Life in a Northern Town

Show opening tonight!

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:35:01 GMT

Hey, 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.

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What I’m up to

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:58:16 GMT

A 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.

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Page count

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:36:08 GMT

In my year-long to-do list (yes, I have one of those), March is labeled "Kismet". My goal for the month is 50 pages, penciled and inked, though probably not colored. That'll give me a year of weekly updates. It sounds like a lot, and it may end up being an unrealistic goal, but I'm starting to realize that sometimes it's good to challenge myself. And it's been awhile since I've regularly, consistently done comics. I'm sort of curious how fast I'm going to be once I settle into it.

I know it's technically still February, but I started penciling tonight, so hey! Progress bars.

Pages penciled:

1 / 50 pages. 2% done!

Pages inked:

0 / 50 pages. 0% done!

Pages colored:

0 / 50 pages. 0% done!

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January Sketch Fest

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:42:24 GMT

Sketch Fest is currently ongoing (until Sunday at noon, Alaska time – check your local time) for any interested artists among you! I spent this afternoon at ellenmillion‘s, doing Sketchfest art and playing with her unbelievably cute baby. (Seriously, I think what she claims is a baby is in fact an actor hired to play a cute baby, because I don’t think they come this naturally adorable.) I’ve finished two sketches so far, for the prompts Red heart turning blue and Flower fairy based on a flesh-eating plant.

Crossposted to Wordpress, Livejournal and Dreamwidth. Comment wherever you like.

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What I did today

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:45:37 GMT

So how did I spend my Thanksgiving? I’ve been painting handmade cards and bookmarks to sell at the Fox Lions Holiday Bazaar this weekend.

This is a “test the waters” kind of thing, because I haven’t done a craft show before (comic conventions, yes, but this is my first time having a table at an art/craft venue) and I honestly have no idea how well they’ll sell. I’ve actually never tried to sell my art as art before. All the art I’ve done professionally has been for commercial illustration (and occasionally one-shot gifts for people). So this is a new thing for me!

Originally published at Layla's Wordpress blog. You can comment here or there.

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How about a giant strawberry?

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:01:46 GMT

So, one of the reasons I'm feeling massively accomplished this week is that I finally got my welding project done for the sculpture class.

( Pictures of a very big strawberry under the cut )

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Note to self

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:13:02 GMT

Do not use food-quality saucepan to melt crayons for encaustic wax painting. (... what? We're reading about encaustic painting in the chapter on Roman art, and I thought, hmm, that looks interesting, and hmm, crayons are made out of wax ...)

They do melt down nicely. But damn, they're hard to get off stainless steel. *scrubs*

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