… I’m kinda excited.

I’m nearly done running around the house making sure everything’s ready for the cat-sitter, and then it’s just down to stuffing my face with left-over Chinese food before heading to the airport. Yum.

Anyhow, what’s really important is that I made more BLINK ponies. Check out Mart and Jorn!

Pose because he’s busy fighting the powah (he wishes), hummingbird cutie mark because he longs to escape. Freckles because, er, he has freckles, and because a grouchy!pony with freckles is so damn cute.

Freckles x2. *pinches cheeks*

Anywho — expression because he’s an asshat; horn because he’s a mage; cutie mark because of his role as Cilla’s protector.

I’m still really excited about this book. I can’t wait until I can send it out into the world (aka my trusty betas). Of course, now comes the hard part — retaining that excitement throughout the editing process.

Good thing I get to take a break first.

I’ve been semi-obsessed with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for a while now THANKS TO A CERTAIN SOMEONE, so when I saw this pony creator on Beth Revis’s blog, I didn’t have much choice but to join in.

So, yeah, here’s three of the main characters of my current WIP, BLINK:

I gave her a snowflake as a cutie mark partially because she’s speshul the place her family is from is a pretty darned cold place; the snowflake signifies home. It’s also fragile but hardy, matching Amara to a T. She gets neither a horn nor wings; she’s trapped where she is. The pose is because she’s trying to break free anyway.

Nolan gets wings and a planet as a cutie mark, signifying how he moves between worlds. He’s also troubled and searching for himself, hence the pose. With some fiddling, I managed to alter his hind leg enough to make it look like his foot has been amputated (though it’s the wrong leg and I’m too lazy to flip the picture right now).

Cilla gets a crown, a horn, and fancy bracelets, because she’s the freaking princess. Duh.

Why is she smiling? Because she looks adorable that way, is why.

… Also Amara and Nolan threatened to make this a depressed!pony blog, which is just wrong. Smiling pony! Happy pony! Yay ponies!

(Uh, not that Amara and Nolan don’t have reasons to be depressed. BRB, need to write and pile on the hurt some more.)

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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My very last Showcasing Shinies post. Phew! I really hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the pretty art, being able to put a face to the characters I mention on occasion, and have maybe even contacted some of these artists about commissions. They more than deserve it, and you’ll have something pretty to show off!

Anyway, I already showcased my character Yunupaya twice earlier; I’d like you to meet her delightfully scrappy, loud, and occasionally violent sister Len.

Who is slightly lacking in fingers. What is it with me and scarring my poor characters?

Len
by Diana Mallery

Len
by Tien Hee

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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The last of my Always Read the Fae Print-related art: pancake restaurant waitress extraordinaire, cheeriest of all sidekicks, wannabe-Goth and offensively faux Wiccan, She Of The Many Names — including Merel, Femke and Imke…

Yeah, that chick.

Femke
by Darci Robbins

Femke
by Shawna Mills

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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Showing off the rest of Yunupaya’s pictures:

Yunupaya
by Diana Mallery

Yunupaya
by Shaun O’Neil

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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You’ve already caught a glimpse of Roy, the main character from Heirs, when I posted the pictures of my beloved Nina. Here’s a couple more of my favorite ever deaf demon hunter… what do you mean, there’s not a lot of competition there?

Roy
by Samurai-PET

Roy
by Diana Mallery

Roy
by Shaun O’Neil

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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Last time I only showed half of the pictures of Lillian, the main character in Always Read the Fae Print; here are the others. I’m actually surprised I have so few of her, given how long this book has been my main project. Ah, Lillian. It’s been fun making your life miserable <3

Lillian
by Peter V. Nguyen

Lillian
by Darci Robbins

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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Yunupaya, the main character’s name, is just a working title for this book; I’ve rotated through a number of other titles, most notably Stranger, from when I started writing the book a couple of years ago during NaNoWriMo. Since then, I’ve overhauled my plans a dozen times — adding and removing PoV characters, combining characters, rethinking the plot, stretching it into a trilogy, etc.

Because of all those changes I’m still nowhere near ready to actually write the book, but I somehow still ended up with a good collection of art done of these characters. Here’s a couple of the aforementioned Yunupaya, with others to follow next week:

Yunupaya
by Niccolo Balce

Yunupaya
by Hugh Freeman

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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I showed you the boys from my first novel Wielders a couple of weeks ago; now meet the gals.

Lynne
by Diana Mallery

Emily
by Courtney A. Bernard

Emily
by Shaun O’Neil

Since I’m in Seattle from June 17th to July 31st to attend Clarion West, I’ve written a number of blog posts beforehand to post while I’m gone. I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments, but might take a while to respond.

More on Showcasing Shinies.

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I wrote most of the first draft of Heirs in August; the rest, uh, I haven’t written yet at all.

This book has been incredibly loud as of late, though, for several reasons. Chief amongst them: Nina.

Nina is one of my favorite characters ever. Since she’s not the main character in this book, though, I don’t have quite as much art of her as I would otherwise.

Nina
by Diana Mallery

Roy and Nina
by Niccolo Balce