Who's got two thumbs and wants to talk tech stuff?

This week 'Breaking Cat News' made the jump to daily strips! I'm happy about this for many reasons, but the biggest is probably that this forces me to pace myself and spread my workload out. Something I haven't always been so good at doing since BCN began. I have a tendency to write or paint until I fall asleep face down on the page. With two little people depending on me, this isn't a great way to work. It's not a great way to write either. I've been really lucky that I have not faced burn out yet, but it's only due to the grace of God and coffee. MY TWO SAVIORS.

Sometimes Lupin naps while I work too.

Another huge reason I am happy is this brings us one step closer to getting the strip ready for newspapers, which is my goal!

The first online daily strip, announcing the start of the People's dinner party.

'Going daily' has brought up a couple of issues that I could not have foreseen until I actually 'went daily.' The first being, "My God, I can't manually post these every day. I need to finally automate the original site!" The second, "Oooooh, are daily notifications going to be a little much?" And third, "Can my notification service handle sending out 70,000 ish + emails each month?"

The first issue: Automating the site. Last night I was able to automate the strip on the original site, meaning that the strip posted on its own at midnight on the west coast! This means from now on–barring any emergencies/unexpected delays–‘Breaking Cat News’ will post at midnight Central Time on GoComics and midnight Pacific Time on the original site! Huzzah! One issue down! This is particularly exciting, because I also tried this on Monday night AND FAILED MISERABLY.

Military time. The site posts in military time. Who knew? Probably everyone. But not me. However, Tuesday night I realized and set the site to post at "00:00" instead of noon, and it worked!

As I mentioned, new format allows me to pace myself, and that means working ahead of schedule! So far I have been able to catch up to about two weeks out! To put this into perspective, almost every strip before this was painted the night before or the same morning it posted. People have suggested before I create a “buffer” by getting ahead, but the strips were so long and life with two toddlers was so hectic that it was impossible. Where 'The Quote Book' comic and 'Swan Eaters' sometimes had buffers of 3-5 months, 'Breaking Cat News' took off so fast and was such much longer that I never had a chance to catch my breath. I would have had to take time off to get ahead, and life already forced me to take enough time off for Gwen’s arrival and moves and whatnot. As it is, I may have to take some time off this autumn to really buckle down and get examples of the comic ready to pitch to newspapers. However, I will give as much notice as I can, and until then–Daily strips, posted on time! Oh, hooray!

The second issue and third issues: Notifications. I’m still trying to figure out the future of the notifications. The email service I use to send them out has certain “volume tiers” and daily notifications may exceed that, and I’m trying to wrap my head around it. For now, the notifications will still go out when the strips post on the original site. If you are someone who does not enjoy seven emails a week, I completely understand if you unsubscribe and you will not hurt my feelings! (I am actually in that boat when it comes to these things myself). If you really enjoy the notifications throughout the week, I am trying to think of something new and fun to maybe replace those 1-2 times a week if it does turn out that daily notifications are trouble. It’s really fun when Beatrix excitedly emails all of us, and I want to keep that feeling of fun, vs the email notifications feeling stale and canned.

Lastly–thank you so much for all of your patience during this transition, and for just listening to me explain what some of this looks like on my end. It’s nice to be able to tell you what is going on. Not every cartoonist or writer or artist has this kind of audience. And as more people find the comic, one day there will probably be people who are a little more negative or mean about changes or hiccups in how things run. However, we have a really strong foundation and I hope so much that our community of readers can stay a positive place for people to share their love of cats and comics. I feel incredibly fortunate that so many of you are so kind, understanding, supportive, and excited about this with me. I like to hope that when anything goes wrong on the original site computer wise, those of you who have been here from the beginning immediately start to chuckle like, “That’s just Georgia, messing something up on the site!” And hopefully you know I’ll be tinkering until I get it sorted out for us. You should have seen me trying to get the new font right! (Full disclosure: I still am).

Getting the strips to post automatically and figuring out notifications going forward are two things I have to “do” vs try ahead of time or read about. I don’t learn that way, I have to actually do something and then often times (thank God) I get it pretty quick. That was one reason my editor suggested I go daily online as we get the strip ready for newspapers. She has comfortingly encouraged me the past few days, “There’s nothing like time and practice.” Actually having to create a daily strip for you all is going to teach me things that creating examples only a few people see can't. The only way for me to do something is to do something, and I polish and correct as I go. The difference is now for the first time I have an audience of thousands of people watching. NO PRESSURE HAHAHAHA--No, but really, I cannot thank you enough or stress how kind you have been through the changeover! 

"Inky Puck."

Each daily strip is going to get a little better and better. And each round of headlines, (“The Dinner Party” and coming up soon… A vet visit! Yes! Finally!) should get noticeably better, as I still write, ink, and paint the “stories” in batches. So, each new headline will be written, inked, and painted with what I learned in the last one.

I’m so excited for this, and I hope you are enjoying these so far, and they will only get better!

There other things I want to write about that happened in July, but will try to give these events their own posts. To update you quickly, though:

So happily, I attended my first Comic Con in San Diego and it was magical and I made new friends and even did my first BCN signing at the GoComics booth! And then a week later I gave my first talk at a local library! It's been really exciting meeting 'Breaking Cat News' readers and discussing the comic!

Me at the GoComics Comic Con booth for my first signing!

And incredibly sadly, (if you have been a reader on this blog for a long time when I used to post more regularly, you will immediately recall my stories of her), my Nana passed away. She had a good, long life but anything short of her living forever was going to be heartbreaking, and we're crushed. I'm still processing this and I'm pretty sure my denial is currently running pretty high. It doesn't feel real and I know I have not mourned properly yet. I'm just sad. My Mom and my Nana did the most to raise me; she was a huge part of our lives and one of my biggest supporters/influences/heroes. I keep getting ready to call her and remembering. It's tough. I'd like to really write out my feelings on this and what she meant to me sometime soon. I'll try my best to respect one of the notes we found in a little notebook she left on her bed for us, "when writing my obituary, nothing extravagant please." I know she would want the same in anything written in remembrance. So, we'll see if I'm able to gather my thoughts on this at all, and if I'm able to put them down simply. Both will be hard for me. However, if you've read a long time and would like to remember her with me this morning, this entry from 2011 is a good one to revisit.

Nana and Luke, November 2013.

Me,  Nana, Mom and tiny baby Gwen!

The kids and Nana Dee Dee

And I've continued to work on Gwen's birth story too. Gwen turns 16 months today! Boy, I really owe her that birth story! Will I post that blog entry in 2016? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT!

Look how light Gwen's hair has gotten in California!

We break out the Halloween jammies pretty early in this house.
The kids, ready for bedtime!

Elvis, napping next to the fabulous "cat news" dress my Mom gave me.

Lupin, waiting for the next blog update!

Behind the scenes of what goes into making 'Breaking Cat News.'

After explaining the difference between the original 'Breaking Cat News' site and the GoComics site, many readers have offered suggestions to look into tech support on the original site, hire staff, or try new hosting services and such. I am thankful for these suggestions, I know that they come from a good place and that people want to help. For me, getting syndicated was the solution to these problems--getting syndicated is a dream for many cartoonists, and I'm no exception. I thought maybe it's time that I share the story of how I came to be syndicated with all of you, because it may be its own explanation.

Let me start with the present. If I hired staff or tech support, I would have to pay them and somehow manage them. In contrast, GoComics pays me a salary to develop the comic and pays me to have the comic on their site. They have access to resources I could not begin to hire (partly because, in honesty, we're a young family of four on one full-time income and my part-time income from what I can earn through the comic... I can't hire an accountant to do my taxes, let alone a personal assistant or tech support).

My dream--and now my goal--is develop the comic for newspapers, because that is my best chance to earn a weekly paycheck as a cartoonist. At that point, if enough newspapers pick up the comic, it will be comparable to a modest full-time paycheck. I'm up against a clock, because if I can't make that happen by the time the kids are in school, then reality is I will have to find a full-time job to bring our family back up to two incomes. I would like to make this my full-time job. I would like to continue to write and draw 'Breaking Cat News' for many years, and hopefully, with luck, have it become a new newspaper classic? I MAY BE DREAMING BIG--but if you're going to dream, you might as well dream big. But, it can be scary to dream big, so, I put a question mark.....

That's my dream though. Honest and open, laid out for everyone reading this to see. I never thought I would be this close to it, but I'm working hard and trying my very best. I think that many times readers here feel like they are cheating me or the original site by going to GoComics, when in reality, GoComics is making the original site possible.

Okay, now let's go back to the past, the summer of 2014.

If I had never been syndicated, I would have had to get a part-time job about two years ago. I had a job interview in Rhode Island actually, to work for a creative company at night... In sales. Not even as a designer, which of course I would have preferred, but in sales, which was available. A friend had set me up with the interview, and I was glad for the opportunity. The plan was that I would drop Toddler, our son Luke (who was still only about one then) off with family in the evening for about an hour until the Man got off his job and could pick him up. I would work until 11 pm an hour away and return home around midnight. At the time, 'Breaking Cat News' was amazingly fun to write, but I wrote it at night. Taking this part-time job would mean setting the comic aside, but in the summer of 2014, just after selling our home and moving back to RI, the difference between standing on our own two feet and struggling was razor thin. We needed just a little bit more to cover our bills, and I couldn't justify keeping my nights free to work on the comic when I could bring in just enough to round out what we needed to get by. ...Family couldn't really justify it either, whatever Ryan or I assured them, and I felt a lot of pressure to get this part-time job whatever it meant to 'Breaking Cat News' ...Or my dreams ...Or me.

I did well on my first phone interview with the company, but my heart was heavy as I hung up. And honestly, the comic was a small part of it in that moment. Luke was all of it. I had been home with him since he was born. He was still small and we'd gone through such a huge change. The only home he'd ever known was gone. He was still getting used to our new apartment and there were a lot of nights Ryan and I were taking turns sitting up rocking him. Here, as I sat down on our couch after my phone interview, my thoughts turned to Ryan. Unhappy in Rhode Island, disliking his job at the time (a job thankfully he only had a few months before getting back into his field) now we would be spending our days AND nights apart. What was that going to do to our family? When were we going to catch our breath?

One night around this time, I checked my email as I was going to bed. A few messages from friends, a bill notice or two to drop my stomach into a flip flop--and an email from a name I didn't recognize. I opened it up, and the woman writing introduced herself warmly. She had read my comic and she loved it. She had cats herself. She worked as an editor for GoComics, had I ever considered being syndicated...?

Here I set my phone down, thoughts swimming. I knew of GoComics. They were the syndicate for most of my favorite comics, past and even present. They were the syndicate for  'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'Pearls Before Swine' and it hadn't been long since the two had collaborated on a few strips together and sent the entire Internet--myself included--flooding onto their site to see new Bill Watterson artwork.

I had wanted to syndicate the comic very much and looked into a few companies; companies nowhere near the success or pull of GoComics. I had written our local paper in Rhode Island for advice and showed them a few BCN strips. The editor wrote me back and had suggested I get 30 examples and submit them to a syndicate. And I never did--I meant to, but I had Luke to care for, Ryan to comfort, our lives to rebuild, the comic to write, and a part-time job to look for. Now this email... This was like if I were playing baseball with my friends for a few years and someone from the Red Sox approached me to play outfield for them.

I thought one of my friends must be playing a joke on me.

I googled GoComics to make sure, was this THE GoComics, spelled the same and everything. I double checked the email, "Hmmm... Yes, yes, 'GoComics,' not 'GoComicz' or 'GoComix'... Seems legit...." I searched everything I could think of to search. The next 20 minutes were pretty much just me in the dark on my phone, jumping down Google rabbit holes.

It seemed real... I wrote her back, as polite and professional as I could guess was the proper way to do this, when really I just wanted to gush back in all caps "ARE YOU REAL BECAUSE I'M IN A WEIRD PLACE IN MY LIFE TO GET MY HOPES UP IF YOU'RE NOT REAL--"

Over the next few days we had a chance to talk over the phone, and it was confirmed that yes, she was real. This was all real. No one was playing a joke on me. The offer was real. I was thrilled to be syndicated. More people would see the comic, I could possibly have a concrete justification to continue 'Breaking Cat News' a little longer, or at least secretly work on it between calls if I took the new part-time job.

A little while later, my editor--this woman is my editor at GoComics, if you had not guessed yet!--asked me if I had ever considered putting the comic in newspapers. "...Are you excited about this?" She asked me on the phone. "You seem really calm, and sometimes people freak out a little--"

Inside I was screaming in joy and terror. "I am so excited," I said, I imagine very stiffly, "This is amazing... Weirdly, I sort of have to keep myself calm and my hopes down to stay focused on the comic, or I think I would have a really hard time writing it.... But I am so happy right now!" NEWSPAPERS? A COMIC IN THE NEWSPAPERS?! 

She sent me more details and in the following weeks there were business negotiations with lawyers to get a contract into place. Long story short, at the very last minute, it turned out that developing the comic for newspapers would not only be a dream come true...

...It would also come with a salary that happened to be pretty much what I would have made at the part time sales job, once gas and child care and everything else was factored in--minus time away from my family at a critical emotional time for us.

I politely wrote the HR of the design company and let them know to please withdraw my application. I thanked my friend and asked them to understand, and they did, because friends are amazing and so is she.

I signed my contract and begin to develop the comic for newspapers. Now instead of dropping Luke off to wait an hour for Ryan to pick him up and scramble home for bedtime, I made dinner, hugged and kissed Ryan hello when he came home, and listened to him sing Luke 'Silver and Gold' each night before bed. (Ryan's nightly lullaby for Luke, explained to me thus, "It was the first song I thought of... And he seemed to like it.") Instead of driving an hour away, I cleaned up dinner and sat down with my pen and pencils to write 'Breaking Cat News.' I still worked late, honestly, but I worked late at home doing what I loved. And in the meantime, a surprise graced us--soon we found out I was pregnant with Gwen.

A few weeks before Christmas a giant box arrived from GoComics. I opened it up and inside were the collections of all my favorite comics. "Far Side," "Peanuts," "Dilbert," "Cul de Sac," "Phoebe and Her Unicorn," "Pearls Before Swine," and at the very bottom, "Calvin and Hobbes" and a card with a warm welcome from the President. I looked through the collections, and sat back with Ryan. It'd been such a year. We'd been through so much. And here I was, next to our Christmas tree, surrounded by comics because I was making comics and working with people who made comics. "What are you thinking?" Ryan asked, seeing me go a little teary. I laughed, sniffed, and said, "Don't tell anyone, but they probably could have just paid me in these."

Now that the original site and the GoComics site are in sync, there has been a lot of discussion on the threads. Many readers seem to have the impression that the GoComics site is competition for me or cuts into my revenue--but it's the opposite. Getting syndicated by GoComics gave me the time and resources to keep pursuing 'Breaking Cat News.' And because I have never monetized the original site, I see no revenue from that site. If you bought prints or the book, I get money from that. If you go to GoComics, I get money from that. If you want to support my work, but might not have the money to buy any of the merchandise--

(Hey. ...That is okay. There have been many times in my life when I adored an artist online, but could not afford to subscribe to their sites or buy their prints. That is a huge reason I have kept all of my new content free, and try to offer some freebies on the site sometimes too).

--then visiting the strip on GoComics is a free way to give me a lot of support. The numbers on GoComics, views, subscribers, comments--will all build a strong case to newspapers that they need to buy 'Breaking Cat News' for their funny pages. And it is free to sign up for GoComics and free to subscribe! That will help me turn this into a full-time weekly paycheck gig, instead of a bit of side income for our family. It will ensure that the comic can continue... And on a personal note, that maybe one day I can visit Luke and Gwen's schools on career day as a cartoonist, which would just be amazing.

Every strip on the original site is read for free. I've never added anything to that site to bring in money for our family. There is a lot of traffic on that site, but right now, we don't see anything for it. "So, put ads on it!" some folks will suggest. I don't want to do that. I know that children read the comic, and I have two kids of my own. I don't trust an ad service not to accidentally run something inappropriate. That's a big deal to me. I control everything on the original site right now, I know what people are seeing and I know it is safe and positive. There may be great options out there, but don't forget, with two kids and the comic, I only have so much time. I can write the comic or I spend my nights researching ads that most of us (me included) do not want anyway. And frankly, everything about the computer end of things frustrates me to tears. And not cute tears; scratching at my keyboard hissing "YOU ARE ONLY A MACHINE!!!" tears. Maybe something will change in the future. Right now though, it feels right to keep the original site as it is.

As I see it, my computer problems have been mostly solved by syncing the two sites. Now there is a site with the new strip that also has enough servers, tech support, and a reliable email notification system. GoComics posts the strip automatically, overnight. They pay me, I don't have to pay anyone. I don't have to manage or check in on anyone either, which I can't do with two toddlers. I barely have a chance to answer emails at night... Which some of you know (I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I will try to catch up on emails).

People have asked for a long time where I see revenue, which book ordering sites give me the highest royalty, how they can support the comic, etc. And so this is a huge part of it, explained finally. I probably should have said a lot of this sooner, but I wasn't realizing that visiting GoComics felt like betraying the original site for some folks. Please don't feel that way--I hope now that you have heard what being syndicated has meant for me, you will feel as grateful to what GoComics has meant for 'Breaking Cat News' as I do.

And that was just one story, there are so many.  I didn't even get into the book! THE BOOK MEANT SO MUCH TO ME, YA'LL. TO ALL OF US! You now know all of my dark technology secrets YOU KNOW I COULD NOT HAVE PUT A BOOK TOGETHER, I CAN'T EVEN TAKE PEOPLE OFF AN EMAIL LIST. I WILL BE EMAILING YOU FROM MY GRAVE AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT.

There is room for both sites; I love both sites!  Without the encouragement from readers on the original site and the support from readers on the GoComics site 'Breaking Cat News' never would have gotten this far. Both sites are vital to the comic--both sites are vital to me creating the comic. YOU are all vital to the comic. However you found it, wherever you are reading it--I need you.

I do my best to keep the original site full of facts about the characters and the cats they are based on. Some readers have been there since the first few months, and that means everything to me. Hearing that I have trouble keeping up with the notification numbers, people on the original site offered to give up their spaces in the email notifications so others could sign up, and I think that says a tremendous amount about the kindness and camaraderie around 'Breaking Cat News.' ...I don't know how to do that because I am just so bad with computers, ha--but I don't want it to come to that anyway. I want people to love and enjoy both sites. Of course some will feel more comfortable on one. Many of the GoComics readers read the comic in their collections and never go to a strip's home page. Many of the original site readers feel at home on a smaller site. Both sites have wonderful communities of tremendously supportive, kind people enjoying the comic and pointing out details of the strips to one another.

Very soon I am going to start sharing some of the daily BCN strips I have written with newspapers in mind. The people I work with at GoComics are huge fans of 'Breaking Cat News.' The main guidance I have received is, "we love the comic. Keep doing exactly what you are doing, the tiny details, the punchlines that come out of nowhere in the middle of strips--all of it." When I first began working on the daily strips, I immediately fell into trying to imitate the 1-2-3-punchline timing of many newspaper strips I knew, and they gently eased me off. "No, no... Make it like you make it now. Do what you do, you've already got this down." They love BCN as it is. We're all working hard to get the daily strips for newspapers up to the level of the webstrips online. I'll be sharing them on both sites soon after almost two years of hard work. This is very scary and exciting for me. You know more of what is at stake now for me. Some folks will look at it and just see a comic about cats reporting the news, but I think if I do this right I can bring a lot of happiness to people and have a career I can work in a long time.

My Nana couldn't read the comic until the book was published, but she reads the newspaper every day. Her fridge is covered with comic strips carefully cut out from the paper. She complains to me all the time that there are no new comics in the papers, "I've been reading these for YEARS, I wish there were some new ones!" she says. And her own granddaughter is writing a new comic a lot of people love, and she had no access to it. (One more reason why the book meant so much to me!) Webcomics are awesome, but they miss a lot of people. To picture Elvis puffing, "There are a ton of folks out there right now with no access to cat news!" They might not be good with computers, they might not have a computer. They might not want a computer, or they may want one very much and have no way to get one. I want the comic to reach as many people as possible. 

If it does get into papers eventually, it will be the same on both sites and in newspapers. I will have a chance to expand on all the characters and spend some time in the past too and show things we missed (spoilers: some of the first strips include Lupin's job interview at the station). I think it is going to be a lot of fun. That is still a little ways off, but I wanted to mention it.

The sites synced and I let people know shorter strips are on the horizon, and people had a lot of feelings. I know many readers are worried that daily strips may be less enjoyable than the large current weekly strips. I've read complaints that the strip will change forever and it's like reading everything I worry about late at night written out in black text and read back to me confirmed. And I shake it off. I have to.

When I wrote to our local paper and they gave me their advice, there was a sentence added to the end of the email along the lines of, "I think your comic is an interesting idea, and people like cats. But I worry that you could come up with enough ideas to keep it going beyond a few strips." I read their reply, I took the good, and I shook that last, well meaning (and understandable) criticism off. Not immediately. I was about 10 strips in at this point, and reading this line gripped me with worry. I read it. I took it in. I took a deep breath. And then I shook it off. I thought to myself, "There are two things I know... Myself and cats. ...I can do this."

Can I? I hope. I think I've done well so far, and I'm proud of that, it hasn't always been easy. I do know that as of today, there are 201 webstrips, 290 daily strips--491 in total. I'm 9 away from 500, I've got notebooks full of ideas/plots/holiday specials, and I'm ready to roll. I know I'm doing my best and will keep doing my best, which is all I can do.

I actually didn't mean to talk about the daily strips so much in this post, I had meant to just share how I came to be syndicated and what it meant to me, but... Well, if you've read this far I thank you. It's on my mind, in excitement and anxiousness, because I'm so excited to start sharing them and I'm a little anxious to see how people will feel about them. If we can get the comic into newspapers though, it will be huge. Not only because I want to get the comic out to more people, but also for the real world reason that Ryan and I aren't independently wealthy. Far from it... Many of you reading this blog know we have ping-ponged across the country the past few years following work opportunities for Ryan. He has worked hard to get back into his field after an unexpected lay off, I'm tremendously proud of all he has done to support our family and also to give me the time and support to write 'Breaking Cat News.' It's pretty remarkable. I know people whose partner won't even follow their sports team, and here's my husband insisting I take the leap into the unknown for as long as it takes because he believes in me.

I want his support and your support and GoComic's support to all pay off and for this to turn into a career. I don't say it often--or ever--but it pushes me, for the better. It keeps me trying to do my best and make the comic as funny and cat-newsworthy as possible. This weekend Ryan was reading comments on the original site, and he said, "You've been so worried about the daily strips, I thought maybe someone had said something mean... All I see is people telling you how much they love the comic, and how much they love you, and that they're a little unsure, but they bet it will be great."

I was standing in our kitchen, Elvis guarding me on the counter, as he always does, and I looked at Ryan and said, "Yes, but... That's why I worry. If people were saying mean things and coming from a mean place, I could shrug that off. But when people are saying things because they truly worry about me burning out only because they care about me... Or I can sense they're anxious the comic will change because it means a lot to them...."

Elvis pushed a head butt into my shoulder. I petted him gratefully on the head. "Thank you, Elvis." I said. "Do you know I write a comic about you wearing a suit?" (I make this joke and similar ones to the cats a lot). I looked back to Ryan. "I just want to get this right."

I want all of the support I have received to pay off. For us; for the kids, for the comic, for me, and for you. When I read people saying I need an assistant or tech support, (or could somehow afford those costs) I realize that it may seem like I'm already there. Getting the book published as been a huge step, I still can't believe I am a published author and it is a life long dream come true! Getting the comic into newspapers though would go a long way to keep this dream going. It's all I want to do, and I hope I can somehow get there and get to do it a long time.

Well.... That's what syndication has meant for me and the opportunities it has given 'Breaking Cat News. The two sites, the daily strips I've been preparing for newspapers; some behind the scenes peeks into what has gone into the comic and my thoughts and fears and hopes that I haven't really shared before. It kind of just poured out, so please forgive any typos.

And hey, one more blog post for 2016!

My first book and life in the new apartment!

This is going to be one hell of an opening sentence, but here it is: Last week one of my wildest dreams came true!

A book of my comic 'Breaking Cat News' was published by Andrew McMeel Publishing, who is easily the best comics strip publisher around. I'm not bragging; frankly, I'm still in shock. Their comic collections include 'Calvin & Hobbes', 'Far Side', 'Garfield'--and now I can squeeze my little book in between all those great, heavy, incredible tomes, while calling to an echoing library "OH, HELLO ALL MY COMIC HEROES. FANCY SEEING YOUR BOOKS HERE, TOO! WILL YOU BE MY BEST FRIENDS?...NO? OKAY! BYE! I LOVE YOU!" And casually step backwards into a towering stack of bookshelves, knocking them over in a flurry of loose pages and old book dust. Watching in horror as the library stacks collapse one after another like giant dominoes, while I grip my face in both hands mouthing, "OH NO, OH NO, OH NO, OH NO..."

That's about as close as I'll get to my heroes, but I'm still walking around looking for excuses to introduce myself to total strangers as, "Georgia Dunn, published cartoonist."

"Is that my mocha latte? Did you say that's for 'Georgia?' ...'Dunn, published cartoonist?' WHAT? NOTHING."

If you can't tell by my giddy jokes and feverish anxiety fantasies, I'm incredibly excited. Mostly I wish I could go whisper this news in the ear of my 8 year old self and watch her start screaming. Probably things like, "WOW, REALLY? I PUBLISH A BOOK OF COMICS IN 2016?!" And "WHO ARE YOU?!" And "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!"

My first book, (I say "first" with finger quotes and an optimistic grimace) is 'Breaking Cat News: Cats Reporting on the News that Matters to Cats.' It's in bookstores right now, and you can order it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indie Bound!

If you've known me a long time or followed this blog for a few years, you know this is something I have worked toward since I was a kid. I'm extremely grateful to the folks at GoComics who have given me some pretty amazing opportunities since syndicating the comic. They're like angels who get all my 1980s Garfield Halloween special references.

That's my news on the comic! In our home life, I have good news too: We have a new apartment, and it is lovely.

This year I promised to blog more than I did last year, and I did it! In 2015 I blogged once, and this is my second post since January!

*REACHES OUT HANDS FOR TROPHY... NO?*

Okay, I might make my goal to try and blog at least once a month! Then work my way to once a week. If I blogged more, is that something folks would like? Let me know in the comments!

As I was saying, since my last post, we have found an apartment in California! If you don't know, my husband Ryan (the Man in 'Breaking Cat News') got a new job this January, and we relocated from Rhode Island to Southern California. 2016 hit the ground running and we've only just begun to look around and take a breath.

Or if you rather, a sniff....
(The boys checking out a new window).

We managed to find a nice apartment with big windows and sunny patios. It is quite the change from our little apartment in the Big Pink House. That apartment was beautiful and will always have a special place in our hearts, but I have to admit--with a toddler, a baby, and three cats, it is a relief to have a bit more space. Ryan and I can watch television at night without worrying about waking the kids. Our son and I can have mini-dance parties while we make dinner. Our daughter can practice crawling in wide laps around the living room. Puck can watch the birds undisturbed. Elvis has new patrols to carry out and spaces to check. Lupin can race up and down the stairs to his psychotic heart's content. We can breathe and spread out a little. It's still not quite the same as when we had our home in Covington, WA, but there are welcome similarities.

For instance, we have a mantle (and a fireplace) again!

The above photo is a collection of the odds and ends we placed on the mantle while unpacking. I glanced at them during a chaotic walk through of our box-and-moving-supplies filled living room and thought they looked charming together. The trees and the star stayed! In the above left of the photo, you can see a picture of us with our son taken in the Covington home we had to sell. The star originally hung above the fireplace there. In the Big Pink House apartment, Ryan and I hung it over our bed. Somehow when we'd lost so much, it felt comforting to have it near. It's really nice to hang it in our new living room. I think it's a good sign.

Below is a photo of our new kitchen!

I call this spot "Pancake Central."

The past couple of months we have taken on the challenge of settling into our new surroundings.

Checking out the local diners.

Unpacking our belongings.

Unpacking the cats.
(JK, Elvis just can't resist a cardboard box in the sun.
Who can?)

The kids and the boys adjusted to the move better than I even hoped. Our daughter took it all in stride. We pretty much just put her down on the new floor and she crawled away into a box of toys. Our son was given a big boy bed, and this seemed to make the transition much more natural somehow. Maybe so much changed that it just sort of made sense he'd be in a new space too. I'm not sure, but he was terrific.

The cats took to the new apartment wonderfully. They spent one afternoon hiding out in our bedroom, and then Elvis emerged with a mental check list of places to investigate for whatever it is he checks spots for. (Snakes, I always imagine). Puck loved the new windows. Lupin could live anywhere from a moving train to a house boat to a shuttle on the Moon, I swear. He is ridiculously adaptable, it's wild! He's just happy to be wherever he is. What a great guy!

The boys eating breakfast.

Gwen's side of the nursery.

The nursery, 75% cleaner than it will never be, ever again.

Luke's new "big boy bed." The frame is from the 1940s, super sturdy
and in beautiful condition. We found it at a secondhand shop. They just
don't make furniture like this anymore!

Luke's crew, featuring his fuzzy penguin, "Pengo," who
occasionally makes appearances in the comic.

Gwen carefully examining a graham cracker.

Me: "Now close your eyes and take a nap."
Luke: "Okay, Mommy."
Makes this face.

Luke asked if we could make the cats one of the cardboard
houses in the game "Neko Atsume." And so, we did! Here's
Lupin checking it out.

Pucky soaking in the sun.

Tea party time!

I temporarily dyed my hair green around St. Patrick's Day!
It's already washed out, alas, but it was stayed for Easter!
Ryan took this Easter Sunday.

Gwen and Ryan. Some bunny loves her Daddy!

We had just about finished unpacking and setting the apartment up, when April dawned. April is a little intense for us, but in a really fun way. Our children are both born in April, almost exactly two years apart (within two weeks, give or take). I'm determined to give them each their own birthday party. I don't know if you've ever had to share birthday parties with a loved one, but I have, and it's the worst. No matter how many paper straws I have to buy in April, these kids are each getting their own day! THIS, I SWEAR!

Gwen's first birthday!
This year FLEW by!
(I really need to finish that blog post
on her birth story!)

Gwen's birthday party theme was "fairy tales."

Table with woodland creature sandwiches! (We used cookie cutters).
Cannot take credit for the cake, our local Whole Foods made it.

Luke patiently waiting for lemonade.
He is wild for lemonade right now!

Auntie Gray came down from Seattle for Gwen's first birthday!
(For 'Breaking Cat News' readers, this is the real 'Intruder!')

Uncle Preston came down too! If you've followed this blog for a while,
Grace and Preston are dating! How cool is that?!

Grace and Pucky sharing a moment.

Luke's third birthday! He had a "Dragons Love Tacos" themed party,
based on the book by Adam Rubin. Luke LOVES that book! 

Our aunt Joanie flew in from RI for Luke's birthday! This is
the cake she brought, with little dragon candles.
 She took this photo, I love it so much! 

Luke wanted everyone to have a party hat, including Buzzy Mouse.

I can't believe Luke and Gwen are three and one already! This past year has gone by so fast. I feel like we just brought Gwen home from the hospital, and she's already practicing standing and starting to talk!

At the end of April we visited Seattle for the North West Majors, and that should probably be another post in the future. Our friends pooled together to surprise us with plane tickets, two more friends let us stay in their condo in exchange to care for their adorable dog and cat (and you know how I feel about cats!) and it was just an excellent time. It was the first time we'd returned to Washington since we had to leave. When Ryan and I walked into the airport we were each hit with the feeling that we'd come home after a long, weird vacation. I'll try to write another post soon, explaining the feelings more. This post as already run long, and I need a reason to write again before I let another month pass. Let's hit the pause button on the Seattle trip!

Now we're back, and life in California is still very new and really nice. It's a beautiful place and we like where we're living. Ryan loves his new job. He's back in his field and at night he works on animating a video game that he's making from scratch with two of our friends back in Seattle. I take care of Luke and Gwen during the day and write and paint 'Breaking Cat News' in the evening.

Recently, some nights when we've both finished our work, Ryan and I make popcorn and tea and watch one episode from the last season of 'Poirot.' We've been saving it, knowing it's the last, and it's been a lot of fun watching them together curled up on the couch under a fuzzy blanket. And it's a sign of settling in; nothing to pack or unpack, nothing to put away, nothing to set up or organize. Just a few quiet moments at the end of the day to cuddle and try to solve a mystery. The cats eventually drift over, and soon we're covered in cats, sipping tea, and it's the best. I love it so much.

I'll leave you with a few more photos from the new apartment.

Our earthquake kit, complete with a helpful cat!

The owl and the pussycat! Pucky lounging on our bed.

Setting up our beloved couch, "Big Red!" This couch was in
storage the entire time we lived in RI and we missed it SO much!
It is the most comfortable couch in the world.

And the cat's couch....

My Mom sent us a dark blue fuzzy blanket covered in foxes, and
we changed up the couch a little to honor it. Without waking Lupin.

And last but not least, a photo the new book!!! A whole pile of them!

OH MY GOODNESS, THERE IT IS!

Thank you again to everyone who has ordered this book! The first print sold out in pre-orders, and the book went into a second printing mid-April--before it even hit stores! That is amazing and makes me so happy, thank you! Please, if you can, leave a review for the book wherever you can. And if you're on Goodreads, they just gave me an author profile! You can follow me here!

It is still strange and surreal and entirely wonderful to write things like that. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement! I hope this will be the first of many books!

And I'll be writing another blog post soon, within thirty days. That's my *new* blog goal for 2016.

I hope everyone is having a great night!

3,000 Miles Back West. Wait, what? NO, I KNOW, RIGHT?

New Years Eve is one of my favorite holidays. Okay, if you know anything about me, you know every holiday is one of my favorite holidays. I admit it (I can't hide it) I love celebration! There are so many great things about being alive, I like taking a moment to celebrate each little detail. In recent years holidays have exploded. It seems like there is a day for everything now. A day for pirates, a day for donuts, a day for cats, a day for black cats--I love it.

New Years really does rank pretty high for me, though. A pause to reflect, a deep breath to consider the future. I like making resolutions, and some years I even keep them! And if I don't keep them, I repeat them and try again. One of my repeat resolutions this year is "blog more." I love blogging, and in 2010-2013 I was better about blogging regularly. I have not posted in almost a year, but I have a great excuse:

SURPRISE! 

Surprise! It's a girl! ...And it's nine months old! We had our second child last April, and named her Guinevere Pamela--Gwen for short. I promised myself that my first new blog post would be her birth story, like the one I wrote when Luke was born. I have been chipping away at it, a paragraph here and there, for... Nine months. It's close to being done, and I will share it soon!

And if you read Breaking Cat News, you know that I've been hard at work writing my comic this year too! Between writing a comic and a new baby, plus a very active two year old, blogging totally fell apart. Especially when I gave myself an excuse to put it off, in the form of writing a picture perfect birth story for Gwen to read one day, look away from the screen, and whisper in awe, "Wow, Mom. I do feel loved and validated."

So, instead, I'm just going to fall back into it today and let you know what's going on in our lives, because it's a lot!

2015 was a great year. Our daughter was born. Luke turned two. Ryan and I worked hard! Ryan took on multiple contracts, including one with the toy company Hasbro! He got to work on Play Doh commercials, ads for the new Star Wars toys, Monopoly commercials, Nerf commercials. ...A lot of toy commercials, if I'm being honest. But how cool, right? You can watch one of them here, if you like; Ryan edited this Nerf gun commercial.

As I said, I wrote Breaking Cat News. I took a two month break when Gwen was born for baby cuddles, sleepless nights, and zombie mornings, but couldn't stay away for long. In the daytime I cared for our children, and most nights starting at 8pm I wrote, sketched, inked, and painted the strip.  BCN was syndicated by Universal Uclick in 2014, and many new readers found the strip through their GoComics site in 2015. During the year I added a few new characters, wrote a Halloween special in addition to a second Christmas special, and got to connect with people all over the world about cats! In December, Uclick flew me out to Kansas City to visit their offices and discuss the BCN book! (YES, I SAID BOOK!!! SO EXCITED).

SPOILER ALERT: Everyone at Uclick is amazing and the book comes out this May!

Two days before I flew out to Kansas City, Ryan was contacted about a job opportunity in California. And so at the beginning of December, I was in Kansas City for three days, came home, and Ryan left and was in California for two days. It was all very exciting and very stressful. It felt like all the work we had each put in during 2015 was (hopefully) beginning to pay off. I spent the days Ryan was away watching Christmas specials with the kiddos, cuddling the cats, and hoping for the best.

And then, a couple of days before Christmas, Ryan was offered the job in California!

SPOILER ALERT: I am writing this blog post in California!

It was hard to break the news to family. For almost two years we'd been living in Rhode Island, close to our parents, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and that had been wonderful. I'm really glad we were able to spend some quality time with our family, especially while Luke and Gwen were so little. Leaving them was awful, and if I could have found a way to trick my Mom into a box and smuggle her into our storage pods, I would have. But, you know... kidnapping charges.

Still, great time with family aside, we had an unexpected tough time readjusting to Rhode Island. We missed the west coast very much, and Ryan missed having a full time job vs working contracts. He was having great experiences and getting to work on interesting projects, but a full time job with benefits is hard to beat. If you've read this blog for a while or know us in real life, you know that in 2012 Ryan was laid off from a job he loved two weeks after we bought our first home, when I was six months pregnant with our son. A nightmare scenario for sure, and it sent our lives into a financial tailspin for a couple of years. We eventually made the hard choice to sell our house and move back to Rhode Island to recover, financially and emotionally. We put a lot of hard work in, we supported each other, we cheered each other on, we didn't let each other give up on our goals. We shared an office in our home, we worked back to back on projects almost every night, covered in sweat, tears, and cats. Back on our feet and ready for the next chapter, this job offer could not have come at a better time.

And so, Ryan accepted it. We had just about three weeks to pack up our entire apartment, the kids, the cats, and get ourselves back to the west coast.

Luke and I on Christmas morning at our Aunt Joanie's!

The kids on New Year's Eve. The noisemakers were a BIG hit!

It's just not a party until some girl loses her shoe.

Lupin helping us pack the apartment up for California.

Lupin continues to help....

Elvis sensed change immediately and needed extra cuddles early.
We both did, honestly....

Ryan packing his Pengo arcade cabinet!

Packing went quickly, if not feverishly, and we were lucky to have some great friends help us to move everything into our storage pods! (NOT TO GET ALL GOLDEN GIRLS ON YOU, BUT THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND NATE, CHRISTINE, WILL, AMY, EMILY, JOSEPH, AND AUNT MAUREEN). We decided that Ryan would drive our car with the cats to California, and I would fly with the kids. I was nervous all over again, just as I was when we moved back from Seattle. Being so far apart from your partner is rough, even if it's just for a few days. I love Ryan like crazy. He's my best friend, and watching his little dot get further and further away on Google Maps as I looked up whatever town he was driving through was hard.

I stayed with our Aunt Anne for a few days, and then boarded a plane with Luke, Gwen, and my awesome sister in law Megan. Ryan arrived in California about seven hours before we did, and got the corporate housing we're staying in ready with groceries and flowers--since he'd been on the road during our six year anniversary!

Ryan the morning he left with the cats for the west coast.

Ryan letting Puck out of his carrier to stretch his legs during a road break.

Luke watching the planes at the airport.

Luke with my fabulous sister in law, Megan, who flew with us
to help me with the kids, thank goodness!

Luke and Pengo on the plane.
(That's the real 'Fuzzy Penguin' toy, if you read BCN!)

Gwen and Luke on the plane.

Plane selfies!

Luke decided his penguin could fly during our layover. 

Reunited in California with Daddy!

Lupin wasted no time in exploring the corporate apartment we're staying in.

And that's about where we are now! We've been in corporate housing for almost two weeks. It is a beautiful apartment and it feels a little like being on vacation, which is very nice. Still, I can't wait until we find a new home to settle into and we can be surrounded by our own things in our own space. Plus, Ryan got me a gnome lamp for Christmas and I MEAN C'MON NOW, I NEED TO UNPACK MY NEW GNOME LAMP.

This is a huge change, one that I'm definitely still processing. It happened so fast, there wasn't a lot of time to pause or reflect. Everything had to get into boxes, the boxes had to get into the pods, and we had to get onto the plane, and.... Here we are! I'm incredibly relieved that the move was without event and we are all safe and sound and together. I can be anywhere, as long as we are safe and sound and together. And the cats don't hate us too much.

Elvis settling in. He appreciates that the furniture matches his fur.

Pucky kept his morning bird watching appointment.

Luke missed his buddy Lupin.

Luke and Pengo watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Gwen playing on the floor.

An exhausted selfie I took as the toll of the move crept in. I felt a little tired,
a little homesick, but still noticed how great the lighting was and just had to click a pic.
(That's how I know I'm okay. When I stop noticing fabulous lighting, just close the coffin).

Gwen chilling with her girls.

I had to take a break from writing BCN, since 1. My scanning equipment had to move across the country without me. And 2. Mentally, this is a lot, and I need to take it in and rest and settle before I can be funny again. The readers have understood this for the most part and been amazing. Readers have been leaving comments on my studio FB page and Twitter of encouragement and support, and it's meant so much to me. If you have done that, I can't thank you enough.

I'm still getting Luke and Gwen back into a routine and feeling happy (and aside from Luke's chaotic naps, they've both adjusted great!) I'm spending a lot of cuddle time helping the cats are feel secure. Lupin is thrilled at a new space to check out, Puck is comfortable finally, and Elvis in a surprise move no one could have predicted has been much more relaxed and happier since we arrived in California. He was always wound really tight in our apartment back in Rhode Island, we're not sure why. Ryan jokes that "100 years of history to sense and sniff and investigate" probably had him overloaded. Maybe Tilly was teasing him (that makes more sense if you read the comic!) Whatever the reason, he has been having a great time and I'm so relieved!

And so, there's my first blog post for 2016! Hopefully I'll have Gwen's birth story to share soon, because it's a fun story. I've been INCREDIBLY lucky to have two great, easy births. You'll never like me again if you had a tough labor (I'm joking, please still like me if you've had a tough labor. You're my hero). In the meantime, wish us luck on finding a new space to call home! I'm hoping that a month from now we will be settling into "home." I'm also hoping that I can start working on BCN again and have the comic up and running at the beginning of February. If you miss reading it, I promise, I miss writing it. I've been brainstorming headlines nonstop, and I've got stories planned for most of the year already!

Plus, remember, the first BCN book comes out in May!!! Ahhh!!! SCREAM AND JUMP UP AND DOWN WITH ME, AHHHHHHH!!!!

2016 is already... Really different! I hope it stays a good different!

Happy 2016, everyone, a few weeks late!

Lupin vowing to catch those giant cat toys in the distance....