NEWS

MY TWO WEEKS OF UNREST AND UNRELAXATION

I ended up taking two weeks off (sort of) at the start of August to spend time with family. It was a time off comics and novel writing, rather than a time off my part time job, and I got to stomp around gay Paris and spend time with my family and just be exhausted but in a different, better way. I also got to go to a French bookshop and look at bande dessinée which I haven’t managed for a hot second and I loooooved the art and the book designs, as always. It’s good to look at other stuff and be inspired!

I also blinked and spent all of August in an unofficial social media break, which was really nice. Each week I think oh I really must post something and then each week I’m too busy living. C’est la vie! I live to the beat of my own drum, not Zuckerberg’s (As much as possible in freelance artist late stage capitalism).

GUESTING AT PRIDECAF!

I’m going to be guesting at Pridecaf!!! Pridecaf is one of my favourite UK cons and I love Bristol and I love queer comics spaces so this is a real honour! I’ll be giving a talk on comics writing too: Writing Comics: Getting Ideas, Getting Started, and Keeping Going! so if you’re in Bristol please dooooo swing by and check it out, its always a great event and I’m so happy it’s back.

GAY PERSUASION

Emma is now on the inks!!!! What! And I’m on the flats! Double what!! I’m pretty good at flatting, and am looking to build up my portfolio! Super reasonable rates for other indie artists, get in touch if you’ve got a project you need flatted.

THE NASTY NOVEL

We’re not finished, but we are, I think (??? please, god), definitely over halfway and on track to finish end of September!

This month I hit 43,427 words written, which considering there was a lot of lost writing days this month, I’m not mad at at all. The novel as a whole is currently sitting at 115031 words, woof! I’m at the stage where I know there’s still ages to go on it but I feel like I’ve definitely hit the back half of the book so now I’m in a feverish rush to just get it done, but I need to remember to keep taking time away from it and do things like exercise/be outside/watch movies. This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a writing-every-day routine and woof! Lemme tell you, that life style is not for me!!! It’s making my brain quite frantic but also I’m so deep in the sauce I resent any time away from it, so what can I do. I spent all weekend tortured that I couldn’t work on my novel and woke up today so excited to get on with it and now I don’t know what to write >:(

It doesn’t matter how much I write, I am always tormented by the ghost that tells me a single day of being stalled on your work because you’re eepy means I will lose all momentum on a project and it’ll never be finished. I am tormented by several self-doubt ghosts, actually, all the time. The ghost that tells me its no good, the ghost that tells me if I stop writing now it’ll never get finished, the ghost that tells me its the best thing ever and everyone must read it but NOT RIGHT NOW and then you spend all day burning up about it, the ghost that tells me I need to finish it in 0.3 seconds or I’ll be a useless rotting sack, and of course, the ghost that doesn’t tell me its bad… but does tell me its mid.

I don’t know what to say, being a creative person with brain worms is not always the best way to live your life. I wish I could tell you I’ve banished these demons with experience, but I’m still somehow slurping them down and believing everything they say. But I am better at writing, and I know I’m better at sitting down and writing some shit and I know the shit I’m writing is better than the shit I wrote five years ago so that’s all I can do, innit.

Also, this makes it sound like writing is miserable, which it isn’t, the reason the ghosts are such miserable company is because most of the time, writing is really fucking fun. But you’ve just happened to catch me, at the end of the month, in a little slump, but that’s how creative work goes. Cyclical as fuck!

UPCOMING EVENTS

PRIDECAF, Saturday 19 September, Sparks, Bristol GUEST

QUESTIVAL, Saturday 3 October, Hulme Hall, Bebington New local con! Yippee!

THOUGHTBUBBLE Saturday 14 & Sunday 15th November, Harrogate Convention Centre, Harrogate

WHAT ELSE HAVE I ENJOYED?

I finally saw I Saw The TV Glow and yeah it was pretty fucking good.