STORY TIME!

My art uploads on here are on a delay, so this was finished a while ago. It was an idea/image I got in my head late one night and wrote down, thinking I'd NEVER find time to pull it off how I envisioned it (I haven't had the time or mental strength for art lately, at ALL). But one day I was trapped somewhere with nothing to do, so I laid out the sketch, loved it, and made time to finish it. I'm VERY happy with it! ❤

So, some time later, I see a tweet from Daniel Handler that a play he's been working on (Imaginary Comforts) is going to be performed/workshopped a few times somewhere nearby. I'm admittedly kind of new to the "Handler" side of his works, but I start getting it into my head that if I don't go see this play (a thing I've never done), there might be some story of his I'll never get to experience. So I hem and haw about it for a while (I'm a coward, new things scare me lol), and eventually decide that I must go, but I need a friend to go with me. I bother my friend Eneko, and we go to see it on its last night.

The entire time I'm hemming and hawwing, btw, every last one of my friends is insisting that Handler will absolutely be there, "so you better bring a book to get signed". I thought they were all crazy, that if anything he'd be having the play livestreamed to him, but in the end, I did bring a book of his that I love a lot (ATWQ 1), just in case.

Turns out they weren't crazy, and looking back on this I am an idiot, but anyway he was there, and since the venue was very small and calm, I did get to chat with him for a while! It was the first time I'd ever met anyone I've adored to that level, so I did babble and/or fall silent too often, and there are many things I wish I had said/asked, but I did at least nervously say that I had taken up translating novels as a hobby, and that his books (and the books his books recommend/reference) have really helped me figure out how to put my translations into better, more comfortable English, and also...and I both regret and love that I said this...that I have drawn him as a dog.

This baffled him about as much as you'd expect, and it was the kind of thing I regretted saying before it had even fully left my stupid mouth, but I asked if he'd like to see it (how can you not follow it up with that? I mean, come on), and he said he would, "...As long as it's not an obscene dog."*
*Does Lemony Snicket know what a furry is?! Oh dear...

"That is an artfully draped tie" was his response, and it was the Snickettiest shit he could have possibly said so I started laughing and so did he. It was certainly a moment, which is why I do and do not regret it. 😂

BIGGER REGRETS:
-Not telling him I liked the play! If I ever see him again I am rectifying this. Me and my friend talked about it the whole ride home!
-Not telling him I've been reading HIS books in Japanese, too! I had questions about the process of having his own works translated, and little changes/localizations I think he'd have been interested to learn. I know he likes the process of translation (I have read Poison for Breakfast and the part where he said "Translation is noble work" hit me during a time when I was kinda weak mentally and I cried for an hour), so I could have brought him something more interesting and personal than "hurr hurr dog Snicket". 😂

Anyway YEAH so this picture has a story now. I'm glad I found time to start and finish it. I'm glad I went to that play. I'm glad for so many things, this art means a lot to me now! I hope you all like it!

P.S. Some of the books have their titles showing, and I tried to pick ones that the series references, but also "Snow Dog" by Jim Kjelgaard is there, because I like Jim Kjelgaard. Hehe.