Talking! I does it good.

We got to be on a podcast! Check it out: http://furcast.xanacreations.com/archive/fc-70

The guys over at Furcast were nice enough to let me in from the cold when I came scratching on the door asking for an interview. And interview aside, the rest of the ‘cast is quite an entertaining listen as well. So for some Dreamkeepery chit-chat and more, swing on over and lend an ear.

…And on that note, I have discovered that giving interviews is easy and I like it. Does anyone know of other podcasts out there that might be good for me to invade? Toss ‘em in the comments down there, and I can guarantee they will be pestered by an e-mail from me.

…For a brief V3 update, pencils are going great! I’ve got the blues and layouts done through page 112, which is the official halfway mark of Chapter 9. Once I finish the pencils to that point, I’ll toss an official sneak peek up with some art tidbits. 8 ) Thanks to everyone for your patience with this book- we’re getting there!

Commission Last Chance

Last call for commissions!

They close on Wednesday, the 25th - FOREVER.

Or, at the very least, until our current batch of commissions is done. Which ought to be, I don’t know, 20 years from now…

So, only get in this huuuuge line if you really, really want to be there for awhile. If you’re low on cash, you’ll have to scrape together at least the $5.00 sketch price to reserve your place in line.

If you want ‘em, they‘re here: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/commissions.htm

But don’t want them after Wednesday. Or your world will be constructed of sad kittens.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Sneak Peek #23: T-MINUS 33...

Egads, it's been awhile since I posted something in here. I'VE BEEN DRAWING! You can't possibly expect me to DRAW and TYPE simultaneously! What do you think I am, some kind of warbling, miraculous wonder-freak?

Time for that dream to die.

Anyways. Status report, sir!

Chapter 9 pencils 25% complete, sir!

Progress continues to go well sir, T-minus 33 pages remaining to eliminate, we expect to have more good news soon, sir!

And because a world without pictures is a cold nightmare hell from which there is no redemption, here are some sketches so far:

It's actually getting tricky finding drawings I can show without encroaching on spoiler territory. Especially towards the end of the book, showing off what certain characters are up to can start revealing more than I'd like.

I'll just start zooming in reeeaaal tight on the art we display - from now on, progress samples shall consist of close-up shots depicting the tips of various characters' ears.

This week I knocked out 2 month's worth of Prelude updates, and I'm now finishing off commissions 5 and 6. This ought to free me up for a nice, huge slew of Chapter 9 penciling during the rest of January and February. I realistically expect the pencils for this book to be entirely finished by late spring or before, and then colors will be the final focus. Pre-Orders are coming this summer.

If anyone would like to see Volume 4 happen faster than Volume 3, help us out and spread the word about Dreamkeepers! The better V3 Pre-Orders go, the more time I can work on Volume 4 without minor issues like the fear of starvation complicating things.

Anduruna in 2nd Life

What is 2nd life? Well, it's like... It's like a video game. I think. Where you can have a house and stuff. There are also ponies and you can make piles of coins, called 'McDucklings'.

...Okay, so I know virtually nothing about 2nd life. This distinction makes me uniquely unqualified to start a Dreamkeepers-oriented community in there.

Fortunately, there are some DK readers who actually know what they're doing- (this bails me out so often...)

So I'm pleased to announce that there is indeed a Dreamkeepers 2nd-life community in the works! If you're a DK fan on 2nd life, this ought to be just up your alley. The effort is being spearheaded by Viscount Gyaku Darkblood and Rennac, so contact either one of them in there to be guided to the Anduruna region, and have a good time!

New Digital Heaven

We're approaching the magical month of December - and you all know what that means...

Christmas!

No! Well, yes. But-

It's the 5-year anniversary of Volume 1's first printing! 8 D And there's a big, fun announcement to commemorate the occasion:

Graphicly. Dreamkeepers is on it.

If rainbows aren't currently shooting out of your eye sockets, then odds are you don't know what Graphicly is. Let's see... Does anyone remember my 2009 article, http://vividstuff.blogspot.com/2009/04/article-6-action-road-to-new-market.html

where I was fantasizing about what the ultimate online comic venue might look like? Well, this appears to be it. It's basically taken our book downloads and put them on steroids. Steroids- take 'em, kids!

The Graphicly editions can be read on a dizzying array of devices - phones, tablets, desktops, you name it. They link in to facebook and twitter. They allow readers to rate their books, post reviews, and even leave panel-by-panel commentary for fellow readers to peruse. The reading format uses print-resolution graphics to facilitate panel-by-panel zooming. And perhaps best of all, the Graphicly format allows us to cram all kinds of special features into the digital books.

Liz and I recorded audio commentary tracks for the special-feature editions, included the original Volume 2 script, and I even dug deep and found some ANCIENT material back from before Volume 1 was published - deleted Volume 1 scenes. The deleted scenes had to be scanned in from some papers I dug up, the original files were lost a few years back. But they are finished, colored Dreamkeepers scenes.

We're really excited to have our books available in such a slick format - thanks again to everyone who has been reading & supporting us over the last 5 years. It's been very difficult, very fun, and I'm looking forward to presenting a lot more stuff over the next five!

...And speaking of new stuff, we are making headway on Volume 3- in fact, I graphed it. Check out some progress samples in our latest Sneak Peek: http://vividstuff.blogspot.com/2011/11/sneak-peek-23-chapter-8-penciled.html

Also, we're selling hats now. Um... Hats. Thought you'd want to know. http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/storeShirts.htm

And for the last news tidbit: As people from July can attest, my reply lag in art accounts has been atrocious this year. I can kinda keep up with e-mails on roughly a monthly basis, but I'm really face-planting elsewhere. Because I'm beginning to grudgingly admit that I'm not all-powerful, and I can't accomplish everything everywhere at once, common sense is gradually seeping in to my decisions. So we've invited the Dreamkeepers staff to help us answer questions and reply to messages in the accounts. They know as much non-spoiler stuff about the series as me, so the only real difference will be questions getting answered faster for everyone.

Commission-wise, I'm currently working on Slot 3 for November. Last month's commission is finished and delivered, so watch for it to pop up in here as soon as I take some time out to post it.

Sneak Peek #23: Chapter 8 PENCILED

OH HAPPY DAY! The pencils for Chapter 8 are completely finished! Dance party commences in 3... 2... 1...

Hmm. That never seems to happen the way I imagine.

But anyways, we’ve passed a nice milestone on V3 production, and if you wade through all my yammering here, there are pretty pictures to prove it.

I imagine some may be wondering just how close we are to finishing not a chapter, but the damn book. After all, it’s not like you guys get to curl up with new material every time I slap myself on the back for hitting a milestone. Well, to give you a snapshot of our progress, I made… A GRAPH! …No, it’s not boring. This graph is extreme. Note the rad text and exclamation points, please.

So as you can see by the bro-tacularly intense graph, we’re not out of the woods yet.

…Though I will mention that the end of Chapter 8 is already 89 pages in to Volume 3 - and Chapter 9 has a good 43 pages in and of itself waiting for me to get rolling on. Volume 1 was 98 pages total - so a part of our production time is due to the fact that V3 is big. Just friggin big.

There’s still a stretch to go - but since the commercial was finished this spring, our production has been going at a great rate!

Speaking of the commercial… AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHBLOODCROWSHAMMERFINGERDOORSLAMFLOCKODUCKS!

…Mildly frustrated. Turns out the work of animating every frame was actually the easy part. Now that it’s done and ready to roll, hunting down a venue is proving bizarrely difficult. Sales reps and ad execs quail at my approach - e-mails go unanswered, phone calls vanish into an abyss, and… A 3rd item here would make for a nice rhythm to my complainy sentence, but I haven’t actually tried using a telegraph.

I never imagined it would be so hard to get people to take money and do their jobs. Perhaps those I previously contacted weren’t serious about hosting the commercial, and instead wound up losing an office bet when I actually came through with a finished piece to air. The world will never know.

Meanwhile, I feel like a kid with a loaded shotgun in front of a pinata - EXCITED - but then the thing keeps inexplicably firing blanks. I just want to take my damn shot.

…I do think I’ll track down a venue for this thing pretty soon, but experience has taught me not to announce anything that relies on other people until after they‘ve actually delivered.

There - now that you’ve been forced to taste the bitter sting of my disappointment, it’s time you were rewarded! Here are some teaser images from Chapter 8 so far.

Though the pencils for Chapter 8 are done, they were completed in an obsessive haze at the expense of a lot of other tasks. As a result, I’ve got a run of miscellaneous things to sweep up before ripping into Chapter 9:

Getting caught up on e-mails and the poor, poor, utterly neglected art account comments, 3rd quarter records and taxes for Vivid, the Prelude que is dry and needs refilling, need to get rolling on Commission slot #3 for November, of course get started making the Halloween beads for the winners this year, and if I’m going to at least attempt a new forum, now’s the time to get that rolling as well, before I fall into the sweet oblivion of endless Chapter 9 sketches. Also - I should possibly think about doing the dishes.

I’ll need courage for that - everyone please wish me fortitude.

Contest Results!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The results are in! It has been nothing less than a spectacular year for the contest. Trying to judge between the entries has been absolute hell for me - there are simply too many deserving pieces to make any 'right' choices for the awards. But regardless, choices had to be made. Check out the winners featured in the site gallery: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/gallery_halloween.htm But by all means, check out the rest of the entries too! http://dreamkeepers-fans.deviantart.com/gallery/32472297 Everything from pumpkin carving to animation to illustration to CAKES are featured this year. While doubt over my capacity as a judge may well linger, there can be no doubt that Dreamkeepers sports some of the most creative and fantastic readers of any fandom.

Thank you again to everyone who sacrificed their time and creativity to help put together such a powerfully fun gallery!

More prizes are still to be distributed- keep an eye on the DA group's journal today to see who wins the reader-selected awards and huge stash of DA points!

Adding to the festivities is our annual Halloween Prelude special: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/PreludeHalloween11.htm Because this homage was inevitable.

Small confession to the winners, I've been so focused on pencils lately that I haven't yet made the award beads... (Or replied to art account messages in months... ARG) I'll be crafting them in the next week or two, so I'll have to ask for patience while I get the prize packages ready. ...And I will get to messages in here EVENTUALLY, I just have a lot of things on my plate at present. Must eat them.

But in the meanwhile, I expect everyone reading this to eat excess amounts of candy today, because Halloween only comes around once a year. Have a great one! 8 D