Sign: Now entering Convoluted Central.

Ext shot of train slowing gently before stopping. Steam comes from the wheels. Slightly confused orange haired person steps off train and onto platform, watching and waiting and wondering what’s out there in the cold, dark, city he’s stepped onto…

Ahem, by which I mean, yet another step of the bizarrely tortuous journey of the third Dr Sylver book is upon me and therefore you, as I’m going to blog it to pieces.

So, the story so far. Five years ago (really only that short a time? Yowsa) I write a book, give it to youth groupers and enjoy the fact that they like it. Weekly they end up nagging me to get it published (because, yes, it is as easy as that) and in the end, after sending it to a number of places, Highland books publishes Dr Sylver and the Library of Everything. Reviews are better than I can ever have hoped for, especially as I only expected people to have a go at me for clumsy writing and typos (‘better than GP Taylor’ one lovely person said, ignoring the fact that it probably wasn’t – but thanks Phil, it was a high point – and sales wise I don’t think I was ever anything other than an amusement between the camps).

Then, over the next four years I write the sequel, Dr Sylver and the Repository of the Past – which again is reviewed well but less so as a sequel rather than as a computer games artists first book – create the Exile Road for Spring Harvest and Messenger for DLT. Somehow I manage to accidentally begin a fight with Bear Grylls in the pages of a religious newspaper which fortunately never spilled into the realm of him burying me up to my eyelids in limestone. It’s been an interesting journey and I can now exit my house without looking out into the bushes to check for movement before I start running off to work, just in case.

And then I wrote Dr Sylver book 3: The Tapestry of Time.

Oh boy has this project not been smooth. Not really any one fault per se, problems with the ending here, missed print windows there, distributor goes bust, original cover files lost in a hard disc explosion, incorrect files sent to print etc etc. Highland sent off for a sample collection of books before Christmas and, one way or the other, they turned up this week. Not to mention life in all its fullness distracting events. From serious illness in the family to redundancies and so on it’s been… Well, it’s a book all on its own.

But today I picked up a box of advance copies of Dr Sylver 3 and it’s fun to just see them in the flesh. They’re not the final FINAL copies – one more scan through has shown of about 100 areas where a couple of trimmed words make a much larger impact than would be first thought but this time it’s tangible, in my hands. DSTT exists and is getting there.

Anyhow, three hour meeting today was… interesting. We’ll send copies out and beg reviews here and there, write articles and all that jazz. All the stuff a micro publisher and a barely known author have to do to make themselves noticed in a world of louder loudspeakers and marketing budgets that don’t resemble a coffee budget. Hopefully DSTT will be read and enjoyed and all that work and hassle and issue and upset will have been worth it. The first couple of reviews have already been lovely and, personally, I think it’s the best ending I’ve written… So we’ll see.

Anyhow, if anyone lives next to Simon Mayo and doesn’t mind delivering a cake and copy of the book then by all means pop me a mail (some things I’d love to achieve in life – though I suspect I never will – including having Mayo and Kermode saying ‘and hallo to Paul Kercal, loved the book,’ having something linked on Adbuzeedo’s Daily inspiration site and having the Wombat comic liked by any of the guys I admire and respect in the comic book field. I am to dreams and hopeful fantasy what Icarus was for altitude…)

Righto, onwards, loads to do and times a wasting.

Sorry to bore but… well…

Tapestry’s troubled upbringing continues apace with cover problems causing issues all over again. This is the newly redone one which astounded me by having a very small gamut issue (the difference between an rgb monitor and a cmyk printer) when I thought it would have a million problems.

Still going to be the very beginning of next year although we’re hoping to have a limited number ready for Christmas. By all means get in touch if you want to buy a copy. The bizarre thing is that if you had a copy from the Guildford Book Fest and a copy from this printing (and one from the final shelf version) you’d have something oddly rare and unusual which doesn’t make the issues and roadbumps any smoother for me, just makes me smile that, in more than one way at least, my mums going to be one in a million

Artwork all done in Pixelmator which I retain a huge love and affection for, even though it struggled badly doing the cover at the print res it had to be outputted at. Lots of frustrated waitings about and teeth clenching but, for what it is and what it delivered, still like it loads.

Similarly, well, with less issues to be frank, the Brushes 2.1 update is due to hit the apple store anytime now. It’s a corker and no mistaking well worth a look-see. I’ve become wedded to the app and my iPod touch and it is my favourite art application of all.

In other news: birthday yesterday and, apart from the fact I was working on this cover for 12 hours straight, it was  a lovely one filled with friends, family, food and facebook comments Onwards, although slightly blearily….

Life’s a doozy, no mistaking.

So where we at? Previously on Planet Kercal: chaos all ways round, tired most of the time. College none too pleasant, Sylver… arduous, Book Draw…. loads of work, loads of fun, loads of work still to come.

I’ve just had a meeting and, during it I described my year as not really much fun. That’s true and fair, although not 100% correct. Some parts have been fun, meetings with friends, new friends made, new classes of students, each with their own unique character and so on. It’s just the bigger things, work, health of those around me etc, that’s been the harder sea to sail. And of course the next book, Dr Sylver and the Tapestry of Time, has had a troubled culmination. It’s a corker of a story, just wish I could share it with you quicker than I will have the chance to. Speaking as a complete and utter raging egotist I do think Tapestry is the best thing I’ve written so far but it’s the project which has had the most challenging final process for a variety of reasons, no-ones fault per se, just…. well, stuff, really.

Anyhow, meeting today was about book… 8? 9? Who knows. A: I have one project in mind which is mostly done and I hope makes it to the shelf sooner rather than later and B: do I count the Big Book Draw mini-book? There’s only forty of them but it’s a story and a book and I like it loads. Do I count it? I think I will

So, book 9? It’s been on the cards for a while, and mentioned at a couple of book shows type things. Apparently it’s generating some American interest at the mo’ which is why its come to the fore now. We’ll see where it goes but today is the day it possibly got greenlit so here’s a preview image.

I hope it works out because, as much as anything else, it may allow me the chance to collaborate with someone who I am a total fan of which will be a very cool thing for me to be involved in.

Apart from that? Started work on, of all things, a sitcom with another good friend and collaborator. We’ll see where that goes but the chat sessions which are there for testing out material leave us both giggling so, if nothing else, it’s good therapy.

Apart from that? Making up the mini-books which will be sent to a variety of people (sponsors, friends, fish doodlers and the like) and a couple may well make it to places as competition prizes which will be cool if they do so; would like to see them in a variety of hands. They take a good 30 mins or so each to make (I’ve managed to streamline the process a little. The first ones took an hour each) and I hope I finish them soon to pass them onto those who deserve to receive them, ideally before Christmas.

From a creative standpoint then life is OK, bobbling along nicely. I just wish there were more sleep involved along the line somewhere

((no idea why the formatting of this post is broken, sorry, and I’ve tried to update it four or five times now with no luck, even taking out the paragraph breaks and readding them… Sorry…))

I’ve taught typography a number of times during my college working years so far but a new app on the iPod touch has got m playing with it more than I had in the past. It’s called typedrawing and, as the title suggests, you draw with words and sentences.

It’s a lot of fun but the tool is a lot more limited than I would like. There is no way of outputting the file to your computer to upres it, which is a crying shame. Similarly there’s no colour tools, import tool, save tool… You get the jist. I know this is a little hypocritical bearing in mind I often applaud Brushes for it’s ability to do so much with so little, but at all time Brushes allows you to do what you need, typedrawing doesn’t.

Still it is loads of fun and I’ll keep playing with it… This came out of yesterday night post youth group.

Youth group was ace, incidentally. We’ve got a few new faces this term since we reopened the books and, for the most part, they’re slotting in really well. The one caveat is that a group uses the halls prior to us now and, where we used to have forty minutes to set up we now have four.

Not easy.

Anyhow; back to the pic:

The Tapestry has been breached.

Which will make sense post Oct when Dr Sylver three comes out.

OK so October is shaping up to be a doozey. For a start I’m fairly sure we’ll see Dr Sylver and the Tapestry of Time hit the streets (third and final book in the Everything series although, not necessarily, the last we’ll see of Sylver).

Then I’ll be doing the Big Book Draw with my youth group kids, a couple of friendly teacher helpers, some students and all sorts. Should be ace. The venue is BRILLIANT for drawing and creating in and they’re keen to be involved which is always good in a partnering venue. As well as all that the story is strong (although I always say that, egotist that I am) and the beginning and end doodles look pretty cool (massive ego ahoy). (Well, I like them anyhow )

Better than that this years book draw is different because I’m approaching well known people and asking them if they could fill in a template of doodles for inclusion into the whole piece. So the kids (of all ages) can go away with a book written by them and Tom Merritt (Buzz Out Loud host and writer of Boiling Point), Jan Pienkowski (Meg and Mog), Paul Cornell (writer of Marvel comics and Dr Who novels), Emma Dodd (loads of books for Templar publishing). Nick Page (The Longest Week, Whatever happened to… and many more books) and more. Which is great… So far spent a good portion of the evening sending out more begging letters so shall see what I get back. But whichever way round it’s going to be an interesting day.

I think we’ll be doing a second book draw day but that’s very much tbc so we’ll see what happens on that score. More info later, maybe.

And then, lastly, someone offered their venue as a host to an exhibition in Oct for the Brushes artwork for the BBD and more besides so it looks like that one may be a goer too. We’ll see. All exciting stuff.

Less excitingly wifey was DIYing (I was doing kid duty and setting up youth work stuff for tomorrow) and… hmm… let’s just say that one tin of paint should have had a top on. And not be trodden on. And catapulted over two carpets, a wall, two library books, four books of photographs etc. Oh well, we’ll look back on it and laugh I’m sure.

Righto, onwards. Loads to do, just fancied a rest from it for a min.

… Thought I’d better add that to the blog ‘cos it’s beginning to look like an art blog and, more than that, a Brushes/Youtube blog.

So, for the benefit of new readers, I also write books. I mention that for a couple of reasons: one I’ve been asked to spec up a book that I’m excited at the possibility of working on, especially if I get the chance to do a couple of the stranger, sillier things I’ve suggested, especially one silly idea which I’ve sort of nicked from comic books in a vague sort of way. Two: I’ve got a new book out in October – although I have a meeting about that next Monday to work out the timings and all and three: it’s something I’ve actively come to enjoy doing, although mainly by the back door and only recently.

When I wrote my first book (Dr Sylver and the Library of Everything) there was a purpose: I was trying to tell a story to youth group members that would help them where they were at. Some kids were struggling with bullying so I added a little of that, others with teenage pregnancy so that went in and so life sort of dictated the story, I just copied the words from the air onto the page. Book 2 (Repository of the Past) came along and one specific kid pushed the story along in and out real life so, again, I felt like I was doing something for someone else in a way. Then I wrote Messenger, but that comes into the story later.

I’d finished Messenger and was taking it around places, occasionally, over the course of a year when Spring Harvest came around and gave me a brief for teaching materials. It changed a couple of times and a couple of deadlines were left to pretty late notice but I loved working with them and was pretty happy with the result: The Exile Road. It was the first collaboration, surprisingly, of my writing and drawing in one place. I was signed up to do Exile 2 but, part way through production it was cancelled and although that was thunderously disappointing I carried on doing other stuff. The idea for Exile 2 was something I was excited to be carrying out and I hope it comes to fruition one day, somehow.

Then comes Messenger, published last year. A story written entirely in chat room text speak it was.. a funny one to work on. Loads of fun but the layout: that was a hospital pass and DLT did a fantastic job of putting it together and out on a shelf. It’s the strange story of a week of relational chaos for teenagers told only by the conversations they had after each days events.

In October we see the end of the Dr Sylver trilogy (although not necessarily the end of her stories, we’ll see). It’s called Dr Sylver and the Tapestry of Time and… well, this is the thing y’see: I like playing with conventions and Tapestry is my most playful book yet. The end… Well, I’ve seen some how to write webpages and documents that say an ending shouldn’t take more than two or three chapters – for what reason I don’t know – and Tapestry has an end sequence that’s… a little longer than that. I also get a chance to play about with the design of words on the page again and that’s something that’s come across from Messenger.

Anyhow: I’ve just started enjoying it… And the reason for that is a little circuitous: I met up with a student recently who said that I was his favourite teacher (naaaaaaa) because I wrote the best briefs. They felt more like stories that the students participated in and because of that encouraged a greater response. Truth to tell I probably do wind up some of my teacher colleagues because I’m not happy with a brief to be given to a class unless it has ‘the hook’: something that they’ll look at and say ‘cool, I want to do that.’ I wasn’t happy with a recent collaborative CD cover project for example because… well… CD covers are a part of our wallpaper, 12 x 12 cm squares of design taken for granted. After a good few meetings we extended the brief to add a caveat: mid-way through the designers work with the band the musicians had made it big and the record company was now paying for a special edition CD to be created. We gave the students the nets and said re-engineer the imagery to fit that. It was the hook I needed to get excited about it and that transferred over to the guys we were teaching. It was also more true to real life than some of the briefs we get and though the students moaned when we changed things half way through it taught a valuable lesson

Next year the course changes a lot (mixed feelings about that one and lots of good people are affected) and I (think I but we’ll see) get the chance to write the year. Looking forward to that loads. Not that it’s for anything more than a limited audience but I like the collaborative stuff loads

Which also brings me to the Guildford Big Book Draw and busses as ‘the zone’… But those are posts for later. Need to get onto non-computer stuff for a while…

Another screenshot from the new project I’m working on. Dr Sylver 3 is dated for the week commencing October 10th this year so it’s exciting to have a release date to hang on it and now, teacher training portfolio aside (which I REALLY must get onto although the irony of that statement is subject to a confidential document I can’t share with anyone) I’m now full time on this project and one other. Roll on July 3rd when I can start giving attention to them with less guilty feelings alongside.

This week has also been defined by uber athletes foot (which erupted in blood and other disgustingness on my big toe) and then a night of ‘both ends fighting the middle’ as one of my colleagues charmingly put it. Whether it was a bug caught from the doctor’s waiting room or an allergic reaction to the foot cream I don’t know but Tues – Thurs were not comfortable days. At all. Today is the first day I’ve been up to much so, like a twit, I walked son boy to the shop to buy a Slush Puppy (which came out with a completely different name on my phone when I tried to text wifey) and came back feeling like a poached slug. Still, it’s been a very positive day too so that’s a good ‘un.

Also: did this y-day using Brushes on the iPod touch. It’s surprising in a way – I’m so used to tools and layers and modes and styles and warps and filters – but Brushes is a joy to play with and watch the results. When I see the movie file play away I see areas that I would have changed had I not seen them from the outside in so it’s a fascinating process. I noticed @skottieyoung did a similar thing using (I think) Artrage Pro and Ustream in an interactive fashion. Not that I’m anywhere near having an audience such as his but that seems the nest step in the Brushes play – to have people chatting as I go but hey, step by step and all that.

It’s a long story… 99 pages in fact. This is page 33. Loved doing 99% of the page but the face of Red fought me all the way through and it took as much time to do her eyes and mouth as it did to do the rest of the page.

Dr Sylver and the Tapestry and Time went to Highland this morning. We’ll see if the changes pass muster, hope so Release date as and when it comes in…

Just doodled this which is an extrapolation of the likely interior image. Not the cover but made me smile regardless.

I am still working on it, honest. Hopefully this is the last round of changes prior to publication.

Adding to the list of sites I’m playing at having a presence on I’ve added Twitpic to the roster. Been using Twitter for a while (www.twitter.com/kercal and now have uploaded a good few pix to http://twitpic.com/photos/kercal as well. Have a gander if you want. Not a HUGE amount of new stuff up there – more a mish mash of the vectors, photoshop and Pixelmator pics that are on my hard drive but all of the new Red stuff will go up there first I think.

Also, in a bit of a welcome about turn of events was spell checking the last few Sylver changes last night on the bus back from work and actively enjoyed it. That’s a turn around, been a slog for a while, to enjoy the work I’m