Update

Good afternoon everyone,
Michelle here with a bit of news. I have just finished the final edit and format of Cursed and the Damned! This means that we are one step closer to a finished product! I'm so excited for the time that I can get a proof copy of this. Hopefully that will come sooner than later.

Next on my agenda...the opening of the book (Table of contents/all that legal mumbo jumbo)

For those of you who haven't seen this

My friend and cohort in crime on Cursed and the Damned humored me last week at Comic-Con with his artistic ability and was able to do this on the fly from memory when I asked. This is an updated version of Atraiu. If you compare it with the first sketch you can see the progress we're making on his look. I can't wait to see the sketch for the book cover. That is going to be amazing in itself.

Thanks Ron!

A shout out to the fans

First of all I want to thank those of you who have made comments to me. I appreciate the words of encouragement and well wishes more than you know. It's those words that have gotten this project to the point it is at right now. Without people pushing me along the way, as well as having those fans who pushed for the end of this story I might have given up. I not only wrote this book because it was something that I wanted to do for myself, but because so many others wanted to see what could be accomplished. Again, I can't thank you all enough. Even if I only sell 5 copies of this book at least I know that I at least touched some people and for me that's worth more than money.

So with that being said on my days off this weekend, I am going to finish with the editing/formatting. In doing that we will be just that much closer to a finished product. Together, we CAN and WILL do this!

Thanks for the support!

Michelle

Other projects?

Well now, what to talk about today... I know, let's talk about another story I've written. This one actually predates Cursed and the Damned. It is actually my first book, a young adult sci-fi adventure I started about 10 years ago. This one is called Truth of Reality.

It's about a young man from a single parent home who wins a school contest in which he is to visit the space station to learn about an upcoming space project and spaceship called the Suncoast. His father is the lead on the project and since the death of the main character's mother things between father and son haven't been so rosy. Anyway, while Darien, the main character, and other students are being shown around an act of sabotage takes place and the ship is launched into space.
During the many misadventures that take place the characters get involved in a battle, a little romance and of course alien experiments. I answer, in my own way, a few of space's mysteries. (reminder this is a work of fiction so I HIGHLY doubt any of it is true) However the biggest mystery of all is back on Earth and why the ship was launched in the first place and by whom. By the end of the whole story Darien is left to wonder about the life he was brought up knowing and truth of his reality as he now knows it.

Perhaps once I finish getting Cursed and the Damned squared away I shall get back to Truth of Reality and go through it again, re-edit it and whatnot and maybe even start on the second part of that story, just like I plan to do for Cursed and the Damned. That one is about half finished for those who care.

Anyway, that's a slight look at my other book. See you tomorrow!

Michelle

Useless Trivia

Today I thought I might give you a little background on where some of the characters from this book originally got their start.

Back in the days of the Playstation 2 a friend of mine got the game RPG Maker 2. He wanted to start a video game up and I was the one doing the writing and the creative consultation while he was doing the programming.

(Coincidently, he is studying for gaming right now and I'm doing writing...big jump huh?) Anyway this little bit of programming, which I'm certain he still has somewhere had absolutely NO game play. It was just cinematic; an opening to an unfinished game. However this little bit of programming later gave birth to four of the characters in Cursed and the Damned. The two most important are the villain, Tregone and the secondary main character, Davali.

I hope you enjoyed this little segment of  'Useless Trivia'. Join us tomorrow for another blog post and don't forget to leave questions and comments if you'd like.

Michelle

Book Teaser & Artwork

This is going up for those of you who don't know anything about this, or just want to read it again. Since the goal of this blog is to enlighten not only the people who already know about this project, but to gain new readers by chance here is the teaser for Cursed and the Damned:

To save their world, two young men must break a curse by the bonds of their friendship.

 Near his eighteenth birthday, Prince Atraiu and the kingdom of Altaria lose their ruler King Edric, Atraiu’s father. This is a golden opportunity for the Lord of a nearby kingdom to see if he can’t persuade the upcoming king to join his side in conquering Altaria’s neighboring kingdom of Redaltras; which has a mercenary group of Dragon Riders. Redaltras is just one of his many steps in trying to rule the continent with Altaria being another, but you have to take it one step at a time right?  Also on his agenda is wooing the departed king’s widow with whom he is enamored and in turn satisfying his libido. When his plan fails, his persuasion ends up involving an ancient curse of a long dead dragon king and falsifying the death of Prince Atraiu who has unwillingly had this curse place upon him and in turn ends up a dragon himself.

With all evidence pointing to the kingdom of Redaltras behind this treachery, Altaria joins the evil Lord Tregone in his quest to snuff out the kingdom. Only Atraiu has an inclination of what has happened and unfortunately he can’t tell. But one astute dragon riding mercenary from Redaltras, Davali, stumbles across the fact Atraiu is more than he appears and learns of the curse. His will to help is strong but he learns that there is a catch and that is to become damned himself. Will Atraiu and Davali be able to save the lands from Tregone’s evil scheme and be able to defeat curse of the dragon king Adapu? 

Below are the first drawings of Atraiu and Davali. This beautiful artwork is done by the Comic Book world's own Ron Lim, who is kind enough to be working with me on this project and is helping with the book cover.

 

As I said before in a previous reply, the best way to get this out there is by word of mouth and if you all can think of anyone who might be interested in this, please send them this way. I plan on updating this blog at least daily in one fashion or another. 

Thanks for reading,

Michelle

Cursed and the Damned © Michelle Scheunemann

Artwork © Ron Lim

The start of a blog and perhaps something more

Good Evening everyone. I want to thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of this struggling artist. I decided not to clutter up my facebook page so much for those of you who don't give a damn about what I'm doing or trying to do. For those of you who do care, please continue reading.

My goal here is to give you all a little insight on what I am planning and what is eventually coming your way. I have given up on the conventional way of getting published and I am going to do it the new way; the realm of self publishing. With the help of a few friends, I am achieving that goal.

After this year at the San Diego Comic-Con, I am more determined than ever to get my first book Cursed and the Damned published. As of right now, editing and formatting is about 2/3rds of the way completed and my goal is to have this book out by the end/beginning of the year.

With luck and your support perhaps this story will be a hit. If not at least I can say I accomplished something. The world of Altaria, will soon be revealed to everyone.

Thank you and keep the faith.
Michelle