Updates and Debates

Or maybe I should have said Debates and Updates, but really I'd rather just get something out of the way.

I hate emotional debates. There, I said it. I will gladly discuss something based on facts and even throw a few opinions at it, but the tendency for people to devolve into speculating what rock you've crawled out from under, your level of intelligence or the need for you to see things their way at any cost? Nah, sorry, not interested. I am well aware that I am a passive sort but it is also my policy to attempt to be respectful and find humor whenever possible. 

I've come to realize I'm not very liberal and I'm definitely not conservative so being called moderate, neutral, Switzerland-- all of those suit me just fine. I'd never deny that each person faces issues that are unique to their gender, race,etc, but it's just as likely that the way the world reacts to you is also directly related to your attitude towards it. There are assholes and white knights and 'nice guys' and it's not my job to go around slapping labels on any of them. I've taken to making my life my business and doing my best to sympathize with someone's personal struggle, provided I at least like them and they're not antagonizing me. I do not care for someone's Internet 101 assessment on how fucked up the world is. The world only seems more violent, more sick and more unfair because we have every story, opinion and spin at out fingertips. The world has always been fucked up, a fact I learned since I was barely out of diapers. Can we please stop pretending that it's cold to pick your battles? I've finally chosen my contribution to this world and it's not politics, hair pulling and paralysis from being pulled in a million directions. Most of you have really good points but even then, sometimes a personal bias keeps even a well thought argument from missing the mark when omitting that your opposition can actually relate to you on a different level. No, it's not the same but at least admit you can't feel their pain anymore than you can theirs and sometimes it's just words against words. The path to being everything to everyone though; that was tantamount to insanity for me.

That being said, let's get to updates. The Apocalypse seems to still be sweeping through with its unadaptable weather patterns. It's slowed me a bit but I've been poking at the fourth cover and disciplining myself away from peeking at UnSung. In case you've missed my take on this before, I do find it valuable to tuck away a story, let it simmer for a bit, then tackle it again. Once I do look at it again, I'm going to break it up into some chunks and ask a few people to read it but I decided against rushing it. In the meantime, I've been adding notes here and there to what I want to do for the second part. I did some feathering work on my character (not really a spoiler here but I designed a male character to have these feather sleeves).

I do like to do a lot by hand but this time I drew feathers in vector to resize them and arrange them on the drawing in Photoshop. I plan on texturing them by hand but I often like the task of arranging objects. One of the reasons that working at a floral shop is still one of my favorite jobs to date. Anyways, duplicating objects comes in handy for elements like leaves, feathers, buttons, beading and I don't mind customizing brushes or creating objects to duplicate. The first time I recall doing this was for a school project and I drew three different Sakura flowers and arranged them on a branch. For objects with multiple elements (the flowers had separate petals and centers), I like to ungroup them to really personalize the shape sometimes before moving on.

Personally, I want to play the devil's advocate here and tell authors, against all popular advice, to go ahead and attempt your own cover art if that is what you enjoy. Regardless of how well it does, self-publishing does not put a limit on what you can change. I would definitely suggest researching successful design or asking for opinions as part of the learning experience, but go ahead and indulge that curiosity and learn what you can from it. I've seen a fair amount of writers that aren't just writers. By all means, develop skills and take risks. Publishing can be an expensive undertaking if you need to outsource. Self-publishing is the wave of the future and as it picks up you'll find that more and more multitalented creatives are taking on the work themselves.

As always, keep writing. And no, that's not my catchphrase. No matter what you do with it, I encourage everyone to write and I won't let you forget it.