ellenmillion

Happy new year! I am back from my vacation, which was partly just an escape from business and social media (much needed!), and partly an actual-factual escape to sunlight and warmer climes - we spent some of the time in Hawaii! None of us had ever been there, and we can't wait to go back. Guppy is a fabulous traveler.



Now I'm back at my desk adulting again - and I've got lots to catch up on.

I have already unrolled a Sketch Fest improvement that should be pretty major - the prompts page has been streamlined SIGNIFICANTLY, and now loads a literal 30 times faster. *polishes knuckles* Sketch Fest #71 is NEXT weekend - we've got a Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1639152869681450/

I got my trashy novella all formatted for publication (it feels like that took as long as actually writing the darn thing...), and have started on my next.

Coloring books are back up for order - I nearly sold out of my fulfilled by Amazon selection while I was away, which was lovely, so I'll need to stock them again. (But it's always cheaper/better to buy them through my webpage, of course: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/coloringbooks.php )

Now, we're back in the cold and dark (OMG, the dark. It's almost painfully dark.) and going outside to play on sleds at 8 degrees.



(I've missed you guys! I hope you had a fabulous time while I was away! Let me know if anything momentous happened while I was out!)

On Friday, Jake and I got up early and went to the airport to catch an Era flight to Anchorage. The museum there had an exhibit from the Chicago Field Institute on Mammoths and Mastodons, which are a topic I have a lot of interest in, and I've been wanting to go to this since I first heard about it. The exhibit closes next Friday, so this was pretty much our last chance to catch it. We got a lovely hotel room, and spent a fantastic two days not being at home where things still need finished. The exhibit was worth the trip, and the rest of the museum was quite nice, too; we spent a while in the aimed-at-kids Imaginarium playing with the physics toys. We bought a stuffed mammoth, supposedly for guppy, but I think Jake had more fun playing with it than it will for several years...

We flew back Saturday evening. It was nice that it was only overnight; we packed very light and were able to put everything in backpacks, so it was like being in Europe again. I read the Princess of Mars on my iPad while flying, and enjoyed it quite a lot (when I wasn't groaning over the bad science). I'm curious to see how the new movie stacks up.


I have some artwork currently in crowdfunding!

( Old versions )


You may sponsor 15 more minutes of work on this for $5.00. The person who sponsors the most receives the original, worldwide shipping included. (By random draw, if there is a tie) And, Torn World members may also sponsor using credits: 1 credit is 3 minutes. :) (5 credits/dollars is 15 minutes, 10 credits/dollars is 30 minutes, etc.) Current high sponsorship is $5! This piece has received two rounds of sponsorship, one by donation and one because a story is being written about it.

( Old version )


You may sponsor more work on this for $2.00 increments. The person who sponsors the most receives the original, worldwide shipping included. (By random draw, if there is a tie) And, Torn World members may also sponsor using credits. Current high sponsorship is $2! $2 gets you a 50-50 chance of owning this original, and $4 gets you the original, at this point (though you may get overbid. :P)

All sponsors of either piece (who don't win the original) will get an ACEO print of the finished piece.

And, I've got a recently finished piece that is already sold:


(Begun two Sketch Fests ago! And yes, I totally killed an ink pen getting all that texture.)

Thanks to a magnificent patron, I have an order of acrylics winging its way to me so that I can start painting on the next Torn World cover (plus a few new brushes and a case for my pencils! GLEE!). I still have some refinement needed on one of the figures in particular, and I've posted enough artwork in this entry already, so you get to wait a bit to get a look at that progress. (Unless you a Torn World creative contributor, in which case you can already see it in the forums.)


In other exciting news, a new issue of EMG-Zine is up! I have a very short, very silly story in this issue, At the Gates of Valhalla.


In factory news, I am 20 weeks! Halfway to probably there! (Full term is anything between 37 and 42 weeks, though new moms tend to run late. But does it count as halfway if I didn't even know for the first 4 weeks? ...And technically those first two weeks aren't even pregnant weeks, though they count them.) Still feeling fine. The heartburn seems to have decided not to stick around. Fatigue is minor. Some minor intermittent ligament pain - I still have to be careful getting up and stretching weirdly and overeating and sitting wrong. The wiggling is becoming stronger and more regular, and is no less weird and awesome. Definitely starting to show, especially in certain shirts. I got a reminder for an eye appointment that I forgot I had this week, and called back to cancel it, since your eyes go all wonky throughout pregnancy and it's pretty pointless to have them checked.


Looking ahead at this week: programming stuff, including freelance, SF, EMG-Zine, PA and general credits stuff. Art. Finish the darned bedroom (a hiatus for mammoths was worth it!). Coloring book and card deck orders. Follow up on new coloring books that haven't been sent yet... fidget.

All for now! :)