Editing, Layout, and Artwork. Oh my!

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted here. It's because I've been in this seemingly endless process of going over editing changes, laying out the book, and working with freelance artists. But I'll tell you all how things are going:

Editing

I have a freelance editor working on the book. It's none other than Ann Dupuis of Grey Ghost Games. She has done her first pass on 14 out of 15 chapters. I'm working to keep up with her accepting and rejecting her changes and doing any rework that she recommends that I feel needs to be done. I've finished through Chapter 10 of that process, so I'm doing well with it. Once Ann finishes with the last chapter, she will go back and do the final pass of all chapters that I've reviewed and sent back to her. That pass should not take long.

Layout

Early on I found myself in an awkward position. I used Quark XPress to layout both Now Playing and Ghosts of the Lady Grace. I liked the product, although it was pretty buggy. However, my new laptop runs Windows Vista, and Quark 6.5 (which is what I have) won't run at all on it. Luckily, I also have the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes InDesign (a direct competitor of Quark). It runs in Vista with no problems. So, I decided to bite the bullet and do the learning curve of switching to InDesign for Strange World. I love it! It's a much more powerful package and the transition was pretty smooth. However that all did slow me down at first.

I'm cranking along well now, though. I've laid out the first nine chapters already. I've been jumping back and forth between reviewing edits and making the changes, and doing layout. Basically, I've been laying out only the chapters that Ann has given me a first pass of. I probably won't need to make structural changes from pass 2, so working those changes into the layout should be pretty trivial. The hardest part is the artwork. I don't have all the art that I need, so I just have to decide what illustrations I need and then layout a picture box on the page with nothing in it until I can get the finished work from the artist. So, right now, I've got nine chapters laid out, some with art and some with white empty boxes where pictures will eventually sit.

Artwork

I've got three artists to work on the book. You may recognize Alex McVey from Ghosts of the Lady Grace. He does some pretty great creepy work. I also have Don Higgans, a local artist who does some great work. He is great with just about anything, but I picked him because he draws people with personality. I mean, I swear I would recognize them if I saw them on the street! Finally, there is Kathy Capach. She's an artist/gamer that I met at a gaming convention. She is not only a great artist, but she is a paleontology buff. She did some doodles of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures for me that were almost as good as a final product! And each "doodle" only took her about 10 minutes to do! So, you'll see a lot of her work on the Cryptozoology chapter. I haven't gotten her working on anything yet, but that's going to happen really soon.

Well, there you are. A lot has been going on here at Carnivore Games, and Strange World is moving along nicely. I'll try to post a lot more regularly from now on.

Take care,

Brad

Editing is in full swing

I have an editor and she's been working on it for a couple weeks now. It's all going very well so far. This means that I'm working on layout, art commission, and reviewing the edits. This means that things are moving along nicely.

Strange World will release this year, but I still do not have a release date. I'm trying to be careful about release dates because I've seen too many companies publish dates and then miss them. I do not want to fall in that hole. I will publish a release date only when I'm sure I can meet it.

First pass editing is now complete

I've finished my editing, and am now shopping for an editor. I and negotiating with one now, and I expect to submit it to her within the next couple of days.

I am now working on preliminary layout and artwork commission.

I'm also stepping up development of The FPI Files, Vol. 1. The work is moving quickly and my goal is to have it release shortly after Strange World.

Editing near completion

Well, the editing process has taken much longer than I had expected. However, the end is in sight! I'm in the final stages of editing and so I should be wrapping it up this week. Then comes layout and artwork, and then we release!

Of course, there will be some minor changes to the character sheet and the content that is currently in the Sneak Peeks. These changes came about during editing. However, since the editing is nearly complete, any changes that I make to the character sheet will be the final ones!

Update and the form of FPI Files

First, I'll give you the update. I'm currently marking up the last chapter of the Strange World manuscript. Working in the fixes should not take long. I'm also still working away at the FPI Files, Vol. 1. So, essentially I'm staying the course with them.

Now, I had been thinking about The FPI Files and whether they should be released as a single volume, as I had planned, or if they should be separate small modules. I would love to hear your feedback on this. At this point, I still plan to go with the volume format, but we'll see what people say.

Editing and FPI Files

I've been in the middle of the first pass of editing of Strange World, so there is not much to report. I give the book one round of editing before passing it off to the official editor. I'm about three-quarters of the way through marking up the book, and then it should not take long to work in the fixes.

I've also been writing the FPI Files adventure module for Strange World. I've been focusing on one of the adventures for it, entitled "The Hock." It's an expedition into the Hockomock Swamp, a real place steeped with paranormal stories and legends.

I'll keep you all posted on how things are going.

Post Carnage Report

Well, I'm back from Carnage, and I must say it was fantastic! I always love going there because it's both fairly big and laid back at the same time. Also, the people up there are always looking to try something new.

I scheduled 4 events and every one of them except one sold out! The one that didn't had a Hawaiian theme, which was the con's theme. I noticed that most of the themed events didn't go off, and it was in an unpopular slot, so I'm fine with that.

There were people who voiced their disappointment that one of the events (a Strange World one called "The Hock") was full, so I had the staff add a new slot of the same event for Sunday morning. That one sold out too!

Now Playing had always been well-received there, but it looks like Strange World is something of a phenomenon there!

So, now I'm back to working on Strange World full-time (that is, aside from my "day job"). My pass at editing is moving along quickly, and I should be handing it off to a freelancer within a week or so for the real editing. While that happens, I'll begin laying out the text and art.

As always, I'll keep you posted on how things go.