Gregeration X Newsletter May 17, 2025-Comic Con Revolution!

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In this edition:

My Musings
Mechhaven Missives
Featured Authors
Featured Promotions

My Musings

This weekend I'll be at Comic Con Revolution in Ontario. It was my best show last year, so I'm hoping it will be as good, if not better this year. Next Saturday, I'll be at Pasadena Comic Con, which was pushed back to May from January due to the LA fires.

When I sent out the last newsletter, I was on my way to se Thunderbolts with my family. I went in with pretty low exceptions. I figured I'd have a bit of fun, but not much else. It turns out Marvel did what Marvel used to be very good at. Taking a group of unknown or relative unknown heroes, and making them popular. No one expected Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America to be the hits they were. These were the characters they couldn't sell off to other studios (Spiderman, X-Men, Fantastic Four). Yet, through hard work and good writing, they made the Avengers a world-wide phenomenon, instead of one of their least popular teams. They did the same thing with Guardians of the Galaxy, too.

Lately, I haven't been very inspired by many of Marvel's releases, whether they be TV shows or movies. Some are okay, others are bleh... I was pleasantly surprised by Thunderbolts. This was Marvel back in form, taking second-rate characters, who were side characters, almost villains, and making a pretty decent team out of them. I came out of the movie beaming... (stay spoiler free if you can), but what made the characters "losers" (so to speak) actually helps them in the end.

The movie was much better than it had any business being and was a pleasant surprise. I'd even rank it in the top-5 or top-10 MCU movies. Crazy, huh? But good writing can really make characters shine, even if they aren't the most popular. Anyhow, this gives me hope that maybe the next slate of Marvel films will get back to form...the pressure is on you Fantastic Four!

If you've seen Thunderbolts*, let me know if you agree or not.

Mechhaven Missives

Great News! Last weekend, I sent the manuscript for Mechhaven Book 5: By Archangel's Light to my editor. Because I was later than expected, he needed to finish another project before starting this one. But... I received word today that he's made quite good progress and I should get it back sometime this month!

The finished draft that I sent my editor ended up being 157,000 words! Quite a bit longer than I intended and expected! We'll see what the final version ends up being, but there's a lot of story packed into that book!

I'm taking this brief hiatus to recharge, start working on a novella I've been working on for a while, and testing out some new software for my next projects. Once I get the manuscript back from my editor, then I'll focus all of my efforts on finishing up the manuscript and publishing Book 5 this summer. I'll have a better idea of when during the summer once I start reviewing.

Here are my planned upcoming appearance for the remainder of 2025:

Comic Con Revolution Ontario: May 17-May 18th...I'll be in Artists Alley Table F15.

Pasadena ComicCon: May 24th (postponed from January 13)
Artist Alley A12

Reader Nation 2025 (Las Vegas): November 7 - Confirmed

Featured Authors

This week I have two featured authors for you, M.R. Parsons, and Jay Toney.

Exodus

M.R. Parsons

The Chevalier Sanctorum have stood as humanity’s guardians for millennia, knights at the edge of the cosmos battling enemies born from nightmares. But when the relentless Syndroids—a race of synthetic horrors—push the galaxy to its breaking point, the powerful Federation of Humanities remains blind to the war’s true scale, ignoring warnings of annihilation while pursuing their own agendas.

Meanwhile, Berto, a disillusioned engineer on Earth, finds himself inexplicably drawn into a conflict he’s woefully unprepared for. When two mysterious women crash into his life, they reveal truths about the galaxy—and himself—that are as terrifying as they are unavoidable. With the fate of countless worlds in the balance, Berto must decide whether to rise to the call or remain a pawn in a war beyond his comprehension.

Net Zero on Moonbase Alpha

Jay Toney

The choice of simulations is out of Ariel’s and Jenna’s hands. Since taking over as NASTI’s financial benefactor, Persephone and Hades have been thrusting them into simulations with increasing peril.

In this simulation, they find themselves on Moonbase Alpha. Something is amiss with the nuclear storge facility. Eagle pilots are returning with what looks like radiation burns, but no radioactivity is detected. No alarms have sounded, radiation sensors at the waste facility, five silos dug deep into lunar basalt, show safe levels of radiation. Ariel and Jenna are sent to investigate in person.

This is their harshest assignment yet: investigating Moonbase Alpha's nuclear waste facility, underground containment chambers containing hundreds of tons of volatile uranium-235 and plutonium-239 reclaimed from disarmed warheads, spent reactor fuel rods, and other hazardous radioactive waste.