Nick Davis's Blog, page 99

Quick Sketch glimpse at a concept drawings for Book Two of a Teddy Bear Tale

A Teddy Bear Tale – Unconditional is just out of the door with all the Kickstarter & Prerelease copies in the mail, and barring postal mishaps should all arrive in time for Christmas. I am already compiling my notes for the second book in this project and exploring a couple of ideas with the help of Dan Nokes. Above is one of the Quick Sketch concept drawings based on my notes featuring Tristan and a new character Wilma Bunny. Still a lot of work to go, so get on the ground floor and pick up the first book of A Teddy Bear Tale today.

Mysterious X object spotted by Hubble… We are not alone?

Not sure how I missed this, this object called P/2010-A2 was captured by Hubble in January 2010, Scientists have commentated that the strangeness is not just the X-shape, but the fact is appears to be traveling outside the dust halo and separate from its trail at around 11,ooo mph, which means it is exhibiting some odd non-comet behavior. Is it a celestial rock? Is it proof we are not alone? A chance glimpse of a alien spacecraft? And when did Hubble become a speed camera?

Sigmartyr Vol.3 of the Epic Stikfas action web comic – The Alpha Team turn at Bay

Volume Three of Sigmartyr the Stikfas Action Web Comic continues. Click here to view this epic story. Alpha Team digs in to prepare for the Omega attack.

A Teddy Bear Tale from a collection of words to an illustrated book, thank you :)

Well, it is done… See all those books? Over the weekend I sat down with the book's artist Dan Nokes and we signed all 52 Kickstarter & prerelease copies of A Teddy Bear Tale; Dan even went the extra artistic 10 yards and added a unique little sketch to the front of each book.

And over the course of today I spent most of it packing and mailing all the books to get them out to you, tomorrow the last of the books leave my hands. Which means by Christmas all my Kickstarter supporters and all the prerelease orders have a copy of this tale of a Teddy Bear defending his boy in your hands. Thank you for support, for taking the leap of faith and picking up this tale, I hope you enjoy it and spread the word about this tale of whimsy – right now this poor struggling author could do with the boost.

You can pick up a copy of A Teddy Bear Tale by clicking here and it is available in print so you can see Dan's art in all its glory, or you can pick up the on the go version in your favorite eBook format.

Also add this event to your diary, on January 7 from 1 to 4pm there will be a debut release party for A Teddy Bear Tale at Ukazoo Baltimore's Premier Independent bookstore – click here for more details. I've recently visited this bookstore and it is immense, simply huge with Tardis like dimensions and I am really excited they are allowing me to debut the book there, even advertising the event on there website (scroll down). So come along, if 20 people RSVP I will do a book reading for that alone it is worth coming out for

We did it, from a collection of words that formed a story of whimsy and a quick sketch from Dan Nokes, that inspired turning my story into an illustrated tale, that from a black and white sketch started a Kickstarter project and birthed the full book and the very real Tristan the Defender Teddy Bear cuddly toy. It has been a heckuva journey and I hope the first steps on amazing new adventure. I cannot thank you all enough

Here Be Books!!! 52 copies of A Teddy Bear Tales a waiting!

Look what arrived on my doorstep today, 52 copies of A Teddy Bear Tale ready to be sorted and signed by me tomorrow, then Dan Nokes will add his moniker on Sunday, and over Monday/Tuesday the books with their extras will be shipped out.

For me it has been a journey in itself to get this far, thank you for your faith and support in helping this project to launch. Now I am happy to announce for many of you, your books will be arriving by the end of next week, and for everyone else including all my international backers you will see your books before Christmas. Thank you again, and I hope you all enjoy the story, your extras and spread the word for this tale of a Teddy Bear defending his child from the Monsters under the bed.

You can still order A Teddy Bear Tale in print or ebook form by clicking here, while the ebook is available for the eReader of your choice instantly, the print book will still arrive in time for Christmas if you order now! Help out a struggling Author and pick up a copy today.

Arigato,

Nick

A Teddy Bear Tale News available on Amazon and in all eBook formats

Quick update for everyone, four news items here a couple of which will make my Kickstarter contributors happy.

1. A Teddy Bear Tale print proof was approved and the print order placed on December 3rd, today I got confirmation that the print run was complete and it will be shipping in the next 24 hours. I hope to start shipping the books out early next week, a couple of days later than I planned but in all everything has run to schedule. If you are ordering a book now (up to December 18th) or a contributor to the Kickstarter campaign you will get your copy of A Teddy Bear Tale for Christmas.

2. A Teddy Bear Tale print book and eBook version for the Kindle has been listed earlier on Amazon than I thought, the release date I had aimed for was December 10th, the listing is viewable here by clicking on this link http://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Bear-Tale-Unconditional/dp/1466427116

Please help push this book by liking the Amazon page and tagging it (scroll down and vote or add to the tags to the page, every little bit helps gain an audience.

Also this means the Nook version is out at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-teddy-bear-tale-nick-davis/1107758732

And for other eReader visit Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108843

3. I don't know how closely some of you follow my website or FB page. On November 27th I was let go from my job and I am currently unemployed. Please if you know anyone who loves Teddy Bears, has kids, loves whimsy or owned a Teddy Bear let them know about A Teddy Bear Tale and how they can purchase it direct from the website at http://theteddybeartales.com

Psst… Shameless shill moment, please check out The Teddy Bear Tales Store for T-shirts, posters and how to get your own Tristan the Defender Teddy Bear!

4. The debut release book signing for A Teddy Bear Tale will be taking place at Ukazoo Independent Book store in Towson, which is the biggest indie store in Maryland on Saturday January 7th from 1pm to 4pm you can RSVP on FB here – http://www.facebook.com/events/268801279834344/

Thank you all for your support, if you visit the Teddy Bear Tales Facebook page you will see concepts for a possible sequel to A Teddy Bear Tale and the appearance of a new character to aid Tristan – http://www.facebook.com/TheTeddyBearTales

So what has been happening?

Everything we do in life is marked with an eternal balance, the cosmic scales must always remain even or chaos will reign and we will all spin out into a Star Trekesque causality loop, and be subject to bizarre technobabble. I've had a lot of good success and managed to complete two amazing writing projects this year. The first being Fabula Exposition a mix of comic book art and narrative action, and the second, most amazing, A Teddy Bear Tale an illustrated children's story of Tristan the Teddy Bear defending his child from the Monsters under the bed.

Both have been an eye opening journey into the fusion of writing and illustration, with the Teddy Bear book lighting a fire in creativity that I hope will see more whimsy magic from my writing and from Dan Nokes talented brush. Sadly with all good things we must experience the down swing, which I will talk more about after the jump.

Now for the down swing, I've had a situation I've been fighting against for almost two years, due to an going problem with my legal status with immigration, caused by my ex-wife divorcing me and inflexible VISA rules (dance with the one who brought you);  USCIS has been unable to renew my work authorization, a consequence I can no longer be employed in the USA until my authorization papers are renewed and my job had no choice but to let me go; placing me into the administrative process of being 'terminated', with the hope they say that I will be able to work again and return to them before the process ends. So now I'm playing for time as the earliest I can start the work authorization process will be January 24th 2012 when I visit Immigration Court to begin the long climb back to full legal status. Doesn't sound to bad, eh? After all there is hope, something I always trust too…

Well… I am unable to work, have no steady paycheck coming in on the worse of all months to not have any money. The burden of all this is tremendous, we are lucky that Jean does get a disability check, but it does not make up for the huge short fall because my salary was a our primary income source to our budget, so there is a very real chance my family could be homeless in a few months… Which is very, very scary indeed… I do not like being unable to provide for my family and I've never felt this helpless, ever… I feel like I failed everyone, which I believe I have.

I guess it is what I get for playing by all the rules, for trusting the process will work for me, and sitting through a year filled with the Immigration Prosecution calling continuance upon continuance in my case because they don't know who I am and are over burdened. Now along with a lot immigrants like me, though no fault than an outdated inflexible set of rules that do no allow of interpretation or spirit of the law, are now in a gray error unable to do anything because of a broken system. I try not to dwell on this, because I need to be strong, but the frustration of being trapped in this bureaucratic nightmare is getting to me.

I don't want this to read like a sob story, things are tough all over and everyone has there own problems. I just wanted to let you all know the source of some of the odd tweets you may of seen over the last few days. It is hard, made worse that my computer hard drive doesn't want to be accessed losing all my production software, which has made a bitter pill even harder to swallow and leaves a lot of things up in the air… I thank you all for listening and if you do want to help a struggling Author out check out my novels on the front page or my website store, every little bit helps

Thank you for listening, be gentle with the earth now and remember life is beautiful.

Domo Arigato,

Nick

A sequel to Avatar the Last Airbender, the Legend of Korra

Avatar – The Last Airbender was a break out animation series by Nickelodeon that worked on many levels because it told a mature story and had elements for all its viewers. The story ended in a climatic and breathtaking fashion, and the journey was done. Today I've learned that there is a new Airbender tale called the Legend of Korra and it is going to be a sequel to Avatar. While the jury will be out until I see a couple of episodes, if it contains the elements of the original series it will be another hit. You can check out the trailer after the jump. 

A quick look at the printers proof for A Teddy Bear Tale and it looks bloody good!!!

The printers proof for A Teddy Bear Tale came in today the first pass showed no image problems and I'm about to do the second pass proofing the text. But… First I thought I should show you some of the books interior after the jump.  Don't forget you can Pre-Order A Teddy Bear Tale for Christmas by clicking here.

A Deleted Scene from Ironman 2 so this is what Olivia Munn was talking about?

Bouncing around for Avenger news to post in my blog today I uncovered pictures of a deleted scene from Ironman 2 featuring Olivia Munn; it is my guess this was the scene she was talking about before leaving AOTS and not the 20 second news presenter blip. Anyhow check out the full gallery below, if only to learn why short dresses and wearing Ironman's gauntlets do not mix…