The importance of illustration

Back, long ago, in the days of pulp fiction and fifty cent novels, illustration was king. There was a reason for this. People, in general, are drawn to beautiful things. Granted beauty can be subjective for each individual from a splatter of black and white on an austere surface all the way upwards to a grandiloquent baroque-like tapestry of color and form grafted to a forty-foot plaster wall. In the case of the novel and short story, publishers from long ago understood this concept.

And we move forward . . .

Well, it's been a few days since I posted. After last week and my stellar achievements: finishing the first pass of Traveler, and hitting the halfway mark on Daughter, this week has started off a bit slow. 

Oops, I did it again!

Today I accomplished my goal of finishing the first pass of Traveler—or TNV. This project was always one of the most important to me. 

Halfway and counting!

Well dear friends, I have met a landmark event this morning. I am pleased to announce that I'm at the halfway mark for Daughter of the Laughing God. The goal was to have the prequel at this juncture by the weekend and I finished up a day early.

Of mice and men, or how to humiliate yourself in one simple misstep, and so it goes . . .

As I have stated in other places, I am not the best when it comes to first impressions. Whether it be due to my humorous physicality, my imperfect sense of decorum, or a mathematical algorithm that ticktocks away in the background of my life—Matrix style, I can not say. I spent a lifetime examining this unbalanced equation to no avail. As many who know me can attest, it is observable and disturbingly predictable. I see it as challenging and part of my esoteric anatomy. An outsider looking in at a glance would just say, “Tough break bud, better luck next time.” But the astute oftentimes will declare after a year or two of paying very close attention, “Oh by the gods, how can this be? That's impossible! Run!”