Fabulous web art by Jared Fiori!

The news of this morning is that I have officially got completed web art! These pieces are intended for my official author website, which isn't running yet. I'll let you know when it gets to that point, but for today I'd like to thank my artist, Jared Fiori, and introduce him to you. He's a freelance self-taught illustrator from Maine, and I came across his work on the Scribblerati website, right about the time they were trying out different banner styles. I asked him if he'd be interested in working on some illustrations of my characters, and off we went! I love his style, and he's quite indefatigable, even when I am at my pickiest. I'm terribly happy with the result, and I've been waiting for this moment to share it with you. If you like what you see, you can check out more of his work at http://fiori-di-fuoco.deviantart.com/.

This you may recognize as the gecko-girl, Allayo, from "Let the Word Take Me" (Analog July/August 2008). I chose her to represent my Allied Systems stories, which take place in a universe where humankind is exploring and colonizing the stars - and of course, encountering aliens of many different types. A new story in this universe, At Cross Purposes, will be appearing in the upcoming January/February 2011 issue of Analog, scheduled to hit the stands on November 7th of this year. Jared is a natural with comic-book style poses and grasped this image intuitively from very early on.


This is the History Keeper, a young lady of Heian Japan who falls into tragedy and loses her mind, with very unusual consequences. She features in a nearly-completed short story of mine, and in my novel Through This Gate, which is currently with my agent. Jared and I often discussed what a challenge this piece was because the layered clothing of Heian Japan was highly complex - but he handled it wonderfully. The cherry blossoms were his own idea, and I think they're brilliant. I hope you all will get a chance to meet the History Keeper in print very soon.


Last, but not least, we have Nekantor and Xinta, whom some of you may recognize from my story "The Eminence's Match," currently out in the Eight Against Reality anthology from Panverse Publishing. They represent my world of Varin, and while I currently only have one story of that world publicly available, I'm working to change that! Jared once told me that this piece was really all about subtlety in the body postures and facial expressions. I think he did a great job of portraying these two and their relationship through slight shifts of line and posture.


I'm going to be working on the web design aspects of my new website now, and I'll let you know when it comes together. Thanks again to Jared Fiori for his persistence, his versatility, and most of all for three totally gorgeous pieces of art!

New Art!

Welcome to the new look of TalkToYoUniverse.

I'm very excited about these changes, because they make the blog feel like it's mine - yes, really, really mine. The logo you see repeated here is my own design, the "lily crest," executed in digital form by my good friend Alison Huff and inserted into the blog code by my beloved husband. Thank you both so, so much!

The lily crest comes from my Varin world, and is the Mark of honor that distinguishes members of the servant caste. For those of you who haven't read the sidebar page, the servant caste follows only the nobility and the officer caste in importance, and its members are highly educated, usually working as public servants, servants of the Courts, or personal assistants to the nobility.

Anyway, I hope you find it enjoyable to look at while you read. Eyeball-friendliness is very important to me! If you find my choice of new colors or fonts gives you readability problems, please do let me know.