Our apartment is apparently the House of Sick, as now I am being plagued by something that could be a cold/flu or could just be horrible allergies. I am wiped out!

This doesn't change the fact that I am up to my ears in tax preparations though. The accountant is coming this weekend, and I have to have all the numbers ready for him by then. I would like to reschedule because I am feeling so under the weather, but I have not been able to get ahold of him yet, so I am stuck with this date.

Tragically, our application to accept Visa on the SinFactoryComix.com site was rejected. Why? Well, because it is against the Visa AUP to have depictions of non-humans on a website that Visa is accepted on. That includes furries, aliens, devil girls, angel girls, robots, fairies, elves, centaurs, nagas, harpies, orcs, etc. etc. The only was to get around it would be if we registered from Europe. Since we're not based in Europe, that would be fraud, so it doesn't look like we're going to do that. We're looking into Verotel's services, because it's not doing us any good to not be able to accept Visa on the adult site.

In happier news, we've been pre-approved to accept Discover on our online store, so I'm busily reading all the paperwork that goes along with that new development. I am not sure when that will be going live.

I am fretting and extremely nervous about money, because not only do we have to pay the rent, printers, accountant and taxes all at the same time, but we also have to register and buy our Further Confusion tables for 2009 the same week. When it rains, it pours. (And I can't forget to do this, because I am also responsible for helping Trump get his table squared away...) Sure would be nice if the Diamond check we're waiting on would show up already. Also would be nice if my day job hours didn't continue to dwindle. Argh!

Thus we are still raising money for various large expenses (taxes and moving, mostly), so I have a whole bunch of new auctions up. Please check them out!
New eBay auctions are here! Books, manga, comics, trading cards, and more!
New FurBid auctions are here! Furry and adult comics, as well as some very rare doujinshi!
And we're having a big Spring Cleaning sale on the Radio Online Store! Heaping piles of stuff, discounted 50% off! I need space in the storage units!

Yesterday was spent in the storage units, in the monumental task of organizing and counting what's in them. Matt was a huge help, and we got the adult room completely tidied (now we just have to count it). Today, we go back to get the clean room taken care of. It's larger, 10'x15' instead of 10'x10', and has way more *stuff* in it. (Yes, contrary to all popular belief, Radio actually always has published more clean books than naughty books. I have the boxes and storage bills to prove it.) We'll also be pulling freebie boxes for A-Kon for their pre-reg bags. But we'll also be culling lots of stuff that's eight to ten years old and never going to sell. (Because honestly, if it hasn't sold now, it never will. That's the way of comics.) We already culled 12 boxes last night, and it didn't even make a dent. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of boxes in there. We also have to get out restock for the house, and set aside contributor copy issues, so it's a pretty monumental task requiring multiple lists.

I guess here is where I point out that if you work staff for a con that would like some pre-reg bag freebies, now would be a good time to let me know! I generally just need to know the pre-reg numbers from the previous convention and the date of the con, and I then send that amount of comics, plus a little over. (Of course, I also need the address to send them to... that helps...) We gave away a bunch of comics to Anthrocon one year, and fortunately, they waived the advertising rate they charge people for bag stuffers. Which is good, because they were comics, meant to be considered bag "swag", not ads. Heh.

Sadly, all my labor lifting boxes yesterday did *not* help my insomnia, so I am exhausted today. Despite sleeping later than I intended, I got almost no sleep. (Maybe five hours?) Will is also sick, so I hope I don't catch it. Fingers crossed! I'm hoping he feels better soon too.

Also to do today: sort in restock, do mail order for the week, work on more tax prep. And of course, shovel out more of the storage units. Time to get started.

Obligatory Auction Plugs! Tons of New Stuff!
eBay auctions are here! (Comics, manga, promotional doodads, and books!)
FurBid auctions are here! (Furry and adult comics and manga!)

Last week I was in a deep funk, due to stress and sadness over the loss to leukemia of someone I considered an old friend. This week, the stress remains, as tax time looms on the horizon, and I must get all the information ready for the accountant. Oh yes, and come up with the money to pay both the accountant and the taxes. Which, coincidentally, is happening the same time the rent and storage rent are due. This is the sound of my head repeatedly hitting my desk.

Thus, I will be an auctioning fool. Not only is there the immediate worry of the whole tax/rent/accountant trifecta, but there's the impending expiration of our apartment lease, and thus I need to get rid of stuff and make extra money. (Our freelance work has tragically dried up, not sure if it's us or if it's just the economy. We work fairly cheap, but apparently, there are those who will always work cheaper. And hooray, everyone at the day job got their hours cut, except senior managers.) So, I'm going through years worth of accumulated *stuff*, collectibles, toys, anime gewgaws, books, manga, comics, etc. If I haven't looked at it in years or can't even remember how it got into the apartment (and there's a lot of that, apparently our house just teleports stuff into it somehow), it goes on the block. I apologize in advance for the constant auction link spam that will be on all my future posts. This stuff has got to find new homes, seriously.

We got our tax paperwork back from Pennsylvania for Anthrocon, and wonder of wonders, it is clearly marked "Transient Tax ID" all over it. One bullet dodged, at least.

We've got Furrlough #181 and Genus #87 at the printers right now, so we're getting ready to work on Furrlough #182 and Milk #62. If you've got stuff for either of those books, send it in to Will at willworks@gmail.com! It seems like it's harder to get stuff for Milk these days, I guess not as many artists want to draw the naughty stuff as in the past.

I'm worried about a few of friends of mine who are going through rough patches right now as well, even though there's nothing I can really do to help. I can just hope things get better for them.

In other things, I'm all tired and ache-y though, so I sincerely hope I am not coming down with something.

Auction Plugs!
eBay auctions are here!
Except for one, which doesn't show up on the search, a Drakuun Zippo lighter, which is here
FurBid auctions are here!
The usual stuff, comics, manga, collectibles, nerd stuff.

Yesterday, I voted in the Texas primary and then lost hours and hours of time at night to the caucus process. Seriously, Will and I were there for about five hours straight. Time I'll never get back! Augh! Fortunately, El Suarez was able to calm me down after the frustration of the caucus process. <3

Work has been work-like. I found out Monday that CCBill needed a new copy of my identification stuff in order to approve us for ViSA on the adult site. Would have been nice if they had mentioned that oh, when I sent the paperwork in a month ago, but what can you do. We faxed the new information off, and now we get to wait. Again.

We're still working away on Furrlough #181 and Genus #87. Not much to report, because we're in the non-glamorous preparation stages. Mail order will also be worked on this week, as well as more subscriptions and trib copy packages. I can hardly contain my excitement- I also get to do a bunch more paperwork and filing! I'm also banging my head against the old Radio website, trying to get it updated. It's difficult since the hosting is so outdated. Once Matt returns from Chicago, we can start working on getting it transferred to a different host and set to work on making the new site. I also need to update the Radio store soon too... and do an inventory of all our stock for tax time. So much to do!

Scanned a bunch more auction stuff yesterday, and have more to do today. Since we are looking at moving to a new apartment in June (fingers crossed!), the auctions have become more pressing, as more junk needs to be cleared out of here and we need to save up more for moving costs. So, expect lots of auction plugs from me in the future.

eBay auctions are here!
FurBid auctions are here!

Yesterday was spent doing paperwork and preparing the state sales tax stuff so we could go down to the comptroller's office and pay. (I'm very paranoid about them not receiving my payment on time, so we go in person usually.) Out of sheer luck, we got one of the most competent workers there, and she was shocked that we were filing and paying quarterly for our sales taxes. When I told her the previous people I'd seen had told me I had no choice, she made a hilarious disapproving face while scrolling through all our records, said "well, you SHOULD be filing yearly!" and proceeded to set up our account so we will only have to file yearly on our Texas sales tax. I'd always wondered about that, since we have very few sales in Texas itself- most of our mail order is in other states, the vast majority of our stuff is sold wholesale, and we generally do only one or two conventions in Texas itself. So, generally, our sales tax owed is very low. I think we only owed $300 for the whole year of 2007.

So, that was handled yesterday and was good news. Then we went and paid the electric bill. Excitement! The rest of the day was spent doing more paperwork, processing orders and filing stuff, while Will worked on Genus #87 stuff. (I think we have a story from  kadath062 scheduled for that issue... I know we already have the story from  Karno for it.) We've got Furrlough #181 coming due soon as well, so if you were planning to send something in for it, get it in quickly! Then Milk #62 will be going into production, too. It's all back to normal schedule-wise here.

Today will be spent dealing with mail order and auction stuff, and probably more of the excitement that is paperwork. It's a thrill a minute around here! There'll also be a ton of email to catch up on, since I wasn't able to check it while I was out of town visiting family last week. And we need to do another Sin Factory Comix update this week. (NSFW link!)

Auction plugs, since I am back on that wagon as well!
eBay auctions! Manga and anime stuff, plus books!
FurBid auctions! Furry and adult comics, of course!

It's been very busy since the convention (Further Confusion 2008), so I have had no time to write up a con report. I hope I can rectify this at some point, but I am not sweating it.

Here's what has gotten done since my return from the con:
--paid for the ViSA deposit for the Sin Factory Comix (NSFW!!!!) site and sent off the final application approval papers
--processed a ton of orders which came in while I was gone
--processed all the credit card sales from the con (I don't trust the wireless internet in hotels, not when Other People's Card Numbers are at stake)
--prepped our application for an Anthrocon table
--answered a bunch of email (still desperately behind, sadly)
--posted a bunch of auctions (gotta make back that money I spent on restaurant-eating at the convention)
--did a bunch of paperwork
--went out and bought more mailing supplies
--bought some groceries, hooray rice and pasta!
--paid the internet/cable bill (hooray, the internets will stay on!)
--wrote up the June solicitation information (must send it off today)
--called to cancel our San Diego Comic Con table reservation

Yes, you read that last bit correctly. We will not be getting a booth at San Diego Comic Con this year. The expense just far outweighs the benefits, and it is already almost impossible to find a place to stay. (And they haven't even opened the official reservations yet! Whole hotels are already booked solid!) Quite honestly, last year, we blew over $4000 just to do that show, and that does not include little things like food. We made back about $1500 at the booth. Needless to say, that is WOEFULLY unprofitable, and we are still paying off the expense of last year. So, as much as it pains me to miss showing at SDCC (and to potentially lose our exhibitor history), the cost is just unjustifiable anymore. I could print three comics or one very fat graphic novel for $4K, so I would rather spend the money on that.

If we can afford it (and can find a hotel space!), we might go to attend, but will not set up anywhere and sell.

In other, cheerier things, Trump-san has agreed to be on our adult site. I am beyond thrilled about this! There are also big changes coming up for Furrlough, mostly in the form of a schedule and format change (six times a year, but with more pages per issue). And we're getting a good start on plans for our new revamped, webcomic-centric Radio Comix site redesign. So, lots of new and interesting stuff on the horizon. I am all fired up to get working!

Bonus: I seem to have dodged the con crud that was circulating at FC08. I guess because I was still on the end of my antibiotics... yay!

I cannot stop sneezing. It's driving me nuts.

I missed posting yesterday, already upsetting my plans to post more. Excellent work, hurrah!

Anyway, Tuesday was spent going and picking up boxes from the PMB (Furrlough #178 and Orgasm Addict #1 showed up from the printers), then going and putting said boxes into storage. We also paid the storage bill, since it happened to be the day it was due. I also posted auctions and answered email.

Wednesday, I wrote up the solicitations for May 2008 and sent them off (Furrlough #184 and Milk #63), while Will got the images for the catalog prepped. We've got a lovely cover by  caribou Sara Palmer for Furrlough, and JK Blacklin did a new naughty piece for the Milk cover. Pretty much S.O.P. After that was sent off, I updated the Radio online store with the new comics and the two calendars we're carrying for Smudge & Baron Engel. We took a break to run to the store to get cat food and bread, since we were out of both and we live on sandwiches around here. Posted my auctions for the day, processed orders, answered some email, and then had spaghetti (food of poor people everywhere!) for dinner.

My life is painfully exciting, I know. Try to restrain yourselves.

Today I am debating whether the allergies are in fact a relapse into the cold, since there seems to be far too much snot along with this sneezing and sore throat. We have to start getting the stock for Further Confusion pulled and packed for shipment, so that will consume most of my time for the next couple of days. And we need to get the next issue of Furrlough turned in, and the Genus Greatest Hits as well. (We're working on both of them currently.) My head is killing me though, so I am not looking forward to delving into the incredibly dusty storage units. (Comic books generate a ridiculous amount of dust.) BIG NOTE TO ARTISTS: Let me know if you will be at Further Confusion! If I know now, I can ship extra copies of stuff you might have been in to the con, so you can pick it up there. ^_^

Off to swallow a handful of allergy/cold meds! And do my exercising for the day, since I got completely out of the habit over the November-December holiday corridor.

EDIT: I guess it helps if I actually link to my auctions. Durrr.... this does not bode well for the day.
eBay auctions are here! Manga, books, cards and comics!
FurBid auctions are here! Furry comics!

To be incredibly busy! Augh!

We are working on Genus: Male #7 to have ready to turn in at the end of the month, and it's shaped up quite nicely, I think (a lot of returning characters/artists this time). We're also working on Furrlough #179 and Genus Greatest Hits #4. Currently, the printers have Furrlough #178 and Orgasm Addict #1 by JK Blacklin, here's hoping the holidays don't interfere with the printing and they ship to the distros on time!

We just got in the Genus #86 boxes from the printers, so I have to get that scanned and uploaded to the Radio online store. It's got a pretty hilarious batch of stories, all with a luchadore theme, thanks to  king-cheetah (Shon Howell) and  poinko (Phil Gibson). Those guys are wacky, lemme tell ya! And of course, Furrlough #177 got uploaded to the store last week (or so), and as often happens, it has a gorgeous  hbruton (Heather Bruton) cover. We are finally getting back in the normal swing of things after the horrific lateness and troubles of 2007 and I am so happy about that, I can't even articulate it.

Other things on my plate for this week:
--get registered for our UPC barcodes and arrange the payment for same (I still choke a little every time I think of the $750 price tag- that's only a little less than a month's rent...)
--get travel plans for "http://www.furtherconfusion.org" arranged
--find out what inventory needs to be shipped out for Further Confusion, pull it and ship it
--finish up the Xmas card addressing and mailing
--get this week's mail order, subscription and auction stuff handled
--get state sales tax stuff dealt with
--work on getting a UPS account set up
--inventory the backstock here in the apartment and restock as needed
--answer more email and mail (this literally never ends and I can never catch up, it seems)

On the personal/fan front, I've gotten to see the first six episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, thanks to my friend Bob bringing them over. They're cute, but definitely aimed at kids. There's some pretty hilarious ham acting going on sometimes. It's enjoyable to watch, though. We finished watching Gilmore Girls season 3, but now are stalled since we can't find Seasons 4-5 anywhere. (6 and 7 are all over the place!) And of course, I am still very excited about Sweeney Todd, which we plan to go and see on opening weekend. I haven't had much time for WoW lately, but I hope to get to play some in order to do the holiday quests at the very least- I love those. I'm also enjoying the Advent Calendar of Downloads for The Sims 2 over at Parsimonious.org, they have cute new holiday stuff every day for the month of December. Now if only I had time to play my Sims! I haven't even started my Xmas shopping, not that there will be much of it. As usual, we're poor as hell this time of year. That's why I haven't responded to any of the "here's what to buy me!" memes- I feel wrong about advertising what I want when I can't really afford to do much for others.I will probably be making Xmas cookies, since I think I do an okay job on those. I haven't even decorated for Xmas yet since it seems kind of pointless. ^_^;

Recent Books Finished: Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson; Genshiken Vol.s 1-9 by Kio Shimoku; From A to Biba by Barbara Hulanicki
Currently Watching: Seinfeld Box Set (at Suarez's place), Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Densha Otoko (we watch about one episode per week, there's so little time!)

The Obligatory Auction Plugs! Please Buy Our Stuff!
My eBay auctions!
My FurBid auctions!
Suarez's eBay auctions!
Atomicpanda's eBay auctions!
Matthigh's eBay auctions!

It's the time of year when I try to get Xmas cards out. I say "try" because in years past (the last three or four), I've gone out and gotten the cards, and then had Very Bad Things start happening around the holiday season, and thus, no cards got sent out. This year will be different!

Coincidentally, we're also looking to get a big batch of contributor copy packages sent out this time of year, so what do these two events mean? Why, I need ADDRESSES of course! Snailmail addresses, since it's not yet possible to teleport physical items to people using their email addresses... someone should really get on the stick about that.

Anyway, if you have done any work for Radio, ever, and if you have moved recently, or just never bothered to get me a copy of your snailmail address NOW IS THE TIME! We have a lot of things that need to be shipped out, but we are missing real names, shipping info, all kinds of stuff.

Here's what I need and where to send it!

#1-- Your real, actual, legal name. (Seriously, the post office is being massively arbitrary about this point.)
#2-- Your real, actual, legal current mailing address, including zip code and/or country information. (Bear in mind that UPS cannot deliver to post office boxes, and we can't get tracking confirmation for anything that goes out of the country...)
#3-- Current email address always helps too! (We don't need phone numbers, I am usually at work at my day job so we don't call people often.)

Send it to us at radiocomix (at) gmail (dot) com AND at willworks (at) gmail (dot) com --doubling up ensures that we have the information! ^_^ (Please don't use the notes system on this site- I can't ever get it to work without crashing my browser and sometimes locking up my computer completely. It stinks.)

Thank you in advance, guys and gals!

The week isn't even half over yet and I am already exhausted.

Yesterday started with an hours-long fight to get Bandito into the cat carrier so we could drop him off at the vet. Once that was done, we went to pay the electric bill, which was considerable. (And thus, painful!) We picked up some more comic supplies and headed back home to work and wait to hear about the cat's prognosis.

Fortunately, it seems Bandito just has a UTI, so he is on antibiotics and a de-acidifier which is supposed to prevent the formation of crystals in his pee. (These crystals lead to blockages in neutered male cats, which require expensive surgery.) So, we got off rather lightly, though it was still more money than I really planned to spend this month. It will be ramen, beans & rice and mac & cheese central around here for a while. We also got off lucky in that Bandito will eat his canned food with the meds mixed in, so we don't have to fight him to force them down his stubborn gullet. He just needs to be fed apart from the other cats so they don't attempt to steal the dosed food. I also got some low-key hassling from the vet techs about feeding the cats cheap dry food (Meow Mix is apparently too low-rent...), which just made me feel guilty. And if we start 'Dito on dry food again after his meds are done, he will have to have the Urinary Tract Health formula, which means the more expensive (but apparently still low-rent) Purina One, since there's no way in heck I can afford Science Diet or Iams.

We got two books turned in this week, so now I just have to confer with the printers to get all the stats off to them. And I've been doing the usual auction and mail order processing work, so it's been fairly busy here. Today, we are sending off the solicitations to Diamond for the March 2008 books. Finally, Milk is solicited again, as we are finally caught up on the months-long lateness that has plagued us since March. This year has just whipped by because of all this.

I have hundreds and hundreds of emails to answer also. The spam problems seem to be clearing up on my auction email account, but now we're getting a metric ton of spam through the filters on the Radio Comix email address. Add in the fact that we just get a lot of email, period, and I am stuck in the Sisyphean position of constantly having hundreds of emails to answer.

We're also getting more requests from smaller retailers who used to order our stuff via Cold Cut, so I have to draft some kind of FAQ about wholesale ordering now. And the local comic store where we buy our supplies asked us to bring in some kind of flyers for our online store, since they only carry our books for subscribers, and this way they will have something to give to the rare folks who wander in looking for Furrlough, Genus and Milk. I have to update the Radio Comix Online Store this week, also. And of course, SinFactoryComix.com should get updated today, too. We've got to figure out advertising for that site, because the tiny number of subscribers there is barely covering the cost of maintaining the site at this point. This makes me sad, since it needs to generate more income if there's to be any hope of the artists getting any money from it. I've been researching Project Wonderful ads, just waiting for my registration there to finalize. Maybe that will help... we've got an ad for the site that runs on the furry adult art site Fchan, but I don't know if anyone ever even clicks through from those.

Back to work for me, but first, auction plugs.
eBay auctions are here!
FurBid auctions are here!
Etsy shop is here!

We're waiting on checks from our various companies we freelance for around here, and of course, they're not coming on time. (Life of a freelancer, gotta roll with it...) However, this doesn't stop bills from needing to be paid so we can have silly, frivolous things like "electricity" and "internet", so I have a ton of auctions up on eBay and FurBid! Please take a look, it's lots of books, manga, comics and the like.

eBay Auctions are here!
FurBid Auctions are here!

And hey, there's new stuff up in the Radio Comix Online Store, too! I am shamelessly pimping the store, since we need to come up with an extra $750 by December. Diamond Distribution is *requiring* UPC barcodes on all comics or comic related products by January 2008, and the cheapest company we can find to register with for the codes wants $750 up front. Oh boy! (Yeah, that was a fun surprise!)

There's a new issue of Milk on there with some awesome work from Phil Gibson  poinko, Shon Howell  king-cheetah, Mickmo, Tim Fischer and Mary Bellamy, a new issue of Furrlough with great stuff from David Davis  hpkomic, Rusty Haller  aqb52, David Goodman, Chris Farrington and Eddie Perkins, AND a new issue of Genus, with some excellent work from Kadath  kadath062, Necro  necrodrone13, ReDaDillio  redadillio, Mitch Beiro, and Terrie Smith. So, we're slowly but surely getting caught up on the late books.

And hey, if you don't mind the naughty stuff (in other words: you're not surfing the internet at work), check out our adult site, Sin Factory Comix! It's got goodies from Josales, DAQ  daq, Shon "King-Cheetah" Howell, JK Blacklin and more! Updated every week!

Last week was a week of horrible amounts of work. Not too unusual, because that's how it is in comics and how it always has been.

Summary of everything that got finished last week:
--mail order and subscriptions for the week went out
--more email was answered (more to go, there's tons)
--firmed up some more things for Furrlough #175 and Genus #85
--processed more orders
--large chunks of work on the latest manga project were done
--put away more restock in the back issue boxes
--updated the subscription log files
--shredded more sensitive documents (old subscription log printouts mostly, I don't just throw them away because I don't want our customers' addresses to be able to be fished out of the dumpster)
--dealt with some more correspondence (more to do)
--posted more ebay auctions every day
--finished editing Furrlough #175 and Genus #85
--both books uploaded to the printer (by Will Allison, who also did the production)
--sent printer the specs for the two books
--scanned more auction stuff and stuff for the store
--updated the Radio Online Store with new items
--sorted incoming mail
--did more inventory and organizational paperwork (more to do)
--wrote up the solicitation copy for January 2008 comics
--sent off the solicitations for January 2008 comics to Diamond
--did on-the-fly rewrite on the manga, since we found several bits in the book that were untranslated and just plain missing from the script (this was not immediately obvious when I did my initial edit/rewrite, we had to translate them in-house)
--sent out the Radio Comix Store email newsletters
--worked on the subscriptions for the next batch to go out
--worked more on the new trib copy system
--finished the manga touch up and lettering (this was all three of us, not just me, obviously)
--did a final polish of the manga project
--uploaded the manga project
--rewrote the back cover copy for the manga and uploaded that also
--started the first batch of trib copies through the new trib copy system, seems like it will work
--worked on updating our address system for creators; sadly when I got my new computer from my parents, the old address book function doesn't work on the new one -_-;
--worked on a master list of creators we have outdated or missing snailmail addresses for; will be posting that list once it is finished so I can get people's info properly
--did maintenance on the Radio Comix Forum

And that's what we did last week. Yesterday, we all basically died, since we'd all had very little sleep the week before. We averaged 16-20 hours of work per day all week last week, which is not uncommon. (Fortunately, there was almost no day job work last week or we'd never have gotten everything done...)

Furrlough #175 (currently at the printers) features an awesome cover by  DarkNatasha (I'd link to the people inside, but I don't think they are on FA)
Genus #85 (also currently at the printers) features an adorable (yet sexy) cover by  dhstein, and interior stuff from  Karno,  king-cheetah and  poinko

Yesterday's completed tasks:

Work:
--finished editing Furrlough #175 and Genus #85
--both books uploaded to the printer (by Will Allison, who also did the production)
--sent printer the specs for the two books
--processed more orders
--scanned more auction stuff and stuff for the store
--updated the Radio Comix Online Store with new items The store is at https://radiocomixstore.com
--sorted incoming mail
--more manga work was done
--answered more email (more to do)
--posted more auctions
--dealt with more correspondence (more to do)
--did more inventory and organizational paperwork (more to do)

Personal:
--emptied half a closet for the carpet maintenance man
--dealt with the plumbing maintenance man who came to ensure the hot water was working

Finished working yesterday at 3:30 am, started at 9:45 am. Tonight might be an even later night. This pace will not let up until late Friday, provided all goes well.

Now, auction plugs- some are ending today! Please buy my stuff so I can eat food!
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsilverjainQQhtZ-1
eBay auctions are here!
https://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/vsoa.pl?usernum=3880&seller=Kemonogrrl
FurBid auctions are here! (May be NSFW)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=33234
Etsy shop is here!

Bullet point style update, because it helps to see what got done when there's so much still to do.

Work-wise:
--mail order and subscriptions for the week went out yesterday
--more email was answered (more to go, there's tons)
--firmed up some more things for Furrlough #175 and Genus #85 (if we can turn in the Genus issue this week, it will mean it is caught up from the delays caused by the printer changeover and we can solicit a new issue in February- just need 14 more pages!) Furrlough is going in this week no matter what. We have room in all the books for stories at the moment (and for pinups in the adult books, we tend not to run pinups in Furrlough except as table of contents illos, but we can always use more of those too), but as usual no open spaces for covers until next year some time. (Covers fill up too fast... there just aren't enough of them to go around.)
--processed some more orders
--large chunks of work on the latest manga project were done
--took care of more paperwork
--put away more restock in the back issue boxes
--updated the subscription log files
--shredded more sensitive documents (old subscription log printouts mostly, I don't just throw them away because I don't want our customers' addresses to be able to be fished out of the dumpster)
--dealt with some more correspondence
--posted more auctions

Personal-wise:
--washed a ton of dishes
--finally put the latest batch of clean laundry away (I just live out of the clean clothes basket most of the time, since there's never time to put stuff up!)
--tossed two more boxes of junk
--worked out a time with the maintenance guys to replace our screwed up disintegrating hall carpet; they'll just take a hunk from the back closet to replace it, since no one sees the closets. The padding was already starting to mold from this latest water leak, so the carpet guy ripped it out so we wouldn't all die of mold poisoning and treated everything else with industrial grade mold killer. He's my new hero. (Gotta clear a section of the closet for him to pull from before tomorrow...)

And that's everything I did yesterday. Good lord, when you write it down it seems like a lot! Especially when you consider I started at 9:45 am and stopped around 2:00 am. Today, I am fighting a migraine, but still working.

Now, auction plugs- some are ending today! Buy my stuff so I can eat food!
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsilverjainQQhtZ-1 eBay auctions are here!
https://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/vsoa.pl?usernum=3880&seller=Kemonogrrl FurBid auctions are here! (May be NSFW)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=33234
Etsy shop is here!

This weekend, I am headed out to http://www.mephitfurmeet.org Mephit FurMeet with Suarez. (He's doing the driving, since I don't drive.) Of course, even though it is a smaller, more relaxed convention, I have a million things to do before we leave so I'm frantically running around trying to get them all done. Fortunately, it's the last con of the season for us, so I don't have to worry about conventions again until Further Confusion in January. (Yaoi-con would be nice, but we just can't afford it.) Here's hoping we make some money at the con so we can cover the travel and hotel expenses (my main goal), and hopefully bring some money home to cover some bills that are due (my secondary yet extremely important goal).

What I need to get done before tomorrow morning:
--go to the bank to get change and make sure the rent can be paid
--pay the rent and water bill before I go (it's due while we're gone)
--find and pack the table supplies (cashbox, receipt books, cover sheet, pens, calculator, notebook, etc.)
--pay the printer
--process orders
--send out invoices
Personal:
--pack clothes & toiletries
--charge DS
--get myself ready to be seen in public

I feel like I am supposed to be excited about the trip, but I can't seem to muster the energy. I think I am burnt out or something.

I watched a show on the History Channel last night about mega-disasters that could occur in the US, and of course, they were talking about the possibility of a major earthquake that could hit in the St. Louis/Memphis area of the country. They showed lovely computer animations of the destruction, and talked about how there would be massive loss of life and chaos. Apparently, 100 years ago, there was a huge earthquake in that part of the country that lasted for almost a month or two. It was a dire program to see right before I have to visit that area, that's for sure.

At any rate, I'll be at the con, and I'll see some of you all there.

It took forever to get Genus #84 uploaded to the printer, since the internet decided to act funky all weekend, no doubt due to the rain. But hey, 14th anniversary issue. I can't believe I've been working on Genus for fourteen years now. Yikes. I posted the Top 100 stories list over on our forum. (As decided by reader votes, it's totally a popularity contest, like the old "Fave Ninja High School character" contest that used to run in the letters page of that book.) It surprises me all the time what old stories hang on and keep getting more votes and what older stories fade into obscurity. And it's neat to see which new stories muscle onto the list. Since we get so few actual letters of comment, sometimes the vote thing is the only way we know if people like things. I haven't been able to update the listing for the Top 100 stories for Furrlough in forever, but I've put a link to them at the bottom of this post too.

Top 100 Genus Stories: http://www.patduke.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1063
Top 100 Furrlough Stories: http://www.patduke.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=805

Bullet point style, since there is still a ridiculous amount of work to do.

--immediately upon getting home, we finished and turned in the corrections for Manga Project X, which has been announced on the DMP site, so I can finally say what the title is. It's World's End by Eiki Eiki, and is a sequel to a previous manga we worked on, Dear Myself which is still available on Amazon.com (just do a search for the title, and it will be the first one to come up). World's End will be out in October and you can see it here http://www.junemanga.com/titles?n=50&t=198.

--started working again on Manga Project Y and Z, prepping A to be worked on (the con interfered with the work schedule)

--picked up the new batch of books at the dropbox, need to get them counted and sorted so we can do subscriptions and get them on the online store

--updated our online store at https://radiocomixstore.com, new stuff from us and other companies

--processed a bunch of orders

--answered a bunch of emails, still have hundreds to go through (it never fails, when we are at a convention is when everyone and their brother emails us). I am stressing about the sheer number of emails, and fretting that I am not able to answer everyone fast enough.

--paid the rent (hooray!) and the water bill; put in our complaint about the lack of hot water for the last two weeks. Turns out they need to replace the boiler for our batch of buildings, so the water will be turned off this week at some point. Yay?

--went to the grocery store since we came home to find we were out of everything

--posted more auctions, since the convention completely tapped us out and we need to be able to pay for food and lodging at Mephit FurMeet very soon. (We will be sharing a table; they ran out before we could get our own. But we had such a good show last time, we shouldn't miss it.) You can check out their website here: http://www.mephitfurmeet.org

--did maintenence on our online forum and deleted literally over 500 false members made by spam bots. All apparently from Albania. I'm guessing the primary export of Albania is spam bots. The forum is here: http://www.patduke.com/forum

--did a bunch of prep work on Milk #59 and Furrlough #174. Both need to go to Morgan this week. Next week, we must turn in Hit the Beach #14. I'm hoping we can, since as usual, many things have not shown up yet.

--I have caught a cold at the con. I chalk it up to too much stress, since I took my vitamins, used my Purell and washed my hands like Howard Hughes, and ate decent amounts of food at the appropriate times. It's a really stressful show though and whenever I am too stressed out, I catch whatever is floating around.

--still have not had time to do a con report or go through the photos I took

Today we have to ship some comics to Diamond (they didn't get the correct number of books on one of them, it happens), go pay a bill, work on the comics, and work on the subscriptions/mail order. Tomorrow, we have to go pay the storage rent, which of course, went up last month with no warning at all. When things calm down, I will probably be shopping for a new climate controlled storage company. I've been pretty displeased with the customer service at ours since Public Storage bought out their company, especially since we've had the same units for ten years now.

Auction Links! Please check them out!
New eBay auctions are here!
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsilverjain
New FurBid auctions are here!
https://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/aucti.....ler=Kemonogrrl

I'm in the middle of twenty different things right now (all of them needing to be done like yesterday, too) but I realized I should post our San Diego Comic Con booth number: #5430!

That means we're pretty much in the exact same place as last year, which is cool, since then I don't have to learn a new pathway to and from the restrooms. Outside of artists Will Allison and Eddie Perkins and staffers Matt High and myself, I have no confirmation of who else will be at our booth. This year is totally random and totally strange.

I am so frazzled regarding the con this year, but I know once I get there, I'll go right into con mode and everything will happen according to plan. It will be nice to get away from the mold-pit that San Antonio has become- I am absolutely sick of the endless rain we've been having since April, and my allergies are sick to death of the mold.

Artists: if you are hoping to pick up contributor copies at the con, if it's at all possible, Sunday will be the best day for this. We weren't able to ship out extras of a lot of stuff due to space/expense constraints and since I'm under such huge deadline pressures right now, I wasn't able to do my usual planning ahead to ship extras of specific titles for specific people. -_-;

Now, since we're still behind on many books and other freelance deadlines, I am going back to work. And I still have to do laundry and pack and re-bleach my hair and get a haircut, too! Not enough hours in the day...

Since once again it is tax time, which means we are painfully strapped for cash due to that crazy "having to pay the government" thing that happens every year, I have a bunch of new auctions up!

On eBay:
--many lots of Magic: The Gathering cards
--Tales of Legendia art book
--lots of old Antarctic Press comics, including Dodekain, Hurricane Girls, Gojin, Hepcats, MangaZine, Ninja High School, Mighty Tiny, and Robotech
--lots of old Image comics, including The Maxx, Codename Strykeforce, Blue, Witchblade and more
--lots of odd issues of furry and manga comics, including Bill the Bull, Gunsmith Cats, Oh My Goddess, Orion, and more
--lots of various superhero comics, including odd issues of Black Widow, Elektra and more
--Japanese fashion magazines
--a copy of the now very rare Project A-Komic from Project A-Kon in 1995!

All these fabulous items can be seen here:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfrtsZ0Q.....assZsilverjain

On FurBid:
--various issues of Genus
--various issues of Milk
--issues of Dangerous and Filthy Animals
--issues of Havoc Inc, Furrlough, Eye of Mongombo and Albedo!

All of these items can be seen here:
https://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/vsoa.pl?seller=Kemonogrrl&usernum=3880&pb=50

Thanks so much for looking! Every little bit helps!

In other news, we got the forum up and working at sinfactorycomix.com- the forum is on the outside of the pay area and is totally free. It's just a fun area for people who enjoy the more adults only oriented works to hang out! You can check it out here: http://www.sinfactorycomix.com/forum/

After months of coding, bug fixing, scanning and preparations, the newest Radio Comix/Sin Factory venture is live and on the air!

SinFactoryComix.com has launched! For years, we've seen our print comics scanned and pirated on unscrupulous pay sites, so we have finally launched our own pay site to be the official home of Sin Factory comics on the web! Now the hard work of our talented artists can be rewarded.

Contributors to the new site include Shon Howell, JK Blacklin (Nureruru), and Gan Metaru. We plan to add more artists and more stories from our archives as time goes on- including many that are completely out of print and unavailable! Many will also debut online in full color, something we were unable to do in print comics due to the prohibitive cost of producing color comic books. We also have some brand new exclusive projects in the works from these fine creators, both in the form of all-new stories and all-new color illustrations!

Pricing is a reasonable $14.95 per month recurring charge, which can be cancelled at any time. We also have a three-month and six-month plan, both of which give extra savings!

You can check out the new site at http://www.sinfactorycomix.com -but please be careful, it is definitely NOT safe for work!

--Elin

I can't believe time is going so fast, we've been completely swamped around here! But here's a little update about what has been going on.

We had a fantastic showing at Further Confusion in San Jose, California in January. It was great to meet so many fans and artists, and we sold a lot of comics! (Which is good, because there was a printing bill and a tax bill due right when we got back!) Unfortunately, it was a con of plague, and every single one of us back here at the Radio Ranchero got horribly ill after the con. (Including people who *didn't* go, like Tabby and Pat!) So, we've been scrambling ever since to catch up.

We've got four books at the printers in the middle of the printing process:
--Furrlough #167, featuring a snowy cover by Sara Palmer, and interior stories by David Davis, Mickmo, David Goodman, and Chris "Kelvin the Lion" Farrington!
--Furrlough #168 (yes, two Furrloughs at once!), featuring a lovely cover by Diana Harlan-Stein, and interior stories by Phil "Poinko" Gibson, David Davis, Micko and David Goodman!
--Genus #81 (adults only), featuring a gorgeous cover by Heather Bruton, and interior stories and art by Phil "Poinko" Gibson, ReDaDillio, Enterpraiz, Kadath and Liquid Mark!
--Milk #57 (adults only), featuring a devilish cover by Pat Duke, and interior stories and art by Shon Howell, Phil "Poinko" Gibson, RSJ, Artassassin and JK Blacklin!

The afore-mentioned books at the printers should be in comic stores in about two to three weeks, depending on how long production at the printers takes.

We're currently working on Furrlough #169 and Genus #82, trying to get caught up on the delays caused by the convention trip, the subsequent illnesses, and just the daily grind of work. We're also working on three new freelance manga projects for DMP, though we aren't allowed to announce the titles yet. So, stay tuned for more information about those!

The other project that's been eating all our time is the creation of our own pay adult site, SinFactoryComix.com! Our comics are constantly being found pirated on other unscrupulous pay sites, so we finally decided that we should have our own official space for the work of our talented creators! We've secured the rights to the works of Shon Howell, JK Blacklin and Gan Metaru to start with, and hope to be adding more stories and artists in the future, as we negotiate for the rights. (At Radio, artists retain 100% ownership and copyright of their works, so they have the final say over whether or not they want their out of print work to appear on our site!) Also, since you can do color for free online, we plan to add color to many of the classic out of print stories as a bonus! There's a temporary version of the site up now, but we hope to go live with it very soon. (No, submissions for the new site are not open- we want to get the darn thing *built* first!) EDIT TO ADD: Holy heck, the site is live now! Whoa!

We've got a ton of new items in the Radio Comix Online Store, such as new value packs of older back issues (a great and cheap way to catch up), Genus Male #6, Milk #56, Furrlough #166, plus a bunch of new items from Eros Comix, NBM Eurotica, Icarus Publishing, BeBeautiful Manga and Another Rabco Disaster! New stuff can be checked out at https://radiocomixstore.com

Back to work for me, there's way too much to do!

--Elin

How odd, I had some notes here in the FurAffinity notes system that I didn't get to answer immediately (since I have very limited time to surf forums/archives, I literally work like 16 hours a day, every day of the week...) and now, they are all completely gone. I have no record of them in my FurAffinity system or control panel at all.

So, if anyone really needs to contact me (esp. about comic-related questions), please use my email! It's gmail, so I have unlimited storage space, and unanswered messages waiting to be answered don't up and vanish on me before I can get to them.

Seriously, USE EMAIL. The private messaging systems both here and on DeviantArt are often broken and I don't get to log in every day here, so there's a good chance that if you have something important to say, I will completely miss it. I'd rather not deal with the problems miscommunication through a wonky system can bring. -_-;

That email again? radiocomix[at]gmail.com
Yes, it gets dozens and dozens of emails a day on it, but the beauty of it is that they are all saved and I can answer them when I get the time to answer them.