What with the lack of conventions this summer I’ve been able to focus on finalizing the Complete Season Two release for Professor Odd, and now I am hugely excited to announce that the Kickstarter is ready and will go live tomorrow, September 13th! The campaign will support the launch and promotion of Season Two, with any extra funds being put toward the release of Season Three. I am also offering some extra special rewards exclusive to the Kickstarter. If you’ve never read Professor Odd—even if you’ve never read a thing I’ve written—this is a great place to start, as you can get Season One as an eBook or paperback through the Kickstarter.
So check out the pre-launch page and follow along! I’ve had a lot of fun writing and illustrating these stories, and my goal is to share that fun with as many people as possible. Even pledging a dollar helps, and it’ll get you an inside look at the making of the book and the process of bringing it to publication. You can also help by spreading the word, and by “the word” I mean this link:
(That will redirect to the campaign once it goes live.)
The campaign will run until Sunday, October 4th, with the goal of having the rewards distributed in time for Christmas. I hope you’ll come along for the ride!
Lucena Clarian Ashmoor has never hatched a feathered serpent from an egg. She has never befriended a sombulus—a monster that looks like a giant spider, eats darkness, and likes reading books. She has never ridden a magic horse. She has spent all her life with relatives who would prefer she were elsewhere, and so sent her away to the nastiest school imaginable. There she has been bullied, and told so many times that she was dumb and fat and useless that she almost came to believe it. She has never been popular, and never done anything remotely heroic.
All this changes the night a vampire attacks her school and Lucena is tumbled into a world wider, darker, more magical and more mysterious than any she could have imagined. Here she will find the forgotten egg, meet the shade-eating spider, ride the black mare with coal-fire eyes, fight vampires, dance with fairies, and find—in time—that she might be a hero after all.
Friends, the project we have been hard at work on for the past year is finally coming to fruition! Please enjoy the first look at the cover for Goldeen Ogawa’s newest book: Lucena in the House of Madgrin.
Set in the same universe as The Adventures of Bouragner Felpz but in a different place and time, Lucena in the House of Madgrin follows a young girl on an extraordinary adventure into a mysterious, magical underworld filled with marvelous monsters both good and evil. It is set to release in late June/early July in paperback and eBook.
For blazing hot updates follow us on Twitter or sign up to receive announcements via email by sending us a note.
The online shop has been remodeled and is now accepting orders! You can peruse prints, books, cards, stickers and charms and order with your credit card, Google Pay and Apple Pay, and from now until March 21 (that’s this coming Saturday) you can get free shipping on any order, anywhere, using the code FORK-COVID . Happy browsing!
Also to note: my next confirmed convention, Biggest Little FurCon, recently announced that due to the pandemic they are rescheduling for Halloween weekend, October 29 – November 1, and I will be there! But if you were hoping to get something from me earlier, well—that’s what the online shop is for. I truly appreciate every order, however small.
If you’re not in the mood to acquire more material artifacts, you may consider joining my Patreon, where you can get access to behind-the-scenes sketches, progress pictures, and stories. You’ll also be the first to see new drawings from my Valdelluna series, and get new eBook releases as soon as they are available. Head on over to patreon/GoldeenOgawa to join.
But most of all, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and stay healthy!
After a lovely holiday season, Heliopause Productions will be kicking off the new year with a trip to California for Further Confusion in San Jose, January 16-20 at the McEnery Convention Center and Adjoining Hotels. I’ll have a table in the Dealer’s Room with my usual assortment of goods as well as three whole panels in the Art Show. This will be a special exhibit featuring the entire cast of my Planet Horse series, including two new ponies completed in the last month!
Program wise I am hosting a Physical Wellness for Creatives workshop on Sunday, 1p to 2:30p, in the Guadalupe room (Marriott), and I’ll be doing a reading on Friday, 3p to 4:30p, on something called the Hilton Stage/Almaden Ballroom which makes me think it might be a very large room so please everyone bring a friend I will do funny voices and a Q/A afterwards it’ll be great.
I’m bringing a couple new book titles and two new prints to the table this year, which will be a half table so hopefully everything will fit! I’m sharing with Corgilegs at table 76 in Dealer’s Room East, right next to my buddy Moth Monarch. I’ll have my full selection of prints, books, cards, stickers, charms and other goodies, and—yes—I’ll be open for at-con commissions, too!
In addition to Bouragner Felpz Volume III and Driving Arcana Wheel 2, I’m excited to bring prints of two new Planet Horses—even though neither of them are, technically, planets. Oh well.
Sol, the sun horse, will be available as a print from my table, and the original will be on display at the art show. However, it will not be for sale as someone has already claimed him.
Ceres, the miniature/dwarf planet horse, will also be in the art show, but you can bid on her if you like! And I’ll have prints of her at my table, too.
All in all I’m hoping for a fun show and a good start to 2020. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!
What do you do when the supernatural world crashes—suddenly, violently, devastatingly—into yours? If you are Jill Hamilton, you drop out of UC Santa Cruz, use your inherited savings to hire a couple monster hunters as bodyguards, get in your dead boyfriend’s truck, and you go out and study it. Of course. Even if your bodyguards tell you some things are better left un-studied. Even if unicorns are real and bloodthirsty. Even if summoning old, forgotten gods has detrimental effects on the state of reality. Because beyond killing monsters and helping people, Jill Hamilton wants to understand why the world she thought she knew is actually so much deeper, darker, and downright magical than it has any right to be.
Welcome to the world of Driving Arcana, where even the painfully boring and mundane aspects of everyday life are underlaid by a subtle current of inexplicable magic, and three women are on a mission to find out how it all works. Even if two of them would really rather not.
Wheel 2 of Driving Arcana, Paving the Road to Hell follows Wheel 1, By Moon and Star. It collects all the stories from Rotations Four, Five and Six, and adds “The Five Bodies of Tamerlain Pierce” at the end, which serves as a link between this Wheel and the next.
Corianne Birch has come out of retirement to prove once again that no hand is as adept as hers at dramatizing the adventures of Bouragner Felpz. Although when one’s subject is an immortal magician whose adventures involve giant eagles and magical wolves, arcane murders, dead gods, and otherworldly visitors, there is less need for dramatization and more for a steady, clear voice full of wit and humor—which Birch provides with assured skill. All who despaired of ever reading more tales of Felpz at the conclusion of Volume II must rejoice at this third installment, which presents three scintillating short novels published together for the first time. It also includes the special addition of an introduction written by Felpz himself, and a never-before-seen short story from a surprising new perspective.
It’s been a great summer here at Heliopause Productions: we had a fantastic AnthroCon and got to attend Comic-Con San Diego and we’ve just finished up our semi-annual “publishing week” in the brilliant, rain-soaked August. (Seriously, there’s been like one fire near us this year. It’s amazing.)
Moving onwards, we have two shows this fall. First is Rose City ComicCon over the volcanoes in Portland, Oregon. We’ll be in the Artist Alley at table R-09—same place as last year! Second is IlluxCon in Reading, Pennsylvania. It’s our first time to IlluxCon and we’ll be in the Artist Showcase Friday and Saturday nights.
Both events will feature a full complement of prints, charms, books and more, but IlluxCon will also get to see a selection of the interior illustrations for Bouragner Felpz, Professor Odd, and the yet-to-be released Lucena in the House of Madgrin.
And while they might not be ready for Rose City, Bourganer Felpz Volume III and Driving Arcana Wheel 2 will be coming out in eBook and paperback very, very soon!
For quick updates and announcements be sure to follow our Twitter, or join our mailing list by emailing heliopauseweb@gmail.com with “Join list” in the subject line. You can also specify which topics you want updates on by putting “Books” “Conventions” and/or “Commissions” in the body, or just say “hi” to get updates on everything.
All Jill Hamilton wants is to apply the scientific method to studying supernatural phenomena, but first she must content with her own supernatural dilemma: the slow decay of her body from an overdose of angelic radiation. Left to her own devices as her bodyguards, Selene and Clara, help a desperate character from Selene’s past, Jill discovers the answer may be much closer—and much more drastic—than anyone could have imagined.
Driving Arcana: Rotation Six continues the saga of Jill, Clara and Selene as they contend with rogue werewolves, vindictive vampires, and a mythological figure so ancient and powerful even the vampires are at her mercy. It includes the third and final rotation of Driving Arcana, Wheel 2:
Biggest Little FurCon was a blast—some of the nicest attendees I’ve ever had the pleasure dealing to—and you can read the full writeup over on the Goldeen Ogawa blog. I do hope we can go back again in 2020!
Even though it’s still weeks away, AnthroCon is looming large on my horizon. I have a few new prints and am working hard to get a couple new eBook cards ready in time. I think I will have a pretty strong table this year, made even stronger by the return of my Wonderful Mother as my volunteer muscle—I mean table assistant. But also muscle. Turns out swinging kettlebells is a great way to train for setting up a vendor table!
This year I have the pleasure of an actual mascot! Please meet Astrhopi, the Heliopause Chimera and the newest addition to my Kimaerhaic family. Astrhopi loves stories, art, and skipping around the theoretical boundary between the heliosphere and the interstellar media. I’ll have prints of her for sale, and she’ll be decorating my table in the form of a brand new runner.
I’m also bringing in some new (old) prints that I haven’t had in stock for a few years. First of these are my series of Elemental Horsies. Ignis, Aura, Aqua and Terra were originally done on commission, and I added Ligno (wood) and Ferro (metal) to complete the sextet.
For the first time as a true-size (9″x12″) print, I have my Lady in Black painting. This will be a metallic print, since I used metallic gold acrylics for the halo. I like to joke that this is my “woman in front of circle” painting… except that the woman in question is a California Condor. Condors are amazing birds and the Californians continue to haul themselves back from the brink of extinction. Atta-girl!
Another 9″x12″ mettalic print, Gildenvern was originally a watercolor with real gold leaf. The original sold long ago, but now you can get him as a true-size print—complete with a shiny signature.
It’s not just prints: I’ll have eBook cards for Driving ArcanaRotations Four and Five and Driving Arcana: By Moon and Star so you can get caught up on all the Arcana shenanigans. I’ll also have limited print copies of By Moon and Star for those who like something more tangible to hold.
I will also be accepting a limited number of both Artist Choice and Custom commissions on Friday and Saturday, with an Artist Choice special (TBA) on Sunday.
Pencil Sketch
Brush Pen Study
Finished Pencil Drawing
Fine Inked Piece
My prices for regular Artist Choice and Custom work, for at-con only, are as follows:
Artist Choice on a 9″x12″ sheet of bristol or equivalent Sketchbook:
Extra detail such as wings, complex markings or costumes, specific and/or complex backgrounds, and additional characters will raise the cost of custom commissions. Prices above are for a single reasonably simple character with little-to-no background. You can always ask for a free, no-obligation estimate!
Perhaps what I’m most excited about is something I’m doing more for other artists than for myself. I’d been thinking of doing a badge ribbon—like the kind people collect and stack under their convention badge like long, glittering trails—specifically for people who bid on art in the art show, for over a year now—and this year I finally got around to designing and ordering just such a ribbon.
You see, I love Art Shows in concept: we artists go hang our work, people buy it, and about a month later we get a check. The con does a wonderful thing by giving us display space and handling the monetary transactions, and people get an opportunity to buy originals.
Unfortunately, in practice I rarely sell anything through the art show, and while a lot of people have legitimate reasons for not bidding (such as, “I do not have that many dollars in my bank account” or “I have nowhere to hang that picture”) I’m always disappointed when people say “Oh, I would have loved to buy something, but I didn’t know there was an Art Show!“
This is the worst. I think there are some things that can only be fixed on the con-end (blazing neon signs posted at every doorway flashing the hours of the art show too much to ask? Probably too much to ask…) but I figured it couldn’t help to do a little bit on my end to promote the show, to encourage people to bid—and show my appreciation to people who do bid. So without further ado, let me tell you about the…
Named for the Florentine dynasty that promoted such artists as Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, and bankrolled the invention the piano, opera, and the construction of my favorite cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore, the Medici Achievement can be unlocked simply by bidding on a piece in the AnthroCon Art Show. To get the ribbon, all you need do is make a note of which piece you bid on (artist name and piece title) and the amount you bid (which you should do anyway) and present this information along with your badge number to either myself or my assistant at the Heliopause Productions table. You may be able to get one from other dealers/artists or even art show staff, but I have not made formal arrangements as of yet.
Fine print: only on ribbon per bidder per show. There is no official penalty for recipients who provide false info to fraudulently collect a ribbon but c’mon guys we’re artists we can get super creative with our methods of retribution do not test us.
AnthroCon will be held at the David L Lawrence Convention Center in beautiful (yes, really!) Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, July 5-7. I will be present behind the Heliopause Productions table located at D17 in the Dealer’s Den Friday thru Sunday, except for a break Friday at 4 p.m. when I go do my Mapping Your Imagined World panel until 5. I will also be holding a reading on Saturday at 9 p.m., with a brief Q&A to follow. I hope to see you there!
