I recently published my first maze book (via Amazon KDP), have sold a few copies, and thought some people here may want to support a local artist. I’m already working on book № 2!
The first book is packed with easy-to-solve mazes, and I think it would be enjoyable for kids as well as adults.
I had my youngest drop a copy in one of those free little library boxes nearby over last weekend. Hopefully someone out there locally picked it up & is enjoying it already!
I also put together some designs to be printed on merchandise, and I’m trying two different shops online right now. I’ll be uploading more themed designs as soon as I complete work on my 2nd maze book.
I have sold a few T-shirts, and bought some stickers and a magnet for myself. Between the two shops you can get everything from coffee mugs and pillows to shower curtains or clocks featuring my designs.
Check out my first #maze book! this was a test run, I plan to do more. can you spare $6 to help fund some art? If not, it’s cool… maybe just share the link? https://wp.me/pwqzc-3ba I am super excited to get this out there. How do you share a damn link on here?
So, recently, I have had some bouts of shenanigans in & out of the hospital with infections and complications stemming from Diverticulitis.
So, I drew up a maze inspired by recent events for the surgeon, scanned & colored it, got it printed at 12″x18″, signed it, and got a frame for it. I’ll give him some dry-erase markers, too.
One week out, I feel like I’m in good hands. He had a lot of neat funny stuff in his office. And apparently, Wednesdays are cool because he gets to use a robot to assist.
Thanks for taking the time to read! Check out my first maze book on Amazon, or get yourself some of my maze merch from TeePublic or RedBubble. I’m trying to see how far I can take this thing… and I gots to pay me some medical bills! I get about a dollar per book or shirt since this is all print-on-demand.
Yeah, I have had some down-time lately, so I finally hit the maze thing full force. You may have read about it here or here.
I got my books today! Getting reports from others that they have theirs too, thanks for posting & tagging me! Feel free to share the link anywhere & everywhere! Ha ha.
As of now, I have sold 25 copies, and it’s staying solid there. It’s not a huge number, but hey… it’s more than I have ever sold before! We did get a private photo of our friends’ daughter solving one of the mazes in the book, too. How cool is that? Early reports are that it is challenging and fun for a 10yo.
I need help getting the word out, as I have a $0 advertising budget.
If you can, leave a review on Amazon, or even at GoodReads! It would be awesome if you add it to your “to read” or wish list, or even marked as “read” at GoodReads, or follow me as an author there.
The consistently most visited post at my blog is In a maze mood, I guess. from January 2012. I have no idea what drives everyone there. Maybe Pinterest? I am tempted to update that page with a link to the book!
I’m also very interested in the Kindle books… Is it useless on a Kindle? Can you mark it up on anything?
OK, the creative bug has bit. I’ve opened two shops for maze merchandise, or at least tried to. I went to RedBubble and TeePublic. The TeePublic one seems to be live, but the RedBubble one is not (yet). [They’re saying to wait 5 business days.]
I’ll have a merch page here at the blog, but here are the links for now:
I appreciate your support of my artistic endeavors. I know money is tight for a lot of people right now. It’s cool if you can’t buy, or simply don’t want to. I can dig it’s not everyone’s style. Please, share the link if you’re so inclined, even directly to someone who you think may be interested.
If you do end up buying a T-shirt, book, or whatever. Please, give a review on the site… and post it on Social Media & tag me! I’m @AiXeLsyD13 on pretty much everything out there.
I had some time recently, and I wanted to see what the process was to publish a print-on-demand book from Amazon. I grabbed a bunch of my smaller easy mazes with no discernable theme that I had previously posted here & on Instagram, and assembled them into a book. All of them were scanned in & maybe fixed a bit with paint.NET, and I put the pages of the book together with OpenOffice, so my only cost came down to the pens & paper. (Not sure how to quantify time & sanity.)
Yup, I finally did it. After drawing mazes for decades.
It was very simple to publish with Amazon. This gave me the confidence to put together another book, perhaps with a bit more coherence, and definitely with a much better cover. I have already started drawing new mazes in a neat little box template so they’re a bit more consistent. What’s a good number? 30? 50?
Also, I need to get all of these older mazes scanned & into a book too. I have some pages that are bigger than my scanner bed though. Perhaps a trip to FedEx Office or Staples is in order.
I just kind of set the price arbitrarily to make a little bit off of publishing. I’m not looking to get rich, but it would be nice to finally make income of off artistic output after decades of ostensibly doodling. (I won’t delve into my musical endeavors which are break even at best but probably a negative sum game. 🤣)
Luckily the creative outlet for me is just that, an outlet. I think we all need to express ourselves artistically or through sports, gardening, or other hobbies.
It also suggested I make a Kindle version, so I did that too. I am not sure if the concept will work there. Can you draw on a Kindle screen with a stylus or your finger? Can you print from a Kindle? I must confess I don’t have one. I am still a fan of books in the traditional form.
If you have ever enjoyed my mazes, or have been one of the awesome people that has completed them and sent in the solution – I humbly ask you (if you’re so inclined) to purchase a paperback for around $6 or a Kindle book for around $3 and let me know what you think. Should I do more? Did you enjoy it? Is the quality any good?
Really, I ask you to try even if you have never solved one of my mazes. Now is a good time to start!
It might make a good gift for kids or adults. It’s a nice way to pass some time or zone out.
If you do buy, can you leave an honest rating/review? I feel like that goes a long way with Amazon.
If you can’t buy or are really not interested, that’s OK too! I would ask you to maybe share the link around.
My thoughts on the next one are that I probably need a table of contents, to maybe title the mazes, and… should I include the solutions in the back? That’s one of my issues. I like to draw the mazes, but don’t really solve them. I may need to reach out for help on that part & pay someone to complete them so I can include the solutions (and make sure they’re solvable).
I probably need help with a title, too.
Thanks for reading, tanks for considering, and please share this link on every social media platform known to humankind: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH2FMH7W
I can’t help it. I need to draw mazes. I should try to get them out there. There are so many print-on-demand services that handle all the manufacturing and logistics… it would be crazy to not try & generate some passive income from my mazes.
How do I choose though?
I certainly have a style. So, I drew a maze, emailed a bunch of services at once, and submitted webforms to others asking why I should choose them. It should prove entertaining whether any of it lands or not.
Here’s the email:
Hello friends,
I write to you today somewhat overwhelmed. The great and powerful all-knowing Google has given me a multitude of options. I have so many options I’m nearly paralyzed with indecision.
Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. I’m an artist of sorts. I’m a bit of a strange duck. I need a creative outlet so I turned to blogging, so I guess I write a bit too. I have been drawing mazes since I was about 12 or 13 years old, and now I’m 46. I have been repeatedly told I should publish them or something, but I just never did. I was more about squiggles than coherent themes or cartoons. I have branched out.
I would like to get some of my mazes on merchandise like T-shirts or mugs, and maybe into self-published books. I had a guy with a sublimation print business set up some maze mugs that came with a little dry-erase marker… but he closed up shop before any real orders were made. He also made some really cool one-off socks!
This is where you guys come in. Why would I use your service over the others out there? Is there a one-stop-shop where I can set up merchandise and publish books? Sell art prints? I have browsed the websites. I have read the low price and high quality sales pitches. How would you, a creative person, implore a fellow creative person with an odd penchant for writing weird emails and letters to use your service over all the others?
I’m a huge fan of the no-money-up-front model, where you have a shop and a site and I have a small home there. In that theme I would be using paint.NET or GIMP to tweak the hand-drawn mazes… although I just learned via Twitter that Scribus may be another invaluable free tool for putting together a book. Do any of you offer printed mugs with dry erase markers? Also… I have a legacy pile of mazes some of which are stupidly sized larger than my scanner. Do you think phone scans would be acceptable if they can provide good enough black & white image quality?
I certainly wouldn’t mind some somewhat passive income from a creative outlet, that can enable my stupid guitar habit or my rekindled LEGO habit. I know my last creative “money making” ventures in local bands actually ended up costing money, so hopefully this pans out somewhat more successful. Unless you also pay in “gas money” and free beer?
Would anyone want to wear a shirt with a maze on it? Does anyone buy print media maze books and do them? Good questions that I would like to answer. I could print a book of mazes that I have drawn around letters to companies like Pizza Hut or Pepperidge Farm. Should maze books include solution pages? I like to draw mazes, not solve them. Is that weird?
I’ll attach some samples of my work. I really would like to hear your thoughts on why I should use your site over others. Perhaps one of my mazes will inspire you!
I’m not happy at all with that paper, the pen, or the scan quality… but I did it really quick. I attached a few random past works to the emails & web submissions where applicable also.
I’m also looking into print-on-demand publishing. Would anybody out there reading actually but this stuff? Please, let me know in the comments.
What about a book of mazes sent to companies for various ridiculous reasons and their replies? Why read it here for free online when you could buy it? Yay! Send me money!
In all seriousness, any advice is appreciated… especially if you’re already successfully doing such things.
So, my 6 year old handed me a book that she wrote/illustrated at school. I didn’t realize they had that much free time. Apparently her teacher is an accomplice with the stapling of said book. It’s a conspiracy.
How 2 Take Care of a Dog.
1. First give her food and water.
2. Take her for (a) poop.
3. Take her for a wake. [I really hope she means walk here, but a dog at a wake may be fun.]
4. Snuggle with her.
5. Wash her. [May I suggest this step comes before the last one?]
6. Play with her.
7. Put her to sleep. [Oh, how I don’t even want to think about that phrasing and we don’t even have a dog.]
How to Take Care of a Dog
First give her food and water.
Take her for (a) poop.
Take her for a wake. [I really hope she means walk here, but a dog at a wake may be fun.]
Snuggle with her.
Wash her. [May I suggest this step comes before the last one?]
Play with her.
Put her to sleep. [Oh, how I don’t even want to think about that phrasing and we don’t even have a dog.]
My daughter is also conspiring with her 4 year old brother to take up a collection to “buy” a dog. Someone must have dropped a $50 figure to them for dog adoption from a shelter, because that is their goal.
Missing from this expert plan is picking up poop from the yard.
If I published a book of my mazes, would you buy it? Know anyone who would? Think there’s a market for it? I’ve recently been talking to another dude online that drew mazes in the past that are mazes similar to mine (in addition to some other very cool stuff), and who’s going for it through Amazon. The rationale is even if he only sells one or two a month, it’s still income he didn’t have. There’s always Kickstarter or Lulu, too.
I’d love it if someone could make an app where you can complete one of my mazes with your finger or a stylus on an Android, iPhone, tablet PC, or E-reader. I don’t know to what end… but it would be fun. Any interested developers out there?
I’d have to scan, sort, arrange, and of course draw some more… maybe even figure out the solutions… but I think I could get it all put together.
Overall the movie could have an Apocalyptic kind of feel… with new beginnings and a b’ak’tun-like cycle. It would be great if the movie were released this year, with the 2012 hype reaching full fervor soon. Tie into that some epic sci-fi stuff, archeological mystery, journalism, psychology experiments, a little humor, religious and government conspiracies, disproving long-standing scientific theories (like “hey, we revolve around the sun!”) and blowing peoples’ minds, and even a great philosophical message. I’d say you can’t go wrong with it as long as you try to stick to the original story as much as possible.
Nightfall
It has apparently been made into a movie twice. I have seen one of them, and I just remember it not only betraying the story but just being crap. One was made in 1988 and one in 2000. I looked on Netflix and can only see the one from 2000 and it can only be “saved”, it’s apparently not on DVD in their collection. So maybe I watched this way back, from a video store or even on a VHS tape. The 1988 one, I can only find used VHS copies on Amazon, so perhaps it doesn’t exist on DVD. I just remember it being an inexplicably different planet & having different characters, or perhaps being another “cycle” than the one depicted in the book. I may have to track them both down for the fun of it.
The book starts out with a little preface saying basically that it’s an alien world, with alien things … but in order to convey the story well, they were going to use the word “boot” instead of making up an alien word to cover whatever appendage the alien did the equivalent of its walking on. So, while it would need to be an alien world… it wouldn’t need to be too alien. It would have to be easily related to.
A successful movie would really need to make use of the suns & colors at the times of day & days of the week. Much like The Crow had bleached overall look or 300 looked like a painting in every frame, the colors of the sky would need to change ever so subtly from red hues to yellow hues as noted in the book. They could certainly relate to the mood of each scene.
Asimov wrote a great story. Don't screw it up.
Also… don’t alter the damn story. It’s great how everything’s revealed. Don’t rename the characters. Don’t rename the planet. Don’t get rid of their numbers. Don’t change their occupations. Don’t add any characters. Don’t take the premise & build another story around it.
In a time where Hollywood is making movies that are remakes or reboots of movies only a few years old… why not tap into some other sources, especially ones from (arguably) one of the best science fiction writers of all time? From Wikipedia:
Do you really need any more proof that this would make a great film if handled properly? I mean, even this would make a great poster tagline if condensed somehow:
According to Asimov’s autobiography, Campbell asked Asimov to write the story after discussing with him a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!
Campbell’s opinion to the contrary was: “I think men would go mad.”
So studio execs, casting directors, effects teams, directors, & producers… get on this. Please?
The cool thing about being William Shatner, is that you can do whatever the hell you want at this point in life. There’s a pretty good chance people will buy it… and if not, who cares?
I’m sure some sort of Star Trek checks, book and album checks, & Priceline paychecks are still pouring in regularly. This involves Zakk Wylde on guitar? So crazy. I wonder is anyone called Tony Iommi to ask if he wanted to do it?
Bohemian Rhapsody? Iron Man? Not sure what they have to do with space, but they’re the ones I’m most interested in. Well, that and a Hawkwind cover… Hawkwind? Crazy.
It’s not only an album… it’s a 2 CD or 3 LP set. It could all be just to advertise his new book. This is hilarious & awesome:
![3. Take her for a wake. [I really hope she means walk here, but a dog at a wake may be fun.]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/mollys-dog-care-instructions-4.jpg?w=88)
![5. Wash her. [May I suggest this step comes before the last one?]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/mollys-dog-care-instructions-6.jpg?w=91)
![7. Put her to sleep. [Oh, how I don't even want to think about that phrasing and we don't even have a dog.]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/mollys-dog-care-instructions-8.jpg?w=103)
![Peculiarly Perplexing Path [Maze]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/peculiarly-perplexing-path-maze.png "Peculiarly Perplexing Path [Maze]")
World (and Lunar) Domination 