I ordered this book back in April 2008, and it finally was released. It's been a long, long wait for the further adventures of Chen and Zhu. I know what I'll be doing all day tomorrow. I was going to start The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, but that one will have to wait now.

Very happy news from a couple of other book/author LJ's.

Over at sounis, there's news of Megan Whalen Turner's next book in her Thief of Eddis series. It's a Young Adult series, and I absolutely love the characters and the story. I can't wait until A Conspiracy of Kings is out in 2010.

The third book of the series has one of my all-time favorites covers:



And I also read at barbara_hambly that she'll be publishing more books in her Benjamin January series! It's a wonderful historical mystery series featuring a free man of color in 1830s New Orleans. I have all the books, but have been putting off reading the last one because I didn't want to say good-bye. So now I can move Book #8 up in the TBR pile:

A batch of 300x300 bases for actor Christopher Walken to shrink, crop, etc. There are 18 bases in this group, mostly publicity-type images. Young Walken, middle-aged Walken, and mature Walken (he just had his 66th birthday!)



( the rest inside )

Have fun! :)

Wow, it's been so long since I posted here that I hope I remember how to do an lj-cut! I pop back in with offerings that are kinda gaudy. Eigthteen glittery and sparkly icon textures, for those moments when you need to get in touch with your inner diva. :)

Preview:



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Probably best used as a new layer set to Screen at 100% opacity, but there might be other ways to abuse the sparklies. A new layer set to Dodge, with various opacity settings, would probably work too.

My play time has been occupied lately with 3D stuff, and I've gotten much better at it since I started last fall. If interested and/or curious, a bunch of my freebies are here. I also have a small store and a gallery that I post at every now and again.

A lot of things I learned from icon making have come in handy for this as well. :)

Download File

A set of 11 light beam textures in PNG format for when your icon needs a volumetric spotlight! Probably best copied and pasted as a new Multiply or Screen layer, between 90%-100% opacity. Basic stuff. A few examples:



Same image and texture, left Screen 100% opacity, right Multiply 95% opacity:

Download: JBR/Image Pack | PSP X | Image Pack, large (500x400)

( examples inside )

Use them on icons or to make textures from scratch. Again, despite what the preview image says, the PSPX version brushes are 500x400 -- and I haven't made an image pack for those yet (but soon!) Image pack added for the larger pspBrush version. BTW, if anyone would like one of the orginal textures, please email me. They're larger; most are 1280x960.

And just a little reminder to those who might be new to this journal and are making winter holiday icons, I have a bunch of bases in this post and text brushes here and here. I have a general gradient set and a little gingerbread cookie brush set (JBR only; it's an oldie.)