Hey folks,
I have a new book coming soon. This one is called, "
The Sacrifice for Peace -- The Gathering", and it's the first volume of a trilogy. The book is actually the first novel I wrote, taking 21 months to write the original manuscript. I started writing it back in 2011, after I had an unusual dream early one morning. I woke up thinking, "That was cool", but then, unlike most dreams, this one stuck with me. Three days later, I decided to write something about it, thinking it would only be a couple of pages. As I was typing, it grew to 10-12 pages, and kept on going. And going.
People who follow my work know that I'm also an artist, and have been all of my life. I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil. At one period in my life, between 2008-2011, due to some personal reasons I won't get into, I gave up drawing and painting. I was considering giving all of my art stuff away and never touch it again. Well...I guess the Universe had other ideas, and my art returned while I was working on this book. I started out just making a few rough concept sketches of the characters--I was out of practice, so they weren't that great. I figured at the time that I would have somebody else draw the characters, but, as I said, the Universe had other ideas, so...I kept working on drawings of my characters. Drawing anthropomorphic characters was something I hadn't done for a long time (made some drawings of evolved dinosaur characters back in the 1980s), and I certainly hadn't drawn any
furry characters since a childhood comic I made of a young astronaut guy and his pet mouse who traveled space with him (the mouse had a mildly sarcastic wit, and only "spoke" in thought bubbles). I got to looking at other people's furry art, and found a few artists who are truly outstanding--Dark Natasha, Christy Grandjean, (the now late) James M. Hardiman, to name a few. I studied their work, and learned how to make better, more realistic, drawings of my characters, just by looking at their art. I have developed my own style, of course, so it wasn't just a simple matter of copying theirs. I bought some prints from Dark Natasha--they are truly beautiful works of art, let me tell you! The details she puts into her art is amazing. Her rendition of James Hardiman's character, Valencia, is stunning, and it was the inspiration behind my anthro skunk characters. Another of Dark Natasha's characters, her "Bat Priestess", also inspired the creation of my own anthro bat characters. Since I have gotten back into drawing, my own art has greatly improved, and I'm making more and more drawings in full color using colored pencils, and I'm expanding into using inks. To show you the difference, I'll insert an early rendition of my character, Meri, from this story, and a recent rendition of her.
From early 2012 (this was actually the 2nd try)...
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| Meri - 2012 |
And now, here's the full color rendition I made in 2016...
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| Meri - 2016 |
Big difference, eh? ;)
You'll get to read about Meri, and her sister, Kurietta, in this story, along with several other wonderful characters. :)
Right now, the last chapter (I actually call them "parts" in the Table of Contents instead of chapters) is now with my editor, undergoing the final line-by-line edit. When he's done his thing with it, and I apply whatever edits that will be necessary, the book will be ready for publishing through CreateSpace. I have the project set up already, the ISBN numbers have been assigned, the cover art is finished, the appendices at the back of the book have been updated...I'm feeling the excitement of finally having this book published! :)
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| "Beginning the Journey..." (cover art for "The Sacrifice for Peace, vol-1, The Gathering") |
It's been a long journey, and the story isn't over yet. "
The Sacrifice for Peace" is mentioned (though not by name) by my characters in "Family Tails - The Story of a Mixed Family in the Genetic Age", and it's actually the beginning of a truly epic story arc spanning worlds and billions of years. In my "
Daggers of Darkness" series of nine books (the first, "
Into the Black" is available), this epic story arc gets tied together--the descendants of those in "
Family Tails", who live five hundred years into the future, will discover the world of Y'Nahra, where "
The Sacrifice for Peace" takes place, and learn of their true origins way in the distant past. For those who may have already read "
Family Tails", "
Daggers of Darkness - Into the Black", and "
Tangled Vines", this is where everything ultimately starts...and ends.
But the Greater Journey will continue...
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| Naoia Anensu'ena -- one of the First Ones, great grandmother of Night Song |
...and Naoia Anensu'ena will be out there watching--and waiting--ever so patiently. <3
