For the last week and a half, the Inkpunks have been in a pretty serious discussion of our work-life-art relationships. As artists, it’s almost impossible not to struggle to find some kind of balance between the need for money and the need to create. Sometimes it feels like the two needs are completely inimical and […]
Category > creative life
the taxman and the artist
So. A few weeks ago, I took my receipts, pay stubs, and pages and pages of handwritten notes to an accountant to see about filing taxes as a freelance illustrator. It was my first time doing this and I was nervous the accountant would take one look at my stack of tattered papers and tell […]
Let’s get away from it all!
I just got home from The Rainforest Writers Village writing retreat, which Inkpunks Sandra Wickham, John Remy, and Andrew Romine also attended (last year Adam Israel came, too). I stayed in a cabin with super-roommate Sandra, ate amazing meals (including a fantastic lunch cooked by kitchen wizard Mary Robinette Kowal), went to some incredibly informative […]
things I got from the surrealists
Recently I went to LA to go on an art date with some friends. We went to this show: In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and The United States. (More about the exhibit at the LA Times, the Huffington Post, and by our own Andrew Penn-Romine.) It was an amazing, thought […]
Guest Post by Jesse Bullington: I Have No Idea What The Hell I’m Doing
Today’s guest post is by Jesse Bullington, author of the novels The Sad Tales of the Brothers Grossbart and The Enterprise of Death, as well as numerous short stories. Jesse offers a surprising admission about his own writing career — and  provides some encouragement to those of us who are still trying to figure things […]
On giving up
We’ve all been there: the hill is so steep, and we can’t even see the top. We have no idea when that first sale is coming, and even if we’ve made the first–as I well know–that does not mean the second or third will follow any time soon. There are days when we feel like […]
Better Procrastination as a Writer
Procrastinating is a skill, like writing, that you can perfect with practice and that you’ll find advice about on the Internet. In fact, the two crafts mirror and complement each other. Here’s some advice about incorporating procrastination into your writing habits–based on much real life experience! Set a goal Your first step in a writing […]
A deep breath and a jump.
Last year I saw a tweet by Irene Gallo promoting the Illustration Masters Class and it put a little hook in me that I couldn’t shake. I had been thinking about ways to level up my art making and this resonated in an intriguing way. But that was last year, and while I *talked* about […]
Guest Post: Are You A Writer, or Aren’t You? By Carrie Cuinn.
Carrie Cuinn is a writer, editor, small press publisher, computer geek, and amiable raconteur. In her spare time she reads, makes things, takes other things apart, and sometimes gets a new tattoo. She has an impressive collection of published fiction and non fiction and has been a guest on SF Signal podcasts multiple times. Carrie […]
Better writing
Last night, I sat in an airplane and wondered how I could be a better writer. The golden glow of the reading lights filled the plane’s interior, and every few seats, someone had left their window open. California moved beneath me in a half-seen, half-suggested pattern of black earth and ribbons of sparkling light. Everything […]
