Home of author Marc Johnson

What Once Was One (The Passage of Hellsfire, Book 2)

Posted by Marc Johnson on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

What Once Was One (The Passage of Hellsfire, Book 2) In the land of Northern Shala, the dark wizard Premier raised an army of foul creatures from the Wastelands and led them against the ancient guardian city of Alexandria. Hellsfire, a young farmhand turned apprentice wizard, defeated Premier and saved Alexandria, but not before the [...]

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Catalyst (The Passage of Hellsfire, Book 1)

Posted by Marc Johnson on Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Catalyst (The Passage of Hellsfire, Book 1) For centuries, the kingdom of Alexandria has protected Northern Shala from the monstrous creatures lurking in the Wastelands. Now, a dark force threatens that fragile peace. Far from home, Alexandria’s princess is abducted. When a young villager named Hellsfire stumbles upon her and her captors, he rushes in [...]

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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Top 8 Inspirational Rap Songs

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

Not too long ago, I was talking with another writer over Twitter. We discussed a few things and she seemed to be down. When I think of what writers say and post, in general, writers seem to be down. Writers are very emotional and volatile people. I used to be that way, but turned that [...]

Why I Really Hired An Editor

Monday, April 8th, 2013

Those people who know me, know that I’m a very arrogant confident man in most everything. I’m self-assured and combined with my keen intellect, emotional control, and high standards, I tend to drive people crazy. I tend to know a lot about everything because everything interests me. With all that in mind, why would I [...]

What’s in a Name?

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Now, if there’s one common complaint/critique of my series, The Passage of Hellsfire, is that some people don’t like Hellsfire’s name. I don’t quite know why, but they just don’t like it. My thirteen year-old self who came up with the name, would be very sad. There are reasons as to why I named him [...]

The Next Big Thing

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

I was tagged in The Next Big Thing interview series by my wonderful editor, Lauren Sweet. Aside from being my editor, she’s also the author of Aladdin’s Samovar. Over the past year, I’ve been trying to land a job, working on my second and third books, writing a short story or two, and finding someone [...]

Flashbacks

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

Most TV shows and movies today are terrible. One of the main reasons they are is that they don’t allow the natural buildup of any characters or story arcs. A lot of classic shows had a rough season or two, but became great shows. And even those were tittering on the verge of cancellation back [...]

One Year Sabbatical

Monday, November 26th, 2012

Last year, I got laid off. For almost the past year, I got a huge taste of what it’d be like to be a full time writer. Surprisingly, it was oddly boring. When you don’t spend 9-10 hours of your day getting ready for work, commuting for work, and actually working, you’ll have a lot [...]

Writing Young Adult Books from a Guy’s Perspective

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Young Adult (YA) is hot right now. You have things like The Hunger Games and Divergent tearing up the charts. While I enjoy reading YA, they have a lot of things in common. I’m not talking about how they all star teenagers as the main protagonists, how they deal with adult themes, or even how [...]

Short Stories

Friday, August 24th, 2012

Short stories aren’t as popular as they once were. The pulp magazine died a long time ago and there’s far too much fighting for people’s entertainment these days. That said, because of ebooks and indie publishing, short stories are starting to make a bit of a comeback. When it comes to television, I love short [...]

Splitting My Book

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

I’m currently in the middle of the edits for my second book, What Once Was One, which should be out sometime in August, and a thought occurred to me. What if I split this book in two? The reason is that it’s currently around 117,000 words. That’s a lot bigger than I thought it’d be. [...]

Do Indie Writers Write Too Fast Or Am I Too Slow?

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

That’s the question I occasionally ask myself. I see writers pump out book after book while I’m struggling to release one book a year. Granted, their books are only 40-50,000 words while mine are 90-100,000 words. But I still wonder how they release books so fast? Is it because they’re just a faster writer than [...]