Vote over at TWC, and you can see the thumbnails from this week's pages. Compare and contrast! I kept making this page darker because it wasn't creepy enough. Hm. So, because I am obviously a terrible person, I've managed to write a werewolf comic where you guys have to wait a year and a half to see our most experienced werewolf protagonist actually like...BE a werewolf. Oops. So that look in the last panel is Elias preparing to beat up some fools while protecting the human. Look forward to all that! I've got a bit of thinking to do in terms of what order I want to unravel this next bit, and I might have to consult my BFF/werewolf story consultant on this one. All the pieces are there, but I gotta make sure the order is effective and that's tricky. If you ever wonder what makes this story work, a lot of my secret is that whenever I get stuck, my best friend since middle school also writes and understands the fantasy genre and pacing and story structure. When I hit a wall, or I'm unsure of things, I toss my latest problem her way to get a second opinion. I am a strong believer that you cannot create in a vacuum. I mean, you probably can, but you can't breathe in a vacuum, so you'll probably die. But anyway, when I was in college and working on my senior thesis, we did a lot of critiques throughout the process. Story, storyboards, animatics, animation...everything got workshopped, which thank god it did, because what a great tool. I'm a firm believer that, especially in storytelling, you should let more voices than just your own into the creative process. I'm trying to write a story with a really broad appeal, and sometimes that means being formulaic as hell, which I'm cool with, but sometimes it just means that I need to get out of my own ass and do what's best for the story rather than whatever I think is neat. The side effect of this method is that now my friend has a bunch of text messages on her phone about werewolves and witches and shit, which I can't imagine what people would think is our deal if they ever read them. Side note: Like I said, you gotta do what's best for the story...which is why I keep struggling to figure out how to fit in my "Marin's backstory/shopping montage/werewolf-team-bonding adventure." But good news! I'm totally shoving it into the next chapter. I've figured out the magical combination of scenes that will logically allow me to further the story while also giving us all a break from this heavier stuff for one chapter. Because I fucking love shopping montages. That's my favorite stupid trope ever. But we also have to resolve this whole thing with Connie and these werewolves and whatnot, so I'm using the next chapter as a vehicle to start that train running. Mmmm, writing is fun. So, in life news, yesterday was my last day at my retail job, and it was actually a pretty good night, so yay! And now I'll never sell shoes again. Probably. You would never realize that you can actually memorize the names and locations of over a thousand varieties of shoes until you do it out of habit. Or when someone wants a certain shoe, but you know exactly what sizes you have in stock in that particular shoe, and let them know you don't have it, and then they glare at you like you're an idiot trying to get out of doing your job. No, I just have had to check that shoe for sizes multiple times this week and I know what I have, lady. Man, retail can suck it. It's sort of my safe haven, because it's a job I'm very good at, and I generally am left to just do my job and go home. At the same time, I'll be glad to not have my life dictated by a totally random schedule of completely random shifts. Also, it got fucking cold all of a sudden, and I'm not feeling it. I like fall, it's fine. But I need some time to mourn the fact that I likely won't feel legitimately warm through my bones again until...May, maybe. June for sure. That sucks. Fall fashion is much improved over all other times of the year, so that'll be good.