Now, I’m not what you would call a beer drinker. Why on earth would I go to a brewfest you ask? Well, my husband likes beer and I like to taste. I also have a strange fascination with the art of brewing. It’s a very interesting science. So, there you are.

Out of the eight brews that we sampled, here’s how they all stacked up in my skewed opinion.

~~~~~~

Best

Great White Beer (Lost Coast)– This one is light but full-bodied and has a yummy herbal flavor. I may consider having a full glass of this one day.
PranQster Style Golden Ale (North Coast Brewing Company ) – This has a nice flavor and texture. However, not as good as the Great White in my opinion, but still tasty.
Believer Double Red Ale (Ninkasi Brewing) – Fairly thick in texture for a red, this one has an excellent flavor (lots of hops?), but I’m not a fan of the bitterness which was fairly prevalent.
Skinny Dip (New Belgium) – It tastes very much like the Paulner Salvator. It has a nice roasted flavor of a dopplebock with some bitterness.

Average

Brother Thelonius (North Coast Brewing Company)
Pale Bock-Geist Bock (Golden Valley Brewery) – Smelled bad, but tasted OK.
Downtown Brown Ale (Lost Coast)

Yuck

Chili Beer (Calapooia Brewing Co) – Holy. Crap. Who’s idea was it to flavor beer with chili peppers? Such a very VERY wrong combination. And, if the flavor wasn’t enough, this was quite spicy hot. However, if you like the idea of drinking Anaheim/Serrano/Jalapeño chili pepper juice, this is the beverage for you. Apparently someone likes this flavor because it wasn’t the only chili flavored beer there (the other was made by Rogue). Ick.

~~~~~~

For the beer geeks out there, you can find more detailed information about these brews at the Oregon Garden Brewfest page (while it is still up). Or, visit the breweries website. Or, you can go pick up a bottle or two.e or two.

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The Process: The idea for this cover started out very fuzzy. Mur’s first thoughts were something along the lines of either Keepsie being given the key to the city or Palas in the grips of the other dimensional tentacle. As we talked it over, the tentacle idea was more appealing. So, running with that notion we bounced a couple of possible scenes around, finally settling on something with Keepsie looking into the portal as Ian gets pulled in by the beast and Light of Mornings flying in to battle. After finding the details of the scene in my handy copy of Playing for Keeps, I came up with the pencil sketch.

For the portal edges I wanted to try a method I had seen on some random comic where the portal was a bunch of perfect circles punched out of the fabric of space. For the beasts, I thought they needed to be kinda grotesque, with beady little evil eyes. Hopefully that came across. After getting the thumbs up from Mur, I proceeded with the inks.

I choose to shade the beasts with stippling instead of hatching to give them a unique texture. I kept the same type of shading for the characters that I used in the previous pieces. This took a bit longer to do than the previous pieces because of all the detail. Thankfully, I could sit and stipple while watching TV - kinda like how people knit or whatever while watching TV. That’s the great thing about stippling; you don’t have to pay that much attention to what you’re doing. It’s quite relaxing in that sense.

And then there was the coloring… yeah… Can I tell you a secret? Coloring is my least favorite part of the process. I’m thinking a lot of it has to do with the fact that my eyes get sore looking at the computer screen for the time it takes to color a piece. That probably means I should take more breaks or something… ah well. At any rate, I was thinking on a Mars-esque color scheme, but I asked Mur what she had in mind before proceeding. Her color suggestions ended up being on par with what I was thinking. I actually found a photo of Mars and snagged some of the colors for the landscape. I then experimented with the colors for the beasts. Half a dozen color adjustments later I settled on the gray. The pink belly color fell nicely into place once that base color was sorted out.

I held off on coloring of the ink lines on this piece because I thought it looked better, more dramatic contrast and all that, with pure black lines everywhere. I did, however, make an exception with the background mountains and Light of Mornings’ blast.

Additional Information: If you would like to see the über-sized version of this piece along with the PfK text and issue title added (J.C. Hutchins did a wonderful job integrating the image with the text, as always), you can download it here. I love the colors J.C. chose for the text. The bright greens and blues work really well. Also, the added detailing with the holes in the text is brilliant. :)

If you are interested in listening to this story, the first episode can be downloaded for free at Playing for Keeps or at Podiobooks.com. Or if you would rather read the story, go download the free PDF or purchase the book.

Technical Details
Medium: Mixed Media (misc. black artist pens, PhotoshopCS2)
Paper: Bristol
Physical Size: 8.5in X 11in
Digital Size: 8.5in X 11in @ 300dpi

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Each episode in only a few minutes long, but Christiana fills those few minutes with humor and wit that will make your day. A truly entertaining production. Still not sure? Well, try this promo on for size.

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BEGIN KEPLON SYSTEM ALERT

New from Exciton Labs (the fine scientific establishment that brought you such products as the Rehydrated Egg Sack Collector Unit and the Gargle-O-Matic) comes the TX42-C.

The TX42-C is a revolutionary advance in the field of household droids. The TX42-C is a must for any home. Exciton Labs is so confidant in performance of the TX42-C that it guarantees 100% customer satisfaction or your money back.

The highly anticipated release of the TX42-C is slated for interplanetary release next month (by standard Omicrarion reckoning). Exciton Labs is currently taking pre-orders on this new droid model that is guaranteed to increase in value. Make sure to order yours before they’re all sold out. Supplies are limited. Only twenty easy installments of five hundred keplar and you too will be the talk of the neighborhood with your very own TX42-C.

Would you like to order your TX42-C now?

[YES] [NO]

> no

You’ve selected “NO”. You may have mistyped. Are you sure you do not want to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity?

[YES][NO]

> yes

You’ve selected “YES”. You do want to pre-order a TX42-C. Is this correct?

[YES][NO]

> no

Exciton Labs would like to take this moment to inform you that your satisfaction is guaranteed. The TX42-C is the most multifunctional and easy to use droid ever released to the public. Exciton Labs would also like to point out that not participating in this limited one time offer has been proven to cause chronic regret.

Would you like to order your TX42-C now?

[YES] [NO]

>NO!

You’ve selected “NO”. You may have mistyped. Are you sure you do not want to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity?

[YES][NO]

> I said NO!!!!

> I mean yes. I’m sure I don’t want the stupid droid!

Thank you for your order. You payment has been automatically deducted from your bank account. Allow fifty to a hundred weeks (by standard Omicrarion reckoning) for delivery.

END KEPLON SYSTEM ALERT

>

BEGIN KEPLONIAN MUTUAL BANK NOTICE

!!!OVERDRAFT ALERT !!!

You have exceeded your funds. You will be charged a K300 overdraft fee.

Have a nice day.

END KEPLONIAN MUTUAL BANK NOTICE

> it must be a Monday…

“IT MUST BE A MONDAY…” is not a valid command

>

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Yes, I know this is a late re-post. It sort of slipped my mind that I had released another comic strip for The Secret Lair. At any rate, here it is. You can see the full sized version at The Secret Lair. Enjoy!

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This is Morv. He likes talking moonlit walks on the beach, having his soft silky fur brushed, and Kung Fu movies. He is seeking a tall brunette human female, preferably medium rare.

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Since we had traveled up to the Seattle area April 4th for Scott Sigler’s Book Tour, we decided to make the most of the trip and go diving Saturday morning. Being lazy divers, we went up to Edmonds Underwater Park in Edmonds, Washington, just north of Seattle.

A hardy breakfast was acquired at a little cafe called the Red Twig. Très yum.

After that we grabbed some tanks at the local dive shop then miraculously found a parking spot at the park. Normally the place is packed on the weekends. Fortunately for us, it was overcast and threatening rain, which seemed to discourage the normal swarms of park goers.

This was the second time I dove with our compact digital camera. The first time I was so smitten with the video function, I didn’t take many photos. This time I remembered to take some photos. However, my obsession with video took over again when I came across fish. I do regret not grabbing a few still shots of the cabezon’s as they let me get relatively close. Ah well, there’s always next dive.

I have discovered that underwater photography is a bit trickier than land photography. If the surge and current wasn’t enough to contend with, around these parts there isn’t a whole lot of light at 30ft. Also, kicking up sand and sediment is also a problem. I found that gently drifting down to the sea floor helps with many of these setbacks. I still have a ton to learn, though. And since I don’t have a small fortune to spend on a nice underwater camera with macro, big lights, and stabilization, the learning process is going to be a bit challenging. But you know what? I think I’m OK with that. I say, bring on the challenges. :)

Technical Details (Anemone Photo)
Aperture Value: f/3.4
Focal Length: 6 mm
Exposure Program: Auto
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed Value: 1/100 sec
Camera: Casio EX-V7

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The Process: This cover started out as two ugly sketches (yes, they really are that ugly that I don’t want to post them). One of them depicted Keepsie and Pallas sitting at a booth in Keepsie’s bar. The other was an iconic head shot of Pallas. After submitting both versions to Mur, the latter was picked. I then drew up some nice pencils of the piece. I actually filled in some of the shading this time too. This was the first time I’ve done the curly style of hair before. I felt that since it was a portrait, I should include more detail. Fortunately I had some nice references for the hair style.

After I firmed up the pencils, I moved on to inking. After covering the pencils with ink, I moved on to adding some shading to the hair in pencil before tackling that part. I pretty much winged that part as the references I used for the hair didn’t include this type of shading. I was very pleased with the results once I finished applying the ink. I must remember to use this style again.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the background so I left that a neutral color until the end. I first applied base colors - skin, hair, headpiece, and clothing. I then added a mask layer to the line art and changed the color of some of the lines. I then applied shading to the skin headpiece and clothing. Once I was satisfied with the results I starting working on the hair. Pallas was supposed to have slightly graying hair. I applied several layers of different shades of gray streaks. I then applied a slight blur to them so that they weren’t so obvious and sharp edged.

After Pallas was all colored, I tried several options on the back ground. First was solid color. Then I applied a gradient to a solid color. Neither looked very good. I them moved on to play with some interesting brush textures I had. After layering the brush shapes a bit I adjusted the colors until they went well with the colors of Pallas. It still didn’t look right, so I added some lighting effects. Finally I applied a blur to the whole background. That did it. The background fuzziness really gave a nice depth to the piece. I did ask my husband for a second opinion as I am never completely sure, especially after staring at it for several hours. The fresh eyes agreed with my original assessment. Done deal.

Additional Information: If you would like to see the über-sized version of this piece along with the PfK text and issue title added (J.C. Hutchins did a wonderful job integrating the image with the text, as always), you can download it here. J.C. actually did two versions of the text. The first one was with the “Playing for Keeps” text on top of Pallas’ headpiece. The second (the one that Mur picked) is what you see below.

If you are interested in listening to this story, the first episode can be downloaded for free at Playing for Keeps or at Podiobooks.com. Or if you would rather read the story, go download the free PDF or purchase the book.

Technical Details
Medium: Mixed Media (misc. black artist pens, PhotoshopCS2)
Paper: Bristol
Physical Size: 8.5in X 11in
Digital Size: 8.5in X 11in @ 300dpi

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The Process: For this piece I tried out a slighty distorted wide angle perspective. The main reason was that there were several key aspects that Mur wanted me to include, but I felt that I needed to maintain a sense of distance - especially between Light of Mornings and Keepsie.

Again, I tightened up the pencils before proceeding on to the inking. And, yet again I neglected to scan that step.

After finishing the inks, I scanned them into the computer, cleaned them up and started to apply the colors. This one took longer to color than some of the others since there were a lot of different colors. I first applied the base color. Then I went back and applied shading, gradients, and glow. There was some extra details I worked in digitially with the dead duck and the water. I also applied a color mask to the line art to change the color of it in certain spots (LoM, the water, etc.).

After doing LoM glow, I began to wonder if it was too much. When in doubt contact the person who’s vision you are trying to capture. After a quick email exchange, Mur assured me that it was fine. :)

Additional Information: If you would like to see the über-sized version of this piece along with the PfK text and issue title added (J.C. Hutchins did a wonderful job integrating the image with the text, as always), you can download it here. On a side note, I was a bit worried that I didn’t leave enough space for the title at the bottom of the image. However, J.C., being the creative genius that he is, made it work out beautifully.

If you are interested in listening to this story, the first episode can be downloaded for free at Playing for Keeps or at Podiobooks.com. Or if you would rather read the story, go download the free PDF or purchase the book.

Technical Details
Medium: Mixed Media (misc. black artist pens, PhotoshopCS2)
Paper: Bristol
Physical Size: 8.5in X 11in
Digital Size: 8.5in X 11in @ 300dpi

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Friday, April 4th, the Future Dark Overlord™ himself visited the downtown Barnes & Nobel store in Seattle, WA. As luck (or fate) would have it, I had some floater vacation time that I gladly cashed in order to head up north early that day. AND, Andy was also free that day. Score.

So the plan was to head up early, but after sleeping in, watching TV and whatnot, it was close to 1PM before we were comfortably on I-5.

We were completely prepared to hit a wall of traffic around Olympia, WA, but as luck (or fate) would have it, there really wasn’t any slow traffic all the way into downtown Seattle. However, the same couldn’t be said for southbound traffic. Ick.

I did get some reading of Infected done on the way up. As I’m a fairly new Sigler junkie, I missed out on the initial release of the Infected podcast. By the time we arrived at our downtown hotel I was mostly done with the book. I did, however, make sure to snag a copy of the PDF when it was released, so I was already halfway through the story prior to the car ride.

Since we made it to Seattle in good time (three hours from Vancouver, WA) , it was only around 3PM and so we had plenty of time to wander around before the reading at 7PM.

We hit Pike’s Place Market, and several of the shopping centers before hunting for a good place to have a nice dinner. We decided on trying out The Taphouse Grill (between Pine and Pike St. very close to the bookstore). It turned out to be a resounding success. The restaurant itself was down below street level and boasted a staggering selection of 160 beers on tap. It took Andy a long long time to figure out what to sample first.

The food and service was wonderful as well. We started out with the happy hour serving of some tomato bruschetta. I got the seafood linguine and Andy got the Guinness beef stew. I would highly recommend going to to his place if you are ever in Seattle. However, it looked like it was a fairly popular place, so the earlier you get there the better.

After dinner we wandered over to the bookstore and browsed a bit until the reading started. After wandering in the sci-fi/fantasy section, I literally stumbled upon where the store had Sigler setup. I found Andy then grabbed a seat in front.

Scott read from the prologue and the first chapter of Infected. Afterwards there was a Q&A session which I grabbed some video of per a request from a friend on Twitter that was going to miss out on all of Scott’s tour locations (as he lives in England).

I don’t know how long the Q&A went on for, but it was a while. I wasn’t able to record the entire thing, but here are the highlights of what I was able to capture before my little camera ran out of memory.

After the reading, we lined up for the signing. At the beginning of the reading, there was only about twenty of us. However, by the signing, our numbers had swelled to more than double. I ended up being towards the end of the line as I took some time to extract my copy of Infected from my bag of holding.

During the signing I gave Scott a 8.5×11in print of the Secret Lair Comic #0003 (which he seemed to appreciate). After receiving a nice personal signing from the FDO™, we gathered with the rest of the group. Shortly we received instructions on how to get to the chosen pub crawl bar. Most of the group took off right away (moving cars and whatnot), a couple of us stayed behind to follow Scott to the bar.

Unbeknownst to us, this bar was approximately five miles away… uphill… in pouring rain. Maybe I exaggerate… but not by much. ;-) At least we were in good company for the walk and we got to chat with Scott along the way.

The “close to the bookstore” bar was called the Comet Tavern. First impressions weren’t good. Come to think of it, second and third impressions weren’t that good either. In any case, we ended up commandeering the back room. Scott regaled us with tales, both good and disturbing (Note: do not ask Sigler about the Second Life Dragon*Con panel). People got to ask more questions and everyone seemed to be having a fun time.

As the night wore on, the band that we paid a $6 cover for at the door, started playing. That pretty much killed our party. However, Scott made sure to take some photos with the folks that weren’t wearing officially sanctioned FDO™ swag. I think there were four of us. Two were representing J.C. Hutchins and two (including myself) were representing Mur Lafferty. After saying our farewells, we all took off shortly after.

Additional Information:

Scott Sigler’s Website

Official Infected Novel Website

Buy Infected - Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s

Infected Flickr Group

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