Pastel Defender Heliotrope

PASTEL NEWS ARCHIVE
For January 2008

January 7th, 2008

New Year

I wasn't able to finish Pastel by the end of 2007. Ah well, it will take a few pages more. That's OK.

I supposedly took a couple of weeks off, after my birthday, to rest, but I'm not so good at that. Instead, I spent the time working on what will become the new Unicorn Jelly Forum. I think that I have created a forum that is also a little bit of art as well. It's pretty, I think. I did art for every component I could affect, trying to create a complete look.

I just found a To Save Her that I forgot to post! So I am putting it up today (strip 230). I feel bad that I don't have any more beyond that yet. I am going to try to concentrate on finishing off Pastel, then return to continuing To Save Her unto its conclusion. It will likely go to the top of the page, once Pastel is done.

I will have a Pastel for this wednesday, so I feel good about that.

Happy new year, everyone.

January 14th, 2008

Back Again

I guess I'm back on the job with both comics after all. I just couldn't stop myself. I am so compelled to draw.

It's kind of strange, but doing these comics is pretty much the most interesting and compelling thing I do. I used to love games... as you long time readers know... but they just don't interest me as much these days. I think I only actually finished three games in 2007... Portal and the new Half Life (PC), Overlord (Xbox360), and Mass Effect (Xbox360). That's it. I started lots of games... but I just lose interest and go back to work. I guess work is my fun now, as well as my... work.

I don't know if it's me, or if games just haven't been as enthralling of late, with those notable exceptions. Probably it's me... I mean, I have Super Mario Galaxy (Wii), Nights (Wii), and Odin Sphere (PS2) sitting there staring at me, and I know they are beyond great. Heck, I've been waiting for something like Odin Sphere for almost a decade, ever since I played the Japanese previous title, Princess Crown. Didn't understand a word, loved it anyway. Yet I can't finish these wonders. Weird.

I had another visual migrane today at lunch. I hate those things. It only lasted a short time, but it was serious while it lasted... half of my visual field on the left either vanished or was compromised. Had some interesting effects, too - when I shut my eyes (which was less disturbing that keeping them open, I assure you) there were these weird snake-like strings of triangles in glowy blue, yellow and green in my compromised vision field. Weird migrane aura. Never seen that before.

I've read that this kind of disturbance is often caused by little blood clots sticking in the visual cortex. If true, very, very scary. Then again, I had stopped taking my daily 80 milligrams of aspirin for about a week to let my stomach or intestines heal up. I get bleedy sometimes. A problem with blood thinners. Or at least aspirin.

Oh, and one tip for you miniatures modellers out there; it is possible to become violently allergic to super glue, and other cyanoacrylate products. And it gets worse each time you get exposed, once it starts. So be careful, and use great ventilation, and if you start having hay-fever symptoms after gluing... either stop with the super glue forever, or find some method to avoid the fumes forever. Trust me on this one. It can get really nasty.

I never knew that until recently - there isn't much on the web about it, and the only studies I could find are all about occupational exposure in the workplace. Nothing about just ordinary people using ordinary products. At least that I could find.

Super glue seems so innocuous -other than the sticking your hands to your nose for life bit- and hardly has any smell, at least to me. I never even considered that such a small-small-droplet thing could cause problems. Apparently it gives off fumes like mad, even if you cannot smell them. Maybe you can. I can't.

Just two more pages, or so, of Heliotrope and I am done. DONE!

I am both happy, and sad, at that. And relieved. It's been a hell of a lot of work, you know?

January 23rd, 2008

It's Finished!

Pastel Defender Heliotrope is actually finished. It's done. I cannot farging believe it. Four years. Four farging years, and I am finally finished.

YAH FRIKKIN HOOOOO!

At the same time, it's also kind of sad.

I really, really hope you liked PDH. I put a lot of my heart and soul into it.

To Save Her will continue until it too ends, and then... it's The Legend Of Ika Takozuushi !

Stay tuned!

January 26th, 2008

A New Schedule!

With Pastel Defender Heliotrope completed, and To Save Her with many pages to go, I am left with a void in the middle of the week. To fill that void, I have decided to run the second novel written by my spouse Sandra Woodruff and myself, The Ishtar Crisis.

The first novel we created together can be found on Jenniverse.com, and it is called Urban Gorillas. Urban Gorillas is a darkly, evily comedic tale of homelessness and poverty in 1980's Los Angeles, and it is partially based on true events, people and situations.

Ishtar Crisis is set in the year 2050, and takes a journey from a decaying earth to space colonies and finally to the terraforming of the planet Venus. Along the way, we meet Tala, our counterculture heroine, and her lovable, blue-eyed, genetically chimeric anthropup, Chet, as they kick ass and take numbers in the corporate-run nanotech world of the future. It is a rude, funny, and ultimately bizarre story that has been updated to be fresh and new (it was originally penned in the 90's).

I am doing a lot of work to make the novel an experience for the reader. I've created a unique presentation for the book, making it appear as though a transmission on a futuristic communications terminal. Spot paintings will illustrate the book, hopefully bringing visual interest to the tale.

It is my hope that by providing an illustrated chapter a week, the audience for To Save Her will have something special to enjoy in the middle of the week, while they wait for the next strip on friday.

I hope folks like it. Sandi and I make a formidable writing team.

PASTEL DEFENDER HELIOTROPE
By Jennifer Diane Reitz

A Part Of Jenniverse.com

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