And because I know you’ll ask: I’m presently wrapping up some edits on Chapter 2 of my next book. So another book’s happening, too. But it’ll take a little longer than March 12th.

And speaking of things you can buy, I’m now for sale, too! Wait, that sounds wrong. I mean that my web and graphic design services (and maybe some illustration and animation) are now available. Many of you have asked, and I’ve always had to decline due to time constraints. My time’s a bit more open now that I’m a free (well, not free) agent again. You can see my portfolio here.

Also of note: I’ve been working on an easier way for you to upload your fan art, but I’m now considering starting a new forum right here on skary.com so that people who dislike Facebook and G+ or who are below the age threshold for those sites have a place they can go to talk about all things Skary or just get to know each other. Here there would be a fan art board where you could upload to your heart’s delight. This will, of course, need moderators! And that’s where you come in.

I’ll need a handful of moderators to cover the various time zones of board members. Your job will be to keep the place sane and free from abuse and spam. Moderators who hang around long enough and prove their awesomeness will sometimes get free things!

If you’re interested in volunteering as a skary.com moderator, please fill out the form below! I can’t pick everyone, so if you’re not selected, please know it’s not because I don’t like you. ;-)

Congrats again, Emma – your prize will be in the mail soon.

“Then the headless horseman descended upon Leap and snatched from him what the dead had bought in the young wolf’s abominable bargain.”

Since it’s been very busy here with the move, I didn’t have time to prepare anything else this year. So, here’s a collection of my past Christmas illustrations!

Christmas Portrait

(More below!)

The Twelve Deaths of Christmas

Accident on 34th Street

It’s going to take me a little while to get all set up and going again out here, but you’ll see new stuff from me as soon as I’ve finished slaying the cardboard box dragon that has been growing in my hallway.

Portland is lovely, and I have the world’s coolest apartment. It’s a hundred years old, still has the original telephone in it, and I keep finding other little surprises. Surprises like hidden doors and wall safes and  compartments in the stairs and closets. I found what may very well be the portal to my Other Mother in the kitchen, but I can’t get that door open which is probably for the best. ;-)

Anyway, more stuff from me soon. Just wanted to pop back in and say thank you to all you lovely folks!

There hasn’t been much on this site in the past few weeks as I’ve been preparing for my move to Portlandia. There will be a few more days of radio silence from me yet while I actually do this moving thing. In the mean time, I have a job for you!

Remember The Goosemother Scroll? I still have several of the original sketches. They’re all just scraps, really, but they went on to become the digital paintings you saw in October. And they could be yours – if you win this contest, that is. Details below!

The Goosemother Sketches – A Contest

The prize: several original pencil/pen sketches that were used in the artwork for The Goosemother Scroll.

What you have to do: draw any character or scene from the story. Use any medium – pencil, pen, paint, crayon, digital. Your choice!

The rules:

1. Send a copy of your artwork to me at katy@skary.com with the subject “The Goosemother Sketches – Contest Entry”.

2. In your email, include your full name and complete mailing address for the prize, should you win.

3. Send your artwork by 11:59 PM Pacific, December 10th, 2012.

4. This contest is open to everyone, anywhere worldwide.

5. All artwork must be original and yours.

6. Only artwork that features one or more characters from The Goosemother Scroll will be considered.

7. There will be ONE winner selected by judges. For the sake of fairness, I am not one of those judges. The winner will be announced on this site, Facebook, Twitter, G+, DeviantArt, and by email. Winners will be announced within 7 days of the contest end. The prize will be mailed shortly after.

The Goosemother Scroll – Episode 16

Text and illustration below.

“Hello, Sister,” said the other pig.

“This is a trick!” said Pyg, but deep within her, she knew the Master was Dawnsong, the brother taken in her stead on the night of their birth. But how did he know her?

“This is a trick!” she repeated as if to convince herself. “My mother said Dawnsong was dead!”

“Dawnsong? Is that what I was to be named?” said the Master. “I am named Strangeborn, but no one calls me that anymore. Your mother – that is, our mother – never took the trouble to find out what became of me. For that I can’t blame her. Who is a pig against the wolves?”

The Master’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Who, indeed, was a pig amongst the wolves? Why, himself. The leader of the worst of them.

“Our mother wouldn’t have become a murderer to make peace with other murderers,” Pyg spat.

The Master ignored this remark.

“I was taken, along with so many other newborn babes that night, by the persecuted,” he explained. “Our deaths were to be revenge for the wolves’ ill-treatment at the paws of the so-called ‘good folk of the world.’ Many of the young did, in fact, die, but a few of us were shown mercy. I was raised by such a merciful wolf – the only mother I have ever known. I grew up faster than most pigs my age, I think, because of this.”

“And then you grew up to become the Shadow Bringer!” Pyg interrupted. One of the Legion growled in warning, but Pyg hardly cared. Brother or not, this swine was responsible for the deaths of everyone she loved. He should be able to withstand an insult.

But the Master looked wounded by this charge.

“You think I am the Shadow Bringer?” he said. “No, no, Sister. That can’t be. You see, I was raised upon the words of the Goosemother Scroll. I was raised to believe the Shadow Bringer was the source of all my wolf family’s pain. I despise the Shadow Bringer. I’ve made it my young life’s work to seek him out and destroy him! To stop him from ever becoming! Him or her.”

“But don’t you see?” Pyg gasped. “In all you have done, you’ve made the prophecy come true yourself! It’s your shadow that covers the world. It’s you who’ve brought hunger and death and betrayal!”

The Master shook his head.

“What are the Three Laws?” he asked her.

“No beast chooses himself above his herd,” Pyg recited. “No beast shall take more than he must to survive. No beast eats of his own kind. You’ve already broken the first two. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve broken the last. And here you stand on Mount Historious, using it for evil. That makes you the Profaner.”

“Ah,” said the Master, “but you are wrong. All I have done before, I have done to better the world for future beasts. As to the Third Law, I eat no meat and never have. But there is something you have not considered.”

He gestured to his guards, who seized Pyg’s companions and led them silently away. All, that is, except for the Priestess.

“Where are you taking them?” Pyg asked.

“To a safe place for now,” said the Master, smiling. Safe for them or for you? Pyg wondered, but she was hardly in any position to fight for them now. She also wondered about the Priestess of Gol. Why had she not been taken with the others? Her question would soon be answered.

“My thanks, Estruthia, for bringing her to me,” the Master addressed the ostrich. The priestess bowed her long neck low and then turned to Pyg.

“Your arrival to this place was shown to me in a dream,” she explained. “I regret that I could not stop the tragedy you have seen along the way, but it was necessary to lead you here.”

Pyg’s blood rushed to her ears. “You LIAR!” she screamed. Had she not been held by a Wolfguard, she would have attacked the Priestess. But a voice whispered inside her head.

Quiet now, swine child! said the voice. I am still your friend! But he must not know! Not yet.

Pyg’s head swam with confusion. Who was whom and who had been betrayed? She wished the earth would swallow all of them up and be done with this whole nightmare for good.

“Sister,” the Master said. The word made Pyg feel ill. “Have you never wondered why it was me who was taken?”

“Of course I have,” said Pyg.

“Because I was meant to end the blight that is the Shadow Bringer. I was the small one and The End Will Be Small,” said the Master. “But you, Sister. Your path has been so very different from mine. I had not imagined this twist of fate until you arrived in the Elephant Lands and survived against all odds.”

“What are you saying?” asked Pyg.

“I have seen your past in my dreams, swine child,” said the Priestess.

“The first law: you broke it when you let our brothers die for your safety,” said the Master.

“That’s not true!” Pyg cried.

“What did you do to defend them from the wolves? Nothing!” said the Master.

“They were your wolves!” Pyg insisted.

“And I regret that,” said the Master, but he went on. “The second law! You broke it when you took those soldiers with you. You did not need them in order to survive, and you knew they might die along the way!”

“This isn’t fair! This isn’t fair!” Pyg sobbed.

“The third law,” said the Master.

“I have not eaten my own kind! Never!” Pyg gasped.

“Not so,” said the Priestess. “When you traveled with the rhinoceros king, you ate as he did. The meat of his enemies. There was a boar…”

“I didn’t know!” Pyg protested.

“And you didn’t ask,” said the Master. “How many have died trying to save you? How many have even known you and not suffered some terrible fate? And for what end? You have no noble mission. To think your dear friend, the wolfling, sold his soul to control the dead for you! Do you know what else he did? They say the Shadow Bringer rules the Ghosts of Men. That’s a power I don’t have. But when your friend barred the dead from any claim upon you, he unknowingly bound them to your command. You may not know what you are, but it is what you are, nonetheless. The Shadow Bringer. My own lost sister! And now that I have brought you close to me at last, I must perform my duty. Then you will never grow to darken the world. None will suffer on your account ever again!”

The guard who held Pyg drew his sword. In panic, Pyg looked to the ostrich priestess whose voice filled her head in rapid whispers.

Call them! Call the dead! The Master spoke truly, they are in your command. Call them and free yourself!

“Leap! Help me!” Pyg cried without even thinking, and the mountain began to rumble. A white mist arose from the rocky earth. It seemed as if it happened very slowly, but it happened within a few short breaths. The dead took their form and, led by a ragged wraith wolf, slew the guard, the Master, and all who served him.

Pyg felt a chill across her heart as she heard the howling of a thousand anguished wolves. But she felt no remorse. For the first time she could remember, she was in control of something. Her enemies would all be gone soon. Those who were left, and all they loved – she would seek them out and crush them. And after that, she would destroy all the small things that might get any ideas about ending her new dominion.

When the Master’s forces were destroyed at last, Pyg turned to the Priestess.

“There are those of us who serve you, my dark lady,” said the ostrich. “Who have always served you from the dark places of the earth. We have waited, your majesty, and we will help you take your rightful place. You have only to look to the shadows, and there you will find your servants.”

“I will find them, and I’ll make the world what it ought to be,” Pyg said softly, “but you I can never trust again.”

As the priestess’ lifeforce faded away, her final words entered Pyg’s thoughts.

I knew you would come… I knew you would come… I knew you would come…

Pyg smiled strangely. She knew now why she had never been given a name by her mother. Her name had already been written in the Goosemother Scroll eons before she was born.

The End

Finally the Doctor is a ginger! (And a lady.)

Bonus: Look who I ran into today?