Kahi: “At the moment, [I'm writing] a novel. Its about a world where superhumans have long been the cause for conspiracy and secrecy, but have recently entered the public eye in the last decade. While the world is adjusting to these superhumans walking among them, a mutant is discovered that has the ability to sense and create oil. The governments of the world all take interest in the mutant, and are prepared to enter into another World War to have such a valuable skill on their side.”

Target audience: “I’m not sure what the target audience would be…I’m suspecting male teenagers would be the primary audience for this sort of thing, but there is a chance that an older audience might find it interesting, as well as a female audience.”

“’Don’t sugar-coat your advice, but please try to be polite.’ While this is my first time posting something like this on an open forum, I really want to know what others think about this premise/idea.”

Please see the comments below.  Thanks!

Comic Book Guy: “I have an conceptual idea for a total redesign of the DC comic universe and would like to know what people of work I’ve done on the members of the Justice League.”

Please see the comments below. Thanks.

SN guest writer Jeremy Melloul is trying to raise funds for his upcoming comic book on KickStarter.  Screws Loose is a supernatural military thriller about a team of mercenaries that finds a mysterious crate.  Even a $10 donation gets you a copy of the comic (when it comes out) and a $25 donation gets you a copy and character designs.  I have donated $150 in the off-hand chance that the mysterious crate holds a bathtub full of rabid mongeese.  “That’ll teach you to be a mercenary in a supernatural thriller!”

(I wonder if there’s any chance his thank you card will have a sketch of his characters fighting off a bathtub of rabid mongeese.  That would be the most badass thank you card I’ve ever seen).

My 2011 resolutions for SN:

• Increase site traffic from 150,000 hits to 200,000 (around 25% growth).  I actually had about 219,000 (roughly 38% growth).   
• Write at least 100 writing articles.  Including guest articles, we had about 105.
• Get published.  Not yet!

My 2012 resolutions for SN:

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Legolas Arrow is working on a story about superheroes fighting a variety of villains trying to take over the world.  Among the villains, there are factions that plan to take out other factions when they take over the world, and then the last faction divides into factions, until it’s the ultimate power struggle between two supreme villains. In other words, if they manage to take control, it’s like The Hunger Games; alliances can only be temporary. The story might also have various side-plots, such as the story of Shadow Assassin or what happens when half the superheroes become convinced the other half is evil.  (That idea is pending).

Rolando is working on a story about a superhero whose wife gets assassinated at his retirement ceremony.  That Jamaican cruise will have to wait.

Please see the comments.

I’m moving tomorrow and it’ll take me a week or maybe two to replace my computer.  Unless a library is serendipitously close, I don’t anticipate doing much online during that time.

I’m currently working on a novel for the first time. I’m not looking to get published anytime soon, but I’ll take anything you can throw at me to improve my writing.

My story plot is a little vague right now since I’m still trying to figure out where I want the story to go so…

My novel’s focus is on Christena, she is about 25 years old and works as a secretary for the boss of a small mafia. She’s having issues coping with her life in the mafia after spending most of her time in a vigilante group that went after criminals who escaped justice. The story starts a year and a half after the death of the three other girls in her group that were like her sisters. Christena is both physically and mentally scarred from the bombing that kill her sisters, and is also forced to deal with an obsessed psychopath that she works for.

The story is currently being told in the POVs of Christena and her boss with a prologue that is two years before the story starts.

Please see the comments below.  Thanks!

Please see the comments below.

CCO is working on a superhero novel and several short stories.

Faster than a bottlenose dolphin. More powerful than a raging typhoon. Able to save the day even when the day is already long and dark — a blue blur arcing through the sky, it’s WATERMAN!

 
Waterman, a superhero aided by water powers and dependable allies, and dedicated to preserving the peace and prosperity of mankind. Waterman, the scourge of every criminal and supervillain alike. Waterman, protector of the northern metropolitan, Elko, Nevada.
 
But soon, his beloved hometown will need all the help it can get. Little does Waterman know, the city of Elko has been infiltrated by an evil that seeps seamlessly into schools, government, and homes. They are cold, calculating, and flawless in their execution; their agents are everywhere, bloodthirsty and cunning. They are THE LISTERNERS, a timeless cult that must be stopped before their ultimate dastardly plans cast a city into a darkness from which it cannot return.
 
Who better to save the day than Elko’s most beloved, and only, superhero! It is Waterman who must fight the Listeners craftiest agents, ARNOLD HUNTFURT and GARGOYLE. Waterman, the protector of Elko, who must discover what they are up to before they bring the city to its knees. Yet the more he works against the sinister villains, the more their paths seem to be centered on the same origin. The Listeners seek what he has already found: the source of his power, an artifact that transformed a normal young man into a high-flying hero. The object that forever changed the life of Eric Atl.
 
Eric Atl was exceptional before providence found him. He was the fastest swimmer in his school, surrounded by loving family and faithful friends, and madly in love with Water. Not necessarily the water he would one day control, but the girl just out of his reach: MELISSA WATER. They were best friends, even if he hoped for more.
 
Eric was also a young man without direction. With high school winding down to a close, he yearned to know what life had in store for him and what he was meant to do. He wanted purpose.
 
His wishes were granted in a seemingly superfluous event: the Red Springs field trip.
On an auspicious day in February, Eric, Melissa, and twenty other classmates go on an Archaeology field trip chaperoned by Mr. Arnold Huntfurt. The destination is Red Springs, site of the ancient Siouwatchican tribe. The Siouwatchicans were Aztecs who had fled to present-day Nevada when the Spanish Conquest threatened their empire. Before being found and killed by a reconnaissance group of conquistadors, the Siouwatchicans buried seven of their most prized artifacts in the sands. Rumors surround the site, whispers of magic relics that turn men into gods.
 
While digging for relics to study in class, Eric and Melissa uncover a peculiar silver disk. Within seconds of either touching the artifact, they are cut by it and their blood trickles across its surface. Two of Eric’s friends, JOSEPH HARIT and JACK NOLAN, and the Archaeology teacher, Mr. Huntfurt, arrive and are in turn cut by the disk. There is a flash of light, Eric thinks inexplicably of how great it is to be normal, and they all fall into unconsciousness. Eric Atl and his friends would never be normal again.
 
When Eric next awakens, he has no memory of the event. Within days, Jack and Joseph have gone missing. Random citizens in Elko begin to disappear with no trace. Siouwatchican artifacts begin to unearth themselves. Eric begins to develop the ability to control water and . . . fly? Melissa grows closer to him, encouraging him to take flight as a superhero, perhaps sporting a classy W and swooping in to save the day. All the while, the Listeners gather their strength, finalizing their preparations to finally lunge and sink their teeth into the world.
 
In the end, of course, Waterman and his friends will stand triumphant — but at what cost? Is success worth the casualties of war? Is Eric prepared for encounters ending in heart-wrenching tragedy? Dangerous expeditions to find mind-bending relics? What madness will be unleashed along the way? Eric soon learns the feud between Waterman and the Listeners is an event that has been destined to occur since the birth of the Aztecs.

Please see the comments below.

I was in a discussion earlier today about writing websites and their audiences. If you haven’t already done so, could you do me a favor and fill out an audience survey? It has seven six questions, all of which could fairly be described as hilarious and exciting*.

*If you’re sufficiently inebriated.

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Please see the comments below.

Please see the comments below.

Salazaris is working on The Deeping Space.  When the son of a world-famous ecologist gets lost in the forbidding jungle, he finds himself on the rim of a civilization that has existed in subterranean silence for nearly a thousand years. His arrival signals the beginning of an imminent war against the oppressive government whose iron grip has held the citizens bound within the confines of a staged psychological experiment. Risking everything for a people who believe him to be a traitor, he must win a war that will save the citizens, and himself, from eternal subjugation.

If you’d like to write a guest article for Superhero Nation but aren’t quite sure what to write, here are a few ideas.

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Tempo is writing a novel about two unlikely heroes who team up to defeat the creations of a mad scientist.

1. Because you need the money.  It usually takes around 10 years to get published and the typical advance for a first novel is usually around $5000 (assuming it gets published), which is scandalously low for a project that will probably take thousands of hours and might not ever get published.  If you need money, get a day job.  If your main consideration is financial, other types of writing that typically pay better (and more reliably) include copywriting/advertising, corporate communications, journalism, nonfiction books and unemployment forms. Writing comic books also pays better than writing novels, but you’d still be dealing with some of the same risks/uncertainties and reliability issues.  Outside of writing, virtually every full-time job pays more reliably and more by the hour.  It is depressingly rare for a novelist to beat minimum wage, so you’d probably make more working at McDonald’s.

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Areeq is looking for reviews of his first novel, a teen-superhero meets Alex Rider meets The Matrix sort of book. Please read it and let him know what you think.  Here’s Areeq’s pitch:

Kaz Medina is thrust from his normal seventeen year old life in Manchester, into a world of danger, excitement, and the supernormal.

 

This is an original young adult novel relevant to this new millennium about a seventeen year old boy, called Kaz Medina, with an internet-based superpower. Kaz is a seemingly, normal adolescent living in the suburbs of Manchester, England, studying for his A Levels when one evening he discovers that he has absorbed a Wikipedia page into his mind.

 

With the help of his best friend Jade, he discovers and develops the extent of his power. Through the use of websites such as Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and eBay, he is able to assimilate identities, teleport throughout the world, learn how to do almost anything, and gain access to almost everything.

 

Soon after, two men in black suits turn up at his house and Kaz’s life is turned upside down. Kaz becomes a weapon for the UK Government and embarks on his journey to becoming the most powerful teenager in the world.

I talked a little bit about my writing advice, amusing personal tidbits and The Taxman Must Die with the author of Rapid City, a superhero comic blog.  Among other dark secrets, you will learn which one of the following is not true:

1. I once worked for the least badass police agency in the world.
2. I was probably the beneficiary of my high school’s senior prank.   Either that, or everybody in my high school was ****ing blind.
3. It’s harder for me to deal with comments like “This is really good–when’s it coming out?” than “This is awful–go die in a fire.”
4. I think the most common problem with superhero scripts is that most authors don’t spend enough enough time developing interesting superpowers.

This year, my main goals were to build my audience by 25% and post 100 writing articles.

• Last year, I averaged about 13,000 visits and 32,000 page-views per month.  So far this year, I’m averaging 20,000 visits and 43,000 page-views per month.  So far, that’s roughly a 50% increase in monthly visits and a 35% increase in monthly page-views.  However, a lot of the new traffic was driven by superhero movie launches, and I can’t count on that year-round.  (For the most part, superhero movies only come out from May-August).
• My goal was 100 writing articles.  So far, I’m on pace for 106.
• My final goal was to get published.  I haven’t put in enough work on that front.

Grenac is writing a novel about a an ordinary girl who realizes her dream of becoming a superhero and comes to learn the harsh reality of what it means to be a hero.

You will no longer have to type in crazy things like “Ukraine flibbertigibbet” to do comments.

The protagonist of this novel is David Lawless, whose ability is reactive evolution. He gains a new ability whenever he believes that he is about to die, in order to prevent his death. He’s joined by John, a telepath, Alice, who can turn invisible and Adam, who scares people. Because he kills people.

They all attend a school set up to teach mutants how to control and improve their abilities run by the mysterious organisation the Mentors. It’s based in the military facility Fort Drum in New York state, with the co-operation and funding from various governments and secret services. At first it seems to good to be true, but David begins to learn the dark secret at the heart of the school.

I’ve passed my teaching interview and will be teaching high school assuming I pass my background check. But they’ll only start paying me three weeks after starting, so I need savings to cover those first three weeks.  I’d really appreciate if you would donate to help defray my costs, especially if you’ve benefited from my reviews and/or articles and/or would like to be a Benefactor of Badassery.