Beginnings

New Year’s Eve

Tempus Fugit. 

Time indeed flies, Dear Reader. Even as I’m writing this I am running late for tonight’s festivities – which I hope will be more relaxing than festive (Lord knows I could use the rest).

Tomorrow marks seven months since the birth of my son and those months have been a whirlwind. Between baby, day job and creative project there hasn’t been time much else – and on top of that we are in the middle of renovations for pending apartment sales.

But…no rest for the wicked, eh?

By today I had voted to give you all another preview of the comic In involved in, and I was hoping to draw and publish my homage to Carrie Fisher (may she rest in place). Alas, life had different plans for me, but I’ll get there.

The first three months of 2017 will be every bit as hectic as the last three months of 2016 have been, but after that I hope things will have settled enough for me to really step up my efforts on Lady Phantom.

Time waits for no man, though – and so I wish you a Happy New Year.

Too Old To Die Young

“The most fantastic thing about the present time is that we’re actually still here.”
—William Gibson

Another day, another year, another lap around old Sol.

This past year has probably been among the best years of my life, despite all the tragedy and confusion taking place over the world. We lost a whole slew of Great Artists, the like of which I’m not sure humanity can produce still.

My life went from calm and carefree to super-busy and full of responsibility.

Photo by Timjan Dahlén

I know it’s cliché to say it, but parenthood really does change you in ways you can’t fully understand until you are there, holding a helpless little human who somehow managed to hijack your entire existence.

The journey of self-discovery and self-reconciliaton I began last year entered a new phase, and so did my creative pursuits.

As a result of everything else, the blog here had to take the back seat. But that’s okay. I started it mostly for myself, and even though I’ve managed to get some very loyal (and highly appreciated) followers I still write as much for my own sake add for anything else.

Life changes, but it keeps moving forward – relentlessly – until with a little luck we are too old to die young.

Lady Phantom

Dear Reader –

I haven’t been posting much lately, and there are three reasons for that:

  • First and foremost, having a baby boy (he just turned 5 months old) takes a lot of time and effort.
  • Second, with the advent of our child. me and my girlfriend are busy planning our future and working toward finding a home for our family.
  • Third, the project I’m working on – the one I have been teasing here and elsewhere:

ladyphantomtitlewhite

So what is Lady Phantom, you may wonder?

Lady Phantom is the title and main character of an upcoming superhero comic, written by Julie K. Taylor and drawn by R. Thomas Allwin (that’s right – me!). Now, don’t run off and try to find it quite yet, though – we are just starting out. For the past six months, we have been busy refining the original concept, working out the script, doing concept art and storyboards – now, we have all the preparations done and we are ready to start in earnest.

It’s going to be a while before the first issue is available.

I am just now putting pen to paper and starting the actual interior art, and between my day job and my family there’s only so much time to put it. Our plan is to start with a six-issue mini series and go from there.

Everything else will be in your hands, as readers and critics.

You will be able to follow our progress on the facebook page:

Lady Phantom

We will post updates, teasers, news and information about ourselves there – though of course there will be updates on here as well – so if you want the latest info as it happens, swing by and follow us there. Who knows, there may even be some surprises popping up there later on!

lpcoverpictwitter2

Welcome to Costa City!

Reblog: Vegans: Not like Other People

My reblog for this week is about veganism and why the arguments which swayed the vegans of today can’t be used to sway the majority.
As you may or may not know, Dear Reader, I live with a vegan and I eat a mostly vegetarian diet myself.
My personal stance is that humanity needs to seriously change our dietary habits and consume a lot less meat, but you won’t find me arguing that veganism is the way for everyone to go.
This article explains part of the reason why.

Many of the more vocal vegans seem to think that if they only inform someone of the truths they themselves have accepted, any sane and sensible person should automatically turn vegan (and if not, they are horrible people – or at least willfully blind or stupid) but this is far from the truth. It is not about them being blind to learning any universal truth or about them resisting sensible ideas – it is about human nature.
So if you are vegan and preaching veganism, give this article from The Vegan Strategist a read – and if you aren’t vegan, read it anyway and think about the implications:

http://veganstrategist.org/2016/08/02/vegans-are-innovators-but-not-everyone-is/

Born to Raise Hell

Dear Reader, forgive my absence!

There is good reason for my lack of posts the past two weeks and my Word of the Week the other day was a clue.

Here is the reason:

image

My son –

Ten hours old and resting after stoically greeting the world with an unimpressed ‘Mjeh!’ – he is strong and determined, despite an early arrival.

I have other news as well, but they will have to wait until I’ve settled in a bit more. I aim to keep updating the blog, and I promise that it won’t be about this wee lad…much.

Until next time, Dear Reader: take care!

image

Starting Over Again

“Every single decision you make turns you a little bit into the person you are going to be tomorrow.”
—Chris Hadfield

 

A week of the new year has gone by and things are slowly moving forward.

I’m on my eighth day in the Word Mines and about 5,000 words into my new project. Scrivener is serving me well, though I have barely even begun to explore its features, and it has allowed me to both pants and plot my way through the first leg of the story. Writing in isolated scenes is a new experience for me – one I am growing quite fond of. Most of the writing so far has been done on my smart phone – also a first. Previously I have only written blog posts that way, but with the overview Scrivener gives me I always know what I need to write next, and my daily target of 350-700 words is a perfect length for writing on the bus or on a break. Once home I can easily copy-paste the text into the right place in the story, do some quick edits, look ahead at the next few scenes and see if I made my target. Then I may or may not write more as dictated by time, discipline and inclination.

So far so good.

Rearranging my living space has been more challenging, but that is finally starting to come together. Next week should see all the important changes finalized, then there will just be details and two or three unnecessary projects left. I’ve set up a corner of my living room for painting and made drawer-space there for my art materials. With a bit of luck and some compromise I should also be able to find space on my desk for writing related resources. If everything works out, by month’s end I should have a home environment more conductive to creative pursuits than it has been for a long time.

How’s your year shaping up, Dear Reader?

I hope you have had a good start, with not too many resolutions broken, and that you have all be sort of plan or goal or dream for the coming year. If not, well…the Chinese new year is coming up. You can have a second chance at your first week after that!

Take a moment, get things started and begin the year working toward your dreams!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Dear Reader!

I’m not usually one for new year’s resolutions. Instead I tend to do my own version or resolutions and restarting at the start of my personal year – my birthday.

This year, however, is special.

December was unusually hectic for me (in truth, January won’t be much better, but I won’t let that stop me…I hope) and thus I have decided on taking a more traditional approach on this new year’s day.

Each month I will pick one ’30 days to/of/for…’-type book to follow snd complete. At least for the first six months. I have a selection lined up, but haven’t quite decided which book goes with which month yet. Except the first. Chuck Wendig’s ’30 Days in the Word Mines’ will kick-start my year (and, incidentally, my new writing project). Also, I will restart my exercise regime (yeah, yeah, I know, that’s what everyone says), but that’s not all:

The new year also sees a slight upgrade on this blog.

I have redesigned my logo a bit, subtly altered the font here, added social media links, and there will be more updates in the coming months. My plan was to roll out a bigger overhaul today, but, well…like I said it’s been a busy December. Things will just have to take a bit more time.

Here’s hoping 2016 will be good to you and those you care about!