News

Happy New Year!

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Hi there. Remember me? I used to blog here sometimes, back in August. Long time no see, eh?

Most of you will know from reading Jonas’s blog, which we’ve managed to update from the internet cafe once or twice, that we had a spot of internet trouble for the last four months or so. And when I say internet trouble please read no internet at all. And, to tell the truth, it’s been quite invigorating. I’ve gotten a lot of work done. I managed to finish the drawings for our upcoming children’s book (which will probably be released in February 2012) and also did a lot of pictures for the Oneiropolis Compendium.  And I’ve learned that losing the internet isn’t the terrifying, life-threatening experience I thought it would be.

The Oneiropolis Compendium has proven to be one of the most fun and amazing things Jonas and I have ever done. In case you don’t know what the Compendium is about, let’s just say that it is an opportunity to get hand-drawn, framed images from me and a beautiful (or silly) story from Jonas while at the same time keeping both of us from starving. And it’s been great, so far. If you want to participate in the Compendium, here’s a link to everything you need to know.

I’ve still got tons of drawings to do, not only for the Compendium but also for an upcoming, as of yet untitled and very much a work-in-progress Lands of Dream game, so I’ll mostly be busy away from the computer, but I’ll try to keep this blog updated regularly from now on.

For now, here are a few linkies to help pass the time:

  • There’s a charming new blog from the creator of Letters of Note, called Lists of Note. And even if lists aren’t your thing I urge you to check out this amazing to-do list by Johnny Cash.
  • Here’s an xkcd that really made me smile. (Disclaimer: I love Shyamalan’s work, but The Last Airbender could have been better.)
  • And here is a nice comic about airplanes by the Oatmeal. (Make sure to read everything to get the really good bits at the end. Oatmeal comics don’t always work for me, but this one is beautiful.)
  • Finally, if you have eight seconds of your life to spare for the ultimate knock knock joke, you should have a look at this.

That’s it for tonight.

No Internet

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Jonas can tell you the details on his site. Let me just state that I hate Deutsche Telekom from the bottom of my heart.

The children’s book is turning out really fantastic, though. The images are much bigger than those we used in Desert Bridge and Book of Living Magic, which means they can be much more detailed, and I’m going for a much smoother look, as is appropriate for this book. Jonas is happy with the results and so am I (and so is our publisher, apparently, which is a relief). It’ll be a unique story of a kind that too few children’s books have. I think we’ve got something really special here.

And I really, really hate Deutsche Telekom.

The Dead Zone

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Stone Lion

We’ll be entering a short communications blackout in a little while, since our old internet connection will expire on Sunday and the new connection is taking its own sweet time. This isn’t a bad thing, at least not entirely. Although the children’s book has been making excellent progress,  it sadly isn’t finished yet. I’m sure some time away from the net will help with that. And there are a few other things that I need to get done that can only benefit from some internet-free time, like that short story about elephants and zombies that I started writing when we were in Greece. So I will have lots to do and, hopefully, lots to show when we get back online.

For now I shall wish you a nice week. Or maybe two. If you get lonely, here are a few things for you to look at:

  • Jonas has written a short story. And you can read it. It is about vampires and politics and it is awesome. If you would spread the word you would make both of us very happy.
  • And in other creative news: New pictures! On Flickr! This is the last batch of images from Greece, mostly Athens and a bit of Chalkidiki. Enjoy!
  • And here is a truly astonishing letter. Read it and be filled with joy. This odd little gem from 1929 really made my day. In general I would like to take the opportunity to recommend Letters of Note as a source of weekday reading pleasure.
  • If you get hungry while waiting for the internet to come back to Casa Kyratzes so that we can upload another episode of our cooking show, you could always try making Jamie Oliver’s Pasta with Meatballs recipe. It is really yummy, easy to make and the rosemary levels aren’t lethal (honest).
  • And here’s a pretty song. Listen to it and think of all the people who were out on the streets today, fighting the good fight. Or better even, join them. I’m sure the fight will still need fighting tomorrow.

Okay. That is it for now. It is time to lean back, enjoy the show and wait for the inevitable.

In Greece

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Things I’ve been doing:

  • Drawing illustrations for the children’s book Jonas and I are working on.
  • Writing a short story. It involves rather unusual zombies.
  • Swimming.
  • And, as usual, taking lots of photos. I’ll upload them when we’re back, but there’s some pretty awesome ones.

And now I need to get out of this internet cafe before my head falls off.

Things, Things & Things

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As you might have noticed my review of Two Worlds 2 has been delayed a little bit. I’m very sorry and promise that it will be up before we leave for Greece on Wednesday. I just have to stop adding more stuff to it.

And here are a few other cool news: we’ve been thinking about doing a cooking show for quite a while now and this weekend we finally took the time to shoot the first episode. I’ve already seen the finished version of the intro and it looks amazing, Jonas really outdid himself on the editing. I hope we’ll be able to put it up tomorrow.

Also here’s the third part of the Matt Chat interview with Jonas.

Games, Interviews and Some Other Things

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The Book of Living Magic is now up on both Kongregate and Newgrounds, so go there and give it your love. We’re especially excited that it got frontpaged on Kongregate. Not bad for a little hand-drawn game without achievements, eh?

If The Book of Living Magic is the reason that you’re here in the first place, I recommend watching this Matt Chat interview with Jonas, in which he talks about his previous games (all downloadable/findable here), programing, the Matrix and some other interesting things. The interview also has a first part, which is hiding here.

If you just need a laugh try looking at this clip of Anderson Cooper totally losing it over the whole Gerard-Depardieu-pees-on-a-plane debacle.

And finally, if you’re here to see if the graphics artist of The Book of Living Magic is good for anything else except childlike crayon drawings, you could always buy my short story Life Support on Kindle. It’s only 0.99 €/1.40$/0.86£ and available on an Amazon website near you.

Tomorrow I’ll give you a long-overdue review of Two Worlds Two: The Alliteration, which we finished playing just recently. The game was pretty awesome, but there are a few things that need saying and today I just don’t have the energy to say them.

“Life Support” released on Kindle

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Long before humanity conquered the stars, there lived a species who could hear the song of the Void. They are all gone now, all except Dern. In a world dominated by the short-lived humans, he makes a living working as a scout for illegal scavengers. He may not fit in, but he knows how to survive.

But if you live a long time, history sooner or later catches up with you.

My very long short story Life Support is now available on Kindle.

At a length of over nine thousand words it is just too long to be published in a magazine and just too short to be a regular novella – which is why I’ve decided to give self-publishing a go. The story is currently priced at 1,40$ (or 0,99€/0,86£, depending on where you’re buying from), which is as low as Amazon will allow it to be.

I’m not expecting to get rich off this, but I would like Life Support to find an audience. It is dear to me, not only because I wrote it, but also because it’s about things that matter to me, things that I believe in. I want people to get to know Dern, to see the world through his eyes, to experience his journey.

So, without further ado, I present Life Support on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.com.

And if you liked the story, please feel free to spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or any other means of communication that you can come up with. Your support is needed and appreciated.