May 2023 - MAY THE MONTH BE WITH YOU

Last month was a MONTH. I spent the first half of it traveling, and the second half trying to get through piles of important stuff while also trying to hold myself up under the leaden weight of the greyest few weeks I can remember. The bleak season didn't want to leave without a fight this year, eh?

So much has happened since we last chatted! I don't think you guys subscribe here for my take on current events, but let me briefly comment on the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) commencing what I believe will be an historic strike. I'm a guild member myself, and firmly support everything the WGA is doing. Writers are not interchangeable, we are not disposable, we are not a resource to be minimized at every turn. Solidarity.

Beyond that, I'm mostly thinking about the release of my next novel - THE ENDLESS VESSEL - on June 6. I just saw my first photo of what the final hardcover looks like (I don't even have any of these yet - image snagged from the awesome @maxwell.gregory2018 on Instagram):

It feels like June 6 really snuck up on me, and although I've done what seems like a ton to promote it and get the word out, it's starting to feel like now it's in the hands of the readers. I know it will find an audience, but will it make it to the point where it breaks through? I don't know. I hope so. I think it's the good stuff. I wanted to write a novel that felt completely unpredictable and exhilarating, with the genre elements I love and a theme I thought was important to share with the world. Did I get there? I believe I did. Folks who've gotten an early look seem to agree:

Does it matter? I think so - but still. I'm not one of those creators who can completely separate the art from the audience. They're linked in my mind, and part of me, a significant part, feels like the amount of work I put into something should be "rewarded" via a corresponding increase in audience. That's nonsense, of course, a false correspondence, but it's hard to shake. And since THE ENDLESS VESSEL is by a least an order of magnitude the part of my creative output that took the most work to get into shape... well, you do the math.

I say all of this, by the way, coming off one of the most successful creative years of my career, between EIGHT BILLION GENIES and STAR WARS and all the rest of it. But ask any creative person and you'll probably hear the same thing - work you've completed is irrelevant. It's always about the next thing.

Exciting times, friends. Let's get into it!

KICKSTART MY HEART

Quick wrap-up/update on the Kickstarter campaign I ran last month as part of that promotional campaign I mentioned for THE ENDLES VESSEL..The idea with this was that I wrote a second novel called CHRONICLES OF THE LAZARENE that's deeply connected to the story of THE ENDLESS VESSEL, which you could only get through the campaign (along with a special edition of Endless Vessel and various other awesome in-world artifacts and cool things.)

It did incredibly well! We were able to fully fund the project in 36 hours, and went on to crush several stretch goals, ending with $62,198 from 816 backers. Many of those are, well, you - so once again, thank you very, very much.

It is possible you just read that and went "damn, how did I miss this?" If so, here's a bit of good news: I am working with a post-campaign fulfillment company that will allow people who didn't back the campaign to place orders for many of its items. If you click the link below and add your email, you'll be notified when the post-campaign store is up. No previous support/backing required!

I'll be heading out this summer for a bit of a book tour to celebrate and hype up the book. The dates and locations are below - if I didn't hit your city this time around I apologize. I'm as busy as ever, and I could only take so much time to travel around. I'm particularly excited about the people who have agreed to moderate discussins with me about the book - incredible people like Alex Segura, Dana Schwartz, Brian Michael Bendis, and Chris Schluep. I'd love to see as many people out as possible for these, and I'll absolutely sign anything you bring... with no fee! (THIS IS YOUR BIG CHANCE, PEOPLE WITH A HUGE STACK OF COMICS YOU WANT ME TO SIGN!)

(THAT SAID, YOU'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO BUY A BOOK... YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL.)
 
If you can't make it to any of the in-person events, the one on July 15th will be virtual and open to everyone. I hope to see you there! 

But that's not all! If you preorder the book, I will also send you a postcard version of Marco Bernardini's BEAUTIFUL map that catalogues everywhere the ship from The Endless Vessel travels to. Once you've preordered the book, just send your proof of purchase to soulecomics@gmail.com. Make sure your address is included somewhere so we know where to send it to! If you backed my Kickstarter project and got a copy of The Endless Vessel through that, you can also send that as proof.

If you haven't preordered the book yet and you'd like to, you can pick your favorite book selling outfit at any of the links here. For those seeking signed copies, I'm working with the legendary bookstore institution The Strand here in NYC to provide that. Click on the image below to order one!

WHERE I'VE BEEN AND WHERE I'M GOING

As you might expect, I've been doing a number of interviews lately to talk about past and future projects (with more to come.) I wanted to highlight a few here - first, with Marvel's Pull List, hosted by Ryan Penagos and Jasmine Estrada. They had me on to talk about HIDDEN EMPIRE, the grand finale in my Qi'ra comic trilogy, but we talked about tons of Star Wars stuff, my decade of Marvel work, and more. Click below to check it out.

I also somehow found the time during Star Wars Celebration to sneak in an interview with the wonderful folks over at Talking Bay 94. This one was very wide-ranging, and talked about not juts my work in Star Wars, but my process as a whole, and how I came to become, well, this.(Think WTF, but with Star Wars in the background.) Click on the image below for that one:

If you're looking to see me in person this year, beyond the stops on the Endless Vessel tour, I'll also be appearing at Washington State Summer Con on June 23rd and San Diego Comic Con on July 20th, as well as New York Comicon this October. I'll have a more firm schedule of panels and signings as we get closer to the dates of all of those shows, but as of right now that's all I'm planning to do this year. You'll find additional details here once I have them.

HAVE I HYPED THIS NOVEL ENOUGH?

Probably not - you can't ever do enough. But I can't wait for it to be out in the world, and I can't wait to hear what people think. THE ENDLESS VESSEL - out June 6. Hot damn.

See you next month!

--Charles