Author Corner!

I've been keeping myself pretty occupied with the administrative details of my upcoming conventions, travel, and life stuff, and I am once again finding myself frustrated that all these tasks take me away from my OGN work.

The thing I always forget about contract work, which currently mostly applies to what I'm doing when I go around doing speaking gigs and presentations about comics, is that every single contract comes with administrative I am loathe to take on. This is most frequently why I turn down requests for appearances. Some institutions are incredibly efficient about paying their guests. I send in a W-9, coordinate some information, and they typically have all the details they need to cut me a check. Others have much more cumbersome processes, requiring paperwork and surveys in multiple stages, and sometimes the effort of the paperwork alone is essentially cost-prohibitive to me on the basis of its strain on my time and effort alone. It's why I work with an art dealer for original work and a literary agent for publishing. I would happily shell out 10-15% of my contract income for that aspect of the work to be handled by someone competent and enthused about it.

In much less boring news, my spouse and I recently got a couple new babies in tow, and we've named them both Gertrude.

 The gray one is a Lavender Orpington we've nicknamed Trudy, and the big yellow one is Gertie (J calls her Gerta), a Brahma. My parents are coming over to help lay the foundation for a bigger chicken coop sometime this weekend. Once Getrudes are old enough to be introduced to Nelly and Snooki, that will bring our flock up to four. Technically, it'll be the most hens we've ever had at once. Our new coop is zoned for six hens, and we'll be keeping our old coop as an alternate space just in case there is unrest in the pecking order or something.

 Trudy is much smaller than Gertie, so she frequently burrows her little body directly underneath Gertie before falling asleep. Gertie seems to like falling asleep anywhere. In a week, they'll be big enough to safely eat things besides their chick feed, and I'm so excited to introduce them to mealworms.

 Lately I've been holding them in my hands while watching old TV shows. On a whim I happened to start watching The Carol Burnett Show, and I can see why people are so fond of this era of television. It's a ball! I'm having fun. I always enjoy the process of figuring out how much things have changed, what sort of humor holds up, and what's aged very poorly. This one is largely quite good! I am completely enamored with Carol Burnett's bit character, Alice Portnoy, a trooper belonging to a Girl Scout-like organization who frequently blackmails ne'er-do-wells and crooks for money to hilarious effect. I might have more takes on it later, but for now I'm just enjoying the ride.

 Here is some fanart of the Alice Portnoy character Burnett plays in the skits. This skit is my favorite one, I think:

I might do more fanart of her little bit characters as I continue watching the show.

If any of you happen to have any recommendations for old television shows, please let me know. I'm learning that I'm very partial to good-natured variety shows and sitcoms.

Hope you're well, and, as always, thank you for being here.