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May-June 2020 Fly-By Status Report – The Trying Times
I originally wrote this in May to appear in a patron-submission Quaranzie by Sarah Shotts. I’ll add some additional updates after the main post. One never really knows how one will react to a global pandemic until one finds oneself in one. And for me, that meant depression naps, lots of Animal Crossing and ice cream, and many conversations with my mental health specialists. I’ve tried to give myself space to feel and grieve and process, but blessedly, sheltering at home with my husband and two cats, with our jobs still intact, has been the best part of this whole mess. There have been a lot of ups and downs…
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May 2019 Fly-By Status Report – Same Old, Same Old
Well, it’s blog o’clock again! I feel like I have so much going on right now that I don’t want to stop and analyze what has and hasn’t gotten done! But I’ll do my best, in the name of tracking progress! I honestly felt like I’ve been floundering; since I returned from a trip and got sick, I haven’t been doing great with my SMART goals. I always seem to have something big that makes me lose momentum, and it takes me forever to get back into the swing of things. ? MomoCon is fast approaching, and for once this year it isn’t stressing me out because I’m not the…
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January/February 2019 Fly-By Status Report – I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit (I’ll explain)
In December last year, I turned 33! Sure, cool number and everything, multple of 11 and whatnot, but it’s also a special age for Tolkien nerds like me. Because in the Middle-earth universe, when a hobbit turns 33, it means they’re considered an adult. And to celebrate, I designed my own temporary tattoo and bought a whole sheet of them! (I’m still not keen on getting something that hurts, that will never go away and that will only blur over time on my skin.) I made a post about it on Instagram discussing its significance to me: View this post on Instagram …
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May 2018 Fly-By Status Report – Gardening, PitMad and Pitch Wars take 2!
Hello, all! Can I just say that I freaking love late spring? It’s warm, things are growing, and down south it’s not too hot yet. We’ve also had a swath of glorious sunny, breezy days one after another, which got broken by rain JUST in time to water everything I’ve recently planted. Yeah, my coping with MomoCon stress mechanism has turned to gardening this year, as we just got some landscaping done and the time feels right. Speaking of MomoCon, IT STARTS THIS WEEK, so I wanted to make sure I got this sucker out before it got completely shoved out of my brain. And as I look back on…
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Camp NaNoWriMo 2018!
I always think about it every year, but haven’t done much NaNoWriMo of any kind recently, until a few days ago, a good writer friend of mine said she was wondering if I’d be doing Camp this year, because she was eager for an accountability partner. And I originally said no, until remembered that I haven’t gotten NEARLY as much writing done as I’d hoped to, because of work, and MomoCon prep and more work (I swear, I have the worst memory of how much time all this stuff takes). And because of this I’ve had a spike in situational depression because by the time my work day was over…
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January 2018 Fly-By Status Report – I joined a writer’s group!
Greetings, readers! Nice to see you on the other end of Christmas & New Years! Finally. Dang, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to put my thoughts and hopes for this year in blog post form yet, til now, when January is ALMOST OVER! (I’m curious, who actually reads these updates, or are they pretty much just for me? If you do, leave a comment and say hi!) Right now I’m typing to the dulcet sounds of workmen trimming the giant tree in my front yard (buzz saws and thuds on my roof), and now that I finally got WordPress to upload images again (ugghh), it’s time for my January…
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Crocheted Accessories for Radagast the Brown Costume | Original Design
I pretty much went crazy for Radagast in The Hobbit movies, and I figure it’s because he’s the kind of wizard I would be: scatterbrained, goofy, surrounded by clutter and animals, but with a heart as big as the Shire! I started this costume this year, and wore it to Dragon Con earlier this month. Most of it is a closet costume, with pieces I bought on Amazon, but the hat, hair extensions, collar and gloves were crocheted or created by me. I looked at pictures on the Internet to figure out what the gloves and hat looked like, and as you would imagine, the hat was the hardest part to make.…
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September 2017 Fly-By Status Report – I have con crud, but summer was great!
Good day and well-met! I’m feeling geeky, I just got back from Dragon Con and bought a whole USB of the Brobdingnagian Bards’ music, so that’s what I’ll be listening to, and eating pumpkin chili while we get our roof replaced as I fight off a cold and make millions of phone calls ? (“Oh, is that all?” I can hear you saying through the computer.) SO, how was the last three months? Busy, yet surprisingly chill! One gigantic highlight was seeing the total solar eclipse, which I made a vlog of, and you should totally watch it! As for writing, I’ve had a lot of success breaking things down into smaller…
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“Zelda: Ocarina of Time” Crocheted Link Hat with Hovering Navi | Original Design
I’ve always loved dressing up, and I’ve loved watching cosplayers show off their hard work at geek conventions (I don’t know how to use a sewing machine, so I’m more of a grab-what’s-in-my-costume-closet kind of a cosplayer) but as I got better at crocheting, it opened up a whole new dimension of costuming for me! I made and designed this Link hat to wear at MomoCon 2017. I based the hat off this free pattern, modifying its size with a thicker yarn and bigger hook. This made the hat heavier, so keep that in mind if you decide to do the same. I wove a headband into the double crochet…
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May 2017 Fly-By Status Report – Just Keep Swimming!
It’s time for another Fly-By Status report! And I’m up to my waist in MomoCon directing duties. But omg, we’re already a third into 2017! Dang, where does the time go? And I feel like I have very few brain cells to even process this blog post with everything going on right now. However, one of my part-time jobs just ended, so I have more time to do everything else I’ve been too busy to work on (in theory). SO, did I achieve my goals for the past 4 months? Long Term Doing some hardcore outlining and rewriting the style of my YA fantasy novel Sign of the Redwing in preparation for an…
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Flocks & Murmurations
Hey! Just popping in to tell a cool little anecdote. I have a bird feeder in my yard, and a bird book and binoculars nearby so I can try to identify the birds I see. The cats love to watch them (I love how Zwartbles Ireland calls it “cat TV“), and Moss sometimes chatters at them when he gets particularly excited. It’s so cute, but I can never get it on film. So yesterday morning, he’s poking his head through the blinds, and I go to open them for him–and stare outside in shock. About 20 red-winged blackbirds were chowing at my feeder, like tourists at a hotel breakfast buffet! They…
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Jan. 2017 Fly-By Status Report – My Favorite Time of the Year
Merry Christmas and Happy 2017! I’m still over here celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, doing a lot of nothing, and baking ^_^ But it’s that time again to think about all the things I want to do next year that I didn’t do this year. I’m pretty enthused for a fresh start! Last year about this time, I wrote my 2016 New Years resolutions on a red Starbucks cup. Lots of good intentions, but the ones that really, truly happened and stuck were landing my perfect job situation, as well as taking significant and progressive steps to getting more physically and spiritually healthy <3 Of course, there’s always more to…
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Project S.T.I.R.: Authentic Armenian Fassoulia (Tomato String Beans)
On this warm, Georgian Thanksgiving morning (the state, not the country ^_^), I begin my yearly personal tradition. I leave my dozing husband to stretch out in bed, while I take care of the cats and turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I’ll leave it on in the background (and cry at the sweet/sappy holiday commercials) while I cook two things to bring to our Georgia family Thanksgiving meal. The first is cornbread, with the recipe off the back of the White Lily cornmeal mix bag, and Armenian fassoulia, or as my family has always called it, tomato string beans. As I’ve mentioned in my previous Project S.T.I.R. blog…
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Curly Vine Pumpkin Garland (FREE Crochet Pattern!)
WHOA, guys, it’s my first crochet pattern! And here’s its Ravelry page! I made this pumpkin garland to hang up in my house during autumn. It’s pretty long (~110 inches), made to fit into a certain location, but you can make it shorter with less pumpkins. I’ll mention how to do that when it comes up in the pattern. Stitch Key sl st – Slip stitch ch – Chain stitch sc – Single crochet dc – Double crochet hd – Half Double crochet tc – Triple crochet Supplies Hook, size H/8 (5.00 mm) Orange yarn to go with the hook size Brown yarn to go with the hook size Steel Hook, size 3 (2.10 mm) Green…
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Sept. 2016 Fly-By Status Report – Super-Charged Summer
*careens into blog, hair flying, adjusting glasses* Whew! Hey guys! How was your summer? Mine was great, and relentlessly busy, including 4 trips in 4 months, getting an additional part-time job, and being in a play! Which, in addition to regular life stuff, means I had no extra mental space for blogging! I know it’s the last day of September, and I want to get my tri-annual update in to keep myself honest. So let’s see how much I got done that I wanted to do. Here’s my Summer Agenda 2016 plans from my home page. If it’s crossed out, it means it’s finished, or I’ve edited the original plan,…
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Post-Hiatus! Draft 6 Edit Process in review
Well, that was a lovely hiatus, but I figured I’d come back 😉 It’s been four months, after all! It was such a beautiful morning when I started writing this post, I had to wander into my yard and take some photos of daffodils glowing in the early, rising sun. It so beautifully represented a fresh start to an exciting new year, hence the flower picture for this post’s header. A lot has happened during my hiatus, even in the past few days (some good, some frustrating) but I’m happy to report that despite various time sucks and fluctuating motivation, my writing hiatus was very successful! Regardless of what I…
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On Being Armenian, Project S.T.I.R., and how to make Authentic Armenian Rice Pilaf
↓ CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO THE RECIPE ↓ So, in case you guys didn’t know, I’m half Armenian. You might not know what that is, but here’s where we come from: And hailing from a small, lesser-known country, we cheer super loud for our tiny Olympic team during the Parade of Champions and freak out over the slightest offhand mention of Armenia in any sort of media. Like Conan O’Brien going to Armenia with his Armenian assistant! Better believe I’ll be watching that! People might not realize it, but Armenians are all over the place in pop culture, like Dave Seville (a.k.a. Ross Bagdasarian), creator of The Chipmunks, and…
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River Tam Vest Cosplay | Crocheted Commission
When a friend of mine commissioned me to make her a River Tam vest for her Dragon*Con cosplay, I was really excited because 1) I love the show “Firefly,” and 2) I’d never crocheted a costume piece before! I was also nervous for that same reason. Thankfully, other yarn-crafting cosplayers have paved the way for me, and I found a wonderful, widely used pattern originating at the Dragon Crafter blog, which includes links to some other blogs that have fleshed out the finishing phase. I ended up finishing it using Rogue Bibliophile’s rundown (the site is weird and doesn’t link directly. If you have a problem, just hunt for “River…
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#WeeklyVenture Challenge: Finding Fairy Doors & Stashing my first #FAFATL!
So, dollhouses and miniatures are my vice, nay, my obsession! They’ve basically been one of my favorite things since I was tiny myself, and this has not abated as I’ve grown up. The Atlanta Miniature Society had a show & sale event going on this weekend, and I never remember to plan for it til its too late 🙁 So I decided to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day this year with my favorite first mate, going on a quest for local burritos and fairy doors. The burritos were the best food outing idea we’d had in at least a month. The weather was fantastic, and the jerk chicken in…
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King of Pops Cart Art | Spray Paint
King of Pops is a delightful seller of frozen popsicles, filled with all kinds of delicious, all natural ingredients. In Spring 2013, I saw The King of Pops’ Cart Artist Contest on their Facebook page, and long story short; my design was accepted! So I got to go to their headquarters and work with their in-house artist to transfer my design to a stencil, and she taught me how to spray paint it onto the side of a cart! I’ve never used spray paint with stencils before, so it was a really cool learning experience! I made a video of the creation process, which you can watch below: I’ve spotted my customized cart around…
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I’ve moved to PuellaDocta.com!
If you’re reading this, I’ve already started making all kinds of changes to canelsonauthor.com…particularly moving it to PUELLADOCTA.COM. Tadaaaaa! I’ve got it set up to redirect and everything! I’m slowly getting everything transferred so it will show up correctly, so please forgive any broken links or images! I’m still trying to figure out all the social media renaming too, but I’ll let you know if/when there are any big changes. I’m still going to write about about my writing here, I’m just adding my art and design to the party as well ^_^ Thanks for your patience! ~Christina
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Happiness is a warm kitten | Happy Birthday, Moss!
It’s Moss’ First Birthday!!! Birthdays are always special, but after all he’s been through, this one feels particularly dear. I wrote this long-form poem, which is more like a journal entry, in October last year, right after Moss had completed recovery from his invasive gastro surgery. He’d ingested a bunch of string that perforated his stomach lining and got close to his kidneys. After a nerve-wracking night of surgery, and a thankfully successful recovery, he’d had his stitches removed and his belly was still growing back all his hair. He was out of the woods at last, and I was treasuring his safety and health, wanting to appreciate every tiny,…
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Puelladocta & the Search for More Money
Alas, my dear readers, I regret to tell you that I am taking a novel writing hiatus, in favor of that most persistent of goals, The Search for More Money. Unfortunately, though I’ve been looking for consistent full-time and part-time employment in the graphic design field, I’ve been neglecting my design and programming skills, in favor of writing. Which seems counter-intuitive now that I think about it. That and my portfolio site needs a serious overhaul. Plus, I want to sharpen my dulled artistic strengths, and I have other interests I want to investigate, like technical and article writing. But to develop those things, I must take a break from…
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6 of My Favorite Kid’s Book Author-Illustrators | Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Week!
Happy Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Week! This week is a great excuse to sit back and think about, or re-read, your favorite books from when you were little. If you look some up, you might be surprised (like I was) at how many were written and illustrated by the same person! There’s truly something fantastic about a well-written and illustrated kid’s book, whether textured by an author and a complimentary artist, or if both parts grew out of the same mind. I have a lot of respect for artists who dance in that middle ground, and there are so many with such rich talents! They have my undying admiration,…
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NaNoWriMo 2014!
Huzzah, it’s that time of year again! Time to pull out your typewriters and notebooks and all those newfangled technology typer thingies and write a novel in 30 days! It’s NANOWRIMO time!!! And OMG the badge and banner graphics they made this year are AMAZING! So, I’ve decided that I’ve had enough relaxing on the NaNo front, I’m jumping back into the fray! This isn’t gonna be easy, so I covet your good thoughts and encouragement! Feel free to send me messages, texts, cookies *hee!* and let me know you’re rooting for me and that you want to read this book! The premise is pretty cool, I think. It’s about an…
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Interview by M.G. Boal
I’m so honored that my favorite author cousin M.G. Boal interviewed me on his blog! He asks me about my plans for this year’s NaNoWriMo, as well as my success tactics for new NaNo-ers. Here’s an excerpt: M: Welcome! As you and I know, National Novel Writing Month is coming up in 3 days. So in honor of that, I thought I’d ask if there’s anything you can tell me about your planned novel. C: Uh, well, it’s sort of a magical, steampunky story, set in Victorian London. An orphan girl named Mindie wants to work with flowers more than anything else in the world, because her family did before…
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10 More of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes
It’s just a few days away from Halloween, so you know what that means. It’s time for my yearly Twilight Zone episode review extravaganza! Check out my first one here. I also want to take this moment to say, happy 55th anniversary, Twilight Zone! The first episode, “Where is Everybody?” originally aired on October 2, 1959. Man, I can’t believe I watched the whole thing. In my last post, I’d only seen up to Season 3, but I sat down and finished the whole dang thing! There are very few shows that I can say I’ve watched all of, and even fewer that I’ve watched a few times, at least…
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Keeping my writing alive, even though I’m busy!
I lament at the lack of writing and editing I've done recently, but I share in 3 steps how I plan to change that, and how you can too. I again sing the praises of National Novel Writing Month, and share my list of editing plans. Click the blog header to read more.
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You should be embarrassed if you’re embarrassed to read YA (or Children’s books)
I express my frustration over the controversial article by Ruth Graham called “Against YA,” and share some quotes from other articles that feel the same way. Click the blog header to read more.
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Confessions of an Insecure Author* (Post #200!)
*I know, pretty much all you authors out there are. 😛 So, come commiserate with me. So, Labor Day weekend was a roller coaster for my writing emotions. For the first part of the weekend, we spent some time with friends at a beautiful farm house inn. I went to sleep to the sounds of thunder storms or barking farm dogs (kept there to chase off coyotes) and woke up to the misty mornings of sweet, quiet open space, punctuated by rooster calls. We ate breakfast in the common room with the other guests, and I met a fellow tea lover and tea pot collector at the hot drink bar, who told me she’s…
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New shiny site design!
Hi everyone! Welcome back to the new and improved canelsonauthor.com! Not only has the URL changed a little, hacking off the superfluous “official” part, as you probably noticed, but I’ve made some design changes as well! Hope you like it! I certainly do! It’s been a long time coming. Just letting you know, I deleted all my extra post categories and listed everything under “Blog,” and I’ve been cleaning out my list of tags, which might mess up some page linking throughout the Web (to say nothing of changing the urls). But thankfully, everything should still point to this site, and I didn’t delete any posts, so between the search…
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Making Good
All right! After a few weeks to start getting a few of my health/house maintenance resolutions in order, this week I’m starting Phase 2 of the plan: adding in 4 hours of writing and 2 hours of freelance work a day on top of that. This entry is short to keep me on the move today, and once it is posted will serve to keep me accountable to myself. This means REALLY starting to think of everything I want to get done as a full-time job, even though I’m my own boss, and can be a very lax one at that. But this is exactly what I need, a schedule…
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Writer’s Conference Starts Tomorrow! {Thoughts}
Hey guys! I know you just heard from me yesterday, (Happy November, by the way) but this weekend is the big writing conference I told you about a few months ago, and it starts tomorrow! Not gonna lie, I’m nervous but excited! I have never been to a straight up writer’s conference, not to mention that I might not even see anyone I know there (except possibly Josh Roseman, who I haven’t seen since MomoCon ^_^) I need to keep the worried thoughts out of my head; that people won’t appreciate my writing, that I’ll come off as a newb…in a bad way, that I’ll ruin my pitch or that…
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WRITER’S CONFERENCE!
Hi friends! I know I’ve fallen off the face of the earth in all places but Twitter and sometimes Tumblr (I DO have a nerdy vlog coming up), but things haven’t been terribly interesting on the writing front. Until now. First…I have finished editing most of Draft 5 and now I am just doing a few rewrites here and there. And why is Draft 5 so important? Because it is the last draft before I start sending the manuscript out to publishers! And this is about to get tons more exciting because… Second…I recently signed up to attend the Atlanta Writer’s Conference this upcoming November! (Also just joined the Atlanta…
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Reminiscing on MomoCon 2012
MOMOCON! Ohmigosh Momocon! I’ve worked it for two years now (my husband tons more), and it’s just getting better. I even got to join the media group, and entered some artwork that they used around the con! Shameless plug for my portfolio, but seriously, they were super fun to do. Other than working, it’s always fun to see everyone dressed up in costumes, play games, go to interesting panels, browse the artist’s alley and support the talent, and of course hit up the dealers room with your spare cash (or maybe not so spare). This year I also learned how to play Settlers of Catan, and even tried it out in…
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Autumn Morning {a short poem}
Shining sun, chilly morning Autumn came without a warning. Sweater matched with summer shoes Milk the last of summertime, who’s Steamy grip has finally slipped And let in autumn’s tingly nip. Walk to farmer’s market square The squash and herbs and seeds are there, And with a parcel for my pay, I head back home, to tuck away Again to blankets soft and worn, To block against the chilly morn. Happy October, guys! Autumn is prolly my most favoritest season, so after taking a walk to the farmer’s market this morning, I felt inspired to write about it 😀
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Book Cop & Independence Day
Happy Independence Day, American readers! In honor of this day, may I present Book Cop, from a hysterical webcomic Axe Cop.
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Things I Learned From British Folk Ballads
As a folk song nerd, you notice certain patterns you find throughout British Isles folksongs and folk tales. Mainly, there’s a lot of death, which isn’t so great, but you’ll notice similar death tropes, or if nothing else, character tropes. I’ve known about the list, “Things I Learned from British Folk Balads” for a nice long while, as its been bopping around the internet for a good many years, and I’m sure a lot of you have heard of it, but I wanted to share some of my favorites! (My comments in bold.) ———————————— Don’t ignore warnings. If someone tells you to beware of Long Lankin, friggin’ beware of him.…
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Huck Finn Controversy
Hi, everyone! I realize this topic is a little old, and that last month (February is Black History Month) would have probably been a more fitting time to post this, but seeing as I’ve been insanely busy with barely enough time to WANT to write an entry of this kind, now that I’m feeling it, I’m gonna write it 🙂 Months ago, the writing world was up in arms about a publishing company that decided to put out a censored version of Mark Twain’s famous Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where all the “n” words were to be replaced with “slave” and other non-P.C. words replaced likewise. Without much stretch of…
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Exciting Updates!!!
I know I try to post only writing related news on here, but this is kind of a big deal! It’s a huge life changer! Gentle audience, I had no idea that a few hours after my last blog entry, I would be getting engaged!!! And to think, last year I was writing haikus about my only date for Valentine’s Day being a box of chocolate! You never know what a year can bring! The lad in question is Wervyn, who is the coding man for this site! He’s a wonderful, brilliant man and a fantastic writer, and he’s been helping me a lot with the final draft of my…
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Oh Joy! Rapture!
MY EDITOR GOT BACK TO ME! OMG SO EXCITED! I read through her critiques and over all it’s very positive! She even said my next draft should be given to an agent!!! EEEE! All you pray-ers out there, pray that I will find my soul mate agent somewhere! Now that I have a few month’s distance from the manuscript, I can finally get back to editing with a clear head! Here is her cherry on top culminating comment: You continue to be a strong writer with an absolutely vibrant and powerful imagination. I am in awe of the world that you have created, down to the language and the details,…
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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Happy Veteran’s Day, and the lesser-known Origami Day! The origami is ready to salute! Among the many random things I do to pass the time or divert myself, I’ve always loved crafts, and paper art is no exception! The tradition of paper art is found in many different cultures around the world, but the best known is probably Japanese origami, the art of paper folding. Anything that old with mysterious origins has legends surrounding it, and with origami the most famous legend centers on the paper crane. They say that if someone folds 1000 paper cranes they will be granted one wish. I’ve tried it, but never succeeded. You need a dedicated…
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Bram Stoker
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRAM STOKER! Most Famous Work: Dracula November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912 Fun Facts about Bram Stoker & Dracula: He was friends with Oscar Wilde in school, and married a girl who Oscar had once been interested in! He’s distantly related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes He was manager of the Lyceum Theatre, and joined his boss and famous actor Henry Irving in traveling the world, including the United States, where he met presidents McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt On his travels, he also met one of his literary heroes, Walt Witman Dracula‘s original title was “The Un-Dead” “Stoker had a strong interest in…
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(Comic)Book Byte: Quack Quack Quack, 4:4 (Guest Post)
While on hiatus, I have guests doing a few posts for me. Enjoy, and see you when I get back! ~CAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Executive mandate from the Disney corporate offices came down that a comic book work would be made detailing Scrooge McDuck’s life and backstory. The editors at Egmont (the company who licensed the Disney comics) quickly volunteered Rosa for the job, knowing his love for the character would serve their needs well. And Rosa did what is perhaps the most obsessive, crazy, fanboyish thing I had ever seen. He read every Barks comic and took notes on every mention Scrooge made of his past, whether it was a plot point…
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(Comic)Book Byte: Quack Quack Quack, 3:4 (Guest Post)
While on hiatus, I have guests doing a few posts for me. Enjoy, and see you when I get back! ~CAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carl Barks created Donald Duck as I know him. He created an entire universe around this character, who was smarter, more goodhearted, and didn’t even look completely like the original version, a character people still write today. As his identity was not known for the first 18 years of his career as a comic book writer/artist, he was nicknamed “The Good Duck Artist” or “The Duck Man” for his high-quality drawings and inventive plots which captivated so many children, which are reprinted to this day. The 1954 tale…
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(Comic)Book Byte: Quack Quack Quack, 2:4 (Guest Post)
While on hiatus, I have guests doing a few posts for me. Enjoy, and see you when I get back! ~CAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carl Barks never directed any Disney shorts, but he wrote, penciled, shaded inked and lettered over 6,000 pages of work over the course of his 25 year career as a comic book writer/artist. The average artist today releases about 220 pages per year, penciled, and I can assure you that the majority of them are not Disney trained professionals. During this time he was responsible for the creation of Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, Flintheart Glomgold, the Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, Duckburg and the Money Bin… and…
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(Comic)Book Byte: Quack Quack Quack, 1:4 (Guest Post)
While on hiatus, I have guests doing a few posts for me. Enjoy, and see you when I get back! ~CAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carl Barks is the most important man in the world to Donald Duck. Sure, he didn’t create him, that was a joint effort between Walt Disney and Dick Lundy (the character designer). And he wasn’t the voice actor, that was Clarence Nash, whose impression of a family of ducks inspired Walt to create the character. Barks didn’t even direct any shorts, though he was a capable gag-man. His biggest claim to fame in the cartoons was pitching the idea where Donald gets his butt-feathers combed and trimmed by…
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Jot-Worthy Activities
A word collage of this blog. Make yours at Wordle.net.When life whacks you with a hammer, the creative gather nuts and turn it into a nut cracker. …basically when it’s hard to sit down and be creative, you can observe what’s around you for ideas and inspiration, and therefore your seemingly negative circumstances can turn around for the better. 😀 Forgive me. It feels like I’ve been dragging my brain around on a leash recently. Yesterday I geeked out with a friend over a radio from 1973, with tons of channels, including Air, CB, Ham, Short & Medium wave and more! We got broadcasts from probably 6,000 or so miles…
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A Good Nightmare Always Begins in a Dark Cellar with a Coffin
Zzzzzzzz…. The pirate video ate up so much time that I’m finally getting back to editing Draft 3! I just felt like writing a real entry, since all I’ve done the last two weeks was tweet, make promises, break them, and eventually upload a pirate movie 😉 I have plans for other entries, but this one is getting back to the basics, where I actually write about writing. It’s been hard the last few weeks to get writing in, between visiting friends and work, so tonight I’ve started to be a bit smarter with my time. In addition to editing, I’m taking notes. Why? I live in mortal dread of…
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Writing Dialogue Tips
Had this convo with a writer friend Ben, who I’ve collaborated with on blogs before, and figured I’d post up what I told him, for anyone else who’s curious about dialogue. PS: I’m planning a new vlog for posting on the 19th! Ben: How do you handle dialogue? Me: I write it as it comes out of my head, depending on what I believe a character would say, and then read it aloud later. Often I don’t read it aloud til [someone] reminds me, but it REALLY helps you figure out how it flows [to read it aloud]. Ben: I bet. That’s a good idea. I cringe at all my…
Artist, Author, Geek
