Okie Doke, folks. It has been a while since I did a full update on the various Book of Deacon goings-on, so here’s a rundown of what’s new. First, a bit of bad news:
Back to the drawing board for the Myn Plush
After giving it the best she could, I’m afraid that the artist I’d contacted to design a Myn plush has had to back away from the project. She’s still enthusiastic about it, and vows to one day finish, but for now she feels she needs to refund the money and redirect her efforts. I fully understand. She’s at college right now, and I know from personal experience that trying to juggle education, a job, and a hobby like games win real money, can drive you to the very edge of sanity. One day we may see what she was working on, but until then, back to square one.
I’ve sent out a few messages to some artists to start the process over, but at this point I may have to entertain the possibility of either having one artist do the design drawings and another one do the plush-ification, or else possibly going to a pro to get the work done. I like staying indie, but there are only so many independent artists with the skills and the time to lend me a hand.
I’ll keep you good folks in the loop as this rolls forward, and I may have some questions about what you’re looking for in a plush.
Second Bulgarian Book
While I’m still grappling with the complexities of international wire transfers in order to get paid for the first book, the Bulgarian publisher has merrily rolled along and announced the forthcoming release of Book 2. It is being sold under the name “United By The Gods” rather than “The Great Convergence” (My, how epic!) Here’s the cover.
United By The Gods
Fan Fic Forum
Hot on the heels of my addition of a “Fan Works” section of my own forum, a few fans (including the prolific ArierieTheWatcher) have banded together to attempt to get a Book of Deacon section added to fanfiction.net. They’ve staked out a little corner of the general forum and dubbed it Entwell. If you are interested in talking about Book of Deacon and maybe writing some little stories of your own, head on over. It is already nearly as active as my own forum, and with the number of members fanfiction.net has, I have no doubt it will quickly eclipse my meager offering.
NaNoWriMo is a go
After talking to my potential agent, I have decided to officially throw my hat into the ring for NaNoWriMo. The writing in Lain Origin has slowed to a standstill. In the past I would take a break, and just futz around and play games for a while, but now I’ve got fans who are eagerly anticipating things, so here’s what’s happening instead. I’m going to work on preparing my current progress on Lain Origin and Unnamed Second Trilogy and pass them along to my beta readers for critique, and while they are working on that, I’ll be attempting to write something entirely new (not a Book of Deacon book, not a sci-fi series book). That way Lain Origin will continue down the path to completion and I’ll get to clear my head and try something new. At the end of November, success or failure, I’ll clean up what I’ve written, send it off to the agent, and see if the traditional publishing world is interested in me. Then I’ll return to Lain Origin to finish it off.
Thinking of redesigning the artwork page
Only a bit more than a year ago, I got my first piece of fan art. I slapped it up on a page of its own that I threw together. For one or two pieces of art, that page did the job just fine. Now I’ve got dozens of pieces of excellent artwork, and the page is getting bloated and hard to navigate. As such, I’m going to talk to my freshly-married web guy about redesigning my fan art gallery. Until then, you might not see your art, pictures, or screenshots show up right away, but I assure you, I still adore them and file them away for future display, so don’t hesitate to send them my way.
There, that’s plenty for now, I think. Thanks for reading!