Tag Archives: art

Aug18

Back to Work Day!

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“Smile Honey!”

“Don’t wanna!”

“Ah, c’mon! It’s the first day of school!”

“I don’t want to! Everyone hates me.”

“It’s your job. You’re an internet writer and artist. And now that the kids are going to school today you have to update the blog.”

“I can’t. I’m sick. I have to stay home”

“You work from home.”

“Damn it.”

I don't want to smile.

I don’t want to smile. Smiling sucks.

 

I actually had it pretty good this summer. I spent oodles of time with my kids coming up with stories and adventures and projects, and introducing them to my MMORPGS. But I didn’t get much work done. That’s how it goes, and frankly I’m not sorry I had a blast with my kids. But it’s time to dust off the parts of the keyboard that aren’t: QWEASD and get my working pants on.

So, here’s some stuff I’m working on now:

Book 4 of the Linus Saga: Working Title “Inquire Within” It’s a more serious missal where we get to meet all of his brothers and sisters and see how they interact.

Linus Saga Prequel: I’m working on a novel where we see a young asshole-ish Linus meet Deirdre for the first time and what eventually culminates in their marriage. Should be fun.

Madame Bluestocking’s Pennyhorrid 2: Working Title: “The Lost Mines of Nadoras” in which Kelly and Lynald become claim jumpers hoping to strike magic in an abandoned zynythstite mine.

I’m also working on some commissions that I might reveal in the fullness of time, if the clients should allow it, and I’ll be bringing back Character Spotlight Wednesday this week starting with Quince.

Pass the Coffee. It’s going to be a long 9 months. Goodbye, Lord of the Rings Online. It’s been fun.

 

 

 

 

May14

Character Spotlight: Carson Weedwhacker

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In keeping with the Offspring of Linus theme, this week’s spotlight is on Linus’ oldest son, and second-born, Carson. 

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Carson Weedwhacker by Monica Marier

We first get to know Carson as a sharp-tongued 13-year-old in Runs in Good Condition. Carson is in every way a typical teen-aged boy of the intelligent bookish variety. He’s opinionated, insightful, sensitive and has the cynicism of a 70-year-old crank. Carson has had frequent troubles with bullies in his peer group (as mentioned in Must Love Dragons) and it’s made him a bit fragile and distrustful of others. It doesn’t help that Carson has inherited some magical ability from his mother’s side and wants to be a wizard more than anything. His dad, Linus, (who has had more near-death experiences by the hands of wizards who “had meant well” than by any other cause) is horrified and disappointed. Carson deals with his frustrations by venting them out his mouth most of the time. If he inherited magic from his mother, he’s definitely inherited his father’s mouth and inability to know when to shut up. We all know he’ll go far one day if he can survive puberty.

FUN FACTS:

*Carson is more-or-less based off of all of my brothers (a grand total of 5).

*Like his other siblings, Carson is the spitting image of his Elven grandfather, with blond hair, long pointed ears, and green eyes. As time rolls by we’ll see that of all the children, he looks the most like Hilmiel.

*Carson’s middle name is Rudolph, after Linus’ favorite brother who died when he was a young man. 

*Carson will one day be mentor to another wizard, the Great Meriwether Maydock (his grandson) who will grow up to be the idol of Evelyn Kelly of Madame Bluestocking’s Pennyhorrid. The whole story of their meeting was written in a holiday short story Called “Meri’s Christmas.” You can read the whole story FREE on my old blog. It also reveals some later facts about Carson’s life.

*When at University, Carson has a great magical adventure with his sister, Irene, and their transvestite cousin, Kevin. That story may one day get its own book, and will not be told in any future Linus novel, since Linus isn’t in it. A rift in dimensions, a mirror, an afternoon tea, and a hedgehog are involved.

*Carson will try to learn a trade in the next book to please his dad. 

That’s about it for Carson. Next week, we’ll take a look at Thisbe, the impossible girl. 

As always, please consider donating to my GoFund me, to help me get a new computer. Every little bit helps me keep earning for my family.

 

 

 

Apr11

Pies and Art

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This morning I had another wake up call. Someone in an artists’ group I belong to had posted pictures of merchandise she was selling. She had used art which many people recognized as being stolen from a Deviant Art site, and did not belong to her. AND SHE WAS SELLING IT AS HERS. The perp refused to believe she was in the wrong, protesting, “But I can’t do it myself! I can’t draw! I only got it from the internet! That’s not stealing!” 

That’s when I lost it and saw red. This post was originally going to be a nasty long drawn out letter to that person, but instead I decided that my argument would work better as a comic illustrating in clear points why stealing other artists’ work to sell as your own is wrong. Sorry if it’s a bit preachy, but this needs to be said. If it speaks to you or you know some people who need enlightenment on this subject, please feel free to share. This one’s on me.

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Mar26

Character Wednesday- Vilori Reagan

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I decided that Wed. posts will focus on the characters of my novels and maybe illuminating them a little more for everyone. So to kick off our first CHARACTER WEDNESDAY here is:

VILORI REAGAN

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We first meet Vilori in Runs In Good Condition. He’s a 200-year-old curmudgeonly Elf on Linus’s campaign staff. He doesn’t like Linus much at first and will continue to call him a “thundering moron.” He was a Ranger back in his younger days and one of the first members of the original Rangers Union. He’s married and has two grownup children that we’ve never met. 

Some things we don’t know:

*Vilori had a very sheltered youth and wasn’t even allowed off the family estate until he was fifty years old.

*He created the first “desk job” for Rangers solely so he could spend his days indoors and so he had an excuse to leave home every day.

*Vilori did most of his early work with a Human man named Harcourt, his best friend. When Harcourt grew old and passed away a lot of Vilori’s love for the job died too.

Vilori’s story will become further entangled in Linus’ as it progresses. Keep reading for more info and I hope you like this new feature.

If you have any further questions about Vilori, please post them in the comments!

Mar24

A Spoon Full of Sugar…

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So a friend of mine, Kara, pointed out a need ap/website to me the other day, so I’m going to try giving it a whirl.

It’s called: Habit RPG

It’s a free ap that you can use from your desktop or on your Droid or iPhone. It’s a time-organizer/to-do list that tries to instill the fun of an RPG game into mundane drudgery. The concept being that you create your own list of daily chores (doing a load of laundry, working on writing), good habits (Exercising, wearing a bra), bad habits (eating junk food, smoking), and terrible tasks (Clean out the fridge, clean the bedroom). By doing good tasks and finishing chores, you earn points and XP and help your party. By dong BAD tasks or failing to perform tasks, your party will take damage and fail their mission. (Example below taken from Habit RPG bf site).
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Now we all know I’m a fantasy nut and I’ve also been on a decade+ long struggle to try and get healthy, so this might actually help me in being more productive and getting more of my assignments done in a timely fashion. 

Set-up was less than 20 minutes and so far it’s been kind of fun! Now I just need to get a party and I can go fight stuff. 

So we’ll see how this goes. I’m SmokingRanger if you want to connect! And may the chores be with you!