I am free from the bottom problems of family pets this morning thank goodness. There may have been corks involved, but I'm not saying. At least it is quiet, bar the rusty shears sound of the resident wattlebird and it is simply unfortunate that he is up a large tree and has wings else he'd be quieter too.
OK. Today I would like to share a dilemma which one day may be experienced by yourself. At the moment I have no paid work. I'm not being idle. I write every day and try out new mediums in illustrating, padding out my portfolio. Next month will be quite busy with courses and work-shops, but at this stage, no paid work to speak of. Several months ago my details were given to a writer who was apparently seeking an illustrator. It was some time before he contacted me and I had put the whole thing into the 'probably not happening' category. He did however eventually contact me and it turns out he is a travel writer, often popping oversea's and thus quite busy. He also has a novel out which I just happened to have given a friend as a gift. So I was suitably impressed with his abilities and I thought my having already bought his only novel (so far) was rather serendipitous. He also very trustingly forwarded me the text for the childrens picture book he had written and explained that he was looking into self-publishing since his work had been rejected after initial interest due to the global financial situation and publishing cuts. So, after a chat he explained he was off overseas again and would be in contact apon his return. I didn't hear from him for several weeks but i used the time to read his novel which I really enjoyed. After more silence from his end (must've had a cork too) I decided to be a bit cheeky and send an e-mail to him to say I had read his novel and enjoyed it, which was all completely true but it gave me a reason to contact him. He replied within hours and explained he had not long been home. Fair enough, he's a travel writer. Anyhow he said he was busy with work for a few weks and would call after that to arrange a face to face chat about the book. In the meantime whilst I was looking for more illustrations to do for my portfolio, I decided to do some from this guys book in case we did meet up. Just some pencil drawings, nothing time consuming, but I had a lot of fun doing them. Now heres the thing, it's been 3 1/2 weeks since I heard from this guy. I would like to show him the illustrations I have done. BUT I don't want to seem like some desperate stalker illustrator. I could just finish the pictures and add them to my portfolio or I could send off some copies to this guy. I have asked a few people their good opinions and have recieved answers from " No, just leave it" to "yes, stalker style is good, it will inspire him to focus on the book." And then there was the middle ground of " Send the pictures but keep your correspondence light". I don't know. I can sense both my ego and pride making comments on this one and it all feels a bit too much like highschool boy angst. I respect the advice given so far but it would have been more bloody convenient if you'd all picked the same sodding answer! What to do?
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