I had the meeting with my partner last night. He does the design and layout, will do the photography, deal with the editor for text edits and does all the pitches to the publisher and finalizes the book. The meeting was awesome. I think we think a lot alike and we are like minded. We had ideas for more books while we were talking. I got excited, he got excited, he likes Two Buck Chuck, I like Two Buck Chuck! It is a business match made in heaven. We worked outside on his back patio having some wine going over the page count of the book and working it all out. ANd I am sitting there thinking, "Is this happening? Is this really my life?" Now this book is not going to make me rich. It is not going to mean I can stop freelance designing. But it does mean that I have fianlly got the manufacturing industry to pay attention to me. Which has proven to be a very difficult and frustrating process. I have gone through two licensing agents with my art that have not been able to sell me. But they love my stuff, feedback is great, but no one knew what to do with me. Finally because of a flyer in a coffeehouse and a person that thinks like me and has connections, a huge publisher figured out they should take a chance on me.

Cause I am nice and my art makes people smile. And we need a lot more nice people making people smile in the world.

It is time to show the world that making people smile is just as important as anything else like brain surgery or rocket science. Cause ya know, if you have a rocket scientist and he is sad, not so on the ball that day, say he hasn't smiled in weeks, say he starts not noticing the details of his very important rocket sciency work cause he is just so sad... Well say his job one day is to install the mirrors on the Hubble Telescope. And say he is not really paying attention that day and he installs them backwards just cause he hasn't had a good giant grin in a while. And say that telescope that cost like a fabillion dollars gets put up in space with it's backwards mirrors and when we fianlly get the data back it is all screwy and no one knows why at first and the Nasa people are all, "Holy Crap! WTF? What happened??" Then they look. And they see nothing until they get to Sad Murry's part of the job. And they go up to Sad Murry in his sad dark office and say, "Sad Murry, what the hell, man! The mirrors! They are in backwards!! Where was your brain that day?! Do you know how much money it is going to cost us to find the equations that will correct the data so we can actually SEE the pictures that our telescope took in space that cost us a fabillion dollars??? This is really embarassing! We are going to have to tell the public! And we are smart and get paid lots of money and we are not supposed to make mistakes like backwards mirrors! What do you have to say for yourself Sad Murry???" And he will say, "I am just so sad, I can't concentrate. I always am doing math nd science all day, then i go home and I watch the news and read the paper and what I read and hear makes me so, so sad. If only I had seen something to make me smile that day. Like a silly dog painting or something."

See why happy, silly art MATTERS people???

I am not even sure where to start. With the flyer that I hung up in a coffeehouse to advertise my commissions back in January? With a man seeing them that called me to discuss an idea he had for my art? With the package I put together filled with samples of my art, press clippings and a sample painting of a Corgi with pink flowers in the background? With the proposal he pitched to one of the biggest publishers in the world of crafting and art books? With the phone call I received on Monday that said that the company LOVED my art and loved the book idea and they want to know how fast I can produce it and need a page count because they have already put me on the production schedule? With the advance* I will get and the royalties I will get? With the doors this will open for me? Hmmm, where to start? Am I dreaming? *pinch* Nope. Awake. And not quite believing this, but letting it sink it and wash over me. Knowing I sure have worked hard enough and will continue to do so. Next time someone says painting dogs for a living is just plain silly, you send them over to me...

*ADVANCE: (noun) Money, REAL ACTUAL MONEY they are paying me UP FRONT for MY ART that will fill a BOOK.