Some interesting news!

To quote the great man that is The Doctor….I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry!

I know, I know,  I said I was going to be posting more blog posts, and I meant it, I really did. And then about eight months went by faster than I expected, I blinked, and then it was June!

Ah well, best laid plans and all that!

Anyway, onto the interesting and exciting news!

If you’ve been reading any of my social media pages, or just know me in general, you’ll know that, despite having finished the first draft a good long while ago, I’ve been struggling with the second draft. I’m not entirely sure why. Something is not quite working for me with it.

Meanwhile, my good friend Jon Ford is releasing one excellent book after another at a rate of knots, which is fantastic and really annoying.

Only joking, Jon!

If you’ve looked at my Authors page, you’ll see I’ve already done a mini review on the books he’s done, but you will also notice that he’s started a new series about a superhero team called the Femme Fatales, based on City of Heroes, the game we both used to play and love before it was cruelly taken away from us.

The book is brilliant. Based on the game we loved, it’s set in a new world setting, Chicago, actually, with all new heroes, villains, aliens, monsters and more and, despite all the changes from the original game setting, it feels very true to the spirit of the game as well.

Best of all, Jon has included many of the characters that players created and played over the years into his book. The main characters are based on his own creations, obviously, such as Knightingale and Rogue, but also includes numerous other peoples beloved characters as well, all with their permission, of course. And, he also included my own character, Coin!

It was such a thrill to see my own character being used in his book. It felt right and he showed a massive amount of respect to all the characters he was allowed to use. In fact, Coin became integral to the plot and storyline he wrote, which was amazing!

Naturally, this got my own mind racing. I love the character I made all the way back in 2004 and played him until the final day. He was my Main, the first one I created, the first one of my own to reach maximum level in game and the one I had the most fun playing. I even created a simple back story in my head, just like Jon did with his, and added to it with other characters over the years, essentially creating my own comic book series in my head.

I mean, don’t get me wrong! What I imagined was hardly DC or Marvel comics, but it was fun to daydream about. Jon, on the other hand, his non-stop imagination ran wild with his ideas, created his own storyline and eventually turned it into his own book.

This led to us chatting one night on Facebook and I made an off-hand joke about how I should write a Coin novel and we could have our own shared universe and he LOVED the idea! Naturally, he immediately told me I should do just that and start writing the Coin book. I panicked and realised what I had done……and then thought about how cool it would be.

So, guess what. As a way of helping me get my head out of my ass over the Katie G book, I’m already about 3000 words into the Coin origin book! It’s all set in the same universe as Jon’s book and we plan on having more crossover stuff in the future! I’ve already got ideas for sequels, some of which I hope will include the characters that people I’ve teamed up with will let me play with, and spin-offs for other characters of my own, such as Cobalt Shot and Shrapnell.

So far, Jon and I have had many discussions about what we could do in his universe, how the storylines will work together, the timelines, the origins of various characters and concepts. It’s been so much fun! Honestly, this must be how Marv Wolfman felt when he was working on the original Crisis on Infinite Earths! Well, ok, not quite as big as that, but you know what I mean.

So, onwards to a new heroic adventure!

And for that, I need some help! If anyone out there who is reading this is someone I teamed with, was friends with, got to know at any point, and would be happy to see any of their toons appear in the book, look me up on my Facebook account, or get in touch with Jon if you prefer! We can discuss any aspect of it, how much they would be happy for us to write, be it a big part of the story or just a background cameo at some point!

Check out my Facebook post here for more details and stay tuned to my social media as well!