I just got another update on the cover art for Jake and the Dynamo, which included this steampunkish image of Pretty Dynamo’s familiar, Tesla the lightning bug.
Tag: novel
Pretty Dynamo’s New Look
Still waiting for the final cover art for Jake and the Dynamo. However, I did just get this partial, showing the design for Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo as she’ll appear on the cover.
I don’t know about you, but I’m blown away. Yes … this is exactly what I pictured in my head … cough
Actually, that’s a lot cooler than what I pictured in my head.
‘Sailor Moon Super S’ Part 1 Now Available
I know I’ve not kept up with things around here. I just finished my degree and I’m starting a new career in a couple of weeks, I’m currently preparing to move. I’ll probably be out of contact for the better part of next week as I’ll first be sending my computer in for service and will then hit the road.
And of course I should have a novel out soon, except we keep hitting unexpected delays. Everything is together except the cover art, and I can tell you that the manuscript looks really, really good. If you’ve read some or all of the web version of Jake and the Dynamo and enjoyed it, you will want to get this book. If you haven’t read it, but like action-adventure or laughing really hard, you will want to get this book.
On another note, because I haven’t been keeping up with news in the genre like I should, this is late—but better late than never. The first half of Sailor Moon Super S, the fourth animated series in the Sailor Moon saga, is out in the uncensored release from Viz. The rest of the series I previous purchased on iTunes, and I will be doing the same again.
I intended to review the second half of Sailor Moon S, though as it turned out, there were few substantial additional comments I wanted to make after I reviewed the first half. By this time, having reviewed the third season of Sailor Moon Crystal, the third arc of Sailor Moon is a horse I’ve beaten half to death anyway. I will probably put up a short review to reiterate a few points and add a few new ones before I move into Super S.
Also worth noting is that Viz has promised to release the S and Super S movies to theaters, just as they did with Sailor Moon R. I will try to see them if possible, but my upcoming move and new job will likely make it impractical if not impossible for me to get to a theater that’s showing them. I’ll keep you posted on that front.
JAKE AND THE DYNAMO Update
I got word that the release date has been pushed back to June 15th. The cover artist was swamped with work and wasn’t able to produce the cover in time.
This isn’t really a bad thing as it gives us time to make sure the book is in good shape before it goes out. We were earlier making sure the illustrations would display in the best possible way in the ebook, and I yet again added some last-minute edits to correct a few lingering typos (there are always typos).
Pushing the date back should also give us time to have it on pre-order.
I may have some sneak peak preview art in the near future.
Update
I just got the manuscript back from the publisher. It’s gone through the proofreader, so I’m now going over his comments. It came with the note, “The whole thing was hilarious.”
Update 2: Cover Art
Today, I was discussing cover art for the Jake and the Dynamo novel. I don’t have a contract in hand, so it’s probably best I don’t give any specific details as of yet, but things are moving ahead. It appears that the book should be out sometime next year.
I have a big project looming, but my schedule will ease up a little after next weekend. The rest of today I’m planning to spend on a short story I want to submit to an anthology project.
Enter the Wrongthink Sci-Fi Giveaway and Get You Some Freebies
Robert Kroese, author of Aye, Robot
Kroese explains. You get seven books just for entering, including Brian Niemeier’s Nethereal
There’s also a chance to win seven additional novels when you enter.
At the time of this writing, there are two days and five hours left to the giveaway, which you can enter here. Tell them the Deej sent you. In fact, use my link, which gives me more chances to win.
EDIT: I just realized I watched this Robert Kroese from the ground floor, too. He used to run the Mattress Police blog, and I remember when his first novel, Mercury Falls
Hat tip to Carlos Carrasco.
JAKE AND THE DYNAMO Chapter 26
The Morning After: Jake’s in the doghouse after Pretty Dynamo catches him with Sukeban Tsubasa!
JAKE AND THE DYNAMO
CHAPTER 26: THE MORNING AFTER
After changing back into her magical form, Tsubasa left by the window. Jake had to press himself into the corner at the foot of his bed so she could—with her eyes squeezed shut—dash past him and leap to what she considered safety. Soon after she was gone, he closed the window, finished undressing, climbed into his pajamas, and lay down.
After all the commotion, the room seemed strangely quiet. His heart thudded in his ears, the only sound.
He tossed back and forth for several minutes, but no position felt comfortable. He had been having trouble sleeping for the last few months. Over the previous week, whenever he had slept, he had slept soundly from sheer exhaustion, but now that he had spent a weekend without anything trying to kill him, his insomnia was back.
The bed with its disarrayed and rumpled bedclothes felt desolate and empty. Thanks to Dana, he didn’t even have his Triceratops toy—not that he actually slept with the thing anyway; he just set it on his pillow on the rare occasions when he made the bed. Most of the time, it was buried somewhere under the covers or squeezed between the mattress and the wall.
He rolled over onto his stomach. In an ill-defined way, he had an inkling of why he couldn’t sleep. Now that he had come firmly and irrevocably into his adolescent years, going to bed alone at night had grown into a crushing, almost intolerable burden. It was worse now because he had tackled a girl in this very bed only a half hour earlier, an event that had provoked a bizarre mixture of fear and desire, leaving his nerves frazzled. He could still smell Tsubasa in his bedclothes: she smelled like roses and sweat—heady, salty, and exciting. The scent made his stomach ache. Continue reading “JAKE AND THE DYNAMO Chapter 26”
Team Pizza! (and a J&tD update)
Art by Roffles Lowell
My schedule is still fairly harsh through this coming week, but after Saint Paddy’s Day, things will slow down a bit for me. I hope to be posting more regularly.
Things are coming along smoothly so far on the publication process of the first volume of JAKE AND THE DYNAMO, which is currently under the working title of Down and Out in Fifth Grade. There’s no projected publication date yet, but some of the earliest preliminary work is done. I’m working on the bonus content: I had originally produced an extra chapter, but now I’m unhappy with it, and I’m considering instead including a novelette featuring Rifle Maiden’s misadventures while babysitting the Bubble Princesses.
I believe I’ve chosen a studio for cover art, and I don’t think he’ll mind if I say that I’m talking to Roffles Lowell about the possibility of doing interior illustrations. No commitments have been made, so this post isn’t an attempt to pressure him or anything. But I really enjoy the YA look of his style, and I appreciate that it differs from the standard style of Japanese light novels or Japanese-influenced work. This is obviously a weeb novel, so I like the idea of the art being non-weeb.
In the midst of our conversation, Roffles sent me the above picture of Team Pizza to show me what his work looks like in black and white, and he told me to do with the image as I wish. So this is me doing that. Featured up there, of course, are Pizza Margherita, her faithful dog Pepper, and Crazy Annie Shové, all riding comfortably on the Pie in the Sky.
JAKE AND THE DYNAMO Chapter 25
Wake Up Call: Finding a girl in your bedroom is an unpleasant experience when you’re Jake Blatowski!
JAKE AND THE DYNAMO
CHAPTER 25: WAKE UP CALL
Jake spun around. There in the corner next to the door sat a girl, curled up in a ball with her knees against her chest. She must have been hiding behind the door when he came in. She had her right arm pointed at him, her hand bunched into a fist. That hand was shaking.
“Who—?”
With a loud clatter like tumbling kitchen utensils, several objects jumped out of her wrist: white knobs, spheres, and lozenges, all with long, gray tubes attached to them. The tubes pointed at him.
Tears ran down the girl’s face. She shuddered and ducked her head. “I’m … I’m r-really s-sorry—”
So dumbfounded was he that it took him several seconds to realize she had a dozen guns trained on him, enough time for her to shoot him several times over. Continue reading “JAKE AND THE DYNAMO Chapter 25”