Christmas Miracle

Blog No. 161

So Christmas Eve happens to fall on my post date. How about that? Because of the assumed busyness everyone is experiencing (I hope) I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Over the last few months, I’ve been working very hard (though not as hard as I could be working I suppose). The stories for No Light Tomorrow were written, but the process of taking the first drafts and putting them into a finished book is long and harrowing. Editing took its toll. It’s not always easy to be shown your mistakes over and over again, but it ends up with much cleaner stories. We went through a few layers of editing, culminating with sending the stories away to a professional who took our carefully written and rewritten stories and shredded them. They were fixed and a last loving look from Christian for my stories, and me for his, brought them to their final versions.

When they were finally done, the layout began. While I have limited experience, I wasn’t ready for what awaited me. Reading tutorials, searching for how to’s, and trial and error eventually ended in a final layout. Sending that layout to the printers resulted in having to make changes, but after learning what I had, it wasn’t as big a job.

After that, we were done. The proofs came back, some last minute changes were made (including some oversights that we just missed).

Now the book is in their hands. We expect to get it in the New Year and we’ve already planned a release event for January 9^th.

It was a long year and things are just getting started. There is a lot more to do in the coming months to bring me to a place where I’ll be happy as a writer. Besides the readings and conventions, more stories, more books, and more editing awaits for me.

But for now, I’m proud to show you the cover of No Light Tomorrow. Sales start January 9^th in soft cover and ebook. There will be links to follow, but I hope the cover will entice you to give it a read.

Thanks for all the support this year. I’m looking forward to keep things going next year too. Have a wonderful day wherever you are and whatever you’re celebrating or not!

I Miss Writing

Blog No. 160

The collection, No Light Tomorrow, is finally at the printers. After months of hard work, it is out of my hands and (though there were expected hiccups) the sample copy is on the way (or here by the time you read this) and everything is on track for a release event. By the way, unless something drastic happens, the release party will be January 9^th though the place is too be determined. We’ll make some serious announcements when a few more things are settled. Also, keep an eye out for poster plastered around the city, a facebook event, sky writing, carrier pigeons, and, if he got our lists, invitations delivered by Santa.

Some Random Updates

Blog No. 147

Things are moving quickly in the Adventure Worlds sphere. (adventureworldsblog.com) From the outside it sometimes seems like everything is at a crawl, but there is a lot going on under the surface that is keeping everyone busy.

No Light Tomorrow (the collection) is still in progress. We are up to our elbows in plans, communications, and searches. It is in the hands of an editor at the moment, so we are in a holding pattern. This will be the first time I work with a professional editor and the first time Christian works with an independent editor, so that’s very exciting, but a bit nerve-wracking. We have been working on the collection since last year, changing it, editing it, shaping the stories. The thought that someone I haven’t met could point out things that will make us do major rewrites is daunting. For now we are in a holding pattern, waiting for the shoe to drop. In the mean time we’ve been planning a big release event with some very special people, hunting for a printer (one who could possibly achieve the outcome we want without too much cost or stress), and brainstorming things that have grown well beyond the scope of the one small collection. We are even thinking about future or regular events for not only No Light, but everything we do and with the other local artists we work with.

Another Collection Update

Blog No. 141

Hello fine folks. I’ve been talking about this darn collection with Christian for over a year now and all I’ve had for you were promises and Gorilla Dust. It’s been a long, bumpy, lazy road, with big changes and lots of letdowns, but we are finally in sight of the finish line. I decided to use this week’s post to write a short update.

When we started the collection (back in February of 2014) we had wondrous visions of a collection of short stories to go along with the quickly growing blog. We were racking up stories faster than we could post them and decided to collect the best of them and put out a book. Christian had his own collection coming out (which has done marvellously well: http://christianlaforet.com/the-space-between-houses/) but we had lots of stories in the bag and wanted to do something more with them. As it turned out, the dynamics of Adventure Worlds changed and the number of stories we each needed grew, and so did the amount of time spent working on it.

The decline of newspapers = the decline of comics?

Blog No. 137

For someone who spent time in Journalism, I have never been a newspaper reader. There are the local independents I pick up when I see them, but while my parents were avid Windsor Star readers, I never picked up the habit. I ended up doing some work on the radio, but my journalism career ended in less time than it took me to get the diploma. I enjoyed the experience and it contributed directly with me now writing fiction (plus it’s where I met Justin, then Christian through him) but it wasn’t a passion of mine, and if I don’t have any passion, sloth takes over soon enough. While I didn’t read the paper, I did (irregularly) read the comics. For the most part (because I am a huge snob and super judgmental) I wasn’t much of a fan of what I read, but there were a few that stood out and kept me coming back. Calvin and Hobbes is a major one thought I was a fan long before I bothered with the funny pages.

Needing a Novel

Blog No. 133

I was in Anchor Coffee House the other day, enjoying a coffee and talking to the staff. (That place is kind of like my Cheers). I had brought in some layout designs for an ad they are putting in the June Zine (to hit shelves soon) to get their opinions, but it had been a while since I had been there, so the talk quickly turned to “What’s new?” After the pleasantries were exchanged, the topic turned to my writing. I was excited to share what I’ve been doing (as I am with any interested parties) and talked a little about the novel. The good people who work at Anchor know a bit about the other things I have and am writing (the stuff at Adventure Worlds, the Zine, and the Collection) and the question came up, why a novel.

Novel Update 002

Blog No. 131

I know I’ve said it before, but out of high school I went into electrical engineering. I intended to get a good paying job and spend my free time writing. I had only finished one or two short stories at that time, but I was sure that all I needed to do was secure my future and the rest would fall into place. That didn’t happen and after a year and a half I was struggling to pass most of my classes. I spoke with a few classmates who were in the same boat and looking to jump ship and realized I didn’t have to go down with the ship either. I finished the semester (barely passing) and after a terrifying conversation with my parents, I went over to journalism. That venture also ended in disappointment, but through both failures I learned a lot (and made a few friends that, if I were able to do it differently, I would probably stay the course in fear of losing them). I failed on my first novel too, and like those programs, I learned a lot, even if I didn’t get out of it what I hoped.

Leaving things behind

Blog No. 130

I love the format of a short story. There is artistry in writing a really good story that fits in a small space, but feels larger than it is. All of my humble beginnings in reading and writing began with short stories, even the genre I am most drawn to, SciFi if you haven’t guessed, was proliferated through the short stories published in the magazines in the 40s and 50s (and even earlier). I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go into too much depth, but I think, even with novels being the major way to make a living as a writer, I will still find time to write short stories for the rest of my life. It’s the same with this blog, almost. I have no idea what the future of this blog, or the format that it currently is in, will be.

Writing Retreat II

Blog No. 129

Last week I was fresh off the writing retreat and intended to write about it for the blog, but something came over me and I thought I was an artist or something, and I wrote whatever I did instead. Maybe it was the retreat itself, inspiring me to think of myself as a writer, but I think it was something else.

Last year, around this time, I was contacted by Christian’s wife. His birthday was coming up and he had spoken to her about the ideas we had come up with for taking a writer’s retreat. She thought it would be a good idea to set one up behind his back for his birthday. We did some collaboration over facebook, found a suitable place, and she made the arrangements. It turned out to be a great surprise and a swell time was had by all. There was some conflict when masking the plans, but all that is behind us and not worth going over. It turned out to be a fun, productive, weekend filled with writing, reading, lakeside fun, and a fierce game of monopoly. Everyone left with a decent word count (some higher than others) but it was an inspirational and exciting event that we looked forward to doing again the following year.

Retreating

Blog No. 128

I am a person who craves solitude. Even as a child, I spent a lot of time alone in my room (almost as much time as I spent watching movies and TV). It would have been nice if I spent some of that time alone working on writing, or drawing, or something that would come in handy now, but most of it was wasted living in my, then, current trials and stumbles. I relived a lot of those foible, imagining how they would have turned out if I were more confident, or outgoing, or smart, or. In a way, that time cultivated my imagination, which as a loner, and now as a writer, has served me well. Being alone does not make a person lonely. Sometimes it is a symptom, but it’s possible to be content in solitude and feel desperately alone in a crowded room. It’s more about what battles the individual is fighting and less to do with the situation we imagine for them, based on outside observations. But I’m here to talk about my more recent past, and a little less about the hypothetical.