after the dream [potentially triggering]

[operator kos]

I just had a romantic suspense manuscript with a mind control program backstory rejected

Whoa, I had no idea that your story had come along so far that you were sending out submissions! Can I see? Plzplzplz???

And also, thank you for the kind words. I suspect that there has been enough MK stuff in pop culture for the projects we're working on to have a frame of reference for publishers... just gotta tell them "It's kinda like The Manchurian Candidate, and Jason Bourne, and Dollhouse, etc." I bet we can both get something out there if we persevere.

[LilyPatToo]

Well, I intend to keep working to make my 1st manuscript better--2 different online classes on story structure this month and 2 on deconstructing published novels similar to mine last month--the homework is seriously kicking my butt. And I've begun outlining a 2nd story too. My theory is that the best way to circumvent the official media silence on the programs is to get information into the hands of lots and lots of ordinary people. I've fucking given up on the supposedly enlightened intelligentsia ever being capable of even hearing the evidence. Screw 'em. NPR-sanctioned sanitized "family jewels" type revelations are as far out on a limb they seem able to go...and a lot of them don't even go that far.

Like you, I'm setting my stories in the present day, aiming them at everyday folks. And I'm sneaking in painless bits of backstory that refer to the historical programs, so that anyone who cares to can take the key words I provide and learn lots more (a lot of it here, perhaps). My guesses about what a young present day trauma-based multiple survivor would be like are probably more grounded in reality than the ones in the other romantic suspense books I've read, even though they're still speculation. But, unless people get some idea of what's possible and what one of us might look like, we're unlikely to ever see the perps exposed, so fictionalizing the subject matter makes sense to me. Look how many survivors' bios are out there--most self-published--and it becomes more and more urgent to me to try another approach as well. Then perhaps those vital bios will finally be noticed and widely read, the way they deserve to be.

LilyPat

[Project Willow]

Good for you LilyPat.

[operator kos]

http://www.afterthedream.net is up and fully operational! The first chapter is up for all to see, and I'm going to start updating MWF with new pages starting May 2nd.

(shameless promotional plug time)
If any of ya'll would like to help me get the word out, there are a couple of super easy things you could do. First of all, you could visit the site and 'like' it on Facebook. More importantly, however, there are a couple of sites which rank online comics by how many votes they get each month. The higher a comic is ranked, the more visible it is to people who visit those sites (Top Web Comics gets around 63k unique visitors), which is free advertising.

You can vote once per day on each site. You don't need to sign up, but it does log your IP address.


http://topwebcomics.com/vote/12494/default.aspx


http://www.comichovel.com/votein.php?comicid=471

Much thanks again to those of you who have been supportive of this. It's been a long time coming and I'm really happy that it's finally out there.

[LilyPatToo]

Congratulations! I voted at both sites and I hope lots more RIers do it too. The comics world is HUGE (I went to WonderCon yesterday and the big convention center was packed) so if we want this graphic novel to be read by lots of people, we need to vote for it and get it noticed. It looks wonderful, operator kos...I'll see if I can figure out how to link to it on my facebook page tomorrow.

LilyPat

[operator kos]

Regular MWF updates start today. That is all.

[operator kos]

Thought I'd share just a tiny snippet of work that one of the artists got back to me today. I'm really happy with it. It is a painting done by a character in the story who is a recently deprogrammed sex slave.



In other news, feelers are being put out about a potential Bay Area art show featuring pages from AtD along side the amazing artwork of Project Willow and LilyPatToo. Stay tuned...

[LilyPatToo]

That is an *amazing* drawing--!!!

LilyPat

[Project Willow]

In other news, feelers are being put out about a potential Bay Area art show featuring pages from AtD along side the amazing artwork of Project Willow and LilyPatToo. Stay tuned...

Yes, PW, ehem, needs to get off her duff and write the background and show statement bits. Then maybe we could approach venues with this url:

http://lynnschirmer.com/unwanted/

[operator kos]

After the Dream 04
Bad Blood
Part 1 of 3







Also... I'm now starting a collection of links to news stories about human experimentation here: http://www.afterthedream.net/articles.php so if you come across any, or have any good ones bookmarked, please let me know.

[operator kos]

Here's some more recent artwork which I thought folks might appreciate. The actual artist is David Mims, but within the comic they are artwork created by a character named Arin. Arin is a young woman who has only recently become aware that she has been used as a mind controlled sex slave, and that most of what she thought she knew about herself is layers of screen memories.






(a duck in a noose)







This last image was inspired by a piece by Lynn Schirmer:

http://lynnsart.net

[LilyPatToo]

WOW. Those are stunning images! I'll come by later on when I have the time to really look at the details. Amazing work.

LilyPat

[Project Willow]

There are very nice. Shared on Facebook.

[operator kos]

For interested readers:

I'm not sure if I would actually go ahead with this, but I've been contemplating what would happen if I switched from producing full-color pages to black and white ones. Right now I manage to post two new pages per week; the main advantage of going B&W is that I could probably post five new pages per week. I feel like I might lose some readers but gain others. Sometimes the color adds a lot to a page, other times it only adds a little. Examples below. Thoughts?

Here's one where I think the color enhances the image a lot:





Here's one where I think the color only somewhat enhances the image:

[LilyPatToo]

To me, the color adds a lot to any page...but that's just me. Those are beautiful, BTW

LilyPat