*** GOODBYE, MY ARTIST FRIEND SARA SWEITZER – 06/10/2021 ***

On 06/09/2021, I received an email from the daughter of my Eirinth artist with heartbreaking news. My artist known as t0shirt in the Anime community I was part of for over seven years had passed away on 06/04/2021. I began crying immediately and am still having moments of sobbing when I think about the talented woman who had created Eirinth characters for me since 2009. I used her real name in my novels in regard to her artwork, but she’ll always be either T or Sara-mazing to me. Over forty images had been done from 2009 until as recently as 2019. She had more projects in line to work on for me for other books in different genres I’m planning, but now those plans are gone. I’ll continue writing SEEKING THE LIGHT, ‘Rebirth of Eirinth’ series Book 3, but no new artwork will happen now.

My heart is still torn like a part of me has been ripped away by her death. I called Sara my ‘Sister in Creation’, and I meant that to the deepest level of my soul. We both loved stories that showed love, romance, chosen family ties, good winning over evil, and beautiful characters as wonderful to look at as the story is to watch or in my case read. It saddens me that I won’t be able to email her with stats, discuss my projects, message about our families, or share our situations like we have for the past seventeen years since we became friends and fellow Anime fans. This just seems impossible! How can she be gone? I emailed her a couple of times since the last email we exchange two months ago. After not receiving a usual reply, I emailed again. I will forever be thankful to her daughter for emailing me back.

Sara had always been such a talented artist in our Anime fandom, but she also had instincts and insight into my characters from mere stats with a bit of background. I only told her change two character pic she did all these years; to only have 2 out of 40 be changed shows exactly how amazing she was and how true her art is. It’s why I called her my ‘Sara-mazing’. She amazed me all the time with how she took my statistic word and breathed visual life into them for actual characters that only existed in my mind and heart until then. Jaedin was first, and once he looked back at me in color I couldn’t stop writing the story that he would be a major part of being. Her artwork forced me to continue this ongoing story as I’d asked her to do by creating the character art that would hold me accountable to THEM.

Sara would pick out little details from my stats she’d put in the character art that would find their way into the story that I didn’t even know I needed. Jaedin’s belt buckle wasn’t in the stats, but Jaedin had it, and it became a major plot point that I never would have thought of doing. That is why she became Sara-mazing to me. For quite some time I thought she was younger than me, but when I found out she was actually older than me I laughed like a loon since I’d called her younger terms of friendship. She and I emailed each other while laughing over it after I did. While in the GW Anime fanfiction community she and I would email all the time. It wasn’t until I left fanfiction to write a new original Fantasy story that I asked if she’d do my original artwork for my characters. There had never been any hesitation.

I promised her that once my books began actually making money then I’d send her an additional commission since her artwork kept me writing. It hadn’t happened yet, but I still sent her a small commission from first book sales. Should my series become something more with larger royalty payments then I’ll forward another commission to Sara’s family. That’s a promise I will keep for as long as I live. She and I worked out the main cost of each picture, and since mine required so many she gave me a discount, especially since I didn’t have tons of money. Two starving artists at the core! Both of us wanted to create things that mattered to us and others. We both wanted to get paid for the time that our creations took, but we didn’t want to be told what we could and could not do either by corporate industries.

Even though I’m a Christian and try to live according to the Holy Bible, I’m also a nonconforming individualist. Explain to me using the Word of God why I shouldn’t do something then you have my attention. Give me a bunch of old rules made by men without any backing of spiritual integrity then you can go float face down somewhere. Even though I told Sara about my faith, I also explained why I wasn’t ‘religious’ by most standards. Even though we didn’t get into deep spiritual discussions, I hope she came to know Jesus Christ as her Savior before she passed. I tried to show her with love and honesty, so I can only live with that hope now. If she was a different faith then I hope her family will not get angry for my hope but will understand my love for her is what has my heart breaking and yet hoping we will meet again.

I believe Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to be restored to a relationship with the God Almighty of Creation by us believing in His Blood being shed in our place for the sin that each human is born with from mankind’s blood line. I also believe that every person is given moments that person can accept Jesus before death that others might now know about. I hold onto that possibility for several people I have known and loved but never knew if they had accepted Jesus Christ. It’s not religion to me. A relationship is living and breathing not dead and powerless. Jesus Christ loves EVERYONE. Do you think He would let anyone not have at least one real chance to accept Him in this life before death happens? I believe He always does. We need to admit that we have sinned and ask Him for forgiveness given freely to all of humanity.

Goodbye, My Artist Friend Sara Sweitzer – GW fan-artist, T, Sara-mazing, Eirinth Sister-in-Creation. ~TK~

https://gofund.me/a1740493 GoFundMe Link for t0shirt, so please give anything you can to help her daughter and family. I already donated in honor of the 12 years she worked on my Eirinth Characters that I will forever love and cherish… THANK YOU, SARA-MAZING! ;__;