Back to It - The Timbercreek Incident is Getting a Cover (Again)

I took a week off drawing... largely because I kept forgetting my tablet at home (I draw at lunch hour at work (on the days I have time enough... I have angry thoughts about work changes of late, but I'll leave that alone for now)), which really annoyed me. But the break was good.

Prior to the break, I was working on a tattoo design for friends of mine. They asked me years ago, and I am a horrible person who only managed to get started on it recently. Granted, the request was lost in a haze of burnout and depression, from which the year of the fire horse seems to be dragging me out of, but that's not really an excuse.

The point is, I completed a basic design, and will be working on refining it... after I finish the redesign of one of the covers for The Timbercreek Incident. I did one up prior to the alternate cover I finished last month. I like this alternate cover, and I don't much like the first one I did up. So I'm reworking it. The goal is to have it completed by the end of the month (sooner, if I can swing it) so that I can set up the poll for my subscribers to choose between.

If everything goes according to schedule (hah!), I should be ready to start the publication process no later than the middle of April. The book should be ready to be out in the world in June. Which means I can turn my attention to brainstorming what I will do for the subscriber-exclusive edition.

I would like to have that out in October, as I don't want my subscribers waiting too long for their very deserved exclusive.

I'm thinking that I'll be adding a Dramatis Personae at the end, but making them look like military personnel files. I'm planning on having images included, so I'm going to need to figure that out. I'm also thinking that I'll make the chapter headings look like file folder tabs. That'll be relatively easy to do in black and white, I think, and won't require more detail than most print on demand publishers can handle.

As with the other books I want to publish, I'd love to be able to do a book box. I'll only make as many book boxes as I have subscribers, and whatever doesn't sell after a period of time (not sure how long), will be offered to the public. I know that I want to include commissioned artwork, stickers, bookmarks, maybe a keychain or a set of dog tags belonging to either Sebastian or Oliver, and I also want to include a plushie. There is a plushie in the book named Claudio, and I'd love to have him created and available for sale. Not that I expect this book to get big enough to warrant merchandise, but still, it think offering a replica of Claudio would be very fun. Claudio is a very brave and helpful little plushie. I have to research companies that will create custom plushies from 2D drawings, and then come up with a design that would work based on how I described him in the books.

Assuming this can all be afforded, of course.

For now, it's all very theoretical. And it's a lot of research and planning to do in between the jobs that currently pay my bills... and with all the other projects I have on the go. But this kind of work excites me. I am at my happiest when I can bring the stuff in my head to you, and getting it all done is work that I genuinely enjoy.

Speaking of work that pays the bills, I should go and start doing it now. Excited to be reaching the final steps. One little bit at a time, my first real publication in years is coming to the world.

Yay!

Slán go foill!