Prep Work

Hey all,

A few bits of news before the curtain falls on this year. I'm not going to do one of those year-in-review things.
Why?
Because you can go and read our previous posts, which I recommend you do. I'll just say that in 2013, we took a major step forward, but we have many other steps to take yet. I am glad I'm a patient man.

In November, Dave and I attempted to have a contest of sorts to drive some more traffic to our Facebook page. We were going to give away a free print, but we had zero takers.
Zero. So, lesson learned.
Facebook isn't always the best way to engage people since its utility value can, at times, be somewhat minimal.

Instead, we will be engaging people in a few weeks at KW Tricon.
We have a table.
We have business cards.
We are currently doing prep work to get our prints ready. Getting our information to people in tactile form will hopefully pay greater dividends in terms of promoting our long-struggling Work In Progress.

I had also mentioned in an earlier post that I would be doing a book review of Wool by Hugh Howey. It's still coming.
First, though, a recent experience has prompted me to pose a question to you - at what point do you quit reading a book?
A family member recently recommended a trilogy to me after noting my interest in the Knights Templar. I started The Road To Jerusalem by Jan Guillou. I made it through the first seventy pages before calling it quits due to a mixture of frustration and boredom.

The main issue, aside from the main character being almost entirely absent, was that nothing was happening. The author was describing, in exhaustive detail, the homestead where the main character would presumably be born. But the detail went on and on - the living arrangements of the servants, the layout of the farmhouses, the income from agricultural developments... I was getting the impression that the author did a ton of research and couldn't help but put that fact on display.

Don't get me wrong, attention to detail is great, but it can get in the way of the story. Starting off a novel about the Crusades with the minutia of Medieval Swedish farm life isn't all that interesting. I decided that if the start of the book was setting the tone for the trilogy, I was wasting my time. For me, the author didn't need to prove what he knew since such detail was, in all likelihood, not even central to the story. And if it was, then it's not the sort of book I want to read.
I wonder how many other potentially great stories have been sullied this way.


You may point out that historical fiction isn't genre fiction and therefore isn't as flashy. I might concede this point, but there are still right and wrong ways of storytelling. James Clavell's epic Shogun was bursting with detail about culture and custom.
But it started with a naval battle.

Decembeard

First of, I’m going to rattle through what we’ve been up to for the past few months.

Editing.
Constantly. Sometimes it’s joyful, sometimes sorrowful. Lately, it’s been more of the former.
When I first began writing The Seven Stars, it had been years since I had written anything of substance. The first draft took a year to complete, and while I was happy with parts of it, there was a lot that needed to change. I was unused to the economy of language that is demanded in comic scripts. In fact, I was not a reader of comics in the slightest. But, I’m happy to say, things do change, and each revision further refines what did indeed start out as a literary lump of coal.
The War of All, the lead-in story to The Seven Stars, has been our focus of late. It, too, is being refined; while we’re keeping the main plot thrusts, we’re trimming down the fringes. A one hundred page comic isn’t the best medium for an overly convoluted plot, as Dave so often reminds me.


Executive Decisions

It has been nearly a full year since we have had the Wacom Cintiq, and it has allowed us to make more progress than I think Dave and I even realize at this point. Dave had completed about ten pages done in full colour (page one, below) when he decided to alter and simplify and visual style, and started over.

It’s worth mentioning that we both quite liked the way that the colour images looked, but as the sole artist, it would be difficult to balance that level of colour and detail with being able to make decent progress.
Recently, he has honed a new shading technique that lends the images a surprising amount of depth. Hopefully I can twist his arm enough to get him to post one of the more recent pages, but at this point we’re going to continue in black and white only. This means (fingers crossed) we’ll have a finished product that much sooner.

Sidenotes

Dave has done some colouring for fellow artist, supreme nice guy and bearded champion Mike Rooth. I highly recommend checking out Mike’s Facebook page to see Dave’s handiwork as well as Mike’s own amazing artwork. I have been working on my own novel’s first draft (82,000 words, still not done) as well as a multi-part superhero story for my overseas friends at Artifice Comics. Part one of "Horizon" can be found here among worthier tales. It’s totally free, as are all the other editions of Bento.

NEWS!
KW Tri-Con is on January 18/19. We are hoping to have our own table where we’ll be selling prints for The Seven Stars as well as Dave’s own fantasy/abstract artwork. More on that to come! Also, I've been catching up on my reading lately and wanted to start posting some semi-regular critiques. First up: Wool, by Hugh Howey.

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Balancing Acts

Tim here.

It’s almost the end of September, and the past couple of months have been a blur. Dave and I have both been busy with the Seven Stars as well as many non-Seven Stars related things.

Dave celebrated a birthday and a housewarming. Thankfully, I had great excuse that was probably legit for not helping him move the heavy stuff.
It was a great celebration, replete with a backyard campfire, gratuitous amounts of alcohol, and Cards Against Humanity (what’s a girl’s best friend? A squadron of moles wearing aviator goggles).

I’ve been keeping busy with several writing projects, The Seven Stars, of course, being one of them.
I’ve been trying to come up with an atypical hero story for my friends at Artifice Comics, which is proving to be a venture in uncharted grounds for me.

Lastly, I’ve been plugging away at a novel since April of this year, and it’s genesis came from the image below.

Dave and I brainstormed an idea about a group of divinely blessed warriors that were eternally bound for war, and what would happen when their battle was finally over.

The plot that came from that bears little in the way of the same story, but the DNA of the world is there, specifically in the way the warriors receiving their “blessings”. I hope to have the first draft finished by the end of November. Currently it’s sitting at 66,000 words.

In other news, Dave and I are playing Dungeons & Dragons again for the first time in about thirteen years. We have one session under our belts and, as the DM, I can't wait to lay down the hurt on my group.

In the coming weeks, we’ll hopefully have some new artwork to share. Dave has been working on simplifying the art style to make the process less time consuming while still keeping it up to his usual level of awesomeness.

But we want to hear more from you! What would you like to see next? A fight scene? List of characters? A few pages of dialogue? Let us know!

One Hundred Years

Hey all,

A few quick updates.

I finished the June challenge at 750words.com. 750 words every day. Some words are worth keeping more than others, but I did indeed write over 22,500 words in June.
Half of NaNoWriMo. How do those folks do it?

I had previously mentioned entering short story competition. Alas, I was not the victor, but you should check out the winning stories here (they are thoroughly awesome), and if you're so inclined, submit a story for July here.


The competition for June was to create a story no longer than five hundred words, using a picture as the basis for you story.

                                                  

Below is the story I submitted, entitled "One Hundred Years". Hope you enjoy it! We'll have some more updates on The Seven Stars in the coming weeks!

-Tim


One Hundred Years

For her he planned the perfect evening, and he was lifted beyond boundaries corporeal when she smiled.

He hired a boat to take them through the evening mists of the lake, the elegant wooden prow cutting softly through the mirror of the undisturbed water. The setting sun ignited the mists, and the light warmed her face. The sight of it, he thought, was almost too beautiful to behold.

"The world itself yearns to compete with your beauty," Connor said. "But it is only magnified." She blushed and laughed, a musical, erotic trill that lilted over the water. He could almost see it.
The Grand Minister had been hesitant to allow them on his private estate, or to have them on his lake. But Connor needed only to remind the Minister of his support on the tax vote, and that he knew how the Minister quelled his opposition in ways most ungentlemanly.

He knew there would be fireworks that night, so they dined on the balcony of the governor's villa. "This is so magical," she said, "like a fairy tale. Oh, Connor, how I love you." He smiled as the world was illuminated by the sky-borne incandescence. How marvellous the lights were, like a half-drunk god breaking the rules of the world he created by making split-second suns in the night. He adored how the radiant spokes of the fireworks reflected in her eyes, and it made him tremble with anticipation.

"I love you," he said. "The evening has just begun!"

The governor had only assented to the use of his villa with Connor's great persistence, and a reminder of how Connor helped him build the pyre for the bodies of the young girls and boys. The ritual had not worked. Connor knew it wouldn't from the start.

From the balcony they went inside for dessert.
"I have a question I must ask you, my love," Connor said. She smiled again, the picture of beauty.
They went to the governor's study, a room lined with archaic books and items from his travels. He sat her in the chair by the fireplace and he knelt in front of her.
"Please wait a moment, my dear." He gently kissed her hand.

In the wine cellar, he found an bottle appropriate to the occasion and said the words as he opened it and poured two glasses.

She was there, her appearance silent and unnerving. She was dressed in the same orange-red dress and hat as always. She smiled the same smile, her white pointed teeth glistening with saliva.
"She's ready," Connor said. "In the other room." He handed her a glass and raised his own. "I think you'll find her especially sweet."
The Dark Mistress stared at him.
"Yes," he said, "a virgin, too. You needn't ask. How many times have we made this arrangement?"
With that, she raised her glass, and they both drank.
"To another hundred years."

The June Challenge - 28 Days Later

I couldn't resist the reference in the title...

Well, here we are at the end of June, and for 28 straight days I have written at least 750 words. It's been fun overall, and challenging at times. I'll explain.

I'm not a professional writer. I write, but like so many other aspiring writers, I work a day job that I'd rather not. But everyone has to start somewhere, and I don't really regret having the job that I do because it's afforded me the ability to a) live, and b) buy the Wacom Cintiq, which cost the equivalent of many, many, many cases of beer.

So, the writing challenge has put me into the habit of writing every day, and I'm coming to the realization that, if I'm going to consider writing as a job, which I should indeed, then I need to be able to write everday.

No. Matter. What.



Mr. Neil Gaiman lends a hand

                                           

There are days when I've burned through words and blown past the seven-fifty mark. There have been days this month when I really haven't felt the spark, and I'm sure there will always be those days, but if I twiddle my thumbs whilst awaiting the muse, I'm not going to get much done. A creative professional needs to be able to create every day, no excuses, and it's way more of a challenge to do it well than I thought it would be.

I've also discovered that I have a very short attention span. I feel compelled to open a new web browser every five minutes and see what's going on in the world. And so I'm getting into the habit of taking out my wifi adapter when I'm sitting down to write. Sorry, mulititudes of Facebook fans, you'll have to wait.

So, I have two days to go, and barring any extraordinary occurrences or misfortunes, I should succesfully complete the June challenge of writing 750 words every day.

But why stop at 750? is what I asked myself, and downloaded 2K To 10K to get some tips on the best ways to write, well, more. I'm about halfway through so far, so perhaps at the end of July, I can give all you lovely people another update on whether or not I've been able to increase my productivity.

In the meantime, I've submitted a short story to a pretty cool writing contest at The Cult of Me, which was brought to my attention through my friends at Pyschopomp and Artifice Comics. Perhaps I'll share the story if I don't win, which is highly likely that I will not, considering the level of creativity out there, versus my chowder-headedness.

Check out the links, as there's some really cool stuff all around.

Until next time.
Tim.

How the Red Wedding Broke TV

Tim here with a touch of non-Seven Stars commentary.

Dave and I are headed to Niagara Falls on Sunday, not for a romantic getaway, but for the Niagara Falls Comic Con. We'll post our thoughts and hopefully some pictures afterwards.

But I wanted to talk about something from last week that I've been mulling over constantly in my head.

The Red Wedding.

My boss, as it happens, is also a big Game of Thrones fan, but hadn't read the books, and we had a lengthly conversation on the Monday following the episode. He made an off-the-cuff remark that was more insightful than I think even he realized at the time: "The Red Wedding broke television."

Spoilers from here on out.

Did the Red Wedding break TV? In a way, I think it did, by setting the bar for shocks and character deaths at a new height. Any other character death on any other TV show seems merciful compared to what the Starks (and we, as viewers) endured.

Part of me wonders how any show, or even Game of Thrones itself, could possibly outdo that particular scene. I'm sure I'll watch some shows where some unexpected stuff happens, but I have a hard time seeing anything approaching the sheer level of horror that people experienced with the Red Wedding. And I even knew it was coming, and I'm still aghast almost a week after seeing it.


Now, time to go from a high to a low.
After seeing how great a show can be makes me a little irked at another show that I've struggled to keep up with:
The Walking Dead.

Progress Update, and Tim Reviews Iron Man 3

It's almost the end of May.
Already.
Perhaps once I've transitioned from my current job to (fingers crossed) having this and other works published, I can start working on that ever-elusive time hack.

Dave and I continue to work, and in the interest of being able to complete this project within our lifetime, are considering bringing a third person on board to help with colouring. This want has been posted on our Facebook page, along with this black and white page for people to colour as they see fit:

This page is actually our first glimpse at the king of Carthanea, Kigh Eldorfath, and his military consul, Thanwol. Devotees will recall the first digital image we posted of Obrim Kesgarr, referring to Kigh's potential to wage war. It isn't spoiling anything to tell you that, yes, there will be a war.

Now, on to other nerdy thing...

I recently saw Iron Man 3. It's good, but I want to gripe about the villain. There's a big twist therein, so... Spoiler warning! Don't proceed if you don't want the twist revealed to you, if you don't already know what it is.

Now on Facebook

Hey all!

As the title says, we've made the jump to Facebook. Click here to check out the page for The Seven Stars (yes, that's the real title we've been building up to all this time).

Dave has posted some new artwork already, so head over, check it out, and Like the page if you're so inclinced!

March Update: Enter the Dragon

March.
The month of breaks (if you are a student) and Irish booze-ups (if you are everyone interested in that sort of thing).

We are hard at work.

Dave arts nonstop. He arts so much that we have to use the word art as a verb.
Tim is, as usual, mired in editing/rewriting/revising while working on other short stories and the outline of a book. Business as usual.

With regards to our monumental undertaking, Dave has finished several pages, full colour and all, and they look stellar. We are hoping to have the first part of the first book (about thirty pages) done in March or April.

As usual, here are a couple of samples some of you may have already seen. The pictures below don't actually have anything to do with our graphic novel, but hey... who doesn't love dragons?

Continue on to see a near-finished version of the same work!

One Week Later

 

Well, it's been a week since we got the Wacom Cintiq, and I think because of that, it's also been a week since Dave has seen natural light.

 

 

Over the past seven days, Dave has created a surprising number of pieces. I'm sure we can chalk part of that up to how the Cintiq can streamline the creative process, but I should point out that I firmly believe, despite what Dave says, that he hasn't removed himself from the screen for seven days.

 

In short, he's on a roll. The muse is there, so why deny it?

 

 

 

 

But there's more that's new and noteworthy. Read on!

Wacom Unboxing and Our First Digital Portrait

What's this?
Two posts in one month? When was the last time that happened?

It's been a while, to be certain. Earlier this month, we brought to light that we would soon have our very own Wacom Cintiq 22HD. Update: We have it. And it is glorious.
It was in October that we got to test drive the larger 24HD Cintiq, and we were pretty blown away.

So we got one.

And there was much rejoicing, in the form of mead.



Getting the Cintiq and setting it up was an experience. It was draining, but incredibly exciting at the same time, because we didn't know, and as of this writing, still don't know the potential that this device will afford us.

Well, it was almost immediately necessary for Dave to take it for a test drive. How did it turn out?

Below you'll see two images: one of which is a work in progress, the other is the finished product. Also worth noting is that this was Dave's first attempt with the Cintiq. Both images are 100% digital. At no point did pencil touch paper.

Halfway through:

Finished!

Perhaps within the next few weeks we'll have another post to give some background info on the above character, who looks like he doesn't take guff from anyone (spoiler: he really doesn't).

So what does everyone think? Please leave comments below! And check out our other posts for more artwork!

A Step Forward

Happy 2013 to everyone!

I'd like to start off by wishing everyone all the best for this year, and to thank anyone who has taken even a passing interest in our progress over the past two years. We're going to get things started with a few updates.

You may notice the title of the blog has changed. Yes, I did start it off under the moniker "offblue harvest", which was a slight nod to Blue Harvest, George Lucas' code name for Star Wars when it was in production. But as time marches on, some adjustments are needed, and a code name is no longer appropriate at this stage.
The title Carthaniss Keep is not the title of our novel, but it does refer to an important location. If you want to take it as a sign of progress, we won't stop you.

Secondly, as far as the progress of the writing goes (Tim's constant challenge), we're about 30-40% complete. However, seeing as how we're still in a position to make creative changes, this number could change as well. As the scribe, Tim has found a more comfortable footing in terms of pacing, scene writing, etc, and as such will make changes to some major segments in parts of the book we had already thought of as complete.

Third and thirdmostly (thanks Bobby Bottleservice) we are less than a month away from obtaining our very own Wacom Cintiq, which will make the creation of the artwork much more fluid for Dave. When we actually do get the Cintiq, we're going to nerd out with D&D-esque board games and lots of mead (pictures will be provided).

As always, here is some sample artwork. What you see below is the actual layout of one of our very first scenes, and I think you'll agree with me that the quality of the artwork we've seen is always increasing.



Feel free to leave comments, and look for more posts! They should be coming more frequently in the days to come.

Cheers.

(Click here to check out some of our other posts!)