For every author who starts with digital self-publishing, there's a special little milestone waiting somewhere beyond the horizon: the day when they hold a physical copy of their book in their own hands.

Well, this week, I hit that milestone: I ordered some copies of Catgirl Roommate, and they're finally here!
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If you prefer your cat humor to be made of paper, encased in a box too small for a cat to fit in, and physically present for your cat to nuzzle, lie on, and possibly pee on, click the button below to visit Amazon and grab your copy.
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As I was drawing one of the panels in page 13 of Just Cause, it occurred to me that this was a great opportunity for a behind-the-scenes peek at the drawing process behind my comics. Enjoy!
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It's a bit backward from the way most people do it - they make sketches and outlines, then add color. But I find that this works for me, especially because I tend to make some body parts too big on the first pass, and having a color blob lets me use the eraser to chisel it down until it's the right size.

I guess my drawing style is more like sculpting than sketching, haha.

Did you enjoy this quick demo, and would you like me to share more detailed behind-the-scenes information about my drawing process?

​Let me know in the comments!

If you don't have natural talent as a writer, should you keep on trying or give up? In today's blog post, Ryan Lanz shares his thoughts:

Guest post by Ryan Lanz
 

• tal·ent [tal-uhnt] noun: a special natural ability or aptitude.
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• skill [skil] noun: the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.

 
What if you don’t have natural talent? Does that mean you may as well give up?

It’s not quite the chicken or the egg debate, but it’s up there. I’ve heard people go in circles about which comes first and which is necessary.

At what combination of both does one continue the grind and attempt at success? I’d be surprised if you haven’t asked yourself that question. It’s a part of being human.

What does each really mean?

This comes from the university of my opinion, but I would describe talent as the natural ability that needs little to no refinement, and skill is the unnatural ability that you have to develop.

For those of us who’ve played sports (myself excluded), I’m sure you’ve all encountered someone who strides onto the field and makes it all look so darn effortless.
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This person hardly shows up to practice, and you have a fairly good idea that it took hardly any effort to accomplish. Same with the person who aced every test in college with little preparation, leaving you in study hall time after time with a bucket of coffee.

You must have missed at least three parties because you had to cram for the Calculus exam, right?

Which is better?

Good question. And one not so easily answered. Sure, we would all like natural talent that we don’t have to pour so much effort into, but sometimes that doesn’t quite pan out.

Often, we are born with enough talent to have an affinity for a profession, but the rest has to be made up with skill. In writing, there are dozens of abilities that need to be present to make a good novel, such as foreshadowing, prose, description, natural dialogue, pacing, etc.

Let’s say that you have a knack for writing dialogue, but your setting description rambles on and on. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and you’ll have to practice at writing setting description over time to develop it into a skill, even if it’s not a natural talent.

​To be fair, natural talent does get you to the goal quicker.

The combination of the two
 
If Tiger Woods is not the best golf player of all time, then he comes very close. He started golfing on professional courses at the age of two years old and was featured in a golf magazine at the age of five.
 
Tiger spent 545 weeks combined total as the world number one. In my opinion, that is some superb natural talent. Although Tiger has mounds of it, he still had a golfing coach (and probably still does) through most of his career.
 
That’s combining the natural with the refined skill that creates that sweet spot. Think about how you can make a similar combination.

Is it so bad if you don’t have natural talent? Should you give up?
 
The one downside to having natural talent is that you don’t have as much appreciation for the effort.

Let’s look at two writers: one who writes his/her first book and quickly becomes published, and the other is a writer who labors for ten years to even become noticed. Both eventually become published and successful, let’s say.

I think it’s fair to say that the latter writer has more appreciation for the effort of the craft. There are small nuances of writing that I feel are best represented when someone has to massage and mold their skill over the long-term.

I believe that about anyone can accomplish about anything if they were to dedicate their entire life to it, even if that person doesn’t have a drop of natural talent. Ask yourself what craft you can master if you were to invest 20 years in its perfection.

​So, no, don’t simply give up on it. You may have been born with talent in a profession you’re not interested in. That’s okay, just work to catch up in a profession that you are.
 
Conclusion
 
If you sharpen your skill enough, people will believe that you’ve had talent from the very beginning, regardless of how much you actually had to start with.

Original post here.
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Guest post contributed by Ryan Lanz. Ryan is an avid blogger and author of The Idea Factory: 1,000 Story Ideas and Writing Prompts to Find Your Next Bestseller. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. 

The 12th page of my Undertale comic, Just Cause​, is ready. Enjoy!

Well, someone's been a busy artist! It seems like art has kind of taken over my blog lately, and now I'm going to contribute to the infestation with three new pieces. :)

This first one was drawn during a computer crash, while I was waiting for my poor laptop to recover from a devastating collision with Alice: Madness Returns. Turns out, you're not supposed to have any other programs running when you start up the game - at least, not on my computer.

But at least I got a nice picture out of it.

I thought about drawing the hood and shoulders, but I decided I liked it better with the hood just framing her face instead of competing with it.
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The next piece is a quick, goofy cross between Undertale fan art and me pointing out the problem with a musician's quote.

Mr. Marley, I'm afraid Blooky and I have to disagree with you. And I think a lot of headphone users will side with us on this one.

The third piece has some spoilers for Undertale, so proceed with caution.

I loved Undyne's story about how she met Asgore. Toby Fox did a great job of establishing the king's character, both his power and his gentle nature, long before the protagonist ever meets him.

This is less detailed than a lot of my other drawings; it's more of a quick impulse sketch that I knocked off in under an hour than a major project that I wanted to spend a lot of time on, but I liked this scene and I felt like drawing a happy Asgore. So here you go.

​In this picture, he's wearing a casual training uniform instead of his usual armor and robes, because he doesn't want young Undyne to scuff up his robe or break her knuckles on his armor. You can tell from his hair that the little warrior is getting better at what she does, haha.

That's all the new artwork for now, but there will be more to come in the near future.

In the meantime, if you want to get exclusive access to works in progress and advance viewing of completed art, please consider supporting me on Patreon.
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