Rainy Road Warrior Newsletter
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The Fat Lady Is Warming Up Her Pipes
The pathetic failure of the GunEngine Zero campaign still bothers me greatly but I try not to think about it too much and, instead, concentrate on the next book/campaign.
Again, if this new one fails, too, then I will say goodbye to the comic book world once and for all. Because I don’t know what else I could possibly do to get thru to people.
Oh, I forgot!
One thing I learned from the GEZ campaign that I forgot to mention in the last newsletter was about Kickstarter’s “add-on” feature. It seems — at least in my campaign — to have been completely ignored. It doesn’t seem like people notice the add-ons or they just disregard them since the add-ons only appear as a list of text when a backer finalizes their pledge. I had graphics explaining the add-ons in the “story” section of the campaign but you had to scroll down to see them and it’s possible that people didn’t bother to do that.
So, for the next campaign, I will not be depending on the add-on functionality. Instead, I will go back to the old ways and create packages/collections that will appear in the sidebar of the main campaign page that backers can readily select. In other words, there will be a reward with just the comic, then a separate reward with the comic and any variants, then another reward with the comic, the variants and pinups, etc.
This will be tedious and I don’t know if it will make any difference but I have to try something.
Up Next
Years ago, when I was living in China and writing a screenplay for the micro-budget film producer I had met, he mentioned another story concept for a possible project. His idea was pretty basic and vague so I took it and ran with it, developing it into a feature-length film trilogy. (I had a lot of spare time back then because I would pretty much sit around the workshop all day doing nothing.) Basically, my idea centered around a reimagining of the Dracula mythos by changing the setting to Asia and having Dracula be the “father” of all monsters, not just vampires.
Part one took place in ancient times and detailed how Dracula — called Sen, in my version — came into being. Part two took place in modern-day Hong Kong and was a noir detective story about Sen (now playing the role of tech-guru, Seth Chen) and his half-breed daughter’s rivalry. Part three took place in a near-future dystopia that had been decimated by Sen and his daughter’s minions/creations and saw their end come at the hands of the mysterious hunter-killer known as “Black Death.”
If you’ve read Book of Legend, some of this should sound familiar because both “Sam and Sara’s Fairytale” and “Tearjerker” were mined from this larger concept.
So, why I am telling you all of this? Because during the process of developing that concept, I came across what was said to be an ancient Chinese book about ghosts, spirits, demons and the like. The English translation of the title was supposedly “Epic of Darkness”.
That seemed to me to be a cool title for a horror story. So, since the Dracula in Asia film trilogy will never happen, I’ve decided to use the title for my upcoming horror anthology.
And since it will be sort of a sister book to Book of Legend — albeit very adult — using “Epic of Darkness” creates a sort of poetic synergy, I think.
What The Heck Is This Sh*t?
EoD will sort of emulate 2000 AD in the way that the magazine usually features a story with Judge Dredd then throws in some other serialized or self-contained shorts. EoD will do the same with the “Lady X” character. (Don’t worry! Her name is not actually Lady X. That’s just a placeholder. Her name will be revealed in the book.)
Her first adventure spans four parts. Issue 1 will have part one. But there will be a stretch goal to add part two to the book, which will be an additional 10 pages. I would rather include these 10 pages as standard but, honestly, I’ve run out of money and simply can’t afford to have them done prior to the campaign.
I have plenty of horror/adult material to be able to put out at least 1 issue of this book every year for several years. That’s why some of the stories will be serialized — to encourage readers to come back for the next issue.
I’ve set-up the pre-launch page so click the link below to go there and help get this train moving. I will probably launch the campaign in August and I’ll be sharing more details about the book in upcoming newsletters.
One important note to remember is that this book will be complete and ready to print when the campaign launches. Unless, of course, we reach the stretch goal to add the 10 pages.
The Amazing Con-Man - Hickory Part 2
So this past weekend I had a table at a convention in Hickory again. This was the same location as our very first convention except this was in a different hall. We ended up doing much better this time, selling 5 of my books and 1 set of my daughter’s books. But we didn’t sell anything else — no stickers or prints. Also, I changed my display setup to organize things a little better.
This weekend, we will be going down to Orlando for Hero Hype. My sister has a house just a few miles from the hotel where the convention will take place, so we’ll be making a vacation out of this.
Again, you can check out my The Amazing Con Man videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbdT7-MGwCZP1UaUldDk9vQ/playlists
This Week in Randomness!
If you suspect that you might have sleep apnea, I implore you to do whatever you can to have it checked out. I knew that I had it but the insurance that I had a few years ago would not pay for the test to confirm it. So, even though they were taking $600 out of my paycheck every month, I would still have had to pay $1000 out of my own pocket to have the test done.
The insurance I have now wouldn’t pay for the test, either, but now there is a home test version that only cost me $40. (I guess it’s a new thing because it wasn’t mentioned to me as an option before.) When it was confirmed that I had an average of 78 “events” every hour (which means I completely stopped breathing), the insurance ponied up for a full test.
Now I finally have a CPAP machine and what a difference it has made! I don’t snore like a freight train, I don’t wake up covered in sweat, I don’t wake up exhausted, I don’t wake up with a splitting headache and I don’t wake up with blood in my throat. (Seriously, it got so bad that I was spitting up blood every morning.)
So, if you think you might have it, do what you can to get tested and treated. It could literally save your life!
This message sponsored by Pfizer. Just kidding! F*ck Pfizer!
~Michael T Gonzalez