Nonbinary fairy tales in English & Romanian by Ava Kelly, illustrated by Matthew Spencer - Watch Ava Kelly Reading on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgRolBYSy5Q
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Happy New Year, Alia Terra friends! (There are things going on.)
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Jan 02, 2022 at 08:09:54 AM
Happy New Year! Emily here, with some very exciting updates. (They are exciting to me, perhaps to you also.)
First things first: I sent a similar update to the backers of three Kickstarter campaigns, so if you got this one, two, or three times it means you are very awesome.
Times are tough for us also, but I am feeling my optimism (slash determination) about this year, and I want to show you our amazing release schedule. We are going to do this.
Alia Terra News
I mean, everything is going perfectly. Can I say that? The book looks amazing (in digital, I haven't seen it in print yet), we have the coolest blurb from Bogi Takács, the hoards are going to be so special, and we have surprises. One of these surprises is that one of our backers has donated a custom Alia Terra story by Ava Kelly to share with the world.
And we have a release date! (Ta da!) We will formally release Alia Terra on retail platforms 01 March 2022 - Mărțișor! (I normally avoid this many exclamation marks, but whatever, I'm excited.)
Emily News
Ok, I don't need my own section, except I want to show you my new logo, so I'm doing it. I have a logo! 😀 And it is illustrated by, yes, the amazing Matthew Spencer. Isn't it cool?
[image description: illustrated ivy leaf, loops, and sparkles]
Additionally, I am drafting the absurd episodic experience Just Chad on my Patreon. Episode 2: "Adventuring Parameters" was posted today. (You don't have to have read Just Bart to enjoy its partner Just Chad, though if you're not quite ready for reality, I'd love for you to pick up a copy on our website. And in addition to my upcoming novel, Night Ivy (it has plant magic and dragons and a protag with anxiety disorders and I love it), I've cowritten a novel (it was supposed to be a short story but we...got into it) with Stewart C Baker, called Salt and Glass. It's a quiet fantasy laborpunk and we're going to try and sell it to another press. I'll also be out at events (as safely as I can) - my schedule is kept up-to-date at edebell.com.
We hope that you love these stories and also let people know about them. Community support this year is going to be critical to our success. Straight up.
Cheers to you and yours, and may you find joy in these days!
- Emily.
We have a cover!
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 09:55:28 PM
We are so, so excited to show you this.
We're working on completing the book, on final touches, and on setting a release date. Soon, we'll post to social media and put up a pre-order page, but we wanted to show you - who made this project possible - first.
A quick note!
If you love our queer fairy tales, we also have a campaign for a fully-character-acted audiobook of The Dragon of Ynys which is ending in just about 50 hours. We hope that you will give it a look - the audiobook plus ebook is offered as Pay What You Can, and a $1 pledge for both is perfectly lovely, and would make us very happy. Also available are exclusives ($5 digitally), print, a limited-edition, and the ability for you to commission new content for that limited edition, for all to enjoy!
Ah yes. I am glowing with sparkles at excitement to do this. Ready? Ready?!
The Alia Terra Front Cover
Alia Terra Front Cover
Thank you to Ava for this inspiration, Matt for this gorgeous painting, and to every person who has helped make this real. We hope you enjoy! Cheers! - Emily.
[Image shows painting of three dragons: purple, green, and gold, lounging around a cove at sunset. The frame of the painting is surrounded in veins and red flowers. Text reads Alia Terra / Stories from the Dragon Realm / Basme din Tărâmul Dragonilor / Ava Kelly / illustrated by Matthew Spencer ]
Join us now for $1 - a fairy tale of kindness made more accessible!
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 09:41:01 AM
Hello,
Before we get to Alia Terra updates, I'd like to invite you to our new, hopefully chill and happy campaign, to fund an audiobook for our queer all-ages fairy tale, The Dragon of Ynys.
We know money is tight; you can receive the whole audiobook (and ebook if you'd like) for $1.
We hope you'll swing over to hear the preview video by our Chicago-based narrator, voicing our beloved Snap the Dragon.
It's a short campaign, so please don't wait to give it a look or spread the word. We have a whole book to fund, but with the holidays ongoing, we have just ten days to do it!
Thanks so much for your support. ♥
Now to our Dragon Realm! Part of the reason we haven't been giving as many updates on Alia Terra is that it's getting close. The art is done, the book is in production (that's before printing) and the remaining hoard extras are in work. We are so thrilled, and really think you will be too.
We've been asked when pre-orders will be up. Soon! As soon as the book and cover are done, then we'll have a better idea when it can be printed and released, and then we'll put up a pre-order page. (And also Goodreads.)
In the meantime, want to see something first? How about this blurb from someone we deeply like and admire, the awesome Bogi Takács:
"Ava Kelly’s book of bilingual Romanian/English fairytales is both necessary and a delight. While queer writing is being suppressed in many countries of Eastern Europe, this volume offers comfort and consolation with queer-normative stories that reach back to the familiar themes of childhood, and provide renewed hope. Mages, princesses, and above all, dragons populate the world of Alia Terra, richly illustrated by Matthew Spencer. Characters go against expectations, and learn to live true to themselves: curses turn into blessings, flying creatures find a new beginning underwater, and even love acquires new meaning. From aromanticism to nonbinary gender, LGBTQIA+ themes in Alia Terra are always portrayed with a gentle kindness that we need in our lives, and an eager, resilient confidence. Read the stories and share them with your loved ones!" - Bogi Takács, Hugo and Lambda Award-winning author
I KNOW RIGHT? (We are so thrilled.)
As always, wishing you all warmth and love, and let me know if you have any questions!
- Emily.
Surprise!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 03:52:07 AM
Emily here with a quick (or perhaps I should say to-the-point) update.
First, for Alia Terra, everything is going really well. Truly, like we knew it would be cool (and thanks for trusting us on that) but it's actually all going to be cooler. More soon!
In the meantime, a happy surprise - maybe give this a follow? (Ah, look at that number already, yay.)
Being honest (it's what we do) we're tired here. So much, personal things to. It can be a lot. But there are so many joyful things going on - if you'd like to help, here are things you can share out:
Art Update from Matt : D
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Oct 02, 2021 at 09:01:36 PM
Hello again! I know I’ve been quiet since the last Art Update in JULY (what?! July? And now it’s almost the end of September?!) but I’ve been busy painting!
I wanted to pop in and give a continuation from where we left off in that last Art Update!
After the tight pencil drawing, I print my pencil lines out on watercolor paper the size I’ll be painting at, and I create the ink drawing!
Ink Drawing
From there, I get to laying in my watercolor washes.
On this particular piece, because there’s snowy areas I wanted to remain white, I used masking fluid to mask off those areas until the very end. That’s the yellow-y bits in the photo below.
Watercolor Washes
Once I’ve painted everything else, I remove the masking fluid and voila!
Snow unmasked!
Crisp white snowy areas that I can paint shadows into.
Since it’s been TWO MONTHS. I also have art from the second story to show off!
(Reminder, I’ll show the process like this for *every* illustration in the behind-the-scenes digital book that comes with every Digital Hoard or Dragon Hoard backing tier!)
As with the first story, I started with thumbnails for all of the illustrations together! I combined my sketches and added color in Photoshop because it’s easy to mess around and change things on the fly digitally!
Little clip of the thumbnails.
Since I had an idea of the colors (blue lots of blue) in this one, before I got started with anything else, I experimented with the colors I had available to me to determine which exact tubes of paint I wanted to use!
This is what those experiments look like.
Paint Experiments
Messing around with gradients for the underwater scenes, how those look with the green of the dragon, what proportions of colors to use to make a good dreary gray for the stormy above-water sequence, and so on!
With that sorted out, I proceeded as I do- from thumbnail to rough to tight drawing, to inks to paint!
Rough Drawing
Tight Drawing
Inks
Paint
The illustrations for the second story are currently all finished (save for any digital cleanup, which I’ll be doing for all the stories all together) and I’m about to continue inking the pieces for the third story as soon as I finish typing this!
I’ll leave you with a clip of the thumbnails and color studies for the third story ;)
