For whatever reason, this is the longest it has ever taken for one book to be printed and shipped–two weeks. That’s crazy. Anyway, The Doll Collection: Volume One is finally done and ready to go! I will add it to my Books page shortly, but felt I should also make an announcement to anyone who still even looks at this website. (Not sure that’s happening–which is why I just ramble, because–why not?)

Anyway, it looks great and I am itching to get Volume Two done and out. All of the stories have their first drafts done–just lots of editing to do, and the illustrations, of course. My artist is taking a break and working (understandably!) on other projects for a bit. By the time she’s ready, I could have Volume Three ready (maybe!). At least, the first drafts may be done for #3 as well. The nice thing is that I can decide between more stories which ones I want to go into #2, though I think I have it pretty well figured out. I think Volume 1 was dark at times. Volume 2 will be even darker. Who knows how 3 and 4 will end up?? The ideas do keep coming, so I think I’m up to nine stories for volume 4–only 5 left to come up with and that shouldn’t take much. When I go to deliver a copy of this book to the Morris Museum in a few weeks, I will likely come away from there with at least one or two new tales. It’s just way too easy.

I’m not sure there’s much else going on. School is still in session so creating anything new is still on delay. I added a little more to “Sting” (TDC: V2) but I think that’s all since my last post. I’m itching to travel again and get out of this microcosm of a town. I need to see new faces, and since I’m all done with events for this year (until February, in fact), of course I want it all the more. Time to start planning, though getting some money saved up for next year is coming to the fore. Lots of things in the pipeline, if I can manage them.

Ah, yes–one more thing. Muses. Yeah–Again. Back in September after I attended the Erie Comicon, I came away with, not two, but three. One is directly linked to The Pound. One amuses the heck out of me and I’m grateful for his friendship–some of his out-of-nowhere comments hit me just right and I can’t express in words how much I love how our humor matches up. He gets it and I adore him to bits for that. The third muse catches my attention for completely different reasons. Maybe it’s because we didn’t get to talk much at the show. Maybe because he approached me for my business card and I have yet to learn why. Maybe something else? Maybe nothing at all. At this point, he’s all mystery and that will be okay for a little while longer. Sometimes this is good. In his case, sooner or later I’d rather he speak up. At least open some channel of communication–even a little one. Well, a girl can dream, right? I don’t address him as Rabbit in my head for nothing.

Go ahead, shy boy: tell me your Rime.