Project Updates

This is just a rambling update.

Mill Avenue Vexations editing and preparation continues apace. The comic should be coming out next year as it’s 1/3^rd lettered and completed and more panels are coming in weekly. All five next volumes are 95% done and artwork is 90% completed. We are in the middle of the editing phase. Should be pretty exciting. Especially with the favorable reviews in Web Fiction Guide.

Helljammer has the teaser site and a few short stories and series are being written up for hype. It will depend largely on funding and advertising to hopefully support a web comic and a novel. People who would like to be part of the launch of Helljammer are welcomed to provide suggestions and contact information.

People eager to see more about Helljammer can visit the Non-theist Nexus Webzine and see a short story from the series published there: Red Cross’d Bones.

Even beyond these there are still more projects I am working on including a suburban fairy tale novel.

Magick is in the air. Wait and see!

Helljammer Teaser Site

What is this page?

www.helljammer.com

You are probably here because you found the Helljammer teaser site. Which I have rather kept out of the limelight because it’s only one page at the moment. However, just for grins it was submitted to a couple search engines just so that it’d be indexed while things were being set up.

A “helljammer” is the returned incarnation of a seagoing vessel doomed at sea—yes, undead pirates are involved—some of these ships were merchantmen, some were from various navies or privateers for queen and country, and none too few were pirates. The truth of the matter is that no single naval superpower of the time (the mid 1700s) understands what leads to the resurrection of a sunk ship as a helljammer. Only that often it’s those who perished into dark waters during particularly violent battles that tend to do so.

No helljammer has ever been friendly to any other living ship, nor claimed fealty to any empire after its return—save one. By in large, helljammers have a healthy disrespect and dislike for all other boats on the water and are a hazard more terrifying than even ordinary pirates. Even navy flotillas and armadas are hard pressed to repel a single helljammer. Port towns often do better, having far thicker walls and often outgunning the ghost ships by wide margins.

The HMH Queen’s Salvation is a British navy ship-of-the-line destroyed during an ambush by Spanish forces. Upon her return she sailed directly into the nearest British port flying a union jack and white ensign—much to the terror of the wharfsmen and navy stationed there—and sent for the Captain of the Yard. In such her crew and captain re-swore their undying, now literally, allegiance to the Queen.

The story, Helljammer: The Hunt for the Burning Sails, is a tale of romantic revenge. It follows the military commission of Captain Nickolas Edgeworth as he chases the helljammer that destroyed his home port of call—killing his family—to the ends of the Earth, to the edges of Hell, and into a conspiracy far more vast than he ever expected his naval career to thrust him.

The actual story will be released as a serialized webnovel starting sometime in the Summer of 2009. And, if I am very lucky, will have a supporting webcomic.

I hope you enjoyed the teaser,

Kyt Dotson