Mush! Mush you doggies!

(Above are the bills from Canada Post & Staples, respectively from the printing of 2 copies of the old novel AND the cost of mailing it.... :-D)

Hey there compadres, quite a hot day in O-town today. I rarely venture forth into the world if I can avoid, but I had to go to the Post Office to mail my manuscript! I took my jump drive to Staples yesterday, and instead of making me wait a day, they printed it almost immediately :-D Hurray!

The store was a-bustle with about a billion kids and their harried-looking parents. I guess it's back-to-school for all of them. It was nice being able to wend my way through the crowd to the copy desk and retrieve two copies of my... MANUSCRIPT! Haha :-D from the nice girl at the counter. I was trying to explain what the whole 3-day novel thing was to her and she seemed impressed, so that made me feel good. I looked pretty frazzled, but she didn't seem to notice.

Off we went to the Wizard's Tower where Clay found some Palladium stuff and I rooted through the dollar bins... you find interesting things in the ol' dollar bins, discontinued comics, sales etc. I found a copy of Magik #1 for $2.00 or something, but I slid her back in cause I already have it.

Anyway, enough of my thrilling adventures in shopping-land. Here's some pics to describe the fun part of my day, which was fondling my 131 pg baby, trying to ram said-baby into an envelope that was TOO small, giving up, digging up another envelope (way too big), but coping anyway.

I have a few padded envelopes kicking around from MaryAnn Harris, fabric artist and owner of Reclectica, a cool retro jewelery and antique clothing store. She is also the lovely wife of my favourite writer in the whole wide world: Charles de Lint! When I bought 88 vintage sci-fi paperbacks from her in June, the box they arrived in came with a bunch of padded envelopes to protect them (she hadn't know I was picking them up personally and they were all packaged to be mailed!) So, the upshot is, I have a few envelopes with Charles de Lint's name printed on them.

I thought it'd be good luck to use one of his padded envelopes for the transport of my novel to its eventual destination on the West Coast. So, I finally packaged the lil' sucker up, drew a sketch of the main character on the back and trotted off to the the drug store at the Hazeldean Mall to mail it off.
So, now I sit, and plot my next frantic exercise in creative zeal... I recently heard from my buddy Tracy at Abbey Hill Design and will be heading there in October for a week to work on some one-of-a-kind pieces for her. That'll be a blast!

What else? November is National Novel Writing Month, and I feel the stirrings to register for that and throw myself into another fit of passionate creativity. You get an entire month to write, not just 3 days ;-) There isn't a contest fee, and the word count is.. I think 50,000. Might be fun.. though I wouldn't call it a "riot" or "hysterical" (see Troy's Blog!)

Thanks again, everyone who has been behind me all the way, all the great, supportive emails really made the difference. Cheers!
Suzanne.

How much for the tofu-dog in the window?

I'm feeling better--the above drawing aside ;-) If you'd like to see more of my SICK drawings, hop on over to Kunstpike for the whole bunch of me looking ill :-P

Work was ok.. I hate Mondays, period, no ifs & ands or buts. Even when I'm unemployed Mondays suck. I don't mind Thursdays though. Weird eh? HRSDC was as numbing as ever. My pod-mates were all antsy today too. No one wanted to work, it was a consensus of irritable boredom. 2 months (sort've) I've been at it, and it is still as icky as ever. Who knows what'll happen next? I keep applying to whatever comes up in the ICN. So far I've applied for 2 graphics jobs and got an application in to the Canada Council for the Arts. Now we just wait for a few months (or longer... the wheels turn slow!)

Speaking of slow wheels. Development (in animation-land) also moves slowly. But not for lack of trying. I just received an offer to renew my contract with Decode for "Ivy & Dummy" and my "Moon Warriors" show ideas, so that's cool. I can't believe 4 years have swung by already. But everyone down there still seems keen, so I said "sure"! At least with the Development happening, I feel like one day a ship may come in, even if it's an optimistic coracle ;-)

What else? I have a few things lining up, might even get a chance to sharpen my pencils and help my friend Nick on some storyboard clean-up, which would be nice. It may even save this old wreck of an artist; at least from gnawing off a limb or two! There may be creative things brewing with my dear friend Tracy too! That would be swell :-D Also, the summer is coming..and with it possible travel plans.. have to see how the dough holds out, but I am hoping the Clay-dude & I may hit Detroit for the Palladium Books open house in May, and if all goes well, a wedding out west in June. Again; tentative, but something I can look forward to. Yay!

Had a nice lunch Sunday with Mom at Mexi's at Centrum which I'd never been to; it was huge! We had fajitas (of course) and used Mom's coupon. The beer went very well with it. I'm so glad I'm not feeling nauseous any more. Yes! Poked around at Cdn. Tire for colour chips and got some sandpaper. Sandpaper costs .72 cents. That's your fact for today! I'm going to sand, scrub and prime the studio... then we'll slap on some paint... just have to see if I'm firm on the idea of a bright violet wall or not *wink*.

I have been reading like a monster, as usual... Reviews will follow when I have more time. I have to hit the books and study; this is my last week of French study at work (Block 5) and all the tests and evaluations are this week..so.. je devrai etudier mes livres! Zut alors!

I hope everyone is well and that the creative fires burn brightly for you all. Courage my friends!
May the Muse be generous, the creative souls quiver with eager anticipation and the pieces of time you carve in which to lay down those juicy creations be enough to salve your souls.

*hugs*
Suzanne.



I got a bunch of these this week from a buddy at work.. this is my fave. I am tempted to print it on good photo paper and get it laminated. I think it would look swell over my computer. It's one of those lovely little pics that Management would glance at and go, "Great! It's one of those motivational pics! What a great sign of glowing morale!" When it fact, it is a sign of moral decay and the need for suicide prevention officers wielding mega hypos of thorazine to chase us down one by one and cart us safely to the Quiet Room for Deprogramming.

wheee!

PS: Today's "secret word" is salve.