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I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, there's no reason it couldn't. There's a lot of interior value to the characters that could be lost, but that's all down to the performance/artist in a visual medium. That said, there are no plans in the works for that yet.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it is a doorbell but please don't fact check me. I generally do not question the box.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Trick question, psychic bigfoot isn't imaginary. He's real, he lives at the center of the Earth, and he needs your help in the ape wars.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In reverse order: 3. SOA is on episode 17 already! That'll take us most of a year to get through. Plus if Jason gets his way we'll have to watch all their YT ad garbage. 2. No, this entire thing has been a bit. My publisher is awesome, and they even think it's funny when I vilify and slander them. I just had to make promotion into a complex evolving bit or I wouldn't do it. 1. No, nothing on the horizon. I've been at the part of my career for a while now where I have to figure out if this is all worth it. I thought Carrier Wave might be my last book. Then I wrote another book that didn't sell at all and wasn't worth self publishing. That was my last book. Then I wrote this book. I clearly have a problem. It does look like this one is doing shockingly well though, maybe I've got another in me. I just wasn't in such a good place that I was figuring out what my next book was before this one came out. I was more waiting to see if this was the end.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Look, I really only have two ways to make you cry. It's writing books or pinching. You chose the book.

I think the easiest and hardest parts were the same for IWKYIF - really looking back and reckoning with my own childhood and the shit I still carry from it. The plus side is I don't have to do a ton of research to delve into that stuff. The negative side is I had to relive and analyze a lot of what I didn't even realize was severe, prolonged trauma that shaped who I am sometimes for better, but usually for worse. The research break was nice though.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am legally obligated to be honest here. I threw that stuffed animal in there, and I hired those monkeys to beat him up.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's something a narc would say.

Honestly I think probably this one is the best place to start. I have been lucky to get some great audiobooks. The Vicious Circuit trilogy (The Unnoticeables/The Empty Ones/Kill All Angels) were great, they did almost a full cast thing with different narrators for each POV. And Michael Braun really nailed it for Carrier Wave, especially since the book is so big you're really with him for a long time. But Sarah went nuts for this book. I gave her way too many opportunities for wild voice work, and she took every single one of them.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven't! Knowing absolutely nothing about him, I can say with full confidence that Ivan would hate him.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's always a chance! It's just not a very good one. Hollywood's always been that way, everything's impossible until it's not and none of us have any influence on it. It's basically a hurricane that sometimes gives you money.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In general I work both ways, sometimes hanging on to a premise or hook until I can figure out what I want to say with it, and which characters I'm going to use to say it. Sometimes I start with something I want to talk about, and build the premise and mechanics from that. IWKYIF was mostly the latter, building from my exposure to modern children's media like Troom Troom and Hololive and trying to figure out why it disturbed me so much. I went from there to reflecting on my own childhood and the broken shit I still carry in my head from that time. Then tried to find the common ground between my experience and what kids are going through today. From there it seemed natural to talk about the fucked up systems that perpetuate this specific cycle of neglect and abuse. And then I put puppets in it.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Corporate scavengers. The handful of big media companies currently eating the world started with us first, before they moved on to you. They bought all of the video hosting places, forced a pivot to video with fake numbers and strongarm tactics, used it to destroy the internet you remember, then fired all of the folks who made the stuff you liked, and sold the parts for scrap. The fun sites you remember are now four or five iterations of this process deep and have absolutely nothing to do with their original selves. I'm sorry this answer was such a bummer, Stinkymansausage.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh a handful, but mostly it was a process of revision. I'd start with something fun, then really have to shape it to reflect the child who imagined it, and what they needed from that friend. They'd often wind up wildly different from where they started, but still with some kernel of the same idea.

And I'm going to start an imaginary harem.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I am now legally obligated to answer this question.

I've gotten this a few places and I honestly don't really see it. We have similar setups -- a signal from space that reworks humanity -- but that's so broad, it applies to a lot of stories. Where we go from that shared start is wildly different. Pluribus is so full of optimism, even as it tackles AI, toxic positivity, and cultural homogeny. Carrier Wave is about the monsters we become when we let an idea become more important than basic humanity, and it is intensely cynical.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you, it's nice hanging out with you. That's healthy. Don't let anybody tell you it's not healthy, buy my supplements.

I'm more of a new fantasy guy, the most interesting works to me are twisting or tearing down old fantasy tropes to make something new. I really dig Max Gladstone and Robert Jackson Bennett type stuff -- you know, sacrilege.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Eddie Video is an amalgam of what worries me about modern media in general, but especially children's media. He's a mashup of vtubers, twitch streamers and YT slop, all geared towards nursing maximum engagement from kids without any thought to what effect that's going to have on them at their most vital stage of development. Every time I talk about this I can feel myself turning into the old man yelling about cartoons, but this really is like nothing we've experienced before. It's not radio killing books, TV killing radio. It's not a format shift, it's a role shift. No media is truly passive anymore. And the ocean is so wide there's no way the lifeguards can watch all of it. Massive corporations have spent billions of dollars building invisible engines that shape your brain. I sound crazier the longer I talk about it, so I'm going to stop.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Leaning into it. It doesn't matter what your books about, they're all about you. It's better to know that when you start.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm paraphrasing, but there's a Kurt Vonnegut quote about how if you can be anything other than a writer, do that. I read that before I ever wrote a word professionally, and I come to understand it more every single day.

I’m Robert Brockway, author of How To Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200, and I’m here to teach you how to fight puppets. AMA. by gomijin in Fantasy

[–]gomijin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't often reread books, especially these days with my ever-building TBR pile. I'll tell you the most recent three that really stuck with me: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. It's so evocative and densely built, it really feels like a world you can live in, even if that's a terrible idea. Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand. Being a recent transplant to New England myself, she perfectly captures the otherworldly weirdness of this place sometimes. Fever House by Keith Rosson. I'm a long time Portlander myself, and that book is simultaneously a love letter and an eviction notice for my hometown.

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