Morning comes softly ... and early

Have got to get curtains for the bedroom. There's a big window that faces south, which wasn't a problem during the winter, but now it's starting to get light by four and it's full light by 5 a.m. ... and it's waking me up. This morning I woke up at about 4 a.m. and laid in bed for an hour or so before giving up and getting up to ink RC pages. At least it's a weekend, so when the inevitable crash happens in the afternoon, I can just lay down and sleep for a couple hours.

I should have gone out to watch the sunrise this morning, since from now 'till fall the only times I'm likely to see sunrise are nights like this when I have a bad case of insomnia. The weather page says ... sunrise at 5:45 today, sunset at 9:55. The longer days are accompanied by correspondingly longer twilight periods. (The sun rises and sets very slowly at high latitudes compared to farther south. Sunrise/sunset last a long time before and after the actual event itself.)

In June in Fairbanks, the sun will dip briefly below the horizon after midnight for an hour or two. It won't get dark. Odd what a difference a few hundred miles makes .... Where I grew up, near Anchorage, even in the middle of June we still got a few hours of twilight at night.

There is something very high-energy about summers in Alaska. You go outside at 10 p.m. in the summer, and everyone else is outside too, walking their dogs or jogging or window shopping. A lot of businesses have extended summer hours because a lot of people shop at night. The Midnight Sun Run marathon takes place each year on, or near, the summer solstice at midnight.

Of course, there's a downside as well. Stargazing in Alaska is synonymous with "freezing your ass off". You can't see the stars in the summer. And 4th of July fireworks are nothing to write home about ... you can tell where the fireworks are by the noise they make, but that's about it. ;)

Done. Done. Done.

I just keep saying it to myself. Done. Done. Done. Done. I can't quite wrap my mind around it.

I'm done with Raven's Children.

Granted, there is still work to do. I have to scan, adjust, letter, gray-tone the last 14 pages. I have to paint a cover for the second TPB and typeset the pages, which is going to take a long time. But the last page is inked. I have drawn the last panel that I will draw for a very long time.

I've felt a weird sense of mourning over the last few days as I've inked the last pages. This panel here is the last time I'll draw Ronin. This panel here is the last time I'll do Jained's little white forelock. This is the last time Jemer will be snarky, the last time Coren will be broody.

And I also have a strong suspicion the series isn't really done. This story arc was originally conceived as the "prologue" to a much longer story. That was back when it was supposed to be 3 issues, instead of 13. And it was supposed to take much, much less than 5 years to draw.

As it stands, this is AN ending, but it leaves the door open for so much more. You'll see what I mean when I get the last pages online, which will be in the next week or so.

Expect BIG WHOMPIN' UPDATES. My plan in February was to finish the series by the end of April. And I'm still sticking to that. I'm going to try to have half of the remaining 14 pages online this weekend, and the next half next weekend. I may skimp on the gray tones and add more later, to meet my deadline, but I'm gonna try to do it.

And then it'll *really* be done.

Until the TPB.

Until the next story arc.

Until ... enough, already.

I'm done.

Off to add gray tones.