@KittyhawkMontrose - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

Oh man, I’ve had a lot. I’ve been on probably as long as Tom Fulp. I’m not sure if he was on BBSes too, but I certainly was. I’ve been doing websites and creative stuff online since really commercial internet was available. I had to fight my dad to get on, but I won (lol). I’ve done fan sites, translation, webcomics, games, you name it. I’ve had rape threats, death threats, job threats (lol), and even a hate letter from my grandma, but I don’t pay those much mind because words are words. I told my grandma I loved her and we’re still cool, and I sent the ones who threatened me similar things (less hugs and kisses though). I would say I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I wasn’t online. I think of myself as an online person too. It’s so much fun being on the Internet, learning new things, connecting with people around the world. I’m constantly scanning the signals~

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

I knew about Newgrounds for a long time, but I didn’t join until 2019 when @alsoknownas1 and I decided to get serious about game dev. We realized that Newgrounds was the perfect place to post the kind of games we like to make, doujin games. Newgrounds is punk after all! I would say I’ve come to love Newgrounds even more as I’ve been a part of it. The community is really good, I’ve met a lot of cool people, Tom is really awesome to everyone, it’s one of the last places with free speech, and I’ve found myself more productive as a result of the engagement and support I’ve received here. I would recommend Newgrounds to everyone who’s a creative type, and I do! :D

Q: The story of your username: KittyhawkMontrose

Oh wow, lots to unpack! I chose KittyhawkMontrose on Newgrounds because Kittyhawk was already taken, and I didn’t want to use KittyhawkNG when I first started because I felt it was a big presumptuous seeing as I had just joined and wasn’t really part of the NG team. “Kittyhawk” comes from an OC I made a long time ago. I needed a more unique online name, so I took it from him. It comes from my misspelling of Kitty Hawk, NC. “Montrose” is the doujin circle that my brother and I founded long ago, and now my husband and I run it. It takes its name from a town that was the center of some our earliest stories. If you want to read one, it’s here on Newgrounds. the Jar will break your brain though. So yeah, lots of city refs.

Q: How did you get interested in creating art?

I was born.

Q: Your advice for artists

Never give up. I know that’s trite, but it’s true. I’m still standing, but there’s a lot of artists that I’ve known over the years who’ve given up. I’m not saying that’s bad either, because life is full of choices, and sometimes another path needs to be taken in order to make those things happen. Art will rarely make enough money to pay for those things. You will probably have to get another job. If you’re lucky, you can take projects and commissions, but you will find yourself holding your head in your hands sometimes thinking, “Why the hell am I doing this?” When art becomes a job, it sometimes kills the drive, but you have to remind yourself why you’re doing this, that this is the thing you are best at and love doing. So yeah, NEVER GIVE UP. Keep pushing, keep creating, keep believing.

Q: What are activities and subjects you like, although you rarely talk about?

I think the things I like most that I rarely talk about are politics and the natural world. To be honest, the phrase “reality is more interesting that fiction” rings true to me. If one were to look at my X feed, they would be shocked that it’s not mostly naked girls and men (though they are there!), but a butt load of world politics, rando animal videos, and travelogues. I don’t discuss either much because I know politics is a dicey subject, and no one wants to hear me ramble on about this one silvery bird that exists in New Caledonia whose possible closest relative lives in South America.

Q: What do you think about X, which was formerly known as Twitter?

I used to hate that place because I was shadowbanned for my sexual politics, and I was even further shadowbanned for my followers’ beliefs, specifically trans and Gamergate/MAGA (yes, both; I have a wide range of followers). You can read the details about how the FBI and Twitter staff did this BS for years in the Twitter Files. I stuck with it because any advertising is good advertising. It’s all about creating as much of a presence as possible. When Elon took over the site, I was allowed parole from Twitter Jail, and I’m doing a lot better now. I quadrupled my followers in one year. I had people contact me and say, “I thought you quit the internet!” I had government agencies contact me about giving me grants after being ignored for a long time. So yeah, even though I’ve been blocked for thanking Elon for freeing me, I’ll keep doing it because that man has made my life better in so many ways, including PayPal. Elon and Tom are my heroes.

Q: What is social media about?

It’s about connecting with other people, and it’s also about letting the deep state spy on you. :)

- Marriage story

My husband and I were married by an Elvis impersonator at the Viva Las Vegas Chapel in Las Vegas. We had some TV execs from the WB sit in on the wedding because they were seeing if they wanted to make a reality show based on the experience. We got to ride into the chapel in a Pink Cadillac. It was awesome.

Q: How would you describe your experience of being married?

I would say it’s been the best experience of my life. I cannot think of my life without my husband now because he is such a major part of it. We are so perfectly matched in all things. We have our own interests, but we like sharing them together. We often have thoughts that we’re like “YOU TOO?! I JUST THOUGHT THAT!” And the sex is great. :D I highly recommend getting married. Find the right one, AND STICK WITH THEM. You will go through a lot of crap in your life, and it’s better with a partner by your side. Fight the urge to break up with them when there’s money problems or sickness! You will be stronger on the other side! Marriage is for life and it is a thing to be worked on all the time! Because it’s so much fun! You may not get everything in life, but try to have someone to share it with is the advice I give.

Q: What do you think about traveling?

If you can do it, DO IT. Traveling gives you new insight into the world. If you can live somewhere for a while, like a short time, DO IT! Lord knows living as many places as I have, traveling to as many places as I have, has made me the person I am, open to a lot of things. Even if it’s going a state over, or even a town over, do it. Go do as many experiences as you can.

Q: What are some stories you would like to share?

So I had surgery back in 2020, and then blam! The pandemic started like a week later. Great for recovery, right? So I was pretty bored a lot of the time, and I really wanted to go to Japan after everything was over (lol). Sometimes when I’d pull up the map to plan, I’d get distracted by the islands off in the Pacific, so I’d go check them out.

Eventually, I stopped planning the Japan trip as I realized that we weren’t going to be let outside any time soon, and I got more obsessed with learning about former military installations and old Pan Am island hops. This evolved into learning about individual Pacific Islands, which became most of my entertainment. I would go take “trips” using Google Earth, I would follow people’s social media and blogs to get an idea of what life was like there, and I even started checking the local grocery stores and even the McDonalds in Tahiti for the latest specials! I’d find myself saying “Damn! That’s a good price! I should go take a trip!” To Google Earth! I also had places that I liked to “sit” and enjoy. There’s a burger place on Rarotonga that looks really good.

But where does this story go? Well, all of this obsession eventually lead to Paradise Slice. The isolation, the wanting to get away, the wanting to find happiness in a world gone shit, and Pacific Islands are cool. I guess I wanted to tell this story because it’s taking a bad situation like quarantine and recovering from surgery and using it to learn and build something new. I feel like I had an adventure, even if I was just looking at a phone screen, and I want to share some of it now.

Q: How to describe your experience with making Paradise Slice?

Paradise Slice really has given me new life. When Paradise came to me, originally as “Kon” and then merging with the Paradise ideal, she started some creativity in my mind that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. As I worked out her story, I found myself putting in things from my “trip” around the Pacific as well as all the other stuff I’ve experienced, a lot of the government stuff I think about, aliens, and even my philosophy on life. I think of it as the “Everything Series”.

I also surprised myself in that I changed pretty much the whole damn story just one month before I published it on Newgrounds. Grey appeared in my mind after I said “I need an agent.” I wanted there to be an government entity eventually, and kinda like the scenes in American Fiction where the writer is talking with the characters, I found myself having a conversation with a man who introduced himself as “Grey”. Rarely I have characters introduce themselves with a name, hell, even introduce themselves at all. That’s when I knew he was special. After working with him a bit, I learned he was a damn good character, and the way he was interacting with Paradise was better than her chemistry with the original male main character. I found Paradise cheating on that guy to be with Grey! But then Grey said to Paradise in response to this, “I do not like cheating. Break up with him and be with me.” And that’s when the whole series had to be rejiggered and the original main character was dropped. I’m happy that he arrived, and I think Paradise is too. :D

I’m looking forward to working on more after I’m done with some projects. I experience something like love when I think of these characters, something that has never happened before. It’s odd and exciting. I will protect them.

Q: What is your advice for being part of the Newgrounds community?

Be nice but firm. You should be supportive, because these are your fellow creators. Tearing other people down may feel good, but that’s going to lead to you being a pariah eventually. You might hate that person who makes the funny wizard cartoons or the one who makes ass-clapping videos, but you gotta realize those things are popular. Like, you’re not going to get popular tearing those things down, and you’re really hurting Newgrounds because you’re making it a unfun place and less trafficked. This place gets worse with every creator that is chased off by the Hate Squad.

That’s why you gotta fight back too. @alsoknownas1 and I sit in the P-bots every day to make sure that winners are congratulated and not jeered. If you have a problem with the work, go use your big boy words, and put them in the comment section of the movie or game. Don’t hide your score like a coward. Be a man and post it. Show that you blammed it. Stand by that blam. And don’t go acting like you’re some authority on Newgrounds and scare off the creators, all the while not creating really anything of your own since 2022 which happens to be very similar to the thing you’re currently dumping on, a small animation loop that’s peaceful and nice. That will eventually lead to you ruminating, doing absolutely nothing, getting your mom on your case, being kicked out of your family home, and finally living near a pickleball court that you hate. :) I stand by being nice, being supportive, and always congratulating the winners!