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.

.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!

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!

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!

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.

I’m about ten days away from finishing up Doomed Queens — actually maybe even less than that, if I keep up this pace. At this stage, I’m aiming to finish up a drawing every two days. This probably sounds like an unrealistic pace, but it helps that all but one of the remaining three drawings are laid out and transferred onto paper. After I finish the drawings, I have a last go ’round on the page proofs. I also have to finalize my acknowledgments and index pages.

And then, the finish line — though I’m sure there will be some last things to attend to. Publishing is just that way.

With so many loose threads waiting to be tucked away, it’s been hard for me to blog here these days. Yet I still have an urge to track my progress. To do so, I’ve started using Twitter and have been microblogging several times a day. (Maybe you’ve already noticed the Twitter sidebar?)

Anyway, if you want to “follow” my progress as I finish up Doomed Queens, click here.

ps: The drawing above is of Blanche of Bourbon, one of the more tragic of my doomed queens. Blanche had the misfortune to be married off to the aptly named Pedro the Cruel - need I write more? The model for Blanche was the lovely Stephanie Bowen, an editorial assistant at Random House.

Right now, I’m about halfway through the art for Doomed Queens — and I’ve just over six weeks to go until my final deadline. As an amuse bouche, here is my drawing of Catherine of Aragon, which was gamely posed for by my friend Diane Saarinen. Yes, I’m designing each drawing as sort of a royal danse macabre through queenly history.

Quick trivia question: Can you name the other wives of Henry VIII surrounding her? To jog your memory, here’s that old rhyme:

Divorced, beheaded, died;
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

The Doomed Queens website is semi-live. By semi-live, I mean that though the whole site isn’t up yet, I’ve posted a temporary home page. Eventually the content on DoomedQueens.com will expand to include a quiz to accertain your risk of marching to the scaffold, a Youtube video (produced by Random House, natch), and a host of other darkly fun yet oddly empowering content.

For now, the home page will grant you a royal taste of what’s to come. It also features a Doomed Queens cautionary moral of the day (which are sprinkled throughout the book). My personal favorite is for Princess Diana: “Beware of men bearing Camillas and cameras.” Useful advice indeed!

During this time I’ve:

~ Finished the cover for Doomed Queens and hand delivered it to Broadway Doubleday. Fortunately, they were all very pleased with it! Once I have a scan, I’ll post it. Oh, and on a related note, there’s now an Amazon.com page for it, over nine months before the pub date — sort of like being pregnant, only with a book at the end instead of a baby.

~ Got Doomed Queens edits back from my editor. Final revised manuscript is due March 1st.

~ Along with those edits, I was asked to revamp the manuscript into a 32-page blad (book laid out and design). Doubleday plans to send the blad out to various publicity outlets in advance of my October 2008 publication — a very good sign that the-powers-that-be are excited and supportive of my book.

~ On top of this, I’ve been hard at work on the art for Nicki Scully and Linda Star Wolf’s The Anubis Oracle. This 35 card oracle deck and book set will be published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. this winter. I’ve finished just about everything save for the cover (below), which is still under development.

I also illustrated Nicki and Star Wolf’s Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt, which came out last year. The art for The Anubis Oracle is adapted from this book, using both digital and traditional watercolor techniques. It’s been a very intense process, since the deadline for it was hot on the heels of finishing the manuscript.

~ Am still moving stuff into the new-and-expanded Kris Waldherr Art and Words storefront. Everything is coming together nicely, though it’s a slow process! A friend will be helping me with my window signage later this month, as soon as I design my logo. I have a few ideas, but need to spend some time focusing. Which I will do as soon as I finish the queens’ edits and the oracle cover.

Toward that end, I love the idea of a somewhat arts and crafts-themed design, maybe a bit fin de siecle Vienna meets William Morris in the type treatment. But what’s giving me pause is the thought of branding: Whatever I ultimately choose to do will reflect on my business, my work as an author, and my art. So I need to plan carefully. I’m also planning a relaunch of this site sometime this spring, so I’d like to tie in my studio design with that for consistency’s sake. Anyway, lots to think of here!

And that’s the latest here. I did manage to take an afternoon off to see Persepolis, which I highly recommend. It’s wonderful — it gave me hope that we author-illustrators can make a difference in this world through our art and words, if we create powerful enough products that make it out there. I was simultaneously devastated and enthralled by it.

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View of the entrance. Nice big storefront window! Note half pint assistant on chair awaiting instructions (or inspiration).
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View of my work area — drawing board and tables. Still need to bring my desktop computer set up and file cabinets over.
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What will be the gallery area. Already I’m planning three exhibitions for the year, the first of which will probably go up this spring. (The recycling is not an art installation.)
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Another view.
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To get to this stage of semi-completion took a lot of work — all done while finishing up the queens book and working on a new oracle project. (No wonder I’m so tired these days!) But there’s much more to be done, stuff to be moved and so on. But all of this will be done over the next few weeks. The important thing is that I can now paint and work in the space without tripping over boxes and cans of paint.