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A long long time ago, in 1999 or 2000, I think…I ran into an artist’s website that I really loved. It was called Saltwater, and it featured a ton of sketchy, beautifully atmospheric watercolor drawings. They were mostly about a fantasy story that the artist had created which was kinda like an old school traditional RPG. You could really tell she liked role players. Anyway, even though I was only witness to her site for a little while before she either closed it down or moved it, it made an impression on me because she really was able to tell a story through her artwork.

Needless to say, I never saw anything of her again until sometime last year. I’m not a very big Beatmania fan, but I was messing around on Konami’s website when I saw some character designs that looked really familiar, it was that artist again! And I discovered her name was Maya Takamura. She’s done a ton of excellent work for Konami and the bemani games, and each of her little music videos tell a different story. The videos for Blind Justice and Ristaccia weave together to form an especially detailed fairytale with a huge cast of characters and everything, which is so crazy considering each is only a few minutes long.

At any rate, when I found out that Konami had graciously compiled “PUZZLE”, a Maya Takamura complete works collection, I felt more than obligated to buy it up.. It’s so beautifully packaged and even comes with a puzzle and a DVD of all her bemani videos. Hooray! So there, if you’re looking to experience a really awesome artist, try checking out Maya Takamura.

So…it’s been a long time coming! I know it might seem a little needless, but I’ve been dying to update my page forever as it has been pretty un-user friendly for me so far. Hopefully this new set up will encourage me to update a bit more regularly than say…every 6 months or so!

It’s been about 2.5 weeks now since I finished all my work on the second book of Vampire Kisses and I’m beginning to feel like the time for rest and relaxation is over with. It’s been reaaaalllly great to not worry about creeping deadlines and to just have time to get months worth of things I’ve been meaning to do done, though! I’ve been redecorating my bedroom/storage facility into a real bedroom (long way to go still) and have been watching Bikkuri-kun play Ninja Gaiden and just recently–Metal Gear 4! Yaaayyy~ That game is like…too awesome for words. Oh yeah, and I’ve been working on my homepage and illustrations for my homepage, obvioulsy. I’m sure there are bugs…I should probably stop typing this and find them….

I remember someone a while back asking if my blog had RSS, and I (bashful) wasn’t really sure what that meant at the time, because I never used it… But after looking into it, I’ve managed to add it to my blog too! Hooray!

Okay, so I safely made it back from Japan but have been busier than ever with a ton of Tokyopop work, so I really haven’t had the time to do anything around here. I’m dying to get back to my old routine, but it seems like that’s not going to happen for at least a few more weeks. But hey, at least it’s not Halloween any more, right?!
As soon as I get a hold on things I’ll update update update!!! Grah~

I drew this picture as an inside-joke-gift for a friend and I’ve been meaning to post it since Christmas, but….it’s just really hard to find something to say after it…

So– I’ll just talk about something else that I’ve been trying to find the time to post. It’s Kage no Matsuri, and it’s back on my website!
Yay~:lol: I put it in my “books” section, but you can view it here!