*ioyousbook

WHAT IS THIS TOMFOOLERY

IS IT A LESLIE

WHY YES, IT IS.

Reappearing briefly to let y'all know that I hope to get back to slightly more frequent 'Net usage in the near future--possibly a matter of mere days, we'll see--and to remind you that the contest is still very much on! I've got exactly one entry so far, and there are oodles of opportunities to snag prize arts, so now is very much the time to enter!

The deadline is currently July 20, 2008 [EDIT: OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT, FORGET THIS TIME THING, I KEEP SCREWING IT UP. JUST GET IT TO ME BEFORE THE 20th HAS BECOME THE 21st IN YOUR TIME ZONE, AND WE'RE ACES], but if enough people tell me they'd like an extension I might be persuaded to bump it up to the 20th. Let me know about that.

EDIT: The people have spoken (and I snuck on again to see if they had), and so it shall be! The 20th it is. I anticipate your entries with no small measure of glee!

Here's a link to the full contest entry, which has gobs of useful information: [link]

Catch y'all later, dudes and dudettes.


Can't Buy Me Love

Taking an indefinite hiatus from the Internet and all creative projects. There are a number of real-world things I need to do and haven't been doing, and I'm taking a sabbatical to get them done.

Pray for me, please, and my family. We really need it.

***

Hey, gang!

That last bit was pretty dramatic, eh? Apparently old habits die hard. Haha. Anyway, the deal there was that--well, basically, I realized I've really not been dealing with the reality that's in front of me, school and life-related responsibilities, etc. It was a pretty difficult realization. Heh.

Anyroad, I'm doing a lot better now, thanks in part to support from family and friends. However, I meant what I said about Internet hiatus (maybe less so creative hiatus--I've stopped writing drabbles but could not turn off the creativity altogether, so I'm just doing what I want when I have no other responsibilities. Seems a fair compromise). I'm checking in now because the reason has changed and I feel like y'all deserve to know, rather than worrying about me and my foolishness. As part of the getting back into the swing of things and dealing with the problems in front of me, I've made the unpleasant discovery that the schedule I had for the rest of the summer is, uh, going to have to be sped up to deal with some deadlines I overlooked. So the next month or so I'm going to have to go into overdrive to get everything done in time for starting at PHC.

So, you know, while it's just possible I'd have time for the Internet, the plain fact is that it's not the time it takes, it's the attention it requires to keep up with everything. I can't spare that attention right now. So I'll be AWOL for a while longer--might be a few weeks, might be more, might be less (unlikely). We'll see.

Stay cool while I'm gone, kids. I know you're all unreasonably awesome, try not to break the Internet with your awesome. I'll try to catch up as best I can when I return. Thanks, many thanks, to everyone who commented with well-wishes and prayers. They are hugely appreciated.

I'll try to be on MSN and AIM occasionally, as the madness allows.

Catch ya on the flipside.


Can't Buy Me Love

FIRST: CONTEST DON'T FORGET EVERYONE WILL GET SOMETHING [link]

I just realized to my amazement that I have not played with the thumbnail-posting feature. So let me share a few pictures people have draw as gifts recently (and by recently I mean "from the beginning of the year"). What you need to do is visit these folks' galleries, because this is merely a taste of the awesomeness they may produce without warning. And these are my doofy characters, imagine what they can do with better starting material!

by ~Catamount - ahhhh his hair is so pretty and his eyes I cannot get over this. So pretty and yet not too pretty for Simon.

by *TallyCat - this, along with being shamefully adorable could almost illustrate one of my stories about her, which is eerily awesome.

by ~pooryorick - this picture is so awesome I'm surprised the universe hasn't spontaneously exploded from sheer awesome.

by ~Rouf - this is so wrongly adorable and Theo and Linny are so perfect. I melt every time I see this. It was my desktop wallpaper for a while.

by *indutiae - you know how sometimes there's a little mental jar as you adjust to seeing your character in someone else's style? I DO NOT FEEL THAT HERE. Juls has an uncanny grasp on the essence of Kirk.

by *SkyWookiee - I MELT, LIKE A THING THAT MELTS. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

by ~orca1026 - I don't often ask people to draw Roland because frankly, that's a lot to saddle anyone with. But Keef pulled him off with flair to spare.

(P.S. I still need to make a header and footer, yes. I haven't thought of anything sufficiently clever.)


Can't Buy Me Love

You know, after, in my wild adolescence, secretly believing myself too speshul to write in a linear fashion ("I'm writing ahead!" I told myself, as I wrote random scenelets that didn't advance the story much), I have realized that usually the best way to write a story is to begin at the beginning, write to the end, and then stop. There may be some juggling in the midsection; I've given myself carte blanche to skip a scene if it is totally not-working and I think I can go back and write it later. But in a general sense the best overall strategy for me is...

Begin at the beginning.
Write to the end.
And then stop.

Sometimes the answer is the obvious one, y'know?

(incidentally, this beginning-middle-end may or may not be chronological. In the case of my current story it's definitely not)


Can't Buy Me Love

Item: If I see one more gallery full of characters in the exact same cute-anime-turning-the-feet-in pose (with a couple of other stock poses one in a while to Dramatically Shake Things Up!) I will have a conniption. A conniption.

(naturally given this reaction, half the time I draw Paul-Robot he starts trying to pull that pose on me. This is because my characters hate me and want to make my life miserable. You here that, imaginary people in my head? I'm onto your sinister fictive ways.

...What. I'm perfectly normal.)

Item: As always, CONTEST: [link] Remember, all sorts and conditions of characters to be drawn! Humans! Fairies! Animals! Monstrous beings!

...

SIDEBURNS!

(also, prizes for everyone. As if sideburns weren't prize enough)

Item: Hey, guys, discussion time again! How do you prefer to handle magic in your settings?

I've noticed myself that in the vast majority of my worldbuilding, there is usually magic/the unnatural, but it's also usually either impossible or fiendishly difficult for people to harness and use. When a setting does have magic users, I tend to avoid their POV or, again, make it incredibly hard for them to actually use magic. I prefer a magic that is inexplicable, disturbing, foreign (also, I dislike magical solutions to problems give me good honest sweat and drama any day). Not a force to be harnessed, but a total unworking at the heart of nature that makes everyone's life difficult. The people in my settings don't like magic (even, arguably, the handful of magic-users). They just have to live with it (Menagerie is a great example of this. In many ways Menagerie represents the culmination of a number of trends in my worldbuilding to date, and can be used to exemplify a lot of things about me as a writer/subcreator).

How about you? Do you like making usable systems of magic (I can definitely see the appeal in this, incidentally, even if it's not my dish)? Do you dislike using magic at all? Do you prefer a balance kinda like I've got? Something else entirely?

...Guess that's enough for one entry. Toodles, children! Take no wooden yen.

(p.s. By the way, does anyone mind that my journal titles are usually totally irrelevant song lyrics? I hate trying to summarize anything I write, so I kinda default to some interesting/pleasing random set of words. I suppose I could try to come up with coherent titles if it was causing people extreme cognitive dissidence)


Can't Buy Me Love

SO YOU GUYS

I need to make a header and footer for this journal.

Also, CONTEST YES? [link]

Crazy fun prizes for all, gang.

ALSO, in slightly more than fifty pageviews I'll hit 35,000. Screencap it, I'll doodle you a little sketch request.

LASTLY I feel I should reflect again on my subscription experience, because apparently nothing is valid until I've shared it with the Internet.

Things I Like:

1. Recent Visitors: This is actually a mixed blessing, because I probably spend too much time skulking around the Recent Visitors widget and checking out the galleries of everyone who stops by. Also noticed I get a LOT of hits that don't register there, is that because they're unregistered, not logged in, something else? Dunno.

2. Comments on watch: I like being able to reply to comments without visiting the deviation. I like it a lot. For some inexplicable reason it has helped overcome my social anxiety with comments, and I've been much more diligent about getting back to folks' comments. Which is, you know. Good.

3. Journal Fancies I Guess?: Honestly this is just something I mildly like, because I've barely used it. I just... yeah. Fancying up my devJournal is not a huge priority, although of course I always enjoy the opportunity to make dumb polls. Though frankly asking y'all the same questions in journals always elicits a much more interesting response (speaking of which I need to go back and add my own shapeshifters to the discussion on the last journal entry. Must say I really enjoyed hearing about y'all's characters!)

Thinks I Dislike:

1. Thumbnails on devWatch. I want to be surprised by art, dangit! Also it makes my watch look cluttery. I really, really, really wish I could just turn this off. Argh. I think I actually LIKED thumbnails at one point, which baffles me because now they just drive me spare.

2. Paltry Statistics: Come on, dA. Give me stats that are actually USEFUL, plz. Let me organize the data in a manner that tells me something about my traffic patterns beyond "I got a lot of hits on X day!" Also why the heck are there so many statistics on how much I upload? What good does that do anyone?

Also, recently my stats stopped working altogether. MAJOR FAIL, dA.

Sooo... yeah, there are some nice things, but I'm still not sure it's really worth the money, any more than it was last time. I think the thing I will miss most is the ability to reply to comments from my devWatch. That really has had a significant positive effect.

The ad-free thing is fairly meaningless to me, because I already had good adblockers and the ones that slipped through my eyes are trained to skip ANYWAY.

I think that is probably enough blather from me.


Can't Buy Me Love

So guys! Transformation, the beast inside the man, etc.--themes that have a certain universal resonance. That and let's face it, shapeshifting is just cool. I've got a handful of shapeshifters in my stable, and I bet quite a few of you do, as well.

Let's have a party! If you've got characters with both human and nonhuman forms, introduce them here! Link to pictures of their various forms, tell me as much or as little about their lives and whatnot as you like. I'll reply at some point with a comment introducing my own handful of shapechangers. We can all ooh and ahh at each other's characters, which is always good fun (at least I find it so).

Sound like a plan?


Can't Buy Me Love

FIRST: [link] STILL RUNNING THAT CONTEST

Well, uh. As you can maybe see, I got a paid account. I've been debating this for a while (particularly since getting a paid LJ account), because my use of dA has changed slightly and I wondered if maybe I'd leaped to conclusions about the usefulness of a paid account. I've been pretty vociferous about it, but I'm always willing to entertain the idea that I'm wrong. So I thought I'd have another go at it.

Verdict, less that 24 hours in: Nope, still not worth it particularly given how lousy dA is as a site. Did you know there is no way to turn off the thumbnails on your devwatch? I discovered this because I realized I really don't like the thumbnails, only to find that I'm stuck with them till my sub runs out. Argh.

Also! The stats are even less useful than I remembered them being. It would be nice to be able to see easily which days of the week get the most traffic, whether there IS a correlation between my update volume and hits, where folks are coming to the gallery from... I mean, that would actually be USEFUL. The stuff they've got now is only good for ego boosts. LAME, DA.

ON THE OTHER HAND I will admit I had fun playing with some of the journal features again. And polls are always shiny. And it's also nice to see who's visiting my page, partly so I can visit them back. EDIT: And all right, it is much more convenient to reply to comments from my devwatch rather than visiting the deviation page. But that's not nearly enough to justify shelling out the dough.

Lastly: Firefox plugins for dA are better than dA's subscriber features.


Can't Buy Me Love

A few hours ago I caught my own 34,000 pageview. Heee.

...Hey, actually, if you catch my 34,567 I'll draw one of your characters as a fishperson, so: [link]

Otherwise... not much cookin'. Partially posting to get my gallery page unstretched, because that contest entry is HUGE. Speaking of which, check it out: [link] IT IS A VARY FUN CONTEST

I inked a picture today, and although it's not one of the pictures I should be working on, I may try to finish it soon, since I don't update that much these days. Heh.

THE CONTEST, IT IS OVER. AND THE ENTRIES ARE AWESOME.

MY CHILDREN

THE TIME HAS COME

That time I know you all love! THAT'S RIGHT It's time for Leslie to run yet another of her contests! The last time I ran any event was the Masquerade end of last year, and months before that was the last contest. So I think it's about time.

This contest is something I've been itching to do for a while, a straight-up DRAW THESE CHARACTERS contest. The theme and subject are MENAGERIE CHARACTERS. The basic idea is as follows:

You check the refs I'll provide links to, or surf through my Menagerie Gallery or my Menagerie Art on LJ and find a character or characters from the Menagerie setting that you desire to draw. Then, you draw him or her or them in whatever way seems best to you (with consideration for the rules on which I will expand below). You send me (via dA notes, LJ messages, or my email, paperback_writer (at) verizon (dot) net) a link to your piece of art, which you have uploaded to dA or Photobucket or the gallery/imagehosting site of your choice. When all the entries are in (see the deadline, also below), I will judge the entries, declare winners, and make charmin' prizes of all sorts for everyone (again, more below).

Does this sound like a plan? Unlike my other contests, I think this one should stay pretty simple.

Timeline

Deadline for entries: July 16, 2008, 2AM Eastern time CONTEST IS OVER
Winners announced: July 26, 2008
Deadline for prize requests: August 5, 2008
Prizes will be completed at my earliest convenience thereafter (if you don't make the deadline for prize requests, you forfeit)

Rules

If you ask about something that’s already in the rules, I’m probably going to tell you to reread them. Save your time and mine by reading them carefully. They’re here to give you ideas and help you.

1. One entry per person.

2. Any Menagerie character is acceptable. I'm only going to link to refs to a few, but don't feel limited to those. If you find a character in my Menagerie folder on dA or my Menagerie art on LJ you'd like to draw, feel free! If you're not sure whether a particular character is Menagerie or not, ask me! If you have a question about a character you'd like to draw, ask me! If you'd like to know colors for a character of whom only b&w art exists, as me! I may even whip up a quick color ref for you.

2. On a related note, because this was an issue with my Robo-Beatles contest, creatures from the Menagerie setting are also acceptable. However, if you are going to draw, say, a Menagerie dragon, I expect you to dig around and find out what it is that makes a Menagerie dragon unique, and your entry should reflect that and not just be RANDOM CREATURE LOL.

3. Any static visual medium is allowed. I say "drawing," I mean drawing, painting, sculpture, textile... whatever. Just nothing written. Judging fanfic, poetry, or animation would be a totally different animal and I don't want to throw that into the mix.

4. Keep your content decent. I hate to impose specific ratings, but I know it's necessary to set some guidelines. So. In general no swearing--my position on fictional language is complex, but I think it's just less confusing for everyone if we avoid cursing. No strong sexual content--okay, something mildly pinuppy I might not mind, or a slightly edgy joke, but I really do not desire to see any strongly sexual entries. No excessive gore/violence--this is actually something I have fewer issues with, so a fair rule of thumb is yes, you can throw the blood around, but try to keep the organs inside. Good? Good. If you have any questions about the content of your entry, please feel free to ask me. I will not bite--in fact I'll be grateful you asked beforehand.

I think those are enough to be going on with. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you bring up something major I've overlooked, I'll edit the rules accordingly.

Judging & Prizes

Once I've got all the entries in, I'll be judging and that will be an exciting time. This time round, instead of the traditional first-second-third-runners-up setup, I'm going to judge in categories. These are the categories:

Best Humor
Best Romance
Best Group
Best Human (Individual)
Best Nonhuman (Individual)
Best Illustration
Best Sequential

And runner-up prizes for everyone else. The winner in each category will get a picture, in the medium of their choice, of up to 3 characters (one piece cannot win in multiple categories). I reserve the right to interpret the characters in whatever way I see fit (i.e. it might be a portrait, or full-figure, or a comic, or... you get the idea). I will try to maintain a certain equality between prizes, though. Runners-up each get a full-figure sketch of 1 character.

Also, I will be doing four Character's Choice awards (Simon's Choice, Saul's Choice, Ritchie's Choice, Cass' Choice). These are purely silly. What you get if you win one of these is an art request as drawn by the character (i.e. me pretending to draw like them). Which, uh. Will in some cases be pretty mediocre, because the best artist of the lads is Saul and he's not what I'd call amazing. This is a strictly for-fun prize, which will be awarded in addition to regular prizes. So don't worry you're gonna get stuck with Ritchie's stick figures and nothing else. In fact, don't worry about this one at all.

In fact, it's just as well that you don't worry about the categories at all. You don't have to declare your piece for a particular category--I'll make that call when judging. So just draw your entries as you see fit, and let me worry about the categories.

References

Here I've compiled handy links to a few of the more major characters in Menagerie, the ones you're likely to know best.

Simon: [link] (more links in desc)
Saul: [link] (more links in desc)
Ritchie: [link] (more links in desc)
Cass: [link] (more links in desc)
Amelie: [link] (more links in desc)
Glinda: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]
Jack: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]
Anaximander: [link] [link] [link]
Deathface: [link] [link] [link] [link]
Theo: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]

However, don't feel constrained to this list! Menagerie is a diverse setting, and you can find pictures of many other characters, all of whom you are welcome to draw for the contest. To hunt for refs of those characters, check out either the Menagerie Folder on my dA, or Menagerie Sketches on LJ. Again, if you're not sure whether a character is Menagerie or not, you have a question about the character, or you need color information, feel free to ask! You can comment on this entry, note me, LJ message me, or email me at paperback_writer (at) verizon (dot) net.

FAQ

1. What do I need to do to enter, again?

Draw a picture of a character or characters from my Menagerie setting, upload it somewhere, and send me a link to it. That's all! After judging, one winners and runners-up are announced, you'll also need to contact me with your prize request within ten days, or forfeit the prize (I'm doing that this time around because I've had problems with people not claiming their prizes, and I'd like to avoid the nagging and whatnot I've had to go through).

2. When's the deadline?

The entry deadline is July 16, 2008, 2AM Eastern time. The deadline for submitting your prize request to me, once winners have been announced, is August 5, 2008.

3. How does judging work? What's the deal with these categories?

When I get all the entries in, I'll sit down and pick winners for each category. I'm not sure how I'll do that--sometimes I just pick, sometimes I create a scoring system for myself. I might also consult my sister if I have a tie. Either way, I'm in control of who wins, and the decision is based on my preferences. I try to be somewhat objective, but you know, it's a subjective kind of thing by definition.

The categories thing is just that--categories of winners. I'll decide which piece seems to be strongest in the elements of a category, and that's the winner for that category. Each entry can only win in one category--so if, for instance, your entry is very strong as a Human (Individual) picture, but also screamingly funny, I'll award it whichever aspect I think is stronger, and take it out of the running in another category.

None of this really affects you, however. All you have to do is make an entry.

4. Do I have to have a dA/LJ/etc?

Absolutely not! All you have to have is a place to upload your picture, and a means of contacting me. You can upload your entry to any image hosting service (Photobucket, Imageshack, etc), or any gallery site (devART, Elfwood, Furaffinity, Jaxpad/Artspots, etc.), your own webspace... wherever. You can contact me via email (paperback_writer (a) verizion (dot) net), via dA notes, or via LJ notes. You have options!

5. I want to draw <Menagerie character>

Feel free! You can draw any Menagerie character, not just the ones I've provided references for. Browse around my Menagerie Folder on dA or Menagerie Sketches on LJ. If you need to know more about a character, feel free to ask! If you need a color ref for a character I've drawn only in b&w, let me know--I may be able to toss together a quick color ref for you. If you're not sure whether a character belongs in Menagerie or not, again, feel free to ask.

6. I want to draw <non-Menagerie character>.

Sorry, the contest is only open to Menagerie characters. If you're not sure about whether a character hails from Menagerie or not, ask me. I know it can be hard to discern who's who and where everyone comes from.

7. I have some other question not answered here.

Ask! You can email me, note me, or comment on this entry (or the announcement entry on my creative journal.

Summary

1. Draw a Menagerie character(s): [link] [link]
2. Upload your drawing somewhere and send me the link.
3. Entry deadline: July 16, 2008, 2AM Eastern time CONTEST OVER
4. There will be 7 category winners. Everyone else gets runner-up prizes.
5. If you have a question, read this entry carefully. If it's not answered here, ask me!
6. HAVE FUN, CHILDREN.

Enrtries

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