One of the interesting things emerging from this process is that in drafting the Arabic, I'm not doing a super faithful translation, but rather I find myself making drastic changes along the way. Not just in dialogue or choice of words or sentence structuring, but even in characterization and plot details. Changes that I feel would make for a better story. So much so that once I'm done with the Arabic, I'm likely to go back to the English draft and rewrite it accordingly.

As I begin to build momentum in my approach to PROJECT HOURGLASS, I'm already anticipating the three major disruptions I have in store for me in coming months:

• Kiddo for two weeks.
• Istanbul for a week.
• Dresden for a week.

Other than that, I should be able to dedicate the bulk of the six months that remain to PROJECT HOURGLASS. As far as TSG goes—which has been complete for months now—still no concrete development on that front just yet.

#journal #work #fiction #tnh

So much so that I felt the urge to take a baking break. I hardly ever want to bake.

Cheesecake. Let's see how it turns out.

#journal #work #fiction #tnh

The word “Adeeb” is an interesting one. It comes from the root “adab”, meaning literature, and is used to describe someone whose vocation is literature. But it implies more than the word “writer” (that would be “katib”), which by definition is focused on the doing of writing. It also implies more than “author” (that would be “mo'allif”). It's a far more broad term that evokes a sense of all-encompassing immersion in literature that doesn't quite have an English-language equivalent.

Scooped up a big pile of books from Cairo Book Fair (which was just gloriously insane) some months ago and finally getting around to making my way through them. Partly because I have been away from Arabic-language Egyptian literature for a long time now and realized how much I miss it (and boy is it different from most of what is churned out by the anglophone world), but partly also because PROJECT HOURGLASS will be produced in both English and Arabic and a good greasing of my Arabic-language functions is sorely in order.

#journal #reads #work #tnh

Thought I'd finally found a housekeeper to pop in once a week to assist with cleanup. But that was three Fridays ago, and every time she doesn't show up even though the date and time were of her very own choosing. Similar situation with the plumber who first promised to show up two weeks ago. I've set three different appointments with the mirror place, every time they say they'll call me the day of to confirm and never do. Carpenter too been dragging me on for four weeks now.

Not sure why the need to hound someone to do work for you before they do it even after they promise doing it is such a widespread phenomenon in Cairo. I remember only needing to contact a housekeeper back in Houston just once to agree on the day, time, and fees, and she stuck to the same schedule like clockwork for three years before I had to move (Tidyqueen, if anyone in Houston is reading this and looking).

It's such a tedious energy-sucking thing in Cairo, because on any given day I'm expecting someone to show up, I find it extremely difficult to lock in and really get into the zone of whatever project I have on my table; the anticipation of impending distraction lingering in the back of mind all day.

And some of the stuff that needs tending too isn't superfluous. We've got pipes blocked with weeks full of piss and shit at this point.

Now I know why all my homies have moved into compounds; a virtually non-existent development less than 10 years ago. They tell me whenever anything needs fixin', all they have to do is call a number and help is on the way in less than 24 hours. That's enough of a perk to explain the seemingly unquenchable compound craze that has taken over the country in recent years, but I still can't stand that shit. Nothing spells a seething distaste for “the plebs” quite like a gated “community”.

#journal #work #Cairo

Looks like drawing endless waste and debris is becoming something of an accidental specialty of mine since embarking on THE SOLAR GRID.

The above image is from the concept art for PROJECT ROSEWATER, which I need to wrap up in less than one week. PROJECT REVERSE-EXODUS must also finish around the same time, and a couple days after that I'm due to partake in a public panel discussion in downtown Cairo. This, in addition to all the home renovation stuff. Busy few days.

Should try to squeeze in a break after that before embarking on the 10-month stretch for PROJECT HOURGLASS, during which I'm hoping all the home-reno stuff will be well behind me. 🤞

#journal #work

This puts me in the less-than-ideal position of having to agent the work myself, as I'd like the book to exist out in the wild for readers to discover beyond my limited reach.

I was chatting with members of a grant-giving body a few days ago about another potential book project. One of them said, “So you're writing, drawing, and designing it?” To which I nodded. “Wow, one-man show,” she said.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little tired of this whole one-man show business. The thought of working on the material while other better-positioned folks take care of getting it out there strikes me as very appealing, but it does seem to be insistently elusive for one reason or another.

Today I order chicken and make some soup in an attempt to rid my body of whatever new plague has infected me.

Today's soundtrack is a combination of cafe chatter (played via my phone) and Persian jazz (played via my laptop).

#journal #work #tsg

It's mostly organizational: Editing work categories and adding new ones, and shuffling projects around and fixing metadata, that sort of thing. Not fun, but should hopefully result in a web presence that makes better sense.

I did however come across a couple dusty external hard-drives that hold a treasure trove of olden works, including documentation of the first publication I ever put together: 8x8!

Won't get around to populating the website with most of that old stuff till I'm done with organizing what's already on there first. I reckon I'll probably crash by sunrise and have to make an attempt to recalibrate my body's circadian rhythms once again over the days to come.

#journal #work

6 pages to color and 33 to letter.

Lettering moves pretty quickly, but digital coloring is slow and loathsome. So many hours sat in front of a computer screen which makes me feel like a zombie at the end of each day. Can't wait to be done with this part already.

Started reading Kazuo Ishiguro's NEVER LET ME GO sometime ago, which started interestingly enough but I largely lost interest by the last third of the book and now find myself winding most evening's down with a film instead. This however is also likely due to the above-mentioned zombie status induced by long hours at the computer desk.

Today's screening: LOST HIGHWAY

#journal #work #comix #TSG

Happy to see the fine folks at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco celebrate 10 years of typographic awesomeness. To celebrate, they asked a number of designers to contribute a “1” to use in conjunction with their circular AAAAAAAAA logomark to signify a “10”.

Figured I'd pitch in with the most intuitive “1” in human history, based on a photo of my own hand.

#work #journal

Inking is done.

Tones, touch-ups, and colors where they apply remain before moving onto lettering.

Lords help me.

#TSG #work #comix