The topic of this blog is a blatant lie. I'm actually terribly impatient. I'll explain why in a bit.
First of all, let me say that today was an odd one for me. For the first Tuesday in over a month and a half, I had no new installment of Grace & Witherbloom coming out. I didn't need to check that the book had "live" on Amazon, or make sure all the graphics and web pages were updated and sent to the server to go live as soon as the book was officially available. I didn't need to make the entry on Goodreads for the book or post about it on the various forums I frequent.
No, I just got up, went to work and then came home. On one hand it was sort of a relief not to have to do all that extra bit of work. It wasn't much, but it was a time commitment. On the other hand, it was sort of sad. I liked putting out a new novella every week. Thankfully the last week I've had Mass Effect 3 to occupy my time. I thought it was as brilliant as the others. I'm even one of those rare folk who actually liked the ending.
But I digress. The reason I am getting impatient, I must confess, is that I REALLY want to know what people thought of the ending to the series of adventures for Grace & Witherbloom! Were readers surprised? Were they satisfied? Actually, Mass Effect 3 has got me thinking a lot about endings. If you haven't heard, there has been a huge amount of controversy raised about the ending of the game. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say a lot of passionate fans are very angry. Some of it I can understand, though I don't necessarily agree. Some of it seems a bit overblown. But whatever you think of the reaction, it really goes to show you how a bad ending to a story can really make or break a piece of literature, a movie or a vide game.
I hope my ending in The Forgotten Fair fairs (pun definitely intended) better than Mass Effect 3.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Important Notice: For Those Who Downloaded The Forgotten Fair March 20
Hi everyone - if you downloaded The Forgotten Fair on March 20, you have an old version of the book that still contains some silly errors. The corrected version of the book is up now. To get the corrected version, all you have to do is delete the old version from your device and then re-download from Amazon. You don't have to purchase the book again.
This is only going to affect five people at this point, but as those are the people who downloaded it right away, I wanted to make sure your reading experience isn't negatively impacted.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
This is only going to affect five people at this point, but as those are the people who downloaded it right away, I wanted to make sure your reading experience isn't negatively impacted.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
The Finale...
It's coming. Just a couple more days. Right now I'm doing one last little read through. Just to fine tune here and there if needed, and hopefully catch any dumb mistakes that somehow slipped through the copy editing process. It's strange to think that in just a couple more days, all seven novellas will have been released. I have to say, I'm really pleased with how the final book, The Forgotten Fair, has turned out. It's always annoying when you read a story (or, in this case, a series of stories) and in the end it kind of peters out. But I think you'll be happy. I hope you'll be happy! But at this point all I can do is make it as exciting and interesting as I can and hope you'll agree.
It's interesting, because the end of the series was pretty firm in my mind by the time I'd finished The Girl Who Died Backwards. Not the exact details, but the general gist of it was definitely there. The reason I trailed off on the last "Origin" blog is that I do plan to pick the story up in further blogs that will go behind the scenes of each book. So I can elaborate there. But for now I'll just say that as much as the ending reflects my original plans, it's interesting to me to see all the depth and characters and details in their final form. There are characters here that I never planned when I started. People do things I didn't expect they'd do, especially as I was starting the first novella.
But perhaps the most surprising thing is how personal the book has become for me. My main goal in all of this was to write an exciting, fun and interesting series of novellas. But I enjoy entertainment that has some meat on its bones. And the thoughts that are constantly swirling through my head have certainly seeped into the book. And, in that way, it's become quite personal and meaningful to me. I don't know if it will be for you. It's sufficient for my purposes that you are entertained and satisfied by the ending.
Not long now. And remember...
Change Is A Matter of Time. :)
It's interesting, because the end of the series was pretty firm in my mind by the time I'd finished The Girl Who Died Backwards. Not the exact details, but the general gist of it was definitely there. The reason I trailed off on the last "Origin" blog is that I do plan to pick the story up in further blogs that will go behind the scenes of each book. So I can elaborate there. But for now I'll just say that as much as the ending reflects my original plans, it's interesting to me to see all the depth and characters and details in their final form. There are characters here that I never planned when I started. People do things I didn't expect they'd do, especially as I was starting the first novella.
But perhaps the most surprising thing is how personal the book has become for me. My main goal in all of this was to write an exciting, fun and interesting series of novellas. But I enjoy entertainment that has some meat on its bones. And the thoughts that are constantly swirling through my head have certainly seeped into the book. And, in that way, it's become quite personal and meaningful to me. I don't know if it will be for you. It's sufficient for my purposes that you are entertained and satisfied by the ending.
Not long now. And remember...
Change Is A Matter of Time. :)
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Origins of Grace & Witherbloom! Part Three
If you've read the previous installments, you know that Grace & Witherbloom started life as a web comic. That didn't really take off. I had thought about continuing with the web comic on my own. All it takes to start one is some web space and a web site. As a graphic designer, I could accomplish the latter easily enough. And the former didn't require a ton of money. But I realized that sequential illustration might not be for me.
I realized that the story was what I really craved to tell, and that perhaps there was another—more appropriate—way of telling the stories of Josiah and Helen.
Just a note, for this third (and final installment) there are still no story-specific stories. So if you haven't read the books, you can keep reading...
October 2008
I don't really remember the moment I decided to write a series of novellas, but I can say with certainty that Grace & WItherbloom was always conceived that way. At the time, I had imagined they might be printed and wasn't even considering e-books. I didn't yet have a Kindle or iPad. The iPad was still just a glimmer in Steve Job's eye at that point, I believe. Though rumors of it were to spring up shortly thereafter. The Kindle had been introduced, but I didn't understand the appeal. I have since come to love the Kindle, I should hasten to add. But at the time I liked REAL books and really couldn't imagine reading books in any other way.
I went back and forth on how I might present the novellas though. For a while I considered doing illustrated novellas, but that didn't quite work for me on a number of levels. For one thing, I didn't feel my style of illustration was right for the stories I imagined in my head. It was fine for the comic, but I was afraid if I did my own illustrations that the novellas would feel like kid's books or something. And that wasn't the sort of stories I intended to tell. I also considered the audience for my books. Should they be young adult novels? Well, I decided to let the books sort of tell me that as I wrote them. I decided to write the books I wanted to read and then worry about classifying them. My chief concern was making them entertaining and interesting. But, of course, all of this was purely academic until I actually wrote the thing!
The very first decision I made was that I would go with my initial instinct and set the books in Victorian times. As I had said before, I decided to make the web comic set in modern England partly because I couldn't be bothered to do research. This time, I was going to spend the time to make the book as convincing as I cared to. I will be the first to admit that the era in which G&W live is not meticulously researched. I learned enough to avoid major blunders (I hope,) understand the history of the time and get some fun details to sprinkle throughout the books. The reason for this is that I always planned for the books to clip along at a brisk pace. It's just the way I like to write things. It's fairly rare that people will stand around talking in my books. I try to have conversations on the move, and I try to avoid long chunks of exposition or try to work them in fairly naturally. This is really just because this is the way I like to absorb stories as a reader or a viewer.
The next major decision was getting rid of Kathy. I sort of ended up hating Kathy by the end of the one installment of the web comic. I just realized that she'd probably get annoying fast. Kid sidekicks often do. And there is a part of me that thinks it's very odd when people have kid sidekicks and then go into all sorts of dangerous situations. There is a point where you wonder if the adult in the situation isn't a bit psychopathic... or at least highly irresponsible. Having said that, there is a panel in the comic where Josiah is giving Kathy a cup of cocoa, and you get a sense of the size difference between them. That sparked my imagination and I decided I really liked the image of a young girl with this dapper gentleman character. So I decided to de-age Helen without changing her personality or relationship with Josiah at all. I found this dynamic very appealing, and thought it would be something fun to play off of in the stories.
So, I had my characters and I had my setting. Now, I just needed a plot for my first story. Also, I knew in the back of my mind I wanted some larger story to tie all the individual stories together as well...
I realized that the story was what I really craved to tell, and that perhaps there was another—more appropriate—way of telling the stories of Josiah and Helen.
Just a note, for this third (and final installment) there are still no story-specific stories. So if you haven't read the books, you can keep reading...
October 2008
I don't really remember the moment I decided to write a series of novellas, but I can say with certainty that Grace & WItherbloom was always conceived that way. At the time, I had imagined they might be printed and wasn't even considering e-books. I didn't yet have a Kindle or iPad. The iPad was still just a glimmer in Steve Job's eye at that point, I believe. Though rumors of it were to spring up shortly thereafter. The Kindle had been introduced, but I didn't understand the appeal. I have since come to love the Kindle, I should hasten to add. But at the time I liked REAL books and really couldn't imagine reading books in any other way.
I went back and forth on how I might present the novellas though. For a while I considered doing illustrated novellas, but that didn't quite work for me on a number of levels. For one thing, I didn't feel my style of illustration was right for the stories I imagined in my head. It was fine for the comic, but I was afraid if I did my own illustrations that the novellas would feel like kid's books or something. And that wasn't the sort of stories I intended to tell. I also considered the audience for my books. Should they be young adult novels? Well, I decided to let the books sort of tell me that as I wrote them. I decided to write the books I wanted to read and then worry about classifying them. My chief concern was making them entertaining and interesting. But, of course, all of this was purely academic until I actually wrote the thing!
The very first decision I made was that I would go with my initial instinct and set the books in Victorian times. As I had said before, I decided to make the web comic set in modern England partly because I couldn't be bothered to do research. This time, I was going to spend the time to make the book as convincing as I cared to. I will be the first to admit that the era in which G&W live is not meticulously researched. I learned enough to avoid major blunders (I hope,) understand the history of the time and get some fun details to sprinkle throughout the books. The reason for this is that I always planned for the books to clip along at a brisk pace. It's just the way I like to write things. It's fairly rare that people will stand around talking in my books. I try to have conversations on the move, and I try to avoid long chunks of exposition or try to work them in fairly naturally. This is really just because this is the way I like to absorb stories as a reader or a viewer.
The next major decision was getting rid of Kathy. I sort of ended up hating Kathy by the end of the one installment of the web comic. I just realized that she'd probably get annoying fast. Kid sidekicks often do. And there is a part of me that thinks it's very odd when people have kid sidekicks and then go into all sorts of dangerous situations. There is a point where you wonder if the adult in the situation isn't a bit psychopathic... or at least highly irresponsible. Having said that, there is a panel in the comic where Josiah is giving Kathy a cup of cocoa, and you get a sense of the size difference between them. That sparked my imagination and I decided I really liked the image of a young girl with this dapper gentleman character. So I decided to de-age Helen without changing her personality or relationship with Josiah at all. I found this dynamic very appealing, and thought it would be something fun to play off of in the stories.
So, I had my characters and I had my setting. Now, I just needed a plot for my first story. Also, I knew in the back of my mind I wanted some larger story to tie all the individual stories together as well...
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Origins of Grace & Witherbloom! Part Two
Now, at last, it can be... oh wait, I already did that bit.
This is the spoiler free continuation of the origin of Grace & Witherbloom! Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention that in a few hours Book V: The Obsidian Emperor will be available for FREE for a very limited time on Amazon. Why am I making it free? Well, I really like this book. I mean, I REALLY like it. I've enjoyed all the books, frankly, but there's just something about the last three books where everything just feels like it's firing on all cylinders. So I'm hoping to lure some more people into the fold (and hopefully they'll like it enough to go back and get the first four books as well as the last two.) Also, if those of you who have been following all along get a free book out of it, so much the better.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
October, 2007
I now had a very general concept for my new web comic. But now I needed some characters to populate it. The word "Grace" was the first one to fall into place into the title. I liked Grace & ______ as I thought it could have a nice ring to it, depending on what name was paired with it. The name Helen Grace just sort of dropped out of the sky, and into my head. I really have no better way of putting it. Nearly an instant after deciding Grace would be the last name for the female protagonist, the name Helen appeared before it and I loved it instantly. The main reason for this is that I loved the world play in the name. Helen Grace. Hell and Grace. Get it? And as soon as she had the name I knew what sort of character she'd be. She'd be the sort of protagonist that simply wasn't the center of many stories (that I had experienced at least) any more. She's sarcastic, arrogant, and occasionally downright rude. She doesn't have much time for anything or anyone other than what she's focused on at the moment. She's the sort of character that often plays second fiddle to the more classically nice and heroic main character in many stories. Those characters can often be very popular, but (especially around the time I first wrote this) are not often given the spotlight. I liked the idea of a central character who could be, at times,quite unlikable. But Helen is also incredibly humane and caring to those closest to her, of course, and she also happens to be right a lot of the time.
To balance her out though, I did think I needed a nicer sort to be her partner. He would be the one who helped smooth things over when Helen was a bit too rude. He'd be the voice of compassion in the face of Helen's somewhat more pragmatic view. This character took shape in my mind very quickly. But, while this character is very likable and affable, he was also an equal sparring partner when it came to a battle of words with Helen. Although he would be Helen's assistant, he'd feel more than free to question her if he needed to. I just needed a name for the character. I liked the dichotomy inherent in Helen's name. So I searched for something similar to use for the last name of this character. The name Witherbloom was something I created by squishing together two opposite states. I loved the sound of it as soon as I came up with it. Also, it has a great deal of significance in the context of the greater story, which will one day become clear. Josiah was chosen simply because it sounded good with Witherbloom, and it was a nice, sturdy name to contrast the more fanciful surname.
In the last blog entry I mentioned that the web comic version of Grace & Witherbloom was significantly different than the book version. But so far all of this, more or less, sounds like the book, right? In reality, there were three very large differences with this version of G&W:
1. The story took place in present day
That's right, these were not "Adventures in Victorian Sci-Fi." They were just... well, adventures in sci-fi, I suppose. I had flirted with setting it in Victorian times at this point, but decided I wanted something more contemporary. The dress Helen wears in the story is oddly old-fashioned and this was a vestige of my original idea, but that's it. One of the minor characters is even sporting a Nike tracksuit and an iPod Shuffle. So modern!
2. Helen was not a little girl
She was a full-grown woman. This is a fairly significant difference, of course.
3. Helen had a niece named Kathy
Kathy served a function that Wilhelmina would later take up, which is that of the "audience identification" figure that allows us to be introduced to the world of Grace & Witherbloom. She was a young girl who wore a pink hoodie and was dropped off at the front door of Grace & Witherbloom's house by a taxi at the start of the story. She was not Helen's biological niece, however.
The basic "concept" behind the premiere story eventually became the one I used for "The Village That Sleeps," though the actual execution of the concept was completely different. After sketching out the basic panel layouts, I began working on the comic in earnest. At that time, I was still drawing things by hand and then scanning them in to color them. The thing that I discovered while doing this ten page comic was that comics were hard work. I had done some comics now and again, of course, but this was the first sustained narrative of any sort I'd done in quite a while. I also packed an ton of detail into the panels, so penciling, inking and then coloring the story took a ton of my time.
By the end of it, I sort of wondered why I had wanted to be a comic book artist. The truth of it was that I probably didn't have the patience to be a comic artist. I loved telling stories and I liked comics as a storytelling medium but the amount of work that went into it might just not be for me. Especially when I wasn't a 100% happy with the results. Despite this fear, I still wanted to enter the comic. I was proud of it, even though I worried my art skills weren't really up to the task. So, I sent the comic off to Zuda and awaited their decision. At this point, I should say that I do plan to share the comic with everyone at some point. It may seem silly, but I'm a bit hesitant to show it until the books are all out. The reason for this is that I don't want people to see the comic and then build a mental image of the characters based on them. I'd rather you did that on your own based on the descriptions in the book. Although their physical characteristics in the comic are similar to what I had in my head when I wrote the book, they are not the same. But some time after the final book is published I promise to put the pages up for all to read.
February, 2008
I don't remember how long after I submitted the comic it was before the reply came, but on February 26, 2008 I got this rejection:
"We here at Zuda are fortunate enough to have dozens of excellent submissions, from a wide variety of artists, to review each week. Our editorial team carefully reads each and every submission. After much consideration, we have determined that other comics are a better fit for our editorial needs at this time.
Your characters and their motivations need development.
Work on your technical proficiency and craftsmanship.
Work on creating a better sense of depth and dimension in your artwork."
Now, I could get behind the latter two. I knew my artwork needed work. I knew the lettering needed work. The coloring was a bit amateurish. The first one kind of confused me, though. In ten pages I thought I had established the characters as well as I could considering they were meant to be sort of mysterious. Now, many years later, as I look back on it, I can totally understand what they are saying. The truth was, I don't think I introduced the concept in the best way possible with the comic. So, that was that. And I'll be honest, I was nervous about whether making a weekly web comic would really be right for me after my experience with the first ten pages. So I felt like it might have been for the best.
The thing is, Grace & Witherbloom were never far from my mind. I had really come to like the main characters and some of the concepts I had come up with. So for the next eight months or so they would pop back in to say hello and remind me they existed. And usually I'd shoo them away. But I would think about them. And I would think about the fact that if a comic hadn't felt quite right for them, and I didn't want to commit to drawing a comic series... maybe their adventures could take some other form?
It wasn't until October of 2008 that I finally took action on the thoughts that had been swirling through my head...
To Be Continued.
This is the spoiler free continuation of the origin of Grace & Witherbloom! Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention that in a few hours Book V: The Obsidian Emperor will be available for FREE for a very limited time on Amazon. Why am I making it free? Well, I really like this book. I mean, I REALLY like it. I've enjoyed all the books, frankly, but there's just something about the last three books where everything just feels like it's firing on all cylinders. So I'm hoping to lure some more people into the fold (and hopefully they'll like it enough to go back and get the first four books as well as the last two.) Also, if those of you who have been following all along get a free book out of it, so much the better.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
October, 2007
I now had a very general concept for my new web comic. But now I needed some characters to populate it. The word "Grace" was the first one to fall into place into the title. I liked Grace & ______ as I thought it could have a nice ring to it, depending on what name was paired with it. The name Helen Grace just sort of dropped out of the sky, and into my head. I really have no better way of putting it. Nearly an instant after deciding Grace would be the last name for the female protagonist, the name Helen appeared before it and I loved it instantly. The main reason for this is that I loved the world play in the name. Helen Grace. Hell and Grace. Get it? And as soon as she had the name I knew what sort of character she'd be. She'd be the sort of protagonist that simply wasn't the center of many stories (that I had experienced at least) any more. She's sarcastic, arrogant, and occasionally downright rude. She doesn't have much time for anything or anyone other than what she's focused on at the moment. She's the sort of character that often plays second fiddle to the more classically nice and heroic main character in many stories. Those characters can often be very popular, but (especially around the time I first wrote this) are not often given the spotlight. I liked the idea of a central character who could be, at times,quite unlikable. But Helen is also incredibly humane and caring to those closest to her, of course, and she also happens to be right a lot of the time.
To balance her out though, I did think I needed a nicer sort to be her partner. He would be the one who helped smooth things over when Helen was a bit too rude. He'd be the voice of compassion in the face of Helen's somewhat more pragmatic view. This character took shape in my mind very quickly. But, while this character is very likable and affable, he was also an equal sparring partner when it came to a battle of words with Helen. Although he would be Helen's assistant, he'd feel more than free to question her if he needed to. I just needed a name for the character. I liked the dichotomy inherent in Helen's name. So I searched for something similar to use for the last name of this character. The name Witherbloom was something I created by squishing together two opposite states. I loved the sound of it as soon as I came up with it. Also, it has a great deal of significance in the context of the greater story, which will one day become clear. Josiah was chosen simply because it sounded good with Witherbloom, and it was a nice, sturdy name to contrast the more fanciful surname.
In the last blog entry I mentioned that the web comic version of Grace & Witherbloom was significantly different than the book version. But so far all of this, more or less, sounds like the book, right? In reality, there were three very large differences with this version of G&W:
1. The story took place in present day
That's right, these were not "Adventures in Victorian Sci-Fi." They were just... well, adventures in sci-fi, I suppose. I had flirted with setting it in Victorian times at this point, but decided I wanted something more contemporary. The dress Helen wears in the story is oddly old-fashioned and this was a vestige of my original idea, but that's it. One of the minor characters is even sporting a Nike tracksuit and an iPod Shuffle. So modern!
2. Helen was not a little girl
She was a full-grown woman. This is a fairly significant difference, of course.
3. Helen had a niece named Kathy
Kathy served a function that Wilhelmina would later take up, which is that of the "audience identification" figure that allows us to be introduced to the world of Grace & Witherbloom. She was a young girl who wore a pink hoodie and was dropped off at the front door of Grace & Witherbloom's house by a taxi at the start of the story. She was not Helen's biological niece, however.
The basic "concept" behind the premiere story eventually became the one I used for "The Village That Sleeps," though the actual execution of the concept was completely different. After sketching out the basic panel layouts, I began working on the comic in earnest. At that time, I was still drawing things by hand and then scanning them in to color them. The thing that I discovered while doing this ten page comic was that comics were hard work. I had done some comics now and again, of course, but this was the first sustained narrative of any sort I'd done in quite a while. I also packed an ton of detail into the panels, so penciling, inking and then coloring the story took a ton of my time.
By the end of it, I sort of wondered why I had wanted to be a comic book artist. The truth of it was that I probably didn't have the patience to be a comic artist. I loved telling stories and I liked comics as a storytelling medium but the amount of work that went into it might just not be for me. Especially when I wasn't a 100% happy with the results. Despite this fear, I still wanted to enter the comic. I was proud of it, even though I worried my art skills weren't really up to the task. So, I sent the comic off to Zuda and awaited their decision. At this point, I should say that I do plan to share the comic with everyone at some point. It may seem silly, but I'm a bit hesitant to show it until the books are all out. The reason for this is that I don't want people to see the comic and then build a mental image of the characters based on them. I'd rather you did that on your own based on the descriptions in the book. Although their physical characteristics in the comic are similar to what I had in my head when I wrote the book, they are not the same. But some time after the final book is published I promise to put the pages up for all to read.
February, 2008
I don't remember how long after I submitted the comic it was before the reply came, but on February 26, 2008 I got this rejection:
"We here at Zuda are fortunate enough to have dozens of excellent submissions, from a wide variety of artists, to review each week. Our editorial team carefully reads each and every submission. After much consideration, we have determined that other comics are a better fit for our editorial needs at this time.
Your characters and their motivations need development.
Work on your technical proficiency and craftsmanship.
Work on creating a better sense of depth and dimension in your artwork."
Now, I could get behind the latter two. I knew my artwork needed work. I knew the lettering needed work. The coloring was a bit amateurish. The first one kind of confused me, though. In ten pages I thought I had established the characters as well as I could considering they were meant to be sort of mysterious. Now, many years later, as I look back on it, I can totally understand what they are saying. The truth was, I don't think I introduced the concept in the best way possible with the comic. So, that was that. And I'll be honest, I was nervous about whether making a weekly web comic would really be right for me after my experience with the first ten pages. So I felt like it might have been for the best.
The thing is, Grace & Witherbloom were never far from my mind. I had really come to like the main characters and some of the concepts I had come up with. So for the next eight months or so they would pop back in to say hello and remind me they existed. And usually I'd shoo them away. But I would think about them. And I would think about the fact that if a comic hadn't felt quite right for them, and I didn't want to commit to drawing a comic series... maybe their adventures could take some other form?
It wasn't until October of 2008 that I finally took action on the thoughts that had been swirling through my head...
To Be Continued.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Origins of Grace & Witherbloom! Part One
Now, at last, it can be told!
Last Tuesday saw the release of The Light on the Moor, which told the origin of Josiah Witherbloom. To celebrate, I thought I'd write a blog (well, a series of blogs, actually) talking about the origin of Grace & Witherbloom. No worries, there won't be any story spoilers here so feel free to read even if you haven't started reading the books. But if you haven't, what are you waiting for? :)
July, 2007
The story of Grace & Witherbloom begins over four years ago. As I type that, I can't actually believe it. But there you go.
In 2007, DC Comics launched the (now defunct) imprint called Zuda. the idea was that the site would act as a sort of "American Idol" of web comics. Creators would enter a 10-page debut story for a possible web comic. The Zuda team selected what they thought were the best comics and concepts, and then readers would read the comics and vote for which one they wanted to become an ongoing comic on Zuda.
I was really excited by this prospect. Part of this was that I was deeply jealous of my friend David Willis and the amazing success he's had in the web comics world with strips like Shortpacked. David and I met in high school, and although we haven't actually seen each other in real life for well over thriteen years now I have always kept track of him and his projects. He's a funny and genuinely nice guy and it makes me happy to see him making a living making comics. It also makes me seethe with barely contained jealousy. I always wanted to be a comic book writer and artist. There's just one thing that separates David and I. He worked his butt off at it. Me? I had a lot of raw talent and a bunch of wishes. Also, I was a tad bit lazy with. But more on that next time.
So, here was my chance! I was going to have a web comic! Success would be mine! But, what to do? What comic to make? I had a couple ideas floating around my head over the years for various comics. Some superhero stuff, some sci-fi stuff and even some "everyday life" kind of ideas. But none of the old ideas felt quite right. So I started to think about the sorts of stories I like to read about and what would be fun to draw day in and day out to get a weekly strip out. That's when I hit upon a fantastic idea... Doctor Who! The thing you always hear about Doctor Who and why it's so great is that it has such a great format. Now, that's not all it took to make a multi-media phenomenon that is about to celebrate it's 50th anniversary, of course. But it is a huge asset. The Doctor can go anywhere in space and time. Just think about that. The possibilities are endless. Only tight budgets have him constantly ending up in London or some small village in the UK. So, what if I could do something like that?
I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was very little. I have found out this is somewhat rare for American Doctor Who fans my age. Most of them either found it in their teens or even later. I've been watching it since I was 8 years old. I used to stay up incredibly late at night to watch in on PBS. Which, for my eight-year-old self, was 10:30pm. They played the 4th Doctor years on a loop. You have to realize, when I first started watching I knew NOTHING about the show. I was watching it in a void without any sort of coverage and absolutely no one I knew had any clue about what it was. A few years later random teachers in their 30's might nod appreciatively if I mentioned it. But that was it. Certainly no other kids knew about it! (It's been even more difficult to find fans of my other great love at the time, Are You Being Served. In fact, it wasn't until I was in college and met my friend Laura that I met another real-life fan of the show.) So when the Doctor changed his face at the end of Logopolis, I was flabbergasted! I was even more confused when the next week they played the 4th Doctor's first story, Robot. Eventually though, my PBS station did play all the stories that are still in existence starting with the 1st Doctor. When I was a kid, I had no idea that the stories were of varying length. PBS stripped them all together into one huge story and aired the whole thing in a night, regardless of length. So for stories that lasted 6 episodes or more this was a HUGE time commitment, and I certainly was not able to stay awake for all of them.
I explain all this to say, Doctor Who is practically ingrained in my DNA. So trying to create a series that could have that sort of mish-mash of genres and elements really appealed to me. I could draw pretty much anything I wanted to, for a start! My initial idea was to have two leads who were time-travelling sleuths. So it would be ____ & _____: Temporal Detectives. I didn't have names at this point, obviously. There are two big flaws with this. First of all, time travel is a pretty well-worn thing. Also, in my mind Doctor Who kind of owns it. I didn't want to remake Doctor Who, I just wanted a story with similar possibilities. Next, the whole mystery angle was also kind of limiting. I like a good mystery, sure, but I didn't want to be writing them all the time. I suppose in some ways The Girl Who Died Backwards in the last little echo of this first idea, though certainly no plots were thought of at this point.
So after doing some thinking, I decided I would come up with a way to have my two leads be long-lived individuals. I played around with ______ & ______: Immortal Detectives too... but again, I wanted to lose the detective angle. So I decided these two would have some foreknowledge of historical events. Now, I can't actually say yet HOW this is, because it hasn't been revealed in the books yet! But I thought my solution was pretty novel and I liked it. My plan was to have the first 10-page story finished just in time for Zuda's launch in fall of 2007.
However, while the comic I submitted to them was, indeed, called Grace & Witherbloom it differed from the eventual books in many ways...
To Be Continued!
Last Tuesday saw the release of The Light on the Moor, which told the origin of Josiah Witherbloom. To celebrate, I thought I'd write a blog (well, a series of blogs, actually) talking about the origin of Grace & Witherbloom. No worries, there won't be any story spoilers here so feel free to read even if you haven't started reading the books. But if you haven't, what are you waiting for? :)
July, 2007
The story of Grace & Witherbloom begins over four years ago. As I type that, I can't actually believe it. But there you go.
In 2007, DC Comics launched the (now defunct) imprint called Zuda. the idea was that the site would act as a sort of "American Idol" of web comics. Creators would enter a 10-page debut story for a possible web comic. The Zuda team selected what they thought were the best comics and concepts, and then readers would read the comics and vote for which one they wanted to become an ongoing comic on Zuda.
I was really excited by this prospect. Part of this was that I was deeply jealous of my friend David Willis and the amazing success he's had in the web comics world with strips like Shortpacked. David and I met in high school, and although we haven't actually seen each other in real life for well over thriteen years now I have always kept track of him and his projects. He's a funny and genuinely nice guy and it makes me happy to see him making a living making comics. It also makes me seethe with barely contained jealousy. I always wanted to be a comic book writer and artist. There's just one thing that separates David and I. He worked his butt off at it. Me? I had a lot of raw talent and a bunch of wishes. Also, I was a tad bit lazy with. But more on that next time.
So, here was my chance! I was going to have a web comic! Success would be mine! But, what to do? What comic to make? I had a couple ideas floating around my head over the years for various comics. Some superhero stuff, some sci-fi stuff and even some "everyday life" kind of ideas. But none of the old ideas felt quite right. So I started to think about the sorts of stories I like to read about and what would be fun to draw day in and day out to get a weekly strip out. That's when I hit upon a fantastic idea... Doctor Who! The thing you always hear about Doctor Who and why it's so great is that it has such a great format. Now, that's not all it took to make a multi-media phenomenon that is about to celebrate it's 50th anniversary, of course. But it is a huge asset. The Doctor can go anywhere in space and time. Just think about that. The possibilities are endless. Only tight budgets have him constantly ending up in London or some small village in the UK. So, what if I could do something like that?
I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was very little. I have found out this is somewhat rare for American Doctor Who fans my age. Most of them either found it in their teens or even later. I've been watching it since I was 8 years old. I used to stay up incredibly late at night to watch in on PBS. Which, for my eight-year-old self, was 10:30pm. They played the 4th Doctor years on a loop. You have to realize, when I first started watching I knew NOTHING about the show. I was watching it in a void without any sort of coverage and absolutely no one I knew had any clue about what it was. A few years later random teachers in their 30's might nod appreciatively if I mentioned it. But that was it. Certainly no other kids knew about it! (It's been even more difficult to find fans of my other great love at the time, Are You Being Served. In fact, it wasn't until I was in college and met my friend Laura that I met another real-life fan of the show.) So when the Doctor changed his face at the end of Logopolis, I was flabbergasted! I was even more confused when the next week they played the 4th Doctor's first story, Robot. Eventually though, my PBS station did play all the stories that are still in existence starting with the 1st Doctor. When I was a kid, I had no idea that the stories were of varying length. PBS stripped them all together into one huge story and aired the whole thing in a night, regardless of length. So for stories that lasted 6 episodes or more this was a HUGE time commitment, and I certainly was not able to stay awake for all of them.
I explain all this to say, Doctor Who is practically ingrained in my DNA. So trying to create a series that could have that sort of mish-mash of genres and elements really appealed to me. I could draw pretty much anything I wanted to, for a start! My initial idea was to have two leads who were time-travelling sleuths. So it would be ____ & _____: Temporal Detectives. I didn't have names at this point, obviously. There are two big flaws with this. First of all, time travel is a pretty well-worn thing. Also, in my mind Doctor Who kind of owns it. I didn't want to remake Doctor Who, I just wanted a story with similar possibilities. Next, the whole mystery angle was also kind of limiting. I like a good mystery, sure, but I didn't want to be writing them all the time. I suppose in some ways The Girl Who Died Backwards in the last little echo of this first idea, though certainly no plots were thought of at this point.
So after doing some thinking, I decided I would come up with a way to have my two leads be long-lived individuals. I played around with ______ & ______: Immortal Detectives too... but again, I wanted to lose the detective angle. So I decided these two would have some foreknowledge of historical events. Now, I can't actually say yet HOW this is, because it hasn't been revealed in the books yet! But I thought my solution was pretty novel and I liked it. My plan was to have the first 10-page story finished just in time for Zuda's launch in fall of 2007.
However, while the comic I submitted to them was, indeed, called Grace & Witherbloom it differed from the eventual books in many ways...
To Be Continued!
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