22 Pages
DC has Vertigo. Marvel has ICON. Image, Darkhorse, more that I am surely not even aware of, all have the market cornered on adult oriented graphic novels and series.
I have BLOODED. I kind of have VerySmallGods group publishing, but not really. More than all this, I have a story; an engrossing and diverse tapestry of characters and rules that govern the physics and magics of a created relaity. I have a personal and beloved work that has been the focus of my life, professionally as well as personally, for about 5 years now.
It began with an unrelated (and failed) series of short stories I wrote for my creative writing intermediary class at community collage. I believe I wrote "Jiuu, Smallest Kalivess Warrior" first, then tried to up the ante by adding a more nior mystery quality to my fantacy style with "Chasing Daylight", a story of love letters, suiscide and family curses. It was around this time that I met and fell almost instantly in love with my now ex-husband, Lee S. Branson. He was also a storyteller, but of a slightly different sort. He had published online an indipendant short work in progress that took place at the funeral of a girl named Karma Willowbrook. He incorperated my characters and stories into that original work of fiction and after several months of mutations and diversions, I began writing it all down to keep track of the multiple characters and their plots.
We used the major Archana of Tarot as placeholders for our characters, eventually encoperating the entire deck, as we expanded at an alarming rate. These people we had made were taking over, making lives and a complete world all their own.
Now, I have entire large chunks of story plotted and written out, some even in fairly well-edited and complete digital copy formats for shopping around to asrtist or even possible publishers. I have had the first "graphic novel concept" for the past year and a half, ready to go. It contains the four interlinked issues, each broken into smaller chapters, all 4 from seperate characters points of view. I have hoped that each would have a different artist or genre-appropriet style assigned to it, but now I can't even muster a single artist to more than look at the primary chapter.
So what am I doing wrong? Apperantly, just about everything.
I don't know how to solicit my work, how to publish anything (let alone a deal for an entire series of graphic novels), how to reach artists, how to negotiate contracts, how to summarize/ explain/ pitch Blooded or it's seperated parts, how to edit strategically, how to plan my time or schedule just for writing new material with a set deadline, or even how to format for a graphic novel script.
It's all been written as a sometimes confusing, always maticulousely detailed, often purple-prose littered novella style. Sort of Steinbeck-cum-Tolkien with stipplings of the Vampire Chronicles (or what have you). I get so upset over the sucess of things like the "Twilight" series, but what makes me any better, or at the very least different from Stephanie Meyer?
Lee and I have both expressed the affection we hold for our creation, likening it to "Our Child", this thing that we could never have done alone that we hope will outlive us both. I just don't know how not to fail this story. It seems so much bigger to me and I simply cannot do it alone. Have I already failed, for not trying? I am so afraid...
I have BLOODED. I kind of have VerySmallGods group publishing, but not really. More than all this, I have a story; an engrossing and diverse tapestry of characters and rules that govern the physics and magics of a created relaity. I have a personal and beloved work that has been the focus of my life, professionally as well as personally, for about 5 years now.
It began with an unrelated (and failed) series of short stories I wrote for my creative writing intermediary class at community collage. I believe I wrote "Jiuu, Smallest Kalivess Warrior" first, then tried to up the ante by adding a more nior mystery quality to my fantacy style with "Chasing Daylight", a story of love letters, suiscide and family curses. It was around this time that I met and fell almost instantly in love with my now ex-husband, Lee S. Branson. He was also a storyteller, but of a slightly different sort. He had published online an indipendant short work in progress that took place at the funeral of a girl named Karma Willowbrook. He incorperated my characters and stories into that original work of fiction and after several months of mutations and diversions, I began writing it all down to keep track of the multiple characters and their plots.
We used the major Archana of Tarot as placeholders for our characters, eventually encoperating the entire deck, as we expanded at an alarming rate. These people we had made were taking over, making lives and a complete world all their own.
Now, I have entire large chunks of story plotted and written out, some even in fairly well-edited and complete digital copy formats for shopping around to asrtist or even possible publishers. I have had the first "graphic novel concept" for the past year and a half, ready to go. It contains the four interlinked issues, each broken into smaller chapters, all 4 from seperate characters points of view. I have hoped that each would have a different artist or genre-appropriet style assigned to it, but now I can't even muster a single artist to more than look at the primary chapter.
So what am I doing wrong? Apperantly, just about everything.
I don't know how to solicit my work, how to publish anything (let alone a deal for an entire series of graphic novels), how to reach artists, how to negotiate contracts, how to summarize/ explain/ pitch Blooded or it's seperated parts, how to edit strategically, how to plan my time or schedule just for writing new material with a set deadline, or even how to format for a graphic novel script.
It's all been written as a sometimes confusing, always maticulousely detailed, often purple-prose littered novella style. Sort of Steinbeck-cum-Tolkien with stipplings of the Vampire Chronicles (or what have you). I get so upset over the sucess of things like the "Twilight" series, but what makes me any better, or at the very least different from Stephanie Meyer?
Lee and I have both expressed the affection we hold for our creation, likening it to "Our Child", this thing that we could never have done alone that we hope will outlive us both. I just don't know how not to fail this story. It seems so much bigger to me and I simply cannot do it alone. Have I already failed, for not trying? I am so afraid...