No, you're not staying up too late, you've got something wrong with your thyroid!

During Small Press Idol, I spent months staying up late, waking up early, etc... Somewhere in the middle of the competition, April or May, I started getting really tired, like I wasn't getting enough sleep (which I wasn't). I thought, well, I've been staying up late and waking up early for months, so I just need to get some sleep, rest up, and I'll be good to go! So, I took the period between rounds 2 and 3 and then between 3 and 4 to catch up on sleep, chores, etc, thinking it would help me feel better... it didn't. During the last handful of months, too, I started to gain an odd amount of weight... I thought to myself, "well, I haven't been eating a lot more, but maybe my metabolism is slowing down or I'm eating more than I thought." Nope...

During SDCC this year, my wife and I gave blood... I get this letter in the mail a couple of weeks later that I got a false positive for something indicating I could have or could end up with leukemia. Since my grandfather died of leukemia, I thought, OH CRAP, and made a quick appointment with my doctor to get things checked out. Barrage of tests later, nope, I'm fine, oh wait, there are some levels off with your thyroid! Hmmm....

Didn't think too much about it, but I did recall that thyroid issues run in my family. The doctor scheduled me for an ultrasound of my thyroid which showed that I have multi-nodular goiters on both sides of my thyroid. The doctor didn't seem too worried but said "just in case" I should get these extra tests done (I'll get back to that "just in case").

Last Thursday and Friday, I got to play Radioactive Man... They gave me this radio-nucleotide pill (radioactive iodine), which was cool because I didn't have to get a radioactive injection instead (phew). They kicked me loose for a few hours and then did some scans... Friday morning, more scans...

Today I found out that there's a bunch of abnormal stuff in the readings, so I just need to find out what my next steps are, but I was told I'm probably going to need to get my thyroid taken out. Some? All? Who knows!

Strangely enough, I was listening to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb when my wife called to tell me... Surreal.

Just thought I'd share since people actually do read this thing, I've come to find out!

Well, while you're reading... go check out all of the cool stuff I updated at the Bearded Lady site... Darn it!

Projects, projects, and more projects... more coming?

So, over at the BeardedLadyOnline.com site, we've got a few projects mentioned... well, some of those are going to be getting a lot of wordplay from us in the coming weeks... We're actually going to start doing web comics, too!

First to be mentioned... Capetown Chronicles... Part 1: Just a Cup of Coffee...

After some of the buzz surrounding the story, perhaps for its sheer vulgarity, I'm not sure, we've decided to share the story in the coming weeks and follow it up with some more installments, all on the web!

The page just shows a sample, so be prepared, there's a lot more coming... Roger is just working to get some more life in the pages. You'll see!

Go to the Bearded Lady Comics section of the site here and click on "Capetown Chronicles"...

Enjoy!

thanks,
Erik
erik@beardedladyonline.com
http://www.beardedladyonline.com
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com

Image Crazy 99! Ok, maybe it's just the third one, but I thought I'd share...

Yeah, I know it's a crazy number of images, but that's the point! Welcome to my mind, people! What happens to me when I'm writing, or should I say when I'm in a creative mode, is that other ideas start popping into my head. Rather than consider them distractions to the stories I'm working on, I welcome them, flush them out, and get them out of my mind by writing as much as I can in a short period of time.

I've probably talked about my process before, but when I get that initial idea, I try to get to my computer, open a file and brain dump as much as I can out at the same time. It's a loose plot and dialog and whatever else might pop up... names, locations, time, whatever happens to come out. I'd say it's a brainstorm, but I don't limit myself in any way, I just throw what I can out in as large chunks as possible. In the end, I'll end up with anywhere between a page and a handful of pages and I can set it aside until I get back to it again. The nice thing about co-writing with someone, if you do that, is you can take that same brain dump, throw it into a Google Doc (I recommend it if you haven't tried it), and bat it back and forth, organizing as you go along, add, subtract, separate into different files, etc... in the end, you have something you can almost start scripting from. Over the past handful of months, I've ended up with over 30 of these "little" brain dumps ranging from solo projects to things I've worked on with Michael Nelsen, etc... So there you have it!!!

What you have is... Unfiltered, written by Me with art by Jason Baroody... Unbeatables, created by Michael Nelsen and I with art by Michael Nelsen.... "TLA" created by myself and Michael Nelsen... pen "doodle" by Michael... The Evil Tree written by me with art by Denman Rooke... My Detective book, written by me with Art by Sachin Nagar... Any lettering you see is done by me, I try to do all of my own lettering, but sometimes I get some help. ;)

Have fun and please go check out the Bearded Lady site, it's getting ready to go through some SERIOUS changes!

Thanks,
Erik
erik@beardedladyonline.com

Faction - And one more with feeling!

Back in February 2009, I was emailing back and forth with Ian, asking him questions about Small Press Idol, trying to figure out if any of my ideas would be a good fit for Small Press Idol. Eventually, I settled on Faction and the journey began! If you can believe that, it has been just over seven months since that time! Since then, our experience and confidence has grown by leaps and bounds.

Guess what, though? It was officially announced today on the DimeStoreProductions web site ~ http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/site/news/view/kick_start_235.htm?filter=1 ~ That Faction won the contest!

I just want to say that Faction couldn't have made it this far in the journey without the support of the 3 F's ~ Family, Friends, and Fans... Our families helped us with their love and support, our friends help with their votes, and our fans picked up copies of the book.

We received confirmation that Faction issue 0 has been sent to the printers, so it will be shipping to everyone who pre-ordered in the next couple of weeks.

If, by some chance, you haven't picked up a copy yet, come check out what all the fuss is about. Read more about Faction at the web site ~ http://www.beardedladyonline.com/faction ~ and then go pick up a copy of the book.

Printed copy - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
PDF copy - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html

Yet again, I have to thank Arnie for the great artwork and Mike for the spectacular colors... The book wouldn't be the same without your help!

Thanks,
Erik Hendrix
Writer - Faction
Erik@BeardedLadyOnline.com
http://www.beardedladyonline.com
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com

Patience and persistance can pay off in the end...

Seems like many many moons ago, I started talking with Sachin Nagar about my detective book XXXXXXXXX (no, still not slipping on the name). I honestly have over 180 pages of script ready to go as well as TONS of info to get me beyond that. I'm not going to call it an epic, just a great story with plots and sub-plots, which keep it going. Don't forget the mysteries involved... always something behind the scenes to figure out.
Originally, I came up with the idea back in November and started working with an artist shortly thereafter. I was fired up and he was fired up, so I was cranking out scripts, just knowing, "this is the one." After a while, life got on the way of my poor artist and he had to bail out. Common story in comic book land, at least in the pre-production phases. He has taken a different path and I wish him luck, actually! He's had some luck, done some covers for publications, etc...
For a time, I gave up on finding an artist because the ones I was trying to work with didn't really match up with what I was looking for on this book. Eventually, though, Sachin popped up with this amazing artwork and from the first rendering of the main characters, I was sold on his style.





Here we are a few months later and we're just about ready to get a submission package sent out... I'm excited, of course... this is one of those books I've been waiting MONTHS to send to publishers, eager for feedback, eager to get moving on the book, etc... I guess that's the problem with writing too far ahead, huh?
Hope you enjoy the images! More to come, as always.

Shall we pontificate for a moment?

I got word yesterday... or maybe the day before... heck maybe the day before that... that Faction probably won Small Press Idol. I haven't posted about it in fairness to the other competitors since it's not "officially" official yet, just looking pretty good. I'm happy things turned out the way they did, certainly!

I received a few messages late last week from people who assumed Faction had already lost, that there was no hope to catch up. I didn't argue because that would be revealing my hand. I'm not intentionally sneaky, but I knew some things would take until the last day or two to come in. I was patient, I was hopeful, but I was quiet. Those close to the fold, on the Faction team, friends, and family, knew I was still confident in the end... well, confident, but also biting my nails a tad, I can't argue there. No matter how well you plan for something, someone is always around to throw some wrenches in your spokes, to which you must react or get tossed on your face, sucking dirt. Worries appear to have been unfounded. I hope I didn't worry the Faction supporters out there too much!

So, what to do now? Well, for right now, we're patient, we wait for the official word and then we can celebrate some. I will say this to the other contestants in Small Press Idol. I appreciate the well wishes and I wish you luck moving forward. Hopefully you will land on your feet and find a home for your books, whether it be at another publisher, or self publishing.

The audiences are out there for small press books, it's just a matter of honing in on them and leading them to the trough to dig in and read up... Six months ago or so when we signed Faction up for Small Press Idol, I didn't know much about small presses, self publishing, or the industry in general, but I've learned a lot, met some great people, and done tons and tons of carpet bomb promoting to the point where I'm even tired of seeing my name on emails (sorry about that). Did they work? Some yes, some no.... If a person picked up Faction, I'd have been a happy camper because that would mean someone believed enough in the quality of the product to purchase it with their hard earned money. It turns out that a lot of people believed in it, which I'm humbled by.... Despite my confidence in the book, despite the feedback I've received, you never know until the book gets in front of the readers how well it will be received.

Hopefully in the coming months, you'll stick with Faction on its journey. We'll keep updating things, show you some images here and there to prepare you for the inevitable issue 1, which Arnie is already drawing... I think you will be VERY happy with what's to come. Faction is a tale I've been excited to tell since I started the first page of the script many months ago and it keeps getting better.... Four issues will just be the beginning of the series, a chance for you to meet the characters and get a feel for the world just long enough for the entire thing to be rocked to its core.

Thank you again to everyone who picked up a copy of Faction, to the retailers who are going to carry the book in your stores, and to DimeStoreProductions.com (Ian) for putting the contest on in the first place.

To anyone who has dreamed of making comic books and never knew how, I challenge you to join in Small Press Idol 2010.... We're not too long away for that to start up!

I've enjoyed the ride so far, hope you have to, and stick around for a lot more!!!

Thanks,
Erik Hendrix
Writer - Faction
http://www.beardedladyonline.com
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com

BTW ~ Image on this post is Michael Nelsen's interpretation of Acker Kinney from before he joined the Faction team.... How's that!

Image Crazy and Faction's last call!

This is it, folks... last call for copies of Faction... Tonight (Aug 31st) at Midnight EST is the last time to place orders for Faction issue 0 and have them count towards our win in Small Press Idol. Please help us pull this off!

a. PRINT COPY - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
b. PDF DOWNLOAD - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html