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Showing posts from April, 2013

It just keeps getting better and better!

Just when you thought it couldn't be so long and involved, here's another rundown for the cover. Angela to me: "So now we've gone one step further using the sketches we've made so far. Other things to take note of: The rays of light within the Vulcan around Jak's head are to be needles and diodes and not rays of light at all. Also, on the back cover you might notice rough patches of white floating about. These are meant to be embers from a flame 'off camera' that are floating into the foreground. The distortion of rays radiating from around the Vulcan are meant to have that 'bleeding' effect, which moves into the back cover over Duward some. Sadly, I don't think there's anything we can do about the Vhendo being covered by text on the back aside from having a very short back blurb OR doing an extreme close up of his face and not showing any supporting characters at all. ****This issue has already been fixed**** Otherwise,

Jak Hartlen

Wow! That's all I can say about this sketch. Angela to me: "Alright then! Time to see how our luck is doing! (We only had to re-concept one character and that's the evil nasty Duward and Lady Sedi will be facing off against...which, well, I'm going to keep to my self for now. Sorry.)   Here are some preliminary sketches of Jak.  I went with a long-sleeved woven shirt and cloth pants with the only ornate design being his sword/scabbard.  This is without his jacket, since it won't be included in the cover...." ****To learn what the image on the sheath is, you have to read Genesis **** So what do you think. Is he too pretty?  I tried my damnedest to scruff him up with scratches and dirt. (We had a long and successful conversation about characters being too good looking. Too fit. Lets just say Jak doesn't have washboard abs. His muscles are from natural, job-specific labors—which he'd only do till the job was done. He doesn'

Duchess Milena Sedi

Another Art update. It's late. I know. I'm sorry. Angela to me: "Here's another round of rough concept sketches for you!  This time tackling Lady Sedi's basic look. I went with a sort of shawl-style cloak that would still show off the rest of her outfit, which is a dress over trousers.  It's rather simple, since it seemed to me she'd favor a practical look." Now this one is short and sweet given the experience Angela has with drawing women. She nailed it. To see what I'm talking about http://www.angelicshades.com/

Is there an existing fictional character you wish you could have invented?

  ...Nuff said.

Do you write outside your current genre?

This'll be a very quick one. Answer: Yes and No. I think I covered the complications of such a question in the post "What sorta fiction is this". I'll add—I don't think I'll ever write just a straight-up romance novel, political thriller or w/e, without at least some sorta "supernatural" or "strangely fantastic" element to it. Why would I, if those aren't the sorta things I want to read?

2 Questions Sir

These are the two I've learned all authors are asked: 1) How did the idea for your current novel come about? 2) Where does the inspiration for your ideas generally come from? First The serious idea for my novel (the series at large) came from a concept I had for a video game; little more than a few character names now remain. It then spilled into writing. I flushed it out over time while Role Playing with friends—bouncing ideas off them in the process: characters, settings, themes, monsters and so on. When they didn't like something, I pointed to the guide books. The first thing I thought of was characters, specifically the baddies. I love heroes, but they're nothing without their opposites. That's why I love villains even more, because to me, every villain could've been or in fact was, a hero. I love the concept of Evil, not because I'm diabolical—I mean I am—but because in order for my heroes to have the 4rth dimension to be real, their ne

Duward!

Sooooo, it isn't exactly that I lied. Yes, I wasn't sure if I was going to do another art update, but now, after seeing Angela's work, I pretty sure I need to show it. You can't blame me or be mad at me, I mean, you can, but, what'd you going to do....you know you want to see it too. Angela to me: "Here are the first of four very rough sketches to knock out the overall look, feel, color options, for the characters.  I started with Duward, since his description came first and he's a bit more complex than the others due to his anatomy.       The 1st pose is a rough anatomy base to get an idea of how Duward's posture is when on all fours.    The 2nd is when he might be standing up straight (his legs are in extreme foreshortening, which is why his lower legs might seem ultra short).     The 3rd's a basic facial sketch to define his look.  I've given him a bit of graying hair in the ends of his beard and in the chops

What sorta fiction is this?

Easy enough right? Let's start off with the basics. 1) Dark Fantasy wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fantasy  2) Science Fiction: moderate Steam/Dieselpunk (in Genesis ), with a sprinkling of Cyber that's streamlined within a particular group/caste/region within the Kingdom Come series, but you'll just have to read it to see for yourself. wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk Ok, so take all of that, think of it like a buffet. Got it? Good. As you can imagine, that buffet would be FREAKING HUGE !!! There'd be no way to cram it all into a cohesive plate and no matter what, certain thing would stick out as odd—ya know, much like the person who gets all fried food, no salad or vegetables, but a huge portion of cake. Yep, we've all seen that person and we've all been guilty of it. So, with that in mind, I picked what was most important to me. From looks (how i

Why I write and where the Why came from

The answer is just as easy as the question. Because it's who I am and what I'm meant to do; which isn't to say I couldn't or don't like to do other things, but this one thing drives me. And I'm not talking about punching keys—though that's very enjoyable, especially when you get a good rhythm going—or jotting down words on w/e bits of w/e happen to be close enough to grab. I'm talking about storytelling. Storytelling Its always fascinated me. It's sad to say, but I'm almost positive kids don't use much of their imaginations today. When I was a kid though, action figures were BIG! All the shows promoted them and you had to have them. You know the ones... But even before that, when all I had was Army Men, I made up stories. It's odd, even now thinking about it, I realize how complicated those quick stories in the dirt were. It was never simply just Tan vs Green. There was drama, sabotage and many of the little guys had nam

2nd Art Update

 Ok, so we're already moving into the final stages, but here's an email from Angela to me:     "Thumbnails have finally arrived!    Before you take a look at them, I must preface your experience by saying that they are very basic and undetailed at the moment.  I am still hammering out the specific look of the individual characters (which she is doing now) and rather than spend ages designing each one, but then possibly not using them, I want us to decide who should go in this image first. So by that notion, everyone, save for Jak, is a very basic silhouette placeholder, with my intent to define the space they'll take up and where they should be able to fit first. Once we decide on our winning thumbnail, then I will go about doing sketches to define the final characters.     The thumbnails for the most part show three variations for potential front/back cover setup.  (Other promo materials will also be taken, rearranged from these images.)