The Sum of David

I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

I’ve been sitting on The Sum of David for years now — the first draft was completed Christmas of 2006 — and man do I hate putting time into the getting published portion of… getting published. I am totally my worst enemy.

I like the story writing part, not the paperwork. I’m a designer, remember. There’s thankfully little paperwork in design.

Anyway.

This year’s competition has a separate category for Young Adult Fiction, which TSoD falls right into. I’ve struggled with writing summaries of varying length for TSoD in the past, but I guess ignoring the whole process for a year will freshen you up: I threw something down from scratch and Josh said was the absolute best pitch I’d ever done for the story. That’s encouraging. Hopefully the judges think so, too.

I like to consider myself a realist (doesn’t everyone?), so I’m not holding out extraordinary hopes. I indulged myself with a single day dream in which I won the whole shebang, but even in my fantasy I hung up on the person, jumping on them for making such a cruel joke of someone’s passion.

Maybe I’m not a realist. Maybe I’m a full-blown pessimist.

Whatever the outcome, I will  be exceptionally pleased with myself if I can make it past the first round… wouldn’t that be grand?

Amazon is accepting submissions through February 7, 2010 at 11:59 pm, or until they have recieved 5,000 entries in each category. If you have a finished novel sitting in a drawer collecting dust, now would be the time to break that baby out and give it some air.  Best of luck to those submitting!

I did some screen printing on Tuesday night. It was my first time printing on fabric, and my goal was to do a pillow design that would compliment the mural I painted on the wall in my studio. The mural is a bunch of birch tree trunks.

You know, I don’t even like orange that much as a color. It’s kind of obnoxious most of the time if it’s on its own. However, I wanted a room that would pop, and a turquoise/white/orange combo will do just that.

Of course, now the pillow needs put together. Need a button sewn on? I got it. Split your dress pants doing some heavy lifting? Not a problem. You would like refined straight seams that construct something that will fit a pillowform?

Oh my, aren’t you funny?

That’s why it’s nice to have friends like Val, who has offered to teach me how to use that mysterious voodoo box that makes cloth stick together. I don’t trust it, I tell you.

I am 100% introverted. If I see you In Public and come off as a turd, I apologize. I am not being a jerk (or weird) on purpose, I am simply overwhelmed with the situation.

However, in complete contradiction, I also love to play host.

Josh has a Man Weekend coming up, and I am trying to figure out what to do with this sudden Rachel time.

Possibilities that have crossed my mind:

1) Host a Girls’ Brunch at our place. (Social!)

2) Take a road trip with my dog. (Isolated + Social!)

3) Write like my fingers are on fire. (Isolated!)

Oh, bother. I don’t know. In reality, I’ll probably end up wasting it watching the Jurassic Park movies.

Rawr!

I guess this is like the newsletter that some families send out with their Christmas cards. Except it’s on the internet.

I’m from the future.

52ills
I can’t say that I succeeded in producing an illustration every seven days, but I’d happily commit to “weekly-ish” success. When the last week of 2009 rolled around, I was only three behind. Josh has mentioned I could technically go back and change the time stamp on the blog entries, and make me look like a real champ, but that part isn’t really the point — the whole idea of 52ills was to see if I could complete it in the first place, and as of December 31st, I had 52 ills. Go me, and I want some pie.

As an exercise, it was an excellent experience. I learned more about Illustrator and due to the volume of pieces, I was able to reach beyond my comfort zone and usual material*. I’ve happily settled into a colorful, cute style. I kind of knew that already, but practice makes perfect and all that. I also developed some good habits: composing via silhouettes, utilizing interesting textures, and grounding subjects with some kind of background element.

I’d love to get some (or all?) of them into a gallery this year, but if nothing else, I have some new portfolio pieces.

*Although there are still quite a few zombies and robots.

Writing
I did embarrassingly little writing in 2009. Even my blogging decreased in frequency. The remaining 82 pages of my last manuscript have been sitting in my parents’ living room for the last year, so I am proceeding without my mom’s trained-but-unavailable eye. My apologies to the next editor in line. I am using January to comb through the 2nd book again before I hand it off, and a first draft for the third and final David book will be complete by June 30th, 2010. That’s right, you heard it here first. Only 180 days away and counting.

Geeze, when I write it like that, it sounds downright terrifying.

Studio
First things first, however. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on Pittsburgh’s South Side working on my creative projects. When we got our dog, we decided we wouldn’t be away from home as often as we have been in the past. I technically have my own studio room, although it’s been pretty junked up for a long time. So: I’ve resolved to redo the room in a way that allows me to go in there and work until my eyes fall out, while not neglecting our new pet, plus saving gas and time and money.

The room is 1/3 of the way done, and I’m very excited. I estimate it will be complete in early February, and I can’t wait. It’s going to be amazing to have my own space. Woo.

Some general updates.

1) There’s a rad thing going on this Sunday. I hope you go grab some none perishables and join us. Maybe the Steelers will pull out a win.

2) The project to redo my studio over the Thanksgiving weekend went and got complicated. The wall below the two windows is crumbling and everyone’s telling me to get that fixed before I make it beautiful. BOO.

2) 52ills.com has become a real challenge. I anticipated it being hard, but I can usually conquer “hard”. I am way behind. I have four weeks to create 8 illustrations. In theory, this is not a difficult task, but man am I sick of making stuff. This is actually a good thing — I think it’s important to push yourself to your limits, and folks: we are at the bottom of my mental barrel. I will have to reach deep to make sure these last 8 aren’t crap, and it’s… uncomfortable. It’s good for me and all that crap, but… ugh.

Speaking of which…

3) I am tired of pushing myself. And of course I already have two big projects planned for 2010. You know what I want to do? I want to come home, drink a glass of wine and watch TV until my eyes fall out for a few months straight. I already took next year off of freelance*. Now I’m looking forward to that break between Christmas and New Year’s.

…aaand: Scene. I’m done whining, sorry.

4) Thanksgiving was a grand success, as usual. It is my favorite holiday, full of food and family and friends. Oose and I cooked for the sixth year in a row, with a head count of 15. We even ventured to the Tanger Outlets at midnight, which was also a win — I bought a hat. Don’t act surprised.

5) I freakin’ love our dog.

6) You know I’m avoiding my responsibilities when I take the time to blog. Ha!

*Not all freelance, of course. You know who you are.

Oh dear. Oh dear. The notebook I’d been keeping for the last 18 months to close The Sum of David trilogy? It was missing. Lost. DISAPPEARED off the face of the Earth.

The only thing keeping me from a sharp descent into madness was the fact that I hadn’t really dived into my studio. My hope was that I simply needed to pick up the right pile of junk and it would appear among a chorus of angels and a holy beam of light and probably enough relieved adrenaline that my head would explode.

I turned the room upside down and it wasn’t there.

Hoo boy. Panic time.

Where could it be? In the past several weeks, I’ve been across the country, all around Pittsburgh, and through all sorts of frantic dog-proofing for the house. For a long time, I carried it with me to and from work, but my personality is one that when my schedule is disrupted I forget my usual habits, no matter how long I’ve been doing them.*

I looked everywhere it could be. Then I checked everywhere it couldn’t. Twice.

Finally, after feeling defeated and at a loss at the priceless information I had somehow misplaced, I looked in the only other place it could(n’t) be: under the passenger seat of my car.

I don’t know what made me look there, because it was pretty darn random. But I do know feeling the smooth cover of the spiral-bound cover was one of the sweetest sensations ever.

WHEW and crisis averted!

*When I’m off work for a week, I forget what time my buses come, even though I’ve been catching the same ones for 8 years. Good gravy.

So Josh and I adopted a seven year old dog from the ARL last weekend, and the experience has been way more fulfilling than I could have anticipated.

Josh and I both had dogs growing up, and although we’d been considering getting a dog for over a year I don’t think either of us thought it would ever really happen. We work all day. The one thing our neighbors always say is “You guys are never home.” We each have a dozen projects going on all the time. I am all about keeping things realistic — and taking care of another living creature would probably be more hassle than it could possibly be worth, right?

Wrong.

All I could think in the first two minutes of meeting Poli was “Whoops” because I just totally fell in love with a dog. How corny is that? He was dirty and smelly… But he was also gentle, sweet and friendly. We hung out with him for ten minutes, got his meager history from the shelter, then promptly ran to Petco to buy a crapload of dog supplies. We took his stinky butt home and immediately bathed him, although he still seriously requires a professional touch with industrial strength tools and super soap.

Poli is doing well. Listening to his kennel cough breaks my heart, but he’s on medicine for it. An exam of his remaining eye on Monday indicated he probably lost its partner due to a glaucoma-caused pressure spike, so we’ve now got preventative drops to administer daily to the good eye. I am worried about what the vet might say at his check-up next Monday, but here’s hoping he’s in good health. I’m at least willing to bet there’s nothing wrong with his digestive track, because homey is a pooping machine.

Josh and I couldn’t happier with him, and every day more and more of his personality emerges.

Josh and I went to meet a dog at Pittsburgh’s ARL on Saturday morning.

We’ve been “puppy-bombing” each other for weeks, sending cute puppy pictures to each other via email. But I was surfing the ARL site and found an actual contender.

Well, that changed the game. The possibility of owning a pet suddenly became real.

Possibility, Schmossibility. Josh and I adopted a very sweet seven year old cockapoo (now) named Poli.* He was a stray when animal control picked him up two weeks ago. He has one eye, and he needs a grooming like nobody’s business, but he’s ours. The Sagers are now a tribe of three.

*Short for Polamalu

I keep wanting to hug him but:

A) Fire hazard and

B) Rogue seeds and/or innards. It’s totally gross in there.