It's the last day of 2014. If I'm going to do this, I'd better do it now.
Mostly I feel like this year was dominated by Rita. The second Kickstarter took forever to fulfil, in no small part due to me fucking up and having to reprint the book. I still haven't dealt with the shirts I promised; I should really make that happen. I may have a fulfillment partner for book 3, which will make life a LOT easier.
And of course I drew lots of pages of the comic. Going by the posted dates on my website, it looks like I drew about 100 pages this year! That's more than I thought; I feel like I could have done a LOT more if I hadn't been weighed down by the printing mistake, shipping, and winter blahs. Still, I actually managed to keep to my aim of two pages a week pretty well on average!
I finally got to be the GOH of a convention. Rainfurrest, with a theme of “cyberpunk”. Sadly our plans for the most wicked awesome con book ever (full color with a unified palette running through a lot of the art, French flaps with a super panoramic cover) fell through at the absolute last second, but I had fun. Made the most money I ever have by finally sitting there and cranking out badges on my computer. I'd be buying a small printer if I was planning on doing more furry cons any time soon, but I'm taking 2015 off from furry cons. (I will probably be social at RF2014 and might be social at Furlandia but I ain't dealing anywhere.)
I started a Patreon in February after one of my fans ASKED me if I had one so they could fund me. I think that says a lot about how that site is doing something right. It has slowly grown over the year into something that is paying half my rent on a productive month; I posted nine pages this December and got about $600 before fees. I am definitely going to be figuring out how to thank those folks in the back of volume 3. I am hopeful that by this time next year, I will be paying all my bills by drawing comics. Unless I decide to move to a more expensive place and cover part of my rent out of my savings or something.
I didn't move; I didn't have any upheavals in my social life that I can remember. I'm sure I had a couple of minor tiffs with Nick but our “ex with benefits” relationship is so low-key that those are easily dealt with.
I upgraded my living room with a new projector near the end of the year, and said “well there goes the deposit” when I drilled holes in the ceiling to mount it. That made me feel like an adult.
At ECCC, I pulled together a group booth for next year. In a much better location than I'd been in before. I'm looking forwards to that. And should take care of a few bits of business related to that, now that I think about it. I might do that when I finish writing this.
A few ideas for future projects appeared. I am just hopelessly in love win unreliable narrators; someday I must attempt to write something that actually has a narrator you can completely trust. I think I could maybe fit that in around… 2019?
I failed to find the time to finish a couple of side projects that could lead to more exposure and a little prestige. Oh well.
My mother's health took something of a hit. She's a lot less mobile than she used to be. She still seems to be interested in life, so I'm not too worried yet, but I'm feeling her mortality more than I used to. I'll be seeing her soon when I go down to New Orleans for Wizard World NO, which is really more of an excuse to see her and get some sun than it is a financial thing for me.
This year's exercise choice was pole dance classes. I would probably still be doing them if the studio hadn't closed down near the end of the year. I'm seriously debating going for circus arts next year; it really depends on how well I can get art stuff done in the two hours of bus and light rail it'd take to get there and back.
So that is the notable events in my life this year.
Looking forward to 2015: group booth at ECCC in a great location, finishing Rita, starting the next project. Not too bad. And possibly getting to the point where I am no longer living off my inheritance, either. That would be really nice. And maybe running off to join the circus.