Inside the mind of Sean Erik

  May 31, 2020 Life has been so crazy lately. Between work, school, home life, oh yeah, this whole Covid thing, I’ve fallen behind on more than a few project schedules. Still, I’ve been pushing forward and I have some exciting news! Angel’s Kiss is going to be released soon. How soon you ask? June 14th. I’m going through the manuscript to double-check everything but I’m at the point that I can’t stare at it anymore. Time to push it out of the nest and watch it fly. What does that mean? I’m going to be marketing Angel’s Kiss with some ads and I hope y’all order a copy. I’m going digital-only right now, but if there is a demand I’ll setup for physical copies. I’m going to have a special run on No Soul, No Service as well. If you haven’t picked up a soon will be the perfect time to. More info to come. What’s that I hear? Why am I blathering on still? You want to see the cover? Here it is! I can’t thank my wife enough for creating this for me. 2020 has been a helluva year so far, but I...

  January 20, 2020 One of the shows most influential to my development as a writer is Babylon 5. It came out in the early ’90s and was so different than other sci-fi shows of the time. It had morally gray characters, an epic storyline, and for the time great visual FX. The characters were well written and believable. They grew throughout the shows run, none being the same when they started. The series pushed the envelope and due to some issues with the possibility of no fifth season had two seasons worth of material crammed into one to ensure most of the major and relevant plot points were wrapped up. My two favorite characters would have go be G’kar and Londo Molari, the diplomats from the Narn Regime and the Centauri Republic, respectively. Both are scheming hustlers with a deep sense of patriotism to their homeworlds. G’kar is the ambitious and conniving Narn who seeks to expand his home’s sphere of influence. Londo is an old, washed up, drunkard remembering the bygone era of th...

  December 23, 2019 A little warning – will be a rambling post. <Begin Ramble> I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the first time I saw the original. The Blockade Runner screaming by with the Star Destroyer giving chase is still a powerful image for me. Star Wars has been a big part of my life ever since. The original trilogy is still my favorite time period, the Rebellion Era. I discovered West End Game’s Star Wars RPG and couldn’t believe the depth of information they created, especially just from the basic set pictures or production art. The novels that followed were a mixed bag. For every Heir to the Empire you had a Truce at Bakura or Crystal Star. I lost complete interest after Vector Prime, not because of what happened but because I hated the Yuuzhan Vong. They didn’t feel like Star Wars to me. I’ll admit I didn’t read any of the however many dozens of novels that came during that period. But I will say I didn’t attack any of the writers or even the people who DID enjoy th...

  April 8, 2019 Avengers Endgame is almost here. I can’t believe that it’s been a whole year. We were left with the ultimate cliffhanger. I’m so excited and like most geeks and nerds have been obsessing about what exactly going to happen. SPOILER ALERT If you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War you should probably stop reading and watch it. You have been warned. When we last left our intrepid heroes . . . At the end of Infinity War we had The Snap. Thanos won and ended up wiping out half of the universe. Boom. A lot of heroes we know and love were simply dusted. So what are my theories to what happened to those who vanished and who remained? For the record, this is all pure speculation. I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers and will be going into the movie cold, or as cold as possible. What I present are my thoughts and ideas. I wanted to get them down and published to see how close or wildly off base I am. The Dusted I think they are dead. Truly dead. How do they come back? There wi...

  January 1, 2019 It’s the final post of 2018.  As this year comes to a close writing wise I had a pretty good year.  I published my first novel – No Soul, No Service. I even sold a few copies. Someone purchased a physical copy and I got to sign it. It was weird and surreal, and pretty damn cool. 2019 is going to be a good year. I’m going to put out Angel’s Kiss hopefully Q1. I’m going to revise and rerelase No Soul with it updated, cleaned up, and a more solid product.  I’m going to work on book 3 and the other books on the docket. I’m also going to try and post more frequently.  If anyone has a topic please hit me up. For this post I’m going to talk about my process of revision. It’s by no means complete as I’m constantly refining and updating it. After I finish my initial draft I like to let it sit for a week or two. This allows me to put some distance from it. When I come back I’ll have fresher eyes. Things that I thought were gold (well maybe silver or copp...

  October 14, 2018 I know, I know, my first update in a while. Shame on me. Truth be told my life got way busier than I expected. For those who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook (shame on you!), I’ve gone back to school. Nothing writing related, but Cloud Management, because money.  I’m going through an online University which basically means I move at my pace. The sooner I finish the sooner I can get a better job, yadda yadda yadda.  So there’s my excuse for the lack of updates. No Soul, No Service has sold more than I expected it to. I mean, a lot more. I want to thank everyone who bought a copy. If you did please leave a review if you can. Two sentences are better than nothing. I have managed to get some work on Angel’s Kiss done, however. A friend had commented on some recurrent phrasing in No Soul, No Service. She was polite about it but the point stuck. Things like something “seemed to”, “began to”, “started to” and “suddenly” were WAY too prevalent. So using t...

  June 17, 2018 It’s official. No Soul, No Service went live last Tuesday. I even got a few sales. I’m still figuring out marketing. That seems to be the biggest thing a lot of new and aspiring authors are trying figure out as well. Still, I’ve got several sales from people I don’t know. With luck they liked it! It’s an unreal feeling. Exciting, scary, and a sense of accomplishment. I did it. Something I’ve talked about doing for a while and finally can check it off.  The journey has just begun! I’ve sent Angel’s Kiss off to some Beta Readers. The feedback I’ve gotten has been a bit unpleasant but kind of expected. That’s the idea of the Beta Reader, to go over what you have and find the things you missed and point out issues. Luckily my ego isn’t big enough to be crushed too much and in the end it should make the book better. I’m in the middle of revising book three. The good news is with some of the Beta feedback for Angel’s Kiss I can try and work some of that into book thr...

  May 27, 2018 So I did a thing last night. It was one of the easiest things I have ever done, and yet one of the most difficult. I created my Amazon KDP page and put up my debut novel – No Soul, No Service up for preorder. It’s all but done, probably a few tweaks here and there but this is it. It’s happening.  Excuse me while I curl up in the fetal position. I’m very proud of this. It’s been fomenting for a few years and what started as a side project to get my creative juices flowing has turned into a big thing in my life. When I made the decision to become a writer I figured I would be going full-on space opera or epic fantasy, with a cast of dozens spread out over the place. That all changed when I started brainstorming an urban fantasy short story that was unpolished and unrealized. The more I played in that world the more I put into it and the more it grew. I don’t know where this is going or when the ride is going to end but I’m on it for the long haul. If you are inter...

  May 9, 2018 One of the things that worries and frustrates me is when I come up with an idea, something I feel is totally original, and then discover that someone else has already put it out there. Right now I’m writing Urban Fantasy.  I’m also a late in life Supernatural fan, only really starting to watch within the last year. After binge-watching close to five seasons, I’ve noticed a lot of things that I had written, long before I had started the misadventures of Dean and Sam, that there were a lot of similarities. I’ve been flustered trying to make some changes, not sweeping, but enough to hopefully stem potential accusations that I’ve been ripping off Supernatural. Enter South Park. Simpsons Already Did It I was rewatching an old episode( Oddly titled The Simpsons Already Did it)  and the A Plot is Butters, AKA Professor Chaos, coming up with his next diabolical plan to harass the citizens of South Park. His first plot was to block the sun, forcing the people of Sout...

  May 4, 2018 Just got back from seeing Infinity War. Somehow I avoided most of the major spoilers and despite the numerous trailers, I went into this fairly cold. It was a great movie, fast paced, lots of great scenes and the characters. So. Many. Characters. If I was going to pick a word to describe it, though, it would be brutal. AIW has been ten years and eighteen movies in the making. To me, it sure paid off. The Russo Brothers did an amazing job of using almost every MCU hero and giving them screen time. Somehow they juggled all the characters, set pieces, and locations and made it look all but seamless. Sure the movie was over two and a half hours long but to be honest I didn’t notice it. If anything it reached the end and I was – wait where the rest? The movie didn’t pull any punches. It was violent, and not all of it was cartoony or comic-booky violence. It did a great job of tugging at the heartstrings. It had well-placed humor, not the extensive use of it from Thor Ragna...

  May 1, 2018 So, it came to my attention that my MC’s motorcycle (a Harley Fatboy) was a character in itself. I should name it.  Please take some time to help me pick a name. If you have a suggestion please select other and post a comment. This should be fun! What should Vince West's Bike be named?

  April 8, 2018 April is in full swing and so is every blooming flower around here. This year I’m not doing Camp Nano. I did it on a whim last year, and won, but this year I’ve got too much going on.  While I’m having No Soul, No Service being edited I’m hip deep in revisions for Angels Kiss. It’s been fairly clean as this is a later pass, except I found a character mentioned later in the book as if he had been introduced earlier. Needless to say I’m going back and adding this guy in a few places. The joys of revisions. This pass of revisions is also allowing me to continue to add to my world bible. It’s growing and filled with characters and some descriptions. I need to go and find some images for reference. Once I’m done with this pass of revisions I’m going to get back to work on book 3 – Barghests Bite! I’m still on track for release of No Soul in June. I’ve gotten my newsletter up and running and I even have a few subscribers. I put my first short story up as a gift to th...

  March 18, 2018 Yeah, I’ve been slacking on updates. I’ve been busy. Work, home life, and writing. Some changes coming to the home, big ones, scary, but exciting. The real news I want to talk about is that coming soon I’ll have a mailing list, newsletter, and in thanks for signing up you can get a digital copy of my short story The Demon Phone. It’s really the first misadventure of Vince West and his being thrust into the world of the Unseen.  I’ve gotten positive feedback from the few people who have read it and I’m excited to get it out there. Next up – I’m having No Soul, No Service looked over. Once I get that back and make updates I’ll be pushing forward to get it up on Amazon. My scheduled launch date is no later than June 6th. Time is always slipping away but I figure with a firm deadline I have something to work towards. I’ve actually been good and working instead of playing WoW, SWTOR, or just putzing around on social media. When the mailing list is live I’ll post a ...

  February 10, 2018 I’ve been pretty busy since the last post with work, house life, and writing. Oh yeah, I had a birthday too which was pretty kick ass. I survived another year around the sun. Huzzah! A suggestion given to me is I need a newsletter. To go with the newsletter I need a short story or something to help entice folks to subscribe and to generate buzz for future works. So that’s what I’ve been working on. The story doesn’t have a title (yet) but it’s going to be about Vince West’s first job for Lilith. It’s not going to be anything like he was expecting. The first draft is done and like most first drafts it makes me cringe as I read through it and is suitable to fertilize a vegetable garden. I keep having to remind myself that  all first drafts are like this and it’ll be okay. I’m liking the story and how it came together pretty quickly. Once I have the first major revision done I’ll be looking for some victims – I mean volunteers – to read through it and get some...

  February 4, 2018 Happy 2018! I’ve been slacking on the blog updates but been busy.  I helped my wife get her first novel published! Learned a lot about the process and hopefully learned from the mistakes for that. We’re happy and proud and excited. It is a real thing. For those of you paying attention this blog is no longer at its old home. Using some money I made from Ebay I was able to purchase some web hosting and domains. These sites are very much a work in progress, subject to change. But yeah, seanerik.com is a thing. I am also maintaining my wife’s site as well – psunenge.com . Check it out and get her book! On the writing front I’m blazing forward with a new round of revisions. The good news is the last several revisions I’ve gone through have been minor and I’m pleased with it. I’m going to setup a mailing list soon(ish) and start up another round of beta’s. I still need a cover but I have some ideas on how I want to do that. My ultimate goal is to get No Soul, No S...