Well whose asking? I go by many names online but my legal biz is:

Winter jay kiakas

writer

I’ve been writing since I can remember and I know everyone says that but I distinctly remember writing my first mystery short story way back in GRADE 4 where my real love of writing blossomed. I was enamoured and enthralled with writing. I wrote short story after short story until high school where I sure did try to write epic novels (some of those drafts actually hit 30,000 words which is pretty nuts). I found out about NANO in college, succeeded on my first try with Violins at 18 and then wound up doing 3 back-to-back 50k challenges one summer like a madman. I don’t think much of it is any good but there sure is gumption. Now I write Comics, Prose, Poetry…whatever suits my fancy~

illustrator

I’ve had a rocky relationship with drawing all my life but its a passion that continues to draw on me (haha) regardless. Started doodling and canoodling anime boys and LOZ fanart in all my old high school sketchbooks. I was a traditional artist for EONS, mostly sketching in 8×10 sketchbooks with pencils, crayons, markers… until I found a love an passion for inks. I did black and white work for a long time, struggling with colours even in my digital deviant art phase before I (finally) touched an ipad with procreate and the rest is history. I’ve been drawing digital since my mid-20s and hoping to get back into traditional ink work soon… one day… eventually.

Self-Publisher

You’ll be surprised to know that self-publishing was in my blood since elementary school. I have a funky little core memory of being maybe 6 or 7 and holding a massive plasticized book I made out of construction paper and pencil crayons. I don’t know. I can still feel the weight of that thing in my little hands. I think I sat with it for a while on the last day of school kind of in awe that I was able to make something like this with my own hands.
I didn’t really think much of it after, had dreams of writing and making books later, assumed for a while publishing was the only avenue…until I discovered zine making in my late-teens-early-20s.
Lets just say… it didn’t take long to put my knowhow with printing zines into perfect bound books.

So… wait how DID you end up here exactly…?

Well…. the thing about an artistic career is you wind up a little bit everywhere. I was actually one of the big nerd kids in school, didn’t say a peep. Wound up falling in love with the creative process and pursued higher education in studio arts before graduating from college and vaulting straight into a Bachelors in Film Animation.

I… got a little distracted being starry-eyed that I might one day run a full-fledged animated TV series was wOW exciting. Turns out you have to actually …animate to rise up the ranks to even Get There…and if school taught me anything its that I absolutely hate animating.

SO… I found zines… and then I found zine fests and then I started selling those zines at zine fests and woops…next thing I know I’m printing perfect bound books. I’m learning what the difference between silk, satin, gloss and matte are. I’m fondling paper textures and struggling through terms like Offset Printing versus Digital or Inkjet.

Buddy… we’re PUBLISHING now. I dipped my toes into helping a few friends with their printing projects, bringing them to life through a new business I’m starting with my partner we lovingly dubbed WINDY & WALLFLOWER.

Now its been a few years, things keep shifting around but the passion is still the same. I’m making stories and telling tales and finding my voice in a sea of other extremely talented creatives in my generation. I can’t say it isn’t extremely difficult sometimes but hey. That’s where I am right now.

Now this is a secret so don’t tell anyone but I also have a few pseudonyms that I go by now and then…