Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Perfect Thicket

Ugh.

Hey everyone. Sorry for the HUGE gap in...well, everything. I've used the phrase "perfect storm" before when describing deadlines. Storm doesn't work this time. Storm would imply motion and movement--no, I am in the perfect thicket of deadlines. These deadlines have long roots, it's going to be months of hacking and slashing before I get out of this tangle. I've been buried in it for a good eight or nine months now. There's no end in sight.

The famous story in my house is that I had forty minutes of rest between the end of the graphic novel interiors and the phone call for the bible job. Not a full hour--forty minutes. I'm now through the Psalms in the bible job, by the way. During the holidays I juggled both the bible pages and the extra graphic novel stuff (remember that?)

We went absolutely bonkers with the extra goodies on these graphic novels. Wait until you see them. Each book has custom endpaper maps, spine, cover details--it's really nuts. I turned the bibliography into a comic. They are jam-packed with information, there is barely a blank spot in them. They'll be out this year, I'll let you know more as we get closer to release (this summer.)

I'm happy to say that both graphic novels are now in China and printing. We tightened up every possible loose end last week. We are now in talks for book 3 and 4.

Oh, and I'm still sick. The stomach bug everybody had last week morphed into a head cold for everybody this week. Weirdest bug ever.

I'm trying to get back to a place where I can post daily. I rarely missed a day for the past two years, so you can imagine how frustrating it is for me to look back on the past few months. Especially last week. Yuck.

I'm not doing the Picture Book Marathon this year. Not this February anyway. We're sticking with Taco Hell to the end! And it does have an ending--in case you were worried. I know exactly how it all wraps up. I just haven't had the time (or energy) to keep the posts coming.

We're going to get through Taco Hell, then the posts are going to be much simpler. Nothing but Naming Games and Pinniped Parties until July.

July is when the bible job ends. I'm hoping for a fifty minute break between the end of that job and the start of graphic novels 3 and 4.

3 comments:

Chiquita said...

Ouch--tough deadlines. Everyone's sick up here, too, must be something in the air! Hope you get better! I'm (plus others here) are eagerly awaiting the next installment of the web comics-- kinda fun--makes me excited every time I get home from school. It's been the great guessing game of how will the comic end?! Hahaaaa--keeps me entertained during class! Get better, good luck with the deadlines! We'll be awaiting the end with great anticipation! (actually, I find it funny, Mum's allergic to lettuce that Taco Bell uses--therefore, she calls it Taco Hell. It was hilarious when I first saw the title!)

Unknown said...

Just be grateful you are busy- many artists would love a whole forty minutes between jobs instead of days...or weeks.

Rachel Q said...

We had the same kind of thing around Christmas--flu and then cold, right on top of each other. Hope you can pull out of it soon. I'm sure the stress of deadlines is taking its toll on your immune system.