I hope you enjoy it, and please, please let me know what you think!

Inspired by some other artists Livestreams and after some folks were interested in how I use Daz, I decided to go ahead and try one of my own.  It’s mainly for other dA artists to hang out and watch me create Daz Studio artwork, but anyone is welcome to drop in and say hi.  I don’t mind talking about the Diranda series or any of my books as well as art.

Anyway, it’s just something fun for me to do, so anyone who is interested, I’d like to see you.

The latest image is linked above, a full cast portrait featuring every Dirandan Chronicles character I have designed models for so far.  It’s a fun picture, with my self portrait model in the center.

There are a number of other images I have done recently, with more explanation on what they are on my dA page, but they’re here as well in the galleries.

The most fun I’ve had is doing the Portal 2 fan art, which I’ve dedicated a separate Gallery for, here.

I have also done a new morph for Gaston, which I like much better than the previous character design.  I did a nice portrait and a cute scene from “Dark Captives”:  “Please, I Dropped My Drumsticks”, just for fun.  It’s adorable.

The Characters featured in this new set:  Joshua, Alex, Taggart, Cassandra, Rigel Deka, Jeron Silstrun, Samuel VonTesmar and Gaston.

Next Post: “Please, I Dropped My Drumsticks”

This cover is the result of some research on cover design and photography both by myself and Dave, who helped with the lighting and the suggestions on the subject matter for the cover.  We both agreed on the final design, so even though it’s not the kind of cover you might traditionally see on erotica novels, it’s got a much more scifi feel to it and is still pretty sexy, (at least I think so).  There’s a lot of history behind this particular piece of art, actually.  It’s inspired by favorite covers from other novels we liked and thought had pretty terrific covers, such as Michael Whelan’s cover for Anne McCaffrey’s “Killashandra”, among others.

I suppose this cover meant more to me than even Peacekeeper, which meant a lot, because I really loved this novel and wanted to give it the treatment it deserves, with a beautiful cover I can be proud of as a writer and an artist.

Tell me what you think, I really want to hear from everyone.  About this cover, about erotica covers (e-book, print, anything) and about science fiction cover art.  What you guys think is important to me, because you’re the people we’re writing for and what you want in cover art is important as well.  I can use any information you all give me to pass along to publishers and other authors.

Believe me, your other favorite authors also want to know what you think.  I’ve talked to so many authors, famous and not so famous ones and something we all agree on is that we like to hear from our readers and we want their opinions heard by the publishers and the marketing departments that work for them.  In some cases, like my publisher, I get a lot more control over what is on my cover, but not everyone does.

Unfortunately in the ebook business, I’ve seen some great books with lousy covers and some lucky authors who get some terrific covers for their books.  It’s kind of hit and miss and I do have a tendency now, to select a potential publisher of my work by the quality of their covers (if they won’t let me do my own art).

I may just suggest this as a panel for the next convention I am invited to.  I am going to Leprecon in Tempe in May (more on that soon).

Yay, yay!

Anyway, the Reylian Orb was one of the hardest books I’ve written and I really don’t know why.  It sure took the longest to write  (we don’t count the 2 year gap in the middle of Arcadia, you know).  Work didn’t help and the knee surgery definitely didn’t, but even those aside, I don’t know what it was about this story that was so hard to tell.

I sure didn’t think it was going to be much of an effort when I started it.  It was supposed to be short and easy.  Just explain what happened when Jeron captured Alex and Gaston rescued her, fitting in some object called “The Reylian Orb”.  In Peacekeeper, it was a ‘cool idea’, based on an older idea I’d had years ago.

Once I got into it though, it became very involved.

It became:   Alex meets Jeron for the first time and What happened to make Alex so frightened of Taggart in Arcadia and what happened between Alex and Gaston after the rescue?

Other surprises came out of it, solving questions I didn’t know I had and creating ideas for other things that happened later.

It became this amazing thing that nearly ended up in the ‘unfinished’ file in December but came back even stronger when I finally got a chance to get serious with it in February, after the move.

But it’s good.  I know it’s good.

I love it and I think you will too.  I can only hope it comes out soon so everyone who has been patiently waiting for a new story will finally get their wish, esp Tanilen, Dena and Layne.

HUGS!

Jake Porter and Tamara Sable have been added as well as an updated portrait of Nova and some sketches of Alex and Gaston.

Since I have been working on finishing Reylian Orb, I haven’t done a whole lot of artwork recently.  I am really interested in getting character portraits like these done for everyone, especially characters like Tamara who are older characters but have never had any pictures done of them.  I’m currently working on a new version of Jeron (for the Generation 4 model) and plan to get Samuel and Kazi done shortly as well.  I want to do a picture of Dorrian, but am extremely picky about what he looks like and need to get him ‘just right’ before I release any images of him.

With Jake, I was surprised to be able to do an almost perfect image of him for the Harmonix game Rock Band 3 (which I play religiously pretty much, it’s good therapy for my still weakened knee) and when I realized how great he ended up looking, I wanted to use that as a basis for his character in DS.  I’m not sure how close I got (and with this pic, you can’t really see his hair that well) but I think I may be pretty close.  Anyway it’s a fair sight better than my first attempt at Joshua (and Taggart, btw)!

So I think I’m getting better.

With Tamara, I had fun playing with my metal shaders (Fast Metal shaders, Georgehaze, I love you!)  on her clothing.  Her own morph was pretty easy to do, actually, I’m surprised at how well the girls come out with the new Gen figures (Victoria 4/Aiko 4, customized), it’s just the guys that give me headaches.

Hoping some day to grab some good gemstone shaders to make our Masters and Guardians’ rings come to life in these pictures.  I have my eye on some Calida shader sets, but my husband keeps pushing me to work with Poser 8, even though I really can’t stand the layout for it (sigh!).  Poser 8 does have the materials room, which Daz doesn’t have or support, and that’s the only thing that makes me consider it.

Anyway, back to Reylian Orb, see yall soon!

“Go away, Taggart,” Alex hissed, squinting hard at the silver frame of the drum she was tuning.  “I’m busy and in case you can’t tell, I don’t want to talk to you.  Don’t you have some stupid Assembly to get ready for anyway?”

Taggart Riordan laughed.  The stage vibrated as he came up behind her.  “I’m ready for quite a bit of things, my dear,” he said softly.  “Actually, what I’m really wondering is how much you value your reputation.  That rumor’s still relatively small, since most people are much more interested in talking about Asher and the juicy tidbits surrounding him right now but the truth about you and Gaston will make the rounds soon enough.  I could be convinced to squash it flat.”

“I don’t care,” she said stiffly.  “Let them talk.”

Taggart knelt on the stage next to her, placing a large, heavy hand on the small of her back, sending waves of heat into her otherwise chilled and numb body.

“Oh, now you don’t mean that, do you?” he purred, “if your clients find out you’ve been screwing Gaston VonTesmar, you’re going to lose them.  Especially the Dirandan Resistance.”

“Shut up!” Alex snarled, looking at him.  “I don’t care right now!  Leave me alone.”

Taggart’s Alaran Regency uniform was elegant, tailored, royal blue and bright yellow gold, trimmed in blood red crimson.  The crisp, precise lines of the slim blue longcoat over the gold brocade vest that indicated his rank as Regent Palatine emphasized the width of his muscular torso.  The narrow dark blue trousers did the same for his legs.  They were tucked into high, solid black books with golden buckles at the cuffs, just like the Directorate uniform.  His dark brown hair was pulled back from his ruggedly handsome face and his vibrant topaz eyes glittered with cruel mirth.

“No,” he said with a nasty grin, “I know you’ve had a bad morning.  I’ve been watching you tune this ridiculous drum set for the better part of a hour.  I’d expected you to be spending the morning in the arms of your new lover, Alexandra.  But instead, here you are, tuning drums for a set you’re probably never going to get a chance to play.”

She glared at him.  What the hell he meant by that, she didn’t know.  A part of her wanted very much to know but she was still reeling from the shock of Cassi and Keir’s deaths.  Her stomach was still churning from the mental images that conjured up.

“Do you know how much I hate you, Taggart Riordan?” she said softly.  “You seem to find alliances with every man who has it in for me in one way or another.  If you really wanted me to come to you of my own accord, you wouldn’t work with men like Cerin Tesar or Jeron Silstrun.”

Taggart’s smile froze on his face.  An eyebrow arched slightly.  “What makes you think that?” he said evenly.

“You and Jeron were far too familiar with each other last night to have just been professional enemies,” she said carefully, watching his face.  “You’ve been working together for a while.  I know an alliance like that when I see one.”  She leaned forward.  “How would you like it if that came out, Taggart?”  She felt a hot rush of dark pleasure at that, the first sensation of heat she’d felt all morning, since Gaston left her bed.  His reaction gave her another burst of satisfaction.

“You have no proof,” he snarled.
–from “Peacekeeper”, chapter 15

–”Random Encounters” from “Diranda: Tales from the Fifth Quadrant”

The above image links to the portrait and the full image is in the gallery.

This one was fun to do and I finally think I got Joshua right.  Even Dave thinks so, which is excellent, because Joshua is his character.

Dorrian winced himself, at the tiny, pained sound in her voice.  “Ancestors,” he muttered, aghast.

“He saved my life.  Gaston,” she said.  It was still hard for her to believe.  Even though it had been eight months ago, which might as well have been eight years, with everything that had happened since then, the memory was still as clear as though it had been yesterday.  Shaking herself a bit, she looked up.  “He didn’t have any reason to,” she said to Dorrian, “but he did anyway.”

“Of course he would,” Dorrian said, with a frown, “he and Jeron go way back.  He’s lost far too many people to that particular Rysusi, far too many he couldn’t save.”  He caught and held her eyes with his own, “He did what he felt was right.”

“Peacekeeper”, chapter 3

This is the newest picture. I think it’s much more dramatic and definitely seems to reflect the mood of the later chapters of the novel.  This is postworked in the GIMP 2.6.

It’s a redesign of the earlier Reylian Orb picture I did in August.  The above image links to the thumbnail.  Both the detail and the full image are available in the gallery as well.

Full Image

Detail