She offered an apple
out to the mechanical creature.
“Click, click,
whir,” came the reply without a bite.
“Oh, I don’t
know,” she sighed. “She just left you with me and told me to keep
you fed. I mean what the bloody ‘eck do I feed a clockwork lizard!”
She wandered into the kitchen to continue preparing her apple pie.
“It’s not easy you know, she’s so random! And shes got all this weird stuff. You’re about the least weird thing she’s given me”, she mused as he dropped in the apples, syrup, brown sugar and drop of oil into the beaten copper pan
She ambled back into
the room and stood to face the metal lizard.
CHOMP!
She looked down at
what remained of the copper pans handle.
Sometimes you’ve got to tell the story you want to tell, even if you’re not sure it’s going to work. I’ve had that struggle with Brass, a post-apocalyptic road trip featuring two new Fears, Copper and Iron. A blend of horror and humour. The entire story is just over ninety stories long forming one continuous narrative.
I’ve been pondering on whether or not to publish this story online since August last year when I’d told the first of Lily and Sally’s Lost Leads stories. A thirty tale long narrative felt like the limit for an attention span on the Internet. Five stories a week would mean if I started today the story wouldn’t finish until June. Could the Little Fears focus on one story for that long? Heck, could I?
So the stories, sat, languished, and niggled. I want to tell the story, but I don’t feel it would work on the net.
Until this weekend…
My Internet friend and fellow blogger Lauren bought Copper and Iron as a print after my Etsy overhaul the other day. (You can visit her website HERE and my Etsy store HERE. Wink, wink.)
To quote Lauren:
“I just really liked their dynamic… something about em really appealed to me.”
Me too, Lauren. She pulled me back to their story. I gave it a few read-overs and figured if I re-wrote about 40% of it and loosened off the connection between each days tale, I could tell their tales in my daily horror and pun format. It’s a big job, but, well, sometimes you just have to tell the story you want to tell.
It helps that I’m hoping to have my entire website fixed post-Gutenberg/WordPress 5.0 update by the end of February. Then I can rework the front page and side-bar with links to each complete story. Grey Moon, Seeking Hydra, Lost Leeds, Capricorn, January and of course, Brass. That’ll certainly make navigating my site easier. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the current theme, but eh, can figure that out when the website’s been fully repaired.
So, thanks to Lauren for prompting me to return to Copper and Irons story. Thanks to Warren for the $10 Patronage. And thank you to everyone else for the continued support!
“She takes the
stairs, every single time man,” cried Spectre.
“It’s just one
of those things,” sighed Sprite.
“Yeah,” groaned
Spectre. “But I always prefer the escalators.”
“Bruv, I don’t mean to sound rude,” said Sprite. “But maybe you were just raised differently.”
Trivia. A fear of slopes or stairs is called bathmophobia. I wonder if there’s a really scared person somewhere naming all the different fears and phobias in the world…
No #Colour_Collective again this week. Fears portraits shalt not rest. So this week I nobbled the theme from #PinchPunchPost. Leopard. A mean lil high-speed kitty cat. Mreow! Zoooooooooooooooooom!
She watched the roots, reaching up out of the ground. Twirling around each other. Tying themselves together and standing tall. She would have run when she saw her face forming in the organic ballet. If only the roots holding her hands and feet would loosen their grip.
Ya know, I was absolutely certain I’d had Durthi as a #Colour_Collective portrait. Can’t find her in any of the usual folders or my Twatter though. I shall remedy this in 2019.
Obs, this ain’t just no straight-up horror post, but an advert too. Cause ya know, I do need a few quid to buy tea!
You can get an original hand drawn Durthi or a print of this fiendish plant lady on my Etsy store. Postage is free and first class wherever you live in the world, and each card envelope comes with a free bird drawn on it. Stick that in ya stovepipe and smoke it.
OK, so, I’ve listed 24 items this week, 18 of them are new products. The Triffids, Fuens chicks, Capricorn and the Bugs have all returned. Now accompanied by Pisces, Aires, Leo, Aquarius and more.
Up until now, I’ve sold around 400’ish prints at markets and events in real life. 150’ish prints through comments and emails. Then 9 through Etsy. A tad bad of me there. It means my Etsy store has very little feedback and an awful sales count. So from now on, I’ll be directing all comment and email sales through Etsy. The fees are worth it for the long term benefits of being established on an online market as big as Etsy.
I’m happy to say Red, up there, is my best market stall seller. Usually to adorn a children’s bedroom. I like that. Certainly never intended, but I can imagine having Red on my wall as a kid.
Any-who, yes, here’s the thing. Before Christmas I had an order come in for 250 of these prints. They’re printed on 200 gsm matte card. I kinda miss having the canvas texture effect of my old prints, but the quality of ink absolutely pastes anything I’ve ever printed myself. So much so, I have conscripted all my old prints to the scrap paper shelf in my cupboard. The ink has so much depth to it, it gives the colours a wonderful kapow that has been absent on my older prints.
My good friend Esme, who rides upon a cloud, put in an order for Fuen and the chicklets the week my order was arriving and nobbled the first of the new prints. Despite having to wait a week, she loved the print enough to give me a 5-star rating. If a print’s good enough for a cloud riding Esme, it’s good enough for me.
As always, despite a background in marketing, I have no idea how to market my own stuff. Anyone got an Etsy marketing class for me? Haha.
I figure a link at the bottom of the post is a good start.
“Wasn’t happy
with the last one,” sighed Bugly. “And I’m not happy with where
I am now.”
“Ah, I see,”
replied Ello. “Can ya see yourself in a better place this time next
year?”
Bugly, scrunched up his nose. “No,” he sighed. “I don’t have 2020 vision…”
Boom! Etsy shop being filled up! You can have a peek today or wait until tomorrow when all my current stocks online. Either way, I’m excited to finally have a full Etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LittleFears
Little Fears 