Return of the Kistulot

It's been just a little over a month. Crazy, huh? I'd gotten better, too.

Well, it's an appropriate place to have been stopped for a moment or two, isn't it? Storywise, this is similar to having reached The Memory Remains in the original series, and that was where I had a bit of lag.

As you'll remember however, following that my writing gained a new form of regularity and I plowed through lead ins between almost every story, TAP, ISP, TS&O, and RMR.

I was lulled away from writing by a combination of bronchitus, work stress and my birthday. Well, that's all better now! My mother's birthday hits next month, and she's asked to watch the Wizard of Oz while listening to the dark side of the moon for her party of sorts on my HD TV. For those of you who don't know, the Wizard of Oz is one of those movies that quite affected me as a child. I think TMR (oddly enough) makes this apparent, but if not there it goes for the record. It'll be fun.

For writing? Ink Stained Reunion is well under way. I'm looking forward to this weekend being it's debut. It'll probably take the month for me to finish, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Some reasoning for my lost momentum may be that the Archive hasn't been a place I've particularly enjoyed reading for awhile. No huge rant here, jsut dissappointment. Back in highschool I would sometimes get through the week hoping for some new trilby or tabico, something exciting, enticing, way not supposed to be something I read about. It feels like something in the archive has been lost. I probably helped, but I'll be doing what I can to add my voice anew.

Carpe Argentum!!!

Bronchitus

I bet you've been wondering why the silence . . .

Carin McLeoud isn't much good at being the Madam Kistulot when she had Bronchitus. Antibiotics took awhile to kick in. The cough comes and goes. Then my asthma conflicted with the bronchitus and I'm dizzy and feeling feverish. It's fun! Afraid I won't feel good by Monday but knowing it's best I actually get well.

The sexy I can muster is reserved right now for those nearest and dearest to me, so sorry, no MK for a bit till I heal. Then, we start the most epic crossover you've ever seen. Until then? You get this sexy picture drawn by Lola herself.

And then mangled by yours truly.

This!

Enjoy.

~MK

Bloggu, revenge of the blogazor!

Once again, I got the story done . . . a couple days too late! So, here you go . . .

Electrum Volume 12: The Lights at the End of the Tunnel

Tada! A little late, but still in plenty of time for everyone to read. I hope to maybe get Sylvia's next volume done for the weekend too, as they parallel nicely and lead to their crossover event quite beautifully.

Work has been a little stressful, but nothing I can't handle. Next week I get a four day week, but I will be busy on Christmas. I have half-plans with my mother to see sherlock holmes.

I can't wait to see it.

For now, at least you get another volume of electrum, and Nebula is hot on its tails. Wish me luck, comment, fanmail away, you know, the regular :)

~Madam Kistulot

For the first time, I say before Simon!

So my loyal fans, what is it, you ask, that makes the subject line of this post true?

Well, I was sick last week, and therefore was quite a bit behind writing schedule. Instead of making you all wait, and since Simon's new formatting makes it so we can't steal his source code anyway (yeah, we'd been doing that for awhiiiile) I personally took the time to update the site. Val stayed up late marking up Nebula, and I woke up, finished my edits on it, and then coded it up, put it up, added descriptions to fan art . . . voila.

It's not a lot of fun to go through putting

tags and

tags everywhere, but a chickies gotta do what a chickie's gotta do! You, my fans, deserved this on-time update.

Also, last night I found my long lost word count document and brought it up to date. I had to show off the results.

Silververse:
The Adventures of Silver Girl: 86,702
Silver Eclipse: 72,444
Nocturnal Interlude: 4,808
The Memory Remains: 66,797
Wherever I May Roam: 14,784
Dust High: 15,701
Misted Facets: 13,297
Informant: 4,560
The Argentum Project: 100,763
(Arc: 153,913)
Poetic License: 11,068
Ballpoint to the brain: 7,035
Ink Blots: 6,583
Blotted Lace: 5,794
Sealed With A Kiss: 5,512
Ink Bot: 9,176
Prequill: 7,814
Ink Soaked Penumbra: 74,818
(Arc: 127,800)
Obedience Over Matter: 2,299
Silver Gray Starlight: 11,844
Pink Candy: 4,493
To Serve and Obey: 58,605
(Arc: 77,241)
Red Moon Rising: 88,751
Scribe and Shadow: 15,519

Total: 689,167

Electrum:
Volume 1: Electrum Impulses: 19,478
Volume 2: Roadside Justice: 5,432
Volume 3: The Spiral: 3,204
Volume 4: Hope: 3,920
Volume 5: Hope and Family: 7,424
Volume 6: Spiraling Forward: 6,990
Volume 7: Unraveling Transmutation and Hopeful Tethering: 5,898
Volume 8: Company Loyalty: 13,286
Volume 9: Floral Engagement: 12,729
Volume 10: A Magical Evening: 11,979
Volume 11: Out of Time: 14,954

Total: 105,294

Nebula:
Volume I: The Soaring Phoenix: 19,337
Volume II: Free Will's Fermata: 5,452
Volume III: Song and Storm: 4,474
Volume IV: Nebulous Struggle: 3,739
Volume V: Obedience's Refrain: 2,838
Volume VI: Phoenix Coda: 4,313
Volume VII: Ballad of Justice: 7,484
Volume VIII: Galvanized Melody: 7,233
Volume IX: Searing White Siren Song of Glory: 4,773
Volume X: Symphony of Falling Glass: 5,994

Total: 65,637

Rose
Rose Petals: 6,490
Rose Miracles: 11,070
Rose Rejuvination: 5,301

Total: 22,861

Mariana
The Day After: 4,843
The Fourth: 2,979

Total: 7,822

One Shots
Never Far Away: 2,041
Coping Mechanism: 10,434
Landing On Her Feet: 7,182
I've Got a Fever . . .: 2,233
Unit 9: 7,043
Paradise: 3,503
Exvolensation: 1,705

Total: 34,141

Grand Total: 924,922

This of course neglects the latest tale that I have to add in after I'm done with this post, but am too lazy to do now. This means since I've been writing for the archive (Unit 9 and Coping Mechanism by the way only use the rewritten values) I have only 75,078 polished words, not counting Nebula Volume XI, until I break one million.

I don't know what to say.

I want to thank all of you that read the blot, that contributed fanart, that well, tolerated my sometimes sporadic updates. I want to thank everyone who was happy when I created the Argent Garden forum, and then everyone who kept reading my work after I left once, then twice. I know I'm a rather thorny person, attempting to be warm but then storming off and locking doors, but some few of you have tolerated it at least for the sake of my writing - and honestly that's what I care about most.

Events in the Silververse are heating up. Darksong, another contributor to the greater Midasverse as I call it, has another story going up that may lead to an actual Silververse-Omegaverse crossover. New technologies introduced in Electrum Volume 11 lead well to a crossover with Once and Future Kim's Wires.

I only wish Decker were still about for some fun Psyche and Fractal fun.

That said, I admit it would be fun to have a more expanded Midasverse. I've attempted to do that through varying my style between Electrum and Nebula, but that only provides a little bit more. More unique, distinct voices could be fun. Oh well, right?

My lovely erislave and I might work on a webcomic together, and it MIGHT be Midasthemed. Since she'll be doing the hard part, I want her to make the call on that. If it happens, I'll let you all know here.

Hrm, lets see, what else is there to tell . . . Holidays are approaching, and I'll be doing damn near everything I possibly can to get Nebula Volume XII done by the end of the year. The event to follow is one I don't want to push back, even if there's no way in hell I can finish it by the end of the year. Then, I see another set of stories panning before us, finishing out the Sisters' stories by the end of 2010.

I'm tempted to go about commissioning some art of Sarah, Lacie, Jacqui, and Leona all posing together, or all mind fried together. I think I just might.

Good writing does two things. It makes you want to read, or it makes you want to write. I've done both, and while after I finish my tales in Midas I intend to withdraw from posting actively on the archive, I hope my writing is still able to have the same effect.

Again, thank you all, and I hope you're having a lovely holiday season.

~Madam Kistulot

Right on Time

The blog post will be a lot more amusing once the story associated goes up. Trust me.

That's right - Electrum got done in less than a week! How? I have no damn clue. I was simply driven. Like some kind of formula one racer. Awesome, huh?

Some new art will be posted up on the site this weekend. I don't know when I'll get to collecting it all for Val, but more will be going up - including some of the first fanart of everyone's favorite inkblossom, Quillspawn!

Mentioning Quillspawn . . . something occurs to me off and on. Scribe and Shadow still needs to go up on my website.

I guess I could put it directly after red moon on it's page. It does belong there. I'll poke everyone's favorite robot to get to work on that too. Events are in motion that make it a fairly important story to read. That's probably vaguely nearing a spoiler, but it's more of a teaser. Imagine it said with drips of ink slowly splashing on a white piece of paper and spreading out to say something like "December 2009 . . ." drops coalescing oddly, and reforming into the words "Ink drips from the shadows . . ." or something.

It sounded cool in my head. If I could draw worth a damn, I'd probably animate it in flash - if I had flash installed on my computer. Still a program or two I need to get loaded back up . . .

Well, that's pretty much all for now since I don't want to spoilerize anything. Nebula Volume XI doesn't even have a working title yet, but it's going to be a special one, too. The twelves are going to be real turning points, and then . . .

Well, just count up how many pages there will be at that point, pages being volumes plus chapters of initial pieces. I think you'll see a pattern.

Until next time!

~Madam Kistulot

Late Update!

So, I have a lot to say, and frankly, this took me too long to get to. Sorry about that. Life isn't getting in the way, but how much it has been getting in the way I've been a little lazy when I've had the capability.

New Super Mario Bros Wii came out yesterday, and I spent a good long time playing through a majority of it with Val. Was lotsa fun. We'll need to finish it still, but i feel satisfied mariowise. Chucking people you love off of cliffs? its a great stress reliever. Trust me.

A very sweet fan, amusingly named the same as my first glittering heroine (Sarah, not Silver Girl, silly) granted me a legitimate key for Windows 7 Ultimate - so I'm finally off of the XP train. So far really preferring it this way. A thing here or there isn't doing just what I want (Paint Shop Pro 7 isn't very happy with me - maybe because it's not the only 7 anymore?) but overall it runs faster, feels slicker, and is preeeetty. So that's all that matters.

Got Valencia a new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite. You never notice how small a netbook is until you stack it on top of a real laptop. Wow. Sylvia is TINY. Sylvia, incase I haven't said it, is the name of my netbook as my old desktop was named Aurora.

Aurora is getting so very close to some very big plot developments. Its so hard to restrain myself, but this needs to be done right or it'll be pointless. There's so much right on the verge of "popping". Sylvia has some things coming her way, but differently.

Their crossover is getting closer and closer, too. If I focus a little, maybe it'll be a sort of winter-season present? I'm not sure if I'll be able to make that deadline for starting it off/finishing it, but it's what I'm mentally aiming for.

Work has become stressful in a whole new way. People are leaving my contract. A lot. But still, we're "overstaffed." My hours have been cut back to 37 hours a week. To be honest? Any excuse not to be at work that doesn't get me fired or make me look worse. The job has become more exhausting, and I've actually recieved a pay cut for taking a "promotion."

So life is stressful. Val is happy. Mario is fun. Stories are moving forward.

Fanmail more appreciated than ever!

~Madam Kistulot

Four more years! Elect LaSilvas!

Okay, so work has calmed down, so why so slow now eh? Good question. This morning the max broke down, more details on what a max is at the Trimet Website, but previous to that? Exhaustion and writers' block. I've capped 55 stories in four years on the archive. Four years.

Its quality though, not quantity, but I'd like to think I've got that, too. Maybe not every story, and the earlier could use a rewrite . . . but I'd like to think they're worthy additions.

I'd have a mite fewer if I hadn't played with story conventions a little. Lead-ins were fun. After a nearing event, Nebula will revert to a more classic multi chapter story. Electrum seems to work best this way - but feel free to chime in if you dissagree.

Four years . . .

That's highschool. Thats a bachelor's degree. Thats longer than most marriages . . .

Sarah was born in June, so she's been four for awhile. Old enough to go to preschool, and get ready for kindergarden. She'll make an adorable school girl in a year or two.

She still has years before her chronological existence is jailbait, but we know how she'll turnout. Mmm.

Okay verge of creepy There. Sorry! Regardless, more should be coming, but I'm not promising as rigorous a schedule. I just can't keep up with it. I'm not going to purposefully go slow, but I don't know how well these deadlines are working for me or for story quality. So, apologies, but things might come a little slower. Probably not much than as of late, but hey . . . at least I'm posting, and rather regularly.

Gotta have something else in the update besides lisa teez in red, eh?

That's all for now,

~Madam Kistulot

Floral Engagement

Electrum Volume 9 is done and sent in!

It might be a little rough, but well . . . work, sickness, stress . . . I think I'm lucky I didn't have to start this one over from scratch. This one of course dives a little more into Flower Chylde, or Flora as she's known day to day. The next story will have a slightly Psiona based focus.

As for Nebula Volume IX, I've already started it. Some time back, and not very much, but it shouldn't be nearly as hard to write or take nearly as long for any of you to see.

The end of Volume 9 shows a hint of plans that I've had building up since a nightmare/dream I had some time back. It was freaky while having it, but it gave me some great ideas. I'm not sure what to call it, or what to call the new figure seen in brief, but I'll figure it out in enough time. I've known goals, inspirations, aspirations for some time.

I do make a lot up as I go along, but the little things I drop here or there, well, I try to know what my foreshadowing means. I admit a time or two I do lazy "this will be something eventually" like the light in Sarah's head back in tAoSG, but I try to do that less often.

It's also fun when you just write as you go, and yet foreshadowing creeps in anyway.

It's like your mind telling you where you're going.

Being a writer is strange . . .

~Madam Kistulot

Stress, or "This is the job I don't get payed for"

Well, this can't be good, right? Posting but not with a good subject line?

You'd be right.

Work has been hellish, and even though when I'm not fixing everyone else's mistakes (besides my actual right beside me co-workers!) there's plenty of time between calls . . . All this week I've been working overtime. I'll be working even more overtime come next week.

My employers hinted this is intended to run all of the way through christmas.

Ain't that just cute?

So, Electrum 9 is basically done, but needs an ending, and lots of polishing. Next update. Maybe.

I haven't really had a lot of time for MCstories lately. Two stories are currently open in my browser in different tabs, but I've been slow to even start on them. Life's just been a little too hellish.

Hope you're all having a better time.

Sick

Yes, I am immune to many things, but physical ailment? Far from it. I am sick. That's why I missed the update, and why I'll be missing another. It is very hard to write sexy when you're miserably sick. Sorry about that.

~Madam Kistulot

Electrum experiment and nebulous update

So everybody, whaddya think of the experiment? So far the reviews I've gotten have been very, very positive on the new format for Electrum. This means, it'll probably stick. Nebula still works very well first person, but Aurora will at least be getting the occasional 3rd person story. It just works for having a larger cast like she does. Things can happen without her noticing. It's freeing.

Sorry no Nebula this update! :( I tried, but I just couldn't do it justice.

If I can finish it before the update, I'll post a pre edit version just to whet appetites. Or post if I can get it done quick enough. Time will tell! Either way, check back often, and thanks for reading!

~Madam Kistulot

Missed update, missed lover

Well, by now you've noticed that I missed the update. Sorry. I'll be trying to get both Sylvia and Aurora in to this sat/sun's update.

Reason? The lovely eri was visiting us from her lands far across the eastern horizon. Was somewhat occupied. She left portland last night, and I go back to work today. Feeling the smallest touch melancholy, but fine otherwise.

Also tired. Very tired. Couldn't sleep. I'll be awake for at least 26 hours by the time I get off work today.

I'll be sleeping well tonight.

~Madam Kistulot

Champions Online Closed Beta

So, I'm in the closed beta! :)

You can vote for Silver Girl here if you like the way I've captured her. Or not. It's up to you. I think I did pretty good considering my first spin at character creation!

I can't break the NDA, so I can't really talk about it. Sorry.

Still, you'll love it!

~Madam Kistulot

p.s. Nebula has been sent in, even if there's a Friday update it'll be ready. Electrum's latest is taking longer because it's interesting, as previously said.

Simon is an archival god

Beyond the obvious, the fact that he tirelessly slaves over a hot archive . . . remember my little typo? Nebula Volume II? If you check now, you'll see . . .

Tune in in two weeks for the experimental Volume 8, and next week for Nebula Volume VII. Sorry for sparse Blot updates, but expect more in the future, and new art on my website soon, too!

Which while accurate? I didn't do! It was my typo! So either Simon recognized my mistake later, or Mr Green Bastard (100% honestly meant in an endearing way, bar sinister and all) is a bit of a fan.

Of course, there's also a chance someone emailed him, but it wasn't me. If it was you, comment!

~Madam Kistulot

p.s. Nebula Volume VII already has a rough draft on a Sunday. Woo!

Nebula Volume II? What?

Hello there!

Any of you who have read through the latest story will see a typo. Next week, Nebula Volume II? Teh whatz? This is very easily explained as a typo. It should be Volume VII. That is the one big negative against roman numerals, and that I add my authors notes in last as a finishing touch.

Sorry for the confusion, and I hope you're enjoying.

Things next next week are going to take a bit of a different turn with Aurora getting a self contained third-person story. It's going to be a big departure, but I hope you'll all enjoy it.

Next week, Nebula gets a twist thrown in. Apparently the name for Volume VI I've heard is misleading. Phoenix Coda was referring to the Phoenix's Coda. Not Nebula's. Or John Bonham's comeback CD.

So, clarifications, and best wishes I suppose! I ought to do more of these, but the heat in Portland has been MISERABLE as of late. Mostly just trying to stay cool and alive. So, until next time!

~Madam Kistulot