Wait, what even IS this 'Geekyverse?'

The phrase "Geekyverse" is the term I use to describe the setting shared by five of my works: Geeky Turn On, A Tempted Geek, Geek on the Side, Love after Life, and How the Gatekeeper Met the Geek. It remains, so far, my most expansive setting yet. Today I want to talk more about it.

The main setting of the Geekyverse is the city of Amberville, Kansas. Amberville is located about four hours away from Topeka, the capital of Kansas. Another major city in the Geekyverse is Arbordale, a larger city and the county seat of the county Amberville is located in. A third major setting is the beach town of Bethany, Delaware, which I plan on setting no less than two future stories in (as of this writing).

The major inspiration for the Geekyverse was the View Akewniverse movies by director Kevin Smith. When I was in college, I was a BIG Kevin Smith fan, and I watched all his movies I could get my hands on. Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Dogma, and even Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. These movies not only helped inform my setting, they informed the kind of humor I wanted in my books too.

I knew what kind of characters I wanted to write about from the moment I started: they were geeks, and proud to be so. They would be comic book nerds, Star Wars nerds, cosplayers, you name it. I wanted them to have conversations about nerd stuff, and have those same conversations not only service the plot, but speak about their characters as well.

Perhaps the movie that influenced me the most was Chasing Amy, a movie about a flawed jerk in love with another flawed jerk. That was the precise movie that really helped me establish the tone I wanted with the Geekyverse: a frank tone. I liked the idea of characters being straightforward with themselves and each other, and I tried having that tone for all my novels, one way or another.

I actually have that idea, of being frank with oneself and others, as a sort of overall theme to the entire Geekyverse. I don't know if I succeeded or not, but I like to keep that running theme going on that most of my characters are going through problems specifically because of a lack of honesty.

I think the one story that depicts this theme the most is A Tempted Geek. The major conflict in the story isn't just Daisy being unwilling to be honest with Paige about her struggles with her business, but also Paige's lack of honesty with herself about how she's actually feeling. I'll be going more in detail about this in a future blog entry.

ALL the Geekyverse stories are geared towards a mature audience thanks in no small part to its coarse language, raunchy humor, and suggestive dialogue. However, you might have noticed that my stories don't have explicit sex scenes. Why is that?

Simply put, I'm not comfortable writing sex scenes. Simple as that.

To avoid writing sex scenes, I use a gag called "Relax-o-Vision," where I interrupt the narration with a description of pleasant scenery. I got this joke from the cartoon Freakazoid, arguably one of the best 90's cartoons ever made. Catch it and give it a watch!

Anyway, my point is that the Geekyverse was mainly inspired by these Indie movies I watched as a college student back in the mid 2000's. My Geekyverse stories are, first and foremost, about people dealing with issues that demand honesty with themselves and others.