Me in 1980, smiling for my kindergarten photo.

Hello! I’m still alive! I unintentionally took a week off from posting, apparently. Sorry about that—I’m still working away on the bathroom, but none of it is particularly interesting (staining the saddle for the doorway, nailing up tongue-and-groove paneling, etc.). Things should be more photogenic by the weekend, when we start painting.

Meanwhile, I’m also really busy with job-stuff, and I’m getting completely bogged down with emails and questions. If you’ve asked me something and haven’t heard back from me, I’m truly sorry. I’m an awful communicator (and excellent procrastinator) in the best of times!

Since a lot of the questions I’ve been asked lately have been related, I think it might make sense to answer some of them here. I tend to get kind of wordy, so getting it all out at once is a good idea.

These are the top 3 questions I plan to answer in exhaustive, potentially boring detail:

1) NEWBURGH? Seriously??!! Why did you move there? Wait, should I move there? And doesn’t the commute make you crazy??

2) Do you read all of the books you design covers for? How does the whole process work? And what do I need to do to become a book cover designer, too?

3) I’m about to buy my own fixer-upper, and I need advice. How did you learn how to do all of this stuff? Do you have a list of resources I might find helpful?

I’ll do my best to answer these questions this week. If there’s anything else (um, within reason) you’re DYING to know, feel free to ask in the comments!