A Justification for Action and Inaction

     I'm moving out soon. I've been planning my move for the better part of four years now, but I'm serious about this; I'm moving.
     I think I'll go west, I like the idea of it. Seems adventurous ya know? Like I'm doing that chase the sunset song and dance. Maybe Seattle, maybe Portland, maybe even California. I haven't decided on a destination yet, but that's not the point. The point is that I have made the decision to move.
     When I tell people about my plan (or lack there of), I am usually greeted with a puzzled look. They ask things like; "You're just going to go? West?" and " What about money? You need money, ya know?"...And to be fair, these are all valid points that should be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to pack up and start anew halfway across the country. Factors such as money and housing arrangements are no joke, and should be taken seriously...But not too seriously, I'd argue.
     See, I have been thinking about the logistical aspect of such a decision for a while now. I've spent quite a bit of time stressing over the things that I should be stressing over. Things like not having enough money to afford to eat stale Top Roman, and not being able to find a suitable job, and my car breaking down halfway through Utah and me having to start my new life in the disappointment that is, Utah- These are all sincere thoughts that have entered my mind within the past few months. These sort of scenarios are scary, but they're practical. Fear of making the wrong choice (or not making the absolute best one), is a great way to ensure that you make a wise decision. But when the fear of making a bad decision becomes so great that you become afraid of making any sort of decision, you've let fear make your choice for you.
     ...And that's the kind of fruitless mental state that I've been in for the past couple years now. I've wanted nothing more than to move away for so long now, but my fear of messing up; of making a decision that hindsight might regret, has left me paralyzed. I've been so afraid of making a poor choice, that I forgot to even choose. I let indecision be my decision, and inaction be my action. But not anymore.
   
The way I see it; I've been working to afford stability since I was fifteen years old. And since then, I've been broke. I've never had money, but for the most part, I've been happy; and I think I'm OK with that lifestyle. And if there's any evidence that my decision to pack up and head west is a good decision, it's that.

Headed west.

Project Kids Book Update #10

     Whats up with the not posting lately huh? It's like, I get all excited about having a blog and I post some snazzy entries but then before you know it, I'm all 'too cool' for blogging and I stop updating this baby. Well, I guess I should try to fill y'all in as much as possible while I'm still in my 'blogging is okay' phase.
 
     Project Kids Book- I'm super freaking excited about how far this project has gone, and how well it's been received so far. I honestly am blown away by everyone who helped me out or supported this in anyway. Whether you helped with the revising, helped spread the word by passing the story on, or even simply encouraged me, I am very verrrrrrrrwwwwyyy thankful. That being said, here's where the project is at now...

     I finished the book. And when I say finished, I actually mean it. I have a book, like, with pages and junk in it. The Photoshopping took longer than expected because I was learning as I went along. After 17 pages of trial and error, you start to learn some things, which is really nice, but then you have to go back through all 17 pages and make sure that everything is consistent throughout the book. And by the time you've gone through the pages again, you've probably learned something new to try out with Photoshop. So it took a while to do, but I think that the extra time spent made up for a better looking book.
     The rest of the editing process is history; the text gave me some trouble, and the printing took a good couple hours, but after it was all said and done, I had a freaking kids book. I say had because the book itself was only in my possession for a couple days before being shipped across the country to a publisher in New York. Yes that's right, thanks to the help of my aunt, I've gotten my book in the hands of a very nice publisher over at Random House Publishing. This has to be the most surreal part of the entire project. I never thought that my lil robot book (which is now titled) would somehow make it's way to New York, to have a real editorial review, from a real editor. This is crazy-sauce! So right now I'm sitting and waiting until I hear more news from the nice lady at Random House, which is proving to be quite difficult. I'm not very good at sitting still as it is, but now sitting still while I wait for news concerning my book, now that's damn near impossible! So, among other things, I made a video that you should watch!

So I've decided not to sit still. I've started a few small projects that I hope will keep my mind off the kid's book thing. I'll post a couple entries about them real soon, pinky promise.

Kids Book Update #9

     I feel like coming up with a decent title for the book is going to be the death of me. Seriously, even though I've sweating over every single pixel of the illustrations in the editing process this past week, it seems like the title thing has been giving me more of a headache. The all-knowing experts on the internet say that the title is a critical element to the books appeal. Name it something safe and generic, and it'll never see the light of day. Give it a title that's too snazzy, and it'll go over your readers heads (remember, they're supposed to be like 8 year olds). Ideally, I'm supposed to name it something that hooks the readers and gives a general sense of what the book is going to be about, without giving away the ending. That's easier said than done. And I know some of you are thinking "Dude, take it easy, it's just a title". And to you I say, I know that it's just a title, but It's been stressing me out that I haven't been able to think of a single one that seems to fit, and that whole "Don't judge a book by it's cover" rule totally doesn't apply to kids. They aren't going to give me the benefit of the doubt if my book doesn't interest them from the start. It's actually kind of hard to think of calling the book by its name. I've spent so long referring to it as the book, that I feel like that's just its name now.

     Other than that, I've just been plucking away on the computer coloring and editing the pages. All of the illustrations are colored, and I've begun the editing, which is hard, because I've never used Photoshop before. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm learning as much as I can, as fast as possible. The pages are looking pretty sweet though, and I have begun to import the text onto the pages using Illustrator (which is another program that I've never ever used). So it's slow and steady, but at least it's progress

Some Non-kids book project doodles

yep mmhmm. Kid's book is still on the tracks, but I've been keeping busy with some other ventures.