Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago · 5 likes

End of day 3, and I’ve got 10 orders! Feels good! Feels shiny! Makes me wanna say Unh!

If I keep up this pace, Quill’s in the bag. How do I do that again...? Oh yeah! Beg! You there! Help a dude out! Spread the word! Hit that recommend button. Put your name in the hat.

And nothing comes free. I know it. If you want some help with your project, on or off Inkshares, just let me know! I’ll do what I can.

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago

If you’re looking for some new fantasy to read while waiting for your next Inkshares book to show up, consider "Women in Practical Armor," an anthology from Evil Girlfriend Media.

It’s about... oh, well, you’ve already figured out what it’s about? Cool.

One of my stories is in there - among many many fantastic stories from authors both known and new.

My story, "Pride and Joy," is... mean. It’s not nice. So much fun to write. Enjoy, Inksharesians!

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago · 2 likes

I’ve hit the button!

Aye, that’s right me lovelies, Beneath White Clouds is up, active, and funding.

Now I need you. Check it out, scope out the trailer, spread the word, and lend me your support.

I love this story, love the pace, the energy, the razor’s edge it walks between comedy and tragedy. I want to give this story the greatest entrance into the world I can manage, and I can do that with your help.

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago · 2 likes

Wahoo! We have content!

Chapters 1 and 2 are up for you. Time to meet our two protagonists! George is a middling QC Inspector at a distribution center above the clouds. Modun is a bottle-grown Biological Labor Unit (so, a robot made of meat) slugging away below. They’re each tied into the daily grind, but the workaday monotony won’t last.

I’d love to hear any feedback. Hope you dig the work, and there’s more to come!

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago · 1 like

Hi!

Just a little thing here I thought you might want to grokk: Beneath White Clouds now has a trailer!

Woohoo! Yeah! It’s shiny!

And if you never knew: yes, making a video is a pain in the butt. But sooooo much fun, and there are so many amazing open-source tools out there at the world’s disposal. I’m a director and editor! How cool is that?!

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago

Hah! I’ll have to see if I can find some on the FreeMusicArchive :-P

Mattdavis9 · Reader · added almost 9 years ago

Perhaps a polka/Intergalactic-spaghetti-funk fusion.

Eric Landreneau · Author · added almost 9 years ago · 3 likes

Working on a trailer for this book before I launch the drive. I’m learning that video editing is finnicky, fiddly work. Very particular. I quite enjoy it. Exciting the things I’m learning to do. Once again, open-source software is my friend. Hardest thing I’ve had to do so far: record myself delivering a prepared statement.

Bonus result: I’ve got great material for a gag reel! So you’ve got that to look forward to! Should the background music be Polka, Klezmer or Mariachi?

Eric Landreneau · Author · added about 9 years ago · 1 like

Art! I’ve been doing mucho art stuff lately! I’m not especially good at graphics, don’t get me wrong, but it’s fun and very rewarding when something comes together and looks actually kinda good.

That picture below? Hah! Nooooo. No way. That’s not mine. I can’t artify like that. How awesome would that be? No, that’s by Phil Hale. I first saw his paintings of this robot-smashing dude years ago, and they’ve been lurking in my brain since then. Something about his paintings grabbed my interest and never let go. Motion. Intensity. Physical and emotional rawness. Frayed nerve endings. It’s a still image, but the sense of force comes through.

The influence of Phil Hale’s paintings comes through in the later chapters of Beneath White Clouds. The essential, indomitable, ugly, powerful ape-ness of man. I didn’t realize the connection until a read-through of BWC coincided with a re-examination of an old art book I have containing some of his work. But it’s there in the story, and in pale imitation in some of the art I’m cooking up.

So, as I warm up to resume the funding campaign for Beneath White Clouds, I thought it would be good of me to share with you a bit of what is occupying my mind, some of inspiration that fueled Beneath White Clouds. There is a lot of funny in the story, but a lot of other stuff too, including, I hope, a bit of the essential power mankind has that transcends any form of oppression. It ain’t pretty, but it’s effective.

Eric Landreneau · Author · added about 9 years ago · 6 likes

"What?" you ask after opening your inbox. "What what what? An update from Beneath White Clouds? But it’s a dead project!" You stroke your chin in baffled wonder, girding your loins for the coming upheaval. "What is this?"

--------------

See what I did there? Yep. Prose in second person. Just felt the urge to stretch that particular brain-muscle.

So hello one and all. I am writing this update to lay the groundwork for zombifying the heck out of this dead project. It’s voo-doo time! Why? Well, I started receiving some of the Inkshares and Quill projects I backed and they’re good, they’re outside the norm, they excite me, they have re-invigorated my interest in the idea of Inkshares. Bunch of paradigm-busting geeky punks.

I’ve heard it said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice but expecting different results. But who cares? I’m gonna do it again! I’m putting on my Quixote pants and revving up for another Inkshares drive! And this time, I have a plan!

What plan?

Well, I plan to run the crowdfunding campaign with a modicum of preparation. Prepare to talk. Prepare for outreach. Prep for updates. Prep for games, prizes, funstuff! Stuff what’s fun and cool. Or, as Rishi Bee once said, "fucool," which sounds like an insult, but assuredly is not.

I’ve got things to do to make this work. Groovy things. But groovin’ voodoo takes time. I tentatively expect to hit the go button on the new campaign in August-ish.

The purpose of this update is to ping my first-run followers. PING! I’m sounding the depths. Imagine you’re in a submarine, all cramped corridors and low-hanging conduits, creaking noises, the crushing weight of thousands of feet of water hanging like an obese lurgy of doom overhead. PING!

If you’re diggin’ on the notion of Beneath White Clouds charging ahead for a Quill or Inkshares publication, then PING back. By which I mean "like" this update.