2017 in Review

Now that we are, ah, about two months into 2018, now’sa good time to share my 2017 recap, wouldn’t’cha say? I mean, yeah, sure, most people post their recounts at the end of December or the beginning of January. But, what can I say? I don’t walk the beaten path, baby. Also, I procrastinate.

If you’ve been patronizing me since July last year or you’ve gone on a deep dive of my Patreon archives, you may recall this post I wrote about Business Ladies Club. It’s this monthly meet-up I have with some fellow ladies of business where we share our professional accomplishments, challenges, and goals. It can be hard to remember everything you did over the course of 30 days, so I keep a list in my sketchbook that I review at our meetings. And then at the veeeery end of the year, I go back through all my notes and compile one big Mega Review just for me and then I make a much more concise list that I write into a card for Matt, to keep a record of what we did. Haha, it’s a little tradition that I started when we moved into our house and we’ve got quite a little collection going now.

So! Culled from my Mega Review, here’s some of things that happened in my world last year.

Interspersed throughout, you will find photos of my shaviana pink frills succulent, Hillary. You’re welcome.

JANUARY

I… I did not make any notes this month???? Let’s just say it was totally average, nothing remarkable happened. WHICH IS AWESOME. No news is good news, amirite?

FEBRUARY

-B, our assistant-type-person took on more duties to help us out in maintaining and supplementing the world of OJST behind the scenes. Oh my god, I’m so grateful for the work they provide. Stuff like drafting promotional copy and organizing my charity auction and turning one of my designs into a pattern for others to use and moderating my social media accounts and making copypastable tattoos for Matt to plonk onto Masturbateers in the comic and just… shit like that. Oh, like editing out my segments on the Savage Lovecast so I can post them here! That stuff. They sound like such small, manageable things, but they eat up so much time and brain energy. Ahk! Sorry, I didn’t mean to write that much. I’ll try to stay focused!

-Hired Maria Frantz to pencil three pages of my 18th Century Smut story for me because I have! No! Time!

-OJST settled with a company that legally tried to force us to change our name???? This was super dumb and both sides had to pay lawyers thousands and thousands of dollars to sort through it and uhhhgggggg it was so unnecessaryyyyyy. I would love to elaborate more but, haha, I can’t. Just trust me, it was fucking stupid and we’d never heard of this company before they sent us paperwork. THIS WAS SO! DUMB!!!!

-The coloring book debuted!

-The Women’s Health Coalition got a bump in donations from folks using my “Nevertheless, She Persisted” embroidery pattern!

-My mental health was very poor and I started on Lithium to help manage my bipolar disorder.

-I wanted to quit OJST. It was a feeling that had been growing for a while. This was because of a lot of outside forces and feeling creatively stagnate, I wanted to work on new projects. Haha and cover a less controversial subject that wouldn’t net me so much hassle from others /:) Just. A lotta stuff.

MARCH

-A European publisher expressed interest in translating OJST books into other languages.

-Matt applied for US Citizenship.

-Mental and physical health deteriorating. Really wanted to quit OJST.

APRIL

-A Bad Thing Happened and I had a nervous breakdown. It was. Bad. LOL It’s the closest I’ve ever come to being hospitalized for losing my mind and in hindsight I probably should have been LOL I’m still recovering, honestly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MAY

-Kickstarter for Volume 4 launched and was funded in six hours.

-The International Stockholm Comics Fest flew me out as a special guest and I was treated like a rockstar O.O Also I was mad sick the whole time, plus still having a nervous breakdown. 

-Filmed a segment for FusionTV’s SEX. RIGHT. NOW. show while still hilariously sick. We kept having to take breaks so I could cough up my lunges. I’m very curious to see how their footage of me turned out…. (Not aired yet!)

-Began the process of finding sponsors for the OJST site, to replace advertisements. Matt wrote about this in his own words for you folks here on Patreon! Sexy Ads and Embarrassed Dads and Sponsoring an Ad Free OJST.

-More Bad Things stemming from the other Bad Thing.

-I officially told Matt there was no way around it, I had to stop working on OJST. Now. I could wrap up some things that needed tending, but then I was out. Felt like a weight had been lifted from my heart and mind knowing the end was in sight.

JUNE

-Planned Parenthood and The Magic Wand expressed interest in sponsoring the OJST website!

-Interviewed by Dr. David Ley for his #NoMoreSexShame series.

-15 year high school reunion O.O

-Posed for photographer Allan Amato (and later wrote an essay to accompany my picture.)

-Turned 34

JULY

-Helioscope’s intern lived in our guest room for four days after a sudden shake up in her housing situation. I! LOVE! HAVING! A! GUEST ROOM!!!!!

-Raised $295.10 for Scarleteen through my embroidery auction, which was managed by B!

-Felt stable with my relationship with OJST again. Now that I had the freedom to leave OJST, I…. didn’t…. want to any more??? It put the negative outside forces into perspective and I realized, goddamnit, I still have a bunch of subjects in sex ed I WANT to cover. I wasn’t ready to quit yet. My mental health was still shitty. But. Not ready to quit any more.

AUGUST

-Talked with Limerence Press (OJST’s book distributor/co-publisher) about doing A New Thing. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you guys about it in the near future???? Also, I’m not exactly sure how secret it’s ‘sposed to be. Maybe I can talk about it sooner rather than later. I dunno. 

-PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND THE MAGIC WAND SPONSOR OHJOYSEXTOY.COM. Ads removed from the site!

SEPTEMBER

Matt and I went to Eeeeeeengland to visit his faaaaaaamilyyyyyyyy! Ate so many Kipling Bakewells.

OCTOBER

-Volume 4 Kickstarter books delivered! I am so proud to brag that every single one of our Kickstarters have delivered their products ahead of our projected delivery dates. Awwwwww yehhhhhhhhhhhh.

-For the first time, OJST opened up guest comic submissions to the public! Before, we’d always approached artists individually, but now? Now the floodgates are open, my friends. 

-Participated in Inktober (You can see a selection of my drawings here and here)

-Began the courtship dance with some book agents??? Because Matt and I are just That Fancy now. 

-Maria Frantz, former Helioscope intern-turned-apprecentice, lived in our guest room for a month! I! LOVE! HAVING! A! GUEST ROOM!!!!!!!!!

NOVEMBER

-Began work on the Secret Thing with Limerence Press

-Signed with Monica Verma at LGR Literary Agency. Haha. Matt and I have an agent now. Wut. This is the actual note I sent her to finalize everything:

-Something really big happened that I can’t announce yet????????? Believe me, the moment I’m allowed to, you will be the first ones to know. And hopefully, I’ll be able to share behind-the-scenes stuff with you guys too. 

-That Thing You Like had me on to talk about one of my fav movies, Coraline!

-Made an illustrated essay about the 20th anniversary of Whiteout.

-Release party for Volume 4 at Books With Pictures! The book is available everywhere now, both in print and in pixels!

DECEMBER

-More work on the really big thing 

-More work on the other New Thing with Limerence. 

So. Yeah. A lot happened last year. A lotta good stuff. Some big time not-so-good stuff, too. 

As it stands, my mental health is, uhm. Average? Below-average to average. But I’m not in crisis survival mode! Which is neat. And I feel very at peace  working on OJST, with compartmentalizing my relationship to this project that consumes and overshadows every aspect of my life. Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes in a not-so-good way. That’s its own post, really! 

COMMENT REQUEST:

♡ Please don't talk about my mental health or nearly quitting OJST :) ♡
♡ I can share a tiny sliver of this with you guys, but I don't have the energy to deal with reading other folks' input on it, even if it's just to be supportive ♡ Thank you so much for your understanding and respecting my wishes! ♡

Feel free to tell me how beautiful Hillary is, though! That's always welcomed and appreciated.