Another Day in Flint

I just got Sue set up in the Flint Etsy Handmade show downtown Flint. I need to get Sue to take a couple of Pics of the event and her set-up. Hold on while I switch and e-mail her. Still there? Ah, good. Lets see if she picks up the message.

I know that our town has a reputation, but its not so bad, well, not for an aftermath city anyway. I was surprised at how many people had come out of their rubble piles to check out the show. They seemed to be a nice young, well armed group. It should be interesting.

Actually the crime rate has been dropping radically here in Flint for the past few years. Personally I think its because people stopped coming to our town and we are just short of targets. Which reminds me, whose coming to visit? This has nothing to do with anything, but I need to renew my hunting license.

OK, while Sue is at work I have a chance to really go wild. I think I'll start by catching up the dishes and then move on to a rousing round laundry. Now thats some crazy stuff. Maybe I'll get a chance to squeeze in a couple more pages of the Gatekeeper comic as well.

Need a break to Think

Why does everything seem to take forever to get done? I'm back to working on getting the old Gatekeeper Comic up on-line.

I've worked out a better navigation set up. The cover page will have the pages all listed to the left. The other pages will just navigate through to the end. It will allow you to go back to the start and page through. It works best on the cover page because that page is longer.

I'm also trying to get a better Ad set-up on the pages. Sue wants to do comics again and that presents me with "issues". Doing comics as a cottage business is tricky. There just isn't a distribution system for us, and besides, we like doing it ourselves. Not the brightest way to work, but we like it that way. We may well be able to assemble it all into a LuLu book at some point, but that comes later. What I have to do is get Ads integrated into the pages to try to create a revenue stream for this type of work. At the same time I want to try to get people to our own Cafepress store. That means getting new "comicish" items done to entice people into buying.

I am hopeful that you guys out there will help get people to our comic pages as Ad revenue needs a lot of people looking and a few using the Ads. The more viewers we get the larger the "few" becomes.

While I do this html work I am taking a break from our growing Rex Stout audible books to review to my old Mark's Mysteries podcasts. I want to get back to doing them and I have a growing plotline building in my brain.

OK, Back to work.

I find myself wondering how

I find myself wondering how to divide my blogging entries. The purposes of blogging is many fold, at least, it is for me. If you have any thoughts to add, please do.

First, I want to keep in touch with the people I know. I have friends from across the country and I enjoy reading their blogs as to what is happening. It gives me the feeling that I am staying in touch without interfering with their lives by taking up unwanted time. I have a number of personal blogs that I follow. If you want to let me know about your blog drop me a note at markharmon@mac.com. Intrinsic with this I want to keep interested people up on my life, which is here at my Daily Blog.

Second, I want to pass on our game data. That is DS, Prismatics, Tark, unnamed and Furzz at this point. There is just too much in our brains and not enough out there for you guys. The way I enjoy the most is to do podcasts. I feel better doing the "bardic" tradition than I do writing, and I like it. If I'm not enjoying these things then why do them? I have started using the LJ Journal for the primary release point for DS, but what do I do with the rest? I am nibbling away at a Core rules system for new games and I want to find a place to discuss those that makes sense. I can use help making sure they are clear. I am thinking I'll do that over at the Mark's Madness blog.

If you are confused, as I am, about where our "stuff" is you can find a page of our links right about here. I think of it as the central Empire of links.


Right now my mind has started to wander, so I will work on this again for the next post. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them, comment, comment, comment.

What the heck do you people want to see/read/hear?

Travels of Kit

I got going and when I finished putting up two more pages on the Gatekeeper Comic I saw that Sue had sent me descriptions for the first four pages of The Travels of Kit. Well, I couldn't resist. So, if you go to myonlinecomics, check for the picture and link to the Travels of Kit

Tuesday, Paperwork Daze

It is tuesday and my primary duty is to do the business paperwork for the week. Since the Post Office was closed yesterday I also need to make a shipping run.

I am, once again working on the DS Market. It is tricky to change the old one as it is an integrated unit and does not lend itself to piecemeal updating. That means I can't just "flip" a switch and replace a piece at a time. On the positive side I finally have a format for the pages that I like. The main page highlights the cards for a category (Cast is done and here.) and allows linking to the individual pages with larger pictures. I am setting up each of the card pages to be able to browse through them directly without returning to the main page. That also means adding the appropriate buying code to each card page as well.

The new format is also being done as individual pieces so they can be updated one at a time. That will be better....

I got a couple more web pages done on the Gatekeeper Comic within Our Comic Site.

I am also slowly adding more images to Susan's art site. I redid the central links piece and added the "archive" section for older works. I have found the disk with Sue's original DS works and I'm integrating them in. After those I'll add the LR5 and Jyhad art I found. For the Magic followers I put many of Susan's Magic the Gathering Proofs up on E-Bay for sale.

I am hoping to work on a site index for the comics so you can go to specific pages in the site and I had problems sleeping last night so I got a nice chunk of the Features pages done.

Just Working

I am distracting myself from Troubles death by getting some work done that needs doing.

I have gotten our e-bay store rebuilt, now I need to get the Magic Art Proofs up there. The Link to the e-bay store is here.

I am also planning to get the next few pages of the Gatekeeper comic up today. Hopefully the Template will allow this to be fairly easy. I will stick the comic link in right about here. I need to get a site map built for the site so you can go to particular pages.

Sue is still up north and we are using her iphone and e-mailing to stay in touch. I am surprised at how comforting it is to me to have contact with her. I am also keeping my AIM open (markharmon@mac.com) when I am up and while she is up there, so I am available by that one too.

My Online contacts:
Skype: markeharmon
AIM: markharmon@mac.com
Google Talk: marksmysteries@gmail.com
Jabber: meharmon@livejournal.com
twitter: markellisharmon

At the Ann Arbor Art Market

We are set up and Sue is selling even as I type.

I have just spent my first work session getting the Gatekeeper Online Comic rolling. So, the link is live to the Gatekeeper Comic. And you could follow this link to see it, or finish reading first, it is up to you.

I am going to take a break, visit the restroom, I need a rest. Then I'll get back to working on more comic to get up!

Comics on the way

I have been tied down, but, besides losing 1/2 pound a day, I have been getting some comics prepared for the web.

What is on its way are the early Gatekeeper comics from 1987. I have the first one scanned and parsed to put up on web pages. We even have a domain to put up the comics. My Online Comics is here.

I have a link on the page back to the Accommodations comic and the cover of Gatekeeper is up there.

The comic itself is something I have not looked at in years. The comic is old enough that it started coming apart as I scanned it.

The story itself is actually quite good and it does show where the work on Grandilar was at back in 1986-87.

The new site is where we will be putting the upcoming Prismatics comic that Sue is working on. This also gives us an opportunity to expand our web advertising. It will give us some auxillary income that will be handy as we go forward.

I am hoping to start putting up the comic this weekend, although the convention/outdoor art market in Ann Arbor Sunday may stop that idea. First I have to get on my feet and get Sue to the show.

New Comic

I have posted the Accommodations comic on Sue's website. There is a link on the Master Links page and, of course, It is right here.

This is a new format/layout for a comic we have had up before. Sue is working on comics again and we are working out the format to publish it on line with.

We had a good game sunday night. The characters have discovered an area with "dirty" Valarians. The dirty Valarians are being lead by a Pylos Agent. They now know that the problem goes up the ladder, so no help there. The local Mentor and War Master are with the Pylos/Black Bane team. Their only allies so far are a couple of Valarians who have been waiting for help, marauding orc raiders and the agents of the Necromancer Dyson Brickwall. The local elethay temple is headed by a secret Jikadell Priestess working for Black Bane. One of the acolytes is a Jikadell agent for Dyson Brickwall and is an aide to the characters. All very confusing. If it were not for a heroic blocking move by Iesha, a character would have died. She took the hit that would have finished Tank.

From the outside the characters look like rogue valarians teamed with Dyson Brickwall against the Elethay temple and local Valarians. If they fail to get evidence they will be branded as rogues and booted.