Archive for March, 2009

Happenings

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

I’ve recently done my first interview, and I think it went very well.  It was an e-mail interview, and it should be up in about a month at Jazma Online.  I’ll let you know when it’s up.

It was kinda strange, being interviewed.  Some of them were generic questions, and some were more specifically about me.  I give props to Rich Vasseur for doing some homework before he sent in the questions.  It was an interesting experience.
I’ve been doing a LOT of work, if you haven’t noticed.  I do the two columns, I edit, and I write.  Right now, I have the rest of the script for Annie O.N.E. to finish and get to Cristhian, and I have some e-mails to get around to sending out today.  
However, until doing this interview, despite the columns, I never really thought about people wanting to hear what I have to say.  About anything.  
You see, I don’t do the columns for any other reason than to help writers get better.  Artists can go to art school to learn how to draw, but where do writers turn?  Comics has a very specific language, and even though formats may change, there are two basic methods to use.  Who teaches the writers how to succeed in this?  How many classes are there that teach comic book writing?  I’ve only run across one, maybe two, but that’s it.  
So Bolts & Nuts is there in an attempt to help fill that gap.  I say a lot in it, and I’m thankful that people find it helpful, but besides telling the world I’m something of a long-winded jerk, what does it really say?  
Is that what interviews are for?  Getting to the person behind the words?  I think so.
I just heard a podcast interview that Cary did.  I wasn’t overly thrilled with it.  It did its job of raising awareness of Fallen Justice, which is always a good thing, and while it was the Cary show (it was his interview, after all), I feel he didn’t tell the full story of the genesis and changes to the series.  I was basically listed as the co-writer, and the person responsible for expanding it from four issues to six.  No mention of why, or what part I played in that restructuring.  Both of them.
I also take some objection with the interviewer.  He made it sound like Cary wrote the entire thing.  No question was asked about who did what in the story, or anything that could have gotten off the Cary show. 
I guess I should be happy I was mentioned at all.  Ross and Harold got some props, but Ken, the guy who edited the book, didn’t get a single mention.
Sure, there was ample opportunity to be mentioned.  One of the questions was basically, how did everyone meet.  No real answers were forthcoming from that question.
Maybe it’s just a case of me having sour grapes.  That’s totally possible.  I won’t deny it.  But I don’t think so.  
I have a small head cold.  I hope to kick it by Saturday.  Lenora’s birthday is coming, and I took off Sunday in order to spend the day with her.  We’ll be going to the movies as part of the plan.  Friday the 13th.  Even though it’s her day, she wants to go see something for me, not for her.  That’s love for you, folks!  She first put Watchmen out there, but I said no.  I’ve seen most of the Jason franchise in theaters, and I didn’t want to miss this one.  
I was about to close out, but that would have been wrong of me.  
The man who’s responsible for me being in comics found me on Facebook.  Let’s take a trip in the Way Back Machine.
It’s the early 80s.  I’m in 3rd grade.  A new guy named Larry Thomas comes to school, and we become friends.  He introduces me to comics, my first one being a DC with no cover.  From there, I was hooked.
Larry was something of a troubled youth.  Pretty sullen, and kinda violent.  Something of a bully.  Hell, he even bullied me on occassion.  We took martial arts class together for a while, but he quit a couple of months in.  We’d be over each other’s houses, and we’d trade comics.  He has a sister, who’s name I cannot remember.  She was younger, and so, uninteresting to me.  I thought his mother was hot, though.  I still can’t drive by his house without remembering some pretty good times.  This was all elementary school stuff.  But as a kid, Larry wasn’t very happy.
We went to different schools then, and lost touch.  He found me once before, though.  I was in the Marine Corps at the time, and my mother gave him my phone number.  Surreal.
Now he’s found me on Facebook, and from the conversation we had back when I was in the Corps to now, I’d say that he’s done a complete 180.  And honestly, I couldn’t be happier for him.
When I spoke to him those years ago (seven?  eight?), he sounded happy and calm, but also remorseful of things he did in the past.  He expressed that remorse to me, lightening his burden, and asked me to do something for him involving someone else.  I did that without any hesitation.  It was small, and cost me nothing.  However, those small things are often the most powerful ones.  
Larry seems to be doing well, and that’s because he found religion.
I don’t want anyone to misinterpret what I’m about to say here.  I’m religious.  I’m pagan.  However, I honestly believe that religion is a private thing, because it’s not for everyone.  Being pagan, I also have problems with the dogma of Christianity.  The Bible, up to the New Testament, is a great history book, as well as rules for living for Jewish people.  The New Testament, however, has holes you can drive universes through (the OT does, too, but the OT technically isn’t “Christian”).  Go red Holy Blood, Holy Grail for a history lesson (just disregard the Plantard stuff).
I have rarely met a person who found the Jewish/Islamic/Christian God and was a better person for it.  (I only add Islam in there to be complete.)  Most of the time, they turn into unsmiling people who are trying to have their “sins” lifted, and aren’t interested in much else except spreading the “good news.”  They know what they’ve done, they know what they’re missing, and they’re pissed about it.  They want you to be miserable, too, which is why they harangue you with their beliefs, spouting it as “truth.”
Go punch a brick wall.  Punch it with all your might.  Hard, right?  Broke your hand, too.  That’s truth.  Air isn’t invisible, it’s translucent.  Fire is hot.  The physical world, the one that we know, is truth.  It can be proven, from the standpoint of our limited understanding of these things.  You KNOW you’re going to get burned if you stick your hand in the fire.  You don’t know if there’s any such thing as a higher being.  The question can always be asked when it comes to first causes.  If there’s a god, what came before it?  What came before that?  You can espouse theories all you wish, but in the end, it all comes down to belief.  Beliefs aren’t truths.  
Like I said, I have rarely met a person who changed for the better when they found God.  However, I think Larry is one of them.  Positive changes.  I can look at the pictures he has up on Facebook, and see that his smiles are genuine.  He’s happy.
And honestly, his happiness makes me happy.  I wish him continued happiness.  
Okay, I’m going to eat something, and then get started on this script and e-mails.  Like I said, go read Holy Blood, Holy Grail.  You’ll ask all kinds of questions afterward.
-Steven
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Some Things…

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Today’s a great day.  Really.  It’s Thursday, and it feels like it.  I don’t feel behind or under the gun.  It’s really a fantastic feeling.

Had a little scare earlier today, though.  Well, one was more drastic than the other.  I had a nightmare to start off my morning.  I haven’t had one in a while, so I figure that I was due.  It wasn’t that bad nor particularly frightening, either.  Just enough to get my blood going and wake with a small start.  And no, it wasn’t really anything to write about.  
The bigger scare, though, was the fact that the 4 day passes of SDCC are almost sold out.  In a day.  WOW.  That blew my mind.  Yes, I got one, but I need to get another one for Lenora.  Otherwise, it’ll be the more expensive day passes.  We’ll see how it goes.
And that’s just to get IN the place.  I still need to get there and back, and lodging.  We’re looking to stay at a friend’s house during that weekend, so that’ll be taken care of.  Getting there?  Probably a rental car and using the trolley once we’re there.  It’ll get taken care of.  
I’m also looking into something that would be really good for me.  More about that if it does or doesn’t happen.  Hey, if I have to play the waiting game, so do you.
Yes, I’m still waiting to hear about the big project.  I know it’s March.  These things take time.  So that I’m not in a holding pattern, I’m still working on other things.
I was at work the other day, and finally finished the first issue to Annie O.N.E.  Pretty stoked about that.  I was having trouble with it before, but that trouble went away.  So it’s good.  I was also working on Group, and am nearly ready to snd th next set of pages off to Sara.  She’s doing a phenomenal job with it, let me tell you.  I’m very lucky to have her.  
It doesn’t help that I was giggling my ass off as I wrote a particular scene in Group, either.  It was pretty funny to me, in a messed up sort of way.  Maybe I’ll talk about it somewhere down the line.  
Oh!  I have to investigate getting a card made up for SDCC.  Looking into that now.  It should be good.  It will also be the first time I’d be handing out cards not only as a professional, but for something that I really believe in: myself.  My card, for myself, not for someone else’s business or anything like that.  It’s not for Amway (also known as Britt Worldwide), or for a lawyer network or anything like that.  It’s going to be for me, and all about me.  I’m pretty excited.
I’m also trying not to start another project.  I want to get these finished first.  Well…  Okay, I have another artist for another project, but it should be good to go pretty soon.  That project is already written.  I’m talking about another writing project.  I have a couple of ideas, but I’m keeping them under wraps for now.  It’ll do me good.  
I should be starting up a couple of editing projects soon, which will keep me busy. 
For real life stuff, nothing too much is going on.  Lenora took off today and tomorrow, so we’re spending time together.  That’s always good.  
Work is good.  One of the newbies didn’t make it through training.  She wasn’t really suited for the job, anyway.  Was going to get someone killed.  Literally.  It was just a matter of time.  It became harder than it needed to be in order to get rid of her because of my other co-workers, but it all turned out well in the end.
There are another couple of newbies in classroom training right now.  
Okay, time for a small aside.  Call me superficial, but there’s a certain quality of both men and women that I work around that has to be spoken about.  I’m not going to say that we’re all beautiful, but damn, there’s a high concentration of good looking people there, both men and women.  There are few people that wouldn’t be able to find someone they liked there, just from a perspective of looks.  Personalities is something different.  But the last few classes have been something of a decline in quality of talent and quality of “talent.”  It was too good to last, I guess.
I may be training at my job soon, too.  Not training for it, training other people to do it.  Yeah, I find it scary, too.  Not something I’m really looking forward to, because I don’t feel comfortable enough in what I’m doing at all positions yet in order to really train at them.  Ah, no matter.  It’s coming, and I’ll make my way through it.  It will be fine.
That’s it for me for now.  Go watch The Mummy (Boris Karloff).  
-Steven
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Moving?

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

It’s definitely in the realm of possibility.  I don’t know how to feel about it, really.  How about I come back to it?  That’s real life stuff.  Let’s talk comics for just a short bit.

I tried to make a move recently, and was told today that the people weren’t interested at the moment.  Well, that’s what it boiled down to.  But I’m not going to let it keep me down.  I’ll just have to continue to work hard.
Speaking of which, I’m pretty stoked about the upcoming SDCC.  Its been five years since I last went, and I’m a LOT further along now than I was before.  A lot of that is due to the fact that I’m pushing myself to be more out there with my writing and my projects.  I have to do it for myself, because no one else is going to do it for me.  That’s simply the way it goes.
I’ve also avoided going to see Watchmen.  I’ll buy it when it comes out on dvd, but I believe that the movie was made too soon.  A story that deconstructed superheroes should not have been translated into a medium that was just getting good at telling superhero tales.  This is a movie that should have been done in another ten to twenty years.  That’s just my take.  Obviously, others disagreed. (It’s not like I was asked, anyway.)
Yup.  I’m distracted.  It’s the moving thing.  Okay, I’ll break it down, and I’ll try not to get too technical.  I’m also going to start WAY back, but I’ll gloss over the boring bits.  Well, I’ll try.
Okay, I was originally born on Long Island, NY.  When I was 18, I joined the military.  While there, I’ve lived in Japan, NY, and CA.  After separating (honorably) from the military, my first wife and I moved back to NY.  We split, and she moved to VA.  She then asked me to move to VA to be closer to the children.  It just so happened that my job had an office in the same town my ex was living, so I transferred.  
I got remarried, my ex moved back to NY, and my present wife hated the VA office.  She wanted to move, and we talked about it, and settled on Tucson (after discarding NY and CA as being too expensive to live, FL and GA as being too uncomfortable, and Alaska as being too damned far off the map).  
While in Tucson, we’ve moved twice, which doesn’t count the initial move here.  Following all of this?  Now, we’re in a house that we’d like to buy.  We’ll come back to that in a little bit.
Now, my wife’s job is growing, as a region.  She works in insurance, and the states the office here has to handle are growing at a phenomenal rate.  It’s almost unheard of.  If the pace stays the same, with low instances of accidents, next year’s profit sharing is going to set a record for the company.  
However, the rate of growth, if consistent, would necessitate the Tucson office being its own regional office, instead of just a satellite of the San Diego office, which it is now.  Right now, her company is sharing space with another company in a building, but the company likes to build its own office whenever it can.  It likes to own the buildings.  If (no, not if, when, really) it becomes its own region, there will be an exodus out of Tucson.  Why?  Because there aren’t enough qualified people to hire here.  That’s saying something.
So, the rumors my wife has been hearing are Oregon and Colorado.  There’s also the possibility of staying in Arizona and moving to Phoenix, but that chance is pretty slim.
This is down the line.  Two to three years.  We’ll call it two years for the office to gain its own region status, and then another year to have the building built and ready to move in.  Maybe a little less on the building, but still.  It would be a phenomenal chance for my wife, and one I don’t think she should pass up.  But what does it do to me?  What would it do to us, if we bought the house?
Let’s start with Phoenix first, the most unlikely of scenarios.  It does nothing to us, besides ensure the fact that we would need to buy a second car.  We’ve been jumping through some hoops with the one car all this time, but nothing too strenuous.  If the office moves there, that would mean a lot of driving for her, which isn’t something she’s looking forward to, but would do.  If we have bought the house by then, there’s no problem with that, either.  I could keep my job, and things would be great.  Nothing much changes.  Again, that’s the most unlikely of scenarios.
Either one of the next two means a move, and while I wouldn’t be happy about it, I’d do it.  
Colorado: not really a favorite place of mine.  Not really a place I’d like to be.  I’d LOVE to visit, but I don’t know if I’d want to live there.  Just a vibe, y’know?  Nothing I can really explain.  But who knows, if we were to go there, I may love it.  I just don’t think I would.  
I’d much rather go to Oregon, if I had my druthers.  We have Dark Horse comics somewhere in Oregon, we have Gail Simone there, we’re still relatively close to San Diego (driving distance?  maybe, but Colorado definitely puts us out of range for a drive there for the con), and besides that, it would be a return to lush greenery and friggin seasons!  I didn’t know how much I missed greenery until I went back to NY and saw it.  
So, what does this do to me?  Of course, with moving, I’d have to quit my job.  The job I struggled a bit to keep (one of the positions kicked my entire ass!), the one that allows me to work for four days, and have three off.  The one that allows me to work at night, that allows me to bring out my laptop and write.  The one that allows me to do everything I need to do, almost as I need to do it.  That one.  
Would I be able to transfer to another city position, if we were to move to another state?  Who knows?  I can’t even do any real research on it, because I don’t know what state or city they would move the office to.  I don’t know what the environments are like, pay, work schedule, anything.  
And then, there’s the fact that I’d be starting all over yet again.  When we moved out here, Lenora knew a few people, but I didn’t know anyone.  I now have a job that I love, working with people that I generally like, and am making friends I can hang out with.  And then to have to leave all of that behind?  I did it when I moved to Virginia, and then had to leave there just as I was truly getting comfortable.  Three years.  And now, to possibly have to do it again?  Not something I’m looking forward to.
Then there’s the house.  We like it, and we’d like to buy it.  But why buy it if we may be moving?  Then we’d have to sell it, and everyone’s seen the economy.  So that may be put on hold while we figure things out.
There’s another possibility, however.  Lenora could retire.  She’s eligible in 2 years.  She’d be 52, and would have 15 years with the company.  What would she do then?  I don’t know.  She’s very good at her job, but her skill set is limited.  Her age would be a factor, too.  I personally don’t think retirement is an option right now.  It’s like moving to Phoenix: it’s out there, but highly unlikely.  
Yep.  We have a lot to discuss soon.  A lot of ramifications, and things hinging on other things.  
Thanks for listening.  I appreciate it.  I’m going to go continue watching Lost.  For you, however, I recommend watching The Saint.  The original movie, not the spectacle with Val Kilmer.  I think it was made in the 50s.  You’ll be glad you did.
-Steven
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Yet Even MORE Happenings!

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

 

I hope that it soon seems like I’m everywhere.  Or at least very prolific.

I’ve put up two webcomics: Group, and Bullet Time.  Yeah.  I’m excited.  I’ve gotten some feedback on Group already, and besides some minor tweaks, no one has said for me to give it up and do something else.  I’ll count that as a win.  Bullet Time just went up, so there’s that.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’m looking forward to seeing what people say about it.  I almost threw up the entire thing, but decided against it.  

I’m also starting yet another webcomic soon.  It’s entitled My Life, and the artist, Chris Bradberry, is working on designs and layouts now.  That story is fully written.  Pretty soon, I’m going to have a LOT of things to sell.  And when I say pretty soon, I’m talking about next year.  My Life, and I’m also thinking about putting Bolts & Nuts together as a book.  I have a LOT of material for it.  Figuring the typsetting and such, I have over 200 pages for it.  Huge.  And that’s just for right now.  But back to My Life and Chris.

The story itself is about 44 pages, and I’m thinking I’ll run it twice a week.  It would be nice, methinks.  Run that twice a week, and then have Group maybe run twice a week…I don’t know.  I don’t want to run out of content too fast, but at the same time, I also want to get things into the hands of people as soon as I can.   It’s a balancing act.

Anyway, I have thoughts for My Life.  It’s a superhero story that isn’t.  It’s got some love and loss in there, and I think it’s quite powerful.  Chris loved it when he read the script, even though I think there’s something of a disconnect because of the way I wrote it.  Mostly captions with very little actual speaking.    And as for the superheroes–well, I’ll be doing something a little special with them.  You’ll see.

More than likely, I’ll be doing the lettering of the project, as well.  Yes, there’s a method to my madness.

It’s like this: if I can get Chris to handle ALL of the art chores, and if I handle the lettering, then there’s only two people to split things with.  While it’s not about the money for me, it’s also something I don’t want to lose my shirt on.  If I make enough to cover the printing and to pay Chris for his hard work, then I’m really pretty easy.

Also, the more I write, the higher my visibility, which should help to open doors for all parties involved.  So, yes, I’m looking at it from a few angles.  I think that’s the smart thing to do.  I’m not just a writer, not just a creator, but I’m also becoming a businessman.  It’s out of necessity.

I’ll also be calling an elementary school friend pretty soon.  He turned into a lawyer, and one of his specialties is entertainment law.  So, yeah, I’ll be calling him soon, both to catch up and see what I need to help protect myself.  Either that, or I’ll get back into Prepaid Legal.  I don’t know yet.  

What else is happening?  Well, I might be doing yet ANOTHER webcomic.  This one would be a more traditional strip.  The artist has something of a rough style, so we’ll see how it works out.  If he’s not up to snuff, then I won’t be able to work with him.  I’m at the point now where I don’t have to work with just anyone.  It’s a nice place to be.  Right now, he’s working on some character designs I gave him.  We’ll see what he does with those and with a strip or two before any final determination is made.

Spreading myself thin?  Maybe.  But thin is better than not having anything, right?  It will also show my range and dedication.  It’s about doing the work, opening doors, and getting the stories told.  If I’m also able to make a living off of it as well, then even better.  

Now, I have to admit, I’m not much for comic strips.  I have ideas for some, but I’m not much of a fan of them.  Often enough, they’re just amusing, and not really “funny.”  However, in thinking about what I may about to be undertaking, being amusing is something to shoot for.  If I reach the realm of funny, even better.  I won’t know until I try, and I’ll have yet another thing to work on this weekend.

Real life intrudes right about now: I’ve been watching Lost on Hulu almost to the exclusion of all else.  I’m a couple of weeks behind on Battlestar Galactica, Life, Lie To Me, Legend of the Seeker, and Damages, not to mention Survivor.  Six shows I’ve been neglecting.  I’ll do my best to catch up today and tomorrow on them  Oh, and Dollhouse, which makes it seven.  Nice.  

Work is going well, also.  The bid for shifts for the fall came out, and there was a night shift with a weekend off that was available.  Shocked the total crap out of me.  I talked it over with Lenora, and then jumped on it.  Why so surprised?  Because I’m pretty low on the totem pole.  The bid goes in order of seniority, and I’ve only been there for going on two years.  I’m not the least senior person there, but close to it.  And to get a weekend off while still working nights?  That’s GREAT!  This means I’ll be able to watch football!  

I’m also taking some vacation this time around, too.  This is going to be a true vacation.  I’m taking vacation in July, but that’s a working vacation.  I’ll be going to SDCC, and while that’s great, it’s also going to be exhausting.  

And the really exciting news of the week?  I’ll be picking up the Prince cd when it drops on Sunday.  I’ll be heading over to Target (pronounced: tar-zhay) when I get off work and pick that up.  Then I’ll listen to it and pass out.  Maybe I’ll pick Lenora up first.  That sounds like a plan.

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One Step Closer

Monday, March 30th, 2009

So there I was, going through my e-mails, and noticed I have a few that still need to be answered.  I’ve been so wrapped up in getting the webcomics up that I’ve neglected it a little bit.

Mark the colorist needs an e-mail to tell him his services won’t be needed for Group.  It’s better in b/w.  Don’t worry, by the time you’re reading this, all the e-mails have been either read and/or sent.  I still want him to work on Annie O.N.E., though, so all is not lost.  Nowhere near it.

Then there’s Cristhian.  He’s the artist I’m working with on Annie O.N.E.  He’s been steadily sending in pages, and they’re pretty cool.  I just need to finish looking at them, and either accept them, or suggest changes.  I think they’ll be fine, though.  He’s pretty good.  I just need to have the pages colored.  We’ll see what Mark is able to do with them.  I’ve been trying to get the first few pages to him, but his system kicks them back to me every time.  I’m going to try something different in order to get him the pages.  We’ll see how it works out.

I’ve got my card designed, and am waiting to hear back on a price for them.  One thousand cards.  I shouldn’t need cards for a good long while.  I was talking with Lee in order to get permission from the artist that’s working on the book we’re trying to do together to use an image for the card.  Lee then offered to do some backseat designing for the card, and I’d have been a total idiot to not take him up on it.  I was initially going to only do a batch of about three hundred, which would have been fine for a decent amount of time, but Lee said that 1k wouldn’t cost much more than 300, and since I’m taking some of my own advice, I figured that 1k would be fine.  And the card looks nice!

Lee even went so far as to send me a copy of the invoice for his company, showing how much they paid for their cards.  I was duly impressed.  Not with the price of the cards (and they’re not much more expensive at 1k than at 300), but at the complete transparency of the company.  Of course he won’t talk about things that are in active development, waiting to find a home, but the things he’s willing to share sometimes astound me.

I was at Digital Webbing once, and a poster asked a question about a contract they had received.  That contract had some language that they weren’t familiar with, and was difficult to parse.  Lee came in and said that the contract could use some changes, and if any company says that their contract states something but it’s not plainly evident, ask them to change it so that it’s plain, or if they’re promising something and it’s not in the contract, to have them put it in.  If they refuse, then you know that the company isn’t on the up and up.  For his own company, people have asked him to make certain things in the contract clearer, and he had no problem in changing the language to fit.

Pretty soon, I’m going to know something about that contract.  Lee asked for my street address in order to mail me a contract, and I’m semi-patiently waiting to get it in the mail.  Yeah.  A contract.  That puts me one step closer to getting the book done.  Looking forward to it, too.  This project has been looming over me for a while.  I want to begin it so I can end it.  I’m nowhere near sick of it yet, just tired of waiting.  It’s been months.  All part of the process, I guess.

And I’ve come to another decision.  I’m going to collect the articles I’ve written for Bolts & Nuts and turn it into a book.  Now that I think about it, it might be something I want to run past Lee.  The way I’m figuring it, right now, I have over 200 pages of material.  This is after typesetting and adding artwork.  The great part is that it’s generally already written.  It needs to be cleaned up, of course, and I can’t have things like links in there, but there are ways around it.  It should be good.  Now, I’m just wondering how graphic the book has to be for Lee.  I guess I’m going to find out.  I’ll write him when I get home.

Aside from comic book work, my night-job is going well.  I just need a vacation.  I haven’t gone on vacation since the last SDCC, which I didn’t go to.  So this year, I’m taking a lot of time off in the second half of this year. 

Okay, since SDCC is going to take place during my regularly scheduled work, I scheduled to have that time off.  I work Fri-Mon during that time, and I took it all off.  With my regular three-day weekend both before and after it, I’ll be off for 10 days.  Nice, right?  Since it’s mostly a working weekend, with a six hour drive on both ends, I’m going to need a little bit of time to recuperate.  But that’s on my agenda.  I don’t plan on doing much besides sleeping when we get back.  Anyway, that’s July.

I’m also taking July 3rd off, because the sooner I take a day off, the happier I’ll be.  But wait!  There’s more! 

 

I’m also taking off a week in November for my wedding anniversary.  I’m taking five days of vacation, which will give me a total of eleven days off in November.  Really, that can’t be beat.  I earn 4 hours of vacation every pay period, so it’s 8 hrs a month.  As long as I’m careful with it, I should be able to take a decent interval off every six months.  I may take some time off in Feb or March, which gives me enough time to want to take time off in July, which will be right in time for next year’s SDCC.  See how that works?  Always gotta think ahead.

Things with Lenora and myself are really good.  There are times when I catch myself, and am just very surprised at how content I am with her, how much she’s settled me.  We fit very well together, and only get on each other’s nerves every so often.  That happens with everyone.  It’s not anything that either one of us can’t live with.  I enjoy her company a lot.  We don’t even have to be in the same room—just in the same house, and we’re fine.

Her friends threw her a birthday party.  It was at one of their homes, and it was a long day.  It was a rolling party, because most of them were either getting off of work or going to work, so we were partying for about 11 hours.  Neither one of us felt the need to be all up under the other all the time.  She’d disappear outside or somewhere; I’d disappear to the back of the house to read tarot cards.  We didn’t really ask about the whereabouts of the other because we were comfortable and among friends.  I don’t know how often that happens with other people, but people look at us like we have nine heads with only two fingers between them.

I wasn’t this settled with my ex-wife.  I had to fight too hard to carve time out for myself for the various things I do.  A writer needs to write, and if I don’t have the space to do it, I’m not happy.  My ex didn’t give me that space.  She wanted it all for herself.  There were other problems, and I take responsibility for my part in it, but still, I wasn’t settled.  I was always looking for something better.  I don’t do that anymore.

And how do I thank her?  How do I tell her what she’s done for me?  She thinks I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I know I’m just a guy.  Hell, our gratitude for each other is probably equal, each for different things.  We allow each other to just be, without judging.

It really is pretty nice.

That’s about it for me.  More pages to touch up on the lettering, e-mails to write, and then eventual sleep to get.

Go watch Blazing Saddles.  Make it a Gene Wilder day.

-Steven

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