Gerry Mooney Illustrating Dickens

My London Video

When I was prepping my last blog post about my London adventures, I was a little leery of posting (or announcing) a 20-minute video because I thought most folks would just click away from it! Although it was included in my previous post, it was at the very bottom and I soft-pedaled it in my email. After some time to think about it, though, I decided that it was worth sharing and watching in all its glory.

There were two folks shooting video of my presentation, and although the one that live-streamed on FB had some technical problems for the first two minutes, I was able to cut the two versions together so well that it’s like I was using a two-camera setup.

My full presentation at Dickens Day 2025 thanks to Jeremy Parrott and Warren Weiss

I had asked Jeremy Parrott to help with the live stream. He had some trouble switching the cameras, understandable since I literally threw my phone at him as I rushed to the stage!

Afterwards Warren Weiss, another attendee, came up and said he had shot my whole presentation, and once he emailed me his take, cutting them together was amazingly smooth.

Designing an e-book with Amazon

Moving forward, I’m working with Amazon to design an e-book of BLEAK HOUSE, which is a tricky process since it’s key that the illustrations appear adjacent to the proper text. The book is 68 chapters, so early on I suggested that they send small sections at a time.

Working in sections, we’ve gone through, first, chapters 1-20, and then chapters 21 through 39. Their designer is simply copy-pasting the text from my original pdf of the text version, so the actual proofreading is minimal, but lots of errors creep in at line breaks and paragraph breaks, especially in long sections of dialogue. I am essentially reading paragraph break to paragraph break, onerous enough but it goes quickly.

I opted for a package of services in addition to the e-book, though I’m still waiting to hear a clear list of what that involves. I do know that they’ll be producing a short promotional video, but where that will appear is still a question; and the e-book will get listed on other platforms, but exactly where is unclear.

I’m not too worried about it, as getting the book laid out properly is the main task we’re working on. The folks as KDP have been great to work with so I have hopes for it all.

Moving forward

I’ve decided that the e-book package is the last “big” money I’ll be spending on this project. Once the weather gets nicer I plan on approaching more bookstores in the area about doing linoleum-printing demonstrations, which as it turns out is pretty popular!

I’ve found that the main issue with talking to bookstores is that they need to know that my book is available for them to order through their standard channels. I think I’ve solved that problem, and I will find out once I start getting out and asking at individual stores.

Thanks for reading, folks!

London Hit-and-Run

Well yes, I made my marathon journey to London and I will never, ever do it again this way!

First and foremost I want to say that the event I traveled for, the annual Dickens Day gathering at the University of London, was everything I could have hoped it to be. Largely a group of “locals”, i.e., folks from within the U.K., there were also a couple of Asians, one other American, who currently teaches over there, and one Brit who has lived in Hungary for several years, so technically a local, but not really!

I only got to chat with a few of the other 100-odd attendees, so all my impressions are pretty selective. Everyone was extremely welcoming and interested in my work, and likewise the other speakers had some very interesting and surprising topics and visuals. The theme of the event this year was “Dickens and Art”, and the topic embraced quite a range of subjects.

London? Definitely MAYBE!

It’s been pretty hectic around here, planning my trip to London to speak at Dickens Day at the University of London. My sweet wife Vicki is currently on hospice care due to her strokes, and her sister who was planning to come from Charlotte to take care of her, went and broke her arm about two weeks ago. Planning for home health aides was a process, but ultimately we worked it out and Vicki will have good care while I’m gone.

In London I’ll be speaking in some detail as to how I arrive at and design the linoleum cut illustrations I’ve completed for BLEAK HOUSE. I’ve selected ten out of the forty completed pieces that are in the published book. The audience will be international and made up mostly of academics and Dickens experts. I have no idea at all of the number of attendees expected.

I’ll also be meeting up with several of the fifteen speakers at a pub the night before, which should go a long way toward feeling at ease on the day of the event.

I’ve been making lists and working on my speaking notes. I’ve rehearsed it a few times before friendly audiences (mostly Vicki but had some other folks stop by for a listen), been making packing lists, got my passport and visa, downloaded the American Airlines app to keep track of my flights, emailing with the event organizers, and a few other things probably!

What comes next is news as it happens, but as of last night (Tuesday) the Republican-authorized shutdown of the federal government has now affected the reliability of air travel in the U.S., with a spreading sick-out of air traffic controllers.

At this exact moment I am proceeding as if the trip will actually happen. I’m packing, making arrangements with the home health aides, and mining my world-traveling friends for travel trips, as I haven’t been out of the country since the 80s.

All these preparations have sort of taken over my life lately and social media seems more and more distant, however I do hope to do some live-streaming of my trip. Stay tuned to my Facebook page and send me a friend request if we aren’t already!

Barnes & Noble Lino Demonstration – VIDEO

The B&N store on 71st St. in Tulsa was kind enough to allow me to hold my second book signing/lino printing demonstration on Saturday, Sept. 11 and it went just fine!

Several friends showed up and I even snagged a couple of new fans among the passing customers. Special big thanks to Vicki’s longtime friend Marty Sikes for handling the camera duties on the spur of the moment.

Going to London!

Well, lots going on this Fall with BLEAK HOUSE. This Saturday, Sept. 13, at 1PM Central Time, I’ll be hopefully livestreaming my book signing/linoprint demonstration at the 71st Street Tulsa Barnes & Noble, opposite from Woodland Hills Mall. The staff there has been extremely helpful and welcoming, and have offered to help with the streaming. If you’re on Facebook stop by if you can, should be entertaining.

I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that in creating an illustrated novel I’ve been working in an obsolete form. AFAIK, there hasn’t been an adult illustrated novel in like 50 years (give or take!) and I consoled myself by saying I’ll have the field to myself, ha ha. But the joke’s on me. Check this out…!

Book signing and Linoleum Printing Demonstration

Promotional poster for a book signing event with Gerry Mooney, illustrator of Charles Dickens' Bleak House, featuring details about a linoleum block printing demonstration at Barnes & Noble, Tulsa, on September 13, 2025.

If you’re in the Tulsa area it would be great to see you at my second book signing and lino print demonstration, 1PM on Saturday, Sept. 13.

The Barnes & Noble Store is across from Woodland Hills Mall on 71st St., and the store staff has offered to help me live-stream the event on Facebook, so there’s an opportunity to watch right from your couch!

In other news, I expect to be traveling to London in October to speak at Dickens Day at the University of London. I’ll have more info about this soon.

My Journey to Speak on BLEAK HOUSE at Dickens Day 2025

Every year the University of London hosts “Dickens Day”, a prestigious event that features speakers on a chosen topic of interest to fans and students of Charles Dickens. It was exciting to see that this year, the topic is “Dickens and Art”, and in a flash it seemed all my efforts were suddenly coming into focus and timed perfectly for the stage my project is currently at.

Of course I could say I’m speaking at the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, but come on, “The Dickens Society” just sounds cooler!

Scamming an Artist – Part 3: Dude! The FBI!

I know many of you have been following this story, especially those who have come close to being victims themselves until they tickled the google and ended up right here at this blog. One of my new correspondents, Tom Hanlon, went the extra mile and actually made a complaint to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and also, as of this writing, has made a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov .

FBI seal against a blue background with rays, representing the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Below is the FBI report in full, except for redacting some of Tom’s personal info. I won’t put links in here for the two earlier posts because they’re linked in the official report.

Distribution beyond Amazon

Things always appear easier before you actually do them. It appeared that using the “Expanded Distribution” option for a book published on Amazon would make BLEAK HOUSE more widely available, and it did, sort of.

I’ve been operating under the belief that I could do book signings in Barnes & Noble stores. There are two in Tulsa, and of course there are other, smaller bookstores in most of the bigger small towns in the region. As it turns out, I could indeed have book signings in these B&N stores, as long as I was in the correct distribution channels that would allow these stores to order my book. If they can’t get the book on their shelves, there’s no reason for them to host the event. No matter how nicely you ask, there’s no way around this logic.

Which leads to the obvious question: WHAT are “correct distribution channels”?

Today’s Linocut Artists

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at the work of other linoleum artists. The fact is that since I seek out and view so much art on Facebook, my feed these days is almost exclusively art of various types, from Golden Age comic art to Disney animation, character sketching, political cartoons, Renaissance work, cave paintings, you name it. And I like it fine!

What has really grabbed my attention of course is the work of other linoleum artists, which I find utterly humbling. I’m very happy with the work I do, but in essence my pieces are a single image printed in black ink on white paper, and if you’ve read my posts on my “Christmas Carol” experiments, you know I struggle with anything more complex.