Year-End Review

          Hello out there! This is your friendly Canadian author. Its been one hell of a harrowing year, so while I don't normally do one, I think I'll use this platform to finally do a year-in-review post. I must admit, I usually have this idea to do one and then forget and never end up posting one. That's because while I love posting these, I am always exhausted after Nanowrimo and I never seem to pick it back up before mid-January. This year, since I wasn't working a full-time job, I had the time and energy to do blog posts and keep working all through December. Which was good because it was amazingly busy. I'll get back to that later though. 

          I'll start in January. I was working away at book 2 in my novel series and had actually begun editing it before I got hurt. For those of you who didn't know, or forgot, I ended up falling head first down an escalator. I was seriously hurt, and for the next four to six months, I pushed myself way too hard. I've never been a good sick patient and always try to get back too soon. I honestly probably could have been up and about and a hell of a lot healthier had I just settled back and healed, but instead, I kept forcing myself ever upward. And I can't say that I'm back to 100% yet. I am healed enough for government work, of course. I do notice that I get headaches when the weather is changing though and that I tend to get depressed more often than I'd like to admit. Fortunately, neither is debilitating, even if I do tend to take it easier than normal when something is acting up. 

          Despite that setback, I started pouring my heart into my art again. I say despite, but it was really closer to because. My head hurt and I couldn't read or look at screens for very long, which was driving me mad while I healed. For two or three months I couldn't write at all, just because trying to write down my thoughts actually hurt and would cause headaches. Fortunately, drawing was easier, perhaps because all I was trying to do was make something pretty. In February, I entered a picture I'd coloured into Rhonda Parrish's cover contest. She had a lot of art she'd had commissioned for her anthologies but wanted one of the picture's coloured for the cover. I was honoured when she chose mine for the front cover of the anthology. So, I had my first very official publishing credit to my name early in the year for cover colouring. 

          September was a time of loss. My husband and I lost our cat, Kuro, to liver problems and within a week of that, I lost my long-time job with the Cooperators. I had worked there for over ten years, but my position was phased out. Honestly, I welcomed the chance to spend a few months dedicating my life to my writing. And while I am looking for a new job already, I haven't found one yet. 

          In October, at the very last moment possible, I published my short story, Fated. Unsurprisingly, it didn't make waves or even many ripples (though I did receive my first review on it just a few days ago and it was a five-star review. Please, if you want to give me the gift that keeps on giving, more reviews are the way to go), but I was honoured to be able to contribute it to Rhonda Parrish's Giftmas project. They did incredibly this year, surpassing their goal of $750 to be donated to the Edmonton Food Bank. In the end, $1,127 was raised, which will really help the food bank get food to the needy this holiday season. 

          Finally, I sent in my first novel to my editor and received it back in early December. Since then, I have been working hard to work on all of the edits and just a few hours ago, I managed to finish them. No, you didn't hear that wrong. The novel is done and as edited as its going to be. I've got a shiny new title and I'll be ordering a cover for it tomorrow, though, with the holidays ongoing, I assume it will be a few days before I have a cover to share with all of you. However, I am going to be working hard behind the scenes to get this novel out to you guys as soon as possible. I will have pre-orders going out as soon as I have an idea of how much the physical novel will end up costing, so if you're interested in getting a signed copy, please subscribe to my page here or keep up with my Facebook page, since I'll be putting the news up there as well. 

        What did you end up doing for New Years? Did you have any successes that you want to share? Please, tell me about them in the comments below!

A Mis-Binding of Epic Proportions Makes for a Cool Gift

          Hello, Hello everyone! I hope that you've had a rocking holiday so far. I have been busy with family, shopping, getting ready for the holidays and, of course, editing my novel. And for the first time in a very long time, I can say I'm finished. Literally, all I need to do now is to give it a quick read through, to make sure that all of my changes work well and then it will be ready to go. I think I have a title now, so I'll probably be ordering a cover in the next four or five days. Which means I should be able to start sharing hints of it in the next week or so! I am super excited. 

          That said, this will be a super quick update so that I can get back to work. I've been working on some artwork over the holidays, and it's all turning out really well. I got some really kickass books to read as well as one book I'm keeping with the weirdest error I've ever seen before. The book is labelled and covered as Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare, but the actual book inside is Stephen King's 11/22/63. I could return it and pick up an un-erred copy of the novel, but I totally think I'm going to keep this one and see if I can get it signed by both authors. 

          Oh, my Jolabokaflod gift for this year was Jade City by Fonda Lee. I remember that a friend of mine, Calvin Jim, had mentioned it during a panel at last year's When Words Collide on Asian fiction. I can't remember exactly what he said, but I remember being super interested in reading it and so I was exceptionally pleased to receive it. I gave my husband a hardcover of John Scalzi's Old Man's War. He seems to be enjoying it so far. I can't wait to start mine, but I'm about a quarter way into a re-read of Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan right now, so I have to finish that up first. 

          Okay, with that said, I'm going to sign out now and start editing. Reading should only take two to three days at most and then I'll be able to start doing things like giving you guys dates for release and cover reveals and fun stuff like that. 

          In the meantime, tell me what your favourite gift was, or what books you got or gave this season that you were excited about and why? Or perhaps a story of misprints you've found in a book? 

Early Presents

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

          Or at least that's what the song says. Personally, I love all seasons of the year for different reasons. One of the reasons I do love this time of year though is that my childhood basically taught me that the colder months of the year were filled with presents. First, there was Back-to-School Shopping, which as a stationery lover, was always amazing for me. Then in October, my mother and brother had their birthdays, as well as Halloween happening at the end of the month and then we'd move right in Christmas when my sister and I celebrated our birthdays. While it was tough on the gift side of things, I did learn that it wasn't the amount spent on the gift but the love behind it that mattered. That is why, even today, when inviting people to my birthday, I remind people that I want their presence, not their presents. 

         This year, a friend of mine got me the coolest gift though. She'd heard that a local book bindery/bookstore offering classes that taught us bookbinding. Seriously, by the end of the day, we had all created a tiny hardbound notebook each.

          I should note here, that the pictures below were all taken by a mutual friend of ours that also attended the class.

          We started off with taking about fifty sheets of plain paper and folding them over in groups of five. Then we poked four holes along the edge and tied them together with a needle and beeswaxed thread. 

Take some sheets of paper and fold in half. Then rip or cut down the folded edge. Fold each of the remaining sheets down the centre again. Do them in groups of five or six. Otherwise your packets will be unruly to work with.  

Take a piece of tough string and run it through beeswax a few times. 

Poke four holes through each sheaf of paper. Then start running the thread through, tying each sheaf to the others as you go. 

Here is what the finished set of knotwork looks like. 

          After that, you get to glue on a type of cheesecloth over the spine to help it stay together and you glue on the inner pages. Once you're done you can choose your cover colour and measure out cardboard to make the hardcover. Then you can take the leather or other cover material and glue your cardboard onto it. Then you can wrap the leather around it and glue your book into it. After that, you can press the books to get the inner glue to stick your books together super tightly. 

Unfortunately, I missed getting pictures of most of the cover making and final assembly, but we did get a picture of all of our notebooks getting pressed in the machine though!

         In the end, you have a perfect, little, finished book; notebooks in our cases, since we just used plain paper.

Here are our finished books. 

          The person running the class even let us use some gold leaf and design our books to be more personalized. Unfortunately, the gold leaf didn't stick on the bottom design of mine; its the one in the back that says Feytouched, which is my preferred online handle.  

        Overall, we had a great time making these, even if my cover ended up a bit misshaped on the spine end. I really like the way it turned out, though the rose design on the bottom didn't take the gold leaf well, so it looks more embossed than gold-leafed. One of my latest art supplies though happened to be silver and gold ink, which makes me wonder if I could ink it and make it as nice as the rest. If I do attempt it, I'll share the results in a future post. 

        Offhand, if you are ever looking for a really cool way to spend an afternoon, talk to your local book bindery and see if you can find a place that offers the class. If you're in Calgary, Alberta, I really suggest calling Octavia Book Bindery. It was where we went and they were awesome. I learned a lot and it absolutely rocked. Have you ever done bookbinding? Do you think it would be something you'd enjoy? Let me know in the comments below!

Giftmas

      Happy Holidays, everyone! I am here to tell you that it has been insanely busy over here this last week and a half. First, for Nanowrimo, I finished with 57,161 words. I was so tired I took a couple of days off reading and resting my poor hands. I wrote another 7,000-8,000 words and then my kickass editor got my novel back to me. Since then I have been working at editing my novel. I currently have 48 pages out of 246 finished and ready to go. I'm hoping to have at least the e-copy available for Christmas, but I'll let you know as soon as I've seen how long this very final run of edits will take me. 

     More importantly, Giftmas is the other thing I'm involved in right now. A friend of mine, Rhonda Parrish, is hosting her yearly Giftmas. She and I, and a whole slew of other writers are asking you to consider donating to the Edmonton Food Bank. This is a charity that is close and dear to Rhonda's heart, having used the service before. Having had to rely on the Calgary Food Bank myself on occasion, I can fully understand why she likes showing them the love and trying to get them a large donation every year. 

        However, it isn't only donations you'll be seeing. There are a host of authors offering free daily short stories (some Christmas-based and some not) to get you excited and hopefully willing to donate. In addition, there will be prizes and gifts sent your way... not the least of which is a free e-copy of my short story, Fated, for everyone who donates more than $1. So if you've been holding off on buying my story, you can donate and get it, along with other items. Please check her site for all the awesome details and links. 

          You can donate below using the link provided. 

Merry Giftmas to All!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Inks!

          Before I really get started, let me apologize... I ended up making this post a bit longer than I prefer, but I promise that its all useful information. See, I said that I was going to start making some art posts, since it is my other way to unwind and drive myself insane at the same time. I was going to talk about acrylics, but in a fortuitous turn of events, I found a Winsor & Newton ink set that I'd been looking for on Black Friday. Then a friend visited on Sunday and brought some new Sumi ink that she'd purchased, which let me try out all of them.

          Because something I've discovered working with inks for all last month is that all inks are not created equally. It started when I bought a glass pen and needed ink to play with it. What I mainly discovered there is that I have horrible handwriting, a fact which I know and will really need to work on eventually.

          However, I found that inks can also be used in art with gorgeous results. I'll go into all of the brands in better detail later, since this time I'm only testing the opacity, darkness and waterproofness in today's tests.

          The first ink that I tried was the Higgens Fountain Pen India Ink. It is non-waterproof, which essentially means that it can always be reactivated with water. I generally prefer my ink work to be as non-reactivatable as completely as possible before I begin work on the next layer so it doesn't work with my art style (which makes it good ink for playing with my penmanship). Its also the lightest of the inks. The shade is really more of a grey than a black.

          The Bombay inks dry quickly and seem waterproof to me once they dry, and they do dry quickly. Within about twenty minutes, you'll only get a very light residual pickup and after that, it's essentially negligible. I love them and I think that they are my favourites of all the ones I've tried so far. The only issue for me is that the blacks aren't are black as I could wish. Don't get me wrong, its heads above the Higgens, but still not a really rich, dark black.

          The Winsor & Newton inks say that they are only water resistant but according to my test, after about 18 hrs they are picking up the same amount or less than the Bombay inks do. They are the darkest black I've found though and I am very impressed with how well they go down. I'll have to play more with the other colours as well, but let me say that as of now, I am very impressed.

          The final ink I tried is Sumi ink. Like the Higgens, it isn't waterproof at all, which is less surprising since it was originally made not for art, but for writing (to my limited knowledge). What did surprise me was that it was that it was even darker than my Bombay inks. It's only a shade or two lighter than my Winsor & Newtons. If it wasn't non-waterproof, I would love it.

          As you can see from this picture, this is what you see when you put down a block of the ink. The Higgens and Bombay don't go down quite as smoothly as the others, and they aren't as dark. Despite that, I still like the Bombay's for their other qualities... mainly the incredibly bright and gorgeous colours they have in their sets. 

          Oh, ignore the one I crossed out in red. One problem with the Bombay inks is that after you shake up your ink you need to let it settle for a few minutes before you use it or your colours will be lighter since you're essentially getting just watery bubbles with the smallest amount of colour. I originally dipped my brush and didn't get it past the bubbles. I didn't want to go directly over it and have it be two layers compared to only one of everything else. So I did a second square below as my test.

          This picture shows how the inks react later. The larger boxes were all done by rewetting the original boxes from above with water and then just filling in a box with just that. I waited about two hours for the ink to dry here. As you can see, after two hours the Bombay was completely dry, but the Winsor & Newton was still reactive enough to colour in the box. The smaller ones were done the next day after about eighteen hours had passed. As you can see, the Bombay and Winsor & Newton were essentially waterproof at this point and could not be lifted. The Sumi and Higgens could still be easily reactivated and still get quite dark. 

          Basically, this was interesting for me since I'm learning that there is a time and place for everything. Knowing how your inks are likely to react and the shades you're likely to get using them will help you know when to use the right tool. Like in writing, you have to really understand the rules before you can start playing hard and fast with them and doing unexpected and fun things. 

          Until next time, be creative. Whether its writing, drawing, singing, dancing, etc, do something creative with your time. Create, play with your tools and find out how they all work. I guarantee that knowing what you have to work with will help you find the right tools for all the right jobs. 

Week Three and a Character Shakedown

          I had the best of intentions. Really. I meant to post last week.

          Then Klei, apparently not knowing that November is supposed to be essentially ignored by the world, opened its beta release to its newest DLC for Don't Starve. Hamlet is a Don't Starve world where the pigs have a civilization, but the rest of the world is a terrifying array of deadly everything.  I grabbed it and have already lost probably 20 hours or more to it at this point. It helps that it basically starts the game by saying, "Yo, you, the one playing this game. Yeah, You. So this edition is essentially Don't Starve-Hardcore Mode. If you're still starving to death within days in the regular game, you might want to play that mode a bit more before playing here."

          It does not disappoint. I can get to 15 days or so, but the last time two times the Thunderbird has come for me, I've died. Once because I was in the pig settlement and on my last few points of sanity... I think a nightmare got me before he could land that time. The second time I was in a battle with some houseplants that wanted to eat me and they got me just as the bird arrived. I am loving figuring out the world though. Wait until after Nanowrimo, but please pick up this game when its officially released on December 6th.

          As for my Nanowrimo, its going. I had a really tough time getting started. After 8.5k I finally figured out where I should be starting the story. Fortunately, those words weren't wasted because its Nano and they still count towards my total. I have stayed ahead of the game pretty much all month. I'm about 7k ahead of where I should be, giving me about 32k of words that actually further my plot. Unfortunately, at that point, I got stuck and my characters started falling into a bit of depression on me. 

          To get past that, I decided to talk to my husband and take an evening off from actual writing to do some planning (also, for those of you asking, yes, those words count towards Nanowrimo too. If it's written for the story during November it counts. Period.). I started by writing a kick-my-characters-in-the-ass paragraph. It was full of dire warnings and general bitching, which was not only cathartic but useful and funny as hell. Let me know if you want me to share that here. I don't think it has any secrets for the books in it, and you guys might find it hilarious. Anyways, from there I spent about 1300 words or so figuring out where all of the characters were going. Basic stuff; what is your motivation, where does it have a pivotal change and who's with you when it does? Why is that a pivotal change and what did the villain do to you to get you there?

          Surprisingly, this is working for me. 

          Here's a reminder that my poignant short story, Fated has been released and is available, pretty much wherever you buy your ebooks from. Check the links below. And please remember to leave a review about it and give it a star-rating, if nothing else. Those really help my book to get seen by more people. 

          Finally, I'm going to end here and put up a fair warning, that I think my next blog is going to be an art one... Maybe talking about Inktober, but certainly talking about my first Paletteful Packs subscription box. Keep an eye out for it!

Fated on ibook
Fated on Android
Fated on Kobo

Week One

          The first week of Nanowrimo has kicked my ass. Between releasing my short story, sending my novel to my editor and everything else, I felt like I would never get to write! Of course, time doesn't actually stop, and when Nanowrimo did start, I had a story, but no good starting place and despite telling myself not to start my characters before the trouble starts, I did. Mostly because there is trouble. Just no new troubles. Finally, we lost our internet connection for 24 hours which forced me to look at my story objectively and stop plodding on even when I could tell it wasn't working.

          How has all this translated into my word count? Well, our total for day 7 is 11,669 words. I'm already above that, sitting at 13,110 words. So, just 226 words off of having tomorrows total finished. I've only written 500 or so words today though, and I'll be doing more tonight. So in word counts, I'm doing just fine. The problem is in the quality. Around 8k of that total won't even make it into my finished rough draft. So I'm just over 5k into a draft I'm willing to work with.

          Still, Nanowrimo is a time for playing with plot lines that don't work and false starts. It's a time to forget your inner editor and ignore everything, right? Well, that is right, which is why I'm not really down on myself. I am above my daily total and while I'm clearly doing some editing on the run, it's only because my writing flows faster and smoother knowing that I have corrected the major hurdle I was facing. Also, those words still exist. Knowing that they weren't the right words doesn't negate the fact that they were written. I prefer to say that I have found one of the ways not to write this novel... it just took me 8k to do it.

          What about you? Are you doing Nanowrimo this year? If so, what's your word count? What hurdles have you crossed in week one?

          The last thing I wanted to mention is a bit of self-promotion! If you follow me closely, you may have heard that I released a short story on October 31st (If you didn't see it, consider yourself informed). I have reached #46 on Amazon's Hot New Releases in the anthology and short story category and is #292 on Amazon's Short Reads in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section.

          If you'd like to help me to get these numbers a bit higher, and you've already taken the step of buying my short story (Thank you), there are two more big things you can do. The first is to please leave a review. I am not asking for only 5-star reviews; any review helps to get my story a bit more coverage out there in the world. So wherever you picked up my story, leave a review and throw a few stars at it. You can also do that on Goodreads, if you prefer to leave your reviews all in one place. The other way you can help is to spread the word. Tell your friends and family about it and convince them to pick it up and star it themselves.

          Thanks again. I'll be back with another update in a few more days. Until then, good luck if you're writing and happy reading if you aren't.

First Day of Nanowrimo

          As always, I am taking part in Nanowrimo. However, this year, despite not having a day job to keep me busy, it feels like it really snuck up on me. Which I kind of find hilarious, especially since I'm having trouble keeping the days all straight in my mind. On the other hand, it isn't like I haven't been busy. In the last two weeks, I have edited my short story and published it, sent my first novel to my editor and finished sending book two to my beta readers. I even did a very minimum planning for Nanowrimo.

          Today I had a very decent total of 2,691 words. I was going to 3k, but I just missed the mark. More so because the first chapter just wasn't working for me and I had to restart it. Not that those words don't count, just they took longer and were harder to do than I could have hoped for.

          Are you doing Nanowrimo? Let me know if you are!

Exciting News!

Its been nearly two weeks since my last update, but I have some really exciting news!

Are you leaning close? Like really close? Good.

I have a short story that will be coming out on Wednesday!

It won't be my novel, unfortunately (that is currently slated for a December release), but a short story, written in a darker and more urban setting than I normally visit in my writing. Here are the cover and blurb. It will be available on Amazon, Kobo, Nook and iBooks. The links are down below!

I hope you all enjoy it!

It’s a burden knowing that magic exists…

For as long as she can remember, Phedre has seen a much different world than the rest of us. Sprites and spirits dance around and through us and everybody is surrounded by brightly coloured auras. Despite that touch of magic, she lived a normal life. But when her new step-father breaks the peace in their home, Phedre runs without a plan. Offered an escape that she never expected, she will learn that no gift is without its price and one harsh truth; in this world, some people are burdened with glorious purpose… and others are simply bugs caught in the webs of fate.

Kindle
Kobo 

Man, has it been busy!

     Well, it has been a super busy couple of days since my last update. I have been trying to do at least one October picture each day this year, but I am behind by a couple of days now, four to be exact. On the other hand, most of the pictures are actually working out reasonably well, I think, and I'm definitely getting better at using the medium. I did take some time off today to work with my Copic markers though. I figure they still count since I'm inking the picture first and then using the marker ink to colour it. Though, honestly, I'm not one of those people who is a stickler for the rules here. If you're doing #Inktober and you're doing it digitally, or you're just working on hatching and some of them are in pencil or something, hey, you're drawing, and therefore you're doing it right. Are any of you out there doing it? Let me know.

     I also have two bits of very good news for all of you. The first is that I should have an update for when I'll be releasing a short story digitally! Yes, you heard that right, I will be publishing something very soon, I just want to get it back from my editor and read it over before I reveal the official date of publishing. I am keeping my fingers crossed for October 31st, but either way, keep an eye out for it.

     The other bit of good news is that I have finally finished the first edit of my second novel in the Kitsune-Ken series. I am going over the document once more for punctuation and grammar and then the novel will be sent to my editor as well. It's my hope that I can work on edits for it starting in December/January, and then I can have a release date for it reasonably soon after the first one drops. The third book (as you know if you've been following) was written last November for Nanowrimo and I'm hoping to start looking it over for editing soon too. This November, I will begin work on book four in the series. I will definitely keep all of you updated though. I am starting up a mailing list that I'll use to send out updates. I haven't had a chance to actually set it up yet, but if any of you want to be sure you're on it, please dm me on FB or something with your name and your email address and I'll add you in. I promise I will only be using it to update you with publishing information.

     Anyways, I'm going to jump off here and open my document to do some editing before I head to sleep for the night.

Moving Fast!

     It has been an insanely busy week. Inktober has kept me moving. Still, I've managed to actually keep up so far. It really helps that I drew the first five days in advance. I've since drawn another 2 days worth and will be trying to do another two or three today. Having the drawings in advance really helps me to spend the day, mostly considering colour and not worrying horribly about composition. Here's an example of my favourite three so far.

     One nice thing about having my pictures sketched in advance as well is that it gives me a bit more time to spend my time working on my book. I came down with a cold during the week which means I did less than I wanted to, but that doesn't mean I accomplished nothing. I sent in a short story and my novel to my editor and am sending away a request for a cover (so keep an eye out later this month for a cover reveal). in the next day or so. I have 32 chapters of my novel is done and probably another 12k to 15k left before its completely done. Part of my issue is that I found a full chapter I needed to rewrite, but I needed to move it entirely to fix it, which meant that I've had to rewrite it twice now. I'm pleased to say that it is finally working and I'm really hoping to have the book done by the end of next week and hopefully sent in to my editor as soon as she has time. Then I'll be spending the rest of October, getting ready to sell my artwork and preparing for Nanowrimo.

     This is getting a bit longer than I was hoping though, so I'm going to call it here. Are you going to be doing Nanowrimo this year? And are you taking part in Inktober? How are you doing with it?

Start of Inktober & an Update

     Sorry that I've been gone so long guys. With my head, taking so long to heal, I pretty much dropped the ball on everything this year. Or if not everything, then a lot. I stopped posting online at all for quite a while and slept and healed and worked whenever my head allowed me to. I took the time I needed and forced myself to heal. All of which means that I'm back at it... and that I've had a lot of life changes to go with it.

     First of all, I am no longer working at my day job. They laid me off when they decided that my position was no longer required at the company. And while that is a very life-changing change, it wasn't as out of left field as you might expect. They've been telling us at our company for years that certain positions would be disappearing and they told me nearly a year ago that my position would be one of the ones that are disappearing. That said, its a completely different thing being told "your position will be going away soon" and actually not having to go to work anymore. After I found out, I took some time off from writing to adult, figure out where I was going and what I was doing. My plan is currently to take a few months off and actually start making a business of all the creative art stuff I do. The point of this is to see if I can work from home without a day job effectively and get things done. 

     Which leads to my second interesting update. I will be publishing very soon, this month or the next. It will be a single short story, out hopefully before the end of October, but it may end up being a little bit later than that (my editor just bought a house and isn't taking commissions for the next couple of weeks). I am going to be looking into covers for it and I will let you know as soon as I have an update for the date. My first novel will be coming out, hopefully before mid-December. I am nearly done with my first pass on the second novel in the series and will hopefully be under my editor's eye sometime in November-December. I have also written a dieselpunk novella that will be coming out sometime in the new year after I've had a chance to edit it. The important thing to remember in all of this is that I will be publishing soon. Keep an eye here, and I will let you know when I am finally releasing everything! If you'd like a more direct way to get noticed, please send me an email at inkedfoxpress@gmail.com saying so and include the email address you'd like to be notified at. I promise I'll only be using the email to send out updates when I'm actually publishing something. 

     And finally the start of my title... #Inktober is finally here! For those that don't remember, I kinda took part of #Inktober last year. The idea is to try to use only ink to make works of art for the entire month of October. Last year, I didn't manage to get it finished every day, but I did manage to get 18 or so drawings up, most of which were done with Copic markers. While Copics are still my favourite medium, I have also branched out to watercolour and most recently India Ink. Here is my first offering this year. 

     I think that's it since this update is already way longer than I wanted. If you think I've missed on mentioning something, please let me know in the comments below and maybe I can do a full post on some of them in the next month or so. 

And Yet, I Persist

          Its been a few days so I figured it was time for another blog post. I actually do have some news in this one. Mostly that I am healing and the end is finally starting to come in site.

          I am still having headaches if I try to work a full day or work up at my old speed, and that is not for my writing/editing of my novel, just my normal work. I'm starting to find that if I'm not taking proper care of myself (plenty of sleep, plenty of water, food that isn't just junk) then the headaches can become omnipresent. On the other hand, most of the times, that omnipresent doesn't hurt badly, its just a constant, an almost unnoticable drag on anything I try to do, but enough, and one that will solidly get worse and worse until, I've rested myself enough. If I stress too hard over something, same thing. For my physical wounds, most of the under-skin bruising is finallly gone and I have noticed that if my face gets cold enough (standing outside in temperatures lower than -10C or blustering winds) makes my face hurt along certain places. I assume those are the places where I fractured my skull, though I have no proof of that, since they didn't show me the x-rays and I wasn't really up to asking at the time.

          I have been able to write creatively, but anything more than 10 or 15 minutes and I start feeling it. Despite that, I am back to editing. I have finished nearly two chapters in the last week (slow going, but as I said, creative writing/editing still hurts) and have started writing chapter four, which is one of the ones that needs to be done from the ground up. I also figured out some character motivation and a plot issues that I knew were wrong, but couldn't figure out why. I should be sending my first novel in soon for its final edit and some cover work, so everything is getting better on that front as well.

          Still, while I'm happy to be writing, a lot of my focus is still on my art, since in general, art doesn't hurt my brain at all. I'll have a few new pictures to show off soon and hopefully I'll have some good news on that front later.

          I think that is where I'm going to leave it today. A nice update, to keep you informed and to keep my mind working. What have you been up to and what personal victories have you acheived? Let me know in the comments below.

Little Update

And look, another blog post! I'm still healing, but I am getting better, I was able to work my day job every day this past week. Though I had a headache two or three days, they were light and easily controlled by a little bit of Tylenol. I am still having trouble editing, but I did work through a story snag that was giving me grief. I also haven't been drawing a lot; catching the flu will do that to you.

And I think that is where I'll end this today. A little more everyday is my current goal though, expect me to start posting more regular updates and more interesting content in the upcoming weeks and months.

Back

     Or at least I should be now.

     In November, I finished the rough draft of book three of my Kitsune-Ken series and I finished editing the first book. That first book is officially ready to go to my editor and after that, I can work specifically on publishing it. I also started editing book two of that series. I've gone through it and worked out new chapters I need to write as well as general story edits and what order they go in. Unfortunately, I had to put the editing on hold. 

     In January, I ended up injuring myself pretty badly when I took a nasty fall down an escalator. I'm healing, but as I've found out, concussions heal slowly... Hopefully, I'll be back to editing soon, but please, be patient with me in the meantime. 

     Since I have been unable to write lately, I have been working on a lot of art. I may eventually open up an Etsy store for my designs, but that will be later if I decide to go ahead with it.

This, for example, was an adorable fox I coloured just using two Copic markers

     If you want to see what I've been working on, I now have an Instagram account as well as my Facebook page. Follow me at @foxy_writer and let me know what you've been up to in the meantime.