www.nathanschreiber.com

A monster called Power Out

SO, a little while ago I was told to STOP working on Power Out. I needed to reassess, rewrite, and edit what I already had, and then the book would be much easier to bring to publishers. I did exactly that, even got an editor to go through Power Out and make it more structurally sound. I have to say, I was very happy with the results: the characters, the story, the tension, it all just worked together better.

The elderly neighbor is a MUCH better character in the rewrite

But then something bad happened: despite the re-writes, Power Out still hasn't found a publisher. I haven't brought it everywhere, but it's got rejected from enough places that I've decided to stop shopping it around until it's finished - a project ready-to-go, naturally, is an easier sell than something that needs more work, and as Power Out is largely silent at parts, it leans on the artwork more than other stories.

Power Out is quiet

Piece of cake right? Problem is, there are around 120 pages to work on - most of those are new pages, but there's a significant chunk of work to be done inserting / replacing pages in earlier chapters. This is a lot of work.

I'm trying to get everything done by SPX in September, but perhaps that's optimistic. It's also quite a slog to produce this work knowing there may be no home for it, that I might not make a dime off of it, and that I'm going to continue to live off the hospitality of my family - right now I'm living with my sister in Santa Fe, and I'm likely to move back to Massachusetts soon.

I have to finish this book. I know my sense of self will suffer some pretty irreparable damage if I don't. But it's a long, uphill slog. It takes me a full day, like, a twelve hour full day, to draw, ink, letter, scan, and color one page. There's 120 to go...

I'm trying to move forward - my plan is to update Power Out once a week, continuing with the story from where I left off in chapter 3. After completing the third chapter, I will split my time between moving forward with the fourth (and final....final!) chapter and going back redoing pages from the earlier chapters (mainly the first).

That means I'm doing the third and fourth chapters built on a foundation that I haven't shown to readers yet. So, some things might seem a little weird or confusing. Feel free to ask me if you have specific questions, but I don't want to write "spoilers" here.

Who's this chick?

I'm hoping the regular updates will get me on a better schedule with people who read (and maybe enjoy) Power Out and add some extra motivation to finish the work - I don't live in New York anymore, so I'm pretty isolated. I really do appreciate the comments people leave on the book (even when they nitpick:) ).

I'll be starting a kickstarter project soon to self-publish the next volume - I hope you will contribute. I'll have more information on that soon.

Hope this doesn't sound too bleak - a friend reminded me that about a year ago I was winning and being nominated for awards left and right, so luck changes pretty fast. And as my brother has told me, all you need is one piece of good news. I'm working on a new kid's pitch (after the last one got rejected, and the new ones I've been working on haven't really captured my imagination), and when I describe it to people, they not only instantly "get it" but seem to have real enthusiasm for it. Will publishers? Hope springs eternal...