I had to butcher my garden on Tuesday. I was so pleased that the delphiniums had survived the Sunday hailstorm... and on Monday, the wind knocked most of them over into a big, tangled, broken mess that was smothering my strawberries. Except for two of them, none of the flower stalks were far enough along to bring them inside to bloom... and I'm not even sure about those two. I'm still grieving... you may remember my previous years struggles with these delphiniums - aphids, storms, etc - and this year they were flourishing. I had more than a dozen flower stalks, and they were well over four feet tall. There are three now, and the rest had to be cut back to stumps, even the ones that I had staked. Alas! The many trials of gardening! I wish I had gotten a photo!

In other news, I have SO much news.

I am officially doing a First Friday this Friday, at the lovely Sipping Streams Teashop. There is a Facebook event for it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1170531656302771

I am also a guest in a multi-artist coloring event on Facebook, with loads of giveaways and contests. My official hour is July 9th, 9-10 AM PST, but I've just opened a pre-contest - color any of my pages and enter for a chance to win your choice of my solo books. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/618818858282117

I'm also super excited to announce that I am one of the illustrators for Hidden Youth: Speculative Stories of Marginalized Children - it's funding now on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1537879721/hidden-youth-speculative-stories-of-marginalized-c

Crossed Genres, the publisher, is one of those places I've always wanted to break into as an illustrator, and by the time I worked up the nerve to apply, I found out they were closing, so when I saw the call for artwork for this, I had to leap on it. I have already started my sketch for it:



I got my coloring books!! I haven't unloaded them all from the car yet, but they are on site! I am filling Kickstarter orders this morning!

I also have a gazillion emails to work with, but I'm making good progress - I got a big freelance project finished up last week, and my not-a-book is ready to go up in just over a week, and the other anthology piece I'm doing is well-sketched, and I'm sending out #junicorn orders today and holy Julymonkeys, I better get going...