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1/18/2008... Annual Report 2007 My annual reports are nothing big. I just like to look back on the year and then forward to try to plan what will happen in the coming twelve months. 2007 was actually a very tenacious year for me. I attended a Media Bistro PR get-together at a bar in Portland, created a series of beer labels (see 7/16/07 entry below), wrote a second Pippin story, wrote more of my Dream Thief fantasy, and attended the Willamette Writer's Conference. I stayed active with Kumoricon, by running their street team outreach program (including having a booth at the Portland Chinese New Year and Evergreen University's Chibi Chibi Con), and live charity auction. I also attended SakuraCon in Seattle (also toured the Seattle underground!). I made a batch of soap for Christmas presents and also spent a good amount of time between Nov. and Jan. sewing these little guys. I visited a goat farm, bought Goatmaiden.com, went wireless with my laptop and got a new cell phone. In other sections of my life, I attended a Keane concert, a Snow Patrol concert, and a rodeo, helped a few friends move, lived through the Portland snow storm and I saw this movie - twice! Duckie and I got a Wii, and visited Wisconsin Dells for a miniature golf outing in April. I started working as a real employee at my day job (not a temp;) in March. I lost my grandma and an uncle this year, I served as maid of honor for my sister's wedding, got new glasses and a new haircut, saw the Portland Rose Parade and visited the International Rose Test Garden. Duckie turned 30, his brother got married, and we spent our first Christmas together. Looking forward through the misty haze, I am hoping actually for calmer times ahead, but I don't think they are here yet. So I'll keep my coffee close at hand, keep working out, and keep dreaming in hopes that the illusion of relaxation may one day become a reality. As long as I can relax 15% of the time, I think I'll be happy. 35% is verging on sloth. Plans for 2008 include redoing this website and Goatmaiden.com with a counter, contact form, search capabilities, and maybe a store. I will look more closely at self publishing Mermaid Money and focus on possibilities for freelancing. I would like to have "focus" as my goal this year, as well as "production." I am distancing myself from Kumoricon and will probably just serve as Industry Manager (which is still a large and complex job.)
S.W.O.T.
1/14/2008... Happy New Year 2008! Updated Belle The Cat blog - more updates filling in the Christmas-to-New Year gap are coming. Added another cheese review and some random fun Goat stuff to Goatmaiden.com . I am making it a goal to update Goatmaiden.com at least two times per week. BTC blog will probably be on less of a schedule since I update it when I have stuff to say, but I should say I am trying to update at least once a week, prob. on Mondays. I am working on my BTC productions annual report (2007 was a slow year; 2008 will be more dynamic). I hope to refresh this site using Nvu, a Dreamweaver-like web page creator (also called a what you see is what you get program, or wysiwyg.) I attended my first anime convention of the year - Ohayocon - and will be updating my cosplay.com account with pics (you can also find a link on my links page). There is a link to my MySpace there as well.
11/17/2007... Late Fall Update: G O A T M A I D E N .COM in beta form Go Here! And Here! And, for some brand new stuff, you can actually get here by going here. Goatmaiden.com will eventually be my repository for all research and information that may some day lead me to own a goat farm, or at least keep me entertained for the time being. I am just starting to upload reviews and essays to Goatmaiden.com, and hope to soon include goat events, top tens, nominations for exhibits for the Goat Museum and recommendations for the Goat Hall of Fame.
09/12/2007... Late Summer Update These things come in waves. I am not good at "a little bit each day" blogging. Instead, it's more like a tsunami of updates all at once - upload to MySpace! Blogspot! Belle the Cat! Woosh! So be sure to check it all out. The long and the short of the updates is: Writer's Conference = Good, Kumoricon = Great success!, Summer movies = eh. (Except for "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake" = YARG!)
07/16/2007... Back to Reality I have returned having successfully wedded my younger sister off to a tractor salesman. I updated the wedding website (http://bellethecat.com/wedding.html) with links to photos. I am also updating my blog with more stories and choice pics from the 11 day visit to my homeland. Despite being told "no surprises!" by the bride-to-be, my aunt, her boyfriend Tony and I were able to keep a secret from my sister up until the reception. Tony of Brightenridge Farm has, in the past few years, taken up beekeeping and home brewing. These two hobbies combined and he has created a number of different brews. He even entered one of his creations in a local brewing contest and won an award. But the beers had no names, let alone labels. And so, for Norah and Brian's wedding, Tony and my Aunt Jean put their heads together, came up with some catchy names and some "From the Brewer" blurbs and sent them to me. Here, in turn, are the results (which were then printed on bumpersticker paper and stuck to the bottles of brew - click to view labels):
Neck Label Coming up in August is the Willamette Writers Conference here in Portland. I have signed up to go to Sunday's workshops, which include "Writing Fantasy for Young Adults" and "Break Into the Child/YA Magazine Market." I am also planning on attending the Thursday night pitch practice and have signed up for three group pitch sessions. I will be bringing along Pippin Peck, a character I created that is sort of a modern-day Little Orphan Annie, or TinTin-type character. She is an plucky orphan girl who aspires to run a detective agency but always ends up getting caught up in magical adventures (including taking on a little girl ghost as a client, stowing away on a pirate ship, being rescued from the ocean by a merman etc.)
06/16/2007... Early Summer Update Updated blogs. I have been busy with wedding stuff, work stuff, writing stuff. Also planning for the future. Also thinking about diet, exercise, health, volunteering, moral attitudes, family, friends, technology, work, finance, media, freedom, fear, success and boundaries. That's all. Oh, and taking time to pet the cats. Some links to news sources:
CNN Local news:
OH and This
04/28/2007... Spring Update Okay fateful readers, I am managing to wrangle an update about every 3 months here. My cyberlife is actually pretty vast and rather confusing, even to me, and so I am attempting to establish a more central source for my spider-webby existence. You will note a change to the buttons to the left, as well as a much-needed update to the links above. I have truly tried to narrow my focus and my influence and not spread myself too thin over any of the pages and projects I touch. I think some times in this modern world, it's inevitable (and I think it's my predisposed personality to want to do too much for a number of reasons), but to keep myself sane, I also try to know when to say when.
That said, please check out my most recent updates, which include: and.. a very hush-hush secret project taking place HERE!
01/18/2007... Reflection on 2006 Well, the BTC year-end report is done. It started in January with me attending Ohayocon, an anime convention, for the first time, being called to Jury Duty and then moving to Portland Oregon from Cleveland Ohio. I got my first tattoo. I had a Valentine's Day party at which I gave away most of my worldly possessions before moving across the country. I have lived two places since coming to Oregon (Milwaukie and Portland) and had one job. I volunteered at a CSA farm, attended Wordstock and joined the Willamette Writers. I volunteered to run the charity auction for Kumoricon which benefits P:EAR. I explored the Ape Caves on Mt. St. Helens and drove up Mt. Hood. I traveled home to visit family over Forth of July and to Cleveland in October. I and saw a Browns game and I also had a visit from my friend from Minnesota that month. I wrote two issues of my zine Belle Lettres and started writing a monthly newsletter for my sister - the Aisle Report - in the year leading up to her wedding. I visited the Portland Zoo, went to Oaks Amusement Park, and a number of local restaurants, bars, festivals, parties and picnics. I turned 30, wrote a novel-in-a-month, got cable internet for the first time, visited a sheep farm over Christmas vacation and made it through to the end with all those closest to me still alive and healthy! Bring it on 2007!
01/09/2007... Happy New Year!! It's 6:30 a.m. I'm writing again. Find out more on my blog.
12/01/2006... National Novel Writing Month IS OVER! Wow. That was not the easiest thing I ever did in my life, but I was able to pull through it. I didn't finish my novel (as I told one person, it had a begining a middle and an end. But then he goes, so does a sausage) but it was over 50,000 and for now I am happy. * My page
10/31/2006... Final Hours of Freedom I have devoted myself to National Novel Writing Month. I've switched my blog link at left to my novel blog and the participant image is a link to my personal NaNoWritMo page. Wish me luck.
10/25/2006... National Novel Writing Month ...is November, which also happens to be my birthday month. And this year I happen to be turning 30, so it seems to be the perfect time to finish the novel I started when I was 17. The plan is to finish up the Fall 'zine, then devote November to novel-writing and by December, release a portion of the novel in zine form. From there on out, Belle Lettres as I have known it for three years will probably be put to bed, along with Theatre of Cruelty, Morgan's Midnight Zine and all the rest. It has served its purpose: inspiring me to write down the framework of stories I have been putting around in my head in some sort of time frame. Anyway, if you want to know more about the novel-in-a-month thing, the link is below.
9/16/2006...updates Updated links page and blog. Working on the next issue of Belle Lettre. Please submit before the end of September for the fall issue, thanks! 9/12/2006... P:EAR I've had a week to recover now. Beginning last Thursday night, I started working my arse off at Kumoricon, Oregon's only Japanese animation and pop culture festival, located here in Portland. I am working on a short article on my experiences, but in the mean time, you can read about it in the Portland Tribune article posted below. One thing they fail to mention though is the fact that this convention really attempts to give back to its fan community, up to and including the sponsorship of one of the only live charity auctions to be held at an anime convention. It was my duty, as I volunteered for the responsibility earlier this year, to gather, organize and physically run the auction. And I am happy to say, we made $2455 (actually more if you take into account cash donations). This can be compared to approx. $1600 in 2005 - not too shabby! Kumoricon is proud to support p:ear, a Portland based non-profit that aides transitional and homeless youth through art, education, and recreation.
I also volunteered to run the Street Team, a motley crew of other volunteers who were given the task of soliciting donations, ads and vendors as well as dropping off fliers and posters to local bookstores, libraries etc. We even had a web street team, who helped spread the word via LiveJournal and MySpace. Preregistration this year was over 1200, versus around 700 last year. Again, a great feeling to have helped this event become bigger and better! And yes, we are already planning for next year, so feel free to check out the Kumoricon site.
* P:EAR 8/15/2006... Summer Zine Hello! Somehow, and I really hate to admit it, I missed the Portland Zine Symposium! AAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Actually, I ended up going to the amusement park instead, so I was okay. Anyway, here is my summer issue of Belle Lettre. Quickly! Read it before the summer is over!
* "Belle Lettre, Vol. 3, Issue 2" 6/9/2006... Poetry A few of my poems were recently accepted for publication in "Favorite Lakewood Poetry." The book will be available in June (at which time exact pricing and payment options will be announced). At this point all you need to do is RESERVE the number of copies you'd like to buy later. The book will be priced below $20. As new details can be announced, you can see new information posted in the "Favorite Lakewood Poetry" forum thread on LakewoodBuzz.com, here... 5/27/2006... Spring Zine Upload Uploading the Spring issue to the web.
5/24/2006... I'm "featuring"! Hey! I will be reading some very baaaaad writing at the Portland Zine Symposium's "Humiliation Nation!" tomorrow at Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak St., Portland, OR. Yes, I have dug out my very first zine, "Femenazi!" and will be distributing the Spring issue of Belle Lettre. Also, Frank Portman will be reading from "King Dork," his novel. Sounds like fun. Check it out!
* Portland Zine Symposium
5/14/2006 Happy Mother's Day! Updates include: calling me Mudder, activating links above, going to the Milwaukie farmer's market (v.nice - got the makings for soup), and looking at a few houses for rent. Sorry that this is more bloggy stuff, but I haven't been updating it lately. I will after a.) website is done and b.) spring (!) 'zine is out.
Finished links:
Placeholders set: Oh, and my page design is a little different. 5/7/2006... later Oh! It's my sister's birthday, too! And the links at the top don't work quite yet, but they will be up soon. 5/7/2006 Hi! Welcome to the re-launch of my personal website. A short introduction (you can read more by clicking the links at the top of the page) -- my name is Sarah Bartash, and I have always been a writer. All my life I have used writing almost as a sixth sense: I remember things by taking notes, I make thoughts real by jotting them down and I have always naturally turned my ideas into stories and articles. I have also always believed that any dream is achievable. It's deciding what is most important to you, however - what is worth working harder than ever to achieve - that is the difficult part. I have decided that it is important for me to continue to write, for my own sake. The next logical step is to find people who might need me to write for them. I have experience in public relations and marketing for both nonprofit and for profit businesses. I also have written fiction in a number of genres. Feel free to look at the links above, and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions about my services you may have. Also, be sure to check back here often for updates. Thanks for stopping by! 5/6/2006 Testing? One two...... |
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