Thursday, December 31, 2009

Interesting

Yesterday was my first day as a Project Director and acting Unit Director for a film production. Its kinda funny, I dont usually care about titles, but I can see how having one definatly does increase your self esteem. But I'm trying to keep my working class background inherent. "Fuck the title, gimme the paycheck." becomes "Fuck the title, lemme make my art."

Yeah. I'll have to be sure to not let it go to my head. And it will take conscious act of will not to be an ass.

But the project goes well. My writing goes well. Hopefully my fan base expands. So if anyone is interested, go ahead and follow this blog!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Haunted Atlanta

So thats the tentative title for my newest project.As of this weekend, I was concerned with holidays and things of that nature. I hope you didn't miss me much, I'm fairly sure no one did.

But right, back to the project. We are putting out an open casting call for the project, which will start tommorrow, with anyone who is interested in being apart of the project, to meet us at Mountain Park, Park, which is near Stone Mountain, in the town of Lilburn, Georgia. If your interested, and think you might have something to contribute, we would love to see you there!

Also, an update for you folks, my reading list keeps chugging along, and I now finally ave my copy of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It started off in a muddled confused kind of way, but this lasted literally, maybe a single page. After that I fell utterly in love with the concept and the protagonists. I may post a review about it, in coming days. I'll probably start a book review blog, to accomplish those ends.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

New Knight Spectre Frames!

Happy Holidays Everyone! Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate!

I'm not gonna tie you guys up with a long blog post this time, just gonna toss this out there:

Two new frames for the webcomic are up! You get to meet one of our main antagonists tonight! So fly over and take a look! Join our mailing list! Remember, this comic is only supported by advertising revenue, and is completely free to you!

Webcomic

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

New Crimson Star Projects

Oh, 2010 has a few new things we are working towards to give yall some things to look forward to. I suppose most of these items are still tenative. For many of these projects, this will be a first mention. For others, this will be what seems like the 30th time.

Emperor's Newest Book: The aforementioned zombie novel. Im still working hard on this one, but rather than the 10,000 words a week I need, I've managing around 5000. I will kick it up a notch or two, but I dont want to rush the story.

Short Stories: Hopefully many more short stories to come from me. However it depends entirely upon my ability to develop my craft as well as sell my stories.

New Campaign Setting: Working on the Fantasy Campaign Setting, the Eavton Setting. Its the same setting that the Knight Spectre comic is based in. And of course, you will see much more of Knight Spectre in the coming months.

Haunted Atlanta: A series of miniature thematic documentaries that we are working on. Mostly focusing on the many hauntings that I cover in my Ghost Blog.

In around Summer of 2010, we are gearing up to shoot some promotional films for a Ghost Tour we will be offering in the Atlanta Area. The Ghost tours will be cheap, and a great experience. The hope is that via the tours, we raise enough money to throw a party that we are calling Zombiefest 2010. Zombiefest will have a large game of Humans Vs Zombies, a Vampire Dinnery Mystery for interested parties, and a screening room and booths to buy our books, pizza, drinks, and movies. It should be great fun, however it will be in the Atlanta Area.

However, to make this a reality, I am now considering selling some portion of equity in the business, or taking a loan. If you have any details, or any offers feel free to email me at Emperor@CrimsonStarEntertainment.com Please put "Freelance Finance" in the subject line for consideration.

Of course if you want to contribute, but don't have that much cash, sign up for our mailing list, and keep track of us. It will help us sell advertising, like google adsense, where we get paid for clicks on the google links. If you really wanna help, you can always donate a small amount, or buy one of our products!

Thanks so much and stay tuned!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Submitting Short Stories

Hey everyone, its been a few days since my last post. But as I said, I've been working on my book, as well as a few short stories for submission to literary magazines. What I want to do, is cover the topic of submitting to magazines, and some tips on how you can improve your writing, and your chances of getting published.

Firstly, improve your quality. Read more. Write more. Watch movies, read books, and other entertainment venues you wouldn't normally touch. Take criticism with a grain of salt, and learn how to accept good criticism, and how to identify bad criticism. This is the first task of any writer.

Secondly, improve your quantity. This goes hand and hand with the 'Write More' tenet above. The more manuscripts you write, the more chance you will have of getting published. While pushing yourself to 10,000 words a day may not yield positive results, try to set nominal goals for yourself to meet per day. Most writers try something between 500 and 2,000 words a day. If you can write more, and still keep your quality up, go for it.

Lastly, learn. This goes hand and hand with the 'Read More' tenet above. As you read, you will learn more about your craft, about life, about new trends that are inspiring the reading world.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Emperor & Eavton

Oh, so I'm taking a break from writing the novel, to finish up a short story I'm working on. Its quite good, in my opinion, so hopefully it will get some notice. It's also the same setting that the webcomic takes place in. The setting is set in the same world as my Sedallia Campaign Setting, and is called Eavton.

The goal is to gain a little bit of momentum and fandom for the setting. Hopefully that way I could introduce a setting bible for it, and sell it on the website. But another thing I would like to see, is to use a publisher to push a comic, based on the setting, specifically one of the characters in the short story. But included in the editorial sections of the comic would be campaign info...I'm even thinking of including a fantasy stock exchange game in the comic.

Interesting ideas yes? Here is a preview. And if you are from Realms of Fantasy Mag, hit me up at Emperor@CrimsonStarEntertainment.com as you are the first guys I'm marketing this too. The Short Story that is.

Untitled Short Story
Copywrite 2009 Chris Patrick
Despair gripped the heart of Kade, like an icy hand choking him, as he forced back the sad sensation that would only lead to tears. He took a minute and concentrated on the droplets of water falling from a nearby leaf, and the smell of rain and vegetation that permeated this place. It helped clear his mind, and washed away the doubt. It was a cool summer rain in the midst of the Great Red Wood, and Kade was preparing to rob a travelling merchant, who also served as a messenger for the Emperor of Eavton.
You see, Kade wasn’t your normal bandit or highwayman. He despised bandits, and in an earlier part of his life, had worked often times against them. However, that was then, and this was now. Now, he had to make him pay. There would be blood.
He simply nodded to his co-conspirator at the other side of the valley as the caravan appeared on the horizon. The man nodded, as he knew his part in this. He prepared a thick sturdy broad-head arrow, one that would temporarily stop the caravan when it came close enough. Despite having turned to banditry, he had no intention to kill this man. Not unless he had to.
The messenger still wore the sigil of Imperial Service, which made Kade feel that much more of a traitor. The arrow was released, and lodged into the side of the wagon with a dull thud. The wagon pulled forward even as the man looked over to see what had happened. As the wagon lurched forward, the arrow lodged itself so that the wagon wheel bent outward as it pressed on. Then, under such strain, the iron casting holding the wheel to the axle broke, and the wagon plopped down to the ground, digging itself deep into the muddy earth.
By this time, Kade was moving quickly, as silently as he could towards the wagon. As the messenger got off to curse his luck, and examine the strange ‘stick’ he had run over, Kade was already waiting for him. The man looked shocked as he Kade stole out of the bush, leveling a crossbow at him.
“ I want is your money, not your life. But, if it’s you or me…I won’t think twice.” There was a look of cold steel in his eyes. The man smiled, almost as if he was sure there was no way Kade would harm him.
“I’m a messenger of the Emperor…this is a grave offense you committed. The Emperor will hear of this personally, and you will be sought out for this.” He then even dared to grin as he pointed to the Imperial Writ that hung from his left shoulder.
Kade nodded, his face unchanging, his demeanor unflinching, “I know. I let a dozen caravans pass today…I was waiting for you.”
Very quickly the messenger’s expression changed as he realized that Kade wasn’t a normal highwayman. There was something more to this. And then, the messenger realized the danger he was in, and felt a fear he hadn’t before in his life. He had been targeted. Kade wasn’t a bandit. He had a score to settle…a plan to execute, and the messenger feared for his part in that plan.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Knight Spectre Back Blog

Okay, so I've put up the new Knight Spectre Back Issue, a blog dedicated to collecting the back issues from the comic, and keeping them for posterity. It also contains interesting and valuable production notes.

So, if you are ever behind on your reading for Knight Spectre, its there for you. And even if you catch every frame as its published, you can still check the blog to see production notes and further story notes that will help you understand our work.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Emperor examines Consumer Culture

Okay, for one of the new projects that we are throwing together at Crimson Star, I requested one of my writers to put together a poem about American Consumer Culture, it is a fairly funny piece. The new project is called Gentleman's Washroom Quarterly, and is designed to examine American Social norms, with the goal of affecting social change. Yes, lofty goals, we know.

So whats so bad about our Consumer Culture? Well its definately a driving force in our society, and even has a psychological affect upon us, the consumers. We forget many of the simple pleasures in life, and instead seek to fulfill very specific images of ourself, as influenced by the media.

And anything thats not presented in the media, or readily available for consumption? We define it as wierd. We define it as wrong. And this of course affects people adversely to put self-image in the hands of the media, as in order to create sales, they create a feeling of inadequacy. The only way to fill this void, and make ourselves feel better, is to buy. And of course, once this cycle was established, it proved good for business, and thus, they would never let us feel better. So I think alot of advertising is aimed to make us feel bad about ourselves.

I had an expeience, with an argument with a person, which took some theories of Labor Value, and expanded on them. As alot of value in society is determinant on Labor, how much your willing to do to gain something. And as labor is fueled by sustenance, its arguable that food is a universal affector on all price/value. Petroleum has a similiar affect, but is much more scarce, thus its affect is much stronger. Imagine that a specific commodity's affect on price and value is a parabola, oil is at the high end of the parabola, while food is on the lower end. Not every commodity is on this parabola, for example, despite the scarcity of diamonds, they only really have an affect on specific industries, namely jewelry and spcific drilling industries. While the price of diamonds would affect these industries, their effect on the price of lumber, is non-existant. As the diamonds aren't required to chop lumber, and the aren't required to make the capital assets in lumber production, they have no affect.

The theory is fairly sound. But he just rejects it. He regurgitates what he has read, and never opens his mind to new ideas. I thought that was one of the major things college taught. I suppose I was wrong.

Either way, I experienced American Consumer attitudes today, when I heard a woman returning a book to Borders and complaining about it having wierd concepts. The concept of a return is apart of consumer culture. You dont think about your purchase enough, to determine that it is 'wierd'...nor do you determine that the story may hold enough quality to get you past the 'wierd' parts. You just dont think that much with a purchase.

Its this same fast-culture and quick-talking that makes many Americans seem like asses. I can remember reading Gulliver's Travels and wondering about the whole statement, think for five seconds before we speak. I think its applicable.

So overall, my beef with consumer culture, isn't that it makes us happy, rather, that in order to make us happy, it makes us sad first. And that it makes us decide upon our purchase, without really thinking about it, and that these qualities lead us to think less in our personal lives.

To that end, I promise never to use an advertisement that promotes negative self image, if I can help it. And I will never use sexual advertising, less I'm selling something explicitly sexual.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Crimson Mysteries

So, its really interesting, right now, I'm working to get another project off the ground. Actually I'm in the negotiation stage with the company that wants to publish the product. The product centers around the Vampire Mystery game which I developed. I was approached by a publisher in the industry, who expressed interest in the project.

Since then, I've been in negotiations with the publisher. However, his offers so far, have been low-balled to an extreme which I can't fathom. If he doesn't fulfill what I want from the deal, I might just decide to self-publish this idea as well. However, this project will put a drain on capital to develope it.

And considering my limited capital is tied up in hosting and content fees for the comic, I'm hoping sales pick up. Or at least that I can build my contact list.

So if you like what you've read so far, and might have any interest in my company, click the Crimson Star Icon to your right. Check out the company, even if you don't buy anything, I would appreciate if you signed up for my mailing list.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Emperor's Web Comic

Finally! Got the frames for this month complete. I was going to do more finishing on them, but it took long enough just to get these first ones out, that I decided to forego that. Instead, I wanted to go ahead and get this item out as quickly as possible.

The story revolves around a Knight in a Fantasy Realm, who leaves his home to fight a war against Dark Forces. His unit is decimated, and he leads a one-man guerilla campaign of his own, thanks to powers granted to him by an artifact he finds.

Here he is, Ceeric, the protagonist.



I hope you guys enjoy it! Im sorry it took so long! The next frames will be put out on Xmas Eve! Click below for the first two frames!

Knight Spectre Comic

Monday, December 7, 2009

Emperor and the Grog Bowl

Oh, I just got back from Ft Stewart, and now I have ample amounts of time to work on my writing, and whip my team into shape. I know some of you have been waiting on this comic for...well, forever, and I am trying to do what I can to expedite that process. But I certainly had a great time, and for me they are few and far between (I am anything but a party animal; workhorse is more applicable.) I appreciate any and all the support you guys give me, and I appreciate those who buy my products!

Here I am, after my Unit's Military Ball:



Clyde only ever had one Bonnie, that night I had two! But in all seriousness I had a great time, and the ball regenerated my batteries, and definitely gave me some new ideas and perspectives for my novel. Indeed, the only thing I will miss about the Military are the people. I've had some incredibly good times. Below, you will find my newest press release for the company!

Press Release

It details some great things I've got planned for 2010! Take a look!So, keep tuned!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Emperor's New Work

Ah, still working on my Zombie Novel, so there is nothing new about that. Currently, Im very behind schedule. Im still browsing Literary Agents. If you have a connection, an agent I could use, feel freeto give him or her my email:

Emperor@CrimsonSarEntertainment.com

Okay, so what else is going on? I've been pretty busy this week, but Im hoping to put up a new Youtube Video tommorrow. With any luck. Im going to review some old WitchBlade back issues and Fathom as well.

But currently, Im putting together a Short Story to submit to a few Fantasy Magazines. The idea/concept behind this Short Story is about a famous gladiator in a fantasy kingdom, who is seeking to restore a legacy that is taken from him, when he discovers a plot to kill his king. As an outlaw, he seeks to reveal the plot, and subsequently, return to his lucrative career as a gladiator. Its a combination of high fantasy, pulp noir, and some sort of odd hybrid sports fiction. Im hoping to have several small stories involving the same character.

And dont worry, we are still working on our promotional comic, but for whatever reason, it is almost impossible for me to motivate my current artist. Supposedly though, she is going to whip up the work in the next few days. So look forward to it!

What do yall think?