Queen of Crows on Sale

Psst.

I am told there's a GM's Day Sale going on in ebook land. What does this mean to you? Why, it means The Queen of Crows is available at 25% off through Sunday, March 7.

So! If you've been debating whether to pick up the story, now's a good time to do so. Support your favorite independent artists -- at about $3.75, it's both cheaper than a Starbuck's grande caramel macchiato, and more fulfilling. ;)

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The Queen of Crows: Available 3/1

Today, The Queen of Crows was unleashed on an unsuspecting world. (I don't mean you, of course. You are obviously the handsomest and cleverest of all pandas, suspecting things left and right, hither and yon! It must be so, if you are perusing Monica's blogs over breakfast, and chasing down your evening snack with my own humble little scribblepad.)

But what is The Queen of Crows?, ask the poor, confused pandas who have just wandered in from the bamboo forest.  It is, of course, a digital-release short story by my good friend Monica Valentinelli. The story is full of magic and bones and fire and revenge, set on the eve of the real-life horror known as the Navajo Long Walk, and it is delicious.

In addition to the story, Monica has packed a selection of other goodies into the PDF: an original portrait by artist Leanne Buckley, author's notes on the story inspiration and her concerns on writing historical fiction based in another culture, a brief discussion about the main character, a crash course on her Violet War setting, and more.

Plus, you get my fabulous cover! And interior layout. And editing. Yes. So be a good panda and go download The Queen of Crows, won't you?

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Anatomy of Kaiju

No, not Steve (god, Steve!).  The other kaiju. Mythic fiction author and editor Midori Snyder posted an article on her blog this morning about Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated encyclopedia of Japanese monsters. Intrigued, I checked out her source, (pinktentacle.com):

authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, [it] features a collection of cutaway diagrams showing the anatomy of 85 traditional monsters from Japanese folklore (which also appear in Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitarō anime/manga). 

I'm incredibly amused by the preview entries. But it only makes sense ... the only thing that rivals the Japanese aesthetic for bizarre creatures is the old D&D Monster Manual. I wonder if there's a correlation there ... perhaps Gygax and crew consumed too much wasabi at some point, and it pickled their brains. That would explain the Rust Monster, wouldn't it?

For the record, the Kijimunaa is much cuter in Devil Survivor. (Really, what would a Shin Megami game be without fairy-demons?)

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So tired...

It's been an exhausting week, and today was the worst of it. The snow-madness outside isn't helping much. I was ready to crawl into bed when I got home from work. However! The Monica has asked me to help out with a story she's going to be posting for sale soon.

Hurray for layout projects! They are my favorite. To me, text formatting is like ... a crossword puzzle, of sorts. Relaxing, finicky, tricksy and a good excuse to exercise the channel all the typesetting-perfectionist tendencies I try not to unleash on dissertation students. (I'm not sure they'd believe me if I told them that, though...)

The Monica has also asked me to assist with graphics and cobbling together a cover. This sounds fun, but is Very Hard Work when you're falling asleep and thinking half-awake thoughts about yetis and cookies (not necessarily in that order) as you peruse stock imagery sites. Hm. Perhaps I should put the perusal off until the weekend...

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Randomosity: Pretty Things

It's been a while, and there have been many things I just haven't had the time or energy to type over the last few weeks. So let's ease back into this with some eye candy.

First, because Mutate posted a video I don't want to lose. It reminds me of the insanity of Paranoia Agent's opening credits, for some reason.



Also, a Steampunk Praying Mantis sculpture. If I had the $475 to toss the artist's way, it would so be mine.

More later.

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Daigotsu Yori

The amazingly awesome Steve Argyle has finally posted the scarily perfect Daigotsu Yori picture I commissioned last year for Will (whom he assumed was my husband, apparently ... heh). The picture is dark, so it's hard to see the depth of the detail to the work in the online version -- she's actually holding a scorpion-tailed sword in one hand. (Yori is a character from a recent L5R game; in this incarnation, she's a former Scorpion courtier turned Spider samurai-ko.)

Steve was incredibly busy with other projects when he took this on, so it did take a while, but it was well worth the wait. I was happy with it, and Will seemed pleased. Now if only AEG would make her into a card for the CCG...

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