Vlog 20170304 - Watching Emerald from Afar (Patreon)

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Okay! Hello patrons, it is Saturday! I'm recording on a Saturday this time and it is Emerald City comiccon weekend. And as you can tell, I'm in Vancouver, I'm not there so it's is a bit unusual. I've been going to Emerald City Comiccon since about 2009. Last year was the first year that I didn't attend. Something came up at work and I had to cancel my appearance. And it's funny thinking about it now... even though the show is a little bit earlier this year than it was last year it's roughly the same time of year. And it was at that time that I decided: "You know what, this is causing a little bit too much stress in my life. What I really need to do is stop what I'm doing and make books of before I go to appearances." 

And it was also during that time that I decided that I wanted to do two books at once rather than one book and then a whole production/release cycle and then another book. All of that would've probably extended Wasted Talent for another-- it could've been like 2 to 3 years looking at how long it takes me to put up a book and do this whole promotion/release cycle.  And I just wasn't prepared to commit to that much more Wasted Talent.

So it's a big milestone year for me thinking about it. I don't know when I'll be back to Emerald City ComicCon. I think I will probably go back at some point during the launch cycle of my next book but... I'm not eager to book new appearances in the United States. I've already cancelled a few and it's been a bit surreal like watching things unfold, watching a lot of instability and having difficulty being able to plan ahead. It's made it a little bit difficult. 

But good things are happening otherwise. I got a lot of work done last week that's more boring administrative scheduling kind of work but with a good outcome. I got all my shipping stuff updated. Got some new prices since the prices have all changed. I was able to get BackerKit pretty much finished and I'm doing my final review of BackerKit this weekend hopefully getting that out early next week. I got a proof last week for my box so the box is gonna be done March 15 and the two new books are going to press on Monday and should be done by March 20! So... very exciting to finally get that stuff rolling. It's like, once it all gets rolling it all rolls pretty quickly.

And I'll probably be looking at books pretty soon! I'm stoked! After so much work!

And now that Emerald City is happening and all my friends are down there and I'm looking at all of their tables and stuff on Twitter I'm thinking of my next convention appearance and the next one scheduled is VanCAF. So, a local show but a show that I didn't do last year either because that was the first casualty in that commitment that I made myself: "Nope, if you really want to finish books you've got to actually pull back from appearances and focus your efforts on making these books happen."

So... returning to VanCAF! Very exciting. It's under new management so I've got to pay my fee (I should do that today)...

I don't know if the show will have the same feeling the same organizational mood but I'm very excited to return because the hometown crowd, great location, great mix of people and I will have two shiny new books! So as I've been looking at all the Emerald City ComicCon stuff today I've been low-key imagining needing to put together a new table display. Obviously I have a lot of stuff, I have a lot of experience but there's a few things that I want to upgrade to really push this Wasted Talent five box set (Five book set, I should say) and five books being available on the table is going to create a different mix in a different layout to my table.

So I should start planning that soon... but not today.

Today I think I'm going to do my best to shut out the world and ignore that Emerald City Comic Con is going on because it makes it very sad and jealous to be missing it! And, yeah! I will be seeing you all soon enough.  May is going to come back -- or it's going to come at us before we even know it and I'm excited for it to be Spring. All right I will catch up with you guys later. Ciao!