some rambling about editing and another illustration

I started editing the second AnnaBeth book on the iPad today. I wasn't sure how it would go. Writing on the iPad is okay, except for the whole spellcheck weirdness the app does.

 Editing on it is like a dream come true. My previous editing process involved printing out the manuscript on paper and carrying it around with me in a binder. I would make changes on paper and then manually transfer the changes into the word document. This was by far my least favorite writing task. It's nightmarishly tedious and there's a high probability for error.

 With the iPad, all I have to do is make changes on the screen and then transfer it back to the laptop. Amazing. This will save me so many hours of performing a task I all but despise.

 It leaves me more time for drawing, which is good because I've been having this drawing fit lately.

 For about a year, I haven't done many illustrations, probably because I was obsessing over writing. Now that I started drawing again, it's like someone opened a floodgate.

 Here's another illustration. This one didn't start out as a pencil sketch, which is unusual for me. It went straight from my head into Adobe Fireworks.

This inspiration for this may have come from an Egyptian street art book I have. The colors and the geometry remind me of the artwork in that.

 Also, I'm considering setting up shop on etsy to sell some prints. If I'm going to crank out illustrations, I might as well do something with them.

stuff

Hello, lovelies! I've been out of the blog pretty much all this week. The husband called me out on my slacking.
What have I been doing? Well, you know...stuff. Yesterday, we waited a couple of hours in the morning for the door man to fix the back door. He showed up on time and was very polite, which is always good.

Then, we waited in traffic because we thought we would go to Carb Day, which is an Indy 500 event. We did not make it because we got there too late to see what we wanted to see. We abandoned our endeavor after about 30 minutes in traffic. Not fun, but we did see some country people chilling in lawn chairs in the back of a pickup truck drinking beer. That's something you don't see every day.

Today we worked in the yard, and by 'we', I mean we went to the store and picked up some plants so that the husband and the children could plant them. I worked on indoor chores. I don't function well in the heat. We got some foxglove, which is a very pretty flower that is supposed to attract hummingbirds. I will post some pictures of the flowers soon if I remember.

I did finish an illustration that I've had in my head for some time. Here is a low res mini version. I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out. The original is much clearer, of course. It seems to be very unhappy that I shrank it down and converted it to jpg.

remix project update plus a new cover for an older book

I have to push out the date I planned to put a portion of the remix project up on the writing feedback websites. I need to read it one more time. I promise I'm not caught in a rewriting fit.

I just need to pick through it one more time to make sure there's no jacked-uptedness. I’m shooting for beta readers and feedback websites to get the book the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is probably not the best time to expect people to read it.

I did finish a readthrough today. I like it a lot, even when I'm trying to find something wrong with it.

I'm a bit intimidated by putting the writing out for the purpose of feedback from strangers. I think anytime you solicit someone's opinion, you have to prepare yourself for the worst.

Not all feedback is helpful. I saw this guy on a website once tell a writer that they had too many sentences that began with the letter "T". um, what is the proper number of sentences that should begin with T? Does he count them in everything he reads? I have follow-up questions.

If I could choose one thing that could happen with the feedback that is close to being the worst, I would have to say that it would be someone pointing out an incredibly annoying writing tic that I've been afflicted with all along but never realized. That would be lame. but hey, I guess if I can resolve it only a few books in, then I wouldn't be too bad off. right?

I almost forgot. I redesigned the clockwork cover the other day. Here it is in case anyone wants to see it.

I thought the other cover had too much going on. I don't know how long it will take for the various ebook retailers to update their screens. I know amazon has it up already. I haven't updated my website yet, but I will at some point.

fatigue and a scribble bird.

I am so very tired. The girl had a middle school function this evening – a dance recital. I’m settling in late because of that. She did a great job. She was in a couple of group dances and then had a solo one. She didn’t tell us that she had a solo beforehand because she wanted to surprise us.

I was extra proud because while all the other girls danced to electronica dance-y pop, my daughter danced to a Three Days Grace song, ie rock. That’s my baby.

I don’t have the brain power to write up a real post today. However, I do have an illustration. I got a graphics tablet (Wacom Bamboo) a couple of weeks ago. I love it. Drawing with it is a lot more natural than mouse clicking.

This was one of the first drawings I did with the tablet, just sort of playing around with it. This is a scribble bird. Michelangelo it is not, but I think it’s cute anyway.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

remix project update

I FINALLY finished the 66 page edit that took way longer than I wanted it to. What a pain in my ass. I spent 2 1/2 weeks on that beotch.

But it's finished, and that's what matters. I have a better idea of where I am and how to get to where I want to be and that's always a good thing. The chore was definitely worthwhile.

So where are we? Hmmm...I extracted a few thousand unnecessary or wrong words, added some new hopefully necessary ones. I reeled in my wayward character and added a new one.

Oh, and there is illustration.

Remember the pencil sketch of the lizard lady? Here is the somewhat rough digital version. It will probably change before it reaches any sort of book cover, but this is what it looks like right now.

My original plan for the rest of the cover didn't work out as I'd hoped it would. I still really want to use this graphic; I just need to figure out how to go from kick ass graphic to viable book cover.

I considered just putting the graphic and the title against stark white. That would be awesome in the print edition but as an online thumbnail, it would be quite horrendous. Can we say floating head? Or I could blow up the head super huge and just lay the title over it.

Hmmmm...I'll work with it this weekend.

Word count update - 36063

I'm moseying toward the end. I'll get there sooner or later.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

brain is tired

today I have a weird doodle. This amuses me, not sure why. I think it's the eyes.

I have some editing pages to do this evening and I think I will go on break for a while, maybe through the weekend. All my sentences are all starting to look the same. Brain is tired. I may or may not blog.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

book working on a Wednesday that sort of feels like Thursday but is actually still Wednesday

I swear today was just a long, slow-motion stream of relentless boredom! Even tasks that usually cause time to move faster were just mired in BLAH! I think it has something to do with the rainy weather.

Anyway, so I have a couple of pictures, both taken with the crackberry, so please forgive the grain.

The first is my beloved Moo. This quickly became one of my favorite photos of him. I love the emotion in his eyes. I took this during a thunderstorm. He's looking up because he hears wind pummeling the exterior of the house.

The second is an extremely rough pencil sketch of the primary graphic for a book cover for the remix project. As you may (or may not) be able to see, it's a half-lizard face and a very faint half-lady face. I may change my mind about using it later because, well, I'm really quite good at changing my mind.



Also in mind changing news, MacDowell Sisters & AnnaBeth is getting a bit of a makeover. The book isn't selling as well as I'd hoped and I think some minor tweaks might help move it a bit. I need to fix a couple of typos anyway.

First, it's getting a cover makeover. When I go back and look at the current cover, I think it could be better. The original isn't necesarily bad, but whose attention is it really getting? Is the artwork compelling? Not really. It's legible, and it's functional. Does it say anything about the story? No. You can tell a bird is likely involved but other than that, nadda.

So there will be a second edition with typos fixed, cover redesigned and possibly a new synopsis. If I can do so, I will probably take the original edition out of print. I also plan to give the AnnaBeth series a real name some time before the second book comes out.

Remix word count update: 33610

That is all.
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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

more Easter

I like candy. a lot.

Happy Easter!

In which I unintentionally emasculated a male model

The snow has returned. Seeing the ground, if only for a short while, was quite nice. But now the branches are icy and the grass is covered yet again. Such is life.

On to other things.

Zazzle is a website that I have a few t-shirt designs and such on. It lets you choose which model your design is displayed on.

Apparently, at some point, I put a very feminine hummingbird t-shirt on a manly man. LOL!!

Here's a screenshot for your viewing enjoyment.




So sorry, model man. I will fix that once I stop being amused by it.

This apparently happened with a couple other designs too. I’m not sure what the deal is. I distinctly remember choosing female models and shirt types.

I'm working on a spring/summer 2011 collection, and that site will get a complete makeover, probably in March. I thought the collection thing would be a fun project and it is, so far.

I still have the illustration gallery on DeviantArt. I plan to keep the illustrations there and the apparel on Zazzle. Fear not. There is method to the madness.

Today I was looking at an ebook site - www.kobo.com as a potential place to sell some writing. I searched my name and I was already there! They must pull from the Smashwords catalog. My freebies aren't listed though, which I thought was strange. I am guessing they are on the Amazon big publisher favortism plan.

But I do love Amazon. Smooches!

Anywayz, I head into the weekend with multiple drawing projects, as per usual and as per usual, I'll probably only finish 1/3 of what I would like to.

Catch ya on the flip side
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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find a download of three short stories (free ebook) and links to my novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Helllooooooo! Merry Christmoo!

I am taking the next couple of days off the blog for the holiday. Here is an illustration to hold y'all over.

This is my beloved feline once more. The name of the illustration is Merry Christmoo. His name is Max, but sometimes I call him Moo because he's black and white like a dairy cow.


Everyone have a Merry Christmas!



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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

guns and art

First up, movie time.

The Expendables
I love this movie! Major gunplay and hand to hand combat and throwing knives! I reiterate - throwing knives! The Expendables is chock-full of bad assery.

The plot – A band of mercenaries is hired to assassinate a dictator on an island in South America. When two of them go on a scouting mission, they learn just how bad the situation is for the residents of that island. They are chased away and end up returning with the full team.

The cast was a-fricking-mazing. We have: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham (YUM), Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, the list goes on. There are also cameos by Ahnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

The action is nonstop, pretty much from the beginning. The movie is a pyromaniac's dream. Everything, especially the climax of the movie is laden with explosions and fires. The fights are awesome too. There is a whole lot of kicking and punching.

I really liked the relationship dynamic between the Expendables. They were like bad ass Golden Girls. There was a tendency to bicker but they still cared about each other.

This movie gets an A. Sequel, please. Thank you.

Note on the gallery:

I moved the illustration gallery from Zazzle over to Deviant Art. DA gets better traffic and the community seems friendlier. Their prices are lower too, which is always good.

I will probably keep some t-shirt designs up at Zazzle for the time being.

I like DA's website better too.

Here is the link to the new gallery.

http://AvinaLeo.deviantart.com

I'm still working on the cover art for the novella as well.

It's going pretty well. I think I may actually be able to draw a man who looks like a man. This is easier said than done for me. My drawing style is very feminine. I'm okay with that feminity most of the time, but it's not really helpng me all that much right now.

I keep wishing I was one of those people who can just draw freely and whatever comes out is the way it needs to be instantly. I've never been like that. For anything with significant detail, I always need to do like ten rough sketches. I agonize over every line because it isn't right the first million times I draw it. Oh well. I'll get there eventually, I guess.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

it puts the thursday lotion on the thursday skin

The title really has nothing to do with the post. I was just thinking about how it was Thursday whilst applying hand lotion and that popped into my head.

I don't have much going on.

I would like to comment that Scribd is hassling the shiz out of me. I keep trying to post Clockwork and I can't even get the site to load! argh!

Today I have an illustration. I know I said they were on hiatus, but I did this one anyway. What can I say? I guess I can't help myself.

This is a second incarnation of an old, crappy illustration of mine. The old one never saw the light of day. In fact, when I pulled it up on my computer, I was filled with shame for the utter suckness.

This is Little Red Riding Hood, of course. The first idea I had was to make the wolf look like one of those chinese dragons and loom over little red riding hood. There was a huge moon in the background and some pointy trees. I did like the background, but the execution of the rest of it was totally lame.

For this second version, I ditched the chinese dragon idea and replaced the moon/forest background with what I think looks like burned paper.

I'm still not sure if I'm entirely happy with this one. There may be a third incarnation yet.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

book working + goings on + illustration

Halloween was awesome! I hung out with my babies and took the little one trick or treating. The surly teenager went with her friends for the first time ever and returned home with a suspiciously small amount of candy.

Personally, I think she has a secret sugar stash somewhere in or around the neighborhood. The search is ongoing.

In book working news, I finally figured out what I wanted to change about the novella. I had this epiphany over the weekend whilst doing sketches for cover art.

The story is not creepy enough! Yes! I feel much better knowing what I need to work on specifically.

The story itself isn't intended to be a horror. However, looking back over the title, the subject matter and what will probably be the cover art, I realized what I need to tweak. So, that's the project this week - adding in some creepy and more intensity.

I did some research on the internet to try and come up with some ways to meet that end, but didn't find anything substantially helpful.

Much like the candy stash situation, the search is ongoing. If I find anything truly helpful, I'll post links here.

And here is an illustration I'm calling - dark carousel. Prints are up in AvinaLeo. Please click the pic if you wish to acquire one of your very own.

























Tomorrow I'm participating in my very first Teaser Tuesday. People on twitter put up excerpts of their writing either on blogs or on Twitter itself if the excerpts are really really short. So yeah, I'm doing that here tomorrow with a scene from MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth.

The post will be longer than the usual because of that.

If you already read the book, the scene won't be anything new to you, but hey, you could share with a friend...or something.

TTFN, ta-ta for now.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

illustration

I don't have much to talk about today.

Here is the illustration though. Click it if you want to visit the website and print it.

The words in the background are from a public domain novel - Bulldog and Butterfly, by David Christie Murray. The ebook is available on the Project Gutenberg website.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Thursday working updates + Halloween illustration

The book working has been somewhat erratic this week due to my efforts to finish reading the Lincoln book.

I didn't start actually start editing the novella until yesterday. I nearly forgot one of the most important rules of self-editing - distance yourself from what you wrote (rule knowledge courtesy of DM). I had to put it down for a while.

The week away from the novella also gave me some time to think about the story in a broader sort of way. I changed a character's name and a couple of other things.

Approximate time of finished project: December 1st? That is a reasonable time frame, I think. And the lucky dogs who receive ipads and kindles and similar e-reader devices for christmas will be looking for ebooks shortly thereafter. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind.

I started writing book 2 in the annabeth series too, just a few pages. The first chapter is always the hardest for me. Working everything in, important information and background, is sometimes difficult. I'm not doing a prologue this time. It will be my first novel with no prologue.

What else? Ah, yes. I got a new drawing book! I am finally trying to learn to draw comic book style. I've wanted to learn for years, and I finally committed to buying a book about it. I chose this one.

I don't actually want to draw comic books. However, I would like to do some comic book style illustrations. We'll see how that goes.

Having three projects going is kind of nice. I find my anxiety level is lowest when I have a lot to work on but no looming business deadlines.

And now, here is a Halloween illustration. If you want to print it, click the picture to head on over to my website. It's a freebie.

That's all I have for now.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Ode to Resident Evil

I love Resident Evil.

And I, like many other fans of the game/movie series, don't really give a crap what movie critics think of Afterlife.

I've been a fan since the very first game with Jill and Chris on PS1. I couldn't even tell you how many times I played through that game. I got to the point where I could beat it in less than 5 hours. I played most of the games after that, with the exception of just a couple.

I also like the movies.

Are they cheesy? Yes, it's all cheesy, darling. It has been from the very beginning. The people who like Resident Evil aren't fans because we think it's high art.

We want to see zombie heads burst at the end of a shotgun, and we want to see some shit get blown up. We want to be startled by scary zombie-like animal creatures popping out of nowhere. We want to see the annoying people bite it and the fittest bad asses survive.

Oh yes. If you need me Saturday night, I will be in the movie theater wearing those dorky 3D glasses, stuffing my face full of calories, and relishing in the kitschy gore-filled genius that is Resident Evil. I'll let you all know how it goes.

* * * *

And here is an illustration for your viewing pleasure. That's right, I'm cramming it all on one post today. I am thinking of starting an alternate blog for the art stuff, just so y'all have somewhere else to chase me around on the internet. LOL


It's an elk skull. Prints are available in the gallery. Click the pic to give 'er a lookie if you're interested.
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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

goth girl paper dolls

This is the second post for today. The first one was more substantial, so I probably should have posted this one further down. Ah well. scroll down if you want more stuff to read after this.

Anyway, I call this illustration 'goth girl paper dolls'. I'm trying to get some stuff together to reopen my online gallery. I don't know how long that might take. Well, I guess technically it never closed. I just sort of abandoned it to concentrate on writing. I think I've reached a point in which I can balance the two activities pretty well now.

I really like the way this looks blown up. This is as big as the thing goes here.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

one mo

Here is one more rough sketch for the MacDowell Sisters & AnnaBeth. I should actually be working on the digital version of this right now.

Below is the paper rough. I usually sketch out a rough on paper with my very own flesh and blood hands and then trace/finish the picture on the computer in fireworks. Yeah, fireworks. I'm semi-old school like that.

This particular specimen is from a part of the book in which AnnaBeth is moving through a parallel, spirit realm type place. In the story, the eyes on the moth wings are blinking and such. There are actually several moths and they are noshing on some greenish roses. Have I mentioned my writing is a little bit on the strange side sometimes? Well, it is, sort of down the rabbit hole on occasion.

Sorry, this sketch is harder to see than the previous one. I used a mechanical pencil, which has a light touch.

Ok, so. Please don't forget to vote in the illustrated book edition poll on the right.

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I may or may not pop in tomorrow evening, depending on whether I have that free download short story ready to go. I'm thinking that will be Sunday with an announcement on Monday.

I'm going to go finish this weird moth now.

Happy almost Friday.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

I promised myself I wouldn't blog today

But I am anyway.

Why? Because today is the day of the nonexistent attention span. I should be working on a very strange illustration for the special edition of MacDowell Sisters & AnnaBeth. I am here instead.

Here is a rough draft for a different illustration for the book. Obviously, I haven't transferred it over to digital. Sorry for the crap quality. I took a picture of it with the camera instead of using the scanner. Some of the lines caught the camera flash and turned shiny. My daughter is begging me for the original so she can hang it in her room, which makes me feel supremely cool.

: )

The cat is named Dorian and the more ominous looking character on the top of the chest of drawers is Poe the crow. I named a bunch of characters in the novel after authors and characters from books because, well, I really like books. Poe is named after Mr. Edgar Allan and Dorian is named after Dorian Gray as in The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.

Also, probably this weekend, I am posting my first free eshort on Smashwords, my website, and probably Scribd. I will announce it here when I do, so be sure to check back in on Monday for the link. bye bye now.

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Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Babylon Dragon on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Babylon-Dragon-Lea-Ryan/dp/1453683054/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1