Yes. According to the news we are in the 'monsoon' season of July. Since 'monsoon' isn't really synonymous with the Midwest, there have been some setbacks. Like flooding -- flash flooding, and rain so heavy you can see the sheets deluging from the sky. I haven't seen weather like this since I visited Hawaii -- and that was in Hawaii. What comes with this weather are some pretty intense thunderstorms which over the past two days has cut our power three times. Considering the news I got from my sister about the streets just a mile away, flooding to a point where people are abandoning their cars, I can understand why things have been so crazy at my house. Mix Poseidon's attempt to rid Colorado of its land locked title, and Zeus duking it out with Thor over who makes the better lightning storms, it's no wonder that we've had power that comes and goes.

Today it's really nice and pretty, but a common saying in Colorado is "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes." So it's anybody's guess if this will happen again. Since we aren't really designed to handle such flooding, the civic engineers here should have their hands full.

I blame this in part that, statewide, we have planted an exorbitant amount of trees over the years (since Colorado is primarily a prairie state, fields of grass typically outnumber the trees). So chances are good that the trees are making the weather -- more trees, more rain -- but I wasn't really expecting monsoons. Apparently no one did.

As a result my stories are backlogged. I'm a faster typist than at handwriting, and writing by candlelight just plain sucks big hairy donkey toes. I weep for the pre-Edison generations devoid of lightbulbs.
Either way, I'll be getting back to writing. Hopefully the power stays on.

Oh, and just in case any of you HTH fans were wondering: No, we did not loose any work during the outages -- just lots of time.

TTFN,
Tyvara

OMFG! I can make pretty colors and symbols. Thank you internets for teaching me the magic of computer colors and facebook symbol art.

I don't use facebook. It freaks me out. There are way too many people who I don't want to find me, or that I don't care to ever speak with again. I also don't understand this desire to share with random lurkers and total strangers the intimate details of one's life -- made all the richer with photo detail. I grew up in a time where the internet was creepy. You didn't share your real name -- EVER! Only a fool, who wanted their life destroyed, revealed any specific details about their personal life. Now people plaster that info -- and more -- everywhere. I find it disturbing.

Old habits die hard, and needless to say, I don't use Facebook, nor do I ever plan to. However, I have no problem exploiting the pretty symbols for my use here.

Yay for pretties!

TTFN,
Tyvara

Apparently I can't bake a weeks worth of bread and rolls, in addition to completing my story on time.
Where did the day go? I have no idea, I was elbow deep in dough.

First it was morning, and I'm typing away without a care in the world. Then the empty bag that used to hold bread reminded me that if I didn't make more, we'd just be waiting around until I did. Next thing I know, the sun has set and my kitchen smells like a bakery, but my story is half done. Lame.
Chores suck.
Why couldn't my air conditioning have worked last week, so I could have baked when I couldn't write? Life likes to play games with well laid plans, I guess.

Overall, food is a noble cause. Can't make sandwiches without bread, or french toast, or grilled cheese, or all the numerous meals made from tinkering with bread. Making dough with a bread machine is easier and cheaper than buying plain old white bread from the grocery store. The downside is that it's a bit of a time stealer. One of the negatives of living on the cheap -- convenience takes second fiddle to price. Still, I'm so winning.

Today's -- and now tomorrow's -- story is pretty fun, and I'd keep writing if I wasn't about to fall asleep. Three words encompass the idea nicely -- Gay Pegasus Orgy. Generally, a good thought to wile away in my subconscious for a few hours. I'll post when I finish tomorrow.

Kitty go sleep now.

TTFN,
Tyvara

So I'm back to writing again. I'm feeling better, at least enough to write.

During my hiatus, I succumbed to My Little Ponies, watching my first run on YouTube. Yay for the internet! Not like I'm surprised, my fave's gallery shows my affiliation for ponies prior to Friendship Is Magic.
Overall, I like the style. It resonates of PowerPuff Girls without the overly repetitive animation. Plus there are many nods to the original show of the 80's without being redundant. It also reminds me of the togetherness style episodes of the cartoons of my youth. I was raised in Southern California -- I'm a hippie at heart.

I added an addendum to the prompt project. After talking to a few people, I've decided to add in an optional week break before I start to burn out, or allow for occasional life issues that get in the way. This will just extend the length of the project, and provide an opportunity for people to catch up every now and then. Additionally keeping the project fun for me, instead of (heaven forbid) a chore I force myself into. I don't want that to ever happen, so I hope this will help avoid that.

Thanks to all the new watchers and return readers!

TTFN,
Tyvara

Sorry folks. The delays are also due in part that I feel like garbage, and have for about a week. Struggling through writing when your body aches and screams in pain regardless of what you do, is really hard. As a result I've been looking at the same two in-progress stories since last Thursday.
I'll be getting medication to combat this soon, but until then Ibuprofen doesn't cut it, and my muscle relaxers make me loopy and unable to keep my eyes open.

I will be back to stories as soon as this has passed.

Toodles and waves,
Tyvara

This week has been hard. Many things have gotten in the way of productivity, and here I am awake at 4am, but my mind is so distracted that it's hard to get past those issues to write.

I've been watching Crowchild work since he moved from New York to Denver. He moved partially because of me, partially because starting a business in Denver is far less expensive than in New York. I've watched him struggle through jobs that jerked him around, two computer crashes, multiple and repetitive program crashes, two broken cars we've had to junk, companies that have stolen our money (yes there has been more than one), trolls and naysayers, all while we've moved 5 times in 3 years.

Since the last move in April, Crow has woken up every morning, turned on my gateway laptop (which has NO graphics card), and worked on projects for HTH Studios practically non stop. He works sometimes until he falls asleep and I have to rouse him just so he doesn't sleep in uncomfortable and awkward positions all night. If I didn't go in and stick food under his nose, he wouldn't eat, he just works until he can't keep his eyes open anymore.

It's very hard for me to watch him struggle to produce these amazing games for the fandom that we both love so much, only to have people wine and complain about donating to him. I have seen things that would make you shit bricks. What is publicly available is NOT what is backed up on my TB drive. There is so much more that he can't release yet, because the process of creating a world in cyberspace is immensely time consuming, and all the smaller pieces add up to the whole.

Frankly, Pay Pal doesn't give two shits about the fandom -- or YOU. If you don't have an Alert Pay account, and you buy or produce anything XXX, you WILL be shut down eventually, and whatever money you have will be taken. This has happened to people all over the world, not just to us or our little fandom, this is wide spread. Pay Pal isn't owned by its original creator and founder, it is no longer the company it once was.
Eventually Alert Pay will get the approval they need to accept credit cards, but until then it's no different than standard Pay Pal transactions which are connected to your bank account.
I understand that many people can't or won't use Alert Pay for whatever reason, that's your choice, but you've been warned.

Alert Pay aside, HTH Studios has a Cafe Press store. Cafe Press does take credit cards. Please, if you like High Tail Hall, buy a shirt, a coffee mug, there are lots of different items there. If you'd like something that we don't have, feel free to make a suggestion in our forum (it's free to join). We'd love to design products that you actually want to own.

Crow's business, is my business as well; we share all our finances. We both lost our jobs last November, and we've both been doing what we can to make ends meet. If you like my stories, feel free to donate to HTH; Crow and I are in this together. We want to make wonderful things for the fandom for the rest of our lives, but we can't do that alone.
HTH Studios is supported by the fandom, without that support, we will fail. Please, support what you love, or it will be gone. This isn't a threat, it's a fact; Crow can't keep producing at this rate without the funds to put a roof over our heads and ramen in our stomachs.

To those who have donated, we are eternally grateful, your support gives us the drive to keep doing what we're doing. You are the reason we do what we do. Thank you.

[TL:DR] I'm a writer, you're here for my writing -- go read.

My friend Quazzi has begun an Iron writing project. So he's open to story requests.

Check out his journal and see if there are any ideas you can throw out there. Let's help each other be creative, because the only way we improve is to keep writing and trying new things!

Thanks folks.

TTFN
Tyvara

I love to watch really talented people draw. Art fascinates me to no end, and to bear witness to its creation feels almost magical.

Apparently when I watch artists that I like do their thing, I get a starry eyed look on my face, almost childlike. It's so embarrassing, I'm very emotive, sometimes it's hard to keep it off my face.
But when I watch great art come into being, I travel to another place where swirls of thought make pictures that appear on paper. It is magic, and I feel honored to witness it.

It's one thing to know you're transfixed, it's quite another to be told your face is all glowing with childish glee. I feel silly, but at least I'm having a good time. ^^

As some may have noticed, there was no prompt post on Monday.

Sometimes, as a writer, you have to decide between alienating everyone, or occasionally sacrificing your productivity to be social, and be a friend. Sometimes you can work in friends and projects, sometimes you can't. Monday was one of those later days. But it was well spent in the companionship of good friends and an abundance of creative energy. It's not something I plan to do all the time, but sometimes shit happens.

The other important thing to remember about writing is that it's hard to write realistic people, and realistic conversations if you never spend face time with real people. Every encounter has the potential for inspiration as every personality is a little different. No day off is ever really a day off, it's just a day for mental creativity to use later when you sit down to work.

I started the prompt yesterday, and the image is still fresh in my mind today, so I'll pick up where I left off. I didn't want to rush it, or post something unfinished just to have something up; the point of the project is to finish an idea and not give up. For me to do otherwise would have made me disappointed in myself -- and who likes to make themselves feel that way? Not me.

I'll be posting Monday's entry as soon as it's finished. If I'm really gungho I'll do Tuesday's entry as well, but I'm not sure. I've never tackled two in a day, so I'm not sure what will happen if I do.

Thanks again for checking out my stories. Your presence here means a lot to me. I love writing stories, but there is a special joy in having them read.

TTFN,
Tyvara

I moved some older works (and my horrible attempts at art) into scraps. I got tired of looking at them, but I'll keep them posted for nostalgic and time-capsule purposes.

Now I'm back to work.

Thanks again for stopping by and giving my stuff a read.

TTFN,
Tyvara

I've completed the first week of stories. Woo Hoo! It's been an interesting array of creatures, and a fun set of stories. I find myself looking forward to waking up every day to get started on the day's creature adventure.
I'm still a little nervous, and I see many mistakes after posting, but I remind myself that it's only a prompt, an exercise to get creative with my writing. So far that seems to be working.
Definitely, it's been fun so far, and I'm looking forward to next week.

A big thanks to the daily readers and returning followers. I greatly appreciate the feedback and comments from everyone. I am, and always will be learning, and it's fascinating to get readers responses.

I have a few other stories I'm working on as well. Whenever I get a good draft finished I'll be posting them here. The prompt isn't my only project, so hopefully I'll have more to share soon.

Thanks again.

Also: WOW! Over 11000 pageviews. When did I miss that! 0.0 Thanks for looking. And another thanks for all the faves.

'Till next time,
Tyvara

So I’ve been searching for a daily prompt, something to write every day that gets my creative juices flowing. The general word prompts that are out there either, don’t inspire me, or I have to sit and think before the words start flowing. That’s not my idea of a prompt.

Scouring books, websites, and programs yielded nothing -- only empty promises of inspiration. Still, my desire kept me digging.

The other day while sitting at my desk, flitting between the tabs on my web browser; staring at my half full bookcase; and ignoring the piles of boxes behind me waiting to be put away; I found my prompts staring me in the face. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Years ago, I bought a book from my local pagan shop. I’d saved up the money because I wanted it so, and it’s a freakin’ huge book so it wasn’t cheep (now it’s a bargain book, but a true bibliophile treasures a find regardless of how it was obtained). Afterward, I took it home and it has lived on my bookshelf ever since.
I’ve leafed through it every now and then, always with the intention of reading it, but it’s mightily intimidating. The main reason is that it’s an encyclopedia: an encyclopedia of magical creatures. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, by John and Caitlin Matthews to be precise.This makes it an enticing volume, but it’s rare I get the urge to tackle it in its entirety.

Back to my epiphany. Now I’ve always wanted to write stories about magical creatures. I’ve attempted a few, but there are so many fantastic beasts out there that it’s hard to decide where to start. Instead of picking at random, I’ve opted to start at the beginning of the encyclopedia, writing one a week and post them here to FA.

One creature a week at over 1600 entries will come out to years of prompts. Quite a challenge, but one I’m salivating for.


First are the rules, just so I keep myself in line.

One a week: The idea is to have a fun quick side story to work on in between larger projects. Something to post in between novels and novellas..

Minimal researching: I will primarily be using the information provided in the encyclopedia, or my prior knowledge coming in. The rest will be pure imagination. Usage of art and checking facts is assumed.

Keep ‘em short: I’d love to keep them all flash stories, but sometimes the imagination goes wild, and I want to get it all down. However, when I run out of steam, that’s it. *

Minor edits only: I’ll be fixing things up to post on FA, but generally speaking I won’t be agonizing over every little thing — this is a prompt after all, they aren’t supposed to be perfect.

*Exceptions are for long entries, and multiple bouts of creativity on an idea. I will divide those into parts focusing on each respective idea, and posted each subsequent day until the ideas run out.

**Extra note: Some of these stories may be sexual or gory, it all depends on my inspiration that day. The aim of this project it to flow naturally with the images and see what happens. I’m not trying to make every story explicit, but there’s a chance there may be a few.

I plan to begin posting Monday, June 6th (what an interesting way to start my birthday week — which will be Wednesday for the record ^^). The letter A has about 158 entries. I’m looking forward to this, and hope you’ll join me on my creative journey.

So while I wait for last years stories to go through edits, I've begun working on new ones.
Much of the fun of story writing, for me, is the world building. All those hours of research and learning, coupled with character creation, species selection -- I can feel the wrinkles forming in my brain with all the new knowledge.
I've decided to continue the themes in Fight for Control, expanding on other artists and their muses. Fight for Control has been expanded and is currently going through another round of critiques.

Just recently finished Trust for Secrets. It's a story about a female, spotted hyena, Y'talini, who's attempting to join a group of female-only mercenaries; her only fear is them discovering her pseudo penis and reject her as a male. When she learns her final test will be done naked, she must decide whether to continue on, and risk her secret's exposure, or run away and live with the shame.
It needs some prettying up before it goes through critiques, but the rough draft is on the page. Yay!

In other news, my birthday's coming up. Mostly just going to cook myself and Crow a lovely dinner and maybe finish the episodes left on a Voyager disk before we send it back. Netflix's is so much cheaper than cable, the value alone in instant watch titles really makes it a steal. Besides, there's nothing on tv these days anyway.
I'm also so thankful for my terabite drive. It has been quite useful, entertainment-wise, over the past couple of years. It's a handy little device full stop, but its entertainment value has made it my best friend.
I'm just glad Crow and I are cheep to entertain.

Now, I'm back to work.

Laters,
Tyvara

It's been a while since I've posted much of anything. Basically I don't deal well with stress, and I shut down. Too much happened over a very short period of time, which took a while to process. Thankfully I've been able to do that in our new place. I'm feeling better -- I'm starting to feel like myself.

This means I can write productively again. Much of what's in my gallery have gone through edits and expansions. But I'm still working on polishing them.

I did finish my spider story, but I debate putting it up in scraps or something since I'm not happy with it. My drafts are so embarrassing.

After some critiques on An Egg Among Elephant Bones, I've expanded the story to include Keiyan's journey home across the desert. There's a bit more magic in it now, as well.

To Woo a Feline has been expanded and it's counterpart sequel is coming together. I've outlined the third, so it's on standby until I have final edits of To Woo a Feline done.

Bare Blessings has also been expanded and edited. It's much improved. This one is the closest to its final form.

I plan to keep all versions available, with links to the newest version at the top, and old ones going into scraps.

I do have a new paying job that takes up some time, but I'm starting to find a balance between work and writing, which is good.

Hopefully, as things continue to improve, I'll have more to read than just journals. ^^

TTFN,
Tyvara

So I've been away for a while. Too long in my opinion. But I'm not quite ready to come back yet. Once Crow and I move to a new apartment things will be perfect. But for now, it's stress city. Moving is not my favorite thing to do. But I'll be ecstatic when it's over -- I'm tired of living with roommates.

Story wise I've been on hiatus since January (when I was asked to vacate my home). I was getting ready to re-launch some stories prior to the move out notice, but I didn't want to overstress, while trying to find a new place to live and a new job (thankfully I did, now we just have to work on Crow's employment).

Yeah, got fired in November. Wrongful termination. We've been talking to lawyers, but we have plenty of time to get all the money that's owed to us. Since all that money I'd mentioned my job owes me and Crow, they NEVER paid us (one of the factors in our firing). Needless to say it's a lot of money, in the multiple thousands. We will get paid for all the crap we went through. We just need time to get everything in order.

April is when I plan to be more active. I have lots of stories to post. I've got three stories about ready for critique in my Dancing Trail series, Bare Blessings has been rewritten, and I've added two new sections to An Egg among Elephant Bones. I finished my Spider story, but it needs some revisions before I'll post, but it's shaping up nicely. Add these, to my non furry stories I'm penning, I've got a pretty full workload -- and I love it.

I can't wait to get back to work, back to productivity, and back to the community. I miss it all so much.

Thanks to all the well-wishers, and supporters. And a shout out to all my new watchers. Having readers, is half the reason to write; the other is my own self expression. Thanks everyone.

Sorry for my lack of responses to all your comments and my lack of thank you's to all the watchers I've had since I've been unable to respond (all 43 of you, thanks for watching. You guys rock --- even if you're only watching because I'm Crowchild's PR for the time being. You still rock anyway ^ ^).

As for my lack of responses; I now have tendinitis in both my hands. I couldn't type for least three weeks. I've gone to the doctor, and I'm on medication, but my hands are pretty much useless for typing (unless I'm ever in the mood for searing hand pain --- which of course is no). I'm using a speech to text program to help me type this now. So far so good. It's taking quite a bit of time to calibrate the silly thing, but at least it's making words on the page that can eventually form coherent sentences. But if the pain in my hands doesn't improve, I may have to get collagen injections --- which scares the bajesus out of me (phobias and all that nonsense).

I'm currently out of town, but I don't know how much longer that will be for. The store were working at has asbestos cleaners kicking up all sorts of God only knows what. It's nausea and migraines for everybody, and since I'm on medication that makes me dizzy and nauseous, and just a tad bit sleepy, the addition isn't making for a happy kitty. Really nobody's happy, and if things don't improve, they're not going to have any workers to show up, because we're all throwing up --- or worse.

On the writing front, I've had to put down all of my furry related projects to make time for a mainstream, steam-punk erotica piece. Despite the painful hand setback, I still plan to attempt to meet the September deadline. The deadline is probably the reason for the extra bout of tendinitis, but now I don't have to use my hands to the extent that I was. since it isn't furry related I probably won't post it here --- technically I can't post it here, but if it gets accepted anywhere I'll post links.

So far this has been a pretty crappy summer. Emotional problems in June, physical problems in July, financial problems that have persisted throughout, and August isn't starting out all that great --- I hope the rest of the month turns out better. Despite all this, I think I'm doing okay (but that may just be the anti-anxiety meds my doctor put me on).

I know it seems like I have a lot of negative to report on, but really things could be a whole lot worse. I've introduced Crowchild to Nip/Tuck. That world is definitely full of lots of examples of how a situation could turn ugly quickly. Things are certainly not that bad. I never watched all the way through season seven (I think I didn't have cable around season five, I can't remember), but it's still one of my favorite shows. And now I've got Crow addicted too --- I'm amazed that he can sketch while he watches. Sometimes it's hard to look away.

Thanks again to all my new watchers, and all the well-wishers and supporters. You guys are great.

Take care of yourselves,
Tyvara

This is for the watchers of  crowchild. If you're not a watcher of Crowchild, feel free to ignore this journal.

***WARNING*** Any and all nasty, rude, or unpleasantly phrased comments will be deleted, reported and blocked at my discretion. There will be no foulness on my page. We are adults, and if you can't play nice then you will be removed from the discussion by force.
***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***

Crow's system gray screened about a month ago. Research led us to the discovery that it was one of the poorer models Apple put out at the time -- one that had excessive overheating issues. Stress has now flayed that vindictive machine into scattered pieces. The computer is no more. Most if not all of the backups have been saved to an external, but we can't access it until we get the new system.

Fortunately we have my laptop, and Crow has been borrowing it to work on open source programs to practice art, work on commissions, and familiarize himself with a new system (his new computer will be a PC, and he's been raised on Apple). And with newer versions of Flash and Lightwave, he's taking the opportunity to learn all the new features. The problem is, my laptop was purchased for me, a writer, not a graphic artist -- it does not have the necessary capabilities he needs to do his work. So all he can do right now is practice, learn and wait until he gets the new set up.

Why can't we just pay for the new system and get it sent here? It's a long story.
To start, there have been extensive car issues. Over the winter, Crow's toyota froze in the 17 below freezing winter we had, and broke the engine. At the advice of my mechanic stepfather we bought a new car, and ended up sinking more than he let on into getting it road ready. It's a piece of shit, and there's no way around it. We lost the hood around February (it is still held on with bungee cords), and the drivers side door got smashed not long after that. There are journals in my archives that go into a bit more detail. Much of our savings went to that seemingly never-ending mess.

More of our savings went into a move. One of the factors in our decision to move was a woman got stabbed in our apartment complex on Thanksgiving. The other is that my sister was bullied by my parents into buying a house. We are living with her to help pay the bills. So far this arrangement is working out.

Crow also had four impacted wisdom teeth removed -- mentioned in my last journal. The pain had made working on anything all but impossible. The surgery went well and he's fully recovered now. This was a still setback.

To top it all off, our work has been unreasonably slow with money owed to us from months ago, and contacting them has been an endless stream of dead-numbers and phone-tag. We are getting our usual paychecks. The money owed to us is for out of town traveling expenses -- this is money we had to spend because we were out of town multiple times, sometimes up to a month -- money that has reduced what little savings we had left in the process. This isn't a small some of money owed to us either. It is more than enough to pay for the updated system and get us back into a slightly safer financial position. Trying to actually get the money is proving to be like pulling crocodile teeth.

Setting up the new pay system has been put on hold because the computer crashed. They need updates to the site for legal purposes, but other than that HTH Studios seems to have found a new home. So that's a bit of good news.

I'm very sorry for whatever frustrations these delays have caused you, just know that we share your pain. This is not what we want. Life is full of ups and downs, and we are now attempting to claw our way out of a down. I hope that you can be patient while we attempt to do so, because complaining about it won't help. Trust us, if complaining was all it took, we'd be out of this mess ages ago.

I just want you all to know that Crowchild is alive, and working as hard as he can. He understands and accepts that he's made some mistakes. We all make mistakes, some impact others more than most, but as long as we try to make amends and work hard toward that goal, there's not much else we can do. He also knows that there are lots of people who like his art and ideas, but we can only demand so much of an artist before that well dries up. Everyone has their limits, let's not push another artist to theirs.

Thanks to everyone who has been a support during these times. Your understanding and friendship has been beacon of hope during all of this.

***Extra*** I'm currently working online on projects, so I will be checking this journal to field questions, but I have submission deadlines I need to meet, so my appearance will be sporadic. Do not take this as free reign to be rude. I will still remove nastiness at my discretion. If I have to take time out of my writing to deal with childish behavior, I will do so -- but I won't be happy or pleasant about it. ***End***

Finally finished my water horse story! Justice by the Water took a little longer to finish than I wanted, but I'm fairly pleased with the end results. The idea came to me while I was flipping through a few of my magical animal books, and started to get ideas. The original water horse was a Noggle, a creature from the Shetland islands, but I soon discovered that the water horse went by many different names depending on the country they terrorized. I decided to encompass as many different kinds of water horse as I could to give my creature a bit more familiarity for readers.
The plan is to put it through my critiquing groups and post the rewrite here after moving the original to scraps. I'll put links to previous versions in the new ones for those that are interested to see the progression of my drafts.

An Egg among Elephant Bones is also a result of my thumbing through mystical creature encyclopedias. There aren't many stories about Rocs beyond Arabian Nights and the Aladdin cartoon show (like 1 episode). I decided there needs to be more.

There has been quite an influx of spiders in my home of late. Nothing mean, just wolfs, jumping and the typical house spiders. I'm not exactly a fan of spiders, but we came to an understanding. The ones in this house have been rather brazen, but have left quite an impact on me. A while ago a little fellow scurried from a hole by the bathroom mirror where he decided to meticulously clean his legs -- we had a talk about surprising folks, and he hasn't done it since. The best surprise was a little treasure who made a spectacular web outside our sliding glass door. He's a cat faced spider. Yes -- cat faced! Apparently he'll grow big enough to eat wasps, but for now he lives on a diet of gnats -- which currently fill our backyard. Now I know I mentioned I don't care much for spiders, but -- cat faced -- and he's kinda colored like Garfield. He's just too cool!
As a result, I've decided to resurrect my Anansi demon story. It was a story I'd just been playing around with, but the spiders have made their presence known, and the images I have planed are so much better than where I began.

A Bat's Desire has stalled -- but I know why! My last few stories are a reflection of that. I want to write about human MC's for a while. I enjoy furry characters, but I've been aching to write people, which was why the drive to work on A Bat's Desire, just isn't there. I need to put it aside and let it rest, so I can come back to it with a fresh perspective. I go through phases of what I want to work on, but as long as I keep writing it's all good.

I've been getting a few pokes from people curious as to Crowchild's whereabouts and what not. So I figured I'd post something in my journal. He got four wisdom teeth removed the other day, and is trying to take it easy for as long as it takes to heal. So he's very out of it.
In technical news: He's trying to get a new system before his old one crashes, and we're waiting on owed work funds to pay for it. They're coming, but in limbo due to a backlog in our work's system. So until then, we're left to wait and save. Since the old system is failing, progress is agonizingly slow, but it won't be like this forever. Everything is saved to a safe place, so it's really a matter of a new system in order to continue.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on my stories. Your words keep me striving to improve.

~Tyvara

Back from the other side of the divide. It was a pretty nice trip, considering all the work. Weather was warm -- such wonderful heat. Spring is on the other side of the mountains, but those imposing rocks are sucking it all up and trading it for overcast skies, drizzle and cold breeze.

The weather afforded us a wonderful weekend which was spent hiking around the fossil quarries of the area. Dinosaur Ridge was quite a fun one and we got a few pictures of the more evolved dinosaurs guarding their ancestral burial ground (thanks to Crow there are some good pictures). A few lizards I have yet to identify, but they were more than content to lounge around warming their scales on their sunning rocks.

I'm not sure how work will be this next week. I'll either have time to write, I'll work nights, or I'll work days. I'm praying for days, because I'd really like the money. Crow's tablet pen has gone AWOL, so it's looking like a new tablet's on the table along with a new system for both of us. Thank goodness for tax returns, but thing's will be tight, so creativity will be up against financial stress for a little while. Just another challenge to overcome.

I did get sick with a sinus thing the last week out, and as a result everything got put on hold. I did manage to post the next Thursday Prompt, though it was late, -- by two days (I'm so mad at myself). But I can't do much about it now. I would have been more upset had I posted on time, since the result would have been the garbled thoughts of a woman practically sedated by nighttime antihistamines -- I'm not sure that would have been worth it -- I repeated a lot of words, it wasn't pretty.

My water horse story is almost finished (though a title is still eluding me), and I've gotten a bit further with A Bat's Desire. Over the trip we watched Heavy Metal, and I got inspired to write another story, so I'll be building that one up along with the other longer stories waiting in the wings. That's just three, but it's still three worlds to delve into.

Chances are high, once I've submitted stories through my critiquing groups, I'll eventually have rewritten versions to post. My plan is to move the older versions into scraps and post an updated icon image for the new version. Crow also did a sketch of the creature from Shattered, so I may sneak that into scraps at some point.

Laters all.
~Ty

So, I have a decent connection out here, that I can keep some sort of contacts while I'm out of town -- which I've discovered to be a two week venture (but that means a paid weekend in a hotel, so I won't complain).

Completed a Thursday Prompt. I made it my goal to finish before the trip, and I did. Yay me.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet on the other side of the divide. Saw some bison (no, there are no buffalo in North America -- no matter what the grocery stores try to say on packages of ground meat), lady big horn sheep, deer -- lots of deer, a few red tailed hawks. Very nice drive, considering we had to take it at a snails pace due to altitude.

The hope is to finish my water horse story this week, though, posting may be a while in coming, since I want to send it through my critique group first. I may put the first draft in scraps. I'm undecided.

Well, after a seven hour drive, I'm a little spent.

Toodles.

I've come back from about a week of no access to FA. It was sad. All I could do was open up the page and stare -- quickly realizing that I have a lot of erotica on this thing. My page looks pretty bare under the guest feature. It was a lovely surprise, though, to return and see all the new watchers and faves. So I suppose patience is worth something.

Bare Blessings didn't win first, but ranked third on SF's Endangered Species Contest. I count it as fifth, since three people tied for second, but either way, I came in top five, and that's not bad. I'm pleased I ranked up amongst the guys. Next time will be better.

My water horse story is back in full swing, but since the main characters are people, I'm debating which anthro story to pick up next. I still have A Bat's Desire, which has slowed to a stall -- and made me nervous about attempting any more from the series just yet. The other two up in the air are a thylacane-pirate vs islander war story (which is a set of three) or develop my hyper-reality badger daredevil story. Both will take lots of planing, so I could dabble with either if it really suited me, until I get excited about bats again.

I'll have plenty of time to work on whatever I please, since I'll be traveling over the mountain for work, and will be stuck with only my notebook and whatever reading material I bring as entertainment. I hear the town is pretty big, so I'm not too worried, but access will be non-existent for a week -- maybe two if my boss changes his mind before Sunday. That new laptop is so close that I can start looking at options. Soon this weeks without access thing will be a thing of the past.

Another thanks to all the watchers out there. I'm glad you're sticking with me.

Oooo! I've been called down to dinner. Mmmmm Mahi-Mahi! This kitty's gonna go have some fish.

Toodles!

Finished my submission for SF's Endangered Animals story contest. My body really fought me on this one, but I did it. Neck cramps and hand spasms be damned! I will not be hindered because of cold. *shakes fist at Jack Frost*

Bare Blessings is an erotic war story, vaguely Vietnam-esque, but not the Vietnam war. Most of the inspiration was around Asian rhinos and tigers, so that's how things worked themselves out -- geographical wise.

It feels good to have another story under my belt. Now I can finish the others that have been waiting so patiently while I've toiled on the contest. It'd be nice to win, but it makes me smile just to have something else finished.

My new desk finally arrived. Yay! No more crazy contortions! *Does happy dance* It's much more comfortable now -- despite the weather *glares at Mr. Frost*

Car is still full of glass and fail, but gorilla tape does wonders at fashioning a makeshift window alla saran wrap. It's quite a sight when paired with the colorful bungee cords holding the hood down.

Birds are still nomming at my brains with their screams, but only during daylight hours. It kinda makes them sound like zombies . . . which is just gross. Though . . . zombie parrots could be -- nah. Too weird.

It's late, I think I need some sleep.

Laters all,
Tyvara

Although March started off with a car accident, things have been well. Everyone is fine, but cars were not so lucky.

The passenger side door is punched inward, and we keep finding glass all over the car. It's going to take a while to fix, which requires time and money, so things will be interesting for a while.
It was largely the fault of the other driver, who thought it'd be a better idea to speed up when she saw us moving into her lane. Insurance doesn't cover it because, well, our coverage is low, and there was still damage done to her SUV. So what would have covered us, goes to her.

Either way, the car runs, no one was injured or killed, and we didn't get a ticket, just a fine -- maybe, if we get something in the mail.
For the time being, I can deal with having to climb over the driver's side to get in and out.

Thankfully, there are better things going on.

I've been back in town, *grand cheer* and have gotten my bird-children back from my mom. Aside from a constantly squawking Quaker (who apparently just wanted a bath), I'm glad to have them home. Their sounds are so comforting when they're not earsplitting.

I've decided to enter SF's story contest. So my other projects are on hold until March 20th. It gives them time to percolate while I hammer out this next one. It's progressing well, and my schedule this week should allow me to finish it by the deadline, so I'm optimistic.

There is a computer desk due soon. I'm super excited about getting rid of these neck cramps, and cleaning up my computer room. There are books everywhere, books and DVD's. We purchased a bookcase, but it's full. There's a DVD rack, but it's full. Entertainment center -- full. Yet still, books and DVD's everywhere.

Either way it'll be easier to write when I'm not hunched in my chair, undertaking great feats of balancing in order to type. Soon, it's so close! *squeals*

Now I'm off to work on that entry.

TTFN,
Tyvara

Things have certainly been better, and I haven't had this many financial issues since I was in college. Paypal caused more problems than I'd ever thought possible, but I'm glad it's behind us, and we're moving forward. At least we're trying to.

I finished a Thursday Prompt submission, it serves as my latest post. It's all about creator's block and the sexual battle between artist and muse.

Still more stories on the back burner, and I'm getting close to finishing a mythical creature tale I've dubbed, A Noggle's Justice, influenced by myths in the Shetland islands.

The second installment to From the Dancing Trails, requires that I have access to a computer because it's in rewrites and edits, and that's all but impossible when I'm out of town.

I'm hopping to be home over the next week, but it's anyone's guess, because my company's travel person was arrested on a cocaine charge. I'm not surprised, some of the towns I've been to are unsettlingly desolate. I would have been off to an 8-block-long town, had my boss not passed it off to another state's crew.

So far, life is complicated, creativity is high, and work is steady. Stress is never kind to relationships, and I could use some meditation after I pick up my medicine.

A big thanks to the well-wishers over February's trials. I'm glad it's finally March.

Toodles,
Tyvara

Wow, what a couple of weeks this has been. It's not like things are bad, just bumpy. I've been working out of town a lot, so my internet connection is good enough to do paperwork and that's it.
I'm hoping to use some refund money to get a better laptop, but with all the crappy Microsoft OS issues, I'm very reluctant to buy anything new. I'll just have to wait and see.

We had our car hood fly up on our windshield on the trip home, and of course, we had to drive through a snowstorm. The hood scared me half to death, but it's secured with bungee cords, so it'll hold until we can get a replacement hood.
Now we have to go back, chances are for two more weeks.

I'm glad we're working, and money's coming in (granted, our accounts won't reflect that until March -- but whatever, it'll get there eventually). But staying in hotels with no heat -- because some twacked out group of hooligan boys decided it was a great idea to bash in the heaters and vandalize much of the ENTIRE CITY we're staying in -- can be rather trying.

Then just this morning picking up some travel food we get pulled over for an expired plate, which is only so because we've been out of town the vast majority of the month. And then . . . our insurance was out of date (which the policeman was so kind as to lecture us about for a good five minutes) so we spent a few hours getting new info because the website was down and I don't happen to own a fax machine. Only to find out that the site was working fine, and it was my computer that wanted to be retarded.
At least we only got a warning for the whole thing, but still.

Add that to waking up to Crow's paypal issues, and this has been a rather glorious climax to an all over crappy few weeks.

I did manage to see my doctor about pain issues and got the medication I wanted, but he's sending me to a specialist. From what he can tell, my muscles can't hold up my skeleton. I can't even conceptualize how that's possible, but it probably explains the mind numbing body pain, and the overall feeling of being a twenty-five year old trapped in an eighty-year-old's body. So it'll be a wait to see what happens with that.

I had hoped to submit a piece for this week's Thursday prompt, but it won't be done in time. It's half done, and the rest'll be done while I'm out of town. Oh well, at least I'm writing.

I have a couple of stories in progress. Whichever one gets done first will get posted. Of late it's been my novel, a short story and this week's Thursday Prompt. The short and prompt are neck'n'neck so I look forward to see which one wants to get done quicker.
The followup to To Woo a Feline, is taking it's sweet time, but that's mostly because it's rewrites and revision.

I hope this next couple of weeks goes better.

Laters,
Tyvara