Thought Train to Pusan

With accompanying illustrations by Keith Thompson, Leviathan is a young adult’s Steampunk mechanics vs. Biopunk Darwinists tale set within an alternate history of the initiation of World War I. And at the end of it I was thinking, “that’s it? That’s where you leave me?” only to be pleasantly surprised to discover that Leviathan is only the first in a series of novels (how I wasn’t aware of this before, I’m not sure) that I definitely plan on continuing with when I am able to. The story begins with two separate focuses: Alek, the prince of the Autro-Hungarian Empire, on the run from the country that has turned on him with a small group of loyal men after his parents are assassinated, and Deryn, a young woman who disguises herself as a male in order to join the British Air Service. For the first half of the novel we see these two young people’s lives being swept into adventure and danger as the beginning of the war in Europe unfolds, and I kept wondering how their two paths woul...

Although I am also posting this over on my art blog , I am excited to be finished an art project I've been working on for a while (especially since I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on projects for myself recently)! And that project is a set of portraits of all the lovely young men in One Direction. Did I also mention that I'm going to Arizona to see them in concert for the first time later this year? I'm extremely excited for it! In any case, here is my completed project, though I still have to actually physically attach them in a single frame in order to put it up somewhere. Each drawing itself is 3.6''x10'' in pencil, using various references (and you can see a somewhat closer look at each of them individually: here ).  So what do we think? Do we like them? Personally, despite the fact that I am always insanely critical about my own artwork, I'm pretty pleased about with they all turned out.

It’s been almost a year (if not more) since I read the first volume in the Peter Panzerfaust series, which I absolutely adored! And so I had forgotten a few details about what actually happened in the previous installment. But once I got into it, I remembered quickly, and thoroughly enjoyed this second volume entitled “Hook”. This volume includes issues #6-10 of the comic series, and picks up with one of the French orphans, Julien, at an older age; here, Julien recounts the tales of his group of brothers in war led by Peter, as they try to find and rescue their lost friend, Felix. Along the way, the group meets up with a French resistance, and joins forces with them. One of these French members is a young woman named Tiger Lily, who is tough as nails and Julien soon falls for. We also once again meet Kapitan Haken, whose encounter with Peter is very intriguing due to that which it seems to reveal, but also leave hidden about who Peter truly is. All in all, this volume conti...