Goals

Okay, so, I don't see much use in creating an 'about me' post for the sake of introducing myself to the world, as the world probably is busy with other things; hurricanes, tornadoes, polar vortexes, and things of the like.

So, what I'll do is elaborate on my goals and why.

Goal 1

My primary focus is publishing stories. It doesn't matter if they're flash fiction or hefty novels exceeding 100,000 words, but it's not enough to just publish them. I've always found digital art to be quite amazing and have set out (as early as 2015-2016) to learn Blender, GIMP, Audacity (more recent, however), and have since come along way, though, I am hindered by my own narrow scope. I'll elaborate on that a little bit later.

The idea is to create the things I write about, as no one will ever be able to create the creatures and scenes in my head as well as I can, simply because I cannot transplant my imagination into someone else. Therefore, I am working to beef up my digital art skills, which as of late has been lacking (I say this because even though I started playing around with Blender in 2015 (earliest, let's say) I haven't been consistent with it. I've had long lapses between actual study, and at most, I've gained only a few months worth of experience (six at most, anyway), and this is because of my own lack of discipline.

Prior to this revival of interest in Blender, I had at least an eighteen month lapse in time where I did nothing at all, and before that, my projects were meager at best, but, during that time I was experiencing a lot of what death has to offer.

I lost family and pets, which was new to me because I hadn't lost anyone I was really close to until 2015, as such, I believe that was the reason for my lack of motivation with Blender, however, I did not lack motivation with writing. I continued to write, and now I feel as though I am emotionally prepared and disciplined enough to be useful to someone out there.

To sum it up, my goal is flex my muscles and get back to where I was going years ago before I felt the terrible teeth of death gnaw on my existence. It's taxing going to funeral after funeral, but, for that reason, the work must continue, as such, I believe I can improve as an artist by creating covers for free, while at the same time, serve a purpose in the writing community.

It would repugnant of me to try and amass a livable wage from doing this without providing any kind of value to anyone at all, for in turn, my free service will be far more valuable to me than the cover will be for the prospecting artist and I will elaborate why below.

If an author comes to me with a project that is beyond my skill set, I must accept it. I am weak at building people, modelling, and in general, sculpting, however, my strengths are choreography, and creative perception (taking something bland and turning it into something interesting), but, I am limited by both my knowledge and technical abilities, as my computer (which is nine years old) is preparing to die, and it can hardly handle the simplest of renders.

I digress.

Below is an example of creative perception:

The image above are from a short story I wrote called ISS.

The top image, though interesting, becomes boring after five seconds, but the second image captures the attention for a bit longer, solely because I mimicked the effects caused by the evolution in our eyes (the glare, glow, vignette effect, and depth of field.)

This 'creative perception' is (to me, anyway, because I'm making this up as I go along to best describe how I 'feel') when you look at something created with CGI, but you know that's it CGI'd.

In short, something is missing and you can't quite tell what.

And, to bring this goal to an end, my idea is to help others, for their insight and corrections will help propel me forward, and at the same time, people get a glimpse into a world that exists only in their minds, a free cover, and what I believe to be a useful business relationship that I hope will develop.

Goal 2

Create a passive income while providing a quality service. This, for some reason, sounds dirty to say; maybe because I see plenty of people in these writing communities that want a AAA cover, marketing plan, social connections, and everything else that can be gained with hard work for free.

Financially speaking, I cannot make free book covers forever, as the assets required to make them can and will cost money. Everything from the electricity bill to individual models costs money, and if not money, time.

As such, I don't look at doing this as an opportunity to accidentally find a gold mine, though that would be nice, but I think I would be dangerously naive to expect even a meager amount of support, for I am well aware of human nature.

I believe the general public would call me stupid for providing such an in-demand service for free, or worse, at my own peril, and worse than that, for every one hundred covers I create, I might gain one new person who is willing pay just $1.00 a month, and in turn, sells hundreds of books.

That is the risk I take, but, I cannot be wholly convinced that human nature is that corrupt or selfish or sly, though, I do have reason to believe so, but I cannot allow the fear of those outcomes outweigh the possibilities that positivity can produce. I am aware that I may make a book cover that is so good someone may decide to show some support in the form of five or ten dollars a month for a decade, and as my skills develop and improve, I can afford myself people who are more honorable and appreciative of my hard work.

And, if I can manage to amass just one hundred people to pay five dollars a month, that's five hundred extra dollars I have to work with. I don't know how difficult it will be to reach that number, but, I cannot let the what-ifs strangle the what-could-bes dancing in my head.

Therefore, my goal is to create cover so well that authors feel honored and compelled to show some support, while, at the same time, produce written (and audible) content that is so gripping, that readers and listeners alike feel the same.

To sum it up, make someone feel like: "wow, that story was so amazing, I want to pay him $1 a month to keep the train rolling" or "holy cow, this cover is so good, I have to pay him something for it, because, wow."

But, that will take a lot of time.

Goal 3

Remain true to my virtues.

I write about any and everything and I cannot remain in one genre for too long, otherwise I feel like a lobster stuck in its shell.

I will not become a political entity. I am disgusted with the amount of companies and celebrities who are shoving their pc cocks down my throat all the time (sorry for the language), but I didn't sign up to be deepthroated by a washed up actor or actress who is virtue signalling for no other reason than relevance.

I want to provide entertainment (the most important value) and a service (second), when I can.

And so, my goal is to keep my nose in my books and only look away when I'm working on someone's cover, though, as a writer, that may be difficult to do because people can and will interpret anything I write in either a positive or negative way.

If someone doesn't like me, they'll probably spearhead a whole campaign against me, but, if someone likes me, they may be righteous defenders of my honor.

Either way, this goal is all about remaining true to myself and not selling out. If I pick up a few dollars here and there, than that's great, but I'm not counting on it. I don't think people are that generous. Sincerely,

MB