As is, some time later, years later, those who know will look back and say “Oh, yeah, that’s the year Scraps decided to write/draw a cookbook. Good think that’s over.”

Or something like that.

Not that I haven’t been a busy little monkey. And not that I haven’t been drawing, either! I’m about to finish up Chapter 4 (of 5, plus a prologue–done–and epilogue) of What to Feed Your Raiding Party. Well, the pencils. Which, let’s face it, is the long, laborious part of things. Inking goes quicker as long as my hands hold out and, yes, there’s still the formatting to do of the rapidly-approaching-200-pages tome and the spot illustrations and cover BUT the onerous penciling (and creating scenes and worlds from just my grey matter–definitely the most exhausting part of it all, really) is drawing (and I typed that with absolutely zero irony) to a close.

Which means Cocktail Hour will return to tell the story of the house on Longview Drive. One upside to the delay? I know how a major part of that story ends, which was very much up in the air when we started. I’m looking forward to getting back to both Cocktail Hour as well as Where the Geeks Are (oh, yes, it’s still floating around there, too!) but I’m not even going to go down the rabbit hole of I’ll be back on such-and-such date. As much as a deadline has the power to motivate, I honestly have no idea if it’s going to be another 3 months before I can get back here or (dear god no) more. And I just don’t want to let either of us down.

In the mean time, please make sure you’re subscribed to the RSS feed (would you like an email option, too? because I can do that if even 1 person would prefer it that way) to know when stuff starts to happen over here, again. And check out What to Feed Your Raiding Party, where I do a status update once a week. Even if it’s to say I’ve finished 1 page or a brainstorm, I post.

Thanks for your patience, you’re the best!

I like lists and numbers, so let’s put this year in perspective:

• 1 trip to Nebraska
• 2 batches of Limoncello
• 3 Conventions (MegaCon, MobiCon, and UP!Fair)
• 4 Character Cocktails
• 5 Scripts for What to Feed Your Raiding Party
• 9 Food & Game Pairings
• 16 out of 64 Arts covered in 92 posts
• 26 Cocktail Hour comics
• 35 States given their own Cocktails
• 35 Where the Geeks Are comics
• 50 WtFYRP Comic pages drawn
• 59 Nibbles Posts
• 91 recipes tested

A couple of art projects, a handful of other posts and 1 big house move.

It’s been a busy year with it’s fair share of bumps but, wow, I’m really looking forward to 2011! Several of the blogs have been a smidge dormant the last couple of months (and, yes, I’m going to post this across the various blogs just to wrap up the year nicely) and that’s something I’ll be working on in the upcoming year.

Basically, it all boils down to 1 thing:

Balance.

I don’t set resolutions, but I do make goals and I like to set intentions. Among the goals are finishing What to Feed Your Raiding Party and getting it into print. That’s a pretty big one, sure, but the work I put in this past year will make finishing it this year doable. I’m looking forward to wrapping up the remaining 15 state cocktails for Sips & Shots and starting the new series (ooh, secrets, but you’ll find out soon enough), as well as continuing on with the 64 Arts project–I’ve got some big plans for that one, too, but it’ll take more than a 2011 to accomplish those. Getting back to the 2 webcomics is also on the list, once the book is finished.

Personally, my overriding intention is to find balance, happiness and fulfillment in the new year. Yes, it’s a bit of a vague intention but I think these sorts of things need to be: what seems fulfilling today, on the eve of a new calendar year, may be very different from the fulfillment I seek 3, 5 or 7 months from now.

I wish you all well in the new year!

I have this project I’ve been chipping away at, maybe you’ve heard of it? What to Feed Your Raiding Party–ring a bell?

I’ve been throwing bits and pieces of time at it for 5 months and it’s nowhere near finished. And those bits and pieces of time are the reason why: it is at once my greatest hope for the future and my red headed stepchild of a project. And that’s not fair to it, me, or the people I’m writing it for.

So for the next two months both Cocktail Hour and Where the Geeks Are will be on hiatus so that I can focus my time and energy. At the end of July I’ll decide if August will be taken off, too.

But that doesn’t mean cobwebs will be gathering here! Think of it like a summer break for your favorite shows. I’m not planning to go the re-run route, but we’ll be subbing in various updates from the cookbook project: maybe a sketch here, an excerpt there, a tip another time–basically whenever I’ve got stuff worth sharing which I’m hoping will be quite often.

And because I’d really love it for my analytics numbers not to bottom out, the bits I post here? Won’t be the same as the ones over at the cookbook site or the other comic. So please keep your subscription to the RSS feed (or start one if you haven’t already) and stop by periodically for news.

And please know that this isn’t an easy decision for me, I’ve been fighting it for more than 2 months because I’m stubborn and didn’t want to admit I can’t do it all. Please hang with me through this–the best is yet to come!

One good thing about no realtor on house #1–you don’t have to pretend you like it! There were some good points (a large kitchen was not one of them) but we weren’t in love with it.

The second house really was the best, location-wise. It was moments away from downtown, shopping and entertainment and character can be a very good thing in the right house. The kitchen was kinda wonky though, and very cramped, and the toilet sitting in the middle of the bedroom certainly didn’t help matters.

House #3 we wanted to like. It, too, was close to a lot of things we wouldn’t mind being close to but the backyard was practically non-existent (the patio had a half-wall to keep you from falling down a short cliff) and it was tough to get a reading on a place when it’s so. very. messy. And that driveway was scary. The landlord was a cool guy, though, so it’s tough that it just wasn’t going to be a good place for us.

The other title in the running was “Peeping Todd” but I didn’t want folks to get the wrong idea.

So. No, I do not possess patience (must have been handed out in the same line as sense of direction) nor am I terribly interested in learning it. I did try my best to be fair and wait until he had a chance to see it before I told him how much I liked it and thought it was meant for us and all that, but, well, there’s that patience thing. And he’s awfully indulgent of me.

Oh, and yes, I do have a bar cart that was a Christmas present from my Mom several years ago so having a place to set up the bar (which has far exceeded the little cart I started with) is sort of important. Where else would I mix my weekly cocktail?

Oh, sure, there were other important things: it was in our price range, had 3 bedrooms plus the enclosed garage, 2 full baths, w/d included and was plenty big enough for us. It was just old (built in the 70s) and it showed. And the previous tennants? Moved out in a hurry, barely priming the walls. You could see painted handprints on the back of the front door, swirls and dots and all sorts of other inventive paint techniques in the other bedrooms. It had those horrid sliding closet doors that remind me of cheap mobile homes… it wasn’t love at first sight.

But when I saw the wine-label wallpaper border it did it for me. It was my house. Only it wasn’t just for me, now, was it?

It wasn’t a stellar con, sales-wise, but I’m okay with what I did sell. I’m getting a better idea of what is going to work for Cons and what might not, and better ways to focus a table on them. Of course, the next con is DWEX so it’ll be a different crowd so, well, who knows?

Always a learning experience!

I didn’t do a lot of shopping this con but I did pick up a pair of earrings (from a girl whose card I neglected to get) and a Romanti-Goth coloring book from Seraphemera Books. I’m not goth of any kind, but I love the idea of an alphabetical goth coloring book–just need to stock up on some darker shades! I had a great table-neighbor in Professor Tesseract of Gryphon Arrow. It was great to see Aardvark Screenprinting again–they have awesome shirts and Waverly’s smiling face is always a happy sight! We also made a new friend: Miki of LaCourse Studios. She’s got great jewelry–those pictures hardly do her clay-work justice–and if you’re in her neck of the woods (North Carolina) she teaches classes, too!

Finally, I had to great fortune to meet some of the folks from CoastCon! CoastCon 34 will be next March and I’m already making plans to be there and be a part of it. It just so happens that the fine folks from CoastCon (at least the one’s I met) also happen to be a part of Area 504 (warning: flash intro with music, if you have to skip it because you’re at work or something, use this link instead): a group that considers themselves a drinking club with a science fiction problem. How perfect is that?

Sales may not have been astounding, but the people were awesome and that’s why it was a great con.

I am not kidding when I say that one guy I called had just taken a deposit 2 hours earlier. And it was a huge house for not much rent. So much disappointment was there. Fail.

For those just joining us, Todd and I have been living together for a year now (go us!) so this part of the story actually took place a year and a few months ago. Part of the “delay” is that I like to be able to really look back at a situation and know how it’ll turn out before I start telling it here. For instance, we’d been dating for almost a year before I told the story of how we met and another year before I told about our continued relationship and Todd moving to town. I suppose I should be glad that I didn’t wait til September to start this story, too! I just figured Year 4 would be good for telling our house and related stories.

After all, everything is an adventure!

* * *

Hey, guys! I’m in Mobile, Alabama, for MobiCon this weekend, May 14-16, so if you’ll be at the Con or in the area, please stop by and say hi! I always love meeting my readers!

* * *

Also! Until the end of the month I’m hosting a giveaway as a guest blogger for Circle of Food. I’m giving away 2 signed copies if What’s New, Cupcake?, all you have to do is follow the comment directions at the end of my Creative Cupcakes post (it’s simple, I promise!!!)

So, it’s the first comic of year 4 (!!!) and I’m starting the story of how Todd and I managed to move in together, cohabitate, and live to tell the tale.

And, as it seems to happen so often when the new comic year rolls around, I’m experimenting a little. I really liked the informal, sort of organic page style I’d been using for the pages last month so I’m planning to continue it for the time being. Not all updates will be quite this text heavy, it’ll just depend on what the page needs.

I’m also taking a page from Nell Brinkley’s book (figuratively speaking, of course). Todd got it for me for Christmas and not only did I discover she does the double-line style that I stumbled across on my own several years ago (a true coincidence, that one) but her weekly cartoons were composed of a main illustration and vignettes interspersed with text, often in verse and frequently numbered to guide the reader. It’s just a different way to do things and I think it suits the particular story I’m trying to tell better than a strict panel-guided style.

We’ll see.

Next week: more of the search.

First, today is my birthday and if you can’t bend (your own) rules on your birthday, what’s the point?

Second…

Find out the rest of the story over at Sips & Shots!