I have spent about two hours trying to post a page.

I’m done now. I have to stop or I will commence throwing things (like computers and chairs) across the room.

Damned Irish temper.

It’s snowing in Iowa. Sigh. And so it goes.

What a short year. Personally, in some ways I am in a very different place this November, but in a very frustratingly similar place in other ways.

One year ago, I was recovering from a disasterous outcome of tests to my strength and discovery of my limitations. I was also finding out that the last safety net I thought I had never really existed after all; a final chilling discovery that I am truly alone. And my heart was broken again. The only thing I could do however, was get back up, dust myself off, and move on.

And I moved on into something I always wanted to do. I truly started my own business, and even now, it’s still going. Sometimes I look at it and wonder why and even HOW? but it is going!
I got a new car. I took off some weight. MAde time to go do things with friends. In fact I did everything I listed in my New Years resolutions. While this is a premature statement, 2008 was in some ways a successful year for me.

And yet, I’m still struggling with the biggest demon of all. That alone thing. It’s gotten a bit worse- and I find myself showing symptoms of bitterness. Anger of course is the gate keeper to the soft underbelly of pain, and she has moved with her blades flying to stand guard - unfortunately, not letting anyone in, or even allowing me to let anything out.

Except for art. That’s the only place. I realized that Xylia was actually the only place that I could allow myself to take in or give out any love. I know there are those casual readers who will read that last sentence and say ‘WTF? Xylia? It’s just a dumb webcomic!’ But there are those of you, dear friends of Xylia who I hope know what I mean. And accept the story for where it comes from in me.

Monday I will be posting a link and announcing the rebirth of one of my favorite webcomics from a couple years ago- O31: incredible, sexy artwork and a really great gal who creates it as well. I’m also going to start doing some Monday mini reviews of some comics I enjoy, and I’ll be talking about Marooned, a webcomic I’ve mentioned before, but want to mention again- it’s quirky, unique and fun, and Tom is such a great guy he deserves the press!!

Speaking of sexy artwork- if you haven’t checked out the vote incentive, you might want to. Not sure why some of you couldn’t see Minxy Xylia, I was able to … but now we have art that panders to us ladies. He’s not wearing no clothes, but you know me. I’m tasteful. Of course. But it’s an unusual image- one of those concepty things I had to draw… they always end up being my favorites.
“Is he dead? Is this real? Oh look, a happy trail. ^_^ Is he…”
You just gotta go see, now don’t ya? THANK YOU for getting Xylia in the top ten!! I have to admit a personal goal of mine was to elevate Xylia above Pronquest, and we succeeded. ^_^

WOW! Putting up the occasional vote incentive seems to work, eh? Thanks to your votes, you have vaulted Xylia into position 19 on the TWC list. Good job!! Monday will be a new one- I think I will post one of the more peculiar images that may make you say, “What IS this? WTH?”. I will say that there is a nude of Xylia in the sketches that I will post eventually. As usual, it is tasteful and not showing anything blatantly, but it is a nude.

Sarah had asked for a visual on Xyl’s dress on the latest update of Nigel. Here’s a very rough doodle.

I did a fan art for my pal, Chip Skelton the creator of the wonderful work, Broken. You can see that
here.

And our contest winner will finally make an appearance in about two updates, so stay tuned! A little later than I planned, but she is coming very soon!

See ya Monday!

~B

I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but the Xylia site seems to be corrupted for me on both of my browsers and is missing links and image files. I don’t know if it was hacked into, but I have alerted Kez to the problem. If you wish to access the Xylia forum, please go here.

Thank you,
~B

I decided that I would try to post a regular blog thingy on Fridays. It may be little more that a couple lines sometimes, but hopefully more.

The Chicken Reference. This comes up from time to time, and it’s so embroiled in the Xylia mythos at this point that I forget that everyone doesn’t know. One of our readers, the very talented Elle who has submitted some wonderful Xylia fanart, once made a random comment that Claude needed to be in a chicken suit. I couldn’t resist drawing that, along with Ollie and Tim of Talismen having a laugh at his expense. Here
The chicken motif reappears from time to time, in Charlie’s bio- he has a ‘penchant for fried chicken’, and of course most recently with his meat eating comments that horrify his little sister. And this:

And it all goes back to the innocent reader comment: He should be dressed in a chicken suit.

And so it is.
~B