New Year, New Experiences

Inking begins!

Happy New Year, all! Greetings to the new readers who have signed up over the past few months—thank you for your support of what I now consider the world's most slowly-updated, most tightly-focused Little Free Library (in that it is a place where anyone might read a book, so long as it is one specific book, and they don't mind waiting for it to be drawn). And a hearty "welcome back" to readers who have been with this project for a while, some as long as a year now!

I'm starting the year—and starting Chapter Two—by inking page 13. (Reminder: I do not like to start on page one, the TL;DR being that my skills improve with every page I draw, and I want the first pages to be the best).

[ ^ value thumbnails for the pages above. I like the concept for this 2-page spread, it felt like if I could get it right, it would be a great way to start my work for the year. It's a montage of DD checking the coastline each day. The horizon line descends in each panel, and DD rises and turns as the sequence progresses. Fun. ]

I'm also starting the year by dropping my brush pen onto the page, leaving a big black mark. I have never done this before. It feels inauspicious to make such a gaffe on the last panel of the first pages I decided to draw in this chapter, in this new year. (If you look on the top-right corner of the pages above, you'll see an "!" exclamation mark near where the mark is. Fortunately, I was able to disguise it using foliage, heh heh heh.)

HISTORICAL NOTE. Would olde-timey Aegean beaches be littered with driftwood? My guess is: no? That might be a thing local to me, right? This thought occurred to me as I was half-way through drawing some of those logs. Oh well, it's a fictional island, and they look nice, and they remind me of my own childhood, so I'm going to keep putting them in. I'm trusting my instinct here, and my instinct has become exhausted by burning calories in pursuit of a half-hearted gesture toward "historical accuracy."

Revisions!

I've also been drawing a few new panels for Chapter One, which will replace the old ones, in the future.

On top, the original page from Chapter One. Below it, the new panels. The original take felt too cheery, and as I've progressed through Chapter Two, I've realized I want the village to maintain a more dour spirit, oppressed by the threat of pirates as they are. So instead of men happily slinging nets, one main sails out with a look of concern on his face. Instead of women content in each other's company, they work in the shadow of a ruined building. The kids, however, are still happy. Maybe this is all too subtle, but to me feels more consistent with what will happen later.

A New Adventure!

Okay, buckle up, Dear Readers.

There's this idea I have been kicking around for a while now, at arm's length. Over the holidays, while I was making a half-hearted attempt at "relaxing," this idea ran up and pounded on my front door. It had already seen me through the window, so I couldn't pretend I wasn't home. It pushed the door open and dragged me out and made me go carolling with it and we might never stop.

In a past post, I suggested I might try an improvised and interactive prose story. Well, I am going to do that, only… it won't be a DD story. It will be something else. You'll see. I'm comfortable doing this here because I believe that if you enjoy the essential spirit of DD, you'll enjoy this new story.

The plan is this: 

• This new story proceeds in small sequences. They will be exclusive to patrons at all tiers; all patrons will be able to read this story.
• At the end of each sequence, there will be a choice, and I will conduct a poll. This poll will be exclusive to patrons at the "Benevolent Sponsor" tier and above.
• I live in suspense until the poll responses have settled, then write the next sequence, and repeat!

How will this affect work on DD4? 

It won't. Probably. DD4 is my first priority, my "day job." I hope the improvised story is so engaging and distracting for me that it soaks up every moment I might otherwise be aimlessly browsing Twitter. I'd also like to keep DD4 progress posts more to-the-point and less rambly. I'll focus my writing energies more on the stories, less on the posts. I will aim to post three story segments per month. If it gets to be too much, I'll sideline it in favour of DD4 work.

More soon!

TC