Three more panels!

Yep, only three new ones since New Years', but... these three are real doozies!!

You may recall from my last "state of the me" that I'd succeeded in my goal of finishing 10 pages before the end of Christmas Break (in fact I finished slightly more than 11). And here we are on the 28th of February, and I've only finished another three panels...?

The thing is that the first 9 pages all took place in the underground research institute, and then the characters came up to the interior of the tower. Then, on the 11th page, one character fatefully steps outside! Which means I have to draw the campus.

I took my time on these because I'm a bit of a novice at drawing the outsides of buildings -- and I invented these from pure imagination -- I wasn't even looking at photos for inspiration (except for the cityscape in the background). So please don't tell me the lighting and perspective is all messed-up -- I would have drawn it better if I were better at this! ;)

So here's the last panel of part 2 of this story:















And here's the top half of page 28 (the 11th page I drew), so you can see my other two new panels in context:

The remaining panels take place inside the dormitory -- another background I haven't drawn yet -- so it's back to the drawing board!!

Edina Puppet Theater 1990: The case of the confused catnappers!

Here's another episode of the puppet show series I did with some friends back in the summer of 1990:

State of the me: 2015/2016!

2015 has been the year of the possible dream!

Here's a quick review:

Back in 2013/2014 I was feeling a little blue because I wanted to focus more on creative projects, but I despaired of ever having time. Or, more accurately, I didn't have an idea that inspired me enough to make time for it.

Then, in the Summer of 2014 -- a few days before setting off on vacation -- I had an idea for a story. I worked out a few scenes in my head, and as soon as I boarded the train, I started writing. Then, during our entire three-week visit to Paris (in between all of the shopping, sight-seeing, and friend-visiting), I wrote out the complete outline, and hammered out the script that I wanted to draw as a comic book.

That may not sound like a very fun vacation, but in fact it was pretty awesome. Whenever we go on vacation, all the kids want to do is go to toy stores anyway. This time, while wandering around visiting the parks and museums, I had my little notebook in hand, and was jotting down all of my various ideas. I remember one beautiful day in particular when my mother-in-law took my kids for the day, and I spent the day wandering around Paris -- just me and my little notebook -- ducking into cafés for coffee or beer when it drizzled, constructing the framework of ideas for my story.

(Note: the trip was actually for a Math conference, so most of my time was spent hanging out in Paris with the kids while my husband was doing Math with his colleagues.)

I wanted more than anything else for this story to become a comic book. But the problem is that I wasn't sure my artistic skill level was equal to the task. Just have a look at the illustrations to my novel. Each illustration was typically a full-day's work, and even then they weren't so great. But I sure had fun doing them! I decided to try anyway, as you can see from last year's "state of the me."

Well, another year has passed, and now it is starting to look like the possible dream! As you can see from some earlier posts, I've gotten to the point of being able to draw some fairly decent pages. So I set a goal to have 10 pages done by the end of Christmas break, and I succeeded in drawing 11! At the rate I'm going, I think it is realistic to expect that I will have all 45 pages of the first book done within two years -- at a level of quality that I will be proud of.

This makes me very happy. I love my story, and this is the sort of thing I've always dreamed of doing.

I haven't dropped all of my other life goals -- I have some upgrades planned for my websites, etc. and I'm still swimming on my usual goals -- but for the moment, I'm mostly basking in the pleasure of working on this project.

Summer of 1990!!! Here's what was showing at the Edina Puppet Theater!!

So, I dug that old videocassette out of the basement and took it to a digitizing service. Then a good friend of mine cleaned it up a bit more. There are still some bits that are lost to the ravages of time, but...

Here's the first installment of the series of puppet shows that I created with two of my best friends from High School as a summer job during our first summer back from from college!! Great fun, great memories!!

In this one, two kids climb a tree only to discover that the most amazing party is just out of reach! :D

A taste of my new project...

OK, so I'm not going to post every page, but now I have three that go together:

The story is divided into nine parts. The above pages are the first three pages of part 2.

In part 1, Kitty and Jerome were deported from the only country they'd ever known -- and were sent to an academy/orphanage in their country of national origin. In part 2, they start to learn how strange their homeland is, and why their parents left...

First page!!!

As you may or may not know, I've been working for about a year on producing a graphic novel. It's been taking a long time because, well, step 1 is learn to draw. Please have a look at my novel ExMormon if you'd like to see what level my art skills were at a few years ago.

Anyway, I finally reached the point of having enough preparatory work done to produce a page that will appear in the finished work. Even though it's my first page, it's actually page 25. Please have a look:

Autumn Pumpkin Quinoa Salad!

This is probably the best recipe I have invented so far!

If you love it when the Autumn foods (pumpkins, squashes, chestnuts, unusual mushrooms, etc.) start arriving in the supermarket -- and/or if you look forward to Autumn for the pumpkin-spice lattes -- this is going to be your new favorite Fall salad!

It would make a good side-dish if you're hosting a Thanksgiving dinner in which some guests are vegetarian or vegan. However, if you're planning to serve this for Thanksgiving, I must apologize in advance for giving all the measurements in metric -- that's just how we roll here in Europe.

Ingredients:

3/4 Liter (750 mL) vegetable broth
300 grams dry quinoa
250 grams diced pumpkin or squash
1 apple (diced)
2 onions (diced)
100 grams mushrooms (chopped)
50 grams pumpkin seeds
4 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
salt to taste
chopped parsley
olive oil

First, prepare all the ingredients, since that's the part that takes the longest:

Put the quinoa in the broth and bring it to a boil. Then add the pumpkin/squash, apple, spices, and salt and cook on low heat, uncovered, until the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa (about 15 minutes). While the broth is simmering, sauté the onions, mushrooms, and pumpkin seeds in olive oil. Once both parts are done, mix them together and add the parsley (and maybe add some more olive oil).

This can be served warm or chilled.

Here are a few notes about the recipe:

• If they don't sell pumpkin seeds for cooking in your area, you can maybe substitute some type of nuts. But don't just use the seeds from the fresh pumpkin unless you know it's a type that has good seeds (and you know how to prepare them).
• Pretty much any type of pumpkin or squash can potentially work in this recipe except spaghetti squash or those jack-o-lantern pumpkins (that aren't really for eating), so try something local and seasonal!
• The pumpkin in the first ingredient picture above weighed more than a kilogram, so it's actually way more pumpkin than you need for this recipe. But you might as well skin and dice the whole thing at once, and set aside the leftover part to make pumpkin pie or soup later.
• I like to use umami in place of salt in most recipes. I used both when I prepared this salad. 

Enjoy!!