While that does sum it up, let me explain:

I have this project I’ve been chipping away at, maybe you’ve heard of it? What to Feed Your Raiding Party–ring a bell?

I’ve been throwing bits and pieces of time at it for 5 months and it’s nowhere near finished. And those bits and pieces of time are the reason why: it is at once my greatest hope for the future and my red headed stepchild of a project. And that’s not fair to it, me, or the people I’m writing it for.

So for the next two months both Cocktail Hour and Where the Geeks Are will be on hiatus so that I can focus my time and energy. At the end of July I’ll decide if August will be taken off, too.

But that doesn’t mean cobwebs will be gathering here! Think of it like a summer break for your favorite shows. I’m not planning to go the re-run route, but we’ll be subbing in various updates from the cookbook project: maybe a sketch here, an excerpt there, a tip another time–basically whenever I’ve got stuff worth sharing which I’m hoping will be quite often.

And because I’d really love it for my analytics numbers not to bottom out, the bits I post here? Won’t be the same as the ones over at the cookbook site or the other comic. So please keep your subscription to the RSS feed (or start one if you haven’t already) and stop by periodically for news.

And please know that this isn’t an easy decision for me, I’ve been fighting it for more than 2 months because I’m stubborn and didn’t want to admit I can’t do it all.Please hang with me through this–the best is yet to come!

Partially still the fallout of last week’s meltdown, partially due to the pain in my hand (tendonitis in the thumb and not really sure what else is going on just yet) that really kicked in back on the 20th after the sunburn to my wrists and hands. If nothing else, something will update on Thursday even if it’s just pencils! Thanks for bearing with me!

Meredith gave me the most fits when it came to her look. In fact, I’m still not happy with the details on her hair, but I’m sure it’ll work itself out in time. The other girls were fairly easy–I wanted to make sure they were each distinctive in one way or another and I think I managed that bit okay, at least

Back to the comics on Tuesday (if all goes well and I get some drawing time at MegaCon–actually, if all goes well I won’t have time to draw comics and I will happily spend until the wee hours creating the next strip in the story!).

A true page from the sketchbook (not something I did a lot of before recently), this time my brainstorming a logo for the strip. One thing I’d love to spend time doing is creating typography or fonts. Of course, I’d probably have to give up something to do that so it won’t happen anytime soon, but I like to play with it when I have the chance.

Don’t forget! MegaCon is this weekend in Orlando, Florida. I’ll be in Artist’s Alley, Yellow section, table #8. Look for the large martini glass full of candy–that’ll be me!

This was one of the first promo images I did for WtGA–basically because I needed a group shot for the alternate image on the hub link, here at SoulGeek

It was nice to have to think up something that would incorporate all 4 girls doing something similar yet different. That iconic Charlie’s Angels pose is so versatile, isn’t it?

Here’s how the girls started out–it’s interesting to see how they changed and what parts of their original designs–as much as they were planned at all–still remain. It’ll be interesting to see how things have evolved over the next year

Man, I was really looking forward to the next strip but my cough, etc. is not letting up! I’ll be putting myself to bed with extra cough syrup and my humidifier shortly after supper. I’ll just have to leave you in suspense for another few days. Sorry, gang.

In the mean time, let me know who you think is behind Carson? One of the other girls? A new person? And what do they want?

Wow. Something occurred to me around lunchtime today (Monday, December 14, 2009): I was dreading the prospect of facing my drawing table tonight. Whoa! That’s never happened before. And I have this week’s comics planned (though not yet drawn) so it’s not so much writer’s block as just complete and utter creative fatigue.

Sure, I’ve got a lot on my plate, but that’s nothing new. Yeah, I didn’t get any pencilling done on Sunday but that, too, isn’t exactly earth shattering. And despite things going fairly steady in the way of pageviews and so forth, I feel like I’m facing this humongous brick wall and cannot find my sledgehammer or ladder.

So I’m taking a week off from both comics, totally without warning or planning, and while I hate to do it (because I’ve never been that type of artist before and don’t plan to make it a habit as some do) I think I need to do this or risk worse next week or next month. I know I took an announced, scheduled break earlier this year and I’m thinking that I might actually consider some planned breaks for the next calendar year. Like a week off every 6 months. Chances are good I’d still be working on comics-related items (and, at least this week, I want to do some brainstorming on some upcoming things) during these breaks but I think it’s going to happen and I think the overall work I put out will be stronger for it.

I hope you’ll understand and not hate me for this. I love knowing what I post makes people smile or outright laugh and I have so many stories left to share that I don’t have any intentions of ending these comics any time soon. It’s just, I’m human, and I need a week.

We’ll be back to business as usual on the 22nd.

Intrigued? I certainly hope so! I’ve got a new project on the horizon and, frankly, it could use your help.

Kickstarter.com (in case you’re not familiar with it) is a site that allows creators of various sorts to propose a project, set a fundraising goal and accept the pledges of backers for a certain period of time to, hopefully, fund the project so that it can become a reality. If the fund goal isn’t reached, no one pays a thing, but if the fund goal IS reached, the pledges are collected (via Amazon Payments) and transferred to the creator who can begin (or continue) work on their project. Kickstarter is BIG into rewards, so each pledge level comes with some sort of thank-you involved.

What to Feed Your Raiding Party is accepting pledges for the next 2 months. What it is, is half comic book, half cookbook, written with a definite slant towards gamers, geeks and lovers of our particular type of pop-culture. My goal is to raise enough funds to cover a print run of 250 as well as the time and materials involved in creating the 150-page book (50-75 recipes and 60 or so pages of comics). There are more details over on the project page, including a complete list of rewards that span private project updates to copies of the book to getting a recipe named after you to original art and more.

Obviously, backers willing to pledge any amount are needed but if you can’t do that, consider passing around the link to your friends, posting it on any forums that gamers and geeks hang out on and talk up the project as much as possible–that’s just about as important as money as the more people find out about this project the more chance I have of reaching my goal, being able to start work on the project, get it printed (that’s the big thing!) and have it available for folks to use.

Feedback is always welcome & I hope you like this concept as much as I do! Also, while you’re at Kickstarter, check out some of the very awesome projects over there that you might be interested in being a part of.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/randomactscomics/what-to-feed-your-raiding-party-a-comic-book-cook-0