To all my loved ones: I love you!

I finally got the chance to sleep in today. It’s been over a month since we came back from NYC, and since then it seems like every opportunity for me to get a good night’s sleep has been thwarted for one reason or another.

(Bouts of insomnia, the cat, the fire alarm malfunctioning, the kitchen sink being inoperable for weeks, starting a new job, repair guys showing up, taking En to work early in the morning so they don’t have to take transit, running errands, going to appointments, cons, friends visiting, chores…)

All of that, and I just want to rest! It’s bananas how the little minutiae pile up like that. There are seasons in my life where I focus very hard on my career. Now that it’s autumn, I feel the seasonal shift towards focusing on what really matters: resting, health, family, and having as much fun as possible whenever possible. Tell the people in your life that you love them. Don’t dwell on things that make you upset. Be so niceys and live with an open heart! It’s my guiding principle.

Portland Zine Symposium 2024

It’s my final show in Portland of the year! I’ll be tabling at PSU for the Zine Symposium on Sept 22 (this Sunday) 11-5. Wear a mask and come say hi! It’s a free show, and there’s different tablers on Saturday and Sunday, so come to both days so you don’t get any fomo!

The reviews are in: How Could You slaps

A huge thank you to Fawnduu, Ollie Hicks, and Reimena Yee for reading my book early and providing blurbs and saying such kind loving things about my first ever long form traditionally published thing! At least one other person said they got an ARC and told me nice things as well :’)

It’s really encouraging because sometimes I dissociate from my book as a means to protect myself. It’s hard, right? Like, you spend years working on something and then at the end it’s being shown to more people than you could ever even comprehend, people outside your immediate sphere and audience. The fear of being misunderstood, read in bad faith, or plainly disliked, it spreads its sloppy soupy tendrils over the whole experience. So sometimes I close my eyes and shrug my shoulders and say, “Book? What book? I didn’t make a graphic novel. That’s not me.”

But hearing these kind words from people whose work I really respect and admire makes me reconnect with my book and respect myself and my work. I hope you all like How Could You, and if you don’t, I won’t know! My eyes are closed!

Wayne/Shep NSFW

While I work on the next issue of Amira, enjoy this Shep and Wayne illustration for Horn Dog tiers and up :)

These Puppies Are Muzzled

Here’s a medieval illuminated manuscript styled wolf carrying a banner to advertise that you are wearing your binder, reassuring everyone in your vicinity that you’ve got some dogs leashed up under there!! Shop the design here <3

Also available as socks, for those kinds of dogs.

The Shepherd’s Sword

Wayne is back, and she gets to have a speech bubble! Fuck I missed her. New updates of The Shepherd’s Sword are posted every Friday , but you can read ahead on Patreon! 

Find all the ways to read The Shepherd’s Sword for free here! (PS: I have a secret project for this series in the works…)

What else did I do this month, hmm…

That Cintiq I won during RCCC… I still haven’t been able to use it! It’s so bizarre, but my computer (which is only 2 years old, mind you) doesn’t have a USB-C port. So I got the adapter I needed, but then realized my PC is also had no available HDMI ports. So I had to order another adapter for one of my monitors to free up an HDMI slot. Technology changes so quickly these days, I swear, but only in these little tiny inconvenient and annoying ways lol

Since I’m in a bit of a life change right now, I’m still working on finding my new rhythm. Once my kitchen is repaired and functional again, I think I’ll feel more human. It’s wild what a huge impact something as small as “cannot use my kitchen sink” can have on the rest of your life.

Apart from that, I’ve been preparing for my book launch! It comes out in December, which is practically tomorrow, in the grand scheme of things. If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, please do. Or at least request it at your library! It really helps a ton, and I want to be able to make another book after this :) Thank you one william times!

Here’s some sweet treats for you to check out: 

• Pre-order my book! How Could You comes out this December.

• “The Puritanical Eye: Hyper-mediation, Sex on Film, and the Disavowal of Desire” by Carlee Gomes

• pi.fyi is a old school style Myspace-like/Lex-like/Letterbox-like place to go to share your recommendations and get inspiration. I saw Suki Waterhouse was doing it so I’m exploring it, too.

• I kind of fell off my reading train I was on. After I finished listening to Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda (translated by Sarah Booker), nothing has felt the same. I wish I could go back in time and experience this book for the first time again, which isn’t a feeling I get often.

• “Why did bloody knights write love songs about spring blossoms?” by Jennifer Saltzstein

• Here is a website that will give you a random Gaza family’s fundraiser, as well as a database of all of the fundraisers. Don’t let overwhelm paralyze you into inaction.