Day 92 – Map Illustrations Survive Temperatures on Surface of the Sun



Evidence of God's mercy.

Well, it's six thousand degrees here today and the A/C in my house doesn't really make it as far as this room because the contracting outfit that built our neighborhood were a bunch of cheap bastards (gee, I wonder why they went bankrupt even before the housing bust), so I’m sweating like a crack addict detoxing in a Death Valley sauna at high noon. It's so hot that, honestly, I'm afraid if I type too long or too fast, the friction will ignite the molten air and the entire neighborhood will explode. That said, I’ll keep this report short and sweet, so I can go lie under a ceiling fan and beg God to drop a glacier on my face. So, here’s where the book is to date...

Cover art: Cris Ortega emailed last week, has some sketches nearly done and is working on some ideas she came up with while doing so that might not be precisely what I described but that she thinks might be very cool, which is… well, very cool. Can’t wait to see.

Book file: So I have the whole book in .pdf format, and I’ve spent the last several days going through it to make sure it’s right (535 pages). It’s not. Chapter 45 somehow ended up in there twice, and Chapter 46 didn’t get in at all. And there’s a bunch of blank pages in between. So, there’s some work to do on that front still. Which means I will have to go through it all again just to be safe. Ugh. Man, I’m telling you, there is sooooooooo much labor in this stuff.

Interior art: So I have been working on the map for the interior of the book and a couple of other things. I spent a few afternoons working on some of it, and I finished up the frame for it yesterday after a marathon drawing festival (also in the sweltering roast of this room, and also which explains why my wrist hurts from so much tightly controlled drawing). I believe I am very pleased with the end result. We shall see, because I often love my work the day I do it and as days go by and I come back to it, I am astonished that I can possibly suck as bad as I do (which explains the crapton of unpublished and abandoned articles, short stories and even one novel that I have laying around). Oh well.

So, that’s been my week and weekend, and this is my Monday. Below are the three pieces of my book map. The map (yes, there are no names, but the calligraphy—or not—is something else completely), the rose, and the frame. Let me know what you think.

Map...



Names and the rest to be added in graphic program (in theory)



Map rose...

This will have calligraphy for N, S, E W

Map frame...

So, that's pretty much it. All this stuff will get assembled, letters/names will get added, and it will be what it will be. The graphic artist that's helping me is scanning them into better files and going to see what we can do with fancy fonts that are available so I don't have to use my yucky handwriting in lieu of calligraphy.

Now you are up to date. I hope I don't burst into flames when I stand up. If there's any static electricity in my jeans or the carpet, it's over. So, if you don't see any more posts from me, you'll know what happened. Send flowers to my wife.