White Lightning Productions' Journal (original) (raw)
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inWhite Lightning Productions' LiveJournal:
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| Monday, September 11th, 2017 | |
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| _6:40 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
Peter is the Wolf Book 2: Long Overdue Status Update Many of you have asked, repeatedly, when the book is coming out. And I've told you that Ben Rodriguez, the artist, is working on updating the pages to make them print-ready in his minimal free time. However, the pages came very, very slowly... and work on the webcomic itself slowed to a crawl... and growing political differences between the artist and myself made communications more difficult by the day... and, by the end of 2016, I decided that the webcomic needed a new artist.So Padunk was brought on board, and I asked Ben to send me the print-quality files for Book 2 (and also Book 3) without any further changes, so I could hire someone else to finish the work. And I waited... and waited... and nagged... and begged... and managed to get Chapters 6 and 7 from Ben, begrudgingly. One-third of the book in hand in seven months.Then Charlottesville happened, and not to go into great detail now, but Ben's response to Charlottesville crossed a final line. It forced me to sit down and think, and to realize that four years of delays, and eight months of waiting for what should have taken a couple of days, had been excessive patience on my part.Time to fish or cut bait.On August 21, 2017 I sat down and typed the following letter to Ben Rodriguez:Dear sir; Enough is enough. As of September 4, 2017, the Peter is the Wolf Book 2 IndieGogo will be four years old. For this fundraiser you made several suggestions for benefits to find the printing of the second book and committed to fulfilling the obligations of the project. Those obligations, those promises to the fans who supported the project and whose art commissions and convention purchases have frequently put money directly into your pocket, have not been met. The funders of the IndieGoGo project expected the book in print three years ago. This past January you were asked to turn over the existing print-resolution Photoshop files for Books 2 and 3 of Peter is the Wolf, as they exist, without any further modification, so that a colorist with more motivation and free time could complete the necessary work to prepare them for printing. That, and fulfillment of the sketch-edition obligations of the fundraiser once Book 2 is printed, is all you are asked to do. In light of the fact that you are slated to receive half of the fundraiser less expenses, and that you have already received $1000 of that fundraiser, I do not consider this too much to ask. In the past eight months you have only turned over Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. _Enclosed find a new 64 GB flash drive, a padded envelope for its protection, and a Priority Mail envelope addressed to White Lightning Productions, postage prepaid.Please copy the Photoshop files for Books 2 and 3 (including the Robin Hood and Japanese Emperor side stories) to the flash drive and return it to me via the prepaid envelope not later than September 6, 2017.There is no excuse for further delay. Please fulfill your obligations so I can pay you the money you are due for your work as an artist._And that very day I bought the flash drive, padded envelopes for the trip both ways, a postage-prepaid Priority Mail envelope addressed to me, and a large Priority Mail box which I used to mail letter, flash drive, envelopes and all to Ben Rodriguez. Four days later the box was received and signed for by Mr. Rodriguez himself; I have the signature card to prove it.The flash drive should have been returned not later than two days later, given prompt action, but I allowed for interruptions, distractions and disruptions in the postal network. And good thing I did, because Harvey came and parked over my part of the country for five soggy days.But today is September 11, five days after a generous deadline, and the return envelope has not arrived.It is just barely possible that the envelope is still in the mail, so I'm not quite ready to make final decisions... but I know what the decisions will be now.The future of this project has been in Ben Rodriguez's hands for the past four years. If you wish to ask him about Book 2, by all means do so. He goes by bar1scorpio on Twitter, DeviantArt and FurAffinity. I honestly do not believe it will do any good, but it won't make things worse, because things cannot get worse than they are now as regards the project.And if I don't hear from him that the flash drive is on its way by next week... then I get to make another update. |
| Friday, June 17th, 2016 | |
| _1:10 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
Kris now has a Patreon. It's there in the title, folks. Or, rather, it's here:https://www.patreon.com/user?ty=h&u=3388493To explain why I'm doing this:First, last year (2015) was my most successful year as a convention vendor, which was good, because I'd taken on a bunch more personal bills (health insurance, house insurance, etc.). I still only notched up about 9000orsonetprofitfortheyear,whichisonlyliveablebecauseIownmyhouseoutright.Butthefirstfewshowsof2016showedangeneraldownwardtrendfrom2015,withafewexceptions.First,here′sthenetprofitfromalltheconventionsI′vesoldattodatein2016,withthedifferencefrom2015:Ushicon2016−9000 or so net profit for the year, which is only liveable because I own my house outright.But the first few shows of 2016 showed an general downward trend from 2015, with a few exceptions. First, here's the net profit from all the conventions I've sold at to date in 2016, with the difference from 2015:Ushicon 2016 - 9000orsonetprofitfortheyear,whichisonlyliveablebecauseIownmyhouseoutright.Butthefirstfewshowsof2016showedangeneraldownwardtrendfrom2015,withafewexceptions.First,here′sthenetprofitfromalltheconventionsI′vesoldattodatein2016,withthedifferencefrom2015:Ushicon2016−493 (-238)OwlCon 2016 - 300(didnotattendin2015)VisionCon2016−300 (did not attend in 2015)VisionCon 2016 - 300(didnotattendin2015)VisionCon2016−300 (did not attend in 2015)CoastCon 2016 - 574(+112)TexasFurryFiesta−574 (+112)Texas Furry Fiesta - 574(+112)TexasFurryFiesta−1,354 (+689)TexanCon - 395(didnotattendin2015)AggieCon−395 (did not attend in 2015)AggieCon - 395(didnotattendin2015)AggieCon−335 (-118)CyPhaCon - 699(−401)ChupacabraCon−−699 (-401)ChupacabraCon - -699(−401)ChupacabraCon−−260 (-100)MobiCon - 125(−661)A−Kon−125 (-661)A-Kon - 125(−661)A−Kon−522 (-1413)NOLA Time Fest - 45(didnotattendin2015)So,exceptforMarch,everythingwasdown,performingbelowexpectations.ThebiggestreasonforthisismyT−shirtline,whichhasdroppedsalesgraduallyoverthepasttwelvemonthsandPLUMMETEDinthepasttwomonths−IsoldfewerthanhalfthenumberofshirtsatA−Kon2016Ididin2015,andatMobiconthedropwasTWO−THIRDS.T−shirtsaremylargestprofititem,sowhentheygosouth,sodoesmyincome.Putitanotherway:Ineedabout45 (did not attend in 2015)So, except for March, everything was down, performing below expectations. The biggest reason for this is my T-shirt line, which has dropped sales gradually over the past twelve months and PLUMMETED in the past two months- I sold fewer than half the number of shirts at A-Kon 2016 I did in 2015, and at Mobicon the drop was TWO-THIRDS. T-shirts are my largest profit item, so when they go south, so does my income.Put it another way: I need about 45(didnotattendin2015)So,exceptforMarch,everythingwasdown,performingbelowexpectations.ThebiggestreasonforthisismyT−shirtline,whichhasdroppedsalesgraduallyoverthepasttwelvemonthsandPLUMMETEDinthepasttwomonths−IsoldfewerthanhalfthenumberofshirtsatA−Kon2016Ididin2015,andatMobiconthedropwasTWO−THIRDS.T−shirtsaremylargestprofititem,sowhentheygosouth,sodoesmyincome.Putitanotherway:Ineedabout1000/mth to cover my basic bills, including minimum debt service on my credit cards. This doesn't count non-monthly expenses, like the new stove I need, the four new tires on my van which will be needed imminently, or other issues.Convention sales are about nine-tenths of my total income at the moment, so let's add up the profits above: $4,822 net so far (not counting non-convention business expenses like web hosting, credit card merchant account, etc.). That means, with one convention left in June and nothing confirmed in July until the very end of that month, I'm more than a whole month's worth of bills in the red...... not counting the cost of all the extra merchandise I bought specifically for the last two cons, almost none of which actually sold.So financially I'm in a bind, and I no longer have confidence that things will balance out down the road at other conventions.Furthermore, 2015's success, such as it was, came at the cost of my creative productivity. I was too busy working at conventions or preparing for the next convention to relax enough to WRITE. The most I could do was toss-off little snippets for a crackfic collective project. I struggled to work on Peter is the Wolf, and everything else just fell flat.I've been thinking about Patreon for a long time, but I hadn't wanted to commit to it until Peter is the Wolf Book 2's IndieGoGo project was cleared out. That's taking forever, though. (Book 3 will be handed off to a professional colorist, rather than wait for Ben and his day job to cooperate.) And I don't think I can put off the begging bowl any longer.Now, I've tried offering commissioned writing and soliciting direct donations for my writing before, and with a few exceptions it was a failure. My muse often wouldn't cooperate with the requests of the commissioners. I'm hoping that a bit more maturity, and the Patreon platform, will reverse that trend.If nothing else, I want to be able to relax and write, dammit.So, again, here's the Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/user?ty=h&u=3388493And I really hope this works. |
| Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015 | |
| _11:43 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, June 25th, 2015 | |
| _12:39 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, June 4th, 2015 | |
| _9:16 am_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Friday, April 17th, 2015 | |
| _6:10 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 | |
| _11:09 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, March 18th, 2015 | |
| _11:40 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, January 8th, 2015 | |
| _12:25 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, December 31st, 2014 | |
| _8:33 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014 | |
| _10:25 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
WLP Holiday Sale Continues! WLP Holiday Sale Continues!First, a reminder of what was posted Sunday night.WLP Online Store: **https://wlpcomics.com/shop/**Adults-only Store: **https://wlpcomics.com/sbostore/**10% minimum off all books, games, DVDs, etc. with some things discounted 25%, 33%, 50% and even 80%!20% off ALL T-shirts (and I've just updated http://www.wlpshirts.com/ and http://www.wlpshirts.com/boobs.html with the newest designs)!And 33% off the following four designs... which will get the axe if they don't sell some copies in December!Have You Seen My Time Machine? - http://www.wlpcomics.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=62_71&products_id=666Pimp Dalek - http://www.wlpcomics.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=62_71&products_id=766Epoch Fail - https://wlpcomics.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=62_71&products_id=837Legend Dairy - https://wlpcomics.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=62_71&products_id=839Plus I'll be adding more books, manga, and ESPECIALLY DVDs (including classic Doctor Who stories and some great old-school anime) over the coming week!ADDED MONDAY: the most recent Haruhi Suzumiya manga releases!ADDED TUESDAY: all the Spice & Wolf manga, novels, and the complete DVD/Blu-Ray collection!ALSO ADDED TUESDAY: eleven classic DOCTOR WHO adventures on DVD!TO BE ADDED WEDNESDAY: a bunch of great classic anime hits Kris Overstreet loves and thinks you should own!Orders need to be placed by December 15th if you want them for Christmas delivery.I need to reduce some inventory and get cash for the lean winter months- so please keep checking the online stores and shopping WLP! |
| Sunday, November 30th, 2014 | |
| _7:34 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 | |
| _8:47 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, July 31st, 2014 | |
| _9:30 am_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 | |
| _8:34 am_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 | |
| _11:40 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, June 5th, 2014 | |
| _8:50 am_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Thursday, May 29th, 2014 | |
| _5:22 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
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| Sunday, May 18th, 2014 | |
| _9:43 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
Four shirts soon to be cancelled... OK- just spent the evening putting together a bunch of ad bids on Project Wonderful to get people over to the WLP Shirts site. Four out of eight particular designs are going the way of the dodo, and which shirt gets the axe will depend on their sales numbers come January 1. Go check 'em out- and if you're reading this, you can use code GENERIC for a 10% discount on your purchase through the end of the month |
| Wednesday, May 7th, 2014 | |
| _3:54 pm_[redneckgaijin] |
PitW Book 2 Release Delayed Okay, it's time to face up to it: we're not even close to sending PitW Book 2, either version, to the printers. That means we simply won't have them in time for Project: A-Kon 2014.Ben and I are both very sorry about this.The main reason for the delay is that Ben still has a day job, PLUS weekly updates of PitW (which has been two-page updates for several months now, hence so many missed updates), PLUS freelance work for Palladium Press and other outlets. He simply hasn't had all that much time or energy to devote to bringing the Book 2 pages up to print quality.To speed things up we're adding more manpower to the problem. I'm going to be doing re-lettering work (resizing word balloons smaller for the print version) on all pages that don't need any further touching up. Ben has got a friend of his to do toning work on some of the other pages. Hopefully this combination will get things into high gear and allow us to get the book printed around Labor Day for a release at Anime Weekend Atlanta...... but this time I'm making no promises.Instead I'm doing this: |
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