Hoo boy, I thought last year was going to be a roller coaster, but it was actually rather average. This year, though, has been kicking my butt.

I won't whine about my health issues, whatever I'm going through I know other people have it worse, and I'm very thankful to still have a body that can function and work so that I can make a living and help support my family. But... this year has also made me realize I can't be a caregiver forever. I feel like God is directing me to move on to bigger and better things, so I've cut back my hours at work so I can focus on getting an education in a new field. It's a big change, and I'm not one who likes change by nature, but I'm filled with optimism for the future.

Hopefully while I'm studying I'll also have some time and energy to spare to finally finish the newest Sammy story I'm working on and then get back to querying agents to get the series published. I won't mind some regular "encouragement" once in a while about that. Frankly, I could use more social interaction from people anyway.

...Y'know, if any of my artist friends consider that relevant information... 👉 👈

(Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying)

Mostly I'm making these just for fun, but it's also great practice at suit acting/gesticulation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKr7TTKowM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feecePJr1Y4

And this werewolf just wants to... just wants to... dance!

Sadly lycanthropy does not guarantee rhythm

https://youtu.be/fcQMymgBeyw?si=kDlZE9rdF2GV6HRu

Been a long, long time since I posted a new journal, and I had an idea tonight so I figure I might as well.

I always thought it would be a little weird that the Argo wolves would just walk around naked in the funeral scene in "Ashes, Ashes." Any other time they're wolfing out, sure. But a funeral? Or an ceremonies like Sammy's adoption and naming? But performing their customs in human form wearing three piece suits doesn't work either. I don't know why it took me this long to think of it, but now... werewolves have their own formal attire.

I'm editing the following into the funeral scene in "Ashes, Ashes":

Once the rest of the pack arrived and assumed their werewolf forms, Nicholas led the procession out. Sammy counted a dozen shifted werewolves in the assembly. The men all donned black robes tied closed with a sash, while women wore combinations of dresses, skirts, or simple tops. None of these loose, flowing clothes looked practical for a werewolf to galavant around in, but it dawned on Sammy that this was formal wear specifically for their shapeshifting bodies. Sammy hadn't just found people who happened to turn into wolves on the side... this was a whole new culture he had stumbled into.


And hey, since I have your attention, check out this video I filmed and edited together of last weekend at Tucson Comic Con! It's not the cleanest, most professional video, but I'm still really proud of it.

Yesterday I discovered the Well uh picture of Sammy has become a meme on Twitter. It's kinda surreal. But hey if it attracts new readers, I'm not gonna complain!

But as an experiment I decided to try setting up a Discord server for readers of the series, to see who shows up. Maybe we'll make some new friends! https://discord.gg/FqpqJBajF5

Well today is your lucky day (and mine, too). At my request, Taran Fiddler posted the popular piece he did for me in his shop. And right now he's running a sale, to boot!

Click here!

So I wanna take one final stab at Werewolves Versus as the next issue will be its last. It's final theme, though, is "everything," and when faced with too many choices like that, I tend to freeze up. So help me out here. Give me some ideas. What corners of Sammy and his world would you like to see me shine some light into? What questions have I yet left unanswered?

Something's been on my mind lately and I figure it's time for a new journal anyway, so...

One thing that's been bothering me about all these resurrected movies/TV shows isn't simply the pandering to 80s/90s nostalgia. It's the fact that when they bring back all our old heroes, ALL of their their implied happily-ever-afters are undone to show the characters as washed-up, disillusioned has-beens. Star Wars, Ghostbusters Afterlife, and Star Trek Picard are all guilty of this. (To be fair, I enjoyed GBA, but not so much the depiction of the original team as has-beens.)

One, maybe two examples of this could be handwaved as coincidence, but when they're all doing it? I think it speaks to the disillusionment of our times. And I get it, the real world is dark and depressing right now, the writers might just be capturing the spirit of the failed promises of our times. But on the other hand, franchises with space wizards and laser swords, ghost exterminators, and space utopias are ESCAPISM, that's the whole point. So why would I want the depressing circumstances of reality leaking into that?

Asking partially out of idle curiosity, partially as, shall we say, "marketing research." Do you see Sammy as a sexy type, or as more of a woobie?

And while I have your attention, here's the latest commissions!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46696075/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47089006/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47115571/

I dunno if you've ever heard, but having a job is exhausting.

Progress on the new story has been virtually nonexistent. I have, however, been going back and editing the old stories... expanding some scenes, mostly. Tonight I updated "Ashes, Ashes" parts 3 and 4 with the new changes and I'm pretty proud of them. They might be worth going back for a re-read, eh?

And while I have your attention, here's the most recent commissions I've gotten!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45106311/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45484922/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45669965/

400 years from now, our world is no longer our world.

The human race never reached the stars. Instead, it found itself invaded from a world sideways in time. Out of a rift spilled out refugees from a crumbling reality; elves, dwarves, and all manner of species that humans had thought fictional, suddenly were very real, and very dangerous. Humanity did not welcome the newcomers with open arms. Instead, they tried to expel the other races, and the other races fought back. In the ensuing wars, the maps were redrawn. And the human race found itself as just one of many living on the Earth.

New powers reign, peace is precarious, and magic is wild and unreliable as it struggles to find its niche in the physical laws of our realm. Still, sometimes races can be coaxed into uneasy coexistence. Trade and commerce still bring people together, especially in Wayward City--once a port town for pirates, now a sprawling urban area with advanced technology and advanced corruption.

Perhaps, in time, the races will learn to get along. But those days are still a long way off.

Be what you want to be in Strange Magic!

I'm getting the old itch to try starting up a new Play-By-Post RPG and it probably will keep nagging at the back of my head til I at least give it a shot. The basic premise would be that a cross-dimensional rift let a bunch of fantasy races spill out into our world. There were wars, of course, and the maps have been redrawn. Humanity now shares the Earth with other races, some areas are Wakandan sci fi utopias, some areas are Mad Max wastelands, some are more medieval in standard of living these days, and everything in between.

I'm reaching out to anyone and everyone who might be interested. If you are, let me know and I'll at you to the group chat I've set up on Discord. This could be your chance at helping establish the fundamentals of a whole new sandbox to play in.

I had an experience today that reminded me of an "incident" in the Transformers fandom about a decade ago. A new writer had just taken over the comics, and his first issue... did not inspire confidence, to put it mildly. Previous events were described in direct contradiction to how they played out in prior stories, and many of the characters behaved so wildly out of character that later on they had to release a one-shot to try to justify the disparity for one character in particular. After the first issue came out, the author did a Q&A, and I remember he addressed my question about the characterization... by saying we didn't have a right to judge his work after only one issue, and we needed to buy more comics before we could make up our minds.

(He also said something about "the whale didn't show up in Moby Dick til the end," which like... if you're going to compare your work to one of the most iconic pieces of English literature of all time, you should at least have read it yourself, because the story is obviously about Ahab's obsession with the whale, not the whale itself.)

About a year and a half ago this guy on DeviantArt DMed me asking to check out his Power Rangers fanfics. I tried to politely decline, but he kept pressing. Out of curiosity, I took a glance... and they were pure smut. Just the Power Rangers getting turned into dinosaurs and having sex, that was it. I told him I wasn't interested in fetish stories, to which he took offense. I ignored him after that, and thought the issue was over. Until yesterday...

He DMed me again, here on FA this time. At first I didn't recognize him but when he started pitching his stories on me, the light bulb clicked on. I told him I still wasn't interested, not even in his "SFW" stories, and he DEMANDED an explanation. I finally told him, flat out, that he wasn't entitled to my time and I don't owe him that or any explanation as to why. Especially not when he was pestering me. To which he replied with another long rant, which included this gem: "You know, what you said goes BOTH ways. I don't have to continue in your stories. I don't have to keep reading your works."

Like, dude... I never asked you to read my stories. Read them or don't, I don't care.

I don't expect anyone to invest their time and attention to Sammy and his stories. I am absolutely delighted and thrilled whenever someone does, but I don't feel it's owed to me. It is not the job of a reader to invest their time, concentration, and/or money into an author. It's the job of the author to make something people will consider worth all that.

So thank you to each and every one of you who has given me, Samson Phoenix, and the Argo pack their time, attention, and love. Every reader, every positive comment, makes me feel so blessed.

I've queried over two dozen agents for Werewolf's Humanity now without any luck. Most of the rejections I've gotten were form rejections, no surprise there, but a few have been considerate enough to add some personal notes. One of the criticisms I've gotten more than once is that the novel is just too long for a first-time author. The average length for an unpublished, unproven author is around 80-90 K words, where WH is over 132K. So...

I've decided to split the stories into to volumes and write a new ending for volume one. I've already begun writing down ideas for story 7.5, which will be set after "Elizabeth" and will hopefully be an epic enough climax to the first novel. "Favors" will become the opening story to the second volume, which if that ever gets published will be titled "Werewolf's Family." I'm going to start working on this new story soon and then start submitting it around to agents again. And if it continues getting rejected... then it'll be time to look into self-publishing.

And while I have your attention, check out these recent commissions I got!
-Sammy and Donnie during his werewolf training: https://twitter.com/silkyfangs/stat.....85027043909633
-Sammy and Reilly from the opening scene in "Turn, Turn, Turn": https://www.furaffinity.net/view/40694786/

I feel like I had an inverse of everyone else's 2020 experience. I didn't exactly have a stellar social life even before quarantining. And germophobia? Already had that, baby.

But despite the rocky start--being rushed out of my grandmother's house to move back in with my parents, and basically starting my life over after nine years as a caregiver for my grandparents--I managed to land on my feet and find a good job. And, of course, I finished the first draft of Werewolf's Humanity, which was no small accomplishment. Heck, I'm closing out the year with hope that the hypoglycemia I've struggled with all my adult life is due to a fungal infection that I can purge out of my system, rather than just bad genetic makeup like I'd always believed.

No resolutions for 2021. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's not to plan for anything. Just do the best you can.

For those who haven't seen it yet, I just got another commission completed of Sammy and our favorite mama werewolf. You can find it here!

I've started looking for agents! I submitted Werewolf's Humanity to five agents today, I figure that's a good start. Wish me luck!

Job training is going well, but it's still going to be a few weeks before I'm hireable. In the meantime, I'd like to treat myself to a new Transformers figure I saw at the store, so would anybody be interested in a short story? I should probably clarify, while I'm willing to write some lewd content, I won't do any hardcore X-rated material and DEFINITELY NO RAPE OR BESTIALITY.

Last night I was blessed by a sudden burst of creative energy. I love that feeling you get, when you're so close to finishing a story, and it's all you can think about, and the ideas are coming hard and fast... well, last night I was definitely inspired. And now I have a complete werewolf novel. It's my no means finished. There's still plenty of editing and revising work to be done. But I have a complete story, with a beginning, middle, and end. Just short of 132K words in total!

But as an example of the revisions I'll be doing before I start submitting the story for piblication, I came up with some new terminology that you'll be seeing in the final story, which I'll add to the earlier stories during my next revision pass. Now instead of saying "shifting to werewolf form" or "shifting to human form," the werewolves in my universe call it "going wolfside" and "going humanside," respectively. While you're reading the next TWELVE chapters, just go with it.

So yeah, "Turn Turn Turn" is the longest story in the series, which seems fitting because it's not only its own story, but it also wraps up some of the plot threads from the rest of the series, and hopefully concludes Werewolf's Humanity on a satisfying note that I can't wait for you all to read!

So after the Star Trek RPG I've been playing on for almost four years suddenly turned into a crap storm of glory hogs and racist "humor," I decided to bail on that. Now that I'm a free agent, RPG-wise, I decided to start up an idea I've been wanting to try out for a while now.

The Autobot-Decepticon War is long over, just a memory. While many Transformers still proudly bear their brands, "Autobot" and "Decepticon" are just words now, especially when they are outnumbered by Neutrals and Colonists, Transformers for whom the War never reached. But one world the War did ravage... was Earth, a long time ago. It is now the year 2120, and Earth has taken its place in the galactic community alongside Cybertron in the Council of Worlds.

The War is over, but the battles have just begun. One thing all beings, organic and mechanical, have in common is the need for purpose—the need to find one's place in the universe. Earth is a planet brimming with energy, and with energy comes opportunity. So what will your character make of their opportunities?

https://transformerswarpeace.proboards.com/

I'm creating a profile sheet to lay down all the "rules" of how werewolves work in my universe, would anyone like to check it out? There's still plenty of information I've yet to include in there, since I've been building all this up in my head for the last decade. But if anybody has any questions, it'll help me figure out what needs answering! https://docs.google.com/document/d/.....it?usp=sharing

Since I started posting Werewolf's Humanity almost a year and a half ago, I've been pretty lucky to be able to post chapters on a pretty consistent basis. This was due to two factors: A not-inconsiderable chunk of these stories had already been written, and my current lifestyle giving me plenty of time, if not always energy, to write. But both of these situations will be changing soon.

For the past several years, I've been living with my grandparents as their primary caregiver. My grandfather died a couple years ago, and my grandmother's circumstances have finally reached a point where we can't keep her in her own home any more. She'll be moving to a care home in a couple days, and by the end of the month I'll be moving into my parents' place, helping them finish its renovations so I can have a room of my own, and finding a new line of work. So my life is going to be pretty chaotic for a while.

I have one more "finished" story after "Business or Pleasure?", which is actually the first story I wrote when I decided to reboot this series into its current form, and I am super-excited to finally start sharing it. After that is the last of the older stories, which still needs revision work and some new scenes to fit it into the current version of the narrative. And after that is the final story of the series, which I have only just begun working on. So, after "Old Wounds," we'll see what happens!

Out of curiosity, if I opened up for short story or flash fic commissions (I'm thinking in the neighborhood of 1K words), would anybody be interested? I've gotten plenty of requests for free stories over the years, but would anyone be willing to actually pay for my writing? XD

One of my other passions is cosplay, and I'm super psyched about the latest shoot I've done. If you wanna see some Power Ranger vs. Street Fighter action, check out these pics!