As of today I am staying offline for the next 5 weeks. I will be returning August 5th, 2009. During my time away from the wicked “internal nets”, I will be working on putting together my new art studio, organizing various personal and business aspects of my life, and putting together a new announcement for the future of MockTales and MockTales-linked projects over the course of the next year.
By staying off the internet I mean to refrain from playing World of Warcraft or Left 4 Dead for hours on end. I will turn off my Instant Messaging programs (i.e. AIM, MSN and Yahoo). I will not be responding to or viewing Message Boards. And the only emails I will likely be answering, other than my work, will be for the Boffer/Padded Weapon Fighting group I help run. Lastly, no Twitter, MySpace or Facebook updates either. I currently have 5 MySpace pages, 3 Facebook pages and 3 Twitter pages. These require a lot of my time to update and keep current with information and when I return I will be staying consistent on all of them in order to keep reaching out to every kind of audience I can get for my projects.
The New Studio- I have leased a small office space just a couple blocks from my apartment. I say small, as it is roughly 14x16 feet. But the size is perfect for what I want to do, and then I can always upgrade if need be. Choosing to lease Office space was not an easy decision, as I am attempting to save as much money as possible right now. But the price was right and we are still saving money compared to the house rent, power bills, and other expenses we were living with last year. And now, by having this space available to me, I can create an artistic atmosphere without having to worry about keeping quiet for the wife and kids. And I won’t have to clear the kitchen table off just so the family can sit and eat together. Most importantly this separates business and personal time so that both get their own individual attention when needed.
MockTales- While I don’t want to release too much, I will say that I have big plans for MockTales and Emerald City Comic Con next year, March 13th & 14th, 2010. Much of what I wanted to initially write about when I started MockTales ten years ago has become irrelevant or uninteresting to me since I have now moved on in life. But with the story I want to tell now, I feel, is now far more powerful and emotional of a story.
But I don’t want to go too much into detail until August 5th. So until then I want to thank you all for hanging in there during the past few years. I can only hope that with this break I will be able to come back even stronger and more focused on getting my work done.
About a month ago I posted that the MockTales crew was in some serious need of funding. And for the most part, a good chunk of you came through. I want to thank those who bought the Ashcans, original art and the art prints during the last few weeks. Your support will never be forgotten.
Unfortunately, our target goal for fund raising was not met and now things aren't looking too good. While I will never give up when it comes to trying to get MockTales on the book shelves, I have reached a point where I need to take a break.
What this means; well, this means that I won't be online updating MockTales.com, Twitter, MySpace or Facebook for the next 2 months. I feel that I am too far behind right now to stay on top of everything and I need to catch up. All my comissions and projects I am already comitted to will be finished. But I will not be doing any more new projects until after August 1st, 2009.
If you still want to order an Ashcan of the MockTales Preview 2009: Rough Cut! edition, please send me an email to mocktales@gmail.com.
Again, I want to thank everyone who has support us so far. We just need more of our ducks to line up in a row in order to keep going. And at this time, it just isn't happening. Hang in there, we aren't going away. Just... taking a break.
