Info On My New Book

Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!

Hope you guys and ladies had a good weekend reading my book. Oh, wait, you haven't read my book, entitled Save Me? Well, see the bottom of the page on purchasing it. Okay, enough plugging for now. I'm starting to feel dirty.

So, today I thought I'd give a little info on the new book. Here's some bullet points:

● It's a superhero parody

● It was created when I was in college (about 20 years ago...*sigh*)

● The theme for the hero and villain is art tool-based (one of which is a T-Square)

● There's an awkward romance

● There's actually two villains, much like a superhero movie sequel, where they feel one just isn't enough (there...I just got on and off my soapbox in one sentence)

● One of the villains is a rich billionaire (yes, I know using "rich" before "billionaire" is unnecessary, but I don't really care)

● There's a "Caption Voice-over", who is a major character, even though it is not seen (at least, not yet)

I think that'll do for now. I decided to keep this short for today. Thanks for listening. Later.

-Charlie

Like me! Really like me! Here's how...

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter: @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me at Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield" - only $9.99 plus shipping! Please leave a review! Be gentle!

It's Friday, So Let's Review

Hey, peeps.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what to write today. I figured I'd read a graphic novel, and maybe my brain would come up with something on its own. Lo and behold, it did. It told me to so a quick review of what I was reading. I agreed,  so here we go...

The book is I Hate Fairyland, published by Image Comics, with story and art by Scottie Young, who you may know from Marvel's adaptations of the Oz series of books, as well as their Rocket Raccoon series.

It should be easy making this review spoiler-free, since I have only read the first issue in the trade paperback. I feel like I have a good handle on the series to review it properly. That is meant as a compliment, by the way.

But I digress.

The story: Gertrude is a little girl who wishes herself to Fairyland. Once there, she immediately realizes that she made a huge mistake. She wants to go back home, so she is given a map and a guide to help her find a key to take her there. Twenty-seven years later...

Well, as you may have guessed, she's still looking for the key. Gertrude also looks the same outside, but has "aged every single minute of her time in Fairyland". She is also more than a little crazy, and takes it out on everyone and everything she comes across. Synopsis over.

Review time. First of all, I had an idea what I was getting into just by looking at the cover, which shows Gertrude displaying a devilish, wild-eyed look, as well as a giant, bloody axe, and stand amid some deceased citizens of Fairyland. Then I opened the book, and the title page gave me a really good clue what I was going to get into. No spoiler; you'll just have to see for yourself. Just make sure no one is around you on the bookstore when you open the trade. I literally laughed out loud.

I love this book. It's definitely for adults, and with good reason. It's bloody, and rude, and extremely funny, and those are things I love to see every now and then when I pick up a graphic novel. Not all the time, but I needed this after the day I had. Laughter is crucial to me, and this book provided it generously.

To sum up: if you like twisted takes on the make-believe, and love love love to laugh, check this out. Oh, I don't want to close without mentioning that the art is gorgeous. I am immensely fond of Scottie Young's work. It makes me giddy as a schoolgirl (intentional reference to the comic? You tell me).

Feel free to leave comments below.

Later.

-Charlie

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me at Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield" - only $9.99 plus shipping!

Making a Graphic Novel - The Charlie Way: Part IV

Hey, everyone.

Real quick, I'll finish this story.

I looked into self-publishing. After looking over a few options, I decided to go with Amazon, as you know by now. I sent them the book as one file, and the cover as another. They sent me a notice about the artwork being too close to the edge of the pages. So, I reset it up, uploaded it, and they sent me a physical proof. I let Kenny proofread it, just in case we missed something. Turns out, we did. So, I fixed them, uploaded the corrected file, and they sent me a new proof. I approved it, and within a week, it was online!

That's about it. Now I'm promoting it like it's on fire. I don't think that makes sense, but whatever. So far I've sold ten books in two weeks. I guess that's good, considering it was not advertised professionally. Here's hoping that changes; I'm going to look into professional promotion. I won't be able to do it until I have money, however.

Now, I'm not asking for money, I'm just saying. If you do want to help, please buy the book - only $9.99 plus shipping - give a good review on the book's page (but only if you like it...I don't want you to lie for me), and recommend it to others in any and every way you can.

Well, that's all for now. See ya tomorrow.

Feel free to leave comments below.

Later.

-Charlie

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me @ Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield" - only $9.99 plus shipping! 

Making a Graphic Novel - The Charlie Way : Part III

Hey, everyone.

We're in the home stretch now.

So, I had finished the book. I had my good friend Kenny to proofread it. After fixing some grammatical errors, I decided to also clean up the art a bit. I had decided to do a simplistic look to the graphic novel, but I still felt that the art looked a little sloppy and rushed. So I got an idea, which happens from time to time.

I had bought a tablet in August. It has a drawing program on it, so I took a leap to see if I could make changes to the book with it.

I scanned all the pages, and whited out mistakes (smooshed up words, crooked lines, and other nitpicky stuffl) on the computer. Then I saved the pages onto my USB drive, and backed them up on Dropbox. Then, I would open up a page in the drawing program and make the corrections.

While I was at it, I decided to do some real nitpicky changes, like filling in black areas, that was hard to do on paper at such a small size. For example, I drew the eyes as black circles, but tey didn't come out completely black because I was using a fine point pen. I was able to fill them in completely with the stylus on my tablet. This also applied to black ties, which all the guys in the story wore (told you I kept things simplistic). After I was finished with all the changes, I saved the new pages onto my USB drive, combined them into one big file, and printed it out.

I gave the proof to Kenny, who said it looked good. I should also mention that somewhere in all this, I asked for feedback from my ex-wife (yet still good friend) Diana, my college buddy Mat, my oldest friend Phil, and my therapist Carol, all of whom gave me the constructive criticism needed to make the book the best I felt it could be.

By this point, it was late December. The book was done! (Or so I thought; more on that later.)

I got up the nerve to send it to a publisher. I looked for one I thought would be the best fit. I typed up a letter introducing myself and my work, put it and a copy of the book in an envelope, and mailed it off.  Within two weeks, I got a nice rejection email. My first rejection! Not everyone gets that far.

The rejection didn't deter me. The next step was to look into self-publishing.

Tomorrow: the final act!

Later.

-Charlie

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me @ Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield" - only $9.99, plus shipping!

Making a Graphic Novel - The Charlie Way: Part II

Hey, everyone.

When we last read about our hero (a.k.a., me), he was working on his outline for his...okay, enough with that.

After I finished the outline, I decided that it would be easier for me, being that this was my first book, to draw out the entire story in stick figures. That way, I could block out the panels, where the characters were positioned in said panels, and where the word balloons would go for said characters.

I honestly don't remember how long it took, because I didn't think to keep any kind of record. And also because I procrastinated so much, mainly because I was getting frustrated. I would start out being very enthusiastic, get in a groove, then get frustrated with the whole thing, and "take a break". In retrospect, it probably wasn't a bad idea to do so. I wasn't on anybody else's deadline but my own. The only real goal I had was to be done by the end of the year. (Spoiler alert: that didn't happen.) It was usually a one or two week break, sometimes over a month. Being someone who is naturally and easily prone to depression, you can imagine what I was going through. "Ups and downs" doesn't begin to cover it.

I had two good friends, Mat and Kenny, look over the stick figure outline. After ignoring their notes (just kidding), I made changes. Two outlines later, it was about April of 2015. (I told you I was a procrastinator.) It was then that I decided to keep a record of my process and progress. If you recall, that was April 26th, 2015. How do we know this? Check out my first, and only post from last year. What can I say? I got a little distracted.

Now it was time to draw the final draft of the graphic novel. I worked on it, on and off, for about two months. After it was finished, I looked it over. I really wasn't happy with it. I think one "compliment" I got solidified it for me: I needed to start over. (I won't mention what the "compliment was, or who said it, but needless to say, it was enough for me to throw the whole thing out, so to speak.)

So this brings us to around late July - early August of last year. I started over, using the previous draft as an outline of sorts. A lot of scenes stayed in, just now with better dialogue and art (in my humble opinion.) A few were extended, and a few new scenes had been added in. This draft ended up being 87 pages, as opposed to the previous draft's 54.

Next time: proofreading! (Yeah, I can't wait either.)

Feel free to leave comments below. Thanks.

Later.

-Charlie

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me @ Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield"

Making a Graphic Novel - The Charlie Way

Hey, everyone.

Today, I thought I'd share the process that went into making Save Me.

First, the idea. I had been wanting to make a graphic novel for a few years now. I wanted to make one about a character I created in high school. The only problem was, I couldn't think of an actual story. Well, sort of. All I really knew was that I wanted to do a story about someone who was feeling isolated, and I was going to use this character to accomplish that. However, l couldn't come up with any details to the story. I hadn't yet come up with the method I would eventually use to make Save Me. Btw, I came up with the way the story is going to start (and a few other details) a few months ago. I plan on producing that story someday, but I need someone more artistically talented than I to draw it.

Since I couldn't come up with anything for that one, I decided to go in another direction. I came up with a character who worked in a copy shop, and was trying to find love, but the concept reminded me too much of the movie Clerks, so that was quickly abandoned.

As you know by now (that is, if read my previous posts, and shame shame if you haven't...go fix that now...I'll wait...okay, let's continue), I have bipolar depression. I also have loved superheroes since forever. One day in early 2014, out of the blue, I decided to put the two together. It was if lightening had stuck my brain (some who know me would not be surprised if it had). I want to use one more analogy: it was like chocolate smacked right into peanut butter. There. Happy now.

So...I had the idea. Now, I needed to figure out how to do it. In April 2014, I decided to write out an outline, which I still have. I'll scan it and include it in a future post. I pulled my Mickey Mouse padfolio, went to the nearby Barnes and Noble cafe, and started writing. It took about a month of scribbling and scratching out words onto the paper in front of me, but I finally finished it.

Maybe I should stop for now. We'll continue this tomorrow. Feel free to leave ant comments below.

Later.

-Charlie

Facebook: Ozymandias Books
Instagram: Ozymandias_26
Twitter: @OzymandiasBooks

Buy Save Me @ Amazon.com: search "Save Me Charlie Stubblefield"

Free Sunday Post

Possible poster for HeroesCon in Charlotte NC (cropping will be needed, of course)