Deep breath. Ahhh.
It feels so good to know I have a place where I can tell everything about the journey I’m on with this Mahavma Project. I’ve been a journaler for all my adult life, and a little bit as a kid, too, and there is nothing more satisfying than writing my thoughts and feelings and processes as they happen. Close to nobody reads my journals, so it’s not quite the same thing as talking to a friend, but it comes darned close. And who knows, maybe somebody will read these things one day! Whether they do or not, I love this process.

I think Meg is gonna post mostly on Fridays, so I’ll do mine mid-week.                       Wheee! Let my progress reports begin!

Lessee … what did I do this past week?
For a couple of days Meg and I read through the novel, out loud, together. We made notes, updated the encyclopedia as we went, had many discussions about many things, changed our minds about how we wanted to do a few others. We love this process so much, and we are learning that we have to make time for regular discussions, because every single day we learn something new, either about this writing process, something we want to include in our stories, or we learn something about each other or even ourselves, and then? Everything shifts. It’s not always easy to communicate everything we need to, but we do keep at it until we both feel like things have been resolved in a way that makes us both happy.

The big shift for me this past week is that that the story “How it Begins” that I’ve been working on editing and doing artwork for over the last 4 months is not going to be released this year. Not until the novel has been out for a little while, at least. I did close to 80 fluid acrylic paintings in my attempt to get just the right look for both the book and the proposed video. I also did a preliminary recording of the story, but only after we finally decided on my third version of the story. I don’t know how many times Meg wrote it even before I got ahold of it!

Honestly, I was getting pretty frustrated (and feeling guilty and worried and confused) that it didn’t seem to ever quite feel finished, that I couldn’t get the art just the way I wanted it to be. And then… after months of work, we decided that to put it out now would be too big a spoiler for the novel… and we don’t want that, now do we?

I guess it was in the cards that we wait on it, and I’m really glad I couldn’t manage to finish it, now. What do you wanna bet that when the right time comes, getting it out will be much easier?

So, as of yesterday I spent most of the day editing and polishing the little “Fire” tale, getting it ready for our premier Youtube release instead. I read it to Meg,  and made a few changes. I read it to her son, and it still didn’t feel right, so we poured over it again together, made notes and fixed bits here and there. Meg read it to me a final time, and at last it felt just right. I also designed the six art pieces that I’m planning to have accompany the video, and made notes about what I want to do, in some detail, for each one.

Yep, my loves, that was a week.
Love you big …

C