Gencon was awesome and amazing and full of good things and great people and I am now totally exhausted. I’ll see how fast I can pull that back together and get you the next chapter half, and also some things that people have requested, like maps! I hesitate to put a deadline on that, as when I do, they explode. I will certainly have something up by next tuesday, and I hope very much to have something up during this week as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who I got to see at Gencon! That was crazy and awesome.

I’m at Tokyo in Tulsa this weekend! If you’re in the area, stop on by! I’ll be at The Five Wits booth.

And next weekend I will be at Otakon in Baltimore, MD. Its a huge exciting madhouse, but I’ll be findable, once again, at The Five Wits booth in the exhibitor hall.

This will very likely mean a delay in posting chapters, as I’ll be on my feet and on the road for the next week and a half. I’ll try to report in with at least some entertaining tidbits.

So with all the craziness of conventions, (Coming to Anime Expo this weekend? Why so am I. Find me at The Five Wits booths, 441 and 443) I haven’t had the time or energy to update as I wish I could. I had planned to place Book Four after a one year time skip, and write several short stories about the intervening year. Those stories were to have been part of kickstarter rewards to fund getting The Tembelaka Voyage printed. So I was originally going to write a novel and two to three short stories in a very busy two months of conventions while doing a water color illustration a week of catch up work. Evidently I thought I was Djaren with a side of Anna.

So here is the revised plan. Since one of the short stories is threatening novella-hood, I’m just going to start posting it starting tomorrow. I may pull the short stories later to bind up into backer rewards for some future kickstarter, but for now, what keeps me on track with my writing is knowing that people are waiting on my stories and expect to know what comes next. So get ready for The Cambriol Riddle, posting tomorrow.

I was at Soonercon this past weekend, and got to meet some great people and buy a lot of pottery in the art show. 🙂 Thank you very much to everyone who came by and bought a book!

Now I had best get back to work so there can be a book four posting soon.

I hope to have some sketches or maps or something interesting in good enough shape to post by tonight.

Here are a couple of sketches I did on the plane coming home from Baltimore. I’ve been trying to work out what Rades and Tallis look like. Their designs may change a little later, but I like where they’re going.

Balticon was amazing and great fun and I just got back at 3am last night, so today’s update will be postponed to a day later in the week.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by at Balticon and bought me out of all but 2 copies of the books I brought with me! I met so many kind generous and brilliant people, and got to catch up with some of my already good friends.  I had a really lovely time.

Special thanks to J.R. Blackwell and Jared Axelrod who apart from being exciting and generally fabulous people, made sure I got to the airport on time.

Thanks to Phil Kahn and Rob Balder, who are always a lot of fun to hang out and talk with, and have been for many good and geeky years. I love seeing great people’s careers grow and change, while they remain awesome. Thanks for being as lovely and even more awesome than you were in the days of Ubercon and Slugweens.

Thanks to the DC anime club, for the commission work and for promoting artists.

Thanks to Olivia and her family for being one of the coolest non-fictional adventuring families I have met, and thanks to the people who bought books and then came back to tell me they were already half way through. You remind me I should be writing right now. Which I shall go do.

If I can stand to look at the sketches I made on the plane trip home, I may post them later in the week. I also plan to post a list of art reference links and art book reccs from the presentation I did at Balticon entitled ‘How to Draw What Doesn’t Exist”.

If you want a book I was sold out of, and would rather attend another fun convention than pay shipping, I will be at AnimeNext in Somerset New Jersey on June 7-10, with a replenished book and print supply.

That was an amazing weekend. Thank you Balticon.

While we’re between stories, I’ll be posting little extras up here, at least once a week.  Look here on future Tuesdays for a growing Timeline, new art and sketches, character profiles, music lists, world encyclopedia entries, maps and a pronunciation guide, among other things.

For right now, I’m going to let you guys weigh in on what you’d like to see next. Which of the above options would you like to see first? Is there something else you’d like to get a look at while waiting for book 4? Got any questions for me?

In other news, I’ll be at Balticon again this year, outside Baltimore MD, May 25-28. I’ll have an artists table downstairs, be on a few panels, and be teaching two art workshops. Do stop by if you are in the area.

You can now visit the Shop, or click the link in the right sidebar to purchase a paperback copy of The Germhacht Episode! Yay.
All my kickstarter backers should have their rewards already delivered. If this is not the case with anyone, please let me know right away.
I hope to have an e-book version available online soon as well.