A New Journey Begins...

I'm struggling to find the conflict and who/what the "antagonist" is/are in my latest sci-fi wip. This is why I find fantasy easier to write. I struggle to write sci-fi. And yet, I dearly love both genres as a fan, consumer, and creator. 

Also, I struggle to write full romance prose, but I found I can draft romantic comedy in comic form... 

My writing plans for 2024

Was just replying to a response about not enough stories showing the side effects of overusing ones magic or powers. In my own near-future sci-fi short story series, my MC shape-shifting alien couldn't rest because his human partner was sleeping over. He finally lost control and nearly destroyed his highrise apartment. 

I intend to self-publish this series and other sci-fi and fantasy I have in mind. Even a few genre-blend ideas.

Making More Informed Decisions About the Webcomic

I like revising and updating my webcomic hashtags/keywords. Had ‘public schools’ as one but, after going through a manga/manwha/manhua site, will be changing to ‘school life’.

This will be more inclusive since my #webcomic will be involving scenes and situations in an educational environment. Many of my characters are educators. My protag and the rest of the cast often discuss their school memories or what they're experiencing now. 

Also, the webcomic won't just be in public schools, but private(parochial) schools, academies, colleges, universities, technical/vocational schools, HBCUs, boarding schools, PWIs, and satellites. 

Another extended tweet

A lot of monthly Writing and Art Prompts have helped push my storytelling and illustrating skills. Glad to participate again this Pride Month, which forces me to actually sketch out OCs that would otherwise remain in my head. 

For example, I came up with high school English teacher, Mr. Bakker. Wrote about him in early scripts, and finally fleshed him out in December 2021. In October 2022, I drafted an episode about his work-relationship and friendship with my male love interest, Peter, but before that, struggled to find a first name for him. 

Sometimes, a character's first name comes to me. Sometimes, their last name. Rarely do I get a full name. 

Now, for this Pride Month, I finally get to draw Bakker and his husband, Gonzalo. And then struggled to research a last name and possible cultural background for Gonzalo... *sigh* 

The creating doesn't end, but hopefully, you'll like the characters I introduced last year and the newer ones this year! 

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. 

Expanded IG post about current draft board - Plus, news from the Twitterverse!

[News from my Twitter account]

I've noticed in my push to add Alternative Text or Alt-Text to my webcomic wip, a small number of my readers have expressed that the platform causes them anxiety and stresses them out. So, since I have plans to submit the webcomic series to other platforms and possible publication, I never closed my Tumblr account. Learned that Tumblr allows one to create numerous/multiple secondary blogs, so I created one for "Summer to Winter". When I begin posting will I drop the link. Also, most folks don't need a Tumblr blog in order to access its content.

[Originally posted on my Insta]

I've been feeling run-down the day after I run errands. I don't know if it stems from my chronic health conditions, but, all I know is, once I run errands on one day, I'm wiped out the next day. Also, we've been dealing with problems in the house, so my draft board has looked like this since last week. As soon as the skin flares calm down, I should be able to get back to work. 

P.S. NO COMMISSIONS. #ChronicHealth #ChronicPain #SkinAllergies #Drafting #Drawing #Cartooning #Comics

Expanded tweet about maximizing work output

I had a severe writing block a few nights ago and just outlined the chapter... Tried several different playlists: K-pop, Urbano Latino, Reggaeton, and Michael Jackson... What finally helped: Anita Baker's 'Just Because'. What helped more: stumbling on an Anita Baker playlist! 

The more I make sketch studies for a difficult chapter, the quicker I get panels completed. I have more to rough draft for this chapt that involves two flashbacks that will converge since the two main characters became a couple. 

I've had to come up with ways to bang out work quicker since getting severely sick last November. 

Just a note

A fellow writer and friend mentioned how, at 16, she had simple story ideas, but as an adult, those ideas have grown and multiplied into more complexities. 

My own stories began so simply(alien & human in love, dog gangsters, merman falls in love with tree woman researching him) and now those same tales have grown into journeys of self identity, dived into gender politics, injustice, advocacy, sex and body positivity, with cast of characters from diverse cultural ethnic groups, mythological beings, and various alien species. 

I will continue to tell the stories that speak to me and that I wish I had read when I was younger.

Until next time, my Dear Readers.

What's happening to Ukraine breaks my heart

[ORIGINALLY FROM THE TWITTERVERSE - now expanded]

I feel sick to my stomach about what's happening: Put!n attacking Ukraine, and how he's using Belarus as I write a story with diasporic characters from those nations. 

Then there's my 2021 tweet about the need for more visibility of these Eastern-European nations' folks in English-language Romance.

I've known about Belarus' dictator for some time, thanks to Japanese English-language news, my interest in their poet, Valzyna Mort, who's here in the USA for years, and the Belarusian peoples' literary culture. 

I can only imagine how those countries and their people in diaspora must be heartbroken now.💔

Entries from the Twitterverse...

Note to Readers: The following are a series of tweets I use as a sort of progress report to myself or relevant writer groups I'm a part of.

"Time Tiger" or its full name TIME TIGER:/4846_Chronicles, is a series of short stories I'm working on and compiling together. It began as an idea I illustrated back in junior high. 

Below are the following: tweets(or progress reports to myself) to stay on track.

Two 1/2 pages of that 'spinoff' series... Hilarious that I'm writing spinoffs when I haven't written a significant amount of the groundwork stories yet.😜😖 #amwriting  #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstories 

A GIRL AND HER CAT

I can't believe how many incarnations this #shortstory has gone through over time.😳 It went from some teen HS manga drama to a mystery-thriller with horror elements...😬 #amwriting #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

I had to do some #conceptsketches of the main #aliencharacter. Now that I worked out his look, I can tackle the human MC next. I want to work on her headshots and braids. But I #amwriting the story in the middle of this. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstory

Trying to revise and update the looks of different #alien species from old notes and previous drawings is fun and tedious at the same time. #scifi #sciencefiction #amwriting #amdrawing #amwritingscifi #amdrawingscifi  IG: handdrawnbycarmenjr 

Worked on a scene from my  near-future #shortstoryseries(3rd or 4th entry) & I find it harder to develop the #technology 80-100 yrs from now versus the #tech I'm developing in my #spaceopera set within the same universe about 2700+ yrs later. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

Intrigued! If you want more info on this series and its concept art, you can go on my Instagram @ handdrawnbycarmenjr

Hope to see you there, Dear Readers.

I'm Stretching My Graphic Skills

I worked on my first flashback in the Summer and Winter graphic novel. I've done flashbacks before in my prose stories but not yet in a comic. I hope it goes over well. You can view the 7-page scene(so far) on my IG at HanddrawnbyCarmenjr on IG 

"Testing, Testing! 1, 2, 3!" by Carmen K. Welsh Jr(2021).

'Testing, Testing! 1, 2, 3!' from "Summer to Winter" graphic novel

I Hate This...

D@mn. Did I bite off more than I could chew? This month is freakin' wild and I can't get my creative act together. I missed Camp NaNoWriMo for April and decided to make up for one of the "lost projects" by doing two for July Camp. 

And now I may not make my word counts on both because of an unforeseen project and trying to help out with technical issues at home that drain me and make me remember why I never applied at any tech support jobs! 

I am a total night owl introvert when it comes to things like this because, then, people are asleep and I don't have to contend with them getting in the way of my personal creative work being done.

My writing research leads to a rant-thread about reparations

Doing research on Reparations and what role Norway and Denmark played in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and the utter ignorance and stupidity of the comments after reading one of the articles left me breathless. The same arguments that Africans sold their own into slavery, why should I pay, blah blah blah. First off, you fools aren't paying these reparations.

It's institutions, organizations, and in some cases, local governments that will be allocating these Reparation funds. Regular citizens will not. So. Just. STOP. Furthermore, let's get something straight about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was different from any other slavery that was and is still being practiced. The closest to it was Sharecropping(USA Jim Crow era) but took some of its ideas from Western European Serfdom(100s of yrs earlier).

Most other cultures and countries that had slavery, even in the ancient Roman Empire, gave their slaves the chance to earn their freedom. To even gain citizenship. Also, slavery practiced in many cultures had it limited TO INDIVIDUALS.

Slaves were often prisoners of war, but still accorded certain dignities. What made the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade so very different was that it PUNISHED future generations. Your children and children's children would STILL be enslaved even after you've died.

Furthermore, even after the abolishing of Slavery, the US South still held on to their slaves and other countries continued the "practice" such as Denmark. Also, lest we forget that the Sharecropping system(which is STILL in existence in the US TODAY), was a direct retaliation to the US South having to literally FREE THEIR SLAVES under punishment by the North.

Not to mention that governments around the world, especially from nations that took part in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade have levied steep penalties and loans to African nations that are still paying TO THIS DAY.

As well as Black communities in the US that continue to struggle on their own because of wealth, businesses, livelihoods, and other forms of power stolen from them. The Robin Hood Legend is misunderstood just like the idea of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the idea of Reparations. We often say that Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor...

But this is false... It was the rich, wealthy, and powerful, as they've always done and continue to do, to STEAL FROM the poor, the destitute, and the powerless. Robin Hood was simply taking back and returning what was stolen from the poor to make the rich richer and made the poor poorer. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade stole much of what would've helped had it remained. 

Folks have to understand that a lot of organizations and institutions and even Old Wealth families gained a lot from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade at the detriment of OTHER nations and communities. Before you get angry at me for saying this, question yourself and why. 

This isn't ABOUT YOU. It is about a global wrong that was enacted on many countries and global communities who are still in present-day pain. True freedom, equality, and equity is only achieved when EVERYONE is free. 

And that means paying back countries, nations, and communities that suffered and continue to suffer in the present day.

Decolonizing my own work...

When I drew a cat character back in high school, this was around the time I began to formulate characters for my Tabber the Red series. One of the more important female characters, a male student called her 'thunder thighs'. A male character 'looked gay'*.When working on characters for my scifi dog comic, one athletic-looking female character 'looked like a lesbian', as if one's body type determined one's orientation! 

I have gotten a lot of flack, criticism, and insults towards my OCs (original characters) since I could put pencil/pen to paper. And when people attack my characters, I feel as if they're attacking me. One particular hurtful comment was when a close friend and fellow artist told me to kill off my main female character because she wasn't 'good enough for the main male character', who happened to be a gangster! 

Now you probably noticed a pattern here. Most of the harshest critiques are towards my female or femme looking characters. We already know why this is and I can discuss it another time, but, the point of this post is to understand how important it is to me as an artist to show diversity even within my speculative fictional worlds. That's why even my anthro cat characters will have locs and braids. That's why I make sure that this October artist month, when I show my Tabber the Red fantasy-sword&sorcery characters who happened to be tattooed, scarred, or wearing mendhi and/or henna, I put a footnote that all those body markings have nothing to do with war or becoming a warrior and everything to do with cultural/ethnic/tribal/national identity. 

Since I pull inspiration from real-life beliefs and practices, the same respect I will accord to others, I will do so for my fictional people. To me, culture and ethnic identity is important and not to be appropriated as gimmick or 'trendy'. I'm doing my research. I'm speaking to others. I will learn, so that when my characters express themselves, the identity will be as seamless as the 'air they breathe'.

There will be more 'decolonizing' for my OCs and in my writings. Just you wait and see.

*That character that was called gay? It seems that even if that person meant it as an insult, I realized while writing the character that he is indeed QUILTBAG and I'm writing in his sexual identity and orientation into the story. So, I guess that long ago person did me a favor by 'outing' my cat character! 

More from the Twitterverse...

While writing entries on alien biology, there are notes on mutations for my human characters. The humans start off with nascent newfound powers, but in my far-future stories set within the same universe, these abilities become special much needed skill-sets. 

It took two years, but...[*edited*]

It's been two years and four months since I finally completed my main character alien species, the Aturan. 

For those who haven't read my short stories yet, I have two short stories that appeared in Kyanite Press: The Journal of Speculative Fiction: THE HUMAN NETWORK and CATCHING FEELS.

To make a long story short(see what I did there?), my short story series takes place in a near-future New York City where an alien species known as Aturan live among us. Most of us don't know they exist because they are natural shape-shifters or polymorphs, to use a Star Trek term, and so can look like many other alien species, including us.

In April 2018, I started work on how these aliens would appear and was bored by the regular heteronormative binary that 'plagues' other aliens in other stories. Not only did I work on figuring out that my aliens defaulted as polysexual, but I wanted to use the term omnisexual, an ElfQuest series' term, to mean that my aliens were not only sexually and romantically attracted to other sexual identities and genders among their own, but that they could be romantically and/or sexually attracted to other aliens too.

Now in September 2020, I finally completed the last four identities. If you want to see them in their technicolor glory, head on over to my Instagram page: handdrawnbycarmenjr. I also have explanations for each of the identities but purposely remained vague. I want readers to learn more as they take in the stories. 

Lastly, I can count on one hand which science fiction writers heavily influenced me into writing complex alien characters. 

The first is Andre Norton. Her explanations on how aliens viewed and explained things to the humans in her novels and short fiction is nothing short of amazing. 

The next is Anne McCaffrey. She shows that aliens can often get along with humans and have their own senses of humor.

The next is C.J. Cherryh. I can't begin to tell you how often I read her stories over and over just to get a sense of her physical descriptions and biological explanations of aliens, their societies and even their history. Just the way they interact with humans and view things is something I rarely saw in most of the scifi I read.

And last is Octavia Butler. Yes, her aliens invading and changing humankind's destiny is nothing short of glorious. To see Black characters forging through and participating in said future is magnificent to read. And that she seamlessly weaves in racial injustice, oppression, and racism into the fabric of her hard-hitting stories is breathtaking.

I Love Word Lists - Part 1

[Here there be links galore!]

Reading Butler, my own scifi will have my own humans and other species 'uplift' themselves, Brin-style, in order to survive and thrive through and beyond the rigors of space, time, cyberspace, and hyperspace...

My humans will have to use both natural (bio/chemical) and artificial means to change their bodies.

Just like my Aturans had to inject, digest, aerosol, and applying topically variations of medicines, antihistamines, accelerants, depressants, astringents, supplements, vitamins, and hormonal in order to survive on our world, we humans as a species will have to learn to do the same.

Another day in self-quarantine

Been watching 90s TV shows, reading web comics, and the occasional writing. Also, working on different terms for sexual orientation and identities among four aliens species (human included) in the 49th century. 

Original journal date: 10/18/10

I've always been drawn to animal stories both in animation as well as in books. When I began to read mythology and saw what a huge role animals would play, and how complex their beings could be, impressed me to ancient peoples' wisdom in making the animal world as much a art of the human world (than how separate we are now). 

But when I picked up a book on Aesop's fables, that's when something 'clicked'. To use animals to bring to light humanity while revealing the innermost of that beast or creature is how I want to tell my stories.

Procrastinating is my Kryptonite

I know I may seem incredibly productive, but do you know what I've been doing instead of writing my cat fantasy about my warlock cat and warrior mate? 

I've been making word lists of all the Sunday funnies that influenced my cartooning, did brief descriptions of three monsters from the current cat fantasy which falls more into Sword&Sorcery with all its evil beings, fighting, and spellbinding magic, and wrote a short dialogue scene which was the continuation from a previous comic scene drafted. 

All to avoid writing. *Sigh*

When Research Is Always Necessary...

Have been so busy researching grants, hunting for work, looking for the next publishing opportunity, and writing the next story in the feline fantasy series that I just remembered I was suppose to, for the longest time, research three Indian languages (need to figure out which one my Desi characters will speak - whether it's Punjabi, Bengali, or Gujarati) and Dutch-Arab populations in the Netherlands (which background my Dutch character comes from) for two separate comic stories! Ay!

"Don't you draw any humans?"

I've always enjoyed drawing aliens and otherworldly mythic beings. And yet, I keep getting asked the same question over and over.

As I said on Twitter, random folks over the years keep asking, "But you draw animals all the time! Don't you [or] (can't) you draw humans?" 

*Me taking a deep sigh* 

Very well. Here's a human character with her furry alien lover. You're happy now?

From my working series 'Time Tiger: 4846 A.D.'

I call this piece "A Girl & Her Cat" (a play on the neverending 'A boy & his dog' media out there). 

This Caribbean-diaspora character and her alien partner are just some of the cast from my working-series titled Time Tiger Chronicles: 4846 A.D. 

These two have gone through multiple incarnations and their story has gone through several drafts and revisions, but now I think their new looks have forced more questions and the only way I can answer them is by rewriting their tale once again! 

My Deviantart is finally updated: 

➡️CopperSphinx on DeviantArt

and my artwork and story-related drafts are available firsthand on my Instagram: ➡️http://instagram.com/handdrawnbycarmenjr