Tumblr! I have one now: Magpie’s Gold

It’s mostly going to be for the idle sketches and doodles and ponderings out loud. Not necessarily ProtC related, which is why I’m keeping it separate from the site here, but there’s always a chance of seeing some tikedi and tekk since that occupies quite a bit of my thinking.

An explanation of what exactly happened here is probably in order, as well as an explanation of what all of my kerfuffle in the Twitter feed was. The story is as such: there’s a key feature that most webcomics these days require, and it’s one that I wasn’t entirely prepared for in the original plan of this site. That feature is an RSS feed. Handy, I admit. Personally I like when I find them, and I was getting hints that some of you would like if you found one here, and so I attempted to provide.

I’m one of those nutters who can’t claim to be a computer whiz by any stretch, but who rather views one as an odd-shaped, extra-maddening Rubik’s Cube. I want all those colors lined up, and even though I have only the most basic idea of how the toy fits together, I also have access to a considerable amount of hints and tips and documentation via Google, and I will make this thing obey me, this I swear in the name of all things squishy. Bare bones RSS feeds stumped me, because the majority of my site is cobbled together from my own knowledge of things like HTML and CSS and it didn’t want to play nicely. So I found another way. I taught myself how to install WordPress, run it, and coerce it into dancing for my amusement, at least on part of my site.

I also taught myself how to break it. The less said about that the better, but regardless, it happened.

Now this is a natural part of the process, but it doesn’t usually happen within two hours of the promised deadline. There was some screaming involved. There is still some minor heartache because I lost a good chunk of content to my own ridiculousness. I actually had this site done this afternoon. Done! Now it is not so done, but here’s what you’re looking at:

This is, obviously, the new index page. Ideally, it was meant to contain a backlog of posts going right back to the beginning of the comic, with tags for characters, places, ideas, etc so that one could browse for a subject of interest and actually find it. It currently goes back until about October of last year and I’ll keep rebuilding it until it’s once again complete. There are no tags right now, but will be. It was working out nicely in the original version and I think that when it once again sees completion, you’ll like it. In the background is most of the old site. The comics archives are largely untouched, as is the encyclopedia, so no new systems to learn except here, and it’s pretty speak-for-itself, I think. Much easier to update, at any rate.

To the right, you’ve got all the navigation you could want, including the wonderful orange RSS button. That’s a feed for the whole journal here, including both the comic updates and my idle ramblings that occasionally contain useful information. If there’s a way to split it so there are separate feeds for separate categories of posts, I have yet to discover it, but I will if it’s out there. That’ll just take me some time. For now, you have the whole shebang available. EDIT: Never mind, I just found the means. Now you have your pick of subscriptions to make life that much easier. Hurrah!

There is also placeholder text for another project: I want to draw on things and offer them to you. I sincerely do. The standard is t-shirts, and I’m putting together some ideas for those and also open to suggestions. I’m also planning a marketplace of occasional one-of-a-kind creations. I’m thinking drawings, mainly, since that’s what I do best. Ink sketches, watercolors, just small things that I make when I have time and inclination. There’s also the possibility of trinkets. I have the materials and know-how to make a variation on a Tarsin bond necklace, for example.

Anyway, welcome to the somewhat foggy vision of the future! Let me know what you’re thinking, and I’ll get back to my rags and buckets and polish it up for you just as soon as I’ve had a rest.

Wow. I leave for a while, and I never stop to think of the little changes that happen while I’m in transition between country to country until I’m back and looking at them properly. I’m back now and I’m reflecting on how interesting this is: a new year, and for me, an anniversary. It was a few days ago, on the 4th, but Prophecy of the Circle is officially a year old now.

In terms of my art and my storytelling, I feel like I’ve both come a long ways and only begun to realize how far I have yet to go. It’s a milestone, but only the first of many.

Here’s hoping you’ll all stick around for the journey. It would be nice to see you there.

How about the lot of you? Good holidays? Good new beginnings? I hope its been wonderful and continues to be.

Hello, all! I’m just making a note here that I won’t be around to respond to email or other messages until after January 2nd. I’m off to spend Christmas and New Years where there is no snow. Hurrah!

Writing about a desert is kind of fun when you happen to actually just about live in the arctic. Ultimate daydreaming.

Anyway! The important bit: never fear! The comic will still update as scheduled. I’ve built up a buffer of comics for while I’m missing, it’s just that it won’t be me at the controls every week. Be nice to my mother, ya hear?