We can't be sad today!

Behold, internets! I bring you tidings of great joy. Today Ian Tregillis's Bitter Seeds is loose in the wild!

It's 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly ordinary man is caught in the middle.

Ian is, according to his website "a novelist, scientist, screenwriter, man of leisure, and mammal." He is also an excellent writer, who it's been my privilege to read since we were wee unpublished mammals in the OWW together. I have been waiting for this book for years, and today I get to put on pants and buy a copy! Rise up, my minions, enpant and buy your own!

Also, check out his smoking hot Palencar cover, of which my jealousy is very keen:

Blood and suckers

The octopus with skin tones. We still need the highlights and sucker colors.
Originally uploaded by Amanda Downum

Today I went in to get Octopussy finished, or so I thought. After an hour and a half, we had the shading and the skin tones done, and Scott's next appointment and my pain threshold had arrived.

Reader, this shit hurt. By the last fifteen minutes I was serious wondering how my failure mode would manifest if I crossed my pain threshold. I wouldn't throw up, but would I faint? I didn't think I would cry... Start spasming, maybe? I never found out, and I'm still a little curious.

So now I'll wait a few weeks and visit Scott in his new shop in San Marcos, and get this finished for ever and always. Really.

I went to pub trivia directly from the studio, and it was amusing to see people's reactions as I walked around with my arm dripping blood from under it's Saranwrap.