Upcoming New Stuff 02/07/2013

Yeah, that’s right, it’s a double post today, because Ive been rarin’ to go on publishing stuff, and I’m finally free to be able to do all the amazing things I’ve been planning while working on my animated film this year!

New Blog Series

As you may have noticed, I’ve been a little bit scarce this year, but that doesn’t mean interesting things haven’t been happening to me. In fact, I had a pretty cool year… I met a Disney director, had my work screened on the big screen, and made a lot of friends and learned a lot of skills along the way. I’m going to be posting periodically about some of the more interesting things that have happened to me and what they meant in the grand scheme of things. Read along, and learn about the mysterious world of animation, and some of the things I learned about myself and about art while toiling through one of the most demanding commercial art programs in the world.

We may also have some new guest bloggers stopping by, casting their two cents, so stay tuned for that. 🙂

I will also be blogging in lead-up to my…

New Books

These past few years, even before the publication of Flood Waters Rising, I have been working on a new fantasy/horror novel set in Ontario, tentatively titled The Singing Bones. It will be finished within the next ninety days, if all goes well, and we’re aiming for a release date sometime in the new year. Over the next few months, I will be introducing you to my world of Weird Ontario, with related links, essays, and segments from my work in progress.

And since I mentioned Flood Waters Rising, the next novel I’m planning will be a sequel, it is past the outline stage and has several chapters completed, and if all goes well, I would like to be moving to release that one by March.

I’m also looking at works by select other authors, and there is an anthology in the works that I’m hoping to announce around the time that The Singing Bones is released.

Illustrations

As you probably know by now, I love me some art. The new books are going to have all new, original cover art, plentiful illustrations, and maybe even some custom layout, and I will be showcasing plenty of teasers here.

As you can see, it’s going to be an exciting few months around here. I’m delighted to be back, and I think the new stuff coming out is going to be worth the wait.

New Process Work On My Film!

Hey all,

As promised, I’m back with my head above the proverbial waters again for a moment to post something fun and exciting: new work from my film! I know I’ve been terribly absent from the blog of late, but that’s because I’ve been working day and night on… this! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmOxFRzovno&feature=youtu.be

I’m aching to get back to writing and publishing, and believe me, I’ll be back with a vengeance this spring. But for now, all my love, blogland. One more post to come about my upcoming appearance at Furnal Equinox!

Liz ❤

A Lesson From Cereal

This morning, I was visiting my parents’ house. I got up, went downstairs, and looked around the kitchen in search of some breakfast. Both of my parents appeared to be in bed, but sitting there, on the counter, was a bowl full of raisin bran, uneaten, with no milk.

“Ha,” I thought, “Silly Dad. He must have gotten up, started making cereal and then forgotten about it and gone back to sleep.”

I then poured myself a bowl of cheerios. I went to the refrigerator in search of milk… none left. Suddenly Dad was looking a lot less silly and a lot more sensible.

As I laughed, it reminded me that often times, it’s easy to cut people down, assume they’re dumb or make fun of them based on surface facts, but when you actually live their circumstances, you might end up singing a different tune. That’s not just something I’m telling other people to do… that’s something I need to do more of myself.

For instance, I excelled in University during my first two degrees. Due to a combination of natural aptitude, family nurture, and economic privilege, I did exceptionally well. Certainly, I worked very hard and had a lot of singularity of focus during those years, and that helped, but until I got out on my own and attempted a degree that wasn’t necessarily in something that came naturally to me, I didn’t realize how much car rides, people cooking my food and doing my laundry, and not having to live up to financial and contractual committments allowed me the energy to do that hard work, and maintain that singularity of focus. I had simply thought that what made me excel was all me, and not the circumstances I lived in. I judged other people that didn’t live up to my level of productivity, assuming that they were just partying too much or lazy.  In hindsight, maybe some of them were, but I can now also see that some of them were probably just run off their feet by life.

I know it’s a bit random, but I’m sharing this because I think it’s a great story that could help others that struggle with unpacking their privilege and loving others. Next post, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mom,

For cleaning up my various goos and secretions as a baby,

For encouraging my creativity as a child,

For being one of my best friends as an adult,

For planning for me, wanting me, and loving me infinitely,

Thank you.

Happy Mother’s Day.

PS: We must all work together to stop bungee abuse in all its forms. Change starts now! 😛

It’s Summer! Hooray!

Since the seasons have changed, and my schedule with them, I thought it might be an opportune time to make an update about what’s up with Pop Seagull Publishing over the summer, where I’ve been and where I’m going to be until school starts again.

First of all, there will be a lot more posts around here now that I’m back into swing with the business and attending more cons. Actually, the posts were meant to start growing fuller, thicker and bushier after Ad Astra, as that con marked the end of my responsibilities at school, but wouldn’t you know it, I managed to catch that flu that was going around, and let me just say that a) it was easily the second worst flu I’ve ever had in my life (I’m praying nothing ever tops the worst one) and b) it knocked all non-compulsory activities of any kind off my radar for a good month while I hacked and wheezed my way back to health. I’ve got many follow-up activities still to do from Ad Astra, and I’m hoping to get them all caught up in the next week or so. There are also many good things on the horizon for the company from a business perspective, but more on that later when there is more solid info.

The next item of news is that Pop Seagull Publishing is all booked for Polaris 2012! Woohoo! Nothing is certain at the moment, but there will be more information on the blog as I recieve it. One item of slightly bad news about Polaris this year is that I may not be doing panels, for various reasons that I won’t go into here, but rest assured that I will be at my booth all day, every day to meet all of you lovely folks and sign your books, no matter what happens.

I’ve also decided to take another stab at NaNoWriMo this June, in an attempt to finish an upcoming novel. I’m making progress on my own with the novel every day as it is, but I think that NaNo may just give me the boost I need to get everything finished in a timely manner. Besides, the only reason I didn’t finish the last NaNo challenge was because it was in November. No-vem-ber. The most nightmarishly busy month for anybody who works or goes to school in any location that gets snow. I love the concept of NaNoWriMo, really I do, but I’ve never understood the reasoning behind putting it in one of the absolute worst months of the year for people with school-aged children, post-secondary students and people who work retail, among many, many others. The June/August Camp NaNoWriMo programs seem so much more sensible to me.

And finally, (and most importantly), I just wanted to announce that I’m reasonably certain that something new will be coming from Pop Seagull Publishing by this November. So there. I’m not bashing November entirely. Consider it a soft deadline though, and possibly subject to change. The real take-away is this: NEW STUFF IS COMING. WE’RE WORKING ON IT. WE’RE GOING TO KEEP YOU POSTED AND IT’S GOING TO BE SUPER SWEET.

And now, as is the tradition in this part of the world when the air starts to get warm and people start to get mobile again… I have to go help some relatives move.

Read an Ebook Week is almost upon us! (And a humorous update on my lack of complaint)

I’ll probably be updating more about this next week as well, but since it almost is next week, listen up! Starting Monday, many of us indie types are celebrating Read an Ebook Week! How can you help celebrate this most auspicious of weeks? Well, that’s easy. Pick up an e-book, and check it out! Try reading someone you’ve never read before! It’ll be one of those adventures I’ve been talking about that make life so much fun. Some of the E-books on Smashwords will even be *gasp* free!!! And, in honour of all the festivities, Pop Seagull will be offering Flood Waters Rising and Monsters and Mist for a special promotional price of $1.25, and $1.50, respectively. That’s over fifty percent savings on both titles.

While we’re on the topic of Smashwords, I have some less happy news regarding them as well, and that most deadly of C words- Censorship. Apparently, PayPal is threatening to cut of Smashwords’s account (all of their accounts!) if they don’t delete any material that contains any reference to rape, incest, or bestiality whatsoever. Now, I’m not endorsing any of these topics as positive things, but let’s keep in mind that they are legal to write about, and that this technically includes the writings of rape and incest survivors, who have every right to tell their story and build awareness. There is also the fact that this attack is meant to put erotica writers out of business, and erotica is largely written and consumed by women. Hmmm… And I also begin to wonder how far they’ll take it if they get their way this time. I mean, are two consenting characters of the same (non-human) species allowed to have sex? Because if not, well, yours truly would be affected by this rule as well. I will be emailing PayPal and the credit card companies holding their leash, and I hope that others will do the same.

After that unpleasant news, I think I owe it to everyone to end on a humorous note. Yesterday, I gave up complaining. I didn’t know exactly what it had gotten me after a very frustrating day, besides some aggravated non-verbal stomping and snorting and some badly cut keys. Then my husband asked me, with the sweetest smile imaginable, to repeat the exercise today. I guess sometimes, we are only indirect beneficiaries of our own self-restraint. 😛

Alas, My Break Is Coming To An End…

But what a reading week it’s been. I don’t know about you, but personally, my favourite days are the ones spent with lots of good food, with people I love, meandering and exploring different places and activities, cultivating inspiration and seeing something new. I feel so blessed that this week has been a full week of those kind of wonderful, adventurous, life-expanding days. I feel like lots of new and exciting things are finding their way into my life (some of which are in the works to appear on the blog) and as such, I did a little experiment today. I tried to go the entire day without complaining. I didn’t know what it would accomplish, but I did know that I tend to do an awful lot of complaining, and perhaps it might be nice to explore what might happen if I went an entire day without indulging my crankier side.

And then the locksmiths screwed up my keys, leaving me with no front door key and no time today to get another one, and out six dollars. And THEN someone who I consider particularly odious crossed my path and acted like a smarmy, entitled idiot. AND THEN, I found out that a significant due date that I have no chance of meeting at this point was a week before I thought it was. Thanks for the challenge, universe. I do find this all a bit funny, if nothing else. Still pondering possible meaning. 😛

I also got the rare chance to go on a giant jungle gym-like playland thing made for adults AND kids today, and boy did I have a blast. Is it wrong that I’m trying to come up with an excuse to do that again? Technically, it was for my nephew’s birthday party, but I feel like I got a present too…one more day at Chuck-E-Cheese!

Here’s wishing you the chance to expand your mind and act like a kid again, as well. With that said, I now have to go and figure out just how I’m going to dig myself out of this work hole I’m in.