End of Summer Update (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Summer is sadly starting to draw short, but where I live at least the weather is perfect, the nights are cool and the days warm. The hubby and I welcomed a new kitten into the family, her name is Penelope. So yeah, 3 cats in the house and I vow that this is the most cats I want in the house at the same time! They all seem to be getting along, or at least respecting each others' boundaries so far. They're so cute. God I love cats. They scratch that itch of having kids but we can like, go away for a weekend and have a friend stop by a couple times and not be worried about them throwing a party or setting the house on fire. (hopefully!)

On that note, I'm taking a week's vacation because we both need it. Husband starts back to work in a couple weeks and I haven't taken any real time off since January. We're spending the time at the Oregon coast in a lovely rental place next to the beach with a hot tub. Gonna do puzzles, read some more Dungeon Crawler Carl series and just be unplugged from screens for awhile. We had a similar trip last year and it did so much for my mental health. I am still planning to finish this month's Kobold page by the 31st, I haven't forgotten!

This last year has really been good for me. Prior, there was so much fucking stress in my life that I won't get into. Happily, with some real work, therapy, and larger situation problem solving, hubby and I are in a really good spot. I even started taking classes this past season for personal enrichment including birdwatching and pottery throwing on a wheel! I really love learning new things and this felt like the first time in awhile where I just focused on stuff I wanted to do and didn't require having husband or a friend there to make myself more comfortable. I just did the thing and had a great time. Lesson learned: if I want to try something new, I should provide my own drive and motivation and just do it.

I've decided to release my novel as an actual novel first. I'll self-publish online and maybe put some feelers out to publishing houses to see if there's any interest on that front. I think it's good, for what it is, and I want to give it a real shot as an erotica novel before I put in all of the extra work to also make it a visual novel down the road. Plus, this job does not make a lot of money so this could be a good way to make a little extra and hopefully go into my backyard pond fund. (something I've always wanted since childhood)

That's all for now. I am enjoying work more lately than I have in quite some time and that's largely due to mitigating large sections in my life that were causing me extra anxiety and contributing to depression. Things are going really well right now and I'm trying to ride that high for as long as I possibly can. Of course you can expect new pieces from me going forward, updates on the novel, hopefully another new comic type project starting soon, featuring some very cute characters you folks have seen pretty recently! And lastly, thank you all again so, SO much for your continued support and appreciation. It's crazy to think I've been doing the patreon thing for years now thanks to you fine people keeping me going. I hope I get to make illustrations and write professionally for the rest of my life. You guys are the best and I'll never stop being grateful for all your help. Now get out there and enjoy the rest of summer!

Love,

D.B.