This morning, I went to Brady Poirier's Photoshop class at ABC Adult School for the first time since the spring of 2013. I had a presentation of about 15 minutes in which I summarized the book and tied it to what I learned in Photoshop. As in the introduction to the book, I explained the reason I signed up for the class was to use the program to bring the characters I created to life.
Coming in, my biggest concern was how the students would react to the cover price of $54.95, of which I will get $1.60 per copy sold as a royalty. When I went to my current location at Cabrillo Lane and asked an office worker who I thought might be interested in the book, the worker told me that she had no discretionary income to pay for it, in part because the office was closed in the entire month of August and she was not paid as a result. Thankfully, no one raised a public objection to the price, and I hope this is a good sign for what's to come, as well as the fact that everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation. (I didn't explain it to them, but they can also look at a free sample download before they commit to buying it; that's available on the sales site at Lulu.)
Up next, I tried to get the local libraries in my area - George Nye and Iacoboni - to post flyers with sales information. However, I was told that Los Angeles County policy prohibits book sales for personal gain on their property. I was bitterly disappointed to hear that, because library patrons would make great customers for obvious reasons. But there is a Friends of Lakewood Libraries program at Iacoboni which sells books and magazines to help pay the expenses the county won't, and I will contact it to see if it will work with me somehow.
This weekend, I will post at The Way Christian Fellowship in Lakewood, the church I attend, and then on Tuesday I will present a conference call to an online forum about sports and sports media for which I have been involved for years.
I will end the post with a "followup" to one of the pictures on page 13. That shows B.W. and Brittany's first wedding photo. However, as I have written before, that marriage was not what they wanted since it had to be so hastily arranged. What I have below is their re-commitment ceremony, which I set last year, or three years into their marriage. It was a real ceremony in North Carolina, with Ralph being the officiant and a full reception afterwards in which the traditional first dance was replaced by their duet "When the Bough Breaks," which was inspired by their relationship. (I've made up the title and hope someday to write lyrics, though that's not guaranteed.) The wedding photo is the cover of the 2014 bridal guide in The Daily Record (Dunn, NC), the bridge is from Raven Rock State Park from the same newspaper, the water comes from a lake put into the teacher files by Brady Poirier, and the font for the wedding announcement is Monterey BT, which is a great cursive font. To create the "different strokes," I had to duplicate three rasterized layers with the same type and erase unwanted strokes from each of them.
