The sweet smell of success, the bitter taste of defeat

So, as far as Kickstarters go, that's one successfully funded and one failed project.

After the resounding success that was the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter I had great hopes for Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath, partly because it was a collaboration (so should reach a wider audience), partly because I thought various communities on Facebook would get behind it (which they didn't), and partly because we were asking for less money than I had with YOU ARE THE HERO. However, it was not to be.

The publisher Ian Whates and myself have already discussed running the Kickstarter again, in a couple of months time (possibly to coincide with the Nine Worlds Geek Fest), and the artist Tom Brown has said he hopes to work on some more of the artwork for the project between commissions.

Some fans of the project have suggested Unbound as a possible funding source but that's not something we've had a chance to discuss yet. And we did end up with 90 backers, many of whom were very passionate about the project.

Thank you, if you were one of them, and hang on in there - Clemency Slaughter's not dead and buried yet...

7 days to go!

That's right, there's only one week left to run on the Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath Kickstarter, so you'd better get those pledges in soon.

But in case you've just stumbled across this blog and you're wondering what Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath is all about, it's a collaboration between writer Jonathan Green (that's me), artist Tom Brown, and publisher Ian Whates.

To find out more, follow this link and check out the project video. But all you really need to know is that this is a unique project offering some fantastic rewards that needs your support!

Thank you (in anticipation).

Back to work...

... after the Easter weekend, and it's back to pushing the latest Kickstarter. After all, how is it ever going to achieve funding otherwise?

If you run a blog or a website, and would be happy to feature a feature about Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath, or an interview with Tom Brown or Jonathan Green, please do get in touch. Leave a comment after this post or email info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

We shall await your interest with... er... interest. ;-)

C is for Cover

Pledge £250 or more to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter campaign, and you could become the proud owner of the original cover art, created by Tom Brown, for Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath.

 

Yes, this original pencil drawing by Tom Brown really could be yours!

Don't delay - get your pledge in today!

M is for Masterpiece

Pledge £250 or more to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter campaign, and artist Tom Brown will produce a colour portrait of you in the Clemency Slaughter style.

Now if you though yesterday's featured reward was cool, you've got to admit that this one is even cooler!

Don't delay - get your pledge in today!

P is for Portrait

Pledge £150 or more to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter campaign, and artist Tom Brown will produce a pencil portrait of you in the Clemency Slaughter style.

Now you've got to admit, that's a pretty cool reward! It's so cool, in fact, that SF writer Ian Watson (the man behind Steve Spielberg's AI) has already pledged at this level.

Don't delay - pledge today!

The Picture of Jonathan Green

Would you like to have your portrait painted by a professional artist?

Let's face it - who wouldn't?

And normally such a thing would be beyond the scope of most people... But not those people who back Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath on Kickstarter.

As some of you may have noticed, my blog has a new background wallpaper as of this morning*. What's special about this one is that it is a portrait of Yours Truly**, produced by the very talented artist Mr Tom Brown, my partner-in-crime on Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath.

I had no idea that Tom was doing this until he tagged me in a picture of a sketch he was working on, via the social medium of Facebook. I was blown away. And then I saw the colour version...

I love the T-Rex skeleton and the tentacles, not to mention the sinister quill. The only problem is that having seen this picture I think I'm going to have to go shopping so that at the next con I attend I look as smart and as dapper as I do in my portrait***.

And if you would like an utterly fantastic portrait of yourself drawn and painted in this style**** then all you have to do is pledge at the P is for Portrait (for a pencil portrait) or M is for Masterpiece (for a full colour portrait) reward level here.

* Although this could be said of a lot of mornings and my blog background.

** And an image of myself that I actually like to boot!

*** At the moment there's a bit of a reverse Dorian Gray thing going on. I've not shaved this morning, I need a haircut, and I'm wearing a hoodie. 'Nuff said.

**** What we like to call the Clemency Slaughter style.

Clemency Slaughter and the Zombie Hamster

Clemency Slaughter artist Tom Brown featured on ZombieHamster.com the other day, as did Clemency herself.

Thank you to the guys at Zombie Hamster for their support and if you would like to read their piece about the project, simply follow this link.

O is for Originals

Tom has drawn 13 character portraits for Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath. Here are just two of them for you to enjoy...

Fancy owning one of those? Well, why wouldn't you?

If you pledge £75 or more to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter you will receive one of these original sketches... as well as a skull brooch (or badge, if you prefer), a signed print, and a copy of the book with your name featured in the acknowledgements section!

So get pledging today!

S is for Skull

Who doesn't like a bit of costume jewellery?

Okay, jewellery's not your thing. So how about a good old-fashioned badge?

If you pledge £50 or more to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter you will receive a brooch (or badge, if you prefer) based on this design by Mr Tom Brown...

And don't forget, that's on top of the book, a signed print, and your name in the acknowledgements section!

So what are you waiting for? Pledge today!

F is for Family

Pledge £25 (or more) towards Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath and you could be the very proud owner of a signed piece of artwork created purely for this Kickstarter.

The Talented Mr Brown has created this fantastic family portrait and if you select the F is for Family reward you'll get to have one of your very own, signed by both Tom and myself.

So what are you waiting for? Get pledging!

Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath - Competition Time!

A while ago I threatened to run some sort of competition or other if (or more accurately when) I ended up with both 1,000 followers on Twitter and 1,000 friends on Facebook.

Well that magic number was exceeded a while ago now (as of writing I have 1,018 followers on Twitter and 1,030 Facebook friends) so I thought it was about time I made good on my promise.

Your Part of the Bargain

I want you to do all you can to promote the Kickstarter project I am currently running with the artist Tom Brown and publisher Ian Whates, Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath. I don't care how you do it - blog posts, social media campaigns, YouTube videos, get in mentioned in the press, on the radio, on TV! - just do whatever you can to get word out to the masses about this exciting adventure in publishing!

You have until the end of the month (11:59pm on Sunday 31 March) to enter - in other words ten days - and email me a link to whatever it is you've produced at info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

Be imaginative, be creative, be prolific, be persistent! But whatever you do, to be eligible for the big prize, you must let me know about it.

Our Part of the Bargain

The three of us (Jon, Tom and Ian) will decide who has mounted the most effective campaign and, as long as the project funds on 13 April, you will be invited to the grand London launch as our guest, with all that that entails (book, goodie bag, drinks reception, etc.) but without having to stump up £100 for the privilege yourself. (You must arrange and pay for your travel to London.)

And that's it!

So check out the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter page, Facebook page, and blog, get thinking, and good luck!

Tom Brown, Artist, Interviewed

The other day I asked Tom Brown (my partner-in-crime on Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath) a little more about his work and the people who have inspired him to become the artist he is today. Below are his answers.

Enjoy...


1) How did Hopeless, Maine and your collaboration with Nimue come about?

Quite a few years ago, when I was trying to break into illustration, a publisher took me on board to do a book cover for Nimue. We began corresponding and I signed onto her e-group. She was serialising one of her novels there (Breathing in a Stone House) and I fell in love with her writing (first). I knew this was the writer I wanted for Hopeless, Maine (then called New England Gothic). I asked her to write a short origin story for Sal. She did and it was plain that Nimue understood Salamandra better even than I did. It took me some time to convince her, but she did eventually agree to write the tale. (She says she was daunted, and not sure she was up to it. I thought she was hesitant because it was a comic book story!)

 

The whole storyline is written now as well as two prose books set in Hopeless. All absolutely stunning, haunting quirky and wild (as you would expect!). We have been collaborating ever since, and are also very happily married!

 

2) Do you prefer creating sequential comic art or one-off illustrations?

 

Both, honestly. I love sequential storytelling. It stretches me like nothing else and I have to be a director, camera man, set dresser, etc. However, you don't always have time to dwell on details and rendering in sequential work (and too much detail in the wrong places will effect pacing), so it's good to get a chance to do some lavish rendering and detail in the illustration work. They are complimentary but different disciplines.

3) Which artists inspired you in the past, and which artists working today inspire you now?

 

Gustave Dore, Hieronymus Bosch, Sir John Tenniel, Edward Gorey, and Jack Kirby were my male early influences. I discovered Dulac and Rackham a bit late (in art school).

Current artist influences include Hayao Miyazaki, Eric Orchard, Vincent Shaw-Morton, Chandra Free, Jeremy Bastion, Mike Mignola, Walter Sickert and many many many others. Whenever I have the time, I cruise DeviantArt. There is just a huge amount of talent and vision out there. Sometimes a bit daunting but always inspiring.

 

4) Can you tell us about what you're working on at the moment?

 

Working on quite a few things actually. I am starting to have work find me (which is a nice change!), so I am doing comic cover art and illustrations for some emerging authors. (I hope this continues!) Mostly done now with the art for Tea Dragons (a project Nimue and I are doing). We also have another sequential project in the works called (at the moment) The Unreal Estate. There are quite a few exciting projects in the pipeline too, including more work with the good Professor (Elemental).

5) And lastly, why should people pledge their support to Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath?

Because I think this is going to be an absolutely brilliant book mostly, and it will not happen otherwise. Also this is a chance to make a collaboration happen that I think is splendid literary chemistry. If we rely on big publishers to decide what sort of books we will have, we will never have anything but the sort of thing that has proven to sell in the past. In short, we will not have Clemency Slaughter! Also, for selfish reasons. I love this tale and am fairly rabid to illustrate it. You should pledge because Jonathan Green wrote it and he does indeed do dark very well! Finally, this is an opportunity to pre-order a book, get original art, signed books, spin off items, and/or attend what I think is going to be one hell of a launch party. This is a book you can participate in fully!

 

 

Thanks, Tom.

 

Remember, you can pledge to the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter simply by clicking this link.

 

 

H is for Hopeless

Hopeless, Maine, to be precise, the graphic novel created by Tom Brown and his wife Nimue.

And we have one signed copy left in the Rewards section of the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter, so don't delay - pledge today!

 

B is for Book

Quite clearly... But imagine owning this book in particular!

If you are reading this blog post, then you have probably already backed the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter, or you're thinking about supporting it, or you've followed a link from Twitter or Facebook, wondering what this Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath thing is.

Well, in a nutshell, it's a book, written by Jonathan Green (me) and fully illustrated by Tom Brown (the artist behind the Professor Elemental comic and the creator of Hopeless, Maine), due to be published by Steel Quill Books, a new imprint of NewCon Press.

At first it appears to be a children's book, but in reality it is something much darker and more adult. Children of all ages will enjoy its mix of macabre humour and beautiful illustration - and you can become the proud owner of one (as long as the project funds) if you pledge £12 or more here.

Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath - The Artist's Tale

Tom Brown (the masterful artist behind the beautiful illustrations in Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath) posted this on his DeviantArt page the other day...


Nimue and I attended Weekend at the Asylum last year in Lincoln. (One of the best steampunk events I have ever been a guest at!) One of the high points was meeting a splendid bloke by the name of Jonathan Green (he was at a table near ours). Being new to the English steampunk scene, I was not yet aware of exactly who this was I was chatting with so very casually. (Likewise Robert Rankin... but that's another story. As well I didn't know who he was at the time or I would have been far less articulate!)

Right... back to our story. Talked with the esteemed Mr Green, showed him some of the art and generally schmoozed. The second time I visited his table (he was very approachable and flawlessly polite, all the things a gentleman of letters should be!) I looked down at the books stacked before him and realised that this was a widely published and prolific writer. Before leaving I purchased from him the first three books in Pax Britannia: Ulysses Quicksilver series. I had a feeling that this would be a portentous meeting (and so, as it turned out, it was).

After we recovered from the weekend, I began reading Pax Britannia. Dead. Freaking. Brilliant. (Don't take my word for it, Google it. Read a few reviews.) I started stalking Mr Green (in a gentlemanly and platonic sort of way, naturally). He is everywhere and he has done everything (and very, very well indeed). I contacted him and praised Pax Britannia, and asked if he might be interested in working on something together. As it happened, he was!

He pitched two projects to me within the hour, and I picked, what would later become Clemency Slaughter. Within a day... it was written! (And unsurprisingly, sinister, stylish and deucedly clever.) I provided some drawings, a sample illustration and a finished cover. We then (OK, Jon really; he is better with the words and knows more publishers on this side of the pond) started sending queries off to large, posh publishers. The replies came back, that though THEY (the editors) loved it, they were pretty sure that YOU would not be ready for such a book, as it does not fit tidily into a pre-established category.

At last, Jon contacted Ian Whates at NewCon Press. Ian was very interested and wanted to see the book published (still does!) but had not done a graphic novel style book before, and the book would have to be run through Kickstarter, with NewCon to publish at successful completion of the Kickstarter campaign.

Here, now, we get to the good part. This campaign is taking place... at this very moment! There are lots of incentives (including signed copies of Hopeless, Maine and Pax Britannia. The chance to attend a posh London book launch, original art from me, and cunning skull-ish jewellery (based on one of the designs I did for the art from the book).

You can be a part of this! Pre-order the book, and help unleash Clemency Slaughter on an unsuspecting world! Art for the project is in my gallery, and the Kickstarter campaign (including wonderful footage of Jon in a creepy London cemetery) can be found here.

Hope to see you at the launch or hear from you soon!

Love and dark unnamed things,

Tom

The Big Push

Today - 13th March 2013 - marks the beginning of the Big Push for the Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath Kickstarter.

Artist Tom Brown, publisher Ian Whates, and myself, want to bring you the tale of Miss Clemency Slaughter, her ill-fated family, and the legacy of Lord Daedalus Drummond D'Eath that awaits whoever is lucky (or unlucky) enough to inherit in the end. But we can only accomplish this task with your support, via Kickstarter.

We have a host of wonderful rewards on offer, including original artwork, invitations to a launch party, signed books, and bespoke jewellery. Bids start at only £2 and there's even going to be a digital version of this macabre picture book, as long as we achieve our funding goal of £7,500.

So now it's up to you. Please 'Like' our Facebook page, pledge your support via the Kickstarter page, and then tell all your friends via the medium of social media - and not just today, but every day! That's how we'll draw in the new backers we'll need to make this project happen.

We have until 1.00pm (1300 hours) on the 13th April to achieve our goal, or Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath may never see the light of day at all...

Happy Families

Tom posted a teaser of the family portrait that's being offered with the 'F is for Family' reward level, yesterday.

Pencils are now done, and Tom is painting the picture today, using watercolours, on a high wind in a boat! So wish him luck!

Only in the world of Clemency Slaughter...

Clemency Slaughter coming soon to Kickstarter

It's been a busy weekend, but hopefully a profitable one. Or to put it another way, I've submitted the Clemency Slaughter project to Kickstarter for approval. Once that's been received, artist Tom Brown, publisher Ian Whates, and myself, can all put our finishing touches to the project (unique rewards, examples of brand new artwork, and the like) and then plan the big launch.

The tentative start date is 13th March, to end on 13th April 2013. So watch this space...

Welcome to Steel Quill Books!

I am very pleased to be able to announce that Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath will be published through Newcon Press's new imprint Steel Quill Books - just so long as the Kickstarter project funds.

In other news, I've been busy putting together the Kickstarter video, which features more of Tom Brown's gorgeous gothic artwork.