I have to preface this as the follow-up to The Price of Dreams, and point out that it is over two years old now. Seems like a day, and a life-time ago. I’m sorry to say, that my life did not go on to a happy place, but for a moment it seemed like my fast slide into the abyss was stopped at the brink.

by avmorgan, Jan 26, 2014, 3:53:02 PM

I know that there’s too much activity for anyone to keep up with the journals (or blogs) of everyone they follow. That is one of the reasons I do not treat my dA journal (or the eye of paradox) as a place to vent anymore. As nice as it can be to vent on occasion, it’s not the most productive way to spend your time. I’ve done the same on my blog. I have let both hang in limbo while I focused on improving my education, practicing my skills and working or looking for work.

The looking for work part ended up being quite a job, and for a moment there I was worried it would not pay off. Fortunately, patience and perseverance has.

I have accepted a job offer for a UI Developer position starting on Monday (this was back in 2014, don’t forget), and have also set up an illustration/design contract I will be finalizing on Saturday. In the past five months, I have established an online Prosite portfolio (sadly, now defunct but replaced by my current portfolio) and profiles on key sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Behance.

I’ve made huge strides forward in adding 3D Illustration to my skillset, and have acquired the tools to begin modeling and animating in 3D as well. I will need to wait to upgrade my hardware to support intense rendering, and to make the upgrade to Adobe CS6.

I am concerned about the new business model Adobe has taken with Creative Cloud. I’m not excited to pay premium licensing fees only to have a mandatory subscription service that allows Adobe to deactivate the software remotely. While work is available, it’s not hard to keep up with the subscription, but in a tough job market, it’s possible to end up with a long dry spell in which recurring expenses become difficult to maintain.

I would hate to lose the tools I need to find employment at a time like that. So, I will have to keep CS5 on a back up system and maintain a separate license for CS6.

But that’s only a minor hiccup. I prefer to focus on moving forward, so that I have better options if faced with another dry spell. I have just completed work on a novella, published here and on FictionPress as The Price of Dreams.

The story is an introduction to an epic I’ve been working on in the background for decades, and serves as both a prologue and epilogue. It is a very philosophical, arguably metaphysical, piece of fiction—mind-bending to say the least. It refers to concepts that the larger epic would have more room to address.

It also touches on my involvement as the creative force and personality behind the project, introducing a character confronted with the fact of her existence as a character not only in the story, but as the reason for her entire universe’s existence.

So, this is a character who was forced to endure paradox, confronting power and the prospect of goddess-hood only to discover she was a part of me—a way for me to escape my own reality. Finding her existence tied to mine, subject to the limits of my reality, she demands to have her story told.

I am publishing this online to give people a chance to comment on, or encourage me to write, her—or should I say, our?—story. I may make this available in e-book form as a fund raising scheme.

The individual chapters are available as Premium Content downloads; the points would mostly go towards upgrading to a premium account and advertising on dA. So, it’s a minor way to make donations to show your support. Of course, I would really like to hear people’s thoughts, so I hope you will take the time to share them. I also urge you to read it all the way through.

From the visitor stats, it seems like people are stumbling onto the chapters in random order. The story is confusing enough when you’re following it. It must be absolutely confounding to jump into at random!

In any case, I will be busy with paying work for a while, so new posts may slack off for a month of so. If you leave comments, but do not get replies right away, that just means I’m tied up with work. I will try to catch up whenever the opportunity presents itself.

As always, my thanks to everyone who finds something in my gallery (or blog) worthy of making a favorite (or comment, follow, etc.) or addition to one of their collections. I want to thank in advance everyone who takes the time to look through my artwork or read some of my writing.

~TTFN