#ScribesAndMakers day 1: Does the change to a new calendar year affect your creativity in any way?

#ScribesAndMakers day 31: Share something about your creative work this month.

My first version of chapter 9, scene 1, was a real banger. And then I realized that the whole rest of the chapter would be stronger if I decided the MCs (including the one who was the POV for that scene) *don't* know the thing I'd had her agonizing over.

So I tore it down and redid it.

That's a good capsule summary of my creativity for this month.

#ScribesAndMakers day 1: What's one creative thing you'd like to get done this month?

At least one chapter of my WIP. Preferably two, but I know that's not a reasonable target.

#ScribesAndMakers day 2: Do you have any annual traditions not tied to holidays?

None that I can think of.

#ScribesAndMakers day 3: What's a creative project you would want to give someone for their birthday?

Well, I can bake a pretty nice chocolate cake...

#ScribesAndMakers day 4: Our next featured creator is a comic artist. Tell us about a comic strip or web comic you enjoy.

It's an oldie but a goodie: I'm still enjoying Questionable Content (https://questionablecontent.net/) I'm still impressed with how much Jeph Jacques has managed to change the comic while still keeping it so much the same.

#ScribesAndMakers day 5: You now have the same occupation as the main character of your current WIP (or book you are reading/last read). What job are you doing?

Looks like I'm simultaneously:

1. An architect;
2. A librarian;
3. A radiologist, specializing in MRIs;
4. An unemployed ex-accountant who might be able to make a living at painting if I gave it a shot; and
5. A front-end web developer.

(By a curious coincidence, #5 is, in fact, my actual job in real life.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 6: Our featured creator makes graphic novels. As a reader, which do you think is more important in a graphic novel, art or words?

By their very nature, graphic novels place equal importance on both of those things! (That said, I tend to focus much more on the words when I'm reading them — but that's a tendency I'm trying to overcome, because I think it's a bad one.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 8: How do you define a book? Do audio books and graphic novels fit your definition?

Audio books yes, graphic novels no. To my mind, the addition of all that art makes the graphic novel a different form. Not worse (or better), just different.

#ScribesAndMakers day 9: Is one really the loneliest number?

Yes.

#ScribesAndMakers day 10: What is the most out-of-character creative thing you enjoy? That thing that never matches the assumptions about you.

Probably pop music. I think people who know me would expect me to like, or not be surprised at me liking, things like rock, alternative, and minimalism. But pop is something I think would raise eyebrows.

#ScribesAndMakers day 10: What is the most out-of-character creative thing you enjoy? That thing that never matches the assumptions about you.

Probably pop music. I think people who know me would expect me to like, or not be surprised at me liking, things like rock, alternative, and minimalism. But pop is something I think would raise eyebrows.

#ScribesAndMakers day 11: Aside from the official birthday song and the ubiquitous Beatles song, is there a song about birthdays you like?

I'm not even sure which Beatles song is intended.

ATM, I'm kind of leaning toward what I've always heard called the SCA birthday song, which is performed as a dirge-like chant punctuated with grunts: 1/2

It's your biiiiirthday,
Ugh!
Happy biiiiirthday,
Ugh!
May the candles on your cake
Burn like cities in your wake
On your biiiiirthday
Ugh!
Happy biiiiirthday
Ugh!
Death and gloom and dark despair,
People dying everywhere
On your biiiiirthday

...and so on. A cheery little number, huh? 2/2

#ScribesAndMakers

It's your biiiiirthday,
Ugh!
Happy biiiiirthday,
Ugh!
May the candles on your cake
Burn like cities in your wake
On your biiiiirthday
Ugh!
Happy biiiiirthday
Ugh!
Death and gloom and dark despair,
People dying everywhere
On your biiiiirthday

...and so on. A cheery little number, huh? 2/2

#ScribesAndMakers

#ScribesAndMakers day 12: Guffaw?

I'm usually more of a quiet laugh type, but if the joke's really good? Yeah, you'll get a full guffaw out of me!

#ScribesAndMakers day 13: How well do you sing? If you don't consider yourself a good singer, do you sing anyway?

Not well enough to satisfy myself, but well enough to do okay at karaoke, as long as I pick a track I can do justice to.

@kagan you may have answered this before, but what's one of your favorites to sing at karaoke?

#ScribesAndMakers day 13: How well do you sing? If you don't consider yourself a good singer, do you sing anyway?

Not well enough to satisfy myself, but well enough to do okay at karaoke, as long as I pick a track I can do justice to.

#ScribesAndMakers day 14: How are things going for you this month, creatively or otherwise?

Creatively? Not too bad. I've wound up getting on two-hour writing jags a few times, and my word count so far this month is over 8,000, even though I had to cut a few hundred at one point.

#ScribesAndMakers day 16: Do you have a favorite decade of music? Which one(s)?

Nah, I try to keep it fresh and keep up with what's going on. There are cool things to be found about every decade of music that I'm familiar with.