This blog began in 1997 as a single news page called Nucelus. In 2005, during a long wait to move into a new house, I decided to learn some php and MySQL and write my own blogging system, which became inkyBlog and which now powers this, my own Webbledegook blog.
Thank you to my brother, Murray Ewing, for help with some of the more challenging aspects!
Next is work - loads on, including many illustrations (deadlines this week and early August) and a website. The illustration work especially takes up many many hours.
Rainbow Orchid: I'm still scripting episode 6 (or episode one of part two). I've found it tough going because it kicks off a new section of the story, I don't want to lose the momentum that built up at the end of part one, and I'm feeling a bit of added pressure due to part one doing so well. There's a lot of research to do along the way, too. Then there's always the balance of trying to be entertaining but not at the expense of telling a story, and not just telling the story without being entertaining. I do actually enjoy this challenge, and one day I'll get better at it. Sometimes dialogue streams out and I know it's right, while other times a particular speech balloon will be rewritten again and again until I feel it's got the right flow, weight, meaning and character, going back to it on various days. I don't think I'm a natural at this as it feels like hard work.
Two other Orchid related items... I now have just 14 copies left of part one. When I'm down to 10 I will put a 'sold out' sign in the shop and sell the rest on ebay. Part one will not be reprinted until all three are collected together, though I still won't rule out a web appearance at some point. I've had a rethink on the collected edition of part two. I was being optimistic about its publication date being somewhere within a few weeks after Christmas. Disappointing, but best to say it now.