Year so far.

Wow! So far 2013 has been a pretty big year.

Let's start with the biggest piece of news. The first Emotobook I have illustrated with Grit City Publications officially released for sale on February 1st! This is huge to me, completely wonderful. The story reads like a sci-fi horror and will keep you hooked. It's an EmotoSingle which means it's a one off and not part of a series. Which is cool to me because sometimes you don't have time to get caught up in a whole series especially if it's still ongoing. Here's the summary and some links for purchasing if this adventure captures your attention:

Tabaka

For years, Sarah Dayer endured physical and mental abuse from a hard-charging drunk of a fiancé in a sleepy Ohio town. In a moment of self-preservation, she made the drastic decision to flee the only life she’d ever known, despite her fiance’s promise to kill her if she ever returned. After reinventing herself as an ER nurse, an unwelcome horror threatens to destroy her new life.

On her way to work, Sarah witnesses a bloody highway accident. While using her medical skills to assist a young pregnant woman pinned by her malfunctioning seatbelt, an overbearing metaphysical force implants itself in Sarah’s body. What begins as a blessing of irresistible sex appeal and the ability to perform medical miracles soon turns into a struggle of control for Sarah’s very existence.

In this Emotobook single of self-discovery, fate, and personal sacrifice, TABAKA takes the reader on an emotional journey of impossible mental trials, moral decisions, and honorable heroics. 

Barnes & Noble (Nook book)

Amazon (Kindle edition)

Smashwords (multiple formats including PDF)

Author - Jason Bryant's blog

Editor - Rebecca Hoffman's blog

Grit City has all kinds of cool extras as well. Like requests for Autograph cards signed by the author, illustrator, etc. and EmotoSwag from Cafe Press which feature either the cover or one of the illustrations from inside that I created. It is such a fun and creative process to illustrate for Emotobooks because it is something that is not being done anywhere else.

Another lovely thing that passed just a day after my debut illustrator release was one of my very best friend's 22nd birthday. She is exactly one month and one day older than me and we've been friend's since elementary school. Second grade to be exact. It's really amazing to be able to know and actually get along with someone for that long. I send my darling Sam birthday love and wishes for every year to be better than the last.

There are a lot of birthdays coming up in March as well, including my own, but I'm really not a big fan of birthdays except to have an excuse to hang out with awesome friends.

I miss the city, but it has certainly been too busy the last few months to give it more than a thought. Here
in West Virginia it has decided not to have it's massive snow until after December. I took a short trip to Georgia earlier in January to try and avoid it, but I think someone told God and he saved up a good bit to dump on my head when I came back. I've been snowed in more than once, but I'm hoping to get home soon so I can start working on art again.

Lastly I'd like to say just a little something (because my whole Tumblr will just be about this for the next few days) about Fall Out Boy coming off of their hiatus. A lot of people aren't fans or just don't give a shit, but this band is really important to me. There is one band that got me through high school and life now, there is one band who taught me about who I am and who I want to be, and there is one band who did both. That's Fall Out Boy. I won't go into specifics as to why because there are too many reasons and it would take too much time. But imagine the band that meant that to you essentially reuniting (because technically they never broke up) and giving you new music/video, tour dates, and an album release date all on a Monday before noon. I was riding on clouds all day. Now my only worry is will I have to chose between seeing them or going to Warped Tour!

This might be my longest original post ever and I hope that this is preview of the rest of a great year yet to come.

Darcy Lynn

My debut Emotobook as Illustrator

I'm very excited to say that my first illustrating job with Grit City has now been completed! The Emotobook Single (what you might call a one-shot) is called Tabaka.

This EmotoSingle will be released in February, 2013.

Here's the author, Jason D. Bryant's , blog on it!

I began writing my 1st book back in 1998, simply giving a concept an idea. In 2000, the idea grew and I gathered personal real life experience to the book idea, thus creating an outline. It was here I learned that full length novels were not going to be my forte but instead, short stories were my ticket. By 2002, the book was well underway with a cover, a title, a concept, a fluid arrangement of consecutive short stories that interlinked, and a series of plots that fed off each story. The book was called BLOODDAY. In 2005, I finished it, and put it on a shelf in a manuscript box until 2009. I loved it but was embarrassed by it for it never saw the light of a real editor. In late 2010, I put the book on Amazon.com for the Kindle and I sold 13 copies. I removed it in 2011, again embarrassed for even putting it online.

I loved each story and I liked the unique way each story tells the entire book, like ores in a canoe, guiding the book along. What I was most embarrassed about was simple: me. I write as passion; a hobby, for fun. I can write anything and I can say, “I like this.” Someone else’s opinion is a different story! If John Doe from The Windy City says, “You’re book sucks.”, I wouldn’t care. I would smile, thank him for reading it, and be on my way to write some more, hopefully better. But if some famous author said that, I admit, I’d be in the corner re-enacting The Fly crying, “Heeelp Me! Heeelp ME!” I didn’t go to college to be a writer, nor have I taken any creative writing courses. Just College Comp I & II, that’s it.

I began helping others with their stories, ideas, overview, drafts, concepts, illustrations, directions, and projects; completely ignoring my own. But then, in the midst of discovering Twitter, I met someone. A ‘THE WALKING DEAD’ fan who also is an editor: Alexis Jenny, and she told me about Grit City Publications and what they do. A month later, I submitted all 7 stories from BLOODDAY and another short story to them, just to see what they thought, nothing thinking any of the 8 would be liked. To my complete surprise, they accepted 5 of the 8 to be formed into Emotobooks! I never saw this coming!!!

I’m proud to say that after under a year of learning the company’s mission goal, discovering what an Emotobook is (which is the future of eBooks, ladies and gentlemen), and the incredible production staff, I am proud to announce that all my 10 years of hobby writing short stories, wrestling episodes, and project building with other authors has FINALLY paid off, and in a BIG WAY! With the powerful help of my editor Rebecca M. Hoffman, the Grit City Publishing CEO Ron Gavalik, and the newest illustrator to the company Darcy Lynn, my debut Emotobook TABAKA will be hitting eReaders world-wide!

Click this link to learn about Grit City Publications from Pittsburg PA, Emotobooks, all the Emotobook authors :http://www.gritcitypublications.com/Grit_City_Publications/Emotobooks.html

But as for what TABAKA is about begins with a question for you: If you were able to have perfect posture, self-healing capabilities, scar free and unblemished skin, uncontrollable pheromones, be ageless for decades, and be completely desirable to anyone; what would you sacrifice about yourself to have such a life? Your dignity? Your morals? Your soul? And what if you had no choice but to subdue to this lifestyle under restraint, forced to be attractive and beautiful for people were your meal ticket to perfection, as well as your meal itself? How would you live? How would you cope? Well, meet Sarah Dayer.

An ageless and pompous creature named TABAKA inhabits itself into Sarah Dayer for the rest of her life, offering her everything she needs to exist like no other human. What would be considered medical gifts, such as being physically flawless and immune to all diseases, Sarah finds these so-called miracles as bounded traps to keep Its existence inside her body. After a year of dealing with Tabaka’s existence, and after self-analyzing everything she’s ever learned about It, she believes she knows the way to remove It from the world before it can cause the living nightmare of Tabaka to exist in someone else. (TABAKA, the debut Emotobook from Grit City Publications written by Jason D. Bryant, edited by Rebecca M Hoffman, and illustrated by Darcy Lynn; coming January 2013!)

Propel Your Creativity Forward and Achieve Financial Success

Propel Your Creativity Forward and Achieve Financial Success by

Ron Gavalik

As a publisher and marketing professional, I’ve always found it vitally important to ensure creative professionals possess the correct tools to market their work to the right kinds of audiences. I’ve enjoyed a long and fruitful career ensuring the success of businesses, but also multiple fields in the arts. I take a lot of pride in sharing that learned experience with others.

Unfortunately, I’ve met so many creative people who honestly believe they’ll never make a secure living by pouring passion into their work. That kind of cynicism is sad and frustrating, especially when I know for a fact that it’s not true. We all require housing and plumbing to sustain life, but it’s creativity that gives our lives purpose…and talented creators perform a necessary function in our society. It’s my job to make sure they earn a high middle-class income.

That’s why our team assembled Financial Success for Creative Professionals, the first of its kind marketing plan that’s guaranteed to drive your long-term success.

In the modern era, writers, artists, performers, models, photographers, musicians, and crafters face two real challenges when it comes to selling their creative products and performances. The first is contending with an oversaturation in the market, where so many indie creators are now selling their work to the masses. The second and more important challenge is gaining the marketing knowledge to break through the chaos and build a significant fan base that leads to achieving a secure revenue stream.

Because of the oversaturation, consumers are only willing to invest about 5 to 10 seconds viewing a creative product or performance on a website or at a tradeshow. If they’re intrigued, they’ll stay longer to absorb more of the experience and begin to build what’s referred to as an emotional investment. That happens when something about the product or performance you created pleases the sensory pathways of the brain and a person is compelled to become part of the experience, such as making a purchase.

On the other hand, if the consumer doesn’t emotionally identify with your work in a few heartbeats, they’ll navigate away from your website or walk away from your booth. Their psychology will register your product or performance as a negative experience and you’ll never see them again.

In that brief 5 to 10 second moment, the potential fan stands on the shore of a river while your work sits on the other side. You must persuade the consumer into building a bridge (emotional investment) to cross the river and then obtain your creation. That’s no easy feat, but when we understand how to brand a creation and then present it properly to potential fans, it’s easy to achieve the needed connections with hundreds of thousands of consumers.

How do we do this? Exposure. The marketing plan shows us how to attract the right kinds of consumers, referred to as target audiences. These targets must be exposed to a properly branded product or performance over and over again for their minds to build the bridge across the river and purchase your work.

Financial Success for Creative Professionals provides you the tools to drive hundreds of thousands of target consumers to your creations. You’ll also gain the ability to brand your work in a unique category that eliminates competition. It’s that created perception of your work that raises you above the chaos of so many indie writers, artists, musicians, and performers in the world.

The marketing plan is delivered to you in five-parts to achieve long-term success. You’re walked through expert marketing theory as it applies to the arts. You’ll construct your public marketing structure. The plan then drives your media marketing initiatives to win support of social media followers, the news media, and others. You’ll diversify income from multiple sources into your one checking account. Don’t worry; it’s not that complex. You’re given easy to follow checklists for daily, weekly, and monthly initiatives that respects your artistic time. That’s the guaranteed formula that will achieve you the true success your passion deserves.

Now that you’ve been given a glimpse of the proven marketing plan, it’s my hope that you’ll take your creative career seriously and allow your work to raise the quality of life in potential fans around the world. If you pour your passions into each project or performance, you must propel your career to the next level, realize your full potential and achieve success.

Let’s make it happen.

Good hunting.

Ron Gavalik’s Bio:

Ron Gavalik is the author of Financial Success for Creative Professionals and has over 20 years of celebrated experience in corporate and creative marketing. This former Director of Communications has assisted private, nonprofit, and artistic organizations achieve success through grassroots experience marketing initiatives. Gavalik is currently the Publisher for Grit City Publications and creator of the innovative Emotobooks fiction medium. He holds a B.S. in Marketing Communications from Point Park University and an M.A. in Writing from Seton Hill University. His work in the arts has shaped success for countless creative professionals who seek financial independence.

I'M AN ARTIST DAMNIT

Finally! The first illustrating project I am in involved with has been published. It's a marketing guide for creative types.

If you have the artistic genius then this will help you get your work out there. I'm talking musician, artist, writer, you name it. If you want to be more business savvy this will help too.

Have your own creative success!

The paycheck was small, but I have to start somewhere. Plus, if I sell any copies I get a small percent as well. So I'm going to be a mindless sell out and beg you all to check it out. I'm a starving artist here! No, seriously. Who hid all the Ramen?

Maybe one day I'll be able to do exactly and only the type of work I want to do, but for now I'll shamelessly self sell and beg until I can. I want it that bad.

My next project will be illustrating an EmotoSingle! More news on that to come, but I can tell you I'm just getting started and it's really fun!

With love for you all,
Darcy

The First Post

An afternoon post to get this thing started, perhaps. Here's what you need to know;
My name is Darcy and I'm into art. You probably guessed that though. I live in a pretty great city, Pittsburgh, PA. I am going to be graduating this fall with a Digital Design degree from the Art Institute here in Pittsburgh.

While art is what I do and love, the most important part of my life is music. So you will most likely see a blog or two about that.

I also love to read. Alot. Since I was a kid and my parents read to me, I loved books. If you love to read you know how great it feels to start exploring the new world that they offer. Which is why it is great to me to get the chance to find a new great medium in the book world called Emotobooks.

Grit City Publications has started this wonderful revolution and I'm glad to be a part of it. If you enjoy reading fiction and art you will want to check this out. They're small for now, but expect many more titles to come. Join the Emotobook revolution!

I hope to expand this blog, but for now I have the other many social media sites such as;
Facebook

Twitter

DeviantArt (where I do my main free lance from)

and a newly acquired Pintrest, which seems pretty cool.

Did I miss anything?