My Surgery

My cancer surgery of last week went well. The surgeon, Mark Singer, is a very preeminent, highly skilled guy who also is a very good-humored and reassuring--not that common a combination, I'm told and I believe it.

It's a good thing this is basically happening between  semesters. I look scary now and my voice is shot. But the body, even the post-middle-age body, is an incredible thing.

I want to thank everybody who shook my hand or sent me an encouraging message through email or Facebook.  There's never any need to feel called upon to say something special in such a case; I can tell you every expression of good wishes is gratefully banked and adds to the strength I can bring to bear in the situation.

(But when a friend quoted a line from an old Simpsons episode to me, "Chicks dig scars," that was kind of extra bonus special. :)  )

JH

Thanks, you guys

Thanks to you guys (and other friends and family), I feel I'm floating into surgery tomorrow on a tide of goodwill.  That has got to help my chances (which I believe are pretty good)! Thanks so much for the words of encouragement, handshakes, prayers and positivity, you guys. I was happily stunned by the origami good-luck token you Tuesday folks made with Keiko. That was deeply touching--I thought I was gonna lose it for a second.

JH

For the Children's Book Illustrators among You.

Now the mere thought of someone telling me my drawings didn't capture the special magic of her stinky basset hound would make me murderous, so I guess I couldn't be a children's book artist for hire. But you may enjoy this story of the process of making one children's book.

My friend says this woman's site, which is mostly about recipes I guess, has a million dollars in sales a year and she is a bestselling cookbook author... Which may help explain how she got a contract for the book before she'd even written it.

JH

For Final Fisheye Fans

For any of you who might like to incorporate fisheye into your finals, here is a link to my other blog, where you will find the grids you need.
JH