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Aug. 27th, 2015 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneToday, I will be answering questions all day (and checking back again tomorrow for stragglers) on Reddit's fantasy sub-thread about the Kickstarter, Zombies Need Brains, the past anthologies, and the open call for submissions for these two current anthologies. If you have questions, please swing on by and ask! I'll be there off and on all day. (So if I don't answer your question immediately, I'll be back shortly to answer it.) Here's the direct link to the AMA thread.
In submission news, we are already getting stories for both ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE-. We've got more coming in for WERE- at the moment, but hopefully we'll get more for ALIEN ARTIFACTS as time goes by. The deadline isn't until the end of October, so I assume that the stories we're getting right now are those that writers had already written, before they knew about the open call or even the Kickstarter. And it makes sense that those stories would tend more toward WERE-'s theme than ALIEN ARTIFACTS'.
And as of this morning, we are $17 away from hitting $12K! So very close to the first stretch goal, where we get to add Katharine Kerr (author of the Deverry series and the Nola O'Grady urban fantasy series) to the WERE- anthology. Plus, of course, everyone pledged $15 or more will get bookmarks! Let your friends know that we're so close and perhaps they'll push us over that first stretch goal today!
I'd like to introduce everyone to the cover artist for our two anthologies, Justin Adams, who runs Varia Studios. I found Justin through a weird coincidence: I teach spinning classes at the local gym and one day I announced the Kickstarter for Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens. One of the members taking the class came up to me afterwards and told me that her son does some artwork and would I be interested in possibly hiring him for my cover? Of course, I already had the cover art chosen for Clockwork, but I told her that I could take a look at his portfolio and see if he'd be a good fit for Zombies Need Brains or not. She gave me his name and the name of his studio, so during a spare moment weeks later I stopped by to take a look. I have to admit that I was expecting to see ... well, something not up to the standards that I'd like to hold Zombies Need Brains up to. I know how much of a book's sales depend on the cover art. I'm happy to say I was blown away. If you click through to the site, you'll see some spectacular art. In fact, Justin's work for Temporally Out of Order is shown on the "Illustrations" page, and there are a few pieces in the "Concepts" section that have inspired a couple of potential future anthology themes.
Needless to say, I contacted Justin when I was starting to develop the Kickstarter for Temporally Out of Order. And of course, he's the artist we're using for both Alien Artifacts and Were-. You've all seen the artwork (now finalized) for Alien Artifacts, and I think it's stunning. We're currently developing a concept for the Were- anthology that I'm fairly excited about. Maybe we'll have a rough sketch of that before the Kickstarter ends. Regardless, based on the work he's done for Zombies Need Brains so far, I know that the cover for Were- will be stunning as well.
Remember that you can get prints of the covers for Temporally Out of Order, Alien Artifacts, and Were- by selecting the appropriate "Art Print Zombie" reward levels OR by adding on a mere $10 each to your current reward level (I'll ask what any additional money is for in the survey at the end of the Kickstarter). If you're in need of some artwork for one of your current projects, you can contact Justin Adams through his website by clicking on the "Contact" section for his email to get rates. He certainly comes highly recommended by me and Zombies Need Brains. We hope to continue working with him for years to come.
In submission news, we are already getting stories for both ALIEN ARTIFACTS and WERE-. We've got more coming in for WERE- at the moment, but hopefully we'll get more for ALIEN ARTIFACTS as time goes by. The deadline isn't until the end of October, so I assume that the stories we're getting right now are those that writers had already written, before they knew about the open call or even the Kickstarter. And it makes sense that those stories would tend more toward WERE-'s theme than ALIEN ARTIFACTS'.
And as of this morning, we are $17 away from hitting $12K! So very close to the first stretch goal, where we get to add Katharine Kerr (author of the Deverry series and the Nola O'Grady urban fantasy series) to the WERE- anthology. Plus, of course, everyone pledged $15 or more will get bookmarks! Let your friends know that we're so close and perhaps they'll push us over that first stretch goal today!
I'd like to introduce everyone to the cover artist for our two anthologies, Justin Adams, who runs Varia Studios. I found Justin through a weird coincidence: I teach spinning classes at the local gym and one day I announced the Kickstarter for Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens. One of the members taking the class came up to me afterwards and told me that her son does some artwork and would I be interested in possibly hiring him for my cover? Of course, I already had the cover art chosen for Clockwork, but I told her that I could take a look at his portfolio and see if he'd be a good fit for Zombies Need Brains or not. She gave me his name and the name of his studio, so during a spare moment weeks later I stopped by to take a look. I have to admit that I was expecting to see ... well, something not up to the standards that I'd like to hold Zombies Need Brains up to. I know how much of a book's sales depend on the cover art. I'm happy to say I was blown away. If you click through to the site, you'll see some spectacular art. In fact, Justin's work for Temporally Out of Order is shown on the "Illustrations" page, and there are a few pieces in the "Concepts" section that have inspired a couple of potential future anthology themes.
Needless to say, I contacted Justin when I was starting to develop the Kickstarter for Temporally Out of Order. And of course, he's the artist we're using for both Alien Artifacts and Were-. You've all seen the artwork (now finalized) for Alien Artifacts, and I think it's stunning. We're currently developing a concept for the Were- anthology that I'm fairly excited about. Maybe we'll have a rough sketch of that before the Kickstarter ends. Regardless, based on the work he's done for Zombies Need Brains so far, I know that the cover for Were- will be stunning as well.
Remember that you can get prints of the covers for Temporally Out of Order, Alien Artifacts, and Were- by selecting the appropriate "Art Print Zombie" reward levels OR by adding on a mere $10 each to your current reward level (I'll ask what any additional money is for in the survey at the end of the Kickstarter). If you're in need of some artwork for one of your current projects, you can contact Justin Adams through his website by clicking on the "Contact" section for his email to get rates. He certainly comes highly recommended by me and Zombies Need Brains. We hope to continue working with him for years to come.
