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!