So, I am just about ready to print the next prototype. I may have said this elsewhere, but coordinating seventeen books is not easy. The collection consists of seven books, in three editions; the Gnome-sized books, the Big People books, and a three volume set of the Big People books. So all told there are seventeen books. The real challenge is making sure there is consistency in the design and assuring that all corrections and adjustments are present in all the books. Right now I am reviewing the numbering of both the pages and the document files. For now, each page is in it's appropriate file, set up by scenes within the book numbers. I was surprised to find a few sections where the page numbers were not positioned properly. I'm somewhat baffled how that happened, but since I've had to use multiple versions of the layout to reach this final stage, I'm sure that was the culprit. I've entirely changed my method of editing the pages, which basically involves editing the graphic layout and not the originating text layout. When I came up with a method to do that it really simplified my process. The original text files were huge and I suspect they brought about the hard disc failure. It had gotten to the point where I couldn't open the files to edit them, so I switched my methodology.
Well, we have begun working on the art again. We are doing sketches to replace the description panels where we don't have the illustrations. After all the panels have been interpreted with pencil sketches, we will return to refining the sketches, followed by coloring, then processing those illustrations according to the standards that I have used to prepare the illustrations. It's a lot of work. Sometimes I wonder how I got myself into this? I've been working on this since 1997.
Of course, during that time, I wrote the libretto, the lyrics, the music (in partnership), and the Storybooks, not to mention partnering to create the art and the illustration panels. So an awful lot of work has been done. There's more to do.
The music needs more work. There are at least six or seven numbers that have not been orchestrated or arranged. I need to go back and redo the time signatures and the divsi, since I lost six months of work to hard disc failure. And then there is the scoring. I've done drafts of many of the numbers, but they are not good enough to present to a maestro. So that needs to be done.
It's very hard to continue doing all this work without it producing any income. The entire investment has been on me. At this point I'd guess and say it's been at least 500k, probably quite a bit more, considering I work on this every day, a minimum of nine hours a day and I have been doing that for over fifteen years.
Thankfully, the technical layout is, literally, hours away from being finished. That in itself is a major accomplishment. But even with that, the details of advancing this project can be overwhelming.
So, that being said, as I've said before, I'm wanting to find a literary agent to advance this while I take a break to put my vehicles back together. It unbelievable the amount of projects that have been pushed aside to finish these books and frankly, they are more than just catching up to me, the unfinished projects are becoming a problem. But I keep myself entirely focused on The Gnomes of New Hope nonetheless.
But really, I need a break. I just can't do it, unless this goes to the next level of business with an agent, or partners for The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture, or The Gnomes of New Hope Productions, or IMS Management, or an assortment of licensing for merchandising, like Gnome Gnog.
So that's the skinny on the Gnomes of New Hope.
Let me know if you want to jump in.
