June 13th, 2010
This week, Adrian has begun the rather frantic process of trying to pack up his entire life and move cross-country. He is also trying to put together a few thoughts on Fanime, but his time is very limited right now. It is very sudden and very confusing. I think he is as surprised by it all as everyone else, but I will try to keep him on track. In the meantime, I am here to entertain you.
Originally I wanted to show you all how to make a nice dinner, but… it has not gone as planned. A wonderful artist named Barlee drew a picture of the ensuing chaos.
May 22nd, 2010
Sorry for not posting last week. I’m trying to code up a revision to the website to make it a little more intuitive. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know; I’d love to hear.
Kir-tat gave me a link to Elves from her DeviantArt page, and I think I got about as much traffic from her than I’ve gotten in the entire lifetime of the site so far. For one evening it was the #6 most popular “recent upload” on DeviantArt. I’m really, really proud of that. The credit for the sheer prettiness of her art is hers alone, of course, but I’m happy to have been a catalyst for it, in my own small way.
My favorite comment from her page, by Cielle Du Ciel:
I had I hard time telling if they were male or female, too… I’m wondering if their adrogyny was intentional, so as to represent the story and its four versions. Whether or not it was, that’s how I understand this piece, and I love it. It combines perfectly all the different versions of the story, I think, a beautiful and perfect way to get its message across. I could comment on everything, but, I think reading the story speaks for itself.
On that note, I have to laugh a little bit with those who are so preoccupied with the idea of it being “yaoi”. Read the other versions, guys, the one *kir-tat happened to link isn’t the only one.
(Only about one in 20 people read all four versions, sadly.)
Of course, this is the Internet, and the very next comment (which has been blocked, and the author lost to the sands of time) reads:
i love the detail great pic but are they lesbians
*HEADDESK* They are if you want them to be, sir. They are if you want them to be. That was the point, if you will.
Besides this, I’m still a little worn-out from the post-creative afterglow that is finishing First and Last and Always. I promise that this is a temporary thing; Fanime starts in six days and counting, and cons never fails to give me a kickstart, just from the sheer wonderful fannish energy I pick up. So far I’m planning to hang out around Rem‘s table in the Artist Alley for a while, and I have a few other offline friends to see, but that’s about it so far. If anyone would like to meet me there, please let me know! I love meeting new people at conventions (except for this guy), and it always blows my mind a little bit that people are actually reading this site.
A friend of mine linked me to a little bit of pre-Fanime hilarity, which… really has to be seen to be believed. Enjoy!
May 7th, 2010
Recently I commissioned Kir-Tat to illustrate one of the Elves stories. She chose this one, and… well, her results blew me away. I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect painting to accompany the series. It’s gorgeously atmospheric, to the point that the scene almost soaks up the characters themselves. When I saw it, I literally started babbling about how amazingly well it came out. I’m not even going to talk about it anymore; I’m just going to let you see for yourself.
January 27th, 2010
Back near the beginning of the month, I asked Ten-Chan to illustrate her pick of the four Elves versions, leaving most of the specifics open to her best artistic judgment. Yesterday morning (I suppose I should say “Monday morning”, by now), I opened my laptop to find her finished art waiting for me, and I think I can safely say that it’s been well worth the wait. Click through the thumbnail to see for yourself.
At the moment, I plan to commission a different artist for each version of Elves, but I’m not sure. Either way I’m sure I’ll have Ten-chan return in the future. What do you think?
January 22nd, 2010
So… this is my first Notes from the Void, the name for the posts I discussed last week. I’ve decided against making it a strictly-weekly feature; to keep them from overwhelming the site by sheer numbers, I’ll only post them on weeks where I don’t add other content (reviews, fiction, illustrations, etc).
It’s very fashionable right now to donate money to Haiti, but please be careful where you donate; anywhere money flows, there will be unethical people trying to take a cut, and even legitimate organizations can be astoundingly poorly managed. Charity Navigator seems to be a good place to check things out first; they don’t have the resources to check every charity, but they rate most of the big players. Personally, my Haiti-bound donation went to Doctors Without Borders.
On a lighter note, I’ve been spending a lot of time wandering RedBubble lately. My friend Caitlin introduced me to it back in August, when I bought a print of her “Tokyo” project, and I keep coming back, usually just to explore. They have a great talent pool, and their print quality is fantastic if you feel the urge to buy something. One of my favorite recent finds is JenniferB. Really, I think the best way for me to introduce her is to shut up and let two of her poems speak for themselves:
- I Want To Fuck You With Words
- To be continued…
Some of her writing is a bit morbidly uncomfortable, but I think it’s still worth reading.
In site-related news, I’ve commissioned Ten-Chan to illustrate one of the Elves stories I finished back at the end of 2008. She says she should be finished soon, and I’ll post it appropriately as soon as I can.
