Now, then:

If I put up pieces of Tea and Sorcery--I won't say all of it because even though I got 50k words down, the story itself is missing pieces--will it be read? I feel vaguely selfish about keeping the damn thing pirated away on my harddrive, but I don't want to go through formatting it unless someone would like to read it, and I'm not putting it on DA for various reasons.

If it helps, here is the synopsis I used for my NaNoWriMo profile:

Driven by curiosity and more than a bit of concern, a quartet of magi begins looking into a strange affliction striking others of their kind, only to find that the cause is much less natural than they first thought.

Contents may include metamagic navel-gazing, strange machines, winged cats, bookish demons, laudanum, and a downright unholy amount of tea.


On an unrelated note, here's some art.

A bad pun and a naked demoness

A selfish squid-angel drowning her love

A sketch of Z as a faun, NSFW

Sketch of a blood elf paladin who's been punched in the nose recently

Painty sketch of Lady Kos as a blood elf

This evening, as we are host to a very sick alley cat with some nasty cuts and scratches, I narrowly escaped being sprayed with feline blood and pus when the poor guy decided to scratch his forehead. It was... dramatic, by which I mean I was mopping up half the floor, and the front of the oven for good measure. >:|

I have my doubts about him making it through the winter--even apart from the cuts, he's in rough shape--but hopefully, he will. He's quite mild-mannered and I have yet to see him lash out at anyone, despite being in pain.

Now, if I can just get the scent of blood to stop lingering in the back of my throat...


On a totally unrelated note, I finished the painting of Faenori all dressed up.

http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/All-the-Time-in-the-World-108966490

Ah, 2008. How well you made up for the crock of excrement that was the majority of 2007.

Actually, that's not quite sufficient. 2008, you were fucking fantastic.

May the new year not find you too hard an act to follow.

And the shopping is done.

I feel vaguely guilty for being so very unimaginative about my gift-giving this year--they're all rather practical things--but no objects of whimsy caught my eye, space is at a premium in this house, and I hate giving and receiving things that will not be put to use. That, and I become less festive with each passing year. This holiday simply isn't my cup of tea.

I also really, really hate Walking in a Winter Wonderland. There will be acts of violence if I have to listen to that again before late 2009.

And now, ze art!

Another bit of knotwork, and a tutorial outlining how I make the blasted things:
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Thorn-of-Ages-104902884
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Cheap-Knotwork-Tricks-103759493

A demon empress from a worldbuilding project o' mine (not work safe):
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Doomsage-Zivhea-106570316

My half of a trade with Myn (also not work safe, but a lot more subtle about it):
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Satyrday-Night-106000895

I broke fifty thousand. After trying since 2003.

I'm fairly certain that this is mostly due to my having such an accommodating MC. Mebrit, you've been a darling.

I coloured my hair for the first time in about three snazillion years--last Hallowe'en I did it in jet black, but rather than permanently staining the way it did the last time I did so, it faded to something very close to my natural colour. This had a certain charm for a while, but brown has a way of exaggerating my sickliness. Thus, it's back to retina-searing crimson.

My NaNo wordage has settled down, as I apparently still have not recovered from writing a fifth of the damn novel over the course of two days. There is no way that I am actually going to be finished the story at the end of November, but fifty thousand words is not far off at all.

With the thought of using my long-neglected shaman to dual-box and power-level one of his characters, B got a timecard for my WoW account...

Must be strong. >:| But I am most certainly going to go out and get WotLK once November is over.

6300 words today alone.

My brain is pudding.

I need to go to bed right now, before I catch my 52nd wind and fling myself at the wordprocessor again in another fit of giggles.

I am almost entirely certain that my pet purple worm just ate Yeenoghu when I was not looking.

It's official. I am entirely too fond of writing blackhearted bastards and vaguely evil (or just plain misguided) bastards being utterly screwed over to the point of no return by the former.

I also made cookies.

Either my NaNo novel or Hallowe'en went to my head, because I just tweaked the recipe and improvised the baking time* on a batch of butterscotch pecan rolls, and they turned out perfectly.

We were finally snowed on last night, in spades. Starting off with freezing rain and ice shards. Yes, November, I feel the love. You can stop now.

I've been neglecting my art-posting duties again, so...

A finished painting of Lady Kos and Mikala
Commissioned portrait of an elf in sensible clothing
Wispy lineart self-portait
Sketch of Faenori in an outlandish costume
Six-point biohazard-esque knot
Two repeating designs
Six-point knot with barbs, one of the oldest
Four-point knot with hearts and swirls


*Dear Purity Cookbook editors: You do not bake anything with four teaspoons of baking powder in it at 450 fahrenheit, you barbarians.

This morning, while reading up on various opiates for the sake of my NaNoWriMo novel, I tripped over something on the related subject of someone overdosing on poppy seed "tea", and the sentiment that "bad things happen when you mess with Nature".

I don't suppose these people are aware that Nature, dear old thing that it is, has provided countless toxins that are far more lethal in their natural states? Or that "messing with Nature" is the human modus operandi?

...and on a marginally related note, another NaNo snippet:

He shrugged. "I’m fine. Well, I did feel a bit ill at one point last week, but I think that had more to do with an acute overdose of treacle tart than anything else."

I am also too lazy to make a separate journal for NaNoWriMo, and possibly too lazy to post my novel at all, but for now you can have this bit of it:

Being an indentured scullery maid may have been emasculating, but somehow, that appeared to be the choice that didn’t involve having anything chopped off.

( Two more pictures of Hallowe'en laziness )

I am too lazy to dress up this year, so...

( I'm going to spend the evening doing this instead. )

Onward, to NaNoWriMo!

Not one to pass up an opportunity to be incredibly fussy, I went looking for wigs again today. Was once again reminded that there are hundreds of hairstyles in the world and the vast majority of them look incredibly stupid. Maybe I'm spoiled by having really thin and weightless hair in reality, but is it *really* that hard to make a wig that does not make the wearer look like a muppet?!

(This is all rendered moot, of course, by the fact that I have a small head and none of them fit me anyway.)


Bitching aside, here are some sketches.

Illume, of all people:
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Too-Pretty-to-Live-97911155

Faenori with shades:
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/quot-Tsoss-ussa-quot-99832024

And attempting to distract Mebrit (not particularly work-safe):
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Insufferable-Ilythiiri-97904757

Aaaand one of Lady Kos (most certainly not work-safe):
http://darchala.deviantart.com/art/Sleeping-With-Ghosts-99659306

I'm not actually going to say what I'm dressing up as for Hallowe'en.

I'm just going to drop a really obvious hint.

(Three turtlenecks, for the record.)

I'm weak.

Not one week after my order from Sock Dreams arrived, and someone--and I'm not mentioning any names, tiefling--appropriated half of them*, I placed another.

I did learn my lesson, though. This time I only bought girly-looking ones.

I also finally played Portal. GLaDOS and SHODAN really ought to hang out sometime.



*Serves me right for getting brown and olive green, I know.

And now, in the category of 'dumbass jokes that will make sense to almost no one':

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/Faeilynne/WiP/mebritandfaenori-gothmuffin.jpg

There are insects that are made seemingly of gossamer, and that all but disintegrate when looked at funny.

And then there are insects that refuse to die, the sort that will continue kicking and flailing even after three quarters of their bodies have been ground to paste.

Go figure.

(Yes, I did just mortar-and-pestle one of the latter, and I keep expecting it to reassemble itself and come lurching after me. I refuse to believe that it is totally dead.)

On a less horrifying note, I still have no art of my own to share, but zeldyn put up half of what I commissioned from her and it delights me greatly. ^_^

http://zeldyn.deviantart.com/art/Chala-s-Lady-Kos-lines-96348944