Category Archives: Writing

Locations for “The Rabbit Hole”

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The original alt.devilbunnies story postings that provided the characters I reference in The Rabbit Hole mentioned Kingston, Ontario, Canada. When I was writing the story, I needed to firm up my knowledge of the locations. So here are some of the locations:

  • The motel where the Aduins live is based on a motel on Old Highway 2, west of downtown Kingston. 3100 Princess Street.
  • The house where Landon lives does not actually exist. Balaclava Street is real, but 5 Balaclava Street appears to be a driveway or an empty lot.
  • The intersection of Princess and Centennial, in all its shopping-plaza-lined glory.

Legal Deposit

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When publishing a book in Canada, it is an actual legal requirement to send a copy or two to the national library for their collection.

This applies to printed books, ebooks, serial publications, video and audio recordings, maps, microforms, even sheet music.

The materials go into the national library, and one copy is made available for the public, while the other goes into The Archives.

More from Library and Archives Canada.

Preparing to print a hardcover

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The Lonely Little Fridge is going to be a hardcover and a fixed-format ebook.

Amazon print-on-demand does not print hardcovers, so I set up an account at IngramSpark (https://www.ingramspark.com/), the publishing platform, who does print hardcovers. They also handle distribution worldwide; bookstores order from them.

In order to print with them, we have to provides all sorts of information, in addition to the actual book files.

Continue reading →

Backing the Etherington Brothers

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1378058646/how-to-think-when-you-draw-book-4-reprinting-sold-out-books

I just backed this art book printing and reprinting project!

I kept seeing bits of the artwork copied into places like Instagram, and I didn’t know where it came from. But then I stumbled across the book reprint project on Kickstarter. And that led me to the source, the Etherington Brothers out of England:

https://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/

The website has hundreds of little segments giving tips and tricks on drawing and writing topics.

Alas, no exhibiting at online TCAF… this year.

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However, I got a great message back from them with some useful advice:

For those who are interested in applying for TCAF in the future, we want to take a moment to provide some context for what our committee considers when selecting applicants for TCAF:

TCAF exhibitors should have a substantial body of comics in print. We are a comics focused show, which means that we try to prioritize exhibitors who have lots of comics for sale.

TCAF exhibitors are encouraged to debut new work at the festival. New comics and new books help make TCAF exciting for patrons, and tend to ensure more successful and profitable shows for exhibitors. It’s great to see applicants who have a solid idea of a new comics project, especially one that has a clear and confident plan for completion.

It’s important to note that these aren’t “the rules” for applying to TCAF, and many other factors are taken into consideration, but we hope this helps with your future TCAF applications.

TCAF

So I’m going to finish “Little Lost Part” as if I were exhibiting it at TCAF, and keep going from there!

TCAF lives! Am I audacious enough to exhibit there?

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The physical TCAF at the Toronto Reference Library in 2018.

I got an email recently that TCAF, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is happening this year… online! The physical version of TCAF has been one of the highlights of my year, but of course recent events have forced changes. After it was cancelled in 2020, TCAF will be online in 2021.

The deadline to apply was Wednesday March the 3rd.

I applied. It’s a long shot, but what the hey.


Listing of various works

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This is a listing of various works I have done.

High school 1976-1981

The grade nine sketch. The stories: How Yukon Picket Obtained Salt (grade 10), The Thirteenth Upheaval (grade 11), Virnalian Ranger (comic in co-op newsletter, grade 12 or 13). The Map (detail; grade 10).

Architecture school, Waterloo 1981 to end 1982

First sketchbooks.

Electronics school, Brampton 1983-1985

Toasterman. Electronic Monsters. (I was the only guy in electronics school with a sketchbook.)

Oshawa 1986-1989, then Mississauga 1989-1992

Random sketchbook work. Large drawings as gifts until 1990.

Animation school 1992-1993, then continuing in Oakville 1993-2001

Evelyn’s Story (the World of the Woolly Mountain Incident). I discover Esperanto (for real this time). The Devilbunnies newsgroup and shared fiction. In summer 2000 I go to the Kultura Esperanto Festivalo in Helsinki (music video segment– cut short when I ran out of tape (yes, tape)).

Toronto 2001-2009

Scaffoldworld (the beginning). Plotting problems extending it. Start learning about story design. Start going to LIFT, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, to attend its screenwriting group. French lessons. Japanese lessons (really regret leaving Toronto and quitting these).

Bancroft 2010-2011, then Sutton 2011-2012

The layoff. Go to Bancroft to work on solar-powered houses. Doesn’t work out. Look for work in Sutton. Meet Shawn Shepheard when he led a job search group at Yorkworks. I draw Shawn’s Sugarfree Shawn comic.

Web development school, Durham College, Oshawa 2012-2014

Cara Coulson’s children’s literature class. Mary-Rose Thaler’s graphic design class. Linda Cheng’s graphics programming class. The rabbit video. The BUNIX login. French immersion in Jonquière summer 2013. Exploration of Kickstarter.

Peterborough 2014-2018

Sketchbooks and attempts at programming. The ATM Fee Finder. Second attempt at Time Warrior (website, video, and shirt this time). Visits to LIFT.

Belleville 2018-

Parts: An Industrial Fantasy. Meet Jackie and the DRWG. The compilation Nineteen Tales of COVID-19 and the story The Rabbit Hole.