KIRKLAND CARTOONIST Jodie Masiwchuk says creating her strips is like drawing stand-up comedy on paper – “You’re basically a comedian.” The 39-year-old Finn Hill resident is witty indeed, and some of her cartoons will make you bust a gut. But breaking into her chosen genre is so hard these days it’s not funny.

“It’s really difficult,” she says while talking so passionately she ignores her salmon salad at a downtown restaurant. “Because newspapers are dying, it’s so, so hard to break into the business. I’m determined that there is an outlet for this.

“I say, put it wherever you can: in print, the Web, entrepreneurship, a book.”

She already has put her creation “Suburban Sarah” – Sarah is Masiwchuk’s middle name -- on her website. She has put it in a book, “Never Underestimate the Power of a Bouquet of Dandelions.”

And she has put it on Facebook, where 1,600 "Suburban Sarah" group members watch weekly as her protagonist finds humor is the angst of everyday life: babies and child-rearing, husbands and relationships, dieting and exercise, dogs and cats, ugly shoes that improve your posture and stuffed animals that shoot candy out their backsides.

“It’s just really everyday life, day-to-day living,” she says. “As long as they keep coming, I’ll keep writing them. It’s kind of my therapy too.”

Now she’s earning hundreds of votes -- "Suburban Sarah" is among the top strip of those by 120 cartoonists in an online contest by TheCartoonistStudio.com. The cartoonists submit one strip each week for 10 straight weeks, and friends, followers, colleagues or anyone can vote on their favorites. The winner receives a five-year development contract with Creator’s Syndicate, a syndication agency for cartoonists, columnists and commentators.

“It’s consistently been in the top 10, and I hope to maintain that,” she says. “They’re using the votes as a tool to judge marketability, but the contest is based on skill and talent.”

Masiwchuk – pronounced MASSA-chuk – hopes it will lead to syndication and broader success for "Suburban Sarah."

“Even if I don’t win this contest, I’m not going to let it define me or get me down,” she says. “I’m proud of it. I think the strips are funny. I feel like they are my contribution to the world. They make me happy. They do no good sitting in a drawer.”

Masiwchuk grew up in the Midwest and went to the University of Michigan to become a writer, studying English, art history and linguistics.

She describes herself as an average high school kid, neither a cheerleader nor popular. “I was a late bloomer, very shy,” she says. “I played tennis -- still love playing tennis. I had my own group of friends.”

PEOPLE DID appreciate her sense of humor.

“Growing up everybody told me I was funny and should be a comedian. I really enjoy watching stand-up comedy.”

She discovered that writing was not her primary mission in life and became a graphic artist. She also got married and moved west with her husband.

“I feel at home here. I feel like I really found my place here,” she says. “I love Seattle. I love Kirkland.”

She took a break from work when she became pregnant unexpectedly -– “a surprise pregnancy – hello!” -- she says, and tried then to become a cartoonist.

“I couldn’t do it. I was sleep-deprived.”

When her son, now 9, started school, she taught herself to draw and found a focus combining words and art in a way that makes people smile.

“There’s so much crap in this world,” she says. “If I can give somebody a laugh for eight or nine seconds of the day, that’s what I was meant to do.”

Some of the appeal to "Suburban Sarah," no doubt, is that it is about things most people can relate to – be sure to check out two of her strips in the gallery here. Masiwchuk gets messages on Facebook from people on the other side of the planet.

“It surprised me. I had a woman from India friend me and say things like, ‘You would not believe this. We have the same life!’ ”

She says her husband, Jeff, and son, Jeremy, have been completely supportive, despite often serving as the foils in her strips.

“I always try to be courteous of my characters. It’s always done in good fun. It would be really easy to complain, but the world has had enough of that.”

She would love to land a syndication contract and make some serious money with Suburban Sarah, but knows what a challenge that is. Only 6 percent of the cartoonists in syndication are women, she says, although cartoonists in general tend to be extremely supportive of other cartoonists.

Come what may, you get the sense that she won’t give up any time soon.

“When you believe in something and have something you love and enjoy, it’s hard not to be persistent. You only live once.”