Ray Else's Blog: Writing with Head and Heart

Happy to share that I've written 2 new mystery novellas. The first is out on Amazon as of 4/13/2023: Phantom of the Tenderloin.
A fun noir novella, with interesting twists.
I enjoyed writing the book and think you will enjoy reading it.

What a year :(
Laid off in March as the company where I worked saw business fall off. Rode unemployment for a couple of months. Began to wish I hadn't spent so much money on my graphic novel and all the marketing, as I contemplated retirement and its meagre offerings. Then, lucky me, I found another programming job, thirty minutes from home. I had to wear a mask when near others at work, but could take it off in my cubicle. Couple months passed, looking good, then wham - I caught the virus. Probably from my wife who got it from my grown son, who got it from...who knows!
First week not bad, but second was hell with fever and a cough that rattled my brain and long invisible knives jabbing into my right temple and ear with each heartbeat. At night, I fought fever dreams - nightmares really - they entangled me in logic conundrums. I chased resolution only to find myself trapped in the same damn maze. My mood darkened. The pain in my head worsened. I got tested at CVS - a joke - no Covid, they said. The day after my test results came back, the cough and pain in my head became unbearable - I asked my son to drive me to the hospital. They did a quick test, confirming Covid, and said I had pneumonia to boot. I was so glad they accepted me. Damn the cost - I felt I was dying!
I stayed in a regular hospital bed (no ICU, no O2), where they gave me pain medicine for my head (tramadol that really helped) and cough medicine (worthless), and jabbed my stomach twice a day with anti-blood-clog medicine. I had never felt so strange. So sick. When I closed my eyes, I saw an infinite black. I had an out-of-body experience (they say the virus messes with your nervous system and your brain, and just about everything else). The nurses drew blood every few hours. On day two the doctor told me my oxygen level was good and the virus indicators in-between. She would give me nothing special for Covid - said she had to save the good stuff for those worse off. I felt better by day 3. They sent me home with steroids, to open my lungs.
I went back to work after another week of rest at home. Feeling depressed. Fatigued. Having lost my faith in the magic of the world. Friends noticed. Asked after me. I realized I had to spark up, go back to being playful, to not taking Life so seriously. I had to break out of the maze, to find the amazing! I had to use my imagination!
I'm better now. Looking forward to the end of the Covid reign. I want to travel again! Find new stories!
Best wishes to all.
Ray

Happy to announce Android Einna issue 4, the exciting conclusion to volume 1 of my graphic novel, is live in full color on Amazon. Coming to comiXology in July 2020.
Sergio's illustration breathtaking as always!
Get ebook here

Happy to announce that I managed to publish Android Einna issue 1 on comiXology as well as Amazon!

Sergio did a great job laying out the panels and illustrating to the outline I gave him. Work of art!

Click here to check it out!

We hope to complete issue 2 for publication in Feb 2020. Issue 3 sometime after that.

Been a very interesting exercise, to turn my scifi novel Our Only Chance into a graphic novel.

ANDROID EINNA: OUR ONLY CHANCE Issue #1
When I wrote my novel "Our Only Chance: An A.I. Chronicle", set in Japan, I chose a manga-like story-line. For I hoped one day to adapt the novel to a graphic novel. Roughly 3 years passed, with the writing of 3 more novels, before I decided to begin the adaptation.

I sat down and went through my book, visualizing the scenes, creating a simpler story-line that would translate to the telling of the story in images mostly. A very different kind of edit. I also decided to change the title, to emphasize the main character Android Einna.

Once I had an outline with a vague storyboard for each page, I addressed my problems.
o Problem One: I can't draw - so I needed to find an illustrator
o Problem Two: Professional illustrators are expensive - roughly $100 per B&W page or $150 for color.

The adaptation would be roughly 100 pages which meant $10,000 to $15,000. To create one graphic novel! A lot of money!

I decided to buy a drawing tablet and software and search out an amateur illustrator who might want to do the book for me on the cheap for the experience. Found one fresh out of high school - an excellent artist. She did two pages in about a month, struggling with the computer software, before she found a full-time job, a full-time boyfriend, and stopped producing any drawings at all.
So strike one.

Frustrated, I decided to damn the cost and look online for a professional illustrator. Found a great one who'd done many comics and had his own setup.

To keep the initial cost down, I decided to break the book into 2 or 3 issues (with the idea that if I ran out of money after the 1st issue, maybe there would never be an issue 2).
I told my illustrator I couldn't afford to do it all in color, but I wanted a color cover and maybe a few pages in color where it made sense. He agreed, and told me he would first sketch the major characters to get my OK.

Once I OKed the characters, he would rough draw 4 to 6 pages at a time based on my outline/storyboard (making creative layout decisions/sometimes turning 1 page into 2). That usually took 3 or 4 days - then he'd get my ok to ink them, and give the finished drawings 3 or 4 days later in a pdf, expecting payment. So a kind of pay-as-you-go agreement. Worked for me!

We made storyboard edits as we went, with my illustrator impressing upon me the need to limit text box descriptions and dialogue to spare minimum - to let the pictures tell the story!

Took roughly 3 months to get 45 pages that we thought told a good story for issue 1 (my original estimate was 25 pages!).

At the end he put together all the drawings into a single pdf. And after some magic we got both the ebook and the printed version submitted to Amazon and published!

I actually used Kindle Comic Creator to add panel navigation/zooming to the ebook version - that was another level of editing but fun.

So long story short: although an expensive challenge to adapt a novel to a graphic novel, with the right illustrator and a willingness on the part of the author to simplify the story and trust the images, it is do-able. And can be an emotionally rewarding experience, especially when you hand the graphic novel to your kids or grand kids!

ANDROID EINNA: OUR ONLY CHANCE Issue #1

Escaping Heaven
Pleased to announce I birthed another difficult child! The third in my A.I. Chronicle series.
Each successive novel is harder to write - I start with an outline but that falls apart and I hone again and again the source of the idea to find a story worth telling.
This one finally reached the point of being a story worth sharing on the third draft.
Once released to the world, all I can do is hope the world enjoys my tale.

I'm pleased as purple punch - contracted a great new fast artist for converting my novel Our Only Chance: An A.I. Chronicle, to a graphic one. Here is the heroine Android Einna:

Here is the bad buy, Tagona of the Yakuza:

Issue 1 should be out in October, 2019.
Note the 3rd novel (non-graphic) in the A.I. Chronicles series, a book called 'Escaping Heaven', should be out in August if all goes as planned.

Well as shown in this image of the unfinished first page of the graphic novel version of Our Only Chance, some progress has been made.

Unfortunately both my young illustrators have had personal issues impeding progress , to the point I've thought of teaching myself to draw! If only it were that easy! We'll get it done - but several months away. On the other hand, my 3rd novel in the A.I. Series, Escaping Heaven, with Android Einna and her A.I. gang, is coming along - about 1/3rd done - shooting for Fall 2019 release of that.

From writing mind-blowing SciFi, to metaphysical mysteries, I've now branched out to light romantic comedies:

FOUR MOONS: A Romantic Comedy.
Basically, I needed a break from looking into the perilous future of A.I., so latched onto this idea for a short, funny romp to exotic places in the world with a new protagonist, plucky Patty.
To Cambodia, to Iceland, to India, with her wondering why it never worked out with the hot guys or the cold ones. Could there be a happy in-between for her, a guy not too hot and not too cold?
(The moon tiger cover was drawn by a young artist friend of mine, the one who is illustrating the graphic edition of my SciFi book Our Only Chance.)
Life is a romantic comedy, as well as a tragedy, and a spoof, and a mystery, and a challenge. It is this all encompassing bubble, and when it pops, well, we're the surprise in the middle!

Here is concept art from my first graphic novel in the works, a manga-style comic version of Our Only Chance: An A.I. Chronicle; shows little Android Einna having lunch with her friend Yuriko. I'm working with a young artist originally from Peru named Merly. We bought a Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition tablet for drawing ($400), Clip Studio Paint Pro ($70) for editing on a computer, and are using an old laptop I had laying around from my consulting days as a programmer. Planning on creating 3 issues of about 40 pages each, then combine in a volume as a graphic novel. If all goes as planned, we'll continue converting my other novels and maybe branch out, turning others' novels into graphic ones. Hope to sell on Amazon as well as comiXology. Stay tuned...