As many of you already know, I went down to Florida for the Mega-con convention.  It was, needless to say, a blast.

I flew down to Florida on the Wednesday before the con. Kri’s husband was very nice and picked me up from the airport – saving me from an extremely expensive taxi ride to the hotel.  After a quick stop to drop off some books and pick up Kri, we went to dinner at Wa before they took me to my hotel. Wa was an amazing experience and the food was absolutely to die for! Definitely going there again on my next visit to Florida.

Thursday was set-up day for the con.  After a 2 hour wait in line (and we were there early!) we finally got our truck up to the loading docks.  We had a little help in unloading the pallets, but once we got everything to our booth location, we dug right in and worked straight through to 8pm – when we just about collapsed from exhaustion and hunger! Let’s just say that the hot tub came in handy that night!

Friday morning we finished setting up and the doors opened at 1pm. From then on – it was non stop. Just a whirlwind of activity! I got to meet Mr. Picardo on one of my breaks that afternoon! It kinda surprised me because I was just walking around the dealers room with my camera,turned a corner, and there he was sitting at the Vulcan Event’s booth.  He was really nice and I ended up getting a signed print and photo of him.

Later, after the dealers room had closed for the night, I went out with my in-laws to Tijuana  Flats and Coldstone. It was fun catching up with them and seeing them. I got to hear a bunch of new stories about my new little nephew.

When I got back to the hotel, I ended up in the bar with my booth manager. We talked about the day, and how the show was going. I got a bit tipsy, but had tons of fun when we ended up  talking with some of the top names in the comic industry who’d ended up in the bar that night too!

Saturday night was the night of the Rave – which was alright. The DJ wasn’t the greatest, but I enjoyed getting to rave again. Rave dancing is one of my favorites, probably because it’s such a free form of expression.

Sunday was the longest day of them all. Not only did we have to get up early after a long-ish night at the rave, but after the show closed at 5pm, we had to completely breakdown our booth and load our truck back up.  The good news was we’d sold a pallet and a half worth of merchandise at the show, and that was one less pallet we had to pack!

Overall, I felt like the show was a success. I got to meet a fair number of artists, make some new contacts for work, I even ran into a few friends from college that I hadn’t planned on seeing! I loved getting to see some of the stars that were there and all the cosplayers in their inventive, and sometimes revealing, costumes.

Once I get through all the business cards and flyers I got, I’ll post a new page with links to my favorites. I have to share the love,  ‘artist’ is a hard career to follow!

Things have been busy, busy, busy!! Last night was the first Friday of the month and that’s a big day in the artist’s community here in Raleigh. The galleries downtown open their doors in the afternoon and stay open late in to the night. Sometimes there’s food and wine, but mostly it’s a great night to network with other artists in the community or buy some art.

Last night, I went down to the opening day of a show at the LoDi Project Gallery.  They put out a call to the artists in the community and across the world to unite to support those in need in Haiti. The LoDi Project received over a 1000 pieces of artwork from around the globe! Each piece will be sold for $25 dollars with all the proceeds going to support those in Haiti. I submitted three pieces of my own artwork and was very happy to hear that one of them (iHeartbronze) sold before I could even get down to the gallery last night! I haven’t heard about the other two , but I hope that when they are bought, I might hear from the new owners. :)

iHeartbronze by =Sachula on deviantART

I’m a little stumped with Grim Aspects at the moment. I have written about 350 words of a brand new beginning, but I’m not sure if it’s the direction I want to go with Gabrielle’s voice. Here’s a snip-it, the very beginning of the first chapter. Feel free to tell me what you think.

The smell of burning wood tickled my nose. I opened my eyes to see a small fire burning only a few feet from me. The heat from it felt wonderful.

I sat up and rubbed my face. The dull ache behind my eyes was still there. That’s what I get for letting my emotions get the best me. Seriously, when was the last time I’d cried like that? I sighed and looked over at the fire.

Only one person I knew would go through the lengths to build a fire instead of trying to wake me. He was my saving grace, the only person I confided in and yet, when I think about it, I didn’t really know much about him other than his name.

Adrian.

“Do you have a death wish?” a voice said behind me.

I grabbed at my chest to keep my heart from jumping through it and spun around to face him. Adrian was stepping over the remains of the broken wall. He stopped, posed with one foot on a sunken stone and just like that, I was just caught in his presence.

It happened every time we met and every time, I couldn’t be less prepared for it. The way the moon light behind him caught the honey color strands of his hair and made them glow. The lines of his face that he had so carefully composed to give off that air of indifference. Every movement, the slightest gesture to the merest of nods, thought out intensely in the depths of his hazel eyes.

I shook myself from the weight of his gaze and found that, yes, I still had a working jaw bone.

“I have a death wish?! I think you’re the one with the death wish. Sneaking up on a highschooler in the woods at night. Jeez…” I turned my back on him and immediately regretted it, remembering all too late that even the thought of him standing behind me sent quivers down my spine.

For a while after we’d first met, it was a healthy fear of a stranger in the night, but as we met more over the years, my mind began to wonder just what Adrian would do if he were to stand against my back? Those thoughts brought an entirely different type of shiver to my body.

I need to keep working on it and I’m very, very glad that I have my cell phone. I’m away from my computer more often that not these days, and it seems that the notes app on my phone is getting a very healthy work out. I’m also still working on my Three Act Structure. I’m not thrilled with it yet, if I ever finish it – it will be a Christmas miracle. XD

This week I watched the anime Peacemaker Kurogane. I remember watching most of this a few years ago, but I couldn’t remember if I ever got to watch the ending. So, I looked it up on CrunchyRoll (my new friend, btw) and was very happy that I did finally get to finish it this time around. I enjoyed the historical aspect and it reminded me a a series of books that were set around the same time period. I’m going to have to go look those up and add them to my To Read List again.

Here’s today’s amv : Dive Right In // anime: Peacemaker Kurogane // music: Dive Right In – Story of the Year

its snowing again…

I spent my chilly weekend indoors mostly, watching TV with Josh and anime on my computer. I caught up on Tegami Batchi which I’m really liking, and I started and finished Nabari no Ou. I was bawling at the end of it. THAT is how awesome it was. I completely fell in love with Yoite’s character and Miharu’s evil side. If you’re into anime I would highly recommend watching Nabari.

The AMV I’m posting today is a Nabari no Ou AMV, because I’m still craving more of it. >.>

[AMV] Nabari no Ou – Meant to Live by AlaenaNight

Anyway, on to Grim Aspects update. I’ve figured out Gabrielle and Adrian’s characters for the most part. I’m currently working on Nathan’s (antagonist) and I’m also trying to work out my Three Act Structure – which is not going so well…hopefully I will get it figured out soon.

Anyway, I’m now currently in the process of re-writing the beginning of Grim Aspects. I’m really liking the new image of Adrian that I have in my mind.  When I first pictured him, he acted more like his age.  But when I thought about that last night, I realize that it really didn’t fit with how he looked like a twenty something kid. That’s when the sudden cord of inspiration struck me and Adrian’s new personality was born. It’s going to take a little effort not copy Ikuto’s character from Shugo Chara to refine it, but it’ll work.

This AMV totally sums up how I feel about life some times, not to mention it’s the perfect anime/song combination ever! Well, maybe not ever but close enough.

In other news…well, there isn’t much really. This week has just been another cycle of work, house work, and anime. I’m currently watching Shugo Chara! which is just complete crack.  And I’m slowly compiling a list of anime that I want to see/need to finish.  Here it is in the order I’m goin gto attempt to watch it in:

• Shugo Chara! – Currently watching
• Nabari no O
• Darker than Black: Ryusei no Gemini
• NANA – seen some, would like to finish
• Skip Beat!
• Spice and Wolf
• Pandora Hearts
• Zero no Tsukaima – I’ve seen the first and part of the second series; would like to rewatch and finish.

Progress with my novel is going slowly. >.> I’ve been too caught up in anime but, I don’t think this is too much of a bad thing.  I do this shuffle between different activities, (writing, art, craft, anime, manga), I work on one, move on to the next, and by the time I get round to, let’s  say writing, again my mind is fresh with ideas for the story and characters.  So, I don’t see it as a waste of time but, I did wish I could complete this little cycle faster.  Gabrielle’s character sheet is almost done. There’s just a few more questions that need to be answered.  Then, I think I may do one for Adrian.

Anyway, on to the AMV. I know that’s what you really want. I’ve chosen Empty Motion by Nikolakis because of it’s upbeat nature…really need to kick up the enthusiasm today. This AMV has a total of 75 different anime and is to the song Love gun by Aya Hirano ???. It’s very well made, so enjoy!

And here’s the project that that’s been eating up my time lately. After finals I’m going to sub it, so for those of you who don’t speak Japanese can understand what’s being said. I also want to make a Making of Video, just because we had some awesome outtakes! And the best one wasn’t even caught on film! XD

I woke up this afternoon,  and went on my normal rounds about the nets: Gmail, BBC News, Deviantart. When I got to deviant, what I found scares me. I know our government isn’t the brightest of the bunch, but this is seriously demented. > http://news.deviantart.com/article/46388/
I’m so angry at the moment I can’t see sight. I hate being here and being apart of a worldwide problem, that’s all I see the USA being.  I will always be an American, but I WILL not be part of a problem.  I will stand against this as much as I can, for the sake of artists everywhere!

Sign the petition, don’t let your work be effected!! Petition Online

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