The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends - PREVIEW ART - #1: Unnamed Witch

Hello all.

In the lead up to the digital release of my book, The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends, (paperback already available for those of you who are impatient) I want to share with you some of the artwork to be featured in the book.

I plan to show at least one or two unfinished drawings a week until August 14, and perhaps a bit after that date as well. I lost many hours of sleep adding color to these, so dagnab it, I'm going to show you the fruit of my labor.... soon. But for now, here some sketches that have yet to be slathered with digital paint.

Let's start off with...

An Unnamed Witch.

She occupies the mind of our protagonist, Martin. But she's no danger to him, nor is she to you, as she is just a figment of Martin's vivid imagination. But does he wish so badly that she were real.

Color and texture is being added to her, hence the red outline. You'll get to see the finished version soon enough.

Thanks for peeking into my brain. Be careful of what peeks back.





Amazon Link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends Presale
Amazon UK link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends UK

Also still on sale in digital, paperback and audio book forms
The Death of Death (Perma-Free)
Autonomously Yours

True Inspirations - Part 2: Tim Burton

Darkness is a little too bright, apparently. 

Hello. No special intro. Sometimes a simple "hello" is all it takes, don't you think?

In my last post speaking of people who influenced me creatively I spoke about Walt Disney. This time I will speak about Tim Burton, another creative inspiration of mine.

I had of course seen Burton's three first efforts, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, BeetleJuice and Batman, but I wouldn't say I became a huge fan of his until I received a copy of Batman Begins on VHS. From then on something about his aesthetic spoke to me. I wasn't a particularly gothic kid or anything. I didn't wear black (not gothically anyway, it was more of a punk rock-style black), I didn't listen to The Cure or any kind of industrial music, but there was something about the kiddie-gothic style of Burton that spoke to me. I really can't describe it except to say perhaps it's because of my dark, yet humorous personality––two qualities his films tend to have.

Despite what people say of his latest offerings (I quite enjoyed Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and Big Eyes, Alice in Wonderland, not so much), I still immensely enjoy the art direction of his films. That, unlike his storytelling, hasn't changed a bit and has become even more focused and beautiful over the years.

My two books, The Death of Death and The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends, are heavily influenced by his art and story style. If you're a fan of his you just might enjoy these two books of mine.

Indeed, Mr. Burton and I may have a connection in the near future due to a project based on "Death" that will come to fruition soon. I can't talk about it much because there's really nothing to say yet. But it's a really exciting endeavor that I can't wait to share with you all once details become more available.

Looking at the picture above and considering his body of work up until now, it's kind of hard to believe he'll be helming the live action version of "Dumbo" soon. But such is life.

Thanks for peeking into my brain. Be careful of what peeks back.

Links to books below.




Amazon Link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends Presale
Amazon UK link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends UK

Also still on sale in digital, paperback and audio book forms
The Death of Death (Perma-Free)
Autonomously Yours

UPDATE! NEW BOOK! It's been a while. Here's what I've been up to....

Hello all.

I trust you've all been good for the 7 or so months I've been away. I know, I know, you've all wondering where I've been, what I've been up to, waiting and spilling precious blood while you sit on all those pins and needles.

Well, besides listening to "Evermore" from Beauty and the Beast on repeat (I REALLY like that song), I've been making some changes here and there, biggest among them probably is the move I've made to the Japan. It's something I've wanted to do for years and I finally made it. I've been doing a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, a lot of studying, and a lot of catching up with old friends.

But most importantly, as far as you the readers are concerned, I've been readying a new book. It's a Halloween children's book of sorts with illustration done by yours truly. I started writing it at the end of last year, and finished the writing sometime in the beginning of this one. But with the impending move to Japan I didn't really have the time to finish it all until I got here. But now, the illustrations have been illustrated, the color has been added, the formatting has been formatted, and it's ready to release out into the world.

I'd like to introduce you all to "The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends." The characters have been in my head for nearly 20 years. The story for less than that, but still quite a while. The characters have gone through a couple of design changes over the years, but I like what they ended up becoming. I hope you all do as well.

This story was intended for ages 8+, perhaps those with a slightly higher reading level,  but I also think it's great for adults. And a couple of early readers have agreed with me, thankfully.

It's available for pre-order (link at bottom) and it will be released on August 14th, just in time for Halloween. But if you can't wait for that, the paperback is already available for purchase (accessible through the same link at the bottom). The audio version will be following soon after.

I certainly hope you all enjoy it. I worked really hard on it and am pretty proud of it. It's for the truly young and macabre at heart.

Amazon Link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends Presale
Amazon UK link: The Deceased Miss Blackwell and her Not-So-Imaginary Friends UK


Also still on sale in digital, paperback and audio book forms
The Death of Death (Perma-Free)
Autonomously Yours

I Think a Lot About Death

I think a lot about death. Daily, in fact. Not because of some overwhelming desire to achieve the state of it myself well before my time, but it’s interesting to think that we’re born and have this consciousness that we get used over a lifetime, and then, suddenly one day, hopefully a long time after the event of your birth, it extinguishes and ceases to be. It’s something that is not quite fathomable, a concept that is extremely difficult to grasp. But, as the wonderful Mr. George Carlin put it, death is the fairest thing we have because we all get it once. Precisely. Every flora and every fauna. Every single one of us gets a nice big heaping bowl of death. Serve with milk and it’s delicious, so I hear.

If you think about it, though, it might not be as hard to fathom as we think. After all, we all experience it, in my opinion anyway, in some form every night, and we call that form sleep. I think there’s a reason death is compared to it. The big sleep, eternal sleep, we call it, and sometimes, we, as well as many a fictitious gangster refer to it rather humorously as sleeping with the fishes.

In sleep, we lie down, shut our eyes and shut down our consciousness for hours at a time. Death, I think, is like that period in between our waking hours and sleep: assuming we don’t dream, or, at least assuming we don't remember doing so, there is blackness that happens that we don’t experience. We simply stop noticing life. That is what I imagine death to be like. If all goes well, at the end of sleep we wake up with the sun blaring in our eyes, begging us to be aware of the world again. I also used to compare death to shutting off a television set. You push a button, it goes black. If only it were that easy for us. If that were possible, though, I’d personally like access to that button tremendously hard to acquire. In fact, it should be limited to myself and should only be achievable by using some kind of fingerprint scanning technology.

Some people die naturally of things like old age or cancer. Others die rather unnaturally, e.g., being hit by a bus, or choking on toothpicks. I, myself, would rather meet my demise naturally, as toothpicks don’t particularly agree with my digestive system.

There are other aspects of death that I think about often. Throughout my short years I’ve regrettably lost contact with a couple of friends due to what I think are trivial reasons. I often wonder when I perish, if it’s before them, upon learning of my demise, would these friends simply not care, or would they regret letting something so small getting in the way of our friendship and show up to my funeral to say one last good bye. For context, the loss of friendship was often due to tiny spats, misunderstandings or slight differences in personalities. I did not, for example, stab their family members with ice picks, or callously kick their pets in the ribs, both of which would be perfectly acceptable reasons to severe a friendship. But, I miss them and I plan to reach out in some way in the near future, if only to send them an invite to my funeral. 

I sometimes think of suicide, it’s unavoidable, especially because of the recent tragic news of Robin Williams’ passing, but I don’t believe I could ever go through with something like that. Mr. Williams could. I can’t. A friend asked me the other day what my motivation in life was, and, after a insincere response of “I can’t answer that,” I truthfully answered, “Experiences, art, film, music, friends, family, technology, reality, all that good stuff.” There are too many exciting things happening with technology, science and art that I can’t take myself away from it all, too many advances, too many minutes of movies being filmed, too many words of books being written. I can’t be leave yet. 

I also wonder, when I go, did I make some sort of positive impact in this life that I can be proud of? Negative impacts are abound, of that I’m sure, and they are regrettable. But, I hope I have left some kind of positive stamp, whether with my words or my actions, no matter how small. I try to open doors for people whenever possible. I offer smiles to strangers here and there, even though it sometimes pains me to do so, being as uncomfortable with social interaction as I am.

So, will I have left a stamp? Mr. Williams obviously and inarguably did. Will the one I make be as big? Probably not. But I’ll try my best to make one before I go.

I think so much about death that I wrote a tiny story about it. Some think, according to reviews, that it’s a good story to read if you’re coping with it. I can’t be the judge of that. But download yourself a FREE copy and tell me what you think. It’s available on Amazon and Smashwords.

The death of Death FREE on Amazon