http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:43:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Okay, so I had been wondering why my blog had been a dry wasteland of responses for about 6 months. I had been getting emails no problem, but not many hits on the blog. Turns out it was one big administration blooper. Oops. My husband and I went to check ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=224 So my long-absent daughter has returned from camp. Funny thing, this strip series was written months before she actually left. Call it mother’s intuition, but I just knew there would be a change. And there was. Not so much physically…I mean, aside from the tan and sun-bleached highlights we adults have ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=218 I recently wrote a story arc about Jill’s older daughter, Amy, going off to sleepaway camp for the first time. Yes, this is based on factual events (hey, at this point, what isn’t?). My older daughter is heading out this week for a month-long stay at a renowned camp in ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=211 As my family knows, I usually don’t recount our happenings verbatim in the strip (other folks’ experiences…well, that’s a different story). But once in a while, some sneak in. The “Bones” incident, for example. A few months ago I went out during the evening while my husband watched our girls. ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=205 I finally realize the meaning of that old cliché: “I’m too young to be this old.” I swear I was just twenty-one a minute ago. I (semi) joke to my husband that I missed the full effect of my 30th milestone because I was busy going into labor (our older ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=201 It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about anything, and I apologize. Between illnesses running rampant in the family and a couple of side trips in between, life’s been crazy up the wazoo. Not to mention… Yes, pigs do fly. I’ve started working on my first book collection of Pajama Diaries ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=197 Back in October, I had reached my last straw. See, for about 6 months I had been getting severe migraines on and off. Which was strange, considering I’d never had ‘em before. They were pretty debilitating, causing nausea and occasional blinding auras. Needless to say, it was getting hard to ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=188 After posting a response to a criticism by R.C. Harvey back in December, I’ve noticed some rather complimentary postings by him since. As you can imagine, that took the wind right out of my sails. It was also pretty gratifying. Here’s a link to the most recent one describing the birds ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=184 My friend, Barry Gott, who is a very talented children's book illustrator and fellow card writer/illustrator, recently created t-shirts to sell as a fundraiser for the Haitian earthquake victims. If you are interested in making a very worthwhile purchase, check out the site:   http://quakeshirt.org/Welcome.html All 100% of the proceeds of this ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=180 It’s time once again for the annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship contest. For more information, please see the NCS Foundation page. http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=177 Happy New Year! I thought I’d begin 2010 with a funny realization that came to me this morning while coloring strips. Occasionally, I get called out for grammatical or illogical (writing) errors. In fact, my husband caught one the other day while reading my strip in the paper (by the way, ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=169 I came across this little piece by R.C. Harvey in “The Comics Journal” the other day thanks to our ever-reliable Google Alert system. It was a criticism to a particular strip: Dec 1. At first I kind of wrote it off. Why get defensive, right? To each his own. But ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=156 Okay, I’m feeling off kilter. Why? Because for the first time ever, I’m so far ahead of my deadlines, I’m way out of sync with the strip’s timeline. I know, I know, this is a good thing. I much prefer the 4-month lead over scrambling to meet my deadlines. I ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=152 I imagine that, having a cartoon based semi-loosely on life, it can be confusing to readers as to where the strip ends and reality begins. For instance, when I wrote about the character, Rob, getting laid off back in March, many concerned readers and friends asked if my flesh-and-blood husband ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=146 I have control issues. There. I said it. In fact, I’m a bit of an obsessive/compulsive head case. Well, maybe not that bad. I don’t check five times in a row to make sure I locked the door or anything, but I’m a perfectionist and pretty orderly. I freak if ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=135 It’s been another long expanse of time between blog entries. I chalk it up to the summer/pre-school crazies. We went on our first real “faraway” family vacation since about…hmm, ’03? We traveled to Northern CA and had a great week spending time with relatives and sightseeing. My husband and I ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=130 As some readers nicely pointed out yesterday, I made a mistake in my 7/18 strip. I accidentally wrote "adverse" instead of "averse." Got a little confused there, sorry. I do proofread my strips several times beforehand, and they go through editors as well, but this one got past all of ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=124 Sometimes you just can’t time things accordingly; luckily I caught this before it went to press. It’s now become a tribute strip. Who knew? http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=118 Is there a term for a lazy blogger (lager??)? Well, that’s me. Guilty as charged. Part of it is because I’m writing about a strip which is about a woman who keeps a journal. Therefore, I’m blogging about a blogger. That wears me out psychologically. The other excuse (at least, ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=111 Instead of focusing on a single strip in this blog entry, I thought it’d be fun to share brief commentary on an entire bunch. This one is close to my heart. I’ve come to realize that – despite its obvious advantages -- working from home is extremely isolating. Before kids, I ... http://www.pajamadiaries.com/blog/?p=105