The Crossover

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Arty Art-Art

Hello, everybuddddy . . . sorry there was no post last week. I’m trying to do this on Mondays, but you know how Mondays go. Anyway, I’m back. I recently posted this image for some friends of mine, and they seemed to like it so I thought I’d share with a wider audience. I found the original illustration in a collection of Public Domain documents having to do with architectural proposals for a monument celebrating the discoveries of Christopher Columbus. Never built, of course; if you look at the buildings in the foreground, the scale of the thing would put it somewhere around two hundred stories high. I used a program called Style and a filter called Colored Pencils, which added the hues and gave it a more comic-book feel. What do you think? Oh, and if you want an explanation as to what I'm using this giant building for and how it fits into the plot of CROSSOVER, check out my latest post at collaborative comics.com.

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Good News at last!

Though, sadly, it’s not the news everybody is hoping for . . . but I have some thoughts on that at the end of this post. The good news is that some of my older, out-of-print stuff is coming back in electronic form. My Cyberfolk trilogy ( STEELDRIVER, TIMBERJAK and V.I.) written as Don DeBrandt, are going to be released as e-books by Venture Press. No publication date yet, but watch this space for details. The other good news is that the original artwork for some of my previously written-sold-but-never-released work for Marvel is now online at the 2099 Bytes Facebook page (go to the Officalicious DD Barant page for a direct link). It features my creation Doc Houdini, a cyberspace jockey with a penchant for breaking and entering, and a group of South American cyberheroes I called The Unchained. Art by the incomparable Gabriel Morrissette. Got any questions about the story, I’d be glad to answer them. And speaking of questions . . . there’s a certain question all my fans have been dying to have answered. And the thing is, I KNOW what the answer is (though it might not be what you expect). And while I really, really want to share that story, I need to do it as a novel, and right now that just ain’t happening. But then I had a thought, (which I believe I mentioned at the top of this post). What do YOU think happened—and why? Please, let me know. Tell me which way you think Jace jumped, and what her reasons were. Tell me your crazy but brilliant theories. TELL ME. Of course, if y’all just decide to say “Oh, we’ll tell you. . . SOMEDAY” I guess I sort of deserve that.

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Toldja I'd be back

Hey, look at that! Another new post and it’s only been a few days. Geez, this fresh air must agree with me . . . I’m in beautiful Victoria, on Vancouver Island, enjoying a few days away and visiting friends and family. Basically taking the summer to recharge creatively and tentatively begin to write again. Still experiencing some fatigue and mental fogginess, but it’s not too bad. I’ve started the ball rolling on a few projects and we’ll see what happens. First, I contacted my agent, to see about getting a few of my older books released as e-books. Once that happens, I’ll be doing some giveaways--either of entire book or possibly just posting a few chapters for free. What do you think? The other project is a screenplay I did a while back; the director and I are kicking it around and seeing how we can make it better. I’ll let you know how it goes. Anybody out there know a good producer in LA who might want to make a film about a murder at Burning Man? Also, I refuse to let my webcomic project, CROSSOVER, die. Once launched, it’ll promote not just my older stuff but artistic projects from my readers themselves: if you do something creative, I’ll try to find a way to collaborate with you and promote your stuff. And it won’t cost you a cent, I promise—this isn’t one of those “do a bunch of work and get paid in exposure” scams. I want to take cool stuff people have already done and drive traffic to their website—but really, if you want to know more about the project, go check out collaborativecomics.com for my latest post. It even has some news about a certain FBI profiler . . . Anyway, I don’t just want to blather on about what I’m doing—I’m interested in feedback. So go ahead, ask me anything—EXCEPT THAT ONE QUESTION. You know which one. First person to ask will get personally berated by JV herself. You have been warned.

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Cons

I have a new post up at collaborativecomics.com. It concerns me, drinking, conversations, and conversations I have had while drinking. It does not feature convicts, concierges, or Connecticut.

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Webcomic!

Hey, everyone. First of all, I want to apologize for leaving everyone hanging. The thing is, I'm not done with Jace--I just wanted to branch out and do a few other projects I was excited about. One of them, the WHISKEY, TANGO AND FOXTROT MYSTERIES, (with me writing as Dixie Lyle) has been a lot of fun and let me be really, really goofy. The first three books are done, and now I'm concentrating on putting together a webcomic with the amazing Deni Loubert, a multitalented woman whose list of accomplishments is too long to go into here. Both of us will be blogging regularly about the process over at collaborativecomics.com, and it would be nice if people dropped by to say hello. CROSSOVER will be a very interactive project, and even people who don't know a thing about comics can participate. Also, since it's about a multiversal bar, we plan on having a lot of guest stars. The very first one will be a cynical NSA agent who was last seen trying to make a very important personal decision . . . Want to see more Jace? Drop on by collaborativecomics.com and join the conversation.