Hey everyone! After a long time of meaning to, I've finally created a Patreon page, complete with regular exclusive content for pledgers. If you like the stuff I create and want to support me so I can keep doing it, in exchange for some extra stuff, please pledge here, or share this if you can't. Thanks in advance, and I love you all to pieces!

https://www.patreon.com/brookelysator

We must be wary of them, but we must let them be. We must not relinquish to them an inch, but we must not recklessly take like they did. We must be better than them. We must set for them an example.

-Symbiote XVI- The Withering Hour

Blizzard, I welcome thine embrace as thou carryest me into thine clouds. If this be my time, grant me a swift journey into thine glorious and wintry depths, I implore thee.

-Symbiote III: Fight or Flight

Hey all, as many of you may have seen, I posted Symbiote XIII- In My Mind a Monster Slumbers the other day, and have again picked up my book, hopefully for the last time. There's only three, MAYBE four chapters left, and the story will come to its conclusion. Without spoiling too much, I'd like to reveal the titles of the final 3 chapters, with a possible epilogue if two parts aren't enough for the ending. They are as follows, with estimated release schedule as well.

Symbiote XIV- A People Scorned (Estimated release in 4-6 weeks)
Symbiote XV- Landfall (Estimated release in 10-12 weeks)
Symbiote XVI- The Withering Hour (Estimated release in 16-20 weeks)

Once the final chapter is complete, it's on to post-production! This will consist of going over all of the previous chapters with a fine-tooth comb, rewriting parts of them for continuity and polish, and overall just getting the entire work put together in a publish-ready package. These final draft chapters won't be put up online, and will instead be saved to be put out in the published book.

After everything is all together, I'll be working with a few friends of mine to typeset it, commissioning a cover and a few scenes from within, and printing around 20 physical copies at the bookstore here in town, which I will sign and put up for sale. Depending on how well those do, more will be printed. I'm not planning on doing digital copies initially, but I'm not opposed to putting it out there through that medium eventually. I'm also kicking around the idea of a kickstarter to get the ball rolling.

Anyway, thank you to all of the people that have followed this work since I first started it, waaaay back in 2008. It's changed and grown a lot since then, just like I have, and I appreciate the loyalty ya'll have shown for it over the past 9 years. Finally getting to hold this thing that I've worked so hard to create in my hand is going to be a moment I cherish for the rest of my life.

Catch the latest chapter here, if you haven't yet. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23895013/

Yeah, as the title says, I was a pedestrian in a hit and run situation, and have been off my feet for almost two weeks. I've also had other medical issues arise since I've been home and not working that are preventing me from returning to work, such as my wisdom teeth impacting and forcing that procedure, and a cold sticking around until I've developed asthma. It figures that this is all happening right around the time that me and my partner are just getting settled in our new apartment, and right as a snowstorm halfway shuts down Portland... and I'm trying to navigate it on crutches to get to and from appointments. I've set up a fundraiser on YouCaring to help take the weight off of my partner and I as I continue to heal. I've gotten some awesome support from the community on here in the past and felt comfortable in asking for help again now. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers, and here's the link. =3


https://www.youcaring.com/skyelysat.....ltadiaz-740448

I came out! So far I've gotten a few reactions.

Facebook: The vast majority of my Facebook friends have been supportive, and I've gotten to reconnect with a bunch of old friends that I lost touch with because of it. I've lost some people, but most of them have left quietly, and to them I say good riddance. To the few that didn't leave quietly, I've been defended vehemently by my friends that are supportive, even some ex-SO's, so that's awesome.

Parents: My dad sent me a brief email back, where he didn't misgender me or deadname me, but he was very ambiguous and vague and basically said he needed time, but he figured something like that was up. No response from my mother or either of my sisters, which is about what I figured, but I'm sure they're taking the time to do research on their own, and that's not great. I'm going to have to wade through a ton of misinformation when they finally feel comfortable talking to me again.

Extended family: No response. Several of them have deleted me from Facebook.

So yeah, it's done. I'm still losing sleep over it, but I feel 10 tons lighter and with my name change court date right around the corner, I feel I'm at the brink of getting rid of the poison fake person entirely.

Hey all, so I released Episode XI- Memoriam two weeks ago, and it really was the conundrum of the book. Once that was solved and the ending was settled on, the rest of it is just making sure everything that needs to be told between where we are and then gets told. That said, I started outlining Episode XII- They Hear You today, and before I knew it, I was about 2 pages deep of non-indented, non-interrupted plot. I expect it'll be finished here in about two weeks, but keep in mind that I'm also planning on coming out to my family early next week so there may be some delays as I deal with that grief. Anyway, here's a teaser.


"Look, you runt, you pathetic and shriveled husk of the glory I meant for you, look and weep, for you gaze upon the face of your Goddess as you invite her wrath. For what is a Goddess but the all-knowing, and the all-lonely in her tower high above the muck? I was correct before, and still I stayed my hand... but you do not deserve my mercy. I will relish the flavor as I pull the tendons from your shattered bones and taint my fangs scarlet with the silky sensation of your blood as it flows over my tongue and lays to rest in my belly. For now, I will let my true heirs play with you awhile."

Hey all! I haven't posted an update for quite some time, so I figured I'd do that. I made it to Portland and am now here looking for work. I also got a new computer so I have absolutely no excuse to not write. As you know by now, Episode XI- Memoriam is the next chapter in the tube and contains the turning point, big reveal for the whole story. It's super important and I've had to scrap and rewrite the outline many times. I finally had some inspiration, finished the outline, and am in the process of writing it now. It's turning out awesome!

Still to do with Symbiote, I've figured out (in detail) how I'm planning on ending the story, which was the hard part, and now all I have to do is close the loop. I've actually come to the conclusion that for the purpose of not allowing any filler beyond character development, we're much closer to the end of the story than I thought. Originally I had planned the book to be 20 episodes, but now realistically it looks to be wrapped up in 16-17.

Some of you may have noticed I've started posting music as well. This is again tied to the new computer. I've always wanted to learn production and came to the conclusion that there's no time like the present to start. It also gives me an opportunity to post some little prose pieces with the music, and it's just really enjoyable to me. Eventually I want to compose pieces for each of the primary players in Symbiote.

And finally, a brief teaser for the upcoming chapter. Expect to see it polished and released in the next week or so.

"The cool green of Zeke's LED eyes peered over the dash of Primalius and out through the cockpit glass. Beyond it, vividly painted across his vision, was home, Fera, the Closed-Off World. He warmly took in the noxious clouds of jet-black gas and ash as they rose up from the reddish-orange and burnt terrain below, the oxygen-starved, crater-pocked and pitch-colored asteroids that barely stayed in orbit as the planet's moons, and he smiled the best he could around the respirator inside his helmet. But then, he remembered the way he had left, all those years before, and his smile twisted into a frustrated frown."

So my contact at Outside In (assistance for homeless youth in Portland) offered me a suggestion for getting out of here that I hadn't thought of: crowdfunding!

Basically, the situation at home has further deteriorated, and my timeline has been pushed up to 3-4 weeks from now. I won't have any savings or money, but I need to leave. I explain specifics on the campaign page. I need to get out of here, or I'm gonna be stuck, homeless, hungry and broke in a super conservative, dead end town.

If I meet my goal on that, that's great. I'm not really expecting to, but realistically I figure that's about what I need to seamlessly get up there and established. If it's less than that, it's something, which is more than I have toward this now.

Anyway, in the meantime, I'll be looking for a little throwaway job that can net me a paycheck or two before I leave. That would be even more awesome.

www.gofund.me/b2wyazwc


[UPDATE 1] Currently at $160 of $1500, which is enough to get a plane ticket at the date/time I need (arrival at around 2PM on the 7th of May). I do still need more for the necessities I mentioned, safety nets like food, bus pass, and temporary lodging, not to mention potential medical costs as I get insurance and stuff switched over. Even if you can't donate, if you could take a couple moments to read over my story and see why this is necessary, and keep me in your thoughts and prayers, I greatly appreciate it.

So my contact at Outside In (assistance for homeless youth in Portland) offered me a suggestion for getting out of here that I hadn't thought of: crowdfunding!

Basically, the situation at home has further deteriorated, and my timeline has been pushed up to 3-4 weeks from now. I won't have any savings or money, but I need to leave. I explain specifics on the campaign page. I need to get out of here, or I'm gonna be stuck, homeless, hungry and broke in a super conservative, dead end town.

If I meet my goal on that, that's great. I'm not really expecting to, but realistically I figure that's about what I need to seamlessly get up there and established. If it's less than that, it's something, which is more than I have toward this now.

Anyway, in the meantime, I'll be looking for a little throwaway job that can net me a paycheck or two before I leave. That would be even more awesome.

www.gofund.me/b2wyazwc

I apologize for the delay in getting this episode released. I had a really hefty outline finished and thought it'd be a picnic to get it fleshed into a full-sized episode... not so. I had a bit of an issue moving from Reyshan's perspective and the way he interacts with people/situations to Zeke's. Basically, I got 3500 words into it before realizing that on the heels of IX, the whole thing sounded like more Reyshan, and not a completely different and unique character. While this is certainly a more action-oriented episode than IX was, there's a bit of character development in it for Zeke, and I simply couldn't have it read that way. So, I scrapped it and began again.

This second time, it's going much more smoothly and I'm a lot happier with it. I accomplished this by completely pushing IX from my mind, re-reading The Hollow Skin a few times, and treating this as a continuation of that because that's exactly what it is. There's still some rough dialogue that I'm gonna tweak before release, but all in all, much better piece. Here's an excerpt:


The frustration and growing anger from the hailing pilot was no longer politely hidden.

"Listen lady, I don't know how long she's going to last. I don't know what's wrong with her, I have no way of finding out; what I do know is that whatever she pulled from that box to her suit is important, or it wouldn't have attacked her like this. We need to find out what's going on, and we need to do it now, before whatever happened to them spreads out. Clear me to dock."

She shook her head, and Kienan could sense the fear radiating from her, almost tangible. "Niner-Niner One, I apologize for any inconvenience, but I simply can not-"

"Geresh'ekana yaak t'oo... clear my approach, goddamn it! Now!"

She was starting to crack. "I can't..."

Even through the earpiece, even though it was muffled behind the Ferean's respiratory equipment, the retort was a bellowing, furious roar. "Mark it, bitch, I will blow the fucking front door down if you don't let me get this girl to a damn hospital!"

Kienan's terminal lit up as it caught energy readings coming off the vessel. "Ma'am..." he said, alarmed, and pointed it out as she turned to him. The crazy bastard is gonna do it. There were several thousand people moving to and from the docks to the actual bazaar at any given time. This would be bloody.


Potentially should be released by the end of this week, if progress continues as well as it has been. Stay tuned.

Hey guys, I apologize for the lack of content. I've been in and out of the hospital with stomach problems for the last month (culminating in a colonoscopy, hooray!) and am now awaiting the results of my biopsy. So that's kind of the reason for the radio silence.

HOWEVER! I was feeling compelled to stop being barely able to move in bed watching TV and barely move in bed and write some more Symbiote!

As anyone that's been following along probably knows, the next episode of Symbiote is called "From Ashes, Risen" and is all about Vexie's Zealot brother, Reyshan. This provides some much-needed depth to his character, another tip of the trident for the over-arching conflict, and some insight into the inner workings of the super hush-hush secret Zealot Order. It's heavily in progress (I'm about 2100 words in, and not quite halfway with the content I want included), but I figured since I've kept everyone in the dark for so long I'd give you guys a little excerpt or a "teaser", if you will. Just to hold you over. =)


Reluctantly, Reyshan had lifted his eyes to meet with hers, but they had drifted again to the armature she wore, similar to Dez' but somehow different. She followed his gaze quietly.
"This, although we may be getting ahead of ourselves," her tone was almost loving, "is my gauntlet."
With no warning to speak of, the plates and pieces and parts had disassembled themselves and detached, dancing all around her, energy and power arcing between them. He had seen her eyes glow slightly from beneath her hood.
Reyshan's breath had caught in his throat at the beauty and wonder of what he beheld, but the unbridled fury scarcely held in check beneath it had not escaped his notice. A word slipped through his lips.
"Magic..."
Just as smoothly as the bits of the gauntlet had freed themselves from her, they had reconstructed themselves back to her appendage. The air still crackling, she reached up and pulled her hood back from her face, smiling knowingly at his untempered awe.
"Magic is naught but Science beyond Its time."


And there you go! I'll HOPEFULLY have the completed piece out by tonight sometime, but tomorrow at the very latest. It's shaping up quite nicely, and I think all of my readers will be very pleased. =)

https://www.sofurry.com/view/948035

So, I wrote a Christmas piece for two of my friends, and here it is! Merry Christmas and Yule everyone!

So Stan got Aspergers in this episode, and everything in life was shit to him. He became super cynical and cold to everything and everyone. You know what the resolution of the episode was? He started keeping a bottle of Jameson in his nightstand. And took a drink on it whenever he was there.
I feel that.
It’s shitty, but it’s fucking accurate. Life is tough. There’s good stuff and beautiful things that happen, and by all means we should do our best to focus on it. But those things are the exception; the majority of life IS shit. That’s why things like alcohol and drugs and cigarettes exist. They’re escape mechanisms. So is religion, and hobbies, and relationships, and other people in general. It takes a special kind of person to want to stay on this planet and fight through life.

I’ll share something else. I know that I won’t be automatically happy and find joy once I get through transition. It’s not going to make everything sunshine and rainbows and honestly a lot of life will be even harder. But I also know that if there’s a reason to stay here, a reason to not give up and keep wading through all the shit, it’s to make it easier for other people to get through it too. And I don’t feel I’m equipped to do that when I’m lying to everyone I meet, without even saying anything, because of how I present myself now.

Kudos to you, South Park creators. Super dark, but I feel you, I relate, I understand. So I guess if there’s a positive from this post, it’s to really, truly appreciate whatever it is in your life that makes it easier. Whether it’s people or vices or religion or sports or whatever, it’s a gift, to alleviate the pain of persevering. Cherish it, and also remember that anyone else you meet is going through it all too.

-I've been asked to not post the commission piece I've been working on, and after finding out why, I've agreed to keep it private. The commissioner has stated they plan on buying a few shorter, less involved stories from me that I can post. This commission progress is in final draft fine-tuning at this point, so that's good.

-I've finished rewriting, expanding, and editing all of the existing chapters of Symbiote. They can be found, fully formatted, here: https://www.sofurry.com/browse/fold.....p;folder=48933.

-I have the next 5 chapters of Symbiote outlined and will be attempting to release them by the beginning of February when I start back at my job. Here's their titles to hold you over: Symbiote IX- From Ashes, Risen, Symbiote X- All The Pieces, Symbiote XI- Memorium, Symbiote XII- They Hear You, and Symbiote XIII- In My Mind A Monster Slumbers.

-My plan is to finish telling the story of Vexie by the end of 2016, and I'd like to commission a painted, iconic scene from each chapter. This will allow me to put together a packet with visual reference to hand out to artists at cons, and hopefully find someone to help me realize my dream of making it a graphic novel.

-I will be writing a short Christmas piece for myself and a few of my close friends. If I have their permission to post work involving their characters, I will post it here and on SoFurry.

-I will be expanding my character study of Ozan Riverwhisper (found here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/938822) by about 500 words and using that as my piece for the RMFC conbook.

-I'm consolidating Leap 1-2 into one chapter, and am currently 2000 words into chapter two, entitled "Rodeo". Here's an excerpt:

In the city proper, there was always a haze. When this had still been Tokyo, it had been one of the biggest, busiest, most heavily populated cities in the world. With good reason: it had been the world's capital. The UN had been situated here since the fall of America, and the United Global Parliament had been housed in its highest 'scrapers too. But then, the world fell apart.
The bombs had fallen, lashing out across the continents with such vigor and blood-lust that for a few years, Zeia and her family had honestly thought they might be the last in the world. But slowly, over time, more had emerged, crawling and clawing their way from beneath the ruins and finding each other and rebuilding. But it would never, ever be the same as it was. The people had devolved into an anarchy, a post-holocaust daze that rewarded the strong and devoured the weak. The strongest led tribes and constructed little kingdoms for themselves where they could sit in safety and wage war with bodies that weren't even their own, bathing in the blood of the conquered and living lavishly in the wealth of their stolen lives. It was ironic, Zeia thought, that the largest of these kingdoms would eventually spring up where the old world had died, and the strongest of these leaders would build his throne on the bones of dead kings and call himself their Emperor. So Hibiscus was born, the Flower of the Pacific, and people flocked here in droves to seek shelter from the hellish world beyond. The Emperor offered a community, and structure, and some semblance of civilization; it was too tantalizing an offer in the midst of the hubris. Through promises of utopia, the man had built it up to something like what it had been before the skies had burned, and it had only taken him a decade. Only after the walls were high and the structured hierarchy in place did the desperate masses realize they had been baited into slavery.

That should be finished and out either tomorrow or Tuesday morning.

-I'm recording all of the chapters of Symbiote as well, still need to do 2-8.

-Lastly, in life, got my appointment set up for HRT (January 25th), got my referral letter from my therapist, so that should all work out well. Looking forward to it, but also realizing just how slow time crawls when you're an adult and anticipating something. =P

So, as you may have noticed, I've just recently started getting commissions of my characters as companion pieces to my writing. While I won't name names, in the span of just 2 weeks I've gotten to witness 2 opposite ends of the spectrum.

On the one end, we have an artist who is grossly under-rated. An artist that takes her time making sure every detail is correct and just really capturing the character. She was talkative with me throughout the entire process, and really just oozed professionalism and likability the whole way. She has earned my repeat business to the point of having a folder in my commissions folder devoted strictly to her work with my characters, and a text file of all the commission pitches that I have for said character that she liked, that I'm committed to getting from her over time.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have a (dare-i-say) overrated artist. This is someone who was more expensive than the first artist, but I went ahead with commissioning because I enjoyed some of her art and was interested in seeing how she would interpret my character. That was a mistake. However, I was very clear that certain aspects of my fursona needed to be in place, things like tattoos that tie her to me. This artist told me that she understood, and she would make sure all of that was in place. I had to ask her to send me the linework of the in-progress picture, so I could make sure it was right. The linework looked fine, but I told her again to make sure she would put the tattoos on the character. Again, she said she would when she colored the piece. She then proceeded to take less than 2 hours finishing up a rushed, obvious cash-grab piece with poor angles, no background, and lo-and-behold, no tattoos, and POSTED the piece before sending it to me for final approval. I immediately sent this artist a note telling her they weren't on there and they needed to be, and she tells me "Oh, I sent you the wrong file, let me send you the one with the tattoos", then a few minutes later, another note saying she sent it. This is obvious horse-shit because I still, 45 minutes later, have not received the fixed and final piece that clearly doesn't exist.

This artist rushed to get paid, was unprofessional the entire time, and will not be getting any more than that initial $35 from me. I know she is capable of better work than this because I've seen it and wouldn't have bought from her otherwise. At the end of the day, who wins? The person that spends more time and charges less but gets 30 pieces commissioned from me over the next few years, or the person that over-charges and rushes through to create shoddy work and loses my watch and my business? I think the answer is pretty fucking clear. The piece I'm talking about is going straight to scraps.

EDIT: I finally did get the email, but the piece is still poor, rushed, straight-up MISSING a tattoo, and not the best she is able to do. The rest of my comments stand.

Finished:
-Outline Chapter 1
-Rewrite Chapter 1 (Final word count was 3222, read it here! https://www.sofurry.com/view/938562)
-Outline Chapter 2
-Decided on title, Symbiote.
-Completed F-List entry for Vexie Derulati https://www.f-list.net/c/vexie%20derulati
-Rewrite Chapter 2, The Artificiate (https://www.sofurry.com/view/938571)
-Create a SoFurry account (https://skyesouthpaw.sofurry.com/, go follow me there! Much better tools for writers, my chapters have formatting, are in the proper order, and can be subscribed to!
-Outline Chapter 3
-Rewrite Chapter 3, retitled "Fight or Flight" (https://www.sofurry.com/view/939604)
-Outline Chapter 4
-Lightly edit Chapter 4, Aries (https://www.sofurry.com/view/939880)
-Lightly edit Chapter 5, Calebrera (https://www.sofurry.com/view/940339) Finished it, checked word count... LONGEST chapter at 4100+ words. Jesus.
-Lightly edit Chapter 6, The Thundering Drums (https://www.sofurry.com/view/940702)
-Lightly edit Chapter 7, Salem (https://www.sofurry.com/view/941100) This was already my favorite chapter, and I made it even better. A LOT of questions get answered in this now.
-Lightly edit Chapter 8, The Hollow Skin (https://www.sofurry.com/view/941799)

Currently working on:
2-page history commission for my friend lucienne.
Record all chapters and post audio
Create pseudo-chapter for RMFC
Christmas piece for a few of my friends

No longer moving, the apartment screwed me. On the plus side I have my appointment with an endocrinologist on the 25th of January for lady candies, so that's awesome. After finishing with Symbiote and the partial chapter of Leap I have, I'll be moving to this schedule:

Monthly, first week- Strange New Land (written and recorded), outline Leap
Second week- Leap (written and recorded)
Third week- Outline Symbiote, work on music and miscellaneous projects
Last week of every month- Symbiote (written and recorded), outline Strange New Land

This will ensure that getting to the point and payoff of these stories doesn't take me years and years, the way they all have been. This also gives me time to put thought and effort into each story individually, outlining my goals and the events that occur in each chapter before sitting down to write it. Not only does this allow me time to go though multiple drafts, but also to allow other pairs of eyes proofread them. And, I get a week basically off (Week 3) where I can just fuck around with FL and post a different medium. As far as Iron Blade, Onyx Claw... that one's getting put on the back burner. I may finish it later, but it's gonna take a rewrite as well and I don't really love it enough for that if I'm honest.

Anyway, stay posted, I'll update this post as I finish stuff.

Alright, so today is the day! Yesterday I finished recording the audio versions of all of my work except for ProjectVEX.

Today, the to-do list is as follows:

-Outline Chapters 1-3, possibly 4, of ProjectVEX
-Rewrite chapter 1-3, possibly 4, consolidating diary and data entries into normal chapters as explanation and exposition
-Fix up Gunnar's character in later chapters (name change and more descriptive of him in terms of species)
-Write a 1000 word or less pseudo chapter that either fits in the normal canon or between existing chapters, and send it to conbook[at]rockymountainfurcon.org for use in the writing section of the conbook for RMFC. This will be the first con I'm attending and the free advertisement of having a featured piece would be awesome.

NOTE- Keep this pseudo-chapter mostly clean, no language and no gratuitous violence

-Record ProjectVEX (come up with a better title)
-Create an F-List character entry for Vexie

In other news, the f-list entry for my primary character (the one that's supposed to be just... me) can be found at https://www.f-list.net/c/skylar%20southpaw. If you're interested in RP's keep an eye on me on there, and also in the Anthrochat IRC (we're really friendly in there. Do a Google search and come join us!)

Alright, earbuds are going in, Word is being opened *Skye puts on a cowboy hat and pulls it down right above her eyes* LET'S DO THIS! SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!

UPDATE 1: Well, I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I did finish outlining and rewriting Chapter 1. What's great is that in the process of outlining, I came up with enough cool stuff that it's spilled over into Chapter 2. I got 2300 words into Good Hunting and still had another really involved scene that I needed to put in... but it's OK, I'm happy with where it's at.
Tomorrow I'll continue on and outline/rewrite Chapter 2. Also, I came up with the actual title: Symbiote.

UPDATE to update. I lied. It's not done. I'm adding that last scene, dammit. Leave it to the first chapter, which was the shortest by like 1000 words, to end up being the longest by like 500 =P

Alright, so I know only six of you watch this page for the time being, but I figured I may as well be up-front and honest with everyone, and anyone new coming to check out my work can be thus informed.

REINTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATION OF HIATUS
So first of all, I want to say that I discovered, a few months ago, that I am a trans woman. When I initially started this account, I didn't realize that, but the fact that I was so inclined to be known as a woman in everything (not just here) finally opened the door to me questioning my given gender. I began to go to counseling, and found out that my brand of depression had a name: dysphoria. Basically, it's when you look in the mirror and the person looking back at you doesn't match how you feel inside. That feeling is... really, really horrible, and it got to the point that once I was living on my own and had my own place, the ONLY thing I would do would be work and curl up in a blanket to watch TV.

But there was another issue: I wasn't single. This wasn't a long relationship, in fact many people would later say that I was using her to get over the relationship that had come before (3.5 years, engaged to be married, she cheated just before the wedding). However, I never felt like that. I had finally found a name to put on my depression and I wanted to make sure I was right before jeopardizing the relationship.

Well, I finally confirmed it for myself, with the counselor's help, and I told my SO. Sure enough, that wasn't the type of relationship she wanted, so she left. Part of me was sad, but another part of me was like, "Well hey, now I can go forward and be me." Well, sort of. Without her here I have to leave my apartment and move back in with Mom and Dad, which means transitioning will be going on stealthily through hormone therapy, as they are both very religious and I would be homeless if they were privy to that.

WHY EXACTLY I'M HERE
So, why am I back here? Well, through the whole time I was gone, I kept writing. And everything I wrote had the same, furry themes throughout it. I started trying to draw again and realized just how bad I am at it. But, because my interest in the fandom was piqued again, I went back to what got me into it the first time: Clawcast. I'm in the process of re-listening to all of the episodes again, but here's the thing. This fandom and what it includes is full of things that I enjoy. Not only that, but from what I've seen, this fandom is one of the MOST CONCENTRATED GROUPS OF ACCEPTING PEOPLE I HAVE EVER FOUND, and I need that right now.

So I'm starting over. I'm reintroducing myself, this time as a woman and telling the truth. My name is Skylar, and I'm not a traditional artist. When I can't hold it in anymore, I try to barf out some of my imagination as pictures, but when I do, if they make it here, they will be going in scraps. I'm doing this because this page should be a representation of my talent within the bounds of the fandom and the community, and drawing/painting/sketching is not my talent.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ME HERE
Rather, my talent is writing, and to a lesser extent, music. Everything that I post to my primary gallery will be stories I have written, either on my own or (with their permission) others. I will post everything from my primary character work (ProjectVEX and Strange New Land), to one off stories, to poems, to fully worked RPs, and anything in between. I will also post any original music that I have recorded, even though those songs are me pre-transition (ie, voice therapy).

While I know writing is my strength and that I should showcase it, I am also not naive. Writing is the singular most difficult medium to expose people to anymore because we live in an instant gratification society, and (most) people are lazy. Not necessarily pandering to this, but more so adapting to it, I will be providing audio versions of all of my primary work so they are more accessible to people who can't sit down for 15-20 minutes and read it on the site. Depending on how successful these are, I may also set up a podcast for each of these stories so new chapters are automatically at the listener's disposal and they don't have to make a special trip here with their phone to download and transfer them over. Again though, this will depend on how successful these stories are.

Beyond writing and music, and the odd artwork in scraps, I want to become more active in the community as a whole, as I'll talk more about a little later on. Because of this, I will be commissioning as much artwork as I can afford from various artists in the community, both to supplement my gallery and give my vision in my stories something actually visual. I also look forward to supporting the artists for the sake of supporting them.


PROJECTVEX (STILL WORKING TITLE)
ProjectVEX is the first really serious work I've ever invested myself in, but I started it a long time ago, about 8 years ago in fact. Because of this, the first 3-4 chapters aren't really up to snuff with the rest of the story, and I'd like to fix that. Here's a quick rundown of what all will be done to it, for those of you who may be worried that the story itself will change:
1. Good Hunting and the Artificiate will be reworked entirely so they make more sense. Both chapters (and to a lesser extent, HAAKer Embodied) follow the same formula, and all three chapters seem forced because of it.
2. The story seems like it starts when I write the first word and stops when I close the chapter. This is a mark of poor storytelling. Through more exposition and fleshing out the chapters, I can make the story feel like it's been going on well before the reader gets there and continues on after they leave.
3. Speaking of exposition, I went overboard on acronyms and jargon in the first few chapters. Instead, I'd rather be more narrative (while maintaining the first-person perspective) and descriptive so its not as hard to understand what's going on.
4. In the last few chapters, the character of Gunnar will be getting reworked. He will be renamed; he's a different species than Vexie, his name should not be so generic and should sound exotic and different from her species. Also with Gunnar, he's such an interesting character, but he's flat. It seems like I made him interesting just to say I did. I'd rather explain more why he is the way he is, make him more 3-dimensional, so we care about him, and so he's not just a safety valve for Vexie.
5. Lastly, the series of diaries and data logs that I wrote separately while initially posting these on DA will be reworked into the chapters. They will add some much-needed length and substance to some of the earlier chapters, instead of being "bonus" stuff to add at the end.

After all of these fixes have been made, I will repost the edited chapters, along with their respective recorded versions, and file them into folders. Subsequent chapters will happen about every 3 months or so, and will have a recorded version released alongside them. They will all also have a much-improved synopsis (as you'll see on the existing chapters) and will begin to move this story along.

OTHER PROJECTS
Here, I'll just mention the other content that I will be adding to the gallery, as well as a brief description of each:
1. Strange New Land is an odd mix of truth and fiction. Taking place in Portland, OR around two years from now, it follows my furry self (Skylar Southpaw) in her new life in a new place. It deals with such issues currently facing me as dysphoria, unemployment, misgendering and trans societal problems, and giant, flat worms rising up from beneath major cities and wiping them off the face of the planet. Does Skye have something to do with it? Ah, just a normal day in the life.
2. Leap is a story about a group of mutants living in a future where Tokyo has burned to the ground and been rebuilt into a steel and neon jungle called “Hibiscus". The world government has devolved into a totalitarian chaos where dissent and disobedience is punished swiftly and mercilessly. The people are without hope and the future of life is bleak. However, mutants, offspring of an off-the-wall group of nut jobs who combined their DNA with all manner of life through genetic splicing, choose to use their various talents and agility to rise up and strike fear in the heart of the Emperor.
3. Iron Blade, Onyx Claw is a fantasy story about the conflict between all types of anthro creatures. I'm not nearly as great at fantasy as I am at sci-fi, but there's a lot of really good character conflict in this book, so I may keep it going.

Above and beyond writing these, you may see some of my original music, poetry, and one-off stories, as long as they have to do with the fandom. My commissioned artwork will be on here, I will be starting to attend cons when I can, and I will be commissioning a partial fursuit as well, so photos of all that will also be on here.

Last thing I want to mention (for the time being at least) is that I greatly want to convert ProjectVEX to either a graphic novel or a web comic. I will be networking with artists at various cons looking to see if someone would like to partner up for that, but failing that, I may even commission it; it would just work too well.

In closing, it's great to be back. Come RP with me in the Furtopis IRC or send me a request on WoW (Stormrage, Ally) and just generally hang out, because I'm back, and I'm here to stay.

My 20th birthday is on the 29th and I'm freaking ecstatic! Going to have a bunch of my friends over and have a great time. YIPPEE!!!!

Hi. I'm Neon. My fursona is one of my invented species, a Lylinex (pronounced lil-in-ex). They are pretty cool, and fun to hang out with. They love neon, and a majority of them are cyber goth in nature. Oh, and they have a stop sign growing out of their tails... yeah don't ask.
So, I know I'm not the GREATEST artist or anything, but I would be more than happy to do something for someone, like another square pic (like my avatar), if they would be so kind as to take my avatar and color it for me in some digital way... I'm kinda outta money. I'll post a traditionally colored version of it to give you guys a reference for colors... Let me know.
Anyway, so I'm here to stay, and hopefully you guys can watch me get better as I see myself get better and offer encouragement, constructive criticism, etc.
I out.