Self-Pub Progress Report #4

Well, here we are, the last day in October, and we're still prepping Swords & Sixguns for publication. I do apologize for all the delays, and I want to reassure you that we are hard at work getting everything ready, it's just that life gets in the way sometimes (this is why we put "Fall 2016" on the flyers and not "October 2016"). I've been splitting my time between book work, blog work, and paying-job work, while my cover artist Matt Erkhart has been kept away from the drawing board by some personal matters. On the upside, yesterday he sent me the interior art I needed, so now I can finish uploading the manuscript to CreateSpace. With luck, we'll have the cover done soon, and then we can wrap up the whole thing with a pretty little bow and present it to y'all.
Back on the subject of blog work...for those of you who've been enjoying my Jonah Hex history project, I want you to know that it will continue, but it will likely turn into a once-a-year thing. Over the past six months since the last installment, my life became so overwhelmed with Swords & Sixguns-related work that I wasn't able to fit in the interviews I want to do for the Palmiotti & Gray era. There will be an installment this November 1st, same as always, but it'll be an Appendix piece covering a specific facet of Jonah's life, rather like the one I did last year regarding his time in the Confederate Army. As soon as the book is out, I'll get on those interviews, and if I can get the next installment ready by May, it'll go up then, but if not, you'll have it in November for certain.
That's all for now, kids. Remember not to eat all your Halloween candy in one sitting...make it last the whole week.

Self-Pub Progress Report #3

The final edit is in my hands!  Or as I like to call it, the no-more-messing-with-this-darn-thing-you've-gotta-stop-sometime edit.  My good friend, Kerrie Moyer (who's been acting as unofficial editor on this book for well over a decade) went over it with a fine-toothed comb, making sure we'd eliminated every last spelling error and continuity goof that may dwell within.  If any slip by into print, we'll just say a wizard did it.

Cover work is still in progress.  Matt Erkhart is sketching up some ideas I sent along, plus I asked him to toss in any of his own, 'cause you gotta keep your artists happy, and one of the best ways is having them draw stuff they like as well.  Speaking of art, a big thank-you to Don Walsh and Michael Davis for volunteering to distribute some of our lovingly-rendered promo flyers beyond the borders of Michigan.  Don brought 400 of 'em to the Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous last weekend and came home with about 50, plus some of the attendees were overheard discussing it, so I daresay I'll need to get a table at this con once we're got the book printed up.  By the way, if anyone else wants a bundle of flyers -- big or small -- to pass around wherever you live, let me know.

And now, I have an important question for you fine folk.  I've been thinking about perhaps utilizing one of those print-on-demand merchandise websites out there like TeePublic to help generate some extra revenue for this crazy venture.  Basically upload some images and book quotes and such so they can be printed on t-shirts or mugs or notebooks or what-have-you.  Would anybody out there be interested in buying some Swords & Sixguns merch, and if so, what would you like to see?  Keep in mind that something high-end like action figures is a long ways off (though I'd love to make some!).

Okay, that's all for now.  Have a great weekend, and keep checking back here for more updates.

"Willkommen...bienvenue...welcome... come on in..."*

Hello, and welcome to my blog!  If you were led here by one of the many "wanted poster" promo cards we've been plastering all over God's green Earth, I'm glad to know they're working.  Feel free to take a look around the site, and to learn more about Swords & Sixguns, you can follow this link to a side-page I have specifically set up for it, as well as click on the "Swords & Sixguns" label at the bottom of this post.  I also recommend you view the "Welcome" video I recently posted on the Facebook page for Swords & Sixguns (I was going to post it here as well, but the file's too big to upload...that's a still from it up at the top, though).  It'll fill you in on a few more details about the book and its upcoming release.

Okay, let me step aside so you can walk in here proper.  After all, you are my guest and I am your host.  Y'all got any questions, drop me a line at swordsandsixgunsnovel@gmail.com and I'll do my level best to answer 'em.




*(read title aloud in your best Lili Von Shtupp impression for proper effect)

I did this drawing of Richard a few days after September 11th, 2001, when I was still reeling from the events but had become clear-headed enough to try and get my feelings on paper in some fashion.  Fifteen years on, this is what I can recall of the actual day...

My husband Jamin and I both had that Tuesday off, so we were sleeping in when my Mom called around 10 AM.  Since we work nights quite a bit, we've got this rule that you don't call us that early unless it's an emergency, so I picked up the phone and wondered what was so darn important that she had to call and wake us up.  Mom asked if we were watching TV, and I said no, we were sleeping.  She insisted that we had to turn on the news, so we got out of bed, half-asleep, and went into the living room to turn on the big TV.  That's when we saw the World Trade Center on fire.  We sat there staring at this for about a minute when Jamin said, "Isn't there supposed to be two of them?"  As he said that, the news replayed the footage of the planes flying into the towers, and we realized that one of them had collapsed due to the impact.  Not long after, the second tower fell -- unlike the South Tower, which we'd slept right through, we got to watch the North Tower collapse on live TV.

We numbly watched TV for about a half-hour or so, still in our pajamas but too transfixed by what was going on to think about getting dressed, when a horrifying thought grabbed me: my Dad goes to New York on business trips a few times a year.  I ran to the phone and called his place in Ohio, and was glad to find that both he and his wife were home.  Then Dad told me that my stepbrother Matt was in New York -- I was right about the business trip, but had thought of the wrong family member.  Matt had already called home and was safe, but he'd been roughly 15 blocks away when the planes started coming in.  I've never really talked with him about the experience, as I don't find it an easy subject to broach, but I do thank God that he made it out of the city unharmed.

After a few hours, Jamin managed to pry himself away from the TV, but I kept on watching.  There was so much to take in -- all the planes, all the places, all the people -- that it didn't feel right to turn away.  I think I quit after 5 hours or so, and finally got into the shower and cleaned up.  I don't remember anything else we did that day, but I think we turned the TV off for a little while, just to give our minds a break.

In the Cards

Take a gander at the promo cards that just came in! These were printed by a local shop called In the Mix Productions (https://www.facebook.com/inthemixpro), and they will definitely be getting more business from me. A big thank-you once again to Matt Erkhart for putting this together. Can't wait to pass these around at Motor City Nightmares next week!

Happier Anniversary

As you may or may not recall, I officially began work on what became Swords & Sixguns on September 1st, 1994, plus I started the Facebook page for the book on the same day twenty years later in 2014, back when I thought Permuted Press was going to be publishing it.  Well, that didn't pan out, nor did Fear Front earlier this year, but I am happy to report on this 22nd/2nd anniversary that I'm still plugging away at self-publishing, and I hope to have the visuals for the promo flyers to the printer by this weekend.  It'd be great if I could have the book itself published in September as well (just to keep the anniversaries all within the same month), but I'm not certain we'll have everything in place by then.  If we do, I'll be ecstatic, but I think October seems more likely.

My husband and I have been tossing ideas back and forth in regards to next year, when we hope to actually get tables at some of the local cons.  This whole self-publishing venture is still scary as Hell on a few levels -- my anxiety is through the roof some days, making me freak out over little things, book-related and otherwise -- but there are moments when we think up some really cool way to promote this book, or when I open up an email from Matt Erkhart with a new art file attached, and I can see that Swords & Sixguns is going to be a real, tangible thing finally.  Those are good moments.

Keep on checking back here for more updates, and please spread the word about Swords & Sixguns far and wide.  It'd be nice to have a big audience waiting when the books start rolling off the presses.

Coming into Fcous

As promised, here's a peek at Matt Erkhart's work on the promo art. I asked him to base Richard's look on a photo of Robert Cornelius (specifically, the first photographic self-portrait, circa 1839) I'd come across in a magazine roughly 20 years ago. I'd been struck at the time by how much this man looked the way I pictured Richard in my head (the shared initials are a coincidence, by the way...I originally had no idea what the man's name was), so it became my go-to reference if I ever wanted show a picture of the "real" Richard Corrigan.

As you've probably noticed, own art skills lean towards cartoony: whenever I draw Richard, I can never reproduce exactly what I want, I just get as close as my skills will allow. In fact, aside from one quick doodle by my husband, Matt is the first person other than myself to draw Richard, and he knocked it out of the park. This character is finally leaving the confines of all my little scribbles and becoming something more substantial.

Once we get the cards all printed up, I'll show off the full piece. I think you're gonna like it. And remember to check out http://erkhart.deviantart.com/ for more of Matt's work.