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What is this web comic thing?

If you hit my blog with any frequency, you know I've been going on about a graphic novel/web comic project, Saltwater Witch. I've been posting 3 -5 pages every week (Monday's) since November. It's the story of one of my characters from my novel Seaborn (Juno Books, 2008), with the events taking place about five years before the events in Seaborn.And it's free. I want anyone who likes fantasy, comics--any graphic forms of stories, the ocean, magic, or just a good story to check it out, grab the PDFs and share them. I have a lot of work licensed with...

Kassandra as Outsider

This is what you get when you have kids in junior high school...and they're reading The Outsiders.So here's the meme: pick a fictional character, one of your own or a favorite from any author, and come up with something to describe them--a cool name, draw the character, a written description--as if they were in S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders.Okay, not really, although you're welcome to run with it. This is going to be the first panel in the very next page of Saltwater Witch--along with a short block of narrative about the voice in her head.I spent a couple hours...

Some up and coming scenes

Did some sketching and painting today. Here are a couple scenes that will probably make it into the next set of Saltwater Witch. Tree and shadows came out pretty good--what do you think?

One more...

Here's the last of a series of facial expression sketches I've done for three of the main characters in Saltwater Witch. Damn, blond hair is some of the toughest stuff to draw.Find the other two expression sets here and here.Click the pic for the full view. .

Nicole Garcia expression sheet 1

Here's another set of facial expression sketches, this time for a friend of Kassandra's, Nicole Garcia. Same expressions as the last set with Kassandra. Nicole will be in the next scene in Saltwater Witch.Click the pic for the full view: .

First sketches of 2009

Here's my first set of sketches of the new year, a few expression sheets I'm drawing for Saltwater Witch. The last one is the main character, Kassandra, doing surprise and a few others. I'm to the point in the story where she and her two friends (yes, she only has two) have a little discussion about math and mothers and monsters--and there's some anger, shock, etc. I don't usually resolve to do anything in particular at the first of the year, but one thing I'm going to really try to do through 2009 is keep up with my graphic novel/web...

It's Sir Terry Pratchett

It's official. Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Wee Free Men, Vimes, Tiffany, Weatherwax, Ogg, DEATH, etc. etc.) has been knighted, and among other funny things, said, "This means that fans, while not calling me Sir, must now refrain from throwing things."Check out the Wired Story.Thanks Con!.

Happy last day of 2008!

Hope everyone is having a fine day, hope this year was good, and next will be better! I don't usually make resolutions, but I will say what I'd like to accomplish in the next year: get another novel under contract--hopefully more than one. Sell more short stories, and I'm really going to try to get some art published.Anyone planning/hoping/resolving to complete novels, stories, or art, and get them published in 2009?Cheers!.

Another 3 pages up for Saltwater Witch...

I just posted another set of pages for Saltwater Witch (graphic novel or web comic, whatever you want to call it). Check it out here:http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch/The latest is Set 5, pages 47, 48, 49.This a detail out of the panel for page 48, with Kassandra getting defiant and doing long division in her head...with a little help..

Happy Holidays

A little late getting this post up, but here it is. Hope everyone's having a happy and/or productive holiday. We've had a couple good snowfalls in the last week, although it's high 30s today and raining. Alice took the kids to see Yes Man with Jim Carrey the night of the 26th, and I spent the time reading Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book--very cool story. I've also done quite a bit of writing and drawing. Writing: I currently have two short stories submitted, as well as one novel--still no word on any of these. I finished an SF short story, ended...

Another six pages up for Saltwater Witch!

I managed to get another six pages complete and up. The start of chapter 2. Go check them out:http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch.

Voices in her head

I've been exploring ways to visually convey the idea that one character in a graphic novel has several voices inside her head--real people who speak to her, advise her, argue among themselves, threaten each other and my character. Last night I posted the first set with one of these characters inside another character. After trying all kinds of interesting ways to do this, I've settled on a simple thought bubble that's different from any others--unique to that individual inside character. There's only one instance of this so far, but I'd love some feedback.Here's the link to Saltwater Witch, with the...

Blogging for four solid years

I started blogging in October of 2004 with something custom on an old web site, but quickly--a couple months later--jumped on a subscription to Typepad. I've been here ever since. (I actually kept an online daily journal of my son's premature birth and 2 1/2 month journey through the NICU at Valley Children's Hospital in 1996, but that wasn't quite blogging because there was no such thing as RSS).What's weird is looking back and realizing I hadn't published a thing then...nothing, not one story. But I was trying. My first post was about a reject I'd just received from Strange...

Classroom scene

Here's another ink and watercolor from Saltwater Witch chapter 2, a wide scene from the classroom. Some good stuff about to happen. I'm still on track to post another set--the start of chapter 2--Monday sometime.Click the pic for the full view. Click here for the graphic novel.

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Wordle update

I just did another Wordle-dump for the site, and I'm glad "Witch" is so prominent, but even better is the notion of a "Cash Witch."

A peek at what's next...

Here's an ink and watercolor I started a few days ago, finished up last night. (There's still some tweaking to do, like the lack of a doorknob on the door, other things I'm not going to bother with because I'm way past this).But I think this is one my favorite scenes so far, Kassandra looking back at Matrothy--the angry woman who runs this part of the Center. Kassandra's wondering if there's anything different about her, the day after being eaten by a demon and then spit up--and then her memory of the event erased. The girls with Kassandra are--if you've...

Power's on and happiness

The power came back on around 7:30 tonight...finally. It's been out solid since last Thursday. Did some sketching last night in the dark. Alice accused me of never drawing anyone happy or smiling. So, here you go. Everyone's happy and in the holiday spirit. That's my new favorite band, Cats in Paris.Click for the full view.

Another 6 pages of Saltwater Witch up!

I had these ready last week, but just now had the chance to post them. Six entirely new pages of Saltwater Witch. If you're new to this, start here:http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch/If you've already read/viewed some of this, then you can jump right to a particular set here. The latest is set 3.Saltwater Witch Set 1Saltwater Witch Set 2Saltwater Witch Set 3Let me know what you think!.

You never think...

...you're going to be part of the group whose power doesn't come back on for five days--or more. Power still isn't restored to our area of New Hampshire. Unitil, our power company, has the number of outages down to 30,000 from a peak of 75,000, so it's heading in the right direction. Before we locked the doors and fled the state, I took a few pics of ice in the trees, a cold sun coming through them, and the only predators bad-ass enough to be out in any numbers when the temps were around 15 degrees F. The temperature in...

Sea Witch "Andy"

Her name's Andromache--"Andy" for short. Watercolor and ink on 12 x 17 100lb Bristol Smooth. I used a 3 inch paint brush on her hair. Colors are little funky because this is way too big for my scanner. Had to take a pic of it with my Nikon.Click for the full view.

Andromache - journal sketch

Sketched this last night, pencil in my journal. I was planning to do some character studies of Andromache, but ended up running with a flatter stylized portrait. Click for the full view.

Another 3 pages up for Saltwater Witch

I just inked and painted another three pages from sketches I drew at lunch today. They're done and posted at the end of this page: http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch/2008/12/index.htmlIf you haven't seen any of this before, here's the start: http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch .

Help out an author

John Scalzi, SF author extraordinaire, is helping out SF author and publisher Vera Nazarian by posting his short story "The State of Super Villainy" on Whatever and asking for donations through Paypal. What's extra cool is that Bill Schafer of Subterranean Press will match your donation up to a $1000 when you donate through the link in John's post. Go read and help out Vera! .

Another 8 pages up for Saltwater Witch [del.icio.us]

Another 8 pages up for Saltwater Witch

I just posted another eight pages of my graphic novel SALTWATER WITCH. These are all new! If you haven't seen any of this before, here's the start: http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitchIf you want to jump to new stuff, start on this page. There are a few posts from the first set, and then the new set (set 2) starts:http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/saltwaterwitch/2008/12/index.htmlAgain, looking for feedback. I've received a bunch of feedback from the ConceptArt.org forums already, but I'm looking for more. This is my first attempt at creating a graphic version of one of my existing stories.What's interesting is that--over the weekend--for the first time, I...

Some thoughts on reading and why readers read books

Every book isn't for everyone--every author knows that. In part, an editor's--or editorial team's--job is to select books that a lot of people will want to read. At the same time--and publishers of course should and do take every advantage of this--there are pressures on readers to read a particular book. Readers can be compelled to read simply by the fame of the author, pressures of friends, media, "everyone's reading title X --don't be left out."Every reader is an investor.Books aren't like paintings, or even like short stories, in that there's usually a significant amount of time a reader has...

Old Book Images [del.icio.us]

Free for non-commercial use. I posted a batch of book images on Flickr, closeups, edge shots, stacked, pages, a couple with USB cords sticking out of the pages. These four books are from my Aristotle collection, not all the oldest, but my faves in the group, including a 1550 Madius edition of Aristotle's Poetics, and the big volume below, Operum Aristotelis Tomus II Guillelmo Laemario edition published in Lyon in 1597--I think this is really cool: the front cover is stamped with the crest of the Duke of Saxony, and the back is stamped with the crest of the Holy Roman Emporer. The interior shot on the left is from the oldest book in my collection, a Latin trans. of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, printed in Venice on June 25th 1516.

Danette's Chatting Lounge: Review: Seaborn by Chris Howard [del.icio.us]

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Amberkatze's Book Blog [del.icio.us]

SciFiGuy.ca: “Seaborn” by Chris Howard [del.icio.us]

Darque Reviews: Seaborn by Chris Howard [del.icio.us]

Chris Howard | FantasyLiterature.net [del.icio.us]

Flamingnet New Book Review [del.icio.us]

Bookfetish.org: Seaborn: Chris Howard [del.icio.us]

The Book Swede & His Blog: SEABORN - Opening Chapters [del.icio.us]

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A hint of something I'm drawing and writing [del.icio.us]