Seven Minute Pitch

New Design: Lukeboy

Luke — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:25:36 +0000

I've made a lot of Facebook profile pictures. The album, itself, counts 127, nearly all of them photo illustrations. The more bored I got and the better at Photoshop I got, the more complex the pictures became.

When Facebook first unveiled its Timeline format, I was ecstatic about the idea of the cover photo, especially in combination with the square profile picture. It sounds silly and trivial, but if design is a sport, making profile pictures is my workout. It's where I create with only a dimensional boundary and it's an easy place to display art.

My latest endeavour, a cover photo, might be my all-time favorite.

I've been a fan of Hellboy for a few years (late bloomer, relatively speaking) and I finally felt familiar enough with Mignola's style to be able to pay tribute to him. If you've never read any Hellboy comics, you're missing out. When it comes to the art, story, and consistency from title to title, it's arguably the best money can buy.

And for being a demon, Hellboy's got a bigger heart and kinder soul than most superheroes.

Thank You

Luke — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:43:05 +0000

Wow.

As of me writing this (Feb. 14, nighty-night-time), over 650 copies of Gifted & Talented have been downloaded.

This number is about a hundred times as big as my expectations. Of course, making it free probably helped.

But still, I owe a huge THANK YOU to everyone who grabbed a copy, told their friends, etc. It means a ton.

The biggest lesson I've learned from this experience (aside from how to go about writing a book) is that I probably don't take myself seriously enough. I carry around an enormous grain of salt when it comes to what I set out to accomplish. If I don't expect much then I can't be too disappointed, right?

But then hundreds of people read something I wrote. Suddenly, I realize that I should be more careful because if I don't do this right, I could cause a real mess.

So, I assure you that my next project (which is already under way) will keep such things in mind. I'll be more of a perfectionist, take the work more seriously, and push myself harder. I owe you all that much now.

And while I have you here, feel free to let me know what you thought of the book. I mean, I'd like to be selfish and claim I wrote it for myself, but it's not a real book without a reader. Plus, I want to know how I can improve, so give it to me straight. You can email me, facebook message me, leave a review on the Amazon page, or actually talk to me in person...if people are still into that kind of thing.

A Bit on the Book

Luke — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:29:27 +0000

I wrote a short summary of where the ideas for Gifted & Talented originated and what my goals were in writing it. You might want to wait until you've finished the book, so you can't garner your own interpretations first, but feel free to check it out in the Fiction section if you're interested.

New Book: Gifted & Talented

Luke — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:41 +0000

I finally finished my book.

17 months. 237 pages. 53,000 words.

A whole lot of coffee. A whole lot of being sick of the story and wanting to move on.

But I stuck it out and I can confidently say I wrote a book.

I you would like to read my book, it is available in Kindle format here.

If you don't have a Kindle, you can just download the free app for your phone or computer.

Starting tomorrow, it will be on a promotional period and you will be able to download it for free. Until then, download the free sample and get started. Come back tomorrow and download the rest of it free of charge!

The Fiction Hangover

Luke — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:09:34 +0000

The first time I felt it was on a family road trip. I just finished the third book in a young adult fiction trilogy in which the main character had various supernatural abilities. In the end, he had to abandon some loved ones in order to protect them, or something of that sort. The story itself is a bit foggy. The effect it had on me at the time resonates clearly even today.

I was emotionally devastated. The author pulled me into that sense of loss and I certainly felt it. On top of that, I wanted some cool powers.

Another time I remember the feeling was upon introduction to Harry Potter. Only three were out at the time and I breezed through the first two quickly. I recall being caught in a suspension afterwards, between the ground of reality and the flight of fantasy. I was finished with the reading, but I couldn’t touch the ground yet. My mind was still in mid-air.

It’s like a fiction hangover. The party is over, but the next day you’re still recovering, still being reminded over and over about what just happened. Worse, you’re being reminded that your life, in comparison, is dull. You cannot go to boarding school to learn magic in a castle. You cannot fight a dragon and save the princess. You cannot become a supe--

Okay, I refuse to finish that one. I’m still holding out.

And I think that’s the kicker. We tell these stories because we desperately want our reality to be more than it is. Oftentimes, ancient mythology originates out of explanation: what lightning is and where snakes came from. But Hercules and Icarus aren’t explanatory. They’re hope.

Laugh if you’d like, but I distinctly remember the fiction hangover I got from the Animorphs series. The final book was an enormous letdown, the author killing off the majority of the main characters and giving depressing fates for the rest. She even issued a letter at the very end, essentially apologizing for it. If you have to apologize to your readers, you’re not being faithful to your work.

Alas, what could have been the existential, hopeful hangover was one of depression and regret for ever reading the final book in a lengthy series to which I was dedicated. So, authors: please write responsibly. Use your power over the reader with care.

And then there are those who drink irresponsibly. I see this when I’m checking out recaps of comic and video game conventions. The spectrum of people that attend these is broad, but the type I’d like to focus on consists of those that are caught in the hangover, the suspension. Fiction, be it the form of books, television, film, video games, comics, has lifted these people so high that their feet may never touch the ground again. It isn’t hard to spot these people, because there is a layer of themselves removed from reality. They don’t connect quite the same with others, often living in their own world, and they interact best with others like them or just by themselves. I love these people and I often have to wonder, if they live in another world most of the time, a world of fiction, then might they be happier than the rest of the world coping with reality? Would we be happier in the Matrix?

I can’t figure out which part of the fiction hangover is most affecting, though. This may vary from person to person, but two factors hit me the hardest. The first is the idea that my reality will never be like the one I experienced in the fiction. No matter how hard I try today, I will not be able to move things with my mind. My whole life I’m told I can be what I want, but apparently I can’t be telekinetic. That I can imagine something but never achieve it is a rough reality check. Would it be better to simply not be able to imagine?

The second factor is the ending. Most movies are too long for the average viewer, but I typically wish movies were twice their length. There are seven Harry Potter books not just because we want to know what happens next, but because we don’t want the story to end at all. We fear death not because we fear pain as much as we fear ending. We want the fiction to last forever because we don’t want to face reality. And frankly, we project our own identities onto the protagonists, so if Harry is alive in those seven books, we’re alive in those seven books. If the character lives forever, perhaps we can too if we just keep reading.

Finally, what bugs me most is that I am so helpless to the fiction hangover. I usually get over it after couple days, max. And I certainly don’t have one after every book and movie. But when it happens, I practically resent it. I want to accept real life at face value, but I can’t help but feel dissatisfied. Plus, I can’t figure out if it’s mundane escapism or something engrained in our DNA.

Will I simply face the end one day? Upon having lived my dull little story about a boy who became a man and did and made some things that didn’t amount to much, will my story end and will I simply no longer be?

Or is something great just around the corner? Is eternity set in our hearts? Will the hope for something magical and supernatural bear fruit? Is the hangover something bigger? Perhaps a small taste of a feast on its way? What in the world would all that look like and why are we so anxious to get to there?

And while we’re at it, what has given you a fiction hangover?

New Series: Violence Journal

Luke — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:13:33 +0000

I haven't added much to the Faith section since I created it, but I intend to be adding a lot in the coming year. My wife and I are reading through the Bible chronologically this year and I want to focus my writing on violence.

I've already added an introductory post and the first entry, beginning with Cain and Abel. My goal is to determine whether violent passage in the Bible point toward a pacifistic God, especially when I believe in a pacifistic Jesus and being a pacifist, myself.

New Designy Stuff

Luke — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:54:18 +0000

Another month, another last-minute design job for Tim. This time, I got to make three Christmas-themed album art pieces, each with a different title and variation. I'm not sure what's happening with the other two, but I'll show off this one for now...

You can download this jolly little single right here.

I also made a new Facebook profile picture combo back when the new timeline look was about to roll out. Months later, Facebook still hasn't launched it, which means people have only see the little square image as my profile picture, which is only part one of two. Anyway, here's what it's supposed to look like...

Hopefully, Facebook will get their act together so we can get all the complaining about the "old Facebook" out of the way, as if any of you kids (or adults) even used the real old Facebook.

New Section: Faith

Luke — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:54:30 +0000

Seven Minute Pitch will now include my writings on faith for a few reasons:

-I used to publish my short essays on spirituality and theology on Facebook, but as that medium changes over and over, I decided to archive my material on my website before I forget how to find them.

-I'm trying to commit myself to connecting all of my aspects. I'm a writer and a designer, yes, but I also write a lot of stuff about Jesus. I don't want to split my identity anymore.

-I'm no longer an active youth pastor, so I want a method of keeping myself diligent in reading scipture and processing theology.

So, most of the material is made up of revised Facebook notes. I added a new one, too. Check it out.

As always, thanks for reading. Happy Thanksgiving and Unhappy Black Friday.

Occupy Wall Space

Luke — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:11:14 +0000

This is one of the walls in our apartment, specifically: the one we eat beside. (Apologies for the blurry pictures here and there.)

This is one panel from an enormous cardboard box that once held a mattress. I found it next to a dumpster at my apartment complex. What a treat. I chopped it up and made use of it.

This is an old book with a lot of browned pages. I picked it up at Half-Price Books for two dollars.

I removed the cover...

...and trimmed the pages off the spine.

I picked up some paper glue at HobLobs and used it to stick these bad boys, one by one, to the cardboard.

Then I did that like a million times.

Now we can read our wall instead of talk to one another as we eat dinner. Big improvement.

P.S. - I had seen a couple DIY book page wallpapers floating around the internet. Since we can't just wallpaper our apartment walls, I thought panels would do. Plus, they added some depth to a big, bland wall. The book cover itself is actually covering our alarm control box...it's a bit gaudy.

Re-Printing a T-Shirt

Luke — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:38:13 +0000

This is a wall. To the left of the wall is my wife wearing a red shirt.

She really digs the shirt because it's super soft. She doesn't dig the words on it that much.

It was a freebie swag shirt, so we'll forgive the corny copy. Still, America's kids aren't exactly her mission. So, I offered to paint over it.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to print, just that I wanted to cover up that section. The paint was printed lightly into the fabric in the typical faux-worn out style. Not difficult to cover up, but I would have to use black.

I stared at the cover-up shape for a minute until I decided to make an umbrella out of it. My wife is into minimalistic stuff, so I thought a simple icon would do the trick. Turned out to be the easiest stencil I've ever made.

This is how it looked lined up on the shirt. I lathered the fabric paint on thick to make sure the words didn't show through. The nice thing about simpler shapes like this, as opposed to my typically more elaborate stencils, is that no matter how much paint I use, almost all of it ends up on the shirt and not all over a sheet of cardstock.

And there you have it. You can barely see the words beneath the paint, but that's with flash photography and an eye that already knew they were there.

And in case you were wondering: she loved it.