Showing skin...

I put up a picture I took a while ago in a red dress and it had an interesting response where a lot of my other photos have not. Now don't get me wrong all the comments felt good, in fact I completely loved them, they did get me thinking. I wasn't a pretty girl growing up, or at least in my mind I wasn't. I was rather thin, straggly and massively clumsy. I loathed taking pictures...I have four beautiful sisters, and compared to them I fell rather short in the beauty department. I had my mind, my art and my writing and I felt those were solid enough to make up for what I lacked in looks. Needless to say I wanted to break into the industry without having to put myself under the camera that often. I realized how wrong that thought was. The Con floor is a place for fantasy, a vehicle of myth facilitating trips into other worlds with dashing nights and beautiful ladies, superheros and goddesses--so of course dropping my clothes (well almost all of them) and smiling for the camera was part of the job. Something strange happened. With all the cameras flashing I started to feel beautiful. The more beautiful a girl feels the more it shows on her face. No my features didn't change but I find myself not cringing at every photo. I accept my flaws, I believe in the end they give us each an unique beauty that is only ours. Maybe it's okay to show a little skin...we are after all in the arts :)

Dreaming

Oh how long I have had the idea for Southern Nightgown in my head--I am pretty dang excited to see it in print! I know you probably are too but every time I think about it my heart just starts pounding! Thank you so much to Dawn who just took a chance on a crazy girl and to her husband (page troll) who took a chance on two insane women. Life really does have a way of working it's self out. Things come to us when it is the time for it and not before. I could have done this another way. In fact lots of people told me I would fail and fail hard, but it is all about the dream and believing in what you-- as your own god or goddess can accomplish. I think the true definition of living your dream is: No contingency plan.

Writing

Writing a book is a very strange thing. First of course there is the body of the story--what event initially kindled the tale in your mind? When you picture the opening scene can you smell rain, ocean, hot sunlight? Then you realize it is rain you smell and you are seeing the white puff of your own breath through someone else's eyes. You feel cold, a trickle of rain running down the crevice behind your ear sending wet shivers in its wake. Your heart throbs with hopelessness and you feel only terror. Noises in the darkness, haunting pain in your heart--yet also a reason to live, someone to live for. A face in your mind, dark hair, flashing amber eyes...then there is the glowing sword in your hand coated with demon blood, piles of bodies at your feet. You smell them, sweat and rot. The plot forms. You are fully your character and suddenly you know what you are fighting for--know where you are going--the soul who needs rescue and the villain who earned your vengeance. It is different for everyone, yet no matter how it happens for a writer I find the process magical. For someone like me, the ability to be able to retreat into a world of fantasy at will is amazing and probably a necessary ingredient to functioning for the most part like a regular human being, not one of my characters. At the moment I am trying to decipher the laws of the land I currently creating--a justice system to a people who do not understand the definition of the word. It is challenging. Being in contact with so many incredible artists lately I have often found just wanting to draw it. Then I look at pieces like this and remember why I chose writing over art--firstly because I am better at it, but also because I love the passion of words, they way they can create a scene so vivid and alive. Alive because in the mind of the reader it is always seen differently.

Here is J. Scott and Nei's version...not in CMYK :)

In exactly two weeks Southern Nightgown is FINALLY going to be available for purchase. I am quite thrilled with how it came out. Better than I imagined. Here are the cover previews. Special thanks to J.Scott Campbell, Dawn McTeigue, Stefan Merour, Sabine Rich, and the incredible Nei who colored a cover for me when she had no time at all (I heart you) It was a pain to make and certainly took a piece of our souls...I hope you love it as much as we do. To be able to have the image like this you will have to by both books they are connecting covers. Nei's color version is available for individual purchase.

So the last two weeks have been madness. Thank you everyone who came out and bought the book, I loved meeting all of you. For real, despite the yang of the cons the ying of being able to hang with everyone and hear all the comments and thoughts on the series is fantastic! The reprint of AD book one has been shipped out to me so for all of you waiting for it...you soon shall receive :) I have officially finished the text for Southern Nightgown and I need to get it to poor Stefan so he can work his magic with the text layout and design. I am freaking excited about it to be honest and SN has lately featured in my dark dreams...

Book of my dreams...

The story of Southern Nightgown has been loitering in my head since I was a child. In fact it was the first query I ever wrote and the first that was accepted--by Random House no less. Unfortunately at the time I had a rather fierce nasal fascination and the book was never finished. I went chartering off to Africa to save my soul and writing my book fell by the wayside. Being able to see it drawn out now by Dawn is a dream come true. I am not a fan of Christianity, due to my sojourn in a cult I have had a chance to delve into the bible and study all of its discrepancies. Somethings are quite harmless, most of them having to do with the actual life of a kind man who was killed and deified, the rest of it however I believe is a creation of evil men with a desire to control the masses through fear of death. Humans have always feared death and wasn't it amazing that during some pretty dark ages a few fishermen found a way to convince the world that they knew exactly what came after. Not only convince but convert--body mind and soul. Only by following their laws would you find the heaven you were hopping for. It wasn't even that hard of a sell. Still unfortunately for the masses most actions lead to hell fire and a visit from Satan at his worst. The moment someone is willing to die for a belief it takes it from passive, peaceful faith (harmless) to dangerous propaganda. For centuries we have swum in the bloody results of this religion. We are still swimming. Southern Nightgown is a parable if you will of the other side. When explorers found Greenland and Iceland, they switched the names giving the kinder one to the land they did not desire. Iceland they wanted to keep for themselves--if this is done with countries it begs the question...does human nature just like history have a way of repeating its self? One may wonder what Peter, James and John were been hiding under the guise of a foreboding name. It was obviously powerful enough to entice the monarchs who for hundreds of years willingly and without question made themselves subjects to a faith which controlled them. Unflinchingly gave the final say even in matters of life and death to a group of men who said they spoke the direct word of god. The Greeks battled, the Romans conquered but the crusaders can scarcely go down in history as anything but bloody assassins controlled by thieves and murders. Somewhere lurking in the darkness of what this region has caused is a secret many have thought worth dying for. A secret which destroyed all but the idea of magic and reformed the world. Southern Nightgown is my idea of what that secret may be.