Fan Art and Commissions #5

It's been a while since I've done one of these fan art and commission hauls.  Let's do something about that, shall we?

First up we have this piece by the artist Pelycosaur24.  Inspired by the excellent Neil Gaiman comic Marvel 1602, I wanted to see what Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase would look like if they lived in the early 17th Century.  Thus we have Percy and Annabeth 1604.

It is always a pleasure to get to work with one of my favorite artists, and this piece was worth every penny.  I had them be Spanish because the Heart of the West always goes to whoever is the most powerful Western nation at a given time.  In 1604 that was arguably still Spain.  Annabeth's outfit incorporates elements from the Kamfrau and Trossfrau of Austria, because they were women who accompanied men onto the battlefield.  That was a suggestion from Pely, who is Austrian herself.  I especially love how the outfits evoke their present day clothes, while still being true to the fashions of the 17th Century.

This next one is inspired by that crossover fanfic I wrote combing Percy Jackson and the Olympians with DJ MacHale's Pendragon.  Well, those might have been the base two, but there are other territories and sub-territories in Halla.  Thus we have Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY and Mizore Shirayuki from Rosario+Vampire, travelers from the territory of Remnant and the sub-territory of Yokai Academy, training with Loor on Zadaa.  I'm very happy to have gotten a quality work at a modest price.  As a bonus, I got Stardust-Phantom, the South African artists who made this piece, into RWBY.

Speaking of Stardust-Phantom, that brings us to our next piece.  A Crossover Christmas Carol.  Starring Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist as Ebenezer Scrooge, Weiss Schnee from RWBY as The Ghost of Christmas Past, Bolin from Legend of Korra as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson as The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and Grover Underwood from Percy Jackson as Charles Dickens. 

We're blowing a turkey for Stardust-Phantom.  This one's another one relating to that Percy Jackson/Pendragon crossover.  Here we have Silena Beauregard giving Aja Killian some pegasus riding lessons and explaining a bit about the history of Camp Half-Blood.  Aja is less than thrilled at all of the potentially dangerous stuff that goes on at Camp Half-Blood.  

This one is another crossover clothes swap brought to us by BiCOV.  There was no plot to this one, I just wanted to see how they'd look in each other's clothes.  We've got Annabeth from Percy Jackson swapping with Kurumu from Rosario+Vampire, and Reyna from Heroes of Olympus swapping with Ahsoka from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Another quality piece at a bargain price.

Sometimes the fanfictions in my head take on a life of their own.  Case in point, this piece from SophiaBlackoodArt.  I don't exactly know how or why I started pairing Reyna and Ahsoka together, it's just one of those things that kind of just happened.  Well, in the Heroes of Olympus it was said that if Reyna found love it wouldn't be with a demigod, and Rick Riordan had considered making her lesbian.  Also, Ahsoka and Bariss certainly had there moments, as though the Clone Wars writers we're doing everything short of making them a couple.  Make of this what you will.

My inadvertent shipping of Reyna and Ahsoka proved so popular I actually got fan request to commission more art of them together.  That's where this piece from an Australian artist named makeupaname.  Here we have Reyna and Ahsoka celebrating Discovery of Puerto Rico Day, which is a real holiday by the way.  The invisible dude is Millard Nullings from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  The dude you can actually see is Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson.  

Speaking of makeupaname, we're got another piece from her.  We've got Superman, one of the most iconic heroes of the 20th Century, along side Percy Jackson, a hero of the 21st Century.  Superman is passing the torch to a new generation of heroes.  Percy isn't sure that he's worthy, but Superman is assuring him that he will do fine, that Percy made him proud, and that he knows the world will be in good hands.  

This piece is another one from LadyLoriel.  The Doctor from Doctor Who has been captured by Cthulu.  So, Dream from Neil Gaiman's Sandman has assembled a team of heroes from across time and space to save him.  We've got Percy Jackson, Bobby Pendragon, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, and Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena.  They're alert on the streets of an abandoned city as Dream watches over them.  

We'll finish off with another piece from LadyLoriel.  In this one, Inuyasha traveled to the present day to help the Silver Bullets fight crime, but was a bit too reckless with destruction of public property.  So a judge sentenced him to either time in jail or community service.  He opted for community service, which turned out to be volunteering at a summer camp.  So here he is with Skuld from Ah! My Goddess, Arnold from The Magic School Bus and SpongeBob SquarePants.  They're lost in the woods just as the sun is beginning to set.  SpongeBob doesn't seem to mind though.  

Well, I think that should do it for now.  Hopefully we'll be able to do this again soon.  Until then, I will see you guys next time. 

Interview: Pelycosaur24

I'm taking a small break from my Riordan Retrospectives.  I've just gotten a major break with my writing career, and I need to focus on that for the moment.  However, I'm not going to leave you guys empty-handed.  I've got another interview today.  We've having a brief chat with Pelycosaur24 from DeviantArt.  She's made some really nice commissioned art for me, which I'll hopefully get to share with you guys soon.  So, without further ado, let's get started.

1) In your own words, tell us who you are

I am someone with a lot of different interests - which has led to four different university studies (I am currently working on my master’s thesis). My hobbies include experimental archaeology, archery, sword fighting and of course drawing.

2) I understand that you're from Austria. Can you tell the readers a bit about what life is like in Austria?

It is very different than life in America, I imagine, but I am very happy to live in Austria, what I love most about this country is the great balance between modern times and historical presence. Most cities have existed at least since the middle ages and there are a lot of old houses everywhere. But of course, we have a lot of nature too, mostly mountains and forests.

3) What got you into art?

I used to write short stories and wanted to get a better picture of my characters, so I started illustrating my stories

4) Is there any story behind your user name?

I just love mammal-like reptiles, but there is no particular story behind the name

5) What is a typical day like for you?

Since I joined the army 2 months ago, a typical day for me now begins at 6 am and consists mostly of marching and combat training.

6) What historical era is your favorite? Relatedly, what historical figure do you most admire?

That is a tough question, but I think I go with the roman republic. Corresponding with that one of the historical figures that fascinates me most is Tiberius Gracchus. The historical figure I most admire would probably be Archduke Charles, a 19th century Austrian military commander.

7) What is your favorite prehistoric creature and why?

My favorite Dinosaur has always been Iguanodon (also because I love the history of paleontology and the story of how Iguanodon was discovered), while my favorite prehistoric mammal is the cave bear (the most common prehistoric animal in Austria - 30.000 have been found in one cave near where I live).

8) Are there any works of fiction that you're a fan of?

I generally really love Pixar and DreamWorks movies (especially Kung Fu Panda), and I also really like the show Primeval.

9) Any advice for aspiring artists?

Just always keep practicing, and from time to time you can compare your drawings and reflect on your progress.

10) What are you working on at the moment?

I had a rather big drawing project where I drew lots of people from the Chalcolithic and now I am working on some backgrounds for them, and of course I have my Stone Age movie reviews that I write every other week.

11) What does the future hold for you?

Right now, I just want to get through basic training and finish my master’s thesis at the same time.  Then I will see what I do from there.

12) Any closing remarks, and where can the readers find you?

You can find my drawings at my DeviantArt page or on my Facebook page. I appreciate every like and favorite.  

Interview: LadyLoriel

Today we've got another interview from one of the artists I frequently commission things from. She's known as LadyLoriel over on Deviantart, but in real life her name is Sofie. She's an artist from Sweden, and without further ado let's get on to the interview.

1) In your own words, tell us who you are.

Well, my name is Sofie but I’m also known as LadyLoriel and some other names on the internet, though LadyLoriel is the main one. I’m mainly a hobby artist and writer who enjoy working with Fantasy themes a lot.

2) I understand that you are from Sweden, can you tell us a bit about what life is like in Sweden?

Well, I guess peaceful is the best word to use in my case. I live in the north of Sweden in the middle of a forest at the moment. So, as you can imagine I don’t exactly have to deal with loud neighbours or anything like that. Over all I’m not sure how to describe the life here as I never lived in a different country. But I can say that if you like snow and long dark winters, and not a lot of people around then North Sweden is a good place to be.

3) Is there any story behind your user name?

There isn’t much of a story behind the username LadyLoriel to be honest. Loriel was the name of a city in a Fantasy series written by Niklas Krog that I enjoyed a lot when I was younger. So, I started of using that as a name for a character I played when I tried Utopia for the first time about 11-12 years ago. And Lady later became added to it as it was a title I gained in Utopia. Since then it just got stuck with me.

4) What inspired you to be an artist?

I don’t know if there was ever a specific inspiration as much as it was just something I enjoyed at first. I didn’t start drawing until I was about 16-17 and I thought it was fun and sort of relaxing so I just kept doing it and along the way I got to know other artists who in turn inspired me to improve and try new things with art.

5) What works of fiction are you a fan of?

There are a lot, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Locke Lamora book series. I absolutely love those stories and eagerly await the 4^th book now. But besides that I do enjoy J.R.R Tolkin’s work, The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and similar Fantasy books.

6) What other interests or hobbies do you have?

Well, video games are one of the things that take my time. Especially when I get a sudden urge to play through old LucasArt or Sierra games, or reply Skyrim. I also do bake a lot (but might also come from that I studied to be a baker)

7) What's a typical day like for you?

It mostly consists of waiting to be called in for work (which can be a day, evening, or night shifts) and looking for a more stable job. And walking the dogs of course. When I have some time for it I do work on art (be it commissions or for myself. Depends on what kind of art day I have)

8) What advice do you have for aspiring artists?

Keep drawing what you like to draw, if someone gives you constructive critic or give you an advice do take it and learn from it. You might not have to follow it, but it can contain a point that helps you improve. And lastly… Don’t shy away from references, they are excellent to help you get a pose down or see how proportions and anatomy work. Learn from references and you will be able to learn to break things down and work without them in the future.

9) What are you working on at the moment?

Well commissions are my main priority at the moment. Got more at once than I thought I would, which surprised me. But other than that, I do have my own project that I work on, there are about 15 of them. I have finally started to write some properly and not just small scenes. I also sometimes draw some quick things for contests and groups on dA.

10) Do you have any plans for the future?

Well, getting a stable job first of all. But, when it comes to my art and writing, I do hope to one day be able to publish one of my stories, and maybe try to learn to draw comics (since it’s a thing I would like to do but have yet to learn).

11) Obviously, I've commissioned a lot of stuff from you, but before you go tell us where other people can commission you and find you?

Well easiest way to contact me would be to send me a note on ladyloriel.deviantart.com/
but you may also get a hold of me at toyhou.se/Ladyloriel
In the future I might also set up a specific email address for those who aren’t comfortable with using these sites, but as it is right now I don’t have one set up.
I also have a page on Facebook, that is rather new, where I can be reached. It’s simply called Art of LadyLoriel

Fan Art and Commissions #4

Well, I'm a bit behind on that big surprise I promised you guys.  If you follow me on social media you'll probably have some inkling about what that is.  If you don't follow me on social media, hey, now's as good a time to start as any.  That's also why I've been kind of radio silent and haven't been posting as much as I should have.  So, I've got a little something for you today to help hold you over. That's right, we're going to be doing another installment of the Fan Art and Commissions series.

First up we have a piece created by an artist by the name of SophiaBlackwoodArt.  It features Percy Jackson as the Red Might Morphin Power Ranger and Edward Elric as the Blue Turbo Ranger.

As you probably guess by now, this was yet another result of my never truly realized fanfic Adventures of the Silver Bullets.  The part these pic were inspired by dealt with the city of New Avalon being threatened by the Psycho Rangers.  The Silver Bullets get a visit from Tsukune Aono, who has been studying under Tommy Oliver himself.  Tsukune has a brief case full of morphers, and he's come to lend them to the Silver Bullets.  You can see what Percy and Ed got to be.  Anyway, let's move on.

Here we have another great piece from Sophia.  This time with Annabeth Chase and Kurumu Korono dressed as each other.  There maybe have been a back story here, but it escapes me at the moment.  It could even be as simple as "well, why not?"  Then again, there's not too much Percy Jackson/Rosario+Vampire crossover art, so always nice to add more.  In fact, I think I've single handedly made that a thing.  Plus it kind of fun how their outfit contrast with their personalities somewhat.

Now we return to our old friend LadyLoriel for another commission that I call Safari So Good.  Backstory here was that it was a slow day and the Bullets needed some entertainment.  So Percy took it upon himself to breakout some board games.  Unfortunately, he happened to grab the game Jumanji, and completely ignored all the of obvious warnings to not touch it.  Annabeth and Kurumu were arguing because they both really like Percy, so the game suck them in to teach them to get along.  Reyna and Mizore, who were standing close by, got dragged along for the ride.  So the four of them were transported to the jungle world of Jumanji, and they'll have to finish the game to get back home.

I didn't actually commission this one, but I would have if Bruce Monroe hadn't made it on his own.  It's a map of the world of Le Morte D'Arthur.  It's based on a series of short stories Harry Turtledove wrote that are based in the 22nd Century.  The United States and Soviet Union have fallen from power, but many other nations have risen to power.  Western Europe has become United Europe; Eastern Europe opted to become a separate nation.  Siberia has revived the Russian monarchy, Japan is kicking ass once again, Israel was crushed by a federated Arab League, and there are space colonies throughout the solar system.  It's not exactly alternate history, though it's retroactively become so, but still lot's of fun. 

Here's another fun one, even if I didn't pay for it.  It's called Progress Comes to Valhalla.  Basically, it's what the world would be if Norse Mythology was true.  Despite this, as the name suggests, there's quite a bit of technological progress.  You really should read Bruce's write-up that goes with this one.  It's fun to see the way's the Norse gods and modern technology combine to make one great scenario.  It's also interesting to see the ways the Christian and Muslim nations reached to learning that they're living in a Norse mythological world.  Fun times all around.  So, moving on to things I did commission.

So here we have another commission from Shinoharaa.  This time Holo from Spice and Wolf as Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena.  There isn't really too much more to add here, so let's keep moving on with the list.

For this one we have Mizore Shirayuki as Kirara from Samurai 7.  This one was especially good because she looks kind of like a character from a story I'm working on.  Good for helping me better visualize characters.  Now you're probably working about what that story is.  For now I'm keeping that under wraps, but you'll probably find out soon enough.

We'll finish out the list with Kaname Chidori from Full Metal Panic! as Eris from Cat Planet Cuties.  Shinoharaa has recently stopped taking commissions, though he has started a Patreon.  That means this will probably be my last batch of commissions to include something from Shinoharaa from the conceivable future.  But don't be sad, there's going to be plenty of other great commissions in the future.

Well, that's a wrap for this edition of Fan Art and Commissions.  I hope you've all had a great time.  There's going to be even more fun in the future, so I hope you'll join me next time.  Hmm...I really should add a bit more here.  Uh...hope you're days are going well?  Yeah, I wish all of you a good day.   

     

    

  

   

Fan Art and Commissions # 3

Well it looks like the time has come once again to look at some of the fan art that I've had commissioned.  First up we've got a piece by Brazilian artist Desinho.  Actually, its a two-for-one special.  Same art but slightly different.  Based on my fanfic idea Adventure of the Silver Bullets, and that's just what it's called.

From left to right we've got Nico di Angello, Mizore Shiryuki, Mako, Reyna Ramirez and Ashoka Tano.  As you might have guessed, Reyna and Ashoka are lesbians, Mako and Mizore are good friends, and Mako and Nico are gay.  It started out mainly as way to troll shippers, but I came to genuinely love the various parings.  It helps that Nico is canonically gay, and we get some subtle hints that Reyna might be lesbian in the books.  Also, many Star Wars fans have noted that Ashoka always seemed to have more chemistry with female characters rather than male.    

The story here is that the Silver Bullets just finished a major mission and these five are going on vacation to San Fransokyo.  Yes, the one from Big Hero Six.  Anyway, let's move on.       

This is a map I had commissioned from Bruce Monroe based on my pal Matt Mitrovich's scenario What Happens Next? Hammer and Cross.  Originally, I was going to make this map myself, but I wasn't confident in my skills, so I handed the reigns over to Bruce.  When this map came out Matt was having a very rough weekend and was going through some self-doubt, but then he saw this map and it renewed his confidence and made him happy.  It is so good when art, especially art I commission, can do great things like that.  It even got featured for Map Monday.  Speaking of commissioned art doing great things.  

Here's a map based on my flag of The Russian Philippines.  It was created by the great map maker Lynn Davis.  Lynn was going through some though finical times when this map was commissioned.  I had always wanted a map made by Lynn, and I wanted to help out a friend, so it killed two birds with one stone.  I mean, just look at it!  It's super professional quality, and Lynn helped iron-out the creases in the scenario.  I hope one day to commission another great map from Lynn in the future.  It also go featured for Map Monday.  

And here we have another creation from out pal Alan Garcia.  This time we have Minami Shimada from Baka and Test as Sailor Mars.  I especially love the little spell scroll she's got.  Not really much more to add on this one that I haven't said about past Sailor Moon crossovers.  So let's move on to the final edition to the list.

To round out the list of commissions and fan art we have C.C. from Code Geass and Sailor Saturn.  You can check out my review of Code Geass over here.  You can always count on Alan Garcia for quality art work.  This might be my last Sailor Moon commission for a bit.  I'm thinking about mixing it up and doing something different next time, but you'll have to wait and see about that. 

There's no honorable mentions this time around.  Well, that concludes another look at my fan art and commissions.  I hope you had fun and maybe we can do this again soon.  I'll see you guys next time.    

   

    

   

Interview: Alan Garcia

I've decided that it's high time I started kicking this blog into gear and seriously committing to it. As the first step towards this I've decided to take inspiration from Matt Mitrovitch and Dave Rubin by interview several people whom I happen to admire greatly, or just anyone I think will be worth interviewing. To kick things off we're going to start with one of my favorite artists from DeviantArt, and one who's art has been featured here quite a few times: Alan Garcia aka Shinoharaa.

Also, side note, if you haven't seen The Rubin Report and all the amazing stuff Dave Rubin is doing then do yourself a favor and check it out. Anyway, let's all give a big Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder welcome to Alan Garcia.


Welcome to Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder. To start, tell us who Alan Garcia is, in your own words.

 Hello! My name is Alan Garcia, also known as Shinohara. I'm a 21 years old Brazilian artist (mostly digital) from Sao Paulo, and I work with anime webgames.  


A lot of what you do is vector work. For our readers who may not have heard of it, can you briefly describe what that is?

Vector artist is something like getting a low quality image and remaking it in a bigger resolution. I use my own style in a 8000x8000 resolution, using what I learned from another artists' styles, mainly from meshugene89 (meshugene89.deviantart.com/), that is my first inspiration.


Your user name is Shinoharaa. Is there any story behind that name?

Actually it should be Shinohara, but that was taken I create an account, so I put another 'A' hahahah. When I was a child, I need a nickname for my in-game character. For some magical reason I chose Shinohara and uses it until today. Currently, I only play with female characters with nickname Ayumi and Usuki, but between you and me, I think that wouldn’t be very much like an artist name for me.

What inspired you to be an artist?

My entire family is made of artists. My mother painted pictures, my brother drew on paper and my father worked with TV commercials. I remember watching my brother drawing Dragon Ball characters and I started too. But I was always bad at drawing something from my mind, so since I was a kid I put the original picture beside the paper and I copied onto the paper.

When I started play Naruto games, I was the one player who was boring with new ideas and layouts, but there were characters in the game that did not have good renders over the Internet, such as drunk Rock Lee, and then I learned in one day using the Paint Tool SAI and started making characters that had no pictures on the internet to use in the game.

With time I started to get better and people started asking me to do a specific character. With more and more requests, I began to see the future in the business and began to charge pretty cheap for the arts. When I received more than 20 requests and took months to finish all, I decided to raise the price, and fortunately the people have recognized my work enough to continue the requests.

I can say that I am very lucky to work on two things I like and still be able to connect both.

You're obviously a pretty big anime fan. Do you have any favorites?

ANGEL BEATS! Oh, sorry. Yeah, I love the animation and the music from Fairy Tail, the characters from Sword Art Online, the history from many. I really like Naruto, maybe because I know every name on the anime. It’s like how some people know the name of every Pokémon for me hahah, but I admit I never watched entire classic saga. I saw only until the fight between Lee and Gaara. Yeah, I never watched Orochimaru invasion, or the famous Naruto and Sasuke epic clash on the Valley of the End, but I watched Shippuuden since the very first episode, every week, including the infinite fillers

But definitely I have two favorite animes: Angel Beats and Steins;Gate. Angel Beats is really fun, beautiful, exciting, sad but perfect! Steins;Gate, with issues about time travel and John Titor, holy shit, my mind blows up!

What can you tell us about the Brazilian anime fandom?

Well, I can talk about the players from the games that I work. They like everything, but they are crazy about the famous ones like Sword Art Online, Shingeki no Kyojin, One Punch Man, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach. You know, the main ones. Hehe!

What's a typical day like for you?

Well, I wake up 8am, go to work and back home by almost 8pm. I have from 8pm until 2am to do what I can. Play. Draw. Parachute jump. Anything. When I have a really big commission list, I try to focus on it, but without inspiration is really boring and it never ends, so I play something (STAR WAAAAARS NOOWWW).

When I’m inspired, sometimes I start and finish on the same day. But sometimes, if it’s a hard one, I can take 1 or 2 weeks, and that kills me.

What's it like making one of your crossover commissions?

I love it. I love the challenge of drawing it, and when someone comments that both characters have something in common, like the seiyuu. Btw, right now I’m drawing 5 crossovers that I always want to do, just keep watching.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing some characters that I always wanted to draw (secret), some Hot Spring ones (oh, I miss drawing those) and maybe some Disney ones (I love Disney hahah). Oh, and my brother told me to trying draw League of Legends Splash Arts in anime style. Well, we will see, hahah.

Any advice for aspiring artists?

DO IT! JUST DO IT! Don't let your dreams, be dreams! Yesterday, you said tomorrow, so JUST DO I---wait, that's not mine, LOL. Well, you draw bad? No problem. You need keep going, improve, learn. You just became better if you never stop! As the famous quote says, an artist never ends an art, it just abandons. Never is good enough, so you need to know when stop and start another, better than the first one. Try new styles, improve the same. Find your motivation!

Well it was really great having you over. Before you go, where can the readers find you if they want to commission you or drop a donation your way?

Thanks for inviting me! Just access my DeviantArt account Shinoharaa (shinoharaa.deviantart.com/) and keep watching my journal. I open the commissions for 1-2 weeks every time I finish the commission list

 

Griffalco's Fictional ISOT TL

In today's post we're going to talk about the rise and fall of my first, and thus far only, timeline on Alternatehistory.com.  Wait, what?

Yes, it was called Griffalco's Fictional ISOT TL.  My user name is Nick Griffalco, and if you've ever encountered a user by that name then surprise, that was me.  It was inspired by the Fictional ISOT Map Games, but like my timeline you'll need an account to view those as they're in the Shared World's section.  My timeline is in the Alien Space Bats and Other Magics section, which you also need an account to view, but more on that in a minute.  

The Fictional ISOT map games involve players transporting fictional nations, characters, objects and various other things to an Earth devoid of human life.  Then each player writes a post describing how things play out.  Each post covers anywhere from a third to a quarter of a year.  These games are always creative, I learn about a lot of new series and it's always a lot of fun.  There have been plenty of spin-off timeline written by single author, and so I decided to try my hand at it.  

Actually, it really all started when I decided to create a series of Fictional ISOT maps to post in the map section; which can be viewed without an account by the way.  However, I decided it would be even better if I were to create a proper timeline for the maps to be a part of; so I did.  By the way, ISOT is alternate history slang for a mass teleportation, usually to the past, named for SM Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time trilogy   

The timeline was essentially a scrapbook from an alternate world.  It included excerpts from encyclopedia and newspaper articles, interviews, short fiction, documentary manuscripts, news announcements and much more.  I made sure to fill it up with all kinds of fun series like Percy Jackson, Legend of Korra, Fullmetal Alchemist, Code Geass, Leviathan, Captain Planet, Hunger Games, Neanderthal Parallax, and a whole lot more.  I figured it would be kind of like writing fanfiction, which I have experience with, so how hard could it be?

My style was considered a welcome twist on the Fictional ISOT timeline, and I received kind words and encouragement from many ISOT timeline experts/veterans.  I even got a shout out in a thread about ISOT timelines.  It stood poised to be a great timeline and potentially one of the next big things on Alternatehistory.com.  So, what happened?

Drgyen happened, that's what.  He started out as just another commenter and I was more than happy to have someone to talk about the timeline with.  Soon, however, I was talking with Drgyen more than posting updates to the timeline.  Then things started to get ugly.  Drgyen went from simply suggesting how the timeline ought to go to practically demanding that his ideas be made canon.  Speaking of cannon, I stated from the start that I was going to have a very pick an choose attitude to the canon of the various series I used.  Drgyen, however, always made a point of telling me, in the harshest and most aggressive and attacking way possible, whenever I'd contradicted canon.  

For that matter, Drgyen tended to be excessively aggressive and attacking even when it turned out I hadn't made a mistake.  I should have showed him the door, I should have seen his behavior as a red flag from the start but alas I didn't.  I was so happy someone was commenting I didn't want to screw it up, but I fear I may have in the process inadvertently driven away more level-headed (and much more civilized) readers.  Admittedly, I only really had the vaguest of ideas how I wanted things to go, and I was in large part making it up as I went along, but that certainly didn't excuse Drgyen's excessively attacking and frankly asinine behavior.    

After awhile I began to feel like Paul Sheldon from Stephen King's Misery.  I'd promised myself I'd stop the timeline if it ever quit being fun and began feeling more like a chore.  I wasn't going to continue if it mean I was going to constantly get screamed at no matter what I did.  It got to the point that I could have kicked Drgyen out, but the timeline was such a jumbled mess and so far from my original vision that I decided there was no point going on and so I pulled the plug.  

Still, I made sure to write a farewell address and formal closer to all the fans who'd stuck by through thick and thin, and who had conducted themselves in a much more civilized and polite manner.  I included details on what would have happened and how it all would have had a happy ending (I'm a sucker for those).  I did consider rebooting the timeline and starting from scratch using the lessons I'd learned from the first timeline, but the passion was gone and I wanted to move on to other projects.  

Still, it wasn't all for naught.  I did learn about writing timelines, I got to meet writers I admire and I even got a few good scene/bits of writing after all.  My favorite bits were about the Planeteers (assembled from across the nations of the ISOT), the Olympics and the start of the Jaeger program to combat the Kaiju invasion.  As you can see it was pretty crazy, but maybe it just might have worked under the right circumstances.  

Still, I'd hate to end this post on a sour note.  So, as a special treat I'll show you three maps from various points in the timeline.  

First we have a map from just after the initial ISOT

Next we have from a few years down the line as more nations appear

Finally, we have a map from a few more years after the second map, and when things start to really get fun/crazy

Not featured are the various aliens, both from other planets and other dimensions, that started to show up at this point as well.  What more can I say?  It was crazy, fun up until a point and I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about it.     

Nile High

So now we get to the prose I made for Fictionpress, but I should probably do some explaining first.  Fictionpress is the original fiction version of FanFiction.  You can write what you want in a wide variety of genres as long as what you write is original and only owned by you.  Not the most exciting of descriptions, but there you have it.

So, my main prose work on Fictionpress is called Nile High.  Imagine if various gods from across mythologies were teenagers attending the same boarding school.  That's the basic premise of Nile High.  Told from the points of view of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek goddess Athena.  It started off fairly episodically as a wacky romantic comedy, but there was always something of an overarching plot simmering in the background.  Admittedly, I was kind of making it up as I went along, and eventually things did get more cohesive, as well as a little bit Darker and Edgier.  By the later chapters it had turned into an epic battle for the future of the world.  Of course, I do love happy endings, and so naturally everything works out for the best in the end.  

The world it took place in was an intentionally anachronistic setting that ran on essentially Bronze Age Flintstones technology.  Basically, the gods and goddesses could encounter pre-modern civilization I wanted while still having modern tech like TVs and cellphones.  Essentially, I had a sort of anything  goes mentality with the series.  There were also little touches to reminded the audience that the main characters are deities, like how they say "Oh My Me!" instead of "Oh My God"  

Speaking of anything going, one of my favorite parts of the series was the way that I got to write about multiple pantheons of gods and goddesses coexisting and interacting.  It was equally fun working out what everyone's personalities would be.  I also indulged in a bit of satire by portraying the various heroes as Hollywood (or Helenawood, as the case maybe) stars that long to go to school like everyone else.  As the the teachers of the academy, I recruited the finest figures form Arthurian Legend, the 1001 Arabian Nights and various other sources that I could find.  Presiding over it all is none other than the good wizard Merlin.  

Admittedly, the Greek and Egyptian pantheons got the most attention, but that was kind of to be expected give that the story is told by an Egyptian god and a Greek goddess.  Still, I like to think I did a fairly good job representing the other pantheon.  There's hardly any myth or legend I consider too obscure for my purposes, so if you aren't careful you just might learn something new.   

You can tell I was a younger writer when I wrote Nile High, but that is to be expected.  Since I made it up as I went along there's things I'd probably change now that I have clearer image of the plot and characters development, but overall I'm still very happy with how it turned out, and I often find myself rereading it from time to time.  

It was a labor of love, there were a lot of grammar and spelling errors (I was busy and had a lot on my plate at the time), but it was worth it in the end.  I had ideas for similar "unusual boarding school" series involving everything from aliens, to superheroes to a squeal to Nile High.  However, Nile High ultimately turned out to be a tough act to follow, and those ideas never got very far.  

Fear not, for there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Nile High was just such a great idea and just had so much potential that I couldn't just abandon it.  I'm going to revive the concept as a series of short stories, and perhaps one day a novel or two.  I'm going to be tinkering around with things and there will be some differences to makes things more cohesive.  However, I hope to preserve the spirit of the original Nile High.  

So, a few thoughts I had on the alterations I'm going to make for the new Nile High stories.  I might have the Egyptians be students for as long as everyone else rather than recent transfers.  The Roman Pantheon will exist as well, but I'll possibly have them and a few other pantheons at a different school.  I had sort of set up Triton to be Athena's rival, but it never really went anywhere; in the new stories I'll have Kymopoleia, goddess of violent sea storms, to fill that role.  

I'll probably have the heroes and monsters at schools for their own.  Thor will be a bit more articulate and won't refer to himself in the third person.  However, he'll still lovable and book dumb, and he'll be co-best friends with Anubis.  Similarly, Nike will be there from the beginning, and that means Persephone might end up with a more reduced role.  I'm also considering incorporating the Lovecraft Mythos at some point.  

Since the only real limits are my imagination, there's room for all kinds of stories.  I've already got plans for a story set in Tartessos that'll be a send up to Spaghetti Westerns, and I've even got plans to send the gods and goddesses into space.  I might even do a Victorian Steampunk alternate universe story at some point.  Whatever I decide on, I know it'll be a lot of fun, and I know you'll love it.  

I also figured I could included stories set from the points of view of characters other than Thoth and Athena.  Hey, there's a lot of gods and goddesses out there and a lot of potential stories to be had.  Naturally, it wouldn't be one of stories if there weren't satire and pop culture references, and that means even more plot opportunities.  Only thing I'm seriously left to figure is who'd be the best magazine to sell the stories to once they're written, and which podcast would do them the most  justice.  

It's the pride and joy of my Fictionpress account, then again it's the only thing I wrote on Fictionpress besides my poems, but it's still great.  Go ahead and check it out, and I'll keep you guys posted on any developments with the new Nile High stories.  

Adventures of the Silver Bullets

So in this post we're going to talk about the other pride and joy of my fanfiction career besides Penjackson.  This post is all about Adventures of the Silver Bullets.  I conceived it as a massive crossover with the entirety of fiction at my finger tips.  Basically, the thinking I had for the series is that all fiction is true, but not all fiction is an accurate representation of what happened.  This allowed for characters being slightly off kilter and for me to thinker and juggle things around for the sake of plot.

The setting is actually a multiverse so that anything mutually contradictory could be relocated to a different universe.  Of course, travel between universes is pretty common in these worlds.  Anyway, the plot is that L, the great detective of DeathNote, has assembled a team of young heroes to fight crime in the city of New Avalon and beyond.  Said team includes Percy Jackson, Kurumu Kurono and Mizore Shiriyuki, Edward and Alphonse Elric, and Mako and Bolin.  Joining them would have been a wide selection of former heroes to serve as their mentors including Tenzin, Izumi Curtis and Major Armstrong, and Kraft Lawrence and Holo the Wise Wolf.   

As the title suggests, I originally intended it to a lighthearted Silver Age of Comic Books-esque parody of various tropes and conventions with a fairly episodic nature to it.  Before we go any further I should point out I only ever put out two posts of it, I hit a block with the third and got side tracked by various other things.  So, most of this will be about what I had planned more than what I actually got out.  Just letting you know.  

Anyway, as I planned the series out in my head I decided to keep the lighthearted and episodic tone, but I wanted to allow for character development and exploring some of the darker aspects of the various worlds and characters I used.  For example, Percy start out with a very silly, goofy, happy-go-lucky personality and a perpetually sunny disposition.  Later, however, it becomes apparent that this is a mask he wears to deal with the pain and loss he experienced fighting in the Titan War.  Mizore, meanwhile, has to deal with the whole yuki-onna are sterile by their mid-twenties thing.  That, and dodging repercussions from the yokai community, lead to her wondering about moving to America permanently.  

Then there were the things I figured would make interesting plots, but might have gotten me in trouble with various fangirls.  To start, I was planning on having Mako come out of the closet.  Given how Korra and Asami are canonically lesbian this was pretty Hilarious in Hindsight.  Other people slated to come out of the closet included Nico Di Angelo, and keep in mind that was before he canonically did as well.  However, the biggest shocking swerve was a heterosexual romance.  I was planning on pairing Percy and Kurumu together.  I had originally intended them to have a brother-sister relationship, but the more I worked it out in my head the more I liked them as a couple.             

The villains would very from affably evil punk clock evils, to down right scary.  They were to be part of an organization known as the League of Evil People Doing Evil Things in a Very Evil Way.  They were from across fiction, but lead by the mysterious Man in the Ivory Mask.  The big real was that he was in fact none other than...Harry Potter.  Yeah, in the world of the Silver Bullets the Harry Potter books didn't exactly match up with what actually went down.  That was really an end of series reveal, nothing would be the same and there would be no going back after that point.  

The biggest factor to the cosmology of the series would have been L.  One of the big revelations was to be that he was in fact an immortal almost god-level being, and I could never quite name what his kind would be called.  He would have been thousands of years old, and would have been involved in a polyandrous relationship with about four wives and one husband; said group included Urd, Princess Celestia, Kraft Lawrence and Holo the Wise Wolf.  However, his favorite was always Elsa, but she'd died many years ago, and he would have still been very much impacted by her passing.  

Another big revelation would have been that L was secretly the father of one of the Silver Bullets.  Quick, which if the Bullets looks most like L?  If you said Mizore, then ding, ding, ding, you said the magic word!  Speaking of sudden relations it was going to be a plot point that Percy and Mizore were both descendants of the royal house of Arendelle via Anna and Kristoff, and thus indirectly Elsa as well.  

Well, enough seriousness, let's talk about some of the fun I had planned.  I had so many great ideas that I never got around to realizing.  I had plans for an episode (as I call the chapters) that had Inuyasha team up with the Bullets, but he gets in trouble for destruction of public property and has to perform community service.  Said community service being to volunteer at a summer camp, and having to deal with Percy's perpetually sunny attitude.  Inuyasha initially tires to get fired, but comes to find he likes working with kids.  Also, Lovecraftian monstrosities show up and ass-kicking ensues.  

Another planned idea I had was for the Bullets to enter a racing competition, either for charity or because some villains were in the competition as well.  Ed was to be the driver with everyone else as pit crew, but he gets amnesia in a training accident.  While everyone else tries to get Ed's memory back, Al and Mizore go to train in the art of "car-ate" under the guidance of Keiichi Morisato.  Unfortunately, they don't have a car, but Ms. Frizzle loans them the Magic School Bus.  At the end of the episode the Ah! My Godess character move in with the team.  

I'd also planned for the Silver Bullets to travel to the planet Zur-En-Arrh to team up with their counter parts.  I'd also planned stories featuring alternate universe counterparts to the Silver Bullets, including one universe where they're villains rather than heroes.  Of course, since the Silver Bullets are an international organization with multiple branches, there was always the potential for exploring other teams, or teaming up with other characters.  I'd even had a big event involving Bullets from multiple teams temporarily becoming Power Rangers.  

You're probably wondering why I had them in a fictional American city if I had so many anime characters.  The reason is that I know how to fake an American city better than I can fake a Japanese city.  Also, it came with some great Fish Out of Water moments.  I also planned a series of recurring gags, like Ed not believing Percy is really a demigod, Bolin lusting after Kurumu while she lusts after Ed, Mizore and Al having weird skills they learned from late night TV, and much more.  

I could go on, but I'd be rambling.  Hey, it my blog and I can do whatever I please.  No, I should wrap it up.  Clearly, I was very excited about Adventures of the Silver Bullets.  I still think about it and get new ideas a lot.  Maybe I'll update it again some day, or maybe I'll post snippets of ideas here to the blog.  All isn't necessarily lost, however, I've recently commissioned some art based on the fanfic on Deviantart, and I've got to tell you I'm very excited and please with the results.  Expect that in a future post or two.  

Now that we've covered my FanFiction we can move on to my poems and prose I posted on Fictionpress.  That's a post for next time, and I'll see you then.  

PenJackson: A Traveler for Camp Half-Blood

Well, now that we've got the bad stuff out of the way we can move on to the great and the top notch.  My absolute pride and joys, as far as fanfiction is concerned, are Penjackson: A Traveler For Camp Half-Blood and The Adventures of The Silver Bullets.  We'll talk about Penjackson, my crossover between Percy Jackson and Pendragon, first.  However, we're going to need to cover some background before we get into that.

I'm willing to bet that most of you are familiar with Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or at the very least you've probably heard of it.  Conversely, I'm willing to wager that not all of you are familiar with DJ MacHale's Pendragon series; also known as The Pendragon Adventure and Pendragon: Journal of an Adventure Through Time and Space.  With that in mind, I'll do my best to summarize the Pendragon series.  

Pendragon follows the adventures of a boy named Bobby Pendragon, who discovers that he's a member of an organization of known as the Travelers.  Travelers use the tunnel/wormhole things known as flumes to travel to other worlds known as Territories.  Territories are other planets, located in other star systems, in other universes.  The Territories are part of Halla; all of existence, or the multiverse if you will.  Territories sooner or later reach a critical turning point, and it's the Traveler's job to insure that all goes well.  Or, to put in in Traveler terms, insure that this is the way it was mean to be. The Travelers are opposed by Saint Dane; an evil shapeshifting Traveler who wants to remake Halla in his twisted image.  

Each of the Territories is unique and has a different flavor to it.  Part of what I love about the books how this means there's something new to discover in each book.  We've Medieval and snowy Denduron, the tropical ocean world of Cloral, virtual reality addicted Veelox, jungle and cat dominated Eelong, the tribal warrior world of Zadaa, corporately controlled Quillan, and last but not least Ibara.  There are three Earth Territories, each representing Earth in a different time period.  First Earth in 1937, Second Earth in the present day and Third Earth in 5010.  The Travelers relate their adventures as a series of journals they send back to friends on their home Territories, known as acolytes.  

Now, at this point I feel I ought to warn you that from here on we're going to handle some potential spoilers for Pendragon, spoilers for my fanfic and possibly a few for Percy Jackson as well, so if you don't like that sort of thing I suggest that you stop reading this post right now.  

People who want to avoid spoilers gone?  Good, now then, let's get on with it.  Keep in mind, this was from a few years ago, there are spelling mistakes and the writing isn't as polished as my writing these days.  

So, my fanfic combining Percy Jackson and Pendragon is called PenJackson: A Traveler for Camp Half-Blood.  It follows Silena Beauregard, minor character and daughter of Aphrodite, as she discovers one night, after she meets Bobby Pendragon, that she is a Traveler.  How is this possible?  You see, there's been shifts in Halla.  Series of sub-territories have opened up; Territories within Territories, if you will.  As such, these new sub-territories have there own Travelers, and Silena is the traveler from Second Camp Half-Blood.  

This was the fanfic I really came into my own, and still remains one of the pride and joys of my fanfiction career.  It gave me experience writing from a female perspective, and I know it do sound a bit stereotypicaly girly at points, but Silena is a daughter of Aphrodite, and I had I made sequels like I intended that would have gotten smoothed out thanks to character development.  

I also feel I absolutely nailed it with the balance between the Pendragon and Percy Jackson elements.  The majority of the story is Pendragon with Percy Jackson elements added for flavor, while the bits set on Second Earth are Percy Jackson with Pendragon elements added for flavor.  The characters from both series find themselves in strange new worlds they don't fully understand, but they take it in stride and do their best to figure it out.  Both series serve to compliment each other without one overwhelming the other.  I also loved how I tied the series together with each other.  I had Beckendorf be from Stony Brook and know Mark, Courtney and Bobby from school.  I set the series after Battle of the Labarinth on the Percy Jackson end of things, and between The Quillian Games and The Pilgrims of Rayne on the Pendragon end of things.  

Besides monsters from Greek Mythology appearing across Halla, perhaps the biggest tying between the series was when I revealed that Aja Killian is a demigod; specifically, a daughter of Athena.  I figured she had the personality of an Athena-girl, and she always did kind of remind me of Annabeth.  Plus, her being an orphan let me conveniently avoid any issues with parentage.  Hey, if it happens on the Earth territories, why not on the other Territories?  

I had plans for at least two sequels, one titled Silena the Great and other titled The Half-Bloods of Halla (might have had to have split that one in two).  I got some of Silena the Great done, but I didn't like the direction it was going, and I never got around to fixing that.  We'll talk more about what could have been in future posts.  

Are there bit I wish I'd written differently and thing could could have been improved?  Is the writing not as polished as my writing now?  Sure, and there's spelling and grammar errors, but overall I'm very pleased with how A Traveler for Camp Half-Blood turned out.  At the end of the day, that all a fanfiction writer should really hope to achieve.  At the end of my day I could be happy with how it turned out. 

I've been gushing enough, but you should check out PenJackson: A Traveler for Camp Half-Blood.  Next time we'll talk about the other pride and joy of my fanfiction.  See you then.