Conversation overheard at Best Buy:

BEST BUY EMPLOYEE: "We don't have From Hell, which surprises me, but we have this one. It's really similar. It's a period movie, and Johnny Depp plays a detective.

OLD MAN (to his adult daughter): "Hey, he found this other one with Johnny What's-his-name."

OLD MAN'S ADULT DAUGHTER: "Sleepy Hollow! She doesn't have this one. Dad, she's going to love it."

OLD MAN: "Yeah, OK, let's just pay for it and go."

Let's do this ebook thaing: The doldrums

The whole being between drafts thing bugs me. I should be excited – I’m about to put Cine High on Amazon. It’s my big self-pub experiment. I’m also revising the super top secret project (Currently on draft number 11) in the hopes of it landing an agent. The most recent manuscript, Act Four Scene One, will soon begin its own second draft, probably over the summer, and there’s certainly (hopefully?) a lot of happy discoveries to be made in that process.

For today, though? I’m not writing. I’m planning a little here, researching a little there, revising a little there, but not a lot of “pure creativity” type of work.

Part of my doldrums, I suppose, comes from that I’m not so much between projects, but between ideas. My head’s full of characters and plots from stuff I’ve written, but not from what’s new. I currently have no next story, the one I can’t wait to start working on. There’s no creative “spark” right now. That’s something anyone can force, I know. I’ve got to keep doing what I’m doing, trusting that the “spark” will hit again, and I’ll get all excited about a story again.

Nonetheless, doldrums.

Moving forward: May will be Cine High month, mark one. On this blog, you’ll get the first glimpse of the cover, your first look at the story, trivia about the characters and their world, and, of course, the release day!!!

If I’m really going to do this self-pub thing, might as well go all out, right?

I went to the Boston ComicCon

So I went to the Boston ComicCon on April 21. First impression: So many people! It was supposed to open at 10 a.m. I got a slow start on the morning and got there just before 10, to find the line snaking all the way around the building. I waited for about an hour before the line started moving and I got in. Apparently, hours later, there will still people in that line. Around 2-3 p.m., I heard people saying, “I’ve been in line all day,” and “I only now just got in.” Crazy!

Yes, there were quite a few “fight the crowd” moments when trying to get close up to booths and rifle through the half-off trades (Drool… half-off trades…), but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At last November’s SuperMegaFest in Framingham, Mass., there were so many people that you couldn’t walk around, you were just stuck in place with strangers’ bodies pressing against you (and not in a fun way). So the wide morass of people at ComicCon was an annoyance, but not so much to ruin the experience. It’s a weird balancing act with these conventions – too few people and it’s dreary. Too many people and it’s a pain. You need just the right amount of people for it to feel lively and fun. Con organizers have no control over this stuff, so whatever.

After seeing countless online photos of cosplayers at the San Diego and New York cons, it warms the darkest chambers of my heart to see the cosplayers in full force in Boston. The standout cosplayer was the guy dressed as Mr. T. Not just looking the part, but in character the whole time. This was fun for the first few minutes, but after thatI wanted to ask him to take his “pity the fool” and “jibber-jabber” act to other side of the room. The crowds loved him, though. I was excited to see some more obscure characters represented in cosplay. Dressing up as Batman is one thing, but walking around in public dressed as Mirror Master? That’s a whole other kind of personality type. And let’s not forget the slutty female cosplayers. I saw slutty Emma Frost (redundant?), slutty Batgirl (Stephanie Brown!) and two slutty Elektras (original, not movie version). Why don’t I have pictures? I could have, but I didn’t. Too much hassle, even to fumble with the phone, I guess.

Although I did buy my share of half-off trades (ooohh, half-off trades…), I spent most of the my time – and cash – at artist’s alley, which, amazingly, covered a good half of the con space. With own ebook about to come out (Cine High! Cine High! Cine High!), I was naturally interested in what the self-pubbers have come up with. I picked up comics in various genres, such as superhero, fantasy, comedy, and even memoir. Great stuff all around.

Artists like Time Sale, Becky Cloonan, and Ed McGuiness were there. McGuiness’s line stretched across the con floor. But I didn’t get in line for their autographs. Somehow, it was enough for me to walk by and see them there, knowing I’m in the same room as them. I was wicked excited to meet Jo Chen, cover artist for Runaways, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and many other comics. She signed a print of the Runaways #1 cover for me, and said she loved working on Runaways because they gave her a lot of creative freedom to do the covers however she wanted. I was also wicked excited to meet Megan Brennan, co-creator of the webcomic School of World, as her Twitter feed is always fun and exciting. She and her co-conspirator Rel were very nice and creeped out by me at all, graciously signing a School of World book for me.

Amid all the hustle and bustle, the biggest talk around the con was Womanthology, the Kickstarter sensation that has led to magnificent hardcover collection of work by a variety of female comic creators. Sadly, every copy sold out almost instantly, so I didn’t get one, but the message was loud and clear – comics are no longer a boys’ only club. The ladies have taken the comics world and made it their own. Womanthology was the center of attention throughout the entire con.

To me, Womanthology means a little more than gender roles and comics. Womanthology started life with a single Tweet – 140 characters or less – and the whole things snowballed from there, so that the entire comics industry, if not the internet at large, stood up and took notice. The Womanthology creators are doing their own things, and the audience generates itself. I’m excited about that. It seems to me that this type of success is open to any writer or artist, of course. As Cine High is about be unleashed unto an unexpecting world, I’m well aware that sales may never rise higher than 20, or it might go viral and make billions upon billions of dollars. I just don’t know. If Womanthology started with a single Tweet, then it seems to me that any self-pubbed project has the same chance.

And… that was the ComicCon experience for me.

The CINE HIGH Wordle

I made a Wordle for CINE HIGH:



(Reminder: The CINE HIGH ebook is coming in May 2012.)

Let's do this ebook thaing: Platform, platform, platform

Great. I started a blog, and then haven’t posted on it since forever. I’ve become that guy who does that.

Well no more, because Cine High is about to be released as an ebook, and, as the author, I somehow have to become obsessed with my “platform.”

Platform, platform, platform, platform. Basically, the author’s platform is his or her version of “why you should buy my crud.” For nonfiction authors, this means demonstrating why you’re an expert in your subject matter. For fiction authors, it means having a personality.

I’m trying really, really hard to have a personality. No, really.

The “author blog” thing seems backwards to me. Shouldn’t it be that a reader likes the book, and then tracks down the author to learn more? Instead, it’s the reader wants to learn more about the author before committing to buy the $1-3 (or free) self-pubbed ebook. Therefore, this blog is now officially a thing.

Where do I get off calling myself an author? Cine High will be available for the Kindle in a matter of weeks. Keep watching this site for more on what its about and when you’ll be able to read and enjoy it.

And… we’re done. Author’s blog.

Here's where I'm at

Here's where the writing is currently at:

Manuscripts one and two are on the back burner.

Manuscript three is going though the query process and is currently being read for an upcoming consult.

Manuscript four is the Twitter novel CINE HIGH, which is being revised in the hopes of turning it into an ebook.

And now I have an outline going for a first draft of manuscript number five, a story I'm really excited about.

I really have lost my mind, haven't I?

Subtleties, subtitles and SUPER 8

Now, I wasn’t as slobberingly in love with SUPER 8 as some others, proclaiming it to be the second coming of classic Spielberg fantasy, but I did enjoy the movie quite a lot. That enjoyment was enhanced when I got the Blu-ray. Watching a movie with the subtitles sometimes reveals little details that you might miss the first time around, and that’s the case big time with SUPER 8. Take a closer look at the scene in which the kids first ride off into the night to film their movie, just before the big train crash that kicks off the plot. This is where our heroes Joe and Alice first meet, or at least first get to know each other. The romantic tension between the two is evident. What’s less evident is how there is more than one level of story at work here, and how the disc’s subtitles show how the scene takes into the characters’ heads, without us even realizing it.

After everyone gets out of the car, Charles states, “Guys this is going to be great,” and he immediately launches into director mode, talking about shooting in two directions. Here is a little clue that this scene we're watching is about to go in two directions.

Next, Charles speaks to his lead actor, saying he wrote a new line, saying “It’s going to be awesome,” and then promising “It’s not going to be hard.” It’s right on that last beat that Joe first approaches Alice, to do her makeup. Why is that significant, because it’s as if the line “It’s not going to be hard,” reflects Joe’s state of mind as he approaches her, telling himself not to be fearful.

Joe asks, “Do you mind?” in reference to the makeup. Before she answers, Charles, unseen from behind her says, “You know that part where you say…” and then she answers, “No.” Charles’s line could be read in context of her inner monologue, as she tells herself it’s OK to talk to Joe, despite their shared history, so no, she doesn’t mind.

As Alice pulls her hair back to better let Joe apply the makeup, Charles behind her says the old line is gone, replaced by one that is better. “I just need this one,” he says. Joe then finishes the makeup and says, “There. Thanks.” If we’re to take Charles’s words as doubling for Joe and Alice’s inner thoughts, then “this one” is Alice’s gesture of pulling her hair back, a small act, but one that brings them some comfort with each other.

Joe continues to apply the makeup, as Charles stresses to his actor that the new lines are “Honey, I love you,” and “I love you, too.” Charles repeats these several times in the background as Joe and Alice’s eyes meet. Once more, Charles is speaking what Joe and Alice are feeling – or, in this case, want to be feeling – at that moment. Matters of the heart are never so simple, though, especially given Joe and Alice’s history. Charles’s actor says, “You keep changing things and making it more difficult for me,” while Charles insists that all he has to say is, “I love you, too.” This dialogue goes on as Joe silently applies the makeup, further illustrating what he and Alice are thinking without them having to say it.

Charles next says, “It’s like four words,” but Alice breaks the tension with six instead, saying, “My dad works at the mill.” This addresses the billion-pound elephant in the room, addressing the parental issues keeping them apart.  Joe’s face goes blank as he doesn’t know how to respond, while Charles fills us in on his emotional stress, by asking, “Can you say I love you?” Joe doesn’t say it though, even though he wants to, and instead asks Alice to close her eyes. This is something of a symbolic gesture, as if trying to blind themselves from how they’re starting to feel about each other.

Finally, Charles simultaneously concludes and segues into the next story beat by saying, “So this scene is very emotional.” He’s talking not just about what he and his buddies are about to film, but, in subtext, about what we’ve just seen.

There are a lot of little details like this throughout SUPER 8, making it rewatchable, along with all explosions and alien craziness, of course.