Hiya Everyone,
Six weeks flew by far too quickly, it’s now late January of 2017 and I’m just now getting back to work on comics. It is has been a rough six weeks, with as many ups and downs as the Beast rollercoaster at King’s Island and just as equally pocked and knobby.
So where on Earth have I been and what have I been up to?
- First things first, I haven’t been able to create new comic pages, at all. Although I carried the storyboards around with me for both Jinxed and Spiritus Maximus, I wasn’t able to work on them. What I did manage to do however, was write! Jinxed has been flushed out and is ready to go to the storyboarding process, Spiritus Maximus on the other hand is still a work in progress. I’m thinking that the new issue of that series will be out in the fall. It won’t be an ongoing series like Jinxed is.
- Wheatley’s cancer surgery: back in November I announced that my youngest dog, Wheatley, had a tumor in his anal glands and then just left it at that. The vetrenarian and I had to work quickly to schedule ultrasounds, bloodwork, and X-rays to be done on Wheatley as soon as possible in order for a surgery to be scheduled. Rhode Island isn’t a big state (for those outside the Untied States, we’re the smallest State in the country) and there is only one vetrenary hospital able to perform the ultrasounds needed- and there was a long line. In mid-December Wheatley got his surgery, it looks like they were able to get all of the cancer out. The vetrenary surgon let me look at the tumor, the actual tumor is the size of an shelled peanut, but they took an extra 2mm-4mm of tissue around it to make sure that the tumor cells hadn’t spread. The good news is that the tumor wasn’t near a major blood vessel or artery, so the likehood that the cancer spread is way down. They are 95% sure they got it all on the first go. However, Wheatley will continue to have ultrasounds and bloodwork done every three months for the first 18 months after surgery. If the cancer returns, he goes on chemotheropy.
- Mike’s eye surgeries: so my husband Mike had retnial tears in his eyes and needed them fixed. A week after Wheatley’s surgery, Mike had his. So, for about two weeks I was playing nurse to a recovering dog and recovering man. Mike healed faster, since his surgery wasn’t as invasive (it’s done with lazers now) but his sight was still a bit blurry for a couple of days.
- Holiday break: I took a holiday break to drive the 16 hours it takes to get to Indiana to see family.
- Family members became ill: So at the beginning of the year we got hit by a double whammy, both my sister-in-law and unlce-in-law got sick at the same time, with different things. Sis-in-law fainted on the subway on her way to work, and discovered a cyst had burst and there was internal bleeding. She was okay after a breif hospital stay. Uncle-in-law had a mini-stroke on vacation in Florida, which lead to the discovery that he had an infected heart. This lead to an induced coma, many other strokes, which lead to his sudden passing.
- Wedding in Cozumel, Mexico: This was a vacation that had been in the works for many months, and Uncle-in-Law actually passed away while we were gone. Our friends M and B got married in Cozumel. M was born in Mexico city and has ties to Cancun, B was born in Detroit and B’s family flew down for the wedding. We’re friends of both! After all the craizness of the past month, we needed to completely disconnect and enjoy time with friends who we havent’ seen since moving to Rhode Island.
- Stuck in Delta hell: Our arrival back to the US wasn’t as smooth as leaving. We left 1/13/17 and were supposed to arrive home 1/22/17. However, a huge storm surge (which created tornados that killed 18 people) hit Atlanta right when we were there. We got stuck at the airport after six hours of delays when it was announced that all flights were cancelled. We eventually rebooked for a flight to Providence for 9:30AM on 1/23/17.
All of that has happened since December 13th, 2016. We just got back from Cozumel earlier this week, as noted above. At the moment I’m scheduling a new convention appearance for June of 2017.
Next week I’ll be able to start new Jinxed updates, so stay tuned for that! I’ll also announce the plans for Spiritus Maximus’s publishing schedule next week.
Cheers,
Kat
Wheatley (left) and Mikcey (right)
See that dork waving in the background? That’s me on a paddle board.
Hello Snapchat flower crown.
