Life, the Universe, and Everything.

You know what you need to do?

You need to get a nice Russet potato, and stab it all over with a fork so it's full of holes. Then, you need to coat it in a thin layer of olive oil, and sprinkle on some kosher salt.

While that's baking at 350 degrees for about an hour (or until squeezable), sitting directly on the rack, you need to get a peeled, sliced-up banana and a heaping handful of blueberries out of the freezer... you do keep a few smoothie-friendly fruits in the freezer, don't you?... and toss 'em in the blender with a cup of water, and liquefy that until it's drinkable and a radioactive shade of purple-blue. Then, when the potato's done, you need to slice it open lengthwise, mash up the insides, sprinkle on some more kosher salt and paprika and onion powder and black pepper, and top it off with a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt.

Mix it up, so the yogurt gets all liquid-y.

And then, you need to EAT. Oh, yeah.

....

Anyway, this is that update I've been promising you guys. The long one.

Last weekend was Wizard World Chicago, which was the best con I've ever had a table at, hands down. I had a lot of visitors, I sold a lot of books, and most strangely of all, I got a lot of work done. I'm not really a con report sort of person, because I'm skeptical as to how interesting those things are to people who never went. But I'll post a few links to some people I met, caught up with, and so forth.

Becca, for example, sat to my right, and spent the con drawing commissions! (I got a chance to be helpful when someone commissioned a portrait of their Draenei from World of Warcraft, but provided a black-and-white printout for Becca to work from; she didn't know Draenei were blue.) Sarah and Corrine sat to my left; I already mentioned them, right?

I was also kept company by Peter G., a game programmer who commissioned a portrait of the heroine of Diner Dash. Very unusual subject matter, but it actually came out really nice.

SEND ME A SCAN, PETE!

Several rows over were BMAN and Alisa, selling prints and copies of BMAN's graphic novel Soul Chaser Betty (Which you can read for free over on WCN. Updates every weekday. Hint hint.) Directly behind me (or was I behind her?) was Ashley Woods, who handed me an extremely slick copy of her first comic in exchange for one of mine, and had her mom with her for go-fer duties and table babysitting. That is just... crazy supportive.

Lynn Lau came by, bought a book, and turned me on to Hugo & Bana, her comic on WCN. (Which is only the merest fraction of her repertoire, by the way.) And a lot of other people visited besides, saying they knew about my comic already and just wanted a book, which gave me big ol' butterflies. Thanks, everyone.

In non-con news, unless there was weirdness associated with the order, ALL of the original (and new!) $15.00 Templar orders are out the door, and the commission orders start heading out next week.I'd like to get all of the orders done by the time the second chapter and intermission wind up, so I can do a fresh pre-order with some amount of decency. Thanks for your patience, guys.