TwoThousingTen!
Woah, doesn't that sound like the future? More so than usual, I mean. I haven't felt this much in need of a jetpack since it turned two thousand (this is the first decade I've been entirely conscious of, my memory kicks in around 1993, a combination of my sister being born and the dinosaurs of jurassic park)
I thought I'd do one of those cliche, look back on the past year, look forward to the next year sorta blog posts.
What a pile of epic times 2009 has been!
This year has been the up and downiest year I've ever had, my goodness!
Career wise, it's been fairly positive. I had a new book come out in February, 'Cupcakes of Doom' and it has sold pretty well. Paid off it's own print run costs, as well as the printing costs of the previous book, 'Another Dirt Sandwich' which debuted the year before, right when the economy collapsed, and sold very poorly.
I also came up with two new sets of concepts and characters, that I think are going to be very contributing factors in me being famous. One of which is still a secret mystery to you, SHH! But the other I'm hoping you're familiar with: Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken!
I created them originally intended for Nickelodeon Magazine, I had been in chats with one of their comic editors, Chris, for a number of years. He always had always liked my work, but kept saying "It's too complicated. Come up with something simple, not too many characters, and you're a shoe-in!"
And so I mused for a bit, and came up with something very simple and very me. I have drawn penguins my whole life, they're sorta my thing (way before the modern day penguin explosion happened, sure there were penguin characters before me, but I still feel I kinda pushed them into their present day popularity. We'll never know I suppose.)
I've also been drawing pirates for a while, I find myself in sympathy with their sense of flamboyance. I combined the two (something that should have occurred to me years ago, and BING! I had my most iconic character ever! Then I threw in a Ninja Chicken, cuz it seemed like the thing to do.
I was originally going for a very 'spy vs spy' sorta feel, but my love of dialogue and bickering reared it's head, and, well, if you're familiar with the comic, that's all you need to know really.
I showed them to Chris, he liked them very much. they work months ahead of the game, so it looked quite thumbs up they'd be in the November issue. Hooray!
And then, 3 days later, Viacom announced that they were shutting down Nickelodeon Magazine. Chris himself found out via the press release. Hooroors! Talk about bad luck/timing/arglebargle.
This is where the roller coaster, uppedy downedy fashion of the year comes into play.
I've been doing my own thing with the characters, we'll see what happens next. We got plush toys made, that is such a cool feeling, seeing cartoons you invented made real.
Well, there's my career in a nutshell for you! The other big area of my life would be my personal life, and so, here it is.
In February, in Hawaii, on and around valentines day, I broke up with my first and only long time, long distance girlfriend. That kind of sucked, kinda really sucked.
Little things were causing the relationship to turn sour. We didn't see eye to eye on a couple very important issues, and I felt like the only way we could be happy was if one of us got some kind of personality transplant. That isn't fair to anybody. Plus, with a long distance relationship, waiting 6 months to hug and kiss a person is hard. It's better than nothing, certainly, which is pretty much what I've had since, but, there you are.
I've got some regrets, a good chunk of guilt, and I certainly miss her, and the thoughts of what I thought our life would be like together, I think ultimately I made the right choice. It's better to be lonely that with the wrong person. She's moved on (annoyingly, found an awesome new boyfriend who lives right nearby. I don't begrudge her finding a source of comfort, but I can't claim not to be jealous I haven't been able to find similar.)
I'm ready to move on. Actively trying to find new friends and social groups, hopefully meet some new people.
Anybody reading this who wants to hook me up with any of their friends, feel free : ) I promise to be charming and wonderful, as you well know.
And that is the end of my complaining about this subject. I've been talking about it rather endlessly, to pretty much anyone who'd listen. And since most of you reading this are friends of mine, I promise you've heard the last of it from me. I fear becoming 2 dimensional, and being 'complaining about his ex-guy' is certainly incredibly boring. Forgive me, and thank you for the loan of your shoulder.
This has been hard, one of the most painful things that has ever happened to me, but I think I'm over the worst of it. You're all awesome.
I really have made a ton of friends this year, more so than in any year before. I've made probably a dozen good friends. Sadly, the nearest is 2 hours away from me, but then, that's what the internet is for, keeping in touch. I got more christmas cards this year than my parents, it was awesome. You all know who you are, and I give you many many hugs, you have a great taste in friends to be friends with me (hee hee hee. My ego is second to none you know!)
Also this year, I got to meet Terry Pratchett, my favorite author that was pretty darn cool. Had a great time at the Discworld Convention in September, as well as hanging around at a bunch of various book shows and cool colleagues in June at 3 different shows (thanks for letting me stay at your house cool people who let me stay at your houses!)
I also acquired a shiny gold suit, a number of new houses, visited the way cool Kaedy (whom I met at discworld) at the largest Ren Faire in the world, and even got a haircut at the haircut store.
I also did some other things, but I forget what they were. I'll have to make up a bunch of cool stuff when I write my autobiology.
Anything else I need to say? Can't think of it. Anybody interested in more about me, just ask. I'll make up some sort of answer that sounds good.
Here's to a fantastic 2010! 2009 was an odd one, that's for sure. Here's hoping the world doesn't fall apart more so than usual, I got stuff to do, and I need a society to do it in.
Cheerio!
Ray
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