Are you a Doomed Queen?

As part of the content for the expanded Doomed Queens pages, I’ve created a quiz on Facebook. Take it here. (You’ll need to be signed into Facebook to take the quiz.)

BTW, the new Doomed Queens pages will be going up by the end of the month. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the teaser site.

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Doomed Queens, the video

Here it is, at last!

.M4V format:

Doomed Queens book video (small)

Doomed Queens video (medium)

Doomed Queens video (large)

.MOV format (Quicktime):

Doomed Queens book video (medium)

Doomed Queens video (large)

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If the video won’t download as it should, you can also view it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnSCiuNqaGc. Please feel free to share it with as many people as you’d like!

• Filed under be-mused, new projects, queens | One Response

of galleries and queens and Sarah Palin

I’m about to send out the autumn edition of Art and Words Extra, my newsletter. If you haven’t already signed up for it, I hope you’ll do so! Plus when you subscribe, you’ll also be automatically entered into a giveaway to win one of five copies of Doomed Queens when it’s published.

I’ve been hard at work on this new issue for the past few days — and I think it’s going to be one of my best yet. Inspired by the spirit of Doomed Queens past, I’ve written a piece about five ways Sarah Palin may yet be a Doomed Queen. There’s also an exclusive-only-for-subscribers raffle to win an autographed archival print ($90 value) of a drawing from the book.

For those of you in the New York area, I’ve included an events schedule for my Brooklyn gallery, Kris Waldherr Art and Words. It includes information about the upcoming Doomed Queens book launch and art exhibition, which (appropriately enough) will be a Hallowe’en celebration. Fun!

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Why does this blog look different? *

It’s all part of my site redesign, which has gone “live” as of last night. There’s still a few bugs to be ironed out — but when isn’t there? All of those bugs should be banished within the next week or so. The main thing I need to attend to is optimizing the home page for earlier versions of Explorer — it’s displaying perfectly in Firefox, Safari and Netscape. (No offense to Explorer lovers everywhere, but it’s hard on html.) Oh, and updating my cgi scripts for the oracles and online catalog. That sort of stuff.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this site redesign is that my url has migrated over to www.kriswaldherr.com, instead of artandwords.com. So please reset your bookmarks! Though the site at artandwords.com will still be operational for a little while (at least until the bugs on the new site are ironed out), eventually it will forward to kriswaldherr.com. In other words, artandwords.com will still be around, just not as it was.

Why have I done this, after over a decade of identifying myself so closely with artandwords.com/aka Art and Words? Believe me, it wasn’t an easy decision. When I initially chose artandwords.com as my author url, I did so because my name isn’t simple to spell or pronounce. I thought it would make it easier for people to remember my work, to find my site. And in some ways, it has.

However, over the years, it has created confusion. People think that Art and Words is the parent company, where I play only a small part — as if I’m a subsidiary working for a corporation, instead of the founding mama who created this site and my books. This has made it more difficult for me to take credit for what’s mine on this website, to claim authorship of my publications. I can’t tell you how many e-mails I’ve received addressed to “Art and Words”, rather than Kris Waldherr. After all, it’s Kris Waldherr who creates the art and words, not the other way around.

Anyway, I think my new logo clarifies this:

So welcome to KrisWaldherr.com. I’ve got a new logo. New url. New website. New content, including new pages for Doomed Queens. And (hopefully) new and easier navigation throughout.

It’s all good.

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*Now you can see why I haven’t been updating this blog so much. Site redesign is a lot of work!

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And then there were none….

Queens, that is. Yup, I’ve finished illustrating all of the queens in my book — which means that the book is done!

Two nights ago, I sent off all the files for Doomed Queens to Broadway Books. And I do mean all of the files: art, fonts, manuscript, even the endpaper design (which includes a little surprise for those inquisitive enough to look underneath the flaps).

After over a year of hard work, it’s hard for me to believe that I’m really finished. I mean, I’m sure there may be some last minute edits — there always are. But the reality is that the book can be published. All of the pieces exist.

And what’s next for me? Well, now that the book is done, it’s time for me to shift into book promotion mode, so Doomed Queens sells as well as hoped. Creating this book is only the first part of the story. Now it needs to get out into the world!

I know that my publisher has already begun their efforts. For example, they’ve just sent out book galleys to numerous luminaries, in the hopes that of gaining cover quotes. I also know that they’re planning to design a youtube video, which will be released sometime this summer. I’ve also caught wind that they may be designing a point-of-purchase display for my book — a generous investment toward Doomed Queens’ success. Amazingly enough, people have already started to preorder Doomed Queens, though the pub date isn’t until the end of October. (At least that’s how it seems, according to my Amazon.com rankings.)

On my end, I’ve started planning a book launch party and an art exhibition at my gallery. But my biggest amount of labor will go into redesigning my website to feature the queens. That’s what I’ll be diving into next at the studio — once I have a chance to catch my breath!

BTW, the Doomed Queens art above is of Empress Wang. She was modeled for by my literary agent, the elegant Theresa Park.

• Filed under new projects, publishing, queens | One Response