Miscellaneous sketches.

One of the characters from the aforementioned dragon story; this is a water dragon who has gone into human disguise as a member of the French court and become somewhat of a ladies' man who doesn't have time for your heroic quests that might mess up his hair thankyouverymuch. The Persian shadow dragon will have to remind him what it means to be a real dragon.

Pre-pre-production sketch of Renny from Blue Diver! She, Kee, and Mireya are actually old character design concepts that I came up with in college, but I didn't actually have a plotline to go along with them. When I began to piece together the plot for Blue Diver, I realized they fit perfectly!

Concept sketch for General Ironclad's sister and her foals from one of my My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfics that I will put on the blog eventually. I just really wanted Nebula to have like 80's rocker hair. 
 

 

Blue Diver is now available to purchase in both ebook and paperback formats!

I'm not sure what else to say about this book that I haven't already said in previous posts--I had a lot of fun working on it, it's been a bit of a longer road to publication than I would have wanted, but the results are well worth it, I think. Go check it out!

And don't forget, you can find keychains for the book in my sister's Etsy store!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a big long Christmas break before starting work on my next novel. I may also become mysteriously very preoccupied around the time Pokemon Legends: Arceus comes out in January........

What's this? A wild cover reveal appeared!

I've finished the cover for Blue Diver, and it was a lot of fun! Plenty of interesting stuff on this cover to tease the book! What's that thing on the right? A giant orange? Who are these motley creatures (including a Canadian)? Also, GIANT ROBOTS.

I'm also very pleased with this cover because I did some fiddling around with Corel Painter, and while it doesn't have the most sophisticated text generation options, I did discover some tools that allowed me to get some much better text effects than I've been able to with previous covers. And yeah, if you think the font looks familiar, you're not wrong. :) I liked that graphic so much that I decided to use it for the actual cover (in English, of course)!

Look forward to Blue Diver coming to the Kindle Store very soon!

I've finished all my revisions to the manuscript and I've started working on the cover art! I've been posting updates to the cover art on my Facebook page if you want to follow along there, but I'll also post them all in a work-in-progress gallery here once it's done. (Right now I am trying to figure out how to get robot line art to look smooth and clean, argh, I'm bad at mechanical illustration so I make myself do it a lot.)

Anyway, once I finish the cover art, all that's left is the ebook and paperback formatting which doesn't take long at all, and then it'll be ready to submit to Kindle! So, you can expect the book to be out in the next 2-3 weeks!

I'm very excited to finally get this novel out and share it with everybody. I appreciate your patience while I worked through the editing situation, but I think it ultimately worked out for the best as I had a lot going on these past few months.

Get ready for giant robot fights, astrophysics geekery, and plenty of Canada jokes!

New Blue Diver merch in the shop!

These snazzy keychains feature the four main mechs, or PTs (Piloted Troopers) as they're called in the book. On the other side, it says "MY OTHER CAR IS A [mech model name]". Now you can pretend like you're a Diver too!

 

And finally, to complete the set, here's a concept doodle of Renny's PT! The CosmoWorks SLO-64 Slipher is a high-end model given to Renny in recognition of her excellent service in the galactic police and her ace Diving skills. Piloting the Slipher, Renny has become a force to be reckoned with and the bane of space criminals everywhere. With its custom red paint job, Renny's Slipher is unmistakable on the field of battle and sends a very clear message to her foes: prepare for a smackdown.

Renny believes that the best defense is a good offense, and the Slipher is a power-oriented PT which nonetheless possesses a great deal of fortitude, allowing Renny to afford to take a few hits in the process of mowing down her enemies. The tradeoff for this is below-average speed and mobility, but when you're not trying very hard to dodge attacks in the first place, those things don't really matter, do they?

The Slipher is armed with both a sword for melee combat and a laser rifle for ranged attacks, making it versatile in any situation. Such a high-end unit is the envy of many of her fellow officers, but Renny definitely has the skills to deserve and handle this potent weapon.

Thanks for your patience while Blue Diver is being edited! I'm really hoping to get it out by the end of the year. It'll be fun, just you wait!

My awesome art student did this super cool portrait of Renny Gallahan from Blue Diver! She said I could share it here.

Thanks everyone for your patience while Blue Diver is in the editing phase! I'm aiming to have it out before the end of the year!

Concept sketch for the  EX-β006 Karkadann from Blue Diver!

Blue Diver is still at the editor's, so I'm taking the opportunity to brush up on my art skills. I've been watching technical tutorials on YouTube and following along... with my own subject matter, of course. :) This sketch came about while watching a tutorial by vehicle designer Dwayne Vance.

The Karkadann is an experimental PT model, its primary weapon being a pair of arm-mounted laser ribbons for mid-range combat. Its computer is also equipped with sophisticated combat algorithms developed by a martial artist. As a result, the Karkadann is a highly technical PT that most Divers have difficulty handling--but Auva, a trained martial artist and test pilot hopeful who wants to make a living out of flying innovative vehicles, takes quickly to the Karkadann. It's a speedy, lightweight unit that also packs a powerful punch, with a tradeoff in the defense department.

The first draft of Blue Diver is complete, and I'm having my editor look at it right now! I'm hoping to get it out on Kindle very soon, hopefully in the next month or so.

Until then, enjoy this mockup of a logo for a very hypothetical Blue Diver anime series!

This ties in to some of the origin of Blue Diver--a long time ago, I had a dream that I was watching a (nonexistent) anime series called Blue Diner, a slice-of-life sci-fi about humans and aliens living on a deep-space station and frequenting the station's diner. Also, giant robots were involved for some reason, because why not? It was such a vivid dream that it stuck with me for years afterward.

When I was trying to take some separate plot ideas and flesh them out into a novel-length plotline, my mind kept coming back to Blue Diner and I realized that, with some alterations, a lot of the stuff from that dream would work really well with what I was trying to do. The Lykoi and Cys were other elements from the dream that I was able to incorporate into the novel.

As for the title, Blue Diner didn't make any sense considering the plotline of the novel. But I realized that if I called the robot pilots "Divers", and made the main character's robot blue, I could call the novel Blue Diver!

I'm really looking forward to sharing this one with everybody!

I finally finished this portrait of Kee Kitwit, one of the main characters of Blue Diver! I've been working on this piece off and on for the past month or so; I'm still working on the first draft, don't get me wrong (53,000 words and almost to the climax!), but I've had times when I've been at my computer with not much else to do but draw, and not enough brainpower to write.

Now, though, it's finally finished and ready to share! Kee's been awfully fun to write. I hope readers like her too!

Don't let her cute appearance fool you--Kee is a dangerous space pirate and part of the feared crew of the ship Sledgehammer. Whether in hand-to-hand combat with her two wakizashi, or piloting her agile LM-103 Glynnlunni, Kee is a force to be reckoned with who will make a mess out of slower opponents.

Kee is a Gizmim, a species in Challinor who are widely regarded as annoying and childish because of their tendencies to be energetic, casual, and fun-loving. Kee wanted to be a physicist, but was rejected from universities because none of them would take her seriously. Piracy was the only good job she could find. 

Except it's not a very good job. Kee doesn't particularly enjoy making a living plundering other spaceships, but she just doesn't see any place for herself in a civilization that prides itself in its maturity and seriousness. During the storyline of Blue Diver, however, she meets an unusual friend from a strange place called Earth, who convinces her that no matter how outcast you feel, there are better ways to deal with it than becoming an outlaw.

I did some doodles for Blue Diver! I've had these characters rattling around in my head for the past few months and just needed to get them out on paper! FYI, I'm about 33,000 words into the first draft and it's looking awesome so far!

Jahaira likes to describe herself as the biggest, baddest pirate in Challinor. This is a bit of an exaggeration, as her crewmate Mireya is bigger (as seen on the height comparison chart in the next image). :) Jahaira is cocky, arrogant, and flippant, and has serious issues with the Challinor Empire... but she's also a good person deep down, and she does what she does in order to take care of her crew of misfit outlaws. She considers herself a champion of the offbeat underdog, and if she finds out that anyone is suffering because they're different, she becomes a surprisingly caring and protective person. She's been a lot of fun to write.

Height comparison chart for the main characters, and portrait of Auva! FYI, this never gets mentioned in the story, but Auva is from St. Catherines, Ontario, a city near Niagara Falls and part of the greater Toronto metropolitan area. But that's totally irrelevant to the story because it mostly takes place in another galaxy. :)

And Renny being epic! She's been a lot of fun to write, and she's probably one of the most complex characters in the book. She, Auva, and Jahaira have a good dynamic going, because Auva, being an unattached third party to the socio-political conflict happening in the galaxy, is able to be a good mediator between Jahaira and Renny when they get too lost in their own opinions to be able to communicate civilly. Will Renny ever figure out her mysterious past and clear all suspicions that she's a spy? You'll have to read the book to find out! :)

 

I needed a new Facebook icon to better fit a frame I wanted to use... so of course that meant drawing up a whole new illustration. 🙂 #ArtistProblems

I needed a portrait that wasn't so pale (so it wouldn't clash with white frame text), so I did this picture of Renny Gallahan from Blue Diver. She's definitely been a very fun character to write; she's blunt and no-nonsense, but she means well, and once you earn her loyalty, you've got a very powerful ally on your side. She's become something of a big sister figure to Auva and it's adorable. 

It's going to be a lot of fun to delve into the plot-twisty secrets behind her mysterious past... 

Figured an update was due... I've started working on the first draft of Blue Diver! So far it's so incredibly super fun, and I'm enjoying it every bit as much as I hoped I would. Which is really my permanent writing goal after the health-crisis debacle that was NaNoWriMo 2020. Never again.

From now on, no pressure. No deadlines. No needing to write a certain amount in a day in order to feel productive. I'm just going to write when I want, and let myself have the time to rest that I need.

And lest you think this is turning me into a procrastinator--I've written 16,000 words in the manuscript and I've only been working on it for a week. In a welcome twist of irony, trying not to be so productive has made me more productive beyond my wildest dreams. 

I told myself I would get back to enjoying my job. I think I've achieved that.

As far as the actual story, it's fun times all around! The characters are extremely fun to write: nice-but-slightly-snarky test pilot reject Auva Cameron; disgruntled and conflicted alien police officer Renny Gallahan; sly but kindhearted space pirate captain Jahaira Vorrh and her quirky crew; hyperactive rabbit-thing Kee Kitwit; and kindly bookworm gorilla-crocodile Mireya Golm.

Also, it's been fun writing a girl-powered giant robot space opera--like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in space! With giant robots.

Really excited to share this one with everybody! I'll keep hacking away at it... on my own time, of course. Which means, evidently, an inhumanly feverish pace.

I'll allow it.

I'm going to start working on Blue Diver very, very soon, and I'm so excited to have fun in this world and take you guys on a wild galactic adventure! Until then, here's another mech design!

The MMS (Mixam Mechanics Special)-48 Edinrog is a specialized heavy artillery and defensive PT commonly used in the Challinorean Space Navy in some sectors. Edinrogs sacrifice speed and maneuverability in return for raw power and sheer tank-ish-ness. Common armament for Edinrogs is a pair of hip-mounted railguns, as shown here.

In the book, space pirate Mireya Golm pilots an Edinrog that she stole from her world's military when she deserted the Navy for personal reasons. She doesn't particularly enjoy being a pirate, but she also hated being pigeonholed by her society and forced into a job she didn't want. Hopefully somebody can help her and her crewmates resolve their issues...

In contrast to the Glynnlunni, I went a little more "traditional" with the Edinrog, trying to evoke the aesthetic of a very function-over-form military design that's not at all trying to be sleek or graceful, just trying to get the job done with no fuss and no going outside the box. It fits well with Mireya's society and the reasons she abandoned it. Despite this, the Edinrog was what she learned to pilot in the military and it does work well with her personal combat style, so she's kept it.

Okay, I knowwwww everything is about Thunder Girl right now, but I couldn't help doing some concept sketching for my next novel!

This is an LM (Light Model)-103 Glynnlunni, a PT built for speed and agility in melee combat. The inertial stabilizing fins on its head allow its pilot to perform all sorts of acrobatic feats in space, the environment that the Glynnlunni was developed to perform best in.

Props if you know where I got the name. 😉

In Blue Diver, space pirate Kee Kitwhit pilots a Glynnlunni armed with two wakizashi (Japanese shortswords). She's decorated her unit with some sporty detailing, not shown here, but I may do an edit of this image to include her customizations.

Kee is a Gizmim, a species of cute but hyperactive vaguely vulpine aliens. She's a friendly person, but her off-the-wall personality tends to grate on the nerves of more serious sentients, and Gizmim generally have difficulty fitting in to the dignified demeanor of the Challinorean Empire. Kee turned to piracy because Captain Jahaira Vorrh specializes in taking in misfits and refugees and giving them a home and a purpose on her pirate ship. It might take a newcomer to the galaxy to convince the captain that you don't have to use crime to help outcasts find a place they belong.

Hi all, thanks for your patience and understanding. I've been doing a lot of retooling, and I've gotten back to a place where my work brings me joy again, which is wonderful.

It also makes me very excited for some fun new developments happening. First of, On Borrowed Wings is getting an audiobook! I'm once again working with Benjamin Fife and his awesome narrating talents to bring to life this sci-fi thriller about ancient giant robots, psionic powers, and overcoming the things that you think are holding you back from achieving your potential. That should be happening sometime this year, so keep an eye out for updates!

Also, I'm very excited for my guest appearance on W. Bradford Swift's Guest Author Readup series! It should be a lot of fun. You can register here (note that the information for March's Readup is still there as of when this post was written, but registering should get you on the list for the Zoom meeting for my appearance).

Finally, I just got done really fleshing out the plot outline for Blue Diver, and I'm so excited for it! I got to detail some fun secondary characters, as well as sketch out the basics for all the mechs. Maybe I'll doodle some concept art at some point. Also, I'm super excited because the story will at one point feature a Thorne–Żytkow object!!! Yay!! That's going to be fun. I love when I can fit nerdy stuff into my writing.

Because it's clearly never too soon, here's a doodle to tease my next novel!

Auva Cameron, Earth native, was on her way to the Moon for a new job when she suddenly found herself in the Andromeda Galaxy instead. Whoops. Good thing it turns out she's got a knack for piloting giant robots! But how, exactly, will that help her get back to Earth? Well, she's got some other things she may need to take care of, first. Will she get to be the hero she's always wanted to be? With everything on the line, she simply can't afford to be mediocre, that's for sure.

Renny Gallahan is an officer in the Challinor Empire's Galactic Police Force who's been assigned to an out-of-the-way sector to hunt down space pirates. What she'd really rather be doing is gathering intel on the Lykoi, a mysterious extragalactic species of wolf-like warriors who are trying to invade and conquer Challinor. But the government has banned Renny from having anything to do with the Lykoi, because many suspect she may be a Lykoi spy. 

Sure she's not big, strong, and dark-furred like the Lykoi, but Renny also resembles them more than she does any known Challinorean species. And to complicate matters, she was adopted as a toddler and has no idea who her birth parents were, or how she ended up in an escape pod on her adoptive parents' planet. Despite Renny's overachieving in the police academy and her responsible, no-nonsense methods, many politicians still have their doubts, as do a number of her fellow officers.

When Renny gets put in charge of chaperoning Auva and a motley crew of space pirates on a quest to save Challinor, the officer knows she's purposely being sent on an out-of-the-way mission again, but sees it as an opportunity to - hopefully - prove her loyalty to Challinor for once and for all. And although she and Auva don't see eye-to-eye at first, gradually they come to understand one another and become friends.

What neither of them expect, however, is that their mission to the center of the galaxy will ultimately blow open the case of Renny's past, and with their combined courage and persistence, they might just wind up ending a war along the way.

I'm not sure exactly when I'm going to get started on writing this novel. I'm very, very busy right now. I'll definitely wait until things quiet down and I've gotten adequate rest from Earthkeepers. Still, making plans is fun. :)