Getting to the midway point in publishing AMARNA has been a small triumph for me – it’s the first time I write a serial, the first time I try selling it through Gumroad.
Also, everything that could go wrong in these three months went wrong.
But we made it.
And to celebrate, I am offering the first three episodes of AMARNA, in multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, through Gumroad for 5.99 – that is, with a discount of 33% on the retail price.
Should you know anyone that might be interested, please spread the word.
Thank you!
Local history and roleplaying games
One of the unexpected side effects of researching a supplement for a roleplaying game set in the area where I am currently living is discovering a huge amount of local history that I did not know.
Like, that a local chap was mentioned in the Divine Comedy (the Medieval poem, not the band).
Or that a local castle was owned by the Countess of Castiglione, lover of a number of kings (including Napoleon the Third), spy and courtesan, striking 19th century beauty and allegedly a practitioner of the dark arts that used the “Liber Potestate”, a popular grimoire.
Which is quite good, considering the supplement I am writing is for a horror game.
And then no end of battles, of strange brotherhoods (and even an “arch-brotherhood”) and other weirdness, and of castles that were razed and disappeared, including one that was supposedly about 300 yards from where I am sitting. Quite interesting.
Anyway, we are now at 15.000 words on the sourcebook project, and we still have a lot of work to do.
This is how I’ll spend my Easter weekend.
Bombshell (2017)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Alexandra Dean’s documentary about actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, is very sad, very painful, and yet beautiful.
But as a friend commented a few minutes ago, so was Lamarr herself.
There is this myth, of beauty being a damnation more than a blessing, and Hedy Lamarr’s story seems to play the myth out beat by beat, mercilessly.
Notorious for her nude scene and her filmed orgasm as a sixteen-years-old in Austria, Lamarr came to Hollywood as part of the contingent of refugees from Germany and Europe, fleeing the encroaching power of the Nazi Reich.
Louis B. Meyer was eagerly waiting for them, offering below par salary and strenuous filming conditions. Continue reading
AMARNA, episode 3
Boy was this a close call!
But in the end, the March episode of AMARNA is available in epub, mobi and PDF formats, through Gumroad.
My Patron supporters will get their copy – or a discount code – in a few minutes, and in the next 36 hours (hopefully) the ebook will also be available on Amazon.
But boy was this a close call!
Now, on to other projects.
The Crossover
And so they went and did it – a Supernatural/Scooby Doo crossover.
And honestly, it was a hoot watching it. Continue reading
Darwyn Cooke
I’m going on with my sketching course, and it’s good to see I don’t suck as badly as I remembered.
Now, having the time, a good practice when one wants to learn how to draw, is to check out the works of some artist they like, and start copying them. This is both a good training for eye-hand coordination, and a good opportunity to learn about composition, lighting and volumes.
So, as usual, I did a quick survey of my favorite artists.
Back when I was in high school, I guess I would have given an arm or a leg to be able to do the sort of things that Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo did. Or Chris Achilleos. Or, sure, Michael Whelan. Continue reading
Karavansara 