Donna Barr's Blog, page 3

Window Plants 2020

Sweet potato, potato, black tomato.With everybody thinking about growing at least some of their own food, I'm posting photos of my window green house.

If anything makes it, it goes outside in a couple plots. 

The peppers are doing surprisingly well. I think these are from seeds one of my readers sent me.

The sweet potato is the one I used to clip starter sprouts from. 

Sweet potatoes, avocado, and ?

No clue. Fan sent it?The black tomatoes are the continuing generations of tomatoes I rescued from a drie-out plant in a tiny plot at the edge of a small Capitol Hill park.

The avocado won't get much of a life. It's being grown for the leaves, that will be dried and ground for a kind of filé powder. It's related to sassafras.

Next to it is a plant I have no idea about. Another sent in by a reader probably. I'll plant any old thing, labeled or not.

The wild tobacco is mixed with leaves from alder, mint, coltsfoot and raspberry leaves. I have chronic bronchitis. Medicinal smoke helps keep my lungs from tipping into pneumonia.


Sweet potato sprouts, wild tobacco.The aloe is because we have a wood stove, and if you have one of those, you get burnt once in a while. Grabbing a leaf and squeezing the gel onto the burn sure helps.

It's not a lot of gardening. Most of that is masses of kale in the garden. We cook it in everything, for iron and calcium. Marinated overnight, it makes good salad.

It's about all I can grow up here without a real struggle. Slip point has a cold, dry, salty wind all summer, and is too wet the rest of the year.


PeppersHello, fellow brown thumbs in uncooperative environments, everywhere.




North American tobacco





A
Aloe
West window.
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

COVID 19

Hi, everybody!

I know I've got a lot of information about upcoming conventions, but all of them are only possibilities at this point.

Like Emerald City, the folks who run these conventions are responsible people. They're monitoring the situation.

I expect Olympic Collectible Expo to be at least postponed, because it's in the Kitsap Mall, and is much closer to Seattle, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.

There is another event coming up in Port Angeles in early April - that I don't know if I can share yet - and they are monitoring as well.

AnimeKat (the Port Angeles store and nerd central) and OCE on Facebook are the best places to check out what might be happening.

So everybody stay safe, wash your hands, sanitize all surfaces. Let's get through this the best we can.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

San Diego Comic Fest 2020

Pam, me and Ka-BlamThe San Diego Comic Fest is a heck of a show! 
Held at Sheraton at 4 Points in San Diego, it makes about 2000 people very happy. Everything about it is classic comicon.
First up is Pam Jackson, Pop Culture Librarian (She got to make up her own title) at the San Diego State University, at my table in the artists alley.
AND me in my Ka-Blam shirt. They are the best drawn-book floppy printer, and only about a dollar more per issue than '80's prices! High quality, friendly and helpful. You can't go wrong with the Blamster.
Girls can do that.Diana Leto and I ran the "Girls Can't Do That" panel. We were told we had the panel only a week before. There was some scrambling, but we got our art files together, and with my moderator chops and Diana's tech expertise, the panel was fast and furious and funny. Audience member Buzz Dixon told us "this was the best panel" he'd ever attended, and took our picture. Mucho gracias, Buzz!
Mary Fleener did even better with the Underground Panel. Her, me, Roberta Gregory, Trina Robbins, Bruce Simon. QUITE the lineup. Again, well-organized, ran fast. At the end, an audience member threw a wad of cash at Mary and said, "Take everybody to dinner!"
Sketches





That night we hit the Emerald Chinese around the corner from the hotel. The place was full of comicon folks. Drawn book people aren't racist OR stupid. Our table plowed through a mountain of goodies like savage badgers. It was so good!
StinzOf course, folks show up for sketches. I did this little drawing of Stinz in a guy's book. And after 30 years, asked myself why a centaur would need a cane. Fashion, of course!
Colleagues!One of the best reasons for going to SDCF is to meet up with old friends and colleagues. Here we have Roberta Gregory and the Lustigs! 
John is the creator of Last Kiss, an hilarious series based on old romance comics he bought the rights to and provides with smart-alecky word balloons. It's a big hit, and for good reason!
Surf's Up!This year's theme was The Two Rays - Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. 
There were crazy old movie posters all over the big panel room. Thanks to the volunteers who put in so much time making it fabulous!
Here we have Robert, on the surfboard of the RatFink installation. It's built of slats and chicken wire and cloth and spray plastic. 
He also built this party-girl Medusa. Who else feels sorry for the Gorgon? She was just minding her own business when a guy showed up and cut her head off.
The art of war.Robert gives her a Miss Comic Fest banner AND a glass of wine! She's one of the gang, now.
Appropriate headgear.Here's Robert with an absolutely fabulous samurai warrior. A fully home-made costume. Cosplay amazes me.  These people turn out the greatest outfits.
Spider CoolThe guy in the samurai costume makes a different helmet crest for each event. They're plastics - he must be running them off a 3-D printer. I wish I'd asked.
We can't have a comicon this year without the Spiderverse. This cosplayers's outfit matches the carpet! Finally, a starry character from a comic book I should know. Whatever it is, it's grand. It's covered with tiny fairy lights.
That's all I had time to photograph this year - there was so much going on!
If you get a chance, head to the SDCF. It's worth it. 
See you next year!



















The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

ShortRun 2019 Powerhouse

I can only share one photo because I simply didn't have time to take any more!
Bruce Simon and Me - I told him all
about Ka-Blam, the best floppy printers
for the best prices.Never in all my years going to hundreds of conventions has the floor been hotter. 4,000 people crowded into the Fisher Pavilion in the Seattle Center, and they were there to BUY. They wanted books, tshirts, facetime - they were in the moment, and ready to party. Thank Goodness my Square reader was working!
The photo is of Hoo-Hah publisher Bruce Simon, who offered, among other books, a truly well-done collection of the classic Out Our Way cartoons from the 1930's. We got on so well we've shaken hands on sharing a table next year, if ShortRun will have us both back! 
I told him he MUST submit the Out Our Way books to the Pulitzers this year, in the publisher category. The books meet all their criteria, especially being a very well-done collection of a wonderful American series.
He came up from Berkeley, and was unprepared in a number of the business points of running a table at a show, because - according to him - the comics scene in San Francisco is badly faded. 
I told him to run right over to this site and look up the Clallam Bay Comicon and start the process of running his own one-person minicon. The secret to this is, after about seven years of what is really quite easily organized, somebody else will want to take it over and expand it, as happened with the CBCC, which has morphed into the Forks RainCon. 
So, anybody in Berkeley or environs who wants to help out, look up the book on Amazon,* where there's always a contact email block.
*(I'm sorry for that - so many of us put our books on Amazon before it went asshole).
I missed the afterparty again because I was just so exhausted. I have a lung infection, and am on antibiotics. So I can't drink anyway! I should have just made up my mind to Uber* home, but I'd only used Uber once, and my brain was fried from the intense show. 
**(AND I will have to transfer to Lyft, because Uber's CEO is calling the murder of a journalist by his Saudi shareholders a "mistake." We know what Friends' Rachel had to say about mistakes. Which is sad, because I really like Uber.)
I did make it to the Fantagraphics afterparty Sunday evening, which featured an interesting music/animation from Berlin.
Sunday, there were two great ShortRun events downtown and on Capitol Hill, featuring Shortrun authors. And did I just pick up an opportunity to talk at the University of Washington? We'll see.
ANYWAY, I was dreading the bus ride back home on Monday, but not because it was a bus ride- Clallam County Busses are fabulous - but because it was Veteran's Day (Properly called Armistice Day, before America got mad about losing the Korean War), and rural areas get stupid. 
BUT - it turned into an opportunity to POSSIBLY start the gay pride festival in Port Angeles. I can't share how, because it's Somebody Else's Story.
But I can share how I walked by the old vets selling vet stuff in front of the Safeway and said, "We're going to try to have a gay pride parade in Port Angeles." 
Their answer? "All RIGHT!"
I will certainly be back to ShortRun next year, especially if I can run at least a quarter table. That's a privilege.  The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

NFReads Interview With Me

Originally, said, "No politics, no religion," but that would leave me right out! So Tony added my foreword, and everything's kopacetic. 
As you can see, I don't think much about the process of creativity: I just do it. 
NFReads interview with me.


The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Opttacon 2019 - 3 Drawn Book tables!

(Photos with my new smartphone; it doesn't take as good a picture as the IPod - my apologies).  My Ka-Blam tshirt at another show!
Always go to them for well-priced floppies.
Opttacon is over for another year, and I'm already planning for next year. As a Drawn Book author, I have some good news. This year there were THREE drawn book tables.
Gaming runs late at night, as an entertainment venue. Comics run during the day as a trade show. Opttacon seems to be making it work. 
My table.

The Entire Dreamery
Last year, it was Roberta Gregory and I at one table. And next year, I'm very honored to have been asked to design the tshirt, so I'm in for 2020. 

No, it's not making a lot of money for comics people yet - but that will come.
Steve Strout found this nearly pristine collection of The Dreamery on ebay, and dropped it on my table. What a lovely surprise. I will make sure it goes to the San Diego State Special Collections.

Anime Kat, one of the sponsors!









The Opttacon table.














The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

If Your Fans Are Happy...

San Diego Comicon. My publisher and I open a box of books we'd received just in time for the show. Because our printer was always perfect and pristine, this is the ONE time we didn't ask for a proof copy, in order to make the show deadline.
This was in the days of paper layout. We literally waxed certain elements into place. As we pulled the first copy of the book from the box, we saw – the waxed title logo had fallen off the front cover, and the book had been printed without its title. It had shipped all over the world AND IT HAD NO TITLE.
This was a Desert Peach issue dealing with rape in the military. The cover art I had done was graphic and frightening. Staring in horror at the book with no name, we looked up to see the first approaching fan. With a copy of this book in his hand. We braced ourselves. The fan lifted the book, and said, in awe:
“This is so profound. You let Donna's artwork speak for itself.”
While I was still standing there with my eyeballs and tongue stuck in place, my editor responded – cool as a copperhead:
“Yes, it was a difficult artistic decision, but I trust Donna in her vision.”
I jumped right in and pretended along with him. I am still in awe of his quick thinking and outright gall.
Do I have to tell anyone my publisher – as a child in Texas – went to cotillion?
What we learned: if the fans think whatever you do is wonderful, agree with them. It doesn't matter if you've made a mistake. If they're happy, say Thank You and pretend you meant to do that.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Comicon Eats Recommendation

If you make it out to any of the Peninsula Cons, be sure to drive a few miles to the West on Highway 112, and see if these folks have their stand set up. They usually do, in the summer. Check the bottom of the page for their dates and places. They're a happy little independent business who will be happy to see any of you. Their email post is long, but amusing. And their products are YUMMY.

We ARE rolling! Our bake day was TOTALLY successful in all ways ... EVERYTHING turned out beautifully. A more beautiful thing ... and SUCH HELP! ... we finished moving family out here this week, too, making all this possible, and a 3rd generation in training. :)
Reminder:  ALL the bread products are AUTHENTIC sourdough, therefore enzyme rich AND the GLUTEN, PHYTATES, & ENZYME INHIBITORS have been BROKEN DOWN and NEUTRALIZED for easy, human digestion, due to the LONG FERMENTATION PROCESS (most with gluten intolerance can eat this bread) ... AND the fermentation process converts bread into a high protein food, not high carbohydrate. In the Human Longevity film, centurions from Europe said wouldn't think of eating a meal without bread ... bread is their staple ... but it's sourdough, and they don't use glyphosates (RoundUp that "bind proteins") in Europe ... other countries do not have gut issues like Americans do eating bread, and bread is a STAPLE, EATEN WITH EVERY MEAL (sourdough) ... nor do Americans who visit Europe, but Europeans can't come to America and eat our bread (except ours), or they're sick their whole vacation.
AND super important, ALL ingredients are non-GMO, plus authentic sourdough has a LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX of 53, pumpernickel even low of 43 ... conventional bread has a high glycemic index of over 73.
Here's the lineup:
Regular authentic sourdough bread (GOLDEN breads, with turmeric, ginger & pepper, which synergistically work together, are listed below this).
White (many call it "sourdough", but all bread products are sourdough), our MOST POPULAR,Jalapeno/cheddar cheese bread (another super POPULAR bread), Multigrain whole wheat bread (veryhealthy & hearty, fresh-ground org. wheat, fresh-ground FLAX SEEDS which sooooooo good for you, millet, oats, sesame seeds), White (lighter) multigrain whole wheat ... a lighter half & half mix bread (more white flour in the multi-grain whole wheat), Pumpernickel (we also fresh-grind org. rye "berries" into flour, and rye is the best for clean arteries,AND it's made with raw cacao powder, considered a "superfood, onion & garlic), Triple berry "bead pie", Apple "bread pie," Peach "bread pie,", Cinnamon Roll Bread with walnuts and raisins, "Bread pie" individual serving, is back ... Apple, and Triple berry.
GOLDEN (turmeric)* sourdough breads: 
White, Multigrain whole wheat, and Pumpernickel.
"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."  
If you don't care for the taste of GOLDEN sourdough breads, make French toast, meatloaf, various sandwiches, egg, tuna, peanut butter & jam, etc etc etc. to hide the taste ... surprisingly delicious ... pumpernickel is already so flavorful, it also hides the taste very well ... but once you get used to it, it's not noticed anymore, even with small kids, just like when we get used to sourdough. My husband HAS To HAVE 2 SLICES first thing in the morning (he loves toast) or  physically hurts too bad to move (super bad back) ... I eat it daily for preventative reasons, one slice does it for me. 
MAINTENANCE daily dose recommendations of TURMERIC is 1,000-3,000 mg, which can be taken daily for a lifetime (remember, "You can take up to 12,000 mg (12 grams) of turmeric per day w/o side effects for curative issues (conservative side says 8 grams)." For CURATIVE, THERAPEUTIC DOSE - required when we have some issues ... for example cancer patients needing quick action, or say, suffering with arthritis pain and you take large dosages ... it acts like a strong painkiller and helps you.  This can go on for some time, but then cut back to preventive dosage as soon as the body is back in shape (see my previous newsletters)
There are 17 slices of bread in a loaf, one slice equivalent to approximately 1,000 mg. of turmeric, though having more power and assimilation than taking it any other way because of the FERMENTATION PROCESS, the predigested sourdough process it's been through. Add butter (or coconut oil for butter), and it assimilates even more. Usually turmeric needs a "carrier oil", too. I don't know if it does when fermented (in sourdough), but we "butter" everything (usually with coconut oil, flax seed oil, pasture fed butter, olive oil ... healthy fats), because we don't get enough "good fat" in the usual American diet.
COOKIES:  ginger, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, chocolate chip, & oatmeal raisin. 
BROWNIES: This (butter) & Jalapeno/cheddar cheese bread is the only product we have that HAS DAIRYin it.  Everything else we use ORGANIC PALM FRUIT SHORTENING. Brownies and cookies are the only things we use eggs in.
PIE ... our pie crust is made with organic palm fruit shortening, unbleached pastry flour & sea salt
9" & "pie pockets" ... triple berry (Marionberry blackberry, raspberry, blueberry), Marionberry blackberry,and apple.
"Stogies" plain AND with WALNUTS ... made out of our pie crust, which is made with organic palm fruit shortening ... like grandma used to do with left over pie dough, roll out, sprinkle with organic evaporated cane sugar & cinnamon ... but we roll them up like cigars then bake them, so they're easy to handle.
Look for the hot pink signs!! ... We'll be...BEing here... with our "bread wagons":
FRIDAY:  Port Angeles, between Mt. Pleasant IGS & Dave Barnier Auto, about 2950 Hwy. 101, east of PA, 11:00 - 5:00 (Friday only in PA.)FRIDAY : Hwy. 112 pull-off, halfway between PA & Joyce, mp 57, 10:30 - 6:00ishSATURDAY: Hwy. 112 pull-off again, halfway between PA & Joyce, mp 57 or so, 10:00 - 2:00ish ... he has to leave earlier this week. 
♥In Light*Joy*Love*Gratitude♥"the bread lady"
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Comic Book Swap Meet 2019

Steve Strout, justly proud.Once again, Steve Strout, the fearless leader of the Comic Book Swap Meets, has put on a great show.
It took place in the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum. It attracted a Nerdom hungry to see and share everything we had to offer.
Let me back up a bit. It started for me when I drove to Port Angeles for an errands Friday - driver's license renewal, get my nose stud changed from the healer hook to the little sparkly jewel, get parts for the guitars and ukulele from Peninsula Music (friendly, well-stocked, PATIENT). Then I stayed overnight at Toadlily Hostel in town. 
Brew and Candy!After getting some more errands done, I strolled down to the New Moon Cafe to try out their home brews. Specifically to conduct an experiment. Remember when "experts" said wine and chocolate didn't go tegether? I decided what I could pair up with beer that "didn't go." So I dropped in to the candy shop down by Anime Kat Comics and Games and picked up a few samples. 
Let me tell you, Marionberry and dark chocolate sticks are lovely with ginger 6% cider, and Licorice All Sorts are even better. I didn't get any Boston Baked Beans because the candy shop folks and I decided those would already be a hit with beer.
My table and me in my Ka-Blam tshirt - the BEST
print-on-demand floppy printer with
prices comparable to the 80's!There I met a gentleman from the Caribbean, named Alex, and as the sun set and the moon rose, we became the core of a porch party. Silliness reigned.
Next morning, got up early, made coffee for everybody, and was on my way. Took me about an hour to get there. It's a big State, and the Peninsula is the size of some States.
Steve squeezed me in - on a table just RIGHT for me! The Peninsula gots prop skilz!

See the Tardis? THERE ARE MASQUERADE PLANS. Opttacon won the use of it. Be prepared!
Of course there was a charity auction and food bank collection. No comicon is complete without charitable work. I didn't win anything, but lots of happy people did! Some folks bought a bunch of tickets and then didn't show up for the drawing - just to donate. 

Charity auction - comicons doing good.I hit every table saying POSE FOR THE BLOG - and didn't they just?

And then I took a "shortcut" home, and ended up on Egg and I Road and wandering around until I found a tourist couple with a GPS. Just because I know the West End of the Peninsula doesn't mean I know the East.
























The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Clallam Bay Drink and Draw

At Raincon, it was suggested we start holding Drink and Draws - the comics industry traditional meetings where we - well - drink and draw.
I'm the only one showed up for this first one, but the bar patrons were very supportive and interested. They were playing good, bluesy music on the big modern electronic thing that was too techy to be called a juke box. But I'll call it a juke box for want of a better name.
I had a pounder of the beautiful Pacific Pineapple cider, and finished this page.
Will putting up announcements on reader boards, and community announcements in local papers, every month.
Since I was the first attendee, I get to say when and where.
Every third Sunday of each month, 7:00 pm to 9ish, at the Clallam Bay Inn. No fee - just chip in for beer or whatever you want. If you want an APA - amateur press association minis - chuck in a few dollars for copies and layout.
If you're in the APA, I'm making sure an extra copy goes to the San Diego State University Love Library Special Collections. A place to store issues - and academic cred.
Clallam Bay Inn has also brought back waffle fries, by popular demand.
Tip your barkeepThe Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...