Merch is here!

Updated with #0 Prelude: Cheris p. 5, including an updated transcript!

Also added Merch (goes to ninefoxgambit.shop). Right now, it’s stickers, notebooks, and mugs. If you have requests for other items, please drop me a line – I can’t guarantee anything but I am deffo listening.

The per-item cost is spendy (and shipping is slower) because they make items to order, but they handle fulfillment. This prevents me from getting stuck with 1,000 notebooks in my garage (my husband vetoes this) and, frankly, between health/work, I can’t take on fulfillment as a regular thing right now. :] Digital downloads are possible and probably easier for me to set up; they do let you list physical items you fulfill yourself, theoretically possible down the road if my health improves.

(I am seriously considering Ninefox Gambit “affirmation” cards. Because troll.)

You may be wondering why I’m embarking on this comic, other than random amusement and stress relief. I finally realized that if I waited until I was “ready” or “learned how to draw,” I would die without ever doing this. Might as well give it a try.

Also, you know what’s a great way to learn how to draw? Drawing a lot. :looks at establishing shot full of people lolsob:

Besides…I wanted to do something for myself for once, to make myself happy. That’s all. 🙂

In the meantime, I have line edits to do lol. I am under deadline for 2.5 books:

  • line edits on Starstrike (Moonstorm #2, YA mecha space opera trilogy), that’s the 0.5 book
  • Code & Codex, adult linguistics sci fantasy/space opera – mostly drafted
  • Crownworld (Moonstorm #3, YA mecha space opera trilogy) – awaiting approval on synopsis from the editor

So as you may have figured out, updates on the comic are going to happen in between writing, because writing pays for art supplies. :3 Also calendrically uncertain updates seems on-brand anyway?!

Yours in calendrical heresy,
YHL

fox-waxing

Fox-waxing has included, besides completing and uploading #0 p. 4 and updating its transcript plus other resources and inspirations, for the curious:

  • rearranging my watercolors
  • working on creating my own prototype watercolor box in a form factor that makes me happy – it’s of cardboard, but it will have space for watercolors in a single row plus a compartment for a few brushes; the watercolor row has been done up with ferrous vinyl so that magnetized watercolor pans will stick.
  • working on bookbinding for my daughter and researching board cutters because the one thing I hate about bookbinding and box-making is using an X-acto knife to cut Davey board. ;_; On the other hand, a Kutrimmer or Jacques board shear (assuming any are still available for sale) would be an…investment I’m not sure is warranted by my hobbies.
  • rearranging my study (again)
  • resuming hobbyist kiddie-pool perfumery, including a prototype Jedao parfum; I’ll be sending a tester to Arkady Martine, who has VERY GENEROUSLY agreed to beta the blend. XD Needless to say, I work in tiny batches, and as someone who has not taken HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY, I’m not ready to work with professional aromachemicals, vs. pre-blended accords and so on.
  • going to Red Stick Spice in Baton Rouge (where I live) for TRUFFLE SALT and mission creep resulting in pear jelly and stuff! Joe declined the ghost pepper salt for some reason. 🙂 I absolutely recommend them – just walking in the door smelling all the spices and teas I knew it was going to be great. 😀
  • applying to a fully remote, part-time (two years, 15 hours/week) M.A. in professional media composition. Who knows if I will get in! But worst case, they bounce me this year, I revamp my portfolio and try again next year.

Also, I apologize for typos, especially repeated keys; I’m having issues with this keyboard. Also I am the GENIUS who realized my keyboard launcher couldn’t find Clip Studio EX because I had somehow accidentally deleted it. :facepalm:

Special shout-outs to Chuck and Nikita at the art hangout where I spent an amount of time I refuse to disclose penciling the first panel of p. 4, ditto my husband with all the inking and painting. Also, I had to foreshadow the series’ resident Asshole Goose. 🙂 Incidentally, I’m not sure why Cheris/Kujen isn’t the white-hot favored hatesex pairing. imagine all the math trolling. I envision them math-trolling hate-flirting over Brouwer fixed points, knot equivalency algorithms, P-NP, and that hilarious math-trolling paper by Doron Zeilberger, “‘Real’ Analysis Is a Degenerate Case of Discrete Analysis.” I laughed so hard. XD And meanwhile poor Jedao mopily eats popcorn and does /salmon ladders/ push-ups because he’s bored out of his skull and wishes they could play the latest hottest FPS instead.

Yours in calendrical heresy,
YHL

still here?

Updated #0 Prelude: Cheris with p. 3, including an updated transcript for same. In general, the About page will have the status/latest updated page. 🙂

I’m also working on a cockamamie animated music video trailer thing. I reckon it’ll take me the rest of the year, but I’m having fun with it?! This is a project I started, on and off, a couple years ago. Debating whether to grit my teeth and pay for a couple lines of professional voiceover (15 + 15 words, lolsob) or punt and use motion graphics nonsense. Two seconds of low-hanging-fruit first-pass animation so far…wish me luck. 🙂

Yours in calendrical heresy, YHL

An actual update

Howdy! Finally decided to get moving on the grounds that life is short. This is currently age-locked at 18 and over due to the adult nature of the themes. I will probably update page by page as I complete them, but only send out newsletter announcements when an “issue” (~22 pages) is done. As it stands, I only have cover art for #0 (prologue regarding Cheris’s backstory) and one page, but a journey of a thousand mopey foxmoths starts with a single threshold winnower. Enjoy! – YHL