05.15.2006 - Terrence Marks:

Hope you had a nice Mother's Day. Isabel's mother pulled a muscle in her back yesterday. Isabel spent all afternoon and most of the night in the hospital with her mom. There are two dozen pharmacies within a five mile radius. We spent the last three hours trying to find the only one that's open late. It's midnight. Isabel's been on her feet all day. The comics are going to be late. We're sorry that the comic is late, but things like this keep happening to us - I'm going to make a big status update chart for those of you keeping score at home. Isabel's mother is back home, at least. I hope you had a good Mother's Day, and I mean that sincerely.

05.10.2006 - Terrence Marks:

Thank you all very much for your support. As a preamble, to answer your questions - it's type II diabetes, caught in its early stages. So far we're dealing with it through diet and exercise. And we have health insurance.

If you play Maple Story, Isabel and I are on the Bera server. Our characters are ElRavager, Buonaparte, Isabel, Isabelm, and iMarks. Generally level 30-55. If you play send us a message in-game or e-mail me. If there's interest, we want to start a ND Unlimited guild.

Isabel got a MySpace account. I may get one too, eventually. Eventually. And I'm usually on AIM as UnlikeMinerva, at least when I'm at work. So you're welcome to add us as friends as appropriate.

We got an automatic litterbox. About a week ago. We returned it today. I like the idea of an automatic litterbox, in theory. We've got a large enclosure for our cats. Large for cats, that is. We both have to duck when we go inside it - we're taller than the cats, you see. And not having to go in and clean up after the cats late at night was appealing.

In practice though, it just didn't work. It was supposed to put things in a disposable container. The cats promptly chewed holes in the top of the containers, letting the stink out. The waste-gathering process squeezes and breaks up the waste. I'm not going to go into details as far as why that's bad, but trust me. The containers usually ended up with about 50% loose litter and had to be emptied every day. Installing the containers required them to be slid under nine different tabs. It was more difficult and time-consuming than just sifting the litter manually. So we're back to just using a regular litterbox.

05.07.2006 - Isabel Marks:

Last Monday while doing laundry my back went out... I could not move... it took many tears and ten minutes to get my phone off the floor to call Terrence. It was horrible. I was crying, afraid that I would need months of rehabilitation... I remembered the time I had to learn to walk again after having my hips straightened as a young girl. I was genuinely afraid. Terrence came home and helped me to the Emergency Room, which took forever. They gave some a Motrin shot and after an X-Ray it was determined that my two lower bones in my spine were too close together. They gave me some really strong pain killers and Ibuprofen to take. Unfortunately the Ibuprofen did absolutely nothing so I had to take the stronger pain killers that week, causing me to be quite woozy most of the time. It's a good thing I had scripts for ND- otherwise it would not have updated because I could not think straight with the meds (as it was, I could barely sit up in my chair for most of the week without being in extreme pain). I tried to keep the comics going, but for the most part I was bed-ridden (If I was on my back, I had to stay there till Terrence got home to help me up) until my doctor's appointment on Thursday.

When Thursday came I got doubly bad news- turns out I have arthritis in my back AND I have diabetes... which means I now have to turn my entire life upside down... I have to learn how to deal with the pain AND eat three meals a day (I have never been the kind of person who can eat a full meal... I eat small meals throughout the day, something that so far my stomach has rejected.

It's a lot to deal with... I ended up in tears at the doctor's office.

Yesterday was my first day off of the pills and off of bed rest. My back still hurts like crazy but I can clean the house again and work on comics.

And that, my friends, is why the updating schedule was so bad last week. Those of you who have been around the site for a while know I HATE not updating on time and it takes something really big (and unplanned) to cause me not to update. Unfortunately my life since I-CON has been running like some cheesy Spanish Novela (the short of it is I have a lot of dying relatives right now and everyone in my family is one tether from snapping more than they are now... it's not pretty and this is only the half of it).

I'm trying my best, people. But I have a lot on my plate, not counting my comics. If I didn't have the comics, I'd still be losing my mind with stress. Add 15 comics a week plus coloring work... and all I can say is, I'm doing the best I can- cut me some slack... don't donate if you don't like it... just please don't e-mail bitching to me about how you don't like it, because I don't like the comic not updating properly either.

And I want to say thank you to everyone who did donate, especially those who donated this month for showing your faith in me, because I need it right now. We're still a little behind schedule with the daily commentary and wallpapers, but I'm trying to make sure that you get extra special things. As I'm sure you noticed, I put a lot of detail into the wallpapers this month, at least for ND and Spare Parts. The intricate YSIF one is coming up.

05.04.2006 - Terrence Marks:

Isabel aggravated an old back injury on Monday. They gave her some painkillers, so she's not feeling up to comics right now. We've got another doctor's appointment early tomorrow so we can get her fixed. And she'll probably insist on making up the comics, even if I try to talk her out of it. And our cat Buttons appears to be doing well. We got her X-rayed and they didn't find anything unusual.

04.30.2006 - Isabel Marks:

Hi gang...it's time for another funday Monday news update! With actual important news!

First off... we made the goal for the month of May- which means Namir Deiter will update seven days a week, You Say it First updates six and Spare Parts two. Thanks to everyone who donated (especially to one person in particular... I owe you, my friend... I owe you. If I could bake, I'd send you cookies). Bonus content (such as wallpapers and bonus story info) will be up in the next coming days... sorry, the Buttons the kitten issue (which was paid by your loving support- thank you all!! ;__;) threw me for a loop. As for Buttons... she's still not feeling well from all the hydrogen peroxide they gave her. If she's not better by tomorrow night we get to take her to the vet and pray there is a way out of this that won't cost thousands.

We're having a 24-hour sale on May 1st. Discounts on Spare Parts, The Shokora Diaries, Undoubtedly Kawaii, and the Namir Deiter 2005 Yearbook.

Ok, I JUST found out Free Comic Book Day is May 6th. My ever-loving hubby told me it was around October... yeah, we didn't know. After last year I wanted to do something really special and fun for the 2006 version, but it looks like once again I will have to do something really quick and cheesy! Hooray!

Want to know how to get the free comic book day book sent to your home? Unfortunately I don't have the power of free distribution in comic book shops... so you all will have to pay for shipping (boo me if you like).
There are several ways to get the book...

If you donate at least $1.20 (and live in the US or Canada)- you will get one of these books sent to you plus the wallpaper as usual. No fuss, no muss. E-mail me if you live outside of the US for the price... I don't have them on-hand. This is to offset shipping and just a little bit of the production.

If you donate the $10 to get the bonus book for the month- the Free Comic Book day book will be sent free of charge along with it (plus of course your one month account to NamirDeiter.net, home to daily comic commentary, sketch days five days a week, comics two days a week plus oodles of wallpapers!).

If purchase at least one of the books from the ND Unlimited Story in the month of May you will receive the free comic book day book free of charge.

I hope to have the book ready to be shipped no later than the end of May... no earlier than the 6th (sorry... still got to write, draw and make the things). The book will only be available for the month, but will more than likely become web content in a few months from now (but as a bonus incentive to donate and/or pay for your shipping... it'll be a story from an all new series. Ooooohh!). Of course page count is still undecided.

Also, all of April's donation books have been sent! We will work on buttons for donators soon!

Also... an update on Namir Deiter Book 2!

...ok, we have now heard back from all the books editors (yes, my grammar is so horrid that I need more than one) and Terrence is making the changes as I type this. We are also working on getting our ISBN numbers to work for us (which means we might be able to sell the books through Amazon... if we ever get the chance to look into it). I hope to have the book to the printers by the end of the week... which means we are now one week behind schedule. Nuts.

How will this affect pre-orders? I really hope it doesn't... I'm especially worried now because Terrence and myself will be out of town near the end of the month, which may throw a few more wrenches (or monkeys) into the works. I will try my best to leave things in such a way where my relative monkey minions can gets the books shipped to pre-order people while I am away.

04.17.2006 - Terrence Marks:

Yes, you read it right - we're taking pre-orders for Namir Deiter Year 2 - "Summer's Last Hurrah". We'll be taking them on-line only, until May 8th. We're trying to get a handle on how many books to order, so we strongly encourage you to pre-order a copy. That's why all pre-orders include a bonus sketch (of an ND character on the title page of the book) and a minicomic featuring a full-color version of the book's bonus story.

Status: Commentary done. Comics being proofread. Bonus story being colored. Book expected in early June.

04.17.2006 - Terrence Marks:

Now, I've spoken before on con salesmanship. Two years ago at Comic-Con we aggressively handed out flyers. People would walk past our table double-speed, trying not to make eye contact with any of us because they knew we'd make them take one if they slowed down at all. That was unpleasant after about the fourth day.

We took it easy here. It was a lot more pleasant. Peter brought a bowl with little chocolates. That was our "hard sell". If anyone came by and looked interested, we'd offer them one. It worked fairly well. It broke the ice and gave people a chance to start talking to us about our work if they wanted to.

Peter would ask "Do you like comics?" while gesturing to our books.If they said no, I'd ask "Well, do you like science fiction?" while gesturing to his. Some people said "no" to that also; I wondered what they were doing there.

After a while, word was getting around. Someone came up and asked "Is this the table with the free chocolate?".

A few fans came by (Hi, Geoff). A few more sent their friends to pick them up something (Hi, Brendan). A few random walkups. We signed some of the Kevin & Kell books dedicated to us when Bill sent people our way. It was fun.

David Kyle
Peter introduced us to David Kyle. David Kyle was organizing science fiction cons back when they called it "scientifiction". He published the first hardcover books by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Howard. He wrote three Lensman books. He's easy to spot at a science-fiction convention because he wears a red jacket and is in his late 80s.

He's cool. Not "cool for such an old guy". He's cool. He asked how long we were married. Three years, we said.

"How many months? How many days?"

"Today's the twenty-fifth?"

"Yeah"

"Three years, three months, and three days".

"You're putting me on".

"Nope. Jackpot."

The Dinner
There was an awards banquet Saturday night. We didn't get tickets. We weren't aware of it until Peter asked us how many tickets we had. So us, Bill Holbrook, Dressari, and the Prellwitz family headed off to dinner at a local Chinese buffet. I felt bad about taking them away from the banquet for a while until I realized that Peter's children didn't have tickets either and he couldn't've just left them there.

I learned something important about Kevin & Kell from Bill. Kell Dewclaw? In her last name, the stress is on the second syllable as if it were DuClaw. I had always pronounced it with the stress on the first syllable, like "dewdrop".

Bill asked what Lemon Technology actually does. They resell fragrances, generally for industrial use. I wanted it to be a company that did something that would never affect most people. Something that was unglamorous and had a fairly limited market. A company that didn't sell direct to the public. But when your company orders a gallon of pine-scented disinfectant to mop the floors with, the pine scent has to come from somewhere.

Since this was the largest number of You Say it First readers I had assembled to date, I asked if they thought they could tell when Isabel wrote the comic and when I wrote it. I had always wondered about that, how similar our writing styles really are. I think they're fairly different, but since we edit each others' work it probably gets blurry. They said they never thought about it, which means there probably aren't any great differences. One day I may publish a scorecard. The Lounge Guys give you +5 to "Written by Terrence". Or maybe not. I'm never sure about how much of the process to reveal.

George Takei
I was walking through the hotel lobby. A man was looking for his wife. She came into the room and said, "Georgie! There you are!". As I walked away, there was an Asian man in a Planet Hollywood jacket around the corner. He said "I thought I heard somebody calling me".

I said "No, I think it was a different George".

I realized, then, that he was George Takei. We were heading the same direction - I was staying a few doors down from him, I later found out. That meant that I had a whole minute to try to think of something better to say than "George Takei! You are so cool!". Because, well, he's just come back from several hours of that. I couldn't so we walked quietly back to our rooms.

The End. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I did living it.