Raw Power.

Yesterday, I took delivery of the first printing of my novel, COLOR OF A MIRROR. It’s hard to believe that I wrote a book, that it’s finally a real thing… even more surreal that people are beginning to read this story in so many different places.

Books are in stock now on my website, including the brutalist “ArtificeLux Edition” deluxe hardcover (shown below). Be sure to check it out if you want an unconventional, dark cyberpunk novel to keep you company this winter!

(And listen to the dark ambient soundtrack while you read! Available on Spotify and other streaming services, or on vinyl in limited quantities on my site.)

Barbarous.

Balance the Scales.

KONTROL-- Here's an old one that I finished probably about 2 months ago and never posted up. Was going for a simple, retro sci-fi look mixed with Cold War propaganda...

This is a favorite of mine because it was completely designed and colored with pencil, pen, and marker... no sprays.

I'm a fan.

Robot Head.

Escher-Lance. Well, today marks the 100th post of my #expoart series. Since I've started this project of making some sort of design every day, there have been numerous times I've thought that I had exhausted all possible ideas, that I would just be doing repeats. And yet, every time, something new would spring forth. (Like the above drawing.) A lesson for me in not giving up, I suppose. There will be more to come. Thanks for looking, and have a good one.

Icy Glare.

“Many say the moon is closer to the dead.”

This is COLOR OF A MIRROR, my debut novel with an original, dark ambient soundtrack by composer Josh McCausland to go along with it.

Written, designed, and published by me, it’s the culmination of years of work, and it’s exactly the story I wanted to tell. It’s not loud or bombastic, but rather a cerebral, slow-burn cyberpunk narrative lingering on themes of fame, paranoia, religion, and technology. If you’re a fan of the brooding futures of William Gibson, Blade Runner, or anything with a mood like the movie Drive, I think you’ll find something to love here.

Available exclusively on my website, it comes in limited edition deluxe-hardcover, softcover, and e-book. (And if you’re a vinyl lover, the soundtrack is pressed in 180g Moondust White; also available on my site.)

Welcome to the Dive. Hope to see you around.

-Dan

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colorofamirror.net

(Book photos by Josh McCausland.)

Jovian Sunrises

The lightning played freeze tag throughout the looming thunderheads, flitting first here, then there, capturing an image in the blaze of an instant.  Forked fingers reached like hands to touch each other, missing by what seemed to be, from the shoreline at least, only the narrowest of margins.  But the clouds weren't all that threatening, despite their distant, insistent rumbling; their color was a salty white against the charcoal sky of night, making them seem more like clumps of cotton than angry bruises.

Plus, they were receding, chased by the starlit heralds of day.

I had undertaken to race the sun, to beat it at its own game, spinning around the Earth as it does.  And I had succeeded in my challenge, arriving at those dunes nearly an hour before its initial hues began painting the backdrop of the world in pastel color once more.

But this dawn was unlike any other.

It wasn't the ire of Jupiter that broke the night.  No, it was the faces of the other Jovian gods--Uranus and Neptune--that melted the black in pools of cool sapphire and jade. They caught the sky in marbled perfection and turned it, ever so carefully, to day.