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For my latest project I chose to write a novel set in late 19th century England, unlike my previous works in which I avoided real historical settings altogether. For example The Sorcerer’s Children took place in a completely imaginary land of my own creation during a late medieval/early Renaissance period of development. As well, the magical kingdom had had the same ruler for over five hundred years. Likewise, The Adventures of Astrodog was set in an idealized domed-city on Earth’s moon. In each case, I was free to make-up historical and cultural norms without the limitations of actual, you know, facts–to a certain degree of course.

In my new novel I use a good amount of “Artistic License,” a term used when many novels, films or other stories stretch the truth about a time, characters or events for dramatic purposes. I admit, my new story relies on that broad, stretchable term quite a bit thanks to the characters and the use of paranormal elements. I particularly wanted to let myself have more fun this way. So, I began a story within a twisted or alternate historical setting.

Another point I favour with a “historical” setting is that it helps in the isolation of the characters and allows you to build the tension. There’s no cellphone service, no internet to consult about bumps in the night or to check on the background of questionable people. The characters have to proceed on their instincts and what knowledge they can uncover for themselves. Now my main character does have some powerful help of her own; the core secret that makes her distinct. What that is, will wait for another blog to reveal. Suffice to say, she’s damn lucky in that regard…but not invulnerable. As her enemies discover.

So, as the forces of darkness gather and the danger to everyone rises, what will be the price our heroes must to pay for victory?

In the end, it’s not inaccurate to say all stories are flights of fancy, no matter how rooted in “reality” they are. How far a writer strays from that position depends entirely on what their story is meant to explore and achieve. Or simply on what you like to read yourself. To decide for yourself on the direction you’d like to take for your writing/storytelling, the first place to look is your own bookshelf.

In a previous post I commented that two of my favourite books were: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and the pulp fiction Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Quite a combo, I know. I’ll even go so far as to state that both works have influenced the paranormal series I’m writing. Not that I’m trying to be pretentious or anything.

What kind of books or genres or themes influence your writing or reading? Do you like the slow, tension-filled build-up to a massive payoff or do you prefer the dive-right-into-the-action approach? Or is there another take that fuels your imagination? Is it mood and atmosphere or relatable characters? Or both? Feel free to let me know what you look for most in a story.

As Halloween draws nearer and the spirits of the season prepare to walk amongst us, you can find lots of cool Halloween merchandise in our Redbubbble store. Like our Lady In White who strolls through a haunted graveyard to the Halloween Witch you were introduced to in the last blog, there’s plenty of magic for everyone. So, cast your spell and make your wish and grab onto the magic of Halloween with us!

It’s been a weird month! Luckily, I was able to find the time to render a little tribute to the upcoming season of all things spooky. That’s right! Halloween is coming! After our previous designs for the season of the supernatural, (a magical Jack O’ Lantern, a Haunting Ghost and Skeleton Fairy), I realized I didn’t have a witch design! To avoid being cursed I immediately rectified the situation by designing a light-hearted, wickedly-fun Halloween witch. With her bright colours and Mona Lisa smile, she’s ready for any and all Trick-or-Treaters. You can let me know what you think.

I know, with the pandemic, Trick-or-Treaters may be few and far between. Though Halloween may not be as festive as it once was but it can still be fun! That’s where our holiday designs come in. Whether it’s a spirited t-shirts because full-on costumes aren’t your thing or you need a haunted coaster on which to rest your pumpkin-spiced latte, we’ll get you ready for all your ghostly activities.So, get those pumpkins and black cats ready and let the Halloween festivities begin!

You can sweep up our Halloween witch or any of our other seasonal designs by clicking “Claim Your Magic”!

Well, I’ve been away for awhile and knew it was time to touch base. It’s personally been a crap month for me this August. I won’t be putting a candy-coated lacquer over it. The passing of my mother, a little over a year after my father’s passing, has set me into full-on distraction mode. So, a break was needed. I focussed on personal things and relationships instead of this blog. I made a decision to let it slide and I’m okay with it. Sometimes self-care means stepping away. So, considering the current circumstances, there has been some of the below going on…

I hope to be out with a more interesting and engaging blog the next time around. Right after I evict the least liked Fairy Godmother of Meh.

Until then take care and give your Mom and/or Dad an extra hug. I wish I could.

So, recently during the editing process of my work and in this blog, I admitted that I had to split my “Magnum Opus” into two books if I wanted to have a product that readers who favoured my genre of “Gaslamp Fantasy” would most likely pick up. My late-to-the-game market research revealed that the average size of such novels ran about 80,000 (or maybe a little more) words and around 350 pages. Trying to push a tome of almost 200,000 words really wasn’t a fight I wanted to take on. I could have found a way, I suppose, where I gutted the book and squished it down to 100,000 words but what effect would that have on the story? And that’s where a writer’s/artist’s idea or vision comes up against “What the Market wants”.

For some reason among creative types, the idea of “Writing to Market” is sometimes seen as selling out. After all You’re supposed to be an artist following some sort of “Divine Calling”. Right? Ahh, those pesky 19th century Romantics and their cute ideas about the artist’s life. I could punch them in the nose. Most artists or writers do not want to starve in an attic while waiting for their Fairy Godmother of Inspiration to descend and bestow Celestial Insight. We got bills.

So, for practical reasons I’m breaking my novel into two more marketable books. On the creative side, I’ve been able to go back and flesh-out supporting characters and bring in new ones that lend even more depth to the world I’ve created. That, weirdly, was a nice surprise and I suppose if I was more of a hardcore “Plotter”, I might have foreseen this. But, that’s okay. My goal is an adventurous, suspenseful, with a little romance, story that will draw readers along for a great escape.

I’ll reveal more and more about the plot for my book over the next while and you’ll get to be the first to see how it develops. There won’t be a Fairy Godmother in it but there will be monsters because….Do I really need a reason?

You can find another great escape in our graphic novels, the fantasy-adventure trilogy The Sorcerer’s Children or go for high-flying sci-fi in The Adventures of Astrodog. Let the stories and characters take you away on adventures of your own.

I’ve been swept up in a number of personal responsibilities so I thought I would repost a funny diversion until I can get back to you about my main focus. Hope you like it.

I always know when I need a break from writing my novel when my mind insists on wandering down sometimes ludicrous paths. After reading the above, I hope you know what I mean. Of course, I do still wonder what it would be like to go to a Superhero Potluck. What would you bring?

If you’d like to take your own stroll down the path of an entertaining diversion, consider checking out our graphic novels like the fantasy trilogy The Sorcerer’s Children and dive into magical adventure in the land of the Twin Kingdoms. Or leap into sci-fi hijinks with The Adventures of Astrodog. If you like dogs, especially dogs on the moon, those graphic novels are for you!

Last week I wrote about the challenges of maintaining one’s motivation to create. Especially when it seems there are forces that are actively working against you. An example of such Resistance was personalized in the figure of the Fairy Godmother of Meh and her interference with our little pal, Ralph Elfalfa. However, hope of regaining his ambition appears when a good friend arrives on the scene…

Sometimes we get by with a little help from our friends. Hopefully, everyone has a Randy Dandylion in their lives; someone to break the curse of the doldrums and uncover a person’s hidden passions. So, “Take That! Fairy Godmother of Meh!”

If you need a break, to take a walk, to play with your new kitten, to meditate or to climb a mountain, whatever it takes to revitalize your creative energy, I would encourage you to do it. As long as it leads you back to your passion.

I would also encourage you to find inspiration by checking out the work of others like our graphic novels the fantasy-adventure The Sorcerer’s Children or the high-flying sci-fi adventure The Adventures of Astrodog! Perhaps we’ll even see Ralph and Friends again here in a doodle blog. Let me know if you’d like to see further shenanigans from those magical characters. Until then, keep those “Mehs” at bay and get to work!

We’ve all been there. Those days when the motivation to work on our “art” is weak to non-existent. In his book, “The War of Art”, writer Stephen Pressfield, speaks of “Resistance” in such cases. In his theory, this force is a very real thing that works against your plans to pursue your creative goals. Resistance wants you distracted and/or struggling; it feeds off it in a way. That’s one idea anyway. In my book, you get a visit from the Fairy Godmother of Meh! Case in point, our friend Ralph Elfalfa in the magical land of Ding Dong Dell…

When engaged in the editing of my novel, I’ve learned an important lesson. I might have two books on my hands rather than just one. What that means is that even after assiduous editing – chopping here, tossing out there – I still have a novel so large that to put it out on the market as is would seriously impinge its marketability. Now, I could continue the cutting until the story was bled dry of character development, world building, mood, atmosphere, excitement etc. However, the question that has been pressing down on me is: What would the market for a book in my genre tolerate?

When I first started writing, I naively thought Marketing came “later”, after all the writing, editing and cover design was finished. Yeah, I was that clueless. Luckily, I came around and began studying more closely the target market for my novel. Something I highly recommend to any newbie writer out there. I learned some interesting things.

Such as the average size for a novel in the Paranormal Historical Thriller is 300 to 400 pages. 600 + page epics sell best in the fantasy genre though mostly if your name is J. R. R Tolkien or George R. R. Martin. Also, my target audience of women 20 years old and up, prefer series to simple standalone books. Doesn’t mean they don’t read standalone just that they prefer a series.

So, what would be an option for you if you had a massive tome on your hands that held so much of your blood, sweat and creativity within it? Look below…

I took a brief break from writing and editing to do a water-colour painting of a Cheetah. I love doing animal portraits and find a lot of peace when I paint them. Also, if you love Cheetahs or other animals, we have a number of different designs on a multitude of products in our Redbubble store. Check it out when you need that break from writing and doing market research.

Been loaded with other work recently so I’m running this Doodle Blog from a couple of years ago. It does, in a way, tie back to my blog on where some of my ideas come from. There’s a large “What if…” to the silly story below.

I hope you had a laugh. Since I doodled this story, my Dad, my dog Hugo and my cat Dusty have all passed on. 2020 was a hard year for multiple reasons. However, I know my Dad had a great laugh when he read this story. I’m pretty sure he would have found a way to beat those zombies with a few pieces of scrap wood and duct tape. He was just that kind of guy. Now, one question remains….If you found yourself in the Zombie Apocalypse, how would you survive?

In our fantasy-adventure graphic novel trilogy, The Sorcerer’s Children, there are zombie-like monsters called Wraith Warriors. Check them out when you join the adventure of that series. Or perhaps you would prefer the nefarious, interstellar threat of the Space Phantoms in The Adventures of Astrodog. They’ve got all the sci-fi swashbuckling and high-flying fun you could want.

As I approach the latest edit on my novel, it has struck me that running through it are some of the broad influences of my favourite stories. That’s inevitable, of course but two of my major influences stem from works at opposite sides of the literary spectrum. It makes for some interesting imagery in my opinion. Beyond my interest in mythology, the following books are stories that have made a lasting impact on my literary experience.

This is the book that hooked me on reading as a child. Now, over a hundred years since its original release, I can acknowledge some of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ problematic depiction of native Africans; not to mention the African American character of Esmerelda. However, Tarzan of the Apes has been continually in print since that time and has evolved into a cross-cultural icon. If your only exposure to this character is through the movies the novels will come as an entertaining surprise. The pacing of this book is pure page-turner and ERB skillfully hooks his reader into this ultimate fish-out-of-water tale. It’s that stirring pace that I’ve tried to evoke within my own work, whether in our graphic novels or my novel-in-progress. ERB packs his story with great surprises and interesting characters. I won’t even go into his utterly-cool Mars series.

This cover is by renown comic book artist Neal Adams.

At the opposite end of the literary spectrum is the classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. There are many reasons that this novel has endured across centuries. Aside from the beautiful gothic atmosphere and inspiring struggle of its titular heroine, this novel was groundbreaking for its time. Charlotte Bronte (and her sisters Emily and Anne) introduced an interior, emotional life to her characters that had previously never been explored. Whether or not you agree with Jane’s decisions and actions, you can’t help but feel for her and her struggle to assert her self-worth and her demand for respect as a human being. Again, there is some aspects of the story that make you shake your 21st century head, especially in the treatment of the mentally ill, but the themes resonate to this day.

It might be most obvious how the pulp stories of ERB influenced our graphic novel series, The Sorcerer’s Children and The Adventures of Astrodog. However, I like to think some of the emotional depth of the classics like Jane Eyre work their way into the stories as well. These are, of course, only two of the tales that have resonated with me. There are plenty more and don’t even get me started comic books. Or rather, I’ll talk about those later.

As I reveal a little more about the story of my upcoming novel over the next few months, other influences or inspirations may become more obvious. Hopefully, in a good way. What are some of the books or stories that have affected or influenced you? What, perhaps, are some of the books that might be your “guilty pleasure”?

Didn’t I mention something about “Gothic Atmosphere”? A little hint of the mood for my upcoming book. It’s not an exact match for the setting but it’s pretty close.