The Vengian, 1/6 scale action figure
WALL OF THANKS
We’re halfway done with Parabolis. With the initial thrill having completely waned, this last half is going to require a strong push. And to help us along, we’ve been reminding ourselves of the people who have supported us: Our Kickstarter backers. So this post is dedicated to them:
Aaron
Aaron Renaud
Adam Bettino
Allen W Snyder
Amanda Gilbert
Amy Rowe
Andy McCall
Atomic Zoo
Benjamin Chan
Birchell Eversole
Brian
Brian
Brian Chao
Candy Sohn
Carmine Pellosie Jr
Cathy
Channdara Sin
Charlie Seo
Cheryl Owyoung Moore
Chris Staggs
Christian Rickeby
Christine Chantarasompot
Clay Stearns
Cole Brown
Colin Lalley
Colt HansenConquistador Games
Daniel Winch
Danny Anderson
Darion D’anjou
David A. Watanabe
David David Katzman
David W. Decker
DPR
Elizabeth King
Emily
Emily Robbins
Eric
E. T. Ellison
Evan Grainger
Felix Girke
Francis Floyd Occena
Fraser Simons
Glenn Ellington
Gloria Lim
Halen
Hannah Howard
J. Matthew Jacob
Jack Cheevers
James Falco
James Steele
Janel Drewis
Jason Crystal
Jennifer C
Jevon Archie
Joe Fuel
Joe Germuska
Joe Maubach
Joe Sokol
John D. Mueller
Jon
Joseph S.
Joshua Taube
Kimmy
Kyle Frost
Lucas Butts
Lukas
Malcolm Ross
Marcus Stevenson
Matt Croft
Matt Geiger
Matt Kandarian
Matthew Woods
Mei Lu
Michael
Michael
Michael Cammarata
Michael Godshall
Michael Wang
Monica Wiley
Nick Graves
Nico Kolstee
Patrick Dias
Patrick Riffe
Patrick Tomas
Paul Newman
Pete Mackay
Peter and Kristine
Peter Young
Queena Kim
Rachel Colbert
Rachel Eng
Reid McCamish
Robert Forbes
Rosemary Kim
Ryan Kailey
Ryan Medina
Sean O’Keefe
Silvernis
Steve
Steven Scherbinski
Tal Gluck
Tim
Tom Lindow
Tritia Nakamura
Tyrone
Vitriolicism
William Clark
William Cosmo Taormina
Woren
Wright Johnson
Yvette Brown-Losson
Zach and Caitlin Nethery Anselmo
Zainah Alrujaib
Zirui
Andrew
Chris
Dj Ludowici
Dylan Clayton
Erik Meyerson
Eugenia Kim
Grace
Hank Syu
James Tsang
Jason & Fonda Tokushige
Jordan Kelch
Kyong Pak
Matthew Buckland
MightyHunter
Robin Bethell
Robin Har
Sam Nguyen
supervexi
Taylor Poole
Curtis Cho
Dan Hipp
David Song
Elias Stallard-Olivera
Fred Yoo
Jane Sugiura
Jeremiah Wai
Julie Crispell
Mark Merlo
Martha
R.K. Bentley
Theodore Ng
Thomas Taimre
Wesley Song
Yuree Han
Brett Bozeman
Daniel “Airforce Dan” Kim
Eugene Kashida
Jesse
Jessup Pyun
Kyle Runnels
Linda Peters
Samuel Joe
Vik Advani
Deborah Han
Horacio Choi
Liz Ham
Rita Rowe
Daryl Burney
Eric Han
Samuel Nakahashi
Jan Merlo
Sarah and Fred Chun
PARABOLIS: THE WEBSITE!!
So we got our website up and running. You can downloaded an updated free sample of the first 6 chapters (5+prologue). You can also pre-order a limited edition, off-set printed copy of the novelzine, and subscribe for updates and news.
Hope you had a nice holiday. I did. Family, food, and bottle of Dewars.
Social Media
So for the sake of Parabolis, I’ve been trying to keep up with our Facebook and Twitter accounts. The thing is, as far as Twitter is concerned, I just don’t have that much to say with that much frequency. Maybe that’s why we only have 3 followers. Facebook is a little easier to manage. I just post something to let folks know we’re still alive and plugging away at the novelzine.
The truth is, I’d rather spend my time on 9gag.com, marveling at how clever people can be. Yeah, I wrote a book. Yeah, I want you to read it. But I don’t see how peppering you with carefully crafted comments in 140 characters every thirty minutes is going to convince you it doesn’t suck and you really should buy a copy when it comes out if you’re not already convinced.
On a completely unrelated note, here’s an interesting look at the heart of the publishing industry’s metamorphic climate, which I just might tweet about.
Worth of Words
It’s easy to measure with money the time and effort you put into something you don’t want to be doing. You want compensation for your sacrifice. But how do you accurately gauge the value of something you’d be doing anyway if you weren’t getting paid?
Last week, I was forced to reflect on the value of my work. I thought about the better half of my twenties spent trying to harness a frenetic imagination. I thought about the hours spent hovering over a laptop, giving life to a world, word by word. I thought about how I watched it grow, evolve over the years. I thought about all the conversations with my wife that I was absent in—my mind lost in Parabolis while I watched her lips move.
These are unquantifiable variables. You can’t monetize a share of time lost with the wife. You can’t buy or sell passion…unless of course, your passion is money. In the end, I tried anyway. And after a few calculations—the pythagorean theorem divided by the square root of a common denominator on the x-axis, and carrying the one—my work came out to about $8…
Give or take a few million.
On Writing
“One has to write what one sees, what one feels, truthfully, sincerely. I am often asked what it was that I was wanting to say in this or that story. To these questions I never have any answer. There is nothing I want to say. My concern is to write, not to teach! And I can write about anything you like. … Tell me to write about this bottle, and I will give you a story entitled ‘The Bottle.’ Living truthful images generate thought, but thought cannot create an image.” —Anton Chekhov
We’re now on Twitter
@PARAB0LIS
We Done It
We’ve reached our goal on Kickstarter and will be fully funded as of September 15th, which means the world of Parabolis will be realized in its envisioned form!
an unrelated image of a surfing monkey
If you’re still interested in supporting our project, it’s not too late. With the additional funds, we plan to create an e-book version of the novelzine after the printed version is completed. And as our way of saying “thank you,” this e-book will be FREE, exclusive to all of our backers at any level, whether you pledge $1 or a gazillion! So don’t miss out.
The Real
When I read fiction, I picture a movie in my head. I have a mental casting call for every character. Philip Seymour Hoffman somehow always gets a role. I put on some Sigur Ros or Ennio Morricone in the background. And the curtains go up.
I wrote Parabolis much in the same way. Like I was watching an epic steampunk fantasy directed by Michael Mann or Tony Gilroy. There are skyships, flint-lock pistols, submarines. But I wanted it to feel real. Believable. I wanted the Real to be in the details. The non-sequitur moments. The taste of bile stuck in your nasal cavity after vomiting. The philosophical questions. The dialogue. I wanted to write dialogue the way Cormac McCarthy writes dialogue. Then again, ideally, I’d want to write everything the way Cormac McCarthy writes everything.
I hope if/when Parabolis comes around, you enjoy the show.
Thinking of You
PAPER SIZE
A5. It’s the perfect size. Wide but compact. You can hold it in your hand like it’s something sacred. You can read it lying down. That’s what we decided. A5. After two weeks of deliberation.
FONT TYPE
That’s two weeks after volleying between Garamond and Georgia. Any graphic designer will tell you font matters. We started with Georgia. It had that classic letter press feel, like an old newspaper. Visually, a page with densely occupied printed letters looks interesting. But it’s daunting to read. Daunting to even think about reading.
So we went with Garamond. Even though Garamond is a smaller font, it’s light and open, giving it a larger appearance; making it easier on the eyes.
TWO COLUMNS OR THREE
Finally, the columns. Three columns look better. It had more of that magazine feel. But when we read a sample page, we felt rushed. Like the layout was forcing us to get through the text quicker. And that’s not something we necessarily wanted our readers to feel. So we went with the two column layout.
*YAWN* IS THERE A POINT TO ALL THIS JIBBER-JABBER?
We wanted to remove as many obstacles as we could to get you engaged in the story, while still making something interesting to look at. Throughout the creative process, we were thinking of you.
