I Am Not Dead

Well...I'm not.

It sounds a little harsh, but the truth is that when you don't post a blog on a particular forum that you have been known to post on previously, people assume the worst. Let me assure you, I am not dead. Instead, life has just...moved on.

Blogger never really got me the audience I was looking for, and only until recently, when I decided to hook up my GoodReads account to my Patreon account did I realize I still had a Blogger account. Heh. When I posted my last blog entry (more than 15 months ago) I was still re-editing my 1st book, still living in Illinois, USA and fresh off a job as a graphic designer, looking for new projects.

Now I live in Switzerland as a full-time UX and Graphic Design consultant, wrapping up a reworking of my first book, now complete with illustrations, a new cover, a terminology list and secret code and promoting this all on Patreon, the platform where I consolidate all of my global health, social issues and prejudice reduction efforts combine under the umbrella initiative Arcubal Design. Yes, Ælemental, the YA series is now officially rolled up into my focus on helping communities become healthier, physically, mentally and emotionally.

But that is beside the point for now. All you need to know, for the moment, is that life takes weird turns and it has moved me into different, but always interesting, territories. Ælemental Journey - Book 1: Wood - The Life Tree Discovery will be released in paperback this October and if you want sneak previews of behind the scenes conceptual work, illustrations and excerpts of Book 2: Earth, follow me on my Facebook Page, Twitter or support me on Patreon.

The Big Black Quiet

After it all ends, what is left?

So, my first novel is published. Self-published that is and on Kindle at that. After years of plotting, drafting and (re-)writing my epic young adult fantasy novel is out there...

...among thousands of others. Lost among the white noise. Unnoticed by all, but family and friends. I sold exactly one copy and got perhaps a few hundred Likes on my promotional Facebook page (for which I paid $65). Where is the release party? The interviews? The press releases and the bestseller nod? One month after my ego manifested itself online and my creativity up for sale, there is only a big, black quiet.

Let's put things into perspective. It's not death. Death is the end of a living being - surely not comparable to the mere release of one's creative endeavor? It's not that bad, and in fact I don't experience it as such, either. I'm having fun advertising my book. But it's not easy...

Any author/(self-)publisher will tell you it takes a lot of time and effort to advertise your work once its finished, getting the word out, making some noise and knocking on doors. Admittedly there are a lot of supportive websites that will gladly promote your ebook for free (as long as your book is for free) or have amateur reviewers read your book and post their opinions in blogs and articles. Then there's Twitter and Facebook. Tweet about your book. Build connections with first adopters, who actively are looking for new authors and new stories. Reward new readers with free give-aways, quizzes and Likes on their pages. There is quite frankly a ton of venues to sell your story.

When you don't have a fan base, you need to make connections.

Connection

 by MistoAcrilico

And so that's what I've been doing. On Facebook and Twitter I've been showing off present artwork in the book as well as sneak previews of artwork yet to come. I've run a single Facebook Ad campaign to test the waters and it's quite frankly a lot of fun to do it at first. 

But I'm not committed to accessing all channels of advertisement just yet. After all, the trailer version of the book - now available at Amazon :) - still has its fair share of grammar errors and temporary artwork. I'm drawing the official artwork as we speak and one of my three editors is already finished with checking the manuscript. So when I'm confident that the edition I release is proofed and complete, I will throw myself fully at the advertisement machine and give it its best shot. 

And to keep me really happy in the meantime? Start writing the sequel. That after all is the best way of getting picked up by a publisher/agent: proof that your not just a one-book wonder.

Death Revisited

I am paying a visit to my good old friend: Death.

Death to the Old
No, I'm not a near-suicidal artist or deep gothic writer, I'm talking about the character Death... warmed over. You see, I don't want to rehash the same old, same old with Ælemental. I want it to be fresh, innovative and exciting to a new generation. But I'm also tackling fairy tales. Yeah, you know, the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. And that's just in the first book. So you see my dilemma: how to dress up the old in a new coat.

The New Fairy Tales
By now you may have caught on to the Sisters Grimm series or one of the fairy tale TV shows (Grimm or Once Upon A Time). And yes, the shows are just as creative as their titles suggest. Kinda blah. The Sisters Grimm novels are actually quite entertaining, but are rather light in approach. I'm trying to rewrite fairy tales in the way Tolkien would have done: with grandeur and prolific gravitas. But I also want it to be weird. Alien weird. Guillermo del Toro or Clive Barker weird. I want the characters to have history, but also an otherworldly feel and strangeness to it, that is offsetting at first, but totally logical when you dig deeper.

Meet Death
Death really is just a minor character, but there are fairy tales that deal with the Grim Reaper in all of his glory. I wanted to incorporate a fair amount of real danger to Ælemental and have Simon, Sally, Alix, Karl and Maya truly deal with deadly threats - both real and fantastic. Gone is the robe and scythe, in with the black suit, fedora and morphing face. Add some SFX like screams erupting from the folds of his jacket and a permanent black fog upon which he glides and you're starting to get where I'm going.

The Practical Aspects
So I stopped redrafting Chapter 16 back in November 2011, leaving Simon, Alix and Sesame stranded inside Death's offices, while searching for the magical artifact that will give them bargaining leverage towards rescuing Sally from her kidnappers. But Death would not be useful if he didn't have a few trinkets I wanted to use. Like the glass of water in which his image reflects when you hold it above a dying person. But I cannot possibly let you on to what happens with that glass of water other than that I changed it into a glass key. The glass key is useful for foreshadowing upon who befalls some awful fate later in the book. Death himself turns out to be very interesting and not all is as it seems at first. Aw, read the book if you want to know how or what. :)

Back to writing...

Just Wanted To Say

I've started writing again (after 2 months of not doing so). Wish me luck.

New routine: 7am-12pm

Draft: 4 (final) / Emotional smoothing

To-Do: DTP book. Publish ebook.

Chapter: 16/35 - Like Robin Hood or the Lost Boys, Simon & Alix sneak into Death's domain intent on stealing a precious artifact.

Hijacked by Life and Death

Has it really been 9 days since my last post? I guess so. Where once I wouldn't be caught skipping on a day of blogging, infatuated as I was by the premise of 'Julie & Julia' now I find myself once again resorting to a more practical solution of blogging when I can. Life and Death had a hand in taking over my time this week.

First on a tragic note: a good friend of ours, a young mother of two who has been battling cancer for some time now, got really bad news that there might not be much time left. She was also leaving Bangkok so there is a good chance we might not see her again. This played very heavy on all of our minds and so we all grouped together to offer moral support and at the same time spend some quality time with her. To make matters worse her husband very likely failed to deal with the reality at hand and had found refuge with another woman, something that she had already known for some time. It was very strange to realize that our friend, even though confronted with the worst possible scenario still decided to forgive him and asked everyone to not confront her husband for the sake of her children. I have seriously not met a more noble and forgiving person. Emotions ran high this weekend and with the amount of people flying in to visit her and with preparing for her trip back home, while still making hospital visits, I simply decided to take away from sitting behind my computer and connect on a more personal level with others.

When my own mother passed away a couple of years ago, due to a wasted body that simply couldn't keep up with the after effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, she left me with a few wise lessons. Never the one to preach, she rather taught by example. She made me realize that life does go on and we can only find happiness by accepting the reality as it revolves around us. A down to earth Dutch mentality was something my mother always exhibited when it came down to emotional matters. We connect with them, but never lose ourselves in them, waiting patiently for the emotion to run its course , after which we pick ourselves up and move on. So with that in mind I find myself once again staring at my old dusty resume and freelance website, which I have to freshen up in order to find a job. I haven't let go of my idea to reinvent myself professionally, nor of Simon & Sally, but I realize that everything has its place and if the time isn't right, the universe and all the forces within will let me know when it is.

My unfortunate friend as well as my mother were both very driven women. I admire their drive and ambition, mainly because I have always struggled with it myself (hence the pride in this one big thing - Simon & Sally - that I am set to follow through to the end). However I realize that too much drive and too much ambition is also not good. Whether its a burnout, physically or mentally, or worse, I believe our bodies are simply not equipped to deal with such pressure. Regretfully our society is ill equipped to balance leisure with work, rest with activity and peace with busyness. The sheer Western doctrine towards work and achievement is one that thankfully takes a step back in a society like Thailand. Creativity, smooth and easy interactions and a gentle disposition reign supreme here - even if underneath there is a disconnect with their Buddhist mindfulness and compassion. So I am motivated more to listen to my own rhythm, which in turn tries to be in tune with what feels right at the moment in the universe.

This means Simon & Sally will be redrafted when it feels right and the Muses sing loudly enough again. This means I will find work when the time is right and all signs point towards it being beneficial. This means all is well in the world if I take time to meditate and rest, besides honing my IT skills, reading up on writing tips and spending time with Nancy and Alex. This means living and discovering Life is in balance with accepting the reality of Death. And not just literal Death. I also meant the Death of old ways and habits, the influence of an outside world gone mad with bottom line profits and the pressures it brings. The Death of creativity by hands of ambition and ego. We all get hijacked by matters of Life and Death. The trick I found is to accept what we cannot change, change what we can and find the wisdom to distinguish between the two. Therein lies, if not happiness itself, a moment of peace....and perhaps a blog post.