As you may or may not have noticed via the comic page updates, I have been keeping myself very busy. Hopefully I will continue to feel this good and healthy and can continue to progress forward with my art. (Though I'm still fighting not falling asleep with my meds, -which I completely lost the fight today though as I apparently slept pretty much through the whole day and was only awake long enough to post the comic page I finished up before passing out previously)

My productivity is going to slow down closer to Christmas, as for a Christmas gift to herself (and the rest of my family) my sister will be flying in to stay with us over the holidays for two weeks, so I'm very much going to be hanging out with her over the course of two weeks... and by hanging out I mean nerding it out... cause we're both nerds, I would say how but then my sis would get angry cause she doesn't like admitting to the world how nerdy she is -I'm so excited btw!!!- I'll try to throw a few pages in, but I honestly doubt that I'll be able to put many out during those weeks (but you can't really blame me for that)

One a totally random note tomorrow I'll hopefully (if mom can get the car through the snow) will be picking up my copy of Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, should be lots of fun as I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, on Tuesday my PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale should also be coming in, and that one is gonna be a lot of fun too, at this point I don't know which one I'm going to be having more fun with, but I'm really looking forward to 'em (I'M SO GONNA FORCE MY SISTER TO PLAY THESE GAMES WITH ME WHEN SHE COMES OVER TO VISIT!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!)

Oh yes! The other reason I'm making this journal! I was gonna do another special image for Christmas like I did for Halloween then year, but I don't know what character / characters to use ( I brought this question up during one of my streams as well) So, which Raven Wolf character/characters you would like to see featured in a Christmas image this year?

It's hard to believe that I wrote 70 chapters in the span of 5 books for Raven Wolf so far (the novel/story that my Raven Wolf comic is based off of for those of you who don't know), I was very surprised when I realized the number as it really didn't feel like that while writing it, though it's pretty cool to learn that I have gotten so far in it =) (wish I was that far along in the comic too x.x)

I was planning to have this chapter up on Monday, but my editor wasn't able to get to it today, though 2 days late is not too bad.

The comic is underway as well, just been pretty busy this week though so I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would like. A lot of unexpected things came up. I ended up passing out, and guess both times I passes out I hit the floor pretty hard, I got a pretty nasty bump on my head, but not blood. (except for in my mouth from cutting both my top and bottom lip) so had to take it easy for a while, then go for a doctors visit (that pretty much entailed me spending half my day in the waiting room) My doctor said the problem is low blood pressure, which is much better than what it could have been (the lupus attacking my brain) but the falls gave me a minor concussion so have to take it easy for a few days.

Anyway, that's all for my update for today. I'll have the next comic up when I can get it, I just have to take things slow for a bit.

For those curious about the novel chapters, you can find them on my dA (used to have them on my website but I ran into so rathe large problems with that I need to address) http://kurapika.deviantart.com/gallery/30779150

As some of you may or many have not noticed, I've every so slowly been healthy enough to get out of bed and come and post a bunch of things that have been stacking up on me since I got sick and stuck in bed. These being the Raven Wolf chapters I had finished and were waiting on my friend to edit (which he was finally able to do) and a bunch of pictures I drew for this summer's conventions -mostly on my dA account as they're not all furry so wouldn't really fit on this website (yes... it really has been that long x.x) Aside from a few more Raven Wolf character images that are waiting to but uploaded I should be caught up.

More good news, I'm finally able to start drawing again =) though... I am a little rusty right now. But this does mean that I can get back to my comic pages and commissions, so do look forward to that ^^ Anywho, that's my quick update for today. Here's hoping my health cooperates with me and lets me keep working.

It seems to be one thing after the other, first major amounts of other work (convention work) that was pulling me away from my comics and writing. Then a heavy hit of depression from one of the family cats passing away, and when I think I'm able to start working on stuff again I get sick and stuck in bed for what feels like FOREVER.

Little by little when I am well enough to make it down to my computer I have been working on the next comic page, it's coming along slow but at least it's coming along x.x I am so sorry for the wait on that.

As for writing, because of my laptop I can use in bed I haven been able to do that a little more often than drawing, (though not much because I've still mostly been sleeping / resting to try and get better) I actually have more chapters of those done, but starting with book 5 of Raven Wolf I've been having a friend of mine go over my work to edit my spelling and grammar mistakes so that it's easier for you guys to read, and he's kind of been out of town due to work the last few days. He has a laptop, but that laptop doesn't have Microsoft word on it so he's been unable to edit the chapters in the manner that he would like =( He should be home this weekend though so hopefully you will see some more chapters for Raven Wolf coming soon.

And that's really it =( sorry I don't have more for you, I've mostly been taking it easy and staying in bed... and boy do the days ever drag on when you are stuck in bed for such a long time x.x

To help pass the time when I'm not sleeping or attempting to work on something I have been playing Pokemon Black 2, have not gotten very far (I'm around the 5th gym) I've mostly been pissing around in that game <.< as pokemon musicals and movies seem a lot more fun when your sick and on maybe a little bit slightly loopy from your meds. There's just something oddly entertaining about naming a Jolteon "Teddy" putting a fedora and a neck tie on him and forcing him to dance in a musical.

Aside from wasting my time on that I also managed to watch four episodes of that new Ninja Turtle series to come out... and being a rather big turtles fan since forever I have to say... I have very mixed feelings about this show.

Real update done... the rest is just a Nick Ninja Turtles rant from me so feel free to skip it if you like.

There are just things about about it that really erk me. The little changes to the story and / or the characters personalities really bug me, I know the story tends to change from series to series and have gotten used to but the changes in character, that's what I'm having a really hard time with.

Raph's is not so bad, he's a little more tame than he was in the last series, but closer to his comic form than he was in the original series. Mikey has gone from adorably annoying to just fricking annoying and well... extremely dumb. Annoying never equalled = dumb for his character before, sure he felt immature and kiddish but that's what was great about his character, but it just doesn't come off as that in this series, again though Mikey's character a pretty fine line to walk to get right, so perhaps with working more with his character he will improve. Leo and Donnie's characters though... I think I dislike the changes too them the most. Leo is no longer has that confident borderline bossy older brother leader type attitude, that's been changed to a more a hero wanna be mentality who looks up to leaders on TV instead of being the responsible leader. While Donny had gone from smart, dependable and the unspoken 'second in command' to... urrggg... lets just say every time I watch him turn around and run away in a fight or get attacked with his own weapon I just want to stop watching...

The biggest issue personality wise though, is that they no longer feel like a family anymore... which was the main reason me and my siblings loved that show so much when we were kids. (Me and my siblings were a family of four, they're a family of four, it was perfect, mom would even call us by our fav turtles names -I was Donnie in case you were wondering-) they just kind of feel like... a group of friends hanging out now, that chemistry just isn't there, and that's really disappointing.

The lines too I'm gonna try and not get into, some are hit and miss, but with this series when they miss they REALLY DO MISS.

Aside from the character changes, the animation is just... I can hardly stand it. I knew that it was gonna be an issue when it was announced to be 'computer animated' I just don't like made for TV computer animations, they just look bad and DO NOT age well. Computer animation, poorly choreographed fight scenes and horrendous character models for anyone that might have the unfortunate luck of being a human character aside though, it's the batman sound effects, flat comic book explosion effects and over use of anime expresions that are really getting to me. I'm not one of those 'keep anime and cartoons separate' people either, they're fine when done right and can add a nice mix and or feel to the series... WHEN DONE RIGHT, and to me.. just look odd when they're in a computer animation that is already convoluted with needless comic book effects, the two style just are not mixing for me, and instead feel like they're clashing.

There are still some funny and cute moments though, but this is not going to be a buy it on DVD and rewatch it again and again an again!!! series for me... this will me a watch once and probably never watch again series... kind of like TMNT Fast Forward... now that was a sad turn around for what was before a really great version of the series.

In all honestly though, nicks rendition of the turtles can't be as bad as what Bay is going to do to them...

And now I go back to resting and trying to get better.

You may or many not have noticed that it has been a while since I have released anything, well I kind of inadvertently took a longer break than I thought from my art work due to the death of one of my cats, I just have not been in the drawing, writing or even creative mood.

The plan was that I take a one week break from art and my comics for a week after Animethon, but on the first Monday after that week one of my cats died. It happened really fast, he was only sick for the day before, so we're kind of thinking he ate something poisonous when he snuck outside the night before.

Stress and Depression really make both my auto immune disorders act up and attack my system, so I have been in constant pain, getting muscle spasms, chest pain, loss of breath, dizziness and black outs / passing out all week, with there not looking like there is any end in sight. The fact that my mom is getting really angry and yelling at me easily does not help with the stress, but I understand her being unusually angry right now, as she's upset about her cat dying too, so I don't hold anything against her.

So instead of working on comics and chapters as planned all this week I've been working on setting my online store up, I find that when I don't work on anything I feel useless and my depression gets worse and I get sicker, but I couldn't work on anything that required creativity like writing or drawing as it just was not there at the moment, because of that though the online store is finally up now but it's not finished yet, as there are a few more products to add (basically just more notebooks, which I doubt will sell much online as the shipping is horrendous for them because of the weight), a few pictures to add for a few existing products and a whole but of item descriptions that need to be put in, but I did manage to get a lot done and though I know I should feel accomplished, I still feel like I'm useless and unable to do anything, I know that is just the depression talking though as my actions clearly prove otherwise, I'm just obviously not thinking right at the moment.

For those interested the online store can be found here.
http://kls.storenvy.com/

Right now it's filled with a lot of leftover prints that I make to sell at conventions that I have made over the years, but never had ways of getting rid of aside from the few (mostly small, and two that THINK they are big when they're really not all that huge) conventions that I sell at once a year in and around my city. I'm hoping to get rid of most of that because it really takes up a lot of room on my table and takes away from my new stuff, and a lot of time, work and money goes into making them so I don't like throwing out or shredding my leftovers, so I keep 'em to sell again next year, which was fine at first but is really adding up after the many years I have been selling my artwork. So here's hoping that I can find homes for some of it via the online store.

As for when I will be able to work on my art and writing again, I honestly do not know. I tried a little bit of writing last night but didn't seem to go very far, but I WAS able to work on a bit so I'm hoping that's a good sign. Thank you everyone for following my series up to this point be it one of my novel series or comics, I hope I will not keep you waiting for much longer and can start working on things again.

Well animethon is finally done and over with, thank you everyone that came down to my table in artist alley =) I really appreciate the support.

Even though I was dead tired and didn’t get all my notebooks done in time (I was still coiling notebooks all through the convention) I had a lot of fun there, unfortunately I was limited to only artist alley so I missed out on the dealers room and panels, but I met and exchanged info with a couple of really cool artists ^^ sold lots of my notebooks keychains and books marks this year too =) I even had Cathy Weseluck (Spike’s VA from MLP) who was a guest at the convention, come by my table and say some really positive things about my MLP art and notebooks ^^ so I was really flattered, though she seemed a little disappointed that there was no Spike (I felt so bad for not drawing one at that point too)

Though it was a decent enough year for sales I still have a lot of notebooks, keychains, bookmarks and buttons left over from the convention, so I’ll soon be putting those up online to sell for those that were not able to make it to the convention or had a lack of funds by the time they got to my table. (For those of you that may or may not have noticed, my online shop for my website is under construction at the moment, but will hopefully be up soon, I’ll be posting updates in my journals as things are added to it)

There are a few notebooks that I sold out of (most notably MLP’s small Pinkie Pie, small Fluttershy and all sizes of Derpy) , if I do decide to reprint them I will unfortunately not be able to get to them until I re-supply on all the materials I need to make them =x

With conventions done though I will be able to get back to working on Raven Wolf chapters and comic pages as well as commissions (which I keep TRYING to do but can never fit in with all the prep work I’ve been doing to prepare my stuff to sell at conventions)

For those of you that read the novel of Raven Wolf the next chapter of the Origin side chapters as well as the first chapter for Book 5 will be up soon after this journal is posted, just gonna do one more read through over them to make sure everything is right before I post them =)

For those waiting on the next page of the comic I’m hoping to have that done and up by tomorrow, very sorry about the delays for that.

For those who follow my other two projects, “The Newlyweds Next-Door” and “The Zimiko Knights” I’ m hoping to soon resume work on the comics for those as well, and maybe get the next novel chapter for NN-D up as well, we’ll see how that goes as I’ll probably be spending a lot of time setting up an online shop to sell my convention leftovers.

Also, one last thing before I go for all you Raven Wolf fans. This year I made a few Raven Wolf prints, including shaped character bookmarks of the cast for book 1 of Raven Wolf, and I was thinking of holding a contest for those who would like to win the complete set =) be sure to drop a few ideas on what you think the contest should be, I was thinking of a fanart or fiction contest but then not everyone would be able to take part, so any suggestions would be great =)

For those wondering what those bookmarks look like here is a photo
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....ookmarkset.jpg

I hate preparing for conventions, fan art takes away from stuff I would rather be doing. I'm pretty close to being done it though, then it's gonna be two weeks of cutting and laminating and making everything into bookmarks, buttons, keychains and the like x.x

As always I won't be putting the pictures of my new prints online until after conventions (which makes my online galleries look horribly dead even though I've been working none stop on pictures x.x)

Those may have noticed that last week I wasn't able to put any new comic pages for Raven Wolf or any other comics up, this week unfortunately may very well be the same and I apologize for that. I'm in the final stretch of preparation now and though I keep going to the pages and working on them I just haven't finished them yet ;_;

On a bright note when I take my drawing breaks (which are few and far between) I've been able to work on the Raven Wolf novels some. Both book 5 and the next origins chapter were giving me a lot of trouble though, as they both required a lot of rewrites in concerns to pacing. For those that don't know the origin chapters is a lot of content that was removed from book 5 of the series, leaving both scripts with a lot of work to be done, the origin chapters that were removed often have a lot of problems with time skips, as in the original version of book 5, Shiya would only talk about or highlight certain events or moments, while in the origins book, I have to connect these events with additional content to tie things together and make the story flow nicely. While book 5 has proven to be even more work, as without Shiya's recollections which took up a large amount of the book, I am left with not as much content as previous books, making me change the pacing of events in the following books to fill the gap. For the most part though, I have finished the necessary changes and hopefully after conventions are over I will be able to start posting chapters again. (only two more weeks, trust me I'm as eager to get at these chapters as most of you are)

Also, for those of you looking forward to book 5, here's a little sneak peek for you all.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8546312/

Anyway, that's my little update. It's back to work for me now x.x

Just a fun post this time instead of a work related one. I always find it interesting when artists or people post pictures of their work spaces (be it just their desk or their room)

Been pretty busy with renovating and rearranging the house. Mom wanted to move my office down to the main floor so that it would be easier for me to get around the house.

We didn’t have money to put a floor in (had to rip the carpet out, as it was making the whole house sink it was so filthy and disgusting from 12 years of animals and teenagers/young adults. So we pretty much just painted the chipboard until we can afford flooring.

My office is a little bit crowded (I have way too much art stuff, sketchbooks, notebooks and work) but actually looks really nice (me being crazy for organization very much plays a part with that), the only thing I don’t like is that I no longer have my magnetic white boards where I would magnet up my character designs while I was working on pictures and comic pages.

There still some things that need to be done, as we’re getting rid of the sofa and the recliner because they’re filthy old and falling apart, but I kinda have to wait until I have enough money to replace them so they are still around (it seems that I’m always saving money for something x.x I guess it’s better then owing money for something though and collecting interest)

Also, it does indeed look nice, but everything in the office is in fact pretty old and has been collected over the coarse of 12 years so it’s not like I spent a fortune on it (except for that big as all heck art tablet which cost more than everything in this room combined) Even the computer is mostly hand me downs from when my brother updates his. Some from people moving and not able to take furniture with them and leaving it with/giving it to us, some from money collected when I had a job, some from money I made selling art) and although I don’t have my art posters or collectable figures and my huge ‘first drafting table’ that I just can’t bare to get rid of even when I don’t use it because of sentimental value (those all had to be moved to my bedroom because there’s no room for them down where the office is now) it’s still a personal collection over twelve years in the making (some things older as I still have a lot of stuff from when I was a kid, like the umbrella tree by the bearded dragon tank, which is actually a plant I brought home one day when I was 9 years old cause someone had thrown it in the trash and I felt bad for it cause it was still alive but people thought it was garbage) which isn’t that bad, seeing as my ‘office’ actually started out as just a desk and shelves my mom made for me out of extra wood we had.

http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_01.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_02.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_03.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_04.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_05.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_06.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_07.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_08.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_09.jpg
http://fynta.com/main/wp-content/up.....cc_2012_10.jpg

Heya, next comic page for Raven Wolf is well on it's way and should hopefully be done and up soon ^^ Also, so sorry for lack of replies and comments on my art and comic pages, just been so busy right now preparing art for conventions I never have time to reply x.x

I just wanted to throw a reminder out for people to support the Raven Wolf comic on mangamagazine, I'm very much in the need of fans and traffic to make it to a featured artist. I did receive an e-mail about it a long time ago shortly after uploading it to the site, and was told that I needed to up my fans and traffic, but then I got really sick and could draw pages as often or at all. I don't know if they are still interested in making Raven Wolf a featured series anymore, but I don't want to give up on the idea just yet especially since my health has gotten better and I can draw pages again.

So your help would be greatly appreciated, if you could sign up for the site and 'fan' the comic that would be great, and even if you don't want to sign up just give the comic a read though if you haven't yet (or again if you already have) as it would be great to be able to get some kind of income from all the work I put into the comic (even if it is small)

Check it out here at
http://www.mangamagazine.net/manga-.....ge/115?lang=en

Also though not many pages in, check out my 'The Newlyweds Next-Door' or 'Zimiko Knights' comics on mangamagazine as well, they don't update as often as Raven Wolf and a not many pages yet, but just in case you want to check out what else I happen to be working on.

The Newlyweds Next-Door - http://www.mangamagazine.net/manga-.....ge/569?lang=en
Zimiko Knights - http://www.mangamagazine.net/manga-.....ge/570?lang=en

You're help and support is greatly appreciated =)

So i only have one convention that I'm going to be selling at this year (poor health combined with being poor) but I still wanna make a few new prints to sell (I'm still saving money for that wheel chair ramp) It's an anime convention, and I really don't watch/read anime and manga as much as I used to, so I don't know whats good anymore. I've been sticking to game fan arts and original art for years, but less and less games are come from Japan, and the few that do aren't very well known, even among anime fans =/ so throwing a few names out (if you know them) so I can check out the series and see if i like it enough to draw it would be fantastic =)

For MLP fans, maybe you could help me out, I wanna add a few more to my little set of six prints I made last year, but I duno what fan favourites would like to be seen (aside from the obvious one like derpy) I don't know if they will be as popular as they were last year, but people of all ages just really seemed to light up and smile when they saw the set, and I got requests for all kinds of ponies outside the main cast... but I can't remember who they were... So throwing out a few names of ponies you would like to see me do a picture of to print on a notebook would be great =)

I'm gonna try doing some prints and stuff for my original novel/comic series like Raven Wolf and The Newlyweds Next-Door (which isn't here because it's not anthro) and I'm wondering what kinda stuff you would like to see of those, bookmarks, key chains, notebooks, you know that kinda thing, and of what character you would like to see these in. I would like to get some comic chapters ready and printed out (maybe even some novels) but I don't think I'll have the funds to do something like that, and self publishing gets really expensive x.x

So yeah... to summarize things

What anime/manga/games would you like to see art of?

What MLP characters (aside from the main 6) would you like to see art of?

What Raven Wolf character would you like to see prints and merchandise for?

Not all requests will be granted of course x.x I can only fit so many fanart pictures in between my comic pages/novel chapters and commissions, but it helps for me to have a selection an know what people are looking for so I can earn myself that wheelchair ramp faster =)

A few things to cover here, here we go

CONVENTIONS - the paperwork for that is FINALLY complete and I just finished sending in my payment. Now I can safely announce that I will be attending Animethon 19's artist alley. (As some of you know Animethon 19 is the only convention that I can afford to sell at right now, so this is the only chance you'll be able to catch me live and in person) Now to figure out the best set up for all my prints x.x On an up note though, since I don't have to pay for the dealers room, or 25% price inflation for the f***ing ticket system, I can afford to sell my prints cheaper =) so look forward to that ^_^

FOR THOSE TRYING TO CONTACT ME ON MSN - and I never respond. Yeah, I can't get the damn program working, every time someone messages me and I click on the window to respond I get a blank screen of nothing. I'm not ignoring you or trying to avoid anyone, I just literally can't respond in that program, so please use another messenger if you want to contact me. Also to answer the "why do you keep going on MSN if it doesn't work for you?" question before it is asked. It's because it's starts up automatically with my computer, sometimes I forget to close it right away or someone else in my house started up my computer and don't close it.

HEALTH - Went to one of the doctors on Friday and got put on a new medication that will help prevent the lupus from attacking my organs. I also mentioned that the med he had me on was making me really tired all the time, so he put me on a different versions of the drug, it's the same thing, just instead of taking a pill I take the meds through injection... sound fun yes =_=... the injection version is supposed to be more effective, and has less side effects. I've only taken it once so far and my problem of being tired all the time and constantly sleeping seems to be cured. I wake up when I'm supposed to even BEFORE my alarm goes off, and I can get through the entire day without getting tired until it's time for me to go to bed again. So I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY happy that this is working out for me.

Other things worth mentioning, I managed to finish one of my evil 'this is a junk drawing it's not worth wasting my time on and finishing' sketches and I must admit it doesn't look half bad, for those looking forward to the next Raven Wolf comic page I'm getting started on the next comic page as soon as I finish typing this journal. Also because of internet problems that have been plaguing my house I won't be streaming my doing arts stuffs all that much, and if I do it will be on join.me as it takes less bandwidth. Not sure what's up with the internet lately, my bro really needs to call and see what's up.

Health is being somewhat reasonable, so I can get back to finishing off those commissions I need to get done. Also, I *finally* found the rest of my 'Raven Wolf' comic sketches, so I can start updating the comic again as well ^_^

The next chapter for Shiya's origins is finished and ready to go up, story and plot layout for book five of Raven Wolf is also close to finished, so I should be able to start uploading chapters from that as well.

Also finished up the picture I was streaming my work on the other day, was gonna stream me working on it again but my internet decided no and we couldn't get it working all night =x

So no more dead gallery! Yay!!

I just can't seem to stop sleeping from my medication, it's a really pain to try and get anything done. I've managed to very slowly continue writing but when it comes to drawings I just can't seem to be happy with anything I make and end up trashing or leaving the image to never get finished.

Starting the Monday of this week mom has been dragging me along to an "Artist Cafe" that her church runs. Where it's basically, a bunch of artists (doesn't matter what your art drawing, painting, music, crafting) get together and just hang out and do what they do be that jamming on an instrument or painting a picture. It's pretty neat I admit, but also a little bit awkward for me for several reasons, the biggest thing being I was the only cartoonist as well as only author there, most of the other artists being in the 'fine arts' field and working with acrylics and water colours, I felt rather out of place. Also it was very embarrassing when someone would ask to see my work and I would say "Sure" without thinking, and then open up my sketchbook to some unfinished picture of a naked women or two guys making out. (I totally bought a new sketchbook so that I would not run into this problem the next week...) Regardless it wasn't so bad, the live music was nice to work to and it was good to get out of the house and meet other artists.

Other then that though I've been getting pretty frustrated with my drawings, as I can never seem to finish them. Then I remembered a sketch that I did for fun one time.
> http://fav.me/d4d8a0w
I had drawn it only intending for it to be nothing more than a sketch, but then I ended up getting a lot of favorites and comments on it, which made me want to finish it, so I did
> http://fav.me/d4dnyxp
I started to think, that maybe if it worked for that sketch, that it would work for other sketches I started and then gave up on, never intending to finish.

So I have gone through my sketch books of 'junk' and come up with a few images (That aren't too humiliating with their terribleness, but still rather bad...) to upload so see if it helps motivate me into finishing the image like it did the above one.

So very sorry for those that see my updates and are expecting good art, as these are all images I previously stopped working on and trashed with the intent of never going back to them. I'm very often not happy with my art, and my family and friends are telling me that I'm being much too hard on myself and not giving my pictures a chance. So perhaps some other opinions aside my own "This sucks and should be in the garbage" will help me realize that it's not as garbage as I might think, and hopefully result in me finishing them.

Slight spoilers warning for those who have not read the first four books of Raven Wolf.

When mapping out Raven Wolf and the progression of the series, book five was at first intended to consist and centre around Shiya and him bringing up many memories of his past that he would tell to Dolly, recalling events in an attempt to make sure he could still remember things even with his crystal that stored and helped him recall the events of his past gone. This an idea that I came up with very early on before even writing the series, but then decided to change during my writing of it.

During the writing of book for though I thought the plot of the upcoming book five over and decided not to go with what I had originally planed for it. Several reasons making me change my mind.

For one the book's plot ended up focusing around a very small and specific amount of characters MUCH more than it did the other characters in the series, and made events that featured the others seem out of place or awkward. It was like combining two books into one with the reader constantly jumping back and forth from story lines, if my readers would enjoy doing this or even want to I do not know, what I did know was that as I thought over the plot of book five it bothered me and made me uncomfortable with the way the story was flowing, as not only did it feel like I was trying to tell two separate stories at once while dealing with an already complicated story line, but that the story very much slowed down to accommodate to these additional stories that Shiya would tell. What's more for readers that were unfond of or didn't like Shiya, this book would possibly turn out to very tiring or boring to them because of the amount it dealt with him.

Another very large reason was because most of what happened in Shiya's past consisted of very dark events. I try to have a comfortable balance between both light hearted and dark events in Raven Wolf, but Shiya's past was filled with very few pleasant memories at all, and in turn made the book five much darker than the books before it, and possibly even more so than the future books in the series.

In the end I saw fit to change the vision I had for the fifth book, and I removed Shiya's tellings of his past, remapping the stories and events that I had planed and organized throughout the upcoming books, which of course stalled the writing of book five, as these stories very much consisted of most of the book.

It felt like a waste though to get rid of all the ideas, plotting and writing I had of Shiya's past, and thus the idea of 'Origin' chapters came to my head, I could put out all the work I did on Shiya's past without it going to waste, I could elaborate on it as well including little pieces of information or events that I had decided to not include because I was afraid they might make 'second story line' longer than the main story, and I even delve into the pasts of other characters in the series that I felt had interesting stories in their pasts worth hearing out.

Whether or not readers would be interested in such things I was unsure of, so in my previous journal I asked if readers would be interested in Origin chapters, and if so what characters they would be interested in hearing, and I received a fair amount of positive response (with readers curious about all kinds of characters) that in the end encouraged me to go through with the idea, and working through the notes that were originally supposed to consist of most of book five and changing them into the origin chapters that dealt specifically with Shiya's past, before and after becoming a source, becoming a member of the tribe that would one day be called by the name of Raven Wolf and of course the events in which the curse was placed on him and the tribe by the spirits and the events there after.

I hope you enjoy the first collection of origin chapters.

For curiosity's sake and fun before the release of the next book/chapter.

What are readers most looking forward to in the next installment of the Raven Wolf series?
Is there anything that you like to see happen in book 5?

Also, for possibly future projects sake, if I were to write special Origin chapters, that deal with what happened to the characters before the events in this story. Which characters would you most likely be interested in reading about?

Well, the last chapters of book 4 have been uploaded. The final chapter ended up being longer than I thought, so I ended up splitting it into two chapters, hence the two chapter release. Hopefully it will not be too long until I can start up the next book, but I have I lot to catch up on with my other projects so I'm hoping to get that done before I start writing out book 5. We'll see how long that lasts <.< as I really like working on the series and will probably not be able to keep myself from writing it for very long.

Comic page is well on it's way, just got held back a little bit as I had to make a few changes in the formatting and layout, which will hopefully not be too noticeable yet at the same time will make the pages easier to read, hopefully I'll be able to finish it on Monday, as weekends are always cruddy medication days for me and I can never get anything done =x

For those of you that have stuck around and waited patiently for my updates, thank you so much for doing so. March was supposed to be a pretty big month for me in concerns to my Raven Wolf series (It’s one year anniversary since I decided to start on the comic / release my work publicly) but of course life doesn’t like to cooperate with any plans you make before hand, and he combination of other work / being sick all the time / doctor’s appointments / broken computer made for a very large gap in my updates for almost everything (I was able to throw in a bunch of novel chapters, but that was about it). I’ve got a long list of work / organizing / scheduling (I honestly don’t know why I bother scheduling when I get sick all the time…) to do so please bear with me a little bit longer as I try to get back on my productive mode route, but I will do my best to get the last chapter of book 4 of Raven Wolf up, as well as page 22 (sorry for the long wait) of chapter 2 of the comic, then of course I will finish up the commissions that I was in the middle of doing before my computer decides it was tired of doing work and died on me.

For those who want an update on my health, want to make sure I’m doing okay. Well, the meds for the arthritis and joint pain are helping a lot, but still making me completely useless and ill the days that I take them (which is on Saturday, for those of you wondering why you can never seem to get in touch with / see me online much on Saturday, thank you medication for ruining my weekends) unfortunately though because my joint pain is getting less intense effects from the lupus are starting to show up, mainly the ‘hey lets be so fatigued that you sleep 24/7’ thing, which I do not like at all, and is actually proving very difficult for me to find a way to fight / work around. I just can’t seem to find a way to stay awake anymore or keep from dozing off, it’s actually very frustrating. I feel like Chase (those that read the novel will know who that is), and trust me no one want to be stuck sleeping as much as him. Aside from that mood swings and personality changes from hell, one day I’m trying to take on the world, next day I’m feeling sorry for myself and wanting to give up on life, day after I’m okay to talk to without me going on an over emotional rant, next day I can’t do anything but rant, next day I can’t stop talking about how much I like video games, day after I can’t stop talking about how much a HATE video games. Honestly I feel sorry for the people that contact me and have to put with this.

The funds for wheelchair ramp I have been saving up for / doing commissions for, is unfortunately getting dipped into, as I have to take my dog to the vet again. He’s old now and getting on in his years so he seems to be having visits like this more often, thankfully though it’s not a big issue like the glaucoma incident last year, just a broken tooth that needs removing… that copycat…

So yeah, that’s about all I have to say, wouldn’t want to ramble any more than I already have. Oh yeah, starting on a new project, no info on that yet though still working on details, putting it together and such, so be sure to be in the lookout for random things that may pop up related to that.

Right. Very sorry again, both for continuously vanishing from these art sites and releasing more journals than actual submissions lately ><

My computer broke on the 11th, and hasn't started up since. I keep trying to get my brother to look into it and fix it/tell me what died/need to get to fix it, but he has not gotten around to it. All of my drawing and writing files are on my computer so I haven't been able to work on anything since it went down =(

I managed to harass my bro enough for him to get my Raven Wolf chapters off of my hard drive, so I am now able to work on those again through my laptop. Unfortunately my laptop is not powerful enough to handle my tablet and art programs >< so I am unable to work on my comic or commissions until the computer issue is resolved =_= very sorry about that... but there's not much I can do about that.

Gonna finish up and do my final proof read of my upcoming chapters and then start upload them either later today or tomorrow.

Sorry for the lack of activity from me, had a really bad pain flare up for the last 2 weeks and could not get out of bed. Trying my best though to get back to the online communities despite it cause I really have a lot or work to do. Top priority right now being the 4 commissions that have been requested but at this time not yet finished. I feel really bad about making you guys wait so long, hopefully it will not be much longer. I really wish I didn't have so many health problems so that I could be more dependable in that department.

For those curious about my health it had not been good, severe flare ups have made me bed ridden, which never is any fun at all because I can't really do anything. Also my last trip to the doctor revealed that the rare auto immune disorder I have that is constantly attacking my system was caused by another auto immune disorder, this one not so rare that many know but the name of lupus. This means that my own antibodies will at one point incorrectly see my heart, kidney, lungs or brain as threat and attack them. Right now the disorder is not doing that, but I will be started on even more meds that will be used to help prevent that, as well as now that I know I have it, I can keep and eye out for signs that would normally go unnoticed or ignored by me that may be a signal that something is able to go terribly wrong. Overall it's not good news, but better for me to know about than for me to not know about, sucks to be told this 3 days from your birthday though... it makes things depressing.

Following that note, today is my birthday (actually yesterday now, started writing this in the morning but was not able to finish it until later at night -March 9th-) as well as the month of March marks the 1 year anniversary for Raven Wolf. Hopefully I can get back to work on those chapters and comic pages again soon, as I really miss being able to work on them, and I'm starting to feel really useless being stuck in bed with nothing to work on.

Anyways, back to working on these commissions while my body is still letting me do so =)

Thank you everyone who participated in this little contest ^^ it was a lot of fun watching the outcomes. The votes have all been counted and here are the results.

4th Place - Zack x Dolly
This one was a surprise to me, as in the beginning it seemed like this was the couple that was going to win with all the votes these two were getting. In the end it turns out that they ended up with the least votes =O

3rd Place - Teddy x Iuana
I kinda of had a feeling that these two wouldn't end up in the top two, on account as this is already an existing couple in the book, and readers would be more interested in getting a chapter based on a coupling not already covered in the series =P I know I would ^^

2nd Place - Teddy x Yula
These guys actually ended up with a lot of votes, just not enough to take 1st place. (5 more and they would have won though) Which leaves....

1st Place - Yula x Eve
As the winning couple ^^ The extra side chapter all about these two will be popping up next week if all goes well.

Thanks again all those to threw in a vote =) I really liked all the couples that ended up in the top four and though the contest ran later than expected from be constantly getting sick it was still a lot of fun finding out which one you guys liked best.

Note to those waiting on Commissions: Sorry for the wait, got sick yet again, feeling better though so I'll try to get those done before I start going back under again, these new meds the doctor gave me just don't seem to be agreeing with me x.x

Next page of Raven Wolf is long overdue and will hopefully be finished this week, as well as chapter 8 - 12 of the novel almost ready to be released, so do look forward to that.

ALSO, before you go there is one last thing.

March will be the 1 year anniversary for "Raven Wolf" =) so look forward to what I might have in store for that

Yup, I came up with that all on my own, inventive right? No not really... I'm in a good mood and celebrating, I want spread a little happiness around too so I'm offering some very cheep commission prices for some very cute chibis.

For those of you that have read the Raven Wolf comic this is what the chibi ferals they look like http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6876389/ and for today they are (per character)
5$ - Inked
8$ - Full Shade Colour

As you can see in the sample image the little guys don't wear clothes, but they can have accessories like glasses, bracelets, stuff like that. They can come with a transparent, white, colour, or granulate background for free.
!!Please private message me if you are interested!!

Wondering why I'm in such a good mood? Here's the story. Those of you that keep up with my journals know that I've been sick and unable to do a whole lot, been having trouble writing, drawing (well... drawing more so cause of stupid rash on my hand) and been depressed, and making me sleep practically 24 hours a day. Well on Saturday when I was out eating with friends. My tooth snapped off... yeah I know... sounds not fun and bad, and it was those things, BUT it was also a good thing, as a trip to hospital revealed through x-rays that the tooth that had broke was infected, and I didn't notice because I'm constantly on painkillers 24/7. This infection was essentially poisoning my blood stream and was what was making me feel so crappy and sick. So end story, tooth was fixed, got meds to treat the infection, now after about a week of taking the medication I feel great, and the rash on my hand is almost gone too!

So this means that I can start drawing again =) and also that I can write better as I'm not falling asleep every 5 mins <.< So yup, finishing up what work remains on my commissions this weekend (Keep trying to do that but have never been able to ><) and doing some chibi requests. Monday I should be able to start working on my comic again ^_^

Also, for those of you wondering about my writing, I have been working on several Raven Wolf chapters, unfortunately there is a certain event/events that take place that are rather continuous / connected through several chapters. So I don't want to release them until I'm sure that they flow together well / make sense / aren't too confusing. Beware though, once I'm done and sure that they're ready to be released you'll have about 5 chapters to read, duno if that's a good or a bad thing...

EDIT: Also, I know it's late but I still plan on finishing my valentines contest, what a cruddy time to get sick hu...? The most popular couples were -

Teddy x Iuana
Dolly x Zack
Yula x Eve
Yula x Teddy

So one of those four couples is gonna get an special chapter devoted to exploring the relationship between those two as a couple (or potential couple) it's up to you to decide which one gets it. Votes will be up all weekend, with results on Monday =)

I apologize for seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth on everyone. I kind of got really sick, which was soon followed by very depressed (something my meds like to trigger easily if I'm not careful) which as you could assume, did not make a very good combination.

Anyway, thankfully I've now reached the point where I'm able to pull myself out of bed, so hoary for that. Now all I need to do is finish getting over the sick part. That's getting better, it's just the rash I need to wait on now. See sometimes when my auto immune wants to be particularly nasty to me, it will make my hands very itchy, irritated, rashed, welted and swollen, it's like a allergic reaction... but not, because it lasts for a really long time, and by long time and mean a month, 2 month's or more. Apparently though chronic urticaria is common in people with auto immune, so I suppose it's no surprise I get it. I just really hate when it's my hands that are effected by it because it keeps me from drawing.

I have been and WILL continue working on commission requests at moments when the rash isn't as intense, as I really hate to have been keeping everyone waiting until now. Just know that future commissions are now closed until the rash is gone, as drawing makes the rash exceptionally irritated and painful.

Thankfully though I can still type (and game apparently), as that's not near as painful as drawing. So I'll be sticking to working on chapters and other forms of writing for now until I heal.

I'm so sorry for having to put the comic on hold, and for the inconvenience this is causing my commissioners.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3135591/

Check it out my friend's raffle, it's pretty nice stuff ^^

Website is taking a lot longer than I thought. Plus getting sick the last few days and not being able to do anything but sleep kinda added to that slowness. I had THOUGHT that I would have been at least able to work on commissions, but apparently not. Today I will see ho far I can get with the website, I hope to get it done but we'll see how things go. Tomorrow though I will be taking a break from website (if I can't manage to get it done) to working on the commissions I need to get done, as well as see how far I can get in the edit of my next chapter and work needed for my next comic page.

Also, I'm sorry about not being around to respond to PM's/e-mails, I will get to those asap.

As for the website it's looking pretty good so far, all I can do on my end in concerns to the layout is done, and I was at least able to make it navigable until I get the layout exactly how I want it. (the rest is being left to my friend who know much more about websites than me) there are a bunch of broken links right now, as all of my chapters from my various series I had been writing got completely messed up when I updated wordpress and it's plugins, so I had to delete all of them, I am right now in the process of uploading all of those once again, as well as all of the comic pages that need to be uploaded (right now Raven Wolf is the only comic up to date) Then once that's all done, I can hopefully get to the character pages, the image gallery and the online store.

www.fynta.com

Feel free to take a look =) Join the forums, talk, read new stories, check out some of the other things I spend all my time working on, also if you run into any problems or see any glaring issues to post about them in the forums so that I know what needs to be fixed and can get right to it.

Direct link goes here - http://www.mangamagazine.net/manga-.....etail-page/115

The nice thing about this site, is that if my series gets enough fans and followers, I can become a featured artist, where upon there's a chance that they can help me to get my book published =) That would be absolutely great if I could get my work published! So please, if you are able to show your support for the series and lets see if we can reach the next step in publishing ^_^