Page count

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Layla Lawlor

In my year-long to-do list (yes, I have one of those), March is labeled “Kismet”. My goal for the month is 50 pages, penciled and inked, though probably not colored. That’ll give me a year of weekly updates. It sounds like a lot, and it may end up being an unrealistic goal, but I’m starting to realize that sometimes it’s good to challenge myself. And it’s been awhile since I’ve regularly, consistently done comics. I’m sort of curious how fast I’m going to be once I settle into it.

I know it’s technically still February, but I started penciling tonight, so hey! Progress bars.

Pages penciled:

1 / 50 pages. 2% done!

Pages inked:

0 / 50 pages. 0% done!

Pages colored:

0 / 50 pages. 0% done!

The Next Big Thing blog hop: Freebird!

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

As mentioned last week, I’m participating in the Next Big Thing blog hop, having been recruited/tagged in by Aundrea Singer, author of Black Hawk Tattoo. Next week, SL Huang will be answering these questions about her novel-in-progress.

What is the working title of your book?

The book is called Freebird. (Or, on the copyright page, Freebird: The Complete Collection. But the other is easier to type.) The protagonist is Karen Bird, nicknamed Freebird, hence the title!

Continue reading →

Reviews

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

There was a great review of Freebird in yesterday’s News-Miner (our local paper) – you can read it here!

Lawlor spins out a slice-of-life tale of the minor mishaps and small triumphs that [protagonist] Karen experiences as she settles into life amid a collection of mostly lovable losers who are in Fox because they’re so cantankerous they can’t even hack it in Fairbanks proper. It isn’t a deep read, but it is a sweet account of a group of people with exceedingly strong and usually clashing personalities trying to find some semblance of tranquility despite their close proximity to one another as neighbors or family members.

Also, I think I forgot to link to this at the time, but SL Huang had a really fantastic rec/review of Freebird at her blog recently:

It can be hard to write flawed characters without losing the audience, but somehow all of the characters in Freebird manage to be human and still keep us rooting for them. Or perhaps we root for them because they are so human. … They have all different views (politically, morally, and philosophically they’re all over the map) and all different relationships with each other (some hate each other, some love each other, some tolerate each other, and everything in between) and they’re still all people we like. Three-dimensionality at its finest.

Full reviews at both links. Thank you very much to both reviewers!

I had two local book signings last week, at Gulliver’s and Forget-Me-Not Books, both of which went well! I sold some books and saw some friends, and had a lot of fun.

Today I’m feeling accomplished because I just finished a draft of a story for an anthology called Big Damn Heroines from Storm Moon Press (here’s their open anthology call page). The open call describes the anthology as “plus-sized women kicking ass”, and I really wanted to write something for it, so I’ve been working on that story over the last couple of weeks. (The rough draft clocks in at about 19,000 words, which is a leeeeetle longer than I was aiming for, but the maximum for the anthology is 20K, so I’m still under!) I also finished the rough draft of a 35K novella in November, which I’ve been calling the “lesbian werewolves in Alaska story”. It’s going to need a pretty major rewrite because the villain essentially comes out of nowhere 2/3 of the way through the story, so I need to figure out how to bring him in earlier, and some sort of plausible motivation other than (as it currently stands) apparently just being evil. So now I have both of those to rewrite, and I have my urban fantasy novel to edit and hopefully send out to agents in the next couple of months; I’m definitely keeping busy.

Book drawing winner and blog hop

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

The winner of the book drawing (via my oh-so-scientific method involving a list of participants and a set of RPG dice) is Schneefink. Congratulations! And thank you to everyone else for your webcomic recommendations; I’ve been horrendously busy the last couple of weeks, but I am really looking forward to poking through these!

In other news, I was recently recruited to participate in a blog hop by Aundrea Singer, who was fishing for willing victims on her blog. *g* Typically, blog hops are a way for authors to introduce themselves to new readers by guest-blogging and/or linking to each other’s blogs. It’s really just a way of expanding your circle of possible readers beyond your own blog. The different ones I’ve seen have different rules: in some cases, authors will guest-blog at each other’s blogs; in other cases, everyone links to a big central list of participants.

In this case, it’s operating chain-letter style. Aundrea put up a post looking for other authors on her friendslist who would like to answer a set of questions (it’s the same questions for everyone). She answered the questions here, for her upcoming novel Black Hawk Tattoo from Dreamspinner Press. I will be writing up my own answers for my current/upcoming project (Freebird, naturally!). For you creative people out there, would any of you like to play too? It can be for a book or short story or webcomic, in any genre — whatever you have that’s new and current. Just leave me a comment saying that you would like to participate, and agree to post your answers on Dec. 12 if possible (I will be posting mine on the 5th — it’s supposed to be a week apart) and seek other participants via your blog, as I’m doing here. Ideally the “rule” is that you’re supposed to find five other people to play, but less than five (or none!) is okay too. And I’ll link to you, and you’ll link back to me.

… I have to admit that I kinda feel weird about the slightly chain-letter-esque aspect of all of this, but it’s really just in the interests of spreading the word to new readers, and we authors can never resist doing that! This can be for any project in any genre — whatever you have that’s current, upcoming, or an unpublished work in progress. (If you write all-ages material, it’s probably good for you to know that many of the early & current participants in this blog hop are writers of sexually explicit romance who may have NSFW content on their websites.)

Hopefully I’ve explained that well enough; it took a couple times of Aundrea explaining it to me before I felt like I got it. (And hopefully I’m doing this right!) Sarah Madison has a probably much more lucid explanation posted here.

Book signings

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

I’ll be at Gulliver’s Books tonight from 7-9 p.m.! I’m giving a short talk at 7 p.m. about the book, and then signing afterwards.

On Saturday from 2-4, I have another signing at Forget-Me-Not books (the bookstore division of the Literacy Council).

And you can still sign up to win a free book until midnight; I will choose a winner tomorrow!

In other news, it’s -20 and doesn’t seem to be warming up today. WOE. I did stop by the optician to get a long-overdue glasses adjustment, so I no longer look like I ran face-first into a telephone pole.

In yet other news, if you enjoy clever takes on fairy tales, I really can’t recommend the show Once Upon a Time highly enough! I just marathoned the first season this past week while I was painting and working on holiday gifts, and it’s wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving – and a book giveaway!

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

Happy Thanksgiving, to those who celebrate. (Above: the shelf above my desk, all decked out in ~~fire hazard~~ fall regalia.)

In other news — FREE Freebird!

In honor of my upcoming week of book signings (and the holiday season), I’m giving away a signed copy of Freebird! I’d like to find more webcomics to read, so enter to win by posting a comment below, recommending a webcomic to me. Give me a link to it, and tell me briefly why you like it. I greatly prefer narrative comics (as opposed to single-strip gag comics), but regardless, if you think it’s cool and awesome, tell me about it — the more obscure the better. Just one per person, please! Pick your favorite.

If you don’t read webcomics or can’t think of one you’d like to recommend, you can still enter by recommending me a book you liked — again, the more obscure the better, to increase the chances that it’ll be something new to me.

And if you really can’t think of anything to recommend, just leave me a comment and I’ll enter you anyway.

ALSO! To be absolutely shameless about the self-promotion aspect of this, if you mention this contest on your own blog, LJ, Facebook page, etc, I’ll give you two slots in my random number table instead of just one. Twice the chance to win! (Just let me know that you did it, in order to get credit.)

Comments stay open ’til Wednesday night, Nov. 28 and I’ll randomly choose a winner on the 29th. (It doesn’t matter if you recommend something I already know about or didn’t like. You’re still in the contest. )

And hey, if you see someone in the comments recommending something you like, feel free to chat about it!

Interview at Sequential Tart

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

Wolfen Moondaughter interviewed me for Sequential Tart this month. Check it out! I talk about Freebird, Kismet, the future of Raven’s Children, and my own background in comics. Basically you can’t shut me up. *g* And Wolfen had some great questions — thank you very much for the interview, Wolfen!

And if you’re coming here from the interview, or have managed to miss my shameless shilling over the last few weeks, the book can be purchased here, and you can read most of it online for free.

Local signings

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

For those of you in Fairbanks, there are several places around town where I’m going to be signing and selling books in the next few weeks. It’s almost like a book tour! A very small tour. In one town. Yep.

Sat. & Sun, Nov. 24 & 25 – Fox Lions Club Holiday Bazaar – 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
This is a small local bazaar … and I do mean local; it’s at the Fox Lions Community Center, which is only a mile up the highway from me. I’ll have a table on both Saturday and Sunday.

Wed, Nov. 28 – Gulliver’s Books – 7-9 p.m.
In addition to signing books, I will also be giving a short talk, probably something to do with comics. (Yeah, I really need to figure that part out.) The talk will be upstairs in the cafe.

Sat, Dec. 1 – Forget-Me-Not Books – 2-4 p.m.
Forget-Me-Not is the used bookstore attached to the Literacy Council, so a portion of proceeds will be going to support the Literacy Council. There is a really groovy flyer.

There’s also a completely insane part of me that’s thinking about calling the McKinley Holiday Bazaar people tomorrow and seeing if it’s possible to get table space on Saturday. Advantage: I’d probably have a lot of fun. Disadvantage: it’s in Denali Park, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here (each way). And I have no idea if I’d actually manage to sell any books, which would make it a really silly way to spend my Saturday if I don’t sell a thing.

Freebird discussion post

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

Since the Freebird book is now available from Amazon and local stores (and I’ll have it on my website soon) … this is your official discussion post! Feel free to tell me your thoughts, ask me questions, or talk about anything at all Freebird-related! Want to know some of the specific differences between the website content and the book? Have a question about Fairbanks as depicted in the book? Talk to me! (And to each other.) All spoilers are OK.

Stargazing in Alaska

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Layla Lawlor

Freebird comic of the day, brought to mind by this week’s cold snap + vividly clear, beautiful stargazing weather. (Obligatory shill: Freebird can be purchased here, and maybe EVENTUALLY it will have the “look inside the book” option — I’ve uploaded the files for that, so … *crosses fingers*)

I had the bright idea today of doing a “winter holiday gift box” option for Freebird, containing the book and some touristy Alaska swag, like keychains and mini Alaska flags … those cheap little things that local gift shops sell. Maybe a little piece of original art in each one. And then wrap it up nicely in holiday paper. Would people buy that? I guess that if I’m going to do it for this Christmas, I had better get right on it.

In other news, apparently an election happened. I suppose that it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me just exactly which way my general thoughts are trending on the way that things went nationally (*thumbs up*) or locally (*oh noes*). I am delighted beyond belief that marriage equality passed by popular vote in three states (and another one voted down a discriminatory amendment). And now I am looking forward to seeing how the next four years goes, and meanwhile, I’m infinitely glad to have the uncertainty behind us — not to mention all the political ads!

I’ve been reading election post-mortem posts and articles with interest, but the only one I’m going to link to (at the moment, anyway) is for reasons having nothing to do with the election: John Scalzi’s post Meanwhile in Darke County is currently hosting an absolutely fascinating discussion in its comments, starting about halfway down, on pre-industrial disease epidemiology, rural-urban migrations and birth control via infanticide. (Uh, well, I’m a total history geek, so it’s interesting to me!)

Icefall Studio

Layla Lawlor's Fiction & Comics

Category Archives: Comics