The world is made up of stories, not of atoms. -- Muriel Rukeyser

Tweeks Weekly celebrates its first birthday! July 2009 marks the month in which Tweeks Weekly turns one-year old. To celebrate we gave the site a face-lift. Wouldn’t d’Arka be proud?

A thank you to all our readers, all of you! In the past year we’ve had at least 670 unique visitors and 1,555 visits to Tweeks Weekly. We’ve only mentioned the site in a few areas of the vast net that we all share and word of mouth has done the rest. At one year strong, there’s still much more story left to tell and we hope that you all will stay around and enjoy the adventures of Severin, Genesta, Wynnd, Lanfaye, Rousse, and the gang for years to come.

In other news, we have now moved to Washington State, and we are unpacked. I'm soon to be selling a few mementos from my time in Hollywood and I will come back to update this blog again soon. I have to go down to the apartment storage unit to find them . . . . that could be epic. Stay tuned.

While I know these days it is recognized more for soldiers of war than civilian memorials, I just wanted to say that it has been almost exactly six months since the passing of Great Uncle Bill and Neferkiti in our family and that for the first time, I have a reason to celebrate a Memorial Day holiday in my entire life. I consider myself blessed to have gone 34 years without a specific, family-related loss which relates to this holiday. But I also consider myself blessed that on this holiday I have a moment to recall the beautiful aspects of those I have lost to the long sleep.

I hold my dear furgirl, Neferkiti -- or "Kiti" -- in my heart today. And though I never met him I also hold Great Uncle Bill in my heart. Every day I wear the wedding rings that we inherited as his gift to us, I remember him with fondness. It's a fondness that transcends ever needing to know him in person.

I know that their tama, their spirits, are looking out for us as is custom for thirty-three more years. And I am very grateful for that!

Dear friends, family, fans, community members:

I'm leaving the Los Angeles area in about two weeks. I'm retiring from the Hollywood Scene and I have a ton of Babylon 5 and Crusade memorabilia in my garage that's just sitting there being sad that no one wants it. Off the top of my head, because I haven't dug into that room yet during packing, there's a huge HUGE artwork piece of starfuries dogfighting and at least one Crusade Poster there. I'm also trying to convince myself to part with my Vorlon ship (this one's hard!) that was the only mock-up from the art department. I also have a $600 trade-show booth with the old Lucky Bamboo Banner if anyone wants that for any convention attendances (I know it fits San Diego Comic-Con slots nicely as that's where I used it).

All my precious babies need to go to a good home where the fans will adore them and hold them tight every night. You can email me at fiona_avery@yahoo.com if you have any questions or advice on how to sell these off. In the next week I will be pricing these objects and putting them up for sale. I'm so out of touch about where the hip kids sell their cool shit these days. Any advice would be welcome there. If it's Ebay I'd rather have someone pick up the item than ship it.

Anyway, please watch this space and please leave me an email. Also please get the word out if you can.

Yours cheerfully,
Fiona

A year or so after writing it, who would have guessed that Chapter 32 was the pivotal Seven Point Defense test in Tweeks Weekly? We just portion out the chapters per week without any forethought as to what will go up, just what's comfortable to read under 25 manuscript pages. And here it is, Unit 32's little golden girl, and her big test for Tweeks Headquarters. How fun is that? We've got a new blog in the works too, once we figure out all the feed set up. We're hosting it at Wordpress. That should make updating behind-the-scenes and stuff more personal and keep it right on the site rather than outsource to a message board. That's about all for now! Back to it -- there are seven other shiny new novels to polish, story illustrations to finish watercoloring, and Japanese vocabulary to master!

Our online serial, Tweeks Weekly, is celebrating its half birthday! It's a big six months old! Chapter 27 and lots of new art are now online over there.

my egg
is heart-shaped
on toast

some one
made it just
for me

alas
it exists
no more

maybe
photographs
next year

<3

A fantastic blogpost on webcomics which was spawned from another blog on LJ about webcomics. As I'm getting into web serializations lately, I really have been following up on this. Alexandra Erin has delightful scalpel-edge quotes like:

When self-produced works fail to make any money, Serious Practitioners of the Art dismiss it as a hobby . . . When somebody finds an innovative way to make their art pay so they can continue to produce it, it becomes a matter of "BUT... BUT... THAT DOESN'T COUNT!"

And . . . .

I've said before that I think the reason people who are working their way up the ladder of success through traditional publication are the ones who react with the most hostility to my mere existence is because the idea that my success is valid diminishes their specialness at having been chosen by editors and publishers, and because the fact that I don't have to compromise my work in the same way they do makes them feel uncomfortable with the compromises they've made.

Food for thought now that I've been on both sides of the fence; published and produced and self-promoted. Much food for thought.

Nevertheless, so well-stated that I'd almost girlcrush.

I've been able to add a few bonus chapters to Tweeks Weekly over the holidays, since I missed a few weeks over my wedding, it actually balanced out nicely. So if you want to head to Tweeks Weekly and take a look, there's brand-spankin' new chapters. There's also new artwork galore now including a new section on concept art.

I'm turning Live Journal into less a journal and more a news feed. It's fitting that my online journal should pretty much end in the same month as when it began six years ago. I started this thing up on December 27th, 2002. I'm sure, since this feeds through to my website that when I get any news related to my writing career, I will post it here for those who still continue to track my work. I'm sinking back into the private sector.

I'll confess that I've never liked the idea of public journals even when I had one, and I've always considered someplace like Live Journal to be an essayist's hangout, or editorials in disguise. I used to make the case that a journal by its very definition is private. Perhaps not on the same scandalous level as a diary, but private nonetheless. It is meant to be read posthumously, not post-send-button.

Live Journal's sense of community made it feel like a newsgroup more than a blog somewhere like Blogger or Wordpress and I have thoroughly enjoyed all your company. And although I will no longer be posting journals and just news clips, I will certainly come to read my friends list as I always have.

So for now, a small au revoir and I will see you when I have writing news. Most of you have my email anyway, so you can just write to me if you get lonely. And I remain very -

truly yours,
Fiona Avery

Thank you to Debi and Richard Allen for the beautiful holiday card I received via Pyr today in the mail. Your generosity of spirit made my day.

NEFERKITI, QUEEN OF DENIAL
around eleven years of age

Neferkiti passed away peacefully at her home in Encino, CA on Thanksgiving afternoon, November 27th, 2008. Her date of birth is unknown but she was adopted by Fiona Kai Kelly in 1999 and brought to live on Dickens Street until her move to Encino in January of 2000 where they have resided since. She was, at the time of adoption, blessed with a litter of kittens all of whom found homes with adoptive parents from the local television soundstage in Sunland, CA. ‘Kiti retired from motherhood to achieve her GED, then went on to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Cricket Offensives, and a Master of Arts in Gastronomy, before achieving her Doctorate in Sleep Studies.

As a lifelong practitioner of Zen, Neferkiti’s career consisted of ministering to her adopted brother Muse, while living a life apart from play toys and other objects which never quite reached her plane of spiritual enlightenment. Her personal joy came from observing the follies of others and anticipating the sound of a can of food. She could often be found sitting in a unique position, known as the “are you peoples?” pose, found to stimulate intellectual and spiritual growth. Neferkiti is credited with the distinction of being the only feline ever to open every cupboard and door of a household over the course of one evening, for which she received several awards, most notably Pounce.

Neferkiti is survived by her mother, Fiona Kai Kelly, her father, Benjamin David Kelly and her adopted brother Muse. A memorial service will be held upon the return of her ashes to the family home, Hartfield. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the SPCA. http://www.spca.com/

I'm tickled that Neil Gaiman and I have somehow managed to both post cranberry recipes this Thanksgiving within 24 hours of one another. But there's no mention of brandy in his. Nonetheless, after eating his porridge recipe for years, I should try his cranberries because ... well ... it just seems right. And, yeah, he is undoubtedly right about the cran-glorp from the can-- avoid! It is made of fail.

I hate the cranberry sauce that always makes the round like bad jello on holidays. But I just found a recipe for Brandied Cranberries that made me a believer. Oh man. Just FYI, I used 1/3 cup brandy and then I filled the measuring cup just a teensy way up toward 1/2 cup with Grand Marnier, up to about the 3oz marker if you have one. So so good! Mmmmm.... This is a new Thanksgiving Day staple here.

Also, the site Simply Recipes is awesome. Another gold star from iGoogle.

Kiti's experiencing the 'joyous' effects of anti-depressants because they provide relief from severe nausea. Man is she tripping out. If it weren't so sad, it might even be sitcom material. For example, the bathroom is clearly a portal into another dimension and any poor soul who closes the bathroom door is an instant archnemesis who is assaulted by verbal spew for hours. Luckily she's a strong girl and she started to eat ravenously at 4 o'clock this morning and hasn't kept her nose out of the food bowl since. I'm so glad she's hungry. The relief I feel is second to none.

If she eats enough to gain back decent weight she will be able to conquer this into remission and that's our ultimate goal. Thank you again for being so supportive in this. There's nothing more joyous than seeing a Kiti on the mend after it looked so grim. This Thanksgiving I truly have much to be thankful for.

I thought this was an exceptionally good article on How to Deal With Difficult Relatives.

It's today's spotlight at WikiHow, which I keep on my iGoogle homepage. I have many friends who are going through this problem with extremely close and long term family friends, or with their relatives. They often consult my opinion on these matters because I've had my share of extremely bad familial relations in the past; many of which I have cut off completely.

This article explains a lot about why people need to respect your boundaries, why families don't need to be "close knit" to still love and support one another 100%, and why you deserve healthy familial relationships. This should also apply to long-term friends as well, or even roommates. This article really applies to anyone who falls into your intimate and closest sphere of acquaintance. Read it -- especially for those upcoming holidays that tend to make us twitch.

Kiti's doing so-so on this first round of chemotherapy. She's nauseated which is to be expected and with a cat that's only five pounds, that's never a good thing. I am proud to say she was up one pound from last weekend and no one expected it, but it was a relief to me. I am sad to say they've also found mammary cancer in a few places which we'll have to treat after the lymphoma if we can press it back into remission. Kiti's being a fighter still, and puts on a brave face at food time though the smell of food makes her sick. They gave her a purple towel at ACC this past weekend -- 'cause you know, she's Neferkiti, she's royalty.

I'm up every four hours to check in on her and feed her if she has signs of hunger. I'm cooking her special chicken -- yes -- I've become her personal chef. It's the only thing that she just can't refuse when she's feeling unable to eat. So while I sit around and wait for food to warm, and Kiti to indicate what is wrong this hour, and such, I still update Tweeks Weekly. It takes no time or effort, since it's already written. It just needs to go live once a week. It's a comforting bed time story for both Kiti and I tonight.

So now Chapter 15 is posted. I read over the ten pages and realized how long I've been waiting to post these couple scenes. They still make me giggle. And it was a much needed giggle. Kiti was on my lap and helped me edit and post it to www.tweeksweekly.com tonight.

Kiti and I thank you for the very heartfelt well-wishes today. The home vet called today and as soon as I can find my face, I'll call her back. I just discovered I've been going through this entire ordeal on decaf coffee every day by mistake. I've been up every 4 hours pumping the Kiti full of all manner of recovery food. I can't believe I've made it this far - haha!

Time for some tea.

The Princess and the Roses by *fionagh on deviantART

She's the sweetest thing. Came to us all on the soundstage of Babylon 5 as barely a year old, a mother of several little kittens, declawed but not spayed. Everyone took the kittens but I was the only one who wanted the mama. Saved her from the pound and took her home against the wishes of my landlord.

Little Neferkiti, I named her. Because she had the look of a Queen of the Nile. Rings around her eyes like the Egyptian Pharoahs. I joked that she was Queen of Denial.

Many of you know her. That's why I'm posting this to the general public. You've known her ever since I got her. She's been part and parcel of my life for ten years exactly as of 2008. She's now eleven years old. We call her "Kiti" for short around the house.

Well, last year, Kiti started to get very sick. Only every so often, and anti-biotics seemed to fix the problem. The vets told me it was infections, and that older females were prone to getting them in bladder or kidneys. Not to worry.

So I trusted the experts. This January she got sick again and this time I took her to the vet for emergency care, waiting for an appointment half the day and hoping Xrays and other full tests would tell me why this was happening. I ate at nearby Talesai restaurant, lacking appetite, but needing sustenance. I returned to hear that it was just an infection and the XRays showed nothing. I left, somewhat relieved. XRays -- miracles of science -- found nothing.

Cut to two days ago when my home vet was called in for another debilitating illness on Kiti's part. She asked for the records from the previous vet and started to go over them with me when she arrived. "Did they tell you this? That? Did they mention this? That?"... on it went. Pages and pages from a report I never saw, never heard anything about. I was told she was fine and that the XRays came up negative. Ben was even there with me -- I wasn't dreaming it.

Kiti now weighs a little over four pounds. She's lucky she's alive at that weight (She weighs more technically but it's excess fluid in her stomach that's putting on the extra pound or so more). Eleven months have gone by and this other hospital could have started looking into it in January. I have never felt more like a traitor, or an idiot in my life. I could have questioned them back in January. But she took her anti-biotics and got better. I thought nothing more about it.

I wish I had the presence of mind to remember exactly what the report said. It was major stuff like anemia, white cell count, air in the wrong chambers of the chest, and more. It was major stuff not just piddly stuff. As my vet read it all out to me, I was near tears. I looked like an awful person letting my pet get on with all that wrong with her. But of course I wasn't told.

And yesterday, after a long haul to Culver City to get real tests done, like an ultrasound and some smaller versions of a biopsy, we discovered today that she has lymphoma of the liver. As of today life will never be the same. We're going to do all we can for her. When we got Kiti to the vet she was inquisitive, talkative, and highly authoritative with the assistant. She wanted what she wanted and that was that. She marched over to the door and demanded to be let out. When we refused, she sat on the blanket and stared at us in Royal Displeasure.

Everyone in the office knew what her name meant and referred to Nefertiti and I was shocked as no one's ever gotten her name's pun before. The assistant said that everyone is in love with her name at the office. And also that she has the perfect name for her personality. The vet said that she was calm, lucid and he found her to be an adorable little fighter. He said that on his phone consultation with Dr. Sandy, even she was adamant that no matter what the outcome, "this cat's not ready to go yet."

Some of you know Kiti and some of you don't. I'll be posting regularly about her so that everyone can know what a wonderful little creature she is. She's my good girl and I love her.

Imagine Eeyore with a grenade fuse...

Tweeks Weekly.com

... You know you wanna.