Friday Freewrite
Jul. 5th, 2013 04:00 pmI posted a freewriting prompt at my romance-writing blog: Drawing on skin. (Because I have to do something with that blog, and I don't often have anything new to announce ...)
Come to find out, once you have a primary Gmail account (which, basically, happens automatically the first time you create a gmail account; I don't recall being given a choice about it) ... you can't change it. At all. Ever. So my new gmail email, which is the one that I want to use for G+ and everything else ... NOPE, SORRY, CAN'T DO THAT. And you can't associate a second Google email with a G+ account. This is in spite of the fact that I didn't even HAVE a gmail until I created one for chatting about a month ago; I was using a third-party email address just fine.
AAARGH.
AAARGH.
All the social media
Jun. 29th, 2013 12:00 amToday has been a "get my social media whipped into shape" day.
I have a new front page for my website (let me know if anything is horribly broken in your browser; it looks fine in all my test browsers, but I am always distrustful of my custom CSS) and I've (kinda) gotten my usernames streamlined in various places. I broke down and signed up for Twitter like a good lemming. *cries* Because "laylalawlor" (my usual default go-to username) was taken on both Twitter and Gmail, I am Layla_in_Alaska on Twitter, and I changed my Tumblr to laylainalaska to match. And I'm now layla.in.alaska on Gmail too, though I don't use it much.
As far as Tumblr goes, I think the Avengers fanpocalypse is done; it's safe to continue following me now. *g* I should've just created a separate fandom Tumblr for that sort of thing and I probably will do so if I ever get another wild hare to suddenly reblog ALL THE SPOILERS like I was doing with Iron Man for awhile. Anyway, I do want to start using my Tumblr a little more for its original intended purpose: posting pictures and bits of things in progress. With occasional reblogs of things I find cool, interesting, enlightening, or shiny.
So here is where you can find/follow me:
• Layla_in_Alaska on Twitter
• laylainalaska on Tumblr
• And I'm Layla Lawlor on Facebook -- there's more than one of us (HOW???) so I'm the one with a sunset picture as my icon.
Let me know who you are, so that I can follow you back. :) I still don't know how extensively I'll use Twitter; based upon my usage of Tumblr, it'll probably be intermittent and mainly used for lurking, but I have good intentions, at least!
Still trying to figure out what to do with Wordpress. I don't think, at this point, that I want to have my main blog located there -- I can only juggle so many sites before my brain falls out on my keyboard. Right now I'm leaning towards using Wordpress for posting comics, having my main blog located here on DW/LJ, and setting up the comics to automatically crosspost here.
WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED.
I have a new front page for my website (let me know if anything is horribly broken in your browser; it looks fine in all my test browsers, but I am always distrustful of my custom CSS) and I've (kinda) gotten my usernames streamlined in various places. I broke down and signed up for Twitter like a good lemming. *cries* Because "laylalawlor" (my usual default go-to username) was taken on both Twitter and Gmail, I am Layla_in_Alaska on Twitter, and I changed my Tumblr to laylainalaska to match. And I'm now layla.in.alaska on Gmail too, though I don't use it much.
As far as Tumblr goes, I think the Avengers fanpocalypse is done; it's safe to continue following me now. *g* I should've just created a separate fandom Tumblr for that sort of thing and I probably will do so if I ever get another wild hare to suddenly reblog ALL THE SPOILERS like I was doing with Iron Man for awhile. Anyway, I do want to start using my Tumblr a little more for its original intended purpose: posting pictures and bits of things in progress. With occasional reblogs of things I find cool, interesting, enlightening, or shiny.
So here is where you can find/follow me:
• Layla_in_Alaska on Twitter
• laylainalaska on Tumblr
• And I'm Layla Lawlor on Facebook -- there's more than one of us (HOW???) so I'm the one with a sunset picture as my icon.
Let me know who you are, so that I can follow you back. :) I still don't know how extensively I'll use Twitter; based upon my usage of Tumblr, it'll probably be intermittent and mainly used for lurking, but I have good intentions, at least!
Still trying to figure out what to do with Wordpress. I don't think, at this point, that I want to have my main blog located there -- I can only juggle so many sites before my brain falls out on my keyboard. Right now I'm leaning towards using Wordpress for posting comics, having my main blog located here on DW/LJ, and setting up the comics to automatically crosspost here.
WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED.
(no subject)
Jun. 26th, 2013 10:51 pmThis is so cool: the Atlas of True Names. In a way, it takes our real world and makes a fantasy map out of it -- except it's all real!
Too bad they're sold out at the moment; I really want to buy one. Actually, I'm posting the link in part to remind myself to buy it when it's back in stock!
In other news, it was 93 degrees today -- I realize that the rest of the country is probably laughing at our pain, but look at it this way: most people in Alaska don't have air conditioning. I think I'm wilting.
In OTHER other news (but more important than my trivial stuff by far) DOMA IS DEAD, HOORAY! \o/ (And Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski recently became the third(?) Republican senator to come out in favor of marriage equality. Good for her!)
Too bad they're sold out at the moment; I really want to buy one. Actually, I'm posting the link in part to remind myself to buy it when it's back in stock!
In other news, it was 93 degrees today -- I realize that the rest of the country is probably laughing at our pain, but look at it this way: most people in Alaska don't have air conditioning. I think I'm wilting.
In OTHER other news (but more important than my trivial stuff by far) DOMA IS DEAD, HOORAY! \o/ (And Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski recently became the third(?) Republican senator to come out in favor of marriage equality. Good for her!)
Signal boosts
Jun. 14th, 2013 11:17 pm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ellenmillion's coloring book Kickstarter is blazing through the stretch goals! Five days to go ... consider tossing something into the hat if it sounds like your kind of thing!http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1624616265/fantastrix-a-coloring-book-for-so-called-grown-ups
And another fundraiser on IndieGoGo for Galaxion -- which I remember fondly from its early indie comic days in the 1990s! I'm delighted that she's still working on it! I need to dust off my old issues (it's been probably a decade since I last read them).
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/galaxion-volume-3?c=home
Monday (er, Tuesday) Melt
May. 14th, 2013 10:59 pmThings have FINALLY started to melt, and the snow is going fast! There's a wee bit of driveway flooding, though.
And my garden is not quite there yet, although you can finally see some of it.
But it's finally starting to look like spring around here!
And my garden is not quite there yet, although you can finally see some of it.
But it's finally starting to look like spring around here!
Monday Melt (*sob*)
May. 8th, 2013 05:52 pmOn Monday, we walked up the creek to check out a beaver dam about a mile and a half from the house.
... YES, IT STILL LOOKS LIKE THIS.
This is the beaver lake -- it's still completely frozen over, as you can see. That's the beaver house in the upper left quadrant of the picture, a little hump with tracks leading to and from it. I could see fresh beaver chew-marks on some of the trees, so they'd been out and about recently. Orion decided to try walking on the lake, but about three more steps after I took this picture, the 20 feet or so of snow in front of him abruptly settled 6 inches ... and we decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Here's a kinda neat picture of the sun setting over the creek ice as we were walking home (this is about 10 p.m. or thereabouts) - with obligatory dog, of course.
The entire walk was about two and a half hours, partly because we tried taking a "shortcut" on the (old abandoned) road behind the house, which is more direct than walking back on the meandering creek. Completely untraveled by anything other than moose, it was all knee-deep, heavy, wet snow. It was miserable to wade through; even the dog was tired. (Probably more tired than we were; his legs are shorter, so knee-deep snow on us is belly-deep on him.) And then we came around a bend, and there about 50 yards in front of us was a moose in the middle of the road. Moose can be nasty at any time of year, but spring is especially bad, when they're worn out from the long winter, hungry, and often pregnant. We very quietly backtracked around the bend, and, having little choice, struck out cross-country for the creek again.
We were very glad to get home. And even more glad, I guess, that it's staying light so late; doing the last part of the hike as a race against oncoming darkness would have been doubly miserable. It's not really getting dark anymore (dim, but not dark) and I've had to block the bedroom window with cardboard because the sun is waking me up at 5 a.m.
... YES, IT STILL LOOKS LIKE THIS.
This is the beaver lake -- it's still completely frozen over, as you can see. That's the beaver house in the upper left quadrant of the picture, a little hump with tracks leading to and from it. I could see fresh beaver chew-marks on some of the trees, so they'd been out and about recently. Orion decided to try walking on the lake, but about three more steps after I took this picture, the 20 feet or so of snow in front of him abruptly settled 6 inches ... and we decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Here's a kinda neat picture of the sun setting over the creek ice as we were walking home (this is about 10 p.m. or thereabouts) - with obligatory dog, of course.
The entire walk was about two and a half hours, partly because we tried taking a "shortcut" on the (old abandoned) road behind the house, which is more direct than walking back on the meandering creek. Completely untraveled by anything other than moose, it was all knee-deep, heavy, wet snow. It was miserable to wade through; even the dog was tired. (Probably more tired than we were; his legs are shorter, so knee-deep snow on us is belly-deep on him.) And then we came around a bend, and there about 50 yards in front of us was a moose in the middle of the road. Moose can be nasty at any time of year, but spring is especially bad, when they're worn out from the long winter, hungry, and often pregnant. We very quietly backtracked around the bend, and, having little choice, struck out cross-country for the creek again.
We were very glad to get home. And even more glad, I guess, that it's staying light so late; doing the last part of the hike as a race against oncoming darkness would have been doubly miserable. It's not really getting dark anymore (dim, but not dark) and I've had to block the bedroom window with cardboard because the sun is waking me up at 5 a.m.
Show opening tonight!
May. 3rd, 2013 12:34 pmHey, Fairbanks-area people: our show opens tonight! Nine Alaskan comics and fine artists will be at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine on Davis Road from 5-8 p.m. We will have tables set up throughout the building with books, art, gifts and more. There’s free food — if no one comes, we’ll have to eat it all ourselves! And free wine — if no one comes, we’ll have to drink it all ourselves. (And trust me, no one wants to see that.)
If you can’t make it on Friday, the art show will be up throughout the months of May and June, and the AK Center for Natural Medicine has kindly offered to host a small display of our books as well, so you can browse them there and buy them if you like what you see!
And now I am off to print more Freebird comics, which I plan to stick into every available scrap of gallery space. *g*
Crossposted from Wordpress.
Wednesday reading rec
May. 1st, 2013 01:10 pmIt's Wednesday again (how???) and that means time for a reading recommendation! (The way the entire rest of the blogosphere is doing this meme, people blog about what they were reading the past week. I tried it, but I ended up talking about a lot of books I hadn't much liked, and that wasn't fun. So I decided to recommend something instead, preferably something a little less-known rather than something the entire Internet is already talking about. Discussion and spoilers in comments are entirely welcome!)
This Wednesday I bring you All the Flavors by Ken Liu (subtitled "A Tale of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, in America"). This is a Nebula-nominated novella that's online for free. It's set in Idaho in the latter half of the 19th century, and ... well, the really dull way to describe it, I guess, is that it deals with the tensions between Chinese immigrant workers and the white migrants who make up the bulk of the Idaho City population circa 1865. Which makes it sound very heavy and serious. But, while there is obviously a dark undercurrent (the brutal racism of the times is not downplayed), it's much more than that; it's a lovely, lively novella full of vivid characters, with a subtle magical element woven throughout.
This Wednesday I bring you All the Flavors by Ken Liu (subtitled "A Tale of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, in America"). This is a Nebula-nominated novella that's online for free. It's set in Idaho in the latter half of the 19th century, and ... well, the really dull way to describe it, I guess, is that it deals with the tensions between Chinese immigrant workers and the white migrants who make up the bulk of the Idaho City population circa 1865. Which makes it sound very heavy and serious. But, while there is obviously a dark undercurrent (the brutal racism of the times is not downplayed), it's much more than that; it's a lovely, lively novella full of vivid characters, with a subtle magical element woven throughout.
Happy May everyone. *sob*
May. 1st, 2013 12:17 pmThis is my garden this morning.
Do you see a garden? ME NEITHER.
... Yes, I know I'm being very whiny about this spring. At least it's not all in my head. April's average high temperatures in Fairbanks were 15 degrees (!!!) below the normal averages. Looking at pictures I took on April 1st, I really don't think there is much less snow now than there was then.
I have been joking with Orion that we had "second March" this year. But, honestly, aren't we about due for some spring weather by now?
In other news, we hung the show at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine last night, and it is going to be GREAT! The venue is a really neat place, with lots of twisty winding corridors and lounge areas and nifty little alcoves, and they are super supportive of us. On Friday evening, we will have a regular little comics convention there, with a half-dozen Fairbanks and Alaskan artists including me,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellenmillion, and Jamie Smith. There will be cheese and crackers and wine!
Do you see a garden? ME NEITHER.
... Yes, I know I'm being very whiny about this spring. At least it's not all in my head. April's average high temperatures in Fairbanks were 15 degrees (!!!) below the normal averages. Looking at pictures I took on April 1st, I really don't think there is much less snow now than there was then.
I have been joking with Orion that we had "second March" this year. But, honestly, aren't we about due for some spring weather by now?
In other news, we hung the show at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine last night, and it is going to be GREAT! The venue is a really neat place, with lots of twisty winding corridors and lounge areas and nifty little alcoves, and they are super supportive of us. On Friday evening, we will have a regular little comics convention there, with a half-dozen Fairbanks and Alaskan artists including me,
ellenmillion, and Jamie Smith. There will be cheese and crackers and wine!Also, Kismet
Apr. 25th, 2013 11:18 pmForgot to mention Kismet in my previous list of done-dids and to-be-dones ... My March push to "just get the pages drawn already!" resulted in 13 pages penciled and inked, plus the 2 pages that I still had left over from last summer. These pages are all scanned and lettered, but I haven't even started coloring them yet. I'd still like to get a bigger page buffer finished before I start updating again, but it IS on the horizon! (And mostly, I'm holding off because once I start again, I don't want to stop until I finish Sun-Cutter -- which is projected to be about 150-200 pages, significantly shorter than Hunter's Moon, but still a couple more years.)
I have to say, though, that working on Kismet again was awfully fun. I really did miss it.
I have to say, though, that working on Kismet again was awfully fun. I really did miss it.
What I’m up to
Apr. 25th, 2013 07:58 pmA lot, it seems!
First of all, I’m in an art show that opens in May! The opening is a First Friday event on May 3rd from 5-8 p.m. (although the show will be up all summer). It’s a comics-themed show at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine — which might sound like an unusual place for a gallery show, but it’s an absolutely beautiful space, with lots of little corridors and nooks and crannies for art to hang in. The show itself is like a who’s who of Alaskan cartoonists and purveyors of fantasy-themed art, including myself, Ellen Million, Jamie Smith, Chad Carpenter, and Anchorage editorial cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl. I’ll mention it again closer to the show itself.
(Oh my, preparing for the show has been a nonstop comedy of errors. At the moment, after purchasing a number of cheap frames so that everything would match, I’ve just discovered that a double-thick mat doesn’t fit in the frame style, so one of my pieces of art is going to need a different, non-matching frame. FAIL.)
By the way, I have NOT forgotten about all of you who expressed interest in my watercolor cards! The main problem is that I haven’t made much more progress (on either painting more cards, or putting together a website ordering system), but I’m getting some cards together to (attempt to) sell at the opening, and after that I will focus on getting a catalog up on my website and contacting the people who had expressed interest. Thank you again for your interest and enthusiasm, and I’m terribly sorry I’ve been such a sloth about it.
On a slightly different front, my romance-writing alias Layla M. Wier has been busy. I’m starting to wonder if there’s even the slightest point in having a separate alias for that, because as it turns out, what I’m writing under that alias is basically indistinguishable from everything else I write, except for the way it’s marketed. On the other hand, the categorization split is unexpectedly useful for my work ethic. (“Today I’m working on Layla Wier’s stuff; tomorrow I’m doing Layla Lawlor” is how the thought process goes, and as bizarre as it sounds, it’s actually helpful.) As “Layla Wier”, here’s what I have for sale and upcoming:
- One of my short stories appears in the anthology Snow on the Roof from Dreamspinner Press (m/m anthology about men over 40).
- I will have a story — actually more of a novelette — forthcoming in July in Storm Moon Press’s Big Damn Heroines anthology (see their fantastic cover!), about plus-sized women kicking ass. This story is adventure fantasy with f/f and f/m pairings on the side. The anthology releases on July 12; I’ll have more info and a preview when it’s for sale!
- I just sold a novella, Homespun, to Dreamspinner Press. This will probably be out in October or November, and I’ll post more info (the cover, etc) when I have it. I’m thoroughly delighted that this one sold, though I was (pleasantly!) surprised that DSP bought it, because it isn’t really their usual fare: both the main couple are middle-aged and have been together for 20 years, and the viewpoint rotates between the two of them and a third major POV character who is female. It’s not a story about falling in love; it’s a story about growing up and growing old and dealing with family and community along the way. And also, it’s about a sheep farm; I am embarrassed to admit how many books on sheep and fiber spinning I bought for “research”.
- Also, I made a blog post over there on writing what you love that I meant to crosspost here and never got around to it. Oops.
And that’s what I’m up to! Oh, and I also need to get another round of agent submissions going for my urban fantasy novel. (Yes, I’m still at it; no, I still haven’t placed it anywhere, but that’s partly because I haven’t sent out more submissions in … uh, awhile. It’ll never sell if it never gets sent out, though.)
Crossposted from Wordpress.
Wednesday reading rec
Apr. 24th, 2013 09:17 pmThis week it's a link to ... well, I don't know what you'd call it -- an article, a nonfiction novella? Anyway, it's online and it's free.
Out in the Great Alone by Brian Phillips: the author (city born and bred) becomes fascinated with the Iditarod so he decides to travel to Alaska and watch the entire race, all 1000 miles of it, from a small plane. This is his account of his adventures, an outsider's-eye view of Alaska that is, I have to admit, disturbingly accurate -- from the unique blue color of the long winter twilight, to the way that rural people are so unused to strangers that they don't quite know how to cope with having another human being in their space. It's not a deep memoir full of philosophical insights, but rather a lightweight, amusing and fun travelogue.
Here, for example, his bush pilot/guide is teaching him how to land on a frozen lake in the event of an emergency. (Nugget is the name of the airplane.)
( Excerpt under cut )
... which gives you a pretty good idea what the whole thing is like. It's also full of interesting details, historical and otherwise, about the race and the little towns along the way; I learned a few things I didn't know.
Out in the Great Alone by Brian Phillips: the author (city born and bred) becomes fascinated with the Iditarod so he decides to travel to Alaska and watch the entire race, all 1000 miles of it, from a small plane. This is his account of his adventures, an outsider's-eye view of Alaska that is, I have to admit, disturbingly accurate -- from the unique blue color of the long winter twilight, to the way that rural people are so unused to strangers that they don't quite know how to cope with having another human being in their space. It's not a deep memoir full of philosophical insights, but rather a lightweight, amusing and fun travelogue.
Here, for example, his bush pilot/guide is teaching him how to land on a frozen lake in the event of an emergency. (Nugget is the name of the airplane.)
( Excerpt under cut )
... which gives you a pretty good idea what the whole thing is like. It's also full of interesting details, historical and otherwise, about the race and the little towns along the way; I learned a few things I didn't know.
Inching towards spring
Apr. 20th, 2013 05:40 pmStill waiting for progress to occur on the “melting” front. Walking the dog last night, I noticed the setting sun glinting rather beautifully off the snowbanks along the driveway, although by the time I ran and got my camera it had mostly set:
(This was about 10 p.m. — we have a lot of light, at least.)
And here’s a picture I took today of water pooling on the creek ice:
It’s 40 degrees today and feels wonderful. Hopefully we’ll lose this snow quickly now that it’s getting warmer.
Crossposted from Wordpress.
An interesting photo series
Apr. 12th, 2013 10:56 amIf you had to flee your house and country forever, and could only take one thing with you, what would it be? This photo essay poses refugees with their most important possession.
Now here's what I did, and what I recommend doing: before you click on the link, think about it. If you had to flee forever, what would be the first thing you'd grab, and the thing you'd want to keep with you? Because I think it's kind of an illuminating look into our lives, and here's what I realized after I did it and then looked at the pictures (and if you're going to play along at home, I recommend picking your "important thing" before you click on the cut).
( Continued under cut )
Now here's what I did, and what I recommend doing: before you click on the link, think about it. If you had to flee forever, what would be the first thing you'd grab, and the thing you'd want to keep with you? Because I think it's kind of an illuminating look into our lives, and here's what I realized after I did it and then looked at the pictures (and if you're going to play along at home, I recommend picking your "important thing" before you click on the cut).
( Continued under cut )
Snoooooooooooo
Apr. 9th, 2013 02:32 pmToday's cheery glimpse of spring:
The picture doesn't really give you the full effect because it didn't capture the falling snow, which was coming down pretty hard when I took it. Still, you can tell by comparing it to the one taken from the same angle a week ago that spring is not exactly proceeding forward here.
On a more genuinely cheerful note, I discovered this Croatian illustrator's gorgeous art -- definitely worth taking a look if you like lavishly detailed pen-and-ink art. The precision and shading is really incredible.
The picture doesn't really give you the full effect because it didn't capture the falling snow, which was coming down pretty hard when I took it. Still, you can tell by comparing it to the one taken from the same angle a week ago that spring is not exactly proceeding forward here.
On a more genuinely cheerful note, I discovered this Croatian illustrator's gorgeous art -- definitely worth taking a look if you like lavishly detailed pen-and-ink art. The precision and shading is really incredible.
Monday (un)Melt
Apr. 8th, 2013 01:50 pmYay, it's Monday again! Let's see how spring is coming alo--
... oh. Oh dear.
Yeah, if anything there's more snow than there was last week, because it's been below freezing all week and now it's snowing again.
Here's a different but no less depressing part of the driveway:
And under the cut, a few nostalgic comparative looks back at Aprils when we actually had some semblance of a spring by the second Monday in the month.
( *sob* )
... oh. Oh dear.
Yeah, if anything there's more snow than there was last week, because it's been below freezing all week and now it's snowing again.
Here's a different but no less depressing part of the driveway:
And under the cut, a few nostalgic comparative looks back at Aprils when we actually had some semblance of a spring by the second Monday in the month.
( *sob* )
