Globe-Hurler an eBook by Robinson Mason

The Book

 More than 20 years ago I wrote a very different, very early draft of Globe-Hurler, a sort of "Sword and Planet" type of SF novel, and followed it with a series of other unpublished and half-finished books and short stories that I banged out on an electric typewriter and my Fujitsu FM-Towns. All books in the series were set on the world of Hadanum, a barbaric planet where genetically altered human colonists struggled for survival. I never did seriously pursue publishing, however, and in the mid 90's only sent out a couple of manuscripts of a later book in the same setting to publishing houses. The only interest I got back was a small sci-fi magazine that wanted to print one of my related short stories (before it went under). Technically speaking, my writing needed more polish, even if the ideas were there. What I really wanted to do was tell stories, not chase down publishers, though, so I gave up on pursuing the idea of a printed book for a long time.

Around 2008 or so I started getting back in to writing at a good pace again, fascinated by the idea of bypassing the "gatekeepers" and getting my stories out there on blogs and the like. I considered going with CreateSpace to print my first book. I did some audio of a short story set on my world and put it up on my retro computer blog, the C64Walkabout. It got thousands of hits/downloads, so I was encouraged.

Enter 2010. eBooks were finally out of their decade-long infancy and were becoming more popular and easier to read on a variety of devices. iPads were number 1 on X-mas wish lists. I started taking this approach seriously.

Dr. Marc H. Miyake, a long time friend and writing companion, expressed his interest in the new and revised backdrop for my stories. I presented ideas and he put them through the wringer, throwing them back at me with question after question, helping me firm up the lore. With Marc's constant feedback I ended up taking the world of Globe-Hurler in a creepier and more deadly direction. Where there were once green terraformed fields, nightmarish crawling "mega" flesh carpeted and stretched out across the land, threatening the home of the hero. Energized by the new setting, I wrote it in roughly two months and spent the last month or so tweaking and revising, again with Marc's input.

After finally taking 3 months out of my life to get the first story out and onto digital ink, I'm very happy with the results. Marc, a linguistics expert with experience in the comic book industry acted as my unpaid editor, reading extensively every bit of what I wrote. My father, a fan of similar settings like Planet of the Apes and Dune, offered his input as well on my early drafts.

I went with Smashwords, a site that has exploded in popularity, that allows authors to self-publish for free and get assigned ISBNs. It also acts as a gateway to other digital publishers if you meet certain style guidelines and get into their "premium catalog". The eBooks get sent off to Amazon, B&N, etc. and are sold there as well.

For now it is here, available at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51238

Now that it's finally done, I look forward to writing more!

Reading It!

"Do I need an e-Reader device?" people have asked me. No, you do not. If you are reading this text on a computer now, then you can read an eBook.

The "Online Reading" option at Smashwords is the simplest and requires installing nothing. You can read a preview of the book right now using that method, here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51238

If you decide to buy the book (many thanks if you do!) I recommend a free e-Reader software download. A local copy / download of the book file allows you to read the full book without a connection to the Internet or logging in to Smashwords.

An e-Reader like a Kindle is a portable convenience that can be easy on the eyes, but many devices can act as eReaders. Smashwords has already ported my book to multiple formats including support for mobile phone readers.

Chances are that you already have Adobe Acrobat for reading PDF files on your PC right now, but if you don't:

A nice free eReader for your laptop or desktop is Kindle for PC: http://tinyurl.com/yja443f  Just click the big blue button and run the install program. Easy peasy.

If you don't have the Adobe Acrobat Reader already, it's also free, and available here: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html

Both are simple download and run installations that take a minute.

Once you've downloaded them you can take advantage of all of the cheap and sometimes even free eBooks and short stories at Smashwords.

I hope you enjoy my book!

Interview in a Japanese Newspaper

Back in December of 1992, while I was attending the University I graduated from in Japan, I taught conversational English at various schools, students' homes, and even at government funded recreation centers.  In the article below I was interviewed while in the middle of such a class at the equivalent of a YMCA there.  The interview, on why I enjoyed Karaoke, made it into a newspaper, and I was sent the clipping after it hit the press.  "Tanoshiku utatte, nakama wo hirogeru" - the big quote in the middle says "Have fun singing, and make friends".  I had my favorite leather jacket on and what passed for a young guy's fuzzy facial hair.  I spoke about how I had fun as a vocalist in a band in high school and enjoyed the convenience of Karaoke bars/boxes. I recall the article not being 100% accurate as to what I actually said, but it was just something I thought I'd scan in before it gets too old.  Speaking of which, 1992?!  Yeah, I feel old now.  Heck, even the paper looks old...

My Band Days in Tokyo, and Lyrics

I was the lead singer of a Japanese pop band in the early to mid 1990's called "Unit Bath".   The band had been going for some time before I joined with Shingo Katano, the bassist as the lead vocalist, but he wanted to focus on his bass and songwriting, so I was asked to perform vocals after a friend heard me at a karaoke bar.  I also was asked to "translate" lyrics more or less (emphasis on less), and as time went on my choice of lyrics became largely unrelated to the originals until they were all original lyrics I wrote.  The band members wanted me to sing in English as it was a bit unusual and fun for them.  I co-wrote the music for one song "Come Alive", but the rest were pre-existing tunes that Shingo wrote.  He was a great guy to work with.  We practiced weekly for about a year and had some studio recordings done by a pro agent who insisted that we not spread them around freely.  We only had one live performance, however (many of our practice sessions were just for the fun of getting together and live performances didn't really enter our minds until much later), and the band members went their separate ways after I graduated from college and went to work translating and teaching.  Scans of a handout from our live performance can be found below.  Click for larger sizes.  The option to "zoom" should appear when you click the individual images and follow to Image Shack.

Web Player:

Magazine Article Scans From Japan

Back in the late 90's I had some articles printed in a Japanese gaming magazine. I established ties with the publisher prior to leaving Japan for a temporary stay in New York where I worked for a while, hence the title of the series: "Correspondence from (a) New York Gamer" (pink text near the bottom of the cover above). The magazine was primarily for Magic: the Gathering, a collectible card game that was popular at the time in Japan, but my articles focused on different alternatives and other games. I've written other things, but this was the most fun I had with published articles in Japanese.

See scans from two of the articles below: