I know those aren’t hugely comparable because I’m comparing Instagram likes vs WordPress views. Kinda interesting though. Not a single shared post between them. It’s nice to see a product shot in the top nine of Instagram. Also, horror seems to be more popular there?
Have you done BestNine yourself? Feel free to link to your Instagram or blog post below.
I have written and deleted this post six times. The fifth time it was 4,000 words long detailing my entire last year. An overwhelming urge to vent to the internet at large can take you sometimes, can’t it? That post had no place here.
The abridged version.
My 2017 has been pretty catastrophic. Land Registry lost the lease to my home. It’s wiped out my life savings getting a new one made. Just existing this year has cost me £70,000. $120,000 in American? I haven’t seen my missus or my dogs since July. My house sale’s on the rocks. If it falls through I may not see her for another four months or more. On account of property law issues, when my house does sell I’m going to have a three month period of limbo in rented accommodation and 3G internet in the Scottish hills. Three months is a lifetime on the internet. That’ll wipe out all the progress I have made with the Little Fears. I’ll be posting once a day, but I’ll be doing no marketing. Bandwidth will be restricted to one gig per month. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to leave comments on blogs or Twitter with that sort of restriction.
At the end of 2016, I was at the lowest point in my life. At the end of 2017, I’m worse off with no savings, and I don’t know how long it’ll be this way.
2017 doesn’t have me beat. I learned something. It’s possible to make £600 a month from the Little Fears as they are today. Currently taking four hours a day, six days a week. Once I have moved home, £600 will cover all of my bills. I can then drop my freelance work and odd jobs, which I currently can’t live without, and focus entirely on the Fears to lift £600 to a reasonable wage.
That’ll be awesome. I’ll be back with my partner and animals. Switching my flat in London for a 2-3 bedroom house in the Scottish mountains. Dedicating all my time to making people groan, cry and fear filled. You all know I have ideas for the Fears. I’ve probably had and forgotten more plans than I will ever manage to put into action.
I have dreams, hope and Fears. The future is bright.
From all the Little Fears and the illustrator, happy new year!
The last update of the year, well keep this one short. Terrordactyl from the doodles post this week is my #Colour_Collective for this week’s Twitter hashtag. She’s also available now from my Threadless store from $12.95.
She pressed the gun against his forehead and fired again. She had to be sure. She stood crying, sinking into the jacket she wore. It was his. It still had the smell of coconut hair pomade on the collar. She pressed the gun into the roof of her mouth. She took her eyes off the bite marks on his shoulder and arm. The boat tipped, rotten, bloated hands emerging from the water. A last shot.
~~~
Raaaawr! Zombies and boats! Oh hey, if death out at sea by giant intelligent sharks is your thing, Layne, Alex and I will be Twittering Deep Blue Sea this Saturday at 9 pm UK time. Fancy joining us? Grab a copy on your fave streaming service and hit us up on Twatter.
“Have you ever had any humans go back?” asked Reala.
Yuffie and Fuen shifted uneasily.
“It has happened,” sighed Yuffie. “Sometimes an individual’s reputation is so powerful they never walk up the road.”
Reala nodded. “Anyone I may have heard of?”
“Maybe,” replied Yuffie. “Jack the Ripper. When Edmond Reid came through, he dragged Jack up the road. Even then some of his deeds live on as legends.”
“They linger here,” said Fuen. “Dead, unwanted and past their useful existence.”
“Like a career politician voted out of office,” sighed Jessie.
Quite like sharing my doodle pages, this may become a regular thing. A weekly page share. With some separated and digitized Fears to show where some of my doodles go.
Digitized Doodles
A bit rough, let’s digitize them. I’ve been wondering what I can offer Patreons recently. I could offer monthly postcards from the world in-between. More in keeping with the daily doodles on photos than art prints, but printed on a top-notch 220gsm card stock, post-card size. I could also offer the digitized monsters to Patreons to download. Patreon subscribers could vote on which they want out of a months worth of selection. I’d then send them a link to download the creature and do what they want with them. Non-commercial of course.
Thorny
Have you ever heard of a Tarasque? I think I had. Maybe from 80s Dungeons and Dragons. Yep, ya knew I was gonna be a D&D player right in my yoof right? Anywho, I think that’s where I had the mental image of this gal. Nobody mention the size of her bottom…
Wasp
A reappearance of Screeches head, but this time with a wasp’s stingy tail. If #Colour_Collective have a yellow theme again, I can fill in her segments yellow and she can go full stingy-stingy grr grr.
Terror-Dactyl
Speaking of #Colour_Collective, this week it’s white. While I was digitizing TD here, I tried inverting her colours. White body and red eyes. That’ll be this week’s portrait then.
I couldn’t help but google Terror-Dactyl. Turns out there’s an awful looking horror movie of the same name. Terrible special effect. Woeful plot. Made for TV I imagine… That’ll be a future film to suggest to Layne and Alex for a Saturday Twitter movie then…
The lady looks good on a Tee too. Maybe the next addition to my Threadless store. I have a lack of tees that would look good in black.
Pens & Paper
Switched over to the Kuretake Zig this week for the black. I do love my Posca’s but I can’t wait to be reunited with my supplies drawer. Six pots of Tipp-Ex await. Scruffy, messy and the mini cheese wedge brush. That’s my white that is!
“So how long do we stay here for?” enquired Reala.
“Until we’re forgotten entirely,” said Yuffie. “I believe I am an embodiment of necromancy.”
“How long have you been here for?” asked Reala.
“Since before humans existed,” sighed Yuffie. “Even some primates have an awareness of death and the afterlife.”
“Have you ever been back?” pondered Reala.
“Occasionally. Necromancy and the craft drift in and out of fashion. Sometimes I have a large following, and the following summons me,” replied Yuffie.
“Some things keep coming round,” said Fuen. “Like that crazy frog ringtone, man buns, platform sandals and scrunchies.”
~~~
Proper divder between text and page bottom links… Better… I think… The bigger header allows me to put the video before text, for those audio inclined. That in turn allows me a longer title and sub-heading which looks silly with all text below. Hey, I can even put in the episode number from the story. Now that’s an interesting (to me) addition.
Little Fears 