As you may or may not know, my husband and I are 2 part creation team dreaming of big things from our tinny lil town in southern Japan.

It has been a challenge to gain the momentum needed to make a living off of Eotera, but as long as we don’t give up we will be seen one day! As a kid/teen I always wanted to do something important, to change the world for the better. To really help people. I believe our stories can and will do this! (✿◠‿◠)/☆

Right now my husband Aaron (AKA Asistaint Bean) works full time as an English teacher, helping me with my stories on the weekends and evenings. While I stay home to do the best I can to pump out comic pages, illustrations, and commissions. My wish is that one day I can support him just like he has supported me over the years.

Being small, shy, and award I have always had a hard time communicating with other people. Often I would imagine myself as an alien floating far far away from the boxes others happily live in. I was always alone in my own worlds, off on some grand adventure this mundane planet could never give. I still often have a hard time really connecting with people and fell overlooked online and in real life. 

But I know now that I am not alone, there ARE people out there like me. Few and far between, other aliens walk this earth. 

Eotera is for all, yes. But it’s for them first and foremost. The forgotten, the overlooked, the lost, the wanderers, and the wonderers. 

Embrace your oddities, and let’s be Stranger(s) together. <3

I truly hope you stick around, donations or no, I want you here. Big dreams come true every day, and with your love and support soon it will be our turn. All of ours.

Stay Strange,

Bitsy

The post A Bit About Us appeared first on EOTERA.

If you’ve been reading some of my blogs here, you may remember how I talked last year about the fact that I can’t draw. If you don’t remember, I’m not going to talk too much about it here, but you can see what I mean from this previous blog, pointedly titled:

I’m Bad at Drawing

But, to summarize, I’ve never had what you would call a “natural talent” when it comes to making shapes, colors, and lines come together to create pictures in what could be conceivably be called art. Oh sure, if you were the encouraging type of person, you would say my first attempts at drawing people “weren’t that bad.” But, you would be forgiven for thinking “they’re not very good, though.” Because it was true! It’s not something I’m ashamed of. Here’s something I drew back in 2009 when I was a 14 year old high school freshman, and first truly began my journey as an artist:

See what I mean? Not very good, eh?

Thankfully though, I did actually have some very encouraging people in my life, who supported my desires to improve as an artist. But, if you haven’t learned this already, progress tends to come much, much slower than any of us would prefer. It took me awhile to learn this, and it was frustrating to say the least. The sooner you can accept this fact, the more content you will be with all the learning you will need to do.

Fast forward five years to 2014, when I had finally saved up to purchase my first digital tablet (A Cintiq from Wacom), and began venturing into digital artistry:

Wow! That’s a bit of a jump, right?

Though, also still amateur looking. Don’t get me wrong, I may sound harsh on myself, but I also tend to be my own harshest critic.

And, believe it or not, I am still quite happy with this piece for one huge reason. It was the first piece of art of this sort that I was legitimately proud of, and didn’t feel afraid of showing people. It really was my pride and joy for awhile.

However, it most definitely was not the final product I was looking for.

As I stated already, progress takes much, much longer than we’d hope. And, it would be another 5 years later to the present day until I had a style that consistently satisfied me, my own harshest critic:

That’s quite a bit better, yeah?

Yeah, I think it is.

Well, that’s all I wanted to share with you today, honestly.

If you’ve recently just begun your journey of becoming a Splendid Artist™, don’t you dare ever, ever, ever, ever give up! It may seem super hokey, but that’s really all it takes. Ok, it’s 90% of what it takes (not an exact percentage.) You’ve still need to practice! Unless you’re some ridiculous prodigy, or something . . .

I wish you the best.

Stay strange, Strangers!

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Part #3: Spelling is Hard

By now, you know that the Story Behind My Story includes the fact that I had (and still continue to have) difficulties with dyslexia, as well as a lack of talent when it came to drawing. If you haven’t read Part #1 yet, give it a quick read HERE.

But, to top it all off, there was also this:

I’m absolutely awful when it comes to spelling and grammar.

Which, if you’re reading this, you may be thinking to yourself:

“Bitsy, this actually reads very well! It sure doesn’t seem like you have this problem!”

Well, that’s because, like I said before, my lovely husband does quite a bit of my editing for me. He does so across this blog, as well as the published versions of my books and other stuff. So, if you see something that seems a bit misspelt, or something like that, you can safely assume that he hasn’t gotten around to fixing it yet.

As you can also safely assume, attempting to become an author when you can’t write very well, and reading itself is very difficult, isn’t exactly the easiest task to accomplish. That was me! Still is in many ways. You can actually still catch many of my mistakes and mishaps in the hiatus part of my main story, where I posted an Elder Scrolls short story I wrote. [You can read that HERE]

What was pleasantly surprising though, is how well received my story Maiden in Disguise has been despite many of the errors I made in the literal writing of it. Of course, there are always the big meanie-heads that leave negative comments for no other reason than doing so, but overall the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Looking back on it now, it seems crazy that MiD began as an almost half-hearted attempt at “putting myself out there” in February of 2015. It just a few short months (at the time of writing this), it’ll have been four years! In that time, I’ve now completed 3 total books, with #4 likely to be finished and published by early 2019. Thankfully, with just a little bit of help, all of those finished works have little to no spelling errors or terrible grammar mistakes.

Which, I think brings me to my point of this blog post. And, yes, unlike some of my other ramblings I do have a point this time! It’s two-fold, I think:

1. If you think your stuff isn’t “good enough,” whether due to spelling, art quality, plot, or complexity . . . You’re probably just beating yourself up for no good reason. Try! Make something new and show the world. That’s more than most can admit to ever doing.
2. If your writing still makes you feel uncomfortable with sharing, get help. Seriously! If you’ve got some friends who are better than you at those things, ask if they may be willing to help you with editing. Most people are more willing to help than you expect.

And, if that doesn’t work, there’s also Grammarly:

If you don’t know about Grammarly, it’s a super awesome free (and also not-so-free) software available for both computers and smartphones. Check it HERE.

It’s probably the best thing out there for people like me, and probably even for those who don’t have the issues I do, as it catches mistakes that most people would miss. Plus, it does things almost automatically for you.

So, now when I write my stuff, I do it with the help of Grammarly as it makes my editor’s job a little easier.

And, no, for full-disclosure’s sake this is not a paid plug for Grammarly. I simply really enjoy it and I want more people to know about it.

That’s it!

I hope you have enjoyed reading more of my ramblings.

Until the next one . . .

Stay strange.

The post I Can’t Spell! appeared first on EOTERA.

Part #2: I Can’t Draw!

“That’s great, honey. But, you know you can’t draw, right?”

I remember that as the exact response my mom gave me when I told her I wanted to be a comic book artist.

Now, don’t give her any crap. Not only was she right, but she meant it in the right way. She wasn’t trying to put me down in any way. She was just making sure that I understood my dream was not going to come easily in the least. And, now that I’ve gotten a couple books published, I can say: She was right!

At that time, It was 2012 and I was just 17 years old and graduating high school. And, the best (worst?) part was that just about any grade-school kid could still draw better than I could:

What was a girl to do? Give up?

Believe me, I’d love to tell you how I, “Refused to give up,” or “Always knew my dreams would come true.” While there may have been a small voice inside me that always thought these things, if I’m being completely honest, there were plenty of times that I thought the exact opposite.

I didn’t really start drawing with any real earnestness well into my late teens, and it wasn’t until I was turning 20 that I developed the idea behind Maiden in Disguise.

Which is kind of a funny thing, because I never really expected Maiden in Disguise to take on a life of its own. It’s not super crazy popular yet (though it is gaining way more traction than I thought I’d ever have), but the story is becoming much more involved than I originally intended, which is both exciting and scary.

You see, when you grow up as a kid in similar circumstances as me (You can read about that HERE), it’s pretty easy to convince yourself that you’ll never be “good enough” at anything, especially something that you’re really not talented in to begin with.

The reason why Maiden in Disguise became a story was due to a conversation I had with my husband (who was my boyfriend, back then) during a drive back home from Detroit, MI. He was telling me that it doesn’t matter how “bad” I believe I am, I just needed to start putting something, anything really, out there for the world to see and experience, and his reasoning was something like this:

So, during our drive, I hashed out the initial story idea of Maiden in Disguise and vowed not only to draw the very first page, but to publish it online somewhere for all the world to see.

Which, let me tell you, when you sincerely believe that your art completely sucks, this was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done.

Originally being published on Tapas (called Tapastic back then), I also eventually started publishing MiD on Webtoon a couple years later when I found much more interaction and exposure on that platform.

During those early days, I “cheated” quite a bit. Meaning, that I used many of the 3D model tools available on my drawing software programs to aid me in designing my characters, helping to keep them consistent throughout the pages and panels. But, I knew this wasn’t the way I wanted to make my art in the long-term, because it wouldn’t fully be “my art.” So, I devoted quite a bit of time to studying anatomy books to learn how to draw my own style, with my own hands, in my own way.

Which was happening concurrently as I published my pages online. It’s something you can easily make notice of, as there are a couple of instances in my current story that the art style drastically improves. I hope it adds to the experience and really shows the journey:

If you are a consistent reader of Maiden in Disguise, you can see quite a few instances that just make you cringe a little on the inside (and maybe the outside, too). If you’re one of the individuals who never noticed or left positive feedback, well, thank you for being a kind hooman; you’re a good part of the reason why I never stopped.

And, I can honestly say now that I’ve finally gotten to the point where I am happy with my art 90% of the time. Here’s one of my personal favorite panels from recent pages of MiD:

There are still times where my consistency hiccups, and there are art challenges I still have yet to overcome. But, it makes me so glad to finally see that I have a style that is completely my own, yet still shows the progress of my early drawings.

Once again, I’m not sure why I’m writing all this. Maybe it’s a hope of mine that someone who believes they suck will read it and believe maybe they can suck a little less in the future. Maybe it’s just something I needed to get off my chest.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about The Story Behind my Stories.

Until next time . . .

Stay Strange, Strangers!

The post I’m Bad at Drawing appeared first on EOTERA.

Part #1: Dyslexia

I have dyslexia.

It’s a condition that affects millions, so I know I’m not alone in this endeavor. But, for those that do experience it, especially for young children first beginning their learning and reading efforts, it can feel very isolating.

I was one of those kids.

If you don’t already know, dyslexia affects your ability to read. It causes your mind to flip and distort the letters that you see, making words just a confusing jumble of incomprehensible squiggles. Dyslexia varies in severity from individual to individual, but every single person who has it will tell you that reading out loud is one of the most panic-inducing experiences you can ever have in a social setting. Which always seemed to be every teacher’s favorite “game” to play with their students; taking turns to read a paragraph out of the book everyone has to read.

Now, if you have very patient and caring teachers, dyslexia is something that you can “grow out of,” or at least get to the point where it doesn’t make you too uncomfortable in academic settings. Unfortunately, I never had any of those teachers growing up. As a result, learning was always a challenging and demoralizing experience with always feeling like the dumb kid in class. So much of our lives are influenced by the circumstances in which we grew up, and mine made it such that learning, reading, and school in general were never things I enjoyed.

Which definitely makes it odd that I decided I would be a writer and illustrator, eh?

Trust me, all of those thoughts have gone through my head, and still do!

Even when I was that same little kid who couldn’t read a sentence out loud without being laughed at, I still always loved drawing and making stories. I would always get lost in my imagination (which was just another thing I got in trouble for in school) and stories upon stories would just spring forth from those imaginings.

The funny thing?

My ability to draw was just as bad, if not worse, than my ability to read and write! (That’s a story for another time)

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me, with no shortage of obstacles to overcome just to get started. Yet, I knew that this was a task that I was here on this planet to do

But, dyslexia was the first issue that caused me the greatest amount of grief, and still to this day makes my spelling atrocious. If you’re wondering why the spelling on this post seems to be oddly well-done, that’s because my husband acts as my editor and also types up these blogs here on my website. Yet, you’ll notice if you go on Webtoon that you can still find many, many of my typos. (*rubs back of head in embarrassment*)

Knowing that I’m not alone in growing up with dyslexia, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to show others that you can still accomplish the things you want to do. Additionally, I wanted to make the stories that I write easy to read and digest for my audience as literally as possible.

Which is why I actually publish all of my books in Dyslexie Font.

This font was made to intentionally help those who have trouble reading normal fonts due to their dyslexia. All of the letters are uniquely shaped, which helps the dyslexic reader distinguish the shapes and not confuse them for others. It’s really helped me be a better writer, and it really does make reading that much better and enjoyable. I hope it does for you too.

Well, I’m not too sure what my goal was in writing this, but I just wanted to give you, my readers, a little more of a glimpse behind what I do.

Until next time.

Stay stranger, strangers!

The post My Difficulties with Dyslexia appeared first on EOTERA.

I wish you where here to see this ????

-Love Bitsy

As some of you know my grandmother passed away last year. And in honor of her life and her love for writing, I’ve decided to draw her as my creative writing clubs teacher in Maiden in Disguise. I want to show her youth and her silliness as well as her kindness to the best of my ability ????????

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