February 2013 – Page 3 – A Talemaker’s Confession

Apparently I’m getting a table at Cyphacon again this year.

I almost don’t want to go because of some of the con-organizer’s attitudes last year. But anyway. This year may be different, and I won’t know unless I give it a chance.

This will be our second and last year at Cyphacon. In a few months my husband has to make a decision: either we stay in the military or we go home. Either way we’ll be leaving Louisiana. Which is fine by me. I’m rather looking forward to going home and getting to work on fixing up my house that has been waiting faithfully for the past 2 years. Or maybe going to Alaska! Both are nice options.

What I have at Cyphacon will depend largely on what I can afford. I’m also having to figure out how I’m going to pay for my daughter’s graduation, get teeth fixed, etc. Ha ha ha, Heavenly bride needs donations so I can afford to make a living! Pathetic isn’t it. 🙂

I know I won’t be doing the usual set up. I’m going to put old stock in a big box and say “grab anything for $1” just to get rid of it. My art prints are a sort of a thing of the past. I say sort of because I decided art print magnets were more functional and easier to keep. They look professional, too. But I made them all myself!

I’m also making Magic the Gathering art magnets from old cards, usually commons. Cards worth more than a penny look at me with big wibbly eyes, and then I don’t have the heart to cut them up.

And of course I’ll be doing the donate-for-a-bookmark program. I’ll probably stick the old stock in that program or something, to consolidate.

I’d like to have some ashcans of 10 Confessions chapter 1, if I can afford to have them made. And a couple of issues of Heavenly Bride Book 1… although with that one I’ll have to be careful with who gets to see it. Family-friendly con and all that.

My husband plans to have some things on the table. He’d like to make boffer weapons for money someday. There’s no better time like the present to start.

This may also be my last convention for a long long long time. The cons around my house in Illinois aren’t the right venue for what I do. I have to travel up to 12 hours to get to a good con from home base. But, one thing at a time.

If you’re curious about last year’s Cyphacon, you can check out my webcam on the spot here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdfhBdMiXI

I might be doing that again this year, as well – which means I should be treated like royalty! Being as I do a review of the thing and all… mwahahahahahahaaaaaa… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHaaaaaaa

Hope to see you at Cyphacon. 🙂

standing small — Young Taus in 3D using Daz and the Aiko 4 model

There is some talk on other blogs about authors’ up and coming “next big thing” – their next book or what have you. I thought about joining in over there, but the truth is I’m miles away from my next big thing. I’m concentrating full tilt on my current big things – Heavenly Bride and 10 Confessions – while working up to 12 hours a day to survive.

But today seems like a good day to sound off about something I’m planning. The plans aren’t fully formed, but that’s how I roll. I’ll sometimes plan for years before suddenly coughing up this fully-formed thing. And then people call me spontaneous. It boggles the mind.

The image to the left there is my 3D model of Taus from Heavenly Bride. (Not Akashik. In Akashik she’s much older. And more purple.) I’ve been thinking of doing a 3D comic. I’ve been holding back because making 3D comics can be very time consuming – even more than drawing the pages – as well as clunky. With my recent upgrade to Daz 4.5, some of that has gotten better and easier so that the idea has floated to the front of my mind again. I sort of know the story. I sort of have most of the props. It’s a matter of planning – something I’m not going to rush on until I have my current 2 comics finished.

The same 3D Taus, but pencilled. — The same 3D Taus, but penciled.

The biggest thing is I wouldn’t want to keep things strictly 3D looking, no matter how good it got. So I’m thinking maybe I want the comic to look like it was drawn in pencil. Or pen and ink. Or painted.

The story I have in mind touches on two minor characters in Heavenly Bride. I probably would have started the story already, but the conflict isn’t fully resolved yet. I’m not sure how long it will take me to figure that part out. Heavenly Bride was a story in my head for most of my life, and here I am over 40 and telling it. That’s a long time to sit on a story.

There’s also another story in my mind involving mermaids. And a prince – because what mermaid story is complete without either a prince or an ageless brat running around to muck things up. Maybe the prince can also be an ageless brat, although if he were ageless I imagine that would throw the entire governmental structure of his kingdom all to hell. Which isn’t something I care to deal with in a short story.

And now she's painted. — And now she’s painted.

Decisions, decisions.

Things were so much easier in the day when I drew stick figures and colored big squares for my homework.

I’m in no hurry to make a decision, mostly because I rely on my subconscious to do that for me. Which is probably why I end up thinking things out for so long.

And of course there’s my current “next big thing” – the novel Trait of Honor. I haven ‘t been able to work on it in weeks. Work hasn’t let me. But I can say with a little relief that this month one of the many choke-holds around my neck lets go and my chances of being able to write prose weekly are going to go up by a bit. This makes me very happy, and I’m sure when I finally get to release a finished book this shall also make other people happy. Even the people who purchase stuff on Amazon and return the book within the hour so that they can have read the thing for free.

Well, anyway, these are my next big things – and I thought I would share them with you. These next big things will, of course, be set aside should that lightning bolt of inspiration comes. You know, the kind that takes me in a whole new direction entirely.

Month: February 2013

Cyphacon 2013

My Own “Next Big Thing”