Category Archives: Announcements

Hey, there’s something coming up that I want to tell you about!

Announcements, Crossposted

BOOK 19 Kickstarter: 10 Days Left

Somebody (probably Howard) forgot to post this news. You should have seen it three weeks ago. Whoops!

We’re crowdfunding A FUNCTION OF FIREPOWER, and the project closes in just ten days. The cover looks a lot like this:

Cover design by Howard Tayler. Cover illustration by Garrett Berner.

The bonus story in A FUNCTION OF FIREPOWER is called “Refulgence of Refuge,” and it will fill in some of the blanks surrounding the end of Earth’s raptoroid civilization sixty-six-ish million years ago.

Would you like to see the first page? Of course you would!

The first page of “Refulgence of Refuge,” written and illustrated by Howard Tayler

Many of the stretch goals have already been unlocked, including some which provide freebies to everyone (not just backers!) Head on over to the Kickstarter page for A FUNCTION OF FIREPOWER, click into the Updates, and get the full-sized mobile and 4k versions of this wallpaper!

I apologize for not posting this sooner. It’s been a busy month, and Long COVID means I’ve dropped more than a few balls, but really, I could have left myself a reminder and gotten this done. Sorry about that!

Announcements, Crossposted, Journal

The Sketching Begins!

Book 18, Mandatory Failure, has arrived from the printer. I’ve signed about 2500 copies, and we’ve begun queueing those up for sketches.

A few stacks of MANDATORY FAILURE awaiting sketches from Howard

My stamina is not what it used to be. I’m as fast as ever, but I wear out pretty quickly. Slow and steady, then. If you’ve ordered a sketch edition, it’s in one of these boxes stacked against the wall, and it might be waiting there for a while…

Twelve hundred books. It’s a good thing the sub-floor in this room is solid concrete. Books are heavy.

I’m also doing sketch cards for some of you. I’ve finished about 200 of those already, and another 270 remain to be done. Those take longer, but I can work on them from my zero-gravity recliner, which lets me work for much longer stretches.

How long will you be waiting for your sketched book? I do not know! One thing that I learned in 2024 is that I need to recalibrate my estimates. I promise you this, though: I’ll work on these every day, and I’ll pace myself carefully.

Announcements, Crossposted

Structuring Life to Support Creativity

Sandra Tayler, whom you may know as the editor, publisher, project manager, and so much more behind Schlock Mercenary, is crowdfunding a book called STRUCTURING LIFE TO SUPPORT CREATIVITY.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/sandra-tayler/structuring-life-to-support-creativity

I can personally vouch for the principles and practices presented in this book, but that’s probably kind of obvious. Sandra has worked with many other people and organizations over the last decade, so this book is far, far more than just (!) the life experience of someone who wrangled a single cartoonist into profitability while managing her own career writing children’s books and short stories.

Follow the links above to read more about the project. It has funded, and just yesterday Sandra crossed the “we get to make an audiobook” stretch goal. The project closes in two days, though, so if you want to throw some momentum into it on the home stretch, now’s the time.