2003
I finished the year with 25 publications, including five covers, plus the Greetings from Lake Wu book! Plus my first story accepted for publication, and my first stint as an editor. Read on!
I did a piece - filled with hidden images of spaceships, vehicles and buildings - for Cheryl Morgan's fanzine Emerald City. Cheryl said she was going to use it for the cover of her upcoming special anniversary issue no. 100 (in Dec. 2003).
I also finished up a cover for the fanzine Challenger - for issue no. 20. I'll also be doing art for the fanzine File 770.
Due out at the end of October is the book Greetings from Lake Wu, a collection of stories by Jay Lake and art by me. This book - published by Wheatland Press - will also see the print debut of my portfolio piece "Love Is the Plan - The Plan Is Death," inspired by the James Tiptree, Jr. story. I did this piece back in 1998 or thereabouts, so it's nice to see it finally published. The book is due out this fall at the World Fantasy Con (over Hallowe'en), but meanwhile here's the cover illo:
The book is also being sold in a special very limited (26 copies!) Box of Wonders edition in a handmade wooden box, with the book, a set of color prints of the illos, a bag of tchotchkes (hand-picked from fossils, crystals, coins, medallions and other cool little bits), the only copy of a one-off story by Jay about a letter from the alphabet, and an accompanying one-of-a-kind illo by me.
HIDDEN IMAGES! Last year I completed a large project for Fantastic Stories magazine. This was going to include illustrations for several stories. The large, full-page illustrations for four of the stories would fit together into a single larger image. This would be constructed by carefully tearing out four pages of the magazine and re-arranging them to make the larger picture. Unfortunately, since I completed this project, DNA Publications, which publishes Fantastic, Dreams of Decadence, Weird Tales, Science Fiction Chronicle, and several other magazines has undergone some financial difficulties (as have we all). The four illos that make the one larger one are now going to be divided between two different issues. Darn. These are the four images all together: "Stored Dreams" can be seen here; "The Witching Hour" is here; "Sysop" is here; "The White Hotel" is here.
Suddenly I'm controversial! Didn't mean to be. But my illo "Evil Fairy Godmother", reprinted on the cover of the current issue (Spring 2003) of ON SPEC magazine has got some people all in tizzy. Strange how when originally printed in Fantastic Stories, nobody cared. Click here to find out what people are upset about.
Earlier this year, I did the cover for the e-book The Vessel of Heaven by Jamie Rosen, published by Jintsu (an electronic imprint from Eggplant Productions); it's just come out now.
I also painted an illo for Talebones magazine for a story by Jennifer Rachel Baumer called "Forever Sleep." I also have a new assignment from Talebones for a story by my pal Diana Sherman.
I also did the Black and White cover for the anthology Intracities, which has stories of writers writing about their hometowns. This is edited by Mike Jasper and the authors are: Mark Siegel (Phoenix, AZ); Mary Madewell (Las Vegas, NV); Chris Babson (Fuquay, NC); Melissa Yuan-Innes (Montreal); Claude Lalumière (Montreal); Jay Caselberg (London); Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt (Oakland,CA); Jason Erik Lundberg (Cary, NC); Paul E. Martens (Rensselaer, NY); Jay Lake (Portland OR); Jeffrey Turner (Fort Worth, TX); Rachel S. Heslin (Big Bear, CA); Peter Hagelslag (Novorossiysk, Russia).
Intracities cover
I'm an editor now too! In addition to all my work as an illustrator, along with author Jay Lake I am editing an anthology called The Exquisite Corpuscle, to be published fall of 2004 by Wheatland Press. This is based on the Surrealist game "The Exquisite Corpse" in which a group of people contribute to the construction of a single collaged entity. So what we have is three tag-teams of seven people each, starting with the phrase "the exquisite corpuscle" and then we see where it goes. I started with an illustration, and then passed that on, for inspiration, to award-winning author Gary Shockley, who will pass his story on to Tim Pratt, etc. Some of the other folks who will be contributing artwork, stories and poems to this project are Jay himself, Christina Sng, Diana Sherman, Ben Rosenbaum, Bruce Holland Rogers, Heather Shaw, Mike Jasper, Ken Brady, Greg van Eekhout, Kristin Livdahl, Maggie Hogarth, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Alan DeNiro, Aurora Lemieux, and Nigel Sade.
I am also an author! All my life I have wanted to have a science fiction story published. I've had other writings published - scientific articles on DNA replication in bacteria; scientific humor in The Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research; plus various non-fiction pubs; plus fiction on the web. But no print science fiction pubs! Well, now I can say I've made it! I have - tentatively - sold my novelette "The Tragical History of Guidolon, the Giant Space Chicken" to the Daikaiju (giant monster) anthology. This antho is scheduled to be printed in 2005, and the final decisions will not be made until Nov. next year. However, one editor said he "loved" it and the other was "very positive". I can't wait to see this in print!
In addition to getting a story accepted, I had a couple other "lifelong dreams" happen in the last few months - hunting for fish fossils and dinosaur bones (in Wyoming), and playing in a band (I played congas). So life is good.
Also, while this is not a publication, I want to announce that I have established the MiNoFF - the Middle of Nowhere Fan Fund - intended to send a needy American fan living in the middle of nowhere to get to a sci-fi con. If you're interested, click here.
2002
I wrap up the year with four publications, including a book cover; plus 27 in the wings for next year.
Published in December was a painting for a story by Sean Klein called "Event Horizon," which involves both Columbus and ring singularities (rotating black holes), which may be a gateway to another universe. This is for Talebones magazine.
Published earlier this year was my acrylic painting-sculpture illustration for a story by Ilsa Bick, who was in the same Writers/Illustrators of the Future class as me. Her story for Talebones magazine is called "Build Me." Every time I do an illustration I try to do something I've never done before. Sometimes this means something more colorful or more sentimental or more monumental than before. This time I am doing a work more disturbing and frightening than before - it has screaming baby faces and weird, sculpted baby hands reaching out toward the viewer. Talebones editor Patrick Swenson liked it so much that he used it for mini-posters at NorwesCon advertising an evening of readings called "Talebones Live."
I completed a second project for Fantastic Stories (the print SF magazine formerly known as Pirate Writings), to do an entire issue of interior art. I got to illustrate stories by Alan Dean Foster, Tom Piccirilli, Jeff Carlson, Mary Catelli, Mark Fewell, and Catherine Wells. My over-arching plan is this: Each of the stories gets one full-page illo and a smaller illo. After you are done reading the magazine, you can pull it apart and assemble the four of the full-page illos together into one larger image.
I also finished up work on a large acrylic painting (24 x 36) for the cover for the third book to be published by Aardwolf Press, the first novel, Echo and Narcissus, by Mark Siegel.
I have another big project in the pipeline. This is a collection of stories by Jay Lake and art by me, to be published by Wheatland Press. We have decided on the title, Greetings from Lake Wu.
Also out earlier this year was the second issue of the print sci-fi magazine Darkling Plain, which contains my rune-filled illo for K. Bird Lincoln's story "Losing Memories."
2001
I finished the year with a total of 22 publications! These included illos for four different magazines, a con program book where I was Artist Guest of Honor, and two book covers! ... My final credit of 2001 was my 29th pub over all: an acrylic painting (with an astronaut kissing a spacebabe!) for the story "Silence Before Starlight" by Carrie Vaughn for the print sci-fi magazine Talebones, issue no. 23. ... Recently published was my irresponsibly colorful cover for Hamlet Dreams, Jennifer Barlow's first novel, from Aardwolf Press. ... Also out recently is a piece of art I call "The Good Daughter" for Talebones issue no. 22, for a touching story by James Van Pelt - a story I sincerely believe should be nominated itself for a Hugo for Best Short Story. ...
Earlier in 2001 I saw the publication of my two illustrations of a girl with a gun for the story "Slugball," by Mark Hoover, in two May issues of Strange Horizons ezine. Part of the fun of doing that one was designing a hi-tech dart gun. I had wanted to draw cool guns ever since I noticed that one of the credits on the Japanese anime movie Akira was for a "weapons designer" (what a cool job title). One of my "Slugball" images is now available on a mug, T-shirt (long and short sleeve), ladies' T-shirt, sweatshirt, and tote bag. For a short time, it was even available as a Christmas ornament; this seemed odd, since Christmas ornmanents should promote peace on earth and good will toward man, and perhaps best not to feature a girl with a gun. Nonetheless, this is my first bit of merchandising. However... Shortly, there will be "Slugball" beanie babies, "Slugball" bubble bath and "Slugball" Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Just kidding - but I feel almost like Lucas. ...
Also published in 2001 was the first book from the new imprint Aardwolf Press, a collection of short stories entitled The Best-Known Man in the World by Daniel Pearlman; it has a cover by me. ... The project before that depicted alien runes and ruins for a story called "Losing Memories" by K. Bird Lincoln; this was for the second issue of a new print SF magazine called Darkling Plain, due out eventually, as the editor is now in law school. I really enjoyed doing that piece, as I got to make up my own language. ... At the beginning of the year I finished the main poster for the WillyCon 2001 sci-fi convention, where I was Artist Guest of Honor. This piece depicts girls with guns and after months of hemming and hawing I eventually decided to call it "GIRLS/GUNS". Click here to see a special inside peek into the making of the WillyCon poster, since people keep asking me how I do my art. ... Published at the end of February was the Spring 2001 issue of Fantastic Stories, formerly known as Pirate Writings. For that issue, I got to do 12 illustrations (all the interior art!). I took off a month from my day job in biotech patent law to do that project. ...
2000
The piece I called "The Sad Girl", created for the print magazine Talebones for a story called "Blood Culture" by Eric Del Carlo, was published in issue no. 20. ... My award-winning illustration for the story "Guildmaster" by Dan Dyson, was in the anthology, Writers of the Future, Vol. XVI ... Summer 2000 saw the premiere issue of the new SF print magazine Darkling Plain. This features my illustration for a re-telling of the destruction of the Tower of Babel, written by Michael Lane Baker. (A larger, revised and corrected version of this image was printed in the Spring 2001 Fantastic Stories, too.) Congratulations to the DP editor, David M. Cox, on the birth of his grand new magazine ...
My first print publication was in issue No. 5 (Spring 2000) of the Australian print SF magazine Altair. It features interior BW art by me for a story called "Colors of Pain" by Lyn Nichols and Ron Collins. The illo depicts a man recently and unhappily turned into a vampire and the wary and frightened looks of people who pass him on the street.
That's a total of 4 publications in 2000.