It's been an interesting few days.

Yesterday we went to the Warrandyte Festival, which was a lot of fun - 2,000 or so yellow plastic ducks were launched from a flying-fox in a race down the Yarra, there were lots of interesting stalls and an entertaining air-guitar competition. I picked up a lot of old K-Zone and Total Girl issues at the market, including some recent TG issues with my art (gasp, how could they?). The bands were good overall and the fireworks in the evening were well worth the chill factor.

Also, reptile guy Raymond Hoser was there, presenting his fascinating (and sardonically controversial) spin on scaly wildlife. I knew of him already due to his fine book, Australian Reptiles and Frogs, so this was a nice bonus. He focused largely on his many extremely venomous friends - taipans, king browns, copperheads, red-bellied black-snakes, etc. Yep, most venomous Australian snakebite doesn't hurt - untreated, you feel okay for an hour or so, then you die. It reminded me of an argument I had with my father-in-law a few years ago, about whether or not to kill a blacksnake. I felt somewhat vindicated about my non-kill position - if you leave snakes alone, your chance of getting bitten is pretty much nil.

Today I went for a job interview for a fairly senior management position somewhere else. If I did get this, it would mean some changes to my life, particularly my artwork, though I remain totally committed to continuing to draw the "Rock 'N' Roll Fairies."

That said, I've been submitting various pieces to different publications and had several bits of feedback last week along the lines of "We can't use this, but what about that?", which is encouraging. In one case I may have been pushing the margins a bit by submitting a comics page rather than just a panel or strip cartoon, but when I have something a bit essayish in mind it tends to come out this way :). I am learning to let go of some unplaced pieces, particularly if they need to be published quickly to have any real meaning. One offer I've had is very promising, if I can just get a chance to put a submission together...

I'm also attempting to co-publish a small-press anthology that has been languishing on the shelf for a few years now. I had a fantastic quote from a printer today, but they're set up to perfect bind anything over 60 pages (which normally I'd prefer, but it's wrong for this project).