R.R. Surbier's Blog

A detail from the new header art

the house in Wonderland… (as drawn by artist Nick Collom)

Hatton manor

 

if you want a closer look here’s the floor plans I made while writing book 2 (still in progress) Wonder in the prime…

The beginning of a Wonderful collaboration

While I work on the second edition of Madness and Wonder, I’m also starting to work on a collaboration with a very talented artist Nick Collom. But before we start making a superhero web comic together (soon to be the Northern Lights Academy web comic featured here), he has agreed to do some Wonder art for me. The first bit is this gorgeous wonderland scene right out of the book to use as the website header. I’m so excited by it that I needed to put up the black and white before it’s even colored. (Here’s the black and white in case this post is being read after I get the colored version up.)

Original art by Nick Collom 2018 of a scene in Madness and Wonder

Technical difficulties and a reboot

So… This site had some serious technical difficulties recently and the last backup was both from February and didn’t back up a bunch of stuff, including the media files.

The meme stash page was hardest hit and it wasn’t worth re-posting the 62 memes from February 28th, 2016 to August 20, 2018. Some of the other pages and posts have been lost, but all that could be have been fixed. (and maybe even made better

Madness and Wonder giveaway at C2E2

A copy of Madness and Wonder will be given away this weekend at C2E2, a convention in Chicago. The book will be given away at Da Sorce’s booth, adjacent to the stage, in the dealer’s hall. If you’ll be at the con and would like a chance at a free copy, check it out. They’ll also be handing out postcards featuring some of my original Rosie and Hatter art. I’m excited for the exposure and hope it will bring me some new readers.

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Hatter & Rosie

I’ve been doing a good amount of Madness and Wonder art to go along with my weekly book quote memes, but one piece played with my imagination a little more so I did some coloring work and made it the backdrop for some promotional postcards and a new buisness card. I’m particularly happy with how the piece came out in both the full Technicolor Wonderland version and the muted green background I decided was best to carry information.

So, I thought I’d post all my art in one post so people can enjoy it (hopefully as much as you all enjoy the book and characters that inspired them).

 

 

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Wonder-full art

I commissioned some Hatter & Rosie art for my weekly Madness and Wonder book quote memes, and got a couple nice portrait sketches of the characters before getting a pose of the couple together (which I don’t have yet). I’ve used them both in the meme quotes, but realized that people might want to see the artist, Julie Lindsey’s, sketches sans words.

So here are her takes on Rosie and Hatter:

Rosie

Hatter

They’re both beautiful, but I really think she nailed how Rosie looks in my mind’s eye.

Tonight, I picked a quote for this week’s meme, & nothing I had really worked, so I pulled out my own pencil and did a sketch of my own. I’m not a professional artist, but I’m pretty happy with Hatter’s intense eyes peeking through his tousled hair (hair itself, not so much, but happy with the eyes), hope you all like him too:

 

Edit: did a few more of my own original art pieces for the meme stash, & here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as a note, all of these drawings are art & cannot be shared (except by sharing this blog page) or reproduced without permission. Thanks for respecting that.

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A little dark inspiration

I often have music on when I write, I have a couple different playlist depending on the kind of scene, but I’ve had the song Heathens by twenty one pilots stuck in my head a lot the last few days, and it’s definitely attaching itself to a dark favorite character thats been pushing at my subconcious a lot lately. (No details, I wouldn’t want to give you spoilers before the second book is done.) I’m seriously debating a bit of a rewrite to give him access to stalk the halls of Hatton mannor before being found… but Hatter is much too talented to let anyone on the grounds without him knowing, so that dark moment may never find its way onto my pages afterall. Perhaps it will have to become a later meeting with the child of the Greenman, to see his darker powers… yea, music really plays nicely with my imagination when writing.

It’s been a while

It’s been a while since I put up a new post, as I’ve been trying to focus more on creating than blogging. I have been posting quotes from Madness and Wonder on a loose weekly schedule for about 8 months on Facebook & Twitter, collected here in the meme stash, but I haven’t felt inspired to share any creative process kind of thoughts for a while. But today I’m feeling pretty optimistic, because my memes will be getting an art upgrade soon. I’ve been talking with a talented artist about making me some more professional backgrounds for the weekly meme quotes. Can’t wait to see what she makes. If they are as awesome as I hope you guys will see them soon too. Maybe the new art will help to catch the right people’s attention & find me the audience I know is out there looking for this series.

Until then (and after then), I’ll keep plugging away at book two, Wonder in the Prime.

Hoping for a little Wonderland synergy

Madness and Wonder is not an Alice in Wonderland story. It does spend time in a world called Wonderland, and our Hero is a character who calls himself Hatter, but this wonderland is not so campily exaggerated and not intended as family entertainment. In Madness and Wonder, Wonderland is just one of infinite worlds created by humanities collective dreams and imaginings, though it is our Hatter’s favorite world. In dreams, stories and fairy tails mingle with darker desires, and Rosie and Hatter fall in love traveling in these worlds. The stories of the new movie and my book are very different, but with a common Wonderland thread.

It was because of this common setting, that I was hoping the new movie would get grown ups wondering. Thinking about if there was a take on wonderland for adult palates, and that they might find my book. It’s still is a hope, but not as strong a hope as if the ‘through the looking glass’ movie got better reviews. If the movie did better, it might have inspired more Wonderland searches where Madness and Wonder might be found.

So, I guess I’ll just have to keep sharing Madness and Wonder Quotes as memes, and hope those find their way to my readers without a Wonderland synergy bonus.

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A new 5 star review of Madness and Wonder

I did a Madness and Wonder book giveaway on Goodreads a while ago & got my first review from that giveaway not too long ago. Happily it was another 5 star review, like the two on Amazon, but my first on Goodreads. I’m still hoping others will review the book and help me find more of my audience.

I also continue to post weekly meme Quotes from Madness and Wonder to my Facebook page and Twitter feed. If you’d like to see them all together check out my meme stash here.

I keep thinking about posting more about my work on book 2 Wonder in the Prime, but I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. I can say it is in progress and I’m looking forward to it being enjoyed too When it’s done.

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