If not now, when? That's the question I kept asking myself this week. I've been ruminating and rolling the idea around in my head for a long time now. I should get serious about putting a book together about my adventures in Eve Online over the past decade plus. I really should. But something always kept me from getting serious about it. Perhaps the daunting nature of such a project. Perhaps the wall of CCP legal. Perhaps just the natural lazy nature of my core being, something I fight against daily. Or perhaps that voice in your head (or at least my own head) that keeps telling you that you'll get around to it someday.
Finally I had enough. This week I told that voice to shut up and be silent. And, as always, the only way to make it be quiet is to commit to doing it. So I've made the commitment to myself to stop thinking about it, delaying it, or putting it off until tomorrow. I'm going to move forward with this project, one way or another.
For those of you that do not know, I've previously created two ebook projects based on Eve Online. The first was an Art of Eveoganda Book that I published a few years ago, before the poster run that eventually led to the line of illustration posters that CCP published in 2015. You can still download that book at this link. It has been downloaded over 10,000 times from that link alone.
The other ebook is called Empyrean Chronicles Vol 1 and it is pictured in the header image above. It is also still available for download at this link. It has been downloaded over 15,000 times from that link and more from others - although I don't have access to that data.
So I've managed to produce two books already. Although obviously those were always intended as ebooks and nothing more. But they do prove I can do what I say I'm going to do. Which honestly shouldn't be a question at this point.
So what would this new book be? I'm imagining a fusion of art and story that follows two tracks, one from an in-game perspective and one from an out-of-game perspective. Essentially the story of Rixx and his adventures inside of Eve and his eventual rise as the Pirate Lord of Low Security space and the most infamous Pirate in all of New Eden. And also the story of me as a player and my adventures in the community at large, hats, frills, illustrations, fan art, this blog, wars, and meta trials and tribulations. There is a lot there. Goodness knows I've been involved with just about everything that has happened in the last decade to one degree or another. And I've certainly had more than my fair share of haters, fans, and more.
That sounds like a very compelling and interesting story. And a unique one that I don't believe has ever been told before. And that, to me, is the part I am most excited about. I don't believe anyone has ever told a story like this before, especially one from so many different angles in regards to a MMO, with Fan Art, gaming community, and player perspectives all mashed up into one story.
So what does this mean? I have no idea.
Writing this blog post and committing to doing this is my first step. Now I've locked myself into it. So I have no choice now but to move forward. How I do that, what that means, how it works? No idea.
So next step is to discover what the next steps will be.
In the meantime, how does this sound to my readers? Are you excited about this project? Is this something you think sounds like a good idea? What are your thoughts?
As always, I'm anxious to hear what you think.