The Liebster Award: 2nd Nomination!

My head is spinning from all these award nominations!

Thank you so much to Eszter (felteddreams.wordpress.com) for nominating me a second time for the Liebster Award! Don’t forget to check out Eszter’s amazing felt/embroidery/quilting creations.

To view the post from my first nomination, click here.

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Rules

1. Post eleven facts about yourself.
2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven questions for people you’ve nominated.
3. Choose eleven people to give this award to and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.

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Eszter’s Quetions

1. What inspired you to start blogging?

Well, I started this particular blog to keep track of my various creative projects and to organize my thoughts a bit.

2. Is there one thing you wish you could change about yourself, what would it be?

I’m never good at answering this sort of question. Even if I could magically change something about myself, I don’t think I would.

3. If you could meet someone famous who is still living who would it be?

This is a really tough question because I don’t want to jinx my chances at Cannes.

4. What was the most interesting class you ever took in school?

Another tough question since I went to New York University: Gallatin School of Individualized Study and took a number of amazing courses including “Dante’s World,” “Virtue and Villainy: Melodrama,” and “Globalization: Promises and Discontents.” The most life-changing class I ever took was “Yellow Peril: Documenting & Understanding Xenophobia” taught by the amazing Jack Tchen. For this class, I wrote a painstakingly researched 25-page paper (plus 5 pages of works cited) about Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls. Jack’s new book Yellow Peril: Understanding Fears of “the East” and What We Can Do About It is coming out at the end of February, so check it out if you’re interested!

5. What did you want to be when you were little?

I think I always wanted to be a comic book artist/graphic novelist/mangaka since I was in elementary school up through high school graduation. I drifted away from comics/graphic novels/manga in college, but as you can tell from The Poet and the Flea have regained my passion.

6. If you could decorate your work-space however you wanted, what would be your feature color?

Well, when I moved to San Francisco, I really got to decorate my workspace and I wouldn’t really change a thing (other than that it sometimes gets way too hot and there’s no air-conditioning). My room is mostly made of various shades of blue with splashes of yellow, tan, and salmon. It’s pretty funky!

7. If your life were a book, what would be the title?

Radiant Pessimist™ (this will also be the name of my future production company — I have Laurence Harvey to thank for that one).

8. What one happy memory do you have always coming to mind?

I don’t really have one memory that always comes to mind. But I recently thought of a childhood memory (when I was maybe six or seven years old) that I really hadn’t thought of for a long time — me and my dad bobbing in the ocean off of Kiawah Island. I remember that my nose was really runny, ha ha ha.

9. Do you prefer to read actual books or use an E-reader?

Actual books, hands down! It’s just not the same experience with an e-reader. The tactile feeling of a book, the smell of it, the typography and placement on the page, the action of turning from page to page… I really have a hard time reading on my iPad.

10. If you could keep only one item from your wardrobe, what would it be?

I’ve only worn it once, but the skirt of the prom outfit my grandmother made me. She died September 2011, so I’m extremely reluctant to let it go.

11. If you win some millions in lottery, what would be the first thing you buy?

I wouldn’t “buy” anything per se. I’d rather fund a full-length film of either my own script or that of a close friend.

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Nominations

Can’t I just nominate all my followers? You’re all so awesome and talented!

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My Questions

I liked the questions I wrote last time, so I’ll use them again…

1. What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had?
2. What is/was your favorite subject in school?
3. When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
4. Who is your role model?
5. What is your favorite holiday?
6. What is your least favorite vegetable?
7. What is your guilty pleasure?
8. Are you an optimist or pessimist?
9. What are your short-term goals/New Year’s resolutions?
10. What did you last eat?
11. Do you have any special and/or bizarre talents?

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Copyright 2013 by G. E. Gallas

First Zine and Future Shop

★Please Note: Feedback on this post would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Only January, and I’m already beginning to tackle some of my New Year’s goals (New Year’s Resolutions, Anyone?)!!!

First and foremost, I’ve been working on goal #1, making progress on some of the finished illustrations for Elias & The City of Cats. I’m hoping to make a bit more progress in the coming days and then meet up with Gabe on Friday to show him my work.

In the meantime, I’ve been brainstorming on goals #6 and #7, my first self-printed zine and my online storefront!

Possible envelopes for first zine.

The other day, I decided that my first self-printed zine will be an illustrated poem.

I was doing some research on The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and came across the perfect poem for my first zine! I think this poem will be unexpected and exciting while still tying in with The Poet and the Flea. The poem will remain a secret for now, but I’ll give a free copy of my zine to the first person who can correctly guess which one it is. Hint: The Seven Deadly Sins. I’ll be truly impressed if anyone gets this!

As far as production goes, I’d like to keep this zine relatively simple since it’s my first: about 6 to 8 pages, black and white with simple lines, a number of special hand-watercolored copies, all packaged in a lovely envelope. I’ll probably print about 25 or 30 copies, but I’d love to know if anyone is seriously interested in purchasing a copy so that I can figure out if I need to print more or less.

I’ve been planning my online storefront for a while now, but I’m waiting for the right time to set it up and launch it.

I’ve decided to use Storenvy, because it seems user-friendly and stylish. And it helps that it’s free.

Other than my first self-printed zine, I’d like to offer a wide range of products including The Poet and the Flea merchandise (prints/posters, t-shirts, tote bags, badges/pins, etc.). For prints, I’d like to keep them high-quality but made-to-order so that one can request any page of The Flea or whatnot.

The most ambitious product I’d like to see in my store is a The Flea plush toy. I’ve been playing around with many ideas for this, but know it has to remain relatively simple. The plush toy will definitely be handmade in black fabric, possibly with buttons for eyes and silver/gold (maybe glow-in-the-dark) fabric paint to add texture/scales. It will take me a while to get to this project (and I might recruit some help for it), but I’m excited to see how everything turns out.

Also, I’d like to offer commissioned illustrations, but I have to work out the details on that!

Again, feedback is very welcome! Just leave a comment below or send me an e-mail at gegallas@hotmail.com!

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Copyright 2013 by G. E. Gallas

New Year’s Resolutions, Anyone?

2012, My First Year in San Francisco!

I don’t usually do this “New Year’s resolution” thing. But I have so many short-term and long-term goals, I thought this would be a good way to organize my brain.

I’m not sure exactly how long it will take to complete this goal list, but I’m hoping to accomplish a good chunk within the coming months.

But, before that, I’d also like to make a list of my recent accomplishments. Often, I feel like nothing is moving forward, so hopefully this list will remind me that my hard work is paying off.

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Achievements of 2012

1. Have been working incredibly hard on my new online graphic novel The Poet and the Flea.
2. Have taken part in some wonderful collaborations and look forward to continuing/completing them: The First Reich and Elias & The City of Cats.
3. Entered several screenplays into a variety of competitions and have received a great deal of positive feedback (see résumé).
4. Nominated for a number of blog awards — Reader Appreciation Award, Very Inspiring Blogger Award (twice), Blog of the Year 2012 Award, Liebster Award, and Beautiful Blogger Award.
5. Accepted into The American Pavilion 2013 Cannes Film Program!!!
6. Plus, I now have an awesome boyfriend. (◕‿◕✿) 

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Goals for 2013

1. Complete materials for Elias & The City of Cats (hopefully before the end of January) and send out to publishers.
2. Finish first 10 pages of The First Reich and get them up online.
3. Begin working with Masa and Gabe on full-length screenplay collaboration The Blanks (working title), to be finished before June 2013.
4. Send out inquiry letters about my completed full-length screenplays to production companies.
5. Finish the script for The Poet and the Flea, hopefully somewhere between 60 – 75 pages.
6. Work on my first zine (possibly a tie in with The Flea) and self-print it.
7. Open up a Storenvy account to sell zines and other merchandise (prints, t-shirts, etc.).
8. Work on the next 10 illustrated pages of The Poet and the Flea. Then the next 10, and so on and so forth!!
9. Find a reliable and talented director and/or producer to turn one of my short scripts into a short film. Then enter the short film into a number of festivals.
10. Finally get an official internship, fellowship, and/or job in a field of interest.

Wish me luck!!

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas