I misunderstood the point of this ride

So this was a year.

If there’s one thing 2010 hasn’t been, it’s boring. I can't really get into all the ups and downs, which have been considerable, but one thing does stand out. I spent a good chunk of this year really committing to the work I’ve been faltering towards for years: in some ways, I’d say that I earned the right to call myself a cartoonist. Not in the sense that I’m getting PAID, or that much of anyone has heard of me who wouldn’t have for other reasons, but in the most important sense: I made comics and art, continuously, and I started working to put it out where people could see it. That is … an incredibly significant shift, one I’ll need to keep building on.

I'm leaving this year with a fair amount of pride and a sizable chunk of regret; for once, I have some actual resolutions to fulfill, and I mean them. Whatever else 2011 brings, however, I am quitting my job and going to comic school, and that's more than enough to be excited about. Before that, I get to have concerts, and I've promised myself more fanart. After all, I need to relearn how to take breaks. ;) And I've missed fandom all year.

Of course, I have to make it through one last January admissions hell first.

I hope the New Year is good to all of you amazing people (the old one, I know, was not what many of you deserved). ♥ I am, as always, grateful to know you to the extent that I do.

I'm not sure it's even worth doing a fanart roundup this year, but it's short enough to tuck in here, so why not.
-four illustrations for Only Going One Way, by jjtaylor and ataratah
-untitled Star Trek: AOS band AU art, for trekreversebang
-writer’s block (featuring jjtaylor and Brian Schechter)
-The Dragon Of The West, Victorious (Again) for scribbleomania, for yuletart

(Also a number of locked pieces that were published somewhere under my real name. This secret identity business is kind of a pain in the ass.)

I finally finished my grad school application last night, and I'm taking it to the post office in about an hour! \o/ Good gods, that took forever; I guess it's appropriate, though, since I've been waiting to do it for years. Now I really need distrations - good thing I have about four more projects of varying sizes to complete by the end of the year! I haven't done much on my yuletart piece, but I've got my idea pretty well figured out, so I'll have to tackle that first. Yay, fanart!

I've been doing my best to avoid reading much of anything about the yuletide process this year, because that's always really distracting - buuut, I've slipped enough to search the list of confirmed fandoms a few times, and I'm so excited to read the archive this year! So many amazing comics in particular, and I'm really hoping for great Community fic. And BATWOMAN. (And maybe Nikita? I can't decide what I want, exactly, but I'm stubbornly loving that show in spite of problems. I want so much more of the title character than canon's ever likely to give me, or at least, do well.) I'm sad that glockgal's desi Supernatural comics don't seem to have made the cut, though? Unless I'm missing something? And there are, as always, a few fandoms that sort of freak me out. (Webcomics creator RPF, for instance. I met a bunch of those folks a week ago.) That's the magic of Yuletide, though. I wonder if I'll want to participate again, after taking this year off?

On the whole, I'm not feeling particularly feverish about fandom lately; I'm more in the mood for character studies and rare characters/fandoms than OTP epics, so that's seasonally appropriate. :) Although, I did just finish listening to the entirety of Harry Potter (as read by Stephen Fry) again while comicking, and I could go for some of that, I think. The only trouble is, I really have no idea where to look anymore. /o\

I've been severely haphazard about my DW/LJ reading during the last few months, naturally. I hope you're all well! I've missed you. ♥

There is probably something about hiatuses that makes you want to post more. This is really just quick linking, though.

First, yuletart nominations have just opened! If you participated last year, that means you should get your tail over there and nominate stuff. :D If you haven't participated, and you're a fanartist of any stripe, sign-ups will be opening in just over two weeks! Sign up. Seriously, it is the best fest I've participated in ever - multifannish and super-friendly! The contributions from past years are seriously amazing, too - go poke through the archives!

On a less happy note, via twitter - cleolinda has a couple more livejournal privacy breaches to warn you about.

(I do have a whole bunch of dreamwidth codes, by the way, if anyone out there is considering making the switch. Feel free to comment or PM me.)

Right, I'm gone again. /o\

My family's getting ready to head across state to visit my grandmother in her nursing home, rather than our usual cozy lingering over presents in our PJs. (My mother is worried about the weather tomorrow. IDK. It's a good thing to do anyway. :)) So I must be brief.

Merry Christmas, darling flisters, to those of you who celebrate it! (And to the rest of you - I hope you have a really awesome day. ♥)

Check out what I found in my stocking: Glories Stream, a delightfully sexy and irreverent look at Heaven, based on Dar Williams's "Alleluia." I am absolutely thrilled with it! The tags list alone almost made me crack up out loud (which would have caused awkward questions from my family) .

Also, I see that someone else has written for the same prompt I did, which is also exciting - it's a fandom/pairing that I'd really like to read, you know? :D Man, I can't wait to dive into the archive later, in general. Also, I need to catch up on my yuletart commenting. (Still can't get over the incredible quality and variety of the work there!)

Must dash. Love!

yuletide signal boost, since I know some folks on my flist were thinking about pinch-hitting: there was a problem with Yahoogroups and now you have to contact a different email address if you want to claim one of the pinch-hits that have already been sent out. (Not sure yet how the rest are going out.)

I got my story uploaded with about two hours to spare, and headed into the Square for what was meant to be a brief celebratory dinner with comics-boy. And two and a half hours later, realized that I'd totally lost my entire evening. /o\ I needed a break, but the next two days are going to be a frantic whirl of wrapping, packing, mixing, drawing, and sending out belated cards, so um. I'm probably going to be scarce, online and off.

Also, I bought myself a brand new pair of combat boots (to replace the six-year-old pair that were very slowly starting to fall off my feet). I'm trying to be cautious/slow about breaking them in, but my ankles are kind of on fire right now. Still happy, though!

[ETA:] There's a new back-up pinch-hit mailing list for yuletide!

My yuletide story is going agonizingly slowly . . . so per as usual, then! I know what's happening all the way through, thank god, but that doesn't make it easy to put my thoughts on the page. Seriously, these word things are frustrating! Writing with pictures (or preferably a combination) is so much easier. :/

But but but! yuletart has been delighting me throughout, and now I have art of my very own! :DDD Check out the hilarious (and pretty!) AOS OT3 comic panel that somebody drew all for me. (I am maybe a little overexcited and sleep deprived. But seriously!) I love everything about it, from the classic presentation to Spock's hilarious (but totes logical) thought bubble. Oh man, I am so happy right now.

Back to work. But. :D

Hey flist, hey! How are you, bbs?

I have a question. Do any of you have recommendations for a really super easy beginner-level cookbook? (Like, for a soon-to-be college grad who barely knows how to boil pasta?) I was trying to think of a practical Christmas present for my bb brother, and cooking, and it occurred to me that he is going to need to learn to feed himself soon. He doesn't strike me as the type to raid food blogs, the way I do, and he probably wouldn't be into most of my (vegetarian, first-order-ingredient-focused, deeply random) recipe collection.

I'm going to poke around my favorite local independent bookstore tomorrow, but I thought I might try you guys first. :)

I have spent this weekend freaking out about my yuletide fic before finally having a breakthrough. (This always seems to happen in the shower - is that just me?) Whew. Sometimes I wonder if I should stick to fanart and comics, but I feel as though it's really important to keep practicing prose writing, and anyway I love the fest to bits. Amazing as yuletart is, there's really nothing quite like it.

I watched the latest White Collar episode last night, and um, holy shit. I've been on a fairly mild enjoyment level with that show for most of its run so far, but talk about taking it up a notch! And that was even before the last minute or so.

The butternut squash soup I've been cooking all afternoon really needs to be done now so I can eat it and get back to writing.

[ETA:] OMG SNOWFLAKE! Thank you, glockgal. ♥ We had our first real snow last night and I'm still super happy about it.

I had a fantastically productive long weekend! I finished my yuletart contribution with time to spare, cooked one third of our small Thanksgiving dinner, got a decent start on my holiday shopping, and finished/ordered my holiday cards (if you want one, tell me). So of course now I don't want to do much of anything, least of all work.

Maybe I'll give myself one evening to just futz around reading Trekfic before I pull together a writing schedule and all that jazz. (Anyone have recent recs they're just itching to share? I have a couple of things I've been wanting to check out, but I'm generally interested in what everyone's been reading. :) Other fandoms too!)

I hope you're all well and not suffering from any undue seasonal stress, bbs. ♥

Last night fuschia and I saw Amanda Palmer play in my hometown (in the venue where I had tickets but missed the Dresden Dolls twice), and she covered House of the Rising Sun (along with Nervous Cabaret). My god, that was hot.

There are lots of exciting things going on! I got myself an Archive of Our Own account (and you can too; open beta is open). Now I have to look at my sad little collection of fic and decide what stays and what goes, because I definitely need to get rid of my website. (I'm looking forward to being able to post fanart there, too! But I suspect it might be awhile.) Also my Star Trek reboot DVD shipped yesterday, and I'm unreasonably excited to be able to rewatch that while working on various holiday projects. ;)

Speaking of which: would you like a holiday card from me? Here is a poll.

I should go hang out with my mom now, rather than obsessively watching for my yuletide assignment (or worse, checking through handy spreadsheets for all the people who requested my fandoms).

P.S.: GIVE ME THAT ALBUM, MCR! >:( I need some Black Dragon Fighting Society in my life.

Dear Yule Goat,

Thank you so much for being my writer! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your efforts already, mysterious and awesome person. I should also warn you: this letter is long. This is intended to give you more options (if you want them), rather than freak you out, so . . . I hope it doesn't. Freak you out, that is. ♥

( General blather! )

( Requests and additional thoughts )

I think that's probably plenty to be going on with, yeah? Like I said before: feel free to use as much or as little as you like. I'm quite convinced that I'm going to love whatever you come up with. ♥

Thank you again, and happy writing!