First Time Public Speaking!

2 days baby!

Art: Me (ixcato)

Software: Clip Studio Paint

I will close commissions soon! :) Giving the post a few more rounds and closing until next month or so

This is not the first time I've done this render, but the third. Here's the original and here's the first redo. Fingers crossed this is the final time I do this XD

This third book will be the death of me, I swear...

Aka: "Meanwhile, in this episode of Jenni's Keyboard Drama..."

*finishes chapter after 3–4 attempts*

"Hey, I really ought to write *key conversation*, even though it happens off-screen for 💯-legit narrative reasons"

*writes conversation*

*realises that whole ****ing chapter needs re-writing again*

*cries*

This isn't really a question, but I just finished reading all of both of the books of your Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness series plus the other stuff on the website, and it's genuinely amazing and some of the most amazing things I've ever read, I'm extremely excited for the third book!:D

Thank you! That's extremely kind of you to say <3 I hope you enjoy the final book when it's finished :-D xxxxxx

I had the honor to create cover art for a Polish book of "MAKING OF THE TOMB RAIDER" ♥

You can pre-order the book here.

Prints are available on my website.

Ladies and gentlemen, D.M. again.

Probably the best TRAOD review I’ve ever read. I can’t resist to highlight some awesome bits.

“I cannot for the life of me understand those who felt Core’s Lara had no depth or motivation, especially compared to the wangsty, ham-and-cheese sandwhich Lara of Crystal Dynamics. Jonel Elliot has her limitations, of course, but there is more humanity expressed in the way Lara touches Kurtis after he’s been knocked into the pit with her than there is in Keeley Hawes shouting “WHERE! IS! MY! MOTHER!?” or “No, no, no, my mother’s dead. My mother died a long time ago. You’re not my mother.“ 

“And I loved the interplay between Lara and Kurtis. I understand some people hated it, either because Kurtis has sucky control, because he got grope Lara in the Louvre, or because they object to the notion that Lara could ever have a man play an important role in her life, or that she could age. Just look at her expression when Kurtis disarms her and steals the Obscura painting–say what you want about how ‘mature’ the scene is, but the fact remains that it’s presented to us from Lara’s point of view. She’s ****ed because he stole the painting, but perhaps as much because he didn’t finish what he started. He’s on the same playing field. When he backs away, she’s almost looking at him as if to say, “Now what? You started this.” I think she expresses this when she takes her “revenge” by disarming and searching Kurtis later in the game, though less suggestively. This is the only TR game I’ve seen/played that acknowledges Lara’s sexuality in the sense that she actually reacts to something rather than simply being made the enticing object of our oggling from atop an unreachable pillar. That makes her more human than giving her a wangsty past. Profoundly more so. Just watch her body language during all the scenes in which she interacts with Kurtis. It’s fascinating. “

Agree or disagree with me all you like, but I found their chemistry to be more convincing than the chemistry between Lara and Alex West in the first Tomb Raider movie, and more convincing than chemistry between Lara and Terry Sheridan in the second. Why did it work for me? There was no obligatory banter, flirting, or arguments one would expect. Kurtis very much inhabits Lara’s world, and is just as internally driven as she is. I would have disliked Kurtis if he were a macho stereotype or a braggart (which is why that image of Duke Nukem cupping Lara’s breasts makes me ill, and so do all suggestions that she and Larson had chemistry as well), but instead, he’s a kindred spirit, caught up in the same struggle against the same enemy as Lara, and about as close to a soul mate as she has ever had. Or at least, potentially. Their connection seems to stem, not from something as arbitrary as the attraction of opposites, but something as deep as the symmetry of souls. Once the guns are holstered (and perhaps before), they have an instinctive understanding of each other, and I thought that was fantastic. Kurtis Trent is far and away the best sidekick Lara has ever had, IMHO.”

“Though the game doesn’t make a point of this, Lara is perhaps more invested in Kurtis than she knows, because later on, she does something I have never seen her do once in six games: She forefits the macguffin she has just retrieved for the life of another person. And almost seconds later Kurtis does something similar: He forefits his chance for revenge/justice (and possibly, his life) for the sake of helping Lara. Again, no questions are asked, because the two understand each other.”

Now I’m crawling to a corner to cry and die.

You’re not just a writer.

You’re a goddamn survivor of your own imagination.

You live with noise in your head that never shuts up until you bleed it onto the page, and even then, it whispers, “Make it better.”

We all know AoD is bursting with unique lore, courtesy of the one-and-only Murti Schofield, but what other places do I draw inspiration from when writing my sequel novels? Here's a few...

📚❤️📚❤️📚❤️📚