Sunday, July 27, 2008

Back from Comic-Con '08!

And boy are my legs tired. No, seriously. I'm so glad I have a sit down day-job or I think my legs might turn to jelly and I'll be forced to literally drag myself around. (A funny prospect but I'd rather not get my clothes all dirty.) Unfortunately on top of that a cold virus snuck up on me and I'm in the beginning stages of a bad first half of the week. But I won't that get me down!

Being it was my first con, it was INFORMATION OVERLOAD!

Just imagine being in a traffic accident involving a truck load of paint, a truck load of neon signs, a magazine truck and an animal control van. Now picture that mess combined with a few live wires falling amongst them and a crowd of onl00kers gawking and blocking any escape from the chaos. That's COMIC-Con! :D

Seriously though, it was a lot of fun and I spent this morning sorting through my schwag, booty, loot, freebies, whatever you want to call it -- tossing the stuff I don't want and hoarding the rest. Really makes you wonder if Dragons did this kind of thing in the Middle Ages.

I saw a lot of good panels too, ranging from Webcomics to Ghosts to Video Games to Movies and even some 90s TV Cartoon Stars. I had to leave early due to my rides pooping out and wanting to go home early, but I think I was basically done. I got some signed comic books and posters so I'm a happy little gecko.

Most importantly, I got a fun little vacation, got some sneak peeks at upcoming movies and games and I re-discovered my reasoning for coming out here in the first place: to share my stories and connect with other artists. I have a renewed vigor for my writing and drawing and I know something awesome will be coming out of it.

Will I do it again next year? Geez, let me recover from this one first why don't you?

- Joanie /^>

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Game Industry Night

Just got back from another kick-ass Women in Animation event. We had this one over at the DreamWorks Studio campus in Glendale (only a few blocks away from my work, very convenient to find) with guest panelists from the Gaming Industry - writer, programmer, designer and producer - a good balance of people. It was nice to hear from their perspective about the industry. They totally nailed the Quality Assurance Testing part of it too. Now I know that everyone hires testers for 9 months out of 12 - so all I have to do is hang in there and get passed around until one of them decides that they want to permanently hire me! Ha! ;D I took Charlene and she seemed to enjoy it as well.

I'm seriously going to start going back to the Monday Night Writer's Roundtable over at the Animation Guild building too. I want to look into some classes there. Hopefully they have one on Illustrator - I could use it. Possibly some life drawing too. I miss that a lot.

Either way, prospects are looking good.

The most important thing I learned tonight: Keep at and don't listen to anyone who says you can't do it. :)

- Joanie /^>

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Let the Nightcrafting Begin!

You're probably asking yourself why someone so happy-go-lucky and peppy as me (should you know me in real life) chose such a dark name and such for my writing blog.

The main reason is that I tend to be a writing creature of the night. I tend to create best late at night when the world is blanketed in darkness and quiet with only a few dim lights and the glowing screen of my computer to guide me. Most of my best ideas and writings come from the late hours of the evening.

Also the fact that as a writer I am both a creator and a destroyer. I have the power to create new life and along with that comes the power to snuff it out. Something I never take lightly. After all stories would be boring if everyone got along and no one died and the world was made of candy and it rained kittens... well maybe not the last part, but you get my point, I'm sure. :)

So let it begin! The nightly journaling of whatever I feel like writing. I dunno if any of this will spawn anything bigger than this journal, but you never know what happens when you open the door to your imagination...

... because anything could come out.

~ Joanie /^>