Illustrations
My stories are always open to artist interpretation, and my readers know this. Sometimes I am surprised with fan art of my characters by fellow readers on Deviant Art and FanFiction.net, so to show my appreciation, I feature them here — with permission, of course. Click to view thumbnails.
Charles M. Gearhart
James and Ayse Norrington
Great art done by my friend and colleague Charles M. Gearhart. I had wanted a picture of James and Ayse together, but I lack the drawing skills to make a picture of my own, so Charles said he would draw them for me. He had also been helping me edit Mirror, Mirror and clarifying ideas. The original pic is lineart, but he showed me how to color it in Photoshop. He provided the background.
GingerBaby
Amaya Edogawa
This is a very sweet fan art of one of the characters from my Bleach fan fiction, Sleeping with the Enemy that a reader did, and it was a complete surprise. You will not find the story here, but I am willing to share a little about the character. Amaya is playful, headstrong, assertive, and a fiercely loyal and reliable friend. She is actually a supporting character in my story, but it’s surprising to know that she seems to be more popular than my main character. Her zanpakuto’s name is Haringu no Tsuki (Wind that Howls), and it’s ‘inner spirit’ is a wolf.
Nina Seito
This is another pic that GingerBaby surprised me with on DeviantArt, this time of my Bleach original character who appears as the main character in my fan fiction, Sleeping with the Enemy. Again, the story will most likely not be put up here, but here’s a little about Nina: personality-wise, she is the polar opposite of her best friend Amaya (above). She’s quiet, a loner type, and she is also a talented artist with a photographic memory. Her zanpakuto is named Kiyohime, after the Japanese legend of the landlord’s daughter who turned into a serpent and exacted revenge on the Monk whith whom she had fallen in love and had scorned her in return. The full story can be read here. Kiyohime’s ‘inner spirit’ is a serpent. GingerBaby’s DeviantArt profile is here.
Jocelyn Tiedemann
Summer Virga
This is one of the many fan arts that my awesome and dear friend Jocelyn has done for me over the years. We met through DeviantArt and FanFiction.net, first sharing a love for Final Fantasy 7, and we’ve been long distance friends for…well quite some time ever since. Of all the people I would like to meet in real life, Jocelyn is probably my first choice. She’s a kooky and a total wingnut, but then again, so am I, so that’s quite possibly the biggest reason we get along so well.
I’ve kept Jocelyn busy doing drawings for me over the years, and one of the first that she did was stemmed from a very early fan fiction of mine that is based in the world of Final Fantasy 7, which is arguably the most popular of the Final Fantasy franchise. This is an early piece of my character Raye Shields from My Happy Ending. In this scene, she is observing a summer virga with canon character, Cid Highwind. The dog next to Cid is Captain, a pet I created for Cid. Jocelyn was also instrumental in helping me brainstorm ideas and plot for my story. A virga, by the way, is an observable shaft or steak of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground.
True Love
This is another piece that Jocelyn did for My Happy Ending. The angry redhead at the right is Raye in all her unbridled fury. She’s volatile and unpredictable, but she is a kind and true person who holds those she loves and cares about near to her heart.
Snap!
Jocelyn did some experimentation with animation while I was writing My Happy Ending, so she chose Cid and Raye to serve as her guinea pigs. The animation actually turned out pretty good, though she was not quite successful at getting the color to work. She chose ‘snap’ because in My Happy Ending, Raye will often snap Cid’s goggles whenever she is annoyed with him or simply wants to be a ‘flirt’. The spacing is a bit wanky because in the actual .gif, the top and bottom are black bars. You will have to click on the picture to see the .gif in action.
That Smug Bastard
One of the final pieces Jocelyn did for My Happy Ending.