Getting Educated on Indigenous Futurism

This is an example of the indigenous futurism research I’ve been doing lately. YouTube research will help me perform thought experiments on the topics they cover.

I’m using this to educate myself on indigenous futurism. I read trending news articles on an aggregator for tech, health and science news. Yet, it didn’t feel like enough. Luckily, it occurred to me to check out YouTube.

There’s plenty of recorded talks about indigenous futurism and scifi topics. Most times I treat them like podcasts. They play in the background while I engage in other tasks on my computer. Sometimes there are visuals on the YouTube video, but most times they are only “talking heads”.

Talking heads record people talking and nothing else. Once I see what the speaker looks like, I listen to them as if they’re a podcast while the recording plays. Though the videos that have visuals are worth watching in full.

I look forward to seeing what type of stories this practice will generate. These stories can become a way for me to add to the conversation. The stories will work as thought experiments to see how the factors they talk about may affect the future.

Readers can subscribe to my newsletter to keep up-to-date on these thought experiments. They can use this newsletter to stay in touch with me, no matter what changes on my social media platforms. I’m preparing some bonus content. I’ll send the links to the bonus content out when it’s ready to share to newsletter subscribers.

You can sign up to my newsletter to keep in touch with me.

Project Northmoor will Greate the World’s First Literary Center for Tolkien Studies

Project Northmoor Kickstarter wants to preserve the house Tolkien lived in when he wrote LOTR. They’ll turn this house into a center for Tolkien studies.

The Tolkien Society released a statement questioning its business model. Though this Kickstarter may interest dedicated Tolkien and/or high fantasy fans.

The Project has raised most of the money they need but a final push will secure the home for the project. It’ll become the first literary center for Tolkien studies. They’ll offer writing retreats and classes for future fantasy writers, filmmakers and artists.

Anyone who can afford the retreats they plan for writers will be fortunate. Though they plan to create a bursary program for low income creatives. There’ll also be virtual tours and online classes for those of us who can’t afford to travel to this house,

This Kickstarter has premium collectibles for Tolkien fans and the price reflects that.

The rewards include:

–A night’s stay in the Tolkein house if you can afford to make a £500 pledge.

-There is also a 3-day online writing course for a £1000 pledge that can be redeemed within 3 years.

–A £2000 means you can spend a weekend at the house

A modest pledge can help the backer act as a patron to future creatives we hope Tolkien will inspire. It’ll probably only be A-list creatives who can afford this. However, this new center may train future professionals how to create new LOTR media. I’m sure that LOTR and high fantasy fans will enjoy that.

Please donate to my Ko-fi so I can afford to make more pledges to the Kickstarters I blog about. I’d like to review the final products of the Kickstarter campaigns I blog as follow up posts.

Khiatons Writing Vision

Here’s a video I made for Ko-fi to explain my vision for my writing. Of course, I’d like to win your support, but the video can serve as an FYI on what I write about.

Anyone who’s interested in my writing can sign up for my newsletter, buy my books, or donate a coffee to me on Ko-fi.

Research for Scifi Writing

Kim Stanley Robinson is giving a “Pandemic as Portal: Creating a Just Future on Earth” lecture. The above YouTube video acts as a preview of this lecture. It’s free for anyone to join, and I consider it too good an opportunity to pass up. This online lecture will interest scifi writers and fans. The above YouTube video acts as a preview of this lecture.

Kim Stanley Robinson has won prestigious awards for his writing. He’s a hard science fiction writer whose work helps decision makers plan for the future.

It’s important for me to keep up to date on current trends in scifi. My contributions to the field may remain modest, but I don’t want to write retreads of what was popular in the past. This information could also help refresh the classic pulp scifi written by neopulp writers, so they’re not stuck in a time loop.

Khiatons Newsletter has an RSS Feed for this Blog

You can sign up to my newsletter to keep in touch with me.

I discovered it’s possible to send the RSS feed of my blog to my newsletter and I plan to use it. I’ll make extra content in the future for the newsletter. For now, it is my preferred RSS subscription service for dedicated fans. So far, the only extra I can promise is that you’ll be able to keep track of me better. I’ll be able to use your addy to reach you if the server is down or if I have to migrate to a new platform in the future.

It’s one thing to add a bonus for super fans. It’s another to make exclusive content for individual platforms. So I will build on existing content instead of a major overhaul unless it’s necessary. I have a full-time job and need time to produce new writing. Yet, it’s rude to only send out new mails to a newsletter when I have new things to sell. A newsletter with a weekly roundup of my RSS blog feed is a way to touch base with my readers.

This blog’s content will remain free to casual readers and give new readers a free sample of my newsletter.

I’m preparing some bonus content for the newsletter. I’ll take down Greek myth and flashfic posts and put them into a free ebook for subscribers. As well as reissue the Bricolage Flashfic bonus ebook with an updated cover for it. Current subscribers will receive links to any bonus content I come up with.

You Can Pay for a Self Insert in a Professional Anthology If Fanfic Isn’t Enough for You

Self inserts are popular in fanfic, even if Mary Sues and Gary Stus are notorious. “Tales of the Empowered” offers you a chance to insert yourself into a world of superheroes. Kickstarter backers can see their self inserts written and illustrated by professionals.

You can pay to be a superhero, villain or neutral but your name will have to be PG. You can submit name, powers, and how they behave.

The story will be between 800-1000 words. You can also get a picture of your character if you want.

Or you can choose to receive a copy of the anthology as your reward if you like superheroes but don’t want to be one.

This will be the third “Tales of the Empowered” anthology that’s been produced. This means the creators have a history of fulfilling their Kickstarter rewards so this is a legitimate opportunity to sponsor professional quality self inserts.

Please donate to my Ko-fi, so I can afford to make more pledges to the Kickstarters I blog about. I plan to review the final products of the Kickstarter campaigns I back in future posts.

Plans for Nu Yah 2021

The above video is my final thoughts for 2020. The New Year isn’t the same when the Rez kids can’t go Nu Yahing on New Year’s Day. My Quirky Holidays short story set describes this Rez holiday in more detail.

As always, I’ll plug away at producing new content. I’ll also submit short stories to anthologies..

I discovered an online video editor that makes creating videos easier and I’ll make more of them in the future.

See the Ghosts of Japan that Influence Anime and Manga

The Demon Slayer anime is popular now and the Ghosts of Japan is a chance to see its folkloric influences.

North American geeks find anime and manga fascinating. Yet, there are times it’d be easier to follow a storyline if they knew what the Japanese believe about the paranormal. This Kickstarter gives them a chance to underwrite a project that documents it for them.

Brandon M. Logan will write this book. He lived in Japan in childhood and wants to go back to revisit the haunted places of Japan.

The location that resonates most with me is the Aokigahra Forest. It’s been a “one-stop tourist spot” for centuries because it’s a suicide forest. I live on the Rez Life and there’re things that only happen on the Rez. This suicide forest sounds like something that can only happen in Japan.

I’m eager to see the rest of the locations photographed and documented in this book. Funding this Kickstarter will be like underwriting a paranormal investigation. This makes it a unique opportunity for the backers.

Please donate to my Ko-fi, so I can afford to make more pledges to the Kickstarters I blog about. I plan to review the final products of the Kickstarter campaigns I back in future posts.

Miskatonic High Meets Lovecraft P.I. Part 1 Kickstarter Review

 

The Kickstarter gave readers a chance to experience two comic series based on H. P. Lovecraft’s mythos. The creators sent out the reward I pledged for, and I’m proud of helping bring this work to market.

Miskatonic High hearkens to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Scooby Gang dynamic. A group of students attends Miskatonic High. Which is equivalent to Buffy and her friends attending school at the Hellmouth. However, there isn’t a Chosen One in this band that the rest of the gang supports. Miskatonic High works as a more collaborative team. They are a band of friends with their own strengths and weaknesses who need each other’s support to survive. No one is the clear-cut leader in the Miskatonic High team. They fight Lovecraft monsters and find high school social life just as cutthroat.

Lovecraft P.I. reimagines H. P. Lovecraft as Ward Lovecraft, a 30s noir detective. He’s got politically incorrect opinions that are a product of his times but aren’t as abrasive as the true Lovecraft was. It’s too bad Howard wasn’t more like Ward, since Ward is more resilient than the author was. He is a world war veteran who faces Lovecraftian monsters for a living. The real Lovecraft wasn’t able to enlist or hold a regular job for health reasons, though he wished to do both.

This comic works as a good action adventure story. The genre tends to borrow Lovecraftian monsters for their heroes to face. An orthodox Lovecraftian fan may not like the thought of “heroes”. I assume they’d prefer to see people reduced to gibbering wrecks in response to cosmic horror. Though modern Lovecraft stories may’ve moved beyond Lovecraft’s storytelling formula. It’d get boring if everyone in Lovecraft stories was a sensitive soul.

Ward is a tough action hero. Miskatonic High has brave teens determined to survive Lovecraftian monsters and high school. I prefer this approach to the classic Lovecraftian formula. That’s why I like them and look forward to the second part of this series.

Please donate to my Ko-fi, so I can afford to make more pledges to the Kickstarters I blog about. I plan to review the final products of the Kickstarter campaigns I back in future posts.

An Aztec Noir Murder Mystery Kickstarter

The first book in the Aztlan: Investigator for the Empire series.

Aztlan: Investigator For The Empire has a 21st century p. i. for the Aztec Empire. Its premise sounds like a combination of cozy mystery and alternative history to me. Though The author sees it as a “21st-century, Aztec-empire noir murder mystery”.

Maxtla Colhua is a “hard-nosed investigator for the Empire,”. He’s “a fiery athlete who followed his father’s path and became a detective after he blew out his knee in the ball court.”

I’m indigenous myself, and the worldbuilding and setting are a definite draw to me. Though I have yet to review the series.

It’s an original idea that was hard to place in regular genre markets. Yet, it built a following when it was first released. The Kickstarter is to produce a third book for the market and offers incentives and rewards.

Campaigns like this show Kickstarter at its best. Kickstarter helps creators to produce innovative products. Backers can help hard to place products find a market. The Kickstarter also advertises any products they produced in the past that are already on sale. An example of this is the clickable book image I inserted in this blog, which leads to its Amazon page.

Please donate to my Ko-fi, so I can afford to make more pledges to the Kickstarters I blog about. I plan to review the final products of the Kickstarter campaigns I back in future posts.