Blog Archives
The Intangible Starslip Is Complete!
Well, the story is finished! Here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11443191/chapters/25645737
I just want to thank everyone who helped and supported this project, as well as those who have made fan art of Starslip. Thank you to my proofreader N. Harmonik, my LSBFF Teagan (little sister best friend forever), Catherine, Ben, Tim, Christy and Jeff (not me, different Jeff, lol), my GF Unbeatable Emmy-chan, Arkle, Chloe, Nikki-Lee, Rob, Ian, Jeremy, KoalaTheArtist, UniComicRN, EverydayBattman, EverHobbes, artisticamara, Jiubeck, delightfully-drawing, and JonasLull. And my thanks to anyone who might do fan art of Starslip in the future.
Also, I want to thank people who helped inspire this endeavour. Thank you to Bryan Q. Miller, Scott Snyder, Gail Simone, K. A. Applegate, and you guessed it, Lewis Lovhaug. Thank you all for being the outstanding people you are.
Starslip Art Showcase
So, the last time I talked about Starslip, which is currently up to chapter 10, I shared some artwork done of the character by a few friends, fans, and so on. Well, here’s some more. XD
Be sure to check them all out, as well as other art pieces belonging to the people who made these. Ja né!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11443191/chapters/25645737
https://jyger85.deviantart.com/
https://everhobbes.deviantart.com/
https://emmybomber.deviantart.com/
https://koalatheartist.deviantart.com/
https://unbeatableemmy-chan.deviantart.com/
What Have I Been Up To? Fanfics, Fanart, & More
So, if you’ve followed my blog for any lengthy amount of time, you’re probably wondering why there hasn’t been a lot of full articles as of late, and instead, I’ve mostly been posting vlogs of myself and N. Harmonik. Well, there’s a few reasons for that, but namely, I thought I’d address what I’ve been up to online in lieu of blogging. Because I haven’t just been sitting on my ass… … … …Well, okay, I guess technically I have, but I HAVE been doing stuff while on it.
My mother decided to make a cover for it. She made Mew’s eyes all sparkly, too. lol
First off, one thing I did recently was write a Pokémon fanfic for my niece. You’ll recall, she recently celebrated her 10th birthday, and I decided that, as a belated birthday gift, I would write a fanfic with characters loosely based off of her, me, N. Harmonik, and a few other people we know as the main characters. I even posted it on Fanfiction.net, so if you wanna check it out, I’ll leave a link just below this paragraph, so just click on it and it’ll send you on your way. Just know this: It’s a Pokémon Go-inspired fanfic (albeit very loosely) written for a 10-year-old, so while I wouldn’t call it my worst work (I’m very thankful that none of you have ever seen my worst work, lol), I wouldn’t necessarily call it my best work. In fact, I’m contemplating going back and doing a revision of it later on. For now, though, do me a solid, read the fic, and lemme know what you think of it.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12178992/1/The-Mew-Mechanation-A-Pok%C3%A9mon-Go-Story
I’ve also been playing around with JTmovie’s Superhero Creator 2.0 and making various DC Comics characters on it, which I’ve posted to Deviant Art as Devious Fun Adoptables. You can see them all by clicking on Superman…
…and you can also let me know if you would like me to try to make anyone specific.
http://jtmovie.deviantart.com/art/Superhero-Creator-2-0-MALE-Dress-up-Game-530676189
http://jtmovie.deviantart.com/art/Superhero-Creator-2-0-FEMALE-Dress-up-Game-530676227
And lastly, I’ve been working on writing a few different projects at once. And I know, I tend to get very bothered by leaving certain stories to work on something else. But now, I’ve just decided “screw it, I’ll write stuff in batches”. So I’ll write a lot of Guardians of Gaia, and then I’ll write a bunch of Primal Strife, and then I’ll do some other project, and then it’ll eventually come back around to GoG and continue on in a circle.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve really been up to online, but don’t worry, I AM planning to try to get back to blogging. In particular, I got my hands on Volume 2 of The Darkseid War, so expect the long-awaited review of The Darkseid War to come soon. Until then, check out the other stuff I’ve been up to and lemme know what you think of it. Ja né!
What Do I Listen To While Writing Power Rangers Guardians of Gaia?
So, I’ve been writing my Power Rangers fanfic for a while now. Between the two ‘seasons’, the story is currently resting at 26 chapters long with 170,556 words. In other words, it’s the largest single project I’ve ever done, unless you count every article on my blog and add them all up together. However, one thing I’ve always liked to allude to is what I’m listening to while writing certain scenes. So, I’m here now to set the record straight as to exactly what I listen to as I write Power Rangers Guardians of Gaia.
Now, obviously, while writing action scenes, I listen to a lot of Ron Wasserman. If you’re unfamiliar (which you shouldn’t be if you’re an old school PR fan, but it CAN happen), Wasserman did a LOT of the classic songs for Power Rangers, including the original Go Go Power Rangers, and came back to do the Power Rangers SPD theme and a demo for Power Rangers Mystic Force. He also did a number of remakes of his classic songs, which he released as Power Rangers Redux. Luckily, a lot of Wasserman tunes work perfectly for certain scenes of my fic. For example, in Chapter 9, ‘Knight of the Wind’ (which is also a song I listen to sometimes when I write Patrick in action, FYI), when Pat is making his big comeback against the monster, this is pretty much the intended tune to play along with the scene:
When the Wizard Ranger, who has plenty of gold on his suit and fights a lot like a combo of the Gold Zeo Ranger and the Solaris Knight, leaps in to help the team, a lot of times I listen to this:
And so on. However, on top of a lot of those themes, there’s also a mashup produced on YouTube of one of Wasserman’s songs that I’ve become rather taken with and listen to a lot…
Also, just the instrumental of Welcome To The Family on its own is a great song for writing PR action scenes to. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up one of my favourite things to listen to while writing people kicking ass, and in particular during the opening to ‘Guardians of Gaia, Awaken! Part 2’: The soundtrack to Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, specifically…
Or hey, remember the two part finale to Season 1, ‘Into Darkness’, when they charged the Blots on horseback?
I also sometimes listen to music from Super Sentai. For example, in ‘Sisters’, there’s a moment where Layla and Madilyn team up to fight a monster, and for whatever reason, this was what was playing in my head as I was writing and I HAD to put it on:
Then there’s that scene in ‘Always A Ranger Part 3’ where…well, I don’t wanna ruin it too much for anyone who hasn’t read it, but let’s just say that the Gaia Rangers band together with some new allies to fight a horde of monsters led by Dradarius himself, and I HAD to use this song. And you’ll have to forgive the quality, since there was never an official release of this, though there IS a piano cover on YouTube…
And during the fight scene that followed THAT up, I listened to THIS awesome mashup:
But enough of the action scenes, let’s talk about some of the other moments in the fic. Now, this is a case where I wish there was a lot more of the background music for the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers available, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, many of those were never released to the public. So, a lot of times, I gotta go outside the box with other stuff. Now, obviously, for moments like Dradarius sitting on the Dark Throne in the Abyssial Fortress, there’s only one theme that could fit the scene perfectly, which thankfully IS available, and has actually been covered and remixed a few different times on YouTube:
However, for other moments of the villains plotting or being menacing, particularly Walker and Darkea, I find myself listening to this more often than not:
And that’s not the only scene I’ve used music from Kingdom Hearts for. For example, remember that heart-breaking scene from ‘Sisters’ that I thought people were gonna kill me for? Well, here’s what I was listening to during that sequence. By all means, re-read that scene with this playing in your headset:
I actually use that for a lot of sad scenes, especially those centered around Layla and Madilyn. And remember in ‘Indigo Nightmare’ where the team entered the Well of Regret? Well…
Anyway, that’s enough of Kingdom Hearts. For other emotional scenes (not necessarily sad), like Drayden and Nikki’s talk in ‘Crying Out For Mummy’, here’s a nice little tune I like to pop in and listen to:
And lastly, for relatively silly moments, like when Madilyn is being…well, Madilyn, here’s a pretty on-the-nose song that I turn on:
So yeah, that pretty much covers everything, other than a few random songs I listen to here and there. Lemme know what you think about this unofficial soundtrack for my fic, as well as if you ever do the same thing while writing or drawing or the like. Ja né!
…Oh, and last of all, for the Lightless showing up in the next chapter…well… … …:)
Upcoming Plans For Jyger’s Rant + DC Rebirth Questionnaire
So, just thought I’d keep everybody up-to-date with what I’m doing for the next little bit. First off, if you’re wondering where the updates to my Nuzlocke run are, I’m still playing the game and getting screencaps of myself, but updates are gonna be kinda sporadic. This is because of two things that are happening that I’ll get into in a bit, but for now, don’t worry, the adventures of Mikey, Oswald, and the rest of my team will continue soon.
One major reason why the Nuzlocke updates will be spaced out, though, is because of Marvelous May. Speaking of, today is the cut-off date, so as of right now, I’m no longer taking votes. That means that tomorrow, I will be posting the finalized roster for the fan-vote tournament. Please remember that voting on individual match-ups won’t occur until May, when said match-ups are posted.
As most long-time readers of my blog know, N. Harmonik is my proofreader, and the two of us have done vlogs where we watch the newest Death Battles as of late. However, for this week, her and her mother have gone to Disney World. As such, I’ll be doing the Death Battle vlog solo this week (which is actually cool for me, since I don’t need to wait a few days to see it). But, when she gets back, N. Harmonik has agreed to do an article talking about her time in Disney World, along with photos she’s taken, so look forward to that. ^_^
On top of all that, expect there to probably be a quick vlog and/or slideshow of me going to Free Comic Book Day, as I am prone to do, and don’t be surprised if there’s some coverage of news regarding the upcoming DC Rebirth. Speaking of, I’ve been meaning to ask everybody here, if you were Geoff Johns and looking to steer the ship that is the DC Universe in a specific path, what would it be and what books would you want running as part of this new direction? Just something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is all. Oh, and lastly, sometime within the next couple of months, I plan to do a How To Drop The Ball In Comics about The New 52. Just one last look at everything that went pretty alright and horribly wrong with the reboot.
And in regards to my writing, after all of this is out of the way, I plan to go back and finish J.A. Phillips Presents Batman and Robin. After that, I’ll probably get to work on either Primal Strife or the long-awaited Season 2 of Power Rangers Guardians of Gaia.
Anyway, that’s all I can think of at the moment in terms of future plans. Lemme know if you have any thoughts on my current gameplan and projects, and I’ll try to get back to you. Ja né!
Pulling Out Of NaNoWriMo 2013, But Wonder Woman Fic Is Still On The Way
So, as I tweeted earlier, I’ve decided to officially and graciously bow out of National Novel Writing Month. Why? For a number of reasons. First and foremost, however, the story I’m writing is reaching its natural conclusion, and I’m not even at the halfway point for the word count. While I’m way behind, I’m sure I COULD reach the 50,000 word minimum by the end of the month, but I’m already pulling filler out of my ass to extend the word count as much as humanly possible, so I don’t think the quality of my work would be any good.
Reason #2 kinda spins from the first one, in that I’m really NOT good at working with a deadline, be it a date and time, word minimum, or in this case, all the above. I’m a very ‘my pace’ kind of writer. It’s obviously something I’ll have to work on in the future, it just isn’t something I can overcome RIGHT NOW.
Reason #3…Well, to be honest, I kind of decided to just jump into it spontaneously this year. I had only just heard of it when I decided to officially enter. Now, that having been said, I can tell you I’ve enjoyed the heck outta this, and it’s definitely something I wanna try again next year, once I’ve thought about what went wrong this time and I’ve had some more time to improve.
And finally, reason #4, I wanna get back to blogging regularly and writing the other stories I was plotting for Infinite DC soon. Birds of Prey: Dark hasn’t been updated in forever, my blog hasn’t been updated very much at all, there’s a really great Batman and Robin story I wanna do, I STILL need to get back to editing me and DorkynProudOfIt’s Thor: The Dark World vlog, and then there’s Justice League that I wanna get to. However, before I do all of that, I still need to finish Wonder Woman.
So, with all that being said, this does not mean you won’t be seeing Infinite DC – Wonder Woman. In fact, because I’m not writing it for NaNoWriMo anymore, I can begin the process of posting chapters of it to Fanfiction.net right away. So, expect the first chapter to be posted before the day is out. I hope you all enjoy it, as I put a lot of work into this.
So, this gives me a year to ponder what I will be doing next year. I will think hard about that over the next 12 months or so. Rest assured, though, one way or another, you can most definitely expect to see me entering NaNoWriMo 2014. Until then, look out for Infinite DC – Wonder Woman on Fanfiction.net, and plenty more blog entries on here. Ja né!
Related articles
- You can do it! Success stories of people that have turned their #NaNoWriMo books into bestsellers. http://t.co/2Bg1AAOp7A (tor.com)
- So…Are You Doing NaNoWriMo? (eclecticvoices.org)
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The Hexagon – Vote Who Gets In!
So people following me on deviantART might know I have this little series of stories I call Superhero Tales. It started with Green Defender, the tale of a superhuman trained to become a hero who now returns to his corrupted home-town in the wake of tragedy to try to overcome crime and his inner demons. From that spun the story of Starslip, a teenage super-heroine being trained by Green Defender who has to fight the escalating crime in their town while also trying to deal with high school drama at its finest. And now we have The Hexagon, wherein Green Defender’s former mentor, a super-heroine named Strix is organizing a group of superheroes who will provide aid and information to each other in their individual efforts to fight crime and the various forces of evil. In other words, my fictional world‘s Justice League or Avengers type of deal.
Now for the past few months in my stories, I’ve been slowly building up to the point where the team will be assembled. However, at some point, I ran into a problem: I had created so many superheroes with their own unique powers and characteristics that I couldn’t decide on a finalised team for The Hexagon. So I thought I would introduce the characters throughout Green Defender, Starslip, and the first few chapters of The Hexagon, give some insight on their abilities and personalities, then ultimately leave it up to a vote. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.
Now, before I list the characters to vote for, allow me to give very brief descriptions of the cast already in The Hexagon, as well as show the character concepts I created for each on Hero Machine 3.0…
Strix
Created for my girlfriend Teagan, who also came up with the name, Téa Rodden is a billionaire bachelorette. However, don’t think her just a female Batman. While Strix DOES carry a vast array of owl-themed gadgets on her, she also has the power to fly at supersonic speeds and, when exposed to moonlight, gains superhuman strength. She also has enhanced senses, has studied many forms of martial arts, and possesses a vast wisdom and high intelligence. The origins of her powers are a secret she keeps from everyone, including her team-mates. Only her butler, Myron, and her agent, Maylene, know the truth of her origins.
Outrun
Again, Outrun was created for a friend, in this case my good buddy David. Stanley Davidson was originally a classmate and friend of the League of High School Superheroes, but one day a group of criminals able to combine into a burst of light moving at hyperspeed came looking for the teenaged superheroes and came crashing through Stan as he was helping them hide. Instead of killing him, though, this incident gave him their powers, thus creating Outrun, the speedster of the group. Since becoming an adult, he is now one of the founding members of The Hexagon. Stan usually keeps a number of helpful gadgets in his belt, such as a GPS tracker, tracers, plastique, and a multi-part collapsible rifle for firing his plastique and tracers from a long distance. I should note for the record that Outrun will be getting a redesign very soon, with will replace a lot of the grey with yellow, and include a visor over his eyes.
Green Defender
After a lab experiment that claimed the life of his high school science teacher, Geoffrey Hicks was infused with green voltage, a powerful self-replenishing electrical force that is channelled through the hands. Taken in by the League of High School Superheroes, he was taught how to use this power to defend the innocent, and thus the Green Defender was born. Wearing specialized gloves that keeps him from zapping anything he touches, he can also manipulate the green voltage in the form of electrical bursts and, most recently, energy shields. He also keeps a number of gadgets in his belt, like tranquillizer darts, explosive throwing discs, green voltage-powered stun batons, and a grappling gun. He rides his personalised ‘Emeraptor’ motorcycle, and while his cape was originally bullet-proof, the energy shields have made this function pointless, and he’s since upgraded to a para-cape for gliding, which will début soon in his solo stories.
Jack’d
Like something that leaped from a Tim Burton movie, Jack’d, once known simply as Jack, was chosen to be his town’s guardian during an incident where alternate reality zombie versions of the town’s populace started to leak through one by one. As such, he was infused with chaos magic that allows him to harness the power of the elements, at the cost of permanently scorching his entire body. This incident, as well as his constant struggle against the undead, has had a detrimental effect on his mind, but he still remains a good person who fights to protect the innocent. Jack’d has the power to manipulate the forces of fire, electricity, and wind, and can teleport to any location with a shadow over it. His personal weapon is a flail with three spiked balls chained to it, and he also has a bag of tricks that he uses in conjunction with his chaos magic.
There’s also another character that will début last as the sixth member of The Hexagon. Without giving too much away, her name is Zenith Woman (not the watches, leave me alone, lol), and she’ll be the true powerhouse of the team. In the meantime, here are the three I’ve lined up to become the fifth member of The Hexagon. I should note that I have plans for all three in case any of them don’t make it into the team, so don’t feel like you won’t be seeing any of the ones you don’t vote for ever again.
Bard
Created for N. Harmonik, Robina Huang was once just an innocent and kind girl of mixed heritage until she encountered a hero called The Bard, who wielded a magic music case that gave him the power to create any musical instrument he wanted, each armed with its own unique power. After The Bard was gunned down by the mob while protecting her, the case was mystically passed down to Robina as she became the new Bard. She is currently a member of the League of High School Superheroes, though she’s in her last year of high school and will be going on her own afterwards.
Maple
Trained at a young age to be a ninja, Nicole Steele decided to use her craft as a super-heroine. Donning a costume representative of her Canadian heritage, she has become Maple, a ninja so skilled in making herself unseen that even her red and white outfit doesn’t give her away much. Like Bard, she is a member of the League of High School Superheroes about to graduate. Unlike Bard, she is suspicious of the group’s leader and founder, though it seems these concerns are justified. In combat, Maple makes efficient use of her four-foot katana, smoke bombs, and shurikens.
Cybertaur
A good friend and ally of Strix’s, Stella Masters was once known as Brickwall, a super-heroine born with inhuman physical strength and, over the years, acquired an advanced knowledge of cybernetics. However, after an accident cost her the use of her legs, Stella created a horse-like walking apparatus linked to her mind, thus rebranding herself as Cybertaur. Stella generally wields a mace as her weapon of choice, and as Cybertaur, she can gallop at the speed of a cheetah.
So yeah, regardless of who is voted in, the team will have 3 men and 3 women. And yes, I did plan that specifically. I just prefer teams with an even number of members to have a good balance as far as gender goes, as well as a variety of colours (Zenith Woman’s colour scheme will be predominantly red, white, and blue). You can vote below in the comments, in the comments section for The Hexagon #4, or in a poll that I’ll be posting in my fan page on Facebook. Either way, PLEASE vote and/or comment on my work, and we’ll see who gets on the team soon. Ja né!
Jyger's Rant 