Whether fresh out of college, five years out of college, or gathering that spoiled-fruit funk near the ten year-mark, it's a sure thing you've had your head kicked by some stubborn mule in corporate middle-management. Look, it wasn't entirely your fault an individual misunderstood what motivated you. You were probably missing the skills to communicate your more passionate, creative aspects, and they were probably tossed into a jackal-cackling rush to avoid something costly about you they didn't get.

That's the key ingredient to personal motivation in all generations of workers: people and businesses who NEED content aren't competent judges of content.

There's no better time than now to slam a bridle on what you're passionate about and ride that animal till it collapses, especially if it's creative- or content-focused. Here's what you need to know about making money off what jerks begrudgingly admit is important...

Most villains are aware of the world's status quo. They either love it or hate it.

Open your mind to the fearful, hateful creatures that will do anything to keep themselves comfortable.

In Suns Go Dark, I wanted to explore the older generation's fear of losing their palatial comfort, and passing that fear down to the young workers laboring on the sun-farms as their predecessors once did.

A reader sits alone. They usually read alone. The simplest way to enter a story, particularly a work of fiction, is alongside a protagonist: a heroic guide character.

Stories with more than one lead protagonist are less common. The reader might not be sure which to align with and the writer will struggle to favor one over the other.

I welcomed this challenge for Suns Go Dark. Science fiction is about perspective and two leads means twice as much perspective. Most of Ghost Little's free books to read online have multiple protagonists, but that's a matter of narrative structure zig-zagging later in the story for a look into how the other half lives. Suns Go Dark favors two protagonists from the very beginning.

How do we write that into the sci-fi world? Check this out...

After debating character motivations for our free books to read online in the prior series installment, I want to shift attention to the novel's potential character interaction tropes.

We know our primary protagonist is tasked with co-existing alongside what is in most regards the protagonist of a young-adult dystopian novel, complete with caste-system rules and high school allegories. But we're faced with a question: is the "experienced person has to transport important other person" trope played out? What's the gender balance in that? If the protagonist is a man and the invincible, shouldn't-be-possible recruit is a woman, is that bad?

It depends on context and character motivations within the environment...

The brainstorming process for discovering Ghost Little's far-reaching science fiction novel, Suns Go Dark, began with a literal dream a girl had.

From that kernel of a dream, I explored its viability as a large epic, as a short story, or as a simpler free book to read online, but in any case, it would tie into the rest of the larger story arc spread across the other books.

In time, I discovered Suns Go Dark was the governing themetic force linking these stories together. But how did it go from dream to page?

In the animated .gif to the side here, you'll observe a hundred-million dollar rendering of King Kong whipping a freak-beast with a boat propeller attached to a chain.

This is from the film Kong: Skull Island. It's so dumb. I loved it. But the movie's also a living embodiment of culture-as-a-franchise (or, CaaF, which I just made up).

Thousands of people spent insane cash to put a bet on movies like Kong: Skull Island. Interfacing with this sort of entertainment is exhausting.

How do we counteract this trend? We go low-tech. We go local. We enjoy indie bands. We discover free books to read online. We pull our heads out of the sand...

I'm sorry, I've done the math. It's solid.

Yes, it turns out, I've read some stuff on the internet. What's more, I've read some books. The words and lettering, my god, they match up!

Now, here's the trouble: writing is a craft and 97% of what you read out there is shoddy and physically harmful, like a child living off his own hand-crafted birthday cake for his entire adolescence. That's a heck of a tummy ache.

I want to solve that problem. Here on Ghost Little, I'm writing free books to read online, available for all, with the audience in mind...

Overwhelmed by the sight of a buckling bookshelf at the your local shop? Worried you'll buy something and never finish reading it? Well, first, you should support local businesses.

Then, you should check the Amazon Kindle Marketplace for free books. 

In fact, there's a near limitless supply of free books to read online, assuming you know what you're looking for. Here are a few greatest hits to get you started... 

If you follow James Gunn on Twitter, you'll learn a lot about the entertainment industries. Gunn directed Guardians of the Galaxy, and recently made a comment about how to gain exposure and promote yourself.

I'm paraphrasing, but it amounts to "Write a GREAT script, move to LA, and give it to everyone. It'll be found."

That principle rings true for any creative medium. You need to promote yourself with a completed SOMETHING to reach people. Otherwise your work will never be seen on the level you desire. You've got the internet: a powerful distribution tool. Post some free books to read online and attract a fanbase.

How do you make this happen?

In November 2016, Ghost Little will be six years old. Of course, when I began writing it, I had no plan. The site was created on Blogspot before migrating over migrating over to the HubSpot platform in March 2012.

Again, neither the site nor the blog had a purpose. I never studied the traffic. It was purely an exercise, like going to the gym to feel better in one's body.

On November 18, 2014, I posted The Only Perfect Review Of Destiny On The Internet, a 7455 word planet-cracker, before putting the site on indefinite hiatus because I had no idea what else to do.

Once again, the site continued to have no spoken purpose, other than to satisfy my own curiosity. Two and a half years of weekly blogging earned me about 3000 monthly site visits.

On March 23, 2016, I took the site down and rebuilt it in its current form. Here is why: