May Updates and Cover Girls

Two years ago in May, Marie and I said 'let's do this' and launched a whirlwind four months of writing. Most weeks, we put down 10k words or more, and by the time October rolled around, we had a 225k word book draft for what would eventually become The Mask of Mirrors. Last year in…

Art Progress – Fan Boys, Pt. 2 – The Shadening

It's started to feel like every piece has four stages. There's the first stage where I dither forever about what to draw because everything seems blah and I have no inspiration. After I get over myself, there's the stage where I'm mapping out the piece and drawing wireframes and boxes. Then there's the rough and…

Art Progress – Fan Boys, Pt. I

I really like thematic groupings -- they give me the inspiration and structure I need to push past executive dysfunction. I've found this is especially true of my drawing practice. Deciding what to draw next has been challenging for me unless I have an outside impetus (like Yuletide or a fanworks challenge week) or some…

Shut-up and Draw Dancing

I had a few goals this month for learning to draw. I wanted to practice figures in movement, and I wanted to get more comfortably free with my shading and highlights -- sort of deliberately messy? There's probably an art term for it. I don't know. I just know that my shading and highlighting lines…

Pie (day) Chart

Happy pi (π) day! Those of you who've watched one of our recent virtual events know that I've been making astrological charts based on one of the magic systems and the in-world calendar of The Mask of Mirrors. Because that system (numinatria) is so intrinsically tied to mathematics and sacred geometry, it seemed fitting to…

Six Month Art Progress Check-in

Back in mid-August 2020, I decided I wanted to learn to draw. I got myself a Wacom pad and a subscription to Clip Studio Paint, downloaded a few courses on Udemy and watched a bunch of youtube tutorials, and just... started to draw. I've learned a lot. Mostly I've learned how much I don't know,…

Book Week Launch Events

We have two exciting events coming up for next week's publication of The Mask of Mirrors. First, Mysterious Galaxy is hosting a virtual book launch on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 7pm PT. It's a joint event with Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, where we'll chat about our books and…

The Clothes Make the Con Artist

The Mask of Mirrors is a book shot through with textile metaphors, from slang terms like ‘knots’ for the gangs and ‘cuffs’ for the nobility; to the pattern deck and its suits of the spinning, woven, and cut threads; to the interweaving of multiple PoVs to create a dense cloak of intrigue. We didn’t consciously…

Yuletide Treasures

The lack of job and annual Christmas trip with my mom meant that I had a LOT of spare time this year to dive into Yuletide. That ended up with me writing my assignment, two pinch-hits, and a treat. For one of my pinch hits, I decided to illustrate it, so there was also art.…

Fabr-ARC Giveaway for The Mask of Mirrors

We're one month out on the drop date for THE MASK OF MIRRORS, so I decided it would be a good time to do a giveaway of my last few ARCs. The protagonist of our book is Ren, aka Arenza Lenskaya, aka Alta Renata Viraudax, a half-Vraszenian con artist who uses her wits and her…

Arting Progress Report

I've been doing a bit of writing -- finishing my Moshang Week story, dragging out Chiaroscuro and dusting it off so I can finally get it out the door, things like that. But the main thing that has been helping me keep calm and carry on is the daily drawing practice. Lots of funnels, ellipses,…