2015
Added 2016-01-11 23:43:55 +0000 UTC(Preview from tomorrow's upcoming review of the anthology Coming Out Like a Porn Star, edited by Jiz Lee)
This Sunday I sat down with two of my friends and over multiple cups of tea —and multiple pee breaks— we summarized our 2015 over the course of about four hours (at least one hour was taken up with eating breakfast) and tried to figure out What It All Means.
Lookin’ even further back, I found my list of goals I wrote going into 2015:
-- Kickstart and publish OJST volume 2 [Accomplished!]
-- Raise guest artist rates again [Did not accomplish! But $100 a page for a non-exclusive license to publish a cartoonist’s work isn’t the worst rate in the comics industry. Not… not great. But not the worst.]
-- Create a few more current comics about what my life is like now as someone in their 30s and publish a ginorm-o hardback collection of all my autobio comics from ages 19-31. Matt’s already collected all the old comics into an inDesign file, it’s just waiting on me making the new content. [At a bit of a standstill. All the old comics are, indeed, collected, but the layout needs to be prettied up and I need to write an introduction. I also decided it would be best to put all my modern autobio comics into their own book. I’ve scripted and laid out a handful, but this is a super back burner project.]
-- Draw my porno comic [I got five pages done in 12 months! …yay?]
-- Make five more vegetable paintings [Accomplished!]
-- Take actual vacations [Accomplished! Not enough, but it’s a start!]
So, what accomplishments were accomplished in 2015?
-Got my artichoke tattoo
-Was a guest at Dr. Emily Nagoski’s book release party at She Bop, as well as being on Late Night Action, Savage Lovecast Live, and Sex Nerd Sandra Live (Episodes 1 and 2). Podcast-ily, I spoke on Sex Out Loud, That Thing You Like, Patreon, and Scope of Work (Not yet released)
-Co-hosted the Period Sex twitter chat and giveaway with Glad Rags and Scarleteen
-Made a snail valentine
-Bought a car
-Exhibited at Emerald City Comicon and VanCaf
-Had my name and photo listed on Wikipedia's entry for the Hitachi Magic Wand
-OJST had its second birthday on April 26th.
-In August Matt completed his first full year of working on OJST full time as his sole form of income (THANK YOU, PATRONS)
-Kickstarted, published, and delivered Oh Joy Sex Toy: Volume 2, with a release party at Glad Rags
-I turned 32, Matt turned 30, Flapjack probably turned 6, and our house turned 102
-Invited to teach a two week long workshop at an art school in Denmark and give a lecture at Stanford (My lack of time and irrationally crippling fear of public speaking made me decline both offers. But still, rad to be invited!)
-For the first time, licensed an illustration from another artist (Alaina Ewins!) to make the Magical Wands shirt.
-Did an illustration for A Book being published by A Big Deal Publisher for a High Profile Project
-Planted a tree in our yard (Well, Matt did. I just offered emotional support)
-OJST made it onto Autostraddle’s shortlist of award-worthy comics and placed fourth in Kinkly’s Top Sex Blogs contest
-Made headway on setting up a partnership with another publisher to distribute our books to stores.
-“Quit” Twitter. Instantly felt so much better. I still see the occasional tweet when Matt directs me towards them, but I’m no longer reading my timeline or replies.
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And what challenges were challenging in 2015?
-Two of my social media accounts got broken into on the same day. The culprit didn’t do anything malicious, as far as I can tell, but it was incredibly upsetting and I used it as a good kick in the rear to be proactive about setting up better Internet Protection.
-I don’t cope well with Internet Hate. It destroys me. I don't have the exoskeleton required to be a Controversial Public Figure that People Have Opinions On.
-Working constantly and not having any energy left over for non-work creative projects. Friends were Very Worried about me and the unsustainability of my work schedule.
-The whole James Deen ordeal. Fuck.
-I had no problem promoting Volume Two at the crowdfunding stage, but once it was actually available in book form I just… stopped promoting. I didn’t reach out to this list of bloggers and sites. I don’t know why? I guess I ran out of steam.
-Adjusting to the fact that I am no longer an individual human being, but a Public Personality and the normal rules of social interaction don’t apply to me any more. At its best, it means I get recognized by very sweet people on the street at least once or thrice a week, at its worst, christ, I can’t believe the shit people think it’s ok to say to me when they’re meeting me for the first time at friends' houses. The sense of entitlement, the complete lack of empathy because they’ve already decided who I am before they’ve even spoken to me.
-I did a lot of really hard work to actively improve/maintain my anxiety and mental health. I’m learning to become more accepting of my limitations. I have PTSD and a mental illness, I fundamentally process things differently than the average, neurotypical person. It’s ok. These last few months, I'm the most stable I've felt in my whole life.
-Like I mentioned way back in the beginning, I didn’t get much traction on making new memoir comics. I’ve got stories that are burning a hole in my brain, but I just won’t sit down and do the work to get them onto paper. What’s up with that? And I didn’t finish my Statue Porn comic, either. Le Sigh.
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Looking forward into 2016, I’m really hoping to:
-Take regular breaks. Try really hard to get all my work done from 9-5, Monday-Friday. No working on weekends, as much as possible.
-Take a trip to visit some friends I’ve been promising to see for YEARS.
-Take a storyboarding/storytelling class? Gotta find one first.
-Take a watercolor class (starts later this month!)
-Take Danielle's Illustration Class (Just signed up today!!!!)
-Trust myself more.
-I’m afraid to include this on the list, but oh man, I’d really like to put out a sexy coloring book. Doubt I have time though.
-Publish Volume 3
-EMBROIDER LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER
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All in all, 2015 was a good year. It really was. I felt a lot of love and support from my chosen family and friends and, jeez, I feel like a new woman.
Enough about me.
How was your year? Tell me about the best things that happened to you in 2015!
Comments
I got a part time job! It was the best/worst experience of 2015. I gained more confidence and made some adult friends. It's been pretty hard to do since I 1. moved away from my home state 2. left the toxic religion I grew up in. Hard parts: no energy at the end of the day, and no consistency since it was retail. I realized I need a pretty set schedule and three square meals a day and I just wasn't getting that there. So I quit last week. In 2016 I'm going to figure how to get a more sustainable job, whether that means going back to school or just re thinking my skills, experience, and abilities to figure out where I can succeed. It's scary but I'm lucky to have a husband who believes in me and supports me.
Carol Morris
2016-01-12 06:13:11 +0000 UTCAnd then I hit enter by accident. That's just about everything anyway... except maybe a bit about mental health and how, despite things being very touch-and-go this year, I've come out of it much stronger, more stable, and more able to tell when I need to take care of myself and what I need to do for that (I'm bipolar/CPTSD/anxiety). So big hurrahs all round! 2015 definitely had its dips but overall I feel like I accomplished a lot!
FaroreNightclaw
2016-01-12 02:08:50 +0000 UTCThe best things that happened to me in 2015! Artistically, I moved ahead in leaps and bounds. I'm waaaay better than I was at the beginning of 2015. I learned tons and I'm on the road to learn even more. Work/reputation/whatever wise, I got more entrenched in the pet sim game community and my pet (ha!) project one is moving ahead full steam and doing very well. It's come with all its own challenges and I've risen to meet every one! I got selected to both run the art track for the panel programming and to be a staff artist for the same convention, my local one and the third biggest of its kind in the world. I also ended up helping manage the other artists somewhat and will probably be on executive staff next year to do more with that. I've gotten a lot better at meeting deadlines for all kinds of things. I had some really slow spots in my commission business but everything picked up wonderfully at the end of the year, and my visibility has increased along with my output, so everything's just sort of snowballing into more and more steady income. Yay! In my personal life, I gained 2 new play partners and that's been a big ball of fun. My fiance and I share one of them, and then one has only played with me so far - and my fiance has another buddy that's played with her, too. It's fun to share! I got to go visit my long distance partner as well, which was really fun. I took a few vacations and did some fun stuff I've never done before, I started getting back into cooking more creatively, I started baking again (with mixed success), and I'm continuing to come into my own as a lifestyle Dom (I was abused into believing I was 100% submissive (and worthless, and helpless, and and and, of course) for 8 years and this is only my 2nd year out of that situation and realizing who I really am).
FaroreNightclaw
2016-01-12 02:04:52 +0000 UTC
