Got up early. Now, this is a tricky one- it can go either way on the Awesome factor. If you don't want to be awake, and have to go do things you don't want to do, it can be awesomely bad. But if your day is slotted to be awesomely good, then you want that Awesome to start as soon as possible. And it did.
Put stuff for beef-beer-n-barley stew in the crockpot. Sure, it wasn't fun at the time, but here I am, eleven hours later, appreciating the hell out of that decision.
Went to church early. Again, this is another one that might have some (okay, most) of you going, "And the awesome part of this is...?" Well, the awesome part was that we went early because Nathan was running through songs with the other Music People, because he's now part of that. Which makes me very happy. And what did I do while they were practicing? I...
Added about 600 words to the novel. Words that were sorely needed to transform a single paragraph of "tell" into a page of "show". That's what I've been up to lately, by the way- rewrites. It's the first time I've ever done it on such a long project, and it's been... interesting. Strictly speaking I don't have all my feedback from my beta readers yet, but it got to the point where I couldn't not write on it any longer. I take that as an exceptionally favorable sign.
Spent five hours with My People. Yep, Nathan drove me down to Portland and dropped me off at the Oregon Convention Center so that I could dork out with the rest of the comic geeks at Stumptown. And I had such an excellent time. So many wonderfully sweet and friendly and talented people, all jammed into one friendly little convention! Happiness definitely achieved. My first mission was to hunt down Mike Russell for Tavish (who could not attend) and get a few books. Mike was just excellently kind, and I teased him about appealing to what I called "the Tavish Demographic" (ie, burly men with beards and cargo pants.) (And niceness.) because there were two dudes (fans) standing there at the table that could have been the blonde and redheaded versions of Tavish, and it made me laugh.
From there I went and got another book for him (by DF Walker, who was also charming in spite of the fact that I don't think he was feeling well), took a brief moment to be midly fan-girlish toward Erika Moen (she likes my tattoos and I like hers) (and her, in general- she's kind of awesome), and then it was time for the first panel I wanted to attend-
Scott Allie: Comics Writing Workshop. The best part of this talk was definitely the fact that everything he had to say, I already knew. In fact I found it surprising that other people didn't instinctively understand things like pacing. So that was definitely reassuring to me. I slipped out a little early so that I could get over to the Oni Press table in time to catch my favorite current artist/writer duo:
Joelle Jones and Jamie S Rich. They are both wonderfully sweet people, which I knew already (I'd met Jamie before at a Stumptown years ago) but which is always nice to have reaffirmed. Plus, you know... they signed my old copy of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and my freshly purchased copy of Spell Checkers.
After that I had an hour to wander before the next panel, so I went looking for art to buy. This was a big and exciting thing for me, since this is the first time I've gone to a convention with cash set aside specifically to buy things that might catch my eye. Nathan had expressed an interest in me bringing home something "for the apartment", so I was especially careful to try and find things I thought would appeal to the both of us- and in the process spoke with some very nice people, indeed, including Jonathan Case, who asked me what kinds of comics I like to read.
"Comics with good art that are well-written," I replied.
"Well have I got a book for you!" he said, and filled me in on Dear Creature, which does, in fact, sound intriguing- and then he whipped out a sketch for me that fulfilled my other requirement. It's not coming out until October, but you can bet I'll be looking for it. I bought a very nice print from him that plays well to a certain inside joke between Nathan and myself regarding cephalopods.
I then purchased a lovely little print of Gavorting Mice (we'll just pretend they're rats) from Terri Nelson, who appreciated both my earrings and my "My Mom Rocks" shirt. I also got a print from Jen Wang (whom I just now realize I recognize from her work in Flight) and another from a fellow named Ed Kwong- who was not actually present but some of his associates were. The print was one I got thinking it was 100% to Nathan's taste. And I was totally right.
Finally four o'clock rolled around, and I scooted into the next talk that had caught my interest,
Four Secrets to Succeed in Publishing. It was given by Katie Lane and George Rohac, and it basically came down to, "Read your contract, don't be afraid to be assertive, and if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all." which are things my mother had taught me since I was old enough to... well, since always. Still, it's always pleasant to have one's common sense backed up by the been-there, done-that professionals.
Ask a Freelancer. This was probably my most favoritest panel of the day, made up of the afore-mentioned Erika Moen, Dylan Meconis, and Steve Lieber, all of Periscope Studio which, come to think of it, seems to be home to a lot of artists that I like. Hrm.... Anyway, they also addressed things that I was already familiar with (but only recently, due to having been reading a lot of books on freelancing/running your own business) but they were so entertaining that I just enjoyed it as an experience in and of itself. Also, I learned an important thing:
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| So there's that. |
And then the day was over, so I went outside to sit and wait for Nathan to come pick me up. I was flipping through my swag when a car pulled up, and I looked up and who should I see through the window?
My old friend Craig! So unexpected and awesomely awesome! I finally got to meet his lady, which made me very happy indeed, and promises were made to go surfing once they get back in the country. So that was just the perfect, perfect cherry on top of my wonderful ice cream sundae of a Sunday.
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