Soultaker Studios update
Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 11:24 pm
Ok, it's been a little over 2 years since The Triad came out for BASH, and I haven't released anything yet. I have a project that's been on hold called The Dirty Dozen, and a few other ideas to follow. Figured I needed to let everyone know why there hasn't been anything new on my end.
After the hurricane bundle I mentioned in the Triad thread, my personal life hit a rough patch. As many of you know, my father passed away a few years ago. He left my sister and I a serious debt we couldn't afford to pay. We tried to work something out with the bank that held this debt, but they tried to forclose the home we lived in for over 40 years. We had to fight them in court to let us sell it ourselves (if they sold it, we could have ended up with nothing). They ended up not showing up to court (plus their paperwork was wrong), so we were able to secure a company to sell the house.
Then I started having issues at work. I won't go into details on that, as I no longer work there. To add to all this, my health suffered as a side effect of the stress and my diabetes. I'm sure you can see how this all effected my creativity and writing.
We sold the house at the end of last year, so I had to figure out what my plans would be. So after serious thought, I decided to move out of NYC. I'm currently living in the great Portland, OR, area, preparing to take courses so I can work in my profession here.
I almost didn't find a place to live until about 3 weeks before I moved here, so it was a mad rush to find a mover, leave my job, say goodbye to all my friends and loved ones, and go where I knew a total of 2 people, 1 of whom I only met once (he's a fellow game designer, and a cool person).
Anyway, the good news is that I am on track now. With the money from selling the house, I started commissioning as much art as possible. Many from my regular ones, some from new connections. I've taken advantage of artists doing special sales, so I get as much as I can for the money I spend. More importantly, thanks to ComiXology, I've gotten back into collecting comics, even if it's just digitally. I've been reading quite a bit from various sales. Between that, seeing Captain America and Amazing Spiderman 2, I think I'm finally over this creative freeze I've had.
The Dirty Dozen is around halfway finished. Dragonfly and Mr. Jupiter went over the stats for me, and helped me find mistakes. I have a cover (though when Russel has time, he needs to make a logo for it). The art was all inexpensive clip art I got, but a few pieces don't work so well for me now. So I decided to invest in a few new pieces (2 of which I showcased in the sketch pad forum) to make the product a little better. All I need to do now is write the 2 adventures for the book. One I have notes for, the other I need to work up. As soon as that's done, I need to find someone to do layout (don't know if Kroh can, as he's busy with Supers! now), then send it to BASHMAN for approval before releasing it. Those who helped me with the title and such will of course get comp copies.
After that? Not sure. I'm toying with a few ideas, but I don't want to commit to anything until I finish Dirty Dozen. I'm hoping there will still be interest in it, because I've read the original stories these characters appeared in, and I think they're cooler than when I first chose them (without knowing anything about them other than what was written on the public domain supers wiki).
Anyway, that's my long winded and somewhat sappy explanation of what is going on. I hope I didn't bore you all with my long windedness
After the hurricane bundle I mentioned in the Triad thread, my personal life hit a rough patch. As many of you know, my father passed away a few years ago. He left my sister and I a serious debt we couldn't afford to pay. We tried to work something out with the bank that held this debt, but they tried to forclose the home we lived in for over 40 years. We had to fight them in court to let us sell it ourselves (if they sold it, we could have ended up with nothing). They ended up not showing up to court (plus their paperwork was wrong), so we were able to secure a company to sell the house.
Then I started having issues at work. I won't go into details on that, as I no longer work there. To add to all this, my health suffered as a side effect of the stress and my diabetes. I'm sure you can see how this all effected my creativity and writing.
We sold the house at the end of last year, so I had to figure out what my plans would be. So after serious thought, I decided to move out of NYC. I'm currently living in the great Portland, OR, area, preparing to take courses so I can work in my profession here.
I almost didn't find a place to live until about 3 weeks before I moved here, so it was a mad rush to find a mover, leave my job, say goodbye to all my friends and loved ones, and go where I knew a total of 2 people, 1 of whom I only met once (he's a fellow game designer, and a cool person).
Anyway, the good news is that I am on track now. With the money from selling the house, I started commissioning as much art as possible. Many from my regular ones, some from new connections. I've taken advantage of artists doing special sales, so I get as much as I can for the money I spend. More importantly, thanks to ComiXology, I've gotten back into collecting comics, even if it's just digitally. I've been reading quite a bit from various sales. Between that, seeing Captain America and Amazing Spiderman 2, I think I'm finally over this creative freeze I've had.
The Dirty Dozen is around halfway finished. Dragonfly and Mr. Jupiter went over the stats for me, and helped me find mistakes. I have a cover (though when Russel has time, he needs to make a logo for it). The art was all inexpensive clip art I got, but a few pieces don't work so well for me now. So I decided to invest in a few new pieces (2 of which I showcased in the sketch pad forum) to make the product a little better. All I need to do now is write the 2 adventures for the book. One I have notes for, the other I need to work up. As soon as that's done, I need to find someone to do layout (don't know if Kroh can, as he's busy with Supers! now), then send it to BASHMAN for approval before releasing it. Those who helped me with the title and such will of course get comp copies.
After that? Not sure. I'm toying with a few ideas, but I don't want to commit to anything until I finish Dirty Dozen. I'm hoping there will still be interest in it, because I've read the original stories these characters appeared in, and I think they're cooler than when I first chose them (without knowing anything about them other than what was written on the public domain supers wiki).
Anyway, that's my long winded and somewhat sappy explanation of what is going on. I hope I didn't bore you all with my long windedness