Posted by bzedan on May 21, 2024
Yikes, whoops! I lost a bit of time there. I've been mainlining Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda because a mutual on Tumblr recently re-read it and there is something wonderful about how it can take an hour to read a middle grade book. I've also been doing a lot of Stardew Valley (first playthrough!) which is nice and gives me little quests to fill and I need that sense of control rn.
Other things!
Decorated some cheap frames to so that we could add some prints to our Ladies & Lizards salon wall. I feel like I've shared this process somewhere before but who knows where. You basically glue things onto frames, paint them black then gold, then a wash of black and BAM: fancy. Here's one (chain pushed into hot glue then removed, for texture), framing Saint Garfield and the Dragon by Dave Rapoza.
ID: A hand holding an "aged gold" shadowbox-style frame with a organic-looking filigree around its narrow edge. The image inside is of St George and the Dragon but it's Garfield and Odie, respectively. End ID.
Am poking at making screen tones inspired by medieval tile, I guess! Here's the first try: from an edge pattern at Byland Abbey.
ID: A digital canvas in a drawing program, showing a photo of simple, old tile patterns, captioned in messy handwriting "Glazed tiles, Byland Abbey." An arrow points to a blown-up pixel imitation of an alternating tall and short diamond pattern from the photo, but now tiled. Below that in green are two screentone swatches in green. They are (though they're screentones so its hard to tell), that diamond pattern. End ID.
In theory I'm supposed to be focusing on writing this year but outside of scheduled challenges it's been, haha, a challenge. Before I just pick up a Storytelling Co class to force myself to focus (Gothic Romance or Sword and Sorcery?!) I've been returning to Wonderbook and the writing challenges in it. I mean also I am writing a newsletter so that's a hefty chunk of text a month just, not on the other projects yet.
I'm playing with the idea of serialising The Audacity Gambit? Would that even be worth it? I don't know. It's an old story! But fuck it, right? I've been reading a lot of serialised fiction lately and I kind of love it as a way to share stories in a way that kind of bypasses self-pub and trad pub paths. I don't knowwwww. Really what I need to do is submit The Consoling Divide to a few more agents and try the whole "submit short stories" thing that I just, hate doing. Back half of the year! Yeah! A good goal.
Anyway, thank you for sticking with me as ever!
Crossposted to Patreon