aprilgem is short for April G. E. McMillan … but the M used to stand for Martinez. I recently married, and fortunately, my name has changed, but my initials have not. So I remain “aprilgem.”

That’s me, creating web sites since 1998, this web site in particular since 1999, this blog since 2001. This is where I share my writing, riddles, tutorials, and artwork with anyone who might enjoy them. I also sometimes post about my work in the publishing industry as a graphic designer and illustrator. Unless otherwise indicated, everything was written or created by me.

This blog’s been through quite a number of changes over the years — lots of redesigns and migrations from CMS to CMS, from a simple guestbook script, to Greymatter, to MovableType, to B2/WordPress and its various iterations. I’ve lost some data over time, especially comments, and a lot of the old links are broken. To keep from being a digital hoarder, I’ll be making gradual changes over time, curating and culling content, and removing any dead weight.

You can contact me by leaving a comment or e-mailing mail@aprilgem.com. Thanks!

First Time Visitors

If you’ve never been here, I recommend reading some of my older work to get to know me:

2001
• Fish Dicks and Cat Shit
• London Derriere and the Menstrual Boy
• Poetry In Motion

2002
• V is for Vitch
• Karaoke Kills
• Kodak Moment #1: The Showers
• Girls Don’t Sweat. They Glow!
• What’s Odd in this Post? I Dare You to Tell Me.
• The Lady, the Tiger, and the Hollywood Ending
• The Feeling Is Nuptial
• Life Lesson #1: What I Learned While Working as an Imaging Specialist at a Pet Magazine…

2003
• Bad [Children’s Fantasy] From My Writing Past #4: Gregor the Griffin
• Fauxtography 101
• It Kind of Grows on You
• The Nose Knows
• He Gazed at Me From Across the Room
• Photoshop Tips and Tricks #1: Patterned Cloth
• Scarred For Life #2: The Blackhead Blasting Blockhead
• Fauxtography 102
• Move Along, Folks
• Conditional Love
• A Moonless Starry Sky
• Little Miss Muffet Simply Can’t Tough It
• I Am a Life Support System for a Vagina, Hear Me Utter a Full Loud Prolonged Sound

2004
• Meet Me at the Park
• How To Make Celtic Knots in Illustrator
• What Bums Do Behind Closed Doors
• Silly Song of States
• The Game of the Name
• Totally Whelmed

Mentioned regularly in the old posts are H.E. and Cat. Neither are in my life any more. H.E. and I went our separate ways, and Cat passed away at 16-17 years old a few years back. I have lived almost a whole new life since then, and I no longer blog regularly, but every now and then I come back to this when I feel like writing.

One day, I may take this old blog offline entirely and start fresh. For the meantime, I keep it up here for me to easily refer to — when I can’t remember the lyrics to a song I wrote, for instance.