Day: February 19, 2006

I always come home from a convention with so many thoughts that I have to write several entries to cover it all. This year’s LTUE was no different even though I was only there for half a day.

The most important realization I had because of LTUE was how lucky Howard and I are to have each other. I talked to several people whose spouses don’t share their interests in Science Fiction, Fantasy, or gaming. With a few small exceptions Howard and I enjoy the same things. We make a great team. I loved working the convention with him. I want to be able to do that more often and for longer periods of time. Being on two panels with him was a delight I want to do that again too. Everyone always says marriage is hard. There are definitely hard bits. Most of the hard stuff is building a firm foundation and a good relationship structure. Once that is done marriage makes so many things easier and more fun. Maintinence work on the structure is sometimes necessary or even a restructuring as life shifts, that is to be expected. Couples who expect to have to do maintenance and plan for it, are free to pursue so many other things. I love being married to Howard and sharing life together.

The Howard and Sandra panel went really well. We didn’t do much planning for what to say beyond planning to introduce ourselves at the beginning. It’s a little hard for me to remember all that we did say, because the stories are all familiar to me and not much stands out. I know that we talked about the shift from working at Novell for $100,000 per year to cartooning. We did it at a time when cartooning had made $-600 the prior year. We had enough money in the bank to pay bills for three months and at first we were considering it a 3 month hiatus before Howard had to go back to a corporate job. But then a couple of large comission jobs came in from former Novell contacts. We lived that way for a year, never having more than 3 months of bill money, but as we’d get close to the edge something would happen to help us keep going.

That discussion led naturally to talking about Schlock Mercenary Book 1 because it is our next big thing. We have finally got all the ducks lined up and we’re ready to start shooting. Howard will be announcing stuff about that soon.

We encouraged questions from the audience and one person asked how we managed kids. We answered honestly that I do most of the active child management. Howard tends to just provide air support. But if there is a problem I can’t handle Howard is right there with me. That is one of the key reasons that I can be so supportive of Howard’s creative work, because I know that if I really needed him to, he would give it up. He has proved time and again that if I need him, he’ll drop everything he is doing and help me. I try not to ask unless it is really important. Howard’s office is here at home, but I know that “at home” is not the same as “available.” I respect his work time.

One of the reasons that our partnership works out so well is that every morning we stand in the kitchen together, usually while Howard is preparing his breakfast. Howard lists his priorities for the day. I list mine. If he has assignments for me he mentions them. If I have assignments for him I mention them. Then we both have a clear idea about how the day needs to go. Sometime in the evening we do the same thing to review the day. These aren’t official meetings, they just happen as a natural part of the way we work together. We are constantly communicating about priorities for today, the week, the month, the year, and onward. This communication prevents us from working at cross purposes.

Hmm. What I’ve written here sounds really dry. Honest, the live presentation was much better. Howard and I laughed, the audience laughed. Hopefully someone walked away with something useful, but I’ll probably never know about that. If any of you online audience members have any questions or want elaborations out of my dry synopsis, feel free to ask in the comments. Discussions are much more interesting than lectures.