Night Sky (Movie/Show Review #13)

by Leave a Comment

I like my sci-fi shows, and I’m also a fan of J.K. Simmons, so I was excited about Night Sky. My watchlist is completely packed, though, so I’m late to the party once again—the show was released almost four years ago. But I finally got to see the 8 episodes last week.

As usual with streaming services, if a show doesn’t go viral immediately, it gets nuked pretty quickly. Shame on them, because many shows only find their footing over time. Just look at the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a mess. But in season two, the production quality improved, and the character development and world-building became genius for the six seasons that followed.

We’ll never know where Night Sky might have gone, because they pulled the plug far too early.

The show itself is well made. Acting is great, suspense is intriguing, and the cinematography pleasing. It starts slowly, yes, but the premise is a good one for every sci-fi fan. I would have loved to see where the story was heading.

But again—we’ll never know.

If you enjoy slow-burn sci-fi, it’s worth a watch. Just be aware that almost nothing is revealed: no real answers, no resolved storylines. What a shame.

Get My Latest Short Story The Equation for Free (STORY52 No. 12)

by Leave a Comment

Another week, another free short story from me on Amazon! Check out number 11 in my STORY52 project — it’s free starting today through Friday.

Synopsis:

A city. A formula. A truth that must not be discovered.

When Professor Harlan Sael alters an equation, reality begins to fracture. Houses vanish. People dissolve. And at the edge of the city waits something that should not exist.

The closer Harlan gets to the solution, the clearer it becomes: the equation doesn’t just describe the world — it defines it.

US Version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKVLSNBV
German Version | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GKW12184

As always, a review would be greatly appreciated — it helps me with Amazon’s algorithm.

See you next week,
BRIG

Author Progress Report – January 2026

by 1 Comment

I somehow managed to attract scammers from all over the world this month to leave comments on my site—yippie!

On a more serious note, some real-life issues at the beginning of the year took up most of my time. It was a rough start, but I’m recovering now.

Website

As expected, the traffic increase I saw at the end of last year wasn’t genuine. It was mostly scammers who vanished as soon as I deleted their spam comments. A few are still hanging around, though, posting casino links in English, Russian, and—for some reason—even French.

I also couldn’t write until January 18th, which was a real bummer. I really wanted to stick to daily articles, but real life got in the way. Since then, however, I’ve managed to publish something every day.

One good project I’ve started is writing about book marketing once a week. It forces me to invest more time in a topic I’ve neglected for far too long. Writing books is one thing—selling them is a completely different animal. Let’s see if I can tame it.

Newsletter

I think I’ve got some real subscribers now—though it’s fewer than a handful. Still, I’m happy about every single one. So thanks to the few of you who joined. You da real MVPs!

If you want to join as well, you’ll get a free e-book and an update email whenever I give away free books on Amazon. Sign up here: Endless by Michael Brig.

Free Books

Book cover of the wheel

I published the next short story, The Wheel, a week ago. Two people already reviewed it with 4-stars. Thank you!

As always, I gave the story away for the maximum of 5 days on Amazon. The English version got 30 downloads, the German version 20.

That brings the total to 11 out of 52 short stories published.

The next one is already in progress on Amazon, and I have another handful ready for publishing. I’m confident that by the end of the year all 52 of the series will be available.

Writing

I messed this one up. The goal was to write 12 novels in 12 months this year, but due to personal issues I quickly realized that this just isn’t realistic—at least not this year.

My focus now is on completing my short story project STORY52 first. I also want to get back into AI comic creation using different tools and solutions. When I started this website, my long-term goal was to publish four novels per year. I think that’s a manageable and realistic target for 2026.

Project Updates 2025

  • STORY52 – 11 of 52 published. The goal is to release the remaining stories in 2026.
  • Therapy – Editing is 90% complete; translation is next. Planned release: March 2026.
  • Crowley – Writing is finished. Planned release: 2026.
  • Smash the Patriarchy – Writing is 25% complete. Planned release: 2026.
  • [New Title] – Concept is 50% complete. Planned release: 2026.
  • 17 Part II – Final draft is 20% complete. Planned release: December 2026.

If everything goes according to plan, this would result in five novel releases this year. At the same time, I’ll continue writing new stories for a 2027 release.

Comics

I checked out Midjourney again to work on an update about AI comic book creation. ChatGPT, Nano Banana, and even Grok are also tools I plan to test for my AI comic project, The Last Superhero.

If all goes well, I’ll post the next part in February and an update on AI comic book making in general.

X / Twitter

I had plans for X at the start of the year, but time is limited—and my reach there is abysmal anyway. For now, I mostly post links to my blog articles and the occasional movie review.

If I ever find an audience on the platform, I’ll invest more time into it. For now, that’s not the case.

That said, I still use Twitter daily to read and stay informed. You can follow me here: @michael_brig

Instagram

No real changes here—I’m still just posting book covers for now.
Follow me here: Michael Brig IG

YouTube

I’ve started making tutorials again after taking almost a month off. Currently, I’m working on tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, CapCut, and Affinity. I’ll also add AI tutorials whenever I feel confident that I’ve learned something well enough to teach it (e.g., AI comic book making).

I also decided to publish my author progress videos on my tutorial channel. Since YouTube has put my account into what feels like a sandbox, new channels get virtually no views. On my tutorial channel, I at least get some exposure for these videos.

My video essay channel about movies will return in February as well.

Conclusion

A bad start to the year—but I’m getting back on the horse.

See you next time,
BRIG

Why The Movie Ballerina Flopped

by Leave a Comment

I watched Ballerina a week ago.

With an IMDb rating of 6.8 and a box office result of $135 million against a $90 million budget, the movie somewhat flopped. It certainly wasn’t the biggest flop of the last few years, but it clearly underperformed.

Technically speaking, the movie wasn’t bad. A rating of 7 out of 10 is perfectly fine. Compared to its parent franchise, John Wick, it was weaker, though. The direction, action choreography, and overall aesthetics were a step below what audiences expect from a typical Wick movie, and the world-building wasn’t as innovative.

That said, it was still a decent action flick with a very typical storyline for the genre.

So why did it flop?

I think it’s the thin line between art and marketing that ultimately caused the movie to underperform.

Every time a new idea works even somewhat, Hollywood tries to milk it dry: sequel, prequel, spin-off, remake. It becomes too much, and it’s obvious when a project exists mainly as a cash grab that studios want to force down our throats.

With Atomic Blonde, they had already given us a “female John Wick” without the John Wick label. The movie made $100 million on a $30 million budget, which was respectable but not enough to build a major franchise. As a result, the studio decided to make the next “female John Wick” more directly connected to the original franchise, hoping this would pull more people into theaters.

In short, Ballerina doesn’t feel like it was made primarily for art or entertainment; it feels like a marketing strategy.

And while people are aware that marketing is everywhere—and even necessary to some degree—nobody wants it shoved in their face. Ballerina practically screams: “Hey, movie lovers, we heard you like John Wick. So here’s the female version. Now give us your money!”

A good rule for any franchise is to only make a spin-off when audiences actually ask for it. If they don’t, it just feels like a sales tactic rather than a story that needs to be told.

I’m Starting to Learn Book Marketing

by Leave a Comment

Writing books is one thing; marketing them is a completely different story.

By writing 1,000 words a day, I’ve already mastered the discipline part of writing. AI has helped me tremendously with book editing—making the process faster and improving the quality of my edits. The same goes for translations from German to English. My book cover design skills aren’t amazing, but they’re certainly above average. When it comes to writing style, I’m still learning something new every day—aren’t we all?

What I haven’t really tackled so far, though, is marketing. I had some ideas—creating this blog, using Twitter, making YouTube videos—and my STORY52 project is also part of my marketing efforts. But I never bought a good book on the topic, didn’t do deep online research, and never truly tried to market my books in a structured way.

As an independent author without a budget, you simply have to do it all: writing, editing, translating, designing—and marketing.

So from now on, I’m dedicating one article per week on my website to book marketing. This forces me to learn, and it also increases the value I offer readers on this blog. A win-win.

To get you started as well, check out this great resource I’ve already found: Book Marketing Bestseller

It’s by a guy named John Kremer, who also wrote 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books, a book praised by many authors.

At the moment, I’m working my way through his blog. His book is next on my list. You can find it on Goodreads here.

If I write about one marketing technique per week, I’ll have my own 1,001 ways to market books in about 20 years. Stay with me to see what number 1,001 will be.