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I finished my book on Sunday, after putting nose to grindstone and adding nearly 4000 words. There's always a bit of a hangover after that - I'm still sort of staggering around in a daze.

Yesterday was President's Day, and we went to Guppy's parent-student conference - she showed us the work she's been doing and we saw all the various places she goes and she led us through some of her routine and then melted down and did hysterical laps of the Kindergarten room giggling and trying to run away while I was telling her to put her socks and boots on.

Because parenting is one big bucket of non-stop awesome, you guys.

Today, we gutted her room. Or started to. I did half the closet and the game dresser thoroughly and a rough 'everything into a box, I don't even care' clean up of the rest. We generated several bags and boxes of things to donate... and you can hardly tell! We'll tackle it again after quiet time.

Client work is teeth-gnashingly frustrating, with key systems going down at the WORST possible times.

The most recently published not-a-book is noodling along nicely - ranging between the top 300 and top 500. Each book in the series has done successively better, and each time, series sales REALLY make the difference - the new book is only about a quarter of my total sales right now.

I did get my next cover mocked up today, as well.

Now, I'm going to have a cup of tea and try to be zen about all the many things I can't control.

...Like the snow storm with high winds and possibly RAIN that is galloping down on us.

I am feeling whooped but triumphant. Last week was five playdates in six days, including two (!) sleepovers (including a school day), and I survived.

I also cleaned like a mad over the weekend - reclaimed the junktable and all the windowsills, cleaned out some drawers of things, did laundry, tamed Guppy's room, and cleaned my entire closet (including replacing a lightbulb).

I went to the gym this morning and wrote 1100 words (a bit over 25k on the whole project now!). I have two half scenes to write, and a little bit of cleanup.

I'm still behind on #inktober, with 11 done. Some of them are pretty simple, but #10 is a doozy (complicated 9x12 piece with lots of teeny detail), and finished just in time for a deadline for an anthology that I also have a story coming out in.


#5. Original available. (Half-priced for Patreon patrons!)

Sketch Fest is Friday! Bring prompts and help me catch up on #inktober!

In weather news, we've been a weird extended pause. We got snow last week. And the week before. And each time, it got rained away the same day. Fermata is a musical term for an extended last note or pause at the end of a phrase, and that's what this feels like... the conductor is just still standing there letting fall fade out for just a few weeks more and everything is waiting. Saturday was surreal and foggy. Today, it's colder, and it's just now started snowing very lightly.

Tonight, bellydancing. Even though my abs are sore from P/T this morning.

It's cold enough today that the LED light by the garage is doing it's disco-strobe. (That happens at about 25 below.) We saw a sundog driving in today, and I got a photo of small animal evidence when I dropped Guppy off at preschool. I have fingers crossed that it's warmer than 20 below by recess so she can go outside and play! (What? What's your recess cut-off??)

The teashop is unfortunately chilly today, so I'm wearing my sweater and fur hat inside.

You'd think, coming off a major project like I just have, that I'd be taking a breather, but I have one more deadline looming. This one is easy! I have more than a week to finish this:



Research for this was really, really fun, as I'm going for a totally vintage vibe, complete with cold war references.

But I'm not working on it right now, because my inbox has 679 emails I need to deal with. My nose-to-the-grindstone February means some things got... neglected. If you're waiting on me, I apologize! Hopefully most of these just need sorted into folders.

Off to tackle that now!

I made good progress on my Big Project during preschool time today and in the time I carved out yesterday - just one more sketch to finish before I start a flurry of inking. Patreon patrons are getting WIP images, but I can't share them wider yet. I'm feeling weirdly unbalanced, creatively, as I'm doing SO MUCH art and not getting any writing done. Naturally, this is when I'm having ALL the story ideas and inspiration.

Not-A-Book is not tanking. (It's doing about the same as the previous one, but I was pretty spoiled by my first one...) It is getting EXCELLENT reviews, which are making my day.

The weather turned weirdly warm yesterday, and the snow sunk in everywhere and it looks sort of sullen and dirty now. It felt briefly like spring, but that's just because Mother Nature is a big tease.

I'm making a cherry pie.

Those are the highlights of the last day or two!

Now I must wake Guppy from her too-brief slumber and go dig out the grill for cooking pork chops.

The sky is getting dark before 3, which is not entirely unusual. But it's also just starting to snow, and the forecast is for up to 15 inches over the next few days, with winds to 50 mph. Power outages are expected (and prepared for!), and I feel like the whole world is just... holding its breath.

I'm in no rush for 2017.

I find no real comfort in the turning of the calendar year, and I do not assign 2016 any malice for the many griefs and upsets that were suffered. I don't find a lot of immediacy in the many celebrity deaths, but I did lose a friend this year, and there were many times I had to stop and wonder at the lunacy of the world and re-examine things I'd taken for granted.

That said, it wasn't all that bad of a year for me personally. I did a lot of art. I wrote and published two not-really-books (not the SAME books, because there is a little lag between writing and publishing - 1 was written in 2015, and one is due to be released in February)... and one of them did amazingly well, while the other still did better than I ever would have expected before this year. I kept my fingers in programming and added some pretty awesome new features to my sites. I had illustrations published in two books (one paid, one a charity project). I released seven new coloring books, one of them a solo book of my own. I did a tarot card for the 78Tarot Carnival project.

I was bold and courageous about my own work, which paid off in crazy spades. I didn't get everything I applied for, but I did get three noteable contracts, one of which I have been able to share nothing about yet, and I'm so, so pleased with my work on it so far.

I did #junicorn, and #smaugust (though I fell a little short there), and #inktober. I did some work in color, and a LOT in black and white. I even started a painting, though it would be more impressive if I had finished it. I wrote a non-fiction article.

Business sales were brisk at the beginning of the year, my new coloring book Kickstarter was a solid success, and then sales tapered over to nearly nothing over the summer, with no real holiday rebound, to my surprise. My Patreon page continues to grow in teeny steps, and my Etsy shop grew considerably in size and modestly in sales. (This month was my best ever in sales!)

My daughter turned four, early in the year, and has been SO VERY FOUR. She vacillates from the sweetest, cuddliest, more precocious little angel to the most frustrating, infuriating, stubborn little monster. I love her in all her ways, but want to strangle her more in some than others. Trying to get her to wear pants is crazy-hard.

There were world-changing health scares in the immediate family, and I am grateful that the terrible potential outcomes were dodged. It was eye-opening. We have life insurance now, it was that serious. I will never take our heath for granted the same way again.

2016 was not awful. It was not unblemished, but it was by far not my personal worst.

I know a lot of people look at 2017 with fear and pessimism, and I understand why, but I'm pretty optimistic.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the amazing, creative projects that my inspired and inspiring friends will make. I'm looking forward to Guppy turning five and seeing what she's like as a five-year-old. I'm excited for the adventures I'm going to have with my amazing husband. I am eager to push my boundaries more - can I write THREE not-a-books this year? Even more? What changes will 2017 make on my art style? Will I FINISH a painting?

It has snowed an inch or so, since I started this entry, but the expected wind has still not arrived yet. I am content to wait. I am ready for the storm. I am ready for the year. I am ready.

Are you?

Who's an amazing tough Alaskan kick-ass gal who can change a really flat tire at 30 below? Me!

Roawr!

Two people stopped and offered their help, but I wasn't really interested in standing around watching them do what I could do, so I thanked them and sent them along. I had a cheater bar, so loosening the nuts was no trouble, and I've already put the car up on the jack several times now, and I have an amazing cold weather coat and fur hat, so I didn't even really get cold.

My phone, however, was not as tough as I am, and stops recognizing my SIM card when it gets too cold.

It was Sunday evening, so no one was open to take a tire to, so I put on the donut and took the car out of AWD (which requires moving a fuse under the hood) and limped home with my hazards on.

My car handles like crap with a donut and 2WD, but we got home safely.

Sketch Fest is TODAY! I am hoping to work on some #Inktobers.

I've gotten some words on my not-a-book, and it's crawling towards the finale. I hate it completely right now, but am hopeful that will lift once I've actually written 'the end' and gone back and read it. I have dim (DIM) hopes of doing a modified NaNoWriMo this year (for something shorter, more like 30k), but this has to be finished first.

Guppy must be going through a growth spurt. She is in a total 'no' state of mind and testing ALL her boundaries, and had to be pried off, weeping, with a shoehorn this morning at preschool. Guh. It just wrecks me to leave her so traumatically. Even though I KNOW she's going to have a great time and have so much fun.


From our walk yesterday evening.

It is chilly, but not as cold as you'd expect for mid-October. My oregano is growing like crazy, and my strawberries, after a DISMAL summer, now have dozens of blossoms and green berries all over them. Poor, confused strawberries.

Writing now, then insurance stuff (because adulting is necessary) and the post office and then grocery shopping with the Guppy.

As much as it was starting to feel like spring - there were even some confused pussy willows blooming! - it is still March, in Alaska, and it should not be a shock that we got more snow. About four inches of light fluffy stuff, where we live, and it made everything pretty again. It's also gotten cold again, down to close to zero, so I've had a fire in the woodstove, which is lovely and cozy.



In the last few days, I've written a few hundred measly words, made a few minor site improvements (particularly, I've made the PA page formally not recognize non-PA artists), and worked on crazy-detailed coloring book art.



I've also got a new coloring book sampler page available for download and coloring:


You can download the high resolution PDF here: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/coloringbook.php?id=36

I've got monsterus minimus distracted with How to Train Your Dragon for a few moments, so I'm going to go do more work now!

Yesterday, we made it safely to preschool - only about 4 inches had fallen when we woke up on Tuesday. Guppy got out of line to announce loudly to me that "I'm having a great time at preschool, Mom!" Others moms got a kick out of that.

The snow was up to 6 inches by the time we came home at noon, and snowed steadily all day. This morning, when it finally tapered off, we had nearly 15 inches. The power was out twice yesterday, once for about 10 minutes, and once for about 30 minutes. It flickered a little today, but we are definitely lucky; people all over town are without power and the utility company is not optimistic about getting them all fixed today. We did get ourselves set up in case it went out, though - the water jugs are full, the log holder is full of logs, I made up a bunch of hard-cooked eggs and other ready-to-eats, and there's even a fire laid out in the woodstove ready to light. Jake did a herculean job on the driveway; he managed to break 9 shear pins (heavy, wet snow, and the gravel underneath is loose, not frozen down yet) but still cleared all 600 feet of it, plus the turnaround and the leg from the garage to the house.

Tomorrow begins Inktober, and I am SO excited. I have several PA portraits planned out, and a bunch of Torn World bits, and 5/10 prompted pieces, and I have the last 2 (not-so) secret pieces to finish. Is it October yet??

I've been doggedly working on my inbox - I realized yesterday that it was up to a ridiculous 591, and fought it back down to about 350. Many just need to be filed properly, but there are a few moldy queries in there that needed to be replied to also.



Pumpkin everything season! If you have a favorite recipe that uses pumpkin puree, let me know! I have a TON to use up!

Friday I went blueberry picking with M. We couldn't have asked for better weather - it was sunny and beautiful, and although it was crazy-early for them to be ripe, they were, and our summer had clearly been much kinder than the previous one. The picking was fair to good, and we each got at least a quart. Delicious blueberry pancakes were enjoyed all weekend.

Saturday was far less lovely. My delphiniums did not survive the winds and rains!



I made lemonade from those lemons, and found a perfect spot for a GIANT vase of flowers.



Shown with child for scale.

And in case you need proof of wind:



This morning I got orders out. I mailed off the last stragglers for the Sea Monster Month project - I was waiting for print selections and finally picked randomly for the last few. Project FINISHED! Also, a Portrait Adoption print went out, and a handful of coloring books. I also delivered more coloring books to a bookstore in town - they've been delighted by how briskly they are selling. I invoiced a new wholesale order to a gift shop in town, and Amazon has my next shipment, though they haven't unpacked it yet.

Orphan Works is the hot topic among artists... again. I am not particularly worked up about it. Like last time, well-meaning people are spreading a lot of mis-information. Much of what I wrote last time is still apt: http://emg-zine.com/item.php?id=396 And as always, the best way to protect your work is, ironically, to share it. If you have your work in YOUR galleries throughout the web, you are easy to find, and very difficult to legitimately orphan.

I am working on the color version of the Dotminatrix cover, and also on a whole BUNCH of new coloring book pages for two projects I can't really squee out loud about yet.