Click on the image to go to the art dump on ArtStation.
Quick this time, wasn’t I? 🙂
FHOD Art Dump
Posted in Death's Handmaiden, Digital Art
Tagged ArtStation, character development, characters
Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions
The new Death’s Handmaiden is out. Hope you enjoy it.
Stuff and Things
Okay, here’s a few things I thought I should mention. In no particular order:
The third Death’s Handmaiden book will be out soon (next day or two). It’s called Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions.
I’m currently working on Sign of the Dragon (though I’m having a little fun with it and I’ve taken it back to the drawing board). It should be out in a couple of months. This is going to be a replacement for the Fox books because…
There are going to be two more Fox Meridian books, and then I’ll be bringing that series to a conclusion. I hope to wrap up all the loose threads in those two books. Why am I ending the series? Well, two reasons. First, I’m running out of ideas. I think I’ve gone as far as I can with the overall plot, and I’d rather handle any other ideas I have for that genre with new characters. Two, my mother liked reading the Fox books. I wouldn’t say I wrote them for her, but she liked them. It’s going to be hard writing those characters knowing that she won’t be reading the results. I was aiming to wrap up the series before my mother died, but now it’s become more of a necessity.
Anyway, more about the new Death’s Handmaiden book in the next day or two. I’ll be posting the cover soon, as usual. I’ve also been posting a few random images (of Tatsu from Sign of the Dragon) on ArtStation; you can see them here.
Stay safe, and don’t break your keyboard hitting F5: I’ll post as soon as it’s ready.
Posted in Death's Handmaiden, Fox Meridian, News, Sign of the Dragon
Tagged ArtStation, ebook, release date
Watching Rockets, Writing Cyberpunk
So, I have NASA TV on in the background in the hope of seeing a rocket fly (safely) and I’m writing cyberpunk. The guys in the picture above are the main characters and I’m not going to say much about them right now. The image was inspired by part of the opening credit sequence of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig, though this kind of ‘identification lineup’ image is pretty common, especially in anime, though also in one famous live action movie I can think of.
Also, I’ve been reading some of the Thaumatology books recently, so here’s a little something I put together recently…
(No, I’m not going to do another Thaumatology book right now. But I am sort of feeling it a little more… Don’t get your hopes up.)
Meanwhile, good luck to SpaceX and NASA. Let’s hope it’s a go this time.
Update
It occurred to me today that it’s been a while since I told you guys I might have been exposed to the coronavirus. I know I vanish for long periods normally, but I haven’t normally told you I might have a fatal disease before doing so. An update feels like it’s in order, even if it’s just to point out I’m still alive.
It turned out that we were clear of COVID-19, so that turned out to be a non-problem. Thank you for all your well-wishes for my mother. Unfortunately, there was really no way short of an actual miracle that she was going to get better and she passed away in her sleep on Easter Monday. I’m staying with my father at the moment to help him through the aftermath, but I am still doing some work because it keeps my mind busy.
Out in the world, things are a bit crazy. I’m actually fairly worried about you guys. A lot of you live in America and the virus has really clobbered the US. I don’t know how many of you are in New York City, but that place has seen almost as much death as the entirety of the UK! So, basically: yes, I’ve had a bad month or so over here, but I really do hope that all of you are staying safe and having a better time than I am. I will be back with a new book as soon as I can manage it, possibly around mid-June. Frankly, I could use the positive feeling of getting some good writing done at the moment.
Also, just because I got a little time to render some stuff last night, please enjoy a pin-up of Nava in a corset.
Bitter Wind Art Dump
Here it is, the art dump for Bitter Wind. Click on the picture to link to the collection.
COVID-19 Update
I never intended to write a post like this, because it sounds like a cry for sympathy. I am not asking for sympathy, but I do feel like you guys should know why I’m a bit slow with the next book and possibly a bit quiet.
So…
This week I had to rush off to support my father who is looking after my mother, who is basically confined to a bed now. Today, someone has decided that, since my mother has a fever and is short of breath, the house is now in 14-day quarantine in case she has COVID-19. I got told this just after I’d put Bitter Wind out for sale, which is why I went a bit quiet after doing so. The annoying thing is that something other than that virus is probably responsible for my mother’s symptoms, but no one is taking any chances. And I can’t really blame them.
While I can work from here, more or less, it’s far from ideal. I’ll try to get an art dump up in the next day or so. I keep my reference art on OneDrive, so that should be okay. What I can’t do is produce new reference art for anything new. Just the fact that I’m helping with my mother’s care is going to make things difficult, but I’ll be doing my best to keep working.
That said, most of the chaos today has been caused by our need to suddenly source food which can be delivered to the house. Yes, we’re really being required to stay indoors; we can’t go out for anything. This should be really exciting. It’s possible I just might decide to do a post-apocalyptic story after all this dies down.
Bitter Wind
Bitter Wind, the second Death’s Handmaiden book, is now available.
No More Celebrity Lifestyle
Well, the British prime minister has just announced that the country is going into a near-total lockdown. We have to stay inside unless shopping for food, dealing with medical needs, or a couple of other reasons.
I don’t know what I’m going to do! No more parties. No more inviting groupies around to my place. I’m going to have to cancel that world book-signing tour.
Oh, wait…
