This just in from Park Cooper, one half of Wicker Man Studios:
So depending on what part of the world you're in, (probably already if you're east of me, today if you're in the basic Midwest/Central Time Zone, Thursday if you're west of here, such as Lubbock... I don't know about outside of North America, I suppose Thursday or later?) Half Dead, the graphic novel Barbara and I wrote, is available for purchase now... Please spread the word in your blogs, networks, websites or whatever else you have...
That's Half Dead from Dabel Brothers/Marvel. Get your copy today!
(I would think Barb and Park were awesome, even if they hadn't written the intro to Vögelein: Old Ghosts.)
Thanks to Paul's cousin Anne, and Becky Cooper, I have a double-backup for This American Life tapings. You guys have made this little nerdling deliriously happy.
And yes my new desktop wallpaper is a download from their site WHY DO YOU ASK?
Someone out there has access to the Showtime channel on cable.
I'm also hoping that someone has either a TiVO or a VCR, and hopefully both.
If that person could contact me, and possibly even agree to tape me the run of THIS AMERICAN LIFE, I would be ever so grateful that my head might pop off.
Love,
Janer
This new book...
it's ...
yeah.
Sometimes I feel almost like it's a living breathing entity pulling its way into the world, and I'm just kind of along for the ride. It's certainly got a weird nebulous aura of coincidence around it. A couple of things happened over the last week or so that have really rattled my bones, but in a good way.
The first happened last week, on Thursday. But to tell the story, I have to back up a ways:
Two years ago I led a one-day life drawing class at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. There were about six students, and we had a lot of fun. One of the students was a high schooler named A_ -- a sweet, fairy-like, willowy girl with deep eyes and a ready smile. We ran into each other around town a couple times; she volunteered at the food Co Op on Saturday mornings when I did my marketing. One fall morning, A_ told me that she was planning on dressing up as Vogelein for Halloween. I was totally geeked and said she had to send me pictures. She was totally geeked and said she would, and that she'd already started making the wings in her basement.
Well, Halloween came and went, and no reply from A_, so I figured she'd just forgot.
I was in the coffee shop on Thursday, getting some caffeine, when A_ walks up behind me, taps me on the sholder, and tentatively asks my name. At first I didn't recognize her because she had chopped off her long dark hair into a short, boyish cut. She also had deep pink scars all over her right temple. It turned out she got into a car accident last year and spent Halloween in a coma, and rattled her brains so hard that it's only now that she's able to remember stuff well.
And yet ....
A_ remembered me, and the little fairy book. She says she's still got the wings in her basement.
We chatted for a while and I basically just kept holding her hand and hugging her and telling her how happy I was that she was still with us, and we were both damn near crying.
yeah. this book.
To tell this next story, I need to back up again, a little ways:
Earlier this week, I mentioned that I'd gotten some correspondence from some relatives of a guy named Blake. Well, for those of you not already in the know, Blake was a young musician who died a few years ago, well before his time. Though I didn't know him very well, I was so struck by his loss that I decided to put him into a comic book. He wound up in Vogelein: Old Ghosts as one of the main protagonists, and his character is named with Blake's chosen surname, Mason. The way I met Blake was when he moved home to help his mother pass away with dignity, as she slowly lost her battle with terminal cancer. He started showing up to area sessions, and we played music together in a big group. Later he and some other session regulars formed a band, Millish, that is still playing today. About a year later, he passed away from a brain aneurism at the age of 23.
So yesterday, we're having lunch with Paul's parents, and I start talking to his dad, who was a high-school English teacher at Kalamazoo Public Schools for something like thirty years. I start telling him about how I'd talked to Blake's grandfather, Jerry Mason. He stops me mid-sentence, and asks me a couple questions.
Turns out that he not only knows Blake's grandfather, but that Blake's late mother was one of his best-remembered and dearest students. He could hardly believe that I was doing a tribute to his favorite student's son.
Old Ghosts, indeed.
It's...
yeah.
It does stuff.
Connecty stuff.
Good stuff.
This is the e-newsletter I just sent out to all my readers. If you want to be on the mailing list, please send me an email at fierystudios@hotmail.com and I'll add you right away.
*******
Hello, everyone, after a terribly long absence. My archives tell me that it was sometime in 2003 when I sent out my last newsletter -- nearly four years! I'm blessed to have such patient readers -- I hope the new book will be worth the wait. The good news is that there's lot to talk about!
On to the news:
1) The new book, Vögelein: Old Ghosts, will be making its debut at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington DC on June 21-27, 2007. After that, it will be available from select local comic stores in Michigan, and it will also be appearing for order in the May PREVIEWS from Diamond, for shipping in July. I will send out order numbers and further information as soon as it becomes available. Also, watch the News Blog at http://www.vogelein.com/vogelein/news.shtml for updates as they happen.
2) I regret to say that I cannot take preorders for this book. Last time, I had the book done and off to the printers and had the luxury of a little free time -- this time around, I'm going to be running right down to the wire and will need all my resources just to guarantee that the book comes out on time. Hopefully I can do autographed/illustrated editions after the book is out. However, if you still feel moved to preorder yourself a copy of the book, the absolute best thing you can do is to order it from your Local Comic Store -- that way you both support your LCS and show my distributor that I have lots of wonderful readers. If you don't know where your nearest comic store is, please either visit The Master List or call the Comic Shop Locator Service at 1-888-COMIC-BOOK.
3) There will be release parties and signings, plural. I haven't yet set a date or locations, but I have spoken with the proprietors of certain local establishments, and things are in the works. I'm hoping for at least three -- but I want to get the book finalized and off to the printers before I make any promises. Again, I'll let everyone know dates, locations and times as soon as I know.
4) I also hope to hit a couple of shows in the summer. Spring Motor City is probably out, because the new book won't be back from the printers yet. Wizard World Chicago is looking like a better possibility, as is either SPX or Stumptown, but both of those will require plane tickets to get to, so we'll have to see how the financials look. Fall Motor City's probably a lock, though.
5) I will be doing another 25-copy special remarqued edition of the new book. Again, I can't take orders yet, but if you're interested, drop me a line at fierystudios@hotmail.com and I'll put you on the short list.
6) In going through the basement, I found 9 unbound copies of the remarqued edition of the first book. This means that if you wanted a copy, and didn't get one (one per customer, please!) that you can still order one. If you're interested, drop me a line. One caveat, though - they no longer make the paper used to bind the first edition, which looked like this:
Book Cover
Book Cover 2
Book Spine
Now, we will be using a similar, handmade marbled paper that looks like this:
Paper from Hollanders
The book will still have a composite-leather spine and corners, and should look very similar to the earlier pictures, and it's still being made by the exquisite craftspeople at Bessenberg Bindery in Ann Arbor. The books should be done within the next month or so -- drop me a line at fierystudios@hotmail.com if you're interested.
7) A web preview will be coming soon, probably within the next month or so. I know I've been promising this for literal years now, but the art and script are both still moving targets in many ways, so I don't want to release anything that's not really close to finalized. I also made a promise to a journalist friend that she could have the scoop on the art, so I don't want to release anything before she's had the chance to write her article and get it out there. Again, I'll post that info as soon as I have it -- just know that it's in the works, really for real this time. Really. Promise. Pinky Swear.
That's all for now -- I'm sorry the news couldn't be more precise, but I promise to let everyone know the exact information as soon as I have it myself. Thanks to you all for being kind readers and fans all these years. Without your help and encouragement, I wouldn't have found the courage, time and strength to finish this new book.
Just got an email from Blake's uncle in Ontario, and a phone call from his grandfather in Florida. They both loved the preview. Here's a quote from his uncle:
Wow! This is great stuff. I've only read through the first 50 pages or so - it's a slow go scrolling through on my computer. The story is terrific and the art is wonderful. The image of Blake holding a ponytail holder in his mouth pulling back his hair evoked particularly vivid memories. This truly is a special tribute. I look forward to finishing my read and seeing the finished version when it comes out in June(?) The brief biography is perfect. It captures his special qualities as well as a biography can.
For those of you who've had to listen to me agonize my way through this story, you'll know why I bawled when I read this.
Well, after an hourlong conversation yesterday with my Diamond Rep, it looks like I'm going to pull a hail-mary and put Vogelein:Old Ghosts in the May PREVIEWS, for shipping in July. You heard it here first!
Since I won't be doing pre-orders, the absolute bestest, kindest, most wonderfullest thing you could do would be not to order from me, but from your Local Comics Store. That way, you support your LCS, you support me, and you show Diamond that there actually are people out there who like my little faerie books. Plus, I'm going to be way too swamped with promo work after the books get here to ship anything out. Maybe I can do a special autographed / remarqued edition later, but for right now, my main focus is on getting the book out, period.
I'll post the order codes as soon as I get them. YAY.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/15/disney.newprincess.ap/index.html
Busy, busy, oh so busy. Not sleeping much because my brain's all hyped up. I've got about 60 more days before the book needs to be at the printer, and the art's not even done yet. Am I panicking? Everything short of hyperventilating into a paper bag, yes. Oh, and only 100 days before ALA, and all the accordant insanity that goes with that.
Some short updates:
That's all for now, and unfortunately is likely to be the last update for a while. Hang tight, and don't mind the silence; it just means I'm working hard on other stuff.
This won't be happening anytime soon, but I thought i'd put the word out anyway.
As soon as I get the book done, I'll need to upgrade my computer.
While I'd love one of the spiffy new Intel processor Macs, buying one would require another huge outlay of cash within six months, for when Adobe finally gets off their ass and produces a new suite that'll run native on the processor as opposed to through an emulator (blargh).
So, I'm looking for someone who wants to upgrade to one of these Intel beasties, but recently purchased a fairly butch G5 model, and can't justify upgrading again since they've just recently upgraded.
I will buy your G5, and give you the excuse you need to upgrade to an Intel Mac. All I need is the tower; I have everything else. This will probably happen between June and August. I have about $1K to spend.
Let me know if you, or anyone (reputable) you know, is interested.
The last couple weeks, I've been stressing so hard about the upcoming book that I can hardly sleep at night. The last time I got this crazy, I broke out in Pityriasis rosea, and I'm fairly certain it was self-inflicted. The only way I've managed to get through and not just sit in my happy place clutching my knees and rocking back and forth is by making a big obsessive list, breaking it all into tiny bits, and crossing one thing off at a time. Visible progress, it's what's for breakfast.
And no, before anybody gets all concerned, this is not some lefthanded cry for help. I'm just looking at how much work needs to be done, and how many days there are left before the middle of May, and realizing that probably not everything will get done. And that's scary.
So, amongst all the freakout busy-ness, some really amazing things happened in the last twenty-four hours.
Yeah, sometimes at the moment of most unfocused panic, you can see the edges of the pieces starting to fit together, and it gives you the hope and sanity to continue blundering ahead.
Thank you, thank you all, for your kindness, and your generosity of time and spirit. You're all helping me immesurably, far more than you know.