Ah! A Post!

Sorry for the silence for so long! Life has been quite busy, so I'll keep this short and sweet.
First off, the move went well, and we managed not to lose many things, so that was good.
Second, Anime Fusion was a blast. Many hats went to their new homes, and I'm looking forward to seeing some people I met on the convention circuit next year.
Third, it's NaNoWriMo. For those of you new to this blog, it's essentially 30 days of frantic writing to finish a 50,000 word novel. I'm aiming for 100,000 words, so watch out world, here I come!
News about the Kickstarter to publish Vicious Sun is coming soon, I'll have a nice post about that once I've figured out and fine tuned the final pieces to that little game.

A small rant on Perfume and the use thereof

Hi everyone! Long time no post, I apologize for that. Lots of stuff going on, not the least of which is that we're buying a house!

However, today's post is not about houses and the hunting thereof.

It's about Perfume and the use thereof.

As most of you know, I have some pretty nasty allergies. The highest on the list is synthetic scents. Where do synthetic scents lurk? you ask.

Let me give you a small list~

Perfume
Soap
Body Spray
Air Fresheners, especially the plug in types
...you get the idea

Needless to say, synthetic scents are pretty much everywhere. I don't go out a lot, since I now work from home, but I do all of the grocery shopping and I need to occasionally restock my yarn supplies. Unfortunately, grocery stores and craft stores seem to have huge concentrations of people wearing too much perfume.

Let's face it, this has become something of an epidemic. If you want to wear perfume, don't flood yourself in an ocean of perfume. Keep it light. The people around you, especially those of use with synthetic scent issues, will really appreciate. So will the people without issues.

~TR

Vicious Sun Status Updated

So, some of you may have noticed that I haven't been posting much. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I've been house hunting for a permanent house for myself and my boyfriend. This will be quite fantastic once we've gotten a house, however, I have spent a large amount of time digging through houses and looking at them in real life. We have to move apartments pretty soon, and hopefully move into a new house after that. Still, we're looking at 2 moves in 2 months, which luckily one of the moves is to another part of our current complex, but there is a lot to do between now and then. 

Vicious Sun is still active and being worked on, and the estimated publishing date of the ebook in March 2013 and the hard copies in April 2013 has not changed. The Kickstarter, however, is being moved back. It will still happen in 2012, but most likely in late October/early November, meaning it will end around the end of the year. This is a good thing, since there should now only be about 3-4 months between the Kickstarter and when everyone receives their goodies (as long as things stay on their schedules!) I will let everyone know as soon as things are put in motion!

For now, I thank all of my watchers for backing me! Exciting times are ahead, just with a minor detour.

Fair winds~

Tania

Summer of the Mosquitoes!

...I've been eaten alive!
Not quite, but leave us just say that my legs are quite covered in bites, in excess of 25 on each leg, especially around my ankles.
Constant itching makes quite the distraction from writing, drawing, knitting and other things, so I haven't been horribly productive. Also, househunting sometimes gets in the way of productivity, but man, have I found some really nice houses!

For those of you keeping track of the timeframe on Vicious Sun-
Beta Read starts this weekend.
Kickstarter start is somewhat in limbo with the house deal, but it will begin sometime in the month of September, and there will be many awesome backer rewards.
Cover is coming closer to completion. Yay cover art. Yay.

Um, in other non-mosquito-ey news, non book news, Epic Hats will be making an appearance at many conventions in the Midwest next year, if all works out. We're looking at about 10-15 conventions, so I foresee many hats in my future. Including the half completed Shiranui Okami hat, which will be finished and hopefully have a few partners for the convention circuit. I'm also planning a design for a Wolf Link hat, and many more, including some awesome patterned kool aid hat.

Cue epic lack of sleep soon, hehe.

Tania out.

Cover Art, Rough Draft, Fun Times for All!

Hi folks! You probably haven't heard too much from me lately, sorry for that. Life has been super busy. We finally tracked down the source of my allergies and allergy attacks, and I've got medications that are going to help me exist in the living world once more!

This means that luckily, I have had time to accomplish many things. I just got done at CONvergence selling hats in their art show, and for the first time ever selling my hats to the public, the event was fantastic! Everyone seemed really happy with their hats, and a few of them had multiple bids and one even made it to the live auction! I can't wait for next year, I'll be bringing a full 20 hats with me.

However, now the focus is on Vicious Sun. While doing hats, I also did a bit of the rough draft, and I got a good start on the cover art, which features the main character Kemi. I'll be posting pics of it once I have all of the flat colors done, which should hopefully be before the end of July.

Onto the rough draft.

I've discovered this wonderful little web application called Write or Die. If you're a NaNo veteran, you've probably heard of it. The idea is to make you write words. Many, many words. If you don't accomplish your set goal, there are punishments. The worst that I've had is that I paused for too long, and it started deleting my words. Slight panic attack ensued, and I made sure to not stop after that.

Along with the draft, I'm beginning to work on illustrations. I changed over the anatomy of the Skyborne (formerly Sparkfur, Neisti'kegawa, etc) and am very pleased with the results.

Kickstarter stuff.

The Kickstarter for Vicious Sun will begin either at the end of August or the beginning of September. This will be your chance to preorder the book in ebook, paperback, and hardcover, and get some pretty awesome goodies, including original signed art from the novel, tshirts, and a few other things. There is also a chance I will be doing a full color hardcover version of the book as a special edition limited run, but we'll have to see how things go first.

I'll have more information in the coming weeks including details of the novel, and maybe even a sneak peek at the current version of the prologue.

So spread the word! Vicious Sun is getting ready to take to the skies!

Advice on Writing I

Well, any of you who read this blog know that I am a writer. I do quite a bit of writing in my free time, and I figured that I would share with you the fruits of my adventures.

Tip #1- Avoid the internet!

The internet is one of the greatest time-wasters on the planet. There is so much information, you can always find some way or another to procrastinate. That's why, when writing, try to avoid the internet unless you are looking up information for your book.

Tip #2- Youtube.
I listen to a lot of music while I'm writing. Considering that I've been working on Resonance for well over three years now, I have gone through quite a few playlists. We're talking hundreds of songs. There are a very few that manage to make it through the run and continue to be on my playlist, so I am always looking for new music. Youtube makes life much easier with song recommendations, not to mention it has a huge library of the dramatic and epic music I typically listen to. I work mostly on a dual-screen computer setup, so I have on screen with music playing and the other for all of my book items.

Tip #3- Playlist

As much as I love going through Youtube and seeing what all is new, I've found that once I start messing around with different songs, I never stop. That's why I always write with a playlist going. It saves me from flipping between screens and breaking out of my writing to find the right song.

Stay tuned for next post, I should have some exciting news about a new project (no, it isn't another novel!)

TR

Of Pokemon Music and a Bit of Warm Weather

Hello all! As many of you who watch this blog may have noted, the weather has been abnormally mild this winter. I'm from the upper midwest, land of snow, sleet, hail, and general gloominess during the winter months. This winter, we've only had maybe two decent snow events, as compared to last year with at least two single events with over ten inches of snow and impossible driving conditions. For the last two weeks, we've been in the seventies and gorgeous. Talk about weather confusion.

On a completely different tack, I've been switching up my normal music playlists for writing. Somehow, Pokemon managed to creep in there. Not really sure how that happened, but now I keep getting battle songs stuck in my head.

And now on a really different route, I've got a few friends of mine that are trying to get their book printed and are running a kickstarter to fund its production - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2017848943/cellar-door-anthology-0?ref=live. You should all go check it out! Because I said so! And give them money!

It's still a bit too early in the morning for coherent thought, so look for a longer post (with awesome worldbuilding content) sometime soon!