Fan Art Friday #2

Hard to believe it’s been a week already, but here we are! 🙂 I decided to whip up a speed-drawing of Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Andy Muschietti’s It. for my second installment of Fan Art Friday. I loved how absolutely creepy Pennywise’s face was in this scene so that’s the one I went with. The floaty Bill Skarsgård eyes, all the teefs. How could I possibly resist? 😛

It was fun to play with some new techniques and brushes for this one. I don’t think I’ve ever colored that many teeth in a single drawing. Haha

Definitely looking forward to what will (hopefully) be a relaxing weekend. Who knows if that will happen though. 😛

What are you weekend plans looking like? Watching any good horror movies or read any scary novels/graphic novels?

January’s Comic Haul

Holy Comic Haul, Batman! Between December and January’s comic hauls, there is just sooo much comic-related goodness in my life. ❤ Since I already went over the lovely new reads I got for Christmas, I thought I’d share with you guys the ones I got for my birthday at the end of January, too. 🙂

Paper Girls, Vol. 1

“In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.“

Huntress: Year One

“As the last survivor of a crime family eliminated by bloody rivalries among the mobs of Gotham City, the orphaned Helena Bertinelli grew into the mysterious vigilante known as the Huntress.
New writer Ivory Madison shines a light on the dark underbelly of the mob world spanning from Gotham to Sicily, exploring exactly what led Helena away from a life in the Cosa Nostra criminal society and set her on a path of vigilantism. Also, find out more about Batman’s first meeting with the fledgling female crime-fighter and why, to this day, they struggle to see eye-to-eye.“

DC Comics: Bombshells, Vol. 5

“Based on the hit DC Collectibles product line! As World War II rages across Europe, the Bombshells battle new enemies showing up out of the woodwork… The incredibly popular DC Collectibles line is brought to life in these stories that re-imagine the course of history!“

Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

“FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX! At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here.“

So, yeah, between Christmas and my birthday, I’d say it’s safe to say I made out like a bandit with 15 new additions to my collection. 😛 I’m looking forward to reading all of them. In fact, I’m planning on reading the fourth volume of Giant Days later tonight after I catch up on reading everyone’s blogs. How about you? Did you get any recent books/comics? What are you reading this weekend?

The Language of Thorns (No-Spoiler) Review

“Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.”

I don’t even know where to begin with this dark and enchanting little book. ❤ Collecting six different tales taking place in the mysterious world of the Grisha, it’s a great read for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology and/or her original Grisha Trilogy. Even if you haven’t read Bardugo’s other works and simply enjoy dark fairy tales and folklore, this book is for you.

I swear, Bardugo’s books just keep getting prettier and prettier. Each page of this book features an ever-expanding illustrated border with lovely artwork relating to the story at hand. As the tale progresses, the border reveals more and more clues relating to it, and each tale is followed with a beautiful two-page illustration to wrap things up. So no peeking at those pictures before you read the actual story, guys! 😉

If you’ve read your fair share of folklore, myth and fairytales, you’ll no doubt pick up on the many inspirations for the stories contained in this book. With several nods toward Greek myth, fairy tales of the Grimm, Anderson, and Perrault variety, along with a hint of Aesop’s fables, you’re bound to feel some sort of nostalgia while reading. I know I sure did. 🙂

Another nice point in this collection of stories is the diversity, along with the many strong female characters. Bardugo manages to create a variety of characters and tell compelling stories with each of her tales, despite some of them only being about 50 pages, give or take.

Fun Fact: For those of you who have read Bardugo’s other works, you mayyyy just pick up on a certain character in one of the stories that we’ve seen before. I’m not gonna say anything specific here because spoilers, but I see what you did there, Leigh Bardugo. 😉

The six tales included in The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic are as follows:

Ayama and the Thorn Wood

The Too-Clever Fox

The Witch of Duva

Little Knife

The Soldier Prince

When Water Sang Fire

I really enjoyed reading each of the tales along with their accompanying artwork. Bardugo’s writing shines as she lends her voice to such a classic form of story telling all while putting her own fresh spin on things.

Writers Write!

There was a time when I was little that I used to cry to my mom and dad because I hadn’t mastered reading yet. I wanted to be able to read books dammit! I wanted to be able to WRITE books!

The first books I managed to write were typically about animals. Otter ninja babies born with the maddest of karate skills, anthropomorphic beatnik wolves with a love for flowers, and a gang of dogs staying in a hotel filled with monsters were some of my first stabs at writing. I guess there might be some merit to all those kids who called me “weird” in elementary school . . .

Things changed a lot over the years. As I got older, writing took on a form of therapy without me even realizing it until recently. Underlying themes in my books seemed to correlate with things I’d experienced or witnessed that struck a cord with me.

I’ve recently experienced some things in my life that hit me hard. The kind of hit you don’t bounce right back up from. The kind that changes the way you see things in life, how you see people, and most definitely how you see yourself at the end of each day. I can’t help but feel like it’s changed my writing style now, too. I see things differently so I suppose it only makes sense to write about these things differently now as well.

Tonight I’m starting the first draft to a book that feels even more like therapy than anything else I’ve ever written before. I normally am the sort of writer who obsesses and plans in a manic sort of way, thinking out every single possible detail of their story before they begin to write it. This time around I am just diving right in. I know some major plot points I am aiming for story-wise, but I guess I’m letting my characters take the wheel on this one for the most part. They’re a damaged and flawed lot, but each of them has their own tale to tell.

I’ve had issues before where I spend too much time planning and too little time writing because I want everything to be perfect. Nothing is ever perfect though, especially not first drafts. So, “not this time,” I say. This time I’m just listening to what those little voices in my head have to say . . . THE CHARACTERS’ LITTLE VOICES! Their little voices, not “those” sorts of little voices. Not yet anyway. . . . Give it a few late nights of writer’s block and maybe “those” little voices will join right on in, too!