Fall is When I Fall Down

... from exhaustion that is. 

Okay, I'm joking on falling and being exhausted, but I am moving into my busiest season of the year. The fall season starts in September for me and doesn't end until usually December (though last year it lasted until February). 

It is not only when all the new shows I'm waiting for come out (this year, RWBY Season 8 is coming out, as well as Inuyasha's successor, Yashahime or Princess Half-Demon are the ones I'm most eager for, though only until Log Horizon, Season 3 is finally released in January) but its also the month-long drawing challenge I most wait for. And even if I ignore that all important challenge, I can't forget about planning for Nanowrimo. This year, I'm hoping to start writing book five of the Kitsune-Ken series and while I have an idea for the plot, it is nowhere near realized enough for me to start yet. 

One of my favourite digital pictures so far. Please, do not expect this quality during October. This took me a stupid amount of time to do.

On the other hand, I am really looking forward to it. I really like being busy, even if it does mean I end up feeling like I'm burning the candle at both ends to get everything done. Especially when that busyness comes with Nanowrimo and art. It pushes me to my edge, but I do some of my best work when I'm pushing everything out. I even have the lofty goal of trying to plan out the rest of the Kitsune-Ken series this October, at least, generally. An idea of what story will be told each book and what to look forward to. 

And with that update, I'm going to run. I want to get started on that backlog. I don't want to keep you guys waiting for Fox's Facade any longer than I need to. 

To Ink or not to Ink(tober)? That is the Question.

     So, Inktober. 

     Normally, I am big into Inktober and I like pledging to draw something every day. Generally, I do not make every day. I average about half and never regret it. This year, however, I'm questioning whether to take part again. I do have to specify here. I will be still be trying to draw every day in October. That isn't in question, even if I know I'm going to be too busy to draw every day. Its whether I will be working in only ink and whether I will be using the hashtag. 

     Part of my hesitation is due to the creator of Inktober himself. I won't go heavy into the allegations and legal issues... I'm not a lawyer and I've done minimal research on it. If you're in for the long haul, here's a good Reddit post going over in much better detail what I touch on ever so briefly below. 

     In 2019, the creator started claiming Copywrite on personal art books released with Inktober in the title. This means that a lot of artists who take part and then release their art as an Inktober book for their fans couldn't release it without a lot of hassle and legal work on a book that he has nothing to do with, but that he created the event. This year the controversy is that the creator has been accused of plagiarism by an indie artist/author who released a very similar book 2-3 years ago on inking.   

     As I said, I am not going to get into my personal feelings on him claiming Copywrite on artists' work that he had nothing to do with except that they originally posted them all under the Inktober hashtag, nor will I be talking about the lawsuit. I don't know enough about Copywrite law, I haven't read either of the books involved and while I've done a handful of research, I am in no way qualified to say yeah or nay on any of it. 

     What I can say is that all of the hubbubs is making me unsure if I want to be attached to the name this year. Also, while normally I work with only ink and love it, I would really love to get more sketching time in on my Surface. Drawing digitally is a completely different set of skills than painting in any sort of traditional medium, even if mine is a bit closer since I'm missing some of the cooler tools that the paid programs give you. 

     All that said, I'm just not sure yet. There are other options out there. Artober, Midnightober, OCtober, Witchtober... There's one for digital-only, as well, though I can't remember the exact name for that one. The question is which of these options is a fit for me. 

    Honestly, I don't really have an answer yet. I'll probably look into what my friends are choosing to do and see how open the options are. What do you think? Are you still interested in seeing any drawings I do during the month? Let me know below or on FB.

Learning Languages: The Super Difficult Way

 I have never been quiet about the fact that I have huge admiration for people who can learn multiple languages. I took Spanish classes in high school and Japanese in university. Since then, I have done online studying and taken books out of the library, bought language learning software, and more. All in all, I am bad at learning languages. One of the things that has really worked for me, if in an excessively slow way, is Duolingo. I've been using it for around two and a half years now. I'm not very far into it, I only know about 500 words. 

All that said, I am an eager and active study partner, if slower than I would like. So when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to study with her for her university class, I jumped on the chance. Since the class is offline, I spent some time trying to answer the test questions she sent me on paper. That was when I discovered something very interesting that I hadn't realized before. 

Part of my inability to grasp the language is due to my aphantasia. 

How did I discover this? On my phone, I can type Japanese really quickly, identify the characters, and even a good couple dozen characters I am starting to pick up on.  However, when I tried to write down the answers on paper, I couldn't remember what any of the symbols looked like. 

This isn't particularly new to me. I remembered, very vaguely, having that problem when I took Japanese in university. What I hadn't realized then was that part of the reason I was having trouble is that unlike many of my fellow studies, I couldn't just recall what the specific hiragana or kanji looked like and draw it from there. I was left suddenly wondering if I hadn't actually learned them. However, it couldn't be that since I've actually found myself able to read lyrics in Japanese on some of the videos I've been watching lately. 

I finally realized that it was because of my aphantasia. I can't see the pictures, so I can't recall them that way from memory. The only thing I've found that works so far, is forcing myself to learn from muscle memory, where you do the very dull work of writing out words and letters like a kindergartener on coffee. By giving my fingers and hands muscle memory, I can commit them to memory, forcing them to stay in the little box I have set aside for them. 

The main con of learning languages this way is that its slow. Very slow. As in I'll have to spend hours daily, simply writing out the alphabet, over and over right now. That said, I don't know if there is a faster way to do this without keeping a picture beside me at all times. I will research and continue forwarding the long slow work of putting pencil to paper, but if any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 

Hella Fun Movie Week

 It has been a hella fun week. I've been writing and watching B-movies with my husband. Constantine from 2005 was still a blast to watch. Good tone and sets, good actors, outdated effects, and the most overplayed script you can imagine. It was super fun though. I think Keanu Reeves will always be my Constantine because of it. We also watched one of the new Alien movies; I can't remember the name, but it starred Olivia Munn; an actress I always enjoy watching. Even she couldn't save this movie though. It went right past B-monster movie into a D-movie. We also watched Push with Chris Evans. Since I am wholly in the mood for a good urban fantasy it hit that niche for me nicely. 

On the work front, I have finished another chapter or two and I have another that's nearly done. Unfortunately, September is upon us which means my tendinitis is acting up again. Before anyone worries, it isn't bad and as a yearly event, I am finally getting an idea of how to deal with it. It means that I write until it starts acting up and then I have to take a break for a while. Expect to see a lot of art posts and me cheering my Japanese for a few weeks while my writing is slow. Despite that, I am getting a lot of work on this novel done and I don't currently think I'm going to be behind my schedule so long as I do still write rather than forsake everything for my art. It's always a challenge but one that I think I'm up for. 

And that's going to be it for this week since I can feel my wrist just starting to ache. Please, if you've read Lord's Curse don't forget to write up a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you bought it from. Those reviews really help with getting my work seen by more people. If you already have, please consider suggesting my book to friends if they're looking for a fun fantasy to read next. Every little bit helps! Thanks again, Readers! I couldn't do it without you!