G’morning, mes amis. I’m in a reasonably good mood this morning, possibly because I slept something like 23 hours out of the 48 hour weekend. And I was going to blog about the weekend, and probably still will, but possibly not until tomorrow because today I’m going to hit you with something I mostly don’t do.
My friend and cover artist Skyla was harrangued by her friends into running a Birthday GoFundMe for what are really basic life necessities, including stuff like a bed to put her mattress on, groceries, and the never-ending vet bills for her cats (she used to work with cat rescue, and all of her kitties are ones who came home with her because no one else would take them. One is a true Disaster King and just randomly has massive medical emergencies every few months, apparently for the fun of it.)
She’s mortified by asking at all already, and it’s done very well, but if anybody’s got a spare coin for their witcher (and I know some of you have already donated: a thousand blessings upon your heads), the fundraiser is here, and she’s been convinced to actually splurge on a video game if it hits the next big rollover number. (Look, she went and bought herself a mocha frappe over the weekend, this is the level of indulgence she’s at, a video game is a big deal!)
A quick showcase of some of my covers she’s done for me, just so you have a reference point for Who Skyla Is To Us, The CE Murphy People:
She’s also responsible for, uh, basically 95% of the other premade covers I still have to write stories for, too:
which my GOD i need to get on bc look at all those great stories waiting to be told!
The point is mostly that I love Skyla and would like her to be able to take better care of herself, and also I would like to continue to mortify and embarrass her by having her fundraiser do way, way better than she ever imagined or expected, so I’m posting about it here and on my blog and probably even on FB (since I’ve been hitting it like a gong on bluesky and why miss an opportunity?), so if you can, drop her a few dollars?
And if you can’t, that’s entirely fine, okay? The world is what it is, and you guys are already so incredibly supportive. (Jesus, I just made myself cry. I’m such a sap these days, but honestly, you have no idea how much you’re all my big damn heroes.)
OKAY I HAVE TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT NOW BECAUSE I’VE GOT TOO MANY FEELS, so I tell you what, that top row of sword girl and stuff covers? I know exactly what I’m doing with them. I just have to FINISH THE HEARTSTRIKE TRILOGY so I can WRITE THEM. Although actually the first two are going to be novellas a la COMING TO AMERICA, so there’s no actual reason I can’t get with those except all the other stuff I’m behind on.
UGH I need more time because…I love writing. LOL. That’s why. I get excited over the possibilities of so many stories. I’m such a dork. :)