3 November 2002: Innards of Dead Beasts

Argus has completed the preliminary draft of his first book, Pre-Revolutionary Melkhaios: A Practical Guidebook to the City of the Watcher, to be self-published next year under the pen name Alex Woad.  It's going to be lavishly illustrated by a crew of our Pack's excellent visual artists, including me.  I love artistic collaborations.  This is just the beginning of this particular collaboration, because the Guidebook is just the prequel to an extensive body of related work in various media.  Argus and I have already co-written about a hundred pages of the rough draft of the next phase, which might become an even-more-lavishy-illustrated book, or might become a comic book.

Anyway, to whet your appetites for the Guidebook, I'll be posting my own illustrations for it in this site's Art Gallery as I complete them.  The first one's going up at the same time as this entry.  But before you click over there and take a peek, be warned: it's a picture of the face of Master Vaiporachos, described in the book as "the most hideous visage I have ever seen on this or any world."  I worked hard to do it justice, so don't look at it while you're eating.

I suppose that my posting of this in the Art Gallery renders the title "Digital Art Gallery" a misnomer, since it wasn't digitally created.  Yep, I'm actually drawing again.  Pencils, markers, paper.  How quaint and archaic!  This is the first serious drawing I've done since late 1999, when I created five full-page illustrations for Sherpa's book Ritual Tech, which still hasn't been published (though he assured me just a week ago that he was going to get around to it in the next year).  I have the same problem with drawing that I have with cooking and dancing: I don't get around to it, and then it becomes less and less of a priority because I forget how deeply fun and satisfying it is (that sounds wrong, sounds like it should say "fun and deeply satisfying," but no, it really is deeply fun).  I love illustrating the works of others; I find it a lot more fun than illustrating my own imaginings.   When I write and publish a book, it will be illustrated by someone else (or a buncha someone elses) in the Pack.  I promote collaboration within the Pack whenever I can.

Oh, hey, I cooked last night, too, very spontaneously.  A home-cooked meal for Dragon Lady, her first real experience of my bizarre culinary improvisations.  One of my pseudo-Thai curries, with gigantic raw chunks of the innards of dead beasts.  Mmm. 

Mark your calendars now, folks.  My household will be hosting the Pack's Third Annual December 31st Bone Council Brunch, from 11:00 AM through mid-afternoon on the last day of the year.  Details and directions will eventually be posted on the Moot Zoo and emailed to a random selection of previous Bone Council attendees.  If you want to be assured of getting one of those emails, send an email to me and let me know (n i c k y @ z m . o r g).  If you're reading this, you're invited.