cillabub
Update--FINALLY!
Hey, guys, I know it's been, like, five years since I last posted here, or something ridiculous like that, but the other day I was going through the tupperwares where I store my old art and I had the thought of updating this page. I had taken a long break from art, and I had some other projects I was working on (writing, doll fashion, my new baby daughter, y'know, the usual), but lately I've circled back around to art, and so I thought it'd be nice to check back in here.
I haven't done new Les Mis art for a few years now, but I did have a bunch of pieces that were uploaded to tumblr once upon a time but were never uploaded to deviantArt. I'll post those here in the coming weeks, in approximate chronological order, along with whatever other art I was working on over the years. When I get done working through that backlog, I'll post some of what I've been working on lately.
Thanks to any of my followers who are still hanging around, and I look forward to meeting some new ones, too! I've also been thinking of starting a few other gallery pages, maybe Behance or something like that--if anyone has advice on good places for artists to hang out, let's hear it!
<3, Ellie
My novel, VIRAGO, is now available!
"Paris, 1828. Claude Enjolras is a severe, single-minded soldier of the revolution, the leader of a secret political society that is always ready to go to battle against injustice and oppression. She is also, however, a woman disguising herself as a man in order to reject the demands of society and instead follow her ideals. For four years Enjolras' disguise has worked well for her, and her contributions to the underground revolutionary movement have at last begun to win her the respect of her colleagues. But when her secret is inadvertently revealed to her lieutenant, it throws her two separate worlds onto a collision course and sets in motion a chain of events that will force Enjolras to come to terms with her family, her friends, her political allies, and herself. Through five crucial summers of her life, one unconventional woman describes how her faith, courage, and love are tested in the flames of a revolution that will change everything.
VIRAGO is a new story based on characters from Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Misérables. It began as an experiment to see what would be the wider consequences of altering one little canonical detail, but it turned into an intimate exploration of gender and sex, of duty and emotion, of the nature of friendship and love, and above all, of a complicated character who quickly took on a life of her own."
For those of you who wanted to know, my novel is officially live! (Translation: the novel is off my plate and I can't touch it anymore and it's for my own good.) Go here to find it on Amazon!
If you don't have an actual Kindle (I don't either!), Amazon Kindle has free apps for PC, iPhone, tablet, and so on--just follow the link at the top of the book’s page. I personally prefer the apps on larger screen devices to the phone ones, because phone screens are so small that the formatting in the text gets a bit wonky. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, go for it, but it may get a little weird when there are songs and poems and letters and such inserted into the block text.
Previews for the first five chapters and the prologue can be found here on the website (along with other fun stuff), and here are the maps that go with the story, for those who like knowing where stuff is:
Enjoy the adventures of Mademoiselle Enjolras! In the meantime, I'm just so happy to be done editing.....I think I'll go draw a picture to celebrate. 
New Tumblr!
For now, I'm going to post some of my art for the novel here, though I don't yet know if I'll keep up with this page in the future. I'm also debating whether or not to start a Pinterest page. I love finding historical fashion pics there, but I'm not sure if it would serve my purpose. Can any of the art-minded people here tell me what's cool about having a Pinterest board? Is it worth it for posting original content, or only for re-pinning from other places? If there are other art-friendly sites out there, tell me about those too!
I love you guys, and I hope to see you over on tumblr too! I'll try to get the novel out in March, so we'll see how that goes...
Stuff and updates!
I've got a PhD now, for those who have the slightest interest in my personal life. So it's Dr. Cillabub now. Hurrah hurrah hurrah!
That goes pretty far towards explaining where I've been for the past year.Also explaining where I've been is the extremely long Les Mis story I've been working on for the past few years (at the same time as I was working on my dissertation, eep!). While I've been writing it, I've been trying to stay out of the fandom as much as possible so as not to cloud my impressions of the original book--it makes it easier to write. One of these days I'll release this story to you guys, but who knows how long the editing will take me--the file is almost 600 pages long in Microsoft Word! Maybe I should publish it or something--it surely took me enough effort to write. And aren't we tired of seeing all those "Pride and Prejudice novels" sitting on Barnes & Noble shelves--where are all the "Les Miserables novels"??? Represent, fans!
So in strategically avoiding the fandom, I've yet again missed Barricade Days this year, and I haven't posted art here in god knows how long. When I finish this massive story, I'll have to do a picture dump!
Speaking of Les Mis, I just realized today, with serendipitous timing, that the latest adaptation of Les Mis is starting today! In like, half an hour!!
For those not aware, "Los Miserables" is a new telenovela on Telemundo, and is supposed to be a modern adaptation of the story, with (wait for it) Valjean as a woman who is (yeah, wait for it) involved in a torrid love affair with Javert. Like we couldn't have written that! Like a million fanfics haven't already written that! 
But I guess there's nothing new under the sun, and the idea doesn't count so much as the execution. And being that it's a telenovela, the execution should be hysterical. I will admit that I did watch Telemundo's adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo" last year, and I will also admit to having been thoroughly entertained, though sometimes in all the wrong ways. I hope I will laugh my ass off at "Los Miserables," but I fear that it may end up being a bit dull. I mean really, is anyone clamoring for lots of kissy-kissy scenes between Valjean and Javert, followed by angsty breakups? I don't know about the majority of fans, but as for me personally, that is not what I follow the fandom for. But what do I know? 
I hope it's awesome.So how have you all been doing? Anyone also watching the "Los Miserables" premiere tonight?
***EDIT: Lordy, lordy, only 15 minutes into the telenovela and this is already fucking heavy....! It went something like this. First five minutes: While on the run from the cops with her drug-running boyfriend, Valjean is shot in the stomach and miscarries her baby. We next see her in the eleventh year of her jail term, cursing out God. Ten minutes in: Valjean is almost raped in the shower. Meanwhile, her cellmate Fantine dies and begs her to take care of Fantine's daughter once she's released from jail. Fifteen minutes in: Javert flashes back to his young childhood, when his mother sacrificed her life to save his. The stuff of fanfic, indeed! And the fastest death I've ever seen for a Fantine......
*****EDIT 2: So the first episode ended, and I must say, as silly as I assumed this was going to be, it's easily surpassed all of my expectations. By which I mean, it is very, very silly. I could accept all the usual draaaaamaaaa and cattiness of telenovela stereotypes, but what really irks me is the fact that they've altered the entire underlying concept of the original. So while Hugo's Les Mis is the story of a man's degradation and subsequent salvation/rehabilitation, in this version, Valjean was actually innocent of the crime she was accused of, so that pretty much invalidates the journey of the original character, and instead aligns the telenovela more with Monte Cristo than with Les Mis. I think that's a deep, fundamental problem with this adaptation--instead of being at least partially at fault for his downfall, Valjean is now a completely innocent victim of circumstance and of the justice system. Also, I should add that the crime she was accused of here was drug-related, not theft because of hunger, which also chips away at Hugo's message. Here, "los miserables" seems to apply to "unhappy people" more than it applies to "poor people." And there's no bishop character so far, which somewhat makes sense--since Valjean has not really sinned, she doesn't need anyone's mercy/forgiveness to help her get her life back on track.
In short: there's nothing in this telenovela adaptation that really resembles the original, besides the occasional plot point. It was still mildly entertaining, I suppose...Fantine's death was pretty touching, as it always is. Also, the part where Javert snapped "I AM THE LAW!" in Valjean's face was kind of worth the watch. That did give me a moment of guilty pleasure.
But overall, we are much better off following the ongoing manga adaptation that's being published monthly in Japan: bobcatmoran.tumblr.com/post/79… This adaptation is actually kind of amazing, and if you haven't seen it yet, do go check it out.
We've got magic to do!
I know I haven't been on here much in the past few months, and I probably won't be around much in the next few months either, because my dissertation is in high gear now, and that shit is due in March, so I've gotta get working! I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone for all their lovely comments and well-wishes, and I only wish I had time to chat with every one of you!! I hope to post a few little pieces of art tomorrow in honor of the Les Mis holiday, so keep an eye out for that...
Also, completely off-topic, but I just wanted to take a moment and put in a word for a show that blew my mind last week: the "Pippin" revival on Broadway. For any of you who might be visiting the NYC area soon, oh my GOD, go see this show! For those of you already in the NYC area, WHATTHEHELLAREYOUWAITINGFOR, GO SEE THIS SHOW NOW!!! Go see it before it wins all the Tonys and you can't get a damn seat! Whew, glad I got that out of my system. But seriously, oh my God, what a wonderful show, fabulous staging, fabulous orchestrations, fabulous casting, and fabulous acrobatics! It's really stuff you can't see anywhere else on Broadway right now, unique and beautiful. I'm not the hugest fan of the original show itself (not the hugest fan of Stephen Schwartz in general, got to admit), but this stuff is so beyond that. It's spectacle, it's something for everyone, it's larger than life, and it surpasses its own source material (in fact, it made me actually give a shit about the source material...). In all the Broadway shows I've ever been to, I've never seen an audience go nuts for anything like this--whooping and hollering like a rock concert! (Also, I'm not into women, but just thought I should point out that yes, Patina Miller is a sex goddess.
) So yeah, there's my recommendation, but I should also warn you that this production is like a roller coaster--as soon as my husband and I came out, we were like 'again, again!' So yeah, it may be addictive...