Nick Bryan

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Hobson & Choi Case Five – Angelina’s Choice – OUT NOW!

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Okay, as threatened as far back as this blog post a month ago, the fifth Hobson & Choi book Angelina's Choice is now on sale at your ebook outlets of choice.

Buy links available at the dedicated page here, or I'll try and add them to the bottom of this blog post, but basically - it exists!

I started writing this fifth book at the start of 2017 and after a few delays, partly caused by the editing pedantry of myself and others and partly just a few life readjustments I've had to factor in over the last few months, it's finally here.

As I'm sure I've said in a few places before, the series ends with Case Seven, so at this stage, we're definitely closer to the end than the beginning, meaning I get my chance to do some of the long-term arc-wrangling stuff I've wanted to do since the beginning.

We also finally do a decent length of time jump, after the first four books took place within a slightly compacted timescale of about three or four weeks.

But anyway, much more than that might be a spoiler. Suffice to say - it exists, I think it's a lot of fun. It's going to be fairly disjointed series by the time it finally finishes, as I suspect my writing approach changed quite a lot between books - possibly even more so than between any other.

Which either means it's way better or the existing audience will just be baffled. Excited to find out.

Either way, I think we can all agree the cover by reliable Design For Writers is another good one - we've replaced the blood drop with a blood spatter element and... yes, there's a road sign. This has a number of meanings within the plot which I'm probably not going to spoil either.

Also, you've got to be impressed at the number of puns within the title.

Anyway - the damn book has only been out for a few hours as I write this, so I should probably refrain from posting a full beginning to end commentary. I'll let you form your own opinions.

Hobson & Choi Case Five! Buy it now!

NEW FREE COMIC: Oh Shit, I’m On Mars!

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So, as well as the new Hobson & Choi book going up for pre-order, the sixth and last short story in my 2017-18 short-comics-making project is finally up!

This is Oh Shit, I’m On Mars! with art by Erica Batton, a four-pager about someone who wakes up hungover on… well, Mars. You can see it by clicking on this link here!

This was actually one of the first scripts I wrote for the whole thing, and although I can see things I’d do better if I wrote it now, I’m still pretty pleased with the humour of it all, especially the use of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine-style ironic flashbacks. Y’know, I should write more straight comedy, I’m alright at it.

Also pretty damn good, of course, is artist Erica, who absolutely nailed this, especially the design of Bobrick the alien and the lovely facial expressions on lead character Lucy. Great stuff. If you want to see more of her work, check out her site here or her webcomic Panty Vigilante.

And if you want to read more free comics by me, there’s a whole grid of them up here. Fill your boots.

(No, the title isn’t a conscious reference to Watchmen, though it was a strange moment when I realised I’d done it.)

Angelina’s Choice – Hobson & Choi Case Five – PRE-ORDER NOW!

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Hobson & Choi book five is ready to head out into the world! Which, of course, means pre-orders are live and you all get to look at a lovely new cover by Design for Writers.

As you can see, we've moved the blood on, added a sexy new street-sign element and generally brought things on a bit. So I guess this makes this a cover reveal. Wow.

And yes, you can buy the book as of May 29th 2018. It should now be up for pre-order on all major e-vendors, links on the buttons below.

And yes, a print edition is also coming, but as ever, I don't have the power to put those up for pre-orders.

But what is the plot actually about?

Here's a synopsis!

“Finding my real parents isn’t as simple as I hoped, but after all the trouble Hobson’s past gives us, surely I’m owed my chance?”

After solving other people’s cases all summer, Angelina Choi is itching to look into her most personal mystery - who were her birth-parents? Why did they abandon their infant daughter in a cardboard box next to a pub?

But with her detective boss John Hobson trapped in the dark underbelly of London’s trendy online taxi services, Angelina ploughs on with her investigation alone.

Will her single-minded obsession cause irreparable harm? Can discovering the truth about her family make her happy?

Angelina’s Choice, the fifth volume in the Hobson & Choi series, brings the dark comedy-drama detective saga to a crossroads, with every character forced to question their decisions past and present. But as the end looms nearer, their options are vanishing.

So fresh! So clean! All new Nick Bryan website debuts!

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Hello. Been a while.

So, after what feels like an eternity but has actually only been around five months (oh, no, that is actually ages), I’ve managed to fully move over to my glorious new website. We are now live here at Nick Bryan Dot Com, the shiny new modern version with much less clutter and lots more plain white space.

The main point, though, was to bring it all up to date with what I’m actually doing nowadays, which meant a prominent place for all the comics I’ve written lately, including a few that never made it onto the old comics Tumblr from my time working with the great people over at The Comic Jam.

And yes, it also means winding up the Patreon I’ve been running for a few months – I took six payments, I commissioned six comics (the sixth will be with you soon, you might be able to see a preview in the image to the left), but I’d like to try and get into some longer not-all-free-online stuff, and so Patreon seemed a bit counter-intuitive.

Oh, and yes, there’s still a Hobson & Choi page, albeit a sleeker, shinier, lovelier one. And once I’ve made the final few tweaks to the print layout, you may even be able to pre-order book five. At the moment, you can see a frankly dazzling mystery-preview image in its place on the page.

But (for that reason), we’ll probably talk H&C more in a week or so. In the meantime, drink in the gorgeous new layout, enjoy the free comics, consider subscribing to my monthly newsletter thing that should be going out for April pretty soon – probably around the time I sort out those H&C5 pre-orders – and yes. Good to be back.

Traitor’s Hope by Virginia McClain – Review

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This is part of the blog tour for Traitor’s Hope, the new book from Virginia McClain. Much like myself, Virginia is a Jukepop Serials alumni who spun her webserial from that site off into a series of self-published novels.

She’s good people, always very supportive of the Hobson & Choi series and her books are reliably fun (here’s my Goodreads review of the first one if you like context) so I jumped at the chance to get involved with the sequel’s release. Let’s do this.

Traitor’s Hope – a short essay

Here, then, we return to the pseudo-Japanese world of Gensokai, where lifelong friends Taka and Mishi – the heroes from the first book – are discovering that keeping the peace might be almost as hard as winning the war. Like many second-books-in-series, there’s a greater focus on character-building here, a little willingness to let the people breathe and talk to each other rather than rushing headlong into the story.

It also provides a chance for more world-building and a greater sense of the wider universe, which helps contextualise some of the more out-there fantasy elements. The magic system remains one of the best parts, well integrated into the world, story and combat. But perhaps most importantly of all, it gives the author the chance to describe really cool stuff. One element that’s definitely remained consistent between books is McClain’s gift for a visceral action scene.

The characters other than Taka and Mishi also benefit a lot from the extra space, and supporting cast member Kusuko in particular gets a lot of interesting development – she’s probably the break-out character of the series, at this stage. Certainly, I know seeing what happens next to her is probably my biggest incentive to come back for the next one.

This second-book task of expanding on the world means the plot isn’t quite as propulsive as the first one, but I think that’s expected. It means that when the faeces hits the fan again – and it definitely will – we care all the more about what happens to the cast. Mishi’s worries over her violent nature become a little laboured over the course of the whole book, but if I had genuine reason to believe I might flip out and kill my friends at any moment, I’d probably worry about it a lot too.

In short – a strong continuation to a good series. Builds upon the strength of Blade’s Edge, makes the world of Gensokai deeper and more interesting and keeps the characters moving forward. I’ll definitely be back for book three.

Hot Chunky Information

Want to know more about the book and/or blog tour? Here’s all the words you could possibly need, or click here to go to the website of the company running it.

About the Book:

Title: TRAITOR’S HOPE (Blade’s Edge #2)
Author: Virginia McClain
Pub. Date: October 14, 2017
Publisher: Artemis Dingo Productions
Pages: 284
Formats: Paperback eBook
Find it: Amazon, Buy The Paperback, Goodreads

Traitors lurk around every bend. Mishi’s mind is betraying her, and she fears her kisō and katana will betray her next. Taka’s heart abandons her for a person she cannot possibly trust. Now that the two friends are obliged to help re-establish peace in the land of Gensokai, the only question is where the next betrayal will come from and if Mishi and Taka will have the strength to survive it.

About Virginia:

Virginia thinks dangling from the tops of hundred foot cliffs is a good time. She also enjoys hauling a fifty pound backpack all over the Grand Canyon and sleeping under the stars. Sometimes she likes running for miles through the desert, mountains, or wooded flatlands, and she always loves getting lost in new places where she may or may not speak the language.

From surviving earthquakes in Japan, to putting out a small forest fire in Montana, Virginia has been collecting stories from a very young age. She works hard to make her fiction as adventurous as her life and her life as adventurous as her fiction. Both take a lot of imagination.

She recently moved to Winnipeg with her husband (a Manitoba native) and their dog.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Tour Schedule

Week One:
10/9/2017- Two Chicks on Books– Interview
10/9/2017- Blushing Bibliophile– Review
10/10/2017- Arvenig.it– Guest Post
10/10/2017- Bibliobakes– Review
10/11/2017- Kati’s Bookaholic Rambling Reviews– Excerpt
10/11/2017- Ashley M. Delgado– Review
10/12/2017- A Dream Within A Dream– Excerpt
10/12/2017- Don’t Judge, Read– Spotlight
10/13/2017- BookHounds YA– Guest Post
10/13/2017- Adventures Thru Wonderland– Review

Week Two:
10/16/2017- Novel Novice– Excerpt
10/16/2017- Nick Bryan Dot Com– Review
10/17/2017- Books at Dawn– Guest Post
10/17/2017- YA and Wine– Excerpt
10/18/2017- Fire and Ice– Spotlight
10/18/2017- A Gingerly Review– Review
10/19/2017- My Nook, Books & More– Excerpt
10/19/2017- Jena Brown Writes– Review
10/20/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland– Interview
10/20/2017- Ramblings From An Alternate Reality– Review

“The Half-Baked Sacrifice” – new comic anthology story out now in print and digital!

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My latest venture into comic writing is out now! It’s called The Half-Baked Sacrifice, with art by Lukas Kowalczuk and features in the new anthology Something Wicked 2016 from Futurequake Press!

Basically, it’s a four page story about a slightly unstable toaster and its important mechanical religious beliefs. There’s also a rodent. I think the story’s pretty fun by itself, but the the art by Lukas is absolutely excellent.

Seriously – buy the comic, look at it. Or there are a few small samplers available in this very post! (Yes, they are quite small samples, but it is a four page story. I don’t want to give away the farm.)

And if you wish to buy it in print, you can go to Futurequake Press’s website here for £6.50 (plus postage)!

Or, for digital comic readers, it’s also up on popular digital comics platform Comixology for the knock-down price of £1.49.

My bit starts on page 74, if you wanted to know.

So yes, check it out. It may not shock you to learn that writing comics is a long-held dream for me, and seeing it realised in such a beautifully drawn way has come close to making my entire 2017 even though it’s only just started.

Oh, and if you want to see more art from Lukas Kowalczuk (and fair enough), his website is right here. Cheers to Futurequake as well, for making the whole process fun and painless. If you’re an aspiring creator and the chance comes up to work with them, absolutely do it.