Woke to a wonderfully invigorating thunderstorm this morning, Taranis driving his chariot over our roof, brilliant lightning, and hail rattling the windows. Much needed here after over two weeks without rain - I just hope it's been in time to rescue my callicarpa!

And there was a Lutra-card in the post!

It's a Leafy Seadragon, one of the beauties at the Melbourne Aquarium... No good, have to go there... (yersss, thanks for the upside-down stamp, tenshi, very amusing!)

The next two AC chapters - Havoc and Retreat - are trundling along. I'm hoping to finish Havoc by tomorrow night, since it's actually holding up Lutra's near-as-dammit-finished next chapter. It's not proving particularly easy to write, unfortunately...
Beltaine Eve. We have our local elections tomorrow, and I don't know who (what, rather) to vote for...

<rant> It won't be the Tory candidate, I know that much. I watched that evil old hag Thatcher and that bastard Major (remember him? The one with the smug smirk that I always wanted to smash with a brick?) turn this country from a relatively comfortable, community-minded culture into a 'me first and only' society, their insanely inequitable policies leaving vast swathes of the population trying to exist in what was to all intents and purposes grinding poverty... My hatred of the Tories is profound, almost as deep as my loathing for the Bush administration.
So in the last few elections - both local and general - I've voted Labour. Not necessarily because I like their policies, but because I did not want to see the Tories cause any more devastation. Yeah, strategic (or should that read tactical?) voting, like an awful lot of others. Unfortunately, it rather looks as though Labour aren't to be trusted either. I don't mean their policies, the way they've been trying to run the country: they have, after all, twenty-odd years of Tory misrule to put right, and that can't be accomplished in a couple of years. But Blair doesn't listen. (Yes, I know, very few politicians do, once they're in power, do they?) Opposition to Britain's involvement in the war on Iraq was - shall we say substantial? - over here, partly because an awful lot of people do not trust Bush's motives. It was ignored. Opposition to allowing asylum seekers entry into the country was ignored (despite the fact that we don't have enough homes/jobs/money for working class native Brits) until very recently (at the moment I think we can discount the thirty or so sent back to Afghanistan as a publicity stunt aimed at proving that the government is listening to the people, since Labour's popularity has waned so dramatically in recent days). Opposition to adopting the euro as our currency seems to be ignored also, though I'm not up on recent events in that field so I could easily be wrong...

So, not the Tories (never the Tories), and dubious about Labour. Social Democrats? Haven't been very impressed with what I've seen/heard of them so far. I'd love to vote Green, but I have grave doubts about their effectiveness in the broader arena. I will vote, of course, a generation of women fought and suffered for me to have the right to do so, I can't let that sacrifice have been in vain.

eh, pity we don't live in Weston-super-Mare, I understand a Jedi Knight is standing for election there...</rant>

On a happier note, Sue spent some of Eostre down in Devon (my birthplace this time round) and visited Burgh Island and its hotel...

We both love the hotel - the inside is all genuine art deco, my favourite artistic style. It was up for sale at one point, and I promised myself if I ever won the lottery I'd buy it (Sue's said the same, so I guess whichever of us wins first gets first dibs!).

Not quite a tropical island, Lutra, but would it do for now?

"hippo birdies two ewes" is a very common saying over here, Talon - we even have birthday cards with it on the front, along with cartoons of the appropriate beasties, of course.

And Lutra, I love Pass the Pig! It's a great game!

Picked up my new glasses this morning and am currently trying to get used to them. The difference between the two pairs is really noticeable: I don't have to frown at the screen any more - but they're useless for the TV, everything's horribly blurred. And if I turn my head the lenses stretch and elongate objects viewed through the edges, which is disconcerting. Still, it's nice to have absolutely clear, unblurred images right in front of me again!

DBGT episode 42 is supposed to be screening in an hour and a half...

[grins] Yuuzen pic now posted in Play, the latest Silk and Leather chapter. I'm really rather pleased with the way it's turned out, though I still need a lot of work on my shading... I've made the pic clickable to a larger version... And Valkyrie drew A'lestrel for me! [<- points left happy sigh] Have I said how much I love her artwork? This is beautiful...

Tch', coming up to 4 a.m. and my folks are leaving in about seven hours. I suppose

I had better think about getting to bed.

....................

....................

....................

....................

OK, I've thought, and I'm going to have a peek at Gift - a ficlet for Lutra's homecoming if I can get it finished in time - before I close down.

..... why can I smell cigarette smoke? My folks don't, Ken and I gave up in '91, and I wouldn't allow it in the house anyway, not with Kai here... [shakes head, frowning] Bizarre...

[blinks] Not quite sure how, but this afternoon I've managed to draw the pic of Yuuzen I'd planned, while Jurassic Park 3 was playing in the background (my folks hadn't seen it). Just scanned it in, and will colour and post when the folks have gone to bed (which will be after Casualty and Pitch Black. Aiming to try to draw 'raadiin while the film is playing: I can see the pose I want, probably the trickiest I've ever attempted... fingers crossed...

[sigh] Well, Lutra's off for the weekend, I have my folks arriving in about 7.5 hours (heh, I suppose I should get some sleep before they arrive) and the house is still a mess. Ah well....

Writing-wise, Lutra and I are now three pages into the next 'l&L chapter - and tonight I've written three pages of Retreat, the primary Ti'aasaan/Zorun chapter for AC5... It's not actually the next chapter in sequence, but I had a sudden brainwave while furiously pondering a backstory for a comment I made in the 'l&L chapter and just had to write it while the impetus was there. It works quite well, too!

have a handful of Jack Bruce songs I've mp3d from a 'Best Of' cd, and tonight I finally got round to hunting up the lyrics for some of my favourites - including Golden Days [sigh. love that song... I have absolutely no idea why, but it always makes me think of Arislan Senki], Theme for an Imaginary Western and Tales of Brave Ulysses... I remember being unbearably frustrated, as a child, that the things I wanted to know simply weren't available to me. Now all I have to do is kick Google. Sheer bliss to an information junkie...

St George's Day pic now posted in the Zone, in the Galleries.

And for anyone interested in Blaise Castle, have a look Here (page 2 is here). It's a gorgeous place, a 45 minute bus ride from home through the heart of Briz, and a favourite spot with all of us: Kai loves it there. (Quite fond of it myself, there's some wonderfully Entish trees...)

All in all a fine day!

Just back from taking Kai out to Blaise Castle for the day (more on that later). Have to go make dinner, but before I do....

It's St George's Day. Remember back on St Patrick's Day I commented: -

[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]

Well, while Kai spent a little time in the adventure playground, I drew it. I'll be scanning/colouring and posting after dinner. But probably in the Zone - it's just a little risqué to post here, I think...[smirk]

Tired - but then, it's been a tiring day.

The shed's now cleared of rubbish (going to take us about six weeks to get rid of all the junk, bit by bit - no way will the dustmen take the whole lot in one go!) and everything we're keeping put back in in sensible (i.e. accessible) places, and Kai's corner is half way to being tidied. Still need to do his room (shudder) before Friday - folks coming to visit and will be sleeping there.

nna, many thanks for the advice: alas, at present I only have PhotoShop 5.5... May mean organising the gallery by hand...

And the next AC chapter (provisionally titled Fight) trundles along in between constant interruptions, continuing clearing out the loft/study cupboard/shed, and trying to persuade Kai that I need the floor in the lounge (this latter has now been resolved, all his electronic odds and sods have been sorted, stored and the dross binned - at last!! - though there's still more than I'm happy with). Still, three pages in now and it's coming along nicely...

I had a gift in my email this morning: Sylverthorne sent me an AC picture she (tch' - there has to be a term for drew/coloured-scanned-coloured/cg'ed... created, perhaps? That'll do) created for me. It's wonderful, and I'll be posting it soonish, not this next chapter but probably the one after (I'll be writing a scene for it to illustrate!) Silverthorne's site can be found Here: I haven't had the haddock to explore it properly, though I did start reading Hunter's Destiny and had to drag myself away before I got sucked in (I had other deadlined stuff to finish first), and there are some fine and fascinating creations in the Gallery...

She also wondered why I haven't posted all the AC pics in a gallery - which is actually a very good question. I haven't kept count of all the illustrations I've done for it, but it must be getting on for a hundred... (sod it, I'll go count... OK - 76 static, 4 small animations, 2 family portraits = 82. Hn. Feels like more... (actually there are more, about another 7 that weren't finished/good enough to display, one that I thought was really just a little too...um... blatant, and another two unfinished as yet... I don't count them) Mind you, there are another 4 in the Darkside and 8 in CCO808 - though 4 of those aren't really worth displaying... Then there's the 17 illustrations by Naomi (15 for Forbidden, 2 for Talon's Homecoming) the 11 Valkyrie has done for the Oedo section, and Onna's 4 (3 for the AC and 1 for Talon's Cold Snap) and Silverthorne's new one... have I forgotten anybody?... 127 and counting... bloody hell... Yes, I suppose I should organise some sort of a gallery. It won't be right away, though: just creating all the thumbnails is going to take ages.

And I've been asked to do an AC family tree. Now this is an excellent idea - though given the web of inter-relationships I'm not entirely sure how to go about it... Heh, I'll come up with something...

[sigh] And then I forgot the 5 I did for Entranced and Fugitive, and the 3 Naomi did for the former... OK - 135 pics...

[grumble] It's gone well beyond a joke - these days before I can write any AC I have to have the working Timeline, the Cast List and the last posted chapter open so I can cross-check details and stay consistent...

What this means is that I'm working on the next AC5 chapter.

Cute pic of Ripley, Talon!

Pictures Cuddle and Winged Love now posted in Ambassador. The latter was an interesting experience: I draw on A4 size paper (which is a bit limiting but anything bigger is impossible outside, especially when - like today - it's windy) and this pic had to be done in two parts, the figures, and Lutra's wings separately (rather, one wing, reversed for the other side, to save work). Then lots of fun working on an almost 4 megabyte file with multiple layers, airbrush, transparent eraser tool, various texture filters... (And PhotoShop pulls a prima donna on my machine if I try to use ICQ as well as work on files over half a meg...) But it's worked quite well I think, though the bodies are still a little stilted, and I still haven't got 'lestrel's backside right... Ah well, will have to keep practising...

Now have a horribly sore neck and shoulders, inside (muscular ache from hunching over looking down to draw, I think) and outside (sunburn - I'm a complete pillock sometimes... I have a cute pale stripe down my back where my plait was, which is wholly bizarre since I was sitting facing the sun...) So I'm taking an evening off, relaxing and pondering where the next chapter of Transposition is heading...

Brief break while my Korean noodles (seafood flavour) cook...

Good day so far - two pictures done (both for Ambassador) - and I've started a Le'ska and Ka'rayne. Might manage Ka'reysu as well by the end of the day!

But my shoulders have burned [ducks and waits for the nagging to start...]

Finally finished and emailed off the latest review... Actually, that should read March's review. Not that it was due in March, exactly - it was one of the two books I got in March...

Not the easiest of reviews, either: I asked for the Science Fiction Foundation's journal #86 (essays and reviews of gay and lesbian science fiction). An intriguing read, though ultimately depressing given the generally negative way the subject has been dealt with (where it's been dealt with at all) in the genre. Which really really annoys me, given my belief that s-f should explore the limits of human - and alien - experience in all its forms. And yes, I know my own writing is pretty tame, but I do at least present issues of sexuality and gender positively, as an accepted fact of life rather than something to be feared, suppressed, proclaimed or sniggered at...

Then again, I've never really understood why gender is so important to so many people. It's the person that matters, not what sex they are or their sexual orientation...

Pics posted in Legation in the Zone.... tch' - I can't draw hands or bums...

And silly season (which in Briz seems to stretch from the first warm day we get until at least Samhain) started for me today with a nice little crop of klez.H-infected emails... Always satisfying when my AV software picks them up. It did more than that the other day, too! I tried to download an mp3 (can't remember what, now) from a site I'd searched for and my resident shield popped up saying the file had a virus and did I really want to risk it...? First time that's happened - nice to know the software does what it claims to do!

It's been hot today. 25 degrees (whatever the hell that is in English money). It's hot and sticky now, too: just had to open all the windows upstairs because the heat actually woke Kai up - not that it'll do much good, there's not even a breath of wind... Ken's awake too, reading: don't quite know why he won't set the fan going, it's not that loud...

Ah well. Due to change at the weekend, winds from Siberia sweeping across the country cooling everything down again.

I used to wonder about the Brit obsession with the weather, until I started noting it myself, and our climate is astonishing. This tiny country gets everything, from tornadoes and hurricanes to floods and droughts, surviving everything She flings at us... Not sure how we're going to cope with the death of the Gulf Stream (from desalinisation of the oceans due to global warming) though...

Hn. Fairly successful day - spent the afternoon in the sun in the garden, drawing. Only a couple of pics - A'lestrel in Legation complete front view and a sketch of the back view (because Lutra wanted one) - hoping to be able to scan, tint and post later tonight....

Knackered...

Carol, got the story, like it a lot, will get back to you in more detail later...

No, Lutra, not even bathed, shaved, waxed hairy men - unless I can do the waxing as part of my casual torture exercises...

Took Kai to see The Two Towers this morning.

Great fun (well, except for the two pig-ignorant bimbos who wouldn't shut up. You know the sort, their makeup comes round the corner five minutes before they do...) but definitely one of those films where you need a pause/slomo button (looking forward to the special extended version to catch some of those snippets - like Legolas' amazing leap up onto the horse...With a bit of luck it'll be out in time for this year's anniversary). Great sense of satisfaction watching the Ents at Isengard - nice to see the trees getting their own back!

But Lutra, you can keep the Horselords - I'll stick with elves. Hairy grimy men do nothing for me... [smirk]

YAY!!

Just checked stats - we've finally had visits from South Africa! That was the one place I knew hadn't found us yet!

Also Iceland, which is kind of satisfying - Ken's mum Monica is of Icelandic extraction (way back, I believe).

I'm still getting a hell of a lot code 404 errors listed though - but not the pages affected. If anyone comes across a broken link, please let me know.... Somewhere in AC4 there's a broken link that despite all my efforts I simply can't find...

[Culled from Talon's blog]

GothNames quiz.

Lutra's Demonic Angel, Sue comes out as Evil Queen.

And me? I'm Beautiful Nightmare....

Enough of this levity! Back to work...

I don't normally, but these are fun!

A - Act your age? Now, are we talking my physical age in this particular incarnation, or my mental age (6, according to GoodTwin...), or the complete number of years I've lived in all incarnations? I need specifics....

B - Born on what day of the week? Thursday's child has far to go (this time round)... Same as Lutra.

C - Chore you hate? Shoppinghouseworkwashingwashingupdustingvacuuming - anything that keeps me from writing. Except for quality time with sprog and mate, of course...

D - Dad's name? (In this incarnation... heh, going to stop saying that, take it as read...) Jim

E - Essential makeup item? Don't use it normally... cream to disguise bags under eyes? Cruelty-free and ethically sound, of course.

F - Favorite actor? Alan Rickman, Sean Connery, Bruce Willis, Zoe Wannamaker - and for eye-candy - Nicholas Tse...

G - Gold or silver? Platinum

H - Hometown? Is that where I live now (which I don't consider 'home') or where I was born this time round, or what?

I - Instruments you play? Keyboard (computer, that is). Does the human body count as an instrument?

J - Job title? Umm.... God? Creator of beings/worlds/continua/universes (on paper and rust, admittedly....)

K - Kids? One, this lifetime. That's quite enough, no wish to add to planet's overpopulation problem.

L - Living arrangements? Somewhat chaotic...

M - Mum's name? Dee

N - Number of people you've slept with? Oh ye gods, how'm I supposed to remember?!

O - Overnight hospital stays? Hn.... Several while carrying Kai (high blood pressure/threatened pre-eclampsia). Tonsils and adenoids as a child. Think that's it...

P - Phobia? Fire. And blindness, though that's not so bad any more. Worst, though, is cramped spaces. And being underground. Being trapped in a tiny place underground would be hell - especially if it was crowded as well. (Hang on, isn't that someone's definition of Hell?)

Q - Quote you like? "Get a grip"? "Get a grip"?! I'm in the wrong body on the wrong planet in the wrong galaxy at the wrong time and you expect me to "get a grip"?! (me to Carol)

R - Religious affiliation? Gaian mostly.

S - Siblings? Which planet/continua/incarnation are we talking?

U - Unique habit? Compulsion to hunt down information NOW rather than when it's convenient (thorough, not obsessive...)

V - Vegetable you refuse to eat? Parsnips. Make me throw up.

W- Worst habit? Intellectual arrogance - I've been beaten about the head and told this is incorrect... Um... so... Trying to do too much?

X - X-rays you've had? Right forearm when 8 years old for greenstick fracture. Right foot (twice, for breaks to same bone). Lower back after a fall. Do mammograms count?

Y - Yummy food you make? Pork stroganoff, sushi, ghuvetsch, baked stuffed marrow, German potato soup....

Z - Zodiac Sign? Pisces. Creature of extremes. Extreme extremes.

So now you know. Or not, as the case may be!

Interesting Cowboy Bebop quizzes, much more insightful and complex than so many out there. Accurate spelling too... So I got Gren as my chara and Vicious as soul-mate. Hn. Fate, obviously. Better get that Vicious/Gren lemon organised...

Reticence should be finished tonight (though I'm probably going to change the title...) - will whap to usual when ready.

Hn....

Last time I had my eyes tested it was all long thin rooms with clunky headsets and the optician sliding different lenses in and out of the frame in front of my eyes. This time...

They have a 'pretest' now, something that (I assume) gives them a rough idea of how your lenses react, and another something that puffs air onto your eyeball to measure the internal pressure. Had one of those before and didn't enjoy it any better this time...

Onto the actual optician. Small room, all modern tech, all electronic and much more comfortable than before. Except for her shining very bright lights into my eyes to check my retinas (which are apparently very healthy, thanks!) anyway. Very very pleasant young woman indeed. Swift and efficient and a delight to speak with.

And the upshot? Well, I'm now astigmatic and long-sighted (personally I prefer the term 'far-sighted'....) though she did say that most people like me had problems with close vision at an earlier age than me, which was encouraging... Anyway, I need two different prescriptions, one for distance and one for close work (which may explain why threading a needle has been more a matter of guesswork than actual vision for the last year.) I had the option of two new pairs of specs, vari-focals, or the glasses I already have for distance and a new pair for close work. I went with the last option - I like my current glasses, they're comfy and look good on me. But my new ones...

Well, to get the wide, tall frame I need I had to go up into the next price bracket (double wince) but they are rather special. Even bigger than my current ones, the style is almost the same, except in gunmetal grey (appropriate, I thought...) They feel very good on. Unfortunately it's going to take about ten (working) days to make the lenses, so I can't collect them until the 25th: will need to wear my current ones for the meantime. Ah well, a bit more frowning won't make that much difference!
What was good to know is that the astigmatism hasn't worsened in two years: that's a real relief. Although it's still sad. I used to love star-watching, and could pick out really quite faint celestial objects; these days everything in the night sky is surrounded by a very pretty but bloody annoying prismatic corona...

Tch'. I feel old.

From Carol, earlier:
             [quote]"I have to chair a BRISTAL A-Team meeting tonight"

I have a brilliant image of you all storming out of a van, waving SMG's and chewing cigars...

[grins] I love it when a plan comes together...

<rant> Booting up to find multi-k hoax chain letter was irritating enough, but it's also been one of those days, and it's not over yet. 'Course, I'd feel a lot happier if I'd managed more than two hours sleep last night (very annoying when I make the effort to get to bed early and then can't sleep. Mind you, with Ken taking up more than half of the bed and Raptor half of the pillow... Pest wasn't content with lying there purring loudly, either, oh no, she decided she wanted to play with my plait. My plait is now 30 inches long, and I flip it to lie above my head at night, otherwise I get tangled in it. Which meant cat also digging claws into my scalp. And slicing my knuckles when I reached up to try to stop her... Cue cat getting unceremoniously dumped off bed...)

It was a beautiful sunny (if cold) walk to school with Kai, and then I went into town to buy GoodTwin's birthday present. Couldn't find what I wanted but am quite pleased with what I did find (waves at Carol! Now just have to print out your copy of Timeslipping (I haven't forgotten) and get everything in the post.) And got to the Chinese Supermarket again! Pocky and ramen (I've missed my ramen). And some strange, faintly-green-tinged-transparent Japanese melon-flavoured soft candy sweets that actually really taste of melon - very nice. Dread to think how many calories though...

Now I really want a nap, but I have to chair a BRISTAL A-Team meeting tonight, and I haven't read through the Agenda yet (tch', me and last minute rushes...)

Then tomorrow morning I have my bi-annual eye-test: I've noticed myself frowning at the screen over the last few months, so will probably need a change of prescription (for those who don't know, I'm astigmatic, need glasses for computer work or everything looks fuzzy. Interestingly I'm perfectly fine with books or the TV, it's only light sources that give me a problem - like the screen, the moon, or stars. Very irritating). [sigh] More wierd looks: the only frames I've ever found comfortable are from the "men's" range - large and squarish, steel-framed, but silver-coloured: my peripheral vision's pretty good and anything smaller is incredibly irritating and feels like it's chopping my field of view in half... heh, fascinating stuff, ne? Anyway, the lenses have to be specially ground, which normally takes a week, so if I need new ones and I can't have the sort of frame I want, I'll have to have new lenses in the old frame - which is going to be a pain in the backside (well, the head, anyway) until I can pick them up. Oh, the hassle of not having a spare pair!</rant>

But enough whinging! On the plus side, Kai's improved a little at school, and having him do extra writing homework is paying off, he's speeded up considerably and his teacher is very pleased. Oh, and Kai is also happy to have his Pandora story posted on the site, so when I can find a stray haddock I'll get that organised. The garden looks lovely, and we had a whole load of tadpoles hatch (then the newts ate them. Ah well....) I'm even making progress with reading The Passing of the Techno-Mages (reached Galen's recovering from the implants) though it's tricky reading a book without opening it properly [smirks at Sue]. I find the actual style very choppy, which is a little offputting. But the story itself is intriguing. I'm still resisting opening A Stitch in Time: need a nice long protracted haddock to really sit and enjoy that one...

[snarl] If there's one thing that gets right up my nose (and trust me, that isn't somewhere you'd want to be) it's gullible idiots who clog up people's mailboxes by forwarding those bloody hoax chain letters!! I had another one this morning, the 'Natalie' (new-born with brain cancer) one...

The first thing I do when I get this crap is to check HERE (this URL gets used so often it's on the top level of my bookmarks) Sure enough, there's the hoax. This time I just copy pasted the comments and hit reply all, suggesting that people check the site before forwarding. Next time I shall be a damn sight ruder.

[stomps off to find something to hit]

That's better. Now three pages into Reticence (Havoc was just causing too much of a headache: I'll come back to it later.)
Have also updated the character list/name meanings, but I'm pretty sure there are a few characters I've forgotten...

Decided that next time I update I'll move Silk and Leather into the mini-epics section. At ten chapters and more planned it hardly counts as a one-off any more!
I've also had a sort of request for some more Beauday and Doyaal (and a couple of people wanted to know how they first joined the ILEA)... Tempting, very tempting... I'm fond of the pair...

Now does anyone have any haddock they can spare?

[growl] Well, went to bed, managed not to wake Ken, tried to draw - couldn't. Then Quyn started howling and woke Ken. Now neither of us can sleep.

Can't write, can't draw, can't sleep, and can't concentrate. Tonight has been a thorough waste of time...

Lutra's Leech (pt 1) now posted in the Darkside (Dystopia section) - brilliant!

I've started AC5 chapter Havoc but just can't get my brain in gear to write tonight. What I really want to do is go to bed and draw, but that would wake Ken up...

Oh, decisions....

Well, my flabber is well and truly ghasted! One of the nifty applications ClaraNET provide is site stats, fairly detailed at that, and given the amount of time and energy the Zone takes up (and the almost complete lack of feedback I get - no, not from you five who do feedback, but from the other 311 who don't...) I thought I'd keep an eye on them for a while, and if it proved that the Zone wasn't getting much traffic I'd consider winding it up.

Just checked the stats. Just under a thousand visits (that's visits - we've had 10,327 hits) in the six days the site's been on the new server, and most of them are to the Zone.

Guess I'll keep it going a bit longer then....

Was also surprised at the variety of countries the site as a whole gets visits from - UK, USA, Oz and NZ go without saying - but Estonia? Lithuania? The Russian Federation? Finland? Saudi Arabia? And the US Military?? (eeep...)

Well, Legation's finished and peeks away... Will try to code/upload later, and also try to get at least one AC5 chapter started tonight...

Lutra's next Dystopia chapter is an absolute cracker! Has me on the edge of my seat nagging for more! It's not finished yet, alas, but soon, hopefully...

...tired... chronically tired... tonight wrote five pages of Legation, the next 'lestrel and Lutra chapter. Have spent much of the rest of the week fixing broken links and generally falling behind with things I'm supposed to be doing. And gnashing my teeth because I don't have the haddock to do everything I want to and never will.

[growl] I suppose I could try to get some sleep. Be easier if I wasn't bloody dreaming of all the stories I'll never have time to write.

Thank you, onna - though these are a bit old now...

Sitting creating the chapters/notes for AC5 (16 roughly planned so far) and my head is full of the pictures I want to draw. I can see them - 'raadiin and Kiraz ('raadiin from the back smirking over his shoulder so you can see the intricate way 'fallon plaits his hair, brief bodysuit, thigh length boots, armsheaths, thigh and arm band like his sire: Kiraz with one eyebrow raised as if daring the viewer to comment): 'tiisaan, his hair tied up messily, eyes half-closed in concentration as Jeice teaches him a new dance move, one hand under the zn'hre's chin, other hand correcting the position of his arm: Yuuzen fending off the Prahaki engineer: Choichan working: the 'lestrel and Lutra pics I've had in mind for a month and haven't had time to attempt: weary Zha'haabron, loving Radittsu...

And I found the drawings I did for the proposed online mini-dj I wanted to do (ye gods, two years ago?) - I've improved so much since I'd have to completely redraw them...

Ah, sod it... the first three frames are kind of cute... The first one's animated and getting on for 300K so please give it time to load.
Here y'go. That's the Kanji for 'asa', by the way - morning (specifically, 'the period after daybreak')

Heh, you never know, I might even find the haddock to finish it one day...

Tch'.... I have Bowie's Soul Love running through my head at the moment - not because I particularly like the song, but because of two particular lines -

'... Love descends on those defenceless, Idiot love will spark the fusion...'

.... remind you of anyone? [smirk]