There And Back Again- A Forby's Tale

I know, I know, it's a riff on Tolkein, but it's fitting, methinks.

The plan I keep talking about?  Well, I had to fly to NY in order to further it.  It was a nice flight, and I got a huge feeling of homesickness while there.  Trees, grass, familiar places, familiar faces, and not to mention, the dulcet tones of New Yorkers.  It was great.

And I won't say that it was useless, but I will say that it was frustrating.  At least I got to spend time with my family.  That's important.  

And I flew!  I hadn't flown since the last time- and that was from Virginia Beach to San Diego for SDCC about four years ago.  I missed flying.  I took off a couple of days from work, and it was at the tail end of my weekend, so I had five days off.  I flew out on Wednesday, and I'm sorry to say that that was a wasted day.  The flight left at 6 am, and I had to fly to LAX, and had a four hour layover.  I finally got in to NY at 9 pm.  Wasted day.  

Getting back was in itself a small adventure.  I was to have two connecting flights, but when I got to the airport, my initial flight was cancelled.  Then they tried to say that I could fly out at 7 pm!  My initial flight was supposed to be at 1:50 pm, and I was supposed to finally land in Tucson at 9 pm so I could be at work at 3 am the next day.  Cutting it close, I know, but that's Cheaptickets.com for you.  I was finally able to get a flight directly to my second connecting flight, and fly in to Tucson from there, where I finally got some sleep and went to work.

And Treat Williams was on my flight from NY.  I'm not much for autographs- "celebrities" are people too- but I didn't have any trouble recognizing him.  Very distictive look, and I don't really think anyone else noticed him.  At least, no one came up to ask for his autograph.  I guess that's what happens when you're a B or C list actor.  The only thing he did that was in front of a lot of faces was Everville, but he's also done a LOT of acting.  A couple of Substitute movies in the 90's and another horror movie about him on a ship stand out in my mind.  I told Lenora about seeing him, and she had a blank look on her face.  I'm not that surprised at it, though.  I would have been MORE surprised if she knew who I was talking about.  She's not really one for knowing actors or movies.  That's my schtick when it comes to our marriage.  

Anyway, other things have been happening in my writing life.  The editor I've been talking to keeps asking for revisions to the pitches I've been sending him, and I'm thrilled about it, to be honest.  He hasn't said "no," and he hasn't seemed ambivalent about them.  It seems like active interest on his part, and he already told me it was a long process.  I sent off the revisions before I went to NY, and am waiting to hear back from him.  I've had other ideas to send to him, as well, but I'd like to get these nailed down before sending him others.  (There's a book I'd like to turn into a graphic novel, and he seemed interested in my choice, but it's a matter of getting the rights to the book, and according to the editor, that's a process in itself.  However, getting that done would really be something!  A great book by my favorite writer.)

A guy I know from Digital Webbing, whom I'm also quickly coming to think of as a friend, gave me a glowing recommendation to another guy I know who's willing to pay for editing services.  I actually almost blushed at what he said.  Well, the guy bit, and he's going to hire me to look at his script as soon as he gets paid.  So there's a little more money coming in from that.

I've been asked to script some finished pages for a letterer, and I'll be doing that as soon as I finish writing this post.

And yesterday was Sep 8th!  I sent off the materials to Hannibal Tabu, and got back an e-mail stating he was wondering if I was going to show up and that he liked my initiative.  So, it's a little more waiting on that.  

I've also asked a few writers I know to form a writing group.  So far, I've had a positive response, and we're in the midst of talking about what we want out of the group.  I can't say that the e-mails are flying fast and furiously, but there's conversation going, and that's a step in the right direction.

And that's really about it for the moment.  Things are looking up all around.  This is all good news- and as soon as I have some excellent news, I'll share that, too.

Until then, go buy some Marvel movies.  It'll be good for your soul.