Today is the Greatest... (Don't Sue Me, Billy Corgan...)

Yes, I'm a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins. When CDs became a thing, my very first CD purchase was the SP Adore album. After seeing him on one of those late night shows as a musical act (probably one of the Jimmy shows), I can say for certain the man still has a voice that gives me tingles.

NO! That's not what I'm here for! The ultimate milestone is finally here and I'm gloating! My first nine book series is published in completion... or is it? Technically, yes. I have a couple of possible spin-off ideas for it, but I've wanted to tuck this one under my belt so I could move onto other series and ideas and genres.

Let me give you a sexy little roster of my published works:

1. The Truth about Heroes: One of Many
2. The Truth about Heroes: Two Sides to Everything
3. The Truth about Heroes: Menage a Trois
4. A World Reborn: Children of Heroes
5. A World Reborn: Higher Reasoning
6. A World Reborn: Deicide
7. Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters
8. Each Endless Universe: Dual Decisions
9. Each Endless Universe: Original Sin
10. UnNamed

Heh. Poor UnNamed, all alone down there... Not for long, since UnSung is in the making and even its two sequels are in planning. Hey, how about a quick look at some future projects in the Bingo ball machine while we're here...

• UnSung (UnQuadrilogy, Book 2) (adult epic fantasy)
• UnHeard (UnQuadrilogy, Book 3) (adult epic fantasy)
• UnVeiled (UnQuadrilogy, Book 4) (adult epic fantasy)
• Dreampunk Chronicles 1: Through the Golden Doors (YA steampunk fantasy)
• Piscine (Sci-fi Crime Thriller)
• Rock My World (webcomic) (sci-fi romance)

Now, those are the ones I feel okay with confirming, each either in advanced planning or a few chapters set up at least. I do have a romance novel idea I'm tossing around as well as a non-fiction idea on the joys and discipline of drawing. I'm actually going to start working on the YA fantasy book next. It will be shorter and kid-friendly, a very different challenge from UnSung, which is an important draw in writing for me-- don't stay comfortable in any one place. I came into this wanting to try anything and everything and test myself. As long as I'm relatively obscure, I can just keep sneakily building my library with whatever I wish, see which ones build momentum. I'm also very careful to choose genres and ideas that I would not hate to keep writing. While I would certainly take a demand into concern, I also have no intention of pandering to one. Having the freedom to work and grow while making it available for public consumption and support is a nice balance.

UnSung will be a work in progress for the next few months yet. I have yet to draft the third part and epilogue and even once they're written, I will attempt to pull in some beta readers and run many edits regardless of how beta reading goes. I'd love to get some eyes on it, but I also don't intend to hold it hostage. As I've said, where I am now, I have no intention of growing stagnant. As long as the ideas keep coming, I'm going to keep moving forward. One of the advantages to living in these times is that we don't have to sit and wait for approval to keep running along the path to growth. I'm not a traditional girl and I won't wait for traditional means. It's just not happening and it doesn't have to.

Don't let gatekeepers stand in the way of your ambitions. Gatekeepers don't mean that your work is ironclad or guaranteed or even that your job is easier. It's not. There are many people who see traditional publishing as appealing because of the amount of work they don't have to do. Whatever your ambitions, bask in the fact that you have options suited to your vision. I'm sure you've seen these before, but there's no shortcut to a masterpiece any way you go. You can count on only ever being able to pick two...

It's not a hard rule for every type of creative pursuit, mind you, and when you're the only one involved you can usually tell yourself you can be all three. However, any outside help you get, it's realistic to expect it to fall under this rule.

Damn it, I just can't avoid the creep into advice mode...

CELEBRATE, YOU WORKAHOLIC, YOU!

In any case, another birthday, but these milestones are a rare beauty indeed. Want to give me a cheap birthday gift? Grab one of my ebooks or two, write a review (and no, I'm not going to act as if the world has ended if you don't like it either-- my career aspirations aren't nearly that fragile).

And look forward to more work ahead!

Going Dry...

To focus on writing rather than getting distracted, I'm taking a short hiatus from social media for at least the next week to get into drafting Part II of UnSung. I will still be checking emails for the beta sign-ups (and checking PM/DMs), but it's always better for me to escape the peanut gallery to pick my own brain.

My 5th book of the Heroes, World and Universe Chronicles has gone up, A World Reborn: Higher Reasoning , but if you want to give the series a try, start with The Truth about Heroes: One of Many for $.99. Or gamble with the first three in the trilogy edition for $4.99. The first two prints are at $20 because they contain illustrations, but most copies fall at $15 because I changed tack. The trilogies are tomes so they fall at $25. I wish I could go lower, but I'd get next to nothing for print if I did. I have all of the hard copies and they're superb quality so certainly not skimping there. It's the one downside to PoD self-publishing. Also, all nine will be released rather quickly, with the final ones out by July 11th. I've sat on this series for so long that it's time to let it go and focus on the many, many, many others queued up.

I haven't yet mentioned it in my blog at this point, but if you like doing fan art, I challenge you to draw my characters! I know in my first book, I described them from the onset (and readers are mixed about whether they like subtle introductions or 'just tell me what they look like already' so I went with what I like). If I drum up enough interest in fan art competitions, I'll consider doing a giveaway in the future. Again, I love to see art of all skill levels, so get creative. I didn't just get into this to show what I could do-- I'm also very interested in what is inspired by it.

In any case, about to start my retreat! I busted ass getting all the covers done for the first series and I hope you like what I came up with, but writing went on the back burner to do it. I gotta get back into writing mode, which usually involves wrangling my toddler of a muse...

Cover Reveal + Digital Painting: A Deeper Glance

 I'm going to start a new ongoing blog event. A week prior to each new book release, I'm going to do what amounts to an in-depth cover reveal, one that shows both progress and explains it in small part for other artists looking to do their own freehand covers.

In order to make this a bonafide tutorial, it would be a gargantuan post (it's already going to be pretty huge as is) so my blog isn't a good place to walk you through my torrid affair with Clip Studio Paint. However, I thought I'd give you a visual tour of the process I go through with character art. You'll probably be amazed by how simply it is to achieve stunning effects. I don't intend to make this seem simple. It took maybe 2-3 days of working, all day, to achieve these results because there's a lot of blending and editing and scrapping involved.

First off, the line drawing.

You can use a reference photo, a model, your own mental library of faces and skills here. These lines were blended a bit because they were in the final visible layers but you can see many of them were just rough lines that I either cleaned up or covered at some point. The great part about layers is that you can turn them on and off, change the entire color with a slider, add effects, etc. without disturbing any other layers. This is why it's so important to work on separate layers for every element that may be independently edited later.

Simple colorbase added to the layer behind the line drawing. Good to use a solid color. If you need to select it to do some messy shading on a new layer, you can keep it isolated within the selected area easier. Use solid color bases as isolation guides!

This was a hairy layer, using a furry textured brush. Reylon is a panther Felisfolk (cat hybrid) so fur is part of his genetics.

I usually do multiple layers to shade the lips but since this was a uniform hue with his coloring, I threw caution to the wind. This is what I would mostly call the medium shade layer.

This is hard to see a big difference from the last, but I darkened the base of his eyes here.

Last for the skin layers, I added subtle highlights for depth.

I started with darkening the corners. He has panther eyes, so the iris is naturally larger, almost encompassing the whole eye, but it is still subtly round.

Once again a color base, but once more adding the darker shading along the iris.

The light yellow iris lines come next...

When you study eyes, the best way to keep a dark pupil from flattening is a slight outline of either the darkest line of the iris or a dark grey. I used the dark gold again here.

Naturally, the pupil come next, but it still seems a little flat.

Funny what a reflective shine can do to fix that.

Let's makes the skin layers visible again...

Again, a subtle change. This layer darkened the folds of his eyelids.

Guide layers! I use these a lot and they go away later. I use them not only for hairlines, but clothes, jewelry, anything I need to scribble down then refine later.

In this case, I added the stubble of a shaved head first.

Then this piled mess of a colorbase...

Some subtle lock lines.

More highlights...

Beads and bones at the gathering point of his hair.

I moved to the bottom of my layer list to add the locks behind his head.

And some more behind that to give it more body and dimension.

This was a few more layers where I played with the idea of the hair down but it looked way too romance cover for my taste. Reylon lives in a pard or a tribal type society so it's very unlikely he'd have silky windblown hair getting in his way.

The background is a preset. I do backgrounds on occasion, but they aren't my favorite and there are tons of free stock available for people who are in the same boat. I did deepen the saturation and blur it a bit from the original. I rarely ever use any stock photo as is.

And there we have it. Reylon, the subject of the 5th book cover in all of his glory. Be sure to check out A World Reborn: Higher Reasoning. If I have the 6th cover ready, I'm hoping the finale and the trilogy compilation are to follow by early June. The last three may come out fairly quickly since I'm working on their covers simultaneously.

Have you been following the series? Conor and Calyra are the cover models for Book 6 so I hope you're curious to see my take on them. As usual, I don't hope to influence how you see them. In fact, I want to see some fan art! Stick figures, 30 foot sculptures, no heartfelt attempt will be shunned. I do have a fan art link on my site and maybe you'll see yours featured there! I'll have to start brainstorming some ideas for contests to sweeten the pot. Let me know what you think.

Hope I could shed some light on the wonderful world of digital painting! I'm always improving and can't wait to show you more in the months ahead.

More to look for-- I intend to do a couple of comprehensive posts on formatting and cover assembly. Formatting will use Word options, but the concept is pretty universal across word processors. I also use PhotoShop for cover assembly, but again, programs like Gimp should serve the same purpose. If you have any technical questions for me, I'd be more than happy to answer or make it the subject of a future blog post. I truly enjoy simplifying the process for others. It took a lot of trial and error and it was impossible to find all the information in one place, so I endeavor to get some more comprehensive tutorials in place when possible.

Quick Update

Still a bit congested and weak, but I got back to drawing, enough to finish out the covers for the fifth and sixth books in the series and get about halfway through the seventh. Keep in mind I'm working on them simultaneously, so they still took several days worth of time a piece, I just happened to narrow a few of them down to being closer to the finish line and knocked them out within the past couple days.

I still have to do the trilogy covers but if you've seen the cover for the first trilogy, I used a lot of photographic elements and I'm going to keep with the same theme, only changing the background color, the blurb section, the main graphic imprint and the title.

It's exciting seeing each one go from a rough sketch to a beautiful cover image. Once each one publishes, I'll keep updating the cover art post with the original image.

Ah, that being said, these are my current projected release dates:

A World Reborn: Higher Reasoning (Book 2): May 11

A World Reborn: Deicide (Book 3)/ A World Reborn: Complete Trilogy Edition: June 1

Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters (Book 1): June 15

Each Endless Universe: Dual Decisions (Book 2): June 29

Each Endless Universe: Original Sin (Book 3)/ Each Endless Universe: Complete Trilogy Edition: July 11

No, not avoiding Friday the 13th as a release date out of superstition. July 11th is my birthday and the perfect day for a crowning achievement!

How about some cover art hints and a look at some characters you'll meet in future books?

Cover 5: On the continent of Wheryf, a panther Felisfolk lives his daily life unaware of the change his life is about to take.

Cover 6: The circumstances of their birth were never thought possible. This brother and sister were once inseparable but grew apart.

Cover 7: A young engineer (and impromptu car mechanic) is in for a big surprise.

Cover 8: An impulsive anthropology student, her grandfather and a bartender with a secret make for an unlikely team.

Cover 9: A blind assassin you'd be a fool to underestimate.

I think I might drop these hints on my website in the Fun Facts section. I've been looking for a fun way to draw people into my stories, which can be difficult to do since I'd hate to give anything away. Off to dreamland for me, but I hope you enjoyed this look into my plans. 

For the writers, keep at it. Remember that for the better part of ten years, I let these stories live in my head, barely having the courage to write them. Within the past three, I penned them almost obsessively, editing and stepping away, outlining and editing, rinse, repeat. Of course it was difficult. Because I had no experience to draw on and had never publicly shared anything outside of poetry, I was afraid I wouldn't have the courage to tell the story I needed them to be, that I'd be too persuaded to make them 'acceptable.' Just like in our world, terrible and intimate things happen. I didn't go out of my way to always play out the absolute worst case scenario (it's not grimdark fantasy, after all). I didn't hedge at what Dragon Age fans would like, or my D&D crowd, or strive to write only romance. For me, fantasy can be a great opportunity to combine many concepts, to not be so obsessed with making it parallel to our world, to stop being a fan girl and show off my chops as an observer.

As I said, just keep at it. If you're experiencing blocks, it's a good sign you've turned a harmonious compulsion into an obsession. Some obsessions take on the form of addiction, and like addiction, you can become paralyzed with how to proceed when you get stuck. You've unknowingly made it into 'work' when the creative process can be stifled by such a simple unconscious directive. We're not all cut from the 'just write' cloth and it might be your cue to gracefully step away until you know exactly what you want to say. Even in my crochet and craft groups, there are people that lose their 'mojo', swamped with no shortage of patterns or projects and hit with paralysis. At that point, I have to ask them if maybe it's time for a different adventure until looking at the task brings pure joy rather than dread. Even professional writers give themselves generous deadlines to allow for time to step back and look at their work with fresh eyes.

Annnnd, cold medicine decided 'quick' is a lie... Oh well, such is life!

Death to the Humble Brag

I know it works so as long as it does, it will never die, but let's be honest-- most of us are sick of it.

It's one thing when you are able to see the good and bad in your work. Sometimes I will post something I am proud of and will say so, but add what I'd like to improve. I feel like it gives people permission to say what they like or don't like about it.

That's not what irritates me.

I'm referring to the tendency for people to downgrade their abilities, post a passive positive comment someone else told them, or some other attempt to avoid just directly avoiding putting a spotlight on their massive ego but still constantly needing people to stroke it. Writers, we all have it. Creatives in general. If you didn't love what you do, you wouldn't do it. I'll be real with you though-- if I catch someone doing it, especially on the regular, I will avoid their work like the plague. If there's one thing I don't like, it's being manipulated. I like GoT because a good friend who knows what I'm into recommended it and they were right. I also can't stand The Hunger Games because Battle Royale did it better. I sometimes agree with the bandwagon, I sometimes take the long route to avoid it. There are a lot of reasons I'll try something, neither of them involve internet Like Whoring.

One thing I can agree with in current news is the intense feeling of freedom I get from cutting out social media for chunks at a time. I used to enjoy it more when it was jokes and sharing interests, but it has since become ad spamming, constant debating, passive aggression, and public masturbation. I love using it as a tool, but it's really lost its flavor otherwise. All the better that I'm not dumping time into it recreationally.

My only real point here is that I would love to see more honesty in people's work. You don't have to trick me into being interested in you or if you're really that interesting. Writing as really helped me meet some amazing people, but there's a downside too. Then again, I'm not the biggest people person. I could make a nice long curmudgeonly list that gets longer by the day.

In the spirit of honesty, I'm glad to say I have the ball rolling on my own projects again. If you haven't already, give my excerpts a readthrough on my site HERE. Keep in mind that these are adult stories (or at least late teen-- I've been reading this sort of thing since I was 12 so that's where my compass is). Feel free to give feedback. The first series is set in stone, but I love to interact and know what parts are working for people for future projects.

Pick up the fourth book in my first series, A World Reborn: Children of Heroes, or start from The Truth about Heroes and work your way up. If you're looking for a darker read, check out the UnQuadrilogy. Keep in mind that purchasing the print copy guarantees the ebook copy for free. I know print is pricy for PoD so I like to make things as affordable as possible.

Book 4 is COMING!

Finally, brain and weather signed a peace treaty in favor of me actually getting some work done, so it's time to share. The fourth book of the Heroes, World, Universe Chronicles, A World Reborn: Children of Heroes, is on its way! I still have some minor work to do-- checking formatting, making a marketing flier, fun stuff, but I'm setting the release date for April 20th and will have pre-orders available soon.

Print Cover Design

Once more I'm aiming for $15 for the print and $3.99 for the ebook. I'd love to make cheaper print options and hardbacks available someday, but the trade paperbacks are beautiful and very sturdy so well worth the price.

I'll leave it at this since I'd like to jump into updating my website and the bits and pieces to set it all up. I really enjoy the work and hope to keep bringing you even better options, stories and characters as I go. Thanks to everyone for the amazing support as I grow with each new experience!

Keep writing!

Made a Thing

Well, another thing. At some point, humility seems insincere since I've made a lot of things and I've busted my butt while I'm at it. Share time...

 

And there it is. I shouldn't have slacked off on actual making a virtual flier, but it did completely slip my mind. UnNamed was already released as well, but I may hold off on designing one until I set UnSung up for release.

Oh man, oh man, UnSung will be huge though... Now that I've stripped away all word count concerns by sticking to self-publishing, I'm still two scenes away from finishing Part One of Three and I'm at a whopping 70K words already. That's the 'minimum' word count for most adult novels already (anything smaller usually gets called a novella). Keep in mind, I'm also fairly skeletal in the beginning. When I flesh out some of the rushed scenes, that sometimes boosts my count up another 5-10K. I would not be surprised if this story reaches the 200-300K range.

It's a vague set of numbers but maybe more details will shed light on this. I've mentioned before it's a complex story to write, but that is because I labor to make these ideas much simpler to read. To give you some insight, the story starts with the bard, Aiden. He is a young man who can't speak and lived most of his life as a slave before escaping. He is running from place to place, always afraid he will be returned to his master. He meets a strange young woman named Lilith that decides she is useful to him, but to help, he has to go with her to a mysteriously abandoned city where trade once flourished. To him, literally anything is better than going back to his master.

The story also follows a girl he met prior to his escape, a fire dancer named Talia. Life seems perfect-- she's at the top of her class, close to graduating, has a wonderful boyfriend. After fleeing from a scene where she might be suspected of murder, she travels alone to a place where she doesn't know anyone but is befriended by a performance troupe. When she auditions for them, she displays a very unique trait. She is separated from them and begins to believe that maybe she is cursed to wander alone.

And the murder investigation continues. Following head investigator Corvus, we get more insight into the murder that resulted in the first two characters fleeing. Only it doesn't stop there.

These are the three main plot points, but there are also smaller scenes that carry the story involving two of the Gods. I say that this is easily its own book because I'm resolving many of these plots that lead into a very different approach for Part Two. Part Three will unify all of the ideas to resolve the main conflict.

As I did on UnNamed, I am planning an epilogue that starts in a very different region on the same world. I already have the first two characters in mind, but I hope this one will be as rich and vast as UnSung is turning out to be. I do know that UnHeard is taking place on the lightly mentioned island nation to the west of the Anders. Until I write the epilogue, I don't want to commit to any details for the time being.

I'm not terribly worried about my ideas being stolen. For one, good luck arriving at all the details beyond those short descriptions. I haven't given away anything specific enough to be pinched and plagiarized. For two, nobody talks like me. I know this. How I arrive at things is not mainstream. My voice is its own thing. I am at least keenly aware of that.

Honestly, like with any story, I anticipate releasing it to everyone! Even more so, I always look forward to the next story. Physical exhaustion aside, I'm so unblocked that I'd need a spaceship to hide from my muse. And I'm so grateful for that, really. With so much else that can go wrong in life, the best thing I can ask for is a relentless muse.

Well, I'm off, friends! Thanks for reading and, if you're one of the others, keep writing as well.

As for me, more to write, more to design. I'll keep you posted!

Campaign is Ready!

https://publishizer.com/unnamed/

There's the link.  I'm not sure how this will work.  Let's face it; I'm new and I don't know many people at all.  I'm deep in my craft so I don't network much. Still, I decided to try a campaign to see if I can actually interest people in my latest series.

Until Christmas, the campaign will take preorders.  Once it's over, I can either choose from the interested publishers or I can dissolve the campaign (preorders won't gets charged) and petition publishers\agents myself. Whatever happens, I'm determined to make it happen.

Okay, I'm determined to make a lot of things happen. I know that. Comic books are still one of those things. I love drawing and I don't suck at it.  I have stories to tell and I don't suck at it. I do intend to at least finish the stories and series I've started before throwing my weight into comics.  It would be stupid of me to not use the talents I have to find my niche.

It's hard for artists to ever "make it." I know a couple of successful artists even though I know a ton of talented ones. They all work hard and they all work smart, but it's largely about luck. And who you know.  Which is a big ouch for me. I'm a small circle kind of gal and not an elbow rubber at that. 

I can only hope that somewhere along the way, I can make a decent living at it. We'll see. Like I said, I'm new and luck is fickle.

If you want to help, be sure to share the link on social media. I share everywhere I can, but of course I love what I do. Secondhand support is always valuable!

Ready to Juggle?

As a lot of you know (if you read my blog), I am a juggler and not the fun physical kind.  Can't do that shit to save my life.  No, I'm a task juggler. I absolutely cannot focus on one thing consistently ever.  It's how my brain works and fighting against it is like backing away from the same brick wall and running into it the exact same way. Some people see immersion as finite, like there's an actual depth to singular focus. I have to disagree with that.  My knowledge of one fandom is not watered down by my knowledge of any others. If you believe that a brain can only retain so much, that may be true, but I'm also a believer of keeping notes or talking out loud to retain the vitals, the information I am using for any current projects. I don't delve deeper just because the focus is singular.  It would be like assuming a scuba diver carries all the tanks of air they will ever need instead of having a life involving the surface world. We all come up for air, so we don't need to drag all we need with us.  The same goes for our creative projects.

Let's keep in mind that someone often DOES do just one thing when the demand for it both creates livable revenue and a number of other rewards. I don't ever pretend that applies to me.  Whether or not I am successful, fans will need to understand one thing-- I am not the sort to ever focus on one thing I do just because it is popular or demanded.  Sorry, but muses aren't tempted by money or fame.  Believe me, I want to do all the things and as quickly as possible, but you should also take comfort that I'm not just churning out bullshit for a buck. I'm putting my talents where they are best served. Part of an artist's skill set is largely about project management.

Incidentally, the person that can work for 14 hours straight is not necessarily more productive than the person that only works 3 hours at a time.  I've seen some really interesting articles on the maximum productivity of humans.  I won't belabor this myself, but there's some interesting research if you want a rabbit-hole to chase...

Article on Productivity

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that taking advantage of when you are most productive is far more valuable than how much you push yourself to work.  More is better?  Not always.  Sometimes you spend much more valuable gobs of time simply correcting what you did when you probably should have been taking a break.  If you're paid by the hour, sweet deal.  Doesn't matter what you do as long as you're keeping the bosses happy.  For the creative, time efficiency holds much more value. 

In any case, I bring up stuff like this so you, as a consumer/artist/all-of-the-above, might see a little from both sides of the fence. You may grumble about how an artist would have THIS done if they weren't fucking around with THAT, but I will posit that the artist might be blocked from THIS if they aren't utilizing THAT to keep moving when one thing presents a problem. Artists do want to make fans happy, but we're an extremely self-critical lot already. We'd love for every problem to be Point A to Point B, but part of what makes us hit or miss is that it's not that simple. We blog to give you a little insight, but it's never going to account for the explosion of thought processes that really assault us. We try to understand you or the market or our own motivations, but the art is number one and we all move with the muses whether they are our own or not.

So, the subject of juggling came up for good reason.

I started UnSung today.  One thing I have to admit-- I hate starting things.  It's always a hurdle for me.  If I manage to think of an opening line, I am DIVING for the keyboard to start that new manuscript because it is the hardest part for me always. Starting that was a necessary evil.  Until I finish this series, I will always feel the need to have one of them on WIP status, no matter how much I can put into it. However, this puts it running alongside Piscine and the Dreampunk Chronicles in terms of current WIPs.

You probably heard me mention a romance story I did.  Yeah, it had to get pushed. I want to do a cover for it then throw it on Wattpad.  It was never a grand venture, but it will see the light of day eventually. I'll have updates on that when I am certain.  Romance isn't a genre I feel passionate about, so I'm not rushing this. It was just one of many challenges and while I enjoyed it, it's not a niche I care to create a demand for.  None of my books are devoid of some sort of romance, whether in mention or in a bigger plot.  Focusing solely on it is another matter entirely. It may be a genre that becomes more appealing to me over time, but right now, I'm a fan of action, adventure, intrigue, and lore being at the heart of what I write. (Even my more sexually laced fantasies still tend to be lore-heavy. It's not enough that there's a world floating around the characters-- I have to splash a lot of paint on it too.)

If you're a fellow juggler, revel in your flightiness. It's not a shortcoming. Artists may have to remind their fans that is helpful to their process and fans should know that the output actually is more favorable when they are always keeping busy.  BioWare fans aren't all fans of everything they do. I'm a Dragon Age fan, but not interested in Mass Effect. This means that, unless they have teams working on both, that there will be a wait for that next Dragon Age game while they are appeasing their Mass Effect fans. As a series gamer, I've had to wait as long as 7 years between the next installment of a series.  Not all companies are big enough to have several teams working at once on multiple games.  Whether or not I understand the popularity of one of their series, I don't begrudge their other fans that work. I don't know if being an artist that works on many things simultaneously makes me more sympathetic, but I have never felt entitled to someone's hard work just because I like it.  

There are a ton of arguments on how long something takes to make and what time is appropriate to make fans wait. Seriously, fuck that debate. Are we still debating that artists are people? Artists often labor to tell people what they are working on or even that they need breaks and I am gracious enough to know not to ask why.  Artists are talkers.  If they want you to know, it would have been said. It's cool if someone is getting fancy with progress percentages, constant blogs, etc. but they aren't setting a gold standard of expectation. Yeah, series are tricky.  We all want to know what happens next. However, I have never had my enjoyment dampened by the next book not coming out on some time frame I deem adequate.  That time frame doesn't exist.  I just always hope it didn't get phoned in when they didn't cave into some demand.  For me, the integrity of the work is most important.  Not when, not how-- surprise me, entertain me, and that's all I need.  Hang the guarantees.

All right, things to do still, so I'm shoving off. I'd love to do more for my blogs eventually, but things are not incredibly exciting for me outside of writing.  I'm hoping a bit of advice and insight is helpful at least, even if I don't have a lot of bells and whistles at this point. Things will only get better, so I do hope that everything I do benefits from some TLC over time.  Feedback might eventually help me get a rein on things. I'm in a bit of an echo chamber there, so I just keep soldiering on with what I've got. I'm just happy sharing both for free and through markets.  That is plenty to keep me going.

NaNoNovel: UnNamed

Spent today just working on a book cover for UnNamed, which if you haven't read the previous post or the title, it is the novel I will do for NaNoWriMo in November.  I'm really excited to be able to share it.  It's turning out pretty amazing.

It's like a falling star...  Seriously, that title placement wracked my brain, but popular opinion seems to be leaning towards the middle one.  Letter shadowing is still under scrutiny too. The black border is only because I screenshot it in PhotoShop.  I may be redoing the mercenary there, give him some proper shadow detailing and such, but damn, did I do that?  

For $65K in student loan debt, you're damn right I did.

I Like That Shit...

Into It GIF from Ilikethat GIFs

Yeah, yeah!  Me too!

I gotta say, one of them good feels is seeing my library of work gradually growing.  I just can't get over it...  Imma smoosh 'em...

 Smooooooosh...

I can't resist, it's just... it's just...  So much work put into making this happen.  A few hours of entertainment for everyone else, years of painstaking passion and vision for me.  It's kinda like weight loss.  By the time, people notice, they don't see all the hard work, but you have to know how much they put into it.  They can't stop talking about it or can't stop talking about what their next fitness goal is.  If you have a passion in something, you tend to seek people you won't absolutely annoy with it.  Nobody's trying to hear about my love affair with Staedtler and Sakura Pigma Sensei pens... except for the beloved fellow nutjobs that get that tingle watching it move across the page like I do!

A Little Nut GIF from Squirrel GIFs

You know who you are!

I love to share, yeah, but it's just as fun to let people gush over their interests, to bring their own theories and discussions into my work.  I mean, you can tell me I'm trashy and gross and perverted too, but I'm probably going to take it as a compliment.  Not everything I write is of that sort, but this is what a lot of us ladies do.  It has little to nothing to do with girl power or excluding men.  I've had plenty of discussion with my best gal pal and literature is just a good clean sexual outlet for women sometimes and it's a-okay if you don't get it.  I know, it's really confusing when I pair up smart theories and lore with intimacy of the good and bad kind and make everyone figure out what it means to them, but yeah, some of you not only GET it, but you love it!  And thank you, thank you, thank you, for supporting and encouraging that.  Suppression is bad, unleashing the beast and embarrassing a few unsuspecting people is NOT BAD.  It's okay to be challenged and not like it.  I love you for trying anyway!

That being said, it's been a difficult journey learning how to distance myself and be objective with my work.  Hell, as much as I've read it, I sometimes love it and hate it.  I think some of my favorite books might not be my favorite on a reread either. Literature is largely about bottling a mood and as much as I would like to repeat an experience, sometimes the nostalgia just has to do.  I have to admit, I have always chosen a new experience over reliving a good one.  I like to keep the good ones a good memory and attempt to build more from new experience.

Anyhoooo, for all the hard work and isolation, I love my forays into writing groups and fanfic.  It's been a good experience to hit that publish button and anxiously await feedback.  I'll admit, I need some more brutality though.  Sometimes these groups are a hugbox and you grow more when people give pushback.  Don't get me wrong, I love when people are supportive and such, but negative feedback can be done diplomatically and it's a little used art.  Superfans are great, but I like my trolls too.  As long as they're insulting my work specifically to show they actually paid attention, it's all good.  

Book Two Information

I have a lot to say about a lot of things, but this post is just the facts, ma'am.

Or sir, don't get your panties in a bunch.  Old quote, feel free to use the internet for that one...

I have art to finish up this week!  Only six illustrations left to go and the panorama and cover before I move onto the final edit prior to the planned end of September release.  I absolutely do not have a date set.  The date is always 'that day I'm confident it's going to be finished.'

For those who haven't seen my millions of posts on this, this is prior to my participation in Virtual FantasyCon in October.  For the month of October, I'm posting my first ebook, The Truth About Heroes: One of Many, for free.  Please get hooked and pay for the next book.  Grab a print copy while it's still cheap and if you're one of my local friends, I'll sign it for free.  Or I might sign it free anyway, if you're not a dick.  Remember a girl has to make a living too!

Keep your eyes peeled for The Truth About Heroes: Two Sides to Everything.  Yeah, I'm not using standard naming conventions for fantasy.  All three books in a trilogy will have the same main title with a different byline.  It also makes it easier if I ever decide to chunk it all together as one mega-book.  I refer to it as the Heroes Trilogy.  I suppose eventually all of the books set in this world will eventually get some bigger name to encase all of them.  Look at the Game of Thrones series.  Even though GRRM called it the Song of Ice and Fire series, it ended up taking on the name of one of the books.  Yeah, it happens.

That being said, maybe I do have a bit more info to share with everyone.  The second series inspired by this world is called A World Reborn or the World Trilogy and the last is called Each Endless Universe or the Universe Trilogy.  I'm not disclosing whether they are prequels or sequels.  I will say I am currently working on one of the prequel stories to the first series.  I said I was done, but damn it, I love revisiting this world and its crazy history and I always felt like this was a book that needed to be written.  I've designed most of these books to stand alone, but there are definite incentives to bearing through all of them.

Anyways, here's your blurb for Book Two:
Rienna and her group are back to tackle the forces threatening to disrupt their world, but first, they have to tackle the demons of their pasts.  In the aftermath of devastating loss, they become more keenly aware that this may be their last chance to experience life before war cuts it short.  Before facing the very real forces that led them all to find justice, they must make peace with whatever time they have left.

This was a fun book for me.  They are at a hub in their journey, preparing for war, and they break off into smaller groups.  Some of their motives are selfish, even foolish, but ultimately, they are looking for their reasons to move on.  It will show how vastly people in crazy situations react to the possibility of death and still be chockful of adventure.  I'm never sure why people seem to think these concepts are mutually exclusive.  It's a mix of good and evil, sex and violence, awkward and awesome.

If you're not aware of my writing style, I like to use short stories to tie in bigger themes. I do intentionally break a few supposed rules. Sometimes I do like to devote a paragraph to describing a character-- it's not something I always do, but sometimes I like to knock all of that out right away.  I also don't care to avoid adverbs, especially when they aren't being used as lazy modifiers.  I write the way I do intentionally and not to spite or rebel against the dos and don'ts either.  I've seen quite a few writers lose their voice when they try to hard to please the book gods.  My writing, no matter how much I refine it, is just not going to be for everyone and I'm not looking to follow or capitalize on any trend.  I just wanted an honest book, one that followed this weird world I've visited for so long.  I think that the writing reflects it well.  It's not a world meant to impress.  It's one you want to get comfortable in, just not TOO comfortable.  Things are gonna get weird, so make sure you know where your shoes are.

I'm saying this in light of the fact that many bestsellers kind of put me to shame.  lol  With more recent scenes coming up like the tampon sex in 50 Shades (which is terrible writing all around) or Stephen King's kiddie sex romp in The It (a sometimes brilliant writer-- I get your rationale on that scene, but no matter how you spin it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to anyone but you.  More power to you for sticking with it.  At the very least, you've inspired me to stick with my awkward spots as an observer in my worlds)-- I won't make you backtrack to catch my train of thought-- With more recent scenes coming up like the ones in 50 Shades (garbage) and The It (thumbs up, you weird bastard), I really shouldn't be second-guessing my own awkward or titillating scenes of human contact.  You're supposed to all have different reactions when you read things, people.  If you think you're supposed to feel awkward, then you're right.  Who gives a fuck what the author intended?  It's YOUR experience.  It might be worth it to stumble through some awkward shit to get to the stuff you like.

I don't know-- give it a chance.  I plan on doing this as long as I'm able, love it or hate it.  Writing and drawing are two very different creatures.  I've been desensitized to any reactions to my artwork for some time.  Yes, I want you to love it, but meh if you don't.  Truth is, I'm a little sensitive to how my writing is received.  I haven't done all of the conventional things, as you probably already know (blog title much?), so I just have to have faith that it's worth reading.  I didn't want it to become a chore-- I truly didn't do all of the acceptable things because I intended to keep it a place I liked to go.  lol  Now, it gets to be unleashed on all of the poor sensitive masses.  I'm not sorry.