Hello my friends! I have wonderful news, and I thought this dragon called Sunstretch by Australian deviantartist Jenna Vincent, posting as cryslara, captured my mood perfectly! In my mind, this dragon is looking out from his dark cave into the sunrise of a new day, and that’s just how I feel!

To be honest, another one of Jenna’s paintings, this next one called Flying Again, was the first to catch my eye — and while I love the title and the dramatic cloudscape, I didn’t think it would work as well for my main picture.  So here it is below!

Now, to get back to the point, I’m very happy to say that I’ve just started ‘flying again’ myself — I’ve started a new job with a new company, and I’m really excited for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead!  Really, I’m as happy as this dragon in a library!  Jenna drew this for her university, and called it The Reasons for Things.

This next painting, which I also love, is called Kite … … … but that suddenly reminds me, I have an entire trilogy of novels about dragons to write, and one of the main characters is named Kite, and I haven’t gotten much accomplished on it during my time off, and my good mood is suddenly fading… *gulp*!!!

Okay, okay, breathe… … … look at the pretty dragon cavorting with the Australian Magpies…

So, during my time off, I really did try to get some writing done.  But I filled my days with beaches, bicycling, and Pokemon Go instead.

And while I can look back on that time and wish that I had written more, all I can really do going forward is attempt to get back into a routine of writing after work, and posting something every week.

I promise to do that, dear readers, whether it’s dragon pictures, the Neeka Story, quotes and thoughts on the craft of writing, or updates about my novel progress.  I very much appreciate you sticking with me while I figure this all out!

Meanwhile, here is the next of Jenna’s awesome dragon paintings, a fiery pair called Blaze.  She admits that “Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex on Fire’ provided some of the soundtrack for this,” and also recommends the band Arcade Fire.  Both great suggestions!

Up next is a cute piece called High Sky Piracy, featuring a dragon being cutely menaced by a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets, parrots native to Australia that Jenna calls “such funky little things.”

As Jenna explains, this painting was created for “the cover of the December [2009] issue of Crossed Genres, a great little sci-fi/fantasy magazine run by terrific people.”  Sadly, the magazine stopped publishing in 2015, but you can read many of the stories from this “Science Fiction Fantasy Writers of America-qualifying venue for talented voices typically under-represented in SFF” online!  The first half of the archives are here, and the second half here.

Jenna even posted a close-up of the birds from High Sky Piracy, because she “likes his hat!”  They’re amazingly detailed, and I love the eyepatch!

And finally, I’m closing with a non-dragon picture because I just loved this one, called Cat Mountain.  I imagine the cat is staring out over the lake in this peaceful place, contemplating a happy future, and I can definitely relate!

You can see some of Jenna’s work at her deviantart gallery, and more recent pieces at her Tumblr called Lightcrush Sketchblog.  You can also follow her on Twitter.

All right, another week, another post done!  That’s it for now — as always, thanks for reading, take care, and stay creative!

Image credits:
All artwork in this post is by Jenna Vincent, posting as cryslara
Sunstretch, Flying Again,The Reasons for Things, Kite, Blaze, High Sky Piracy, High Sky Piracy (Birds Detail), and Cat Mountain