Happy New Year!

‘s Eve, that is, at least for a handful more hours.

(A few bits of housekeeping then some art to share.)

So! I was actually thinking that regular comic updates were approaching 300  and would finally reach that benchmark sometime in February. It’s a good thing I don’t do math for a living (oh, wait… oh, well!)–my mental calculations were WAY off and the last comic of 2009 actually brings the count up to 329! Blew through that milestone without even blinking, huh? (If you count filler art and extras it’s closer to 350.)

That feels like a lot, doesn’t it? Of course, it’s going to take a bit longer to get to #400. You see, I’ve been having a lot of long talks with myself (and with others, but mostly with myself) and I’m looking at the projects on my to-do list and the hours available to me and wondering when I’m going to get anything done.

There was a tweet going around (I saw it on wilw’s feed, first) that said something to the effect of: The worst thing you can say to a creative type, when shown something created by said creative type, is ‘you have too much time on your hands.’ And boy is that true. It’s akin, really, to the cake clients I used to have who would say ‘it’s too beautiful to eat.’ Uh, folks? I spent a lot of time making this cake. It’s cake. Eat it. Let it fulfill it’s destiny. Please.

Anyway, the point is that no, I don’t have too much time on my hands. Truth is, I could use some more. But since the world is stuck on this whole 24-hour rotation thing and I have to work and sleep and I like seeing my boyfriend at least one evening a week (when he’s not already asleep, that is, and I’m trying not to wake him as I crawl into bed later than I’d planned), etc etc etc I figured out that I have, on average, 30 hours a week to work on creative work (comics, writing, etc.). And, right now, 5 comics and 2 blogs a week take up the largest chunk of that.

So, if I ever want to print What to Feed Your Raiding Party (it has it’s own blog, now, to follow it’s creation) much less touch my graphic novel again (did you know I have one of those in the works? it feels like a like to say ‘in the works’ because I haven’t touched the script since we moved and that was only to pack it!), or the other serialized comic I have planned (1 issue written, no art yet), the bio-comic I have in mind (someone else’s life, historical whatnot, not my own) or any of the non-comics projects waiting in the wings I’ve got to change some things around.

To that end, beginning in February (approximately–it’s really once I finish the Doctor, Doctor storyline which should take another 3-4 weeks)–Cocktail Hour will return to it’s original format of 1 full page posted weekly (Wednesday). The website will be streamlined over the next month or so and the 2 blog features moved to their own domains, separate RSS feeds but all linked over in the sidebar. Where the Geeks Are will stay as it is. Random Acts Radio will return.

The result will be, I hope, a better experience overall between the integration of the various sites and more productivity on more projects for me. We all win!

And now on to some fun stuff…

Belated Christmas wishes to all of my wonderful readers and friends. This is the image I designed for this year’s card and, with some trial and error (substitute screen material for my gocco wasn’t quite as user-friendly as I thought), finally printed. Not many got mailed out (by me, at least, Todd sent out several) but, then, I don’t usually DO cards, so digital greetings work, right?

Something else fun for Christmas was participating in the Webcomics Secret Santa exchange. I don’t think I realized how much fun doing “fan art” can be! I played santa for the webcomic IDGet (you can see my gift on this page and got this fun piece from Johnny Lin of the webcomic, Orbit:

I love how he got the monkey slippers in there and the little martini glass on the clock! So cute! You can see all of this year’s participants and gifts over at the Webcomic Secret Santa Exchange blog.

And, finally, coming up on January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the United States. Lora Innes (of The Dreamer webcomic) is organizing over 80 webcomic artists who have all agreed to draw one of their female characters to be included in a single wallpaper. This wallpaper will be available for downloading on the 11th to anyone who makes a donation to the cause. The funds will be split between Love 146 and Gracehaven, both of which exist to rescue children from slavery (a vast majority of which is sexual) and help them heal from the physical and emotional trauma they’ve suffered. I have my own, personal, reasons why this effort is so important to me but even if you’ve never experienced anything remotely like what these children are going through, these activities are not something that should be allowed to continue. To that end I’ve contributed the following character art to the Comic Creator’s Alliance project and hope that as many of you that can will consider making a donation next month when the wallpaper is available.