Cold Steel, Dark Arts, and comic books ~ a LOT of art in this entry~

Original painting (before digital enhancement) by Christian Martinez
From: Whispers of Persephone

It has been a very busy summer with me working to complete the formatting of The Steel Road, and getting the play test draft together for Whispers of Persephone.  I've also been coordinating work for a comic anthology project I'll be publishing in 2019 (once again we'll be using KickStarter to fund that printing).  So things have been very busy with me and Sinopa Publishing LLC lately!

The Steel Road:

Work on this project began more than a year ago and progressed nicely.  Things were going swimmingly and then my laptop died rather unexpectedly and in a fantastically thorough fashion. Long story short, I couldn't get my InDesign file to link to the image files again once I got a new computer system. This forced me to reformat the art for the book all over again (and YES, that cost me a lot of time).  I have been formatting text into the book for the last few weeks, and that has progressed nicely.  Presently, I have completed all but one region (the islands of the Pacific), and am very nearly done.  Great news is that The Steel Road is set to fulfill on time this August!

Lessons I've learned from this:  

1) Save the image files to your cloud after you've formatted them into your document so you can re-link them easily if your computer suddenly catches fire one day and you have to use a new machine.

2) Formatting text around an image and making it look good is a lot more time consuming than you might expect.  It is far easier to simply format blocks of text with reserved space allotted for your images.  That said, I think the text wrapping around the image looks far better.  So if you plan on doing this yourself, budget the time accordingly.


My thoughts on this project

The Steel Road was tremendously fun to research and write.  The KickStarter campaign was my most backed to date, and many of those backers have asked if I would be putting a second book with more weapons out.  I've spent a great deal of time formatting the text, revising the material and sweating the little things to create the best book I can for the backers and the RPG community at large.  I'm thrilled to put this book out and very grateful to Zachary Viola for all the fantastic sketch art he did to make the book possible.



Whispers of Persephone

I wrote this book's material by hand.  I'm hoping to format the complete play test file for the next round of play tests this weekend.  With Whispers of Persephone I'm going to send this file (which should have the page background art in it) to the entire play test group with just a little art in it.

Christian Martinez is doing fantastic work for this project, creating all original paintings (some of which will be available as backer rewards during the KickStarter campaign).  If you've seen his work in The Draw of Glenfallow or Comet over Echo Rock you're probably as excited as I am for this new art! 

Lessons I've learned from this project:

1) I took a different approach with regard to play test on this product.  I put the material in front of a handful of people rather than in front of the whole play test group.  This afforded me the opportunity to tweak a few points early on.

2) For Whispers of Persephone I want a LOT of art, but I had to calculate my art budget based on a smaller number of images.  I've decided to create stretch goals for additional art in the KickStarter campaign.  Content is key, after all, and art is incredibly important.  This project has been an excellent exercise in project budgeting.


My thoughts on this project

Whispers of Persephone was fun to write.  Presently I'm looking to the launch date for the KickStarter and working to coordinate the live stream event (more on that soon).  The book's mechanics and content are things I'm particularly proud of and I hope people will get much use and enjoyment out of this evil tome, this bloody little book of necromancy!  As I write this I'm plotting out the time line for the KickStarter launch.  This an incredibly exciting project that has been a long time in development (from the writing and design) and one that I am enjoying the thrill of receiving new art for!



Comic Books   

Yes, I blew the font up for this section.  I have some dramatic feelings on this topic, so stick with me. There are a lot of fantastic comic book creators working on titles I'll be releasing in 2019... check this out!

47 Furious Tails  

The first comic book I've ever written for publication.  Last year (2017) I tried and failed to fund this project through KickStarter.  This year (2018, if you're viewing this in the far future) I'll be relaunching this project, with more of the art done.  This first issue begins the retelling of the Ako incident in a unique way.  Alexia Veldhuisen has made tremendous efforts and I'm thrilled that she has continued to pursue this project with me.

Cover art by Alexia Veldhuisen
47 Furious Tails, Issue One

Untitled Comic Anthology project  

We're focusing on the book and will have a working development title in a few months.  Right now that's not the important part.  The IMPORTANT part, is the work going into this jewel of a book.

This book will have eight (8), yes EIGHT different contributing artists sharing their titles.  These are projects the artists and writers are very passionate about and it shows in the art they've produced so far.  Each of these contributors are producing eight pages of content to introduce everyone to the fine work they are doing.  I'm pleased to help bring the work of these talented professionals to the world. Art direction/edits by Alexia Veldhuisen.

I'll be launching a Kickstarter campaign in 2019 to fund the printing of this book. Below I have included samples of art from that project. I hope you'll enjoy it and look forward to that book.  Artists credited with the images, and most of them are available for commissions (follow the links in their biography pages for more information).

From the mind of Brian Lee
Art by Brian Lee

You can learn about Brian Lee and his art HERE!

From the mind of Colin Hartigan
Art by the legendary Christian Martinez

You can learn about Christian Martinez and his art HERE!

From the mind of Kelsy Cowan
Art by Kelsy Cowan

You can learn about Kelsy Cowan and her art HERE!

From the mind of Lotus Blair
Art by Lotus Blair

You can learn about Lotus Blair and her art HERE!

From the mind of Nick Caponi
Art by Nick Caponi

You can learn about Nick Caponi and his art HERE!

From the mind of Rebecca Coulthart
Art by: Rebecca Coulthart

You can learn about Rebecca Coulthart and her art HERE!

From the mind of Zachary Viola
Art by: Zachary Viola

You can learn about Zachary Viola and his art HERE!


We've assembled a great team for this project and I hope you will all look forward to some fantastic comic book material coming from these talented artists and writers!

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{Legal stuff:  All art included on this blog is copyright of their respective creators and are used with the express consent of those same individuals.  All rights are reserved.}
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So stick with me for more information on these and other titles that are presently in development.  2018 will continue to be busy as development for "Death comes to Glenfallow" is underway, and new titles will be seen coming out with more art from these artists and more!

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Thank you for continuing this adventure with me!  I hope you'll join me again next time for more information on artists I'm working with, projects I'm exploring, games I'm developing, and mistakes I learn from as I continue to publish.

See you next time!

Fan fiction for fun and as a writing exercise

I make no claim to be a great or even a good author.  That is for my audience to determine.  I genuinely enjoy writing and sharing my stories and game ideas.  One thing to which I aspire, is to become a better writer. I have taken to writing whenever I can, in an effort to improve my skills.

There have been several sources I have read over the years that encouraged aspiring writers to hone their craft through the simple process of practice.  All the practice in the world won't make me a 'perfect' writer but I feel as if it is helping me to improve.  This is a sentiment I much convey to you as well.  Become a better writer by writing often. Practice may not make you or I perfect, but it will help us to improve our writing skills!

Publishing RPG material has required considerable amount of editing of my work.  This is because I happened to write my initial drafts in a lazy fashion, similar in construction to my speech.  Couple this habit with a tendency toward shorthand grammatical structures and you get some really rough material as a starting point.  It was fortunate for me that another writer reached out and reminded me of the importance of practice.  So I took up and began a Shadowrun (tm) fan fiction blog several months ago.

Fan Fiction and a writing exercise:

I write the fan fiction because I enjoy telling the stories of games of the past.  I like fictionalizing the interactions of those game sessions and reminiscing about old friends.  This is also my version of practice.  When I started my fan fiction blog I was determined not to rewrite anything. Sure, I'd go back and correct gross spelling errors or rub out the dreaded "the the" repetitive text, but I left the grammatical structure intact and tried to transform my writing away from the rough to work with material I was producing.  It's slow going but very recently I'm seeing an improvement.

So for all of you who write, design games and self-publish I want to remind you that we can all use practice to develop our skills.  Even those of you who are magnificent authors with thousands of fans  behind you, I would like to remind you to keep your skills as sharp as they can be.  Scribble in your spare time to capture ideas and have fun creating. 

Episodic or Chapters:

There is an interesting difference of opinions I've encountered regarding fan fiction.  On one hand, several sources I've read argue that most people spend less than ten minutes reading any narrative online.  The other side of this is that I like to release whole, complete stories that can be digested as one segment of the running narrative. 

I found myself writing fan fiction that was sometimes well over 12,000 words in length, including one particular tale that spanned almost 30 pages!  It was then that I realized that people were having to come back a second time to finish reading those stories.  They were simply too long for a single, casual reading and so people who have been following that blog were reading each story either in pieces, or were stuck finding time to read through them.  While I personally prefer a longer tale in one go, I came to believe that there was such a thing as "too much" on a single entry.  This lead me to break up some of the stories into separate entries and release them sequentially. 

The jury is still out for me on which format I will follow.  I like writing out the whole of a story in one go and leaving it for the reader to digest at his or her leisure, but I also like the idea of shorter entries that someone can read through during break time at work or while on the bus. For now I'm referring to these shorter components of larger stories simply as "Part One, Part Two, etc" of the main title and so these short chapters are easy to distinguish where they fit in the overall story.  The longer form, episodic entries, I will very likely continue to do for some stories but for now I'm looking to my readers to see which format they prefer.

What I've learned:

I make a lot of grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and have a nasty habit of using too many commas.  I know I habitually make these mistakes so I am now becoming more aware of them as I write.  This has, only recently, helped me cut down on the time I spend in editing.  This alone has been enough to teach me just how valuable such practice is.

I hope you'll take up your pen or keyboard, and practice as well.  You may very well be the next Jim Butcher or Charles Stross.  The world awaits your words and stories, so polish your craft and let your work shine brightly in the hearts of your readers.

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I want to thank you all for joining me once again for my continuing adventures in game design, self-publishing, and game design.  I look forward to seeing you next time!

For those of you who may be curious about my fan fiction, I'm posting links to a recent story line.  This fan fiction blog runs chronologically, so if you want to get to know the central protagonist (Tommy 'the Machine' Gunne) I'll recommend that you start from the beginning story and read forward.

Thank you all!  Your comments are most welcome!

Where it begins:  The Beginning: A Story about Tommy


Rise of the Machine, Part One

Rise of the Machine, Part Two

Rise of the Machine, Part Three

Rise of the Machine, Part Four

Rise of the Machine, Part Five

Rise of the Machine, Part Six

Wedding Bells and Burning Hells, Part one ~ The Iron Citadel

Wedding Bells and Burning Hells, Part two ~ Power in the Blood

Wedding Bells and Burning Hells, Part three ~ Requiem

Help yourself: Focus on the artist ~ Zachary Viola

The first piece Zachary Viola every did for me
From: Tale of the Wizard's Eye

It's been a long week of formatting text, convention appearance, day job, playing with the kids, and catching up with my fan fiction.

As you may have noticed, I try to make this blog useful for anyone who is thinking about designing their own game, writing their own books, publishing and / or crowdfunding.  One of the key things I've written about over the course of this blog's history, is the relationship with artists you may hire to produce content for your publications/games.  It's no secret that I have a lot of respect for people who are able to create visual art.  I don't possess the skill to do so and that means I have a real need for talented professionals to produce that content for me.

Today I want to focus on one particular artist,though I plan to do a posts on the other artists I've worked with in the future.  So today I want to speak about Zachary Viola (the link takes you the artist biography page I set up for him).

Zack's first contribution was to my first adventure release.  Zack came through in a clinch when I made a drastic to the encounter in a key part of the book.  He was able to put together the piece above ahead of deadline, all while going through the final preparations for his graduation from the Kubert School.  The next time we worked together was to partner up on The Steel Road!

Working with Zack on The Steel Road was a real treat.  He was great about asking questions and providing feedback on stylistic choices, had a really strong insight for the visual style of the book, and was always consistent and professional.  Would I work with with Zack again????  You bet!

Now, how is this useful to you?

As I've written before, treating your artists with respect, being professional, and paying fairly are essential.  My recommendation, find artists whose work you enjoy and build a working relationship that benefits both of you.  After all, you don't want to be in a position where you are forced to seek out new artistic talent because people who have worked for you in the past aren't wanting to work with you again!   Cultivate the talent of those whom you work with.  Elevate their opportunities and you'll see your own grow as well.

Whether you are a new writer / designer looking for art, an established publisher looking for new talent, or a comic and RPG fan who wants to see who the new talents are that are bursting out onto the scene; keep your eyes on Zack Viola.  He's not done, by a long shot!

Promotional image from: The Steel Road

Thank you for joining me on my adventure into game design, writing and self-publishing. I hope you'll find useful information in these entries that may, in some small way, help you find joy and success in your own endeavors.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

1st FrankfortCon 2018

This year is the first FrankfortCon, Saturday July 14th.

I've been to many conventions over the years.  I'm please to announce that this will be my first convention where I'll be speaking on panel about self-publishing and crowdfunding.  I'm pretty excited about this.

As far as firsts go, this is a pretty big one for me.  Here's hoping I have at least one person show up to participate!

If you're at your at the convention you can find the panel happening at 1645 (local time).  This doesn't afford more than more than hour but I think its a great start for new 'Con. 

I'll be addressing things like: Mistakes I've made and how to avoid them, Misconceptions about crowdfunding, respecting your audience, and some 'how to' items. 

Who knows, maybe the next Charles Stross will be in the audience.

Have a great weekend everyone!

From the Godsfall Twitter feed: A podcast I've enjoyed

Built a little link into this image as blogger isn't liking the gofundme widget

Quick disclaimer:  I don't know these guys, but I think the podcast is cool.  I haven't listened to all of them but the ones I have listened to I liked.

*****

Okay, being homeless for any length of time sucks.  I know several of you who have read my blog have posted about overcoming homelessness yourselves and I've known first hand what sleeping in your car is like (enough about that). 

If you're a fan of these folks and can help by contributing, please do.  If you think people shouldn't have to sleep on the street or in their car but can't contribute, please do share this on social media channels to help raise awareness. 

Lets rally the community for one of our own, and help get Doug into a new place as soon as possible.

Thanks for your time everyone!!!

Sam

A little bloody book of Necromancy

I wrote a book on a new arcane tradition that involves the darkest rites of necromancy.  It is a book themed on evil practices, full of horrific rites, searing spells, poisons, and magic items of vile purpose.   It is my own little bloody book of necromancy, and I'm almost ready to unleash it upon the world.  That book is Whispers of Persephone.

This is a far different book than any I've done before. I want to make certain it is as cool as I think it is before I unleash it into my general play test teams.  To keep this book under wraps, I've kept it to only a handful of people.  Now I'm preparing to release it a select few game designers I'm acquainted with and an enlarged field of players/game masters.  One of the things I want to do first though, is format the book (without art, I'm not completely mad), to give these people an opportunity to comment as to the look and "feel" of it.

As with my previous works, this one is going to use KickStarter to fund the art included within.  The artist creating these commissions is none other than the remarkable Christian Martinez .   I'll be teasing out a little of the art for this book in the coming weeks.  I hope you'll enjoy it but be advised that this is content meant to adorn a book about horrid practices and bloody evil.  It is NOT intended for children nor is it suitable for work environments (you have been warned).

The KickStarter launch will be kicked off with a live stream event unlike any I've ever seen before.  I hope you'll turn out to participate.  The campaign will go live in August of 2018.  I'm working with several folks to coordinate the launch date.  This will be the "First Blood" event of the campaign and will launch with an early backer tier.  Come early and support the book to get a great deal.

What is in Whispers of Persephone???   

Inside a cover which hints at its contents, Whispers of Persephone contains dark rituals, searing spells, poisons, potions, alchemical agents, new feats, a new arcane tradition, and a selection of NPC data.  The book is uniquely created, with page art that is designed to make it look like the book has been bleeding from its spine, and the text is being colored to look as if it were penned in blood.  Have I gone too far in producing a book that brings darkness back to the dark arts?  We'll see...

I've been developing this book to bring a sense of purpose to characters who perform evil acts, and to bring darkness back to the dark arts.  I hope you'll find I have succeeded.


Who is going to use Whispers of Persephone???  

I imagine that Whispers of Persephone will see a lot of use from Game Masters who want their heroes to face horrific villains, as well as by players who are playing evil characters of the most wretched sort.  It is fun and disturbing, like a good horror movie.

This book is also created to resemble an evil tome. As such, I believe cosplayers will find the book useful as their grimoire.


What I'm doing about Whispers of Persephone right now ... 

While I am finishing up my formatting of The Steel Road, I'm working on Whispers of Persephone in those moments between tasks.  I've done work on the introduction (trying to polish it up a bit), the text accompanying the Stygian Necromancer arcane tradition,  working on narrative text for some of the NPC's that are named within (Kroalish and Ild being two of the most infamous), and following up with Christian Martinez (read that as harassing him about art).

I've been going over the stretch goal calculations for things I really want to add into the book (art, art and, oh yes, more art!).  These calculations must be done with care as you want to be certain that the different permutations of expense calculations all fit within your stretch goal figures.  I've been checking that over with great care and so far, everything looks great.  I've calculated stretch goals all the way out to $35000.

Preparations for the promotional campaign for this book are underway (I suppose this entry counts as promotion???).  I'm working hard to schedule the launch, and a special live stream event featuring some very special guests.   I'll be revealing more about the live stream event once all parties have agreed to the schedule.  Some other things I'll be doing for promoting this book include reaching out to yet more RPG blogs, podcasts, and YouTubers for interview opportunities.  Here's to a full schedule 😊.

Color matching:  This is a fun task for a grim purpose.  I'm working on picking the exact color for the text of the book.  This book will only release in full color (for several reasons) and I want this color to be, well, special (insert evil grin here). 


What rewards will be available in KickStarter campaign???  

For the first few days there will be the "First Blood" reward tiers that allow early backers to support the campaign at a lower rate.  This is being done in conjunction with the previously mentioned live stream event, sort of a "thank you" for all the people checking out that event and discovering the book through it.    During "First Blood" backers can get PDF and Print on Demand codes for Whispers of Persephone, as well as signed copies of the book at that reduced rate.

What else is available:

PDF copy of Whispers of Persephone as well as a PDF of a custom character folio designed for the 5th Edition for use by Necromancers.

Signed copies of the book!  If you've been following this blog, you know I love to sign books.

Fallen Hero reward ~ This is a limited reward where the backers get named as one of the heroes who have been struck down by the necromancer forces.  You also get a signed copy of the book and the digital rewards.

Acolyte of Death ~ This is another limited reward where the backers get named as one of the 13 Acolytes.  You get named in the book and get signed copy and digital rewards as well.

Surviving witness ~ A very limited number of backers can pledge at these levels for original paintings done for the book by Christian Martinez.  Each one is specified in the backer description.

The Necromancer ~ There is only one!  One backer will be named as the Necromancer and have his or her portrait painted for inclusion in the book (as the Necromancer).  Whispers of Persephone will be dedicated to that person.

Lord Hades & Queen Persephone ~ This one requires a little bit of an explanation... I saw a KickStarter campaign done by an RPG satirist and he had included a reward tier for someone to fund the entirety of the project.  There was a great deal of sarcasm in the that reward but I thought it amusing and decided to put my own version of that idea into practice.  If you want to fund the entire project, there are some neat rewards in that tier, but it literally funds the WHOLE book in one fell swoop, so maybe talk to your spouse before pledging it .... just a suggestion.

What you'll find when you see that campaign is that I am once again working to fund as much art as I would like to include in the book.  So you'll see some a lot of ways to get your hands on Whispers of Persephone, and I hope you'll take the opportunity to do so.

What to take away as a writer/self-publisher/game designer:

One thing I will point out is that I'm basically booked through the end of this year and well into 2019.  I would like to recommend that if you are also writing and developing quite a lot, that you may want to consider shorter KickStarter campaigns once you have a following large enough to support such.  Right now, I don't have enough people following me for a realistic expectation of 200 or more backers on a KickStarter campaign (though The Steel Road passed that milestone this morning). 

As discussed in numerous locations throughout this blog, build your audience by doing the best work you can and keeping your communication lanes open, and your dialogue honest and realistic.  I firmly believe it takes time to earn the trust of your audience.  I've been working for a year on building mine.  I've made mistakes, and owned up to them, and continue to work to improve.  I think that honest effort is the principle reason I've seen such a high rate of backer retention.  I hope you'll experience the same!

I would also like to point out that working toward small goals, crowdfunding small amounts for projects (such as adventure modules, comic books, etc) can give you invaluable experience in not only crowdfunding, but also in fulfillment processes.  Fulfillment is critically important, don't forget to plan for your fulfillment and to have fall back plans in case things go pear-shaped.

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Thank you for joining me once again on my adventure into writing, self-publishing and game design.  I hope this blog continues to prove useful as I chronicle my own experiences here. I'll make mistakes, I know, but I hope that by being open and honest about those missteps I can spare you the same.

The KickStarter campaign for The Steel Road is in its final hours, so if you haven't checked that out, please use the link in the "featured crowdfunding" spot above and to the right of the page to take a look.  Please do share that link with others to help spread the word before the campaign ends.

Until next time, have a wonderful time and I look forward to your comments and questions.

My 100th Blog entry: Thank you all for your support of The Steel Road!

Just wanted to say think you all for supporting my latest RPG book project
The Steel Road!

See you in the coming week!

Sam