anime

“Think It, Write It, Panic, Publish” Writing Panel at Sabaku Con 2017

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So I got back from a weekend in Albuquerque New Mexico, where I and some friends went to Sabaku Con. Sabaku Con is an anime convention that has been happening every year for the last 5 years.

This year, I submitted a writing panel on general knowledge about writing and publishing. It was labeled an entertainment panel, because the con is mostly anime based. To my surprise, almost the entire room was filled with people interested in hearing about writing.

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A few more people came in after I took these photos, so there was quite a turn out! I’m extremely thankful for those who came and participated in open discussion. The discussions went so well that we didn’t get to fully go over all the slides we had for our presentation!

So here’s the slides I used, for those who want to know more.

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Writing Panel at Sabaku Con!

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My writing panel got approved for Sabaku Con 2017! My panel “Think It, Write It, Panic, Publish” is to help anyone who wants insight on the writing world!

Description: Ever think about pursuing writing as a career or a hobby? Don’t know where to start? This panel can give you the insight from the experiences of a self-published author on the world of writing novels, fan-fiction, poems, short stories. and publishing.

Anyone who is in the Albuquerque area, and attending Sabaku Con, is welcomed to come. I’ll be joined by my writing friend Asiera (you can check more about her here)! She has some unique insight into writing that I don’t so it’ll help.

The panel will be informative by the information Asiera and I provide, probably with a PowerPoint slideshow showing our experience as writers. I want it to be open to questions anyone has, because I’m sure everything can’t be answered in slides.

To attend the panel, you have to be attending the convention, so here’s a link to the membership passes: http://www.sabakucon.com/memberships/index.html. The convention is being held at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North.

Hope to see some people there!

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AuthorBrandan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BrandanChapman1/
And check the main site for other blogs: https://brandanchapman.com/

A Trip Through Virtual Reality

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So for anyone who knows me as the being I am, they should know that I am a writer and a gamer. I started gaming way before I started writing, but that isn’t by a huge gap. I started writing short stories about LEGO’s Bionicles in kindergarten, and had been playing video games since I was old enough to understand what was going on.

So as my 5th novel is being edited, I’ve been tossing around the ideas of the next story I will write. I was going to possibly write a story based in the TRON universe by Disney, but with recent rumors of Disney rebooting the series, I didn’t want to risk the investment. Writing a story like that could only be published by Disney Hyperion, so making it a possibly outdated story canon-wise just makes it harder.

So I’ve been tossing around the idea of writing the concept/genre of people getting stuck in video games. Several authors have done it already. Some off the top of my head are Andrew Klavan’s MindWar trilogy and John David Anderson’s Insert Coin to Continue. Though writing for different age groups, I believe this is a popular subject matter. Things like Sword Art Online wouldn’t be as popular if it wasn’t. One of my favorite series growing up was .Hack GU, where a virus in the game was causing people in real life to enter into comas. The main character, Haseo, was super cool! af212a1140143d5eafb35ebaf3200f2c0668cc7c_hq

As a gamer, I thought, what better thing to write about? Mixing fantasy and gaming, and the countless hours I’ve spent watching YouTubers game, I think I could create a pretty cool story.

Virtual Reality (or VR for short) is the hot thing right now in video games, and it might seem cliche, but it might be a great use of the bridge between the concepts of reality and gaming.  I can’t afford to buy a VR headset to test it out in person, but I have watched many let’s players on YouTube test it out. (That’s research right?).

A side note, as a gamer and fan of Disney, they are surely missing out not making the Grid Games a VR game. Just saying. discanim1

Might be writing a couple more blogs on the idea of gaming meeting writing. Figured it could be a good way to get ideas flowing for stories. It might even help some other writers out there!

Any gamers out there like to read about this concept? Or any writers currently writing this? I’d like to know how it’s going! Let me know in the comments! I’d love to know what kind of games inspire anyone out there, or even games you just like to play.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AuthorBrandan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BrandanChapman1/
And check the main site for other blogs: https://brandanchapman.com/

 

Know The Author: Anime/Manga

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I’ve been a huge fan of anime, Japanese animation, and manga, Japanese comics, for as long as I can remember.
The first anime I remember watching was Dragon Ball Z (DBZ for short). DBZ had a lot of action and drama that made me want to keep watching as a kid. Characters held the power to fly, shoot energy out of their hands, and destroy planets! There was so much more they could do. The anime is epic. As a kid watching on TV, I had to wait a week in between each episode to air. Fights would last several episodes, so you can imagine how I anticipated each episode.
Mangas were a new world for me, when I was still in Elementary School. Being a bookworm, it took a bit to get used to reading mangas, due to having to read it from right to left, instead of the tradition left to right. Lucky each manga I read had an example at the beginning. Something that look kind of like this.
My first manga was part of a Shonen Jump issue, which had several popular manga chapters in it. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and Yugioh were notable titles.
Over the years, my tastes in the two have changed a bit. I started to collect less mangas, and really only watch anime (next to any of my favourite super wholock shows). Death Note and Black Butler are probably my top favourite with both anime and manga. Black Butler is probably my most favourite. It is about a kid who loses his parents and sells his soul to a demon to become his butler and take care of him. It takes place in England around the Victorian age I believe. What is interesting is that the manga form of Black Butler is pretty different from the anime, which is more reason for fans to read it. DNAngel seemed to be going that approach, being one of my favourite animes of my childhood. I could never find more than the first 5 volumes of the manga sadly. Now Death Note was an iinteresting concept as well. It was my kick start back into anime during high school. It was about a guy finding a book that whoevers name that is written in it dies. The anime covers on how that power can change people and the world around you.
I have seen a few authors make their novels into mangas quite a bit. It would be cool to have such a chance. If a manga writer every asked me about my book (or soon to be series), I would be more than happy to see my work come to life in manga form.