• On Writers and Emails

    Every writer’s inbox is different. Mine is sitting at 1883 unread messages as of this writing. Some are from fellow creators, others from family, others from friends, and others from fans. That’s just from people, as in, people who took the time to contact me. Then there are the emails that help me with marketing in publishing, emails on my spirituality, folks’ newsletters, and emails pertaining to my business. I’ve pretty much maxed out Gmail’s space since I’m an archivist and archive everything. To keep up with it all, all I can do is read my email when I can and, hopefully, eventually catch up.

    It’s both a burden and a blessing to have that many unread messages in my inbox.

    My favorite emails are from fans, of course, like any other creator.

    What’s in your inbox?


  • Going Dormant – Broadcast Mode Reinstated

    It’s that time of year again where I withdraw from having an active social media presence and switch over to broadcast mode. This begins today and will carry on throughout the winter, which in Manitoba means at least five or six months.

    My plan for the winter season is to release all the manuscripts I’m sitting on–some of which were created last winter broadcast season–and get them into your hands as quickly as possible. The plan also calls for creating new work, whether writing or drawing.

    The best way to keep up with me is to watch this blog and sign up for my weekly newsletter, The Canister X Transmission.

    To contact me, please use email via the contact page on this site.

    I hope everyone has a great winter. Try and stay warm, and to you creators out there, get stuff done. I know I will.


  • ‘Twas the 1.5 Weeks Before Winter Hibernation

    APFuchsfirstC4
    This is me the first time I tabled at the Central Canada Comic Con in 2007. It was also the same weekend my son was born. I’ve tabled every year since.
    It’s coming up soon, but beginning November 1, I will be switching over to broadcast mode for the winter. Pre-programmed content will still air on my social media channels. I’ll also be broadcasting from this blog and, of course, there is my weekly newsletter (which you should totally be reading).

    In work news:

    Progress is being made on the book front, with many titles waiting in the wings to go through the production process before getting into your hands. This was an experiment for me–writing books in bulk–and was a lot of fun. It also meant not releasing anything for a year, but still a good experiment nonetheless. What this means for output in the future, I don’t know. I do need to be releasing titles more frequently, however. This blog will also have details on each project as they come out. You’ll also learn the names of Secret Projects Nos. 1 and 2 (which are written).

    Also upcoming is the Central Canada Comic Con from October 27 to 29 at the RBC Convention Centre here in Winnipeg. This is my last public appearance for the year and, possibly, well into next year or even until 2019. I have some plans and experiments I want to run, but I can’t do them if I’m committed to shows and signings. It just makes for too much work, and I’m not as spry as I used to be when I first started out in this business.

    I’m looking forward to hunkering down for the winter. I’m looking forward to the quiet. I’m looking forward to working without other things buzzing in the back of my brain.

    I’m looking forward to making more books.


  • The Redsaw Origin and How I Write Supervillains

    The Redsaw Origin and How I Write Supervillains

    Redsaw Origin Write Supervillains

    Note: This post on how I write supervillains was originally published on Jeffrey Allen Davis’s blog

    Disclaimer: The following article is meant for those who have read some or all of The Axiom-man Saga. If you have not read the series, please stop now and consider checking out the series first as this article contains spoilers, namely Redsaw’s secret identity, which is part of the mystery of the first book.

    Like Axiom-man, Redsaw has something of a muddled past. I’m talking about his real life origin, not his story one. However, Redsaw didn’t really come together until writing Axiom-man. Until that point, he was more an idea that never materialized in the mental fantasy I had going which eventually birthed The Axiom-man Saga we know today. All I knew about my overall fantasy was there were two cosmic beings at war. One that represented Good (known as the messenger in the saga), and one that represented Evil (known as the master). How these cosmic beings work is they each have champions on multiple planets throughout the universe, one guy stepping forward for them and duking it out on these planets while these two cosmic beings fight it out elsewhere. Usually, the messenger only puts his man in place once the master strikes an unsuspecting world. On Earth, the messenger’s champion is Axiom-man so, you guessed it, the master’s main man is Redsaw. What’s interesting to note is Axiom-man was put in place shortly before Redsaw’s arrival, a pre-emptive move on the messenger’s part and for reasons revealed in the series.

    Redsaw is the main supervillain of The Axiom-man Saga.

    That should bring you enough up to speed on who’s who in my superhero universe.

    When it came to creating Redsaw, other than knowing he had to be the bad guy, he needed to be more than just the bad guy. The first thing I decided was it was imperative he was more powerful than Axiom-man, first and foremost in his superpowers—which are similar but stronger—and secondly as his human alter ego.

    In costume, Redsaw can fly twice as fast, is twice as strong, and the energy beams he shoots from his hands do twice the damage.

    Out of costume, Oscar Owen is rich, well-known, and utterly confident, whereas Gabriel Garrison (Axiom-man) struggles with money, is a nobody, and has self-esteem issues.

    But that’s just the superficial stuff.

    Even the name “Redsaw” is superficial in that I needed a cool name for a villain and “red” typically represents evil and “saw” was named after a sawblade, a dangerous weapon if used to kill somebody. The jagged lines on Redsaw’s red and black costume represent his own jaggedness and danger—again, the sawblade thing.

    Going deeper, however, I didn’t want a bad guy who was the bad guy simply because he was the bad guy. In other words, I didn’t want a bad guy being bad for bad’s sake. There needed to be a reason, and the best reason for any villain in literature or film is the one that says they’re the bad guy because they don’t have any other choice. They have a strong motive that turned them down a dark path. A classic example is Darth Vader. He joined the dark side to save Padme. The dark side consumed him and we all know the rest of the story.

    Oscar Owen was chosen by the master because Oscar drove himself hard to rise from poverty and become a somebody and tried to be a good guy with his powerful position. Once joined with the black cloud that gave him his superpowers, even then, he strove to be a hero like Axiom-man. He just didn’t know joining with the black cloud came at a cost and the black cloud transformed him into someone he wasn’t: the reluctant villain. The villain you and I can relate to. The one that, if you or I were put in their shoes, would do what they do no matter how dark or despicable because, from their point-of-view, they’re doing the right thing even if the cause is evil.

    That’s the kind of main villain I was after for Axiom-man: someone like him. Someone who strove to do what they perceived was the right thing. Unfortunately, for Redsaw, his “right thing” is the wrong thing, but thankfully we have Axiom-man there to stop him.

    Regarding other supervillains I’ve created—Char, Bleaken, Battle Bruiser, and Lady Fire—they all have something in common and it all goes back to what I did with Redsaw: they’re more powerful than the hero. It might be their powers, it might be their intellect, but either way, my villains always have a leg up on Axiom-man so they’re a challenge to fight. It’s the only way to create true conflict in the novels otherwise, if they were weaker, Axiom-man would stomp them into the ground every time and the story would be over in a few pages. Sure, it’s fun to have a few purely-human bad guys for Axiom-man to quickly dispose of, but when it comes to his superpowered rogues gallery, I needed my bad guys to be stronger than the hero and make him really dig deep whether physically or mentally to put the villains away for good. And even then . . . they might not always stay put, but for what I mean by that, you’ll have to check out the books and see for yourself.

    A supervillain—breaking down the word—sure, the “villain” part is easy. It’s the “super” part that’s hard because that goes beyond their powers. They need to be above average in who they are as a person. They need to be motivated by something beyond what gets us normal people through our day. They need to be motivated by something “super.” It could be a tragedy, a misguidance, even a dark heart birthed out of something beyond their control in years past. There’s no such thing as a person who’s born bad. We all make choices. Some yield Good. Others yield Evil. Others take us down roads filled with both. Throw superpowers into the mix and you have the potential to create a superpowered problem that only a superhero can fight.

    As for Redsaw, well, like Axiom-man, he’s on a journey, too. One that can only lead to one place. As for where or what that is, you’ll just have to read and find out.

    Thanks for tuning in on how I write supervillains.


  • Why the Standard “Author Platform” Doesn’t Work

    Why the Standard “Author Platform” Doesn’t Work

    Social Media Author Platorm

    This article was originally published June 5, 2017 on the Operation Awesome Blog.

    All right, let’s talk straight. Specifically, let’s talk author platforms. You’ve read the articles. You’ve been told how important they are. You’ve been given a list of what to include. Heck, you’ve even taken all that information to heart and acted upon it.

    And the book sales aren’t happening.

    So you keep at it, hoping one day it’ll all pay off. Day in and day out you bust your tail on social media and the Web only to keep missing your goal sales-wise. Or, perhaps, you hit it some months and others you wonder what it’s all for. Frustration sets in and you don’t know what’s going on. You did what Author A said. You got your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your blog, your Instagram and all the others—yet still you’re just another author voice shouting into the storm.

    Here’s the issue: you’re following someone else’s advice. Worse, you’re following it to the letter and in the game of publishing, following the author platform advice to a T is a death sentence.

    This is why:

    Publishing is a giant crapshoot. There is no sure-fire way to do anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or trying to sell you something. While true there are basics and groundwork you can lay, that’s all those things are. Yes, your standard author platform recipe should be part of your game plan. That’s no different than saying you want to sell your book but you know you can’t sell your manuscript as is. You need to make it pretty and put it between two covers before you can do so. That’s a given. The basics.

    The standard author platform isn’t working for you is because you aren’t making it yours. You’re making it like someone else’s or, simply, following the basic recipe without adding the personal tender loving touch that makes your cookies taste better than the other guy’s.

    This is how to fix the issue, written step-by-step, but don’t treat it like an instruction manual. Customization, you know?

    Step one:

    Lay down the standard recipe. All good baking has a fairly consistent base across the board. Have your Facebook page, your Twitter, blog, Instagram and all that. Customize each page and make it about you and your books then commit to a Web plan where you’re active on each on a regular basis.

    Step two:

    Start adding the TLC. Don’t make your Facebook page like Joe Famous’s. Make it like yours.

    I hate the word “brand” when it comes to this author stuff. It turns us into a product and, frankly, art is never about product. It can become a product, but should never be a product. See the difference? This world is sickly loaded with consumerism and people pushing products non-stop twenty-four hours a day. Most of us have tuned out the racket. But what draws us and captures our attention? Unique items and unique people. This so-called “brand” you’re supposed to become? How about voice? After all, your voice is what makes your art what it is to begin with. Why turn that off when sharing it with people?

    So . . .

    Format and design your pages to reflect you and your books. Don’t be all authorish. Don’t be all bookish. Don’t make people feel like they’re in a stuffy library when they visit you on the Web. In other words, don’t be so professional you come off as cold. Cold people suck.

    Into baking or crafts? Build that into your page designs and content.

    Into superheroes and comics? Put up some indie superhero character art as part of your banner and pictures.

    Into sci-fi and tech? Give your page(s) a mechanical flare and make the electro-junkies squee on the inside when they visit you.

    Into horror? Spook it up, man.

    Get the idea?

    Step three:

    With your on-line base of operations already established, leave it alone for a bit and start playing around with other marketing ideas.

    Some items . . .

    Set up book signings. Table at conventions. Hook up with some craft shows and flea markets. Arrange a book tour, say, local at first then, depending on success, look at traveling out-of-province/state, even country.

    Set yourself up as a unique property at these events. Don’t just have a plain table. Add some posters and signage. Add some props. Display your books in a pyramid-like tower. Stand out. Fool around. Don’t be the lonely author who sits there with a handful of books laid out boring and flat in front of them, longingly gazing at the passersby, your eyes pleading, “Please come talk to me. Please come buy my book.” I mean, you took all this time to personalize your on-line presence, why wouldn’t you do the same for your off-line one?

    Casually bring up you’re an author into everyday conversations. You can subtly work your pitch into whatever you’re talking about with someone—choose appropriately, of course—and at a bare minimum leave them with a business card. But have books on-hand or in your car in case a sale is to be made. Trust me, it happens.

    Go to open mic nights and share story excerpts or poetry. This is your chance to pimp your work, network and perhaps get hired for new projects.

    Do workshops.

    And a thousand other things. These examples are to make this point: lay your groundwork—that author platform—then play around with other marketing avenues. You’ll be surprised what works. You’ll also be surprised at what doesn’t because what works for Author A doesn’t always work for Author B.

    Book marketing is all about customization. It’s about finding what works for you and putting energy into those things while discarding the things that don’t after you’ve given them a fair chance (i.e. six months to a year or something). And you know what? Even that thing you did that didn’t work for your first novel might be the goldmine that works for your second one. Each book is different. Even each book in a series is different.

    Authors want the easy way out. “I just want to write,” they say. Well, if that were really true, you wouldn’t be publishing as well, right?

    Or they want to be told what to do: that standard author platform recipe. Come on. How can you be so creative in fiction then totally useless outside of it? Don’t you know your life is a story and so is your book career? That creative flare that you put on the page can be used off of it, too. Stop thinking inside of your book and start thinking outside of it.

    After this article is drafted, my plan for the day is to revisit my platform, one that I’ve already customized to me over the years—self-publishing since 2004—and take inventory on what’s working and what isn’t. I’m going to make some changes and try new things. Going to add my own TLC instead of relying on the standard Author Platform recipe.

    I’m eager to see how these cookies turn out. I already know my zombie chocolate chip ones are dead ringers for a win and my Axiom-man cookies are super.

    Screw the standard author platform. It’s boring and useless. But your own? The one with your personal touch?

    That’s something special.

    Get to it.


  • Sunday Signal Test

    This is just a quick post to test the schedule function in WordPress and to see if it spreads to my various networks. This is also to see how that future journal/blogging project will come together since journal entries are already being written behind the curtain. Why automate it? So I don’t forget, that’s why. Also, just in case I can’t get to a computer that day.

    Stay tuned to this channel for more as we move things along.


  • Public Journaling

    Some say blogging is dead. Others still keep at it. I honestly don’t know if blogging is indeed dead, but I do know that writing is very much alive. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to blogging lately–as if I already don’t have enough to do–and want to revive this blog again. It used to be done five days a week, and most–perhaps all–of that was lost to the meltdown of 2014. Anyway, I was thinking that a good exercise would be to do some sort of weekly–maybe at one point daily–public journal. It could be about anything: Tell a life story, show a poem, post a picture and talk about it. Whatever.

    In terms of weekly commitments, my main one is my newsletter. To add another, I’m hoping, won’t be too much. Who knows? Maybe one day there’d be enough journal entries to make a blook (a blog book)? The entries would probably be short, maybe a few hundred words, unless I really get going. The idea would be to clear the cobwebs and dump out whatever I’m thinking about. Some sort of alternative reading resource.

    Blogging. It’s been awhile.

    Journaling might be even better.


  • Checking In – Work Block

    Drawing Table 2017This is a note to let you know I’m still alive albeit working hard down in the mines. The picture you see is the current art table complete with stimulants to keep things going.

    I’m prepping two series for Instagram, and writing Axiom-man/Auroraman: Frozen Storm. Progress is being made on all three fronts.

    This is also a friendly reminder to tune into my weekly newsletter, The Canister X Transmission, for updates as to what’s going on and how insane I’m getting chipping away at these rocks somewhere around the planet’s core. Trust me, I’m starting to lose it down here.

    Presently, I’m sitting on a block of work outside of the aforementioned projects. There are four books already written that need to go through the production process before release. The Axiom-man/Auroraman title makes it five. Once this superhero book is done, it’s off to the races and to pumping out book after book in the hopes of entertaining you guys.

    Then I’m gonna nap. Forever.

    But on the off chance I awake, it’ll back down here with the shovel and pick-axe, working away.

    We’re getting there, people. New books are coming.

    I need a drink.


  • Remote Update

    This update is coming to you from the middle of the bush where the fish-flies are dreadful. However, it won’t be posted until I return to the city where there’s an Internet connection.

    It is Saturday, July 15, 2017.

    Hope I remember I have this entry on my smartphone otherwise I’m writing it for nothing.

    This post is to notify you I’m still working and, as of this writing, have completed two penciled images for a client, with the third page needing the finishing pencils. All three will then be inked and the job will be complete.

    AXIOM-MAN/AURORAMAN: FROZEN STORM is also in progress, and I’m aiming for a mid-September release so the book can go out to the Kickstarter backers.

    Also in progress are a plethora of small art pieces which will eventually show up on my Instagram account. Search “#apfuchs” to be connected for when the viewing takes place.

    Reminder: Continuous weekly mayhem can be found via my newsletter, THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION, at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs

    Still running on fumes, but am getting things done.

    Remote update concluded.


  • Kids Fringe 2017 Appearance

    This year, like last year, I’ll be taking part in Kids Fringe on Sunday, July 30, from noon until 6pm. The plan? Making comic books. Bring your kids and I’ll supply a blank comic book for them to fill. Pages will have panels already in place. All your child needs to do is use their imagination. Pencil crayons and pencils will also be on hand.

    Likewise, of course, I’ll have my own comics for sale.

    See you there.