Gregeration X Newsletter March 18, 2023-The First Mech of the Month

It’s going to be a crazy weekend for my family. My wife and I are celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary, my oldest son is turning 20, and my youngest has school activities and parties to be ferried to and from, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Mechhaven Missives

Good News! I finally booked a date with my editor and will send him the manuscript for Mechhaven Book 4: Rally Point on April 15th! This gives me time to finish up with the last few scenes and polish up the manuscript a little bit more before sending it off.
Once I receive my editor’s corrections back in May, I’ll solidify a release date. I’ll have more on that in the next couple of newsletters.
I’ll start plotting Book 5 shortly and will hopefully start writing in mid to late-April.

Mech of the Month

I wanted to start Mech of the Month off with a bang. I had a few mechs in mind, but then something upset the balance and a new candidate hit me from out of the blue.

It started with a toy.

One day my younger son showed something he was interested in buying from Big Bad Toy Store. While looking at the toy, I saw another one that looked interesting. The more I investigated, the more it took me down a path I didn’t expect. Ultimately, it led to the inaugural Mech of the Month: Mazinger Z (and all his various incarnations).

This mech tickled something deep and visceral in the back of my mind that had 10-year-old me screaming in the background, so I started researching. The original cartoon came out in the early 1970s, so it’s about as old as I am, but I don’t remember watching it. It debuted in the U.S. as Tranzor Z in the 80s, but again I only have vague recollections. I must have had a friend more tied in to Japanese entertainment who was a fan, or maybe someone I knew had a toy. I just can’t pinpoint it.

My search led me to videos on YouTube, Crunchyroll, and any service I could find them. I looked up fan sites and wikis. I’m still not an expert, but what I can say is that this mech/super giant robot has been around a long time, has seen multiple series and incarnations, and is fun to watch!

To see what sealed the deal for me, check out the first 4 minutes of Mazinger Z: Infinity, a more recent adaptation/sequel. The scene features the Great Mazinger, a more advanced version of Mazinger Z. To see Mazinger Z in action check out this scene. If you end up watching the whole movie, enjoy!

Rocket Punch, Mazinger Boomerang, Drill Missiles, Photon Eye Beams and more weapons than I can list here. How cool is that? It’s everything 10-Year-Old and 50-year-old me want to see in a giant robot! The theme song playing in the background is pretty cool, too!

I hope you enjoy Mazinger Z as much as I have these last few weeks. Stay tuned for the next Mech of the Month coming in four weeks! I’m still looking for suggestions for future candidates, so if you have any mechs that you’d like to nominate, please send them my way!

Featured Authors

This week’s featured authors are Kevin Alan, Shane Shepherd, K.A. Maxwell, and Anton Eine! Take a look and support them if you can!

Utero

Kevin Alan

The life of a cyborg mercenary isn’t easy. When Ex U.S. Special Forces Operative, Bishop, wakes up in a military prison without his memories and without his weapons, he must use his wits to recover his gear and escape. Don’t worry. He has been in worse situations. Like when America was nuked. That was pretty bad.

The Blow-Off Job

Shane Shepherd

In this high-octane space-faring saga, legendary bounty hunter, Key, and his team are relentlessly pursued by Grant Urselle and other bounty hunters. As they travel to different planets to evade their enemies, they must rely on the help of the Cloud, a mysterious artificial intelligence, to stay one step ahead. From maximum-security prisons on the icy moon Europa to remote planets, Key and his team are always on the run, but they will stop at nothing to survive. Fans of action-packed sci-fi adventures won’t want to miss this thrilling series.

K.A. Maxwell

After a doomed stunt to protest workplace bias, Lieutenant Felina Gatti found herself in a cage built to keep in high-powereds, even though she never had powers.

Or so she thought.

Upon learning of her breakthrough, the Heroes of Verity offered her two choices: become a restricted hero for only their cause or become a polarizing criminal.

Neither choice was a fair deal.

Anton Eine

Welcome to an alternative world of wonder, where magic and technology are inseparably entwined. A place where sorcerer programmers code spells and weave them into items and artefacts to imbue them with special and specific properties.

Magister Sajar Randhar is a seasoned expert in the field of magic security and one of his world’s leading technical gurus. He is the first and only person ever to have succeeded in creating an artificial spirit. However, when designing his wonderful, strong-willed creation, it never occurred to him that he might be unleashing an extremely dangerous form of magic, capable of destroying himself and his entire world.