On the make.

Okay-- having knocked the dust and cobwebs and the MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT oh sorry it was just a leaf off my artsy side, it seems reasonable to run with it. (Especially since there's no way in hell I'm going to sign up for the OU this year. Not enough money and, to be quite honest, damn-all enthusiasm for academia at present.) So I've decided that by the time Lurid's job runs out (that's about a year from now), I want to have assembled a decent portfolio of artwork. I'm always doing this, BTW. I get my art skills so they're sort of okay, then I drop it all for a few months because of work or melty head or whatever and forget everything. Used to really bother me that I did that, but after awhile I noticed that every time I go back to something after a break, I suck at first but re-learn the skill pretty fast. By the time I drop it again I'll be a bit better than I was the last time I dropped it, and so on. Unless you can knock off a rich auntie or something, you have to resign yourself to this whole two steps forward, one step back deal, slotting in the non-moneymaking stuff when and where you can.

So, portfolio. Say, about 20 pieces, various subjects in various media, the first to be completed a month hence. Probably be a good idea to do some still-lives and stuff in pencil. I'll let you know how that goes. Hopefully I shall have a digital camera soon so I might be able to some of my things online.

On the writing front, I've been getting a lot better. Espresso is the new vodka'n'coke when it comes to my writer's block unblockers. The resulting bilge is useless for anything except dog-carcass fodder, but it gets you over the hump and that's the main thing. I've been finishing stuff off left, right and centre, and I'm psyching myself up for the next round of sending stuff out to webzines. Editors: Be afraid, be very afraid.