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Monday, August 6, 2018

G. I. JOE: Season 3.2 -- Available Now!


It’s Gene Kendall again, with another post about my Kindle Worlds totally unsanctioned G. I. Joe project.  Kindle Worlds really was an inspired idea.  Enable fans capable of producing professional level work to pen prose novels based on licensed properties.  The copyright owners set basic guidelines, Amazon posts the digital files, and the money is split between the three parties.

Why couldn’t it last?  Perhaps because Amazon automatically set the price, listing most novels in the $3.99 range.  It’s not an outrageous price (especially when you consider the work that goes into a novel), but I can see why many readers balked.  It’s not as if any of these works belonged to the “official” canon of the respective properties.  And, really, to many fans, canon is king.

I began work on my G. I. Joe project with that in mind.  (You can read my thoughts behind the first volume here).  I’d continue the 1980s G. I. Joe animated series, treating every previous episode as backstory, and craft a novel that remained loyal to the cartoon, while still entertaining adults.  All of the characters would speak with their Sunbow voice actors in mind, and I’d stay loyal to the specific timeline.  Characters who didn’t exist in this time period could not appear.  No acknowledgment of life after 1987, in either the real world or the cartoon, could be made.

So, fine, it could never be considered canon.  But it’d be easy to pretend.


The next installment, which will be released in three segments, continues the narrative of the first book.  The timeline’s moved to early 1988, so I have some leeway when it comes to new additions in the line.  (Just as the cartoon couldn’t avoid the new vehicles and characters, I’m at least working in some acknowledgment of the new class.)  But I recognize that most of the post-1987 Joes aren’t exactly stars of the line, so I’m still drawing heavily from the earlier cast of characters.

Flint and Lady Jaye are back, paired with characters you’d never see them interact with on the Sunbow series.  Another plot thread will feature a character exclusively known for his appearance in the Sunbow canon.  Falcon and Jinx are on another mission, teamed with two of my favorite Joes from the earlier years of the series.  The origin of Jinx’s code name will be revealed.  Actually, an awful lot about Jinx will be made known, and that’s before we learn the true story of the Arashikage.  (I’m not overlooking the fact that the Sunbow incarnation of Storm Shadow is clearly not the Storm Shadow who joins the team in 1988.)


And, yes, Cobra is still causing trouble.  And, no, I haven’t killed off Crystal Ball. (Yet.)

This is the story I was planning to sell through Kindle Worlds, but will now be made available for free.  I actually made decent royalties from G. I. Joe Season 3.1 during its brief online publication on Amazon, so I’m hoping there’s still an audience out there for this series.  The plan, as of this moment, is to release these three segments two weeks apart.  Then, at the end of the year, the final three segments.

You can find these installments at my Smashwords page.  If you’re enjoying the series, please help spread the word.  And if you have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to provide it.  Thanks, folks!

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