We now have cover art for the book.
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First Round of Letters Going Out
For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath for an answer to your submissions (and even for those of you who have been calm), we wanted to let you know that the first round of emails/letters is now going out. If you haven’t received one yet, don’t despair (unless that is your thing). We will be getting to everyone over the course of the next few days.
There were lots of great submissions. Some hit the mark perfectly, some were close but need a bit of work and, unfortunately, there were a few that didn’t quite meet our needs. We will be letting you all know one way or the other how your submissions fared.
You may have seen Tweets or Facebook posts from people stating they have received contracts already. That is true only because I attended a writing conference and those people were also there. It has always been my preference to deliver good and bad news in person, if possible.
Thank you all for your patience and your efforts to send us your submissions.
-Michell Plested (co-editor, “A Method to the Madness, A Guide to the Super Evil”)
The Clock is Ticking – T minus 2 Months Till Submissions Close
Greettings Evil Doers. As you may (or may not) be aware, the submission deadline for our glorious handbook is getting ever closer. In fact, as of this writing there is slightly less than two months to go.
I, your ever humble (and magnificent) editor, have been asked on several occasions what kind of articles we are looking for. Well, I don’t want to give too much away, but I do have some thoughts on topics that I know I struggled with when I was beginning to build my Evil Empire.
For example, many people talk about hiring/breeding/training/kidnapping/conscripting/shanghaiing minions. Excellent topics to be sure, but what about the under-the-cover topics that are rarely thought about? For example, what role would an HR Department play in any good villainous corporation? Are the rules the same as big business or do they deviate? What kind of benefits do minions, peons and henchmen require? What is competitive in today’s marketplace?
So many excellent opportunities for articles.
Then, there is that always vexing problem that I faced as a boy: where can any self-respecting evil genius get the necessary parts and plans to build that weather machine or particle beam? Can you get them from the Radio Shack down the street or are there special stores online that cater to the world-conquering wannabe?
What about an article addressing the conundrum of micro or zero-gravity? Are there logistical considerations to building a moon base or high-Earth orbit satellite base? What are reasonable types of power generation to power that death ray? Are powersuits and mechanical men worth the investment?
As you can see, there are many, MANY possible topics that should be covered in the handbook. Are you struggling for ideas? Maybe one of these will tweak an idea. Remember, you have just two months to go. Get your pencils sharpened and get something written.
Good luck!
Three Months Left to Submit
It’s not time to panic… yet, but there are only three (3) months left to submit your article or essay to us for consideration. We tell you this because we would HATE to miss publishing your wisdom in the dark arts of Mad Science because you missed a silly little deadline.
But, that is exactly what will happen if you are late. Cause, we’ve got to be fair (yes, an odd concept for a villain, but honor among thieves and all that) to all those people who do meet the submission deadline.
Time flies when you are having fun, so STOP having fun and write something for us!
You have your orders. Good luck!
Once You Start Looking for Villains, They’re Everywhere
Have you ever noticed how when you buy a certain model of car, you suddenly see that car everywhere? Even if you’ve never seen it on the road before?
Super Villains and Mad Scientists are much the same. Prior to deciding to create the Mad Scientist Handbook (yes, I know that’s only the unofficial, working title), I rarely saw any evil doctors at all. The same was true for mad scientists or really any villains at all (super or otherwise).
Then, the submission period opened and I started seeing them everywhere. The Villain’s Corner on Twitter, Dr. Mercury, and even the Mad Monkey. They are everywhere!
It does my evil heart good to see so much talent out there.
Now, we just need the baddies to start sending articles and essays with their hard-won wisdom to educate the next generation of nemesis. Without that knowledge how can anyone hope to learn from the mistakes of the past, I ask you.
Keep on coming out of the woodwork and contribute. Think of the children.
Five Rivers to Publish A Method To the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil
Villains rejoice! Co-editors, Michell Plested and Jeffrey Hite have reached an agreement with Five Rivers (www.5rivers.org) to publish the anthology, A Method To the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil.
A Method To the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil will be a tongue-in-cheek anthology of short essays aimed to guide the up-and-coming mad scientist to success in a career of supervillainry.
A Method To the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil is a for-love anthology, accepting submissions until May 31, 2012. The anthology is scheduled for release Spring 2013 in both print and digital formats, and will be available globally through online booksellers.
Guidelines for the anthology can be found at: http://madscientistanthology.wordpress.com/.
Experience – It Is All About Been There Done That.
Experience. That is what is it is all about. You can’t take over the world on your first try, you have to start out when you are young and try taking over something like Lichtenstein, or Estonia. A small enough country that most people would not even notice that it changed hands, heck most people would not even know that anything was any different because they would not know what it had been in the first place. if you start small like that, you learn the little tricks along the way. Which kind of officials can be bribed. When you need to have a goon squad, and when what you really need is a small army. What kinds of clockwork machines will work against the local forces and which ones will get clogged with sand when you try for a beach landing.
These are the things that experience will teach you, because no matter how smart you are, some times unless you have lived it or know someone who has, you will never learn. There are resources out there. There are people who have tried to take over Australia, only to find that Kangaroos are not as friendly as they appear. There are those who have built super computers only to have them try to take over the world themselves. These are the kind of things that you as the young evil mad scientist should try to learn from.
That is why I, the Dark Hite and my alter ego, Michell Plested are putting together the definitive work on the subject, and why we need your help. We need your experiences, your stories about when you took over North Carolina only to find out NASCAR fans will revolt if you cancel the race on Sunday, or that time you went to Alaska only to find out that Gnome is not really a portal to the Fae realm, and might not be your best bet for getting an army of rock trolls. without these experiences how do you expect the up and coming evil overlord to know that it is Greenland that is really cold and Iceland that might be a good place to setup operations.
How the Mad Scientist Guide Idea Came into Being
It all began on a bright sunny Twitter day.
JAHite and I (mplested) were Tweeting back and forth being silly, when we somehow got onto the subject of taking over the world. For those of you who don’t know, JAHite and I are each other alter-ego’s on Twitter. We were in agreement that we could, in fact, use our 486-Beowolf cluster to accomplish said world-domination, but only if the actions didn’t happen to contradict our respective wive’s evening plans.
That got me thinking that there must be a set of rules for the would-be world dominator. I liked the idea so much I proposed that we should create said book with the help of all you other mad scientists, evil doctors and other super-villains.
That was the beginning. We continued to talk and plot (as a good mad scientist would) and now, we have a plan for, if not for world domination, at least to bring a book that will help all the next generations of dominators to draw inspiration from.
Thanks for coming by and please, send us your stories and how-to articles. Maybe you can help to train that new generation of villain.
