Germinating a Business

Why yes, I AM striking out as a freelance illustrator. Officially. As of the month of March. I feel that this would be the most fitting way to start my thirties. I've wanted to start up since graduating college, but never really knew how, and every attempt had been a smashing failure. There are a load of things which have frightened me from becoming a legitimate business of my own. For starters:

• What do I do about taxes?
• How do I handle taxes?!
• Will anyone really hire me?
• What if I strike a bad month?
• What if I can't support myself?
• Do I WANT to be freelance 100%?
• What do I do about insurance?
• What if I get injured or sick? 
• What about a family?
• What about my family?
• OSHA is scary - how do I deal with them?
• Am I going to have time for everything?
• How much is this going to cost me?
• Can I afford to start up?
• Do I have to get a loan?
• How do I determine my budget?

... And many, many, MANY more questions to follow. So there's been a lot of self-doubt. I've thrown all that aside and thought I can't just wish and dream to make it happen. It's time to get to work. So I'm getting a post office box, filing my DBA (Doing Business As) with the NH Secretary of State, and working on my brand as I send out my first batch of postcards. Honestly, what's holding me back today is that I haven't quite settled on my business name - I know it's minor, but it's important to me. 

Kari Chapin's Grow Your Handmade Business has been a helpful tool to get me started. Between this, Holly DeWolf's Breaking Into Freelance Illustration, all literature by Steven Heller, the NH Small Business Development Center, and networking, are helping me get through all the scary parts. As it turns out, there's not so "scary," they're just some things that need to be taken more seriously than others. Chapin's book I grade 4/5 stars.

Establishing my "Minor"

Today I am announcing my first "Minor" in the fifty-fifty challenge: for books, I will be minoring in Catherynne M. Valente. This would be book #2 of her selected works for this year (the first being The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There.) After completing Deathless, I wanted to immediately move onto A Dirge for Prester John collection, but accidentally requested book #2... and now we wait to clear the queue again.

Anyhow, Deathless (and the Fairyland series) have me incredibly fascinated with Velente's writing. Her style is so captivating. The only "flaw" I find is that I have to slow down to absorb the words. Every other sentence is so thought provoking. She's most certainly opened my eyes to a new genre that I've often avoided in the past - fantasy. Though I'm not sure if "Fantasy" is a properly fitted genre, either. (I'm going to say folklore-ish.) The novel here about Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna, is certainly out of my norm of "novel reads". A very different style of fantasy that I imagined. Like The Lion Witch and Wardrobe is slapped with communist politics. 4/5 stars.

Where Humor Meets Drama

Humor meets drama at precisely the Mexican/American boarder. Staring Tommy Lee Jones.

The biggest drawback to The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is the ending. I had hoped for a different ending, but it's rich with hope, nonetheless. This is a very interesting movie which I recommend, but it's not one that I'm going to scramble to see over and over again: 4/5 stars. Please don't ask me to pronounce the title.... I will go on the record now to say I cannot.

A small subtitle warning

... But no worries - there's barely any dialog, so the French shouldn't be so obtrusive.

I view The Fairy about a week ago, and it's really taken me this long to plug a number to the rating. It is cute and funny, as to say if one at The Three Stooges, a sampling of Wes Anderson films, Disney's version of The Little Mermaid, added a dash charming comedy, and then threw it all up. I liked this film, but I didn't adore it as much as I'd hoped. Usually by now, a film of this bizarreness will cling to my mind and make me feel a little better about it. Not so the case here: 3/5.