This blog will be moving and other important news!

I will be moving this blog to www.tumblr.com here real soon, and then all posts regarding anything Atlantech related will continue there. However, that is not the big news, that is only a little heads up on what to expect from me.

The big news is that Publish America is going to publish the Atlantech series, and the first novel manuscript must be sent in by May 1st. Yes, that's right there is now an official deadline, and so there is much work to be done. Can I do that? I believe so, my heart is very much into this project and my dedication will be sure to show with the final product. This also means that the first book of Atlantech 4000 will be available sooner than I had originally planned, which is great news.

Once I sign the contract, I'm afraid I won't be able to put up anymore teasers or samples from the story. I will continue the artwork, and web comic but anything having to do with the novel won't be released for obvious reasons. Maybe proposed sketches for the next book covers (front & back) but nothing more after that.

Speaking of artwork for book covers, I realize the style I chose for the first one takes a very long time to do and so I'd probably have to go with a less detailed style for the future books. I've already got the front cover half way finished, needs some texturing and more painting, but it will be finished soon. I've also come up with a nice image for the back cover, it features Brian. I've decided to feature a different character on the back of each book. It sounds like a promising design too, so I'll play around with it and see what goes.

So that's the big news regarding Atlantech...............soon to be official, and soon to be public.

Also, with tumblr users can bombard me with questions regarding the book or series in general. Yes, you now have that privilege, but beware I'll only answer the questions I'm allowed to =P
meaning NO SPOILERS!

My brain is working!

Okay silly title, I realize that, but anyways what it means are the wheels are turning inside that noggin of mine and I've been thinking of some new ideas for material. What I am thinking of right now is I know I'm working on the web comic, but those updates do take a long time, so I'm thinking about doing mini-comics. One's that follow the story, but more along the lines of origin. Since the zyrians don't make their appearance till many pages later in the original story, I was thinking it would be wise to have mini comics featuring them, also the rest of the cast as well. The idea came to me while I was looking through the content I currently have on the website, and I said to myself. Y'know, there's a lot missing.....time to fill in those gaps. Origin wise any ways, also just for fun cause there are times I feel like expanding on certain things and well, this would give me a nice excuse to do so. I still plan on working on other things I have set aside in the past, mainly because personal issues came up or I just wasn't feeling that inspiration. I've got profiles to complete, another section of the gallery to work on. (A section with regular art not your average paintings that take forever)

Just a lot on my plate and of course the novel. Like I said in my last post, I plan to have that finished and published by this fall, if not sooner. It will be exciting completing the first book, even though I am still not sure how much of the story will fit in it, I imagine not a whole lot since every chapter is being re-written, extended and what not. I am also going over and over it, fixing any errors I see, cause when I write sometimes, I do it really fast and can easily miss an error. I blame those energy drinks..........they sure like to mess with my head. So yeah got the novel on my plate, the web comic, more artwork (Still planning to do that art book, just need to put together enough material to fill it) Atlantech is a huge project for me to work on alone, but you know something? I'm glad I chose that path, because only I know how everything falls into place, how certain characters act. Besides, working on something this big all by myself is a challenge, and I like my challenges.

I'm feeling rather generous

Yes, the title says it all, and I am feeling generous, heck, generous enough I am going to share something with all of you that you probably weren't expecting! And what could that possibly be? Well, I'm going to share a sample from the current novel project, that's what =]
What better way to start off the new year of 2011 than with a nice teaser. So here you go
this is taken from about chapter 4 of the novel, and it is vital to the story of Atlantech 4000
enjoy!


--AMF Intelligence Headquarters--
5:00 AM

The AMF's intelligence division were notified by Admiral Grant and were quick to investigate. They had requested for print-outs of the signal's readings and even the diagrams of the location it was coming from. They were planning to do some serious research and see what they could come up with. The head scientist of the division took his time with the information and finally came to some sort of conclusion. "It appears to be coming from some type of device", he explained to the others including Admiral Grant and commander Williams. "A device underground?" Lynne questioned him. He nodded in response and proceeded with his theory. "It is probable that the device is something that was accidentally buried, or buried for good reason". Everyone in the conference room seemed to look very puzzled. "Or it is possible it could even be a foreign object". Lynne suddenly had to speak. "Foreign?" "Yes", the man nodded. "Do you mean, foreign as in alien?" She asked him, hoping he would say no. "Yes", he answered. "It is possible, but as of now we still don't know".

Lynne looked over at admiral Grant who was sitting right across from her. He just sat there with his arms crossed. He didn't seem very intrigued by the news either, but he did notice the look of concern on her face and looked back at her. "The signal's origin seems to be coming from not under Atlantis, but outside of it", the head scientist explained. -"One of our airbase officers said that the signal seemed to be transmitting to another location, what do you make of that?" Lynne asked the man. He picked up one of the print-outs and looked it over carefully. "Ah yes, it does seem to be transmitting itself elsewhere", he commented. "Transmitting the signal where?" Lynne asked. "Where could such a signal be going? Do you suppose that if it is indeed a device of alien origin, that it could also be transmitting itself to another device of alien origin? The man was silent for a brief moment. "Yes" he replied abruptly. "That is very possible". Lynne didn't like this news, and was hoping that whatever it was underground, was nothing more than some man-made object that was lost and forgotten.

"You say that the object's signal reading is coming from outside Atlantis", another scientist suddenly spoke up. "Would it be possible to excavate it and find out what it is?" -"That is the plan", the head scientist replied. "We're going to assemble a team and go out there and dig it up". Lynne felt the need to speak up again. "If the object is foreign or alien as you announced as probable, don't you think that signal could lead some unwanted visitors here?" The conference room was silent. Everyone looked at her, including admiral Grant. "Well, if that were to happen, the AMF would know what to do". Lynne decided not to say anything more. She had heard enough about this and got up from her seat and left. After the meeting had ended, admiral Grant met up with her in the lobby and began to question what was wrong with her. "You got up and left so suddenly", he said. "It worried me, are you alright?" She didn't know what to say, but she nodded back. "I'm fine", she answered. "But this whole thing does worry me". "I could tell", Grant replied as he looked over at her.

"Well, fill me in on what I missed", she told him. -"They're gathering a team and planning to set up the dig site next week", he explained. She let out a sigh as she walked along side of him down the hall and towards the elevator which lead to the control deck. "You know something", Grant said all of a sudden. "Perhaps you should join the team, it would be something new for you".
Lynne just shook her head at him. "My place is here", she told him. "I'm not a scientist, you should probably ask corporal Church instead." Grant suddenly stopped and gave her a scornful look. "Don't you ever doubt your abilities", he scolded. "I know very well, you've always wanted to be a part of something big, and I may not be your father, but I do know it would be good for you". She didn't know how to respond to that. She had never heard him this upset with her before. "I'll think about it", she told him as they both stepped into the elevator and began heading up.

All right, that's it for the samples, I might do more later on, in the mean time, be on the look out for new comic pages and more artwork!
2011 is going to be a busy year for Atlantech.th

Something Special

Looking back on the days I realize something very special. Atlantech has been around, (well in my head) for well over 6 years. That's a long time, and next year it will mark seven years. So before that time, I'm going to do the honors of producing something to celebrate the six year anniversary. It is something I need to do a little brainstorming for, perhaps maybe a little tonight. It's not that I don't have inspiration, it's just that I need to have the right concept to work with. So that should be something fun to look forward to. Granted I promise myself it is NOT going to end up like the massive book cover that is taking forever to finish. Yes, but that is also a good thing that the first novel is not yet complete. Another fork in the road though over what to title the first book. That will come to me too, eventually. Could go with "Atlantech 4000 Part 1" or something, but I just want it to work. I want it to sound I guess professional is the word? It needs to be a catchy title, one that draws you in, besides the artwork of course.

Speaking of art, I am still debating on whether to include a few illustrations for each book. Character portraits or a kind of likeness which illustrates them. Just so the readers can get a nice visual of what these characters look like, and then from there they can read the story with a more clearer picture. I'm thinking about it, but I still haven't thought of what they would look like. OR how many per book. There's a lot of characters, so I'd have to do one for each that I would include in the first book. I'd definitely include artwork of the main characters, such as Brian, William, Stan, and Justin. Just brainstorming at this point, but hopefully as I mess around with sketches or designs, something will come to mind. I am currently working with illustrative portraits of the Zyrian trio. Well one of them did end up getting scrapped and I started a brand new WIP. Still thinking about scrapping a few others, unless I can work my magic hands and make it look up to par with the others. Can this be achieved? Yes? No? Maybe so? I can't pull an all nighter tonight but I do think I can work in some sketches before my bedtime. Yes I have a bedtime, isn't that silly? I didn't used to, but I do now!

Again, the novel is coming along nicely. I'm right at about 48 pages now. Within those 48 pages contains the prologue, the usual introduction and history, and the re-written/revamped chapters of one and two. So at this point I have no idea how long it will take or better yet, how many pages will end up in the first book. It's all speculation, but I'd guess maybe five or six? Just a wild guess on my part. Still a lot to go, but it's fun and so worth it.

Keeping up with the Updates

So here I am again, hoping to stay committed to updating this blog, the site, and the facebook page as often as I can. Right now the manuscript for the first novel is still in production. As I've mentioned before, its uncertain as to how many chapters will be included in the first book. I'd like to get as many as possible, but with a lot of the additional detail, that could be a problem. Also the current chapters will have to be broken down, which is something else I am fumbling with. Break off points aren't easy to place, and of course you don't want to leave the audience in suspense at the end of each one, but neither do you want to end a chapter on a strange note. I guess I could go for both suspenseful breaks and those dealing with dialogue, but there's always a chance those two could intermingle in the process.

It is work, and hard work it is, but it is work I enjoy. Atlantech isn't a job to me, it's a passion and that is the way it should and will always be. Even if for some reason in the future, it becomes a success and I end up making a career out of it? Will it still be a job? Nah, it will still be a passion, and one that will never die. Success is nice, but I would still prefer to live the simple life, just use the money to buy things I need and want, and still work a regular job as a middle class American. Fancy homes and fancy items really don't mean much to me. Sure there are expensive things that I'd like to have, but I'd never want a mansion or anything. Living in an apartment is good enough for me.

Anyways, I need to get back into the groove of things, and I've got a lot of updates to catch up on. Personal life became a major problem when it came to doing anything with Atlantech, and because these issues, I was unable to focus, thus lack of updates, lack of anything, but that's changed now. I got away from the problems and now I am free to continue as I was.
Lessons are always learned the hard way, but giving up is not an option, no matter how bad things get, we should always strive for the best and work hard to reach our goals. Life may get you down, but dreams will lift you right back up.

Where to Begin?

Ah yes, a lot has been going on as of lately, and much of it has been me dealing with personal issues. Those aside, I have been thinking a lot lately, about the best way to finish my book and get it published. At first, I was insisted on doing self publishing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized, it would probably be much easier to find a publishing company that would do it and also distribute it to local book stores. Well I had searched and came across a company called Publish America, and I did my research and found that they would be the perfect company to do the job.

For now it is just the first book I am working on getting out, and as of right now I haven't a clue how many of the already written chapters are going to fit into it. The reason for this is because of all the re-writing and revising I have done, with just the first half of the story. As I described in earlier posts, the chapters used to read like short episodes which were only six or 10 pages long. What I've done is add more back story, more detail, and even some of the extra scenes and ideas that I had either discarded, or had planned, but never included them. Does the novel adaption still follow the in progress web comic? In some ways, yes. Some of the dialogue and scenes from the web comic are also in the novel.

I decided not to make them exactly the same, that way readers won't feel like it "oh it's just the same thing but in literature form". I realize reading the same thing can get boring, so I've taken the liberty of enhancing those scenes, adding extra quotes, anything to keep it separated. Once I figure out exactly how many current chapters will fit into the first book, then I will go from there and figure out how many will fit into the second. Atlantech was meant to be a series in the first place, and even one saga can't be told in just one book, it takes quite a few. Originally, before I even decided to transfer it to novel format, I had estimated a total of 50 chapters it would take to finish Altantech 4000. And now, it could end up being 100 chapters, just by all the revisions, extensions ,and changes I've made.

I can definitely see this series as being a long one, and this is just Atlantech 4000. I have no clue how many chapters Atlantech Exodus, and Ancient Dynasty will end up having, but I can assume I am in for a surprise lol.
I still have the Art book planned, and I will also do this through Publish America. Maybe that will be ready to go after the first two novels are out. The art books could also end up being more than one volume, just because there are so many characters, so many settings ,and of course the machines.

Anyways, because of the decision to publish the novels with a company, this means the chapters will not be posted on the website. The current host I use wouldn't be able to host the whole thing, so that takes care of that issue right there. Instead of worrying about that, I will still finish up the character bios and update the gallery, and of course the web comic will continue as planned. I really hate it when I have to put it to the side, but things come up and my inspiration isn't always there. Well, since I am getting over the hurdles in my personal life, I am getting it back and I have been working on the novel, inspiring myself.

I have always kept the promise to myself that I would never give up this series, because I love it too much. The characters, the story, just everything about it has grown on me ,and now holds a special place in my heart. I will openly admit, that getting it published will be a dream come true, and I will dedicate it in Carl's memory. I never got to meet the man, or tell him how much influence he had on me, but I will always be grateful, and keep his memory alive with my own work.

Getting back into the Rythem

Still working on the novel version but aside from that have been working on the latest comic pages. Page 11 will be completed and posted real soon and then later on in the week 12 will be posted!

Still working on the website updates as well, actually had time to think about some ideas that would not only look good, but work for the current layout.

Will start posting more on my forum, and an Atlantech facebook page is in the works as well.