Why I Don’t Call Myself a Feminist

unbolt me

This essay was recently recorded for a podcast that I host at Crumble Cult. If you want to hear the audio, you can access it here, here or here. You can even have a listen while reading the comic strip I initially based it on. Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy reading the original text. Words on a page can sometimes resonate more than simple audio. We’re all about options here at Unbolt Me!

I sometimes wonder if Eve was a feminist. Yes, that Eve. The one from the Garden of Eden. That same Eve who helped herself to forbidden fruit and used the devil as her skipping rope. Yeah, she really stuck it to god because that’s just what you do when someone’s being an authoritarian prick. God, the first patriarch versus Eve, the first underdog. It didn’t go too well…

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Monday Blog: Enos and Degenerate R

Scene from Enos.        Degenerate R

 

Hello, everyone! Welcome to blog entry number two for the month of August. This month’s theme is Comics and Graphic Novels, so, naturally, this post will be related to that. I wanted to share some more info about two W.E. comics, “Enos” and “Degenerate R”. Both started out as comics, but later became books (because as I have mentioned in the past, I can write a book faster than I can draw a comic).

The Enos Series

After appearing in several of my fiction books, I corralled Amy, Dee, Vanessa, Yvonne, Nyda, Carmen and Erin from Our Lady, into a Sailor Moon inspired sci-fi series I named “Enos”. In this story, on Natca, a planet far away, five young alien girls train to become Natcan Cadets. Four are named after precious stones (Diamond, Emerald, Topaz, and Sapphire). The fifth and most headstrong of the group, is named Enos (because I thought it sounded cool). Donya, their teacher, is preparing them to go up against the mighty Herron Empire: the alien race who invaded and took over their planet. However, Donya is summoned to the palace for an impromptu trip to Earth, before her Cadets complete their training. Her Cadets sneak on board the Herron shuttle bound for Earth, and lose their lives in a battle. Their powers are imprisoned inside the Natcan Cadet Crystal, which Donya steals upon arriving on Earth. She passes the Cadet’s powers on to five new girls (Amy, Vanessa, Dee, Carmen and Yvonne). They use separate pieces of the crystal to transform, and become the new Natcan Cadets. As the story continues, new Cadets join the team (Nyda and Erin) and new enemies arrive to challenge Earth. One note about this series: it is FEMALE dominated. The heroes are female. Most of the villains are female. It’s chick lit, so to speak. Which brings us to…

 

The Degenerate R Series

If you’re into anime or manga, you probably know about all of those wonderful shojo magical girl series. Female characters transform and use special powers to fight evil. If “Enos” is a magical girl series, then “Degenerate R” is a “magical boy” series. I’ve always thought of Degenerate R as the male answer to “Enos”. Rob from my Our Lady series, is the main character. He’s a college student, in the town of St. Moral, just trying to go to school and live his life. All of that normalcy is interrupted by the arrival of Mischievous A, a female “Militant Warrior”, clad in a pleated denim skirt and a camouflage jacket. She fights the monster that attacks Rob’s campus on the day he’s trying to register for classes. Rob becomes so impressed by her, he ends up becoming a Militant Warrior himself. Like Mischievous A, he transforms via a ring, and becomes Degenerate R. As the series develops, other Militant Warriors join the team, and fight an enemy known as the Blue Shadow Clan.

 

I haven’t published the books from either series, because I didn’t want to create a conflict for the Our Lady series. I figured, it would confuse the reader. But, someday, I may publish some of the work, and it will be similar to Punk and Whiskers.  These books would be unrelated to the Our Lady series, and meant to be light-hearted reading.

 

Until next week…

Finding Inspiration Through Nostalgia

cover of the hand written edition of Valentine 2

cover of Chaos Theory

cover of Vengeance Angel Yuka

The covers of some of my hand-written books, anime inspired…

 

 

I’m currently reading Jen Sincero’s “You Are A Badass”, and I read a passage that suggested going back to your childhood, and thinking about the things you were passionate about. It sounded like pretty solid advice, so I took a moment to think.

I’m a writer, and its something I’ve always been passionate about. I’ve been writing books for myself since second grade, and I’d like to think, my skills as a story teller have improved over the years. Every now and then, I develop a case of Writer’s Block, and I find myself feeling a bit uninspired. But, I have found a way to pull myself together, and start writing again. I went back to my childhood, to when I started writing more detailed books, with chapters and developed characters. This happened when I was about eleven or twelve. I would wake up early on Saturday morning, around 4:30 or 5:00, and start writing.  Back then, I worked on two or three books at a time. I was always excited to finish a book, and draw the cover, make a spine label and place my Woolaston Entertainment logo on the back cover. I even kept a hand-written spread sheet of stats for my books: how may chapters, pages, dates for starting and completing each book, etc. I was my own publisher, and I LOVED it.

Whenever I find myself at a loss for anything, I think about those days. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was building something very special and very important back then: I was building me.

Monday Blog: 1995: The Obsession Begins

The first “Enos” comic, 1996

Sample pages from the “Enos” comic

 

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the first Monday Blog for August 2017. This month’s theme concerns WE comics. Today, I’d like to take you on a little trip, all the way back to 1995….

 

WE was only seven months old or so. During the summer of 1995, I started watching a lot of anime, and my interest in manga (graphic novels) was beginning to stir. I woke up early every weekday morning to watch Sailor Moon on UPN (or My9, or whatever it’s called now). I rented a ton of VHS tapes from Blockbuster Video, since their anime section was fairly decent. I was able to see Slayers and Akira. This led me to create a comic of my own: the Enos series I’ve mentioned in previous blogs.  I drew the first of what was going to be a series of comics, in 1996, but decided I could write the book faster than draw a comic, so Enos became a series of books instead.

Every time I rented an anime video from Blockbuster, I made a list of all of the previews which aired before the feature. Then I’d look for those other titles. In high school, I discovered Animerica Magazine, which exposed me to a whole new world of anime and manga titles to explore. I read Galaxy Express 999, which led me to Queen Emeraldas and Captain Harlock. But, I wasn’t only interested in shojo (girl’s) material; I later discovered Kohta Hirano’s Hellsing manga, and watched both versions of the anime that followed. Blue Seed, El Hazard, Dirty Pair, Cutie Honey, Bubblegum Crisis, Bastard!, Sorcerer Hunters, The Devil Lady, Neon Genesis Evangelion…I could keep going and going. All of these titles and more, inspired the WE comics, which later inspired the WE books.

 

Apart from Enos, I drew humorous comics, and used some of the characters you’ve met in the Our Lady books.  Dee had her own series, titled Seybrook, while Amy and David were featured in Sarconi. Mike and Vanessa, were featured in Mike and Vanessa. These three comics became part of a calendar I created in 1998.

Who would have thought, all those years of watching anime and reading manga, would lead to this point? It just goes to show you: your hobbies may not necessarily be a complete waste of time.

 

Until next week…

Monday Blog: Secrets of the WE Series (little known facts)

New cover of Valentine

Welcome back to the Monday Blog! This is the final posting for the month of July. To finish off the “When A Series Comes to an End” theme, I wanted to share some little known facts about each series.

 

Fortune’s Wing:

Both Demetri of FW and Rafferty of Valentine share the same character design. Their characteristics were inspired by Joseph Mascolo, the actor who played Stefano DeMera on the daytime soap, “Days of Our Lives”.

Fortune’s Wing was the first W.E. book to use humans as characters.

Verdonna was inspired by Hinoto from the anime film, X.

On the cover of the first book, there is a light shining from within a cave in a mountain. The light was created with a White-Out pen.

On the cover of the second book, the clouds on the Earth were created by stretching out cotton balls, which were later glued to a hand-drawn image of the Earth.

Valentine:

Book one if the Valentine series, were originally written as 2 separate books.

Val’s pink hair was supposed to be blond, with pink highlights. While working on the illustration for the first edition of the book, I accidentally colored all of her hair pink. But it was a happy accident.

The image of Val that appears on the first edition of book one, was meant for another book I was working on.

Valentine was inspired by the anime series(s) Noir and Revolutionary Girl Utena.

At five feet eleven inches, Jo Fuentes is the tallest female character in the series.

Jo Fuentes is the first LGBTQ WE character to appear in a PUBLISHED book.

Our Lady of Righteous Rage:

One of Amy’s songs, “Come For the Wake, Stay For the Funeral”, was originally written in 2009.

Before appearing in the Our Lady series, Amy, Dee, Vanessa, Carmen, Yvonne, Nyda and Erin all appeared in my sci-fi super hero series, “Enos”.  Rob was the lead character in the super hero series, “Degenerate R”.

When Amy was first created, her name was Charlotte.

Vanessa is named after my aunt, Vanessa.

Speaking of the unpublished W.E. books, Amy has appeared in more books than any other W.E. character.

Part of Amy’s character design was inspired by Emeraldas from the anime, Queen Emeraldas, and Fam from Ruin Explorers.

Benjamin Cardozo, Rob, David, Amy and Dee’s high school, was my mother’s high school.

 

Until next week….

 

 

Queen Emeraldas Volume 2

 

To all of my fellow anime and manga lovers out there, I just wanted to share some info: Volume 2 of Leiji Matsumoto’s “Queen Emeraldas” just became available yesterday! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!

Later!

Monday Blog: The Our Lady of Righteous Rage Series

 

Happy Monday, everyone! At least, I hope you’re having a happy Monday. This week’s blog topic: Our Lady of Righteous Rage. I’m going to share some info about the seven books which currently make up the series. The books can be divided into two categories: the Primary Books, which follow a shared story line, and the Companion books, which have separate stories.

 

The Primary Books

This category includes Our Lady of Righteous Rage, Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored, Your Fame Will Destroy You, and Rowdy. The first two books are technically one in the same, with the major difference being the use of coarse language in Extended and Uncensored (don’t worry; I didn’t go overboard). The primary books follow Amy Edwards and friends as they grow up together, start a punk rock band, and a business. Along the way, they face the challenges of adulthood, including divorce, relationships issues, abandonment, etc.

The first book introduces each of the characters while they are still in high school. Amy is a bit of a tomboy, and all of her friends are male, until she meets Dee, and her cousin Nyda. She late becomes friends with Vanessa and Carmen. The group creates a plan to start a business together by creating and selling their art, music, and writing in Union Square Park. Their goal, is to turn this business into a retail store in the future. At the same time, Amy begins learning to play the guitar while exploring her inner punk. She and some of her male counterparts later form a punk band. The second book, Your Fame Will Destroy You, finds the band, named Our Lady of Righteous Rage, dealing with their newfound fame. They later discover a “friend” from their past is out to destroy them (I won’t spoil it by telling you who).  In Rowdy, Amy and her friends, armed with the knowledge of who has been working against them, try to continue to write new music and play a few gigs. Nick begins to suffer from writer’s block, and Aidan has trouble coping with a troubling discovery of his identity (no spoiler; you’ll have to read the book). The book ends with the band making a major decision to go on their first national tour.

Which brings us to Righteous, the book I’m currently writing.  Our Lady is on tour, Vanessa is holding down the fort at home, and things are about to get interesting. This isn’t going to be your average, run-of-the-mill road trip: the band is going to meet some interesting characters and have a lot of new experiences while playing their gigs. And that “friend” from the past who was trying to screw them over? Well, he ain’t finished yet….

 

 

The Companion Books

The books in this category can be read separate and apart from the primary books, and not necessarily in the order they appear. There is one exception: Novocaine and its sequel, Another Shot of Novocaine, which will make more sense if you read them in order.  Novocaine  concerns Erin’s life before she met the band, and how she came to work for them. Another Shot, deals with one of Erin’s least favorite subjects: her father.

Punk and Whiskers, is a collection of short stories. They are unrelated to the rest of the series, even though the cast of Our Lady appear in them. You can easily read this book without reading the others (but I’m not encouraging this!).

 

I’ve been asked if any of these books are autobiographical. Our Lady is, to a degree. I hate classifying it as fiction; it’s more like creative non-fiction. Some of the events in the story are real (when Amy runs into Tre Cool from Green Day, I borrowed that from the day I met Tre Cool). The bands guitars are my guitars. Benjamin Cardozo was my mother’s high school, however, I also used details from my old high school, Bethel in Virginia. Yes, I’ve been to The Bitter End on West 4^th. Yes, I own a ton of punk rock CD’s.

 

Even though I’ve said Righteous is going to be the final book in this series, it doesn’t have to be. I have ideas for more books, and chances are, I will write them. So, after Righteous, you may not have heard the last of Our Lady.

Next week: Secrets of the WE books: little details you may not be aware of. See you then.

Monday Blog: The Valentine Series

New cover of Valentine

Valentine 2

Valentine 3

Valentine 4

 

Happy Monday, everyone! Welcome back to the Monday Blog. This week’s topic, is the Valentine series. There are two parts to this series: the primary series, and the companion books, known as the Valentine Apart series. The primary books focus on Val, her family and friends, and the conflict between her and John Rafferty, her father’s former boss. The Valentine Apart series provides the backstories of four characters from the primary books: Allan Avery, Mac Avery, Lola Vencent and Jo Fuentes.

The Valentine Series

Our story begins with nineteen-year-old Valorie Entienne (aka Val, aka Valentine) heading out to L.A. from Chicago in order to find her father, Vincent Entienne. Vincent is an employee of mob boss John Rafferty, and has decided to get out of the business. In order to do this, he had to go see Rafferty in person. When Val doesn’t hear from her father for several days, she decides to go to L.A. and find out what happened to him. She leaves her cousin Veronica behind, climbs into her classic Ford Mustang, and hits the highway. She encounters her father’s partner, Jacob Price, who is acting as Rafferty’s eyes and ears. She also meets Melinda St. James, a fourteen-year-old orphan who is on her way to Oklahoma, but ends up riding with Val to L.A.. Val, despite several pit stops, eventually makes it to L.A. and rescues her father. When she confronts Rafferty, she learns the reason Vincent wanted to quit: Rafferty wanted Val to work for him, basically as a hitwoman (or Valkyrie). Val also meets another Rafferty employee: Lola Vencent. The pair have a misunderstanding, and later, become friends.

The second book explores Val’s reputation as Valentine, and as the Patron Saint of the Weak. She meets her cousin, Victoria, who happens to be Veronica’s younger sister. No one in Val’s household knew anything about Victoria’s existence, but they welcome her into their home, and ultimately protect her from Rafferty. Val and her family learn more about Victor Entienne’s (Veronica and Victoria’s father) death, and Val finally remembers an event from her childhood, which led to her reputation. In book three, Val receives a lesson in the Entienne family history, when she meets her grandfather, Lorenzo Entienne. She even travels with him to Sicily. When things turn sour, she turns to Lola for help. Upon returning to the United States, Val learns her dealings with her grandfather are far from over.

Which brings us to book four, in which some of the characters find themselves facing their pasts. There’s Mac’s sanity, Allan’s relationship with his father, and Lola’s father’s death. The book ends with Val and company coming together and reaching a critical decision: John Rafferty needs to die.

The fifth and final book is a work in progress. I don’t want to post any spoilers here, but I can tell you this: Veronica is the one you’ll want to keep an eye on. Val is going to have to make some difficult decisions, and do some horrible things, if she ever wants to free her family from Rafferty.

 

Valentine Apart Series

The good things about these books, is you don’t necessarily have to read them in order. They are companion books to the primary series, and they don’t follow a set storyline. Each book can stand alone. Although, when you reach the end of each book, you make recognize a scene from a book in the primary series. All of the stories featured in this series take place before the main characters in them meet Val. Readers get to peek into Allan and Mac’s lives as hitmen, learn how Lola Vencent became Rafferty’s Valkyrie, and the events that led Jo Fuentes to the Syndicate. One thing that definitely separates this series from the books in the primary series, is the level of violence. The body count is much higher in these three books, since it focuses on some of the characters’ lives as hitmen. There is some mild swearing, too. But, like I said, it’s mild.

 

So, are the Valentine books only about a girl with a pair of guns? No. To arrive at that conclusion would be selling the series short. These books are about the complicated lives of a young woman and the people in her life; people who finds themselves caught up in the net of the criminal world.  After seven years of working on this series, it’s time for the story to come to an end. I hope my readers won’t be disappointed.

Next week: The Our Lady series.

Monday Blog: The Fortune’s Wing Series

Fortune’s Wing

Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight

Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again

Hello, again, everyone. Welcome back to the Monday Blog. This month’s theme is When A Series Ends, so every Monday Blog post will be devoted to a W.E. series. This week, I want to discuss Fortune’s Wing.

I wrote the original Fortune’s Wing books between 2001 and 2002. The first book in the series wasn’t published until 2009, through Xlibris. The second book, Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight, was published in 2011, and the third, Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again was published earlier this year. There are revised editions of the first two books available through Amazon’s Create Space.

The series follows Fortune Oyama and his friends, as he learns about and tries to fulfill his destiny: to save or destroy the world. On his eighteenth birthday, Fortune grows a Left Wing, and must set out on a journey to claim the Right Wing and complete the set. Whomever has possession of the Wings, shall control the fate of the world. However, Fortune’s journey is not without opposition: The Winged Seven, other people who were born with a Left Wing, are also in search of the Right Wing. Their leader, Demetri, will stop at nothing to control the world’s fate. He sends the other members of the Winged Seven after Fortune and his friends, one by one. Spoiler alert: Fortune manages to retrieve the Right Wing. With the set complete, he must go on one more journey, the one that will decide the world’s fate.

The decision to save the world should be simple, right? In Fortune’s case, it isn’t. As Fortune continues his journey, his view of the world begins to change. He finds himself wondering what kind of world he’s really fighting for. In the end, he has to do a lot of soul-searching in order to make his final decision.

When I originally wrote this series, I a) never intended for anyone to actually READ it and b) didn’t write it with a particular audience in mind. When I made the decision to publish the book, I made a few changes, in order to make the story appropriate for middle school-age readers. I figured, since it was a fantasy story involving teen characters, and the story didn’t contain any graphic violence, nudity, sex or coarse language, middle school was a safe age to market to. Narumi’s name was changed from Nirogetai or Niro for short, and a character was eliminated from the story. In book three, when Kazumi comes to visit Haverdy, the old friends catch up on one another’s lives. Haverdy asks Kazumi if she’s dating anyone, and Kazumi’s girlfriend Russia is later introduced. In the original story, Russia accompanies Fortune and has friends on his final journey. Since the series was being marketed to middle school readers, I made the decision to eliminate Russia as a character, and Kazumi’s sexuality is never explored.

I came up with the concept for Fortune’s Wing: Revamp, several years ago, and I’m considering publishing it. This would be a new, grown-up version of the story, with Russia included and Kazumi’s sexuality becoming part of the story once again. The idea is still on the table.

This was the first W.E. series I had ever written which featured human characters. It was also my shortest series (the Enos series has over 15 books).  It opened the door for Valentine and Valentine Apart, and the upcoming books I’m working on for W.E.. It was also the first W.E. series I had written which entertained the idea of the world coming to an end. Even though it’s meant for younger readers, I’ve had readers of various ages tell me they enjoyed the story. I also wrote Haverdy 0, which was a spin-off from the Fortune’s Wing series. I may publish it, somewhere down the road. We’ll see.

 

Next week: The Valentine Series

http://www.woolastonentertainment.com

 

Melinda’s Summer Plans (a snippet from Valentine 5)

Melinda St.James, one of the younger (and more innocent) characters from the Valentine series, has decided on what she wants to do, when summer arrives. Here’s a snippet from the upcoming Valentine 5, which features a conversation between Melinda and Jo Fuentes. Enjoy!

 

 

“Hey, I know what I want to do this summer,” Melinda said. “I heard someone at school talking about the Pride Parade in June. I wanna go!”

Veronica, Val and Jo all turned to her in surprise. “The Pride Parade?” Val asked.

Melinda set her bowl on the coffee table and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!” she said. “Can we go this year?”

“Uh, sweetie, do you know what the Pride Parade is for?” Jo asked.

“Sure,” Melinda said. “It’s about celebrating who you are, and being proud of yourself and your friends.”

Jo turned to Val and Victoria and smiled. “She’s so innocent, it’s too adorable,” she said. She turned back to Melinda, and said, “Well, you’re not wrong. Pride celebrates the LGBTQ community. It reminds people to be tolerant and open-minded, and embrace everyone’s differences. It helps the community be more aware of people like me.”

Melinda blinked at her in surprise. “What, do you mean, like, other Marines?”

Jo raised her eyebrows. “You’re really adorable, do you know that?”

Melinda beamed, and picked up her bowl of cereal. “Thank you.” Victoria leaned over and whispered something into Melinda’s ear.

Jo smiled at Val and Veronica. “This year, she should lead the Pride Parade.”