Deciding to create a story which takes place in the past always presents its own problems. When I created my three assassins, I had a few goals in mind. One of them was to not place the story at the end of the Victorian era, but somewhere towards the middle. It's often occurred to me that history books and documentaries only talk about the same important years or decades while flat-out ignoring periods of time when "nothing much happened". As if history happens only when there's a war or a new, ground-breaking invention, and the years in between such events are nothing but filler. But people still live and die, they rejoice and mourn, they have exciting things happen to them whether or not future generations choose to remember them.

Whenever people think of the Victorian age, they think of things like Jack the Ripper, the invention of the telephone, Darwin's discoveries, the rise of steam power, etc. The Victorians invented like rabbits. (Wait, no, that's something else. Anyway....) All these cool, revolutionary things one could use in a story. The only problem is, none of these existed before the 1840's. Which is around the time where I originally planned to place my characters. Here I was, determined to create a story that specifically took place in a time that hasn't been revisited as much as the later parts of the century, to make a point of showing that exciting things do in fact happen even in the decades often ignored by the history books!

And then I kept running into problems. Every time I came up with a plotpoint I could use, I had to scrap it because something like the electric telegraph hadn't been invented yet. My characters would have to wait 18 years before they could send messages to each other. They couldn't type letters because typewriters didn't exist yet. I couldn't have a child riding a bicycle because they weren't popularized before the 1870's. As in the case of my latest comic, I thought it would be funny to have my characters reading the "Kama Sutra", but even that wasn't translated into English until 1883. Almost every time I thought of something I could use, I had to give up the idea because of anachronisms.

I can only conclude that history books may be right: sometimes nothing interesting happens during certain periods in time.

So now I'm considering either moving the plot to the late 19th century or the possibility of an alternate, fictional timeline. I've been unsure from the start whether I want the story to take place in actual Victorian England or an original world that just resembles it a great deal. On the one hand, remaining in the real world presents its own challenges and sometimes meeting those challenges works for the story's advantage. It's easier to just say "oh, they can have zeppelins in this world if I want to, it's my world after all", but if you decide you can't have zeppelins because they hadn't been invented yet, you're going to have to find a more creative solution to the problem. On the other hand....it's really tempting for an author to just wave their magic wand and say "Presto! We have zeppelins! Now let's get on with the plot". Clinging to facts and historical accuracy is all well and good, but it's annoying when they keep getting in the way of the story I want to tell.


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Commission info

Current slots:

1. ~UrbanPhotog
2.
3.
4.
5. ShadowofaMermaid
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Stole this meme from :

Rules!
- Open your music program of choice and put it on shuffle.
- For each question, hit the next song and put down the song title.
- No matter how stupid it is, you must go with the first song that pops up, no exceptions!

1. Some days I just feel like:
"The Last Unicorn"

2. Right now I am thinking:
"Lea Halalela"

3. My favorite type of day is:
"Track 18" (seriously, that's the name of the song!)

4. Nothing beats a good:
"Spam Song" ("Lovely spam, wonderful spaaaaam!")

5. When stuff confuses me, I just say:
"Why Should I Worry?" (hey, that actually works)

6. My view on sex is summed up with this word/phrase:
"Crucified" (um...ouch?)

7. What should you do with your life?
"Baby Mine" (no thanks)

8. I hope my last words are:
"Someone's Waiting for You" (hmm, nice)

9. Facebook quizzes like this are dumb. I’d rather:
"My Own Home" (why not?)

10. At my funeral, they’d better be listening to:
"Fly Me to the Moon"

11. What my friends really think of me:
"Robbery" (HEY! XD )

12. Some days I just want to scream out:
"Kokiri Forest"

13. I love to eat, especially when the food tastes like:
"Gmork" ( O_o )

14. I’m not racist, I just think:
"Memories"

15. Lots of these made no sense, but that’s because:
"Another Day" (I guess that means I'll be answering this question some other time)

16. My music knows me best, that’s why it knows that all I want for Christmas is:
"Fall Free" (my music does know me)

17. When I laugh a lot of people say I sound like:
"Bohemian Rhapsody"

18. My feelings on gay marriage are summed up in this word/phrase:
"Gothic Neclord" (yeah, I don't know either)

19. If that last one made no sense to you, then I just have this to say to you:
"Go West"

20. My last thought after this little quiz thing is this:
"Log Theme" ("It's Log, Log, it's better than bad, it's good!")


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Commission info

Current slots:

1.
2.
3. ~UrbanPhotog
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

I've been tagged a couple of times to do this, but I never got around to doing it before:

1}.Post these rules
2}.Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
3}.At the end you have to choose 8 people to tag, and post their icons on the same journal.
4}.Go to their page and send a message saying you tagged them.
5}.NO tag-backs

1. One of the things on my list of "Things to Do Before I Die" is bungee jumping.
2. No movie, book, play or TV episode has ever made me cry.
3. Many people mistake me for a Dutch person because of my location. I was actually born and raised in Finland and moved to the Netherlands in 2003.
4. I love watching other people play video games but I hate playing them myself. I am easily frightened by the silliest things, like falling into a ditch or dying from just one hit. There are only a select few games I can play by myself without getting nervous. If I'm just watching someone else play, it doesn't matter how much blood and gore the game has or how scary it is. In fact, the creepier, the better.
5. I can't stand most anime. The style tends to rub me the wrong way and I don't really get Japanese humor. There are always exceptions, though, like Hayao Miyazaki's movies.
6. Contrary to popular belief, I don't consider myself a fan of Teen Titans or Batman. I know it seems a little strange, considering I have an ongoing comic starring both of them, but there you go. It just seemed like a fun idea to throw Batman and the Titans together since it never happened in the TV show and see what would happen. Maybe that's why it's easy for me to write the comic, I'm more detached from it than most characters I actually care about. (Which is not to say I still don't do my best to stay true to these characters and write them believably.)
7. I am an atheist.
8. I'm a self-taught artist. I only ever took the required amount of art classes at school and I'm sure I must have picked up a few things there, but mostly my style is the result of watching too many cartoons as a kid and endless practicing.

Probably everyone I know has already done this at least once. I'm just gonna tag random people, so if you've already been tagged before, my apologies:

, , , , , , ,


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Commission info:

Current slots:

1. ~UrbanPhotog
2.
3. ~UrbanPhotog
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.


If you're interested in a commission or know someone else who might be, below is all the info you need. I'm currently mainly doing sketch and inked commissions, but colored pics are negotiable as well. Coloring prices will vary according to the scale and complexity.

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Prices:

(see here for the currency exchange rates)

Sketches = €10 for one character (no background)
Sketch example: [link]

Inked = €15 for one character (no background or a very simple one at most)
Ink example 1: [link]
Ink example 2: [link]

More detailed backgrounds are negotiable, with extra costs depending on the scale and level of detail.

Notes:

If you decide to commission me, I will need a couple of good reference pics of your character or a detailed written description.

I will not draw sexually explicit pics. Apart from that I'm pretty lenient in what I will draw, although I reserve the right to refuse a commission if the subject matter makes me uncomfortable. Just ask me if you're unsure, I won't bite.

I only accept PayPal.

If you're interested, send me a note here on DA or e-mail jesskat [at] gmail.com .