It’s very simple, I think: 

• Thursday, 12:00 – 1:00 pm Signing at Image Booth, #2729
• Thursday, 6:00 – 7:00 pm Signing at Image Booth, #2729
• Friday, 5:00 – 6:00 pm Signing at Image Booth, #2729
• Saturday, 11:30 – 12:30 pm COMIC BOOK TATOO PANEL, Room 6B
• Saturday, 6:00 – 7:00 pm Signing at Image Booth, #2729
• Sunday, 4:00 – 5:00 pm Signing at Image Booth, #2729

My husband has posted his appearance schedule, appropriately, at Matt Fraction dot com.   Eisner Info is here. General Con schedule info is here.   I forgot to pack a sweater and a belt, so at some point I have to hit the Gap.  Just in case you were wondering.  

I just finished a podcast interview that wasn’t really a podcast interview with Fraction with me popping on for a minute.

I was so nervous about it that I got up this morning and made a list of things to talk about… I opened links in browsers in case names escaped me, got prepared, you know? Then I drank too much coffee, and ended up pacing in the kitchen the whole call, completely ignoring my list. What did I talk about? Poop, farts, sharts, dog vomit and health insurance. [Not for the faint of heart, btw. It's called Cringe Humor for a reason.]

I’m not even kidding.

WTF is wrong with me…? Le sigh.

Fraction says I did fine [That's his job, yo.], but I’m sitting here staring at my list with regret. So here’s what I didn‘t talk about, everything I jotted down and meant to bring up:

• What I’m reading: Dakota North Investigations, CBR file of Sweet Chastity, Screamland, Young Avengers;
• UClick – comic books on cell phones [because of something I'd heard them say on a previous podcast; I had a great opening too -- they asked me about my friends having multiple jobs. I could have brought up Harold and plugged SCREAMLAND at the same time. Coulda/Shoulda/Woulda... Didn't.]
• Fraction — Iron Fist Special coming out w/Lewis Larossa and Russ Heath. [Russ. Heath. And I've seen the Larossa pages. Damn.]; Chaykin starts PWJ with #16; Order #7 — the Namor issue — is out next week; Casanova #12 goes to the printer next week;
• 1987 Wonder Woman reboot;
• Kathryn Immonen at Marvel;
• Girl Farts project;
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield;
• Don’t believe everything you read on the intarwebs; and
• the Tori Amos Anthology.

…That’s what it said on the page THAT I NEVER LOOKED AT. There was another note about a Fraction book but we figured out later that he’d promised that news to Siuntres and his most recent Wordballoon interview hasn’t posted yet, so it’s actually good that I didn’t get to that bit.

Yay…?

Henry Leo did wake up and coo into the phone though, so that’s delightful.

Oh, and after some thought: my favorite word is “yes.”

• 
• I need to work on Black Cat Vol. 15 today.
• The editor on two of my as-yet-unannounced Viz projects is leaving.  I’d be more bummed, but KIT FOX is taking over at least one of the titles.  I heart Kit Fox.  So… yay.  Here’s hoping Kit’s got room in his schedule to take both.
• Speaking of Kit, I just got the comp copy of our last project together — Portus — in the mail yesterday.  [Thank you, Kit.]  For some reason the Amazon pre-order page lists Annette Roman as the editor… it was Kit though.  Huh.  I wonder how that happened.  (Don’t get me wrong — Annette’s great; we’re on a different title together right now in fact.)
• Pregnancy Progress: 37 weeks, as of yesterday.  What does that mean?  We made it to full term!  The kid’s not due until September 21st, but could come any time now.
• What else?  I’m freaking out.  A little.  Here’s a tip: don’t try to tell me I shouldn’t be worrying — I’ll rip your head off.  Apparently, it’s hormonal, but honestly, even when I’m not pregnant I’m not fond of having my concerns poo-poo’d.  Who is?  Also:  I’m mean.  Probably meaner than you are.  I will hurt your delicate feelings.  I will find your button and I will smoosh it… I wouldn’t risk it.
• Last night I dreamed not of Manderlay actually, but of the kid’s impending birth.  Suddenly in the middle of everything, I realized I’d been given an epidural.  I didn’t remember asking for one or having one placed and no one would answer any of my questions.  I wasn’t exactly disappointed that the birth was painless, but I was angry that I wasn’t given the chance to even try the low-intervention approach.  As merely the vessel, I wasn’t consulted.  When the kid was born I was informed that Fraction had changed its name from what we’d agreed upon.  …Think I’m having some control issues?
• Mom and Frank are here, helping us with the nursery.  [Read: Mom and Frank are working on the nursery while I work downstairs, avoiding the wallpaper stripper fumes and Fraction remains chained to his desk cranking out scripts.  I feel horribly rude, but that wallpaper stripper stinks.]  Hopefully we’ll have something like a closet for the kid by Tuesday.
• Speaking of Fraction and cranking out scripts, we’ve GOT to get him a new set up. Poor guy’s wrists are about to explode.  I think the desk is the problem.  One day, when we have money again [Buy comics, you bastards!], we’ve got to get him a set up that will allow us to mount they keyboard on some kind of pullout drawer.  We should probably invest in one of those ergonomic keyboards, too.
• As I write this I’m drinking half a mug of coffee and a non-alcoholic beer.  From separate glasses.  Fraction is nonplussed.
• 20th Century Boys is being adapted to anime.
• I feel bad for Barklage’s ass, but this made me laugh.
• I’m so far behind on thank you notes I should be shot. (Speaking of, does anyone have a mailing address for Lolokickyou? Han? Jill?)
• Fat Cobra Strikes!! on Facebook.

So, So Happy: As I write this, I am caught up* on work deadlines for, I think, the first time since March. Despite the fact that I have 9,000 other things to do and I am generally overwhelmed, it feels goooood. At least at this moment, I owe apologies to zero editors, which is nice. I want to go get a pedicure to celebrate, but alas, there’s busywork to be done.

(*I may have been caught up at some point before but not with any real chance of staying caught up. It’s realistic this time. I also feel compelled to confess that I am still over deadline on one project, but as it’s unpaid and only 8 pages, I’m giving myself permission to declare me “All Caught Up.”)

Mark Your Calendar: August 25th signing at the Star Clipper in St. Louis.

Counting Down: 6 days till next deadline, 6 days till birthday, 12 days till baby shower, 16 days till Nerd Prom, 74 days till due date. (The American Pregnancy Association sent an e-mail this morning to worn me that I might start experiencing mood swings and a short temper in the coming days and weeks… I think I’d figured that part out. Thanks.)

The Kitchen: The cabinet guys finished up today — hardware is installed, as are trim and toekicks. I’ll post pictures tomorrow.

The Nursery: Fraction and I are very seriously considering getting a few of ashley g’s bearded men prints for the kid’s room. In addition to adoring Ashley and Drew, we’re utterly charmed by their weird little hairy men. We’re also thinking about taking down some of the shelves in that room. It’s more work, which is a real bummer at this point, but it would make space for a glider, which would be grand. (Especially since Tobi and Michael offered us their old one and you can’t beat that price.)

Knitting: I’ve done none of late. Wah. Nikol, on the other hand, has been knitting up a proverbial storm in preparation for the Naughty Needles Burlesque Revue (details in link) on the 13th. I really want to go if I’ve got the energy on Friday night. Alas, my body kind of gives out around 9:00 these days and I’m not good for much more than hanging out on the couch. We’ll see. (We’ve talked to another couple about going with us, but they’re pregnant with TWINS, so they’re playing it by ear too.)

Pownce: I haven’t quite figured out what it is just yet, and I haven’t tons of spare time to explore, but if anyone wants an invitation, I’ve got four.

Tomorrow: I’m going swimming, dammit. I also need to hit the bank, run a few errands, answer a shit-ton of e-mails, do some filing, finish the laundry, do a translation check, merge calendars, install QuickBooks, fill out some paperwork and hit the post office. When I started writing this part I thought I’d carve out some time for that pedicure, but it’s not looking good, is it?

Well, $!#!@$#@!

I just made the decision that I’m not going to go to Charlotte for Heroes Con after all. (We have the tickets and everything!) Sniff. Heroes is my favorite con (by a long shot) and it’s near Fraction’s family so I’m brutally disappointed, but I think it’s for the best. Despite getting close twice — I still haven’t managed to get caught up from the month of work I missed for a death in the family in March. The kitchen remodel just got started. Claude is still acting a little funny, so I’m not sure I feel comfortable leaving him here for the contractor’s to deal with and, perhaps most-importantly, I’m just pooped. The pregnancy, the garage sale and clearing out the kitchen combined to wipe me out physically. And even though San Diego isn’t nearly as fun as Heroes, it’s our last trip before the baby comes — we’re springing for a nice hotel, all our nerdy friends will be there (including Warren Ellis, who, I suspect, will never be there again) — I really don’t want to miss it. (With any luck, the kitchen will be done by then.) And I fear I will if I don’t err on the side of caution now.

So… Fraction’s going without me. Sniff.

Check it out: BLACK CAT is #9 on ICv2’s Top 10 manga properties of 2006 list. Go team us!

Via blog@Newsarama.

Also!  Publisher’s Weekly has a list of February’s Comics Bestsellers and Black Cat vol. 6 is number 5.  (The list says volume 16, but it’s a typo.)  February 7th and the bestsellers list is already out.  Weird, huh?  I imagine this is another reminder that in comics the reader isn’t the consumer; the consumer is the retail establishment.  It’s been explained to me a dozen times, but it still strikes me as odd.

I did a quick and dirty update of the amazon store this morning. There are now category pages for my work, books and music produced by my friends and family and a catchall page for miscellaneous goodies I hold dear, media I’m currently consuming, products I’ve mentioned on this blog and/or whatever shiny baubles I happen to fancy.

I still need to go through and make notes on, well, most of the titles, but as usual I’m on a deadline crunch and I can’t squeeze it in right now.

Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963):

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. ‘The first thing,’ I said, ‘is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.’

From today’s AWAD.

I’b thick. By nothe ib all clobbed up an I cand breabe.

You get the idea. I’ve got a bajillion things to do today and a throbbing headache that urges me to curl up with NyQuil. Send pity.

Quick Miscellany:

• Currently working on Black Cat v.10 and the 30 Days project with Niles and Randall. Ivan, I haven’t forgotten you.
• Got a lovely inquiry/blast from the past off the PW interview. Cross your fingers for me; this could be cool if I can find a few extra hours in the day. (Who needs clean laundry?)
• There’s a preview of Fraction and Brubaker’s Iron Fist up on Newsarama. Go check it out.
• Speaking of clean laundry, the newly-established girl farts book club is reading and discussing House Works this holiday season. If you could use a little help around the house, pick up a copy and join our thread on the girl farts vox page. If this works out well, maybe it’ll be an ongoing thing.
• Hillary wrote to ask me where the uberlist central page was. It’s right here.
• Theron Neel sent me this link from You Tube-esque metacafe: Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva Masterpiece. Gorgeous. Thanks, Theron.
• I’m off to make myself some soup.

Edited to Add:

• Nikol added some of her bonus patterns to the Naughty Needles site.  Don’t forget the book is available for pre-order and comes out December 19th.  (And I’m in it twice!)

As for the future of “30 Days of Night” in comics, Steve, what’s the story there?

SN: There are all sorts of plans. The plans are, well, I guess this will be a premature sneak of sorts, but Kelly Sue DeConnick and I are doing a six-issue series simply called “Eben and Stella.” It will start one page after “Dark Days” and end at the beginning of “Return to Barrow.” It’s a story that documents what happened to them from the end of Dark Days on. I’m really excited about that.

Mwoo ha ha etc.

___
Currently playing in iTunes: Back In Black by AC/DC Tribute Band