If you are looking for a fresh perspective, watch this site
Welcome! The site is ready, and it feels great to go live with it. The time has come to share with you work I have been preparing for the past two years. Books, graphic novels, articles, film reviews, music reviews, short films, feature films – take your pick. If you are looking for something fresh and exciting, you’re at the right place.
For example, if history and adventure is your poison, or if you are wondering why politics are so tiring and politicians so righteous, check out Wake Of Liberty. It is an historical fiction novel based on the French revolution, sprinkled with dark fantasy for an extra twist, where the pros and cons of democracy are revealed. You can read parts of it for free on Urban Times, a forward-thinking online magazine, for which I have been writing for some time.
Wake Of Liberty, or WOL, as I like to refer to it, will soon be published in e-book format in its entirety and sold on Amazon. This edition will be filled with paintings, sketches and engravings of the time, telling a tale of their own alongside the text, bringing the French revolution to life.
In other words, with a few bucks you can buy a picture-filled book that would normally cost around $60.
Yep, the digital age rocks.
So as not to let down traditional book fans and purists, a paperback version of WOL will be published too. Unfortunately it will not contain pictures, due to the high printing costs, but it will be a paper book you can hold on to, feel, and display on your shelf. A book is a book is a printed and bound beauty with a grace of its own.
Speaking of book editions and formats, a WOL graphic novel is in the pipeline. The concept was too rich and vibrant not to address visually. The French revolution is the mother of all political action stories, and the atmosphere so electric and stimulating that this graphic novel is basically writing and drawing itself. Fans of 300, V For Vendetta, Batman, and Watchmen, watch out for The Wake Of Liberty Revolution Tours.
Speaking politics and revolution, check out The Politics Of Conflict, a short film on the antics of politicians. When they meet behind closed doors to discuss policy, you’d think they do serious work, but they actually screw around like children. We have recreated their actions, so you can see for yourself. Comic to the point of tragedy.
So much for politics. Let’s move on to Behind The Mirror (BTM), a concept I first envisioned in 2006. Once just a crazy idea to get me through a difficult point in my life, it has gradually grown into a story with legs, teeth and a shadow.
The first BTM book came out in 2008 in the form of an epistolary novel. A collection of short stories titled Appearances followed three years later, sourced from the same writings. Both books were drafts, test versions of the real thing.
The real thing is finally here. Watch out for a revamp of BTM material, coming soon, in multimedia form, ranging from short stories to short films and a running blog called BTM – The Correspondence. And did I mention the feature film currently in development? Shooting begins next summer in New England. Its genre? A thriller set in a small town, upstate New York.
Now if fiction or films don’t do it for you, there’s a bunch of articles and social commentary for you to read. Just click on Base Camp to get a taste of the range of topics I have tackled over the past two years. Every issue is on the table and up for debate. Forthrightness is my method to the madness. Political correctness is a strict no-no. I call things as I see them, no holds barred.
If you like what you read in these articles, then visit Urban Times and go through my 300+ article roster. And if you want new stuff, don’t worry, fresh pieces are posted every week by myself and other writers. Lots of other writers. There’s a bunch of visionary people writing amazing things for Urban Times.
Then of course there’s the LocoMotive. My blog. You’re reading it right now. I’m glad you are. It will keep you informed on what is going on, bringing you news and updates on my various projects and activities. Gavin Denman, my senior creative consultant, and I will be working together, overseeing project development, while the technical team will be maintaining the site, making sure we run without hitches. Minos Papas, film director and founder of Cyprian Films, will be providing us with the first material for The Slate, our niche page for Nicolas D. Sampson / Sampsonic Media productions. And George Kallis, film composer and founder of Cinematic Soundscapes, will be scoring the whole she-bang.
The blog will also contain writings on various topics, offering fresh insight and placing things under new light. The Gems section will host movie, music and book reviews, as well as suggested reading lists, playlists, and YouTube videos.
In other words, prepare to be stimulated.
My name is Nicolas D. Sampson, and I am LocoMotivated.
Note: the site has been retro-fitted with older posts from August 2010 to January 2013.