I tried to delay it, but I have to do this. I gotta raise the prices on my books. Not by much – only an extra $1 for most books.
But here’s why – the cost of printing has gone up. Part of it is the paper shortage. The other part is that ink prices have gone up, too.
In my original pricing, I ate up the difference. Even though books are my biggest selling item, they did not make a profit. But with printing costs going up, something had to give.
So…yeah. My books are going to cost a little extra per copy.
The prices are already adjusted on my Ko-Fi shop. Not all of my books are listed, though. I’ll add more books as soon as I can.
PDFs will stay free (though tips are optional if you have the means).
I have been talking about myself a LOT lately. So to balance the scales, I want to share some of my favorite things right now – movies, books, podcasts, music, anything that you should check out if you haven’t heard about it already!
First, Music.
Let’s get the “big names” out of the way: you should give the Sonic 3 and Knuckles soundtrack a listen. Yes, I sound like a weeb, but hear me out. Because the team who worked with Michael Jackson composed some of these tracks. Now, who EXACTLY composed what songs is a mystery that has confounded the Sonic fandom for 20+ years (apparently). But I cannot deny that the music theory behind Angel Island zone Acts 1 and 2 AND Marble Gardens is borderline genius. Also, Ice Cap Zone Act 1 is a bop and an earworm. That got stuck in my head for DAYS.
Maybe you need more hip hop though? Then check out this Native American hip-hop artist DJ Shub and his track featuring the Northern Cree singers, Indomitable. Also, the Mother’s Day song, I Hope You Know from Supaman and Ashley Hall is great, and the music video is sweet.
Or maybe you want something that will confuse your ear? I can’t recommend Caravan Palace enough. They do a little bit of everything, but all under the electro-jazz umbrella. If you want to start simple, try their singles Melancholia, Moonshine, and Rock It For Me. Also, each music video is gorgeously animated.
Second, Podcasts.
For a while, I listened to the Overly Sarcastic Podcast. In each episode, they talk about the behind-the-scenes work they did for particular episodes, answer listener questions, and goof around. It’s silly and fun.
Recently, I rediscovered my love for The Dollop, a history podcast where the host reads a story of American History out loud to an oblivious stand-up comedian. This podcast does GREAT live shows. I’ve been listening to episode 323, the 1908 New York to Paris Car Race. The event is an utter disaster and the riffs are hilarious. They even did an episode about the Stonewall Riots (which I still need to listen to).
Third, Books.
I have a low-key reading goal: read 60 books before the end of the year. Right now, I’m at 51 books completed. And, surprisingly, some of these books have been great!
The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall has a “meh” rating on Goodreads, which I kinda’ sorta’ get? This is the story of a genderqueer pirate and a court girl who fall in love, rescue a mermaid, learn magic, and take revenge against a notorious pirate captain and his crew. Apparently, Goodreads decided it’s not for everyone, but I argue otherwise. Also, READ ALL THE WAY TO THE END. It has a fake-out ending where it looks like the lesbian couple does not survive to the end, but READ IT because THEY DO.
Since I’ve read over 50 books so far this year, maybe I’ll write a separate post just for book recommendations. Otherwise, this post will last forever.
Need more? Check out my list of favorite black artists. This list touches on a diverse range of creators, from cosplayers to comic artists.
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading! Be sure to check out these very cool projects, and let me know in the comments what you thought of them!
Yes, I do! I did remove the things that are sold out, so those things I removed are gone forever. BUT…I still have mystery bags. Plus I will be making more mystery bags soon. Also, they’re now $1 (and shipping is $5 for USA shoppers).
It also occurred to me that I haven’t posted the other Charlie & Clow books OR my other stickers up on ko-fi yet. So that’s going to get fixed this week.
And MAYBE there will be original art soon? Who knows? There’s still a gallery show I need to prepare for. But I’ll go into that next time.
I want to talk a bit about how to set goals to be…more realistic. Because I have fallen a twee bit behind on a few things.
First, I wanna’ talk about this piece, pictured at the top.
Right now, the title is (tentatively), “Cryptid of Leaves.” I started this piece all the way back in 2019. So…it’s been A WHILE. I worked on it, then set it aside, because those leaves ALONE took effort to draw. And then I thought, “Let’s color this with colored pencil! That’ll get the look I want to achieve!”
And past me thought I could have this done in a month. On top of everything else I have going on. Which…(insert laughter here).
I have only worked on this in my free time, when I have the urge to do it. So I’m shifting the goal for this piece: I want it finished by…the end of October.
Why so late? Because I still have KickStarter rewards to fulfill and other books to put together. Speaking of which…
Second, I want to talk about the PDF for The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1.
For KickStarter backers, I had said, “Oh this should be delivered to you by the end of May!”
It’s June 1st now. The PDF still needs put together. Oops.
To be fair, May was a big transition month. I quit working at NeverEnding (long story), and shifted back to freelancing full-time. Still, getting my freelance sea-legs back can only explain so much. All I can ask is please, continue to be patient. The PDF should still get done by the end of June. I’ll go more in depth about the process in a KickStarter update tomorrow.
Third, The Legend of Jamie Roberts.
So…I’m out of buffer. The month of May had some unexpected events that prevented me from keeping up with my usual production schedule. That means right now, I’m making the next updates as the story is going. That’s not a place I like to be in.
Does this mean that The Legend will get a temporary hiatus? I don’t know. But I’m tempted to have a short, two-week break from regular updates just so I can build the buffer back.
Last Saturday, on my livestream (which you can watch because it’s archived here), I announced a LOT of projects. To make the list more understandable, here’s the broad strokes.
Group 1: The Books
Last week I announced my departure from NeverEnding. For reasons listed here. Now that I have left, that means more time to fulfill KickStarter rewards.
Less Than Secret: A Cryptid Anthology is coming together well. That said, this book is being handled by my comic buddies Ben and Rainer. So most of the production is out of my hands now.
I also have a small list of books I would LOVE to see released before the end of the year. So come back later for more info on those!
(Spoilers: A couple of them may be collaborations I’ve done with CB, co-creator of Validation. We’ll be collaborating on new projects soon!)
Because Mr. Dino & Friends will be getting their own RedBubble store AND Instagram soon!
These two projects will have alternating release schedules: one Friday will have a new BreeBree Bootique design. The next Friday will have a Mr. Dino and Friends design. Then the cycle repeats.
Also, there are still large prints to make as part of my 2021 goals. One is already done (and you can watch me work on THAT in this archived stream). That leaves 4 more to go – and I will livestream working on those!
Group 3: The Everything Else
I’m ready to livestream on a regular schedule again! I had to take a break after the frenzy of promoting Less Than Secret. Now, livestreams will be coming back.
So be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit that bell. I’ll be streaming every Saturday at 1 pm EDT. This weekend I’m streaming Clip Studio Paint Tips and Tricks.
As for other projects…well, there are new podcasts on the horizon. I’ll keep you posted as those shows come together. If you like tabletop RPGs, I hope you’ll stick around for these new podcasts.
Speaking of Tabletop RPGS…I’m putting together an NPC Compendium. This resource will be for all the game masters out there who need non-player characters to populate their worlds. Follow me on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or Ko-Fi as I draw these characters!
And the Blog?
I’m updating this blog more often so you know how things are going! I hope you stick around.
(Or you can subscribe to my email newsletter. It’ll have updates on ALL of these projects at the end of each week.)
