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Crowdfund Project: Starshot!
A big ol’ galaxy. A whole load of aliens. One unlucky human, thrust into the middle of their war…
I’m running a crowdfund to do an 8 page comic book (unless we hit our next stretch goals, which might make it a 12 or 16 page comic book)!
Starshot is what happens when I want to write a space adventure like Farscape or Guardians of the Galaxy, and what happens when a friend points me at the AMAZING Katie Longua, whose bright, delightful style is exactly right for this all-ages comic!
We’ve just hit our THIRD stretch goal, which includes cover art prints for everybody who gets a physical copy of the comic, and now we’re aiming for the stars with a mega-goal of another €1000 for 4 more pages, or €2000 for EIGHT more pages of story!
Wanna meet the characters? OF COURSE YOU DO!
So this is what the script says, for the character design:
Beth is crouched on the floor, looking up at four very angry aliens: a MONSTER, a PLANT, an ANIMAL and a HUMANOID.
KLIC is obviously the kind of creature that would prefer to eat your face first and ask questions second. It hisses a lot.
Meet Klic! Klic thinks Klic is a Slytherin.
Klic is wrong.
MAG is a Quite Small plant-based life-form who could look as human as Zhaan or as plant-like as Groot, or anywhere in between. They have a very large club to hit you with.
Meet Mag! Mag thinks they’re a Hufflepuff.
They are wrong.
TRAFF is an exceptionally dashing creature: Disney’s Robin Hood, except not a fox. Girls want to date him. Men don’t understand why. He have a very large laser-shooting sword to slice you with.
Meet Traff! Traff thinks he’s a Gryffindor.
He is wrong.
XENDRA looks essentially human, perhaps with pointy ears and suspiciously excellent hair. And a very large gun to shoot you with.
Meet Xendra! Xendra thinks she’s a Slytherin.
Xendra…is correct.
aaaaaaaaaand finally, OUR HEROINE, BETH!
Meet Beth! Beth is the only one who would understand sorting the crew by Hogwarts houses, but she thinks she’s Han Solo.
She’s not wrong.
I’m really excited about this project, which is going to be GREAT FUN! Artist Katie Longua will be working on it in November, and we expect to deliver the print editions by March 2020! Come join the fun! #TheStarsAreOurs
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Take A Chance thoughts / Patreon signal boost
I’ve been having a think, and here’s what I’ve been thinking.
I’ve got an artist for the next TAKE A CHANCE story arc. I need to be able to pay him, tho.
If I can get my Patreon up to 250 patrons, at the average of $5/m that people are paying, I could afford to pay him for 4 pages a month. 300 patrons? 8 pages a month.
(I can’t afford to pay him very WELL, but I could at least pay him. :))
It’d be a sneak peek/early, probably B&W, one-to-2-page-a-week release of what would PRRRRRRRROBABLY be a graphic novel eventually published by Markosia, as the first GN was.
I mean, if the Patreon really went all-out, and Alek had the time to work around the rest of his schedule, there *could* be a graphic novel ready in time for Worldcon in Dublin 2019. But for 22 pages a month(ish) I’d need literally hundreds of more patrons to support that. (like, about 250. it’s not…*impossible*. I’ve got about…well, 3500 followers on Twitter, 2500 on Facebook, 2K on my mailing list, 400 on Tumblr & Goodreads, and an assumption that there’s a lot of overlap on the first three, so call it, IDK, a total of 3K or so people I can reach easily? And say 5-7% of them are Patreon supporters? Another 10% would pretty well do the trick.)
(I mean, the plus side of that would be that we could in theory just, like, KEEP GOING with Chance, at that point. I have a 60 issue story arc planned out! Wouldn’t that be AMAZING? Plus…well. I mean. I have a whole world’s worth of stories there, lads.)
Anyway, so it’s a thought and I’m noodling with it, and heck, if you want to see more Chance and also the other fic & bits I do for my patrons, you can do that at Patreon!
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omg chance painting!!!!
I got a package in the mail today from Leah Moore, for whom I drew a silly little comic recently (which I’ll be posting soon, in fact!). It contained a watercolor sketchbook and a dip pen and ink and I thought AW YOU DARLING! and said AW YOU DARLING! to her on Twitter.
“Have you looked inside the sketchbook yet?” she asked.
“NO!” I said, “LET ME GO DO THAT RIGHT NOW!”
“I’ll wait,” sez she, and I ran downstairs to open the sketchbook and inside was THIS!
OMFG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG *INCOHERENT SQUEEING*!!!!
It was painted by a friend of hers, Al Davidson, and I swear I haven’t stopped squeeing since I opened the book and found it. OMG. It’s SO BEAUTIFUL and that was SO KIND of her! Of them! OMG! *falls over*!!!
Also, now I totally have to do more art. I’ve got dipping pens to try (a terrifying thought!) and the new pens Ted got me for Christmas, and just yes! I must art!
- Alaskan Totems Billionaire Shapeshifters, Austen Chronicles, CEMurphy, Murphy Lawless, Take A Chance
2016 Round-Up
2016 in review is a work related round-up, because it’s been an absolutely awful year personally. The other day somebody sent around a “some good things must have happened at least on a personal level in 2016, please post them!” and I honestly couldn’t think of anything actively good enough to stand out.
So, this year in publication review: startingly good, actually. I had 5 books come out, including the graphic novel of TAKE A CHANCE, which we’ve all been waiting for forever. :)
To wit:
MAGIC & MANNERS
An Austen Chronicle
A retelling of Pride & Prejudice, where the sisters have too much magic instead of too little money!
Kobo || Kindle || Nook || Amazon (print) || Audible & at bookstores near you! (ask them to order you a copy!)
ATLANTIS FALLEN
The Heartstrike Chronicles: Book One
Immortality, ancient grudges, powers beyond the ordinary…familiar grounds, but I hope you’ll like what I’ve done with them. :)
iBooks || Kindle || Kobo || Nook || Audible
RAVEN HEART
Alaskan Totems Billionaire Shifters
A sudden fun delve into writing billionaire shapeshifter romance, which turns out to be a thing!
iBooks || Kindle || Kobo || Nook
TAKE A CHANCE
A vigilante without superpowers in a world that now has supers! My 2009 comic book in long-awaited graphic novel form!
Amazon || Nook || Comixology
(& at nearly any comic shop or bookstore, just ask them to order it in! ISBN 978-1909276628!)
YEAR OF MIRACLES
Collected Tales of the Old Races
A return to the Old Races universe with the titular novella plus a dozen new and republished short stories!
iBooks ||Kobo || Kindle || NookTo my intense dismay, due to year-end postal slowness, neither YEAR OF MIRACLES nor ATLANTIS FALLEN has a print edition yet, but they should both be available early next year.
I have two books lined up for next year: the 1945 urban fantasy REDEEMER, and a Regency romance called BEWITCHING BENEDICT, which, despite the title, has no magic in it. :) It’s charming, though, and I’m looking forward to finally getting it out to readers.
Tentative plans for other books include PROMETHEUS BOUND (the next Heartstrike Chronicle), at least one Murphy Lawless novella, and, with any luck, a second Regency to follow BENEDICT. The second Austen Chronicle, SORCERY & SOCIETY, is slated for 2018, and we’ll see what else I manage over the next year. ♥
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Deirdre’s 40th
My sister had her birthday party planned for last night, and after a bit of angsting decided to go ahead with it despite the circumstances. I think that was absolutely the right choice, and it was a busy, loving gathering…
…even if Deirdre did show up two hours later for her own party. It was worth it, actually, because it was a costume party, themed Cyborgs, Angels, Fairies and Superheroes, and she came as a cyborg (we’re half cyborg now, you know, since Dad had his brain surgery. that’s how it works, right?) and her costume was AMAAAAAAAAAAAZING.
I my own self went as my own comic book character, Chance, which is either really lame or really awesome or really meta, possibly all three.
Superhero and cyborg sisters (this has to be one of my favourite pictures ever taken of us):
Bunch more pictures behind the cut.
