ASSURED DESTRUCTION Tech Savvy Young Adult Mystery Series Wrestles With The Many Difficult Choices Required of Teens Who Live Life Online http://www.janusflytrap.com April 24, 2013 [Ottawa, ON] — The fast-paced world of social media and the vagaries of life online are explored in ASSURED DESTRUCTION, a young adult mystery written by author and father, Michael F.

When I started my transmedia foray with ASSURED DESTRUCTION , the greatest concern I had was my ability to come up with authentic content over an extended period of time. This continues to be an important issue but there’s an unintended benefit to the hard work you commit to this, one that shouldn’t be discounted. I have seven of my book characters currently on Twitter and ...

Today I am guest posting over at fellow Inkbot, Laura Lam’s blog http://staticsplit.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/guest-post-mike-stewart-on-adding-a-dash-of-transmedia-to-your-writing/ Here’s an excerpt but be sure to check out the whole thing for tips! Do you want to separate your writing from the pack? To rise above the noise? Why not employ a methodology used by major Hollywood Studios, from the creators of SUPERNATURALS to HEROES, to many major films and gaming franchises like Assassin’s Creed? It’s called transmedia! So ...

Woven Myst was kind enough to host me as a guest blogger. You can check out the full post there but for now, here is an excerpt. One in every seven minutes online is spent on Facebook. Eighty percent of people watching television do so while multitasking on a second screen. More than ever it’s difficult to engage an audience; content is everywhere.

ASSURED DESTRUCTION has…drum roll…launched! This series is about teen Janus Rose, who has a penchant for exploring the discarded hard drives of other people and then recreating their profiles online. This is a book, but one cool feature of the series is that you can interact with the characters on Twitter. Seriously, if you can handle the abuse, try tweeting @Heckleena.

You’d think this would be a simple task. To set up your publication so that it all goes live on the same day? If files can be crunched. If books can be printed. Then certainly you can set a date for publication, no? Not for some major markets. March 22nd is the date I’ve set to go live (just 14 more sleeps!).

And here it is. The fantastic cover by the inestimable Don Dimanlig. What do you think? The goal here was to have technology=magic. Achieved?

As an author, you have to appreciate the ability to have rights revert, and for you to publish it yourself in short order. I am a believer in the traditional publishing process (and I say process because I acknowledge that some indies are taking their projects through this process). The rigor produces excellent books, but no one can compete with a book that’s had the traditional process at a $2.99 price ...

At the outset, Ruination was written to serve an educational purpose. And yet it includes violence. A fair amount of violence. It’s difficult to get away from lopping off heads in a zombie novel. The violence may keep the novella out of many classrooms. But I would submit that violence has a place, at least a place in fiction, for school age children and youth. Youth, of course, encounter violence everywhere.

I like to work with constraints. I find they encourage rather than discourage creativity. This novel was for my kids and I asked them what they wanted to see. Gnomes. Magic. And they are the protagonists. I could work with that. At the same time, I didn’t want to write a fantasy novel. My daughters are nine year old identical twins.