27: The Illusion of Security
3/20/2012
Finished the 2nd title page mask illustration a couple days ago – the ugly one that will probably go with the third book. I see it as representing The Others that invade and displace the Batu from their home.
I’m sending it, along with my other finished artwork, to Uncle Paul to hold onto for me. He said he’d send back photocopies of those few I might need copies of for conceptual references or templates for future artwork.
I sent him “The Shadow of Damu” and “The Song of Alodia” a couple of weeks ago and just got the photocopies he made in yesterday’s mail. I feel a lot better knowing my originals are safely in Paul’s care with working copies here for me. I’ll be sending him everything I write or draw for archiving. Insurance against losing all my work should things go sideways.
Present-Day Reflection
6/21/2026
I realize security is an illusion, but it’s an important one for me when it comes to my Batu work. My life is much more stable these days, and I now keep all my archives here close to home. I have about half of it digitized on multiple thumb drives and hard drives as backup. Nothing on the cloud. Call me an old man, but I don’t trust that and I prefer to keep what’s valuable to me close to home with no dependence on outside technology working. Hence, the redundancy of even my paper archives. Backups for my backups. Allows me to sleep better at night.
