringing true and have made the transition from my brain to the page. This isn’t to say I don’t edit as I go, of course. The way I generally write is to get a chapter down, then go back and massage it into better shape before moving onto the next chapter. There are certain things you can only see once you’ve got the entire thing written, however. It’s both due to the fact that no matter how well you (or I, at least) outline something, it always evolves a little in the process of getting it onto the page, and the fact that it’s easier to see where some small things need fixing once you’ve got it all done and can stand back and view it as a whole.

We’ll see how quickly THAT stage goes, I guess. One of my chief readers is currently in the middle of selling his house, so he’s selfishly slacking off in his critiquing duties. I suppose I can forgive him.

In other news, I mentioned Mass Effect in my last blog. After a quick RAM upgrade (RAM is CHEAP these days!), I’ve been playing through it and finding myself surprisingly addicted. It’s got a great many of the good qualities of two other favorites of mine: Deus Ex and Knights of the Old Republic. I’ve been playing through it this first time Diomedes, reacting as he would (sticking to a plan, motivated by money, and being a general surly hard-ass). It leaves a lot of game branches and dialogue options unexplored, so it gives me a fun way to experience the game while at the same time leaving a lot for a second playthrough with a different (and more benevolent) attitude. No major review from me yet, though.

It’s June, but here in Seattle it still feels like March. At some point I suppose the sun might come out, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

-Michael G. Munz
www.michaelgmunz.com