I’ve been off my sabbatical since the beginning of January. Since then, I’ve done my best to work at a pace that is more health-ful. It’s one thing to go 1000mph, but it’s also important to know when to ease off the gas. I had my foot to the floor for too long and paid the price, which was burn out. It took about five months to recover to the point where I can go a little harder without compromising my health. I still made art during those months but at a much slower pace.
Since being off sabbatical, I’ve spent most of my time making comics, namely Fredrikus.
Episodes 18-20 have aired along with the front cover and first page of Issue 2. Go here to check them out.
Episode 21 to air shortly.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an email by going here.
On top of 2020 putting a wrench into my plans, I simply burnt myself out going 1000mph and wrecked my health as a result. It took all of August to rest up enough to start working again, and by working, I mean getting back into creativity. The difference now–and due to being careful with my health–is I’m working at a much slower pace.
I know you’re used to regular content from me, but that’s something I cannot provide right now. Right now the goal is to ease back into creating and go at a pace that doesn’t destroy me.
I’m feeling a lot better after a month’s rest, but I still have a ways to go in terms of recovery so self-care has been the priority these days and I’m taking things one day at a time, sometimes even one moment at a time.
There are no deadlines. There are no promises. Just simply creating art for the joy of it and telling you about it when appropriate.
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well.
This concludes Status Report: Notes from Sabbatical – 090420.
After years of putting it off, I’m stepping down from being solely an author. “Solely” being the operative word. The book publishing industry rewarded me in the ways I needed, taught me the things I wanted to learn, and helped me meet the types of people I wanted to meet, both creator and reader alike. And while true that since I’ve been back from being ill, I’ve taken on the mantle of writer/artist instead of just writer, I thought it’d be a fair thing to tell you what the current road map looks like career-wise so I don’t accidentally mislead you.
This is the general plan:
2020 is a year of rebuilding hence Project Rebuild. Throughout the course of the year–with the very end of the year being the ideal-but-flexible deadline–I’ll be bringing my book list into the 21st century and will release a new thing or two along the way. And it will take the whole year or potentially more because I have a lot of titles and all this takes time.
Going forward in 2021, I have a few books that are done that need releasing so those will be tended to as well as finishing off some works-in-progress to wrap them up.
While the above two are occuring, I’ll be spending most of my time and energy devoted to making comics. Comics are what started me on the publishing path and are a great love of mine. In short, writing books will be a secondary thing compared to the comics.
All I want to do is finish the last bit of my book publishing life and make comics going forward.
For Axiom-man fans, don’t worry. Lots of prose adventures coming. I’m referring to my non-superhero work.
I also need to point out something to my readers that needs to be taken into consideration: I’m still sick. I’m much better than before, but even when I started up again at the end of last August, I was operating at around 65-70% capacity. Going hard at 1000mph has dropped me to about 50% on a good day, 40-45% on every other day. Each day I come to the keyboard, I’m not healthy on multiple levels, but I work anyway because making art and stories is what I do and it’s what helps me survive. All I’m saying is I’m changing things on various levels so I don’t keel over and die one day in the middle of a script or while drawing something. It is also important to point out that my shift to comics isn’t about accommodating for being unwell. It’s about looking ahead to my deathbed when I’m lying there and looking back. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t do comics and since time is the most valuable thing on this earth, I want to spend it doing something I love.
As we continue barreling down the 2020 Timeline of All Things at 1000mph, we also need to remember to take time for self-care, so today will be a half day–or self-care day–because I have an appointment that needs tending to if this middle-aged machine is going to keep bringing you books and comics.
Attention is also being given to the workflow behind the scenes because, I’m learning, I can’t approach this business like I did prior to being ill. Different variables, both internal and external, have created a different climate in which to work.
Some retooling is occuring in order to not wind up bed-ridden again.
Yes, I recognize I sometimes talk a lot of publishing flow here on the blog. This is just me getting my ideas up and processed so I can try a mosaic of things, see if they work, and remove and/or add where needed until the mosaic has some form to it and I’m happy with the image.
