Titan 2 Events

It has taken me long enough to get organised, but I am finally starting to put some book signing events together for Titan 2. I am currently in touch with one school board and regional library and two book stores right here in B.C.'s Okanagan. Once I have some events planned here I plan to reach out to other centres and hopefully some bigger ones such as Calgary and Vancouver. This has been in my planning for some time and personal commitments have prevented me from getting things going but I am ready and excited now as the ball is starting to roll.

Titan Spin-off's

As I've stated in previous posts some of the new characters that will be introduced I planned to do spin off series with them. Something I am toying with now is condensing these and having them as add on's on upcoming Titan books. after the Titan 4 or 5 I would have the first volume of the spin off in the back of the book. The first spin off that I plan to do is of the superhero team T.R.I. that will be appearing in Titan 3: Shadow Games. The T.R.I. will be a prequel to the trio that leads up to Titan 3 and will be a trilogy with chapters claled Alpha, Prime, and Omega. Stay tuned for more updates.

The Invincible Titan

I have said this all before but it bear repeating, the comic book series Invincible by Robert Kirkman is doing all the things I wanted to do with Titan but is doing them so much better. I just finished reading the latest volume of invincible and was stunned by how good the series still is after all this time. I only started reading Invincible in 2012 and have caught up on the whole series now. It's funny because I actually started conceptualising Titan just as Invincible was starting out. Invincible has basically ruined most other superhero comics for me now as I find it better than any others on the market. Other series end up getting watered down by spreading their main hero and their companions all over as many books as possible but Invincible packs in so many characters in one ongoing series and balances it perfectly. Anyway, all this is to say that with a series like this out there it ups the ante of quality that anyone has to do in a superhero series...I'll do my best.

Titan Mini Serial 'Into the Fire pt. 1' Coming Soon

The second Titan mini serial will be coming out within the next week. This one, much like the last, will be seven parts and each part being roughly 2-3 pages long. I view these mini serials much like the old Sunday comic serials of Superman or Spider-man. These stories are not required to be read before or after the actual Titan books, but are simply designed to add depth to the overall universe. As the last one mostly covered the tragic story of Regulus, one of the original Titans, this one will come from the viewpoint of a pair of villains, Shock and Awe. Anyone who has already read Titan 2: City Under Siege will know these are the pair of explosive villains from the opening chapter of the book. That chapter opens with Titan at the end of his battle with Shock and Awe however, and now readers will get a chance to see how this battle started and what all took place before the opening pages of Titan 2. Titan is relegated to mostly background as the story is told through the eyes of Shock and Awe. I hope people enjoy.

Titan: The Midnight Hour, The Original Manuscript pt. 2

I may have already mentioned this, but the other part of the manuscript that was changed and had a very big impact was that Michael's age was changed from 17-18 to fourteen turning fifteen. I have never really been a big fan of the teenage superhero per say, I've always felt that it was too far fetched, which I know sounds weird when your talking about something so far fetched already. Most of the heroes I read in comics were full fledged adults anyway, even old Spidey had aged beyond high school when I was reading him. No, I wanted my protagonist to Be at an age that I looked up and forward to when I was fourteen and that was to be at the point of graduating high school. In the opening chapter we see Michael and Carly not having just graduated from junior high and going to high school but going out to college and university and the working world in general as young adults. Again, at the wisdom of my editors they were able to convince me that this would be hared for most kids in my target audience to relate to. Also, the relationship of Michael and Carly was hard to believe when they were high school seniors that only pecked on the lips. Of course, for a book for a younger audience I couldn't exactly have Michael and Carly get it on. So, I ended up changing his age and that of all his friends to a much more PG 14 turning 15. In the end, since I plan on aging Michael through early adulthood in the series this wasn't such a nad ieda at all and I am glad I was pushed towards it.

Titan 3: Shadow Games Writing Progress

I am now jst starting to get into the realk meat and potatoes of writing Titan 3: Shadow Games. Titan has already first encountered the first main villain Mezmorrozo and is about to meet the first set of heroes that will aid him in battling old Mez', The Myst and her mentor Nighthawk! I can't wait to ewxpand the hero world of Delta City and really hope readers enjoy it as I have in preparing it and writing it.

Titan: The Midnight Hour, The Original Manuscript pt 1.

In the original drafts of Titan: The Midnight Hour there were many differences in the whole thing compared to what finally got published. The first chapter changed surprisingly little, but the second chapter changed a great deal. The character of Ned, who escapes the van from the botched museum heist, that we meet in Chapter 4 had a much bigger role. In chapter 2 we start by joining med and his partners as they commence in robbing the museum. We see them take position and fan out and begin to steal the precious artifact and gems. It is Ned who is first captivated by the power ring and takes it even though it was not one of the items he was to take. He clutches it as the van chases through Delta City trying in vain to evade the police. What I tries to convey with the original scene was that the ring was pulling itself to Michael as he was the one chosen to become Titan and harness its power. Ned was only a vehicle in which the ring could get itself to him. We were to follow Ned from the heist to the point where he escapes the van. In the end my editors felt we didn't need that scene. I did have a hard time cutting it and reshaping the whole thing, but I do agree that in the end it made the book tighter and stronger.

Titan 2 Special Promotion

Titan 2: City Under Siege Kindle Edition will be under special promotion through Amaozn this Saturday and Sunday only!

Secondary Character Development

Something to take note of as people read the first two volumes of the Titan series is all the secondary characters in Michael's life. Many of them will take on bigger roles and have quite a bit of character development throughout the series, some way later in the series. I've been trying my best to plant the seeds for those characters in the first few volumes (I am now well into writing the third) and once you see major arcs appear with a certain character ie Carly's Dad or Dave you may want to go back and witness the full evolution of that character through the past books. There is quite a glossary of character throughout and I try to give as much page time as possible to as many as I can in each book. Even characters like Mayor Winfield has much more development in book two than in one and eventually we will see why he has such animosity towards Titan, but first I want people to really think they know him. Same with Vince, many people have strong opinions of that character and I want to show much more of him including some scenes humanising him beyond Michael's tormentor. the scene in the cemetery in book two is a strong example of that. Also, I don't think after book one that readers thought Perminder and Dave would become so prominent, but they are definitely becoming so. So watch some of these characters now and see where they go in the future and what role they will play in Michael/Titan's life.

Titan's Adventures Purchasing

Here are the links to both Titan books through Amazon!


Titan: The Midnight Hour
http://www.amazon.com/Titan-Midnight-Hour-Hugh-Beckstead-ebook/dp/B007A4V2C4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394055484&sr=8-1&keywords=titan+the+midnight+hour




Titan 2: City Under Siege
http://www.amazon.com/Titan-Under-TITANs-Adventures-Volume/dp/1494251299/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394055559&sr=8-1&keywords=titan+2+city+under+siege

Maintaining Story Structure

Story Structure and development is one of my favourite aspects of writing. I love the planning and plotting tat goes into creating and telling a good story. There has been plenty of both with the Titan series long before the first book even came out. Right now I am in the first draft of book 3 and still finding my self rearranging parts of the story so that they fall in line better for structure and flow and the development of my story and characters. I am finding with book three as it combines two of my previous Titan story lines that there is still some tweaking that needs to be done so that the story rolls out a certain way and works well structurally. So much happens in this book and I rally want it to make sure that I put all the pieces of both stories together so they overlap and fit together as perfectly as possible and make it seem so natural no one would ever doubt the two stories ever existed separately at all.

Titan Series 2nd Anniversary

It has now been just over two years since the release of Titan: The Midnight Hour. I have achieved more than I ever thought I would and have had some amazing experiences with the series to date. Titan 2: City Under Siege has been out a few months now. I have not been able to do much yet with marketing or promotion for the book (my wife is about to have our second child). I do hope to do much more with getting the books into schools and putting them right into the hands of kids. Titan 3: Shadow Games is well under way and I cannot wait to see what this third year of the series will bring!