Snakes and Leaders

I don't have time to write a new article before San Diego Comicon -- but I do have time for Bragging Rights.

Okay, I have good words about the Xeric grant, but there's all this publisher stuff first. And explanations of why my books haven't shipped, and how to get them now. It's all gnarled together down there.

IN THE UNDERBRUSH.

My company, A Fine Line Press, lost its broker company, which was claiming to be a small press co-op, but it was really just a broker in disguise. If you're not working with a print company directly, you might as well be working for a irresponsible publisher. They'll creep around in disguise, too, so watch out for 'em.

Anyway, this broker had a major web crash and lost its short run printer. Three print-runs had to be re-negotiated, mostly because of of them had been re-solicited in color, and if it weren't printed, then the next one in the series couldn't be printed, either. I spent months in re-negotiation, re-working layout and even approaching another (international) broker in an attempt to find affordable prices for the runs. Diamond bent over backwards trying to make this work (YAY DIAMOND). Finally, as the final shipping deadllines neared, I bit the bullet and printed one of 'em from Morgan (we all love Morgan).

Two Desert Peach runs -- including the color one --are not possible at this time through traditional channels, but you can grab 'em as print-on-demand for customers at Lulu.
But -- we DO get one paper book! Ta da:

THE LAST STINZ --Tribals

The Stinz series comes to an end with the publication of TRIBALS, in which Stinz finally goes home and an unexpected character straightens everything out. Sort of. For now.

It ships from Diamond at last! Available in shops, and will be at the San Diego State University Special Collections booth at the San Diego Comicon, with the author, Donna Barr (namely me), who will be giving a talk at the San Diego State Campus, 7:00 pm Wednesday, July 19, in conjunction with an awards presentation in recognition of her donation of her original Black Manuscripts to Special Collections (Contact: Jossie Chavez jchavez@mail.sdsu.edu). This is a change from the original time of 2:00 pm.

Guest artists will contribute a gallery of fine art to the final Stinz, including her brother Don Colbert, who does these ADORABLE bondage cuties. He contributes his wicked little leatherette centauress based on my Stinz characters.

Why last? Because weirdness just happened to all the series: they collapsed into the Desert Peach.

The Desert Peach #31: Pithed The Peach may be dead in his own personal hell, but he's not letting it get him down. Available in full color at Lulu.

The Desert Peach #32 -- Keeper

The Peach is still dead, but he's roommates with a Tudan SS Corporal named Ham and Ham's Bosom Enemies horse. Ham's Captain is a black centaur. The Peach, as Official Dead, is given non-military duty as a gardener and hums Beatles tunes while he digs. He discovers that The Raider -- the man responsible for the eternal security lockdown -- is not only a Dead One, too, he's named "Erwin." Or, as long-time reader Dave Sanders says: "Okay.... so either everyone decided to co-habit and split the rent costs, or you fell asleep in the Midnight Library and the caretakers shut you in. :)" Available at Lulu. www.lulu.com/desertpeach

I'm scanning art for collections now, and they'll be at Booksurge. What's even neater is, they'll be available to retailers for at least 50% off -- direct.

I'm working on the next Peach now: Sunburn. The only drawn book where a character retorts: "I was Hitler's butt-boy!"

And the "Stinz" Afterlife story, Kompagniemutter -- with Stinz's wife in full German army field uniform. She wears her tank-killer badges on the same arm as her Mother's Honor Medal. Stinz is her commanding officer (yeah, he THINKS he is). This is fun.

XERIC GRANT LEADERSHIP

Here's an answer I sent to a colleague who wished to apply for a Xeric grant. I didn't do this out of the goodness of my heart; if you win a Xeric grant, part of the deal is you help everybody else get one too. So here's my scattershot way of not having to type all this stuff again:

First of all, good product. You can't get around that. You've got to be either a great artist and writer or awfully funny or tragic or meaningful -- or something impress and heartfelt. These guys don't want to see the crap.

Talk up the importance of your work. Why it would be missed if you stopped. I know, this is painful, but it's just the hoops. And you have to learn to bullshit about how wonderful your work is if you're going to write ad copy, anyway.

Show a track record. Send reviews. Send customer comments or, if you haven't got customers yet, reader comments.

Basically -- if they gave you the money, how many people in small press would benefit, as readers, retailers, as colleagues in the industry? How would you add to the wonder that is drawn books and illustrated books?

That's really more work than it looks like. You can spend a lot of time putting that package together.

Oh, and be very very specific on your funding needs! Get quotes, including shipping.

Make SURE you send them enough copies of the book. I dunno, you could head over to Lulu and bind and send them some really nice copies. It wasn't available when I did it, but why not?

And I want a copy when it comes out.