Tuesday 28 April 2015

TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE

TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE

This week’s episode of Reel Time began as a vague notion that as a writer I should know my potential reader.   ‘Target your audience’ as a catch phrase, has its roots in economic reasoning.  Not one of my strong points.





I was vaguely pondering how I was supposed to know the whims of millions, possibly even billions of potential readers, when I found myself over thinking the highly stimulating verb –

At the time, and for no apparent reason (that I am willing to share), I had been poking around my dress-ups.
Then before I knew what was up and what was floppy, I was brandishing a phallic symbol whilst strutting bow-legged and sideways through the scrub, wearing my over-the-knee boots and channelling ‘Annie, Go Get Your Gun’.


Midway through my little romp I had swapped my utensil for a compound bow and uploaded visions (ie. transvisioning – there’s that word again remember it now) from a completely different setting.  Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games came to mind, as did Tolkien’s dishy elves. 
That’s when it hit me…



Readers set their own targets.

·         Mystery



·         relevant fantasy

·         honest romance

·         dramatic flashes in stark contrast to epic wonderment 

·         glimpses of potential horrors if goodness does not prevail


·         authentic characters that carry our collective torch for truth, justice and the StarWays
Because the eternal story will always have an audience.



Jasmine Neutron Star is the first book of the Star Ways Chronicles.  It is a novel most suitable for young adult and teenager readers of speculative, fantasy / science fiction, urban fantasy.  It is a humorous account of Jasmine’s first adventure into the world of light – Quanta.  She is a spirem – a new kind of superhero – and perfect for the sphere of Terra.


https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9885728.A_J_McMarson

Monday 20 April 2015

I’VE LOST MY HALO!

I’ve Lost My Halo!

As if it wasn't enough to master (chief) the console - hit the right buttons, fight giant rats carrying guns, lose my way from one dead end into another, bump into random coffee machines - not to mention that left brain/ right brain manoeuvrability – or lack thereof – and what's with that stale socks smell!   How was I to know there is a whole set of ‘in house’ rules that go with the gaming ethos?

Don’t:
-              Watch the other ‘master chief’s screen and think it’s yours;
-              Make fun of master chief’s name UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!;
-              Get excited;
-              Ask if Master Chief likes cooking;
-              Make fun of master chief’s name UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!;
-              Be so unco that you’re an embarrassment not only to your own son but to every son born to    the human race!!!;


I broke every rule - every single one.
I haven’t had that much fun since my school days.  But I am paying for it now.
I have lost my Halo badge.

And if I want to continue with my byte lights crusades at all, then I have to tone down the mega wattage and behave.  If I want to be allowed back in the gaming room I had to agree and come quietly.  I will be allowed to play something, simple.  My only request was that the new game was not a car race.  My request was met with a lowered brow and an eye glint.  I am worried – very worried.



Did you know that Halo 5 is being released soon? Totally - right!

Apparently – it appears as if – Master Chief gets ‘done over’ in the next Halo makeover!  What – but he’s the main character – you can’t take him away from us – WE HAVE BONDED!

Who do these writers think they are – manipulating characters and plots as if they have a right? 
Umm. I better give that question a bit more thought …


Jasmine Neutron Star is the first book of the Star Ways Chronicles.  It is a novel most suitable for young adult and teenager readers of speculative, fantasy / science fiction, urban fantasy.  It is a humorous account of Jasmine’s first adventure into the world of light – Quanta.  She is a spirem – a new kind of superhero – and perfect for the sphere of Terra.

Keep up-to-date with AJ's madcap adventures by subscribing to her YouTube channel.

Her website can be found at www.ajmcmarson.com

AJ McMarson is a Goodreads Author.

Monday 13 April 2015

Star Trails & Heavenly Glory



Blazing Trails of Glory

In Reel Time with A J McMarson this week, I explore some amazing photographic artwork, with Steve, who gets in on the fun – showing off some of his techniques…



When researching ‘super – natural phenomena’ for the Star Ways chronicles, I become increasingly aware of how nature is never static.  It is in constant motion.  As they say, life happens.  And life is cyclic.  There is a lot of spiralling going on out there – oh – and in here…  The spiralling motion of life happens in a lightning flash in Jasmine’s world of Quanta – well, it is the sphere of light after all.
 
It was a feat, capturing these super – natural phenomena in words.   In itself, it was a phenomenal experience – how do I describe the cycles of life, energy, the coming together of matter and its breaking down into other matter, how do I link it with Jasmine’s worlds? – it was like running a galactic race through time, matter and space – maybe some of that super-naturalness is rubbing of on me – maybe I am transforming … Just like Jasmine … And oddly enough, I must say, it feels like dancing.

Check out the grass dance captured in transvision by James Knott.



From grass dancing to star dancing.  Check this out, by Chia Hsien.


And this image by Robert Young, he calls it Hawaii Star Trails.




This image was captured by Australian photographer Lincoln Harrison, in the Outback.

Jasmine Neutron Star is the first book of the Star Ways Chronicles.  It is a novel most suitable for young adult and teenager readers of speculative, fantasy / science fiction, urban fantasy.  It is a humorous account of Jasmine’s first adventure into the world of light – Quanta.  She is a Spirem – a new kind of superhero – and perfect for the sphere of Terra.


Keep up-to-date with all of AJ's madcap adventures by visiting her webpage:

Monday 6 April 2015

For Your Ears Only

It is another guest episode on  ReelTime with A J McMarson this week, and the airwaves are the topic under investigation.  Or, to be more precise, what is carried on them.  Smells for one, but no, I am not talking ‘toilet humour’.

Although I sometimes wonder why the word ‘flatulence’ is a dead ringer for the word ‘affluence’?  Is there a relationship, a correlating root word perhaps?  I mean, who would want to get the two words mixed up!

Mine is a flatulent society.

Words – you have to love them.





Airwaves do more then carry – the good, the bad and the ugly – of smells.  They carry sounds.  Now tell you something you did not know.  When we can no longer hear the music, does that mean it has stopped?  I mean, where did the waves go?  Have they just bumped into another sound, and reordered into another spiralling formation?

When researching the background ‘technicalities’ for my spirem characters, the earth’s waves whether water, air or energy of another description, provided a unique and simple means for a spirem's unique super-cosmic  powers to be unleashed.  Earth's waves are a natural energy process and super – because that is what airwaves are, and whether spirem or not, our ability to commune with the Earth's energy waves is – SUPER-natural!

Thank you Naomi, for being our guest and sharing your passion for music with us.  And thanks too, for sending out into the airwaves, beautiful sounds that are a joy to perceive.

Bookings for Naomi can be made @ http://www.naomiterashima.com.au/


Jasmine Neutron Star is the first book of the Star Ways Chronicles.  It is a novel most suitable for young adult and teenager readers of speculative, fantasy / science fiction, urban fantasy.  It is a humorous account of Jasmine’s first adventure into the world of light – Quanta.  She is a spirem – a new kind of superhero – and perfect for the sphere of Terra.

Keep up-to-date with all the fun at: www.ajmcmarson.com