Right - I've deleted the site from the BusinessServe server (never let it be said I don't tidy up after myself!) and now I'm going to sit back and leisurely skim though the Zone, checking links and gearing up for the next lot of chapters. Tch' - my hand aches like hell: that was a lot of work! (Hn - suppose I ought to check how it looks in Netscape, too - haven't done that yet and that normally throws up any coding errors I've missed...)

SO glad that's over! br>

[wipes fevered brow....]

OK - the site is now uploaded and ready for everyone to go see! There are a few broken links, but I can fix them quickly, main thing is everything is there...

For the Zone, please enter via the main index page: the new material is listed under Updates.

Hope you enjoy!

[leaps up and down waving arms in the air] AYA!!! The site is now ready for upload - well, the URL is working with a temporary index page (which I've just customised to let peeps know what's happening) so I assume I can upload... I'll soon find out! My email's working too - just got a flood of messages through, which I will clear down as I upload, so will get back to everyone as soon as I can (and keep fingers crossed none got lost...)

Will also say here when the site is open for business as well as sending a Zone Update....

[happy grin, flexes fingers] - 54 megs to upload, will take a while. And I'll upload the Zone and the main index page last, so please don't try to peek until I give the all clear!

AAARRGGHH!!!

Transfer's gone through OK, I can now access the domain management suite, but it'll be another 24 hours before I can upload the site and receive emails.
[snarl]

Still, I suppose it gives me another night to write something, if I get inspired...

Hn. ClaraNET allow you to create your own .htaccess (for password protection) as part of the package, something that BS charged £50 + £10 per person (yeah, right, like I had three grand+ to spare!) for... Might play around with that later....

Angel finished... [grins]

Discussion finished and coded. Lutra's nine pages into her next, Angel (which comes before Discussion). And I forgot to mention there will be two new hosted works in the Safehouse 13 section too - Carol's Secrets and Carol and Sue's fabulous joint story, Female of the Species!

Ho hum....

Well, Discussion - my next Dystopia chapter - is now written too. Almost. Just debating whether to finish it with a lemon or not... (Heh, like there can be any real debate...)

Onna, I know I've been particularly productive just recently - but that's me: I write. Some teach, some build, some heal, some create, and I'm in the last category. It's work and play and overriding compulsion and I can't not do it, which is maybe a little over the top, but I have so many tales to tell and worlds to describe and characters to play with - I'm never going to have the time to write everything I want to! So I take advantage of times like this to have a little fun...

And Valkyrie has drawn 'centrefolds' of the three CCO808 bishonen.... *phwoar*! She says I can post them in the Zone... [GLOMPS Valkyrie]...

[suffering withdrawal symptoms] Looks like it's going to be the full 72 hours before things are ready... [paces] Don't like this... No email, no site...

However, Incident (*sigh* which needs a sequel or five) is now coded and ready to go. And I did a count... Apart from the hosted fics, there's six assorted new chapters from me plus one joint one with Lutra, and two pics. Lutra's not far off finishing her next Dystopia chapter, too: depending on the timing, that might be ready for upload as well. Hopefully all that should keep people occupied for half an hour or so...

It's Mother's Day here. Kai drew me a lovely card, with Radittsu on the front... [smirk]

[raises hand at Talon] Copies here, please, if it's not too much hassle. Never seen that over here...

[lassooed on onna's blog]

Celebration finished? Does that mean some Phoenix warbles? *grins*

[looks at this from several different angles and shakes head] A reference to Phantom of the Paradise? Something more obscure? Or have I just missed the point entirely? (Which wouldn't surprise me, I am definitely not here at the moment, what with backward-swimming haddock and agitating over the transfer...)

Better go do something constructive, I suppose. At this rate there'll be yet another new piece to upload: at least when I'm writing I'm not tearing my hair out...

[grumble] Still no OK from ClaraNET. And the clocks 'sprung forwards' an hour two (or was it three, or four) hours ago [cue one hopelessly haddock-thwapped ningen for the next three weeks...]

n the plus side, I finished the little Sengoku/Benten short - Incident: another new one for the revamped Zone. When I can finally upload it...

I need my bed. No, that's not strictly true - I don't actually need it - but I'd better get some sleep...

Heh - suppose I should have said: my wordwrights email addy will also be non-operational until the site's on the new server. Please use my back up email addy in the meantime...

Interesting... the BusinessServe-hosted WordWrights site has vanished. Does this indicate things are starting to happen - or is it just another Saturday night BusinessServe failure? Their main site is still up, and so is Haadri, so I'd hazard a guess it's the former...

Feels horrible though, not having it accessible...

[gets tired of waiting and starts writing Sengoku/Benten lemon for Valkyrie and Angelli...]

[twiddles thumbs, drums fingers on desk...] Tch... still waiting for OK to upload....

Hate waiting....

Sorry folks....

.... Celebration is finished! Probably the most important chapter in this part of the AC is now awaiting coding - which I'll do tomorrow - and upload to the new server.

Ah, s'nice. I can relax for just a little while, now....

[blinks. blinks again]

Well that was painless.

BusinessServe's confirmation of receipt of the transfer-out fee arrived this morning, stamped 26^th March.

Was able to register online with ClaraNET, so obviously the IPStag has now been released. Had to ring them though, one of the compulsory fields was Company Name: not only are we not really a company, but filling in this field gets our home address added to the Nominet database (it's that co.uk suffix) and available for anyone to look up - NOT something we want (been burgled once already). Friendly helpful guy I spoke to said just put my name in that space with (personal) beside it: that way they'd know we wanted to opt out.

SO... the ftp's set up but the connection not working yet - it'll be 24 to 72 hours before I can upload. With luck, just 24. Which means everyone could be reading all the new material tomorrow afternoon...

[big grin] Keep fingers crossed folks!

Well, the good news is that Ken's iron levels appear to have stabilised at 11.2 (that's down from his original count of 15+). What iron levels are counted in I have no idea, but the consultants are satisfied and he doesn't have to have the medication dosage reduced. And we found out why they discouraged him from taking iron supplements: they're broken down by the liver, not the stomach as is real food, placing extra stress on the organ. *sigh*. More cabbage. But Kai has asked to try spinach [OK, who swapped my bratling?] so once organic spinach is on the market I'll get some in. Loathe the stuff myself, but I suppose it'll do us all good...

LittleSaru went snowboarding again at the weekend: I sent her an email with the 'jau pic saying I hoped she'd enjoyed it and wasn't hurting too much. Had a reply this morning:

Me? Hurt? Of course not! I'm sitting in funny positions because it is an aid in my obscure meditative techniques and allows me to concentrate on frowning better. And raising your hands above your head is an illegal manoeuvre. Ouch.

[patpat] No, you're not unfit, 'Saru, you just don't get enough time to practise... >;-D

Safehouse 13 now reorganised, revamped and ready to go...

Multi-tasking - doncha just love it?
[Extract from ICQ silliness late last night, Lutra writing Celebration, Joules snarling at an intransigent Must-See Sites page. The other two were just being their usual selves...]

[Joules] *blinks* I have just grabbed a couple slices of ham and a handful of cherry tomatoes from the fridge as a snack. As opposed to a pasty or bowl of spaghetti with butter and parmesan... EEEK! What's happened to me.....?
[Lutra] LOLOL [smirk] Egad! you're having an attack of the healthyons!
[big eyes] ARGGH! [starts thwapping] getemout! getemout!!
[rolling around laughing] tch *monotone* no no the healthyons are our friends, they're good for us...
[poutglower] *you're trying to corrupt my ningen...*
*corrupt her? how? [smirk] I'd'a thought that was finished a while ago...*
[grumblemutter...] *hn... damn... there goes that argument...*
[tweaksmirk]
*can't tweak me I'm still under water...*

[blink] *smartarse... ok, I've - um - developed uncanny stretching powers! so there!* [smirk]
[tiny translocated ki-charge burst against tenshi backside] *two can play at that game, zk'vissin!*
[yips, glares, rubs spot]
[smirks at passing shark, which heads for the horizon at great speed]
ROFLMAO!! (It knows who's the biggest predator around there!)
[grin] damn straight!
[curious] *how long can you hold your breath for?*

[smirks] *we could try all of them and see it there's a difference in the time.. purely in the name of research, of course...*
[smirk] *of course.... then report back to 'selaan*
[blinks... falls over laughing] *is that project still going?*
[smirk] *you don't know 'selaan very well, do you?*

[shakes head] Incorrigible, the pair of them. Heh, expect to see that reconstituted in a forthcoming 'lestrel and Lutra episode. Including the snipped bit...

But the Must-See Sites page is finished. Which means that the revamped site is ready for the new server. Just waiting for BusinessServe, now...

Time for a mug of coffee and a lemon smoothie, I think....

Hn. Well, it wasn't what I set out to write, but I've finished and coded a tiny chapter for the Underside section of Dystopia. It's quite nasty (Sue, you might like to skip it once it's uploaded. No, it's not Jackson, or the modifieds, but it's unpleasant all the same.)

Had a brief hunt through my anime bookmarks earlier - it's amazing how many of the sites no longer exist. Not overly surprising, I suppose, given the emphemeral nature of the web, but sad all the same. There were some useful info sites I relied on... And can anyone tell me what's happened to Jiggler's Cauldron? I was enjoying watching her artwork change and develop...

I must get the CI5 section sorted out tomorrow: two hosted fics to add to it - and I think I'll post a link to the ILEA (Interstallar Law Enforcement Agency for those who've never found the stories) files in the Darkside. I mean, a quasi-police force staffed by centaurs, minotaurs, merfolk, sentient plants and various other ostensibly mythical creatures? I think it belongs there. And the general shounen-ai/slashiness certainly qualifies it for The Zone! (Lutra's in it, too. Heh, by my calculation that means I have three different versions of Lutra in three different parts of the WordWrights site! [grins])

I could add that link tonight, since the stories aren't new.

And I really should get round to writing the second 'case'. It's been bubbling for well over a year...

Brief progress report, for anyone who's interested...

Play now coded, as are the two hosted fics - Xero Sky's Day of the Ham-hams (still one of the funniest things I've read for ages) and Saiyan Lullaby's Strange Bedfellows (I love this story. It's gloriously tactile and has such an intriguing take on some of my favourite DBZ characters...), with accompanying background tiles (six for the latter).

Celebration is coming along well...

Decided to post the Oedo 'threesome' pic I did as a request for Valkyrie for Zone membership hitting the 300 mark. I'm not completely happy with it and want to try to redraw it at some point, but Valkyrie liked it, as did Carol... That's now ready to upload with the rest.

So, tonight...?

Probably Dystopia. Or the next AC5 chapter. Will see which bounces highest.

OH kay...

The transfer-out form and cheque are off to BusinessServe (we missed the post at the weekend), and I tried to register online with ClaraNET - except you can't transfer a domain until the current server release the IPStag... which makes perfect sense, but in that case what's the point of having the option... heh, bit circular that... unless it's for registering once the IPStag's been released... Anyway, I rang them instead. Apparently they do everything for us and advise us when the transfer's effected. Which is good. Though that doesn't explain how and when we pay them. And I'll probably have to ring Nominet because apparently BusinessServe, without bothering to ask, make themselves the administrators of the domain when you sign up with them - which means they have our certificate...

The site was down again for a few hours at the weekend. And the problems with the email continue...

On a more positive note, Play is now finished and ready for coding (which I'll do tomorrow). That makes four new fics/chapters from me, and we're hoping Lutra's next AC Side Story will be ready in time too - fun one that, set on Lutra's homeworld at the double moon celebration.... One more and I'll have hit my target.
It's been a day for funny and apposite sayings. I love onna's Bullshit Bingo! Carol came across a beauty of a quote:

Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.

(Heh, we know a song about that...) Someone (who shall remain nameless) described Za'jau as looking like a cross between an X-Files alien and Tina Turner (nnnnnno, can't see it meself), and at least Sue likes the birthday pic...

Back to it, I guess...

[rubs tired eyes]

Half way through Play, the next in the Silk and Leather series...

But I'm going to bed now.

Meet the latest addition to the family - Za'jau.

[Blinks. Stares. Blinks again. Grins manically]

I've finished Academy. I've written AC5 chapter 1. And I'm very pleased with it!

Lutra has to see this one, Mahrayne's in it.

Only have one more section to code and the revamp is ready for upload. I set myself a personal target of five new chapters to open the site on the new server, and so far I'm more than on target - three written in four days. The question is, what do I tackle next? Play? (Next Silk and Leather - started, but not fully plotted.) Transposition pt 9? (Plotted in some detail, but a little labour-intensive.) Discussion? (My next Dystopia chapter - shortish, part-written, something of a filler but nevertheless important since it sets the scene for future chapters...) The follow-up to Burn? (bubbling already.... *sigh* Yes, I know, Lustre was supposed to be a one-off.... OK Lutra, you win....) And then there's that Side Story explaining why Radittsu and Hijau hate Cendawan so much... And what about Fugitive? I've had the bones of the next chapter of that rattling in the back of my mind for over a year!!

Trust me, you wouldn't want to live in my head....

....went to Tesco earlier. Was confronted by a stack of ham-hams.... No, not in the meat section, unfortunately - in the toy section (hey, it was a short cut to where I wanted to be....) Bijou. Lots and lots of Bijou. Inedible fuzzy toys... [Exit one lizard, screaming....]

[harpooned in Talon's Nursery]:

Urm...so when will the new server be up? *is NOT pestering* *really* *truly* *honestly* *well maybe a little...*

Well, that depends on how efficient/bloody-minded BusinessServe choose to be - and so far I'm not very impressed with their efficiency... I need to ring ClaraNET for a couple of details, then I can post off the transfer-out form, and complete the transfer-in form online. After that it's just a matter of time... But since I haven't quite finished reorganising the Zone yet (it's frightening how big the DBZ section is) - not mention finished writing everything I want in it (the next part of Silk and Leather is nagging now!! [whimper] .... help.....) I could do with a few days before it all falls into place...

HOWEVER.... For those who can't wait, the lovely RoninBrat has now posted Burn on her Yaoi Arslan Fanfics site. The link is in the Zone, at the bottom of the Other Anime section, but please make sure you've read Lustre first: Burn is the follow-up. (Oh, Talon, and anyone else who might not know, RoninBrat writes for Purgatory too!)

Right - back to it...

Quick break while I get my breath back...

Burn now finished and coded, as is (gasp shock horror!) Transposition pt 8!! And wouldn't you just know it, the story is haring off in a completely different direction to the one I had intended. I'd planned on 10 chapters, 11 at most: with this new development it could easily turn into another multi-part epic. Which I DO NOT have haddock for. Hn. We'll have to see how it all goes, I guess.

I should point out that I'm not uploading any of the new fics/chapters to the site: I'm saving them for the 'relaunch' on the new server. Annoying to everyone who has been waiting, I know, but I think you'll find it's worth it. I'm also not sending out sneak peeks at the moment - my apologies to the usual, but I'm hoping to have a whole load of tasty new chapters for your delectation as soon as the transfer is complete, and for once I'd rather they were read with accompanying backgrounds, fonts, colours, etc. (Afterwards things will get back to normal, I promise. Or a close approximation, anyway. Well, what passes for normal in my personal continuum, which bears very little relation to what's generally called 'real life'. Or knife, come to that... Where was I? Oh, yes...)

The question now is what to do with the rest of tonight. Do I work on Academy (AC5 ch 1)? Continue Discussion (my next Dystopia chapter)? Or make a start on Transposition 9 (the followup to Radittsu and Sulu's interrupted soireé)? Or even [blink] take a break and read something?

Decisions, decisions...

And a big THANK YOU to Sue, my primary and preferred resource for any and everything TV sci-fi related, for finding the DS9/general Star Trek info I suddenly find myself needing at the most ridiculous hours, in extraordinarily short haddock, with accompanying illustrations and invaluable URLs. [GLOMPS]

WAI!!

Had a surprise parcel this morning - a real surprise as there was nothing to say who'd sent it - though the postmark was Southampton, which meant either Carol or Sue... It was from Carol! [GLOMP] The first volume of Tokyopop's Cowboy Bebop!! It's wonderful! Four all-new 'side stories' (stories by Hajime Yatate, art by Yutaka Nanten, 'in co-operation' with Shinichiro Watanabe) set while the group was still together and still not very successful in their chosen career... And they are very funny. The artwork is interesting, softer than the anime (which makes for a bigger-eyed and more cuddly Spike. I have no problem with this) and the translation (as far as I can tell) very good - at least, the speech patterns are accurate, which is always a good sign. Heh, have to get the other two volumes!

Thank you, Carol! That really cheered me up.

Fairly productive day. Finished Burn, the follow up to Lustre, but won't post it until the site's on the new server. However, since it was a gift for RB, she'll be posting it on her Arislan Shrine site when she has time to upload it (heh, there's a first! Someone else gets to not only host my work, but post it before I do! [insert self-sarcasm and sardonic raised eyebrow here] world exclusive or what?) And I'm now a couple of pages into Transposition pt 8. Someone please remind me NOT to choose a Russian for one of my main characters ever again (or until I've learned the language) - it just takes me too long to look up the Russian for the words I want then transliterate them into English...

Oh yes - and I finished and scanned in the pencil drawing of Za'jau.

From a recent ICQ conversation with Lutra:

[Lutra] "...our [spiders] are all up high, and KK's too busy chasing moths/mice/skinks to be bothered with spiders that don't move or aren't very interesting by comparison."
[Joules] "Ah... our mice live under the compost heap and are the best fed mice in the neighbourhood (you should hear their parties!) and it's too early for moths."
"ROFL!! The little discarded party hats and streamers are a dead giveaway aren't they?"
"It's the noise more than anything... Keeps the neighbours awake..."
[rolling around laughing] "it's so high-pitched, just hurts your ears..."
"yup....and the singing as all the guests go home...."

ne wonders sometimes...

Back to Chekov and Zaabon....

Go Byrd. And damn Blair to the consuming fires. Never have I been so ashamed to be Brit.

Or human, come to that.

... review of Orphans of Earth written and emailed off, next lot of windows cleaned (that's half of them now, my arms and shoulders are aching), cherry tree pruned and holly and rosemary now gone from front garden (mostly Ken's work, though I helped), houseplants tended and rearranged (and until you've seen my houseplants you won't know what a chore that is - there are 4+ plants in every room, and an indoor jungle in the lounge... must take a photo some time...), 309th Zone member joined, and I'm four pages into the follow-up to Lustre, a nice bit of h/c for a change...

... and why does blogger keep bringing up a bloody error message every time I try to post and publish?! I have to log out and log back in and copy/paste to get the update to post...

Talon's idea for the Radditz/Zarbon pairing for Restraints and Liberations sounds wonderful. Can't wait to read....

[blinks] Green M&Ms, onna? Hn... Luckily Kai hasn't thought of that one yet...

That was productive...

Let's see... Spent time this morning continuing with site revamp, in ICQ with Lutra (who's started the next chapter of the Alestrel/Lutra sequence and needed some feedback. Ooh, it's going to be a fun one!) and starting my next Dystopia chapter.

After she'd gone to bed I started on the spring-cleaning. Tedious as hell but the house is appallingly mucky, it really needs to be done. Washed net curtains (things I loathe but we have houses oppposite at the front and they're a necessity), cleaned windows (one of those awkward jobs requiring me to lean far out of the upper floor windows with my upper arm braced between edge of window and wall in order to get enough pressure to have some effect. The scratches look good now - the bruises will be very pretty, later...)

Sorted out one stack of videos (into ones that can be buried at the back and ones that might actually get watched sometime in the next six years). It's left a fair bit of room on the shelves, which is a good thing.

Made a start on the pics for the cels of the table that will replace the list on The Zone main index - then Ken needed online access for half an hour, so sat with CSI and roughly sketched Za'jau.

Finished the pics for the cels, sorted out the Trigun section (not that that needed much). I think the main page will look rather pretty!
And finally had a brainwave for the follow-up to Lustre I promised RB ages ago. Made a start on it, hopefully will be able to continue tomorrow. Hopefully.

Soooo.... Schedule for the next couple of weeks. FirstLight new chapter 2 (before Ken declares my not working on my own fiction is grounds for divorce). First chapter of the Fifth Alliance Chronicle. Next couple of Dystopia chapters. Follow up to Lustre. Finish Double Trouble (the CCO808 fic I'm writing for Cyberage). Think about the Sengoku/Benten fic I want to write for Valkyrie. Try to get my arse in gear and bloody finish Transposition!! Create background tiles for the hosted stories and get said stories coded. Finish spring-cleaning. Run house. Run family. Hassle authorities to get child assessed. Try to force green leafy vegetables into protesting males. Sort out Nominet, BlueYonder, BusinessServe and ClaraNET. Tattoo forthcoming birthdays on inside of eyelids so I don't forget them - again. Oh, yes, and try to keep up with my commitment to Purgatory as well.

Now how many things have I forgotten? No doubt they'll come to me later...

I really need a 60 hour day. Heh, sleep? Who needs it?

Well, the idea of the St George Day card seems to have gone down quite well: I'll give it a try (when I can find a spare haddock. Easter, maybe...)

OK - obviously emails are still going astray, both incoming and outgoing. I hope that accounts for the fact that the drawing I consider the best thing I've done recently, Lutra's birthday pic, was apparently completely ignored by everyone except Lutra. (It would be depressing to think that stuff that's five years old is more noteworthy than new material.)

Ah well - I know I write better than I draw, anyway...

On the subject of emails, for the record, I always reply to feedback, usually within an hour or so of receiving it, even if it's just a quick "thanks, glad you enjoyed it" (or "sorry to hear you didn't", though that's only happened once so far...), no matter how busy I am. (In my opinion it's rude not to.) So if anyone reading this hasn't had a response, it's almost certainly either because I never received it, or you never received my reply. I'm hoping that the move to the new server will solve the problem, as I'm pretty sure it's BusinessServe, not Eudora: in the meantime I'm wondering about requesting receipts (much as I hate the things) and asking people emailing me to do the same, to make sure I get all my mail.

I don't need this hassle...

[*sigh*] Off to tackle the DBZ section...

Re: Cascade -

[lassooed on onna's blog]

Any more treasures like that tucked away?

Glad you liked it - and actually yes, there is one more I quite like. I tried it a few weeks before I did Cascade, and it's a bit crude. I'd like to redo the whole thing one day.

(These actually came out of a 'style' I developed for two-tone portraits from photos: used to do them for friends, then I did a whole load of them for the Lexxfolk - see here (and follow the links for other pages).

Hn. They're not too bad. Be nice to do some more one day - they don't take very long...

Finished the Cyber City Oedo 808 revamp for the new server. Not looking forwards to the DBZ part, it's huge! However, I have now had permission to host the two fics I wanted, so I'm dead chuffed!

[laughing manically] - Onna, you're really too cruel to the monkey prince! I'm surprised he lets you get away with it sometimes...

[ponders] Hn... perhaps I should try a St George's Day pic... Not that I approve of the legend or the usual portrayal, of course... although... George slaying the dragon with a big lance...

[smirk] My version of Radittsu has a whoppin' great 'lance' - and dragons are a sort of lizard, aren't they...? [smirk]

Interesting... I wonder what Goku would make of it...

(Thanks for that, Valkyrie!)

It's beautiful today - cloudless sky, brilliant sunshine, temperature just above zero. The medlar is budding (heh, everything's budding!), the snowdrops we planted under it are struggling to come up (in the face of being eaten by the various forms of wildlife in the garden), and the daphne smells glorious... Too good a day to feel depressed.

And it looks like I've been losing emails again, only this time it isn't BusinessServe's fault (miracles still do happen...) I downloaded the latest version of Eudora, and it appears to conflict with something on my system: it boots up, starts to drag down emails then crashes, and I have to reboot it. Will try some diagnostics tonight, and see if their 'fixes' page has any advice.

Family is finished (obviously taking time out to co-write Ambassador and Yearning helped, as in the end the enthusiasm kicked back in and I finished it in about 6 hours), and Lutra's Consequences pt 4 is nearing completion too: hoping to post them in the next day or so - along with the illustrations (the Hijau/Zha'haarak one has worked well, but something odd happened with the Radittsu/Jeice, the colour's all wrong...). I may wait until the domain is up and running on the new server (should happen sometime in the last week of March) before opening Chronicle 5: in the meantime I have some major site re-organisation to do...

But maybe not today. I have the DBZ marathon tape playing in the background in the hope I can catch up a little (*sigh* all 13 hours of it] and I feel like writing something light... the PWP follow-up to Yearning, perhaps.
The new pic is lovely, onna.

Harpooned in Lutra's Pond...

A dilemma. Joules' birthday fic is pretty much finished but she's torn between posting it asap or waiting until the illos are done. Problem is, that could be a while... (Heh, her birthday present and I nudged her into writing half of it.. Have I no shame? *pause for thought* Nup.)

[big grin] Heh, it was fun... It is finished now, and I am going to post it tonight - assuming BusinessServe doesn't go down - along with the Dystopia portraits and another gift fic, Longing, a wonderful Cyber City Oedo 808 short written for me by Angelli. (It'll be a while before I can draw the three pics I have in mind for Ambassador.)

Tired. Need an early night. But have started Family, the next AC chapter...

[Sinks head in hands] ... this is getting ridiculous...

Chibi Catherine has the first three chapters of new wip out on FF.net... Have I said how much I like Chibi Catherine's work? Probably not (except to LittleSaru), but she's one of my all time favourite DBZ writers. (Perhaps I should be diplomatic here and add, of those I don't personally know...)

I'll read anything with Radittsu, or Zaabon - or even better both - in it. Quite often I'll stop reading after a paragraph or so if it's not worth finishing, occasionally I'll hunt down more stories by the same author if I really enjoy them. Chibi Catherine writes Radittsu fics (although her excellent Broken - and yes it is excellent, even given her take on my favourite blue-skinned alien - stars Zaabon). She writes wonderful Radittsu fics. Her characterisation is tight, her use of language succinct and evocative... She's a powerful writer.

I want to sit and sink into this latest work - and I can't. I don't have the time right now. I still have three books to review for the third week of March (two of which I haven't yet opened, much less read), the next AC chapter to write, Ambassador to illustrate (I know I don't have to do that, but I have two images crystal sharp in my mind and I just have to try to draw them...), four pictures still to colour, joint Purgatory chapters to write with Reshenna... That's without mentioning the books I want to read for my own pleasure (Sue's Crusade loans, my birthday presents, and (at the last count) four pdf-format books from author friends I want to feedback to). And my own original fiction, which I'm being nagged about (quite rightly). Oh, and it's Kai's 8^th birthday on Sunday too... Along with the fact that Ken seems to be getting worse rather than better on this medication, and I think I've done it again - taken on far too much.

Help! I need another holiday!! (Or haddock. Swarms and flocks and murmurations and unkindnesses of haddock...)

And then there are other days when everything goes right...

The four Dystopia portraits are now coloured, and I've finished my next Dystopia chapter (Remembrance): they can all be posted after Lutra's next chapter is finished. I also kind-of-sort-of let myself be roped into writing the A'lestrel pov for Lutra's Ambassador (which is huge fun!).

However, the list of things I have to do keeps getting longer as the number of haddock I have in which to do them grows less. It's all too much. I need another holiday! [grin]

[growl] It's obviously not a day for being artistic. I coloured the Devon pic OK, but everything else I've tried had been a bit of a mess... 'course, with onna's advice to colour on separate layers, now I can go back and do it differently if I'm not happy with it, which is just as well. Never mind, I'll try again tomorrow. It's not like I don't have plenty of other things to be getting on with...

I now have a haddock pen! (Well, it's a mackerel actually but that's close enough!) It's grinning, and the tail is flexible, moves from side to side... It's great! So is the Ziggy Stardust cd that came with it! Many thanks, Wendy!! [GLOMPS!]

And Valkyrie drew me this picture of Benten! (This is a thumbnail of the original - shortened a little [smirk]. She tells me that for the tattoo she used a kanji font for the letters JT...)

I'm very pleased people like the tenshi-Lutra pic - although I'm still not completely happy with it. It's not as good as I wanted it to be. (Oh, onna, I'm reliably informed - [by me] - that that outfit is quite tame for tenshi... I'm planning on drawing a few more pictures, in different outfits, for Lutra's Ambassador, the first-meeting fic she's writing...)

On that note I'd better go and get something constructive done!

[Grins tiredly at onna] Thanks for the welcome! And I'm very glad you like the pics - especially your reaction to Devon: that's what I was trying for, sort of...

Now awaiting Lutra's entrance so she can approve the tenshi-Lutra pic...

...back...

And it only took me two and a half hours to clear my email backlog - which included 7 new Zone applications, Deceiver's Legacy 14, and a Denise Merino update! But before I get properly started, some thanks are in order.
To Carol, for the cake (I'm still blushing!), the gorgeous aromatherapy necklet, for transferring Cowboy Bebop so I have it all in the correct order, and most of all for the time and space to sit and draw. Nine pictures in total - more on those later...

To Adrian, for keeping Kai happily distracted so I could have a break - and for putting up with us causing chaos for a week!

To Sue, for a wonderful day chilling out with Crusade and talk of books, even though you were poorly, and of course for my present!

And to Anna for the cake. We've cut it now. And it's delicious. And it's lemon!! [grin] Radittsu, alas, didn't survive the journey (tch', millions of lightyears in a pod, but 100 miles in a terran bus was too much for him...) So I'm eating him. [smirk]

Onna, thanks for the card! I like the latest oekakis - and can't wait to read the fic (just hoping it's not the pairing Lutra and I have planned - if we can ever find the time - but from what you've said I don't think it is...) I'm sorry but I wasn't able to finish the threesome pic. Got halfway and couldn't get it looking right - don't think I have the skill to do it yet. I'll keep trying though... I did, however, manage to draw a Jeice and Radittsu scene I've wanted to try since last year: I'll add it to my next AC chapter. (Heh, had to have Kai lie on his stomach, chin in his hands and feet in the air to get the pose right!) I'm quite pleased with it... That Manga Couples book is phenomenal for reference. Many thanks for recommending it!

Valkyrie - I've drawn your request pic but I'm afraid I wimped out some... Couldn't get the pose right in a sideways view (they'd have to be contortionists to make it work, I think!) so have done the next best thing. I'll post it - and send you a copy - once it's coloured.

Had lots of fun drawing Dystopia portraits! I'm posting the original pencil sketches here - well, thumbnails of them anyway - as it may be a few days before I can colour them.

This is Devon.

Stephan, flamboyant Gallic charmer and (in Lutra's words) 'good grief what a queen...!' (He's Stephan rather than Etienne because his mother was Russian. Just in case anyone was wondering...)

... Cloudie... (Cloud, Nuage)

... and big, loving, protective Peter (aka Ox)…

I should be able to post the colour versions with my next chapter (in which we find out what Stephan actually does in the Agency!) Quite a bit of that is already written, so hopefully it won't take me long to finish.

Belated Happy Birthday to Ripley! Home schooling... Hm... We considered it for Kai, but decided against it. The school has far more resources than we could afford - and we believe all children need to learn how to deal with (communicate with) other kids from an early age, otherwise they won't be able to socialise when they're older, which will make life hellish difficult for them! Fair enough, Kai is egocentric and doesn't communicate very well, but the thought of what he'd be like if he wasn't interacting with his peers is enough to give me nightmares...

There's a DBZ marathon (8am to 9pm: 12 hrs 55 mins of it) showing on CNX today, all the eps I missed while TeleWest were making up their minds to provide the channel. Ken, bless him, got up at 7.30am today to set the video going so I can catch up with the story. GT starts on Monday: I think it's ep 40 I need to catch? The one with Zaabon? Heh, I'll probably have it playing in the background anyway.

Right - better get this uploaded and let Alestrel out to play. I should be able to get the tenshi-Lutra pic coloured before Lutra gets online...

Squeal!!

Spending the day at Sue's (playing on her laptop at the moment)... Got presented with birthday presents... A Stitch in Time (YAY! My own copy! I don't need to worry about the spine!!) and (to my gobsmackedness) The Dark Blood of Poppies... I have a signed/inscribed copy of A Taste of Blood Wine and have been looking for the sequels for ages - they're as rare as roller-skating giraffes... [GLOMPS Sue] Chuffed? DAMN right!!

We've spent some time watching videos of Crusade (I like Galen), and Sue has (at my request) loaned me the trilogy The Passing of the Technomages. So that makes three books to read/review by the third week of March, my birthday books to enjoy, the Brian Lumley book I started a little while ago, and now this three. Haddock....

There was a bemusing thing on CeeFax the other night. The headline read, "Chicken saves pensioner from attack". Apparently a pensioner - who had lost a leg as a child after being attacked by a cocker spaniel - brought home a rescued labrador. Hours later it attacked her: her false leg fell off while the dog was chewing on her arm, but her friend managed to tempt the dog away by waving a roast chicken at it...