Currently doing illustrations for –

Finnegan’s Brink – a graphic novel written by Sarah Byam. I’ll be doing that for the next couple of years.

The Black Seal #4. This is the Viet Nam issue. I’m illustrating an article on the Tcho-tcho and a short comic written by Nick Brownlow.

Miskatonic U Monographs – a few illustrations for one, more and larger illustrations for another.

Oz Squad – can’t say anything more specific at the moment.

The Sasquatch Chronicles – a huge overview of the sasquatch phenomenon written and edited by Christopher L. Murphy. I’m one of many illustrators working on this. Got to use illustrations since the darn critter is so camera shy.

Wild Nights in Oz – slowly, progress will be made.

I expect that I’ll do the occasional one off illustration for my own amusement (or that rare creature – money) but I’m not planning on taking any new projects beyond these for a while.

Added Dare I Read and Sex Harassment to the blogroll.

Removed fsckd and Louisaland because … like … they’re gone, man.

J-Dogg is gone. From this house at least. He and TwoM have moved into a house together. I think it’s a slightly larger place than this one is. It’s better maintained at least. It also has two bathrooms instead of our one. That’s important. He’s going to be sharing the house with three other people.

So Nizzibet and I are living alone for the first time since we moved up to Seattle. Then we only lived alone for about four months. We’ll be spending the next few months until our lease runs out reducing our number of possessions. Once we get it so that everything we own fits upstairs we’ll be ready to move into a little apartment.

While watching My Life, a rich-man-learning-how-to-live-after-discovering-he-has-a-terminal-disease movie, it occurred to me that there are few movies that couldn’t be improved by the inclusion of a rampaging werewolf.

Or the sudden decapitation of the main character at the two thirds mark.

Billi 99 has gotten its first customer review at Amazon. It’s not a good review. The reviewer’s other review was of a watch. He didn’t like the watch either.

If you’ve read Billi 99 and liked it, do us a favor and go add your two cents.

I can’t. Not honorably. Being married to the author and all. Even though I read and liked the book before I met said author.

Posted a new piece of art to my gallery at Kaijuphile.

So. Fourteen boxes packed so far. Books in boxes take up far more space than books on shelves. The plan is to pack at least two boxes a night until only the dregs are left.

Sometime in the next few months Nizzibet and I will be moving out of this house. The exact timeline isn’t, well, exact. PassedAwayMother’s house still needs to be sold. Another residence needs to be purchased.

Right now my concentration is on packing up or getting rid of stuff. When we moved back here from Portland four years ago we moved 168 boxes of books and videos. Give or take. We have, of course, acquired more books and videos since then. I did a purge of videos last summer. That made a small impact.

The plan right now is to pack up all the books I want to keep. Pack up all the books I know the Nizz wants to keep. I’m pulling out any duplicates I find as I go along. Maybe we can get a little in trade at one of the used book stores. I’m recycling computer books written before the millenium.

Besides the books, we’ve got a lot of furniture that needs to go away. J-Dogg will take some of it. He and TwoM are moving into a house next month. I don’t imagine he’s going to take much unfortunately. Wherever we move it’s likely to be pretty small. We’re not likely to put the effort into a yard sale. It’s not a lot of fun and we’re too likely to get rained on.

I’m going to offer a few items through Freecycle. See how much of a hassle it is. Giving away stuff can be fun.

I’m currently reading The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. Nizzibet found me a paperback copy for Christmas. I downloaded the novel sometime last year but had never started reading. Somehow a stack of loose pages is less attractive than the same story bound up beneath a snazzy cover. The novel is infamous for being brilliant and awful in equal degrees. It’s considered brilliant for the imagination behind the setting, awful for the prose style and florid romanticism. So far it’s living up to its reputation.

Even if I’d been unaware of the critical opinion of The Night Land I would have been expecting a bit of a slog. I’ve already read his other three novels – The Boats of the Glen Carrig has little plot and wooden characters; The Ghost Pirates is slow and repetitive and The House on the Borderland is clunky. None of Hodgson’s novels are easy for the general reader. They all display a brilliant imagination hobbled by great gobs of clunky prose, meandering plots and wooden characters. Hodgson’s best work is in his short stories – the most famous being The Voice in the Night if only because it was filmed as Attack of the Mushroom People.

Anyway – I’m only able to take The Night Land a few pages at a time but I am enjoying the thing. Hard for me to recommend to anyone else though. For a taste of the setting see The Night Land site. I understand that Hodgson published an edited, streamlined version of the novel as The Dream of X. I’ll have to see if I can find a copy someday.

It’s snowing out. Probably bad news for someone. I haven’t checked the news yet. One of the techs at work sent me an article Friday about an impending superstorm that was supposed to be hitting Mid America this week. Friday night we had rain that became a wettish snow that was gone by noon on Saturday.

At the moment (6:30 am) the snow is coming down with enthusiasm. I’ll probaby use the excuse that I need to return movies to go out in it later.