In Lieu of Flowers

Rowena's dad's wake was today, and I didn't make it down to Victoria. I've been trying to come up with a few words for days and days and am forced to conclude once again that there are no words. Or not the right ones. But I will try anyway.

When I was a teenager and young adult, most of my friend's parents didn't like me. One girl's dad said I was "spooky" because I hardly talked. I was debilitatingly shy (I grew out of it, mostly). Rowena's parents, on the other hand, always made me feel welcome, fed me delicious food, and never made me feel like I was required to say anything. Which is maybe why I need to find these words now.

I didn't really know Rowena's dad very well (which may be why I always seem to refer to him as "Rowena's dad" instead of "Mr Hart"), but I remember him as a man who told the coolest stories. Stories about eating ants in the jungle, about finding a shoe--complete with foot--while dredging a river, about poaching pheasants at night with a flashlight and a loop of copper wire. Most of the stories were told at the dinner table, and I thought it was cool that at Rowena's house dinnertime conversation covered topics most people wouldn't touch on while eating. I think, I hope, that Rowena's dad thought better of me because I wasn't bothered by curry with morbid stories.

It's a cliché, maudlin even, to say that the best a person can do with their life is to leave the world a better place than when they entered it, but I do think it's true. And Rowena's dad did leave the world a better place--for me, at least. I don't tend to believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, I'm sure Mr Hart is keeping all the other dead people amused with his stories. And if you happen to encounter a bit of pheasant poaching or a shoe with a dead foot inside in one of my stories, don't blame me.

"Fleeing Arcadia" page 2

Yes, it's that time of the week again--time for a new page of Fey: Fleeing Arcadia, page 2. Incidentally, regular readers (or not) may want to refer back to page 2 of "Drawing Borders" (i.e. the regular series) before reading "Fleeing Arcadia." (Yes, I should have mentioned this last week.) It's not at all necessary, just fun for those who like connections.

Fey: "Fleeing Arcadia"

As I mentioned last week, I'm taking a bit of time to get ahead on the main Fey storyline, "Drawing Borders," so in the meantime I'm running a short (graphic) story. Only one person voted on whether to run a Sorcha-meets-Megan story or an ancient-Greece-with-satyrs story, so Sue gets her way, and satyrs it is. Here: Fey: "Fleeing Arcadia," page 1. (Hand-lettered, no less!) (You can probably see why I decided to PhotoShop-letter "Drawing Borders.")

I Submit an Update

Right, so I blogged a while back about the various things I'd submitted various places. Here's what's come back so far:

• SciFiction sent back a rejection for "King of Kings, Master of Camels," with the lower limit of 2,000 words on the guidelines circled. Note to self: follow your own advice and do not merely read the guidelines, but follow them. I'll probably send it off to F&SF next. Mostly because I like the title.
  
• F&SF sent back a rejection for "Caught on Thorns," handsigned by Assistant Editor John Joseph Adams (aka The Slush God). This is a big step up from a photocopied generic rejection, but still a rejection. (A somewhat better sign is that I haven't had a non-hand-signed rejection from F&SF since the first few stories I sent them way back when.)
  
• Strange Horizons emailed a rejection for my poem "Steampunk Undersea." I really like this poem, for some reason (mostly I love my poetry dearly when I first write it, and then soon realize what awful drivel it is). The Science Fiction Poetry Association has a links page that lists plenty more markets for SF poetry, so I'll send it out a few more times, at least. Maybe to Asimov's once they're done rejecting "Hollow Bones."

So now I've got to get those pieces on their way out somewhere else, and get editing the other stuff I've written, and get it out, and so on.

Edit: Just sent "Steampunk" in as an e-sub to Sidereality.

NaNoNews

It finally occurred to me what I should tackle during this year's NaNoWriMo: The Madness of Kentaurs. It's a YA novel I started working on ages ago, but abandoned because I got too bogged down in taking notes and figuring things out, and lost track of the characters. I only ever wrote the first couple of chapters (and they were short). Madness is an alternate-world fantasy that has some resemblance to the Classical world. The centaurs are sort of cognate to the ancient Greeks (hence the spelling "kentaurs"), and the humans are sort of like the Romans. But not really. I think I got too caught up in the correspondences last time. I won't have time to do that in November. I may blog the novel at Blogger's NaNoBlogMo, but I haven't decided yet. I'm not sure I want anyone staring at my naked prose.

Niko's Toy Clothes

eBay item 5927894422: hakama and gi 12" action figures martial arts 1/6 scale

Latest Reading, Little and Much

Just occurred to me as I wrote that title, that both Little and Much are characters in the Robin Hood legends--Little John and Much the miller's son. Weird. Anyway, it's been a while since I last blathered on about what I've been reading, so here's the latest.

Fiction:

39. Five Weeks in A Balloon by Jules Verne. More in my League of Extraordinary Books reading. The more I read Jules Verne, the more I like. Five Weeks started out mostly description and travelogue, with little action, but there was actually quite a bit of action by the end. I think the real attraction of Verne's books is not so much the story (there isn't much tesion or conflict, and really only a basic plot). It's not even the characters, really, though their relationships are interesting--especially the extent of the loyalty between friends. You don't see that kind of selflessness much in more recent fiction. What really seems to catch me, anyway, are the fascinating speculations. Some science ficiton has been criticized for putting ideas before people, but Verne's are so fascinating that it hardly matters, especially considering a lot of the things he wrote about weren't invented at the time he wrote them, but do exist now. He's one of the few SF writers who can really be said to have predicted the future (or some of it), rather than just speculated on what it might be like. He'd probably say that that was because he very
    carefully worked out the science. Anyway, it also helps that the writing itself (or maybe the translation) is smooth and very readable.
    
40. The Widow of Jerusalem by Alan Gordon. I'm still really enamoured with the idea of a secret society of fools and troubadors, working towards peace in the medieval world. Jesters as secret agents. Very cool. This volume fills in some of the backstory of the main character. I don't know how accurate the depiction of the Holy Land during the Crusades is, but nothing has jumped out as being wrong. It seems to me that the story is based on solid research, which is just the kind of historical tale I like. Fabrication is all very fine, but somehow a good story is that much better when you know (or are confident enough in the author to suppose) that the details are accurate. Erm, anyway, it's a good book. A rousing yarn. Intrigue and juggling, tumbling of various kinds, a little bit of theivery. Assasins, kings, queens . . .
    
41. The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. I thought it might be a good thing to add some contemporary steampunk to my League of Extraordinary Books reading. After all, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is contemporary steampunk (among other things, I suppose). I'd read William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine some time ago, and loved it. So I dug out a list of steampunk I'd made ages ago, from a website I couldn't find again, and I signed out everything the library had. Which wasn't much, but it was a short list. And I began to read with The Cyberiad. I don't really know that I'd have classified this collection of stories about two robotic "constructors," Trurl and Klapaucius, as steampunk. Then again, I don't really know what else it could be classified as, and classification really doesn't matter in the end. The stories are odd, fable-like, science fantasy tales about improbable machines and strange kingdoms in the far reaches of space. The real fun of the stories is the author's love of language--especially scientific and mathematical language--which comes through even in translation (from Polish). It was a bit of a slow read due to the complexity of the language (though not as slow or as dense as something by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for example), but a lot of fun. I can see why many people see Lem's work as classic, and Lem as one of the few "literary" sf writers.
    

Non-Fiction:

49. Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono. This is one of those "been meaning to read for ages" books. I finally got it from the library when I got those samurai-related books I blogged about last time. While it didn't have as much detail as I'd have liked--I wanted more on the mythology and ritual--this was a good basic overview of Japan's indigenous religion. I did get very irritated by the frequent mentions of Shinto as a "racial religion," but it was written during the fifties (I think), when even scholars still got race and culture mixed up, or thought race and culture were somehow inextricable, or thought race was a valid scientific concept at all.
    
50. The Jules Verne Companion edited by Peter Haining. More League of Extraordinary Books reading. This book has all kinds of strange and interesting stuff in it, from a Jules Verne story, to appreciations of Verne by various contemporaries (like H.G. Wells), to a "phone call to the dead" between Verne's alleged spirit and Erich Von Daniken. Also, it has lots of covers and other illustrations from various editions of Verne's works, and a bibliography.
    
51. The Book of Kimono by Norio Yamanaka. I got this one to help me work out some of the details in my 1/6 scale samurai outfits for action figures. Not only was it helpful for that, but it turned out to be a fascinating book on its own. Lots of interesting history, and other stuff.
    

Sequential Art:

77. The Great Walls of Samaris by Schuiten and Peeters. A rather slender book, but in the large format that seems to be preferred by European graphic novel publishers. This is a beautiful, beautiful book, a story about a strange city and a man who goes there to find its secret. There isn't a lot I can say without spoiling the story, but if this is typical of French comics work, I'm going to have to find some more French comics. It appears to be volume 2 of a series of fantastic stories. I'll have to see if I can find out more.
    
78. Scary Godmother: The Mystery Date (volume 2, I think) by Jill Thompson. This is a very, very fun book. It's kind of part picture book, part graphic novel, gorgeously illustrated, with great characters. The main character is a little girl who can get into another world via her bedroom closet (with a little help from the monster under the bed). Over there, she has a Scary Godmother, a boy vampire best friend, and adventures with monsters. It's aimed at kids, I think, but it's one of those books adults will get a lot out of, too.
    
79. Parasyte volume 8 by Hitosi Iwaaki.
    
80. Eerie Queerie! volume 1 by Shun Shiozu. Kind of an unfortunate title, though it is the sort of pun manga often has in its Japanese titles. The original title translates as Ghost!, I think. Anyway, it's about a boy who can see ghosts, and who keeps getting possessed by ghosts wanting to settle their affaris in the world so they can pass on. Except he always seems to be possessed by female ghosts who want to work things out with men. Leading to various embarrassing situations for the poor schoolboy protagonist. It might have been another of those silly sit-com comics, except the main character discovers he might actually have real feelings for one of the boys he meets while possessed by an amourous female ghost. Er. I haven't really described it very well. I picked it up out of idle curiosity, having heard fairly favourable things, and ended up quite engrossed. I'll be looking out for more volumes.
    
81. Love Fights volume 1 by Andi Watson. I read Watson's Skeleton Key ages ago, but haven't read anything of his since. I don't know why, as I quite liked Skeleton Key (even though I seem to have traded in my copy of the graphic novel, for what reason I know not). Love Fights is about ordinary people in a city full of superheroes. Also it's about creating comics (in this book, all the comics are licensed propaganda machines for the various superheroes, which must be not unlike working for one of the Big Publishers). And it's a love story. The art is sketchy and rendered in flat blacks and greys, mostly, which suits the mood of the story. Of course, this volume ends after a falling out between the two main characters, so I'm going to have to look for volume 2.
    
82. Fushigi Yugi volume 1 by Yu Watase. This book falls in the "girl falls into alternate historical/mythic world" genre, but the interesting characters, beautiful art, and fascinating detail keep it from being . . . er, generic. I think this is considered one of the classics, though I haven't looked at the publication date to see when it first came out (and I'm too lazy to go look now). Anyway, it's yet another series I'll be continuing to read.
    
83. Maison Ikkoku: Good Housekeeping (volume 4) by Rumiko Takahashi.
    
84. Parasyte volume 9 by Hitosi Iwaaki.
    
85. Chrono Crusade volume 1 by Daisuke Moriyama. I'd read a bit of Chrono
    Crusade in Newtype USA (a massive 200-page monthly anime news magazine that is partly responsible for my lack of non-comics reading lately). It was fun, so I thought I'd see how I liked a bigger chunk of the story. Not only was it just as fun, I was a little surprised (why, I don't know, really) to find quite a lot of depth to the characters and story. I'll have to keep reading to find out what happens to these people (the demon Chrono, in particular). I'll probably have a look at the anime, too.
    
86. Parasyte volume 10 by Hitosi Iwaaki.
    
87. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2 by Alan Moore. Yay! More League. This time Moore works in The War of the Worlds and some of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars stuff (on my list of things to read), and some members of the League die or quit along the way, which makes me wonder what can possibly happen in volume 3. While I devoured the comics part of the book, the big text section--a travel guide to the weird world--took me a long time (partly because I kept forgetting where I'd set down the book). The text section manages to work in just about every book of the fantastic up to the late (?) Victorian period (when League is set). It's very cool, but adds a whole lot more stuff to my League of Extraordinary Books reading. Not that I mind.
    
88. The Complete Geisha by Andi Watson. More Andi Watson! This one's about an android raised as human and her attempt to make it as an artist, despite anti-android
    prejudice. She ends up working as a bodyguard for her dad's company, adding some ass-kicking to the story. Interestingly, though the science-fiction elements were necessary for the protagonist to have to fight discrimination, it was so far in the background the story could almost have happened without it. In other words, if you've avoided reading it because it's science fiction (which is a dumb, but not uncommon, reason for not reading things), then read it anyway. The sf is hardly there.
    
89. Cowboy Bebop volume 1 by Yutake Nanten. I've been meaning to write a post about novels/movies/novelizations and manga/anime/manga-izations, partly based on my thoughts about this book. So maybe I won't commment on Cowboy Bebop, except to say that it was fun, but not very satisfying, and I think I'd probably like the anime better.
    
90. Lenore: Wedgies (volume 2, I think) by Roman Dirge. This was a cheap-on-eBay find. Nice art and fun stories, but probably not something I'll spend a lot of money on. Maybe if I'd read right from the beginning I'd have found more depth, but as it is, I didn't see much substance here. I'm keeping the book, though, and will reserve judgement. I might very well be hooked by this series once I've read more.
    
91. Maison Ikkoku: Bedside Manners (volume 6) by Rumiko Takahashi. Argh. The library doesn't have volume 5, so I had to skip from 4 straight to 6. I probably didn't miss a whole lot, but still . . .
    
92. Parasyte volume 11 by Hitosi Iwaaki.
    
93. Inu-Yasha volume 6 by Rumiko Takahashi. I got a lot of Inu-Yasha cheap on eBay, so there are a few volumes on the list this time.
    
94. Inu-Yasha volume 7 by Rumiko Takahashi.
    
95. Inu-Yasha volume 8 by Rumiko Takahashi.
    
96. Inu-Yasha volume 9 by Rumiko Takahashi.
    
97. Inu-Yasha volume 10 by Rumiko Takahashi.
    
98. The Heart of the Beast by Dean Motter, Judith Dupré, and Sean Phillips. This was another booked I picked up on a whim, and I'm really glad I did. The art is gorgeous watercolours, which mostly works--the inclusion of photographic elements sometimes looks cool, and sometimes just looks out of place. The story is sort of a continuation of Frakenstein, but it's so well plotted that you (or I, anyway) only realize this gradually, which adds a tremendous amount to the impact of the story. I sort of wanted a longer lead-up to the characters falling in love, as it seemed to happen a little too quickly, but I also realize that that might have thrown off the timing otherwise.
    
99. Parasyte volume 12 by Hitosi Iwaaki. This is the final volume (for once, the library actually had the whole series). I'm thinking I might have to buy this series. I'm not really a big horror fan, but I'll happily stick with a creepy story that has good characterization. I was pleased to find that Parasyte continued to focus on the main character(s). Even when there was a lot of action and gore, it was about the characters coping with and/or responding to the action and gore, and never about the action and gore for action and gore's sake (can I fit "action and gore" into that sentence one more time?). Anyway, it's a good story that I'll read again if I can find it cheap (getting it from the library again might be too much effort--all that requesting and waiting and discovering that volume 10 was mis-catalogued as volume 8).
    
100. Bone: The Great Cow Race (volume 2) by Jeff Smith. Although I really do like Bone, I'm not really sure why so many people rave about it. It's good, yes. I'd recommend it, yes. But I don't think it's one of the best comics ever. But anyway, this volume was much fun, with more hints of dark things to come. Epic fantasy in comics form and all. I must remember to request the next volume from the library.
     
101. Inu-Yasha volume 11 by Rumiko Takahashi.
     
102. Inu-Yasha volume 12 by Rumiko Takahashi.
     
103. The Five-Star Stories volume 1 by Mamoru Nagano. The gorgeous covers of this series have fascinated me for a long time. That and the fact that no one seems to carry it. I finally found it at Planet Anime, and they were having a graphic novel sale, so I picked up the first two volumes. The art is very nice. The backstory is very, very complex. I'm not sure yet if that's a good thing, a deepens the story as you figure it out thing, or if it's just a too confusing to deal with thing. I think it will be good. I have one more volume to read, after which I'll have to decide if I want to continue with it.
     
104. CLAMP School Detectives volume 1 by CLAMP. Finally, some CLAMP. It was inevitable, in a list this long, that there'd be CLAMP. I think this is my least favourite of everything I've read of CLAMP's. It's a cute detective series, where the detectives are three elementary students at a super-elite school. I enjoyed it, but for some reason it just isn't as engaging as their other stuff. It might be partly because of the young age of the protagonists (though that wasn't a problem in Cardcaptor Sakura). I do have a bit of trouble believing a ten-year-old is a chick magnet. Or it might be that none of the mysteries really seem to matter. Everthing and everyone is just so nice. Oh well, it's only a three-volume series, and I already have volume 2.
     
105. One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry. I found this on the shelf at the front of the library where they put new and popular books. Barry took the idea of painting 100 demons that she found in a book about Zen art, and combined it with autobiography to produce a book of engaging stories (there aren't 100 demons in it; I assume this is volume one, with more to come). The art is cartoony (the stories first appeared as comic strips at Salon.com), but suits the story perfectly. It makes me want to start drawing 100 demons of my own (which might make a good way to start out Into the Woods, though probably without the autobiography).
     
106. Maison Ikkoku: Intensive Care (volume 7) by Rumiko Takahashi.
     
107. Whoa Nellie! by Jaime Hernandez. I got a couple of these comics when they first came out (sort of a later spin-off of Love and Rockets), but there was one that I could never find, so I was happy to pick this book up on eBay. Women's wrestling and friendship, plus Jaime Hernandez's gorgeous black and white art. Very cool. I sat down and read it as soon as I got it out of the envelope.
     
108. CLAMP School Detectives volume 2 by CLAMP.
     

Well, if my other reading has slowed down (partly due to magazines), my comics reading has obviously kept on zooming along. Lots of manga still, but some other great stuff, too.

Fey page 22

It's up. Ignore the Geocities ad and it folds up small eventually (and soon I won't be using Geocities any more). Next week will be something slightly different, while I get caught up on outlining chapter 2 and get ahead a bit, so I won't have to worry about getting done on time every Friday. So if you'd prefer an 8-page story about why a certain family of satyrs left Greece back in the old, old, old days, or if you'd prefer to see an 8-page story about how Sorcha and Megan met, cast your vote in the comments. (Both stories are already done, so it doesn't matter to me, just so long as I have a few weeks to get ahead on "Drawing Borders.")

Bleary Emergency

Or maybe not. I haven't slept yet tonight (or this morning, either). I may not sleep until much later in the day. Darwin (my big boy greyhound) was a little restless this evening, but then he often is--especially if Bast (Her Highness, Fuzziest Cat in the Universe) decides it would be fun to gargoyle at him. She freaks him out. But around when I settled in to read a little before sleep, Darwin kept lying down for few minutes, then pacing, then lying down, then pacing. I took him out many times before I realized he wasn't going to do anything more than pee a little. I began to worry. I began to think bloat. He was licking his chops a lot. Dogs with bloat salivate more than normal. He did a few little pukes. Dogs with bloat retch. Bloat (aka gastric torsion) is a scary, scary thing, and greyhounds are rather more likely to get it than many other kinds of dogs. It can kill dogs fairly quickly. It can mean expensive surgery. Scary, scary, scary.

After waking my poor sister (er . . . do you have a test today, Sue?) to see if she knew any more about bloat than I do, we decided I should call the 24-hour emergency line at the vet's. Turns out, a 24-hour emergency line is really a call to find out the on-call vet's pager number line; you then call that and leave a message, then wait for the poor sod to wake up and call you back.

Anyway, he was really nice, and had me describe the symptoms. Just as I was doing so, Darwin threw up about a handful of soggy dog food. This is a good sign. With bloat, the vet assured me, the stomach twists (hence "torsion") so that the dog can swallow air in, but can't throw anything up (exept saliva or white foam--Darwin wasn't producing white foam). So the vet said I didn't need to bring him in, but to keep a close eye on him. He told me various things to watch for and what they might mean, and advised giving Darwin Pepto Bismol to help settle his tummy. I don't have any Pepto Bismol, and didn't ask for dosage on any of the other antacids mentioned, so now I have to google and see if I can find out if Rolaids are okay for dogs and how much I should give him.

So, phew. Probably just D's tummy objecting to me switching his brand of dog food.

RIP Superman

This time Superman really is dead. I just read that Christopher Reeve passed away on Sunday. As far as I'm concerned, he was Superman.

Good Choice / Bad Choice

Depending on how one looks at it, Kya: Dark Lineage could have been a very good buy, or a very bad one. It's good because it's fun, engaging, nice to look at -- all those things a good game should be (also occasionally frustrating as I'm not very skilled in controller manipulation). But it's bad because it had me up till 2am last night. "I'll just play until the next autosave." "I'll just play until I get back to the village." "I can't stop with this bit only half finished." "I'll just play until . . ." Until my eyes fall out, maybe. So far I've kept myself from playing today. Instead, I watched anime (first two eps of Yukikaze), and read Stanislaw Lem (The Cyberiad). Oh, and had a much-needed long hot soak in the tub (with Stanislaw Lem) (well, his book, anyway). Maybe tomorrow once all my work is done (or a good chunk of it, anyway), I'll allow myself a couple of hours of Kya.

There's a frog in the pond outside my window right now, making an astonishing variety of grumbles and clicks, in addition to the usual deep-throated croaks.

I Have Fans?

Does it count if they're blood relatives?

My nephew reads Fey. He liked it well enough to ask me the other day if I'd put any new pages up. I didn't even know he'd been reading it. I knew Sue was, but I didn't really think anyone else did. It's very, very cool that Ryan reads Fey, even if he is related to me.

Games Games Games

Went to TRU today. Mostly they had nothing interesting (not even considering this weird new fascination with Barbies--ick). But then I went into the electronics section, and they had a whole bunch of games marked down. I just got paid recently. Bad combination, that, cheap games and me with money. I managed to restrict myself to two. I got Kya: Dark Lineage for PS2, which looks like a fun action-adventure sort of thing, and Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon for PC (I'm not sure my video card is fast enough, so I may be sneaking downstairs when Sue isn't home to play it). Broken Sword is an adventure game (ie lots of puzzles). I really liked the last one, and I've heard good things about this one. Yay! Now I'm gonna go play Kya and pretend I don't still have three other PS2 games and somewhere around . . . 8 maybe PC games. I'll get to them all. 'Specially since I'm planning to get a Mac in a year or so--I'll have finished all the PC games by then.

Tis the Season and All That

So Dad reminded me that Xmas is on its way, and I thought maybe I should do up my annual "list of things I like" because people always seem to want to know what I'd like for Christmas. I decided not to put a Mini Cooper on the list. No one I know has that much money. Anyway, for books, video games, dvds and cds, I made an Amazon.ca wish list. It's here. It has lots of strange and wonderful things on (though there are also lots of stragne and wonderful things they either didn't have, or I haven't added yet). Other things that are not there are stuff from Hobby Link Japan (like, say, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this . . . and I had better stop now). Also the archer set (4th one in the top row) from R & D. (I know, probably no one will get me any of those. Pout.) Gift certificates are always good, too, if you don't to wade through my list, or prefer not to shop online.

So enough selfisness--what would everyone else like for the holidays?

One More

Lovely white-haired character, that is. Brother Alfred from Judith Tarr's The Hound and the Falcon trilogy.

Aaah! Faerie Queen

Okay, this is some kind of disease. It has to be. I really want this one: Dolls of the World - Legends of Ireland - Faerie Queen

Princess of Ancient Greece

You know, I hate to admit it, but I really like this Barbie: Princess of Ancient Greece Barbie. Give her a better body (say a BBI Perfect Body) and maybe darken her skin a little, and she'd be a great 1/6 scale ancient Greek action figure. Need to balance out all those ancient historical boys, you know. Erm. If I see this on sale somewhere for under 10 bucks, I might pick it up just for the costume. A few of the others in the series are interesting, too. (Did I really just say I like a Barbie? There must be something wrong with me. The inflammation in my wrist has spread to my brain . . . heeelllllp . . .)

And More . . .

Almost forgot. I listened to the Last Exile soundtrack 2 while drawing this week's Fey. And that made me remember another pretty white-haired favorite character: Lord Dio (from Last Exile, hence the remembering bit). Last Exile is currently my very favorite anime series, though InuYasha, Wolf's Rain, and Witch Hunter Robin are close behind. And close after them is Rurouni Kenshin--it had me laughing out loud a few times. Now I have to go set the VCR to tape Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, InuYasha, and Witch Hunter Robin for my niece Selena (hwah, ha ha, my evil plan to turn everyone around me into anime fans is beginning to take effect).

Ow, Ow, Ow: Fey page 21

Stupid sore wrist. Stupid stupid stupid. Here's page 21. And page 20 is now fixed.

If, unlike me, you haven't yet managed to fuck up your writing wrist, and you do a lot of writing, or drawing, or whatnot, get thee to a stationer's or office supply shop and buy some of those pens and mechanical pencils with the big barrels and cushy grips. The ones endorsed by the Arthiritis Society are particularly good. Trust me. And learn to relax your arm and hand while writing. Also, invest in ergonomic gel wrist rests for your mouse and keyboard. That way, you might avoid the tendonitis or carpel tunnel syndrome or whatever it is that makes my wrist very, very hurty every few months or so. But I'll be fine. (whine, whine)

Such Pretty Silver Hair

I've recently picked up an assortment of naked action figures/fashion dolls to use as models for making 1/6 scale clothes and stuff (some to sell, some for me). I had some really nice comments on the hakama and gi set I recently sold on eBay. Anyway, this one particluar figure, a Volks "Neo-Go" (aka "Go-Guy")--a slenderer figure than the standard G.I. Joe-type--has me totally fascinated. For these figures, you buy the head separately, so you can choose the face and get one bald for rooting yourself, or pre-rooted in various colours. The pre-rooted heads come with really, really long hair, so you can cut it however you want. I picked a narrow-faced (rather cheekbony) head with white hair. And now I can't stop thinking about different costumes I could make. So I was trying to figure out why I'm so fascinated by this pretty white-haired boy doll, and I realized that there's a whole line of pretty white/silver haired men who have been favourite characters of mine. The ones I came up with without too much thought are:

• Skywise (Elfquest)
  
• Elric of Melniboné (Michael Moorcock's Elric books)
  
• Farin Silverhair (Diana Paxson's Westria books)
  
• Reiken/Seren (A Distant Soil)
  
• Deth (Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy)
  
• Rohannon Melior (Rosemary Edgehill's The Twelve Treasures series)
  
• InuYasha (InuYasha)
  
• Sesshomaru (InuYasha)
  
• Yuki Tsukisiro, aka Julian (Cardcaptor Sakura/Cardcaptors anime)
  
• Yueh (Cardcaptor Sakura)

More or less in chronological order (of me encountering them). I could probably come up with more. So is this just my fascination with pretty hair (and pretty men), or is it something more general in fantasy? Maybe both. Anyway, boy doll with long white hair needs a name. And some clothes.

Fey Oops

Heh. I realized yesterday that when I added the text to page 20, I forgot to lighten the grey behind where the words go. So it's a little harder to read than I intended. I will fix it, but not this minute, because I'll have to go back to a copy from before I added the text (on account of I flattened it after). Anyway, at least it isn't impossible to read.

Fey page 20

And I only had to re-boot twice! Fey page 20