Today really feels like work.

For the most part, The Peacock King and its related microgalaxy of projects is my hobby.  At least, that's the way it's been for ages; I wrote when I felt like it, drew when I felt like it, and worked on the wiki when I felt like it.  The most effort I expended was nagging at Irk to write, an effort that has paid off well, if I do say so myself.

Lately, though, the game has changed for me.  Infernal Shenanigans is now my bread-and-butter, and what used to be my collection of fun little hobbies is suddenly also my job.  For the most part, it's not so bad; it's not like drawing taxes me much when I have to just churn it out, especially given the way I have constructed my workflow so that I can spin several plates, depending on which mode my brain is in at that given moment.  Writing, though... writing is different.

It's harder, for starters.  I can pick up any sort of mark-making device and scribble at any time.  In fact, I'm notorious for my habit of doodling while on the phone, and have had a few phone-doodles turn into full-fledged drawings.  I can't just open a document and write... well, I can (and have), but the results aren't usually anything I'd be willing to share with the general public.  Call it the text version of Gerald's doodles (although, to be fair, I'm rather certain that my word-doodles are a lot less dangerous to the stability of reality than Gerald's doodles).  I'm also a lot more forgiving about sloppiness and general yick in my drawings than I am writing.  Hell, I've posted scraps to dA that, had they been the written equivelant, I wouldn't have even bothered to save.

In spite of those misgivings, I've managed to land myself in a position where I have to write, no matter what my brain says about it, or how loud the kids are being that day, or how much (or how little) tea I've managed to consume.  (As of right now, 15:16 Pacific, I have had 4 cups of White Ayurvedic Chai and 1 glass of ... that peach flowering tea Irk bought and I can't remember its name.  I am about to go for a cup of Mate Vana, which means I'll probably end up drinking another.)  Part of writing this entry is trying to warm myself up and get that flow of characters a-marchin' across the screen, and another part is to track just what the hell keeps distracting me from writing.  

I feel warmed up, and can now happily report that I am being distracted by the following things:

• My kids
• Urgent biological needs (I've been drinking A LOT of tea, if you haven't noticed)
• Desire for more tea
• Unordered lists
• The urge to work on this commission some more, despite the issue with the hands throwing me into a tizzy and requiring MORE TEA to keep me calm
• Gmail (damn you, G-Labs!)
• Housekeeping (even though I STILL haven't scrubbed the toilets... hey, suddenly I want to write more!  WIN!)

Now that all that is (un)sorted out, I can start un-distracting myself and get to work.

With the exception of my kids.  Not much I can do about that except peck away in between taking care of them until the blessed little creatures are in bed.

Bonus Short Story Update!

Hey guys! Char has another chapter of The Last of the Dhealgseala up! Go enjoy it.

This one's gonna run longer than two parts, which is great because it gives you lots of background on Camden and Elric, who are two really cool guys.  If it runs longer than the date when we start Novel 2 back up, we'll run both stories at once.  The new site will totally be able to handle that.

See you on Wednesday or earlier!

Infernal Shenanigans is OPEN for Commissions!

Hey.  Hey guys.

Char and I have a studio called Infernal Shenanigans. Together, we are writing and illustrating a novel you happen to be addicted to, working on secret art projects, and making custom artwork for wonderful people like you! So come have a look. There's a pricing table up to give you a good feel for how much it would cost to hire us. And you can choose whether Char or I does inks and who does the coloring and whatnot. Think of how flexible that is! It's...very flexible!

The commissions page is right here, and the sample artwork page is right here. You can take a look in our personal galleries for more examples as well, of course.

If you know of anyone who would like character art or story illustrations or, heck, even a novel cover, now's the time to point them our way! Don't hesitate! Press that button! Do it for your country! 

Also, the more we make from commissions the more time we'll have to write and work on our stories, which will make you all happy people, leading wholesome and fulfilling lives. ^_^ 

Chap--- er, Short Story Update!

You know that dream you've had... the one where you're standing in front of a huge crowd, giving this long and passionate speech, and suddenly you realize that everyone is unusually quiet and it's kind of breezy and cold for some reason and OH GOD YOU'RE NAKED IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE WASHINGTON MALL!  In FEBRUARY!  AND YOU HAVEN'T WAXED THAT AREA IN FAR TOO LONG!  That dream?

Yep.  Today's update was written by me.

I suppose I should say something here about how much I wuv ikkle widdle Cammie and his awesome brother, but dude.  My butt is already feeling a bit too chilly right now for my comfort, and I'm out of tea and accidentally put my favorite teacup in the dishwasher and still have 1,683 photos from the past week and a half to go through.  (No, that number isn't a joke.  I'm shutter-happy.)

Two short stories, plus poll results! Pronunciations revealed!

Two shorts today, one by each author.  Aren't you lucky?  You might know a little bit about Stevane if you're digging around in the wiki, but it doesn't really mention in there just how much of a uh, perfectly normal girl she always was, so we wanted to show you.  Remember, regular chapter posting resumes April 11th, which is when we start Novel 2.

Also I bet a lot of you (well, at least 16 of you) are wondering just how to pronounce Xaillyndesse.  The one person who voted for Chill-in-dess was the person who got it right.  Congratulations, you may step up and claim your prize: the justified pretentiousness of having been right.  Of course, you are always right.  Probably so much so that you are a Xaillyndesse, or at least were dating one at one time.

Oh, by the way, if you didn't know, there's a twitter I use for letting people know when I update PK, or when I, you know. See a cool bug, or think of silly words that rhyme.  Important stuff.  Follow if you want updates as soon as they happen!  Also, I'm gonna be making a rewards points system for the new website, and anyone who follows on Twitter will get points for doing so.

First teaser chapter up for Novel 2!

In case you were wondering just how The Peacock King In Court starts off.

This is a shorter post than the usual PK chapter, but it IS a teaser.  Coming up on Saturday we'll have something at least a little bit longer -a short story written by either me or Char.  She's whipping up something special to post during these interim updates. I hope you're looking forward to it, because I sure am!

Oh yeah, I'm glad to see so much turnout for the most recent poll.  We'll reveal the answer when the poll closes, so cross your fingers!

By the way, if you enjoyed reading the Peacock King's first part, please consider ranking or reviewing it over at its Web Fiction Review page.  Registration is quick and easy there and the support really helps the story spread!

Final chapter up of In the Court of the Peacock King

IT'S LIKE MY BABY'S ALL GROWN UP. ;_;

Info on the upcoming release of Novel 2: The Peacock King in Court, is posted at the end of the chapter.  Please note that I'll still be updating up til the release of Novel 2 - I have shorts and teaser chapters I'm gonna be putting up on the same schedule as Novel 1 was posted.

Aww, man.  I really am all sadface about this. nn;

Oh yeah - my personal blog is over here.  I talk about writing and cats.

There's also a new poll up in the PK story blog, about how the heck you pronounce Xaillyndesse.

New Chapter and also THE END IS NEAR

Uh, guys?  This is the second-to-last chapter in Book One.  That means on Saturday the first novel concludes.

...

oo; I'm really scared.  AND I WROTE IT.  (...Possibly I'm scared because I wrote it. >_>;)

Look, I um...well, CHAR liked it, I...

OH GODS SHE'S GONE AWAY FOR A VACATION AND WHEN I UPDATE THE FINAL CHAPTER SHE WON'T BE HERE AND WHEN PEOPLE COME TO KILL ME I'LL BE ALL ALONE--

--I mean...

:D See you all on Saturday! *packs bags*

... ooops. HEY GUYS CHAPTER UPDATE! :D

It went up on time. I... did not.

In my defense, I was getting ready to go out for the night when Irk updated, and by the time she was ready to go, I was doing the I'm Kind Of Paying For This Car Right This Minute And We're Not In It dance.  (I opted for a car-sharing program versus owning one outright.  It's LOTS cheaper, and worth a bit of inconvenience now and again for me.)  By the time we got home, all I wanted to do was sleep.  

So there.

(Besides, I have a sneaking suspicion nobody uses the news blog to track updates.)

Anyway!  Lots of fun doing that rush job on the image there.  I was in a rush (and it shows), but it was also kind of fun to just throw something out there without fussing myself into fits over the lines, or agonizing about every little aspect of composition, or trying to decide on technique... all of which I end up tossing out and doing what I want most of the time anyway.  Some days, I just don't feel like a real artist.  XD  

Too Hot For dA

Yeah.  dA won't exactly let me upload these, I think.  I'm not gonna risk it.  Irk is gonna color 'em, so don't take the slapped down shit I put on the second one as biblical, mmkay?

... and to prove that I don't just draw 'Sy and Kathe:

... Crap.  Nobody knows who they are.  *sigh*  Just enjoy it, K?  I'm only doing all this lineart because I like to draw and I'm kind of hoping people will pay me to, plus it's good practice.  Right?

Stupid dA.  

Further Adventures in Weird Google Ads

On Chapter 35's page:

Seriously, is this because of Jax?

The Myriad Ways Google Image Search Makes Me Happy (plus a chapter update)

Chapter 35 - Pigs on the Wing

Thank you, Pink Floyd.

The best part of doing this chapter illustration was finding the references for the critters.  See, I tend to search Google Images with SafeSearch off.  I admit that the biggest reason is because of the delicious little bits of trauma it occasionally throws my way, but sometimes it tosses me something that makes my inner 12 year old ROFL.  Such as a photo of a moose humping a statue of a bison (probably NSFW... hard for me to tell, being all self-employed and all).

In the meantime, I'm trying not to have a panic attack about Novel 1 finishing.  I've been loving this update schedule, been loving watching things develop around the story, and I'm worried about having all that stop.  baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.   Perhaps I should get Irk fired from her day job so she can write more or something.  I'm also ass-deep in writing my own huge chunk of story, which of course I can't post because it takes place 15 years after the events you're reading about, and... yeah.  That's spoilers even I won't sneak out.  

... Then again, there's all those snippets and short stories that we've been writing that can start being posted.  

Anyway, back to drawing OTP#1 again (I drew OTP#2 yesterday, but it's so chock-full of spoilers and stuff that would make NO SENSE yet to everyone else that I haven't uploaded anywhere).

Hey, am I even allowed to call it an OTP, if it's partially my story anyway?  Does "OTP" necessarily imply a non-canon ship in the first place?  I SHALL HAVE TO PONDER THIS.