The State of Stuff, January 2019 (Patreon)

Now that I’ve contacted everyone who needed to be contacted about everything I’m about to tell you, I can share this State of Stuff with you. There’s some secret info in here, so kindly keep this on both the down and the low!

You know I love an organized list, so here’s an organized list of what’s up over here:

The BookAs you may have noticed from the lack of sneak peeks, I have *barely touched* the graphic novel this month, aside from some very helpful research (thank you, Jon!!) that sent Berto’s story in an unexpected direction, and a few notes and sketches here and there as I’ve worked out those details.

Mostly I’ve been busy with other smaller projects - a guest strip for Oh Joy Sex Toy (!!), a house painting I thoughtlessly agreed to do, an invitation that I thoughtfully agreed to do - which I’ll be sharing with you soon. 

BOO! It's SexMore than all of that, though, I've been working on BOO! It's Sex.  Somehow I thought  writing a sex ed comic wouldn't take much time out of my week, but it takes up A LOT OF TIME, mainly because I let it, and I let it because I care about it. The comments from our (mostly teenage) readers are proof that this is a necessary service Monica and I have adopted. 

There is a LOT of fact-checking and re-checking and cross-referencing the stats I find online, because some of it contradicts each other and most of it is vague and I want to get it right WITHOUT being vague. Vague sex ed doesn't help anybody, it just creates more questions.

But to be honest... it's too much work, for both of us. 

Monica has her own stuff keeping her busy, plus a big move, and I have this big book I'm not writing. So we've decided to end the strip in May. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I think it's the right one.

While that's still several months' worth of working on this strip, it makes it a little easier for me, because I'm not trying to space out important milestones in the story (I felt the same way when I decided to end GWS - suddenly, Clarice could fall in love, Mimi and Thea could get hitched, and Hazel could face her father, all in the same year!).

The "Freedom" of Having No DeadlinesHaving no deadlines is great!! If you never want to accomplish anything. 

The reason I put GWS online 14 years ago (GASP WHEEZE 14 years) was so that I'd have a public deadline to meet. The reason I so much as mentioned that I was writing a book here, to you guys, was to force myself to write it faster. But y'all are kind and understanding and supportive (I LOVE YOU SO MUCH); I need a scary editor to breathe down my neck to meet some deadlines.

I'm going to start pitching this book to Actual Real Publishers in March. I've started the process of looking for an agent to help me with this, and to start in on the neck-breathing. I want my neck to be so warm and clammy. 

I'm intimidated; I've never done this before, not with a creator-owned story. My fear of working with a publisher has always been that I won't be given the time I need to make the story perfect. The reality of the situation, of course, is that I spend too much time trying to make things perfect, when they're just fine the way they began. I'm not a perfect writer anyway. 

I'm hoping the threat of "finish this by this date" will be balanced out by the relief of "an editor is here to help guide you so the story will still be good."

If you're interested, I can make a few posts here about what it's like to find and work with an agent and an editor and a publisher along the way... assuming I successfully find any one of those to work with. ;)

So, TL;DR: BOO! It's Sex ends in May and I'm looking for an agent and a publisher so I can get this graphic novel rolling.

Also, tomorrow is Hourly Comics Day and I LOVE talking about how I have too much work and then turning around and deciding to add MORE WORK, so I'll be doing that tomorrow! 

And in case there was any question, no, that wasn't sarcasm. I genuinely love doing work that I love, even when it's too much. :)