Yeah, so...

UPDATES OMFG!!1!

On the home front, I'm going through the motions of taking care of a wee human. He turned 1 year this month and is about the most curious, adventurous, industrious little goober I ever saw in my life! So I'm running after this little guy most of the day. LOL, funny thing. My eldest son was concerned the baby wouldn't like cats. This little fella doesn't care about baby toys, he plays with the cats' toys, and he acts like a cat to the point I'm pretty sure he'll have a feline fursona if he's a furry when he's older. What if he doesn't like cats? Geez, what if he IS a cat?!

Anyways...

My husband has been all like, "Hey, how come you're not drawing?" And I'm like, "Dude, these sad cat boys in my head demand to be spoken of! I don't have time for it right now, OMG!"

So, seriously, I now have 13 completed novels and 2 works in progress going on. If you're curious, I moved the parts from book 1 to scraps. I DID NOT finish uploading that whole book to FA. Reason being, what's currently uploaded is now very different from the actual novel. I went in and changed a bunch of events and added in new ones, so... <<shrug>> Almost not the same book. And the reason I did that is because I'm still working getting it ready for publication. What's holding me back is that I'm still running through book 2 doing what I did with 1, changing events and adding in some new stuff and doing edit work on it, and then I practically have to rewrite book 3 because I think most readers wouldn't have understood what the hell was happening otherwise... 'cause it was super personal. Only those closest to me would get it. Can't be doin' that with a published book. I would like to have all 3 ready before I publish book 1, though. That way I can space out release times and nobody's sitting around waiting on me to have the time to do all those edits.

If you happen to be interested!

Book 1 is mostly ready. The manuscript has been edited to its mostly final point. I have to go over it 1 last time for some checks on typos and stuff, but otherwise it's done.

IF YOU WANT TO READ MY BOOK!!

If you're interested in reading book 1, feel free to send a private message here (and I'll try real hard to check back here often enough it doesn't sit there in limbo forever) or email me at **wickedsquitty at the G-est of Mails dot com**. The book is on Google Docs and I can send a link to it, or otherwise I can just email a PDF copy straight to you, whichever you want.

What's it about? Well... blurbs are hard, my dude, but basically what happens is that a pissed off god sends a madman to chase Isa across the continent, and Ghrian is there getting his ass kicked trying to make him go away. People are sick and dying or just get murdered and probably the world is gonna end. <<shrug>> This book is for adults, by the way. It does have some sexual content, but it IS NOT SMUT. If you need trigger warnings, let me know and I'll try to list off the "problematic" points that might be an issue if that's something you need a heads up on.

Alrightie, that's all I've got. I'll try to pop in here a little more often. I've been bad about that. ^_^;

Just popping in to say happy holidays, I guess. Busy taking care of the baby, so... just not around anywhere at the moment, really.

Due to the unfortunate news handed down recently I've come to tell you where you can find me if you care. Just in case the site explodes.

On SoFurry my username is MidnightFury. I'll be trying to remember to post stuff there eventually.

I'm on Facebook under my real name of Rachel Lein (currently my profile picture is a crow with candles). Also, I've been in that site long enough to have a URL, which is www.facebook.com/midnightfury

I'm on Instagram as crowsilverdust and crowsilverdustart

You may email me on Gmail with the username wickedsquitty.

Okay, well... Two things. First is that I've changed plans. I'm just gonna do some tweaking on my books and publish them on Amazon. And by tweaking I just mean taking out some stuff to change it into something a little different, shore up some issues, fix any lore inconsistencies, etc. I'll likely delete what was uploaded so far since the end result of the changes I wanna do will make what's here... I dunno, obsolete? Anyway, read it now if you want to. I'll be along eventually to take it down. If you were enjoying it maybe let me know. I could use some beta readers, and yes, you'd get mentioned in the final product for that.

Second thing is that this is gonna take a bit and I didn't already get to it because I was busy being pregnant. Now I'm busy with a newborn.

So, yeah. That's what's going on with me.

Much as I wish it wasn't the case, looks like FA doesn't generate text you can read directly from this site when a piece of writing is submitted as a PDF. I feel the PDF format is safer and easily accessible to basically everybody, but in this case I'm wondering if the added necessity of downloading and opening an additional file in order to read the content is causing a stumbling block to some people who may have otherwise wanted to read the material. Therefore, this weekend I'll be moving the pieces of my story already posted into my scraps folder, then I'm going to re-upload each part as a TXT file so that the site will display the story on the webpage itself, therefore no need to download anything additional. The preview image will be changed to a brief description of the text rather than the generic image I'm currently using. That will remain the case until a time I ever come up with a preview image I actually like... So far that ain't happenin', so we'll just do the easier, yet probably just as effective method.

HERE'S THE ISSUE WITH THAT A FORMAT CHANGE!

Thing is, TXT files don't allow for certain formatting, like italics. I typically put thoughts or anything that comes from within the mind in italics print. Certain spirits will whisper to the characters, and with that you'll know it's a spirit because each statement is started and ended with three periods. I'm guessing what I'll need to do with general thoughts is go back in and put an apostrophe to open and close the thought (as opposed to quotation marks for spoken dialog). That should take care of that problem, but I'm gonna be real with you. I'm gonna miss some of those thoughts and won't get those apostrophes in there. This is already my... shit, fifth read-through of book 1, I think. I'm already on book 7, so all this additional editing work is getting tedious. If you're reading my story and you see I missed marking a thought as a thought... Dude, I'm serious, I'm sorry. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen, but I just know it will. Bear with me.

Once again I want to say that PART 1 is 31 pages long. That is going to be the LONGEST part I post publicly. The reason it's so long compared to other pieces (which run somewhere around 10ish pages each) is because I wanted to make sure the two main characters are introduced before I cut out. This way you know that, yes, there is a furry character in this book. He's an anthro tiger. Most of the characters in book 1 are not furries, they're humans, but I want you to know that does change in book 2, then more in book 3, and eventually there are barely any humans at all, so if you like what you're reading and you're like, "OMFG, Fury, where the hell are the hot cat people!?" Stick around, there are quite a few hot cat people.

...sorry for the spoiler, though...

Anyhow, that's the idea for the moment. I do very much want to get some readers for this. I used to be a pretty active artist and I do enjoy drawing and I do have some art that could be completed if I could be arsed to do it, but I was always a writer first. My childhood and teen years were devoured by me sitting around with notebooks writing stories. When I picked up my pen again last year (was March 23rd) and started writing and then couldn't stop, I was like... yeah. This is my jam. This is what I love. So what I'm hoping is that I can share what I love with other people and hopefully they'll enjoy it.

If you have anything to tell me about submitting writing to this site, let me know. Or, if you know of a better place to post it, I'm all ears. I seriously want to share this, no joke. I'm doing it free. My currency is your happiness.

Writing. A lot.

I'm thinking I may not post any more parts to "North" until I've got a preview image that better shows what the story is about. I was never pleased with what I had to go with, but I've been having a helleva time making myself accept anything I've drawn. Part of that is because I see Ghrian (and the rest of Ojinn after him) a lot differently in my head than my style permits for. That frustrates me. I'm at a point now where I'm willing to take whatever comes and let it go at that for the time being even if it kind of sucks, though, because I'd like people to understand what this story is about (and I could always update it later if something better came along somehow).

More or less...

But, about that!

If you ARE reading the story and would be disappointed that I'm holding back from posting until I've got that more appropriate preview image, I have two options for you.

1) You can join my private Facebook group and get story updates about once per week or so there. You will need to answer the entry questions to join. You won't be allowed into the group without that. I have it set up that way for a reason.

2) You can tell me you're reading. If I see enough people are concerned about halting updates, I'll continue with the current preview image anyway. At the present, however, I don't have any evidence of this, so I have to assume this doesn't apply.

So, that's what's happening right now. Funny thing, I do have a good bit of linework finished that needs to get colored, but I've thrown myself so thoroughly into writing that I just can't be bothered to work on that. I may end up uploading the lines to my scraps or something with watermarks on it because I do like it, just... I don't wanna draw right now, I wanna write.

So, my decision at the moment is to continue posting "North" in pieces for free. My husband still urges me to seek a way to make this a paid thing, but I think I've said that asking for payment for anything I do, whether writing, art, knitting, or whatever, has always been difficult for me. I think my time is valuable, but I'm of a mind that I'd rather get it read than get a couple dollars for it. ::shrug:: Maybe I'll make book 2 a paid thing. Dude, I don't know!

Anyhow, that's where that stands at the moment. Book 1 is being released free. Though I'm not really looking for critique on this because it's been done a while now, I would like to hear some comments from those that took the time to read it so far. If you like what you've seen so far, let me know. I love feedback!

Trust me, though, I know it's a little clunky. I think I may have mentioned I hadn't written in like 15 or more years before I picked up a pen and went apeshit for some weird reason back in March. Because my other attempts to write anything from start to finish had failed so many times I kind of expected this to as well. It didn't, though. LOL, I'm nearing the completion of book 5 by this point, so I guess I got my groove back. XD Oh! The point, right... The point is that yes, this first book is a little weird in how it plays out, how relationships are built, etc. If you like this at all, stay with me. As I go on that wonkiness does even out and it gets less... I dunno, rushed?

Also, CAT PEOPLE! Ghrian is the only one in THIS BOOK, but there are 4 more at this point and they have a lot more cats.

Ugh, I need to work on a new preview image for it, though. The one I have is so damn boring...

My last journal was about this. I feel compelled to mention it again.

My focus at present is writing. Since March I've written 4 novel-length stories and I'm working on another couple. I used to write basically all the time in my youth and stopped for a variety of reasons and it appears that I've suddenly gotten back into that headspace.

I want to share what I'm doing. I uploaded the first 31 pages of the first novel to my page. I'm struggling with whether I want to use a paid platform for the rest. Asking to be paid has always been a sticking point for me, with art, knitting/crochet, and now writing. It's just a subject I find hard to consider. I don't know why.

I get FA may not be the greatest place to post to for a few reasons. The first is that book 1 has only a single furry character in it. That changes and there are more and more furries and less and less humans as the series moves on. But people here on FA may find the time until there are basically no humans to be of little interest.

If you DID read the first part of my story I would love to hear what you think. I can see it's got views, but with no comments or anything is hard to tell whether people like it or not.

Art wise I'm not happy. I would've loved to draw Ghrian, the main character from my first 3 books, but the way I see him in my head is not compatible with my art style. Sadly, I don't feel I've got the time necessary to devote to actually changing my whole style so it could suit what I see in my head, so for the time being art has taken the back seat again.

I have nothing else to talk about other than this. Thanks for stopping by and reading this entry.

Okay, so... question. How does submitting writing work on here? I use the word "stories" loosely because this isn't a story, it's a goddamn novel. Part 1 hit over 180,000 words. Part 2 is already nearing the 100,000 mark. And I can't fucking stop! D:

Seems a waste that nobody is reading all this. :(

Anyway, probably that has to be cut into a whole shitload of pieces, right?

And part 1 only has 1 anthro in it, though I guess one of the other characters borders on anthro. The second part has a lot more, but it's not done yet. Is that any kind of issue? I haven't really been active here in like 10 years, so I'm not really sure what people even care about anymore.

LOL, so that's part of what I've been doing in case anybody cared.

Man, I hate moving. But this last time should be actually THE LAST TIME. If I can possibly help it, I'm gonna die in this house and that's that!

Okay, that came out way more morbid than I intended, but there it is.

Anyways...

Most of my art supplies are still in boxes... *looks around* ...somewhere... I have some sketches uploaded that I can be working on when I have a spare minute, but it's still really busy around here even though there's no packing or home viewings or anything anymore. Now It's all getting stuff put away where it should go and making sure everything stays clean and getting my son to school because he goes to physical school again and not a virtual academy like before. And this house is frickin' big, so cleaning has been something... x_x

Art-wise, I've been looking at my work and I'm not really happy with it, though I can't put my finger on why exactly. I don't know that there's a whole lot I can do with changing my style in a comfortable way, but it is royally pissing me off that I'm finding birds harder than they ought to be to fit into my current style (the birds thing isn't all that's bothering me, but I really don't know what the other part actually is). So I've either gotta make some changes or figure out a way to make birds look right in the style I've grown into in the last... uh... it's been time. I don't wanna say how much. >_>;

Anyways, happy late New Year, lol! <3

Like, in real life, not galleries or whatever.

We found ourselves a nicer house we like better than where we are. Closing is September 20th. But, I'm busy packing and cleaning and whatever in the meantime, so no art is getting done. Not that I was being all that regular with it anyhow.

I forgot all about updating my journal. Not that there's much to say. *shrug*

It's summer, so I'm not busy teaching my son (we do virtual school online with my son because public school is meh). That means more time to finish some of the sketches I've got backlogged. Though I need to practice more patience with the color phase. I get impatient and rush.

Anyway, that's that.

I just popped in to say that, holy crap, it has been super busy lately. Since Yule it has been, like, nonstop. So, I have had a little time to doodle and stuff, but not much time to really sit down and seriously work on anything. I might see if I can squeeze some art time in during Spring Break, which is soon now. Dunno, though. We'll see.

Ah, the Yule season is here, and I'm sooooo heckin' busy! x_x

I still have a backlog of sketches to finish, but I have to give myself a pep talk because I'm falling into that mindset where I want to not do anything because it's not perfect. Gotta get past that. I need to focus on FUN, not perfection. I'm not doing this for income, it's a hobby, and I need to get my thought process back into that frame rather than the one others imposed on me over the years. Hard habit to break, though.

Anyway, not much else to say. Like I said, heckin' busy around here. But I'm still around. :)

The last couple days of October and first few days of November are busy for my family.

Obviously the end of October marks Alfablot and Samhain, which are important to me.

November 1st marked 19 years of marriage for my husband and I. Next year will be 20 years! Goodness, it doesn't seem like that long ago! o_o

November 2nd (today) is my son's 9th birthday. ^_^

Now it's time to descend into the winter months. Soon there should be snow, which I always look forward to. Then it'll be time for Yule! :D

I wish I could celebrate Samhain with other pagans, but I don't actually know any in my area, so I just have to fly solo (so to speak).

Anyway, autumn is fully upon us here in central Minnesota. The leaves have changed to their beautiful shades of red, gold, and brown. The air has cooled and the nights are longer. This is my favorite season!

This isn't much of an update, but to be honest, nothing of any particular interest is going on with me, so there isn't much to talk about. *shrug*

I got a strange email. It's dated for 8/23/21, so obviously it was a while ago, but I don't really check that email account very often. And typically even then I just mass delete whatever is in it because I only really use it as an address to sign up for websites or whatever with so my main email doesn't get spam bombed. However, this email stood out.

The subject was "DON'T COME BACK" all in caps like that from "Fur Affinity Forums", and seeing as how I have just recently come back here, I thought that seemed weird. There's not much to the email itself. There's only one line, which says, "the owner of this site has been linked to many child pornography sites, we are here to take action". There was a link to the forums, supposedly, but obviously I'm not gonna click it. So I just came over here directly, went directly to the forums, poked around, but didn't see anything about this there.

Anybody else get that? Is there some drama I'm oblivious to? Given how out of the loop I am with everything, it wouldn't surprise me. I wouldn't be so curious, except that the email DOES seem to come from FA according to the email address it says it was sent from. I'm just not gonna click on any links in the email itself. That's how you get into trouble.

Anyhow, hope everybody is doing well.

I just wanna take the time to say thanks to those of you that kept me on your watchlist even though I dropped off the face of the planet for like 5 years or whatever. I'm serious, that was super cool of you guys and it gives me the warm fuzzies! <3

I've got a lot of sketches backlogged for finishing, so when I picked my pencil up again apparently my brain decided I was going all in on it. I just have to find the time to get the work done, that's all. With my son starting school on Wednesday, though, my time will become more limited, since I'm teaching him at home and will be dealing with that for most of the day, but I'll get around to my artwork.

I'm pretty rusty, as I think is pretty obvious from my new submissions compared to my older stuff. But if I keep doodling around I'll probably get my groove back. It's a pity I let myself do this again, though. I lost years I could have been using to get more practice in, but eh. Shit happens.

Anyhow, thank you. I do appreciate you guys and I'm glad you like what I do. <3

I was going through an old sketch book of mine from like 2011 or whatever, which was about the time I took my little... err... break... A lot of the stuff in there I sort of remember finishing, but I don't see it in my gallery. Either I never uploaded it or I deleted it later, and I'm at a loss as to why I'd have done that.

*ponders* This was all G-rated stuff, too, so it wasn't as if it were removed for being placed in the wrong rating or whatever.

*shrug* Eh. I'll see if I can dig up whatever CD I might have saved them to and upload them again if I find them. Otherwise, I guess I'll consider whether or not I'll ink and color them again.

BTW, I noticed it seems a wee bit quiet around these parts now-a-days. Is that normal? Or did everybody rush off somewhere else while I was... uh... sleeping?

Gods above and below, I forgot how long digital art takes me compared to traditional. x_x I'm almost done, though.

Okay, so I figured I should probably say something before I get back to posting stuff.

Clearly I was gone for about a hundred years, and yeah, it had an impact on my skill, but eh. That isn't an issue. If I draw enough it'll go back to where it was or whatever. But I guess just don't expect everything to look quite as spiffy as it did the last time I was more regular. So, we're talking... what? 5-7 years ago? Just keep that in mind. Oh, and on that note, don't bother me about critique or telling me I draw too much like this or not enough like that or that I should do this or that with my art. I wanna set it down right now, I do this for fun, so I honestly don't give a care.

I also thought it might be a good time to set some stuff straight.

I reckon you'd call me a "gray muzzle" at this point. I'm not sure if there are any special criteria associated with that term other than being somebody that has been into furry stuff for a thousand years (and I would say I started doing what you would call furry material in the 90's) and is possibly an old fart themself. Okay, the point I'm try to get to is I'm OLD, okay? Some people mellow with age, but I think I got crankier.

And that's what I'm getting to.

I always was a cranky old grump. But I feel that has gotten to be more the case as time has gone on, and that also means my tolerance for certain things has gotten lower just as my grump level got higher. I'm gonna caps this next part because it's the important bit. I'm not yelling at you guys, I just want it to be really noticeable. I even made it bold!

FURY IS ME, AND I AM NOT A SEXUAL CREATURE BY NATURE. SHE IS ME AND I AM HER AND THEREFORE IT WOULD BE DISRESPECTFUL TO MAKE SEXUAL ADVANCES TOWARD HER WITHOUT CAUSING OFFENSE AND/OR PISSING ME OFF.

My husband and I were talking about that sort of thing, and he said that it's likely some people will THINK about it, and I accept that. I can't control what you think, but you can control what you say or do. Know what I mean? Basically, if for whatever reason you wanna fap it to a picture I drew of Fury, I obviously can't stop you, but YOU can stop you from saying something about it, you know what I mean? You don't need to include me because I'm not into that. I fuck that fella *points at  happenstance* and have zero interest in anybody else.

TL:DR - Don't be a creep.

LOL, I guess I got pretty busy. :P

Apparently the last journal I submitted was over 4 years ago and the last art I submitted was over 5 years ago. While I haven't been drawing much in the past 5ish years or more, suddenly I got to feeling like drawing again within the last month or there-about. There are some snags associated with doing anything like I want to, though.

First of all I have a totally different computer now than what I used to create the last piece of digital art I uploaded. Because of that I don't have any of the programs I was used to using when I was still drawing more regularly. I downloaded a free digital art program, but I was so happy with and so used to SAI Painter that this one is going to take time to get used to. I have a tendency to get stuck in my ways, and when I like something a lot, I don't like to change from it. So I'm not super thrilled about having to learn how to use a new program, even though Krita seems pretty well rounded in its tools and such. I guess I'll just have to practice. Of course, anyone with any suggestions for a good free program, please feel free to tell me what you use and how you like it.

I also don't have the same kind of tablet I had when I was making digital art before. This one is supposed to be the type that lets you draw directly onto its screen, but I can't seem to get my new PC to recognize it as another monitor, so I'll just have to use it the old fashioned way until I get that sorted out.

I don't have a scanner anymore, either. I donated the one I had to a charity shop because I didn't have the room to hang on to stuff like that and I hadn't drawn anything in so long I thought my art days were over anyway, so the best I can do at the moment is take photos of my drawings with my cell phone camera. The quality of that is lacking, as you all probably understand, so I may not bother with uploading anything done traditionally until/if I get another scanner. I guess it wouldn't need to be a fancy scanner, so we'll see.

So, yeah, I guess that's it. If you were hoping my absence meant I'd died or something, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I live yet. *shrug* I'm just old AF now and likely crankier than I used to be! XD

Look at me, being a super lazy artist and shit. LOL, I'm terrible. XD

Anyways, how's it goin'?

I'm moving at the end of this month into the beginning of next month, so all my art crap is boxed up. I did doodle a couple things, but nothing particularly interesting. Hopefully I'll feel more like scribbling when we're settled into our new house. Whether I'll have anything actually finished to show remains to be seen. I have my traditional art supplies, of course, but I'll be needing a new tablet because the one I had has become really out of date.

If you'd like to stay in closer contact, come join me on Facebook. But lemme know you're from here, or I may not accept the friends request. You can find me over there at this link ---> https://www.facebook.com/midnightfury

kthxbye <3

I have a question for you all.

I'm drawing more elves and humanoids lately. I'm not abandoning furry art, I'm just doing some different stuff right now. But, is that something you all would want to see in this gallery? I resurrected my Deviant Art gallery, but it's going to be devoted only to non-furry artwork from now on. As for FA, though, I'm unsure what good posting such things would do. Such work is allowed, obviously, but I get the feeling most of the art consumers over here are not interested in that sort of subject.

How are you all doing, my loves? Anything new happening? Any interesting FA dramas I missed?

Nothing much has changed in my world. Though, in June, my beloved kitty Chibi passed away. She was 16 years old. It was old age. She was taken to the vet where she went peacefully.

My other kitties, Fuzzy, Murray, and Sherman are all happy and healthy. My cockatiels Birdie and Honey Bun are doing well. I have a new feather-baby named Beep. He's a yellow sided green cheek conure parrot. He is spoiled thoroughly.

My son (almost 4 years old now) and husband are both well.

I haven't drawn much. I've been busy with other things. I have some ideas for new things, but at the present time I don't know when I'll be able to commit them to paper.

And that's all there is in my corner of the world.

Duh, I'm busy. But, then, that's probably a given, right? :P

What's the low-down with my artistic activities? Well... um... yeah. Haven't been doing a whole lot of that, I confess.

So a month or two ago or something like that I switched over to a personally-built PC instead of using the old one I got off a store shelf something like 5 years ago. It wasn't broken exactly. It had some overheating problems when I tried to run graphically intense programs and it was slow. It was time for an upgrade, so we went with building our own instead of getting another factory box. We took my old hard drive and installed it into the new PC and that worked okay for a short time, but then I got a bad Windows Update and there was no choice but to wipe my hard drive and start over...

You probably have some idea of where this is headed...

I had some digital works in progress among the many things that got wiped out in that unfortunate event. The one I'm most sorry to have lost was the WIP of an adult piece of work I did a long time back. All I had left was a little of the shading and a few touch ups and it would have been completed.

I'm not sure if Painter SAI works on Windows 8 or Windows 10 (going to be upgrading to that in just a few minutes, actually), but I'll reinstall that and see if it does. I suppose I'll probably start over and try again. No promises will be made as to how long it may be, if ever, that it's finally completed now that I have to go back to the beginning with inking and coloring and all that. Especially since my son is now approaching 3 years old and that sort of material probably isn't something he should be looking at.

So, there you go. That's what's doin' in Fury's world at the moment.