One reward for my 2016 survey winners was for me to answer any 3 questions about Unearthed Comics. Below is the first round of questions asked of me and Marilyn Earth by Linda:
Q. Does Marilyn Earth like dark chocolate?
A. Too much, in fact. But, Marilyn Earth shares with me (thanks, Marilyn!) and I am very particular. I like organic, dark chocolate with a little sea salt; skip all the other stuff. No milk chocolate, no gross crap from these corporate giants who have ingredients I can’t pronounce; just the basics and usually from some place that is either fair trade or giving back. Makes me feel better about myself as I feel bad about eating too much chocolate. (Side: I am actually looking for a chocolatier who wants to sponsor me and my comics since I consume so much that it is an actual item on my monthly budget).
Q. What does your daughter think of appearing in your comics?
A. Funny because we have a talk about this. She’ll look at my comics and will say, “Is that me?” In reality, I visualize my little girl character as half of the time her and then half of the time my own little girl locked inside this adult body of mine. She actually gets it when I tell her that “no, this time that character is little Sara.” She prefers that it’s her each time, though (she’s 8 so loves the extra attention).
Q. How do you have time to sleep?
A. My clients ask me this all the time. There are two parts:
- Basically because my husband is so awesome. Here’s how we make it work so I get so much done AND sleep: We have a unique relationship and distribution of chores/household duties. I am the front/people person for our web/graphic design business and juggle that with Unearthed Comics, being a mom, working out/climbing/or board sports daily, painting, drumming in our band, etc. He is our programmer and does all the house maintenance and management, plus does all those other fun things with me (i.e. guitarist, climbs, does board sports, etc). He was a stay-at-home dad when our daughter was young and since then, has continued to take charge of so much of the household stuff. I do my part, but this guy rocks! Then, since we work from home, we don’t have commute time, which gives us more time to get things done.
- And the other way we get a ton done is that we’re extremely determined and organized people. We write explicit task lists every single day that include items for our clients and items for our home, comics, house, etc. When we open up a task list, we don’t screw around over-thinking about nor worrying about how to do it, etc. We just do it and get it done. And if he or I don’t know something, we look it up (side: as my friends will tell you, my husband knows so much and is really good at researching the things he doesn’t). I don’t spend a ton of time on social media nor do I socialize everyday. I limit the BS as much as I can and when I can’t, (such as waiting in line places, etc), I bring a notepad and use that time for ideas. And when I’m caffeinated, I do all of this triple time. So in the end, we get super determined, a little caffeinated, and whip through tasks lists so we basically have time to help our daughter with homework, go play outside, and even play music or some video games at night.