Sneak peak

the rough thumbnails for my new book law sharks. the book itself will premiere at Minnesota fall con. Also the adventures of Alan Moore #1 will be put online soon.

Magpie tales: Blind Date

I stand next to the mirror fiddling unnecessarily with my tie. I almost put in contacts but then think if I wear glasses it will make me look more distinguished. For a last touch I dab on some cologne and make my way into my office. I print off directions to the restaurant and I am out the door. On the way, I stop at a store and pick up some flowers to make a good impression. As I continue my drive, I contemplate what I am doing. I'm about to go on a date with some seemingly random woman from the Internet and I worry about making a good impression.

I shake that off that feeling of insecurity as I pull up to the restaurant and exit my car. I take a deep breath and enter the establishment. Inside, I immediately see one woman drinking a glass of white wine and checking the clock obsessively. I know instantly she's my date. I nervously walk up to her and ask "Are you Karen Green?" She answers meekly, "Yes... why do you ask?" I reply, "Well, I'm Will Navidson and.." Quickly, her expression changes as she says, "Hold on a second, you're my date?" "Um yes", I reply." She then looks reflectively at her wine glass and says, "Look, I'm sorry but I don't date your type." Now, I am stumped. So I reply -- now the meek one, "Oh, um that's too bad." I then leave, head down.

On the way out I dump the flowers into the trash and shake my head. Dating is hard if you're a yeti.

This is a magpie tale. The yeti in this story is based on the same idea from my swamp monster story awhile back http://jpbeaty.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-awful-humidity-that-is-so-often.html#comments

Random people

Here are portraits of people that I've seen recently. Some are friends and some are people I've just walked by, bought coffee from, or just seen from the window of a car

Magpie tale: hourglass

My office was located on the 3rd floor of a nondescript college building. My classes however were not normal. I had a vast amount of experience in cryptozoology and abstract physics, pertaining to time travel and alternate dimensions and such. My department had recently received much academic attention for the recent discovery, by two of my professors, of a walking stick that allowed one to transverse dimensions. Sadly, upon further testing, the jeweled walking stick had turned out to be far less practical than previously thought and now served as a teaching tool in the history department (authors note: the story of the walking stick can be found at http://jpbeaty.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-sat-in-contemplative-silence-chin.html#comments)

Even so I had given that professor free reign in the basements of all the buildings. Earlier I had received a call saying he had found another more practical solution to the time travel paradox and I now awaited his arrival. As soon as I picked up some work and began to flip through my awaited person came crashing through the door, a brown package in his hand. We exchanged the obligatory hellos and then got down to business. The item he had found was an Egyptian hourglass made around the same period of time as the walking stick. I asked him to show me. He pressed some jewels set in the gold and than in a vortex of sand we went up up up.... When the world reformed itself we found ourselves in the middle of a roman Coliseum. Across the arena from us was a lion. It would suffice to say it wasn't happy. The news wasn't much better when I turned around. Standing there in face paint and armor was a barbarian warrior meant to fight the said lion. The crowd however based on the massive amount of cheering didn't mind if It were us or the lion that was attacked. As I thought, this the warrior charged me and my friend. In an act of plain stupidity my companion stuck out the item he happened to be holding. The problem was that that item happened to be the hour glass. As the barbarian's sword plunged into the hour glass we snapped back to our own time. When I looked the top part of the glass was shattered, sword still in it. That night in my nondescript office on the third floor my professor friend and I sat gluing together pieces of glass.

this is a magpie tale http://magpietales.blogspot.com/

new pen and ink

Lately I've been reading a lot of Hemingway so I did this pen and ink piece called "in the shadow of Kilimanjaro.

The Guide's Window

The forest morning was crisp. I walked alone with the leaves cracking under my feet. I clutched my coat closer against the chilling fall winds. The trees looked almost skeletal against the clear air. Up ahead along the trail -- leaning against a fallen tree -- was the person I had come to meet. He was my good friend and today we intended to wander the woods for the day with his acquaintance, a guide who knew the area quite well.

When I arrived the guide shook my hand. For a split second it seemed like the wind suddenly got colder, but the feeling soon passed. Then, for the next several hours we were shown all there was to see in the acres of wilderness. After this time we came upon a house in the woods sticking out like a sore thumb. Our guide strode confidently toward it. I stood hesitantly until something caught my eye. In the window was a transparent figure looking out the window. I ran away back to my car screaming.

The two remaining men look at each other for a second. The guide looked over to my friend and asked "Did you tell him about my wife and me by chance?" The friend replied "no, it must have slipped my mind." The guide simply replied "Oh well, lets go see what's for lunch". With that the friend walked around to the door as the guide turned transparent and went through the wall.

this is a magpie tale http://magpietales.blogspot.com/ and a poet rally post. For the perfect poet award I nominate because they comment on all my posts Brian and jingle.

new old school vampire art,

Snakeman the celebrity fends off the paparazzi.