2018 – The Year in Mike – with Free Samples!

In which I survive seven hells & somehow still manage to put out some cool stuff...

Pretty happy to see this vicious bastard of a year dead! Trying to recover from a powerful, personal, proverbial gut punch as 2018 opened, I caught a metaphorical kick when down in cruel April, going from suddenly single to unemployed, too. And just before going, the unrelenting Year took another old friend, proving its vile nature. Enough! Nasty F'ing brute, 2018. Get Thee Gone!

Only way I know to counter negativity and fight against darkness and chaos is to keep on doing Amazing Things. Being Creative – making Art, bringing new creative ideas into being, manifesting them as concrete things in our reality – books, podcasts, and comics – these are my counter-spells, and this is my Magic – my Defense Against the Dark Arts!

Through this hellish stretch I still somehow managed to do nearly One Amazing Creative Thing each month, though it wasn't easy. Depression it should have dispelled stayed and got in the way of accomplishments. Struggling through required confidence that drained away in contemplation of the recent past. But... Can't let one's mental wheels spin in those ruts or you never do Amazing Things. And, if anything, we need more Amazing Things in the world! More Creative Counter-Spells Against the Dark Lords of Despair that dominate these days.

I need you to be Amazing, too. I need your help. None of my Things have any power in our world without your belief and support. Unless you're reading my books, listening to my podcasts, and enjoying my comics, it really doesn't matter much that I'm making them. So, please – if something here looks good to you, please, give it a try. Click on the link and download a free sample.

No sugar coating it, "support" means money, too, so if you like the sample, please buy the whole thing, and then talk it up and share it on social media, and get your friends to try, too. Give 'em this page's link and tell 'em to skip down to where it says "2018 Releases" for the Free Samples. Post the link for this on facebook, Twitter, give it to good people. Please help spread the word!

And? Get in touch and tell me if you like it! I won't know you like my stuff, otherwise. I love hearing from people when they connect with my work. Find me by my name on either facebook or Twitter: @MikeLuoma. Instagram, I'm "glowinthedarkradio". I'm a one-man DIY show, aside for art for the comics when I coordinate with an art team and make it happen in collaboration – even then, publication and promotion is all on me. And? Maybe now, you, too, a little bit. If you're willing to help.

I've just set up on Patreon, so you can support me at http://Patreon.com/GlowInTheDarkRadio - with a $2/month Basic tier, $5/month Free Stuff tier & $10 awesomeness tier: Igniters, Illuminators and Radiants. Why would you do that? To help me pay for my podcast and maintain the creative momentum that allows me make all this cool stuff for you... of course. Ahem. Right?

Or? Just buy some books and spread the word. That old fashioned kind of support works just fine, too.

2018 Releases

(Click on the Titles for Free Samples when available. Links lead to Digital Assets stored in Dropbox, or podcast episodes, or articles)

Best to focus on this year's creative accomplishments!

January saw the release of Issue #4 of Vatican Assassin: The Graphic Novel, the final monthly installment telling a tale of BC – Vatican Assassin Bernard Campion. The entire graphic novel adaptation of my science fiction novel was re-touched and colored by Juan Carlos Quattordio (JCQ) and re-lettered by me (ML), with original art by Cristian Navarro (CN). The collected Graphic Novel would be released in March.

That was because February belonged to Good Samaritan: Unto Dust! Issue #2 and the 2-in-1 Graphic Novella were both released, appropriately enough for a Superhero who turns perps into ash while using the words of the Church's rituals, on Ash Wednesday! I'm very proud of Federico Guillen's (FG) beautiful pencil art, directly and masterfully colored with a watercolor grace by Ken Lateer (KG). I wrote and lettered (ML). Long in the works, it was good to get this book out into the world! And on the perfect day, too.

Did you know that after writing BC's story, I discovered in Winston Churchill's Histories mention of a Jesuit assassin for the Pope in Elizabethan times with the surname of Campion? I love it when reality echoes!  Our Campion kills for the pope and Vatican of the New catholic Church (NcC) in the future – and he's no Jesuit. He's no saint, either, but did you know his graphic novel was released close to Saint Patrick's Day? Which had nothing to do with anything, I suppose, but was a way to get around to mentioning that now beautifully colored and remastered Vatican Assassin: The Graphic Novel came out in March.

April's cruelties didn't allow me to truly enjoy the print release of my Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy: An Unofficial Comic Book History which finally arrived in paperback that month. A history of Marvel's Cosmic Wild Bunch based on my past columns, research and interviews, greatly expanded by new research and writing, this textual telling of the Guardians comic book history includes insights from Chris Claremont, Dan Abnett, Steve Englehart, Timothy Zahn and more. The sites where my columns appeared are now gone. Seemed like a good idea to put this stuff out in some form.

May's Amazing Thing was attending Balticon! And? I was just invited back to 2019's convention – looking forward to another Amazing Thing! I also attended Arisia in Boston in January, and got great feedback on the Self-Publishing panel I was a part of – but Balticon really helped me get back to being myself again. The New Media/Podcasting track folks who gather there are part of my soul tribe! See a note on the coming Arisia below.

Summer saw me catching up on my audio books – finishing up recording, producing and releasing them... In June the Alibi Jones and the Sunrise of Hur audiobook was released, July saw the Alibi Jones and the Time War of The Devrizium audiobook out, and with August came the audiobook of Alibi Jones and the Hornet's Nest. Three Amazing Things!

(Suddenly, I feel like The Count... Three, three, THREE Amazing Things! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

In September, I marked a dozen years of podcasting, which was sort-of an Amazing Thing! I shared my thoughts on it in a big Article at Medium.com - “What’s A Podcast?” — Looking Back at a Dozen Years of Podcasting.

October and November were both spent working in preparation for December's Really Amazing Thing – my podcast's episode five hundred. I was writing and recording a brand-new Alibi Jones short story. While I don't have major Amazing Things to share released during those months, I can share this Amazing Thing from back in the summer, a Music Extra with Burlington musicians Matt Hutton and Sean Toohey on their career of making music together. It's pretty special!

I did have my first article published at AllAccess.com in November – Five Things To Know About Breaking Into (And Sustaining) The Podcast Space – that's almost an Amazing Thing.

And December then brought that Really Amazing Thing, Glow-in-the-Dark Radio's 500^th Episode and the new ALIBI JONES Story Alibi Jones: Christmas Present!

So, three audio books, two articles, two graphic novels, two comic book issues, two conventions, one cosmic comic book team's history's paperback, one audio history of two Burlington musical collaborators, AND the big ol' Episode 500 with the brand new Alibi Jones story – not a bad output for a year that I swear was trying to kill me!

So long, 2018!

If you want to get your hands on any of these, please head to Glow-in-the-Dark Radio.com / MikeLuoma.com – thanks for checking out my year's creative output.