*stands back and beholds its majesty while from the background comes the sound of James Roach brutally murdering ska*
No, but actually, I mean this 100% unironically, and by the end of this post, I think you’ll agree with me.
By now, I think we all understand the Act 6 double metaphor: the series of temporal loops and universes that Lord English commands is paralleled with, and in fact totally identical to, the narrative of Homestuck. Our characters’ lives exist within this context. They struggle to escape it, and are defined both by it and by the rejection of it.
Enter Nepeta.
The metaphorical meaning of Nepeta in Homestuck is irrelevance, and that’s why she’s the most relevant character in any discussion.
Nepeta was one of the characters killed off during the Murderstuck arc. Hussie argued that she was perfect for this role. In fact, I believe he said something like “Nepeta is sweet, but if you look up the dictionary definition of ‘expendable character,’ you’ll see a picture of Nepeta playing with a ball of yarn and looking very cute.” She’s an endearing combination of shipper girl and apex predator, but not one of your Vriskas or Terezis in being a driver of the plot. Hussie, it seems, created her just to round out the troll cast. He described one of his purposes in Murderstuck as being to axe some of the less necessary trolls to reduce the scope of his character list.
Except that didn’t really happen, did it?
Like a cat with nine lives, Nepeta just keeps coming back.
Equius is another addition to the troll cast who gets pushed away from the main action. He was a character-writing challenge: how do you make someone who’s gross, uncomfortable, and racist kind of likable anyway? I’d argue Hussie succeeded, in large part because of Equius’s relationship with Nepeta. By the time you finish with Hivebent, you’ll probably have a little fondness for their moraillegiance. And if that doesn’t do it, the conversation that serves as their swansong in Equius: Seek the Highblood will tear your heartstrings to shreds.
Because Equius dies, tragically clownmurdered. There was, at the time, some stink over this from Equius fans. Would he have really let himself be killed so easily? Hussie countered: yes, and it was the most in-character thing he could have done. He died doing what he loved: being asphyxiated erotically and horrifically by a superior. Truly, there could be no more fitting end to his character than that.
And yet.
No sooner did Hussie complete his self-appointed story cleanup challenge than he immediately began to undo his own work. It’s almost as if, in declaring his intention to own those who preferred more characters to narrative economy, he immediately had to own himself??
By the time we get even a little way into Act 6, we’re deep in the dreambubble landscape, meeting dead characters left and right. And who should show up there but Equius and Nepeta? Equius attempting to get it on with a bunch of Aradias, who dump him. And Nepeta, living out her romantic dreams as a representative of a timeline where she got together with Karkat. They both appear as symbols of this deadness, this irrelevance. Except that that brings them back into the story, into the spotlight – the opposite of where they’re supposed to be!
Like many bits of commentary, Hussie continues to incorporate the metaphor Nepeta=Irrelevance into Homestuck. Karkat’s remark on their journey that he would love to meet “FIFTY FUCKING NEPETAS” and embark on “NEPETAQUEST” alludes to formspring remarks to the effect that, no, Homestuck was not going to have much time for the minor characters. Except it clearly did.
Why couldn’t the narrative let the meowrails go? Was it that despite the economy of Murderstuck, something was still incomplete? After all, one of Equius’s charms was that he appeared to be growing into a less repressed, kinder person. In Seek the Highblood, we see him letting his guard down enough to roleplay with Nepeta for a change. Their love for each other: wasn’t that ultimately what could redeem Equius in our eyes? So his dying and thus failing to protect her–isn’t that something that should be addressed?
You could imagine many a Nepeta and Equius fan saying this to Hussie back in 2011.
But Hussie was already saying it to himself.
The duo come roaring back into the story in the Trickster mode arc, mid Act 6, thanks to Gamzee’s ridiculous resurrections. True, Nepeta is still reduced as part of Fefeta, the character formed from killed-off girls who never speaks onscreen. But doesn’t using that fact as a running gag kind of draw our attention to it? Doesn’t the fact that Fefeta talks to Roxy constantly offscreen inform us that once we get outside the frame of the narrative, Nepeta has a rich inner life and countless stories to tell?
And it’s here that Equius gets something he never got in his original “arc:” the chance to apologize to Nepeta. You’d be forgiven for missing it since there’s so much else going on at the time, but he does, while fused with AR. Here’s what you’d miss, though: he’s grown as a person in the afterlife. He’s come to regret that moment of weakness, where his fetish kept him from protecting his moirail. Impossible as it seems, he’s continuing his character arc.
The scene ends with Fefeta exploding (she’s also, after all, dealing with Eridan), but it leaves us with a tantalizing question:
Will Nepeta forgive Equius? Is there even a plausible time and space in that story when she could respond to his words?
Do you see what’s happening here? Instead of being erased, Nepeta and Equius are starting to slip the bounds of the story that killed them. They leap in and out of the frame, half-mythical figures. Marginalized, they write their own stories in the margins. They exist in complete defiance of the original logic of Homestuck.
Lord English is an alt-Author figure, a dark, brutal reflection of narrative control and narrative necessity. His world, in which horrible choices are necessary, in which the alpha timeline is a ticking clock leading inexorably to his manifestation, is one that beats down people not deemed important enough by his narrative. Which makes it identical to the one we’re reading. Throw all the unnecessary characters in the trash. Kill them off, if it suits my purposes. The world doesn’t need Nepeta.
Which is precisely why it does. Because isn’t defying Lord English the entire point? Isn’t it what Homestuck reveals as truly heroic?
What might Nepeta be capable of?
Let’s talk about two other victims of English’s forces of marginalization. Davesprite might be the most quintessential example. He teaches us what the alpha timeline is and how it works, by going back to fix a doomed timeline and submitting to being doomed himself. Except he merges with a bird and avoids that fate. Okay, but he clearly gets killed off fighting Jack in Jade: Enter. Except he comes back and hangs out with Jadesprite. Okay, but he dies in the planetsplode in the Retcon. Nope, he comes back from that, too. Huh. He keeps slipping the fate decreed for him by – who else? Lord English.
But it’s a struggle, clearly. He’s caught up in various cycles of guilt and shame. Over being “not the real Dave.” Over his feeling that he has to be a hero in the sense Bro demanded he be. Hussie describes Davesprite as fitting the “way of the unbroken sword:” his experiences have led him to believe in being strong and capable at the expense of all else, in contrast with the other Dave, whose belief in Bros’ toxic ideas is beginning to slip – the “way of the broken sword.” And where did Bro get his toxic ideas from? At least in part, the whispering voice of the soul of Lord English.
Now we turn to Dirk. Like Dave, Dirk has a marginalized, “less important” splinter self but it’s more of a pressing concern. AR shows Dirk’s darker side: exhibiting manipulative tendencies that human Dirk is trying to move away from. He’s also a copy removed from humanity, who feels an understandable amount of disillusionment about being removed from physical existence and his own identity. But as much as Dirk may splinter, like his dumb anime sword, he never breaks. What this means in the symbolic language of Homestuck is that Dirk lives fully, instinctually, in the way of the sword. He believe in a world of hard choices, masculine heroism, and necessity. Ultimately, this, too, is part of what makes Bro so harmful to Dave. In AR and Davesprite, we have a strange parallel: two splinter selves, both of whom are enmeshed in the logic of LE.
Except AR, unlike Davesprite…kind of isLE.
What is Lord English composed of? Well, there’s Caliborn, the most unrepentant shithead of all time. There’s Gamzee, embodiment of horrifying clownery. And then there’s AR, a version of Dirk even more removed from the person he wants to be.
And…Equius?
Allow me a moment to get really indulgent and take a big puff on my Homestuck scholar’s pipe.
The metaphorical meaning of Equius in Homestuck is: sort of growing out of being a creepy racist.
Or maybe let’s say: the opportunity to do that. We said that Equius was on the verge of being redeemed (even had been, in the eyes of many readers). What does it mean to stick him in with Lord English’s souls? It means two things:
1) Equius is a product of his society, which was shaped by Doc Scratch, aka by Lord English, both of whom are kind of him, but Scratch picks up on his traits especially. This is a recognition of that fact: the part of him that sucks is, itself, Lord English in a dizzying loop.
2) Equius’s story is a tragedy. It is the story of a kid who started to escape his society’s tendencies, but was sucked back in by the evil force behind them.
Although…maybe that’s not the whole story.
Because both Equius and AR aren’t really that bad. AR’s pretty understandable, and by no means beyond the possibility of goodness. And the combination of the two? Honestly, pretty harmless. They counter each other’s worst tendencies by devolving into a weird goofball. In fact, AR even says he wants to do something heroic: to sacrifice himself for something really important. He does, kind of, mustering a last-ditch robohorse assault on Caliborn. But at the same time, this is the substance of his tragedy. A hero whose defeat of a great evil forces him to become the substance of that evil. Which could not be a more fitting summary of how these characters function in their story.
But maybe that’s still not the whole story.
Enter Davepeta.
At first glance, the creation of Davepeta seems like Hussie’s most batshit troll move yet. I feel pretty confident in saying that even those who predicted either of these characters returning didn’t see that one coming. However, a few pages of Davepeta’s presence reveals a fundamental truth:
Davepeta is fucking amazing.
In them, Davesprite’s depressive moods are buoyed up by Nepeta’s upbeat optimism. Nepeta’s reclusive shyness is balanced by Dave’s tendency toward brash banter. Both of them gain confidence from being the new person they are. They quickly let go of ideas inherited from the world that kept them from self-knowledge and happiness. Dave, his toxic masculinity; Nepeta, her fear.
A great point I’ve seen made is how much Jasprose and Davepeta resemble fantasy selves for Rose and Dave: indulgent, technicolor manifestations of people they could be if they let go of inhibitions and limitations. But I think Davepeta is the most unambiguously positive of the two.
The metaphorical meaning of Davepeta in Homestuck?
Growth.
Not giving a fuck about what the world thinks. The world, aka Lord English. Because Lord English could never have predicted that his machinations would also spawn a confident, powerful fusion of two beings he had discarded as totally irrelevant.
They’re also a multicolored non-binary furry, so that’s even more points in the pissing off shitheads column.
They are someone Lord English never conceived of, never could have conceived of, but which lay as potential within his domain all along.
And if Lord English is a reflection of the author, of what Hussie feels one has to destroy or sacrifice, than Davepeta is an indulgence existing in defiance of all that.
And this makes Davepeta the most powerful person of all.
They are the light at the end of the tunnel. They are the person you could be, if you could get past your mental shackles and just grow. It may not be possible to ever get there as a mortal human, may only be for a godlike sprite, but striving to be like them matters, is purpose and fulfilment enough.
And they love ARquius.
Nepeta believed in Equius, believed he could grow, and was growing. So as much as ARquius traps himself in a Lord English loop of his own making – grown, perhaps, out of Dirk’s belief that there should be a loop, that importance is admirable—Davepeta pulls from him, in his last scene, his finest qualities. His love.
Equius asks forgiveness again, and this time, Nepeta’s able to give it. Davepeta easily accepts ARquius’s apology, an apology which never could have existed within the confines of a normal narrative. A reconciliation that both of them fought for by defying their narrative, by existing outside it. By being not the trolls who lived and died, but their broader, conceptual selves, who exist beyond lifetimes. Beyond the comic page. And they consummate that reconciliation with that most cherished and loving of gestures:
A hug.
And even as this is Equius and Nepeta’s reconciliation, it’s also Dirk and Dave’s. Which, I should mention, is also taking place, simultaneously and circumstantially simultaneously, just below. It’s a more difficult one, certainly, especially as filtered through the splinters of Davesprite and AR. Here forgiveness is not quite the right word. But – knowledge, and recognition, and a kind of peace. It’s Davesprite’s chance to reunite with the part of his brother he loved, while also being a person who’s grown beyond him. And it’s AR’s chance to be loved.
Oh, sure, the art is ridiculous, the pose absurd. But that’s what makes it sublime.
I mean, what did you think that Sbahj comic was really about?
A boy distancing himself from his feelings through irony, never acknowledging that the story he’s telling is about two bros who desperately want to hug each other, but don’t know how.
Here’s the hug.
I want to dip into Epilogues territory for a moment, but it’s territory which is fairly well implied by Davepeta’s statements and role in Collide. The Meat Epilogue, I think, only illuminates what was already there.
Lord English is uniquely vulnerable to Davepeta.
And why shouldn’t he be? They, like so much else in Homestuck, are a consequence of his actions spiraling far beyond his control. But it’s more than that. Davepeta is finally able to lay the unbroken sword to rest by following the “prophecy” about Dave defeating Lord English. On the one hand, that’s kind of what happened. But it’s also completely different from what English intended, antithetical to his desires and goals. Which makes the victory all the sweeter. But at the end of the day, Davepeta doesn’t fight for the reasons Davesprite did. They’re free of that, now. Instead, they fight from a place of genuine compassion. Because Davesprite, like Dave, knows the true meaning of being a hero: caring about one’s friends.
But the most important thing about Davepeta is that they know Lord English, on a level that perhaps neither he nor they recognize. Both AR and Equius are in there, and both are capable of redemption. It’s only Gamzee and Caliborn who are truly beyond it.
How does Davepeta defeat Lord English?
With a hug.
They wrap their claws around him, and carry him into the sun like a piece of garbage. It’s an aggressive hold, but it’s also effectively an embrace.
And I have to wonder: in those final moments, did they sense a connection there? Did Equius and Dirk stir somewhere within Lord English? Did they give him a moment’s pause? Resist him? Make it just the tiniest bit easier for Davepeta to do their work?
If so, then that, too, is heroism.
At the very least, it’s circumstantially simultaneous with the hug we see in Act 6, and so it carries the same message:
Redemption.
Not for the shitheads, but for those who wanted to be better.
And if this isn’t enough, there’s a third reconciliation here, too: between author and reader, or to put it in other terms, author and character.
If Lord English is a shadow of the author, what part of the author can be redeemed? Maybe not the destructive, antagonistic urges. But the part that plans and designs and philosophizes as Dirk does. That part of Hussie wanted Davepeta to be there, to strike that final blow, and made it happen.
Because, when you get right down to it, as much as Hussie pretends to be antagonistic toward his readers and the characters they enjoy, it’s the fans, the shippers, the furries, those whose hearts go out to a cute, shy cat girl that he most celebrates.
Hussie fucking loves Nepeta.
Nepeta and Equius are, sneakily, the best characters in Homestuck, because they understand its fundamental message: that to succeed in Homestuck is to defy Homestuck. They defy everything it throws at them, and somehow, improbably, come out on top.
All of this is there on that page, a whole edifice of storytelling culminating in that singular, grand, supremely indulgent expression, a feast of looping leitmotif and color and imagery and meme and sound. It’s all there, if you know where to look.
Nepeta and Equius love each other, and that’s pretty fucking great.
soon, I will be transferring the content of this blog to another blog I already have. Since this one is still rather young I am able to transfer all of the previously posted one by one, so nothing gets lost.
Summary: Seralas secret is out, and a decision is made to reveal to Fili just who she truly is. The encounter leaving more questions than answers for the oldest Durin, and what this could mean for his family.
Serala quickly removed herself from Fili as she ran into her bathroom slamming the door behind her. Her back pressed against it as she glanced in the mirror, her eyes shining a bright gold. Swallowing her head fell back against the wood as she ground her teeth together. She should have been smarter, making sure to calm herself first. A knock sounded on the other side, her ears picking up Fili’s steady heartbeat. “Serala? Are you okay? Talk to me please.” Closing her eyes, she turned pressing her forehead against the cool surface of the door. “Fili I… I don’t think I can, there is a lot of stuff you don’t know about me. Stuff that isn’t normal.” It was silent for a few moments before his soft buttery voice spoke, “try me amrâlimê.” Serala sighed as she closed her eyes, his words calming her down significantly. Her hand gripped the doorknob as she gently opened the barrier between them. Serala looked up at him her once golden eyes now a soft brown, Fili stepped towards her his hand caressing her cheek. His hand was warm, and she leaned into it a small hum leaving her. “You can trust me Sera, please tell me.” She nodded as she gently wrapped her hand around his wrist tugging him towards the bed they just shared. She sat down grabbing her discarded shirt slipping it over her head, as she wrapped the blanket around the rest of her body. “Have you ever heard the legend of the Loup garou?” Fili tugged his boxers on before taking a seat beside her slowly nodding, “Thorin used to tell Kili and I tales about the Loup garou. It’s a werewolf legend, right?”
“In a sense yes, how does Thorin know the legend?”
“Just a legend he would tell us to scare us into listening to our mother.” Fili winced mentally for responding so quickly. He hoped she would buy it, at least for now.
Serala sighed before deciding to continue her explanation. “There is some truth behind it Fi. My family comes from an extensive line of Loup garou lineage.”
“So, your ancestors had the ability to shift into a werewolf?”
“Yes. Nothing like what you see in the movies or what’s described in books either. In our true form we look like an average wolf.” Fili licked his lips and looked towards the bedroom wall, taking in Seralas words. His uncle had occasionally discussed the legends with him. Claiming that the Loup garou had defended the line of Durin for centuries even fighting beside them in battle. “Fi?” Filis eyes darted back to her as she sat there staring at him. “How many of your kind still exist?”
“Honestly, I’m not even sure. I just know in my father’s pack there are around twenty, not including my brother and I.” Licking her lips she reached over taking his hand in hers, “I want to show you who I truly am Fi. Something I’ve never shown anyone before.” Fili nodded his hand giving hers a gentle squeeze. “Get dressed and meet me out on the deck.” Serala stood not bothering to put anything else on as she opened the back door and stepped into the cool night air. She placed her hands on the wooden railing as she waited for Fili, her mind racing. Never had she told anyone about her secret, let alone show someone her wolf form. As Seralas mind ran rampant with all sorts of dark thoughts Fili stepped out to join her, “are you sure you want to do this Sera, if you aren’t comfortable you don’t have to.” Staring at him she felt the same calmness that she felt in her bathroom wash over her, her thoughts no longer mattered. She wanted to do this, wanted him to truly see her. “I’m sure Fi, come on.” Taking his hand, she gently tugged him down the steps towards the forest that lay behind her home. Once far enough into the darkness and trees she released her grip on him. “Wait here. No matter what you feel when you see me, don’t run. I only have so much control.” Fili wondered what she had meant by that as he watched her walk towards one of the larger trees in front of them, watching as she removed the shirt she wore. Suddenly she disappeared behind the large trunk, and for several seconds Fili held his breath wondering if he should have followed. Just as his feet went to move, he heard the soft sounds of movement. A beautiful white wolf stepped out from behind the tree, golden eyes shining at him the moonlight making its fur look almost like snow.
The wolf stopped keeping some distance between itself and Fili, and he tried to control the desire to walk over and run his hand through its fur. “Serala?” Its ears shifted forward watching him. Fili decided to act against his better judgement as he slowly began to move forward taking four steps, the wolf lowering its head eyes watching him closely. “I’m not going to hurt you, Sera.” Fili crouched low his hand extended towards her as he swallowed. He wasn’t sure if she would smell him or attack, but he remained calm gauging the situation. He knew if Serala remembered she would be angry he hadn’t headed her warning of not moving, risking her losing control and him being injured. Yet he didn’t feel that she would harm him in her wolf form, he knew she recognized him, his scent. Slowly she stepped forward closing the short distance between them, her nose barely brushing against his hand as she sniffed.
A short whine came from her as a pink tongue darted out to lick Fili’s warm skin. He smiled as he brushed his hand over the short fur on her muzzle then moving to scratch under her chin, watching her eyes close accepting the scratches he provided. Suddenly her head snapped to the side ears perking up, as a low growl sounded from deep within her throat. Fili pulled his hand back as he watched her dart into the dark forest leaving him alone. Looking up her stared at the moon and wondered if Serala would come back, a sharp howl cutting through his thoughts. Taking one last look into the darkness he turned on his heal heading back towards her home millions of questions swirling around in his mind. He knew he would need to talk to Thorin, find out more about the Loup garou legend and what this discovery would mean for them. For now, though, he would wait for her to return no matter how long it took.
I know this chapter is a tad shorter than others, but I was utterly inspired at 3am so I decided to write up a chapter. I’m super happy and excited about where this story is going, and I look forward to writing chapter 5. Again thank you all so much for your support and love it means the world to me!
If you would like to be added to tags or removed just let me know!
After returning home from an executive meeting, the intern sent me this pic. In all her planning she failed to sketch out a method of retreat of yearning for her boss. She wants me to be her first #bbc.
1) A new excerpt will be posted at midnight from @tkwrtrilogy3.
2) The article “Becoming Oropher” will be posted on WordPress in order to prepare everyone for the upcoming story told by Oropher in Part II of “Book I: The Epic of Eryn Galen”.
I won’t go into all the annoying fights I went through with 2 internet companies to get here. I was knocked offline for over a month because one company was too expensive and lousy and the other one was affordable but the equipment is extraordinarily cheap and flimsy. On the upside of the latter, I now have 5G. Aside from now working on two trilogies (the other being @thesecretofthehouseofbourbonbook), we are finally back on track with TKWRT after a death in the family and an ongoing family dispute.
So, until Midnight: Have a Wonderful Day.
Good to be back after several months of “you really don’t want to know”.
I finally find 5 minutes of my time to review an exciting and fun mini-collection which was released some days ago: Solange Azagury-Partridge for Amazon!
If you don’t know who Solange is - I’m not talking about Beyonce’s sister - just google her name and take a look at some of her work, which have become extremely successful among celebrities - just to name a few, Katy Perry and Sarah Jessica Parker have fallen in love with her work.
Her aesthetic is all about colour and fun, her work have the ingenuity of a child and she doesn’t really use precious metals and stones - which, of course, doesn’t mean you’re going to pay less for her jewels.
This time she designer a capsule collection of five pieces, all pendants, for amazon.co.uk . How cute are they? You have an eye, a rainbow, a sun, a flaming heart and red lips.
My favourite ones are absolutely the rainbow and the sunshine. while I don’t understand the flaming heart, at the beginning I thought it was a thorn-crowned heart :s Each pendant comes with a chain in oxidised silver (nothing special really, I also think the chain is really ugly, but in general it goes with the simplicity of it all) and they are all lacquered by hand (made in London, folks!).
But the nicest thing about them in my opinion is that each pendant has a specific meaning: the sun, for example, helps bringing brightness to your day; the flaming heart is, of course, LOVE; the hot lips (predictable again) wishes you never-ending kisses; the eye is the most talisman-like, being like the ‘entrance’ to your soul and defending the person that wears it against evil; the rainbow, which is my favourite among all, is of course the most boring (-.-) and represents colour therapy.
If you want to have one of them, or if you maybe think it can be a good idea for a Christmas gift, you have time just until Christmas to buy it only on amazon.co.uk for £480 ($680 - it’s so expensiiiive!). But be quick: there are only 5 pieces left for the eye and the hot lips (but again, the best ones are the sun and the rainbow :3).
Stay tuned because something juicy is coming - a little hint? Louis Vuitton monogram in Milan :P
Barbarians on netflix is finally out and I really enjoyed episode 1, so here is my own Arminius. The way they casted the show and the fact that the Romans are speaking Latin really caught my attention. Trying to keep my expectations low but I’m def excited to watch the rest ^_^b Anyways, I really love characters that are tomboyish and have low hanging pigtails, so Arminius is my guinea pig, sorry… Varus is in the works but I’ve scrapped about a million designs, so I’ll come back to him later.
Hold on to your hats, folks! Prepared to be BLOWN AWAY!
The ever-talented @simsza asked me to test their upcoming follower gift. I didn’t know what it was going to be until I downloaded it and saw “Laundry Day Kitchen” in the file name. That was all I needed to get me excited!
Let me tell you: It. Is. Spectacular. It draws inspiration for the most part from the Odd Ends table and Dutch Hutch (I would have included the Dutch Hutch in this kitchen if I’d had enough room but it ended up being too small a space), and comes in all the same swatch colours, which go really nicely together to mix and match. There are the base counters, then the wall cabinets with a really good range of styles with lots of space for cluttering and plenty of slots (I didn’t use any omsp while cluttering this kitchen). There’s also a fridge nook in two sizes, following in the style of the Brohill kitchen from Parenthood.
Honestly, I love it. I can see I’m going to use this kitchen all the time, and it will fit all sorts of styles, from farmhouse to more modern. I love the choice of counter-top too. I don’t tend to like white counter-tops because they seem to get too bright once I’ve placed the lighting I want. This is just the right shade for my preferences, and goes well with all the swatches.
It’s not released yet and is still in testing, although from my playing with it this evening I didn’t spot any problems so I’m sure it won’t be long. You are going to LOVE it. Thank you, @simsza, for asking me to test <3 <3 <3
Guys… the secrets out! This is my upcoming followers gift, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone. Thank you so much @pictureamoebae for testing and posting some stellar pics that really showcase this kitchen beautifully.
You know what? I did the summary thing and I forget I drew all these this year lmao. I did say last year that I would draw more sceneries and I did. But also I did some lineless stuff on january?? And Black Panther??
That’s how long 2018 felt to me, and the last months exhausted me like never before. A lot of changes happened in this period, end of formation, moving out, unemployment, new job… That’s why I started a crazy inktober and only did half of it. This was the year of multiples challenges, disappointments, frustration, ups and downs, good experiences and very bad ones.
I lack hindsight not to find nothing but bad to take away from 2018. I hope I’ll have more peaceful moments in this new year, and I hope I’ll still have the time to create more art?
1) A new excerpt will be posted at midnight from @tkwrtrilogy3.
2) The article “Becoming Oropher” will be posted on WordPress in order to prepare everyone for the upcoming story told by Oropher in Part II of “Book I: The Epic of Eryn Galen”.
I won’t go into all the annoying fights I went through with 2 internet companies to get here. I was knocked offline for over a month because one company was too expensive and lousy and the other one was affordable but the equipment is extraordinarily cheap and flimsy. On the upside of the latter, I now have 5G. Aside from now working on two trilogies (the other being @thesecretofthehouseofbourbonbook), we are finally back on track with TKWRT after a death in the family and an ongoing family dispute.
I always release the PDF version of Book II: The Saga of Thranduil on Father’s Day–after all, it is dedicated to my father. There will be a Table of Contents in this version (second draft). This year, there is more to be thankful for.
Book II: The Saga of Thranduil was invited (as it were) to be submitted to professional readers in order to be seen by publishers and literary agents. This is a first for me; nothing I said to them scared them so they are well aware of all things that will come for any publisher or agent that chooses to represent The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy–including the fact that I recently began working on the “second” book of the trilogy. All they said to me was, “We look forward to your submission.”
Book II: The Saga of Thranduil might get to see actor Lee Pace (with the first news, this “secret” news probably won’t remain quiet forever). Fans of the book and Lee Pace have been wanting him to read it and an opening to do that became available. (I won’t say when, where or how just yet–stay tuned; that one’s complicated and more so with the first news).
It is the Summer of 2018–Mirkwood Rising, I call it. It seems to be coming true in more ways than one.
So there it is: the Father’s Day gift I never expected to be able to give to my father (that received an autographed copy of my book for him for his birthday). He wondered out loud when people in the literary world were going to see this book. This year I can say with 100% certainty they will. It is a dream come true for my first book and trilogy. No matter what happens, Book III: The Last Tale of Legolas Lasgalen will always be dedicated to my readers all over the world–whether they are reading the PDFs or maybe one day, holding the book in their hands. Because of you, I got the chance.
