The Book of Dark Places

An Important Annoucement

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Wed, 4 Jul 2007 16:07:40 CDT

The following is just a copy/paste from a post I made on my forum. Read it, and go to the forum for comments. Some of you are fans of my other work, and some may only know me from the Book of Dark Places... but things are going on that you might want to know: ---- This is a long, important question/notice/rant. I hope there are people still out there to read it. Here's the question: Would you pay to read my stories? I don't mean the existing ones... I mean new ones. I mean new December stories. New Magekiller. New Crusade. New horror stories. New serial and non-serial fiction about ideas and universes and... well... new stuff. Would you pay for more of the stuff I stopped doing two years ago? How about more of the stuff I'm doing right now (and by that, I mean BoDP). Neither? Both? Anything you can get? Okay now that I've gotten you all worried and/or excited, here's how I feel about it. It's real simple: I need to be paid for my efforts. See? Simple. Continuing to NOT get paid for hours of work spent writing, rendering, or whatever else is not an option. I can use those hours to start a business as a freelance programmer, or a web designer, or any NUMBER of other things that I CAN make money at. But there's not enough time in the day to do both. Personally, I'd rather tell stories. PLEASE BELIEVE ME when I tell you that I WANT to tell stories! But if the stories aren't paying me, then those hours need to be spent doing something that does. There's no way around that. If I'm going to spend time and effort doing something, I need to get something out of it. Not pennies, nickels and dimes, either. Real money. Bill-paying money. Comments and feedback and fan mail from people who've enjoyed my work were payment enough in the past. But here, in the present, I need compensation for everything I do... whether I do it for my job or do it as a freelance side project... whether its writing code or writing stories... it needs to contribute in some way to my bottom line. Or else I'm not doing it. That's just a had fact of reality, and if people hate me for that then fine. Here are some more harsh realities: 1) I will not seek to have my work published by a traditional publisher. I've looked into it several times, and what I found looking BACK at me was a long, ugly process that, honestly, doesn't pay well enough to be worth the effort. I would have to write a novel, and then spend YEARS shopping it around to people who won't even read it before deciding its not what they want. It's not that I have something against physical books. The process of a fiction writer getting his work published traditionally is, in my opinion, distasteful and horribly and irrevocably broken. I will not beg people to read my stories. Period. The very thought of it makes me want to kill people. Now, if a publisher and/or agent approached ME with a deal, then I'd consider it... but that doesn't happen. My feelings are worse when it comes to scriptwriting for movies and television. I've looked into that, too, and it is a horror show for someone with my personality traits... for someone who doesn't beg, kiss ass, or write cliche bullshit. That's an entirely different rant, so I'll just save it for another day. Bottom line: traditional publishing is out. It takes too long, and requires too much effort that isn't actually CREATING anything. SOME of that effort, to me, is the same as asking someone to wipe their ass with my work. 2) Self-publishing (either physical books or ebooks) is an option, but it's a secondary one. It ALSO takes a lot of time and effort that isn't creating, but not nearly as much as chasing publishers. I'd rather try something else first. So this is my fall-back position. 3) Giving stories away for free in return for some kind of advertising revenue only works if you're already famous. And probably not then, either. For someone like me, this option does not produce bill-paying money. It produces coke-machine money, and not a whole lot of that. I've made about $100 in three years doing that. So this option is something I'd do WHILE I'm doing something else that's earning the real money. 4) People, in general, don't want to pay for entertainment on the internet. There are a thousand writers out there doing what I did a few years ago... giving stuff away for free. So why would anybody pay for something I wrote? I can't answer that. I'm not into marketing and advertising and "selling yourself" and all that crap... I really honestly and truly cannot answer that question. If somebody said they'd pay money for my stories, I wouldn't ASK them why, but I'd be thinking it. Hell... the internet is FULL of authors. Most of them are giving their work away for free. Those that are wanting to get paid are... as far as I can tell... NOT making any significant money. Hell, a few long years ago, Stephen King wrote a serial story called "The Plant" that he distributed in parts on the internet. He posted the first chapter and wouldn't post the second, third, forth, etc. until enough people paid a certain amount of money. As far as I know, the end of that story NEVER saw the light of day. He abandoned the project before the end because people wouldn't pay Stephen King... STEPHEN KING!!!... money for a story on the internet. So what kind of a prayer does Dark Icon have of paying his electricity bill with money from writing? Probably none. But I've paid enough "dues" to the craft. Time for the craft to start paying me. And if it doesn't... then I'll find a new craft. I don't have the luxury of giving things away for free any more. I have a lot of assets tied up in what I've done so far. This website. The stories I've already written. The fans that still come by here hoping that I've written something since the last time they came. I built that. I think its worth something. I think I can build a business... yes, a BUSINESS... out of it. If I can't capitalize on it, then I will stop building, but I won't just stop without making an effort first. I'm not sure exactly WHAT I am going to do yet, but very soon (in a "before the end of the year" time frame) I will start what can be described as a series of small experiments. I write something. You pay for it (somehow). If I don't make money, I find something else to do with my time. I don't know the details yet, but I expect to start small. I don't know what I'm going to start with. I don't know what starting small means yet, either. I ALSO don't know whether I'll include BoDP in this... but I should, and I probably will. Not only does it require a lot of time, but it actually requires MONEY to produce and distribute. So you can guess which way that decision will probably go. And after I start whatever it is that I'm going to start, I will remember all of those people who've been posting and emailing me asking when I was going to start writing stories again. My question to you will be this: Did you really want me to start writing... or did you only want me to start writing for FREE? Because FREE isn't happening again. Ever. I can't afford it any more.

Update 06-22-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:14:20 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 06-20-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:57:45 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 06-15-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:35:21 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. There will be no update on Monday of next week. Taking the weekend off... from everything.

Update 06-13-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:35:45 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated.

Update 06-11-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:07:19 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated.

Update 06-08-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:23:28 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. ...now that we've cleared THAT up...

Update 06-06-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:30:05 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 06-04-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 3 Jun 2007 15:14:15 CDT

"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you Without a strong rhyme to step to Think of how many weak shows you slept through Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you" -Eric B. And Rakim - "I Know You Got Soul" btw... The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Ending soon...

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:25:49 CDT

The hiatus should be over Monday. I've started actively rendering again, and the updates should resume after this weekend. I'm traveling for a couple of days next week, but that shouldn't affect the update schedule. In about three weeks, I'm traveling again for a longer stretch of time. At this point, I don't know if I'm going to attempt any BoDP work while I'm out. We'll see.

What's happening

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 4 May 2007 10:14:26 CDT

I've been working 11 to 14 hour days for the past two weeks. I have one week back in the office before I'm back on the road, working 11-14 hour days for two more weeks. Even if I'm in a hotel room with absolutely nothing to do BUT render pictures, I have no mental energy left after that kind of workload. I'm too tired to even play World of Warcraft, if that tells you anything. So... and pay attention to the words I'm using here: I will probably attempt to keep a semi-normal BoDP schedule next week. AFTER that, you may be waiting a while... probably two weeks... before you see anything new.

Update 04-30-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 09:16:02 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. The weekend wasn't TOTALLY unproductive... I managed to scrape together enough words and pictures for Monday's update, but the rest of the week is NOT looking good.

Update 04-25-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:13:39 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 04-23-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:55:14 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. ...It's kind of like super-asbestos on steroids.

"What the hell is Dark Icon doing...?

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:12:10 CDT

...and is he doing it anywhere near ME!?" http://twitter.com/DarkIcon

Update 04-18-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:50:02 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated.

Update 04-16-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:14:45 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 04-13-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:23:49 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 04-11-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:29:23 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! I know that at the beginning of a serial story it's hard to figure out just what is going on. The updates aren't really long enough for you to get enough information right way. Hell, you don't even know what the characters' NAMES are at this point. Well, lemme clear ONE thing up right now: The pilot's words in this episode do not imply that the "shock ending" at the end of the story will be that everybody died in the crash! OOO! We've never seen THAT before! How Original! Please... don't make me hunt you down and stab you. All of the characters are very much alive... For now. We'll see how long that lasts.

In Deed

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 8 Apr 2007 09:46:39 CDT

It's been a while, but the wait is over. The next chapter in the Book of Dark Places has begun. Check out "In Deed"

Hiatus Ends Monday

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:16:07 CDT

Obviously the current hiatus did not end this past Monday. As I suspected, the amount of work I could do while traveling to such amazing places as Newark, New Jersey is pretty close to zero. Besides, just last week I changed my mind on what story I was going to do next, so if I HAD done some work in advance it would have been wasted anyway. But I'm working just fine now, so barring something unforeseen, the next story will begin sometime Sunday afternoon (officially Monday).

The Book of Dark Places

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:02:23 CDT

"It does not exist. All who claim to have seen it are mad... I have seen it for myself, and I am quite insane."

Hiatus

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:15:21 CDT

"Darker" has ended and the next story hasn't started yet. This must mean I'm on my between-story hiatus. This isn't me slacking off... this is me getting my models, characters, scenes, and other assets ready for the next story. Normally I take two weeks to do all that, and that's what I intend to do here. BUT, it just so happens that I'll be out of town for exactly two weeks, and there's no way to tell how much of that work I'll be able to do from a hotel room. So, the hiatus is two weeks, but I might need to tack on a few more days if I haven't had time to do anything by the 12th day. I'll keep you informed.

Update 03-16-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:17:25 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! This update brings "Darker" to a close. I hope you enjoyed the ride at least as much as I did. Please drop by the The Asylum Walls and let me know what you think.

Update 03-14-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:13:45 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated!

Update 03-12-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:35:55 CDT

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! ...nope, STILL not over. But we're getting very close to the end, so now is probably a good time to mention that BoDP will be going on hiatus after the story is over. This isn't anything unusual. I ALWAYS go on hiatus between stories to give me time to work out plots and prepare sets, characters, etc. I'll make a full announcement later, but I didn't want it to come as a surprise to the new fans.

Real Life 3, BoDP 0

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 18:19:19 CST

Yeah, yeah, you know the drill. If I'm lucky there will be an update on Friday. I'm not feeling all that lucky. In fact, SICK is what I'm feeling. Again.

Update 03-05-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 4 Mar 2007 20:05:31 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated!

Update 03-02-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 2 Mar 2007 22:21:43 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! See, I TOLD you it wasn't over!

Technical Difficultes & a potential delay

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:54:02 CST

Technical difficulties beyond my control are causing the site to load slowly today. It WILL load... just go get a cup of coffee while you wait. I expect the situation to be resolved very soon. Also, my many travels will soon be taking me to a place where I won't have high-speed internet access. I'll still be able to work, but updating the site might be a bit of a stretch if I'm connecting via my (new) cellphone. Thus, Wednesday's update was posted early Tuesday morning, and Friday's update may be delayed until either late Friday night or sometime Saturday. I don't expect to miss an update, though.

Update 02-28-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:49:43 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! ...no, this is NOT the end of the story.

Update 02-26-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:08:36 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated!

Real life 2, BoDP 0

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:28:34 CST

At some point during the night on Wednesday, someone tried to steal my car. Despite the fact that my particular car is notorious for being easy to steal, this unknown criminal mastermind failed to complete his nefarious plan. Instead, all he accomplished was ruining my steering column. With his master plan foiled by the intricate inner workings of a 96 Honda Accord's ignition switch, the criminal genius implemented Plan B: Steal Everything In The Car. Unfortunately, that haul included my favorite (i.e. only) leather coat and enough electronics to be worth more than the car itself. It also included the previously mentioned ignition switch, which I suppose he took home with him for future study and practice. Yes, folks, he could take the switch OUT of the steering column, but couldn't actually START the car. Right. Anybody who's ever hotwired a-... errr, I mean watched more than three movies in their life knows how much sense THAT makes. This, of course, leaves me with no car, no coat, no cell phone, no OTHER cell phone, no car stereo, no work laptop, no- ... well, continuing to list the astounding number of expensive toys that I left in my car would just be embarrassing, so let's just call it quits right there. You get the point. So now I'm knee-deep in the world of police reports, insurance claims, and explaining to everyone at work that I am an idiot. Other than THAT, things have been going just fine. Oh yeah, no BoDP Friday. Maybe BoDP Monday... we'll see.

Update 02-21-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:51:25 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! We're rapidly approaching the end of this one. Some of you may have taken some guesses as to how the story is going to end. ...you're wrong.

Update 02-19-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:29:40 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated.

Update 02-16-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:57:16 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Real Life 1, BoDP 0

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:57:47 CST

Due to unusually long hours at work for the past couple of days, there will be no updated today (wednesday). Things should continue as normal on Friday.

Update 02-12-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:42:17 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! Oh, you didn't think the last episode was all Noble was gonna get, now did ya? Oh, No... I had to kick it up a notch!

Update 02-09-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 9 Feb 2007 23:37:37 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 02-07-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 6 Feb 2007 21:26:16 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

Update 02-05-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 4 Feb 2007 19:51:52 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated!

Update 02-02-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 19:05:44 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. It gets ugly from here on in...

Update 01-31-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:28:11 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. ...yeah... I went there...

Update 01-29-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:45:10 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. I'm still feeling a bit slow, but I can sit up straight and my thoughts all flow in the same direction now, so I think the rest of the week will be on schedule. We'll see.

Sick

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 08:21:38 CST

There have been no updates lately because I've been sick for the second half of the past week. Things should be back to normal on Monday.

Update 01-22-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:46:09 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. I couldn't POSSIBLY be going where you think I'm going with this... could I?!

Update 01-19-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:12:14 CST

The Book of Dark Places had been updated. Admit it... you've never seen a story like this one.

Update 01-17-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:40:48 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated. This episode contains scenes which are not suitable for chil- Screw it. If your mom gave a damn, you wouldn't even know what the Book of Dark Places IS.

Update 01-15-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:16:46 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated

The Maidens

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:27:21 CST

The Book has many secrets. Some are strewn across your path, just out of site... traps for the unwary. But others... others are not so easily stumbled upon. They must be pointed out.. and so one lost soul may damn another...

Update 01-12-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:51:44 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated! Note: This episode contains themes and scenes that may not be suitible for children (who shouldn't be reading BoDP in the first damn place!)

Update 01-10-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Tue, 9 Jan 2007 20:15:23 CST

The Book of Dark Places has been updated!

Update 01-08-07

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sun, 7 Jan 2007 16:24:54 CST

The Book of Dark Pages has been updated! Normal update schedule is Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

New RSS feed

darkicon@bookofdarkplaces.com — Sat, 6 Jan 2007 21:39:10 CST

The Book of Dark Places now has an RSS feed. Now damnation will come to YOU! This newsfeed will replace the much-neglected "News" page on the site. It will contain announcements and updates (three times a week), as well as the occasional rant, review and possibly some exclusive content. What does "exclusive content" mean? Well we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?