Ian Wilson's Blog: Stories are Everywhere
August 23, 2021
SubscribeStar, Accordion Worms, and Second Drafts
Good morning (at least I hope so) and welcome to another slice of madness.
First, some exciting news. To help meet the financial needs of my various ventures, I’ve opened an account on SubscribeStar. For only $5 a month, you can help me keep new content flowing, and gain access to exclusive artwork and stories found nowhere else on the internet! Head over to my page and subscribe today!
Someone asked me for more news from my gardening endeavors, so here it is. I found out yesterday that one of my sunflowers had accordion worms. Accordion worms (they’re technically called stem borers, but that’s less fun) are the larval form of the yellow longhorn beetle. They’ll eat the middle of the stem and weaken the plant before you even know what’s wrong. The poor thing was bent over on the ground. So far it’s the only one, which is a blessing. Normally those little bugs will take out a whole patch.
The lettuce and carrots are looking rather lush, especially considering the rough year they had. I’ve been watching them like a hawk. Oddly, I haven’t seen the rabbits in weeks; perhaps my neighbor did us a favor and had them disposed of. That would be nice. Everyone says “oh bunnies! They’re so cute!” Meanwhile, I’m growling “demon tribbles” under my breath.
This past weekend, after a marathon of writing, I completed the second draft of THE TOWER OF EMRYS. It was an uphill battle, as usual, but I did it. Now I just need to hear back from the beta readers before moving on to another round of editing, then another round of betas, and then more editing, and the final draft will emerge from the flames of my burning story.
After some conversations with a friend, I am taking THE SWORD OF EMRYS off the shelf once again. All the plot points will remain the same; however, I am changing significant portions of the dialogue and narration to make it flow better. So keep your eyes peeled for a second edition!
In the meantime, please enjoy this latest installment of LEGEND OF THE SWORD BEARER. I’ll be uploading new episodes to Webtoon every Wednesday morning for you good people.
Well, that’s all for today. Have a great week, and please consider supporting me on SuscribeStar, and share my content with your friends.
To have these updates sent direction to your email, go to https://legendsandsongs.weebly.com/ and fill out the form to subscribe.
First, some exciting news. To help meet the financial needs of my various ventures, I’ve opened an account on SubscribeStar. For only $5 a month, you can help me keep new content flowing, and gain access to exclusive artwork and stories found nowhere else on the internet! Head over to my page and subscribe today!
Someone asked me for more news from my gardening endeavors, so here it is. I found out yesterday that one of my sunflowers had accordion worms. Accordion worms (they’re technically called stem borers, but that’s less fun) are the larval form of the yellow longhorn beetle. They’ll eat the middle of the stem and weaken the plant before you even know what’s wrong. The poor thing was bent over on the ground. So far it’s the only one, which is a blessing. Normally those little bugs will take out a whole patch.
The lettuce and carrots are looking rather lush, especially considering the rough year they had. I’ve been watching them like a hawk. Oddly, I haven’t seen the rabbits in weeks; perhaps my neighbor did us a favor and had them disposed of. That would be nice. Everyone says “oh bunnies! They’re so cute!” Meanwhile, I’m growling “demon tribbles” under my breath.
This past weekend, after a marathon of writing, I completed the second draft of THE TOWER OF EMRYS. It was an uphill battle, as usual, but I did it. Now I just need to hear back from the beta readers before moving on to another round of editing, then another round of betas, and then more editing, and the final draft will emerge from the flames of my burning story.
After some conversations with a friend, I am taking THE SWORD OF EMRYS off the shelf once again. All the plot points will remain the same; however, I am changing significant portions of the dialogue and narration to make it flow better. So keep your eyes peeled for a second edition!
In the meantime, please enjoy this latest installment of LEGEND OF THE SWORD BEARER. I’ll be uploading new episodes to Webtoon every Wednesday morning for you good people.
Well, that’s all for today. Have a great week, and please consider supporting me on SuscribeStar, and share my content with your friends.
To have these updates sent direction to your email, go to https://legendsandsongs.weebly.com/ and fill out the form to subscribe.
June 3, 2020
A Confession
There are basically two kinds of people in the world; those who read books from a young age, and those who don't (read in a Clint Eastwood voice). I was the latter. Yes, it's strange to admit as a writer, I was a non-reader as a lad.
You see, I was very high energy as a kid. It was a chore for my mother to get me to sit still for any length of time. Had I not been homeschooled, there is an 89% chance I would have been pronounced ADHD (bear in mind that all statistics mentioned in any and all blogs of mine are of a purely speculative nature). Learning to read meant I had to sit still. It took time away from doing things that I actually liked, like drawing, playing with legos, or sticks, or amphibians. My mother had to practically tie me down to get me to read or write anything. Not to mention the reading curricula available to homeschooling families at the time were distressingly dull and old fashioned.
Basically, in order for a book to hold my attention, it had to have some action to it. This is still mostly true. I can't tell you the number of books I've never finished simply because I got bored. The books that did fascinate me as a young kid were The Hobbit, Norse Myths, Greek Myths (highly edited ones, if you know where I'm going) and comics like Tintin. I'll never forget the first time they gave me a Tintin book. I devoured it, and I never devour books. Granted it was a comic, but this was still a feat if you'd known me as a boy.
The people that don't read early on kind of get a bad rap, if you ask me. The ones that read at the age of three or something are the ones that are remembered (partly because that's remarkable). Though I must admit, I sometimes get the impression that early readers look down on us late readers. Many writers, I might even say most writers, boast of having read early, so non-readers like myself are sort of like outsiders. I get it. I don't fit the norm for an author. But I'm here to tell you late-readers out there, it's OK. It's OK that you preferred movies to books when you were younger. It's OK that you still take a lot of time to read stuff. This is all OK. Because guess what? Some of the best stories were not written down until long after they were first told. Telling stories is a vital part of human experience; writing them down is a relatively recent phenomenon in the grand scheme of things.
You see, I was very high energy as a kid. It was a chore for my mother to get me to sit still for any length of time. Had I not been homeschooled, there is an 89% chance I would have been pronounced ADHD (bear in mind that all statistics mentioned in any and all blogs of mine are of a purely speculative nature). Learning to read meant I had to sit still. It took time away from doing things that I actually liked, like drawing, playing with legos, or sticks, or amphibians. My mother had to practically tie me down to get me to read or write anything. Not to mention the reading curricula available to homeschooling families at the time were distressingly dull and old fashioned.
Basically, in order for a book to hold my attention, it had to have some action to it. This is still mostly true. I can't tell you the number of books I've never finished simply because I got bored. The books that did fascinate me as a young kid were The Hobbit, Norse Myths, Greek Myths (highly edited ones, if you know where I'm going) and comics like Tintin. I'll never forget the first time they gave me a Tintin book. I devoured it, and I never devour books. Granted it was a comic, but this was still a feat if you'd known me as a boy.
The people that don't read early on kind of get a bad rap, if you ask me. The ones that read at the age of three or something are the ones that are remembered (partly because that's remarkable). Though I must admit, I sometimes get the impression that early readers look down on us late readers. Many writers, I might even say most writers, boast of having read early, so non-readers like myself are sort of like outsiders. I get it. I don't fit the norm for an author. But I'm here to tell you late-readers out there, it's OK. It's OK that you preferred movies to books when you were younger. It's OK that you still take a lot of time to read stuff. This is all OK. Because guess what? Some of the best stories were not written down until long after they were first told. Telling stories is a vital part of human experience; writing them down is a relatively recent phenomenon in the grand scheme of things.
August 19, 2019
The Life and Times of an Eccentric Comic Artist
I've decided to start chronicling my misadventures as an artist and writer. I'm not exactly sure where I should begin; should it begin at birth, or should I just skip to where I started writing Legend of the Sword Bearer? I'll start by saying I've been drawing as long as I can remember. My big dream was to work as an animator for Disney. Well, that didn't happen, obviously. It turned out for the best, though, seeing as I'd be unemployed by now anyway.
I've loved comics and sequential art since the day my mother put my first copy of Tintin in my hands. I loved those comics. I've had stories and characters ever since I was a little kid. My sister and I would pretend to be, or interact with those characters. Eventually, I started writing these things down, and then they became my first experiments with comics.
I was interested in superheroes at first. Most of my characters were superheroes, and the earliest comics I wrote were about a team of superheroes. Most of these I never actually drew, and thank goodness I didn't, because honestly most of them were pretty terrible. I still have a lot of those underdeveloped superhero scrips on my drive, but I've put them away for the time being. But don't go away! This is important.
I had a team of superheroes from all over the globe. Everywhere except Britain, that is. I wanted a British superhero, but I was banging my head against the wall for ideas. Then, something changed. I saw in my mind a kilted Scottish man with a sword. I knew that was my next character; the Sword Bearer.
But I ran into trouble. You see, all fictional worlds have rules, and the character I had developed didn't follow the rules of the world I made. My superhero world was a world of terrorists, corrupt politicians, and secret societies; not giants and dragons. I couldn't tell the stories I wanted to tell with the Sword Bearer in the world I had built! So I made a new world.
Nowadays, you can publish just about anything online for free, or nearly free. This has opened up a whole new universe of opportunities for comic artists like myself. The indie webcomic movement has exploded over the past several years. I discovered this fact several years ago and it blew my mind! It was at that point that I decided I was just going to take a chance, and publish my first webcomic, Legend of the Sword Bearer.
I've changed formats and venues a few times before I built this blog. Now, I've published my first Kindle ebook on Amazon, and I'm now working on my second. It's been a long road and wild ride, but here we are. Welcome to the journey.
I've loved comics and sequential art since the day my mother put my first copy of Tintin in my hands. I loved those comics. I've had stories and characters ever since I was a little kid. My sister and I would pretend to be, or interact with those characters. Eventually, I started writing these things down, and then they became my first experiments with comics.
I was interested in superheroes at first. Most of my characters were superheroes, and the earliest comics I wrote were about a team of superheroes. Most of these I never actually drew, and thank goodness I didn't, because honestly most of them were pretty terrible. I still have a lot of those underdeveloped superhero scrips on my drive, but I've put them away for the time being. But don't go away! This is important.
I had a team of superheroes from all over the globe. Everywhere except Britain, that is. I wanted a British superhero, but I was banging my head against the wall for ideas. Then, something changed. I saw in my mind a kilted Scottish man with a sword. I knew that was my next character; the Sword Bearer.
But I ran into trouble. You see, all fictional worlds have rules, and the character I had developed didn't follow the rules of the world I made. My superhero world was a world of terrorists, corrupt politicians, and secret societies; not giants and dragons. I couldn't tell the stories I wanted to tell with the Sword Bearer in the world I had built! So I made a new world.
Nowadays, you can publish just about anything online for free, or nearly free. This has opened up a whole new universe of opportunities for comic artists like myself. The indie webcomic movement has exploded over the past several years. I discovered this fact several years ago and it blew my mind! It was at that point that I decided I was just going to take a chance, and publish my first webcomic, Legend of the Sword Bearer.
I've changed formats and venues a few times before I built this blog. Now, I've published my first Kindle ebook on Amazon, and I'm now working on my second. It's been a long road and wild ride, but here we are. Welcome to the journey.
Stories are Everywhere
The art and musings of a slightly eccentric graphic novelist.
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