The ball is starting to roll for City of Angles. Feel the hype, yo.
There’s a new VIP Club story! I figured if I’m about to launch the “Give me your money dammit” aspect, I may as well have something to throw money AT. The story’s called coa//00a: Are We There Yet? and it represents the VIP idea quite well — an in-depth exploration into some intriguing aspect of the city that doesn’t merit a blockbuster 100k story starring main characters. The VIP club is my way to chase down interesting notions and show a bit of the mystery going on behind the scenes.
The link won’t work unless you’re a VIP Club member (and remembered to write down your name and password; email me of you lost them). Feel free to discuss the story here but I ask that you be spoiler-conscious. If you’d like to join up, the Early Bird special is still on for two days; if you’re a brand new reader I’ve also got the paid VIP application up. US$7 gets you in the door for life. Less than the cost of one printed book (but giving me as much profit as two printed books, so hey, score.)
Commissioned artwork is in the pipeline for our trio of main characters — Dave Smith, and Penelope ‘n Gregory Yates. Oh, and Marcy Wei. But wait! Who’s Marcy? You’ll meet her in coa//003. After the art rolls in I’ll be doing some advertising for the series through webcomic ad networks. (You may see such ads on the site, I haven’t decided yet. I’ve sunk a lotta cash into this project and wouldn’t mind recouping it.)
Oh, and coa//001 is finished. Like, as in I proofread and spellchecked and called it a day. See? I am learning! I CAN finish a story completely before moving on to another one.
Finally, Stars Fall 06 is finished, edited, compiled, and the book is almost done. Mad thanks to Lawrence Chu and my sis for helping with all that. I’ll have it available as soon as I can, and London’s Fog will go on sale that same day. Huzzah!
Next up is coa//002: Orientation Day. I’ll be working on outlines and getting some scenes together soon. Keep an eye out!
Jeremy Jinkerson says
Very depressing is right. That poor kid and his totally ineffective defense mechanisms. And child’s understanding of death. –And failure to consider the alternatives to not existing.
But now I want to know about the girl.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
Luckily for you, that VIP story is a preview of a character who will be playing a large part in later story arcs. Just keep a look out for her.
Or maybe you already met her.
Or maybe that was just a distraction.
Or maybe not.
MAYBE.
Ciara says
I kind of had the suspicion that Things Would Not Go Well, although the exact nature of the Not Going Well was not quite what I predicted. Good use of technology in the setting. (Also, it was a Polaroid camera, yes?)
I wanted to give the protagonist many hugs.
It does a very nice job elaborating on the nature of the world. I don’t think people are going to suffer for having not read it, but I enjoyed having the answer to the question of if people have ever done X, and if so, how risky it can be. It’s a question that, if it comes up, can probably be answered fairly easily with a few lines of dialogue in the main story, but it’s cool to have a specific example of this thing happening.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I was hesitant to call it out as a Polaroid, since trademarks are danger territory. But it’s a cultural touchstone of the era and I wanted to make sure it was established, soooo.
Questions like that are what the VIP stories are for. If you’ve got any other questions about the City of Angles, ask away in der bloggen. It may very well inspire a story! That happened a few times in anachronauts, too; someone wondering “What about X?” and me realizing “That’d really be an awesome tale!” and BAM, there you go.
Ciara says
I was initially confused about how he got the pictures, as I was thinking it was a film camera. I’m not sure if anyone else was, though; if they were, there may be a way to call it a Polaroid without calling it a Polaroid, as it were.
Shaun Kronenfeld (@bigred_13) says
Dark, moody, and incredibly effective piece that really does a nice job of establishing both how dangerous and fantastical this world can be. I think it really succeeds at further painting in the background of the setting while still telling a fairly standalone tale that will not sink the series for non-VIP members who don’t read it. Great stuff.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
Sounds like I hit every bullet point I wanted to hit with it, then. The goal of the VIP stories is to flesh things out, be optional for comprehension of the series, but also be very compelling and high quality stuff.
Thanks!
LoopyChew says
I liked it! It was depressing, though. How much of it can we talk about here without spoiling too much?
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I think as long as you don’t reveal Ye Ending, it’ll be fine.
Besides, this one’s a pretty straightforward story. From the title it’s obvious it’s about a family vacation and needless to say Things Do Not Go Well.