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Musings, Reviews, Comic Cons
I am filled with hope for the future and gratitude for the present. We have the ability to choose the way we experience our lives to a large extent, and that's the mood I'm picking. Part of choosing the experience of our lives is through the stories we take in. I'm a big fan of hopeful stories that work with, not against, what it means to be human.
Lots of indie creators share this conviction that stories should be fun, and should speak to a deeper part of the human psyche than whatever's trendy at the moment. Adventure and romance are timeless for good reason! Just a few more days are left on the preorder Kickstarter for SoulBound 2: Escape, and we're so close to funding! I know times are uncertain and things may be tight right now, but it's only $3 for the PDF version and you might want some fresh reading material! I do not have a pandemic arc in this storyline so it still counts as escapism. ;) Finishing funding means I just have to set up the printing - supporting American businesses and freelancers - and that will then free me up for another month or two to build... IndieGen.XYZ, the new virtual con for all kinds of independently produced entertainment! The progress on the new online indie creator con:
Next up, I need to find out what sort of specs the virtual booths will have. I will be reaching out to potential vendors and I'll need to know what to tell them so they can go ahead and prepare a booth space on their end. I know they will need a nice square picture to represent their booth, but I don't yet know the pixel dimensions. I should probably also create an easy form to fill out so I can see all the relevant information at a glance... but I will need to know what the relevant information will be. I'll try to report new developments every Friday, I think. I want IndieGen.XYZ to represent:
I have other ideas as well but I have to find out what's possible and what should be an upgrade down the road. Let me know what you want to see and do at an online con!
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This idea has been on the back burner a long time, and now, I wish I'd moved on it sooner.
I had a long list of excuses why the time wasn't right; it was big and complicated, I didn't know how to start, I couldn't afford it. None of this is any less true now, but this needs to happen. I do have a bit of an idea how to start now, at least, and it isn't quite so bad if I focus on one step at a time! The Project:
IndieGen.XYZ is a virtual indie entertainment/pop culture con filled with booths from professional independent creators. It combines elements of a curated search engine and an online RPG to simulate the experience of browsing at a con. It will be easily searchable and friendly to casual browsers, and free to use.
The site will start out pretty basic, but the highest priority is making it easy to find whatever you want. The barriers to creating professional, high quality entertainment have dropped so low with the advent of new technologies in every field! Independent creators can - and are - creating stories and art in every media at levels big entertainment industries couldn't even dream of 20 years ago! Now, the internet can connect us with anything and anyone, and that has opened up a new venue for us to find and get anything in existence. The trouble is, everything is on the internet, and the first dozen pages of every search are cluttered with big corporations with more advertising dollars than decent stories, and also with creators more comfortable with promotion than with honing their art. The independent creators who spend every waking moment creating are overlooked. Right now, most of us in the USA, and also the world, are housebound. Our events where we would ordinarily find these creators are cancelled or postponed. Small shops can't open, and without any traffic, they have no revenue. Maybe they'll never open again. We would love to visit and support them, but we just can't. Meanwhile, we're going stir-crazy at home. I can't just sit here and let this happen. I don't know how big of an impact I can make or even if I can get it off the ground, but I've got somebody willing to help me build the site if I can pay for the hosting and put a deposit down to get him started. I've bought the domain IndieGen.xyz for it - I've had this name in mind so long and I was so happy it was still available when I looked it up! I'll tell you the story behind it and what it means to me sometime. If you can help at all, I'd be so, so grateful. Use hashtag IndieGenXYZ , get people looking forward to it, let me know of the best indie creators in Books, Comics, Games, Video (YouTube channels and Indie Animation!) who might like a booth, and if you have a couple dollars to throw in toward it, hit the Donate button below or in the sidebar. ​Thanks so much! And I'll see you at IndieGenXYZ! |
Paula RicheyArtist, writer, creator of stuff. I just want to build worlds for you to escape to. Archives
March 2020
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