Work

Stuff to do in the month of May

By / May 7, 2010 / 4 Comments

Today I will see Iron Man 2. It will be full of shiny explosions and not much to think about. This is good because my brain is ready for something not particularly thinky.

Balticon booth preparation: I need to ship merchandise to Balticon so that Howard has things to sell. At the end of the month I’ll have to help Howard pack so that he can go.

Balticon Art Show preparation: They’ve given Howard eight panels in the art show. This was at first a dismayingly large number. We could wallpaper a room with all the strips he has done, but that doesn’t look eye-catching in an art show. Fortunately I’ve communicated with the art show director and found a solution. We’ll be putting together the panels as something akin to a museum exhibit. There will be pictures of Howard’s workspaces, explanations of his process. We’ll also discuss the process I go through to ship out books and how the books layout is done. A whole panel will be devoted to the XDM project. Hopefully it will be educational and interesting. But I’ve got lots of work to do to get it ready and I have to mail it all to Baltimore by the end of next week.

The Quest for the Tavern: This is an XDM adventure module. Tracy has already finished a draft of the text. I’ve got to do preliminary layout so that Howard can see where the pictures need to go. Then I have to put in the pictures. There also needs to be lots of copy editing and probable text revisions. The whole process needs to be complete by the end of May so that the thing can go to print.

RMS pre-orders: We’ll be opening pre-orders toward the end of this month. Before we can do that, I need to line up t-shirt reprints and magnet re-prints, and poster re-prints. We want all of these things available in the store so that people can buy lots of stuff and combine shipping. But it means hours of prep time getting the store ready to go.

Conduit: I’m listed on the website. I expect to be doing presentations and panels. I’ll need to prepare and to schedule myself so that I can be where I need to be.

Family stuff: The end of school brings a multitude of closing activities. There are a school carnival, field day, dances, birthday parties, mother’s day programs, and end of school homework projects.

Writing: Hah. I want there to be writing. I’m just not sure where I can possibly fit it in.

Anxiety Under Stress

By / May 5, 2010

The first day of Penguicon was fantastic. I spent the entire day having fascinating conversations with amazing people. Then I climbed into bed and my brain kept running for an hour, trying to sort everything. Just as I drifted off to sleep I snapped awake with an overload of mommy guilt. It only lasted for a few minutes, but during those minutes I was shaky and almost in tears. It was focused on being away from the kids, but it was really the result of too much input and not enough down time.

I was similarly shaky at the end of the convention. We were all packed and sitting at the restaurant, waiting for time to depart to the airport. A very perceptive friend asked if I was okay. I wasn’t really. I was holding on to calm and repressing the person in the back of my brain who wanted to curl into a ball and cry. Again it was the result of too much input and too little processing time. But I did not want to miss even a moment of visiting with friends whom I see far too seldom.

Last night I snapped awake at 1 am in a panic because I have not yet shipped things to GenCon. I have three months until GenCon. There is plenty of time to ship books there. But it took me several minutes to claw my way in to sufficient consciousness to remember that fact. The real problem is that I have an overload of things to do and most of them are both urgent and important. So instead of taking a couple of days to unpack and re-organize after Penguicon, I am trying to dive straight into all of the things to do. So far it is not working well. I’m getting things done, but it is all stressy and fragmented. If I can get myself focused I can dig out from under. But it is hard to become focused with so much looming.

The result is a latent anxiety waiting to pounce upon me. It is stress manifesting as fear. Fretting out all the details of what will happen if I fail is not nearly so useful as just getting stuff done so that I won’t fail. Also, the thinking in circles is made of unhelpful.

The good news is that my head is getting steadily clearer. I’m actually being able to blog some of the Penguicon stuff to get it out of my head. The luggage has been unpacked and stowed. I’m starting to wrap my head around the at home things. As I do, the anxiety subsides and I see that I really can do this.

Writing Excuses: Living with the Artist

By / May 4, 2010

Two weeks ago we gathered me, Dawn Wells, and Kenny Pike together to record a podcast where we talk about living with an artist/author. That podcast went live yesterday. You can listen to it here:

Writing Excuses 4.17: Living with the Artist

It was so much fun to record and I feel like we barely scratched the surface of the issues. Everyone should go listen and beg for more so I get to hang out with the Writing Excuses spouses again.

Peace and Sunshine

By / April 22, 2010

The stressy, angsty time of this-book-is-almost-done has given way to the happy period of peace which frequently comes afterward. Or at least I’m having peace. Howard is still scrambling to build the buffer back up before we head out to a convention next week. I sometimes feel guilty that I’m having cheerful peace while Howard is still living in stress land. Then I remember that for me “happy peace” still includes a day that is scheduled by the hour. I’m just scheduling house and family stuff more often than business stuff.

Today the family stuff manifested in the shape of shoes. Link has been wearing sneakers with gaping holes for almost a month. Patch and Gleek were down to one pair each. This meant considerable time spent each morning seeking for lost shoes. So I took Link shoe shopping. He is in that middle ground between child sizes and adult sizes where the pickings are pretty slim. It also gives me the opportunity to muse on the fact that men’s shoes cost twice as much as children’s shoes eve when the pairs in question are nearly identical. But Link was happy. He took great joy in throwing away his old shoes before we even left the store. He just put on the new ones as soon as I paid for them. We brought home shoes for Gleek and Patch as well. I’ve done my part to keep the economy healthy for this week.

The business stress will return. I see it off on the horizon in the shape of an XDM project deadline and pre-orders for Resident Mad Scientist. May will have crazy in it. But I’m not there yet. I’ll deal with it when I am. Also there will actually be fewer things to manage in May than there were last month. It is less crazy-inducing to manage two big things than 5 smaller things. For now I’m going to turn my back on the far off clouds and enjoy the sunshine.

Talking about my book(s)

By / April 17, 2010

My work presents me with a confusion of language. When I talk about being done with a book to my writer friends, they naturally assume that I am discussing the book I am writing. What I’m really talking about is the layout work that I’m doing for a Schlock Mercenary book. Then I find myself saying “Oh I’m not talking about my book. It is Howard’s book that is done.” Only Howard’s books are my books too. I have as much hand in them as he does even though my name only appears in small print on the credits page while his name graces the cover.

This confusion of how to describe work is far from unique to me. I’m sure agents, editors, copy editors, and layout designers have been dealing with this for far longer than I have. All of these people have a right to feel some ownership over the finished product that is a book. It takes the love and effort of many people to bring a book to market where it will hopefully find the love and support of many readers as well.

Even more confusing is when a friend comes up to ask “How is your book doing?” My mind always stutters for a minute while I try to figure out which book the person might be inquiring about. There is the children’s picture book (selling slowly,) the essay book (still in first draft,) Resident Mad Scientist (just off to the printer,) XDM (selling strongly,) or one of the other five Schlock Books in print (selling well and some in second printing.) I don’t have one book. I have many books. I wonder if authors with many books in print have this same problem. I suspect that they do.

Temporary Laurel Resting

By / April 15, 2010

I sent a package today. Me shipping something is a common occurance, but this package was special. It contained color proofs and digital files for Resident Mad Scientist. This means the count down clock is ticking toward the day when two pallets of books arrive in my driveway. I’ll get a schedule from the printer once they review the files. At that point I can schedule the opening of pre-orders and the likely dates for the shipping party and release party.

It feels really good to have the project finished. I’ll be resting on my laurels and doing family stuff through the weekend. On Monday I’ll pitch the wilted laurels and get back to work. We have five conventions in the next six months. I have to plan so that the merchandise and art displays all arrive in the right places on schedule. It will also be time to start work on Emperor Pius Dei as well as an XDM adventure module. There will also be assorted family events. Believe it or not, this actually represents a slow down from last year. Listing it out like that brings home the necessity of making sure each day has a balance of work and rest. It is the only way to be happy in the life we have chosen.

Getting Excited for Penguicon

By / April 13, 2010

In a little more than two weeks Howard and I are Michigan bound to attend Penguicon. I’m looking forward to the trip, both as a chance to visit with online friends and to get away from my regular round of things to do. It will be exhausting, conventions always are, but the company is going to be excellent.

Going to Penguicon with Howard will be an interesting closing-of-the-circle for me. We went together in 2004 when Howard was only a part-time cartoonist. At the time I was in the habit of describing Howard as a sieve I sent out into the world to net good friends for us. He would bring back the good ones and introduce them to me. The system felt very secure. I was safe and I still got to meet cool new people. The flaws of the system were made apparent at Penguicon. We arrived and Howard carefully introduced me to his local friends in the early hours of the convention, but everyone he knew was either on the convention committee or part of programming. Once the convention was in full swing they were all very busy. I ended up adrift and discovered that I had no idea how to meet people and make conversation without Howard standing beside me. The temptation to hide in my hotel room and cry was nearly over-powering. Somehow I found the courage to confess to Howard how lost I felt. He rescued me and a kind local woman guided me through the rest of that day. I got into the swing of things and had a great time. But I came home determined to acquire the skills I lacked.

I have changed a lot in the past six years. Already I know that Penguicon is going to be a very different experience. I will have my own circle of friends rather than gaining entrance to Howard’s circle by being his wife. The fact that most of the people in my circle are also part of Howard’s circle is pleasant, but not necessary. I’ve also gained a lot of expertise. This time around I’ll be on programming for some of the panels and I’ll be running a table to sell books that I helped create. It will be a good time.

Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Nominated for a Hugo

By / April 4, 2010

Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse has been nominated for a Hugo in the category “Best Graphic Story.” Howard and I are both very excited. Howard will be going to Australia to participate and pick up his shiny nomination pin. We’re not sure yet about the extent of his stay, but he’ll definitely try to do some signings outside of the convention. The kids and I will be staying home, but we are not forlorn. We have tickets to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. We told the kids both bits of news at the same time. The part about “Daddy’s going to Australia cause he was nominated for a Hugo” was met with smiles. The part about going to the festival was met with outright glee. It is good to know where the kid priorities lay.

Fragmented thoughts on a busy Monday

By / March 29, 2010

I’m living in a world of post-it notes. Almost every available space on my computer hutch has a note plastered to it. I have notes pasted to a copy-edited version of RMS, which I need to enter into InDesign. I have notes about Penguicon, and Balticon, and GenCon. I’m starting to acquire notes about events in the fall. The notes are really helpful, because my brain is too full. I can only keep track of things if they are written down and stuck somewhere I’ll see them again.

Around noon I washed up on the couch in our front room. I was not done with work for the day. Not by a long shot. But I sat there, drifting inside my own head, waiting for some thought to feel urgent enough to make me get up. It took awhile. It was only when Howard came upstairs that I was washed out of my repose and back into work.

I think dinner tonight will be something easy, like frozen pizza. I need my creative energy for book layout and homework management and family home evening. I feel a little bad that so many of our dinners have been easy ones lately. But I don’t want to spend emotional energy on food. Not when so many other things I enjoy are getting shoved to the edges.

We could be done with the book this week if we push. I’m aiming for April 10th which gives us two weeks. Every day we add a new piece. Every day it gets that much closer. Almost done. Almost done. Almost done. I have to keep reminding myself when I get tired.

Sets and Eras

By / March 13, 2010

The first five Schlock Mercenary books are a set. We even sell them as one. They represent the early years of the comic when Howard was still figuring out how to draw, and script, and who his characters really were. They also represent our early years in publishing when we were figuring out how to design books and arrange for the printing of them. It is interesting to note that final book of the set ended just a few weeks prior to the day when Howard quit his corporate job to be a cartoonist. So that first set of books also represents an era in our lives, the years when Howard split his time between day job and comic.

The book we are working on now, Resident Mad Scientist, will be the first book in a new set. This set will be much more uniform in size and content. It will contain six books, starting with RMS and ending with the book which is currently airing on the web, Family Anti-Matter. The set will span the era of our lives when we were scrambling to make cartooning work, and the beginning of when it finally did. It is going to take a couple of years before we have the set in our hands, but I am looking forward to that day.

This morning Howard and I spent an hour talking about design changes for RMS. We want to get it right because the decisions we make on this book need to be carried through the five that will follow. Howard sketched out the things he wants to be different. I countered with alternate proposals. Then I came away with a list of changes to make so that we can see what they will look like. I walked down the stairs excited and interested, but not afraid. I spent most of the 8 months we worked on Teraport Wars terrified that I would accidentally break the book. It is nice to feel confident in my ability to tackle what must be done.

Next week will be full of lay out. I’ll be executing the design changes, placing margin art, and fixing typos. I look forward to this work because when we reach this stage the book is almost done. It starts being something we can see, touch, and anticipate rather than just a looming task which much get done.