update

Making Monsters, and Other Pandemic Activities

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Long time no see, dear readers! At least, that’s how it feels, given that time has lost all meaning this year. Worry not, for I’ve been busy these past few…let me check the calendar…months, with all manners of projects.

First off, I have a guest post over at the Creator’s Roulette, which you can check out here! If you’ve ever wondered how to go about creating monsters, either completely new ones or adaptations of pre-existing myths, this post shows my process for how I make monsters for my stories. It even has examples from my own work, resources for inspiration, and some art by yours truly! I had a lot of fun writing it up, so I hope you’ll give it a read.

A recent illustration of a dragon-man I played in a Changeling the Lost campaign.

Connected to the art in that post; I’ve recently acquired a new art tablet, and have practiced digital illustrations in my free time. Not only will it be easier to add concept art and such to my books, but I hope to eventually provide more illustrations for you all, be it through Patreon or other avenues. My goal is to eventually branch into creating my own comics or games (along with writing more books, of course!), so keep your eyes peeled. I may also stream some more art on Twitch in the future, but that’ll wait until after edits.

Now for the update on “Corpses and Cognac”, second book in the Deadly Drinks series. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed it: I’m still hard at work editing the book. Having realized that my own editing standards are stricter than my previous press, I’m in the middle of extensive edits and rewrites to make sure “Corpses and Cognac” is a sequel that’ll knock everyone’s socks off. This means it likely won’t release this Summer as I’d planned, but come Autumn, we should have a spooky sequel full of leviathan ghosts, haunted carnivals, and motorcycling minotaurs ready for our bookshelves.

Once those edits are done, I’ll be bouncing between the third Deadly Drinks book and a couple of other new projects. One’s a high fantasy, DnD-esque tale I’ve mentioned here before, while the other is a cyberpunk/cosmic horror mashup. All of these are still in the first-draft stage, so it will take some time before they see the light of day, but I’m excited for all three of them. (And now that I’ve got this new tablet, expect to see more concept illustrations like this one below for the cyberpunk story.)

Concept art for one of the cyberpunk characters, a trans witch cyborg.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one other new feature for this site: a Contact Form! If you ever wanted to send me a message, but don’t want to hassle with comments or social media messaging channels, use the contact form to send me a message, and it’ll show up straightaway in my inbox. It sometimes takes me a couple days to respond if I’m busy (as I’m not only deep in edits, but also have a full time day job), but I’ll get to you as soon as I can. I have a couple other exciting updates planned for the site too, but with everything else going on right now, we’ll see when I get around to those.

Hope you’re all staying safe and sane as you can, dear readers! Every day is another victory against all the obstacles that spite you, so keep your chin up. As for me, it’s back to edits I go!

~Dorian

Rolling Right Along: What to Expect from the Bones and Bourbon Re-Release

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello there, dear readers! I hope you’ve survived this past month alright, and if surviving is all you’ve done, that’s still something to be proud of. It hasn’t been easy for anyone. But even with all the turmoil going on, we’ve still got stories, and that’s what has kept me going!

It’s been a busy month of work for Deadly Drinks. Today, I’d like to tell you about what you can look forward to for the Bones and Bourbon re-release!

COVER ART

For the new Bones and Bourbon, I knew it’d need something special to help make it pop in the sea of indie fantasy fiction. As fate would have it, once I decided to go for an illustrated cover, the wonderful M.Brackett (also known as Quel) tweeted about wanting to work on book covers again. With art that’s fantastical, animated, and a dash of whimsy, I knew it’d be a perfect match.

Not only am I teaming up with Quel for the Deadly Drinks series covers, but there will also be streams where you can watch the cover as it’s being created! Quel tends to post on Twitter when a stream’s about to happen, so keep an eye out! We’re still in the thumbnails stage for Bones and Bourbon, and it already looks amazing.

ENHANCED EDITS

Sure, Bones and Bourbon already released once before, but I wanted the book to be in tip-top shape for its self-published debut. I reached out to Bill Tracy, author of the Dissolution series, for editing and advice on self-publishing. Bill has been a font of useful advice, and has also made an already-good book even better.

Worry not: the plot is not changing with these edits. Most of the edits were to clean up sentence structure, remove extraneous words, and make the book easier to read and comprehend. With that said, the book is slightly longer than originally. A couple details have been clarified with better explanations (like how Retz’s body works and how Nalem relates to it), and there is one tiny extra scene with Jarrod and Farris in San Francisco that I will likely release here for those who already bought the original book. I’ve also removed all references to Jarrod’s deadname from the book, as that information wasn’t integral to the story and was otherwise rude to include.

Along with edits, the book will have a new template! I’m not much of a font nerd, but I gotta’ say…I picked up a template to use for the whole Deadly Drinks series for consistency and whatnot, and it looks pretty damn spiffy.

EXTRA FEATURES

That’s right; we’ve got bonus features for the book!

Mainly, there will be a preview for “Corpses and Cognac,” so you’ll be ready for its release in a few months (more on that below)! In addition, I asked in a twitter poll what other feature you’d like to see, and the clear winner…was CONCEPT ART! So look forward to some original Grave artwork depicting the cast of the book. Note that it’ll be in black and white, because colored pages…are expensive.

RELEASE TIMELINE

Now, the questions on everyone’s mind…when, and how, will this new version of Bones and Bourbon release, and how close behind is Corpses and Cognac?

For Bones and Bourbon, I’m looking to release it in early May. This way, I have time to polish up the formatting and perfect that concept art, while Quel works magic on that new cover. When it releases, the book will be published through IngramSpark in both physical and ebook formats, and should be available wherever you prefer to acquire books. Publishing through Ingram also means the book will be easy for bookstores to order, so you can still support your favorite local bookstore by ordering your physical copies from them (or request that your library carry it, if that’s what you prefer)!

Corpses and Cognac is still a few months out from that. While I’m hoping for a release in June or July, I’ll be honest and admit that it may take longer than that. As it didn’t receive any edits from NineStar, it’s still fairly fresh, and will likely need a lot more work. I’m also being respectful of Quel and Bill’s time, as they have their own projects they also need to work around.

Right now, I’m going through Corpses and Cognac again myself, fixing any obvious plot holes or editing mistakes I missed when I finished the draft last year. Once I’m done, I’ll send it on to Bill, and once he’s done with his Kickstarter for the next Dissolution books, we’ll kick edits into high gear. And then, once we have the edits finalized and formatted so we know the page count, we can get the cover template set up and over to Quel for another beautiful cover.

As Corpses and Cognac will be new, I’m also planning to release ARCs of it through NetGalley! I’ll give more details once it’s ready to release, but if you’re a NetGalley reviewer, keep your eyes peeled.

After all that’s said and done? All this work has me super inspired for book 3 of the Deadly Drinks series, and believe you me…it’s going to be a whirlwind of an adventure.

In the meantime, I’m still updating my Patreon with new content. This includes short stories for Deadly Drinks (including one that explains how they acquire a car for Corpses and Cognac), previews of new novels, and behind the scenes posts on my writing methods—and whatever else you’d like to see!

That’s it for now, dear readers. Watch this space for more updates, and in the meantime, stay as safe and sane as you can in these trying times.

~Dorian

What A Year – It’s Only February?!

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello, dear readers!

My, this year has hit like a hammer! Thank goodness it’s almost over–wait, hold on, my calendar reads February. Is that right? Stars above, preserve me.

I’ve hit this new year and decade running in just about every aspect of my life. My day job has transitioned from an HR/Recruiting role to a more Computer Science oriented role, so I’m cramming as many SQL demos into my eyeballs as I possibly can. And while I don’t talk about my personal life much here, I have made steps to be truer to myself with a new name and preparing for a big life change finally on the horizon.

Of course, we can’t have a Dorian Graves update without discussing writing! Especially since this isn’t a release announcement about Corpses and Cognac. So, what’s going on?

2019 was a hard year for many people, including for my editor and myself, and it hasn’t let up yet. Corpses and Cognac is a big and bold book that still needs a lot of work to be the best damn sequel Bones and Bourbon could ask for, so we’re polishing every aspect until this book shines. At this time, I don’t have a new estimated time of release. But it will be this year, and I thank all of you for your patience.

Now for the good news: I’m now releasing new content every month over on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/doriangraves launched January 1st with two kinds of content. First off, I’m releasing a new short story every month, each piece a couple thousand words long. Right now, they’re centered in the Deadly Drinks universe with stories that are only hinted at in the books, such as the first meeting of Jarrod and Farris, or how the Gallows brothers acquire a car for Corpses and Cognac. The second kind of content is behind the scenes work, showing various aspects of how my books are made. Some will focus on technique, others on the nuts and bolts of aspects like how huldras work or the particulars of magic in the Deadly Drinks series. I’m also open to questions to cover in these posts!

In addition to the Patreon, I’ve been hard at work on “For Those Who Burn,” my standalone fantasy novel. I’ve passed the 20k wordcount mark already, which is pretty exciting (even if it’s scratching the surface for a fantasy novel). I’m currently talking about it for #LGBTWIP this month on Twitter, where I have more frequent updates and commentary on writing progress (and artwork, plus the occasional cat picture).

2020 may be a big and busy year already, but let’s make the most of it. Keep reading and creating, and fill this year with enough stories to make it something wonderful.