Emporium Press is the Emporium's publishing imprint. Later imprints may be added for graphics and movie work. Intrepid Force, Tim's first novel, was released in May 2003 and three new novels were published in 2005. Revisions of some of those earlier novels, a third Intrepid Force novel, and two new novels are on the way. There's also an Intrepid Force graphic novel in the works.
Emporium Graphics is the studio's graphic design imprint and the movie studio is still under construction.
The Emporium of Imagination sits on the border of intersecting realms. It is, in one sense, a Christian company, reflecting the values and beliefs of its founder. On the other hand, the literary tastes and interests of the founder are not limited only to those works bearing exclusively Christian labels. There is much that is noble and praiseworthy in classical and mainstream media, and some things that are just good, clean (albeit sometimes weird and scary) fun.
Tim chose the metaphor of a Victorian era village to capture the spirit of the company. Each feature of the village symbolizes some aspect of the studio.
The bookstore, naturally, represents Emporium Press. The art gallery represents the graphic design aspects of the operation. The cafe represents the soul of the enterprise, the community of
Tim's Times:
September 2009: I just knocked out a new novel, Haunted Summer, and am about to go to the ACFW conference in Denver to try to sell it to a publisher. This novel is a supernatural thriller set along the Oregon coast. Stay tuned for updates!
June 2009: I just returned from the Gideon Media and Film Festival. It was held at the Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina. I'd been to writing conferences and a film festival before, but this was the first I've seen that had a comics/graphic novel track. I knocked out the prototype of the Intrepid Force graphic novel just in time to take it. Track leaders included Mike Maihack of Cowshell Graphics, Ben Avery who has written for Marvel, Classics Illustrated, and Zondervan's Kingdoms series, and Ken Raney who has published some excellent children's books. Art Argyris of the Kingstone Media Group was also there. His orgaization produces comics, books, and films. This was a Christian-based conference with some of the films projects produced primarily for church audiences and others geared more for mainstream/secular audiences depending on the callings and convictions of the producers. Nancy Stafford, an actress who was a regular on Matlock and E.R. and a guest on Magnum P.I. was one of the keynote speakers. Torry Martin's comedy act and his capacity for forming connections with people and making them feel at home were a blessing also. (He also has an amazing comic book-themed office.) It was good to see novelists Renee Gutteridge again also.I look forward to reconnecting with my other ACFW comrades at the conference in September.
March 2009: I'm still hard at work on the Intrepid Force graphic novel. I'm trying to finish the first installment in time for the Gideon Art Festival at the end of May. I've also got the third Intrepid Force novel and a novel based on the book of Genesis underway.
January 2009: A new year begins! I'm still dividing my studio time between a variety of projects. Stay tuned!
Visit the Inspirations Cafe (blog) for more discussion, especially about the CSFF Blog Tour.
Emporia USA is the kind of place where you'd find Holmes and Watson working with the local police department, Professor Challenger (from Doyle's The Lost World) lecturing on dinosaurs at the local university, and Dr. Jekyll practicing medicine. George McDonald or one of his characters could be found lecturing at the chapel. If you had a powerful enough telescope, you might see canals on Mars or prehistoric jungles on Venus. We'd like to think C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Ray Bradbury would enjoy spending time in the cafe--and we hope you will too.