While it will be initially offered through Lulu.com, our plan is to move all the S.T.E.A.L. books away from it, because we have heard recently that even shipping prices have skyrocketed. Should you have seen such a sharp increase, please let us know.

As a temporary measure, we will also offer a digital download of the book, for about $3. Like I said other times, the PDF version will become free for all once a sufficient number of books (or downloads) have been reached.

First of all, we apologize for the spike in prices. Secondly, we will start looking for alternatives as Lulu.com is no longer a valid place for printing. Visions will be probably still be offered there due to technical reasons, but all the other books will be printed elsewhere as soon as we can.

But that’s not all. After writing two more novels, I realized that the one that had originated them all - Lost Innocence - presented minor inconsistencies, both from an artwork (we had just started collaborating with Too) and a content point of view (some ideas were just sketches when I started writing, don’t forget it took 10 years to release it!). That’s why, sometime in early 2009, we plan to release Lost Innocence - New Edition, which will feature a revised text and also brand-new artwork that will not be shown elsewhere (perhaps in Visions although it depends on the delivery).

That’s all for now, I hope to get back soon with word of the official release of the third book. It’s not that far away!

Visions is currently scheduled to be released after The Path to the Light is out.

This low quality photo (that features a sketch that will appear exclusively in Visions) shows the original design chosen for Satsuki (shown for the first time thanks to Too) and the modern design, which Too helped creating.

As I said in a previous post, Satsuki’s original design was heavily influenced by D4 Princess character Doria Rurido. Her role in the first draft was not that big, she was a journalist tied to the occult trying to uncover the truth about Yumiko. She was very detached, to the point of being cold, and her intentions towards Yumiko weren’t that clear. She already possessed demonic powers, but they were completely different. During the various revisions, her role started to grow, becoming the spectator of the unstoppable descent of Yumiko towards the dark. At this point, the possibility of having the “short novel” illustrated was being discussed, and the first real artwork of Satsuki looked like this:

It was quite a departure from what I had in mind. Still, I liked the new design more, so I decided to change a few things in her behavior. She became more active, her role grew a lot, and she almost assumed the features of the most recent version. A few years later, when Too became involved, he slightly alterated the second design, resulting in this:

Too opted for a reinterpreation of what he saw, adding a more tonic/sexy image to Satsuki that I saw fit to the new flow of the novel. Therefore, I made some more changes, and the character became what she is now. Quite a long journey, development-wise.

This will be the last post till 26th August, but we will keep working on The Path to the Light. As a final gift, I present you a work in progress from Visions:

Have a nice holiday!

In the mean time, the  current snapshot is at the usual place.

It’s up on the novel page. Comments welcome.

Bear in mind that art, with the exception of the sample you are seeing below, will not be published anywhere, not even on this page: it will be exclusive to Visions (that is the book name). We are aiming to release this around the end of September. Price is currently TBA. More information will be posted in the future.