Biology is so cute it’s like “look at this fossil! It’s a trilobite” whereas physics is like S U B M I T T O T H E E V E R - I N C R E A S I N G E N T R O P Y O F T H E U N I V E R S E
Hmmm, this is the second ask I’ve gotten with the term “established” so I had to think on what that word actually means.
Most writers I know do not get to write full-time for a living. Those that do have to be pretty smart about their projects and their time because we have basically zero job security—you never know how a book will sell or how much marketing it may get. I’m one of the lucky ones. I get to write full time. I get to tour. I get invited to festivals. So I’m going to call that “established.”
Here’s the thing: I’m very proud of my books, but there are a lot of good books and great writers our there who never get the attention they deserve. I don’t work any harder than they do and that’s the cruel part of this business.
The challenge of creating art is to continue doing it when no one cares, when there’s no guarantee of success, and no predictable outcome. But that’s also how we get great stories, so I hope you’ll fight that battle.
Leigh rocked her tumblr Q&A generally, but I loved this answer about the challenge of creating art. It is a supreme act of egotism, to place your love for something imaginary before the world’s indifference. It is one of my favourite things to do.
October 7, 2015
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October 7, 2015
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Only one person is prepared to solve this mystery.
REMINDER THAT LAIKA’S FIRST FILM SOLELY PRODUCED BY THEIR STUDIO HAD TWO FEMALE CHARACTERS AS THEIR ANTAGONIST AND PROTAGONIST WHO, BY SOME FORM OF DEVIL MAGIC, HAVE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FACES
REMINDER THAT LAIKA’S SECOND FILM NOT ONLY CONSISTED OF A CAST WITH FOUR CENTRAL FEMALE CHARACTERS BUT INCLUDED AN ENTIRE TOWN OF DIVERSE CITIZENS OF VARYING RACE, GENDER, AND AGE. LIKE A NORMAL TOWN HAS.
REMINDER THAT LAIKA’S THIRD FILM FEATURED SAME SEX COUPLES IN THEIR TEASER TRAILER
REMINDER THAT THIS IS ALL STOP-MOTION SO EVERY CHARACTER WAS DESIGNED, MODELED, SCULPTED, RIGGED, AND EVEN HAD TINY CLOTHES SEWED FOR THEM.
also reminder that they make chump change compared to disney who whines and cries that in all their years of experience they can’t handle the prospect of animating a girl with a face different than the rest and that it’s “too hard” because only females can express such a wide range of emotions that it makes them difficult to animate
if a studio with 20-30 years of experience can manage this then SURELY an established studio with NEAR 100 YEARS of experience can maybe, just maybe, include a female that ISN’T a part of their formula
LAIKA !
Also paranormal had a canonically gay guy in it just saying
I thought: ‘It’s time you introduce bisexuals properly into mainstream television,’” he said. “The most boring drama would be - ‘Oh, I’m bisexual, oh my bleeding heart’ nighttime drama. Tedious, dull. But if you say it’s a bisexual space pirate swaggering in with guns and attitude and cheek and humour into primetime family viewing - that was enormously attractive to me.
I often get asked to write dramas or films about a man coming out of the closet to his wife, or a man coming out of the closet to his children, or a man who’s beaten up because he’s secretly gay. I always refuse if it’s a negative take on homosexuality - if the only aspect being portrayed is the trouble, the tears and the angst.
Russell T Davies on bisexuality and the creation of Jack Harkness (x)
I have been in love with Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series, it’s been such a well spring of inspiration and is a book with a host of vivid imagery. This is an illustration for the first in his series Sabriel! I hope you guys like it.
October 1, 2015
All artists’ work is autobiographical. Any writer’s work is a map of their psyche. You can really see what their concerns are, what their obsessions are, and what interests them.
In which I demonstrate my truly terrible Photoshop skills, and also announce SOME NEWS.
I’m going to spoil my own news here presently, so NEWS SPOILER ALERT: I’m so so so so so so (so so so so so) excited to announce that my publisher Henry Holt has picked up two more of my books. The first, which I finished just a couple months ago, is called THIS ADVENTURE ENDS. As I so aptly forgot to mention in the video, it’s another YA contemporary, in which the narrator, Sloane, goes on a quest to track down her new friends’ late mother’s last painting (quite a mouthful!). The second of the two books is being written right now (well, not right now, as I am writing this post right now, but you know what I mean!). I haven’t titled it yet, but I’ll let you know more details as soon as I’ve got them.
THIS ADVENTURE ENDS is slated for winter of 2017, which seems ages away, but in the meantime there are many books to read and dogs to pet and cakes to enjoy etc etc.. I’m so excited to share these books with you (along with FIRST & THEN, which comes out in…. less than two weeks!!!!!!!!), and I’m so grateful for your support in all this.
