Lights camera action...

I have a busy full life. I spend far too much of it in front of the computer but never mind that I do stuff. Last week's stuff was a small experimental photoshoot with dolls. yeah you heard me dolls. Green screen an everything.

I want illustrations for my Fan fiction books Daughter of the Empire Trilogy  and since my drawing skills are not quite up to where my imagination wants them to be I do the next best thing...photography 1/6 models and photoshop the hell out of them. The results are pretty nice actually.

For example...

Eventually I hope to be able to draw/ paint such illustrations but who knows, I tend to be on the lazy side of the drawing scale and I kinda like how these turned out.

There are more on the merlyn face book page if you're interested. Merlyn Gabriel on Facebook

And then there has been all the editing. Books 1 and 2 are now up as ebook files ready for download to your ereader what ever it may be. So really while I'm sitting at the computer I am actually doing stuff...I just wish it felt way more productive that it does.

Da Interwebz of Mass Distraction

yep...I plan to escape your evil clutches today because the sun is shining which means I can now see every speck of dust in this house. It's also warm enough to maybe dry laundry outside. So you will not keep me in your vile hands of distracting shinies, silly facebook pictures or interesting twitter updates. I have been chained to the desk all week editing and today I will break from those chains.


but first coffee and a quick scan of the daily tweets...see what I missed while I was asleep.

Pantsdance and other internet delights...

So the other day while sitting at home, watching Aliens on DVD, editing my star wars fanfic hanging out with my darling husband all the while watching my twitter feed when I noticed @thebloggess tweet about her #pantsdance. An open invitation to a party being streamed live from her bathroom with Dr. Pants a band playing live. So I joined in.

It occurred to me that this internet thing is pretty amazing. We facebook, we tweet, we message, we share photos, and we somehow become joined. We have this virtual world in which there are no borders and everyone gets to play ( well mostly). We share, it is in our nature to do so. We want to belong and we build communities just so that we can.

It has been fun to read the tweets of other writers. I am enjoying being a part of this lively and encouraging community. I'm writing at the moment instead of creating art. I'm editing the DOTE books so that I can get on with the next book I have burning up my brain.  I know that DOTE is just a fanfic so in the eyes of many writers not real writing at all but that's not true. Writing is writing and stories no matter what are stories.

Lots of good advice to be had.

I also read, fairly often, that one has to sell one's work to be of worth because giving it away for free means it's worthless. I have to disagree with this. Self worth doesn't come from monetary value, at least not for me. I get my self worth out of knowing I did something well. It doesn't matter if it is my art or my words or even doing the laundry. I watched my dad try to sell himself and his art to galleries and it was something I swore I'd never do. He was a brilliant artist with water colours ( and I don't just say that as his kid)   but for me watching him try to get accepted like this was painful.

 I don't much care about that side of things and I never really have. I know it irks people when i say that but I really just like to make art and write stories. I give my creations away because it makes me feel good to share art. And fanfiction should never be sold anyway especially not star wars fanfics unless one wants one's ass sued to the moon and back.

I'm lucky in that I don't have to make money off my art to live but even if I did I would probably have a different job and still do art on the side. I love being creative and I don't want it to be a job. I have already experienced that once or twice and decided long ago that was not for me.
This doesn't mean I won't or never have sold my art but it's not a driving force for me, neither is being elite and famous.

So it annoys me when I see people write that giving it away for free = being of no worth. I don't think that's true. I create beautiful things and I write wonderful stories and I share my works freely so that people can enjoy it. Art wants to be free and it should not always be over priced and exclusive. Now... before the angry hordes come down on me I am all for people making a living off their art. I BUY art, music and books regularly. I try to support the people who DO make a living from their creativity. We make a living in all manner of ways I just choose not to do so from my art. Now my words on the other hand... if I ever get past the DOTE stuff and write my own worlds then we'll see but it doesn't make what I do of no worth just because I don't stick a dollar sign on it.

in the mean time I am enjoying the mad interwebz it gives me a sense of belonging when I am on my own and procrastinating.

Who needs television when they can dream?

So last night or this morning I dreamed that I was part of a group of people who were exploring a temporal problem with a plane crash. So picture this... here we are this unnamed group of people and I waiting for this large white  with a blue stripe plane to crash sideways into what I can only describe as the entrance to St. John's Harbour except it wasn't really well maybe it was in an alternate universe, anyway... we wait, the plane comes and then magically morphs into some sort of a ship, like a small cruise yacht with many rooms filled with books and stuff and people. And we explore, looking as I ALWAYS seem to be doing in my dreams for information or something. We run through the ship which inevitably gets more maze like and less plane / ship like looking for "stuff" and then someone yells for us to get the hell out of here fast so we do and the whole thing resets and happens ALL OVER AGAIN. All of this was in massive surround sound and technicolour.

I never did find what ever it was I was looking for. We helped people get off the weird time jumpy plane boat thing and when I woke I was pretty sure I could smell jet fuel. Why can't I have normal dreams???

this.

slacker, scatty and it must be a Monday.

The funny thing is I actually have a hell of a lot I want to say but the words are all traffic jammed in my brain right now. I'm furious at the political world. How dare they make war on women ( again) or did they just never stop and I was too young and naive to notice?

Calling women sluts because they use birth control just fucking boggles my mind. *sigh*
And enough with the wars already.

so instead of getting all ranty and soap boxish here I'm walking away.

Instead I'll mention some fun things like Chuck Wendig's blog here. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/
He's pretty straight forward in his ability to NOT MINCE WORDS and his advice is rather like getting a Gibbs slap on the head but it's what I really need to read/hear.

Or that Tsuneo Sanda called me friend on fb and my fangirlish squeal of delight could be heard all the way to the moon. And Dave Dorman, Timothy Zahn and Brandon Smith of The Anix are kind enough to chit chat with me on their Fb pages. Say what you like about the evils of Facebook but it sure brings people closer together with the artists they admire.

and most awesome a person I met in St. John's many years ago, a sweet Polish guy on a tall ship found me on FB yesterday so we reconnected. The corporate and political world may think in terms of boundaries and borders but seriously on the internet there are none, really.  

and on an unrelated note...I thought I would add this 

I'm not an aspiring writer I am a writer who writes mostly for me and some other people who seem to like what I do with words. I don't much care about the whole being published bit I guess that's weird but as an artist I also don't much care about the whole selling my art part either. I make art. I write. I sometimes sew and make costumes. I tend to give stuff away a lot. I think art is about sharing but I am LUCKY enough to be in a position where I can do this and I know it. I don't need to eat from my art which is a luxury. ( I am a kept woman otherwise known as le housewife) Right now I am trying to write a book. I'm fighting with it mostly because I am like a magpie and am easily distracted by the shiny. We'll see. The book is in my brain burning up braincells so it wants to be written but it just needs to find its voice, the right voice.

I also have some seriously choice words for the entertainment industry on copyright and internet suppression and so on but I will have to sit and think on how I wish to word that particular rant. in the mean time... here's a nice picture for you all to enjoy.

Neverwhere

We went to London.
There is a bottomless well of words for our trip but I won't be able to sift through them for a while.
We stayed with friends and it was incredibly nice.
Earl's Court was on the list.
MindtheGap is in my nightmares.
I am reminded of my past much more than my future when I am there.
It's all tube lines and twisty steps filled with exhaust and culture, and things that are hundreds of years old muddled in with the modern.

I love going to London.

pictures to follow....maybe.