Update yo!

Been a while since the last one now, so it|s about time I did a little update :-)

January has been hectic, but one of my new year resolutions is to focus more on the positive and try not to give a shit about the bad stuff, so let's just skip to the good part, eh?

I've been working a L O T on the first volume of the SPiKE graphic novel.
I can|t remember if I told you guys, but I was supposed to sign a book contact with my publisher in December. At the meeting we agreed it was best to postpone the signing till January for various reasons. Now the new meeting is booked, this week actually, so we'll be going through the contract and stuff, and... yeah :)  Exciting shiz.

Our last meeting was quite fun though... Or, like... Weird, but in a good way.
We were supposed to have the meeting at the company HQ, but agreed to go to a café instead (I've been at the HQ several times before, which is nice, but having important meetings at public cafés is kinda cool too imo).

It was... yeah, weird, but a good sort of weird. Because we were discussing publication, story details like plot points and characters and stuff like that, and I had brought one of my ring binders with some of the more recent sketches and pages and stuff, and me and my publisher (or editor? She's sort of both.. Director I think. Heck, I don't know the terminology.. but you know what I mean, right?) were discussing all things SPiKE related, and it felt so weird-but-cool when people who walked past or sat nearby sort of glanced over at us or eavesdropped, cause like, we were talking launch dates and actual publishing things and I just felt so.... I guess proud? Excited? But also strangely calm?

It's kinda surreal to be on the other side of that table, you know?
From being some nobody who read comics and daydreamed of maybe someday have something of her own published, looking up to the Big Guys in the industry, wondering how that must feel like, to being somebody who is in the process of publishing her very own debut graphic novel, being on friendly terms with the Big Guys in the industry who are now her colleagues even (like, for real, many famous Norwegian comic artists recognise me and actually want to have a conversation with me when we meet, some even keep in touch with me on social media, like whuuuut! So sweet yet so surreal...).

For years and years I would be daydreaming in the big comic book stores here of maybe someday seeing my own work up on those shelves, and, like, damn... I'm starting to realise  that might actually become a reality..

I'm not saying this to brag, I'm kinda just excited about this new world that has presented itself and I really wanna show it to you, you know? Give you a little vicarious journey inside the comic book industry. And show you that - even as cliché as we all know it sounds - your dreams might actually come true, as long as you don't give up on them.

So, to paraphrase a quote I found on the internet but have no idea how to find the source of:

"Stop doubting yourself, work hard, and make it happen."

And hey, you?
Thank you so much for believing in me.

I believe in you too <3

You can do the thing <3

PS:

Sorry for not showing you any WIPs and stuff, I'm still not sure how much I am allowed to show at this point, you know?
But I can ask at the meeting :)
I am planning on asking if I can leak the fact that we are gonna publish SPiKE to my followers on DeviantART too, because I bet it sort of looks like I'm just... gone, to them at this point, you know? I've been so busy working on the graphic novel that I haven't had anything else to show them, and being unable to make a fully public announcement just yet I haven't told them about this... So I fear it looks like I've given up to them, and it breaks my heart, because I don't know if I would even have made it this far if it hadn't been for my followers constant love and support over the years, and I can't wait to share the grand news with them, finally give them something in return, you know?
I am sooo tempted to spill the beans, lol, but I'll have to ask my publisher first.

Hoping to make some time for another stream session soon though <3
I really wanna do some of when I'm coloring the comic pages. But I think most of this year will be focusing mostly on sketching all the pages for the first volume. Sketching might not sound as a lot of work, but trust me; that's where the majority of the work actually is, cause there is sooo much planning and work behind every page before it is even ready to be sketched. Coloring and rendering, texting etc is like... idk, 10%? It's what's left to do when all the hard work has been done XD
It'd be fun to stream some of the sketching process, but I sketch traditionally so idk how that would work, and also I worry that streaming it will throw me off focus, cause I need to be "in the zone" to do my best, you know? And knowing that someone is watching me work without doubt always makes me do a lousy job XD (srsly though, even if you don't think I do, I KNOW I do XD )

I'm rambling again, as per usual...

ok, ending the post now XD

Thank you all for all the love and support, it means the world to me <3

Big hugs to you all! <3