Speaking of questions I know you're going to ask, I get a lot of email from you all (which I love!), and there are a few questions I get more than others. Once upon a time I had an FAQ page, but I think it fell down the rabbit hole. I couldn't tell you what happened to it, but I imagine it's probably having tea with a festively bewigged Johnny Depp or something. So, here's a new one!

What software do you use to make your movies?

Adobe Flash.

Where do you get your inspiration?

From everything around me. Memories, music, nightmares, things I thought someone said but actually misheard, shapes in the clouds, interesting patterns in half-mixed cake ingredients. There's no one source for creativity. So, if you're hoping to find a magical font of inspiration, all I can say is look around you. It's everywhere!

I have an idea for a cartoon. You could do one about...

No, I couldn't. If you have a story idea, I wholly encourage you to do something with it! Invent your own characters and make your idea come to life. Don't give it away to someone else! I just can't take anyone else's idea, no matter how great it might be. It wouldn't be mine, you see, and that's important. (But thank you for the suggestions, of course!)

Where do you get the music you use in your movies?

Sometimes friends write it for me. I've occasionally found songs in the public domain. Sometimes I purchase a license for royalty-free music, and there are a variety of places to order such tracks. I will not use anything without permission. Unfortunately, this also means you usually can't look up the tracks on iTunes and order them for yourself.

When is your book coming out?

I don't have a definite date on that yet ("that" being what is tentatively titled The Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow), but possibly some time in 2011.

What's the book about?

It's about a terrible evil that takes up residence in the woods of a small, forgotten town already cursed by dark forces and locked in perpetual autumn. People have vanished! Ghosts shriek desperate warnings! And there are signs of worse to come. It's up to three strange girls and one rather awkward boy to save this town, even though they have been cruelly outcast by it.

There will be more details as the book comes closer to print, but it'll be written and illustrated by myself and edited by Erin Clarke of Knopf. Well, actually, it's already written. I just need to revise and illustrate it at this point.

Will you make a music video for my band?

How much are you willing to pay? ;-) And, well, no. Probably not. It's not that your band isn't great. It's just that animation is an arduous process for me, and I don't know how I'd manage to find the time!

Can my band make music for one of your videos?

I'm extremely selective when it comes to the music that I use, so unless I've posted a call for music submissions, I've probably already got something in mind. Also, I'd feel bad about asking for a lot of changes, and you know I would ask.

I'd like to offer my talents as a voice actor.

Thank you! ...but, just as with music, unless I've made a specific call for voice actors, I'm not really looking for anybody as I already have a list of go-to people. It wouldn't be an easy job, anyway. I'm a mean director. I made Tim Jones cry when he was working on The Little Girl. Um... don't tell him I said that. It's, uh, very upsetting for him. Yes.

How did you come up with the idea for Skary?

The Childrin were mostly inspired by the antics of actual children. I worked with preschoolers a long time ago. Loved it. But I found that kids really do say the darnedest things. The darnedest, creepiest, most disturbing things. And they have no idea how strange the things they're saying are! Yet they say it all with such sweet, cherubic smiles. Parents don't usually allow their little ones to play with sharp objects. You think that's for the kids' protection? THINK AGAIN.

Have you thought about collaborating with Tim Burton?

Sure. But has he thought about collaborating with me? I don't know! Let me call him up and ask. Hold on. Got another call. Oh, drat, it's Scorsese again. I gotta take this.

Those are all the FAQs I can think up at the moment! As always, if you have other questions, use the form and ask away.

1. Find the last of the Micronesians
and tell them my name
Their beloved songs
will tell you the place

The domain suffix for Micronesia is .fm. So, "the last of the Micronesians" means Last.fm. "Tell them my name" refers to my username, which is, in this case, my actual name. Which amounts to http://www.last.fm/user/katytowell. Finally, the location of the piece is given in the title of a track that I have marked as a Loved Track. (It's also right there in Recently Listened Tracks.)

2. go to The place where our every Word
Is spoken by the sialia bird,
be careful lest you fail, my friend;
These birds will carry you unto your end.
They'll wrap you up in silken suture
Exactly as they did the great sea creature,
but never mind this. come follow me...
look to the background. you will see!
fear not if it seems your skill is bleak.
for below the horizon Rests the gift you seek.

A sialia bird is a bluebird. Birds tweet. Who has a blue bird for a mascot? Twitter. So, the piece is hidden at the bottom ("below the horizon") of my background image. Oh, and the great sea creature wrapped up in silken suture and carried by the birds? The failwhale. And just in case this was all too cryptic for you, I also spelled out TWITTER with every capitalized letter.

3. And by the side the horned beast waits
with great displeasure on his face
'Tis he who'll take you to the spot
where all the words have been forgot
Find the treasure at its source
Look for a name - and the prize, of course.

In the sidebar of skary.net is a picture of Mister Creazil. Click him, and you'll see what appears to be a page with no content. But view the source of that page and you'll see this hidden somewhere therein:

Evelyn's getting nervous. What took you so long?

http://skary.net/wp-content/uploads/lbp.png

4. Consider everywhere I go.
Look in the past and then you'll know.

This one was simple. I posted the location of a piece in a comment on an old, old Facebook post at http://facebook.com/childrinrskary.

5. Find me where the memories flicker
How empty is the stream!
But if you add my name, it'll be much quicker
and there's more than it may seem.

The piece was uploaded to my new Flickr account at http://flickr.com/katytowell. But the piece itself was (at the time - it's public now) accessible only to people I add as friends. To find it, you had to add me first. I would reciprocate, and then you'd see the piece.

6. There was a crooked man, and he had something once,
and it bought him a folder containing all things new,
within which was another for Evelyn's nickname,
which had a ping to it like "pea ell cee oh!"

"The crooked man who had something once" refers to the crooked sixpence nursery rhyme, which was the inspiration for one of my other sites: http://crookedsixpence.com. I added a folder called "new," inside of which was another folder for Evelyn's nickname (actually, three different folders with three different possible nicknames for Evelyn - Lyn, Lynn, and Evey) and placed inside it a PNG file called plco.png.

So, there you have it! All clues to Evelyn's Puzzle explained and clarified. Congrats again to the winner, and much applause for everyone who tried! This wasn't an easy one; I admit!

Because True Blood isn't on yet.

Update 2/14/10: Technical problems. I know. Again. The day I can publish a cartoon without issue is the day the Earth stands still. But I'm working on the problem and will post Mockingbird just as soon as I'm able.

Update 2/17/10: This has been one doozie of a technical problem. I've sent the file off to someone who's good at figuring out why things break, and I hope to have a mended animation to show you soon. My apologies!

• I'm narrating it this time.
• It's based on a Sixcast episode I wrote and recorded a few months ago; many of you may already be familiar with it. I've taken the recording down for now so that you'll have some time to forget it!
• As mentioned previously, there are a few slight changes in the story. They are minor, but they're important without drastically changing the one you already liked.
• It's ten minutes long! Whew!
• It's very different from a typical Skary cartoon. Still sad and spooky (I hope), but Shawnee Jenkins is a fairly normal Kansas eight-year-old considering that, well... you'll see what I mean. ;-)
• Those of you with young children who are also fans (yay!), I would hold off on showing them this one until you've seen it first. There's some violence and gore. Granted, it's very stylish gore with a retro look to it and all, but vintage entrails are still entrails.
• Can anyone embroider? I would love a throw pillow that said "Vintage entrails are still entrails."

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I'm  not posting it today, however, as it's Super Bowl Sunday, and you're probably all at parties and throwing Cheetos at each other or whatever it is that people who take an interest in sports do on important game days.

Mockingbird will be posted next Sunday, Valentine's Day. Then you can tell your date you're crying because you saw a really sad cartoon, not because he smells like raw onions (which, incidentally, he does. You should really talk to him about that, but not on Valentine's Day; that would be rude!). In between now and then, I'll just tease you all by talking about it a lot and making vague references that you won't understand until you've seen it. It's what I do best.

Elsie

Death, Elsie and the circus elephant wandered in tranquility, each silent in his (and her) thoughts. There was no sound of crunching leaves as they walked, for the travelers were but spirits in the autumn night. The littlest one was displeased with something. It showed on her tiny face, which was presently scrunched up in perplexion.

"What's on your mind?" Death said to Elsie. Barcas, the elephant, made an idle whumpf with his trunk.

"Why they do that?" asked Elsie.

"Why did who do what?" Death returned. He had been thinking of the next name on his list and whether it should be saved for later. He was not certain he could be kind to this one, and little girls should not see such things. Neither, for that matter, should elephants.

Elsie huffed impatiently and pointed to the deep scars and scabs from years of shackles on Barcas' ankles. These would fade as the creature forgot them, and indeed, they were a little less severe than they had been just moments ago.

"Ah," said Death in understanding. "In answer to that I can only say that the circus men are only people, Little Miss, and people do not yet understand the feelings of others. Not all of them, anyway."

Elsie frowned. "Why he not get away?"

"He tried," was Death's answer.

They continued their journey in silence for a time until a very slow and wrinkly voice interrupted the quietude.

It said, "I think that I was very fond of peanuts once."

"Yes. I believe you were," Death replied.

Barcas whumpfed with his trunk again.

"I do not think that I can tell you how delighted I would be if I were to have a peanut now."

"I like peanuts," Elsie quietly agreed.

"Then I am happy to tell you," said Death with a smile, "that where we are going, you can have all the peanuts you wish, and you may have them forever and forever. If you like."

Barcas the elephant and Elsie the child were both very pleased, and Death was pleased for them. But in his heart--whatever and wherever his heart might be--he was also a little sad.

It was time.

In case you've forgotten, the Skary Skouts were essentially my street team some time back when I had more time to manage it (with the help of some Skouts). Many former Skouts have let me know it's time to bring Kamp back, so that's what I'm working to do. Hooray! Here's what's in the blueprints so far:

• Profile page: all Skouts will have their own profile page which they can update with a little info about themselves and why they're fans of Skary. Their friends and fellow Skouts will be able to leave comments for them. It's sorta like Facebook but without the pressure to build up a 2D farm!
• Missions: Skouts will regularly receive little missions to carry out in the name of Skary. Completing these tasks will give you points which you can save up for prizes that are only available to registered Skouts.
• Chats with me! Every so often (monthly, perhaps), I'll host a chat at the Skout site. Ask me questions. Swap casserole recipes with each other. Whatever!
• Exclusive content: You'll get to see more of my work in progress than anyone else. Sketches, cartoon sneak peaks, and so on.

All of this will be free, of course. Your missions will help me get the word out, and in return, you'll get to do and see some fun stuff. But there's still a lot for me to do, so it will be some time before it's ready! A few of you will receive invitations to test the new site before anybody else (you know who you are). I heard a rumor that if you retweet me on Twitter, you'll be added to the beta tester list. But you didn't hear that from me.

I've written a book.

GUESS WHAT ELSE.

I've gotten a deal with the Knopf imprint of Random House for two middle grade children's novels.

GUESS WHAT ELSE ELSE.

I'm illustrating them too.

This, of course, means you'll have to read them or, at the very least, put them out on the coffee table for company. But that day is still some time off - possibly later in 2011 for the first one - so here's a little info to salivate over in the mean time.

The first book is tentatively titled The Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow. It's not quite finished, but I can tell you with certainty that it will fulfill your wishes for disappearing people, frightful things in the woods, cursed towns and dark, dark times. And then there are the children.

The children in this tale are a bit different from the Childrin you're used to; they're older for one thing, and they've got a whole new kind of oddness about them. Oh, but I think you'll like them. I'm not sure I'd want to cross their paths if you didn't is all I'm saying.

As I mentioned above, you've still got quite a wait ahead of you, but you'll undoubtedly hear me talking about it here, there and everywhere along the way. You're welcome to talk about it here, there and everywhere along the way too! I wouldn't dare stop you.

(You know where else to find updates, don't you? Of course you do. It's only for those other people that I'm mentioning Twitter and Facebook)

domain

suffix

Remember to send your completed puzzle to me when you've found them all!

For everyone else - if B hasn't responded by Friday, I'll post an additional clue for the notoriously difficult First Piece. Happy New Year!

(P.S. - new illustration coming soon! Of course, if you're following along on Facebook or Twitter, you might already know that. ;-))