Some folks have had a little trouble ordering from our store, due to a clumsy bit of web design on my part. It’s not very clear in the shopping cart screen that you have to enter your ZIP code and click “Update Subtotal” before you click the “Check out with PayPal” button. Here’s a clumsily scribbled-upon screenshot to call attention to what I mean:

If you don’t fill in your ZIP code and click “Update Subtotal” you won’t be able to advance past the shopping cart screen.

We are sorry for the inconvenience, and are working diligently to make the shopping cart a more friendly experience. Thanks for your patience and support, everybody!

UPDATE: Shipping calculation should be working again, with no more mysterious overcharges. Thanks for your patience. If you are still experiencing problems, please send e-mail to info@lunasea-studios.com describing what went wrong, and we’ll fix it!

Seriously … breaking. Our store is currently overcharging for shipping on some orders. If you place an order before we get it fixed, we will manually refund the excess through PayPal to you, or you can wait and check back here for further updates. We are working on fixing it as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

We had a great time at the West Hollywood Book Fair this past weekend. We got to hang with UberLunatic Laura, who showed us just how much she loved blood oranges.

And I saw just what it means to lead the Pug Life, yo.

But there’s no time for love, Dr. Jones, ’cause this weekend, October 10-11, we’re off to Sacramento for Witchapalooza! We’ll be at booths V23 and V24. We will be selling something very special while there . . . you’ll have to come see us or wait for our post-con report to find out what it is. *eeeeeevil grin*

Then it’s off to San Francisco for APE on October 17 and 18. Yes, my lovely Lunatics, we are bat poop crazy.

Our loc at APE is table 429. Follow this handy-dandy map and come see us!

Art Prints in Store

You see that wall over there? Yeah, the naked one. You know what it needs? It needs some art prints.

Art prints are for sale in the Lunasea Studios store! Each print comes in three sizes: wee, not so wee, and FRIGGIN’ HUGE!

Upcoming Appearances

SoCal Lunatics! James and I will be in the Los Angeles area the first weekend of October. We’ll be wandering around the Long Beach Comic Con on Saturday, October 3rd. We won’t have a booth there. We’ll be free range geeks. But we have a good reason for that, because on Sunday we’ll be exhibiting at the West Hollywood Book Fair! We will be in the Comics Scene section, booth number D16. I’ll be face painting my Little Vampires and friends for the first time, so be sure to come see us!

ScareFest Report

We had a blast in the bluegrass at Kentucky’s Scarefest the second week of September. Doing a convention in Kentucky is such a thrill because we get to see family, friends, and fans. And we have some serious UberLunatics in Kentucky.

Brianna not only rocked the Little Vampire shirt at ScareFest, she wore it to Dragon*Con in Georgia. Serious props for pimping my stuff over state lines. Serious.

Susan, the incredible craftswoman behind Paranormal Babies, got my little vampire bats tattooed on her arm. She even had my signature inked on there. Mikey King, of Castle of Color, did the ink work. I teared up when I saw it, ‘cause jeez, someone got my art permanently attached to their body! That’s pretty freakin’ cool.

Allison Tuttle gets a shout-out for interviewing me for The Darkerside Magazine. Anyone fool enough to interview me gets the love.

Lunatic love also goes to Ashley, Thea and Amy, Heather, Christy, Sonia and the most rockinest of librarians, Emily.  They helped us achieve a first: we sold out of all of our books at a convention.

Sonia and Bri, your sketches are in the works!

One last fan shout-out to Chad S. Hawks, proprieter of Chateau Grrr .  Now I’ve had many a fine looking gentleman approach my table and buy my books and art, but Chad was the first with fangs! I am a happily married woman, but am not ashamed to say that I had me quite the Sookie moment when Chad smiled and showed those pointy pearlies. Oh my.

I don’t think my most uber of UberLunatics could top our family when it comes to support, though. James’s mom and her cousins Bill and Evadene drove out from Elizabethtown to see us do our thing. My Mom and Dad spent Saturday and Sunday helping us out in the booth. Ma even danced the merch danced by making outdoor flags featuring the Little Vampires.

My Dad showed the world that he truly understood the meaning of the “Can’t Work. It’s Banana Time” shirt. Look how good that shirt looks on someone not working.

If you’re not working, whether it’s because it’s banana time or some other time, you need to be sportin’ one of these shirts.

We seem to have great luck when it comes to our neighbors at conventions, and ScareFest was no different. Across from our booth was Katherine, a palm reader. I’ve never had my palm read, so I had to give it a go. Katherine had warm hands and confirmed that I was, indeed, crazy. There’s something to this palm reading thing, ‘cause that’s just right on the money. The Fortunato Ink ladies were also across from us, and I just couldn’t resist buying one of their adorable Believe shirts.

Craig and Amy were beside us selling their incredible Dark Imaginings changing portraits. They shared our love of ancient mythology and self-publishing. So they were the kind of people we could talk to for hours at Cracker Barrel. So we did. There’s not much better than good conversation at Cracker Barrel. The only thing that could top that is good conversation at Waffle House.

Recommendations

James and I went to a convention and didn’t exhibit. Crazy, right? We actually had a mini-vacation and went to PAX, the Penny-Arcade Expo for gamers. While there, we ran into our buds at Seattle Geekly. You don’t have to be a Seattle Geek to enjoy their podcast. Check out their video of Jonathan Coulton showing Wil Wheaton just how much we geeks love him.

My second recommendation goes out to all my Lunatic Parents. If you have a Young Lunatic that loves Little Vampires, check out the interactive book What is Bothering Carl? It is adorable, and has the same kind of vibe as Little Vampires. And Andy Hull, who must sleep less than we do, did the writing, art, animation, music, and programming himself. That’s our kind of independent go-getter wacko.

Sac-Anime Report
We exhibited at Sac-Anime in late August, and had a blast yet again. Some of my Uber Lunatics came by to see us, like Barbara, Eli, and Lucas.

We got to see Margaret and Phil again, as well as awesome author Amy Lane. I got to draw in the smallest sketchbook ever.

We acquired many more wonderful Lunatics, many of whom were cosplayed beautifully. I’m particularly fond of my Steampunk ladies, but that’s probably ’cause they bowed at me. You get major points for bowing. Especially since bowing, as opposed to a hand shake or high-five, doesn’t spread nasty germs.

And then there was the ninja.

Yes, I have my very own ninja.

We’re hauling our swag up to Sacramento to give the love to our NorCal Lunatics!

If you’re in the Sacramento area this weekend, August 29-30, swing by Sac-Anime to see us. We will have some copies of the handbound Little Vampires and Friends for sale, along with our new buttons and art prints. I’ll be cosplaying as a writer and artist. You can cosplay as a fan. It will be stellar!