#but between work to make ends meet and all the stuff for my Patreon/self-publishing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lincolnchristie · 1 year

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FAQs

Just kinda compiling all of these.

Do Patreon supporters get early access to your fanfics, fanfic snippets, fanfic BTS, etc? Nope, Patreon is for original works only. If you like my fanfic and want to support me but don't care about my original work, you can sign up for the $3 tier.

Hey, aren't you... Yes, I am @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels but I try to keep this tumblr strictly for posts about my original novels, including answering questions. I will also sometimes reblog fun stuff. For fandom, go to my other tumblr. It's where I'm more active anyway.

Why do you have two separate accounts? I like to be organized, and the idea of mixing 'fandom' with 'professional' too much makes me uncomfortable.

Is your real name Lincoln? It's real in all ways that matter.

What are your pronouns? She/her and they/them. My gender is none of my business.

What is your publishing schedule? I'm alternating posting standalones and series installments and hope to publish two books a year. So Pestilence is in September, then a standalone in December, and the next book will be War, then the book after that will be a standalone, etc.

Do you do sales? Yes, I do sales periodically, in conjunction with the release of a new book and at the end of the year.

Why do you only share pictures of your cats on Patreon? I'm a very private person and would like to limit glimpses into my personal life. I love sharing my babies but also want to manage my anxiety and trust issues in a way that is healthy for me.

Will you do audiobooks? I'd like to! It's a priority of mine for sure. I'm currently researching performers to find the best fit for each book, and I want to make sure I have the funds to properly compensate them. I'll announce it here once things are locked in.

How do you build an audience? I don't know. I wrote some fanfics in two popular fandoms right before they exploded in size, and kept writing for fun. I didn't plan anything. It was basically "right place right time."

How do you... This post gave me all the starting tools I needed to self publish. I cannot credit @thebibliosphere enough because following her tumblr and learning from her posts was beyond beneficial. I never would've had the courage to self-publish if I didn't see her do it first, and be open and generous with her knowledge.

How many books are you working on/do you have planned? The Horsemen Quartet, a trilogy, and five standalones.

What is A Masque of Shadows? That is my magical murder mystery novel, which takes place in a fantasy version of Venice, Italy, and is Game of Thrones meets Murder on the Orient Express starring the grumpiest detective, his spymaster bestie, and various murderous women who can step on me. It's being posted chapter by chapter on my Patreon for subscribers, and will be published in full in e-book and paperback when it's finished with revisions (i.e. my copy editors rip it to shreds).

What about the fanfic? I have not abandoned my fanfiction. That will continue to be free. In fact I hope between book sales and Patreon that I'll have more time for it.

Is there smut in your novels? There might be in the last Horsemen novel. There isn't any planned for the others.

Are you [insert sexuality/gender/mental illness etc here]? I am not obligated to share any of my personal info. I have sensitivity readers who have kindly agreed to be compensated for reading my novels for areas that either don't draw on personal experience, or do but still deal with a subject I'd like a second opinion on.

I only want to read your fanfiction. Good for you. It's on Ao3.

Why do you use Amazon, which is of the devil? Because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and too many people use Amazon and Kindle for me to eliminate the payday it provides me. "You can have your principles when you've got a belly full."

I hate Amazon, how do I best support you? You are in good company, I also hate them. My Payhip is the best way. However if you do use Amazon please leave a review! Treat it like an Ao3 comment. I want to see keysmashes.

Can I do fanart/write fanfic of your novels? Have at it! I would be very flattered to see any fanart you do. For fanfic please do NOT under ANY circumstances tag me in it or send it to me or gift it to me on Ao3. It's for legal reasons.

Are you on [insert social media site here]? No. Tumblr is my only social media site. If that changes, I'll let you know.

Why jackals? I shamelessly stole the idea from Seth Myers. Back in the heyday of the pandemic when he was doing online-only videos, he joked about how no matter how pedantic the correction, his viewers would faithfully type "with [their] little jackal paws" into the comment section to set him straight. He made more jokes in videos after that affectionately referring to his viewers as jackals, and it made me laugh so hard I decided to use it for my own.

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la-knight · 6 years

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For the writing 1, 2, 7

1: Describe the plot of your current WIPs in a single sentence each.

Ohmigawd…that’s hard…okay, let me make a list real quick.

The 12th Camellia: an autistic queer Mormon girl has to rescue her sister when her sister ends up trapped in their favorite VR MMO; Six of Crows meets Sword Art Online.

Bare Not Your Heel to the Coward’s Arrow: world-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in CW’s Arrow

A Little Black Book and a Little Black Dress: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in The Blacklist

Blow Northerne Wynde: a queer autistic woc Mormon girl and her sentient starship get hurled through a wormhole that takes her back to our time, followed by alien invaders who have seeded Earth with sleeping kaiju they intend to wake up to exterminate us; Pacific Rim meets Outlander, sort of.

The Edge of Darkest Devotion: Sequel to a finished fanfic about Loki’s motivation/redemption/character journey in Thor 1, Avengers 1, and afterward.

Empress of Ice and Oceans: Hades and Persephone, but using Yoruban and Russian mythology and starring two black leads.

Eidolon: If Romeo & Juliet were both Batman-esque vigilantes working for the Crown when the ghost of a homicidal necromancer and Jack the Ripper attack magical AU London.

Facets of Snow and Frost: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in the MCU/MTCU.

Glass: industrialized magical urban fantasy version of Alice in Wonderland with a lot of gay poc kids fighting against the ridiculousness of a prophecy that says the female lead is going to be the dark ruler that will plunge the magical world into a new Dark Age.

Hallows: A genderfluid goddex tells the story of how they were kidnapped and forced to fight as a magical gladiator, then was blackmailed into betraying their home when they fell in love and their wife was used as a hostage against them (they’re telling their sister while rotting in a prison cell, but the sister doesn’t know if she believes them).

House of Gears: Teenage Jewish Cinderella’s little sister is kidnapped by the bogeyman, so she must crash a steampunk monsters’ ball with the help of her former not-so-imaginary friends (including a genderfluid Princex Charming/Sleeping Beauty and a lesbian fairy godsister) to get the sister back.

In the Dark of the Night and the Hour of the Wolf: Redemption fic for Hela from Thor Ragnarok (female villains almost never get the redemption fanservice male villains do). Ties into “Edge of Darkest Devotion.”

King or Captain, Sinner or Saint: World-hopping fanfic redeem Killmonger, ties into Facets.

The Lightning Bleeds Scarlet and Gold: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in CW’s Flash (like Magenta losing her powers, Iris and Barry taking so long to get together, Barry’s dad dying, stuff like that). Ties into Bare Not Your Heel.

Once in the Winter’s Tide: Fanfic set between Winter Soldier and Civil War that ties X-Men, Blade, Spider-Man, and other things into the MCU, starring Bucky and a mutant woman with 4 kids and a dangerous secret. Ties into “Darkest Devotion.”

Once Upon a Time: Redemption fanfic for Nuada Silverlance, the villain from Hellboy 2.

A Palace of Ink and Stardust: Autistic woc Mormon girl falls in love with a changeling at her school and has to come to grips with being bisexual and Mormon (cute wlw fluff all around, with magic).

The Silver Princess: A bi Mormon healer’s apprentice falls in love with an Elven princess and the princess’s twin brother, while all three of them have to deal with a war brewing between humans and fae. All the queer poc rep.

Snow White, Blood Red: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, starring an autistic woc, a trans woc, and their gay best guy friend.

Yes, I have ADD. No, that’s not a joke.

2: Do you have anything published? If so, where?

I’ve published several short stories and a poem. I’ve self-published my first two books, but they were heavily whitewashed at the insistence of the agents who originally repped them and I didn’t realize at the time how problematic that was (although I knew it was annoying af) so I’m rereleasing them fully restored to their original poc (and for the most part queer) glory when I have the time.

As for my short stories, you can find my latest in the anthology Tomorrow’s Cthulhu, on my Patreon, or in the anthology New Legends: Caster - Castle - Creature.

7: What was the first novel you ever tried to write? If you’ve never tried to write a novel, then what was the first story you ever wrote?

The first story I ever wrote was in crayon when I was 4. It was a fanfic about how the Red Ranger fell in love with Rita Repulsa’s daughter (who was NOT the daughter of Lord Zed, so he was her stepdad) and while she was…like…wicked, you know, bad temper and chaotic neutral type, like Wade Wilson level morals, she hated being evil because it was too much work and she was lazy and she just wanted to date the Red Ranger because he was hot and nice to her.

The first NOVEL I ever wrote, I was 8 or 9, it took me an entire school year, and I wrote it by hand. It was called Catrina and Stephen: How an American Girl Became Princess of Monaco, and it was basically the adventures of this random girl who, on the eve of her 17th birthday, bought tickets through a magazine (I don’t know…) to the Coronation-and-Find-a-Bride Ball of Prince Stephen of Monaco, and her parents paid to fly her to Monte Carlo (in the middle of her senior year…for some reason) and the prince was like 19 and they met and fell in love a la Cinderella at the ball and got married literally the next day and had all these weird adventures and like, I shit you not, 35 kids (lots of triplets and quadruplets and I think a few quints).

I worked on it every day, in school, for bellwork. We got a writing prompt every morning and I always found a way to incorporate the prompt into the next chapter of my book. So literally one chapter might be them going to the grocery store and having to shop “like poor people” and the next chapter an evil scientist shrinks them down and they have to create a fort out of toothpicks and lincoln logs to protect themselves from a tarantula and rats, then in the next chapter they might scout an expedition to fucking Pluto and meet some eldritch alien horrors, but one of them fell in love with one of the kids (also being a kid, so cute “that’s my girlfriend” child love) and it became a star-crossed lovers thing that gets resolved by the UN. It was wild shit.

By the end of the year it filled 6 composition notebooks, had over 150 chapters, and ended with Catrina and Stephen dying and the alien and princess taking over the Earth and forming an intergalactic empire or something, but it was cool because basically it was just, everyone can do whatever except bomb each other or torture people.

#ask LA Knight #writing

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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Sing Along Forever: The Bouncing Souls Enter Their Fifties And Fatherhood—Together

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/sing-along-forever-the-bouncing-souls-enter-their-fifties-and-fatherhood-together/

Sing Along Forever: The Bouncing Souls Enter Their Fifties And Fatherhood—Together

The Bouncing Souls, 2020—COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Bryan Kienlen and his wife, Nicole, have a new routine. When they first wake up, they give bottles to their babies, Cora and Layla. And before taking on their daily tasks, they dedicate quality time for cuddling, crawling and playing.

“All four of us have this really beautiful morning,” 51-year-old Kienlen says. “It’s how I start every day. It’s the coolest thing.”

Twenty years ago, The Bouncing Souls bassist often spent his golden hour stumbling home from a night of partying in New York City, groggy and regretful as commuters drank coffee and made their way to work.

Bryan Kienlen walks on the boardwalk with his family. New Jersey, November, 2020

But decades removed from his period of downtown debauchery, the domesticated punk has found stability and serenity through his 30-year musical journey, as a successful tattoo shop owner and as a family man. He says being a father and “giver” is the greatest thing he’s ever done.

“You find how rewarding it is,” Kienlen explains. “There’s such a stark difference from being a ‘band guy.’ When I was a young, single maniac writing songs and touring—I didn’t realize until I could see things from my current perspective—but I was more self-centered. Everything revolved around me. Now, that stage of my life is over and I’m here to serve and take care of my kids and my wife. And I’m so happy with that. It’s not all about me anymore, in a good way.”

A lot has changed for The Bouncing Souls, the cult-followed New Jersey punk band which formed when Kienlen, vocalist Greg Attonito and guitarist Pete Steinkopf were high schoolers in Basking Ridge, NJ.

In the 90s, the band lived in chaos at a series of “punk houses,” each complete with a revolving door of ill-behaved 20-somethings, drunks and miscreants.

The Bouncing Souls, 2001 (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

Today, Kienlen and Steinkopf have settled down in New Jersey, whereas Attonito set up shop in small-town Idaho. And miraculously—as all three musicians have entered their fifties—they’ve all, almost simultaneously, become fathers.

But much has stayed the same, too. Last year, the band celebrated its 30th anniversary by touring North America and England, performing songs from the guys’ 10 full-length albums and newest EP Crucial Moments. Three of the four original members remain, save for the role of drummer. George Rebelo, from popular Florida rock band Hot Water Music, joined in 2013.

And 2020, with its own unique set of circumstances, has encouraged the Souls to appreciate the past while embracing the new in both their musical and personal lives.

In October, the band released Volume 2, a record of reimagined songs ranging from the group’s newest single, appropriately titled “World on Fire,” back to fan-favorite “Gone,” from the 2001 album How I Spent My Summer Vacation. And on Saturday, December 12, the band will be hosting a livestream performance of the album in a digital concert called Live at Studio 4.

While the group didn’t expect an internet broadcast to replace its annual Asbury Park Home For The Holidays residency, Volume 2 itself was born under precarious timing.

Bouncing Souls, Live At Studio 4, Saturday December 12, 8PM ET

Recorded in March during two one-week sessions in Philadelphia, the band completed the record just as America was blindsided by COVID-19. As time passed in the studio, the threat of the oncoming pandemic quickly went from negligible to worrisome.

“When we first went in the studio, I’d just heard the murmurings of coronavirus,” 50-year-old Steinkopf says. “I was like, ‘What the f*** is that?’”

“The second week was more intense,” 50-year-old Attonito adds. “The restaurant above the studio closed on our last day. The crazy thing about it was, we were having such a positive experience. We were joking about how we were spontaneously creating from our old songs that we love and the world simultaneously was cinching in with dark gloom. Those last couple of days, we didn’t want to leave our bubble of happiness. We knew we were walking into this chaos of the unknown.”

The Bouncing Souls with producer Will Yip, March 2020, Philadelphia

“Even the week that things were getting really weird, we were hyper-focused and trying to stay off our phones,” Steinkopf says. “But every now and then, someone would be like, ‘Did you see this!?’ What the f*** is happening?!’”

Despite the impending doom, the Souls found the studio sessions to be fruitful. The band was able to recompose classic tracks, breathing new and unexpected life into staples and providing previously underappreciated songs with a second chance.

Attonito was able to sing from a more mature and controlled vocal perspective—leaving the guttural belting for the next fast-paced punk record—allowing him to put a new spin on songs he’s chanted thousands of times.

Steinkopf was able to give a nod to the 80s tunes that inspire him, drawing energy from bands like The Cure, rather than focusing on a checklist of sing-a-longs and “woah-oh-ohs.”

The band was even able to squeeze in some silly instrumentation, using a “cheesy” 80s Casio keyboard and toy instruments on the song “Hopeless Romantic.” At Kienlen’s burning request, they even incorporated a french horn into “Favorite Everything.”

But as the recording sessions wrapped up, the band scrambled to make travel arrangements to get home to their families.

“Everybody said goodbye,” Kienlen says. “And the world was never the same.”

The guys returned to their homes in New Jersey, Idaho and Florida. They kept in touch, but were just as anxious as the rest of the country.

Steinkopf and Kienlen, Anchors Aweigh Tattoo Studio

Kienlen, like many other Americans, was forced to close his tattoo shop in Bradley Beach, NJ, Anchors Aweigh Tattoo Studio, for three months as the battle against COVID-19 took a stranglehold of the Northeast.

In the mountains 100 miles north of Boise, Attonito’s small resort town felt seemingly unchanged at the onset of the pandemic. But in the red state of Idaho, many remained resistant to masks, even as a surge of tourists in RVs flooded the area and caused a spike of positive cases.

Early on, Attonito felt depressed that band-life was on hold. Eventually, he started becoming conscious of mask-wearing in his dreams. And Steinkopf began to realize how much he missed the things he used to take for granted.

“Someone sent me a Souls show from a long time ago,” Steinkopf says. “I was watching it and I got real emo about it. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t go out and do as much these days, and now I’m like, ‘Man, I’m gonna go do everything when I can again!’”

But, in the meantime, the band adapted and found creative outlets to keep the spirit of the Souls alive. They started holding weekly Zoom meetings to catch up and launched the Can You Remember? podcast via Patreon, an endeavor they wouldn’t have pursued otherwise.

And along with their new projects, the guys are beginning to see a tentative semblance of “new normalcy.” Steinkopf is back producing in the studio again and Kienlen is booked up with tattoo appointments well into 2021.

While the band is glad to feel productive and are eager to return to live music, they recognize what a unique opportunity the pandemic has offered them as new fathers.

Kienlen and his wife adopted their first baby, Cora, as a newborn in December of last year.

Bryan Kienlen with his wife, Nicole, and daughter, Cora — December 2019

“At the time, I had one new baby, whom I hadn’t had the chance to bond with because we adopted,” Kienlen explains. “One day, you go from no baby to baby in your house, real fast. I still had touring through the end of the year and was booked out with [tattoo] appointments every other day that I wasn’t on tour. We never had a paternal leave or hardly a maternal leave, either. It was pretty difficult. When the lockdown happened it was a blessing for us because we got to stay home with her and truly bond every day.”

Then Kienlen went from having one baby to two babies just as quickly. In October, less than a year from Cora’s adoption, the couple was contacted with the opportunity to adopt a second child: a seven-month-old who they named Layla.

Kienlen and his daughter, Layla — October 2020

“We got that call on a Wednesday afternoon out of the blue,” he explains. “We picked her up that Friday. Talk about no time to plan! We scrambled to play catch-up a little. But I think we’re finally settling into a groove.”

While the couple were definitely hoping to adopt a second child so Cora would have a sibling, they were pleasantly surprised by the timing.

“We expected to wait a year or two,” Kienlen says. “That’s generally how long it takes. But I’m glad that it happened this way because they’re gonna be in the same grade. It couldn’t be better.”

Attonito and Steinkopf have also enjoyed their time home with their children. At the end of their conference call interview with Forbes, Attonito was adorably approached by his son, asking to say hello to “Uncie Pete.”

“If you’re gonna be locked down in a pandemic,” Attonito says. “You may as well be in a period where your child is under two or three years old, the most valuable moments to be with them all the time. In that sense, the timing is pretty good for all of us.”

Uncle Bryan & Lux — 2019

Fortuitous timing is just one example of the kindred connection between the members of The Bouncing Souls. Not only did they all enter their fifties together—Attonito and Steinkopf just days apart—but fatherhood, too.

Around three years ago, Attonito and his wife, Shanti, welcomed their baby boy, Ever. A few months later, Steinkopf and his wife, Keira, birthed their son, Lux.

“Serendipitous is a good word,” Kienlen says. “It describes the entire existence of our band. None of us had brothers growing up. Maybe on some deep level we found each other and bonded into a family and stayed together for life as brothers.”

They’re already growing together as parents, too, both in their capacity to love and overcome their fears.

“You could say a million things about having a child,” Attonito says. “But it pushes your capacity to look outside yourself and take care of someone. It pushes you to those limits in a way that, I don’t think, you can possibly experience without having a child.”

Greg Attonito with his wife, Shanti, and son, Ever

He continues: “I’m so glad I waited until I was in my late forties. The idea of having a child terrified me to no end. I felt like I would never be there for them. I’d be on tour all the time, that would be the worst. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy one or the other. I’m so glad it worked out the way it did. The fact that we’re all sharing this at the same time has been super special.”

“I was always the most terrified to have a child,” Steinkopf agrees. “I don’t know if it was the people I was with, my relationships or just being a selfish young guy. I would’ve been a s*** dad [laughs]. At this point in my life it just felt totally right. You spend your whole life being introspective and learning about yourself, but as soon as you have a kid, that’s magnified by a thousand. You think about your past, how you don’t want to impose stuff on your kid. It’s heady, but your heart is so f***ing full all the time. The most frustrating day now is like the best day I’ve ever had.”

Shanti, Ever & Greg Attonito — Pete, Lux & Keira Steinkopf

And the punks are embracing full-blown adulthood with sarcastic charm. Steinkopf insists he’s never felt better, as he and the singer offer a collective tongue-in-cheek, “F*** you, I’m 50!”

It’s the same self-assured confidence that the band tapped into while reconstructing classic Souls songs. While many were picked fairly arbitrarily, the group did make an effort to develop tracks on the basis of lyrics they felt were overlooked.

Take “Argyle,” off the 1996 album Maniacal Laughter, which was written by Attonito, but admired by Kienlen for its words. While the singer calls it a personal song that was “definitely written from the perspective of a mid-20s-year-old person,” he’s glad his bassist pushed to include it.

Another throwback featured on Volume 2, “Say Anything,” dates back to the band’s 1997 self-titled record. The Bouncing Souls was released just as the band’s collective lifestyle of punk house squalor came to a close.

Attonito, 1995 (Photo Steve Eichner)

“It’s well romanticized because it had moments of glory and moments of pure annoyance,” Attonito says laughing. “There’s a motivation there that’s sort’ve unexplainable. Once you hit your forties, you’re like, ‘How did I hold up?’”

Steinkopf adds: “It’s just like chaos, but it was chaos in a way that we were so f***ing motivated to do everything. We were gonna print shirts. Do this, do that—all together. It was intoxicating.”

Looking back, Attonito sees the era as a wave of energy and focus that propelled the band into a lifetime of performing. The first decade of insanity and perseverance allowed for an actual career in music.

Bryan Kienlen (L), Greg Attonito (R) of The Bouncing Souls, 1995, Wetlands in New York City (Photo … [] by Steve Eichner)

While most of The Bouncing Souls may have taken a step back from the craziness in 1997, it took Kienlen a few more years. As all the members moved to New York, then moved on, their bassist remained and kept the “party” going the longest.

While recording Volume 2, he was able to revisit three songs he wrote during a tumultuous time, a rough patch that served as the blueprint to the band’s beloved 2003 release, Anchors Aweigh.

“Highway Kings,” “Kids and Heroes,” and “Simple Man,” all made the new record—and reignited feelings in the studio. They were also given a second chance musically.

“‘Simple Man’ was written in a pretty dark place for me,” Kienlen says. “It was a prayer to the universe for simplicity back in the middle of what was a bit of a storm in my personal life. To revisit some of those lyrics, I felt more like the returning conqueror. I’d survived. Now I can face these songs from a happier place.”

But when Kienlen first penned many of the songs to Anchors Aweigh, he wasn’t just experiencing love-life woes, but a “major life turn.”

“A whole reality was ending basically,” he says. “It wasn’t just a relationship, it was an entire reality that I had built around the relationship. It all just ended instantly and I was set free. But it was just me and my demons all of a sudden and no governing force.”

The bassist describes it as the perfect storm of a single guy who’s going through changes with nothing but time and cash in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He went out and partied every night until the following day. He’d get going around 10:00PM, then leave bars and afterparties as the sun came up, feeling like a “ghoul.”

“It was the darkest I’ve ever felt,” Kienlen explains. “I was the most depressed I’ve ever felt in my life. Then, the following night it would just start again. Any happiness was produced by substances and all the other shallow crap that goes with that life. Night after night. You’d get so high and so happy, but not really. Not real happiness. When you heard that first bird chirping, that’s when you realized you f***ed up again.”

Bryan Kienlen of The Bouncing Souls plays before several thousand at the Vans Warped Tour, 2001, … [] Ventura, CA (Photo by Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times)

He continues: “And the things I was doing were definitely gonna get me killed. I was riding my motorcycle up the FDR [Parkway] going 120 miles per hour—that f***ing high—in the middle of the night with whoever on the back that I could’ve killed. It was just insane.”

Kienlen frequently hosted afterparties at his own apartment, too. As cliché as it sounds, he usually felt alone in a room full of people.

“All the good stuff was gone,” he explains. “All my friends were just fellow ghouls—nightlife people. I felt pretty alone. Being apart from Greg and Pete during this was also part of the despair that I was feeling. That’s when I wrote ‘Simple Man’—probably about six in the morning on a park bench. Just one of those nights.”

Bryan Kienlen, 2006 (Photo by John Shearer)

After 15 years of living in New York City, from squatting to a city-subsidized apartment in Alphabet City, Kienlen decided to abandon the F Train and return to New Jersey living.

He’d fallen out of love with his gentrifying neighborhood and was sick of his own behavior. He also mourned the loss of the Old New York punk scene he once so enjoyed. The days of brown-bagging beer on his BMX bike and bouncing from CBGBs to Coney Island High to The Continental were over.

For years, the Jersey-born transplant never imagined leaving New York City, but his Anchors Aweigh turning point was critical to an end-game he never imagined: a house, a wife, two kids, a dog and his own business. The album’s cover, as always designed by Kienlen, is symbolic: a ship sailing off into the dark distance, marking the end of a chapter.

In that regard, it’s suitable that so many tracks from the album populate the ranks of Volume 2. The band’s following release, The Gold Record, marked a new “golden” age for the Souls. The 2006 record also established that after years of noodling across the Hudson River, the band’s homebase would forever be the Jersey Shore.

Greg Attonito crowd surfs at Bamboozle Left, 2008, Irvine, CA (Photo by Noel Vasquez)

Despite Attonito’s choice to commute from the sticks—and a drummer change or two—the rest, as they say, is Jersey history. It may be generational, but there are few acts that evoke an association to New Jersey quite like The Bouncing Souls.

Bruce Springsteen requires no explanation. Bon Jovi isn’t far behind. The Misfits are, for some reason, inextricably connected to their hometown of Lodi. The New Brunswick boys in The Gaslight Anthem (with a co-sign from The Boss) have become hometown heroes. My Chemical Romance has immeasurably left its mark on the world, but somehow holds down its Garden State credibility.

But, for Gen X and Millennials, only The Bouncing Souls—with tracks as indicative as “East Coast, F*** You!” and the aptly-titled “So Jersey”—can conjure the feeling of the boardwalk under your feet, the smell of the Atlantic Ocean and the buzz of The Stone Pony.

The Bouncing Souls performs at The Fillmore in Detroit, MI, 2013 (Photo by Scott Legato)

In a year as uncertain as 2020, at least fans have the consistency and renewed spirit of The Bouncing Souls—31 years in—to distract them, if only for a few minutes.

“Call it naïve, but we committed to doing this for our whole lives,” Kienlen says. “I guess we took that commitment seriously. But we didn’t know what this meant, we didn’t have a picture in our head. I’m glad we made every decision from our hearts.”

Luckily, his bandmates are equally as enthused.

“It just gets better all the time,” Steinkopf says. “We have more fun as we get older. We’re in such a cool place. Turning 50 and feeling that way, I’m pretty f***ing stoked.”

Attonito adds: “Once you make it to 50, you can see the world and understand the value in having relationships that lasted this long—with each other and the audience. This is so incredible that we can do this. We love it. And because of the pandemic, when we get back, we’re all gonna appreciate things even more.”

Follow me on Twitter at @DerekUTG.

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datasponge · 4 years

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Podcast Project #2

After immediately finishing my first post, I thought holy crap this is a dumb idea. No one is ever going to view this and furthermore, this is such a niche audience, why would I do this?

Let me back up to say I have a few sources of inspiration for why I’m still going to carry on this project after arguing with myself for most of the night just two days after writing my first post and then actually putting it up. I listen to a podcast, of course, by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, the Creators of Welcome to Nightvale, called “Start With This”.

From the day of this posting there are 25 episodes, about a half-hour long, that delve into the writing process, but in a larger sense are about how to gain discipline with your craft. They talk about everything from where to get inspiration to the importance of plotting out your story beats. The episode starts with a conversation between themselves, moves on to an example that you can read, watch or listen to yourself, and then finishes with an exercise. This is also available in the show notes if you want to review an episode before listening for your specific idea.

They have a Patreon subscription at $5 a month that gets you access to network of like-minded people and of course bonus content. I haven’t tried, but if you want to write a podcast or find someone for a project might be worth checking out here: https://www.patreon.com/startwiththis

Anyways, I started listening when I felt listless last year, which not a new feeling for me, but I wanted some way to focus all these great ideas into something that felt worth doing. What I found out quickly is anything worth doing requires a lot of discipline and confidence in your self to trust the process. I hate trusting my own ideas most of the time because I’m the kind of person who likes to know how it’s going to end. If I could read my own obituary of when I died, I would, just to save me the suspense if I should bother with certain projects.

The second source of inspiration was “John Dies at the End Author” Daivd Wong Aka Jason Paragin. Jason wrote for Cracked.com, that for 10 years had a group of creatives that were putting out original content on the internet, before Facebook ruined media empires and started an avalanche of profit hoarding that saw people driven from their fields

(Source: https://www.vulture.com/2018/02/how-facebook-is-killing-comedy.html and here https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/facebook-pay-40-million-under-proposed-settlement-video-metrics-suit-1245807 )

Anyways, back when he was on Cracked.com, and wrote an article called 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person: https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/ , which at a time when I was afraid of the world, myself and rejection was a great reminder that the vastness of everything only matters one day at a time.

“John Dies at the End” in particular struck a nerve when I thought I had reached all potential for getting anywhere with my life and only to find out he had written it as a series of blog posts that gained an audience that eventually gained an indie publisher that gain a cult following and movie. I mean in the meantime he was writing for other outlets is great at marketing himself online and overall is a good reminder that you need to believe in your own stuff enough to want to make it better.

Finally, Samantha Irby, a published author with a tv show coming soon to HULU and a new book of essays titled, wow, no thank you.

I found her writing in 2018 when she exploded onto the mainstream scene with, “We Are Never Meeting In Real Life” essays in part from her website, BITCHES GOTTA EAT [https://bitchesgottaeat.blogspot.com/] Her writing is so real and so funny, mostly cause she’s talked about being a prolific reader herself, and older blog posts she once had a public book club on Facebook.

She also talks about working as an admin for a Vet’s office while writing, how she met her wife on twitter, every embarrassing thing her body has ever betrayed her about- a reminder to just don’t stop.

Spreadsheet Problems:

Anyways, on to process part of this post. I’m going to be inputting a tracker just to get a sense of how many hours I have ahead of me for podcast listening. So far, I will have each Podcast title in a column, with each row measuring one metric so if you read downwards for each of the podcasts versus the dreaded across, which can get a bit crazy with length.

Metrics so far:

· Time in Minutes

· Number of Seasons

· Seasons per Episode

· Producers

· Writers

· Voice Actors

· Music

· SFX

· Themes: to tag future blog posts

· Website

· Completed Series: Yes or No

· Podcast Feeds

· Merch Links?

· Social Media Links

I will probably try to see if there’s already a published excel sheet a fan group has made for the 40 podcasts, but more likely than not I’ll just be sending some time checking on official websites and podcast feeds. I don’t plan on publishing anything until it’s polished. I consider the list just part of a rough draft to break down later what else I want to measure in each winner. The next post goal is just to have an outline of how many hours during a workweek per podcast, good news for my commute.

#start with this #Jason Paragin #John Dies at the End #Podcasts #data science #Excel #Life #Motivation #Samantha irby

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brendagilliam2 · 7 years

Text

Meet the artist drawing millions of YouTube views

Ross Tran steps out of his Californian apartment. The sun shines in the sky above and a car idles on the road below. Holding a couple of large canvases, he climbs over a balcony, shimmies down a tree and speaks to camera: “Welcome to another episode of Ross Draws. It’s my graduation episode!”

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He runs to the waiting car. Animated sparks fly. He throws his artwork through the open window, jumps into the driver’s seat and speeds away. The hand-written personalised number plate taped to the back of his Chevy reads: COLOR DODGE.

In just 20 seconds, we see why the 23-year-old artist’s videos have earned nearly two million views on his YouTube channel: the quick cuts, the playful tone, the breathless, almost hyperactive presenting style; whistle-stop tours of his art school, apartment and various locations around California; interviews with the smiley, unbelievably healthy-looking friends and teachers who populate those places…

And, of course, the thing that underpins the channel’s success, Tran’s art – bright, stylised, painterly, with tutorials explaining how to paint his work. What you’d never know by watching these videos is that the channel “came from a dark place.”

“A piece from my Astro Series. It’s a collection of portraits involving some kind of white garment and shapes as the influence.”

Personality is key

Tran is a recent graduate of Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design. He won his first concept artist job at the nearby West Studio when he was just 17. A couple of years later, he worked as lead character designer on his first feature film – creating Echo for the 2014 animated movie Earth to Echo. He now counts among his clients Disney, Samsung and Microsoft, and has since worked on the upcoming Halo Franchise and several more films.

How did he win so many big jobs at such a young age? “You have to personalise your portfolio so it represents what you really want to do,” he says. “For instance, if you love character design and want to get hired for it, make your portfolio and online presence character-based. I’ve seen a lot of people put too many types of work in their portfolio. It makes them look disposable. The last thing you want to be is a robot. Show the world who you are and what you want to do.”

“This was one of the few pieces I did in my year off art to pursue acting. I just loved to paint and felt the need to express myself artistically.”

He says some people may be familiar with his earlier work, but most of this success has come through Ross Draws, the YouTube channel that he started at the end of 2011.

“I actually grew up really shy,” he says, an image very different from the boisterous character he presents in his videos. “I had a lot of insecurities growing up. I think Ross Draws represents a side of myself that depicts transformation and self-growth. I consider myself an introvert, but one who’s learning extroverted skills.”

“This was from the third episode on my YouTube channel, drawing Nidalee from League. She’s one of my favourite characters and I had to draw her!”

Even after earning a place at the prestigious ArtCenter College of Design, Tran says he felt something was missing in his life. He was passionate about art, but also loved making people laugh. So he took a year off and pursued an acting career.

Tran juggled art school and auditions. He took extra classes in improv and scene study. The nearest he got to a big break was an audition for a pilot on the Fox network.

“My work has recently taken a more stylised, graphic approach, while still pertaining to my painterly roots.”

The small part called for a designer who freaks out a lot. “My perfect role!” Tran says. The producers of hit shows Psych and Scrubs were in the audition room and he made them laugh. They gave the part – which the script labelled “Asian Best Friend” – to a white person.

“I’m not sure the pilot even got picked up,” he says. “But it was a great experience. I also auditioned for a lot of commercials.”

“I always got tons of requests to draw my dog and found a perfect opportunity – to celebrate one year on YouTube.”

How to draw and paint – 95 pro tips and tutorials

Branching out on YouTube

“I grew up watching The PowerPuff Girls and wanted to do my take on it. I was bringing my love of graphics in the piece.”

A friend suggested he start a YouTube channel combining the two things: art and making people laugh. “I hesitated, thinking it wasn’t really my thing. Prior to the channel, I felt like I had no purpose. I was waking up and feeling really unmotivated to do anything. Uninspired, unwilling, defeated.

“Acting helped me to commit. Because, in acting, you have to commit 110 per cent or else no one will believe you, not even you. You can’t be in your head. Going on those auditions and to classes helped me to commit to the moment and just do it, no thinking. It’s a practice I’ve also taken into my art. If you have an idea, don’t be afraid to voice it.”

“This piece is quite special to me. People often mention that this was one of the first episodes/pieces they saw when they discovered me.”

When Tran reinvented himself as Ross Draws, it shook up his personal life and kickstarted his career. But the success of the YouTube channel brought new problems. “My schedule is different every week, every day,” he says. “Sometimes I feel I overload myself. I’m definitely what they call a night owl. I go to sleep anywhere from 2 to 5am. As my channel grows, so do my opportunities – conventions, signings, gigs – and it’s been harder to have a set schedule. It’s still currently a learning curve. But most of my week consists of editing my videos and painting.”

Growing up, Tran was into TV shows like Pokemon, Sailor Moon and Power Rangers – you can see those influences in his art and on his channel. He has a few key rules when making videos. Our attention span is getting shorter and shorter, he says, so he keeps footage under the six-minute mark. It’s also important to be yourself, connect with your audience and collaborate with other people. He’s made videos with artists he looks up to, like Dan LuVisi and Anthony Jones, but also collaborations with non-artists, such as Jimmy Wong and Yoshi Sudarso, who plays the Blue Ranger on the new Power Rangers show.

“This was another one that sat in my folder for about two years. I never knew how to finish it, but one day I opened it up and let the story breathe.”

The YouTube channel brought Tran new confidence, which was mirrored in his art. When he started at ArtCenter College of Design, he knew he was a capable painter but felt his work was too heavily influenced by his favourite artists. Then he painted a piece called Journey – a landmark in which he found his own voice and techniques.

Tran works with Premiere and After Effects for his videos, Photoshop and Lightroom for painting. Using all Adobe software helps him easily switch between apps. One website recently labelled him the “Master of Color Dodge.” The blend mode creates extra depth and makes colours really pop off the screen, an almost glowing effect that’s present in much of Tran’s work.

“This has been sitting in my WIP folder for about three years. A lot of my pieces sit there until I can see the piece turn into something unique to me.”

It’s not cheating

Tran hadn’t always used such techniques. “At a young age, I thought that using certain methods as cheating, only to realise now that it doesn’t matter. You can learn from anything, any method, anywhere. Have an open mind and you can absorb information easier and faster.”

After graduating college, Tran left the apartment that features in many of his YouTube videos. He now rents a house with friends, a place just outside Los Angeles. “We call it The Grind House,” he says. The Grind House? “It’s where we’re going to grind on our stuff for a year and decide what to do from there. There’s not much of an art scene in my area, but I love the motivational energy that the house has.”

“This piece was commissioned for the deviantART+Blizzard Campaign ‘21 Days of Overwatch’. It’s probably my best seller at my first convention, Anime Expo.”

“Motivational energy” is a perfect term. It’s in everything Tran says and does. You can still see his influences in his work. There’s a bit of Jaime Jones in there, some Craig Mullins and Claire Wending. But despite his youth, he has found a style, voice and motivational energy of his own – and, perhaps most importantly, a platform on which to share it. That’s the one piece of advice he’s keen to get across: do it your own way, on your own terms.

“My videos are funded by my amazing supporters on Patreon. I’m blessed to have fans who love what I do and who want the exclusive content that comes with each episode. Patreon is definitely a career option for artists.” Tran’s endorsement of Patreon comes with a caveat, however: only launch when you’re ready. “I held off on making my page until I knew I had quality content for the people who supported me.

“There’s always a whimsical element to my work, either in the colours or the composition.”

“If you do what you love, numbers and finance shouldn’t matter,” Tran adds. “I have friends who absolutely love their studio jobs and want to be surrounded by people. I also had friends who quit those jobs, made a Patreon and earned less, but loved what they do.

“I think it’s about finding your own instrument and how to operate at your fullest potential. In today’s industry – and society – we too often compare ourselves to others, which fuels our inner self-critic. We’re all on our own journey at our own pace. We all have different inspirations, a different drive that propels us forward.”

This article was originally published in ImagineFX magazine issue 140.

10 sci-fi and fantasy art painting tips

How to create a vivid fairy queen

Tips for developing exciting book cover character art

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The post Meet the artist drawing millions of YouTube views appeared first on Brenda Gilliam.

from Brenda Gilliam https://brendagilliam.com/meet-the-artist-drawing-millions-of-youtube-views/

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brendagilliam2 · 7 years

Text

Meet the artist drawing millions of YouTube views

Get Adobe Creative Cloud

“A piece from my Astro Series. It’s a collection of portraits involving some kind of white garment and shapes as the influence.”

Personality is key

“This was one of the few pieces I did in my year off art to pursue acting. I just loved to paint and felt the need to express myself artistically.”

He says some people may be familiar with his earlier work, but most of this success has come through Ross Draws, the YouTube channel that he started at the end of 2011.

“This was from the third episode on my YouTube channel, drawing Nidalee from League. She’s one of my favourite characters and I had to draw her!”

Tran juggled art school and auditions. He took extra classes in improv and scene study. The nearest he got to a big break was an audition for a pilot on the Fox network.

“My work has recently taken a more stylised, graphic approach, while still pertaining to my painterly roots.”

“I’m not sure the pilot even got picked up,” he says. “But it was a great experience. I also auditioned for a lot of commercials.”

“I always got tons of requests to draw my dog and found a perfect opportunity – to celebrate one year on YouTube.”

How to draw and paint – 95 pro tips and tutorials

Branching out on YouTube

“I grew up watching The PowerPuff Girls and wanted to do my take on it. I was bringing my love of graphics in the piece.”

“This piece is quite special to me. People often mention that this was one of the first episodes/pieces they saw when they discovered me.”

“This was another one that sat in my folder for about two years. I never knew how to finish it, but one day I opened it up and let the story breathe.”

“This has been sitting in my WIP folder for about three years. A lot of my pieces sit there until I can see the piece turn into something unique to me.”

It’s not cheating

“This piece was commissioned for the deviantART+Blizzard Campaign ‘21 Days of Overwatch’. It’s probably my best seller at my first convention, Anime Expo.”

“There’s always a whimsical element to my work, either in the colours or the composition.”

This article was originally published in ImagineFX magazine issue 140.

10 sci-fi and fantasy art painting tips

How to create a vivid fairy queen

Tips for developing exciting book cover character art

This post comes from the RSS feed of CreativeBlog, you can find more here!

The post Meet the artist drawing millions of YouTube views appeared first on Brenda Gilliam.

from Brenda Gilliam http://brendagilliam.com/meet-the-artist-drawing-millions-of-youtube-views/

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