Dear Readers,
Thank you to everyone took the time to vote for me and my work in the Worldbuilding Awards. The results will be announced on May 18, so we’ve still got a couple of weeks to bite our nails.
In the meantime, I’ve finally started finishing pages for issue #1 of The Blood of Seven Queens and I’m happy to start sharing them with paid subscribers below. I’ll still include free sneak peeks for everyone, but I want to start giving my paid subscribers their money’s worth!
Speaking of free sneak peeks…
This is a detail from a double-page spread that covers pages two and three of the issue, and it took a lot out of me. I wanted this spread to do way too many things at first, and I didn’t know where to start with it. For days, as I struggled with how to basically explain ALL THE THINGS in a way that wouldn’t overwhelm the reader, I managed to do little but overwhelm myself.
Eventually, I realized I had to narrow down my goals for the spread. The main point of it, after all, was to serve as a vehicle for communicating the title—sort of like at the beginning of a movie—and anything it accomplished beyond that would be gravy.
I settled on depicting our hero, Frieda Jacobs, marching from left to right with her sword in hand—drawing the reader toward the page flip. I added a vaguely fantasy backdrop to help communicate setting, and I added ghostly visions of the titular seven queens in order to communicate tone/genre.
In terms of what comes after the page flip, here’s a sneak peek at that. You’ve seen a rough version of it already, but here’s the finished thing.
As for what’s next, my goal is to finish 4 pages per week, share them with paid subscribers as we go, and to release the issue publicly (in print and online) in July. From there on out, I expect to release an issue every two months.
Let me know how that sounds to you.
Yours,
Chris
P.S. Paid subscribers, keep scrolling for your exclusive early look at BSQ #1.
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