Lotsa Happenings!

Well, that's how it seems, at least.

No news on the big project as yet.  Just wanted that out there first.  When that happens, I'll let you all know.

I do have some news to share, though.  I've been doing Bolts & Nuts for Project Fanboy for a little more than seven months now.  Weekly, for seven months.  I'd call that something of an accomplishment.  I'm proud of it.

But one of the bombshells that was dropped on me was the fact that I was linked to.  Bolts & Nuts was linked to at Blog@Newsarama, by the managing editor of Oni Press.  Go read it.  He called us eloquent.

That's a bit of a big thing for me.  There are times when I forget that the internet is huge, because I'm just talking to the same people on the sites.  However, when the managing editor of a quality company links to you (and Mark Waid, to be fair), saying that he would have written sooner, but every time he goes to write, he finds another person writing eloquently about it, and links to you, that's something of a big deal.  Will it push the readership up?  Possibly.  Dunno.  Will it get my stories seen by others when the time comes?  Possibly.  Dunno.  Does it make me excited?  Poss--  Heh.  Yes.  I'm still waiting for the day when someone tells me that the information I'm giving is wrong, but it's been eight months, and it hasn't happened yet.  The internet is full of people who are more than ready to tell you you're wrong, but I've only met a few that have said that the material is of quality.

Am I looking for validation?  Sure.  I'm a writer, and writers need that validation to tell them they're worth a damn (or not).  Yes, I'm here to help people, but it's also nice when your peers (or those to whom you'd like to be peers with) say that you're doing good work.  

In his post about the job of an editor, Mark Waid used the phraseology "bolts and nuts."  Now, I purposely named the column Bolts & Nuts because I wanted it to be familiar, yet a little unusual, while still giving title to the overall thrust of the column.  We all know that it's "nuts and bolts" that gets all the play, and I played on that.  Did Mark Waid use that particular phrase in acknowledgement of my column?  I have no idea.  Could I ask him?  Sure.  Would it make a difference?  Not to anyone besides me.  Maybe eventually, when I pitch something to him.

But yes, that link has me jazzed.  I have a link to myself in my signature at Digital Webbing, and a link here to the blog, but Ron Montgomery also has a link to B&N in his signature at DW, telling people to read me.  I found that both unsettling and nice.  Unsettling because it wasn't something I was expecting.  To my mind, in order for someone to put something in their signature, they have to feel strongly about it, therefore, Ron feels strongly about the column to endorse it like that.  

It's humbling, really.  It gives more weight to the responsibility I already feel to make sure that the column is relevant, not to mention continues to come out weekly.  Seven monts is a long time, and I'm still nowhere near out of material.  

I'm also being interviewd by Richard Vasseur of Jazma Online!  This is the first time I've ever been interviewed, and it has me jazzed!  I've really done one other interview, and that was a few years ago.  That was done with Tom Brevoort (yes, that Tom Brevoort), and like this one, it was through e-mail.  However, that was me interviewing him.  This one is all about me, baby!  

But what does this do?  I mean, what happens down the road?  Who's going to want to read about little ol' me?  Honestly, I don't think that I'm that interesting.  I'm a writer, so I live in my head.  How is that intersting?  It's not as if I'm going to be giving any secrets away here, is it?  

I have a story idea!!!  It's about...right.  Like that.  I really do have a story idea (several, in fact), but it needs to be fleshed out first.  I have other things I need to get out, as well.

However, I'm hoping the interview leads somewhere.  What I'd really like is to see Bullet Time completed, and it would be awesome if that were to happen because of it. 

What I'm really hoping for with all of this, though, is increased readership, more interviews, a few editing gigs, and maybe a writing gig, creator owned or not.

Speaking of which, I have another guy who asked me if I'd be interested in playing around in his world.  We're talking story specifics now.  That would be cool.  

FiveTales should also be launching in March.  I have some work cut out for me on that front.  It should be fun, though, and should keep me from getting into too much trouble with taking on other things. 

I'm getting better at lettering, to boot.  That makes me pretty happy, to tell the truth.  I'm learning, and as long as I continue to improve, that's all I can really ask for.  No, I'm not going to get so deep as to start creating my own fonts or things like that.  No logo creation for me.  I'll leave that to the experts.  Just let me write my stories, possibly letter them if it doesn't hurt too much, and I'll be happy with that.

In real life news, Lenora's birthday is coming up.  There's going to be a party for her on Saturday, and I'm trying to take Sunday off.  I have a personal day coming to me, but I have to jump through some hoops in order to take it, which sucks.  It's a use it or lose it type of deal, and I'm not to thrilled about having to jump through a hoop in order to use what was freely given.  It's like saying "Here's a glass of water, but before you drink it, I want you to go move a few dozen tables.  Then you can enjoy your water, free of charge.  You've earned it."  

But, my wife's going to be fifty.  Five zero.  Sure, it's just a number, but still, it's magical.  

And we had our first real semi-argument.  We're getting over it.  It was eggshell walking for a day, but we're getting better.  There was no right or wrong, we don't disagree about things like that.  But after going on six years, for this to be even a semi-argument, I think we're doing pretty well.  No, I don't think the honeymoon is over.  It's only over when you think it's over.  To quote a commercial I found funny in the 90s, "Nothin's over, I just need somethin' to drink!"  (Name that without using the 'net, and you're good!)

Back to comics: I have another potential editing gig or three on the horizon.  Just waiting to hear back now.  We'll see what happens (but at least one of them should be relatively soon).  

And now, up above , is a teaser for Group.  Let me know what you think.

Now, go watch some movies made by Hammer Productions.  You'll be glad you did.

-Steven

Homesick

I was riding alongside Lenora, who was driving, looking at the mountains in front of me, feeling the cool breeze, smelling the oncoming of spring...  And then I had the onset of pangs of homesickness come over me.  

I get homesick a few times a month, it seems like.  I understand that we chose to move here, but Tucson, for all of its barren beauty, is not in my blood.  It's not where I grew up.  I miss the green, I miss the true cold, I miss the wet.  I miss the variation of houses, the variations of people.  I miss the melting pot that is Long Island.

True, I haven't lived there in years, but at least in Virginia, there was greenery and temperature variations.  Maybe not much of a variation of people, but there were all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore.  It wasn't home, but it was close.  

I miss the snow.

I remember driving back up to the base one night.  I was young and tireless at the time, and the trip was only about two hours or so--most of it was getting off of Long Island.  I was down there for the weekend, and it was snowing.  I don't recall the weekend, I don't know which car I was driving, but I rememember being by myself on the road once I started going into the mountains.  Like I said, it was snowing, and the evergreens were thick with it.  My headlights cut the night, and the shadows in the trees were greenish black.  Greenish black, with white highlights because of the snow, and all I wanted to do was to pull over and stare for a while.  That's all.

It was the first time I'd ever truly ached over the beauty of nature.  

There was another time, after I had gotten out of the Marine Corps and after my first wife and I had split, I was walking along with my girlfriend at the time.  Her name was Wendy, and she was a few years older than me.  At least 35 at the time.  One of my mother's friends.  I was about 28 or so.  Anyway, it was winter, and we were walking along, just taking a stroll.  It was starting to warm up, and the snow was melting.  There was some ice along the curb, and water was running beneath it and to the side, doing some erosion of it as it travelled to a nearby drain.  It struck me as very pretty, approaching beauty, just with the look of the gray day and the snow and the ice and the running water.  As we walked, I just quieted down and watched it, lost.  Wendy asked what was wrong, and I told her what I saw.  She saw it too, but had taken it for granted.  She then looked at me again and called me special.  Not many people would see it the way I had.  

I've never thought of myself as special.  Lenora calls me special all the time, and I don't feel it.  I guess no one ever truly feels special.  Not by themselves.  They may know their self-worth, but it takes two to feel special.  It's like being able to tie a knot in a cherry stem with your tongue.  Some can, most can't.  Do you feel special because you can?  What if someone tells you you're special because you can?  Same thing.  

I write, and I notice things.  I think I notice things because I write, and I write because I notice things.  I think they go hand in hand.  I don't feel special because of either "ability."  I can't draw, and I think those that can do it well are amazing.  

So that's me being homesick.

Writing...  You know, I'm kinda proud of myself.  Only a little, mind you.  I'm seven months into writing Bolts & Nuts, without having missed a week yet.  I could have taken a break over the holidays, I could have taken one for my birthday, I could take a week off due to a well deserved vacation--but I haven't.  I think that says something.  Week in and week out for seven months.  I'd call that a minor accomplishment.

Work on Group is coming along nicely, as well.  Sara and I have decided upon a colorist, so we've added that to the mix.  It knocks down my "ready for publication" pages down to three, but we'll be getting there soon enough.  Three weeks worth of material is golden.  I just need to fix a few things before I letter them up.

I've recently come to the decision to do the lettering myself.  It does take some imagination on my end, some working out of certain things, but I think it's worth it.  It gives me more control over my words.  Not that I'm a control freak or anything.  I think I'm less controlling about my words than a lot of writers out there.  That may come from an understanding that every writer needs an editor.  Being an effective self-editor is difficult, but I'm trusting my storytelling instincts to guide me, and then shore up some of the other things later.  Sara is doing an incredible job with the script, and we're coming up to a really powerful sequence soon.  I'm anxious to see what she does with those pages.  I also have to send her some more money for supplies soon.  

I've also recently decided to do a radio show type of podcast out of one of my stories.  I just wonder how time intensive it's going to be.  Knowing me and my standards, probably decently time intensive.  I'm something of a perfectionist, and I know that's going to come into play when it comes to producing this thing.  Not only do I have to write it, I have to find actors for it, rehearse, record, and then add sound effects and music.  Outside of the actual writing of it, I hope I can get to a point where the rest is done in about three hours or less.  One can dream, right?

I think that's really about it.  Work is going well.  Being off probation and actually having the job is a great weight off my shoulders.  If I could sleep for more than four hours at a time on this shift, I'd be good to go.  The summer bid should be a lot better, though.  Instead of going in at midnight, I'll be going in at ten pm.  I think that'll be a lot better.  Since I'll have to be there by ten, I have to leave the house by 9:35, which means I have to get up no later than 9, but will probably get up by 8:30 or so.  This means I'll have to be asleep by 2 if I want to get about six hours of sleep.  Getting off at 8 and going to bed by 2 gives me six hours of doing whatever needs to get done, and if Lenora is still working nights, I get to spend some time with her in the morning before she has to go in, also.    I'm not seeing a downside here.

It also gives me a more of a slow time at work, so I can get more work done while there.  That's where I'll be doing the bulk of my lettering and plotting, as well as the column writing and editing.  I'll save the comic writing for home, where I can work on it undisturbed.

I finally have letters for the big project I keep talking about!  I'm excited about it, actually.  I have the letters in, they've already been colored, and there's something of a promo piece.  That just needs a logo of some sort, and then it should be off to the races!  The next month should be VERY exciting, depending on the timeframe with which these things move.

I think that's it for now.  Go watch The Thing From Another World.  You'll be glad you did.

-Steven

Self Empowerment!!!

I have to say that I'm feeling pretty good about myself today.  No, I don't say that all that often, but then again, I'm not easily satisfied with myself.

I guess you could call it a little thing, but it's a step forward for me, and because of it, I'm pretty proud.

I'm teaching myself how to letter.  Finally.  And I'm having a good time doing it.

A little backstory.  I decided to teach myself how to letter months ago.  About a month or so before we moved.  Maybe a little more.  So, it's been on my back burner for a decent amount of time.  I went out and bought a couple of books on it: the ComiCraft book and the DC Guide.  The DC guide is on both coloring and lettering.  Since I have trouble putting together blue jeans and a black shirt, I'll stay away from trying to color.  Well, I'll stay away from trying to color for myself.  I'll learn some of it as an editor, but that's about it.

I also went and got the Adobe CS3, as well as a Dummies book on it.  Ready to rock, right?

Wrong.

My plan is to do a lot of this work while at my job.  Because I work at night, I have a LOT of free time to do stuff.  I get a ton of writing done, and I've read more books in the past year and a half than I have in years.  It's a great job, and now that I'm off of probation, I don't have to ask permission to bring out my laptop or read or anything like that.  I know the rules, I do my job, and my extra-curricular stuff is my reward.  Nice.

Anyway, I didn't have enough RAM on the laptop in order to run the stinkin' program!  I was frustrated with that, yes.  One of my co-workers helped me to look up some RAM, and I eventually bought it.  Sure, it was six months or so later, but I got it.  (And it was cheaper than what I was originally going to pay for it, too.)  So, THANK YOU, Harry D.  You hired me as an editor for your script, and that allowed me to buy the RAM, and a few other things.

There's a funny story to go along with this.  Lenora and I also joined Columbia House through her My Points.  We ordered The Flash: the complete series for myself, and CSI season three for her.  This was before I ordered the RAM.  We did it all online, and we were waiting for Columbia House to send us back an e-mail saying we were in.  Days went by with nothing.  

I ordered the RAM, and figured out when it was supposed to arrive.  I was checking the mail like a madman, wanting the RAM to get here.  So I'm on my weekend, had already taken a nap, and went to the door to check the mail.  Lo and behold, there's a box!  I'm happy as hell, and bring the box inside, tearing into it.

Only to find the dvd sets we ordered!

I howled!!!!

Nope.  Wasn't happy at all.

The RAM came the day after.

So, I installed it, and the laptop thanked me for it.  It now runs CS3 with no problem.  

I broke out my books and dove in, face first.  And I was stymied and frustrated.  First, it was trying to find the damned elliptical tool in order to make the actual word balloons.  After I found that, it was trying to make the words appear in the damned balloons!  I didn't realize (until right this moment, actually) that I had the layers backward.  Letters have to lay on top of the balloons.  Yeah.  Nice.

I started out just placing words anywhere on some art I had laying around the computer.  Once I got a little bit of the knack for doing it, I lettered up one of the pages of the project I'm waiting to hear back on.  I have the three pages of artwork from the script I wrote, but none of the lettered pages yet.  After I lettered the first page, I knew that I found a worthy challenge.

The purpose of me learning to letter is trifold.  First and foremost, it'll make me self-sufficient enough so that I can do it myself.  I'll hire someone for logo's, but that's about it.  Since I really only plan to letter my own stuff, it saves me money on hiring a letterer.  Secondly, it'll help me become a better writer.  I won't flood the page with words anymore.  It takes being conscious of space requirements to a whole different level.  Lastly, it will help me be a better editor.  I can watch for spacing and placement and the like, and know how to correct them or speak from a place of knowledge when I ask for changes.  It's a win-win-win situation all the way around.

After I lettered up that page, I downloaded all of the free fonts from Blambot, and put them in Illustrator before lettering up the second page.  After I lettered up the second page, I went back to the book for some minor tweaks about how to do some things, and the third page turned out better than the previous two.

I'm not yet ready for the neighborhood chores, but I'm getting there.

And yes, lettering those pages was a delightful challenge.  Forming the words into a diamond shape, placing the balloons around them, finding out the best way to put them so that the eye is led across the page in the correct manner, figuring that out around the artwork...challenging.  But one I'm up for.

With that under my belt, I'll more than likely letter my webcomics myself.  That's the goal, and there's nothing like jumping right on in.  I'll be working on the pages I have starting tomorrow, and make a decision then.  

That's what I have going on in the self-empowerment movement when it comes to lettering.  There is more, though.

I'm frustrated with some of my writing friends.  We were supposed to launch a webcomic site last month, but we're now well into February, and there are only three of the five of us who are ready.  The idea is to do a page a week of our own stories.  I have 12 pages ready to rock.  Twelve pages, and a logo.  So I'm good to go for three months.  The goal was to have about 6 pages each ready to go, and then we can move forward with the site.  We've already got the hosted space.  We just need to get on the stick.  

I'm afraid of it falling apart around me.  That would depress me.  I'd move forward, but I wouldn't be extremely happy about it.

I do have an idea, though.  I just have to talk to one of the other guys to see where they're at before moving forward with it.  I may just do it, anyway.  I just need another paid editing gig, and I can go look for an artist for another story.  If I can get another paid gig or two, I'll search for the appropriate artists and move forward from there.  

As it stands right now, I can put up the pages of the first issue of Bullet Time for content.  That would give me either eleven or twenty-two weeks of content, depending on how often I updated it.  My goal is to have five or six days worth of content.  I gotta keep you all coming back for more!  I have an artist who wants to work with me on a story, which gives me another forty-four or twenty-two weeks, depending on if I update once or twice a week.  So if I start with Bullet Time as just content, and then add Group and My Life, and did all of them once a week, that's three days a week of content for no less than 22 weeks.  I call that very nice.

And if I get one more artist, that gives me four days of content.  

Well, I do have Annie O.N.E. on deck.  I have five penciled and inked pages for that.  (AND I just realized how the inks can go to both the letterer and colorist at the same time!  Lettering rocks!!!!)  That project is slated to go to traditional publishers first, but if they don't bite, I'll take it to the web.  That would give me five days of content for twenty-two weeks, and more than enough time to search for another artist to replace Bullet Time on the rotation. 

A LOT of things on the plate.  Writing, lettering, editing, the columns, and then I'm also burning to do a podcast like the old radio shows of yore.  I have an actor that's interested.  I just need to write it, and get some sound effects to produce it with.  If I'm able to produce those well and sell them, I'll have a GREAT many things to sell next year.  Books and an audio cd.  

If I don't dream big and being totally dependent on me, who else will?

Non-comic stuff?  Well, I got a new tattoo on Saturday.  After it's all healed up, I'll put up a pic of it.  It was a birthday present from Lenora.  She loves me!

I'll also be getting an iPhone in a few weeks.  That's one of my own gifts to myself.  Sara Cappoli, the artist of Group, is my other present to myself.  That woman has skills!  

Besides that, I'm waiting patiently for Prince to drop the first album of the year.  He said he'd be dropping three, and I'm waiting for it.  (And I just decided which story I'm going to search for an artist on.  Three issues, sixty-six weeks!)  

And that's it.  I'm hungry, but Lenora should be home soon.  Gonna have some bratwurst, and she's bringing buns home.  Some bratwurst, cheese, and mustard.  Good times, folks.  Good times.

And I'm out!  Go listen to some Huey Lewis and the News.  You'll be glad you did.

-Steven