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"I am horrible at these things..."

Gremlinz Keep here is run by me, Ariel L Hodge, with the occasional assistance of my hubs, & absolutely no help at all from our clowder of cats & micro pack of macro dogs. I am a 90’s baby raised 80’s, in love w/ everything rainbow, bright, neon, funky, pastel, fluffy, big eyed things, dinos, fantasy, & pop culture themed stuff. But I also love writing dark, macabre scenes & sketching nude ladies. So your average pastel, emo, dork I suppose? (Insert your choice of "Not like other girls!" joke here.)

Art has been my passion since I could clutch a crayon in my once left handed chubby baby fist, which had been promptly thrust into my chubby right fist. That didn't do much to slow me down though. I have been sketching & skribbling nearly non stop since then. Only a few years of a dry spell stood in my way. But now that my inner muse has returned, bruised & battered as she may be, she sings once more. With her return I have leapt in with both feet, bringing my skills to a level I once only dreamed of.

My writer side has been around almost as long as my artist. Believe me, there are plenty of cringe worthy pre-teen angst pieces that I have recently discovered. Ones that I wished had remained buried.

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"The cringe was massive! "

But among those who swiftly flew into the recycling bin there were gems that I remember pouring my heart & soul into. Those ones will be brought up to standard & some day shared. Among them are 2 that are dear to my heart. Stories that have quite literally grown up with me.

I attempted to publish one of them (that being "Path of a Dreamer") briefly in 2016. But it was not worthy of being seen at the time, it was colored by the brush of pain that my life had been at the time. The characters reflected my weak state of mind & reading it back actually makes me sick to see how they were twisted and limited. I made the decision to pull it, rewrite it from the start. & I could not be happier with the direction it is headed. I will never again allow myself to feel pressured to push out my beloved works before they are ready for the light of day.

I suppose the ending statement of this blurb bio will be the following:

I am a survivor. A survivor of maternal domestic abuse. Sadly I was well into my adulthood when the fog parted from my eyes & I realized my normal was anything but. After much struggle, tears, & pain, both physical & mental, I was finally able to be free.

While I am still healing I am very much still haunted by the demons of my past. Daily I must remind myself of the worth of my art, that I am not a failure simply because my style is not the mirror to hers. As I said, I am a work in progress. But every dawn brings me further from that living nightmare & I am grateful for every day of freedom I can baske in.

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"If you got through all that, congrats!! Thanks for your time!! "