Well, in a couple of hours it will be that day beloved of sweethearts, lovers, florists, greeting-card manufacturers, and chocolate companies. That time of the year which takes being single and turns it from mildly depressing to a full on atomic wedgie.
Yes, Valentine’s Day!
I felt like making my general opinion of the event known.
Okay, I’ve finally had to admit to myself that I’m totally blocked on the Thaumatology book. With my house a building site and my concentration shot, I shouldn’t be expecting miracles, but I’m grinding in ever decreasing circles here and it’s time I stepped back and came at this from another angle at a later date. Basically, I’m delaying that book and trying something else to get myself back in the right frame of mind. Apologies to those hanging there waiting for more Ceri and Lily. I am, however, planning to do a full reissue of the Thaumatology series with the typos taken out and new covers, plus (assuming I can manage it) an omnibus collection which won’t be much use to most of you guys, but may bring in some new people who’ll press me for more.
So, I’ve started working on something else which I’m not going to say much about right now. I’m trying to put it out in the slot I was going to use for the Thaumatology book, likely in March. All I will give you is the render below. Make of that what you will.
Posted in Digital Art, News, Thaumatology, Writing
Tagged bad news, characters, science fiction
I think I mentioned some new character models for the Thaumatology characters. I’ve posted them up on ArtStation and since we’re dealing with nudity and adult content and all that jazz, I’ll just provide a link here. NSFW, folks. You have been warned. 🙂
Over in another thread, Mark Delagasse brought up something which is worth making more of and I need to start thinking about this ahead of time, so here we go in my usual rambling style…
Aneka Jansen. The first Aneka book, The Steel Beneath The Skin, holds a place in my heart for the very simple reason that it was my first really successful novel. Seven books later, however, Aneka is getting hard to write for and her story is going to come to an end (at least as far as me being able to write for her) in the foreseeable future. I need something to take her place.
I originally thought that Fox Meridian was going to be the new Aneka, and for some people I suspect she fits the bill. However, I’m guessing she’s not for everyone. Mark, for example, likes Aneka, but would prefer a bit less ‘skin,’ so I’d have thought Fox would work, but he didn’t mention her. Fox is pretty much a near-future setting while Aneka pushes more into space opera. Fox is kind of low-key while Aneka is based around the big stuff. Lots to consider and not so much idea what people are looking for.
So, if I’m looking for a new universe to take up the torch when Aneka is sent off to a pleasant retirement, what should I be aiming at? What is it that attracted people to Aneka in the first place? Let’s see if I can structure this a little…
Okay… Well, your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. The more the merrier and I’ll try to coalesce the undoubtedly huge range of answers into something I can work with. This should be interesting… (Just like the curse.)
It just turned midnight here in Manchester, UK. So, Happy New Year. May it be a good one for you all.
Okay, let’s get some opinions. I’ve got two options here which work with the lettering (I think) and add more light. The first has more general environment lighting, and some clouds to darken the sky. The second has a direct light on the foreground character, but has the original, dark background (which results in more contrast on the figure, but she isn’t quite as brightly lit…). Both look fairly good on my monitors. How do they look on yours? Which do you prefer?
I’ll add that I don’t have a solid preference. Both version have features I like and features I don’t.
Okay, I re-rendered the cover image. You guys think this looks better?
I made it a bit of a tradition to watch Frozen on Christmas night. That’s all I’m going to say about this one.
And for this special day, a Christmas half-succubus.
I’m doing a new Thaumatology story, so I’m working through new character models. This is the new Lily in a silly Christmas outfit. Because… Do I need a reason?
There is a new feature on the Amazon KDP system which is, apparently designed to promote their print-on-demand service. As some of you may know, I’ve played with PoD before and I came to the conclusion that, while it’s cool to have a print copy of a book I wrote, the sales aren’t really sufficient to justify the cost of formatting the document for print. It seems that Amazon are attempting to reduce the cost by using the same source file to produce the print copy, but I would need to produce appropriate artwork: the ebook cover would need to be enhanced, basically.
Now, I may try playing with this anyway, just to see what comes out of their new system, but I wanted to do a straw poll and see what people think. Is there an interest in physical copies of my books? Print tends to be more expensive, but it’s all Amazon so if you buy one from them you’d get a discount on the other format.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
