Above is a watercolor of Tabby waking up in her bedroom (again).  Thinking about doing another one of Philip in his own room waking up, just to show how similar they are.  I'm not sure how helpful doing these drawings are, however.  They certainly aren't helping my writing!  :/

Speaking of which, I'm back in outline mode, taking summaries of draft 2 and 3, highlighting which parts I liked and which parts I thought were boring.  On Khang's recommendation, I've been using a website called bubbl.us, and it's been pretty indispensable so far.  If you're struggling with outlines, I highly recommend it.  It's better than using the old notecard-on-a-corkboard method.  It's easy to rearrange your ideas, you can color code everything, very flexible way of organizing your thoughts.

I'm also 3.5 months pregnant.  This is our first child and my first time dealing with pregnancy.  It's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me, and I feel more healthy + happy than ever.  Really!  I haven't had much morning sickness or anything (yet).  The baby is progressing well so far, and I feel very lucky to be a woman and be able to experience this.  I've never felt so close to Life before. 

It makes focusing on my book difficult however, because all I can think about is being a mom.  If I don't finish this book by the time Little Amzu is here (temporary name) I'll probably move onto a shorter, simpler project and put Rema on the backburner.  I feel really close to a decent final product, but it's been taking me way longer than I ever could've guessed it would, and momma's gotta make some kind of income eventually.

Hello blog!  Long time no post.. isn't that how almost all my posts start?  I've been distracted by life these days (who isn't?).  I'm just popping my head in to mention that my friend Shadi has just got his first iphone game approved as an iphone app!  If you have an iphone, you should definitely check it out in the app store.  It's called Last Cannon, has great gameplay, great sound, and awesome graphics.  Check it out:   http://www.shadiradio.com/toys/lastcannon

You can also read his entry on the subject here.  It still amazes me he was able to make this game so quickly with such a miniscule "staff".  Shadi's also the one responsible for coding my blogging program.  He's a programming machine!

I've been sick with a cold for the last couple days, and haven't stepped outside my front door at all during that time.  Having difficulty even getting up to get a glass of water, I let myself splurge on some more media.  I watched all of season one of Veronica Mars (great ending!!), I'm almost done with Final Fantasy 4 for the DS, and I started reading John Grisham's The Firm.  I became frustrated with not being able to write or draw, so even though I'm still congested I'm ready for more and am back at the studio.

After much deliberation with my agent, my friends, and some family, it's unanimously agreed upon that my book definitely needs more work!  I'm ready for the challenge though, and have already begun another draft.  Writing is rewriting, as they say, and here I go rewriting it again for a fourth time.  It'll get there.  Eventually.  Wish me luck.  ;)

Just a quick note to promote my husband's upcoming Graphic Narrative Workshop at Gallery Nucleus.  This is a serious, in-depth $500 course of five classes every Saturday, 9am-12pm, from April 18th - May 16th.  He'll be doling out all his secrets -- everything he knows about storytelling, digital painting, and publishing (which is a lot!).  If you're looking for a place to take your work to the next level and get some honest feedback on what you need to do to complete a comic ready for publication, this should be right up your alley.

Check out the registration link here.

It's been almost two years (slightly over a year and a half), and after several false alarms, the book is now really done and sent out to my agent.  There's more work -- editorial notes for when (and if?) the book gets picked up, along with creating the proposal package, but for now I'm basking in the sweet, sweet relief of this huge benchmark.

I was having fun posting all the sketches of Tabby and her friends when a whirlwind of stuff happened, some of which I'm not ready to blog about.  But amongst it all, I'm still discovering fun stuff offline to keep my mind active and happy.  Some things I've been enjoying:

Tiger Moon
A super wonderful book with really delicious prose.  Translated from German, this is a story-within-a-story, kind of like Arabian Nights but with only one long fairy tale told over several consecutive days.  I'm about 2/3 the way through finishing this, but I'm loving every single word.  It's undoubtedly one of the best new books I've read of late, and I'm wondering why more people aren't talking about it.  Maybe it'll just take some time...

The Sookie Stackhouse Series
A fun romp of a series, and the basis for the HBO tv show "True Blood".  I haven't seen the show, but from clips I think the books are way better!  They're a bunch of mysteries and romances revolving around the life of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic barmaid from small-town Louisiana.  There's shape-shifters, vampires, witches, and all kinds of supernatural creatures.  Very fun!

Royksopp's new album "Junior"
This doesn't come out for a few days still (March 23), but you can listen to it all online here.  Man oh man, I can't wait to own this thing!  Every song is so good.  I'm a huge Royksopp fan and wasn't expecting them to come out with a new album, but here they are.  Couldn't be happier.  Check out the magical music video for "Happy Up Here"

It's been nice relaxing for the past few days and catching up on my reading (Still on my list: Wicked, Hunger Games, Kite Runner, and 1776).  I'm really amped for getting back to Rema, though, and have started brainstorming scenes for book 2.  Can't wait to get there!