• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.

Kinjou, who, along with Andrea, is also God, sent me many wonderful 1:6 things, which I received today. Various LHFers immediately claimed some of the clothes. Here they are:

Will’s sweatshirt and skirt come from a Takara Jenny doll. Stupendously, he fit! Davry and Sarah both have goggles from a Takara Jenny friend doll. Gemini wears an overshirt from a My Scene Masquerade boxer outfit and My Scene male shoes. Sibley wears a nasty jacket from a My Scene Masquerade rock star outfit. Dom’s white shoulder sash is a scarf from a Takara Jenny friend. He also is wearing a strap on his leg [not shown] from some belt. Sarah is sitting on some sort of dresser/chair convertible plastic piece of furniture from a dollar store. Continue reading Goodies from Kinjou’s package!

Forthwith I present an example of my creative process.

Premise 1: I have already established that Justine, head of Will and Absinthe’s former clan, fled to Sunnyvale, California after the death of Will and his parents so she could avoid prosecution.

Premise 2: I have also already established that Gemini, Velvette’s girlfriend and the person who vamped Pippilotta, has a distorted view of herself and her sexuality wherein she sees herself as a fat, sloppy slut.

What if Gemini was on a diet in an attempt to make her body conform to her supposed ideal shape?

What if her diet’s mainstay was skim blood [on the same principle as skim milk]?

What if the skim blood originated in California, a state with known hotbeds of health fads and image obsession?

What if the skim blood had, as most diet drinks do, a sprightly, misleading name like Sunnyvale Lite?

What if Sunnyvale Lite was invented by my only Californian character, Justine?

What if Justine wanted to spread the success of Sunnyvale Lite from California to the East Coast?

What if she chose Boston as a new market because she wanted to prove to her old hometown that she had reformed and become a better, successful person?

What if she befriended Velvette and Gemini and witnessed Gemini abusing Sunnyvale Lite out of unhappiness?

What if Justine seriously questioned her status as a marketing guru who sells superficial fixes and preys on people’s insecurities?

What if she began to suspect that she was still ambitious, impulsive, manipulative, callous and not really that different at all?

I finally got around to taking a photo of the complete Little Will. Clearly he has not had a good night’s sleep, a solid 8 hours of exposure to sunlight or a happy time ever in his childhood.  Continue reading Unhappiest kidsy ever

I went to Foxwoods Money Toilet Casino this weekend. I was very close to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Library, but did not go. I obviously need to investigate it further, as well as its blog. I wonder what resources the Pequot Museum has online. Absinthe is not a Pequot, but an Abenaki [Cowasuck], but I bet there’s a lot of information in the Pequot Museum and Library about tribes of the Northeast, including the Abenaki.

In which Anneka tells the story of how she died, despite sarcastic remarks from the peanut gallery Velvette. 

Comments: When we last peeked in on Anneka and Velvette, Anneka was trying to tell Velvette how she died, but Velvette kept butting in with a) tales of her own demise and b) smart interjections. Here Anneka finally makes some progress with her own tale as she narrates how a stupid grudge against Will caused her death.

This episode introduces two of my favorite LHF characters: Dom and Caveat. Though quite influential in Anneka and Will’s recent history, Dom and Caveat haven’t come up yet. They’ll rejoin our main story later on, but, for now, we learn of their effect on Anneka and Will solely through flashback. I particularly like the juxtaposition between Anneka’s bitter, flippant delivery and the obvious agony that Dom and Caveat are suffering.

Despite my earlier exhortations, it has come to my attention that everything is not copacetic.  If it helps, you may think of the following:

• Rement Pink Market
• Rement Pets
• 1:6 fireplace
• small shojo screens
• bamboo placemats
• foamcore in white and black
• velvet drapery tied back with sequins
• small netsuke shelves
• Kwanzaa Barbie
• Mixis

In any case, continue to hang in there. It is the best way to get stuff done.

Now back to work. Remember: short and sweet, but not dense. Also remember: polite and persistent.

• United Parenting Publications/parenthood.com: "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• The Fix Online: "Petits Fours, Scrimshaw, and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Short Stories, An Interview with Ellen Klages." Published March 15, 2008.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• hasbro shoezies: the definitive resource. Published February, 2010.

Will pay!

In which Absinthe goes up to Salem.

 

Comments: When we last left Absinthe, she was down in Franklin, Massachusetts, talking to her foster mother, Margie. Absinthe was reflecting on all the people in her life that she has lost, chief among those being Will. She feels that she betrayed Will and broke him by changing him into a vampire under duress and by contributing to the deaths of his parents. Over a century later, these events still weigh on Absinthe’s mind. For advice, Absinthe travels up to Salem to see Ethan Stuart and Tituba Salem.

The exterior of Ethan’s house is played by the Witch House, the only extant structure in Salem with ties to the witchcraft trials of 1692. It’s also a great example of 17th-century architecture, befitting the oldest and most powerful vampire in Massachusetts.

Side stories done and in progress

• Janet, Velvette and Viktor
• Absinthe [and Margie]

Side stories planned

• Susie
• Little Anneka
• Little Will

Side stories that would definitely be really interesting!

• Dom [and Geordie!]: how he got to Newton
• Zinnia Pascale: how she became a zombie
• Janet: how she got disgraced

In which Will looks for help, but doesn’t get nun. 

Comments: What has Will been doing since his breakup with Anneka? Well, as you can see from the chyron, he’s moved into his own apartment. And he’s still going to Rocky Horror in Harvard Square to keep his spirits up. He does face a few problems, however….

This ep is dedicated to D7ana, who supplied the fetish nun wear for my LHF characters’ use.

I just figured out that, in Manga Studio, it’s much easier to put in the word balloons FIRST to measure how much action can realistically fit on a page…THEN put in the panel cuts. With Comic Book Creator [good riddance to bad rubbish], I had to put panel cuts in before I could put in pictures or word balloons first. As a result, I always felt kind of squished with my layout. Now, thanks to the high-powered capabilities of Manga Studio, my true layout genius [?!] can reveal itself.

In which Anneka and Velvette are in bed together.

Comments: In the previous episode, Velvette reports the ambivalent news about her social life. She enjoys spending the weekends with girlfriend Gemini in Provincetown because of the freedom that it affords her.  But Gemini’s anxiety about her body and her sexuality piss the impatient Velvette off.  Concluding that all vampires are “idiots,” Velvette wonders how Anneka got mixed up in such a dysfunctional crowd.

I originally planned this season to be a flashback about how Anneka died, but Velvette insists that her past is equally important. Here she hijacks the story of Anneka’s death with the tale of her own demise. Oh yes…didn’t you know that Velvette died too? She tells part of the story here.

Originally I wanted a Notdoll Lucy for Little Anneka, but I don’t have the money to buy one right now. However, I do have an extra Elfdoll Kathlen awake plate and a sleeping plate. I decided to use Kathlen’s built-in smirk and create a mischievous younger version of Anneka on a cut-down Obitsu body. Here she is, waiting for her hair. Apparently, before she grew curves, Little Anneka was quite the androgynous little squirt! Tune in later when she gets a shock of spiky brown hair.  Continue reading The new and improved Little Anneka

Felix Doll’s Calix looks very much like Geordie’s current plastic form. Since it’s more accurate and cheaper than a Fairyland Pong Pong, I will probably go with Calix for her.

I got my Planet Doll Mini Riz today! I chopped a bit off the neck and narrowed it with the help of an Xacto knife. I also removed the disturbing cone-like breasts. Then I fit Absinthe’s head atop the body, which is much yellower, but I don’t care. She’s about 10.5" tall, and I think she’s beautiful! I may paint her neck and breast to blend with the pallor of her head, but, other than that, I wouldn’t change her. Now she just needs some clothes, since her Planet Doll body is much more robust than the Obitsu body. All she currently has is her nightgown.  Continue reading Absinthe has her resin body!

Associated Content

• Labyrinth Special Edition DVD: Worth $50? Published October 27, 2005.
• Film Adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia A Pleasant Surprise. Published December 8, 2005.
• Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls: Collecting These Dolls Is a Great Hobby. Published January 18, 2006.
  

Clarion Reviews

• Camille Claudel: A Novel, by Alta Brown. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• Past the Line, by E.T. Milligan. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• An Unchaste Life: Memoir of a Tudor Queen, by Anne Cato. Reviewed spring, 2006.

Curve Magazine

• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published April, 2007.
• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published, May, 2007.

Dollicieux

• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part I. Published January, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part II: Published February, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part III. Published April, 2006.

The Fix Online 

• So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, edited by Steve Berman. Reviewed October 13, 2007.
• Heroes in Training, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines. Reviewed October 21, 2007.
• Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Ellen Datlow. Reviewed December 7, 2007.
• Petits Fours, Scrimshaw and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Fiction — An Interview with Ellen Klages. [Includes discussion of Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages.] Published March 15, 2008.
• The Duke in His Castle, by Vera Nazarian. Reviewed June 15, 2008.

Out in the Mountains

• Spring Fire, by Vin Packer. Reviewed October, 2004.
• Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, edited by Emily Pohl-Weary. Reviewed January, 2005.
• Light Before Day, by Christopher Rice. Reviewed April, 2005.

Sociological Images

• "Race, Class and Gender in the American Girl Empire." Published September 8, 2008.
• "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• "Only Hearts Club Dolls: Alternatives to Barbie and Bratz." Published December 30, 2008.

Tangent Online

• Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2006 issue. Reviewed December 29, 2005.
• Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2006 issue. Reviewed January 30, 2006.
• Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror, edited by W.H. Horner. Reviewed June 25, 2006.
• The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Escape From Earth: New Adventures in Space, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Reviewed November 15, 2006.
• North of Infinity II, edited by Mark Leslie. Reviewed November 15, 2006.

Trends

• "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published winter, 2008.
•  "Guest Editorial: Will a $900 Million Shot in the Arm Make the Environment Any Cleaner?" [co-written with Kurt Herman] Published spring, 2009.

United Parenting Publications / parenthood.com

• "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• "Mommy, I Want that SpongeBob Macaroni and Cheese!" Published December, 2004.
• "Family Fun When the Days Get Shorter." Published winter, 2005.

Reshot for my upcoming LHF book [BUYBUYBUY], it’s 1.1: Domestic Vampires, in which our fair protagonists get off to a rollicking sarcastic start. I think Anneka’s dildo is about as big as her bedside lamp.

I just figured out how to change the default font in Comic Life. For a program that is universally hailed as easy to use, it sure has obscure methods for doing important things like getting rid of the nasty default font. I hate the program a little less now…I think…

Requiem aeternam,
dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant unto them
eternal rest, O Lord,
and may light perpetual shine upon them.

Michaela in a Lady’s Mission nun’s habit lent to me by D7ana.   Continue reading …Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Terror is the abject, anticipatory dread you feel before something awful happens. Horror is the abject state of shock and disgust you feel after the awful thing occurs. Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.