Further thanks to Jesús Santana

My ongoing thanks to Jesús Santana, who has continued to create exceptional art for the website. The works really help bring the characters and stories to life.

Jesús continues to delight and surprise me with his talent and range.

Dr Ling Xi is the closest thing I have to a comic book superhero in my writing so far, aside from being an exceptional individual she has both a classic origin story and undergoes transformation in a form similar to the "heroes" journey. Jesús has done an excellent job capturing her transformation from energetic genesis to someone or something more than human. Her journey is just beginning and she will feature heavily in my upcoming novel.

The energetic and beautiful genius, the "Coding Cat"

 She wasn't locked in, they were all locked out.

I was also absolutely blown away by Jesús' work on "Trataka of the Stone". I gave him a free pass to bring any scene to life and his top pick was the confrontation between the demon queen of desire, Mara and Simon while he was in deep meditation.

It is one of my absolute favorite of his (although its getting hard to pick now!) and has amazing features of both classical Buddhist imagery as well as bringing up memories of full page monster manual splashes from Dungeons and Dragons books. The quality and depth of the piece are just outstanding, Mara brings a real sense of dread and intimidation as well as that unpleasant mix of sexuality and demonic wrongness. It was even better than when I pictured and wrote it in the story.

Mara the great serpent, the mother of desire. She appeared indescribably somehow both a picture of malice and also lust, hateful yet burning with desire.

This piece resonates with me on many levels. I have struggled with managing my desires yet also worked hard at meditation and mindfulness practices. For many years I felt that I was never going to overcome the great serpent, that she had chosen me. In truth I had chosen her, overcome by her honeyed words and subtle forms. For some the path is easy, for me it was not so, I continue to struggle on, always watchful for her, always ready.