what happen to mike cropo
guys its been a long time i heard fom mike cropo last i known i read he had cancer, i hope is alright
what happen to mike cropo
guys its been a long time i heard fom mike cropo last i known i read he had cancer, i hope is alright
He also recently had an heart attack, but is back at home.
There is more details on his site
https://aspartanswarchronicles.com/
He also recently had an heart attack, but is back at home.
After so much bad news from old authors disappearing on the site, it's nice that at least one has recovered, at least somewhat.
Unfortunately, no one ever fully recovers from old age!
Unfortunately, no one ever fully recovers from old age!
It's a progressive disease with no cure. :(
Unfortunately, no one ever fully recovers from old age!
Unless they have a weird painting hidden in the attic.
Unfortunately, no one ever fully recovers from old age
Life is a terminal medical complaint so just make the best of it whilst you can
My uncle Jack [father's brother] stayed with us for a while, and once said to me, "John, don't ever grow old." My response was, "I prefer it to the alternatives."
If you ever learn how to do that, do please share. It seems there are many people around here who would be interested.
Mike Cropo's son posted the following in the forum on his website https://aspartanswarchronicles.com/ this morning. He lived in the state of New York so the times are Eastern Standard Time (UTC/GMT -5 hours)
Hello everyone, this is Mike's son, John. I'm sure most of you know I've been in contact with Tai and Evan the past six or so months to keep them updated on my dad's status. Late last night at around 1am, we moved him to a Hospice for his own comfort, he actually asked for it, we stayed until about 2:30 when he fell asleep. When I woke up this morning my mother informed me that my dad passed away in his sleep at around 6am, so no pain. I'm sorry to have to inform you guys, I know we were all hoping he would fight it out a little bit longer, I don't think anyone expected the end to be so sudden. I cannot stress how much your support and donations have helped me and my family, thank you all so very much.
Thank you John Death is never easy but suffering is worse. I second what SnakeEater wrote about your Dad.
I am not John, I just copied his note to this thread.
Here is a link to his obituary. https://rochestercremation.com/obituary/michael-joseph-cropo
Mike had posted the chapters that formed the latest update on his website prior to his death. Those where copied here at the time his profile was changed to mention his death.
Oh Damn ....
My deepest condolences to John & the rest of his family. We will all miss him severely, His loss is a great blow to his family & all of his friends scattered all around the world. He had a talent rare in the world, he could make people see & believe in a world that only existed in his mind & the minds of his fans. I would place his talent at Least on a par with Louis L'Amour & R.A.Heinlein. A storyteller almost beyond compare. Not fancy but he drug his readers almost kicking & screaming into his stories. He was one who Deserved the honors but never got them outside of his fans.
Absent Companions, Never Forgotten!
"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them."
Mark Twain
Just read Mike has passed away on the day of his latest update....rip to a great author he will be sadly missed.
I think of it as all of the good storytellers and musicians among others are just on loan to us. Sadly they don't always receive the recognition from us they deserve how ever.
I don't know.
His obituary can be found at the following. The obituary contains a link to his website. I didn't follow his stories other than what was posted on SOL. His website indicates he was a Patreon author so there may be more of his work posted there than at SOL.
https://rochestercremation.com/obituary/michael-joseph-cropo
Based on his obituary, his family was aware that he wrote the 'Wolves and Dragons of Blood series and other stories, so it would not be a shock to them to learn of his stories.
One thing to keep in mind about someone taking over another authors unfinished stories is, the replacement is not the original. The subsequent writings would probably be very different, and you may not care for what is written.
Personally, I would leave what he wrote alone and let it be a tribute to his imagination and writing skills.
I still log on to the forum on Mike's website several times a week. There was an idea tossed around a while back to try to continue the story. I am split on that idea. If well done it could be a nice memorial.
Rep, Mike's son John was who posted the initial notice of his death on his website. He later posted what Mike had written of Chapter 77 which was about 10 or 11 pages.
Mike apparently didn't have a plotline written out. He had a general idea of where he was going to take things and few members of the forum on that site have posted some emails they had with him that indicate some of the ideas he had about where things were heading.
Mike apparently didn't have a plotline written out.
That would make it even more difficult for someone to step into his shoes. As readers, we can each see how the plot will proceed. There are probably a good twenty valid and good possibilities, and perhaps one of them matches what Mike had in mind. An alternate could pick any of those possibilities and put together a good story. However, that person would handle his characters differently and we would probably have a very different story from what Mike would have written.
If someone wants to write a story, I think it would be far better for them to start from scratch and create their own plot and characters. With his family's permission the story could even be based in Mike's universe.
I think that a story's MC is mainly a reflection of the author's personality and how they would like to be thought of. If someone were to pick up the story, the only way I can see for that someone to finish it would be for an incident that changed the characters' personalities. Some tragedy that would affect the characters' behaviors.
@AmigaClone
Mike apparently didn't have a plotline written out.
That would make it even more difficult for someone to step into his shoes.
That's true, but it isn't impossible. I've finished a half written story where the original author had lost interest in the story and also lost all of his notes for the story. So I had to develop the rest of the story on my own, using just what he had up to that point as a general direction of where to go. It wasn't easy, but I did get it done.
It wasn't easy, but I did get it done.
That is good. If I recall, you had to do extensive revisions to Shiloh so the entire story was in your writing style. The story is currently at 1.4 Mbytes.
Mike's current story is 11.2 Mbytes. Revising that story to the replacement new author's writing style, if necessary, would be a major effort.
If the author is really good, he might be able to match Mike's style close enough that most readers wouldn't notice and over a number of chapters he could ease back into his personal style.
ETA: By writing style I am including things like the level of detail and how the characters act.
If I recall, you had to do extensive revisions to Shiloh so the entire story was in your writing style. The story is currently at 1.4 Mbytes.
The original text was mostly past tense but it was also mixed with present tense, the change I made to the original text was to change the past tense to present tense to make the action easier to write. Mike did go through it and agree with the changes before they were posted - getting him to agree with that was a lot of hard work.
getting him to agree with that was a lot of hard work
Sometimes Editors work almost as hard as Authors.
I would say that the story will have a better chance of keeping a style similar to Mike Cropo's with a large involvement from his main editor.
I have no idea if Mike's plan at the time of his death had this story being a continuing saga or if there was a semi-planned end game.
Having said that, I seem to recall plans for at least two or three more books.
True, but my point was about the amount of time and effort to do the revisions.
I recall having to rewrite a section of a marketing document. The terms, sentence structure, and tone were foreign to my writing style. It was a major mental effort for me to rewrite three pages of replacement text in the other writer's style so the new content could be seamlessly integrated into the document.
True, but my point was about the amount of time and effort to do the revisions.
True, but a lot depends on what the final intent being looked for is. Having written instruction manuals in the past, and having written the action scenes for the stories Cazna wrote I can fit in with another's style if I have to. With Mike he said I didn't have to. What I was writing was to be the bulk of the action and be more words than he wrote, I also had to go through and clean up what had already been written, so I decided to make it easier on me to finish in my usual style instead of make a third of what Mike had written conform with the other two thirds and then add all the extra in the same style. Easier to change what looked like being about a quarter of the finished total.
edit to add: I wasn't suggesting I'd do it, just saying it can be done while giving an example of it.
Mike's current story is 11.2 Mbytes. Revising that story to the replacement new author's writing style, if necessary, would be a major effort.
True. But a 'search & strip' to remove the phrase "to say the least" and its variants might reduce that total to 10 Mbytes. Killing other similar clichés and trite phrases might come down to 8 Mbytes. He wrote in a blazing hurry, and famously rejected calls for going back & editing. Just sayin'... also, constant repetition of the backstory elements added a huge load to the on-going narrative. (Yes, I read all the books. Actually, where he got to in Book 5 is a good stopping point. The story had mostly evolved/resolved, with the exception of the more horrible threat forever omnipresent on the horizon.)
I only read book 1. Are there any unanswered mysteries? Big GRRM-like storylines that have to be resolved?
More like Babylon 5 (closed narrative that was outlined from start to finish)
or like Star Trek? (season to season, episode to episode)
Not trying to shitpost, but if it is a continued ongoing saga you only have to copy the style and continue the saga. it will never be, what Mike Cropo envisioned but if you can nearly copy the style, uninformed readers won't notice.
Does anybody know, whoever posted it, if they're continuing on with the story?
Mike Cropo passed away several months ago. At least that is what everyone was told. A new chapter just appeared, and stated the author was fighting lung cancer. Don't know if someone is posting for him or what is happening. There was an obituary and everything on his site.
Mike Cropo passed away. His son took over. There was some discussion about his son continuing the work, but I have my doubts that will ever happen.
Are they going to be archived as premium only content?
That's what archived means. There is no warning for stories being removed.
There is no warning for stories being removed.
The only time there might be a warning for a story being removed is when the author decides to remove them. Even so, that would require the author post a blog mentioning that he will be removing certain stories in the near future.