Hello there!
Welcome to what I hope will be a sort of TAO OF IGOR Countdown Journal, as I finish off the last bits and pieces (most small – one large) of the new collection.
Obviously, completing THE TAO OF IGOR’s taken far longer than I could have ever imagined. TLDR: because I didn’t get the work done. Also TLDR: and I badly underestimated how much work was left to do. But why was that? I have thoughts – many thoughts – but I’ll get to those after the book is done.
The goal of this mini-journal is to make sure I cross something – anything – off THE TAO OF IGOR’s shrinking to-do list every single day: to keep me focused as it comes to its end.
These entries won’t be long, as I need to finish the book rather than spend hours playing with prose here. But it will, I hope, be a way for folks to check in on how things are going, and what I’ve done that day (I can’t promise this will be daily, but that’s my goal). Every little thing checked off the list from here on out goes a long way to wrapping this project up.
Today, thanks to help from layout guru (and great friend) Hal Mangold, Pages 1-160 went to the proofreaders. I had thought these had been thoroughly checked before, and many typos corrected, but the new proofreaders found some mistakes that had been missed. I’ll get to correcting those this weekend, once all comments are in.
Pages 161-191 are nearly ready to go off to proofreaders. This will leave pages 192-208 (the end of the last chapter) to be prepared for the proofreaders, along with my Afterword, a page of thanks, a small memorial to two friends, and a post-credit scene that will end the book.
THE TAO OF IGOR will officially lock in at 220 pages, by far the largest DORK TOWER collection yet.
Everything is drawn. I’ve started coloring the so-dubbed “Sistine Pages,” the massive double-page spread, which is the only big item left.
Here’s a fun little two-thirds of a page that occurs halfway through the book: dialog and bottom third of the page cut out to avoid spoilers.
Readers of the DORK TOWER web strip will recognize Stell’s Sabine Wren costume. As the events in THE TAO OF IGOR take place a few years ago, this is kinda canonically and all-officially-like her introduction to the DORK TOWER universe.
I’m not sure if I’ll post these entries at the end of the day, or the morning after. We’ll see which works best.
Until then, I remain indebted to you all, and appreciate your support deeply,
- John