It's time to check out the cartoony, Goth-y angst that is Kyra Sellers, courtesy of the beautiful artwork of Jim Di Bartolo.

Here's the first strip (click to enlarge). As more strips are added, you'll be able to find them on the Goth Girl Follies! page.

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"But, Barry," you say, "didn't we talk about endings once before?"

And I say to you, "Yes, we did, as is indicated by the hyperlink in your question."

But I'm talking about a very specific ending. To wit: The ending of this series.

Yes, the time has come. I've written almost a year's-worth of Writing Advice columns and I feel like I've said pretty much all I have to say in terms of actual advice-giving. I suppose there might still be little bits here and there, but really -- especially after last week's "My Method" -- I feel like I've given y'all all of the advice I have to give. This isn't to say that I've told you everything there is to know about writing; far from it! It's just that I've told you everything I can think of.

Now, I could be wrong. If you have questions that haven't already been answered, I encourage you to post them in the comments. Because I'm not going anywhere -- I'll still be reading comments and I'll be happy to answer questions when they come up. But please please please check the Writing Advice archive first to see if I've already discussed your question. Odds are, I have.

I'm sad to see Writing Advice go for many reasons, not the least of which is because I've enjoyed having this weekly target to hit, this constant deadline of putting something up on the web. So I've decided to keep doing that. I'll be shifting gears from Writing Advice to something new: Writing Life.

What is Writing Life? Well, it seems like people come to authors' websites for two main reasons. One is to learn about the craft of writing. The other is to learn about what it's like to actually be a working author. I've covered the former in exhaustive detail over the past forty-four weeks. Now I'm going to tackle the latter, and I hope you guys will find it interesting.

This is shaping up to be one of the most intense, exciting years of my life as an author. I am working a lot of projects simultaneously and they're all radically different from each other. So, Writing Life will be a chronicle of me trying to juggle all of these projects, as well as the various and sundry other things that crop up in the life of an author. It may end up being a chronicle of me slowly going insane. We'll find out together.

As always, of course, feel free to submit questions. :)

Writing Life will start in a couple of weeks. But don't worry -- I'm not abandoning the weekly grind or going on hiatus. In between Writing Advice and Writing Life, there WILL be something else. Something coming next week. Something...comical (he said mysteriously).

Thanks to everyone who's been reading, and especially to those who commented and asked questions over the past forty-four weeks!

My good friend Marc Nathan runs the Baltimore Comic-Con, which has been the home of the Harveys for a few years now, so I'm happy to bang the gong for the awards. For those of you who are professionals in the comic book business, you can grab the ballot here and fill it out. The awards will be given out at the Baltimore Comic-Con in August. Reminder: Only professional comic book writers, artists, colorists, etc. (i.e. creative folk) can nominate.

In advance of my arrival, Chicago librarian Julie Jurgens thought it might be fun to interview me on her blog. Then, to add something different to the typical blog interview, she decided that I would interview her as well! We would each ask each other five questions and then she would post a series of blogs dealing with two questions each time.

Here are the interview links:

• Chicago: The Cubs, Heroes, and Playlists
• Wherein I Answer 2 of Barry's 5 Questions
• Archvillain! 
• Play-ing with Friends
• The King Abides
  
• Scoundrels, Swag, and Sweeping Exits