I hate doing this, but I may have to put BPD on a temporary hiatus, starting next week.
About a month ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s now the 3rd of the 4 female siblings in her family who has had it, one of whom died from it when I was in 6th grade, so my mother was understandably very upset and terrified at the diagnosis. At the beginning, what seemed to be a very small, barely detectable lump (she insisted on getting retested when the first one determined she was “abnormal, but fine”) has lead to, now, testing positive for cancer in both breasts. She’s having a double mastectomy on the 16th, which is the first day of the Furry Weekend Atlanta convention which I will be attending. I just got off the phone with her, and she was understandably upset that I wasn’t able to be there with her during her immediate recovery. Now I feel like the biggest asshole in the world, even though I made these plans long before I knew she even had cancer. I fly back on the 21st, and will be with her from there for as long as she needs me during her recovery, whether that’s a couple days or a few weeks.
Now you guys know why i’ve REALLY been stressed out for the last month or so. I was reluctant to even say anything, but I feel like I have to explain and be honest as to why I need to take time off from doing BPD for a while. It’s extremely hard to be funny and clever when your under this kind of emotional stress, and right now it’s more important to me to help my mom out as soon as I can, rather than jump immediately back into drawing comics. My mom needs me right now, and if it wasn’t for Atlanta, I’d be with her the day before till whenever she’s back to 100%.
I don’t know how long the hiatus will be. I’m hoping my mother will recover quickly, but I don’t want to rush back to Philly earlier than I should just to get back to work. But I will try to give you guys an update and let you know when normal updates will resume.
For those of you who are artistically inclined and want to contribute fan art or guest strips to fill the gap, feel free to e-mail them to LizardbethArt@gmail.com. The only limitations is that they be at most 800 pixels wide, and make sure any fonts are easily legible (I had a few complaints about past guest strips begin hard to read.) I won’t be more restrictive than that, as this is a favor I’m asking and don’t want to be too demanding. But if you’re feeling helpful, I would appreciate it.
Thank you for your understanding, guys. Again, I don’t come to this decision easily, but hope you can appreciate why I need to do this. I love my Mom, and right now making sure she recovers is more important than anything else.
I am so unbelievably excited and relieved. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who contributed to the pledge drive!