I figure everyone has a right to one stupid question a day. Here’s mine.
How many people have you met who have been named for SF/Fantasy characters? I’ve met a Lessa, who actually looked like a young version of the illustration of Lessa done by Robin Wood; and know a Ruric Amari who is a sword dancing, belly dancer. Her Mom was reading GOLDEN WITCHBREED when Ruric was born.
For our writers, how many children have you heard of who have been named for one of your characters.
I’ve seen screen names from my Ring characters, but no one actually named for them. The ‘Netwalkers books are pretty normal names, which I did on purpose. I know of at least one Morgaine-born, and another I met at a con that I think it was her given name. Bri named her gorgeous black kitty Deymio! Does that count? (It does to me.)
Jane and I have a long-time (really long!) friend who introduced herself to us as “Maelen.” Not her real name, but one she adopted for herself from the books of one of our beloved SF authors from our childhood, Andre Norton.
And a good thing she did! Her given name was Lynn. I was/still am surrounded by Lynns! Maelen-Lynn, Sis-Lynn, Caro-Lyn, Abbey-Lynn, a cousin-by-marriage-Lynn and several others over the years. I need some way to keep them all straight! :D
Since I’m thinking fluff this morning and I don’t want to add that to the commentary on bad crossovers on Carolyn’s site…..
Imagine what the Hani would think of house cats? I know this is a common enough question. Or, how humans would explain them. My perception is that the Hani would see a cat and think like we do of the smaller apes.
There’s just too many cat gravatures not to contemplate the idea. The brain cells are kinda working. Hani learning about human culture.
Actually, I don’t think the Hani would make the personal connection at all. Certainly we wouldn’t look on some alien lifeform, no matter how humanoid, and perceive them as some sort of relative, no matter how far removed. One assumes the Hani have their own theory of evolution, their own evolutionarily distant relatives on their own planet.
For all we naturally make the subconscious connection to the familiar feline species, the Hani aren’t cats, and in fact, I think, sometimes, they’re made to look too much like anthropomorphic cats.
Now that you’ve raised the question, I’d love to see someone’s visual interpretation that actually came up with something that matched the clues to their appearance given, yet looked…different. Truly alien. I’ve never tried and don’t really want to go there, mentally. Too much else artwise on my plate right now, but if anyone’s seen such an offering, I’d love a link.
I see lots of Thoroughbred horses with names out of
sci-fi books. It always makes me smile to recognize
a name. They are supposed to get permission to use a
copyrighted name, but I wonder if the Jockey Club would know the names. People would be much more
interesting.
Jane,all my friends are Lindas,each and every one!
I never thought about it, but of course they’d need permission. But then, movie/TV writers rarely bother and that’s a far greater infringement of copyright! At least the horse/owner isn’t making money off the name, only getting recognition—and perhaps creating an association with other SF folk. Hmmm…I wonder how that affects betting?
Then there’re the fanfic writers who far too frequently can’t even be bothered to put in a disclaimer with the original author’s name! Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against fanfic, only in any fanfiction writer’s attempt to lay claim, legally or otherwise, to any part of the story they’ve “created” using someone else’s characters/world. Heck I’ve written a bit of it myself. I CONDITIONALLY allow it of my own work:
What I have a problem with are the “can’t be bothered” and “don’t rip me off” attitudes of SOME fanfic writers who legally own nothing of what they’ve written…not until they file off each and every identifier to the original work, and publish it somewhere other than in a “fanfic” site.
I said I was fluffy this morning. Now I’m going off on a bit of a tangent and wondering how any alien culture would see the various species on our planet? More intelligent species. The brain cells have warmed up and I’m going off in many directions at once. Wondering how an alien culture would measure intelligence on our planet? By their standards, of course. Would a being like Shere Khan (my brown/silver fuzz) be considered more intelligent because he refuses to take crap from me, than some other animal, maybe a parrot?
You’re right about the illustrations of the Hani giving us more a more feline impression. I haven’t looked up the evolution of the cat, but suspect lions and Persians are two different, and distant, branches of the same family.
There have been some new discoveries in the tale of
the domestic cat. A pet cat in a burial on (I think)
Cypress has pushed the event of domestication back
a lot further in time and out of Egypt and into the
Turkey,Lebanon and Palestine areas. The tiniest of
the wild cat families is found at the tip of Argentina
and is the size of a 2 month old domestic kitten. The
wild cats can still be found across the world,even in
Scotland!
How’d I miss this!?! Interesting! We hadn’t heard that and we try to track that kind of information. Thanks! (Running to do some surfing.)
I’ve gotta find a picture of the Argentinian cat. It must be adorable! (Running to do some more surfing.) I’ve heard lots of theories about how dogs were domesticated, but not a lot on cats. I think they just trained us to feed them. :D
The cat burial I found on the BBC Science and Nature
Cyprus. The tiny southern Argentina wild cat I’ve
seen in nature films on tv,but also there is an incredible web site that I once found right after I
got my laptop(and didn’t know about bookmarking) and
have lost it. It has everything that breathes on the
planet. If you search Kod Kod pictures you will see a
similar cat,but a little larger. Meanwhile,I’m in full
cry,hunting that elusive all creatures large and small
web site…….good hunting,you will be amazed at how
many small wild cats roam the world.
Darn,I just sent my first link ever and it’s not on the
link page. I guess I should have a different email
address for the link page. So anyway it’s been sent
to your personal address. I think I’ve nailed the tiny
kitty from Argentina(three pounds is tiny right?) it
seems to get smaller the further south it lives. I’m
still hunting wonderful info site so toodles!
Hmmm….missed this. Srry. I think you s/b able to leave a comment on the links page with a link. Those I posted were from other messages. If you just go to the page, copy and past the URL and post it in your comment, it should work.
Supposed to be nice this weekend! Got the grass cut and ready to do some tree trimming tomorrow, just hope this cough is better, cutting the grass really set me off.
Jane, I just love those pics of Efanor that cycle by on the blog’s front page :^) Makes me a little teary, though. He looks enough like Deymio in his younger days to be a twin.
He’s a bit of a coward—likes being scared, I think. He’s finally getting to where he’ll come out when certain people are around, but mostly, he goes and hides. Forget protecting the silver. And, boy, do I hear it if the food bowl is empty!
Did you catch the pix of him hiding under the throw in the office? He’s very silly.
He’s also a serious mama’s boy. He’s very into snuggling, but only on his terms. When twenty pounds of fuzziness wants to snuggle, I don’t exactly say “no.” Wouldn’t do much good if I did.
I had started a serious post about the value of these blogs and lost it in a mistake! I’ll try again later.
I tell them at work that I want to go home and curl up with a nice warm cat. I love the picture of Effanor under the blanket! I keep an old throw on the back of the recliner and Khan will swat it until he can get under it in the winter. He’s part Siamese and has a shorter coat than Pascal (my gravatar).
I’m going to get a bit ugly for a moment and Jane can delete this thread if she pleases. I watched the new series, MERLIN, on NBC and had some problems. I’m not sure if I’m just too much of a traditionalist, or if this would be an intersting story if it had nothing to do with the Arthurian Legend? How far can a story be pushed?
I enjoy Mercedes Lackey’s SERPENT’S SHADOW, but it does come out and say that it’s Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and use those names.
I personally have a kneejerk problem with any author who takes a “proven” story and uses it to sell their … ripoff is the only term I can think of. Or possibly fan fiction? I mean, all the hard work of story telling and marketing has already been done for them. They get to do a bunch of embellishments, and get paid a heck of a lot of money for the window decoration.
And sometimes, as you say, the only real connection to the parent story is the names, but sometimes that’s all it takes.
This Merlin isn’t a bad story, it even has the potential to be quite interesting, but if it weren’t called Merlin and didn’t use Camelot and Arthur, it would never have made it into production, simply because the beancounters who hold the purse strings wouldn’t be able to see any marketing potential.
And the flip side…many stories—especially fantasy, but not limited to it—could be marketed as fairy tales or legends in embellished disguise. Most basic storylines are covered in a fairytale somewhere. The difference lies in the deliberate attempt to copy and then to tap the mainstream market’s name recognition.
So far, however, and on the question of how far can you push a story, I just see another fairly generic fantasy story, with some neat ideas and loads of anachronisms. OTOH, I’ve got Tivo set to record it, so what’s that make me? A hypocrite? or maybe just a hopeless optimist!
In a way, Merlin works the way fanfic works: the producers wouldn’t go for the kind of delicate setup in a period that would let you build the characters delicately into a tangled relationship…they don’t respect their viewers, and they don’t think it could succeed. (I point at House as an example of tv with guts [pardon pun])—
But if they couch the story in terms of a known relationship and take it sort of sideways, it gives them some room to build. Hence the fanfic comparison.
The weakest link in the piece is Nimue, who is, as a threat, a bit given to simpering. I could not be afraid of that woman, and Nimue ought to be two-faced, and scary.
I too an on edge about Merlin. But right now there is absolutely nothing else to watch. Its a kids show; a simple formulas endlessly repeated. Its childish teasing relationships among the charchters would make more sence if the characters were writen for child actors. Oh well, guess I’m still a kid at heart.
I agree that using someone else’s characters to support your own story is understandable UNTIL it gets to the point of claiming rights (I’ve done my share of fanfic). On the other hand, re something like Merlin (a story whose roots are lost in time, and I doubt Alfred, Lord Tennyson has a legal heir to story rights), what about Shakespeare?! He stole every story he could get his hand on and made money and fame. Yes, he filed off serial numbers, but the stories were universal at the time and some are recognizable, even at this late date, as originating (really? maybe that author stole them, too) somewhere further back in time.
Good points. I’ve done some fanfic as well, and loved every moment of it. The problem, of course, is when a fan tries to claim rights to a story they wrote based on the premises and characters of a commercial work. That’s happened and we really need a definitive ruling against those that do such a thing.
That aside, the Merlin story is definitely fair game. As is Robin Hood, and other, similar “mythic” works. The question is, I guess, when does a product cease to be a legitimate reimagining of the story and become a gimmick using the tropes to make lots of money off a painfully anachronistic hodgepodge of story. I’m not saying Merlin was that bad, but it came close at times. It’s not a matter of legalities at this point, it’s a matter of artistic integrity and money-grubbers taking advantage of a viewership primed to respond to those tropes.
The newest Robin Hood offering from the BBC has a lot of the same problems. I’ve tried several times to watch it. I should love it. But the anachronisms in attitudes, language and delivery, not to mention sheer body language, just really get to me. Getting actors who look, move, and speak “period” is apparently very difficult. What’s really bad is when that essential “color” is sacrificed in the name of a Big Name Actor, who is terminally 20th century.
Oh, dear…I fear I’m soap boxing. Climbing down and ducking head….
Once all your self-important guests leave and you get out from under your professional obligations, you really need to do this contest…the prize is so awesome it shouldn’t be allowable by law!
…check it out here–but remember its due by July 31
Sheesh, I should read my own blog! WAH! Don’t know when I would have done anything…guess I could have submitted one of the covers, huh? Ah, well. Did you get yours submission in? Good luck!!
I finally got the kitten yesterday. It’s a long and twisted story how he came to work and was fostered by a different co-worker. Pascal and Khan are not happy. Angel, Golden Retriever Mix, is curious, but not growling. I’ve been thinking of naming him Athos with Carrot for his kitten name. I’m beginning to think he’s Houdini, because he can escape from the bathroom. I didn’t close the door entirely this morning, and he opened it and got past the barricade I thought was tall enough. It was closed to the point of sticking, but not clicking. He’s an orange and cream tabby. His little tail goes bottle brush and is almost triangular at the tip. Wide at the base and narrow at the top.
One of the reasons I got this little fuzz was because I am afraid that if something happens to Khan, Pascal would grieve himself to death. Khan likes to take a run ocassionally. “HIDE YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, KHAN’S OUT!”
Oh, well, I came into work to change the employee photo gallery. Happy holiday to everyone!
Pascal finally got tired of being chased on the back of the couch and slapped Athos this morning. Khan was the first one to sniff the little runt this weekend. Athos is still terrified of Angel, who has also sniffed his butt.
It’s been 8 years since Pascal was a kitten and I got Khan at 18 months old. I tend to forget that kittens are on speed. Athos plays so hard then decides the best place to take a nap is wherever I am. I have a lap kitten! Pascal sniffed him while he was taking a nap on the bed. I’m not trying the smell each other through a door. I’ve been trying to keep them apart part of the day if I’m around. Now, the older two have discovered Kitten Chow. I figured out that if I put the kitten food in the carrier, the senior partners won’t go in there as readily. I left it open on the bathroom floor.
I forgot to note that the little runt is 9 weeks old and weighed 2.8 lbs. on Thursday.
I have no problem with being a child at heart. If we lose that child-like sense of wonder we’re dead to new ideas. Even worse, we become average Americans. Fluff can be good for us. I used to say that 15 min. with one of Carolyn’s books could take me from the problems at work, out to Pell Station. Not fluffy stuff, but major stress relief. For me, fluff would be the two paranormal romance series I read. Comedy fluff.
On the question of tradition v. whatever the people are thinking is the Twilight series. I haven’t read the books, but after seeing the movie, I so want a “Then Buffy slayed Edward. The End.” t-shirt. Vampires are not supposed to be good guys! Even Angel wasn’t out to cure society’s problems. He only helped out of remorse for his past deeds. If my gr-neice decides to read the books, I’m going to insist she borrow my annotated DRACULA and read it. A friend could only watch 10 min. at a time and called me fussing that vampires don’t sparkle.
Charlaine Harris’ vampires are not out to help the world. Great Humanitarians! They get on with business. They are more traditional vampires in that they are only seen at night. For those who are going who? The TRU BLOOD series is based on her novels.
On the kitten front, I thought I had found a way to outwit Pascal. I put Kitten Chow and Athos/Houdini in the carrier and zipped it mostly closed, so he could get out. Pascal got in and finished off the Kitten Chow.
Cat owners, I have a question. Khan, my brown/silver tabby who is part siamese, seems to be fading? His tabby stripes are less distinct from the front edges of his ears down the back of his neck. He’s 10. My Gravatar is 8 and the kitten is 11 weeks.
Is it normal for a cat’s coat to change? I expected him to get white around the muzzle. I’ve lived with dogs since 1965, and only got Khan in 2000 after finding too many field mice bodies.
Interesting question about color changes. I have had a whole series of “accidental” Siamese patterned cats. What’s most usual is that their color gradually darkens as they age, especially if they spend any time outside. This is actually true for the “blue-blood” Siamese as well–the Siamese color pattern is caused by a temperature-sensitive albino-like gene, and the cooler the cat,the more “normal” the coloration. It’s the warm little bodies that make them pale in the middle :^)
My Tanner and Tracker are both garden variety lynx-point Siamese in color pattern, but Tracker, who has no white markings, has darkened enough that by age five his Siamese color gradation isn’t at all obvious. Tanner, who has white patterns as well as his stripey Siamese medley, has remained quite a bit lighter overall, and his Siamese gradation is still very obvious.
An interesting issue with your cat is that I think from your description that he *doesn’t* show the Siamese-style color pattern (which is typical for a half-Siamese, as the Siamese version of this color gene is recessive). The classic description of “recessive” is that the trait is completely undetectable if you only have one copy (and the other copy is “normal”). So you’d expect your cat’s color to behave just like a cat with no Siamese in his heritage.
However, as I love to point out to my bio students, *everything* is more complicated than we think it is. I did a 10-year study on color inheritance in gerbils, and one of the things I discovered is that “recessive” is a variable condition ;^)
So some of the color changes in your kitty could well be due to that “hidden” Siamese gene pulling some shenanigans behind the scenes, so to speak LOL!
New definition of decadence! I searched for a no-bake cookie that used chocolate chips and found one! The peanut butter is optional, which surprised me. I left out the pb and used Hershey’s White Chocolate chips with Macademia Nuts!
OH MY! I’m trying to get ideas for variations! I can buy up assorted chocolate chips at the salvage store cheaply and find things I would never look for in the grocery.
One variation that I’ve done in the past is use the dark cocoa powder and cinnamon. The cinnamon throws people off, but I think it adds more flavor.
I still haven’t found that cave! Went wandering around down there looking, and kept getting distracted by other crawls! The two up on the Gold Road generally start giving magic items right from the start, though not that many. And you get lots of imp target practice!
I’m still a serious weenie, cuz I haven’t slept, except the one time for the Anvil reference. No, wait, I’m at three ‘cuz I slept in the ghost house hopeing dodo would show up at the pub. Well, gotta run down there and find that cave. Think I’m going to go to Wikii and find a map. I generally try to avoid doing that, but now I’m curious. :D
It’s really easy to find. Just start at Llayawiin and begin running north up the road that runs to the west of the river. The icon for the cave shows up strongly while you are still on the road, because the cave is just a short distance from the road.
Hey, I want to take a small detour off your normal blog discussion for a sec.
Two questions for you:
1. How in the heck do you manage a laptop with a wacom tablet? What’s the trick to working comfortably–portable is not so portable with the need for that much horizontal surface area….
2. Do you find the switch from writing to book covers weird or anything? Personally, I get so involved in my work of the moment that it takes a real shift in thinking to go from one to the other. There’s a time in my mental shift where I think to myself… now what was I trying to achieve the last time I worked on this? I flounder a bit until I get back into the groove, as it were.
Maybe its because, for me, the two projects are not related–not writing and painting the same folks, the same characters. You are having fun redoing your own work. Lucky girl!
1. My wacom is the perfect size. It rests right over the keyboard when I’m actually sketching/manipulating. It gets a bit awkward when I actually have to use the keyboard, but I tend to use one or the other right now. I’ve used just the keyboard for so long, there’s a lot I do without ever picking up the tablet. But for what it does, it’s irreplaceable.
2. Thanks for asking, actually. I thought I’d be talking a lot more about this kind of problem when I began this blog, then, of course, I got into this whole day in the life of, thing, with not a whole lot being said about the creative process!
The short answer is, I don’t. I do one or the other. Creatively-speaking, I don’t multi-task worth a darn. I have to immerse myself in the problem…and channeling characters in order to write is, as you say, exceedingly different from visualizing them and making that come out on the screen/paper. In fact, I find it difficult to draw my own characters. I know what they “feel” like from the inside, but not really what they look like. I have so many different versions of Stephen and Wesley running around, I’m not really sure which I’d call “cannon.”
And the problems you have to solve are very different. That’s one reason I’ve been putting together the little slide shows for the covers, i.e. to try and recreate some of the thinking that went into them. It doesn’t capture anything like the amount of trial and error that goes into the final decision, but I hope it conveys a little of the fun.
I’ve never actually tried to do both at once. Since I began writing, I’ve done very very little visual art of any kind. With CC, that’s all changing, and frankly, I’m getting back at art with a freshness and enthusiasm for it I haven’t felt for a long long time. As with writing, computers are letting me accomplish things I’d never do by hand. These four covers I’ve done so far (I’ve got Harmonies ready to do as a slide show when I finish the Fish Tank Saga) would have taken me forever to actually paint, and wouldn’t have been as cool because I wouldn’t have been able to play with the elements the same way. Just don’t have the patience for it.
Right now, visual art is what I’m doing. I’ve got a lot of covers to do and if I tried to write in between, I’d just be really inefficient at both. It’s hard just getting myself to sit down and do the blog. I will say, the more I go back and forth, the easier it’s getting, but I really don’t think I’ll ever be able to just go back and forth. Time might prove me wrong, but as you say, they’re just such different mindsets.
Oh…and as you say…rebuilding the logic processes are a b*#$ch. Same goes for computers or the fish tank…or even paying the bills and doing taxes. I don’t take notes well…keep it all in my head…so once I start a project, I kind of have to stick to it until the puzzle is solved. The one thing I seem able to do for a “safe” break is games…Spider Solitaire or one of the shoot-em-up first person games I like.
I do feel very very lucky to have the chance to redo the ‘Netwalker books. And I didn’t realize how absolutely delicious it would feel doing the covers. I’m working on the one for Ring of Lightning now, and am trying to figure out how to “paint” with the computer. All the other pieces, I’ve hand-drawn/colored/painted first, then manipulated. I’m actually doing this one all on the computer. It’s fun!
I do so love to talk shop. I know I drive the people over at Shejidan crazy with the intricate, hard to follow unless you’ve been there, indescribable experiences of the creative mindset.
There are times when I just need to talk about it even if I can’t really put into words exactly what I am trying to say. They are very kind to indulge me. I would love to indulge you…please, post away at will. You will always have one very interested party at your disposal for discussion–and probably a lot more ready to jump in.
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I do find it interesting, your comment about drawing your own characters. First of all, because you are so good at character design. I am surprised. But it does make a certain kind of sense.
I think really that writing is far more visual in a sense than actual visual art, because it engages more than just the eyes–its a whole brained thing. You see it and feel it and experience it as you write it.
But for some reason it does hinder the putting to paper what seems logical you should have visualized. For me, its just out of reach–like I can see it out of the corner of my eye but to look at it straight on–it disappears.
So its just by luck that I might happen to catch a glimmer of a character on paper: Mostly by chance when I’m thinking about something completely random and unrelated…but when you’ve caught, you know it.
I will say though, its a lot harder..for some reason… to catch that idealized beautiful man. I draw a complete blank when I’m thinking about a character like that. Men don’t seem to have this same problem with the idealized beautiful woman. They can whip them out by the page full. I think maybe the visual image of a charcter like that must be too idealized—too pretty to catch. *Sigh* I guess that’s why we can’t leave them alone….
I love talking shop! And the Shejidani are, in a word, great. I’m sure they’re interested in all you have to say.
I’d say, rather, that writing is more sensory than visual art can possibly be. You can invoke the textures and smells and shapes…I knew better how Stephen’s face felt then how it looked. (I think I was channelling Mr. Smith…ahem.) I did one little bust of him that was the first time I began to “get” his look. There’s also the problem of all the aspects of a complex character. Characters aren’t features to me, they’re emotions…expressions, reactions and interactions. Their emotions aren’t the same moment to moment. As their creator, you’re seriously aware of those nuances. You’ve internalized them. One picture can only portray a hint of the entirety, and so I’m never quite satisfied.
Doing the graphic of Gate of Ivrel, I really got to know those characters because of all the different expressions and body language I got to explore. If I’m just doing a cover, I only get one shot. That’s kinda unnerving.
Curiously (or maybe not) my first real attempt to put the look of characters on a cover is Harmonies of the ‘Net. And that will be both Stephen and Wesley. So much of character to me is character dynamic, so an image that is some kind of interaction is much much easier for me. The Ring of Lightning cover is going to have all three brothers on it, and while they aren’t really interacting, a lot will (hopefully) be said in the comparison/contrast of expressions.
Oh…and I just thought of something. I write characters from the inside. Just as I’d have a hard time making an accurate self-portrait without a mirror or photograph, I find it hard to “visualize” the characters I’ve “been.”
Well, all you’ve said is true, and I especially like your last statement about writing characters from the inside. They are much more than just a set of physical features or personality quirks, or twists on a stereotype. Each one is his own universe, expansive, unique, deeply flawed, and yet perfect too. Such a joy it is to know someone so well–better than one could ever know another person in real life: all the secrets, all the hopes and dreams, fears and failures. You know the things they could have said, but didn’t. The feelings they kept to themselves, when perhaps they shouldn’t have, or honestly didn’t want to…
And its funny how much time fans will spend on speculation. We will speculate on anything and everything. I love it, such fun. But one of the biggies is always going to be…..well, what does so and so look like? What actor would you pick for character X? And CJ—OMG! If she could get 10 cents for every word of speculation on the build of space craft to the reflectivity level of light on Atevi skin….!!
How lovely and utterly frustrating it is to know that its harder than one imagines, even as the author…..
Its not so concretely visual even in the mind’s eye of the creator….
Fantastic, Jane! Its intriguing and bewildering. Most authors don’t have to worry so much. Sci-fi authors do. And those of us who can illustrate.
I think CJ’s little piece of advice…don’t stop at a point where its completely wrapped up tight, is the best advice when switching from one project to the next. It forces one to reacquaint oneself with the whole before going forward again. But I would say, for God’s sake not in the middle..its got to be right towards the end where its just tweaking, finessing, smoothing out the rough spots—and take notes. On my digital paintings I use the sticky notes you find in photoshop to leave copious notes to myself before I have to leave it for a while. Same with writing projects. Although on that front, my outlines are not really outlines they are detailed scene descriptions–like what I would hand over to a storyboard guy. I don’t get lost there, its the flow of the actual story words. Getting back into the voice of whomever I happened to leave off with–usually at a chapter change in POV anyway. A good place to begin again, but hard after painting.
I think though, as my work board starts to fill up with character drawings this might become easier. Something visual to hang on to in the in between times perhaps. If you can acclimate yourself to writing at the same time and same place everyday to get you in the zone…I’m betting there’s a place in there for visuals too.
Can’t wait to see your new covers with a little more in depth look at your characters! And your new prequels in the series. And your adventures in digital painting!
Next time I take two weeks of vacation, I’m going to the library more often to check up on things. I have an Ethernet connection at work, and it’s a major bother to connect from home, so I only read stuff from the office. Yes, I go in early and stay late just to do private stuff. I will eventually catch up with all of the blogs and comments! On some items I have related, but not pertinent to the discussion thoughts.
I really love the cover related things! Seeing how the creative mind works is so interesting. People get lost with me because I make leaps and connections that they can’t see or understand. I may eventually try some using Elements 2 better. All I ever tried in the past were the filters to do things like sketch, stained glass, etc. For most of the work to fix the brightness, contrast and cropping, I’m using MS Office Picture Manager. It’s faster.
I was so sad to discover the chips I used are now discontinued. I’m still trying to think of other flavors to try. One thought was figuring out how to do an oatmeal raisin using chips. Cinnamon chips with raisins for a non-nut, non-chocolate? It’s an easy thing to make. Try it out without peanut butter and tell me your ideas.
The Pub link has disappeared unless you’re fairly quick. It gets covered by the most recent blog.
I want it known that Jane is a bad influence. I started playing with the filters last night with Elements 2. I don’t use it often enough to upgrade the software to Elements 7. I’ll try more later in the week. The thought of merging photos sounds so interesting. Dancers and fireworks come to mind.
Aelith, I love this! My mum’s philosophy, for sure. She loved her gardens. Wish she’d lived to see our pond. I like to think she’s supervising from upstairs.
Photo FX: I’m still having problems with the merge feature. Need to do more digging to find the Elements book that came with the software. When I figure it out, I’ll find a photo that’s aimed the correct direction and use the same fireworks photo. It’s more of a contrail than standard fireworks. Although, I do have a good photo of the waterfall off the bridge that could give a similar effect…..
Google: “Thunder Over Louisville” for information, images and videos.
I’ll put a better size photo in my gallery later today if Facebook is working, of the orchids in the window. I changed two last week. 600 x 800 is the size I try to save things for Facebook, etc.
Hmmm…merge is a new one on me. Haven’t used that at all. All my “merging” is done rather randomly, or very specifically. Anyone out there familiar with this function?
hanneke, these are gorgeous!!!! I’d love to see the real thing(s). Everyone, she’s got photos posted of her 3D paper artwork. Please go check them out!
What kind of peace rose does your mom have? We have two we’re extremely fond of. One is the Chicago Peace, which was Carolyn’s father’s favorite and World Peace, which came out the year the Berlin wall came down. Both are really rich colored, raspberry-scented varieties.
And the quilt is beautiful, complete with its fuzzy decoration.
Photoshop Elements 2: I can’t believe where I found the book that came with the software. I spent some time yesterday working on the living room, actually dumping containers into one larger one and sorting. The book was on a small bookcase next to the TV. On the top-stinking-shelf!
My problem is not merging two photos, I need to do layers! I’ve got the book set by the laptop so I’ll play with the idea later this week. I was making finger cymbal mufflers to take to the studio tonight. The cleaning started because I was trying to find the large sequins I bought to try a experiment with and never got made. I’ve found a lot of beads I’d forgotten about and some yarn I bought that was reduced to practically nothing. I’d never crochet with the stuff but it might be woven into a scarf or knitted into a multi-strand scarf.
If any dancer wants to make the zill covers, just let me know it’s a really simple “pattern” I created.
On MM’s new pix: Cute cute kitties! Oh, I’ve been meaning to say, I love this pic of the dancer doing floor work in front of the mirror. Very striking, beautiful composition.
On Kokipy’s pix…Kawaaaaaaiiiiii! Baby kitties are sooooo cute! And Py is beautiful. I see you have a technocat. We had a little grey kitty like Misty when I was a teenager. Sooo pretty.
I’ve just started a new hero because I got bored with Shivering Isles.
I want to see if I can load the ‘K’vast Rebuilt’ mods. Did you find what you were looking for back in August?
Loved the Mondragonpuz, he looks to me to be a more scheming character than in the Tim Hildebrant’s covers. Now I have however another addiction besides SolSuite to combat, thank you Jane.
Hi Jane, belated congratulations on your birthday.
I have another question (when have I not?): does our gallery on your site cache the old-and-deleted pictures? I wanted to show you two new ones and ask if you would like either of them, when I’ve finished 3D-ing them. But now I keep getting this error-message:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3072 bytes) in /home/lynnabbe/public_html/janefancher/TheCaptainAndLime/wp-content/plugins/alkivia/lib/upload/class.upload.php on line 2589
This even though I’ve deleted all the pictures which weren’t either necessary (avatar) or potentially useful to you (CC scetches) and reduced the new pictures to less than 500 MB and 1000 pixels wide and 72 dpi resolution.
How do I kick my old deleted pictures out of memory?
I’ve logged out and in again and that didn’t do it,
but I haven’t waited a day yet.
Sorry for being so stupid about all this computer stuff!
And can I remove the CC-scetches or are they still potentially useful? (E.g. for long-distance contact with Lynn: as you said they were fairly close to what you had in mind it might make communication easier: I want this but not that, and that should be suchlike … always easier with an image to hand, though of course you could make much better pictures for her when it gets to be discussion time).
Anyway, about the 3D-pictures which you said you’ld like to see for real: at the moment I’m working on one of Monet’s japanese bridge over his waterlily-pond, in lots of green-tints, that hasen’t got a designated recipient yet. As I couldn’t put it in my gallery this is a link to it on the Internet: http://www.interagir.com/?entryID=40
As you like ponds, and if I remember correctly from Teimori’s dress also like greens, I thought you might like this in a 3D-version.
I could send it to you when it’s finished. That won’t be before late spring or summer next year, and by that time Closed Circle will be up. As you were planning to put an address on there for people to send mail-order things to, I could send it to that address.
As some people might consider it sacrilege to do something like this with real art like Monet’s pictures, or it might just not be to your taste, or not fit in with any of the rooms in your house, I’ve been looking at the available sets of prints (at my teacher’s) to find something else you might like. There wasn’t anything nice with koi or tropical coral reef with fishes, and Monet’s the best pond. There are several with cats but none that look very much like Efanor and Yfandes. There are no Chinese or Japanese landscapes, just some kimono-girls in very bright pink and such colours. The only picture with Chinese elements (lotusflowers, porcelain, girl’s portrait and horse-statuette) which might be acceptable I did manage to get into my gallery, so you can check it out there and let me know if you’ld like either Monet’s bridge or that one, or another one entirely, or have no room for any, or whatever. I need a set of 6 good-quality prints (fairly resistant to fading in the light) to make these things, so if you would like something else I can keep on looking for it.
It just takes me a long time to finish them, so don’t expect it any time soon!
I’ve had so much pleasure from reading CJs books, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy yours when I can start reading them through Closed Circle, so it feels good to be able to give back a little pleasure in a picture in return.
ARGH!!! I can’t imagine why you’re having these problems. I can’t see anything that you’re doing that should cause them. I’ll try and see if I can get any kind of access to your gallery. I’m so sorry! I’ll try and get the guy who wrote the plugin to give me an answer.
I have copied the images relative to CC, so those can go, but obviously, there’s some problem beyond that.
As for the 3D…that’s sooooo sweet! I don’t know what to say, other than I’d be delighted. Just for the record, I’m generally more into the blue/purple end of the spectrum, but that’s a lovely piece, as is the one you posted with the flowers and horse statue. If you honestly need a home for one of these beautiful pieces, I’d be honored to give it one. We have a PO box that we’ve set up for CC…check under Carolyn’s “contact page.”
As for the smilies, you just click on one and it inputs something like (colon)devil(colon) in the “leave comment box” which will show up as the image when you actually post.
Still browsing through older comments…mmberry…I totally agree with your comments re: vampires…..these guys need a dose of Buffy…..perhaps the episode about the vampire wannabes, who were being groomed as food…..oops! am I showing my nerdiness?
Hi Jane, if the Monet-picture ends up OK you’ll get it sometime next summer. As to what’s going wrong and why me, I think the system is somehow archiving the old pictures. I loaded up 10 of them, then deleted and reloaded 5 to try to get sharper images. The last one it accepted got number 16; even though it was no.7 or 8 in the list at that time. I guess that means it remembers the previous numbered images. I’ll try deleting everything but no.1, wait a day, and then see if it has forgotten the other numbers; but I rather think that won’t be enough to really remove them from archive-memory.
Oh well, it’s not in any way important – please use your time to better effect for other things, like getting your books ready for Closed Circle: that´s much more important than trying to fix this.
A quick moment to brag. My knitting leaves a lot to be desired, but I knitted my first hat with a basket weave design. Figured it out on my own and only took two tries to get it right! The only visible mistake is that I needed to use smaller needles for the ribbing.
Have solved the knitting problem by installing MS Reader, not all the books read so well because it vocalises punctuation as well asterisk, asterisk, asterisk all books, dotdotdot … for CJ’s journal and quotation marks are grave accent grave accent for Lynn’s.
Still it is great and so easy to turn off etc. Will send typo’s by email when I finish the book. They are not obtrusive and I think one hyphen was an intonation mark (po-lite smile).
Got to go ride and it’s almost snowing.
Now I know what I’m going to be reading on Christmas Day. I’ll dig out my copy of Ring of Lightening. I’m looking forward to a nice quiet day at home with a nice warm cat or three to cuddle with, a book and a couple of movies.
Wishing a quiet day to all. We’re off work from Christmas Eve till Jan 4th and I don’t have the DSL hooked up at home yet.
Well, while waiting for the first Ring book on CC I tried to remember my first contact with scifi. It was on the Australian radio Children’s Hour The Argonaut’s Club. The finale was a serialisation of a book and it was “Meet Simon Black” 1951 by Ivan Southall. Black had a fantastic plane the ‘Firefly’ a VTOL. I’m sure they did “Simon Black in Space” as well. It must have been about 1952-3. Then I had other interests until Uni. when physics got me back to Fred Hoyle’s “A For Andromeda” and “The Black Cloud”.
The Photo Gallery is working again!!! I wanted to change photos and removed a few to make space n the 10 photo limit and kept getting a message that it was too full when I tried to add something new. I reduced them in size, too! I uploaded a daylily photo that’s interesting! I’ve got an average orange in the backyard that’s double (3D), but this one was double in a different way (2D) is the only way I can explain it. None of the others on that plant developed that way, nor have I ever seen a daylily like that before or since.
I figure everyone has a right to one stupid question a day. Here’s mine.
How many people have you met who have been named for SF/Fantasy characters? I’ve met a Lessa, who actually looked like a young version of the illustration of Lessa done by Robin Wood; and know a Ruric Amari who is a sword dancing, belly dancer. Her Mom was reading GOLDEN WITCHBREED when Ruric was born.
For our writers, how many children have you heard of who have been named for one of your characters.
I’ve seen screen names from my Ring characters, but no one actually named for them. The ‘Netwalkers books are pretty normal names, which I did on purpose. I know of at least one Morgaine-born, and another I met at a con that I think it was her given name. Bri named her gorgeous black kitty Deymio! Does that count? (It does to me.)
Jane and I have a long-time (really long!) friend who introduced herself to us as “Maelen.” Not her real name, but one she adopted for herself from the books of one of our beloved SF authors from our childhood, Andre Norton.
And a good thing she did! Her given name was Lynn. I was/still am surrounded by Lynns! Maelen-Lynn, Sis-Lynn, Caro-Lyn, Abbey-Lynn, a cousin-by-marriage-Lynn and several others over the years. I need some way to keep them all straight! :D
Since I’m thinking fluff this morning and I don’t want to add that to the commentary on bad crossovers on Carolyn’s site…..
Imagine what the Hani would think of house cats? I know this is a common enough question. Or, how humans would explain them. My perception is that the Hani would see a cat and think like we do of the smaller apes.
There’s just too many cat gravatures not to contemplate the idea. The brain cells are kinda working. Hani learning about human culture.
Actually, I don’t think the Hani would make the personal connection at all. Certainly we wouldn’t look on some alien lifeform, no matter how humanoid, and perceive them as some sort of relative, no matter how far removed. One assumes the Hani have their own theory of evolution, their own evolutionarily distant relatives on their own planet.
For all we naturally make the subconscious connection to the familiar feline species, the Hani aren’t cats, and in fact, I think, sometimes, they’re made to look too much like anthropomorphic cats.
Now that you’ve raised the question, I’d love to see someone’s visual interpretation that actually came up with something that matched the clues to their appearance given, yet looked…different. Truly alien. I’ve never tried and don’t really want to go there, mentally. Too much else artwise on my plate right now, but if anyone’s seen such an offering, I’d love a link.
I see lots of Thoroughbred horses with names out of
sci-fi books. It always makes me smile to recognize
a name. They are supposed to get permission to use a
copyrighted name, but I wonder if the Jockey Club would know the names. People would be much more
interesting.
Jane,all my friends are Lindas,each and every one!
I never thought about it, but of course they’d need permission. But then, movie/TV writers rarely bother and that’s a far greater infringement of copyright!
At least the horse/owner isn’t making money off the name, only getting recognition—and perhaps creating an association with other SF folk. Hmmm…I wonder how that affects betting?
Then there’re the fanfic writers who far too frequently can’t even be bothered to put in a disclaimer with the original author’s name! Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against fanfic, only in any fanfiction writer’s attempt to lay claim, legally or otherwise, to any part of the story they’ve “created” using someone else’s characters/world. Heck I’ve written a bit of it myself. I CONDITIONALLY allow it of my own work:
http://www.janefancher.com/htmfiles/boxes/WriteBox/fanfic.htm
What I have a problem with are the “can’t be bothered” and “don’t rip me off” attitudes of SOME fanfic writers who legally own nothing of what they’ve written…not until they file off each and every identifier to the original work, and publish it somewhere other than in a “fanfic” site.
Anyway…didn’t mean to digress.
I said I was fluffy this morning. Now I’m going off on a bit of a tangent and wondering how any alien culture would see the various species on our planet? More intelligent species. The brain cells have warmed up and I’m going off in many directions at once. Wondering how an alien culture would measure intelligence on our planet? By their standards, of course. Would a being like Shere Khan (my brown/silver fuzz) be considered more intelligent because he refuses to take crap from me, than some other animal, maybe a parrot?
You’re right about the illustrations of the Hani giving us more a more feline impression. I haven’t looked up the evolution of the cat, but suspect lions and Persians are two different, and distant, branches of the same family.
There have been some new discoveries in the tale of
the domestic cat. A pet cat in a burial on (I think)
Cypress has pushed the event of domestication back
a lot further in time and out of Egypt and into the
Turkey,Lebanon and Palestine areas. The tiniest of
the wild cat families is found at the tip of Argentina
and is the size of a 2 month old domestic kitten. The
wild cats can still be found across the world,even in
Scotland!
How’d I miss this!?! Interesting! We hadn’t heard that and we try to track that kind of information. Thanks! (Running to do some surfing.)
I’ve gotta find a picture of the Argentinian cat. It must be adorable! (Running to do some more surfing.) I’ve heard lots of theories about how dogs were domesticated, but not a lot on cats. I think they just trained us to feed them. :D
Yikes!! I know I’ve been up for over 24hrs, but that’s no excuse for misspelling Cyprus. I just need
to pay attention
The cat burial I found on the BBC Science and Nature
Cyprus. The tiny southern Argentina wild cat I’ve
seen in nature films on tv,but also there is an incredible web site that I once found right after I
got my laptop(and didn’t know about bookmarking) and
have lost it. It has everything that breathes on the
planet. If you search Kod Kod pictures you will see a
similar cat,but a little larger. Meanwhile,I’m in full
cry,hunting that elusive all creatures large and small
web site…….good hunting,you will be amazed at how
many small wild cats roam the world.
Why does it keep telling me that I’ve just submitted
a duplicate? Is it just me?
Gotta be the Wesser. I’m sure he’s targetted you.
Beware! He’s in your computer now.
Which is actually kind of convenient. Anything goes wrong with the computer, you can just blame it on him. He’s a very useful gremlin.
Seriously, I have no idea. Is anyone else having this problem? On either Carolyn’s or my site?
Neat! Thanks. If you find that site, post it on the “links” page, will you? Pweeeeeze?
am having trouble,can only use knuckle to type.will get back later.
Darn,I just sent my first link ever and it’s not on the
link page. I guess I should have a different email
address for the link page. So anyway it’s been sent
to your personal address. I think I’ve nailed the tiny
kitty from Argentina(three pounds is tiny right?) it
seems to get smaller the further south it lives. I’m
still hunting wonderful info site so toodles!
Hmmm….missed this. Srry. I think you s/b able to leave a comment on the links page with a link. Those I posted were from other messages. If you just go to the page, copy and past the URL and post it in your comment, it should work.
Supposed to be nice this weekend! Got the grass cut and ready to do some tree trimming tomorrow, just hope this cough is better, cutting the grass really set me off.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Links page? I hit links up top but no page. Email came
back to me. Have pic of same wild cat found in burial.
Still fishing for incredible website.
Jane, I just love those pics of Efanor that cycle by on the blog’s front page :^) Makes me a little teary, though. He looks enough like Deymio in his younger days to be a twin.
Big hugs.
His personality is similar, too.
He’s a bit of a coward—likes being scared, I think. He’s finally getting to where he’ll come out when certain people are around, but mostly, he goes and hides. Forget protecting the silver. And, boy, do I hear it if the food bowl is empty!
Did you catch the pix of him hiding under the throw in the office? He’s very silly.
He’s also a serious mama’s boy. He’s very into snuggling, but only on his terms. When twenty pounds of fuzziness wants to snuggle, I don’t exactly say “no.” Wouldn’t do much good if I did.
Spoiled? Efanor? Never!
I had started a serious post about the value of these blogs and lost it in a mistake! I’ll try again later.
I tell them at work that I want to go home and curl up with a nice warm cat. I love the picture of Effanor under the blanket! I keep an old throw on the back of the recliner and Khan will swat it until he can get under it in the winter. He’s part Siamese and has a shorter coat than Pascal (my gravatar).
I’m going to get a bit ugly for a moment and Jane can delete this thread if she pleases. I watched the new series, MERLIN, on NBC and had some problems. I’m not sure if I’m just too much of a traditionalist, or if this would be an intersting story if it had nothing to do with the Arthurian Legend? How far can a story be pushed?
I enjoy Mercedes Lackey’s SERPENT’S SHADOW, but it does come out and say that it’s Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and use those names.
Actually, it’s a good question. And a tough one.
I personally have a kneejerk problem with any author who takes a “proven” story and uses it to sell their … ripoff is the only term I can think of. Or possibly fan fiction? I mean, all the hard work of story telling and marketing has already been done for them. They get to do a bunch of embellishments, and get paid a heck of a lot of money for the window decoration.
And sometimes, as you say, the only real connection to the parent story is the names, but sometimes that’s all it takes.
This Merlin isn’t a bad story, it even has the potential to be quite interesting, but if it weren’t called Merlin and didn’t use Camelot and Arthur, it would never have made it into production, simply because the beancounters who hold the purse strings wouldn’t be able to see any marketing potential.
And the flip side…many stories—especially fantasy, but not limited to it—could be marketed as fairy tales or legends in embellished disguise. Most basic storylines are covered in a fairytale somewhere. The difference lies in the deliberate attempt to copy and then to tap the mainstream market’s name recognition.
So far, however, and on the question of how far can you push a story, I just see another fairly generic fantasy story, with some neat ideas and loads of anachronisms. OTOH, I’ve got Tivo set to record it, so what’s that make me? A hypocrite? or maybe just a hopeless optimist!
In a way, Merlin works the way fanfic works: the producers wouldn’t go for the kind of delicate setup in a period that would let you build the characters delicately into a tangled relationship…they don’t respect their viewers, and they don’t think it could succeed. (I point at House as an example of tv with guts [pardon pun])—
But if they couch the story in terms of a known relationship and take it sort of sideways, it gives them some room to build. Hence the fanfic comparison.
The weakest link in the piece is Nimue, who is, as a threat, a bit given to simpering. I could not be afraid of that woman, and Nimue ought to be two-faced, and scary.
I too an on edge about Merlin. But right now there is absolutely nothing else to watch. Its a kids show; a simple formulas endlessly repeated. Its childish teasing relationships among the charchters would make more sence if the characters were writen for child actors. Oh well, guess I’m still a kid at heart.
I agree that using someone else’s characters to support your own story is understandable UNTIL it gets to the point of claiming rights (I’ve done my share of fanfic). On the other hand, re something like Merlin (a story whose roots are lost in time, and I doubt Alfred, Lord Tennyson has a legal heir to story rights), what about Shakespeare?! He stole every story he could get his hand on and made money and fame. Yes, he filed off serial numbers, but the stories were universal at the time and some are recognizable, even at this late date, as originating (really? maybe that author stole them, too) somewhere further back in time.
Just sayin’.
Love your avatar! Wow.
Good points. I’ve done some fanfic as well, and loved every moment of it. The problem, of course, is when a fan tries to claim rights to a story they wrote based on the premises and characters of a commercial work. That’s happened and we really need a definitive ruling against those that do such a thing.
That aside, the Merlin story is definitely fair game. As is Robin Hood, and other, similar “mythic” works. The question is, I guess, when does a product cease to be a legitimate reimagining of the story and become a gimmick using the tropes to make lots of money off a painfully anachronistic hodgepodge of story. I’m not saying Merlin was that bad, but it came close at times. It’s not a matter of legalities at this point, it’s a matter of artistic integrity and money-grubbers taking advantage of a viewership primed to respond to those tropes.
The newest Robin Hood offering from the BBC has a lot of the same problems. I’ve tried several times to watch it. I should love it. But the anachronisms in attitudes, language and delivery, not to mention sheer body language, just really get to me. Getting actors who look, move, and speak “period” is apparently very difficult. What’s really bad is when that essential “color” is sacrificed in the name of a Big Name Actor, who is terminally 20th century.
Oh, dear…I fear I’m soap boxing. Climbing down and ducking head….
Hey there Jane.
Once all your self-important guests leave and you get out from under your professional obligations, you really need to do this contest…the prize is so awesome it shouldn’t be allowable by law!
…check it out here–but remember its due by July 31
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159819
The time will be tight for me as well, but yeah, I’m going for it.
Sheesh, I should read my own blog! WAH! Don’t know when I would have done anything…guess I could have submitted one of the covers, huh? Ah, well. Did you get yours submission in? Good luck!!
I finally got the kitten yesterday. It’s a long and twisted story how he came to work and was fostered by a different co-worker. Pascal and Khan are not happy. Angel, Golden Retriever Mix, is curious, but not growling. I’ve been thinking of naming him Athos with Carrot for his kitten name. I’m beginning to think he’s Houdini, because he can escape from the bathroom. I didn’t close the door entirely this morning, and he opened it and got past the barricade I thought was tall enough. It was closed to the point of sticking, but not clicking. He’s an orange and cream tabby. His little tail goes bottle brush and is almost triangular at the tip. Wide at the base and narrow at the top.
One of the reasons I got this little fuzz was because I am afraid that if something happens to Khan, Pascal would grieve himself to death. Khan likes to take a run ocassionally. “HIDE YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, KHAN’S OUT!”
Oh, well, I came into work to change the employee photo gallery. Happy holiday to everyone!
He sounds darling. Picture? I’m trying to figure out how to let you post pix in your comments.
I’m betting Pascal doesn’t yet appreciate your gift, but I’m sure he’ll come around. All males; all neutered; s/b fine ultimately.
Happy 4th!
Pascal finally got tired of being chased on the back of the couch and slapped Athos this morning. Khan was the first one to sniff the little runt this weekend. Athos is still terrified of Angel, who has also sniffed his butt.
It’s been 8 years since Pascal was a kitten and I got Khan at 18 months old. I tend to forget that kittens are on speed. Athos plays so hard then decides the best place to take a nap is wherever I am. I have a lap kitten! Pascal sniffed him while he was taking a nap on the bed. I’m not trying the smell each other through a door. I’ve been trying to keep them apart part of the day if I’m around. Now, the older two have discovered Kitten Chow. I figured out that if I put the kitten food in the carrier, the senior partners won’t go in there as readily. I left it open on the bathroom floor.
I forgot to note that the little runt is 9 weeks old and weighed 2.8 lbs. on Thursday.
Oooo…adorable! Good solution, too!
I have no problem with being a child at heart. If we lose that child-like sense of wonder we’re dead to new ideas. Even worse, we become average Americans. Fluff can be good for us. I used to say that 15 min. with one of Carolyn’s books could take me from the problems at work, out to Pell Station. Not fluffy stuff, but major stress relief. For me, fluff would be the two paranormal romance series I read. Comedy fluff.
On the question of tradition v. whatever the people are thinking is the Twilight series. I haven’t read the books, but after seeing the movie, I so want a “Then Buffy slayed Edward. The End.” t-shirt. Vampires are not supposed to be good guys! Even Angel wasn’t out to cure society’s problems. He only helped out of remorse for his past deeds. If my gr-neice decides to read the books, I’m going to insist she borrow my annotated DRACULA and read it. A friend could only watch 10 min. at a time and called me fussing that vampires don’t sparkle.
Charlaine Harris’ vampires are not out to help the world. Great Humanitarians! They get on with business. They are more traditional vampires in that they are only seen at night. For those who are going who? The TRU BLOOD series is based on her novels.
On the kitten front, I thought I had found a way to outwit Pascal. I put Kitten Chow and Athos/Houdini in the carrier and zipped it mostly closed, so he could get out. Pascal got in and finished off the Kitten Chow.
You can stop laughing anytime.
They are sneaky little devils!
Cat owners, I have a question. Khan, my brown/silver tabby who is part siamese, seems to be fading? His tabby stripes are less distinct from the front edges of his ears down the back of his neck. He’s 10. My Gravatar is 8 and the kitten is 11 weeks.
Is it normal for a cat’s coat to change? I expected him to get white around the muzzle. I’ve lived with dogs since 1965, and only got Khan in 2000 after finding too many field mice bodies.
Interesting question about color changes. I have had a whole series of “accidental” Siamese patterned cats. What’s most usual is that their color gradually darkens as they age, especially if they spend any time outside. This is actually true for the “blue-blood” Siamese as well–the Siamese color pattern is caused by a temperature-sensitive albino-like gene, and the cooler the cat,the more “normal” the coloration. It’s the warm little bodies that make them pale in the middle :^)
My Tanner and Tracker are both garden variety lynx-point Siamese in color pattern, but Tracker, who has no white markings, has darkened enough that by age five his Siamese color gradation isn’t at all obvious. Tanner, who has white patterns as well as his stripey Siamese medley, has remained quite a bit lighter overall, and his Siamese gradation is still very obvious.
An interesting issue with your cat is that I think from your description that he *doesn’t* show the Siamese-style color pattern (which is typical for a half-Siamese, as the Siamese version of this color gene is recessive). The classic description of “recessive” is that the trait is completely undetectable if you only have one copy (and the other copy is “normal”). So you’d expect your cat’s color to behave just like a cat with no Siamese in his heritage.
However, as I love to point out to my bio students, *everything* is more complicated than we think it is. I did a 10-year study on color inheritance in gerbils, and one of the things I discovered is that “recessive” is a variable condition ;^)
So some of the color changes in your kitty could well be due to that “hidden” Siamese gene pulling some shenanigans behind the scenes, so to speak LOL!
You’re so useful!
New definition of decadence! I searched for a no-bake cookie that used chocolate chips and found one! The peanut butter is optional, which surprised me. I left out the pb and used Hershey’s White Chocolate chips with Macademia Nuts!
OH MY! I’m trying to get ideas for variations! I can buy up assorted chocolate chips at the salvage store cheaply and find things I would never look for in the grocery.
One variation that I’ve done in the past is use the dark cocoa powder and cinnamon. The cinnamon throws people off, but I think it adds more flavor.
So, did you find it on the web? And if so, where’s the url?
Cinnamon and PB improve pretty much everything.
I figured Oblivion discussion really should move to The Pub LOL!
Jane, I redid the Black Bows at level four and came out of it with six magic items :^) Like I said–first class money pit LOL!
I still haven’t found that cave! Went wandering around down there looking, and kept getting distracted by other crawls! The two up on the Gold Road generally start giving magic items right from the start, though not that many. And you get lots of imp target practice!
I’m still a serious weenie, cuz I haven’t slept, except the one time for the Anvil reference. No, wait, I’m at three ‘cuz I slept in the ghost house hopeing dodo would show up at the pub. Well, gotta run down there and find that cave. Think I’m going to go to Wikii and find a map. I generally try to avoid doing that, but now I’m curious. :D
It’s really easy to find. Just start at Llayawiin and begin running north up the road that runs to the west of the river. The icon for the cave shows up strongly while you are still on the road, because the cave is just a short distance from the road.
Hi Jane.
Hey, I want to take a small detour off your normal blog discussion for a sec.
Two questions for you:
1. How in the heck do you manage a laptop with a wacom tablet? What’s the trick to working comfortably–portable is not so portable with the need for that much horizontal surface area….
2. Do you find the switch from writing to book covers weird or anything? Personally, I get so involved in my work of the moment that it takes a real shift in thinking to go from one to the other. There’s a time in my mental shift where I think to myself… now what was I trying to achieve the last time I worked on this? I flounder a bit until I get back into the groove, as it were.
Maybe its because, for me, the two projects are not related–not writing and painting the same folks, the same characters. You are having fun redoing your own work. Lucky girl!
1. My wacom is the perfect size. It rests right over the keyboard when I’m actually sketching/manipulating. It gets a bit awkward when I actually have to use the keyboard, but I tend to use one or the other right now. I’ve used just the keyboard for so long, there’s a lot I do without ever picking up the tablet. But for what it does, it’s irreplaceable.
2. Thanks for asking, actually. I thought I’d be talking a lot more about this kind of problem when I began this blog, then, of course, I got into this whole day in the life of, thing, with not a whole lot being said about the creative process!
The short answer is, I don’t. I do one or the other. Creatively-speaking, I don’t multi-task worth a darn. I have to immerse myself in the problem…and channeling characters in order to write is, as you say, exceedingly different from visualizing them and making that come out on the screen/paper. In fact, I find it difficult to draw my own characters. I know what they “feel” like from the inside, but not really what they look like. I have so many different versions of Stephen and Wesley running around, I’m not really sure which I’d call “cannon.”
And the problems you have to solve are very different. That’s one reason I’ve been putting together the little slide shows for the covers, i.e. to try and recreate some of the thinking that went into them. It doesn’t capture anything like the amount of trial and error that goes into the final decision, but I hope it conveys a little of the fun.
I’ve never actually tried to do both at once. Since I began writing, I’ve done very very little visual art of any kind. With CC, that’s all changing, and frankly, I’m getting back at art with a freshness and enthusiasm for it I haven’t felt for a long long time. As with writing, computers are letting me accomplish things I’d never do by hand. These four covers I’ve done so far (I’ve got Harmonies ready to do as a slide show when I finish the Fish Tank Saga) would have taken me forever to actually paint, and wouldn’t have been as cool because I wouldn’t have been able to play with the elements the same way. Just don’t have the patience for it.
Right now, visual art is what I’m doing. I’ve got a lot of covers to do and if I tried to write in between, I’d just be really inefficient at both. It’s hard just getting myself to sit down and do the blog. I will say, the more I go back and forth, the easier it’s getting, but I really don’t think I’ll ever be able to just go back and forth. Time might prove me wrong, but as you say, they’re just such different mindsets.
Oh…and as you say…rebuilding the logic processes are a b*#$ch. Same goes for computers or the fish tank…or even paying the bills and doing taxes. I don’t take notes well…keep it all in my head…so once I start a project, I kind of have to stick to it until the puzzle is solved. The one thing I seem able to do for a “safe” break is games…Spider Solitaire or one of the shoot-em-up first person games I like.
I do feel very very lucky to have the chance to redo the ‘Netwalker books. And I didn’t realize how absolutely delicious it would feel doing the covers. I’m working on the one for Ring of Lightning now, and am trying to figure out how to “paint” with the computer. All the other pieces, I’ve hand-drawn/colored/painted first, then manipulated. I’m actually doing this one all on the computer. It’s fun!
Thanks so much Jane.
I do so love to talk shop. I know I drive the people over at Shejidan crazy with the intricate, hard to follow unless you’ve been there, indescribable experiences of the creative mindset.
There are times when I just need to talk about it even if I can’t really put into words exactly what I am trying to say. They are very kind to indulge me. I would love to indulge you…please, post away at will. You will always have one very interested party at your disposal for discussion–and probably a lot more ready to jump in.
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I do find it interesting, your comment about drawing your own characters. First of all, because you are so good at character design. I am surprised. But it does make a certain kind of sense.
I think really that writing is far more visual in a sense than actual visual art, because it engages more than just the eyes–its a whole brained thing. You see it and feel it and experience it as you write it.
But for some reason it does hinder the putting to paper what seems logical you should have visualized. For me, its just out of reach–like I can see it out of the corner of my eye but to look at it straight on–it disappears.
So its just by luck that I might happen to catch a glimmer of a character on paper: Mostly by chance when I’m thinking about something completely random and unrelated…but when you’ve caught, you know it.
I will say though, its a lot harder..for some reason… to catch that idealized beautiful man. I draw a complete blank when I’m thinking about a character like that. Men don’t seem to have this same problem with the idealized beautiful woman. They can whip them out by the page full. I think maybe the visual image of a charcter like that must be too idealized—too pretty to catch. *Sigh* I guess that’s why we can’t leave them alone….
I love talking shop! And the Shejidani are, in a word, great. I’m sure they’re interested in all you have to say.
I’d say, rather, that writing is more sensory than visual art can possibly be. You can invoke the textures and smells and shapes…I knew better how Stephen’s face felt then how it looked. (I think I was channelling Mr. Smith…ahem.) I did one little bust of him that was the first time I began to “get” his look. There’s also the problem of all the aspects of a complex character. Characters aren’t features to me, they’re emotions…expressions, reactions and interactions. Their emotions aren’t the same moment to moment. As their creator, you’re seriously aware of those nuances. You’ve internalized them. One picture can only portray a hint of the entirety, and so I’m never quite satisfied.
Doing the graphic of Gate of Ivrel, I really got to know those characters because of all the different expressions and body language I got to explore. If I’m just doing a cover, I only get one shot. That’s kinda unnerving.
Curiously (or maybe not) my first real attempt to put the look of characters on a cover is Harmonies of the ‘Net. And that will be both Stephen and Wesley. So much of character to me is character dynamic, so an image that is some kind of interaction is much much easier for me. The Ring of Lightning cover is going to have all three brothers on it, and while they aren’t really interacting, a lot will (hopefully) be said in the comparison/contrast of expressions.
Oh…and I just thought of something. I write characters from the inside. Just as I’d have a hard time making an accurate self-portrait without a mirror or photograph, I find it hard to “visualize” the characters I’ve “been.”
Is this making sense to anyone? :D:D:D
Well, all you’ve said is true, and I especially like your last statement about writing characters from the inside. They are much more than just a set of physical features or personality quirks, or twists on a stereotype. Each one is his own universe, expansive, unique, deeply flawed, and yet perfect too. Such a joy it is to know someone so well–better than one could ever know another person in real life: all the secrets, all the hopes and dreams, fears and failures. You know the things they could have said, but didn’t. The feelings they kept to themselves, when perhaps they shouldn’t have, or honestly didn’t want to…
And its funny how much time fans will spend on speculation. We will speculate on anything and everything. I love it, such fun. But one of the biggies is always going to be…..well, what does so and so look like? What actor would you pick for character X? And CJ—OMG! If she could get 10 cents for every word of speculation on the build of space craft to the reflectivity level of light on Atevi skin….!!
How lovely and utterly frustrating it is to know that its harder than one imagines, even as the author…..
Its not so concretely visual even in the mind’s eye of the creator….
Fantastic, Jane! Its intriguing and bewildering. Most authors don’t have to worry so much. Sci-fi authors do. And those of us who can illustrate.
I think CJ’s little piece of advice…don’t stop at a point where its completely wrapped up tight, is the best advice when switching from one project to the next. It forces one to reacquaint oneself with the whole before going forward again. But I would say, for God’s sake not in the middle..its got to be right towards the end where its just tweaking, finessing, smoothing out the rough spots—and take notes. On my digital paintings I use the sticky notes you find in photoshop to leave copious notes to myself before I have to leave it for a while. Same with writing projects. Although on that front, my outlines are not really outlines they are detailed scene descriptions–like what I would hand over to a storyboard guy. I don’t get lost there, its the flow of the actual story words. Getting back into the voice of whomever I happened to leave off with–usually at a chapter change in POV anyway. A good place to begin again, but hard after painting.
I think though, as my work board starts to fill up with character drawings this might become easier. Something visual to hang on to in the in between times perhaps. If you can acclimate yourself to writing at the same time and same place everyday to get you in the zone…I’m betting there’s a place in there for visuals too.
Can’t wait to see your new covers with a little more in depth look at your characters! And your new prequels in the series. And your adventures in digital painting!
You’ll never look back.
Next time I take two weeks of vacation, I’m going to the library more often to check up on things. I have an Ethernet connection at work, and it’s a major bother to connect from home, so I only read stuff from the office. Yes, I go in early and stay late just to do private stuff. I will eventually catch up with all of the blogs and comments! On some items I have related, but not pertinent to the discussion thoughts.
I really love the cover related things! Seeing how the creative mind works is so interesting. People get lost with me because I make leaps and connections that they can’t see or understand. I may eventually try some using Elements 2 better. All I ever tried in the past were the filters to do things like sketch, stained glass, etc. For most of the work to fix the brightness, contrast and cropping, I’m using MS Office Picture Manager. It’s faster.
Here’s the cookie recipe link:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/nobakecookies/r/bl90710a.htm
I was so sad to discover the chips I used are now discontinued. I’m still trying to think of other flavors to try. One thought was figuring out how to do an oatmeal raisin using chips. Cinnamon chips with raisins for a non-nut, non-chocolate? It’s an easy thing to make. Try it out without peanut butter and tell me your ideas.
Without PB!?! WhY? God’s perfect food!
But that does sound yummy. Cinnamon chips? Like Chocolate chips only Cinnamon? Oh…wow. That sounds really good.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the cover posts!
The Pub link has disappeared unless you’re fairly quick. It gets covered by the most recent blog.
I want it known that Jane is a bad influence. I started playing with the filters last night with Elements 2. I don’t use it often enough to upgrade the software to Elements 7. I’ll try more later in the week. The thought of merging photos sounds so interesting. Dancers and fireworks come to mind.
Tee hee…did you ever do this? I’d love to see it.
AbigailM, I tested out your gallery and it does work. Nice kitty and ornaments. Did you have to resize your pictures or was it easy to upload?
Pretty cool, Jane. I like this idea.
You s/b able to load larger images…up to 2MB. the program should make the thumbnails and link to them. I think I’ll try putting some up and make sure.
Oh, emilyrln, the dress is GORGEOUS. Love the color, (and it’s a great color for you) and the fit’s terrific. Very well done!!!
Aelith, I love this! My mum’s philosophy, for sure. She loved her gardens. Wish she’d lived to see our pond. I like to think she’s supervising from upstairs.
Photo FX: I’m still having problems with the merge feature. Need to do more digging to find the Elements book that came with the software. When I figure it out, I’ll find a photo that’s aimed the correct direction and use the same fireworks photo. It’s more of a contrail than standard fireworks. Although, I do have a good photo of the waterfall off the bridge that could give a similar effect…..
Google: “Thunder Over Louisville” for information, images and videos.
I’ll put a better size photo in my gallery later today if Facebook is working, of the orchids in the window. I changed two last week. 600 x 800 is the size I try to save things for Facebook, etc.
Hmmm…merge is a new one on me. Haven’t used that at all. All my “merging” is done rather randomly, or very specifically. Anyone out there familiar with this function?
hanneke, these are gorgeous!!!! I’d love to see the real thing(s). Everyone, she’s got photos posted of her 3D paper artwork. Please go check them out!
What kind of peace rose does your mom have? We have two we’re extremely fond of. One is the Chicago Peace, which was Carolyn’s father’s favorite and World Peace, which came out the year the Berlin wall came down. Both are really rich colored, raspberry-scented varieties.
And the quilt is beautiful, complete with its fuzzy decoration.
Photoshop Elements 2: I can’t believe where I found the book that came with the software. I spent some time yesterday working on the living room, actually dumping containers into one larger one and sorting. The book was on a small bookcase next to the TV. On the top-stinking-shelf!
My problem is not merging two photos, I need to do layers! I’ve got the book set by the laptop so I’ll play with the idea later this week. I was making finger cymbal mufflers to take to the studio tonight. The cleaning started because I was trying to find the large sequins I bought to try a experiment with and never got made. I’ve found a lot of beads I’d forgotten about and some yarn I bought that was reduced to practically nothing. I’d never crochet with the stuff but it might be woven into a scarf or knitted into a multi-strand scarf.
If any dancer wants to make the zill covers, just let me know it’s a really simple “pattern” I created.
On MM’s new pix: Cute cute kitties! Oh, I’ve been meaning to say, I love this pic of the dancer doing floor work in front of the mirror. Very striking, beautiful composition.
On Kokipy’s pix…Kawaaaaaaiiiiii! Baby kitties are sooooo cute! And Py is beautiful. I see you have a technocat.
We had a little grey kitty like Misty when I was a teenager. Sooo pretty.
Can’t find the jigsaw link. :(
OH how did I miss the Oblivion reference.
I’ve just started a new hero because I got bored with Shivering Isles.
I want to see if I can load the ‘K’vast Rebuilt’ mods. Did you find what you were looking for back in August?
Never mind on that link.
already have it.
Loved the Mondragonpuz, he looks to me to be a more scheming character
than in the Tim Hildebrant’s covers. Now I have however another addiction besides SolSuite to combat, thank you Jane.
Thanks! The title of that piece is “guilt and baroque again” a bad pun on his less than legal character, his perpetual state of economy, and the fancy gold frame we have him in. :D The whole pic is up on my website: down at the bottom of the page. It’s one of the very few actual paintings I’ve ever done. :D
Happy birthday Jane
I really like the whole pic of Mondragon.
Hi Jane, belated congratulations on your birthday.
I have another question (when have I not?): does our gallery on your site cache the old-and-deleted pictures? I wanted to show you two new ones and ask if you would like either of them, when I’ve finished 3D-ing them. But now I keep getting this error-message:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3072 bytes) in /home/lynnabbe/public_html/janefancher/TheCaptainAndLime/wp-content/plugins/alkivia/lib/upload/class.upload.php on line 2589
This even though I’ve deleted all the pictures which weren’t either necessary (avatar) or potentially useful to you (CC scetches) and reduced the new pictures to less than 500 MB and 1000 pixels wide and 72 dpi resolution.
How do I kick my old deleted pictures out of memory?
I’ve logged out and in again and that didn’t do it,
but I haven’t waited a day yet.
Sorry for being so stupid about all this computer stuff!
And can I remove the CC-scetches or are they still potentially useful? (E.g. for long-distance contact with Lynn: as you said they were fairly close to what you had in mind it might make communication easier: I want this but not that, and that should be suchlike … always easier with an image to hand, though of course you could make much better pictures for her when it gets to be discussion time).
Anyway, about the 3D-pictures which you said you’ld like to see for real: at the moment I’m working on one of Monet’s japanese bridge over his waterlily-pond, in lots of green-tints, that hasen’t got a designated recipient yet. As I couldn’t put it in my gallery this is a link to it on the Internet: http://www.interagir.com/?entryID=40
As you like ponds, and if I remember correctly from Teimori’s dress also like greens, I thought you might like this in a 3D-version.
I could send it to you when it’s finished. That won’t be before late spring or summer next year, and by that time Closed Circle will be up. As you were planning to put an address on there for people to send mail-order things to, I could send it to that address.
As some people might consider it sacrilege to do something like this with real art like Monet’s pictures, or it might just not be to your taste, or not fit in with any of the rooms in your house, I’ve been looking at the available sets of prints (at my teacher’s) to find something else you might like. There wasn’t anything nice with koi or tropical coral reef with fishes, and Monet’s the best pond. There are several with cats but none that look very much like Efanor and Yfandes. There are no Chinese or Japanese landscapes, just some kimono-girls in very bright pink and such colours. The only picture with Chinese elements (lotusflowers, porcelain, girl’s portrait and horse-statuette) which might be acceptable I did manage to get into my gallery, so you can check it out there and let me know if you’ld like either Monet’s bridge or that one, or another one entirely, or have no room for any, or whatever. I need a set of 6 good-quality prints (fairly resistant to fading in the light) to make these things, so if you would like something else I can keep on looking for it.
It just takes me a long time to finish them, so don’t expect it any time soon!
I’ve had so much pleasure from reading CJs books, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy yours when I can start reading them through Closed Circle, so it feels good to be able to give back a little pleasure in a picture in return.
ARGH!!! I can’t imagine why you’re having these problems. I can’t see anything that you’re doing that should cause them. I’ll try and see if I can get any kind of access to your gallery. I’m so sorry! I’ll try and get the guy who wrote the plugin to give me an answer.
I have copied the images relative to CC, so those can go, but obviously, there’s some problem beyond that.
As for the 3D…that’s sooooo sweet! I don’t know what to say, other than I’d be delighted. Just for the record, I’m generally more into the blue/purple end of the spectrum, but that’s a lovely piece, as is the one you posted with the flowers and horse statue. If you honestly need a home for one of these beautiful pieces, I’d be honored to give it one. We have a PO box that we’ve set up for CC…check under Carolyn’s “contact page.”
As for the smilies, you just click on one and it inputs something like (colon)devil(colon) in the “leave comment box” which will show up as the image when you actually post.
Still browsing through older comments…mmberry…I totally agree with your comments re: vampires…..these guys need a dose of Buffy…..perhaps the episode about the vampire wannabes, who were being groomed as food…..oops! am I showing my nerdiness?
Hi Jane, if the Monet-picture ends up OK you’ll get it sometime next summer. As to what’s going wrong and why me, I think the system is somehow archiving the old pictures. I loaded up 10 of them, then deleted and reloaded 5 to try to get sharper images. The last one it accepted got number 16; even though it was no.7 or 8 in the list at that time. I guess that means it remembers the previous numbered images. I’ll try deleting everything but no.1, wait a day, and then see if it has forgotten the other numbers; but I rather think that won’t be enough to really remove them from archive-memory.
Oh well, it’s not in any way important – please use your time to better effect for other things, like getting your books ready for Closed Circle: that´s much more important than trying to fix this.
A quick moment to brag. My knitting leaves a lot to be desired, but I knitted my first hat with a basket weave design. Figured it out on my own and only took two tries to get it right! The only visible mistake is that I needed to use smaller needles for the ribbing.
Neat! Congrats!
I should be knitting a second pair of tabi socks from leftover sock wool but I’m too busy reading ‘Groundties’!
Have solved the knitting problem by installing MS Reader, not all the books read so well because it vocalises punctuation as well asterisk, asterisk, asterisk all books, dotdotdot … for CJ’s journal and quotation marks are grave accent grave accent for Lynn’s.
Still it is great and so easy to turn off etc. Will send typo’s by email when I finish the book. They are not obtrusive and I think one hyphen was an intonation mark (po-lite smile).
Got to go ride and it’s almost snowing.
Now I know what I’m going to be reading on Christmas Day. I’ll dig out my copy of Ring of Lightening. I’m looking forward to a nice quiet day at home with a nice warm cat or three to cuddle with, a book and a couple of movies.
Wishing a quiet day to all. We’re off work from Christmas Eve till Jan 4th and I don’t have the DSL hooked up at home yet.
Well, while waiting for the first Ring book on CC I tried to remember my first contact with scifi. It was on the Australian radio Children’s Hour The Argonaut’s Club. The finale was a serialisation of a book and it was “Meet Simon Black” 1951 by Ivan Southall. Black had a fantastic plane the ‘Firefly’ a VTOL. I’m sure they did “Simon Black in Space” as well. It must have been about 1952-3. Then I had other interests until Uni. when physics got me back to Fred Hoyle’s “A For Andromeda” and “The Black Cloud”.
The Photo Gallery is working again!!! I wanted to change photos and removed a few to make space n the 10 photo limit and kept getting a message that it was too full when I tried to add something new. I reduced them in size, too! I uploaded a daylily photo that’s interesting! I’ve got an average orange in the backyard that’s double (3D), but this one was double in a different way (2D) is the only way I can explain it. None of the others on that plant developed that way, nor have I ever seen a daylily like that before or since.
Very pretty!!!! Good thing you got a picture.