SOPA and PIPA aren’t just bad news for internet companies and creators, they’re bad news for us all and disastrous for this country. SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to combat internet piracy. They’re the digital equivalent of fixing a roach problem by burning down the whole building.

So I decided to write my representatives in government and let them know where I stand on SOPA & PIPA. You can let your reps know where you stand in 3 easy steps.

1. Type your zip code in here to find out who represents you in government.
2. Write a letter (or just copy and edit mine).
3. Paste letter and hit send.

Don’t let SOPA & PIPA happen! You have my permission to use, edit, re-post and send the letter below to your elected officials.

My letter to my elected officials

End Piracy, Not Liberty

Educate yourself on SOPA & PIPA:

Read up on SOPA & PIPA

Wikipedia Black Out
Wikipedia- SOPA & PIPA
Google- SOPA & PIPA
Google- More about SOPA & PIPA

Videos to watch

There are plenty of NaNoWriMo prep guides and blog posts out there but this is how I do it in 5 easy to follow steps.

Step 1: Sign Up

Go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/en and sign up. Then go to your My NaNoWriMo page and fill out your info (or in my case update it). Some features aren’t unlocked yet (like the writing buddies and word counters) but they will be in a few days. I’m KatGirl_Studio if you’d like to add me as a writing buddy.

Step 2: Know What You are Going to Write

Some people like to make it up as they go but I wouldn’t advise starting the month off with no idea of what you are going to write about. If you need help deciding what to write about these posts I wrote for The Graphic Novel Challenge may help you. They’re both about making a graphic novel but should be relevant to writing non-illustrated novels as well.
Picking Your Project
Developing Your Story

For me it was just a matter of choosing which project to work on since I have about 15 story ideas in queue. I decided to go with the sequel to the book I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo.

If you’re writing a sequel, for your own sanity read the previous book beforehand. As you’re re-reading your first book take notes of possible things to explore with the sequel. Look for plot elements and loose ends that can be tied up, walk on characters that you can have make a second appearance, or new ways you can throw a wrench into your characters lives.

Step 3: Make an Outline

Outlines are like blue-prints for your story. They help you quickly map out the bare bones of your story so you don’t write yourself into a corner. You don’t have to have a very detailed outline but you should be able to at least answer these 5 questions.

Who? Who are your characters? What are they? What are they like?
Where & when? Where does your story take place? Another planet? Another time? An alternative reality?
What? What do they do?
Why? Why are you telling they’re story? Why do they do what they do?
How does it go? Do they succeed? Do they fail? Does everyone make it out alive? How did they grow along the way?

Scrivener allows you to construct outlines in a more visual way much like how some authors use index cards and move them around on a table or bulletin board. In fact they even made it look exactly the same in Scrivener, just paperless.

I start by picking an arbitrary number, 30, and creating new pages and numbering them accordingly. I take the notes I made while re-reading my first book and start filling in the 30 note cards to make my outline.

Once you have your outline done and your story broken up into chapters take 50k and divide it by the number of chapters and you will get your required word count for each chapter. Doing this will help you break down the daunting task into more manageable pieces. As you move forward you can easily adjust you chapter word counts to accommodate longer or shorter chapters or extra chapters you added in.

Step 4: Make a Playlist

Most of my stories are inspired by the music I listen to. When I listen to music I see stories; like small movies playing in my head. Because of the music magic I actually make playlists for every project I work on. If you have iTunes it’s relatively easy to make one from your music collection. I myself seem to own a lot of movie soundtracks which are great for this sort of thing. Another thing you can do is visit free for use music sites like Jamendo, Sounddogs, jewelbeat, and add some indie music to your collection.

What’s the difference between a playlist and a soundtrack? A playlist is music that helps you get into the right mood or head space to write a particular story or scene. A soundtrack is a music list for a completed story that you can add to the bonus section on your site page for a book.

Step 5: Set-up Word Counters

Word counters are great, they’re a shiny little graphic that gives you a visual representation of how much you have accomplished so far.

In Scrivener
If you are using Scrivener as your writing program there are lots of cool word count functions you can use. To get these to work you need to go to Project > Project Targets and set your word count target (in our case 50k). Then you need to click on the bullseye on the bottom left corner of the Editor pane and set the word count target for each chapter. The cool thing about the Editor pane word counter is it changes from red to orange to yellow to green as you close in on your word target goal.

Once you have those two targets set you can view your project’s word count as a whole by selecting Project > Project Targets or by hitting Ctrl+ . Or you can view the word counts and other data for the whole project broken down chapter by chapter by selecting Draft and the Outliner button in the upper center of the program. You can change what info appears by selecting View > Outliner Columns and only checking the ones you want to see.

For your Website/Blog
NaNoWriMo has their own but they aren’t available yet so here are two others you can also use.

Dave’s Whizmatronic Widgulating Calibrational Scribometer- only available for WordPress based sites and only in the side bar or footer. This is the one I use on the sidebar of this site.

All Freelance Writing Word Tracker- can be used on any site page, post or sidebar. This is the one I use for all the counters on my Works in Progress page. Once you input your word count data it offers you 4 different sizes to pick from and the codes to copy and past onto your site.

And there you have it 5 easy to follow steps to get you better prepared to succeed at NaNoWriMo this year.

Due to various delays the production time of the Daemon in the Mist visual novel is taking a bit longer than expected.

Books bring worlds to life through word but translating that world into a visual medium is a whole different thing entirely. When I wrote Daemons in the Mist I never imagined that I would then have to visually create the world of The Marked Ones. It’s no easy task but I hope in the end that you will be able to enjoy a game that is just as carefully crafted as everything else you have come to expect from KatGirl Studio.

Defining a Style

Nualla

Here is an early concept design for Nualla. I captured her other-earthly quality but she looked a bit too soft. Also the production team decided this anime style looked a little outdated. So I went back to the drawing board for a second go.

This was the next concept design for Nualla which got the green light.

But after a few more meetings we decided to go with this more refined design. It’s a bit more work but we only want the best for this visual novel.

Patrick

With Patrick it was all about the eyes, let me tell you black brown eyes are really hard to translate into anime form.

Coming up next time

A look at defining a world, the backgrounds for the visual novel

KatGirl Studio will be running a 26-week online Graphic Novel challenge. People of any age or skill level are welcome to participate. We will have plenty of how-to’s, articles and resources on the official site to help you along the way.

If you’re like me you’ve probably had a graphic novel idea kicking around in your head for awhile. This challenge helps breaks down the process of making a graphic novel (GN) into 8 manageable steps.
This challenge isn’t meant to take over your life so for the challenge we will only be making the first chapter of your graphic novel.

So let’s get those ideas out of heads and into the world!

HyperCon
August 5-7, 2011
San Mateo Event Center
1346 Saratoga Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94403

KatGirl Studio will be in the Artist Alley at HyperCon Aug 5th-7th. We’ll have our usual assortment of artwork, matted prints and shirts as well as a few surprises. Aside from all the goodies we will have available, Kat will be on hand to sign copies of her book, as well as answer questions about her upcoming releases and how she makes her art.

“It is my great strength that gets me where I want to go but it is my flaws, my weaknesses, that made me who I am.”

I have dyslexia; in fact I have all three forms. Bet most of you didn’t even know there were three. The most common one is the reading one, that’s the one most people are familiar with it’s also the one most kids have. (Me, not so much with that anymore.) Another one is the writing one. (This is the one I have the worst.) When I write sometimes I move letters or words around out of order. And no matter how many times I read it back half the time it will still look correct to me because my brain is auto correcting it for me.

This is made even worse if I’m trying to write while the tv is on or someone is trying to talk to me. I will literally start transcribing the audio into the sentences inter-spaced with what I was trying to write. Sometimes words just end up there that are out of the blue and completely unrelated to anything I was thinking. Because I know this happens I work around it. I listen to music that won’t distract me and try to write mostly when everyone is asleep. Which means about 90% of my writing is done between 11pm-4am, like this for example I’m writing at 3am.

The third form is the least common. Sometimes when I’m speaking I mix the words up in the sentence but to me it sounds correct. This usually gets worse if I’m extremely upset. It also mostly happens with numbers (ya working retail was real fun with this one). But did I ever let this get in my way? No, I was in 25 musicals, choir and singing competitions growing up. Instead of running away from something I shouldn’t have been able to do I ran head long into it and practiced until I was extremely good at it. But there are still some things i just can’t like foreign language. I tried as hard as hard as I could and did pretty while grade wise but only remember a few odd words and phrases in Spanish and Italian.

I also have poor muscle memory in my hands which means things like typing with all my fingers, playing piano or using chop sticks are nearly impossible for me. But instead of focusing on what I can’t do, I just adapt around it. Anyone who chats with me in one of the weekly tweet chats or on instant messenger knows I type lighting fast but what I bet you didn’t know was that I only use 2 fingers to type. It’s all about focusing on what you need to do instead of focusing on what prevents you from doing it. Instead of beating myself up for what I could not do I just put everything into what I could do.

Dyslexia isn’t something that just goes away or something you just grow out of. It’s something you have to deal with everyday, something that’s just of part of what makes you, you. The point is not to let it run you life. Sure nearly every time I write “me” it comes out “my” instead or vice versa. And I will forever type “chnage” instead of “change” even though I know how it’s spelled. And I can read a sentence a dozen times and still not see the mistakes because my brain corrects it for me. I used to feel embarrassed about this but you know what, Dyslexia is a disability and those are nothing to be ashamed of. Nor should anyone be made to feel dumb because of them. Being learning disabled doesn’t make you dumb, slow or lazy. But you know what is dumb; hate. Hating someone because they are not like you is dumb.

In the last decade we have come a long way towards ending hate. Every time some new group, gains equality and vanquishes, prejudices and stereotypes it makes me want to cry with joy and hug humankind for taking a step in the right direction. But we still have a long way to go yet. So if you and me ban together and make a stand for what is right then others will follow. And someday whether it’s a long time from now or next Tuesday, there will be enough voices to silence the hate.

Learning disabled does not equal dumb ● Spread the Word ● End the Hate

Heroes & Villains Comics
Aug. 13th, 2011
11am-3pm
264 Main Street
Pleasanton, CA

Hi Everyone I will be doing my very first book signing at Heroes and Villains Comics in Pleasanton on Aug. 13th !

I will signing my debut novel Daemons in the Mist as well as answering any questions you might have about the book, my art or anything, really.

On-hand copies of the book will be limited. So if you know you are going to go to the signing please order your copy here and bring it to the event.

All book signing attendees will receive free art print & bookmark while supplies last.

Hope to see you all there and feel free to invite your friends!

“It is my great strength that gets me where I want to go but it is my flaws, my weaknesses, that made me who I am.”

So here’s a little story about me you may or may not know. When I was in kindergarten they told my mother that I was dumb. She told them to go screw themselves and sent me to a different school. This new one was a wonderful school that I think all schools should be like – a school without violence or prejudice or bullies. A school where you didn’t do well because you wanted good grades, (we didn’t even have grades), but because you wanted to do well, to learn, to explore.

There was just one little problem, I’m very adaptive and a little too clever for my own good. The problem was I couldn’t read, or more so I didn’t understand the concept of reading. It took them until the 3rd grade to figure that out, because you see I have extremely high comprehension level that verges on eidetic. I could memorize nearly everything I was exposed to. So I would hear a story once and could recite it back and flip the pages in time.  Honestly that’s what I thought everyone else was doing, I kid you not.

Eventually I did learn to read but it was a hard, grueling struggle. And it may be blasphemous to say so but at the time I hated reading. I hated every bit of it; every bit of black ink on paper. I wanted to go back to when I was younger when I could just lie on my stomach and make up my own stories to go along with the picture. But I couldn’t, because big kids had to read real books, without pictures. Then I was introduced to this one book that changed my life, and as corny as it might sound it’s the truth.

When I was in the 7th grade we were assigned The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman and as a weird turn of events I got horribly sick and had to say home. And so while I laid there on the couch my mother picked up the book and began reading it to me so I wouldn’t fall behind. If you haven’t read the book you should, it’s fantastic, actually all Karen Cushman’s book are. I also won’t give the story away either other than to say at one part someone gives the poor beaten down heroine a gift. And it was at that moment my mother burst into tears, at this fictional act of kindness and put down the book. She was inconsolable and I just sat there awkwardly unsure of what to do. (Sorry Mom if I totally embarrassed you by telling people this.)

Anyways, she never finished reading the book, well not at least while I was there anyways. And so it sat there unread for a few hours, and then days until I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I just had to know what happened next. And so I picked up the book and began to read. And though it was hard at first, I didn’t care. I was going to finish reading that book even if it killed me. And you know what; I was so involved in what was going on in the story that I stopped noticing how hard it was to read. And then the book was over and there was no words left to read and then I realized that it was I who had read it. Someone hadn’t read it to me; I hadn’t heard it read on tv. I, me, I had read it. And then I realized I wanted to read more and so as nonchalantly as I could I asked my mother if she could take me to the library. And thank the stars when I came out hours later with a handful of books, without pictures, my mother didn’t say one word. I don’t know if it was because she was shocked, or proud, or just plain relieved.

After that book I read nearly every day, not because I had to read but because I wanted too. And somewhere along the way it stopped being so hard and became easy like telling yourself a story inside your head. To this day I still read every day, and most of those books still don’t have pictures, though I do own a lot of comics. And if you think that’s the end you’re wrong because it gets better.

In 2009 Karen Cushman was a guest at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) summer conference in LA. If you have never been to a SCBWI conference, on the last day they have all the guests sit at tables in the main room so you can meet them and have your books signed. When I found out I drove all over 4 cities where I lived trying to get hard cover copies of two of my most favorite books of hers. At some point they had switched to only carrying these paperbacks with new covers, which are pretty and all but I wanted her to sign the ones that looked exactly like the ones I had read in the 7th grade. I did eventually find them and so I waited in the line to have her sign my books and tried very hard not to burst into tears when I told her that because of her books I read every day.

Hi viewers and KatGirl Studio fans, guess what came out today?

If you said Daemons in the Mist then you are correct! My debut Young Adult novel Daemons in the Mist is now available in a paperback book edition for only $14.99.

That’s right you can now enjoy this story in both print and e-book form. The book is currently only available from Amazon and the publisher’s website but we will have Indiebound options soon and Signed Editions as well.

Daemons in the Mist

Korat Publishing
May-June 2011

She could have been a perfectly normal, albeit a breathtakingly beautiful girl, but she wasn’t, for I knew there were secrets hidden behind her eyes.

Seventeen year old Patrick Connolly has been drawn to Nualla ever since he first saw her, but as the years pass she seems to take absolutely no notice of him. Until, that is, he rescues her from a confrontation in the school hallway. Little does he know that he’s about to be thrust into a world of life altering secrets and things that shouldn’t exist, because the fog and mist of San Francisco is concealing more than just buildings.

Deliriously captivating and extraordinarily soulful, Daemons in the Mist beautifully weaves together two voices to tell the story of what happens when life leads you down a not so normal path.

Where to buy this book:

Signed Edition ● IndieBound ● Amazon ● Kindle ● Nook

Watch the book trailer

Hi everyone it’s been two months since I first mentioned the visual novel for Daemons in the Mist. This is because due to an overwhelmingly booked schedule, we pushed production back on this project by about two months. But this is what did happened in the last two months:

• The Kindle and Nook editions of Daemons in the Mist were released.
• The print edition of Daemons in the Mist will be coming out later this month.
• The Visual Novel department of CWS Software (NovelEXP) now has a shiny new website.

We also decided a few things about this project:

• After much consideration I will not be the one coding the visual novel for DITM, I will however still be the lead artist on the project and will be translating the novel text to script form.
• We have decided to bundle the 55 chapters into 5 chapter blocks similar to how manga chapters are bundled into books.

The other cool news is that I will be chronicling the whole process of making this visual novel here in my blog. So if you want to see how a book gets made into a visual novel stay tuned.

Visual Novel Development Week 2

Most of this week was spend translating the DITM text into script form, Generating a art list of visual assets needed for the project, and deciding just how exactly, to present certain parts of the book in visual form. Since I will not be the one coding the visual novel I have to translate the text into a script to then pass along on to the coding team.

Here’s an example of what the script for a visual novel looks like.