Thursday, July 9, 2020

The Time Has Come

Covid has affected us all, but I had one other element over the past year that I haven't shared online, and that my mother is in a wheelchair. She needed three surgeries over the past year and her muscles have atrophied to the point where she can't walk. She not has trainers coming to her home to work with her. So yeah, this year has beaten me down in more than one way. In a year that has been absolutely insane, there was one thing that kept me going: I'm being published. Our pop culture; whether it be tv, movies, or comics, is in limbo and really doesn't know what to do with itself. We need Morgalla and more works like her; new and fresh. I had moved back from Florida to Michigan in 2000 after I had lost my job at Walt Disney World. It's a shame because I was looking to move up in the company and had a plan with schooling and work. I had a future. So I moved back home and spent a year trying to figure out what to do with my life. Then I remembered that I had this story about a demon girl who falls in love with a human, all the while evil forces conspire to invade Earth. This was the groundwork for "Diary of a Lonely Demon", which would turn into a trilogy. Sadly, no publisher or agent was listening. I went with self-publishing in 2009. I sold a few books and made some fans. I was honored. Sadly, one fan (for reasons that are her own) decided to try and destroy my career. She spent seven years doing so. I went on and self-published two more books. While I was in the middle of writing "WAR of the Dark One", my dad told me how proud he was of me for moving forward even though I had been through so much. My only regret is that my father isn't alive to see this day. A few years ago I started writing a prequel to my series, exploring Morgalla when she was younger and a tad naive in the ways of the world and of Hell. I had also grown weary of love stories. I was twenty years old when I invented Morgalla and was a hopeless romantic. It's changed a lot but the spirit and soul is still the same: love conquers all. Two years ago BHC Press picked up Morgalla and agreed to publish all four books. It's my honor and privilege to be partnered with them. I present to you the first of the Morgalla Chronicles: The Savage Peak.

https://www.bhcpress.com/Author_Jon_David.html

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Morgalla Inspiration: Battle Angel Alita & Other Animes

During the early 90's my brothers and I watched a lot of anime. Bear in mind this is before it was popular and in the mainstream. What most people knew about anime came from Voltron or Robotech.

We preferred subtitles to English dub. Heck, I knew a guy who taught himself Japanese through watching subtitled anime. We watched all we could: Project AKO, Devil Hunter Yohko, Kiki's Delivery Service, Vampire Hunter D, Devilman.

Hmm...I'm sensing a pattern with some animes.

We even saw AKIRA, the crowning jewel of animation, at the Detroit Institute of Art. It was awesome seeing a film like that on the big screen.

Anime was so different than anything shown on American television. Sure, there was Speedracer, G-Force, and Voltron which were all kid-friendly, but Robotech was very mature for the most part and even had characters DIE which was strange to see on American television intended for kids.

Among all these great (and many times weird) stories was one that really caught my attention: Battle Angel. It's the story of Gally, a cyborg girl who is found by Ido, barely alive and functioning. He rebuilds her body and she learns to survive in a savage city filled with killer cyborgs.

There's this huge and dangerous world above and all around her and she has to learn to survive in it. Her innocence and vulnerability draws you in. She's sweet and kind, you end up LIKING her:


But there are times where you don't want to mess with her.


Gally is just a young woman trying to survive in a dangerous world. She's not a violent person, but will be when the lives of herself and loved ones are in danger. Her story has heart and brains and it's a shame that anime never continued her story.

When I heard they were making a film adaptation I was 100% against it. Hollywood doesn't have the best track record with anime. Thankfully I was proven wrong. The Robert Rodriguez-directed adaptation is a great film and really captures the spirit. Let's hope for a sequel.

Alita/Gally, Battle Angel, whatever you name her, is Morgalla's greatest inspiration. She rocks.