JanerBlog

Why I love Tish

A couple weeks ago, I asked Tish, my ex-college roommate and resident goldfish expert, some questions about my comets' fishtank. Here's her (expurgated) response:

Hey you,

{snip}

For the filter: When you change the water, I am not sure if you're just dipping a bowl in or...?, but whatever container has the dirty water that you are taking out of the fish tank to dump - before you dump the water take the filter out, put it in the dirty water container, and rub your hands on each side RUBBA RUBBA RUBBA to get the major gunk out. You can also then upend all of the water in the filter into the dirty water container, and then when you put the new water in, also add some to the filter (so that both sides of the filter box fill up, otherwise the impeller won't run correctly. You'll know if you do it wrong because it will try and try and try to suck the water up and it will go HNGAHNGAHNGA but once you have enough water in the filter box it will suck the water up and quiet down).

Some people only feed their fish once a week. For your guys one small pinch (small! Think cumin-sized pinch not garlic sized pinch. Or if you like cumin, substitute in something you don't like, anise or some such. Anyways) every other day will do 'em fine. I know. Our guys are consummate beggars too. Matt's been forbidden from feeding them ever now because he would give them "treats" every time he walked by, and then wonder why the water was so dirty and smelled like Lake Erie.

{snip}

Love,
Tish

Yeah, I really do have the bestest friends.

Translation favor?

Hey, anyone here have good enough Parisian French that you could do a little bit of translation for me? It's a paying gig. It'd be translating about 250 words from an old book. Whoever volunteers also gets let in on the Seekrit Project, and a credit in the graphic novel, once it's published.

Lemme know --

Rattlin' mah tin cup

So my car just got towed into the shop for the second time in two weeks. This means that all my spare money this month (and for Christmas presents, dangit) will probably be going to SilverBean. This means I need to raise a little extra pin money.

So.

A bunch of you guys have admired my clockwork earrings ("gearrings") and other assorted clockwork jewellry . If I made a few items and put them up on Etsy, or something similar, would anybody be interested? How much do you want to pay for a pair of gearrings? What colors would you like to see -- beads of a specific color, or just the gold and silver of the watch pieces?

Also -- In addition to the hardbacks (there are still 5 hardbound "Clockwork Faerie" and 17 or so "Old Ghosts" left) I'm selling off the original art from both series. Only a few pages are gone, so if you're interested, now's the time to get in.

Pages from Clockwork Faerie will run between $50 and $250 (they're bigger and more time-intensive, but many pages are without backgrounds; hence: cheaper) and those from Old Ghosts will run between $75 and $150, depending on how sentimental I feel about the page in specific, and how many favors I may happen to owe you. ;)

So yeah. Let me know.

Presented without comment

Stop Wars

Holy Shit, I love Nerds

Cal Marching band does Video Game Medley. They make the Mortal Combat Dragon Logo fer crying out loud. Now that's some good nerdage.

Seekrit Project update... thingies.

For those of you who know what's going on, this'll cryptic little message will be even cooler:

The seekrit project revolves around a thingy. And a while ago someone made a version of this thingy. So I got in touch with someone else who'd written about the thingy, and he was really nice, and pointed me toward the person who'd made the version of the thingy. And I just got off the phone with that someone, who will be sending me photos of that version of the thingy. Said person is really nice, and we chatted for about a half-hour about the thingy.

I've also written about 35 pages of the rough draft. I'll talk about it more as soon as I'm able; beta reader volunteer corps, let me know if you have time to look at about a hundred pages, 'round about Christmas.

Yay!

Texas!

I rolled in from Texas at midnight last night. I'm pretty sure I went to work today, and I know I spent the evening unpacking and putting stuff away and looking at all the neato comics I bought or traded for. Texas was great -- really warm and nice, especially considering I came home to 40F weather starting with rain, progressing to purple thunderheads and 50mph bluster, then sun, then rainbows and finally, snow. I am not making this up; Michigan's November was at its schizophrenic best. So yeah, trotting around in my shirtsleeves for the weekend was pretty darn pleasant.

My hosts were Jeff and Tracy -- two of my earliest fans -- and gracious hosts they were. I was cooked for, provided with tasty food and drink and ferried around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Jeff and Tracy were first introduced to Vogelein by Jeremy Shorr, co-owner of Titan Comics and my travel co-ordinator.

So without further ado, let's get to the pictures!

So yeah! All in all a really great trip. I apologise that I didn't get photos of all the ArtLoveMagickers, including Josh Boulet, who I sat next to (Sorry Josh, I suck) but things got a little crazy. Thanks again to Jeff and Tracy and Jeremy and Cecilia for making it such a great trip and for hosting me. I hope everyone had as great a time as I did!

Dallas, Texas here I come!

Do you live in Dallas? Know anybody who does? If so, come on down -- or send 'em on down -- to Titan Comics tomorrow from noon till 11pm. I'll be there, as will ArtLoveMagic, and it sounds like it's going to be a really fantastic time.

Hope to see some of you there! If you're a blogreader, or a fan, please don't be shy about introducing yourself. I love meeting my readers!

Yay, Texas! Pictures to follow next week. Till then -- I'm off to sign books and make art and eat my bodyweight in longhorn steaks.

See you soon!