These Days

We have a new cat. Kemo, our old cat (who isn’t old just the cat that has been living with us) is a social critter and we thought he would benefit from having another feline to hang with. We’re doing the “keep them apart so they get used to the idea that there’s another cat in the house” stuff. Kemo clearly wants to hang out with the new guy. The new guy, currently named Flame but that may change, isn’t ready for that yet. He’s a cuddly guy with me and Sarah, a hissy guy with Kemo.

It’s my selfish hope that Kemo will enjoying hanging with New Guy so much he’ll forget about knocking my pens and pencils off my drawing table and demanding that I play catch with him after work. But it will be a couple of days before we can let them be alone unsupervised.

Thoughts About

“If you build it, they will come.”

I’m guessing y’all know the quote from Field of Dreams. It’s my mantra for creative work. The unspoken part of this mantra is: “If you’ve built nothing, no one has a place to come to”. That’s a more awkward, less inspirational phrase. But you can’t watch a movie that hasn’t been filmed, listen to a song that isn’t being sung, read a novel that hasn’t been written, study a painting that hasn’t been … you get the picture. I know folks who don’t finish their projects or, if they do finish them, don’t make them available because they worry that what they have created isn’t perfect. I know my work isn’t perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist. What one person loves, another will hate.

The tricky part for creative folks is the next thing – “If no one knows it exists, no one will visit.”

Getting attention is a different skill than … I was going to write “creative work” but finding an audience is creative work. It’s work that involves asking for attention. I’m quite comfortable receiving attention. Asking for attention is something more foreign. One of the justifications for being on social media is that you’ll generate interest in your creative work. But the more time you spend on social media the less time you’ll have for creative work.

There are folks who generate interest and support in a project before they start – “If you want it, I’ll build it” types.

I’m … rambling because it’s Friday and it’s newsletter time and lately I’ve been waking up tired and staying kinda brain dead regardless of the amount of coffee I’m drinking. This probably means I need to get more sleep or take naps but …

There should be a new post over at my Ko-Fi account. Writing about writing the Surrilana Depths. I scheduled it to go live the same time as this newsletter.

Process GIF

This week’s process GIF is of The Pile. I did this portrait of him for the All the Works membership tier at Ko-Fi.

Speaking of social media – I’m now on Mastodon. I have no idea how active I will be.

And now I need to get in my uniform and go deliver mail.

Thank you for reading. See you in seven!