Past Updates
December 2009 | January 2010 | February 2010 | March 2010 | April 2010 | May 2010 | June 2010 | July 2010 | August 2010 | September 2010 | October 2010 | November 2010 | December 2010
August 8, 2010
Dream Angel has yet to be released as an e-book as I learned yesterday that the head of my publishing company is sick in the hospital. : ( In the meantime, I'm going to post a little amateur teaser video I made for my e-book.
So, while that's on hold, I've been busy anyway. I'm signed up for my fall classes, one of which has to do with web programming, so be ready for improvements... I hope.
What's keeping me so busy, you ask? That's easy: I've been working dilligently on a collection of SD stuffed dolls of my characters. Already I have created Virgo, Dream Angel herself, Firebright, Blue Nite Soldier (though he's still short his shoes) and Nyxus. They're just sooooo cute, I'm not sure if I want to offer them like the magnet dolls. Send me some thoughts or post in my blog, if you think I should. There's even the comments box on this page that should alert me of your thoughts. Here they are:
Too cute for words, aren't they? Even Nyxus is adorable! Actually, Dream Angel has since gained her gloves and boots to make her even cuter. I'm debating the mask as she's just plain adorable without it. Lef to right: Virgo, Blue Nite Soldier, Dream Angel, Nyxus and Firebright's the horse... er, pegasus unicorn.
Dream Angel
Blue Nite Soldier and Firebright
Firebright
Virgo
Nyxus
Aren't they just adorable?!
Now for a special for a friend of mine, owner of www.sailorenergy.net:
His site mascot and lead in his comic books, (to the best of my knowledge, anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff!) Energia. The first of my collection of adorable mini dolls. Made entirely of felt with a fabric paint face and embroidered eyes... hand embroidered eyes.
I'm threatening to make these dolls into a comic book of sorts for the site. Rather than trying to draw them, (let's face it, my drawings just don't yet make industry standards) I'd be using photos of the dolls with digital backgrounds I've created myself. It's in the very earliest planning stages and merely a thought right now as it really depends on how well the rest of my dolls turn out (I've made some difficult-to-sew designs!)
July 2010
Apologies, July found me pretty busy. The excitement of my publishing contract among other things kept me on my toes.
June 27, 2010
Right now, it's HAPPY EVERYTHING!!!!! I GOT A PUBLISHING CONTRACT!!! Dream Angel is going to become a short story e-book!!!!!!!!! The full story is actually posted on my blog!
Now for the next piece of news: I'm making it easy to buy my magnet dolls using PayPal. The new design for them is excellent and the collection is beginning to grow... Already I have Dream Angel herself available. Just yesterday, I started working on Hanaji who looks very handsome for a guy who's supposed to be only 18.
For the next trick: I'm working heavily on a character card catalog with more detailed profiles. When that collection's complete, I'll be updating character pages with the more detailed profiles.
Other than that, feel free to look me up on my various social networks. I'm online quite frequently these days, happily chirping the way my toads do! I want to socialize with people more and learn what people like about my writing so I can keep doing it!
1,000 visitors and still counting! Come talk to me, I don't bite!
June 12, 2010
The critical updates are finally done! All the character pages in particular have everything they need. Everything else is uploaded on the updated template. The Sailor Moon dolls are still waiting for me to finish uploading them, though. Okay, not everything is done, but it's a great deal closer than it was!
Meantime, I've been keeping active on my social networks.
As for publishers, I can only hope something happens soon.
As for the toads, they've had a few funny encounters with live crickets, so I decided to play around with the camera and make a simple comic book for them called "Firebelly Adventures." So far, it's both cute and funny with very nicely detailed pictures of the toads trying to catch crickets.
May 20, 2010
I've made myself a checklist for every page of this site. For those who might be wondering: my current collection of Sailor Moon paper dolls is about 90% uploaded, but the map is at about 20% done for links to character pages. No matter, this site is coming along nicely.
I'm proud to say that I got straight A's on my finals last week. School's out for the time being for me meaning I have more time to dedicate to my books and website.
I've been active on the social networks, as promised. Mostly on Facebook, but at least I've been making my presence known. The various widgets you see all over this site will alert me when you post a comment or decide to follow my writings and stuff.
Wish me luck with publishers! Hopefully, one of them will decide soon that my short story's worth publishing! Enjoy it on lulu.com in the meantime! I plan on it being a VERY limited edition!! I really do doubt a publisher will allow it to remain online to run competition with their final version.
Meantime, both toads are happy, healthy boob tube brats. I can be watching something on the computer and they'll watch the reflection in the TV! As usual, the dog is crazy enough to play soccer with a basketball - simply because it's the only ball I've found that's tough enough for her to play with!
I encourage comments, ratings, and all forms of communication I've offered on this site. Please, tell me I'm not just talking to search engine spiders!
For those who might be interested in my magnetic paper dolls: I'm going to work on trying to setup a shopping cart/online payment system. I'm going to try setting up paypal as well to go with it. Then I'm going to have to design more than just one doll and make more outfits!
May 5, 2010
Okay, I've been playing around with this site again. The Sailor Moon paper doll collection has its own private gallery and is nearly complete - at least, the collection I've already made is near completely uploaded.
Now, I know someone has noticed my new Facebook toys besides me. I'm working on adding little heart ratings for my images and comment boxes to go along with them. I've got Facebook's "Like" button on all the pages but once you click it on one page, it acknowledges you like all the pages. It was enough of a headache just getting it to behave on one page that I'm not battling it for all other than on a template. The comment toy has a like button as well, so that may be nother place for declaring you like a page. The other toy is a recent activity gadget that shows some of what goes on with this site and who else might be liking it.
I've made sure I'm always on Facebook and available to chat since no one seems to like my embedded chat room. I'm threatening to sign up with Twitter and I'm already on MySpace. Any other social networks you'd like to see me on? Check my social networks page to find out which ones I'm on and decide from there which ones you'd like to see me on. I want to connect with visitors of this site. I automatically get Facebook comment alerts even when I'm not using my web browser. I've made sure to have a Facebook gadget on my desktop that tells me what's going on and alerts me to messages and such.
Not bad for someone who's still learning site design.
April 15, 2010
Finding a publisher has been taxing... sorry, bad joke! It's true, though. Tate's contract gives up today unfortunately. I'm slowly rising from the ashes, though. I've got publishers coming out my ears - at least I've submitted to that many. Most have said it'll be 2-3 months before they respond, if they bother at all.
In the meantime, I've published my little manuscript on lulu.com:
She's about as cheap as I can make her while still making a little for myself. This book, unlike its two older brothers on the same site, is available in both print form and download. Please respect my copyright in both cases!
Keep hoping I get a real publisher soon! Meantime, feel free to buy this self-published version since a regular publisher will most likely charge a good amount more if it's accepted. This is the rock-bottom price for both print and download. With the prices set as they are, I get $1 for print and $2 for download. I encourage everyone to buy it while the prices on lulu still stand. Who knows? The lulu.com edition could be highly limited if a publisher insists that I take it off lulu.com so they can have the exclusive printing rights. They'd probably also change the covers, too. This could be a collectible edition someday! Better get it while the gettin's good!!
April 3, 2010
To my dismay, nobody's offered to help with the investment Tate wanted, but admittedly, it's a lot of money. On the brighter side, I seem to be coming up with a fair collection of publishers interested in my tiny manuscript. Maybe one of them will eventually not ask for an invetment...
In other news, both toads are now a year old and happily enjoying their presents: more plants of the plastic variety. They've got a nice plastic forest to hide in.
For the third variety of news, my Sailor Moon Paper Doll collection has gained its own personal gallery setup that's sort of separate from the main site and can be considered an alternate gallery from the one on this main site. On the downside, it's not on this pretty new template like all the other pages, but on the upside, it's got working links and a fancy search feature. If I really wanted to be fussy about who sees these dolls, I can setup so everyone has to login, but I haven't done that and to the best of my knowledge, you don't have to login even though it would be free. It also allows for you to comment on the images and pages. So, if I don't have something right you can tell me right on the page! I'm still openly challenging everyone willing to help me make these dolls. I just did a count of them: 102! Not all of them are created yet, but they'll all have pages in the new gallery when I'm done!! Fortunately, this gallery is extremely expandable, so don't be afraid to say, "Hey, you forgot this character!" and send it to me. I am pretty sure I haven't included everyone and I'm always open to add fan characters since I've added my own. I doubt I've created all of the villains and all of the friends and family characters, so my challenge stands: help me make them! At the rate I'm going this gallery will never be complete and I actually don't want it to be simply because I know there are other creative people out there who will want to add to it!
March 14, 2010
Though my birthday and Sage's appeared pretty much uneventful and completely traditional, I had no idea something I did on a whim for fun in January would come back to haunt me in a good way. The original intention for the 22 page manuscript was of course to become a comic book. I even did sketches to help plan it. While messing around on MySpace, I spotted a book publisher's ad. Remebering that Tina, my sister-in-law, is trying to become a published author, I clicked on it to investigate for her. Curiosity leads to questions, so I asked a few. The answers came back pretty convincing, so for the fun of it, I submitted the short manuscript I'd scrapped from becoming my comic book. I figured with a 3% acceptance rate, I'd at least get a simple critique. Boy, was I wrong! While I left the computer off yesterday in favor of birthday celebrations, I got a message from this company I'd submitted to for fun offering a publishing contract. In exchange, I'd have to invest $3985.50 which would be returned after they sell 5000 copies of this book of mine. While they sell the 5000 copies and even after, I'd earn 40% royalties. Meantime, I'd have TV commercials and everything to promote this book.
Anyone care to donate to this noble cause??? LOL but if you're serious about helping just use my contact page to let me know!
Surprises come from the most unlikely places...
This is a genuine surprise and a most welcome birthday present!
Here's the funniest part: my horoscope for the day: “The pressure is off today. There’s no need to talk yourself up to anyone, because your strengths and talents speak for themselves.”
March 11, 2010
It's been a bit so this might be a long update. School being what it is, I've been kept fairly busy but the class load is moderately light which has left time for working on the comic book. That's coming along quite well as I can officially report I am 13/27 done for the main storyline. If I wanted to be technical, I could declare 14/32 done. Fortunate that I designed the book to have pages 28-31 include special character profiles and page 32 is a special note from me. That's why the main story's only 27 pages. The new version is looking quite impressive, if I do say so myself. I'm keeping my eye on the ball, though and trying not to put too much faith in getting it published this time. There may still be problems to work out. Fortunately, each panel is a layered photoshop file that can be changed at will. That'll make it easier to correct any problems the publisher might have with it.
As I type this, my portfolio is uploading and I'm preparing for the long task of working with the Sailor Moon paper doll collection and fanfiction. For those who've seen previous versions of my professional portfolio you'll notice that I've pretty much cut down the number of images severely. I'm keeping especially the photo excursions collections down to a "best of" set, rather than uploading a biiiiiiiiiiiiig mess of images that take forever to load. You'll also notice that I'm using tabbed galleries for organizational purposes to keep the viewer from having to scroll forever to see all the images.
I'm also going to try to cut down the number of pages for the paper doll collection. This means that the dolls map included on my site map will merely show what characters I've made and offer a guide as to where they should be in the pages. The hotspots, when the pages are built, will work though.
In other news, Happy 3rd birthday Luke and Dream Angel Vol 1 on lulu.com! Happy birthday Mom! Happy birthday for me on the 13th, Sage shares that day with me. Happy birthday Rowen on the 20th!
Rowen and Sage have proven themselves the perfect boyfriends and I frequently tease guys about it. They serenade me every night, only argue with me when I clean their tank and love me unconditionally without saying a word. They also don't mind my music appreciation homework as they sing along to Vivaldi and hunt to Mozart! It took them a week to catch their Valentine's present of live crickets. That was about the time I managed to finally get my music appreciation book which came with a 2 CD set for listening excercises. So, I put in the first disc and started reading the book. I looked up when I heard the toads chirping and checked the track list: Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in E major ("the spring") was playing. Some time later, I heard a series of plops in time to the music and again looked at the track list: Mozart's "A little night music" was playing. I looked over at the source of the plops and found the toads attempting to catch the crickets that were evading them so easily it was hilarious! The toads would climb onto the island, get a cricket in their sights and promptly miss on their jump to catch the bug and instead land in the water!
February 1, 2010
Okay, the turmoil of transferring away from stupid Westwood has kept me busy.
Not much to report.
The reconstruction of my portfolio is coming along quite well and I've managed to begin fixing all my music videos to be embedded on one page. I'm in the process of setting up the code, so that might not be up for a while. Though I have the majority of my portfolio ready for uploading, the Sailor Moon paper dolls, my photo excursions and the music videos aren't ready yet. When they are at least mostly setup, then I'll upload the whole portfolio - personal and professional - in one shot and update as needed.
Rowen and Sage happily enjoy the tank all to themselves. They cheerfully sing to each other and happily veg in front of whatever I might have playing on the TV.
The newest version of my Dream Angel comic book is coming along extemely well and I'm now expecting to recieve a pen tablet ordered off amazon.com. Hopefully, it will further bring my artistic quality closer to my dreams.
To my delight, TMCC has proven to be pretty much an opposite of Westwood. Helpful, kind, and most especially: HONEST!
January 13, 2010
First, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Though the end of 2009 was full of mixed emotions, 2010 offers new hope.
With the new Dream Angel comic book already in progress and my transfer away from Westwood Online's disappointment, hopefully Dream Angel's Paradise will get off to a bright and cheerful third year. That's right: this site is now celebrating its two-year birthday/anniversary for being online!
As such, I've made a bit of a pledge for the year: I'm going to try to be more active on the social networks I'm signed up with. This includes my own blog and chat room. Don't be shy! Come one in! All I ask is for polite conduct and if you don't like something on my site, explain why! I don't think that's too much to ask!!
Aside from all that, the family pages are now online. They're all newly revised and fixed for easy loading. No more massively long pages and scrolling forever to see family pictures. I've made galleries for them instead. All you do is point and click on what you want to see.
I'm still working on building my portfolio pages, but they are coming along nicely. Hopefully, all that will be done soon so I might start on the bigger tasks of getting all the Sailor Moon fan-made paper dolls back online and their fan fiction comic of Sailor Moon Super StarS as well. Thankfully, the majority of this site is back online and available for viewing! In truth, I really want my portfolio back online A.S.A.P. because I'm about to start school again and need to be ready to add new pages for class projects again.
Rowen, Sage and Cookie have all been quite content and with the addition of a new heater in the house, have been happier than ever. Two happily chirping toads and one very energetic dog make for a great deal of activity!
More news: although I have yet to upload the Christmas video - which is quite large and long and needs some editing done - I can happily report that my newest Dream Angel Paper Doll collection is also coming along very well. Dream Angel herself now has five outfits, the doll and a hand-painted tin for her set. Though it took quite a while for this set to be created, I'm told the quality is very lovely for the doll and outfits and the tin's design quite impressive. I didn't care much for acrylic paints until recently when I found the secret is having a bucket of water nearby and keeping the paints veeeeeeeeeeeery moist allows for easy workability.
I've also discovered gouache paints. From descriptions I've found online they're like opaque watercolor paints - which has proven fairly true. Even long after they're dry, they can still be rewetted and worked with. That has made them a favored media for me.
Oh yes, and one more thing: I recently completed the uploading of my mother's site: www.shirleyscreativedesigns.com Her site is now completely built and hosted by me. There are still likely to be a few problems but all pages are online and available for viewing.
Last thing: this site doesn't have 100% W3C compliance primarily due to the videos embedded on it. The compliance checker doesn't like the embed HTML code and I have yet to find a better way of putting videos on my pages. Maybe with time and classes, I'll learn such a trick!
December 18, 2009
Happy Holidays to everyone!!! I wish I could say my holidays have been happy lately, but they haven't. In any case, the happy mood of the holidays has been difficult to maintain.
Still, there is some happy news out of it all: I am now making an excellent collection of Dream Angel magnet dolls. Instead of requiring velcro or poster putty, these simply require a magnetic surface such as a refrigerator. Lovingly rendered in water color pencil, printed on magnetic sheets and laminated for protection these dolls are admittedly the best yet.
The fixing of this site is coming along slow and steady. Since there's been so much going on, I haven't had a lot of time for it, but school's out for a few weeks luckily. I'm going to have more time, hopefully, for the needed updates and code fixes.
My college major has changed a little. Instead of strictly computer animation, it's web development and animation. I intend fully to pursue my dreams of animation, just in a slightly different area. Instead of animated shorts that are 2+ minutes, I'll be making simple loops for websites and building websites.
Now for the best news of all: I'm uploading the family pages as soon as I finish updating the images. Rather than multiple pages of images, I'm setting up tabbed galleries on one page for each person. Though I haven't started yet, I have plans to do the same thing to my Sailor Moon Paper Dolls collection as well.
