Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Welcome Message

WELCOME TO SPARROWMILK!

Hello, I’m Shadsie.  Welcome to my mind, enter at your own risk. 

First of all, the title of this blog is meant to convey some of the utter weirdness you’ll find here.  The term started out as a joke between myself and my man regarding semantics.  He is fond of calling flocks of geese “herds,” and one day, that lead to a conversation that equated geese to cattle, talk of “milking the geese” and an offhand remark of how “you wouldn’t get much milk from a sparrow.” In need of a term to convey the quirkiness of my life and works, I thought “Sparrowmilk” just worked.

Anyway, here is a quick run-down of what you’ll find here: 

Writing – I mostly wished to get a blog to showcase my writing work.  I’m not professional quite yet, but I thought that having a blog for my stuff might attract some attention.  If not, at least I get said stuff out there for people to read and to hopefully give me the good, hard constructive criticism that I crave.  At this point in my life, I’m less concerned with “just getting published” than I am with “getting good.”  I write primarily for the pleasure of it and because worlds in my head want to exist and tend to scream at me until I make it happen. I very much want to share my work and to have people read it, enjoy it and give me helpful commentary as to how it can be improved – in other words, to open a dialogue. Even if it never makes it to print, if it’s good, that’s what matters.  

Turbo-Fangirl Nerd Geekery of the Apocalypse! – I’m a proud geek, mostly for entertainment things, particularly anime (and animation in general, I like the Western stuff, too), manga (Japanese comics), literature (particularly fantasy), and I am one of the rarest of creatures – a girl gamer. Mostly, I am a retro-gamer due to monetary constraints, but still, I both love video games and am an adult female.  I go one-up on the geekery, as well, in that I create fan art and fan fiction for a lot of the things that I like.  I actually have somewhat of a following right now for my Legend of Zelda fan fictions- that should tell you what a turbo-nerd I am.  I’m sure to air my fandom opinions on this blog at least every once in a while, and, if I feel like it, I may post my fan works (if for nothing more than to try to entice my “following” to visit the blog and maybe take a look at my original works).   

Art – Maybe, when and if I feel like it. I already have a Deviant Art account which serves me well for showcasing my visual art.

Opinions on serious matters – Maybe. Some of these overlap with my writing. 


The character of my work:  I write primarily in Fantasy.  Occasionally, science-fiction makes an appearance, but mostly my works are about other worlds, talking animals, fictional ecosystems and the like. My work, however, isn’t classifiable as the “sword and sorcery” stuff that most people seem to think of immediately when they think of Fantasy.  Someone once told me that my work reminded them of that of the late Madeline L’Engle – “Quirky with spiritual undertones.”  

As for that matter, I think it is fair to warn potential readers, since it does bleed heavily into my original writing:  I am a person who has the kind of religion/spirituality held by someone who hasn’t gone to church in years, reads a lot, but still, nonetheless, has God-stuff  stuck in her brain.  If any of that offends you, whether it’s the “doesn’t go to church” part or the “believes in God” part, let it be known here and now that you will probably be offended by the things that will be appearing on this journal and it’s frankly your own fault for not turning back now. Many people in this world seem to think in black and white – I enjoy a rainbow gleaming off a cut diamond of many facets. 

I have a few unpublished novels under my belt. To give an idea of the non-S&S style fantasy I write, these are the general characterizations of some of the protagonists thereof:

One of my novels is about a genetically-engineered gryphon that develops a strong bond to the slave who raises him.

Another story features a boy whose life dream is spent pursuing glorified bird-watching. He carries a sword that was given to him as a gift, but being an ardent pacifist, does not use it. (He does actually use it all of twice in the over-100k manuscript to defend himself in dire situations, but never uses it to kill). 

My latest “I think it may be halfway decent” completed project features a pair of young people who bond to spiritual beings and take a journey to a city where people do not believe in said spiritual beings.

Presently, I will be posting serial, loosely-related stories I am writing about a world of three nations where night and day are at a standstill because that is the current thing I’m getting out of my brain. I feel that a loose, ongoing serial is something that would be good for a blog. Chapters of the aforementioned novels may appear here if I feel like posting them at some point, as well as random, unrelated short stories.  

I am not “friendly” enough for Facebook and I am too verbose for Twitter, so this will be the primary place for me to spew my mind.

Anyway, welcome, all. Hope you survive.

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