HI ALL!

So....I thought I'd be finished with all of my busy-ness once the book was done and it turns out I'm not! The good news is I'VE PASSED EVERYTHING! In June, I will have my MFA degree and hopefully I can find work teaching instead of being stuck in customer service purgatory for the rest of my life.

Anyway, my mentors passed the book (my thesis) on the condition that I go through and edit it again. When you type up until the last minute, you definitely make stupid mistakes in a manuscript. I've been slowly tweaking the book and have found it's taking forever. It has to be cleaned up because my university publishes their own single copy of it so SHU students can check it out at the library or consult it for research (since it's technically an academic thesis). So, I have to get it perfect and up to snuff before my school gets its hands on it.

In other news, I'm working hard on Colossalcon stuff as well, which is taking a lot of time to prepare. I AM A PANELIST!!!!!!!  

--Colossalcon is June 6th-9th (Thursday-Sunday) at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky

--Download the panel description book here: [link]

--Stop by and see me!! SATURDAY NIGHT 7-8pm is Give Good Spec! (about writing sci fi, fantasy, and horror) and SUNDAY 2-3PM is  Fanfic into Fiction (take your fanfic skills and make it work for you!).  The official schedule hasn't been posted yet, but I've got my dates and times.

--I've contacted a sweetie named Dina through the Colossalcon forums, and we're going to do a flash hallway concert! She's got a violin; I've got a small harp, and we're going to perform Brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist!! I'll let you know the date and time for that....we'll still working it out. We're going to meet for the first time Thursday night and do a quick practice, then on Friday or Saturday we'll perform.

--I've been busy (VERY BUSY) sewing my cosplay this year.  I'm going as THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO!





Except I'm gender-bending the Count, so I will be THE COUNTESS OF MONTE CRISTO! And since I suck at sewing, I'm taking pieces I already own and tweaking them so it looks like the Count's clothing, but a little Victorian at the same time. Here's what I've got so far, and all the trimming has been sewn by hand:

The fabric I'm using...

The sleevework so far...

The skirt I'll be wearing (I did NOT sew this)...

So...it's been very, very difficult for me to catch up with everyone's stuff. I have my inboxes filled with items dating as far back as February. For my own sanity, I deleted everything in my inbox without looking through it. So if there was something you really wanted me to see, you'll have to drop me a note and say "look at this!" and I will.

In other news...I'm cancelling all of my open requests, which sucks, because  many people have been waiting A LONG TIME for me to get to their artwork, and I just don't think I can devote the time to knocking all of those out.  

The list is so freaking long!  I'm still an official prize artist for the Rangers, so that won't change, but I think I'd feel better if I didn't have the burden of looking at my huge to-do list of free art with only a small handful of time for my own stuff, you know?

Blehhhhh. Anyway,  I thought I'd pop on and let you know why I'm MIA again.  I hope to have something up soon, and I still owe one Ranger some prize art, tra la, tra lee.

THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE