Category: Work-In-Progress

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What’s This? A Queer Nonfiction Book In the Works?

books used as jumping off points for my new nonfiction book's research

Last night, I got struck with an idea.

It came about because Star Prichard announced they’re making How to Webcomic version 2.0, a book they made about how to create and publish webcomics in 2023. (Go back it on KickStarter if this is something you’re interested in.)

The thing is, I had the thought of doing something like this before, but I’m glad that Star is doing the labor for that, not me.

But it got me thinking, “What can I offer that hasn’t been brought up before?”

Because here’s the thing – there are tutorials and how-to books all over the place about how to write stories. Heck, it’s not just How to Webcomic – There are also books about world-building, screenwriting, and the “hero’s journey.” Heck, I started drafting a book about how to write better characters. But I wanted to offer something else.

Then it hit me last night.

I thought, “Has anyone written a book about Queer Storytelling?”

A LOT of how-to books about writing focus on the same story beats and story types, claiming that they’re “universal.” But they’re “universal” to straight men. Stories made for women and LGBTQ+ people have different end goals, different story beats, and different aesthetics.

I thought about my own background in writing, especially in nonfiction. What I wrote in college focused a lot on social deviance (if it wasn’t focused on African Art History). And in our culture, LGBTQ+ people are considered social deviants, because they don’t fit the Straight mold.

That train of thought got me thinking – “A lot of stories exist to prop up OR challenge social expectations. So what do queer stories look like?”

Now I’m inspired to work on this book.

I’m gathering sources already, I have books from the library to start with, and I have an outline written.

This book is NOT going to be immediate. Heck, it will likely not come out for another year. I need to research, gather sources, and take lots of notes, and that’s even BEFORE writing the dang thing. It’s going to be like writing a research paper, but longer.

I’ve done it before, though. It’s been years since I did, but I think I can do it again.

If there are queer stories you would like me to look at (for research purposes, of course), shout them out in the comments, yo.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Falling A Twee Bit Behind on Some Things…

here's a picture of an art piece in progress. The 11 inch by 17 inch paper has a monster depicted whose body is mostly made of leaves. Next to the canvas is a tin full of colored pencils.

I want to talk a bit about how to set goals to be…more realistic. Because I have fallen a twee bit behind on a few things.

First, I wanna’ talk about this piece, pictured at the top.

Right now, the title is (tentatively), “Cryptid of Leaves.” I started this piece all the way back in 2019. So…it’s been A WHILE. I worked on it, then set it aside, because those leaves ALONE took effort to draw. And then I thought, “Let’s color this with colored pencil! That’ll get the look I want to achieve!”

And past me thought I could have this done in a month. On top of everything else I have going on. Which…(insert laughter here).

I have only worked on this in my free time, when I have the urge to do it. So I’m shifting the goal for this piece: I want it finished by…the end of October.

Why so late? Because I still have KickStarter rewards to fulfill and other books to put together. Speaking of which…

Second, I want to talk about the PDF for The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1.

For KickStarter backers, I had said, “Oh this should be delivered to you by the end of May!”

It’s June 1st now. The PDF still needs put together. Oops.

To be fair, May was a big transition month. I quit working at NeverEnding (long story), and shifted back to freelancing full-time. Still, getting my freelance sea-legs back can only explain so much. All I can ask is please, continue to be patient. The PDF should still get done by the end of June. I’ll go more in depth about the process in a KickStarter update tomorrow.

Third, The Legend of Jamie Roberts.

So…I’m out of buffer. The month of May had some unexpected events that prevented me from keeping up with my usual production schedule. That means right now, I’m making the next updates as the story is going. That’s not a place I like to be in.

Does this mean that The Legend will get a temporary hiatus? I don’t know. But I’m tempted to have a short, two-week break from regular updates just so I can build the buffer back.

…Maybe I’ll just do that. Expect a more solid decision tomorrow, with The Legend’s usual Wednesday update.

I’ll end this here before this post gets too long. Thank you for stopping in! And thank you for your support.

You. Are. Awesome.

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A New Horror Story Collection?

monster madness horror sketch art, showing an eyeless, hunched-over, horned monster with a large grin laughing and pointing.

You read right – Fantasyville Productions (the company I run) is working on a new horror short story collection.

My good friend Sean McGavin wrote these stories last year, and I said to him, “Holy banana pants! These stories are good! Let’s get these printed!”

Couple things:

  1. I had never printed a book of prose before. And it turns out – the self-publishing world of prose? VERY different from comics. Because,
  2. It’s tricky to find printers for these kinds of books who are NOT Amazon. And
  3. It’s expensive to hire an editor.

I’m handling the book cover design because I designed all the covers for my books. It’s one of the skills I’m really good at, to be honest.

For an editor, I hired Melanie D., a friend of mine from college who’s very good at what she does. Shout-out to my readers who backed The Case of the Wendigo on KickStarter. They voted to have the leftover funds from that campaign go towards paying Melanie to edit this anthology. (And also go towards two different charities. More info about that can be found in this KickStarter post).

Where will this book be printed? Well, I’m going for Lulu. Unless you have a different recommendation. But when I did my research, Lulu had what I was looking for. (And I’ll go into THAT in a different post).

When will this book be available? Stay tuned on my email newsletter for updates.

Sorry to cut it short, but that’s really all I have for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Designing a Print for RathaCon, Step 2: Pencilling

After much discussion and user feedback via Instagram, the votes trended towards THIS design shown up top. So I drew it.

RathaCon is host to a LOT of nerdy events, from tabletop gaming rooms to belly dancers and Quidditch. I wanted this design to incorporate the many scenes that RathaCon has played host to.

I even squeezed in some gears for the steampunk elements, because there’s a steampunk contingent that appears every year. Magic: The Gathering cards and comic books will fill up some of the spaces around the edges. Plus the GhostBusters logo is to homage the local GhostBusting team.

There’s still some details to fit in, but so far it’s off to a great start. Don’t ya’ think?

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So I Might Make a Game. Maybe. Possibly…

validation webcomic panel
This panel is from Validation (written by Christian Beranek, drawn by me)

I like games. Video games are cool, but right now, my love is for tabletop games.

If you want to understand why I love tabletop games, especially Dungeons & Dragons, so much, I highly recommend you watch this TedTalk about why D&D is good for you, and this Cosmonaut Variety Hour video about Dungeons & Dragons.

Of course I’ve played other tabletop games, too: Evil Baby Orphanage, King of New York, Settlers of Catan, We Didn’t Playtest This At All, Quelf, and Pathfinder are all games I’ve trod the table for. But Dungeons & Dragons is my big favorite right now, especially 5th edition. 5th edition is really the best beginner’s version of Dungeons & Dragons that’s out right now (aside from the Starter Pack).

With that said, I’ve been wanting to make a new game for quite a while now.

Not just a new D&D 5th edition campaign (I’m already in the process of brewing one). But a new tabletop game.

Christian Beranek and I have been throwing around the idea of finally making Tiny Unicorn, which is a game mentioned in our comic Validation. That’s great. I don’t mean to discredit that.

No, I mean, making a new game.

The idea I’ve had for a little while is something based on the world of Charlie & Clow and The Case of the Wendigo. In my mind’s eye it would run off a D20 system, partly because I’m most comfortable with that, and partially because…

Ok look, I know there are games based on existing comics, movies, TV shows, etc that generally favor the Fate System as a root to base the game on. But I’ve looked at the Fate System and I just don’t like it. It’s too complicated and nonsensical, especially when it comes to how characters in the game take damage. While there are aspects of the D20 system that can make a game easy to break (by overpowering characters, spamming certain spells, etc), I still find it preferable to the mess that is the Fate System.

So anyway, yes, I’m thinking of brewing a tabletop game based on the world of Charlie & Clow and The Case of the Wendigo with the d20 system as its base.

I’ll be updating here on the blog if I finally get the chance to start this thing.

Thanks for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.