First, though it’s been over a month, some big things have happened in that time (it’s just been a little difficult to catch up everyone on every platform I have). Both my novella, Robert Phillips, and my semi-autobiographical art and writing collection, J. M. DeSantis: The First Ten Years are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. That’s added to the release of And They Call it Mummy Love (on ComiXology and IndyPlanet), and the forthcoming The Tainted Ones comic, and it’s only May.

I’ve been putting off a new blog post until there was something more significant to announce—specifically the publication of my collection, J. M. DeSantis: The First Ten Years—but the book is being held up on the printer’s end, and I’m currently working on two other books to complete for the following months. So rather than another month go by without any word, I figured an update would at least be worth while.

“And with strange aeons, even death may die”
H. P. Lovecraft
from The Nameless City

Happy New Year, Everyone!

     A year in which I’m returning to Lovecraft Country a full decade since my first Lovecraft fiction was published in Planet Lovecraft Magazine. New books, comics, and art are coming, including Gentleman Cthulhu (gentlemancthulhu.com), and, unrelated to Lovecraft, a return to Chadhiyana.

     I wrote about my plans at length in a two-part blog post at the end of last year, so I’m going to keep this brief. (Though you’re free to read those verbose posts.)

(if you have not yet, read the first part here)

What can I say about the year to come? Over the past few months the projects which have developed and come together for next year have unwittingly and almost completely developed into a theme for 2019. Because of the pattern and potential I saw, and the number of projects that have come together all at once, I laid out a plan—a fairly specific one—for next year. Included in that plan are Chadhiyana, Gentleman Cthulhu, Dark Fire Press and some very valuable and exciting changes to my Patreon.

I’ll be perfectly honest. 2018 did not turn out quite the way I planned. I wouldn’t say it was a bad year(how could I?), but it was full of surprises, twists, and it was certainly another year of change and growth (more than 2017). In the second half, I made some definitive changes that gave me intense focus and renewed energies, and in this, for the first time ever, I really wrote out a full, detailed and realistic plan for the end of this year and all of 2019.

     The thing is, and as has been developing for a long time, I’ve grown weary of writing in such minute detail about my work. In many respects, I feel it’s been a disservice to it. I think I believed it was a great way to promote my work, but now I feel more like the magician who tells you the trick he’s about to perform or who explains the magic after. The spell is broken. I’m highly analytical, detail-oriented, and thorough, so being succinct can be difficult for me.

Happy National Novel Writing Month, everyone!

If you’re a writer and participating, I hope the start of this month is going well. If not, well, I hope it’s a good month all the same. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I’ve decided to cut down on my blog posts for a while. I’m only posting once a month as I focus my efforts on more creative output. Again, I may occasionally post an extra blog piece or two on a topic I feel like writing about, but I feel I want to move away from writing about behind-the-scenes information as much, unless it’s necessary. And as it happens, there are a few updates I feel are necessary to dive into this month.  (Read more…)

The votes are in for my Inktober 2019 theme! However, before I begin, I have to give a heartfelt thank you to all of the fans and staff at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend for helping make this yet another successful year. As I said last week, I’ll be cutting down on (and essentially taking off from) conventions for a year or so, unless I’m a guest, such as at the No Such Con in the winter. Yet the response to my work was so warm, I couldn’t help but make an exception for Baltimore.  (Read more…)

I’ve been absent a while (at least on this blog), but not gone entirely. There are a few things I’ve had to attend to personally and a number of things developing behind the scenes (which my Patreon supporters had a full update about yesterday). But there’s no time to lose on explanations. Baltimore Comic-Con is nigh (I’ll be there all three days), Inktober lurks around the corner, and NaNoWriMo looms in the distance.  (Read more…)

I’m famous! I’m a genius! And I’m rich!

You read that right! I’m a rich and famous genius. These aren’t my words. No, I’m just quoting from two different sources sources. How reliable they are, well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.  (Read more…)

I’m certain there are many people who believe Chadhiyana is just another half-finished comic project, abandoned indefinitely by its creator (as is too common an occurrence with indie-comic). Yet despite her relative public absence (except for some social media posts), the Chadhiyana series is not abandoned and is far from complete. From Chadhiyana’s near-instantaneous conception, I felt compelled to tell her story, and there’s never been a project or character more important to me (as I’ve often said). Though I realise that may come off as strange considering the hiatus I’ve seemingly taken from Chadhiyana, so I’m here to set a few things straight and offer some hope and information to the Chadhiyana fanbase.  (Read more…)