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I have been away for the past week in a small caravan in the middle of Wales. Infrequent readers may have noticed my absence.
(For small read "a bit like a small cottage, only far more luxurious - static caravans have come on a long way since my childhood holidays. And for infrequent read "people that think updating LJ once a year is a bit post-whorish.")
The holiday has been most successful. I have raised my laptop from the dead, written a couple of short stories, and most importantly seen off the flare up of eczema that has been making my life absolute Heel for the last few weeks. Especially since it had practically vanished in the previous few months - for the first time in many many years I have actually been moisturising 3 times a day and drinking lots of water and it paid off. Which made it hugely depressing when the eczema came back at full force - it's nice to pretend that it's just a bit of dry skin really, but when it explodes you're forced to remember it's still officially a disease (or a condition, or something. Definitely a bloody pain in the neck, and back, and legs, and arms, and stomach, and chest, and...)
Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, I have been mostly missing, from online and real life. While I was out of work this was mainly due to having no money to go out, and lots of freelance commissions eating up all available time that I didn't dare turn down for such an unimportant thing as a life. (No, the two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm getting used to being paid 3 months after I actually hand the work over.)
Since I started back at the magazine, I've realised I need to shift into phase 2 of making a career out of this art stuff, and have been stupidly busy sorting out the official business side of things, the official contacts side of things (tracking down art directors and commissioning editors and the like that might take my work) and the panic side of things (trying to do a million different illustrations in a million different styles because I know I can.) So while the money's not been as bad, the working-frenzy has doubled. I have also had a few bad incidences of People-Fear when I've tried to get out and socialise, but I'm still trying. Less eczema will hopefully help. (Bad skin! Bad! All your fault!)
I have set myself an informal deadline of four weeks Thursday to get as much new illustration work as possible finished, as this is when I shall be flying off to Dragoncon in Atlanta, to pimp my wares (and my drawings.) This is going to mean I'm going to have an even more hermit-like life for the next month.
Just to make life even easier, I've started something sort of like a novel (hopefully it will be, in length at least, by the time it's finished, but I'm serialising it so it could be shorter or - if I don't die first - far longer.)
If you're interested, the first chapter (or most of it) is here
It's not very polished as I'm putting up each section as I finish it. My thinking behind this is:
a) While the characters and storyline and words are all my own, it still falls under the umbrella of fanfic. Allegedly. I prefer to think of it as a historical drama where the historical setting is in the future, and made up. But RJ says it's fanfic and he must be right cos he's been published and everything. So it doesn't matter if it goes online now as I couldn't have it independently published anyway.
b) I keep burying the stuff I write on the grounds it's "not quite ready" to show people, so I'm trying to break the habit but just getting this out there as quickly as possible.
c) It's the first time I've tried something like this, it's a learning curve, I may as well make all the mistakes in public this time and learn from them for next time.
So yes. I may not be very visible for the next month, online or real life but it's safe to assume I'll still be breathing, and writing, and drawing, and working, and occasionally sleeping...)
PS I already seem to have a broken arm on my "things I missed" list. Please fill in any important gaps for me - reading LJ will still probably rate higher than sleep for me, but that doesn't mean I'll get much in, and I certainly don't have time for catch-up!
(For small read "a bit like a small cottage, only far more luxurious - static caravans have come on a long way since my childhood holidays. And for infrequent read "people that think updating LJ once a year is a bit post-whorish.")
The holiday has been most successful. I have raised my laptop from the dead, written a couple of short stories, and most importantly seen off the flare up of eczema that has been making my life absolute Heel for the last few weeks. Especially since it had practically vanished in the previous few months - for the first time in many many years I have actually been moisturising 3 times a day and drinking lots of water and it paid off. Which made it hugely depressing when the eczema came back at full force - it's nice to pretend that it's just a bit of dry skin really, but when it explodes you're forced to remember it's still officially a disease (or a condition, or something. Definitely a bloody pain in the neck, and back, and legs, and arms, and stomach, and chest, and...)
Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, I have been mostly missing, from online and real life. While I was out of work this was mainly due to having no money to go out, and lots of freelance commissions eating up all available time that I didn't dare turn down for such an unimportant thing as a life. (No, the two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm getting used to being paid 3 months after I actually hand the work over.)
Since I started back at the magazine, I've realised I need to shift into phase 2 of making a career out of this art stuff, and have been stupidly busy sorting out the official business side of things, the official contacts side of things (tracking down art directors and commissioning editors and the like that might take my work) and the panic side of things (trying to do a million different illustrations in a million different styles because I know I can.) So while the money's not been as bad, the working-frenzy has doubled. I have also had a few bad incidences of People-Fear when I've tried to get out and socialise, but I'm still trying. Less eczema will hopefully help. (Bad skin! Bad! All your fault!)
I have set myself an informal deadline of four weeks Thursday to get as much new illustration work as possible finished, as this is when I shall be flying off to Dragoncon in Atlanta, to pimp my wares (and my drawings.) This is going to mean I'm going to have an even more hermit-like life for the next month.
Just to make life even easier, I've started something sort of like a novel (hopefully it will be, in length at least, by the time it's finished, but I'm serialising it so it could be shorter or - if I don't die first - far longer.)
If you're interested, the first chapter (or most of it) is here
It's not very polished as I'm putting up each section as I finish it. My thinking behind this is:
a) While the characters and storyline and words are all my own, it still falls under the umbrella of fanfic. Allegedly. I prefer to think of it as a historical drama where the historical setting is in the future, and made up. But RJ says it's fanfic and he must be right cos he's been published and everything. So it doesn't matter if it goes online now as I couldn't have it independently published anyway.
b) I keep burying the stuff I write on the grounds it's "not quite ready" to show people, so I'm trying to break the habit but just getting this out there as quickly as possible.
c) It's the first time I've tried something like this, it's a learning curve, I may as well make all the mistakes in public this time and learn from them for next time.
So yes. I may not be very visible for the next month, online or real life but it's safe to assume I'll still be breathing, and writing, and drawing, and working, and occasionally sleeping...)
PS I already seem to have a broken arm on my "things I missed" list. Please fill in any important gaps for me - reading LJ will still probably rate higher than sleep for me, but that doesn't mean I'll get much in, and I certainly don't have time for catch-up!
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and you should be getting a proper reply eventually :-)