“Mistress of the Winds” is officially on the Aurora Awards ballot, in the Best Graphic Novel category. This is good news for the English version of Echofictions’ first ever graphic novel. The Aurora Awards celebrate the excellence of Science fiction and fantasy published in Canada.
There will be a voter package compiled, and downloadable. Shortly after it is released, voting will open mid-June. Members are able to download selections from the works under consideration so that they can inform their votes. More information on our voting process can be found here.
Only current members of CSFFA can vote in the Aurora Awards. To register as a CSFFA member, you pay 10$ to the association.
This Kickstarter will land you a solid 6″ x 9″ hardcover edition of Mistress of the Winds, printed in Canada by real nice people. At 92 B&W pages, it will include many sketches and behind-the-scenes extracts. The digital and paperback editions are already out.
Genre: SF, Planet-opera, YA Length: 92 pages Interior pages in B&W All ages
Why a campaign?
Crowdfunding does help authors to bring visibility to their creations. A practical aspect is that the category publication/fiction draws lots of new readers, eager to find new books.
As an artist, I supported many of my creative colleagues’ projects, not only on Kickstarter, but on GoFundMe, Indigogo, Ulule… and I ended up with more books than I can possibly read!
So I discovered formidable writers, whose careers I am avidly following, thanks to their campaigns.
Why in English, if I am French-speaking?
That first campaign is in English because of my writer friends living in the US, who have encouraged me to pursue my writing and get better. really, without them, I would have cease to be a writer… and a comic artist!
Some digital and paper rewards will be in French as add-ons. I point to my friend and colleague Frank Fournier who did the colors of my cover. And I will eventually prep a campaign for a French hardcover edition, too.
When does it start?
On March 28. I do not have a very high ask, but it is essential that each participant to make a contribution in the first hours! A campaign that reaches its goal fast shines more brightly on the Kickstarter website.
Producing the intro video ! Reading a text in front of a camera doesn’t look natural. So I did my best to explain, share my project, without hiding my French accent. It took about six tries to find the right tone.
The project
With Mistress of the Winds, you will discover a richly-developed world populated with vivid and endearing characters. Follow young Adalou as she struggles against powerful foes and her own body’s limits in the most prestigious kite contest of the planet!
This YA graphic novel kidnaps you into an alien civilization so out of this world that you will want to know more about it… and zoom through the pages to devour this delicious coming-of-age story!
It’s a date: my first Kickstarter campaign
To know more about the le graphic novel, here are some news about Maîtresse des vents.
Running at daybreak on August 11, I had the occasion to observe a strange meteorological phenomenon.
I was running on a small side road, making 3 km circuits. The morning mist floated above the hay fields, a large open space. Then the sun rose, and I had the wonderful surprise! Continue reading →
That I am working on, hence the delay in getting new gags uploaded on this blog. A few writing and illustration contracts landed in the same week, a rare event.
And to think the British brought their cannons up in pieces!
I ran up the Wolfe Trail, 1,5 km of slope, to train for my upcoming marathon, along with my cousin who is an experienced marathoner. It concluded a 16-km run…
We ran from Anse au Foulon, and went through lots of little signs that explain in detail the operation of passing by this trail to attack Quebec defended by Montcalm. Obviously the trail was not paved …
Nevertheless, I thought about the soldiers wearing those heavy loads and equipment, and about the defenders of Quebec who risked (and lost) their lives.
It’s always easy to say in retrospect, long after the lost battle: “Montcalm should have done this or that, he should wait for reinforcements to Bougainville and Levis instead of an exit …”
But without cell phone, while the besieged Quebec residents lacked everything (Wolfe had burned the fields and razed villages up to 100 km downstream of the city), the Marquis de Montcalm could not actually * know * if his allies and volunteers had not themselves been decimated, or whether the British allies Iroquois warriors would not come later join them to form an unassailable mass.
So he ordered a sortie against an enemy superior in number.
(The two leaders were killed in this battle, which was rather short as columnists reported it: about 15 minutes, for the French engagement.)
*
I am really feeling the exhaustion of the training for the upcoming marathon, hence this shortened comic!
This apple tree was there long before the neighbourhood was built, a remnant of the farmstead that once occupied this strip of land.
It was a small wonder to have trees like this, belonging to no one, and giving away its fruits. It was a small, gnarled tree that had been ill for some years, and his fruits spotted, acid, imperfect. I knew the city would remove it eventually, but never forgot to offer my thanks.
The poem did rhyme in its French form, but I endeavoured to keep the rythm alive.
Echoes of a Sunday artist 