And now back here again.

Vish is doing that obnoxious Legolas thing where everyone else looks like they just ran ten miles through a forest made of burrs and dog shit while he just threw on his blazer for a job interview.

I’m a long way from being able to draw an awesome Frazetta-esque pile of dead bad guys.

Eek, politics.

So I’m slowly editing my novel, one chapter a day. I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my request for beta readers. Judging from my reading of your critiques, none of you are obviously idiots. Congratulations!

Seriously, I’m very impressed by the quality of the critiques I’ve received, so thanks.

Those wings are sharp!

Right now I’m racing against the clock to finish one of next week’s pages so I can start editing my novel again. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to beta-read it. I’ll keep everyone up-to-date on its progress.

Boring7 wins the No-Prize.

Oh, and a reminder: unless you’ve received an extension, I’d like to have received your beta-reader critiques by now. I want to begin my editing by Wednesday.

Motion-in-perspective: still not easy. On the other hand, it’s nice to enjoy some wide panels.

Meanwhile…

10/18: Within the context of the universe, it’s understandable to be bothered by Varaxunax snapping at Shreyas like that. But if WPK were a role-playing game, I bet Shreyas’ player would only show up every other session and then say things like “Where are we? Can I use my magic sword yet? Is Woshka, like, a bullywug?”

It’s sometimes hard to wrap my head around piety, which is obviously an important component in the world of The Water Phoenix King. Dosh’s (or Kawunei’s, or most other characters’) ability to convert an “it” into a “thou” seems alien to me even though, in a world with literal gods, it is sometimes entirely sensible and proper to do so. “Smashing an idol hurts a god” is a statement of fact within the WPK world, but a lifetime of religious indifference in real life and treating clerics as interchangeable healbots in role-playing games has blunted my ability to process piety as a legitimate motivation. It was eye-opening and humbling to read Artesia last year, a comic that features a priestess as a main character and that captures the intensity, surreality, and obsession of religious mania in a way that Anthem, with her analytical, sorcerer-like approach to religion (ritual goes in, magic power comes out) just doesn’t reflect.