2005 Scale Model Project: "Wizard's Retreat": Part 1 of 4 - Conception to Early Production

It's hard to believe that 2005 was ten years ago! That means that over ten years ago, while I was busy attending the University of Southern California to pursue a degree in the Cinematic Arts: Production, I took a class for Art Direction. As our final project (which was worth 50% of our grade), I had to create a quarter-scale miniature model. I was more than a bit ambitious with my model, and I put a ton of work into it, which I enjoyed sharing with my friends over on LiveJournal at the time.  Here's a quick peek at the exterior of the end result!  

 

In 2006 I created a series of three detailed posts which went through each step of the project. Unfortunately, since I was so busy, I never actually posted a final blog sharing the final stage and finished results, so I thought it would be great to post everything over here on my blog for posterity, and to finally create that final blog after ten long years!

As such, I hope you enjoy this flashback onto an early project of mine. While it's not sculpture in a traditional sense, it's projects like this which ignited my imagination and fed my desire to learn and improve, and this project is incredibly close to my heart.

I tended to be rather verbose back in my LiveJournal days (even more so than now, if you'd believe it), so I've shortened and edited some of the original text below from LiveJournal. This will be the first of four blogs about this project, which you can access at the links below. These are the original images I posted, so they're also a bit on the small and blurry side, but there will be some nicer ones in the final blog: promise. :)

• Part 1 - Conception to Early Production
• [Coming Soon] Part 2 - Painting and Refining the Base 
• [Coming Soon] Part 3 - Water, Terrain Details, and the Wizard's Abode. 
• [Coming Soon] Part 4 - Detailing the Wizard's Abode, Furniture, Props, and Final Details

Scale Model Project: "Wizard's Retreat": Part 1 of 4 - Conception to Early Production

In 2005, this project once tied as one of the two creations I was most proud of (the other being my film, "Beauty in the Beast" - More on that sometime), and yet, because of the stress of creating it that year, I never got around to documenting it properly. While his post is very image intensive, I also documented a great deal of my progress all through the way, so it is a fun adventure and labor of love. :)

I went..... overboard with it. One of the big reasons was that I felt it was a very unique opportunity to BUILD something in a manner I never had before. I've painted things, certain, drawn and sculpted things, yes, but I NEVER worked on models, really. So going into it.... I was sort of having to learn it all on my own. 

Now, in film, were you to pitch a concept, you'd usually use a drawing, or at the very most, a matteboard model of a set or somesuch. Going this far into a model... well, that would be if you were going into a job in miniatures, and were wanting to show what your'e capable of. 

For me, I wanted something unique that I'd be able to use to "sell" myself. To show how I could think things out and create based off of a picture I had in my mind. As such, in addition to creating the model (which was supposed to have an interior and exterior), I made sure that I could "film" or peer into it appropriately, and that I could properly plan how I was going to "dress" the set. 

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. :) 

This is all in quarter-scale. That scale is EXTREMELY tiny, and is much, much smaller than, say, doll-house miniatures. How tiny is that?
 

  This is a grain of rice next to a mortar and pestle. So when I'm saying "tiny," I mean it!

I found a nice example of a model I worked on in 2005 ago for a sitcom set. While at this stage it wasn't complete, you can see what a "traditional" set model usually looks like. Only the "built" sections of the set are constructed (not the furniture, for instance). This sitcom set would be used for a three-camera set-up with a live audience, which is why the one side is open and it is staged as it is. Everything, down to molding and door frames, were something I created.

You can even see a staircase by the fireplace (70's style, anyone? :) ), and a bay window and front door. Towards the center is a hallway and kitchen. Everything has dimensions, including the scenery backdrop, so if someone wanted to construct this set, I could swing right into giving the carpenters exact measurements, and they could run with it from there. This was to be the same scale I used for the Wizard's Retreat I was scheming.

Planning Commences on The Wizard's Retreat

The fun began when I started to plan my topic. I wanted to do something unique and very "me," so I decided early on I wanted to do an outdoor environment, kinda nature-y, and at some point I decided I would make a "Wizard's Retreat," which was basically an incredibly large tree in the middle of a forest which a wizard had made into a home.

  

After I decided on a general subject, I sort of... "stewed." I really didn't do that many conceptual sketches, because my mind was busy rolling over the "look" I was aiming for. Since I am apparently desirous of punishment, I decided I should have a river as part of the project, and of course some rolling hills and all that. In retrospect, it seems I was incapable of choosing a simple, reasonable project. It wouldn't be until many years later when I first heard the term "scope creep," but my goodness, that fit this project to a "T."

Here are some of the initial thumbnails I did with a fountain-pen. From early on I'd decided I wanted the staircase to wrap around the trunk and lead up to the front door, and that I wanted a portion of the house to be sort of like an open deck (left side), where the wizard could practice all array of magic or alchemy without setting things on fire. One must always be careful, yes?

So from this early stage I'd established I wanted to have the house situated around/in the tree, and part of it would be extended over the water to be supported by a smaller tree. (This wizard is eco-friendly, after all!). At this point I also planned on there being a second story, which ended up being cut out due to time constraints.

The first sketch I did is in the upper left. Just some overheads of ideas on treehouse/river placement. The one in the fart left also has the bridge over the river idea that I ended up using much later. Then I sketched the one below it, where you can see a sort of side view of things.

The sketch in the lower right was where I went "ooohhh, maybe I can have the stairs start from INSIDE the tree...." I also did some rough calculations on size based on the actual height of an average stair in comparison to how high off the ground I wanted the house to actually be. That helped determine the circumference of the tree trunk when I finally built it. I was surprised how much math and pre-planning went into this sucker!

  

Here is the next sketch I did, which ended up really starting to set the stage for the project. I dubbed the sort of open room the "Globe room" and used this sort of 3/4 view to really start planning in earnest.  I decided on the bridge idea for sure, but I was still working out how to have the stairs start. I liked the idea of an archway, and it seemed like it would work better than the tree-trunk idea because of the angles/head clearance involved.

Anyway, the professor also asked me if this was a shared, or private experience for the wizard, and that really made me think: I mean, how far out was this place? Remote? Did he get visitors often? Foul beasties? Ninjas? That question right there really helped me think things through from a world building perspective.

This is when it started to come together. I decided that instead of an archway, that I'd let one of the tree's huge trunks be a sort of gateway through which the stairs would start. At this point, I'd already decided on that the river would fork together, and that I would try to make a waterfall or two along it as well.

This is a top-down view, and you can sort of see the staircase curving around, and then the front door is around the back of the house. I planned on a bathroom (or bedroom) in the rear, (conveniently by the "Globe Room" ;) ), and the whole area along the bottom of the diagram would be a sort of dining room/additional living space. Then nestled "inside" the tree would be a living room/den with a fireplace that would back into/share a wall with the kitchen stove. At this point there is also an overlay of the second story bedroom/balcony that never came to be, and the indoor stairs that would have led to it.

I'd also planned out where I wanted some trees, and more importantly: I planned out a variety of "break away" walls so that I could take then out at will and shoot into the interior. Neat, huh? :)

Time to Get to Work! 

 

Then I began collecting supplies. At this point I'd guessed this might be a $200 project.... but it ended up being closer to $400 or $600.  I had NO idea what I was in for, but regardless.

First off: I did some research on what to use as a base. I ended up with a certain variety of particle-board (I can't recall the name), and then on top of that, I used a variety of sturdy foam. The thought I had was that this would allow me to sort of "sculpt" the landscape, and also be able to hollow out areas for water/waterfalls. It would also HOPEFULLY be lighter than most of the alternatives I could think up. It was very important to me that the landscape look believable, and making it rolly rather than flat I hoped would aid the illusion.

I also did some research into the width of doorways and the dimensions of my car's trunk to make sure it would fit. I believe the final measurements were around 2 feet by 3 feet wide.

Let me tell you: sculpting that foam is a ~bitch.~ It gets EVERYwhere. It tracks EVERYwhere. This stage was interesting in the perspective I was seeing it coming together, but it was also a great deal of not fun. I think I ended up trying about 3 different types of glue to get things to "hold." Foam putty, foam glue, and a hot glue gun did the final trick. Present day me would have been using a whole lot more epoxy putties instead, but I digress.

Next I used loads and loads of foam and foam "bits" and sculpted them into the basic "form" of the tree. This included the "roots," and since the tree is so huge, I tried to make it look as if the outstretching roots sort of "disrupted" the surrounding landscape. Then I covered it with lots of papermache strips.

This is another angle so you can sort of see where I started to hollow out the riverbed. That was soooo all kinds of not fun. >_> I ended up using a variety of exact-o knives, before I settled on a exact-o saw (that's a real thing) and my all-purpose woodburning/soldering tool, which also comes with a sort of blade attachment that heats up (and cuts through foam sooo nicely, but smells NASTY while it's doing it). In later years I would learn about the existence of heated wire tools and rasps, but this was just the first step of my journey with foam sculpting.

What I remember most about this stage is how I had no idea what I was doing. I wished my class gave us more hard facts, but the professor was big on "self discovery and self failure" whereupon he said we'd learn a lot better. >_>

So, I covered the whole bloody thing in papermache strips, and found that my little idealistic concept of it being all rolly and wonderful was.... not a reality. I ended up having to use bits of foam, glue, rolled-up paper towels, newspaper, more papermache, and even air-dry clay to start to "work" the landscape to be like it was in my mind's eye.

As I continued to sculpt the landscape further, I refined the rolling hills, two waterfalls, and the beginnings of some mountainous/rocky outcroppings.

It was also at this stage I started to put some fibrous instant paper mache material called Celluclay II over the trunk of the tree and roots so I could take a break from the other landscape, and reassure myself this was going to work see how it would look. I tried to keep the consistency rough and textured, since this tree is supposed to be huge in comparison to the surrounding landscape. This is yet another time where I wish present me could talk to past me and go "No no! Don't use the water soluble clay! Use two-part epoxies instead!" Ah well!

You can see some of the "trails" of roots I laid out here, as well as the opening through which I planned to start the staircase. For comparison's sake, that opening under the root on the left would be something like 10 feet high. So that is one big tree. And you can also tell by lack of treehouse, that I planned to work that as a separate stage. This is sort of the "underlying" landscape/base, and on top of that I built up various textures.

Front view. You can see a texture/sculpture tool (in yellow) there too, in my beloved tupperware cup of water. There are some rock faces I started on the left side there, and you can even see the little "root cave" to the right of the waterfall.

This is a close-up of one of the rock-faces I worked at. Some of these sorts of things were done by a sort of plaster/latex/rubber mold-making process, and other parts were done entirely from scratch. Then I had to use more paper mache and such to try to get it to work into the landscape I'd already sculpted. Neat though, huh? :)

This is a photo from a different angle. You can see more of the rock faces/sculpting here, as well as some debris I put in the riverbed. Also: you can see the waterfalls and where the water on the top level converges.

I did more root work (especially on the river side), and I also decided to toy with the root that would start the staircase, because I wanted it to look like it was a natural arc. I remember being pleased by how the mounds and such were shaping up.

Many......... MANY hours of work later, I felt the "base" of this was approaching completion and I let it air dry.

Side view. More rock work and environmental sculpting. I had to make sure that as I was making the roots, they wouldn't obstruct the future staircase.

Another view! You can see the root archway very clearly from this angle as well as the root-cave and waterfall areas. I wanted to make sure that the landforms were very fluid so that there wasn't a sudden drop-off where the foam ended.

 

And these are close-ups of the rocks. I tried to imagine this tree's massive roots had broken up the land from how it once was, and I played with the idea of how the area might have evolved over time.

...You'd be amazed how LONG it took to get all these lumps of various shapes/sizes consistencies! I decided to have the rock face exposed mostly on one side, but that earth and such had settled over top of it in time. This tree has been around awhile, after all. ;)

 

So just think that opening is about 10 "feet" high. I'd LOVE to stumble on a tree like this in reality!

These photos show the the lay of the roots, land, and future water areas well. This part of the process was quite time-consuming, but it was an important part of laying the groundwork for what was to come.

Next up was painting the base, which I'll cover in the next blog about this project!

Sculpture: "Friendship," Cindy's Burrocorn, and a Yak Photoshoot

During my dear friend Cindy Reep's nine glorious, adventure-filled day visit, we both worked on some sculptures using a new type of air dry clay I wanted to test out. I opted to take a dragon route. ;)

Sculpture: "Friendship"

'Friendship' - Dragon Sculpture - Completed on October 31, 2015

I call this sculpture "Friendship," on account of the little kingfisher on the dragoness's outstretched paw/hand. :) I'm really pleased with how it turned out considering how (relatively) quick a project she was! Trying to get her to balance on one paw was quite the challenge! 

This sculpture was made with an aluminum armature, Fixit Sculpt, Air Dry Clay, Swarovski crystals, acrylic paint, Pearl Ex pigments, and various varnishes.

I hope you enjoy my graceful little dragoness! I'm considering listing her for sale to help with some medical bills as well. We shall see! For WIP photos of this and other projects, please keep an eye on my Twitter!

Size: 7.75 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches

Time Taken: Approximately 12 hours total.

 

 

Cindy's "The Burrocorn in Her Winter Coat"
 

Cindy's creation was even more enchanting! Here's her description of her regal burrocorn:

"The Burrocorn in Her Winter Coat" - by Cindy Reep

"Wire armature, Apoxie sculpt, air-dry clay, steel bearings, translucent Premo, acrylic. October 2015. About 5" tall. 

This year's (single-year!) art project while out visiting Kymba ... some of the folks we visited have wild burros that occasionally show up in the neighborhood, and of course with us, they can't be just burros. There had to be burrocorns! This was also our first time working with this particular type of air-clay, and the texture was quite unique. I had trouble getting it to smooth, so I decided to texture the heck out of it and joked that she was extra fluffy for the winter. Her horn and hooves are translucent Premo, and the Apoxie sculpt was only used to hold the armature wire in place.

She's quite proud of herself, but she misses her dragon friend that took shape alongside her!"

The Friendship and the Burrocorn Together and the Yaks
 

Before Cindy headed back home, we took some photos of our yaks together as well as the two tiny sculptures above. To be fair, her photos were far, far superior to mine, so she's the photographer for these. ;) We hope you enjoy them!

You can read more about the walkthrough for my yak, Butterscotch, here.

 

 

 

 

I look forward to when I see Cindy next time so we can continue our creative shenanigans. :D


Stay crafty, my friends, and thanks for reading!

Join Us for Crafty Secret Santa 2015!

Edit: Registration has now been closed.


This year I've decided to organize a Secret Santa with a special twist: please join us in a holiday gift exchange of crafty proportions, where all you need to spare is four hours of your time to surprise another artful individual with an original creation this holiday season!  Individuals of all skill levels are welcome to join and take part in the festivities!

What is Crafty Secret Santa?

By filling out the Crafty Secret Santa registration form, you agree to take part in a fun holiday experience where you and other creative individuals will be randomly matched in a Crafty Secret Santa experience! Participants should not purchase premade gifts for their Secret Santa, but rather, you should put on your crafty holiday hats and spend a minimum of four hours making your Secret Santa something special using the answers in their match's form.

How to Register

I’ve put together a Google Form for the Crafty Secret Santa 2015 project. If you’re interested in joining us for some festive holiday gift-making, please swing on by and register!  

In order to deter bots, you will need to create or log in with a Google account in order to view the form, which also allows you to edit your answers later if you like.  Below are images of the short, two-page form so you can check it out and see if you're interested in joining us prior to logging in!

I've kept the questions very short and simple so that everyone should be able to fill in the details with the imagination and that the information will be helpful to you, regardless of if you crochet, sculpt, draw, bead, sew, make ornaments, paint, or anything else!  I'll be participating as well, of course! :)

If you notice any issues when using the form or have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to let me know! -> Register Here

What the Registration Form Looks Like

 

Important Dates and Deadlines

• Registration runs through November 22nd, 2015. 
• You will receive your match on or before November 25th, 2015. The sooner you register, the sooner you get your match! Registration may end early if capacity is reached before November 25th, 2015.
• Please complete your project and mail it out to your recipient by December 15th, 2015.

If for any reason you need to back out from the exchange, please let the organizer know so that they can make alternative arrangements. 

Individuals who do not complete their end of the exchange will be barred from future exchanges. 

Costs and Expectations

Since you are not expected to buy your Crafty Secret Santa a premade gift, the only financial cost to participate will be to cover shipping and handling to mail your gift to your Secret Santa. You can create your gift using any creative materials you already own if you like! You just need to spend four or more hours on whatever you're creating. The sky's the limit beyond that!

When you receive your gift from your Crafty Secret Santa, we ask that you please take the time to take a photo and a thank you message if you have one so that we can share it with your Crafty Secret Santa and other participants.  Please email your photos and messages to kimberly.lecrone@gmail.com

Your personal email address will not be shared with your Crafty Secret Santa nor posted publicly. Your mailing address will only be shared with your Crafty Secret Santa for mailing purposes.

Questions? Feedback?

If you have any questions, please email me at kimberly.lecrone@gmail.com.

I hope you'll join us for this fun holiday activity!

Many New Sketches and a Fantasy Commission

It's been a busy last few months, and I figured I'd take some time to work to get this blog updated with some of my recent projects.

Assorted Sketches

 

  

Over the last months, a few sketches have snuck into my sketchbook, including some studies from life involving objects and animals, as well as some odder critters, including my fantasy loirin (lion/kirin) above, as well as a demon pig I drew during this year's 2015 BlizzCon Sketch Group! I'm on the home-stretch to finishing a sketchbook too, which is always a welcome feeling!

(Incomplete) 30-Day Story Sketch Challenge

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 1: The Flower

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 2: Protection

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 3: Glimpse of the White Forest

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 4: Whitepaw

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 5: Helpless

Back in July I also told myself I would undertake a self-imposed 30-day challenge to sketch something from the worlds of my stories every day for thirty days. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the challenge at the time, but I'm hoping to dip my toes back in and complete it soon.

I'm hoping it will be a good opportunity to help nudge me to not only work on content surrounding my stories more often, but to be willing to work on a broader range of subjects.  You can see the five sketches I completed in July above! I'm particularly pleased with the second one with the wolf and girl.

Tugrik ACEO Commission
 

Tugrik ACEO Commission

  

I've been busy with a few commissions recently, and here's one of my recent ones! I had a ton of fun illustrating this character and cramming in as much detail I could at the scale I was working with. The final piece is a mere 3.5 x 2.5 inches: the size of a business card!

Continuing to Find Calmness
 

My Native American fetishes, gemstones, feathers, and more.

It's been a grueling last few months, but I'm so excited to have some time again to work on personal projects, and I'm excited to see what the next few months will hold! I'm eager to see what I can accomplish in the remainder of 2015 and onto 2016!

I hope all of you have a great week!

Onward to New Opportunities within Blizzard and BlizzCon 2015

 Onward to New Opportunities within Blizzard

It's been an incredibly busy year, and among the plethora of activity during 2015, I accepted an exciting new position at Blizzard as a Media Artist within Story and Franchise Development (formerly known as Cinematics) and Video and Post Production, which I started in early June. At the time I was also supporting the launch of Heroes of the Storm while I slowly transitioned away from my various Community Manager responsibilities behind-the-scenes.

I made this announcement official back in August with this goodbye post on the official Heroes of the Storm forums, and I wanted to share it here as well:

ONWARD TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN BLIZZARD 

For over six years I’ve served on Blizzard’s Community Team, and together we’ve shared many adventures across the sprawling realms of Azeroth, Sanctuary, the Nexus, and more. From Diablo III design discussions to Warcraft fan art features and contests, I’ve enjoyed connecting with so many of you online and in person at conventions, but alas: my time working in community is coming to an end as I explore new opportunities within Blizzard. 

I’ve loved community work and all its intricacies for many years, way back even when I was making World of Warcraft PvP videos, blogs, and fan art in my spare time, and being ingrained on Blizzard’s Community Team has been a wildly fulfilling ride on so many levels. So it was only after a lot of profound soul-searching these last few months that I came to realize that what I was craving was to move in a more artistic direction professionally, which would ultimately take me away from the Community Team and onto the creative powerhouse known as Story and Franchise Development, which houses Video and Post Production, Blizzard Animation, Visual Media, Creative Development, and more.

On one hand, I couldn’t be happier for this opportunity, but on the other, it is with a bittersweet heart that I will have to step back from the usual Community Manager duties, blue text, and flavorful Twitter Takeovers. But fear not: I won’t be far! :)

I know I’ve said it many times over the years, but I wanted to thank all of you for your passion for all things Blizzard, and for continuing to offer your insight and feedback so that we can make the best games and community we possibly can. It has been an absolutely wonderful journey thus far, and I’m excited to see what the future will bring with so many developments on the horizon.

Be kind to each other, keep in touch, and I’ll see you at BlizzCon!

<3,

-Kimberly “Vaeflare” LeCrone

P.S. – Velociraptors are still the best dinosaurs.

You can read my goodbye post here on the official Heroes of the Storm forums

My time spent in my new position been absolutely wonderful. I adore my new team and my responsibilities, and I relish the opportunity to be creative in my day-to-day. :) I can definitely tell you that after over six years as a Community Manager with Blizzard, it was a welcome change to step into a full-time artistic role once again, and I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity to switch careers (of a sort), and yet still stay within the same company I know and love.

It was super exciting to see my name in a new section of the credits for StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void as well!

BlizzCon 2015
 

Nearly every year, my employer (Blizzard Entertainment) puts on a massive two-day convention celebrating all things Blizzard. It's a fantastic spectacle to see, and it's been wonderful to spend time connecting with players from around the world (I believe something like 25,000 people are in attendance: wow!). You can find out more about BlizzCon here, and if you're unfamiliar with Blizzard Entertainment, you can find out about them here.

This year's BlizzCon was a little different for me, however. Whereas I used to have one set of diverse responsibilities for BlizzCon as a Community Manager representing one or more franchises, instead this year I had the incredible opportunity to see some of the many projects my new team and I have been collaborating on up on the big screen during the opening ceremony and during panels: crazy! You can watch the action-packed opening ceremony here:

Congrats to everyone involved in making BlizzCon 2015 a jam-packed success! Now it's time for me to watch the VODs of all the panels I missed... ;)

Did you tune in for BlizzCon? If so, what was your favorite announcement?

[Video Walkthrough] “Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Writerly Update and Unfinished Projects

I've been doing a lot of writing lately. Specifically, I got to a point in one of my stories that I realized it would be best to return to an outline state so I could better evaluate it as a whole before moving back into writing prose. So far, so good! I recently considered what I'm calling the first draft of the third version outline of "The Apprentice of Rook," and I'm really excited to share more about it as progress continues. :) View all blog posts labeled "The Apprentice of Rook."

Along these lines, I've been trying to better balance work and my personal projects, and so I'm doing a fair bit of writing and art on a weekly basis, and it's working wonderfully so far! I've been relieved that "Butterscotch" the World of Warcraft fan art yak is finally complete, and as I was sorting through files this week, I was thinking about all the other outstanding projects I have laying around, and something reminded me of one such project I'd started in ZBrush last year, but hadn't finished off.

“Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Above is a short video compilation of the recent ZBrush sculpture I completed, which includes a process walkthrough, turnaround, and stills. You can also access it directly through YouTube here. Make sure to view it at 1080p HD!

For most if not all projects I'd done previously through ZBrush, I'd eventually had to stop keeping the history of each step, because after a certain point the files get completely unmanageable in terms of sheer file size. This particular project ended up being a rare exception, because I had the entire history of it saved, right from his humble origins as a simple sphere. :) So if you want to "watch" how I sculpt, definitely check out the video above!

Information About the Finished Sculpture

 

“Dragon Mage Sculpture” – ZBrush Sculpture and Photoshop - Started on August 5th, 2014, Completed on August 22, 2015

Further Information available on DeviantArt.com: http://fav.me/d96ok6t

I consider it a sort of detailed sketch of one of the races from my story that I hope to get to one day. Another one is seen below, and there's even a walkthrough for this illustration here if you're interested:

As far as ZBrush projects go, this one was poorly planned and so I didn't have enough resolution to fully detail him, but that's okay. It was a great learning experience and exercise, and I'm particularly proud of the "ear" area.

Time Taken: Approximately 3 sessions spanning 10 hours total.

I hoped you enjoyed this blog and are having a productive weekend!

Current Story Status

Over the years I've completed over thirteen unpublished short stories and novellas about my characters and their world, and I'm currently working on a number of entirely new stories which I am intending to publish once they are complete.

All of these stories are set within a shared fantasy/steam-punk universe, and follow an assortment of diverse characters that are very close to my heart. At this point in time, I am working towards completing the premiere novel of what is intended to be an eight book series.

***** 

Book One: "The Wolf and the Clockwork Hummingbird" (Novel)
 

 

Brief:  Vargas spent his childhood immersed in tales of adventures that were a far cry from his parent's modest book shop, but when a visit to the city of Rook ends in tragedy, Vargas and his unlikely allies must uncover what secrets lie in the underbelly of the dangerous and fantastical city of Rook.
Main Characters: Vargas, Turvey, Mechanical Hummingbird, and many more
Status: Originally written as an unreleased short story, this piece is being rebooted as the first novel in an expanded series. The novel is currently in its first draft of it's fourth version. View all blog posts labeled "The Apprentice of Rook."

*****