My review of “Sympathy for the Devil”

I originally wrote this for the One Hundred Romances blog back in January, but I am reposting this because Christine Pope has just released a new romance out called “Bad Vibrations”! I had the honor of reading “Devil” before it was published by Pink Petal Books, but it became one of my top eight favorite romances ever. Here’s my review:

It’s hard to write glowingly positive reviews without sounding like a nit. I tend to be a very picky reader too– I have a hard time even finishing half the books I read. As a result, I trust the negative reviews on Amazon before the positive ones. I don’t even trust awards all that much. However, Christine Pope’s new paranormal romance, “Sympathy for the Devil,” is one of the best romances I have ever read. Continue reading “My review of “Sympathy for the Devil”” »

Heartbreak & Heroines is cancelled

I’m sorry to say that “Heartbreak & Heroines,” the RPG game I was going to illustrate– and which I blogged about earlier– has been cancelled because of personal issues. NiTessine has more to say about it:

Okay, now I am annoyed. The funding for Heartbreak & Heroines has been cancelled by the creator because of some rather disgusting drama brewing in the blogs out there.

No, I’m not going to go into specifics. You can google it if you really want to know. I think the place for this kind of thing is not on the blogs but in a court of law, and I’ve already squashed one comment about it. Suffice it to be said that whoever is in the wrong in this particular case is a failure as a human being, but it is not my place to decide the truth of it. For now, I refuse to touch this with a ten-foot pole.

Dammit. I wanted that game.

Miss Elliott and the Eldritch


Miss Elliott book cover by *suburbanbeatnik on deviantART

This is the book cover I designed for Laura Neubert’s “Miss Elliott and the Eldritch,” a dark and wonderfully creepy Lovecraft/Jane Eyre mash-up story originally published by the late great Dark Valentine magazine. Traxy– at the great Squeee blog– has just reviewed it.

It is no longer available on the DV website, but you can buy it here on Lulu for the very reasonable price of $1.99. If you love Jane Eyre or Lovecraft– or if you just like a good chilling tale where a plucky governess confronts an indescribable cosmic horror– check it out! You won’t be disappointed.

The art is by Laura Neubert, by the design is by me. The title font is “Ink in the Meat,” courtesy of Billy Argel designs.

The heroine of “Heartbreak & Heroines”

Here’s the first art piece I did for HEARTBREAK & HEROINES, an upcoming feminist/fairy tale RPG from Bold Pueblo Games. It’s all about adventurous women having awesome adventures, and we’re on Kickstarter. Check it out, and if it takes your fancy, please throw a few bucks into the hat!

So this young lady depicted here is someone I’ve nicknamed ‘Miss Braavosi’– because I’m a huge Game of Thrones nerd, I was thinking of Syrio Forel, the First Sword of Braavos, the entire time that I was drawing her. Observant D&D fans might also notice that her pose was inspired by Alias, aka the chick on the old Azure Bonds book cover, except her costume is not ridiculous (I was going for a 16th-17th century late Renaissance Italian vibe).

I was originally going to make her a redhead, but Caoimhe– the mastermind behind Bold Pueblo Games– wanted her to look more Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. I think that works much better, don’t you? I can just imagine Miss Braavosi being an enthusiastic sellsword for some fantasy Renaissance princeling, although she occasionally feels a pang due to whatever sorrow she has kept deeply buried within her soul…or something! Things are still somewhat unfinished right now, but once our fundraising period is over, we’ll settle down and give her a name and a proper backstory. I can’t wait!

EDIT: Miss Braavosi now has a name– she is Kalaira Dastari. Check out the Kickstarter page for the new $5000 milestone bonus!

(originally posted on deviantArt)

Hello Technorati Hello

I’m discovering so much about running websites since I’ve put my new blog. I’ve learned about SEO optimization, XML sitemaps, site registration and other such fun things. So far, this blog isn’t showing up on Google at all, but I suppose that’s not surprising, since it’s less than a week old. I have registered my site with Technorati, in hopes this will get things going.

Speaking of which, here’s my Technorati claim code: WV3CEKDUGEX7

I’m interviewed by the Book Pushers

The fabulous gals at the Book Pushers blog– a veritable Encyclopedia Romantica for the romance novel community, for whom I did the above logo and header– have interviewed me here. (You can also see higher res versions of the art I did for them.) I talk about my art process, my favorite illustrators and romance novelists, as well as my new story, “A Question of Time.” I hope you guys enjoy!

“A Question of Time” and how it came to be

Let me tell you a story.

Sometime last fall, I was sitting at my desk in my gloomy New York apartment, either contemplating my dwindling funds or the fact that I hadn’t finished an original, non-fanfic story longer than 6,000 words since I graduated from high school. Knowing me, it was probably the latter. I’ve always wanted to write; I’ve written as a matter of habit, since I could remember. Back when I was a kid in the ’80s, I wrote my own Choose Your Adventures, including deathless tomes like “Dreams” or “The Secret of Unicorn Valley.” There was this one boy in grade school who wanted me to write a Transformers Choose Your Own Adventure, but I declined because I was into fantasy and I didn’t like robots. I probably should have done it, since the boy was cute… but alas, I was too into wizards and unicorns. Thus, the joys of Starscream/Optimus Prime slash were thus forever lost to me.

But back to my desk. I remember the thought got stuck in my head… what if I could write something short, and that didn’t require research? I have been trying to write historical epics forever… and the same thing always happens. I always get bogged own in research, or some plot problem arises, and I never finish. I thought of what my friend Stephanie Dray told me: she too used to write grandiose epics, but then she wrote this short little paranormal thing, almost off the cuff, and she sold it almost immediately to Harlequin Nocturne. And now because of that, she’s actually back to her epics and selling them too. It seemed like there was a moral in there somewhere. Continue reading ““A Question of Time” and how it came to be” »