I'm Lost in a Decadent Pool of Boredom... and Loving It

No seriously. I spend an hour or two each evening cleaning my office and then I spend the rest of my evening writing. I have added about 2k on Noble's Choice and 1000 or so on the short story for my husband. I had to read through my last nine chapters of Noble's Choice. So far, I've figured out where the plot is going and discovered that a character I thought was pivotal, may be cut from the story. Fortunately, that is a decision for future-me, once the story is written. I'm just under 60k now and the rough draft may hit 40k if the story keeps bloating like it has been. Not that any of it is unnecessary... it's just a lot that needs to happen in the book. Fortunately, if my rough draft goes over its fine. I can then look at whether it's bloated or if I just need to pare down on the side quests in favor of the main story. 

Here is a picture I totally did not draw this week of a decadent fish also doing nothing. Maybe I'll dray him playing Don't Starve Together with me for next week. Oh! Or I can do it digitally! That would be awesome.

The only other thing I've been doing is playing Don't Starve. Its been glorious to have a few hours a day to devote to my video game. I usually get no more than an hour or two to myself to play. So, it has been decadent to play for nearly 5 hours once. It was glorious. I've also been reading and cutting down that TBR pile, I have. I'm on my second book and loving it. I'm also still reading my way through one of my favorite book series, Red Winter by Annette Marie. I've talked about it on the blog before, but again, if you haven't picked it up, find it, because it rocks. 

And that's about it for this week. Next week, hopefully, I'll have something of more substance to talk about... if I don't find anything, I may put out the next update on the Norin religion. What has been keeping you busy this week? And what are you reading right now?

The Plan for the Next Month or So

It took just a little over two months to complete, but I'm finally done. Lord's Curse has been set back to my editor with all the changes that needed to be made settled in and I have to say that I'm really pleased with the way the story is going now. I knew there was a problem with the beginning when I sent it to her, but I couldn't see where. Now, the story is a hell of a lot tighter and way more awesome. I don't know how long it will take her to edit it, but I am looking forward to the break in editing.

What am I doing in the meantime? Well, the first thing on my docket is also the least writerly. The last month I started dropping off cleaning my office and in the last two weeks stopped cleaning in favour of editing altogether, other than the small things that I needed to do to keep my house functional. The end result is that my office had turned into a pigs sty. I had no less than 7 totes of random stuff sitting stuffed around my office, all filled with junk that just needed to be out of the way right then and every single surface that I can put things on has been stacked and packed with no rhyme or reason. Add to that the fact that my office cleaning had been put off from last year when I first brought up the desk from downstairs to be my new art desk and you're most of the way there. 

Not my office... though the amount of books is nearly correct. 

At this rate, it will take a few days of going through everything, deciding what's staying and what's going before I everything is at the level I want it organized. Let me know if you want a walk-through after it's all done. I can totally do pictures and set that all up for you. 

Other than that, I have a few writing things I'm working on. I have a short story my hubby requested of me, about a villain getting betrayed by his evil friends. I have book four of the Kitsune-Ken series to finish. I probably won't finish that before I get my novel back. I'm expecting to finish it during the Camp Nano writer event in April. The other thing I'm doing is these blogs and the technical writing for the Lord's Curse. I need a back cover copy, a few different ways to write it for advertising and all that. If I manage to get on a roll and all of that gets finished, I'll start working on either editing my novelette I finished a year and a half ago. Or maybe start editing book 3 and planning book 5... It feels like those will be so far in the future that I don't want to spend too much time figuring out what's up. 

Besides which, all of it could change in just a few minutes as soon as I get my novel back. The important things are to have the back cover copy and a few of the adverts ready for when I get it back. As soon as Lord's Curse is back in my hands, this is the final edit aside from the proofreading one, so everything will get put aside for it again. 

Either way, I'll keep you updated on where I am with getting that book out to you. 

My Top Five Art Books

I have always been an art fan. When I was a teenager, I started using my money to preorder Disney films, specifically so I could get frames from the movie. When I got older and the internet became a thing, I would spend hours and hours just looking at art online and saving pictures that I loved. Back when floppy disks were a thing I bought tons and saved them full of my favourite pictures. Of course, nearly all of this was anime-inspired art. Now that I'm older and don't have the time to just sit and look at gorgeous pictures online, I buy art books. While they're expensive I love having them. A lot of the time when I just want to draw and don't know what, I'll grab one of these and try my hand at copying one of their pictures just by eyeballing it. It's fun and helps me figure out how these artists do what they do. 

Here are my top five artbooks and what I learned from them. 

The New Generation of Manga Artists, Vol. 2: The Gensho Sugiyama Portfolio

I bought this book a good 15 years or so ago. I don't mind saying that I love this style. The art style is a mix of cute and sexy that I adore. I particularly love the way the artist does hair and clothing. It looks thrown together haphazardly, but every line serves a purpose. I really need to spend more time looking over how they do it more. I would love the hair I draw to have that look like every strand can be seen in places. 

 The Enchanted World of Jessica Galbreth
I started following Jessica Galbreth a good 15 years ago, just when she started getting really big. Her art is super detailed and in the beginning, often dealt with goddesses and women of power and magic. I admit that my style is starting to look a lot more like hers. It isn't realism, but its definitely more realistic than I ever thought my direction would take. In particular, I love the way she does a complete picture. Every work is settled so you can't imagine seeing either character or background without the other, the two are so settled together. 

The New Generation of Manga Artists, Vol. 5; The Kao Yung & Kuan-Liang Portfolio
If I had to point at any one of these books and say, "that is the art style I lean most towards," I think this would be it. It has more realistic proportions than some of the others, and the art is so detailed while still looking so simple. Also, while I adore the wider eye style, I prefer my art to have smaller eyes like these, though I tend to go for a shape closer to our actual shape, just a bit larger than an actual eye would be. What I still have to learn from these artists is that gorgeous work on the clothing. While I am starting to learn how to draw bodies and where to put shadows and highlights, I still struggle with any outfit that isn't skin tight. I really have to look at Skillshare and see if they have some courses specifically on how to draw clothing.

The Art of Magic Knight Rayearth, Vol. 1

This was my first artbook and the first show that I can honestly say I lusted over the art for. I adore their style. Everything is so detailed. The gems, the clothes, the eyes, the hair, the pose, the background... If I could choose only one style to draw in for the rest of my life (and be incredibly good at it), I would choose to draw like a Clamp artist. Although every manga they produce has this same look and I have artbooks for some of their other shows, this was my first and remains my favourite. You can not get better than one of the original Iseki's. Plus, and this has nothing to do with the art, but I love that their art is always cutesy while telling stories of tragic situations where the only way to win is to destroy that which you love. They are some of my favorite storytellers as well as artists, bar-none.

Ni0 Art Works; Nishi's Alluring Figures
This artbook is amazing. First, the elephant in the room, this work is for mature readers. That is part of the reason I like it. The other much more important reason is that this art is gorgeous. It has a soft quality while being almost as detailed as the Clamp stuff. The hairstyles and the character design are top-notch and again, this artist knows how to draw clothing. However, the thing I love from this artist are the dramatic poses. Every pose is active, in movement. These aren't characters sitting down for a photo, these are characters in the midst of living a life and the art portrays that. That dynamic of movement is something I'm still trying to learn, but this artist has in spades.


I do have to mention that these are not in any particular order. Literally, they are in the order they came in when I added all five at once from my saved files. I will add that while I haven't added links, you should be able to find all of these books on Amazon and I suggest picking them up if you like the style. These are gorgeous for just appreciating, even if you don't want to learn from them. 

So, what are your favourite art books? Do you have any? If you draw, what have you learned from them? If you don't, let me know what you like about it, and what draws you to the work. 

February; Dull & Dreary Or How I Succeed at Marathon Projects

February in Canada can be tough. The days are slowly getting longer, but historically, its our coldest month, one last total freeze before we can start seeing life return. Worse, the sky here in Calgary tends to go grey with thick clouds that seem to never clear. The whole world feels like its holding its breath... which I suppose it is.

Spring will start to appear mid to late next month as the snow starts melting. That and the temperature rising to something above zero during the dark hours and higher daily highs along with the clouds finally starting to clear means that the trees start to stir slightly. We still won't see leaves until April, of course, but then we can see something happening at least.

But February... February feels like you're living in Bill Murray's Groundhog Day movie. Every day is cloudy, with little to no sun. The ground is covered with ice and snow that won't really change at all, day to day. Over the course of a week, you might see the roads clear, but that will be about it.

Add to this, working from home, when you're more likely to forget what day it is anyway, and February literally feels like somebody has pressed replay on the day for a month and they are very likely to continue to press it for the forseeable future.

So is this where I tell you I'm failing at everything? Strangely, no. I have one chapter to left to rewrite at this point and it isn't going to be from scratch. Its one chapter that needs a POV change. Aside from that, every chapter in the book needs minor tweaking to improve characterization and clear up the minor questions my editor noted for me. I should be able to do two or more chapters daily from this point on (aside from that single rewrite).

This doesn't mean I haven't felt like my energy is failing. I have. And I've dealt with it by getting myself interested in working on a short story about a set of Pathfinder characters that we stopped playing mid-2018. It was an evil campaign and I've been having fun figuring out which characters would have survived, which would have died and how the world looks like over 100 years in the future.

Now, I'll almost certainly never be able to do anything with it. Its a pit of depravity and immorality. It doesn't have anyone learning about the magical power of friendship and there are no life lessons to take home from it. Plus, it has lewd bits, which I enjoy writing, but will almost certainly never publish.

So what does writing this give me? Well, for one it lets me play around with a toy that I, essentially, can't break. This short story can be badly written, repetitive, playing with characters that I know, and I can figure out fun places to go with it. Those are all things that I can't do on Lord's Curse at this stage. Not without driving the story into the ground, at least.

Now, I can't ignore my work for this story, but I can work on it in between chapters. 200 words here, 300 there, no editing and only working on it when I have a moment of inspiration. It helps me feel like I have something fun to work toward and makes it so even editing and the dull February greys can't get me down.

What do you do to get yourself excited to work again during long projects?

Tough Week

The hardest thing about editing is the chapters that need to be rewritten. See, the first draft, I don't mind making tons of mistakes because there is only one way to fail at that stage and it is to not write it down in the first place. As I am fond of repeating ad nauseam, "you can edit shit into gold. What you can't do is edit a blank page." 

Editing from that point is easy. I'm literally just taking words that I already like and making them better. And honestly, rewrites at this stage aren't too bad either, since I'm not going for perfect, I'm going for good enough to show to my beta readers. While I'll drag my feet over completely new chapters that need to be added, I understand that a lot of my first draft won't survive to the final draft. 

After I get it back from my beta readers, I read over their responses and see what they think. I pay particular attention to areas that seem under-developed to them, to plots that they poke holes through and whether they like or hate the characters and why. Changes at this point are more difficult. I've been through it twice, once writing and once editing, and I'm at something I like. Still, sometimes as difficult as the changes are, they make the story 10x better. They are the changes that I just can't see on my own because I'm too close to the work. 

The this-isn't-even-my-final-form stage is to send it to the editor. The changes they suggest are the most difficult. I've changed it already, its nearly at its final form and I'll be honest, no matter how much my mind knows that my editor is going to tell me certain parts of it suck, my heart holds out hope that my editor will send me back a letter saying that all they had to do was some grammar and its perfect. As I said, that never happens. Its the most difficult here, I think, because I already have it at something I love. Not that the changes aren't necessary; changes at this stage are absolutely necessary and they're something that I can not see without help. These changes could rock my story to its core, or it could be an abrupt face motivation change to one of my characters. These changes leave me putting it off, dragging my feet and procrastinating hardcore. 

Which is where I am now. 

I love getting action shots of people taking my novel along with them and enjoying it on the beach or at work. It makes my day, every time. If you want to see your picture shared, email it to me at inkedfoxpress@gmail.com and I'll share it across my platforms. 

That said, I can see what my story was lacking before. It was a great book, but it was missing a firm base for the rest of the story to stand on. Now, I am working my way through the manuscript. I have finished rewriting my fourth chapter out of the six. My next three chapters will be relatively quick to work on since I'm not expecting many changes. Then I'll have two more chapters to write. After that, it's a quick run-through, tightening the story more and responding to the changes or questions mentioned by my editor. While I won't be finished in January, obviously since it's

going to be February in a day or two, I am setting a goal of having it back in my editor's hands by the 14th of February. 

Either way, I'll keep you informed. As soon as I've gotten it back from her, you should see a lot of information coming your way. That will be when you can expect release date information and cover reveal! So keep an eye out for that! If I'm lucky, I'll be able to have a release date for you soon! 

Editing and Redraw from 2014

Healthy again, finally! 

At least enough to function. My nose is still stupidly stuffed up and I get really tired after only a small amount of work. But I have enough energy to go to the mailbox and cook dinner and not feel like collapsing. Sit down for two minutes between maybe, but no more than that. 

For full honesty, I will disclose that some of that is my allergies kicking in. I have an allergy to small furry animals. I may have had it as a kid and simply ignored it because I was stupidly healthy in every other way. But I first noticed it when I borrowed an angora sweater my mom had when I was 16 or so and I itched like hell all day. It got worse when I moved out and got fur babies of my own, of course, and then settled as my system became more used to them. One thing that my body simply won't put up with though is having my cats knead my bare flesh... Of course, that is the only place they ever want to knead. I make it easier for them by preferring to wear tank tops and shirts that leave my arms bare. 

At any rate, finally healthy. 

For my edit, I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped... I've been lazy. But I did finish the chapter 3 rewrite and have edited it in. I've also finished the rough draft of chapter four which I'm in the process of doing now. After that, the editing should be faster for chapter five and then another wait for chapter six which is a new chapter from scratch. I'm finding that new chapters because they have to fit in the spot I'm dropping them perfectly, it's taking more time, to write from scratch and then fill in the extra holes with the information it needs and then going over it a few times for editing to make it as good as the rest. The other chapters are flowing and I'm able to do one or two chapters a day. Fortunately, after this chapter is done, I only have four more complete rewrites. 

So, what else have I been doing? Well, I got obsessed with my redraw from 2014. I finally finished her a few days ago, and I've got to admit, she looks amazing. I've gotten some criticism on her hands... but considering that they are very difficult to draw and I included them regardless, AND they actually look like hands, despite my errors, I'm considering it a win regardless.

The one on the right was done on my tablet of the time, a cheap-y Lenovo with a stylus. While the stylus cost $15-$20 and had some pressure sensitivity, it still wasn't good enough to actually get much detail with. The newer one on the left was done with my Surface and MS Stylus, which has a very good tip and pressure sensitivity that I can actually use. In addition, I've figured out how the body works as a whole. I figured out how to do hair a lot better, although the new hair is definitely something I still need to work on... the location of shine and shadow still isn't perfect The face is more realistic while still being animation. I think you can tell my anime beginnings from this, though I think I have grown out of some of the anime tropes... the eyes aren't anime large anymore, just slightly larger than normal. I had no shading on the old one, partially because I had no idea how to add shadow and highlights. I've picked up some of that now, though I still lean heavily on my references, which is something I would like to keep working on. 

I'll be honest though, a lot of that is just nitpicky. I really do love the way this turned out. I need to speed up a bit on my digital work though... this picture took me twelve to fifteen hours to finish still. I was going for an adequate "here is my current skill level" but I would like to figure out how to draw a bit faster... fortunately, that will come with just sketching and using it for more art, which is something that I will be doing. 

If you're interested, let me know if you want me to make copies of it available or even just the lineart, in case you want to play with coloring it in yourself. 

And I think that's where I'll end it today. It is definitely time for me to get editing if I want to finish those two chapters tonight. 

Super quick update...

It's been a week come and gone now and I'm still sick. Not badly now, fortunately. I have a fever that comes and goes which occasionally knocks me out, and I'm not good for extended trips out yet, but better. I am back to work, as of today, which I'm happy to report. I wrote 600 new words on one of my rewrite chapters and I'm hoping to finish that chapter tomorrow.

Other than that, I've been dealing with the extreme cold here in Calgary. Our temperatures have been hovering around -30C which means I have very few reasons to leave the house anyway. I've been making a point of walking down the block to the mailbox every day to make sure I don't end up feeling cabin fever too badly.

And that's where I'm going to end today. Rest up, if you're sick, stay where its safe, whether its fire or ice you're hiding from and take care of yourself until next week.