Yep, still here.
I stopped posting here and on FB both, when Spicer-kitty was gone. IDK. I just didn't feel like talking much. Life has been okay since then. This summer has yet to be a disaster like the previous three, though the ending is going to be a bit dicey thanks to work.
I guess the most surprising news is that for about 3 weeks, I had a second cat. A month after Spicer died, a friend sent me an email about a cat she'd heard of that needed a new home. It felt like serendipity, so I said I was interested. Much email exchanging later, I brought the kitty home. To make a long and painful story short, she needed to be in a single-cat home. I think with time she would have been all right sharing with Kakashi, but there was another big problem: she had herpes. Cats can get herpes, and it affects their nasal passages. She had scar tissue in her nose, which led to frequent heavy wet sneezing, and constant runny eyes, and oh hey, HERPES. Which can't be cured. And is contagious.
I have realized I now have a deep-seated fear of having another sick cat, and this one WOULD have infected Kakashi too. TWO sick cats, OH CRAP. Many tears were shed, of guilt for unknowingly bringing home a Typhoid Mary, of risking my sweet healthy Kakashi because I didn't stop to think, and of knowing I needed to find a new home for this cat that I had promised to take care of.
I tried the email and LJ/DW chain, in the hopes of finding a new home for her, but the one promising nibble didn't pan out. In the end, I took her to the Humane Society. I gave them all the info I had, shot records, etc etc. I also stressed she needed constant medical care and to be in a single-cat home. Yes, I cried tears of guilt as I signed her away. It was hard. Ten days later I called to check on her status, and was told she'd been adopted the day after I dropped her off. Even with her medical and behavior problems! I was so relieved, and sincerely hope she's happy, in a home where she is the only cat.
In lighter news, I did stop talking online, but I didn't stop socializing IRL. Weekly walks with my lovely friends Mab and Sno, bi-weekly write-ins with Rathany, Mab, and Liviapenn when she could make it. Though these have dropped off in recent weeks, due to trips and my own workload.
I'm heading back to Texas for another wedding, of my second to last single female cousin. No long 3.5 hour drives to the beach this time, as the wedding is in my hometown. I'll be gone for four days, this Friday through next Monday. Mab is on Kakashi-sitting duty. He's never been alone for longer than 20 hours. I hope he won't be too stressed!
Now, work. In alphabetical order:
Behind the Scenes vol 1 is chugging along. Oh yeah, this is my newest title. It's the new seris by Ouran's mangaka, Bisco Hatori. :3 I've completed all the nasty pages, and a chunk of the average to easier ones. Shoujo Editor 2 offered me an extension on this one, which is good, b/c what with the trip and my current Seraph scramble, I could use it. Lettering this one is on hold until I return. Other deadlines are first. Based on what I've picked up from lettering so far (remember I don't letter chonologicaly, but jump around based on page difficulty), I think this book is really going to strike close to home. Hmm. I'm looking forward to actually reading it, for tweaking purposes, before I turn in the first draft.
Bloody Mary v1 is in the second round of corrections. This is the first time I've worked for this particular editor, and she likes some things differently from my previous bosses. Several font changes across many many pages--which thanks to ID is a LOT easier than old-school lettering in Photoshop. I still had to visit every instance of a font change, though, as no two fonts are exactly the same in regards to their size and placement. And of course, there were the usual translation and wording tweaks, missing bits of stuff that was not initially translated to take care of, the occasional error on my side (alas, for I do try to catch them all beforehand), and such. This second round of corrections is a fraction of the size of the first batch, at least! Volume Ones are always rife with corrections and tweaks, as we figure out how the book will look and how the dialogue flows. ^^
Lost Letters v2 is turned in. This is my sporadic every-18-months BL series, the third in it. (Vol 1 is The Matchseller, vol 2 is LL v1.) This is probably my favorite of all the BL I've lettered OR read. Very much character driven, with expressive and light art. ^^ Now awaiting corrections.
Natsume 19 will be rushed. The translator had a late start, which means I'll have a late start, and the pressure will be on to finish ASAP. They key sheet shows this volume shouldn't be too difficult *knocks on wood*, as the textless tiffs we now receive for Natsume really save me from floating text and title page woes. Whew! I don't have script yet, so can't start lettering Natsume here anyway.
NightS: Another Night is a sequel single-chapter to a BL oneshot I lettered a couple of years ago. This one is completely done and in the can, I'm happy to say. ^^
Requiem v3 is also finished and in the can. Things are really heating up! 3 ends on a particularly mean cliffhanger, I must say.
Seraph v8 is in the works. I had a late start on this one, even though I had the pages and script right on time. It's going to be a scramble for me to finish, but 10 pages a day will get me there. And yesterday I completed the last two truly difficult ones--unless I underestimated some pages. Let us hope not. BTW, Seraph chapter 36 is up in this week's Jump, and HOOO BOY is it a good one. XD Something I predicted back in chapter 2 came true, and my shippy fangirl heart is just overjoyed. :DDD
Skip v36 is waiting for me to start. It's due in late September, so you won't be surprised to learn it's on hold until I clear Seraph out of the way. Another nasty cliffhanger at the end of this vol, BTW. My my my. I've seen Skip fanfic's take on what might happen next 100 times. It will be interesting to see what canon does.
And there's the work update.
I've mentioned it a couple times above, but I've ended up with a slightly changed method of lettering a book. With my difficult and complicated titles, plus being older and slower and working less these days, an orange, pink, and definitely purple page can take half to an entire work day to finish. One single page. Before my slow down, I would calculate how many pages I needed to letter a day (my daily quota) to finish a book on time, and stick to it as well as I was able. But with Clay, and Voice, and Seraph, and now Behind, that just doesn't work. I'll blow my work day on finishing one page, which puts me behind the daily quota schedule, and things just spiral down from there. These days, I don't calculate the quota until I finish all the orange, pink, and purple pages. What's the point, if they're just going to make me blow it?
In the end, the way I make it through work crunches is one page at a time. That's what I tell myself: "One page at a time." If I look at an entire, complicated volume, I can become overwhelmed. But if I look at one page, and take care of that page, then 180 pages later, the book is done. It's a simple psychological trick, I know. But it works!
One page at a time. *deep breath in and out* And on that note, back to work for me.
I guess the most surprising news is that for about 3 weeks, I had a second cat. A month after Spicer died, a friend sent me an email about a cat she'd heard of that needed a new home. It felt like serendipity, so I said I was interested. Much email exchanging later, I brought the kitty home. To make a long and painful story short, she needed to be in a single-cat home. I think with time she would have been all right sharing with Kakashi, but there was another big problem: she had herpes. Cats can get herpes, and it affects their nasal passages. She had scar tissue in her nose, which led to frequent heavy wet sneezing, and constant runny eyes, and oh hey, HERPES. Which can't be cured. And is contagious.
I have realized I now have a deep-seated fear of having another sick cat, and this one WOULD have infected Kakashi too. TWO sick cats, OH CRAP. Many tears were shed, of guilt for unknowingly bringing home a Typhoid Mary, of risking my sweet healthy Kakashi because I didn't stop to think, and of knowing I needed to find a new home for this cat that I had promised to take care of.
I tried the email and LJ/DW chain, in the hopes of finding a new home for her, but the one promising nibble didn't pan out. In the end, I took her to the Humane Society. I gave them all the info I had, shot records, etc etc. I also stressed she needed constant medical care and to be in a single-cat home. Yes, I cried tears of guilt as I signed her away. It was hard. Ten days later I called to check on her status, and was told she'd been adopted the day after I dropped her off. Even with her medical and behavior problems! I was so relieved, and sincerely hope she's happy, in a home where she is the only cat.
In lighter news, I did stop talking online, but I didn't stop socializing IRL. Weekly walks with my lovely friends Mab and Sno, bi-weekly write-ins with Rathany, Mab, and Liviapenn when she could make it. Though these have dropped off in recent weeks, due to trips and my own workload.
I'm heading back to Texas for another wedding, of my second to last single female cousin. No long 3.5 hour drives to the beach this time, as the wedding is in my hometown. I'll be gone for four days, this Friday through next Monday. Mab is on Kakashi-sitting duty. He's never been alone for longer than 20 hours. I hope he won't be too stressed!
Now, work. In alphabetical order:
Behind the Scenes vol 1 is chugging along. Oh yeah, this is my newest title. It's the new seris by Ouran's mangaka, Bisco Hatori. :3 I've completed all the nasty pages, and a chunk of the average to easier ones. Shoujo Editor 2 offered me an extension on this one, which is good, b/c what with the trip and my current Seraph scramble, I could use it. Lettering this one is on hold until I return. Other deadlines are first. Based on what I've picked up from lettering so far (remember I don't letter chonologicaly, but jump around based on page difficulty), I think this book is really going to strike close to home. Hmm. I'm looking forward to actually reading it, for tweaking purposes, before I turn in the first draft.
Bloody Mary v1 is in the second round of corrections. This is the first time I've worked for this particular editor, and she likes some things differently from my previous bosses. Several font changes across many many pages--which thanks to ID is a LOT easier than old-school lettering in Photoshop. I still had to visit every instance of a font change, though, as no two fonts are exactly the same in regards to their size and placement. And of course, there were the usual translation and wording tweaks, missing bits of stuff that was not initially translated to take care of, the occasional error on my side (alas, for I do try to catch them all beforehand), and such. This second round of corrections is a fraction of the size of the first batch, at least! Volume Ones are always rife with corrections and tweaks, as we figure out how the book will look and how the dialogue flows. ^^
Lost Letters v2 is turned in. This is my sporadic every-18-months BL series, the third in it. (Vol 1 is The Matchseller, vol 2 is LL v1.) This is probably my favorite of all the BL I've lettered OR read. Very much character driven, with expressive and light art. ^^ Now awaiting corrections.
Natsume 19 will be rushed. The translator had a late start, which means I'll have a late start, and the pressure will be on to finish ASAP. They key sheet shows this volume shouldn't be too difficult *knocks on wood*, as the textless tiffs we now receive for Natsume really save me from floating text and title page woes. Whew! I don't have script yet, so can't start lettering Natsume here anyway.
NightS: Another Night is a sequel single-chapter to a BL oneshot I lettered a couple of years ago. This one is completely done and in the can, I'm happy to say. ^^
Requiem v3 is also finished and in the can. Things are really heating up! 3 ends on a particularly mean cliffhanger, I must say.
Seraph v8 is in the works. I had a late start on this one, even though I had the pages and script right on time. It's going to be a scramble for me to finish, but 10 pages a day will get me there. And yesterday I completed the last two truly difficult ones--unless I underestimated some pages. Let us hope not. BTW, Seraph chapter 36 is up in this week's Jump, and HOOO BOY is it a good one. XD Something I predicted back in chapter 2 came true, and my shippy fangirl heart is just overjoyed. :DDD
Skip v36 is waiting for me to start. It's due in late September, so you won't be surprised to learn it's on hold until I clear Seraph out of the way. Another nasty cliffhanger at the end of this vol, BTW. My my my. I've seen Skip fanfic's take on what might happen next 100 times. It will be interesting to see what canon does.
And there's the work update.
I've mentioned it a couple times above, but I've ended up with a slightly changed method of lettering a book. With my difficult and complicated titles, plus being older and slower and working less these days, an orange, pink, and definitely purple page can take half to an entire work day to finish. One single page. Before my slow down, I would calculate how many pages I needed to letter a day (my daily quota) to finish a book on time, and stick to it as well as I was able. But with Clay, and Voice, and Seraph, and now Behind, that just doesn't work. I'll blow my work day on finishing one page, which puts me behind the daily quota schedule, and things just spiral down from there. These days, I don't calculate the quota until I finish all the orange, pink, and purple pages. What's the point, if they're just going to make me blow it?
In the end, the way I make it through work crunches is one page at a time. That's what I tell myself: "One page at a time." If I look at an entire, complicated volume, I can become overwhelmed. But if I look at one page, and take care of that page, then 180 pages later, the book is done. It's a simple psychological trick, I know. But it works!
One page at a time. *deep breath in and out* And on that note, back to work for me.