Woot! New SS Page!

Yes, finally got a new page up for Strawberry Syrup! Had to get at least one up this month... I need to try and get a buffer up again. That way, next time I get sick or the artwork refuses to cooperate or Life in General demands my attention, the readers won't have to wait for things to sort things out.

I do love my readers, too. They've had to put up with a lot of skipped updates this year, and at least a few of them have stuck with me, so a big thank-you to them. ^_^

In any case, my plans for today include heading out to Borders to hunt down Volume 1 of 07-Ghost and see if I enjoy the manga as much as I did the anime. I'll be sure to let you know!

Meanwhile, my plans for New Year's Eve involve a Twilight Zone marathon and epic sketch page of doodling epicness. Ah, good times...

Finding New Anime

Once upon a time, I used to find my new anime through magazines like Animerica (back when it was monthly... assuming it even exists anymore) or by sifting through the Anipike. Yes, this was back in the days of VHS, before YouTube existed and manga cost a hefty $15.99 a volume - never mind the limited selection of that - when finding a good series was like playing the lottery. I'd hunt down a promising-looking title, my brother would head to Media Play to buy it, and we'd cross our fingers and hope it wouldn't end up on our Shelf of Shame.

These days, I have other ways of finding anime. First of all, there's all that lovely manga now available for under $10 a volume. Generally, I'll check out the first 20 pages or so in the store, then buy it if it's still got my attention, and if I like it, I'll start checking out the anime.

Lately, however, I've found two great series another way: browsing the fan art on devArt. Now, just because one of the artists I watch falls in love with a series doesn't mean I'll bother to look into it, but when five, six, or seven of my watched deviants seem to be obsessed with something, I'll give it a try. In the past year, I've noticed a lot of fan art for Katekyo Hitman Reborn! showing up in my watchbox. I'd seen the manga in Borders, but when the back said it was about a mafioso assassin baby trying to teach a hapless kid how to become the next head of the mafia family, I pretty much put it right back on the shelf and moved on.

But then, I started seeing more and more of the fan art, the characters seemed really cool, and lots of people seemed to love this series. Not all series that fans get all rabid about are great, mind you - I don't really get Axis Powers Hetalia, for example - but when you see that many people getting into a series, it's worth checking out. So, I decided to give KHR a second chance... and now I absolutely love it. Sure, there was a major lag when the author decided to spend so much time on a character I absolutely hated, but she's since moved on from her obsession with her own personal Scrappy, moving into a completely awesome story arc. Be forewarned: KHR starts out as an episodic little comedy, but there is, in fact, character development going on, and the real story kicks in around Volume 8. It's even better in the anime - they cut the character that nearly ruined the series for me out entirely.

Yesterday, however, I came across a single piece of fan art - one solitary little piece - and found it so intriguing that I just had to look into it more. What was so intriguing? A character's name. I just had to see the guy named Frau.

Enter my descent into 07-Ghost (Frau, by the way, would be the blond guy on the cover there). Since yesterday, I've watched the entire first season (subbed, even!) and am planning an expedition to the book store to hunt down the manga. There's action, great characters, beautiful artwork (in the anime, at least - haven't gotten my hands on the manga yet), and a story that kept me interested through 25 episodes. It's high on drama, but like all my favorite series, it's got enough humor in it to keep it from getting too heavy.

Right this second, there would be no better news to me than hearing that 07-Ghost is being dubbed by a good company with fantastic voice actors. That would be amazing, but for now, I'll settle for getting my hands on the manga.

No idea when I'll stumble across a new treasure, but that's part of what makes it fun - and besides, helps keep the cost down if it takes awhile between each new find. Life's sometimes considerate like that. :D

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope yours was spent with lots of love and cheer and all that good sentimental Hallmark stuff. Its heart is in the right place - family, good times, and the spirit of giving.

Mine was spent with the family, as well. Our major family tradition is having kielbasa and sauerkraut. Mm, kielbasa... This year with a pound cake for dessert, courtesy of Dad. Of course, it led to a minor oven fire, but some quick fire safety skills and a few scented candles and all was well.

No spotlight this week. Instead, just hoping your holidays went well, and for those of you who don't celebrate, hope you at least got some time off work or went to see a good movie with friends or something.

Happy Holidays!

It's Official...

I'm sick. Got the antibiotics today to prove it. Hopefully, they'll help. As a note for future reference: no matter how much they say it'll help your sore throat, DO NOT gargle salt water if your lips are at all chapped. Ow. ><;;

On the bright side, I did manage to get a Christmas pic up for Strawberry Syrup before getting hit with Strep or whatever it is. It's not the best pic I've ever done, but hopefully it's kinda cute. Last year, I did Little Sammy's Christmas memories... this year, it's Hunter's turn!

Meanwhile, I'm contenting myself with the Ghost Hunters marathon and Facebook quizzes. Addictive little suckers... although it was a personal blow to my pride to only get a 75% on the "Can You Tell Anime Guys From Girls?" *sighs* I used to be so much better at that.

As for the "Which Mythical Beast Are You?", I'm chalking that little result up to my current circumstances, particularly the "tormented existence, part of you wants to die" bit... but that'll pass as soon as the antibiotics do their job. On a side note, I happen to prefer the werewolves who AREN'T consumed by torment and woe-is-me attitudes, which is probably why I like the Mercy Thompson series so much. No, being a werewolf isn't all furry romps through the woods, but they deal with it and move on with their lives. Minimal "I AM A MONSTER!" angst.

Alright, crawling back into my lozenge and Tylenol-lined cave now...

2009 Summary Meme

As I was finally going through the massive pile of deviations stacking up in my devArt inbox, I stumbled across a new meme: the 2009 Summary Meme. I think I'm actually going to do this one. I mean, what better way to end the year than to sit back and take stock of everything you've done over the past 12 months?

It helps that for once, I had pretty decent artwork every single month. In fact, for the first couple months, I'm going to have a hard time picking. In March, for example, we had both The Centaur Kiraz and Attempt 02, my second attempt at drawing one of my DI characters in a realistic style (namely Astarte, who turned out rather fantastically). At the moment, I'm leaning more towards Astarte, but I am still hella proud of how Kiraz turned out, too. And let's not even get started on February...

Also as an end-of-year type thing, I'm working on a another doodle page, done on the old paper again. Why? Because that's how I started the year. It should be an interesting comparison, seeing how my style has changed over the year, assuming it has at all. Considering my so-called "style" seems to be in flux from one piece to another, it would be a miracle if it hasn't.

Here's a sneak preview from the doodle page:



Yeah, there's more than a few *ahem* character interaction exercises on this sheet. I've got about a week to finish coloring things in, which I will get right back to as soon as I get something done for Strawberry Syrup this week. It's Christmas - gotta do something!

The Fugue Had A Purpose

And apparently, that purpose was fighting off a cold.

This week, the old immune system is making a valiant effort to stave off the onslaught of Cold and Flu Season. Fortunately, it's doing a good enough job that I'm just feeling off rather than downright miserable, but off is enough to make doing a decent comic page the equivalent of running a marathon barefoot. I'm not much for running barefoot on asphalt, so no comic page again this week.

I do feel bad when I skip weeks. I really do. I know I have readers, and that they actually enjoy the comic. But the fact that I DO have readers makes me really not want to scribble out some piece of crap that should never see the light of cyberspace and make them suffer through that.

Some people would say any page is better than no page. I disagree.

This is why I need a buffer. I sense a New Year's resolution in the making, there.

Coming Out of the Fugue

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back to work here. Last night, I finally got back to work on my NaNo story. Yes, yes, I know, NaNo's long since over and I won, so what more is there to do?

Finish the story, that's what.

It's currently at 172 pages, double-spaced, and there's probably another hundred pages to go before I consider it a fully finished first draft. At this point, I'm thinking I'll just keep plowing through until I reach the end, then go back and sort out the the plot holes, contradictions, and time line issues in Draft #2, then do the fine-tuning in Drafts 3 and 4. I seem to work best in multiple drafts.

Now, let's see if I can get the comic to cooperate...

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Brain Gone...

Eesh. I swear, this week, my brain hopped a flight to Tahiti and hasn't so much as sent a post card back.

It happens, from time to time. The old creative muse completely rebels, riles up the rest of the gray matter, and suddenly I've got a mutiny on my hands - or in my head, as the case may be. No matter how much I try to concentrate on what I need to do, Ye Olde Muse is bound and determined to fully immerse itself in frivolous fluff - sketches, doodles, writing that will never see the light of day...

It's a little like existing in a void where "out of sight, out of mind" is the going rule and if you don't keep a train of thought, it may well be gone forever. But for those things the Muse is interested in at the moment... well, when the Muse gets interested, it gets interested, and there's no room for negotiation. It's either draw or write it right now and get it out of my head, or suffer the consequences.

I like to call this a creative brain purge. Giving it a fancy name makes me feel like it actually serves a purpose... which it does. I guess it's the waking equivalent of dreaming for me. Dreaming, as my high school psych teacher fondly put it, is the same thing as flossing your brain. It gets out all the stuff wedged in the crevices, occasionally hurts a little, and leaves your brain better able to function when it's all said and done. These CBPs of mine seem to do the same thing, only since I don't do it every single night, they tend to show up out of the blue and dominate my life for a good week at a time. Forget continuing the story, doing a full finished picture, or turning out a post-worthy comic page: it's time for a CBP!

Which is why there is no comic page this week. No matter how hard I tried, the concentration just wasn't there. It's like trying to read a book while someone's pulling on your sleeve, going, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Look at that! Look over there! Hey!"

Yeah, not happening.

But, when it's over, I'll be able to concentrate again, and I might even have something to show for it. So, I am just going to ride it out and hope it's done by next week. Because really, I would like my brain back sometime before Christmas, thanks.

Top Distractions

Yep, life is distracting. It is very distracting. It doesn't even have to try very hard - just wiggle something shiny outside the window, and there goes my concentration! However, there are a few things that grab my attention more than others.

• The TV. If that's on, forget about writing! Whether it's Criminal Minds or HGTV or some SyFy movie (oh, how I love the cheesy bad SyFy flicks), it will just keep nibbling away at my concentration until I either have to put off writing or turn off the TV. Needless to say, TV stayed off for most of November.


• Facebook. Oh, Facebook and your many, many time-draining applications. It started with Pet Society, then spread to CafeVille and, most recently, FarmVille. The last two are particularly dangerous, as you have to check at certain time or else your food or crops will spoil or wither and die. I can't even say they're really all that GOOD of games, they're just addictive.


• RP Chat. Yep, I do some RP. Back in 2001 or so, I started a message board RPG dealing with mythology. Although the actual game is pretty thoroughly dead, the characters have lived on through AIM. While I am loathe to call this a distraction, as I do so love my characters, it does qualify.


• TV Tropes.com. Sweet Lord, this is the distraction of distractions. It is an endless maze of amusement and fascination and the ultimate time-sucking black hole for writers, lit majors, movie geeks, and anyone else with an interest in books or film. I am not kidding - this place is dangerous. You look at one entry, and suddenly you've got ten more opened in tabs to read through later, and each of those gives you three or four more, and before you know it, it's 5am and you're wondering where the hours went. I had no idea this place even existed until my brother revealed that someone had done a page for Strawberry Syrup.

So that's my list of top distractions. I'm sure there are more, but there's a shiny object demanding my attention!

December, December...

I've always liked the month of December. After years of an annual Christmas play and handbell choir in grade school and junior high, I've got a strong affinity for Christmas songs. Granted, I'm not one of those people who wants Jingle Bells blasting in the car from November to New Years, but I love them enough to devote an entire lens to My Favorite Christmas Songs. I also get to set up the family Dickens' Village, and the Christmas tree goes up around Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it all through December. All we really need now is snow.

This year has been pretty devoid of snow in my area. Scratch that - completely devoid of snow. I don't think we've had so much as a threat of the fluffy white stuff this year. Still, I was in the mood to do something cute and snow-related for about a month now, so I finally sat down and did it:

Kitsune Snow Day Light Shirts by ameyer64
View more Snow day T-Shirts

Yep. The Kitsune Snow Day. I occasionally do cute things like this - mostly when I have younger cousins sitting right next to me and demanding I show them how to draw something. Or just quietly sitting and watching my every move, which makes me acutely aware that they are under 10 years old and drawing hot guys is not appropriate. That would be how the animals for the Pink Ballerina Box came about.

The Kitsune Snow Day, however, was all for me. I had the image of two cute little foxes building a snowfox, and hey, I like foxes, so went ahead and indulged my "Awwwww so KYOOT!" side. Besides, doing more than one style is good for you, I hear.

This one was done entirely in Photoshop. No preliminary sketches this time!

Story Soundtracks, Anyone?

Last week, as I was idly browsing the thank-you gifts for each level at the NaNo Donation Station (because someday, I'll be able to afford to donate more than ten bucks), where the gifts range from everything from a nice shiny halo on the site to writing software to a taco voucher with the head of NaNo itself. The aforementioned software actually looked really cool. I mean, really cool. And if I had a Mac, I'd probably order it in a second (Scrivener, for those who are curious), but I am, indeed, a PC.

Then, I noticed that the folks who donate $2500 get a spot in Lani Diane Rich's "awesome online novel revision workshop." Well, I thought, if that's their big addition to the major donors, it's worth checking out!

You can look over her rather impressive credentials and the workshops for yourself. Me, I went straight to her blog... and it is there that I came across her idea of making novel soundtracks.

Now, the idea of using music with writing isn't a new one. I've used it for years to get me in the mood for a particular story. For this year's NaNo, I've been listening to Daughtry's Leave This Town over and over again. However, I'd never thought about making a soundtrack for my novels.

How cool is that? Gather together songs that make you think of certain characters or events in your novel and stick them all on a playlist, ready and waiting to inspire you and get you thinking about your novel even when you're not working on it. Maybe I'm just not used to making my own playlists, or maybe I'm just not that tech-minded, but the idea never occurred to me.

I can tell you now, though - next novel, I am definitely going to give this a try!

NaNo 2009: Success!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present...



Thank you, thank you... Yep, this is officially the earliest I have been able to verify my NaNo novel! As a matter of fact, I hit 50K back on Friday or Saturday, which is a new record for me. Let the trumpets blare and the confetti fly!

This is also the first year I've donated or bought anything from the Office of Letters and Light store, the place for all official NaNo merchandise. Times are hard this year, and even NaNoWriMo isn't immune to the economy. They run entirely on donations and whatever they make from their merch, and they were behind enough to try and do a donation drive yesterday.

Now, I don't usually donate money or buy things online, but you know what? I actually LIKE doing NaNo. I've loved doing it all three years I've been able to do it. It's an incredible rush, and I would sorely miss it if it weren't around. I can afford $10.

More than that, though, is their Young Writers Program, where they send materials and project packs to classrooms across the country to encourage young writers and foster a love of the craft. Having been a creative writing major, this is a cause I heartily endorse. Writing was one of those things I really loved in high school, and I wish the YWP would have been around back then.

So, I bought my first NaNo t-shirt and donated $10. Someday, I'll be able to donate more, but for now, I'm just going to bask in the glow of my donor halo and the warm fuzzy feeling of 50K reached and verified.

D'oh!

Alright, so I was looking through my Squidoo lenses, as I often do in the quest to keep them updated and their lens rankings below 100K. Good thing I did, too. Apparently, last time I'd updated my Urban Fantasy lens, I'd suffered an epic brain fart or been distracted by something suitably shiny, because I had a whole brand new section I didn't remember publishing: What Makes a Great Urban Fantasy Series, According to the Personal Preferences of Kit.

That would be all well and good. In fact, it was something I'd planned on for awhile. There was just one problem... All it said was, "There is a lot of urban fantasy out there. Some of it's good, some's not so good, and some earns a spot on the shelf by my bed where I can easily read and reread it over and over again. What makes those chosen few series stand out among the masses?"

... Yeah. That was it. So, Kit, what DOES make a series stand out among the masses? HA! Not telling! Take that!

*headdesk*

Hopefully, it wasn't like that for too terribly long, but it has now been fixed. So what makes a series stand out to me?

Basically, I like a gripping plot with a main character that I actually LIKE and a good sense of humor to balance out the "omg HOW WILL THEY EVER MAKE IT?!" of the tension. (For a more in-depth explanation, read the lens.)

This pretty much spreads to all the genres I read. At some point, I'll have to go through my personal pet peeves, but that's a topic for another post. The lesson here is for all the little Squidooers out there: Make sure to actually READ your lens once in awhile, and not in the workshop - the actual lens. It'll help you catch little things like unfinished modules that have been making your readers wonder what malfunction's going on in your brain.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, Right?

Right now, I've got three things I'm working on simultaneously: my comic, my shop, and my NaNo. That's three different schedules to keep, and so far, I think I'm doing pretty good.

Schedule #1: NaNo. This one's pretty clear - write at least 1,667 words a day. For me, it's easier to keep track of pages, so I figure if I hit around six pages a day, I'll be good. More, and I'm doing great. This is definitely my most driving schedule - no days off, if I can help it. I've got 10,000 more words to go until I hit the goal for NaNo, but I'm hoping to keep it going until the book is actually finished.

Schedule #2: Strawberry Syrup. Doing a weekly webcomic takes a helluva lot of commitment. I really have no idea how people who do 2-3 updates a week manage it. For me, the ideal schedule goes something like thumbnail on Sunday, sketch and ink on Monday, finish it up on Tuesday, and post it promptly at midnight.

Okay, so this week, I was fifteen minutes late, but still, it's up, and I'm actually pretty pleased with this week's page. Yay, dark closet scenes!

Schedule #3: The shop. This schedule is a little more fluid. Since I'm still in the process of moving from CafePress, I'm trying to get one or two designs moved each week. After that, I'm hoping to add at least one new design a month. And then, there's the seasonal and holiday designs to keep in mind...

And that would be the one I'm a little behind on. Yep, still haven't got those holiday designs up. If everything goes well, I'll have the first of them up by this weekend, so I'm not too far off schedule there. All things considered, if one of my three has to be off, I'd rather it be the shop. Yes, yes, I know, they say the more you have up, the more you sell, but since I'm not exactly living off the income (and a good thing, too, since otherwise we'd have one dead Kit), it won't hurt to take my time.

Might as well enjoy it, right?

Well, Hello There, Melanthe!

Has this ever happened to you: A character shows up out of the blue one day, plunks down across from your laptop, orders a French Vanilla Latte, then looks you square in the eye and says, "Hi. I'll be showing up in your story soon, and no, my name is not negotiable."



It's one of those fun little surprises that tend to spring out at you during the course of a story (along with the "wow, did I seriously just write that? I might have a knack for this after all!" and "hm, things are going kind of slow- oh, hey, so-and-so just set the house on fire! That'll move things along!" moments). They're particularly fond of showing up during NaNo, when you're plowing through your novel at breakneck speeds, with no time to sit around and ponder the writerly way of things. More importantly, you don't have time to argue with those stubborn characters who refuse to budge until you let them have their way.

Well, Melanthe is one of those.

I knew she was coming. I start out with a Big List of What Must Happen - bullet points, if you will, with the hows of getting from point to point left to the passion of the muse and the joy of the moment and whatnot - so I knew her character was coming. I even had a vague feeling of dread about it, that inkling that she was going to pick a name I wasn't going to like, but I figured, "Hey, I've got a good week or two! I can talk her into a new name!"

Nope. Melanthe.

Sometimes, naming a character can be hard. It can involve hours pouring through baby name books or, if you've joined the 21st century, sites like Behind the Name, looking for that perfect name that just slips onto your waiting character like a favorite t-shirt. But there's something enjoyable about it, about finding the perfect name with the right sound that fits your character in personality and sound, not to mention the world the story takes place in. Which, I suppose, is where I have a problem with "Melanthe." It's just not a name you'd run into where the story takes place.

Never mind the pronunciation problems. "Mel-AN-thee. Like Melanie, with a TH."

She's actually the second character in the story to have creative differences with me over their name. In the other one's case, he's gradually getting used to the one I picked for him. Melanthe? Won't even consider changing.

Ah, well. Sometimes, you just can't fight it. And sometimes, you just have to get through the story and use the find and replace function later. :D

Full Steam Ahead!

Hit 20K on my NaNo today! Which means I am about four days ahead of schedule, which is awesome. I'm sure I'll hit a slow-down sooner or later (here's hoping for later!), but for now, I'm maintaining a nice steady pace.

Don't get me wrong - this thing is going to need a hell of a lot of editing and rewriting. Not just revising - full-out "What the hell was I thinking when I wrote this, how many cliches can I fit in one sentence, I think I wrote better as a fifth grader!" rewrites. But at least I'll have something to rewrite, and that's the important part.

There are a few things helping me stay focused this year. I seem to have settled into a nice schedule of writing from 3am - 6am, which probably wouldn't work too well if half of my late night chat partners hadn't disappeared for the past week or so. Dangle something like a pretty shiny flashing IM box in front of me and just watch that concentration dissolve. Sure, I could turn off AIM for awhile, but I happen to like feeling moderately connected to the world.

Besides, I'd also end up cutting off contact with this year's NaNo Buddy. There's something inspiring about watching Rishi's word count fly by. No direct competition there, but having someone else writing and posting word counts at the same time as you works wonders in the enthusiasm department, never mind having someone to babble to about your story as you try to work out the little snafus that show up when writing on the fly.

See? Instant messaging can be a good thing!

And this week, I will definitely try to get the comic page started today instead of saving it all for Tuesday. Because yeah, that? Didn't work so well.

Anyways, back to work I go!

Music and Writing

Confession time: I have concentration issues. For the most part these days, they crop up when I'm trying to write. If the TV's on, my focus is shot, and I'll be lucky to finish a full paragraph in half an hour. However, silence bothers me, too. So, my remedy?

Music.

Some people can't write with anything at all in the background, but I like to pop on my headphones, set an album or playlist on repeat, and let it drift into lyrical white noise. And whenever I'm writing something, I always end up gravitating towards one particular set of music over all others.

For my 2006 NaNo, Seashells and Horseshoes, the music of choice was Doug Cameron's Dublin Groove CD. Celtic music goes great with high fantasy in my mind, so that one was kind of a no-brainer. My 2007 NaNo, The Missing Sprites of Main Street, was low fantasy. Celtic music and small town suburbia? Not the best match in my brain. So I ended up listening to the .hack/SIGN soundtrack over and over. Nice bit of grit, but still whimsical.

This year, I'm writing the next book in the 2007 series, and for once, I seem to be listening to something with actual lyrics: Daughtry's second album. In a nice little twist of coincidence, turns out I'm writing a story featuring a pied piper to an album named "Leave This Town," something I just realized yesterday. Let's hear it for the subconscious!

So far, it's working out pretty well. The music's mostly upbeat and provides a nice background. Or, if I need a break, something to sing along and/or dance to. Granted, I may decide I'm sick of it halfway through November and switch to something else, but for now, it's Daughtry all the way!

NaNo Launch Is Go!

For the first time in three tries, I had a successful midnight NaNo launch. Maybe it was having a friend over to help kick things off, or maybe it was the knowledge that a great cosmic alignment and a certain former commander-in-chief's bright idea to move Daylight Savings Time had combined to grant all good little NaNoers a magical extra hour to work if they didn't wait til they woke up on November 1st to write. Either way, my story has successfully gotten its start, and as of 3:30am on November 2nd, a grand total of 3,415 words already grace my screen.

For those of you keeping track, that puts me a day ahead. That... is awesome. With some serious willpower and some luck, I'll be able to keep up the pace, particularly since I still have this week's Strawberry Syrup page to do.

Yep, that's right - I'm going to actually try and keep the comic going through NaNo. That will probably be a challenge. Writing a 50K story in 30 days tends to lead to that story completely consuming your brain. If you're not writing it, you're working on background details, or getting to know your characters better, or trying to figure out what in the world happens next. It doesn't stop, and that's part of the thrill of NaNo. You fling yourself wholeheartedly into the creative process and leave yourself at the mercy of the muses for a full month. It can be brutal, but it can also be exhilarating.

So, we'll see how it goes. I'm going to still try for my daily quota when I wake up later today, then get the layout, sketch and ink of page 12 done. Lather, rinse, and repeat with the shading on Tuesday, and I should be all set to go! Should be interesting...

Almost Time for NaNo!

It's that time of year again, when thousands of aspiring novelists gather together their hoard of snack foods and energy drinks, find a quiet place, crack their knuckles, and hunker down to hammer out 50,000 words in 30 days.

It's time... for NaNo!

National Novel Writing Month (better known as NaNo or NaNoWriMo) starts promptly at midnight on Halloween night and lasts until midnight on November 30th. At the website, you can sign up to be part of a community of other NaNoers where you can share your trials and tribulations, your successes and breakthroughs, your surprises and wrong turns, and find inspiration and encouragement from hundreds of other writers just like you. It gives people an excuse to write every day, and for those of us who need the extra motivation, a deadline and a daily goal (1667 words a say, if you want to hit 50K on November 30th itself).

I've done NaNo twice before, in 2006 and 2007, and I'm proud to say I won both years. Here are a few things I learned that new NaNoers (and even some veterans) might want to keep in mind:

• Pick a schedule and keep to it. In past years, the schedule that worked out best for me was doing my NaNo-related stuff when I got up. I'd read through the day before's work as I ate breakfast and woke up a little more, then dive in for the next 1667 words. TV stayed off, no checking of email, deviantArt, blogs or forums, and certainly no IMing until I reached my daily goal. After the first week, my family learned to leave me alone during that time, which was a major help right there.


• Keep track of your progress. I made myself a spreadsheet to keep track of mine, including day, how many words I should have, and how many I actually had. If I was ahead of schedule, my actual count was done in green. Red, if I was behind. Kind of the whole "do your homework and get a sticker" idea. It seemed to work for me.


• If the spirit moves you, run with it! If you hit your daily goal and the story's flowing and you don't have anywhere else to be, go with it! Keep writing! Whenever possible, you want to get ahead of schedule. After all, you never know when something's going to come up that'll cut into your writing time. (Thanksgiving and weekends tend to be the big ones for me)


• If it makes your feel better, plot it out. For my first NaNo, I dutifully plotted out my story, convinced that I'd get stuck somewhere along the way and be completely lost and suddenly I'd be 30,000 words behind. I have to say, having it plotted was kind of nice (I used about half the steps of the Snowflake Method for the outline), and it definitely made the whole experience go smoothly. Ideally, this should be done in October, before you start, but you can always take a little time once you get a better idea of where your story's going and do some planning then.


• Winging it's fine, too. Some people like to be surprised, to stick a group of characters together and let them work their own way out. If that's the way you work best, go for it! For my second NaNo, I spent October planning on one story and ended up doing a completely different one on November 1st. Fortunately, it was one I'd been thinking about for awhile, so I had some idea of the characters and major plot points (my preferred way of working - I like to know where I'm going, but have a little room to play along the line).


• This is a first draft. No one, I repeat, no one ever has a perfect first draft. It's okay if your prose is rusty, your analogies cliche, and your dialogue stiff - the whole point is to get something done so you can work with it later!


• Save the editing for December. Or, better yet, give yourself a month off after you finish your manuscript and look at it then. The last thing you want to do in NaNo is get bogged down in endless rewrites. I only ever look back as far as the day before. As I read through, I might do some minor editing and what not, but other than that, it's plowing ahead. I also keep a list of changes I'll want to make after November's done, but that all gets saved until after I've got my 50K nice and secure. Besides, a little distance is a good thing when polishing a piece - it helps you see that what you thought were sparkling gems of wit and beauty are actually worn out and kinda cheesy.


• Visit the forums. Half the fun of NaNo is the community. If you get stuck, need a break, or want some people to commiserate with, the forums are the place to do it! Just remember to get your writing done, too.

Ultimately, this is supposed to be a fun, enjoyable experience. Of course, writers as a group tend to enjoy suffering through the process, so ideas of "fun" may vary. ;)

Here's to a good NaNo, everyone!

The Meaning of Halloween

I love the Halloween season. Sure, my trick-or-treating years are long since passed and there isn't exactly a load of party invites in my inbox, but there are plenty of great things still - a month's worth of horror movies, an open bowl of all my favorite fun-sized candy bars in the kitchen, and the chance to draw some of my characters in ridiculous outfits.

Of course, one of my favorite things is doing the Strawberry Syrup Halloween splash page. I know, I know, it breaks up the comic and I've already had enough filler this year, but it's Halloween. Halloween, and a webcomic about vampires and weredogs. I'm practically required to do something for it.

In 2007, I did a nice little role reversal between Hunter and Sammy - Sammy van Helsing and Count Huntula. For 2008, it was a flash to the past with Missy and Hunter's adventures in trick-or-treating. And for this year...

Ferdy, as the Headless Horseman. Which was a fantastically fun piece to do, and probably the happiest Headless Horseman you'll ever see.

Obviously, a little late to add it to the store - I believe Halloween merchandise is supposed to go up in late September - but it'll be there for next year... once I figure out what I'm doing with the Strawberry Syrup shop, anyway. I still haven't decided if I'm going to keep it as just a category or give it its very own shop now that I'm moving to Zazzle. It's nice to have the option.

Speaking of timing, the passing of Halloween means one more thing: time to start getting those Christmas designs up and ready for sale! I'd better get busy...

What's in a Name?

I often see journals by other people on deviantArt asking why people chose their user name. The answers always seem to fall into one of a few categories: 1) Nickname from people in their real life, 2) Some variation on their actual name (usually among the "serious" artists and photographers), 3) Some cool or clever mishmash of words, 4) Something poached from another language, or 5) Something they're a fan of, whether it's their favorite TV show, anime character, actor, animal, career, region, etc. Whatever they choose, it has the potential to become a whole new identity, and more often than not, there's some sort of story behind it.

As you might have gathered, I am known on the internet mostly as Kitsune64, usually shortened to just Kit. To be honest, by now it seems strange to me when someone IMs me and uses my actual name. But where did Kit come from?

Well, waaaaay back when I was a senior in high school, a friend got me involved in a message board RPG. Of course, I needed a handle, something for the other players to refer to me by. At the time, I wanted something ambiguous, that I actually liked, and that meant something to me.

Now, I have a natural love of mythology, folklore, and wild canines. For awhile, I considered Coyote, as I do so love our native trickster, but then I decided to see what I could find in Japanese folklore, since the RPG was an anime-based one and it seemed fitting. You can probably imagine my glee when I stumbled upon the kitsune - a trickster fox that took any number of forms in its many stories, from the beautiful woman to the wandering monk (this is long before Naruto hit the U.S.). Besides, it shortened into a nickname much better than Coyote (Coyo? Yot? Yeah, not the most appealing, there). I had my new name.

As for the 64... Once upon a time, before gmail came along, I wanted my own personal email address. Hotmail said I could have the name I wanted (not Kitsune, btw - this predated that by YEARS) if only I'd choose a number to stick after it. And they ever-so-helpfully gave me three options: 63, 64, or 65. Since the big gaming system in the house at the time was the Nintendo64, I figured that would be easiest to remember, and it's been with me ever since.

So, there you have it - how Kit came to be. And nearly ten years later, I'm still happy to call it mine.

Introduction

Hi there! I'm Kit, aka A. M. Meyer, and humble owner of this little blog. Which, considering this is the first post, is a very little blog. But, I'm sure it will grow!

So, what possessed me to start another blog? After all, I've had blogs before, and my posting habits could be described as sporadic at best. However, I have high hopes for this one. You see, I'm involved in several different things in the digital domain:

• Digital art. I'm a digital artist over on deviantArt, where I post my sketches and finished works, but this would be a great place to post my WIPs.


• Crafting. Okay, okay, so crafting itself isn't a digital pursuit, but where I sell it is! My craft of choice is decoupage, and I sell my decoupaged boxes on Etsy with my sister-in-law. Here, I can mention when I have a new box for sale.


• Squidoo. I'm a Squidooer, with a handful of lenses that I update regularly and will probably talk about on here at some point.


• Webcomics. I have a weekly webcomic, Strawberry Syrup, about a half-vampire and the poor misguided boy who hunts him.


• And most recently, I've opened a Zazzle store, where I can sell my designs on everything from t-shirts to key chains.

In fact, the Zazzle shop is what made me think it might be a good idea to start a new blog. I've got a lot of work ahead of me, and this seems like a great place to talk about new designs and promote a few of my fellow Zazzlers while I'm at it.

So, there you have it: my intents and purposes for this here blog. I hope you enjoy tracking my progress, and here's to a brand new blog!