The One that Stuck… – Guest Post By Justin Cantelo

Blog Post No. 497

Beginning the run up to the 500th post, this week we have guest writer Justin Cantelo, one of the founding members of Adventure Worlds Press, a long time corroborator, and coffee shop companion of mine.

---

I will admit that when my friend Ben asked me to contribute to his blog, I was a little intimidated. You see I’ve known Ben for over half my life at this point, freaking insane. He is my OG creative partner along side Mr. C. M. Forest. Together we’ve spent many hundreds of hours in the halls of college or in a coffee shop or two talking about the future and what our creative pursuits would look like.

The Future

Blog No. 188

Back in 2012, at the start of Adventure Worlds, I talked a lot to the other members (too much as I’m know to do) about the future of the endeavour. I imagined everything from a fully functioning web magazine to lucrative careers as authors, and even something about publishing. As time went by, my main focus was finishing stories. Having spent as many years as I did talking, I had to prove to myself that I could actually write. Adventure Worlds was a responsibility. I had to put content on the site and I had to get better because everything I was writing was going up to be read. It served as exactly what we initially wanted. The blog was a place for us to post our stories, challenge each other to improve, and hopefully find an audience. It was a brand we could develop and use to help us all.

Unintentional March Break

Blog No. 174

Last week we a flurry of activity coming of the super successful weekend Christian and had, everything was moving forward—until it wasn’t. I’m not sure how it happened. (I’m never quite sure how it happens). For some reason, I just stopped working. Progress was good, spirits were high, the intentions were there, then (poof) nothing. It seems to be a disturbing trend. Whenever I’m feeling good, or successful, I totally slack off and throw it all to the winds. It’s not a conscious thing, there are just a lot of video games I want to play and TV I need to watch. If I add on real responsibilities to that, nothing gets done and I have only a few thousand words to show for all that time.

Mad At Last Night Ben

Blog No. 170

            Ever since I wanted to write (even before I did anything about it) there was always a long list of stories I planned to finish. Some of them were going to be comics, or films, or both, then books, stories, novels, or television shows. Sometimes it wavered between several. The point being, I had (and still have) a bunch of stories I want to write. Magically (through the art of hard work and tons of support) I have written some of those stories. Some of them have even turned out well. It’s amazing what a little work and consistency can do. Currently my list of projects (currents and forthcoming) is short. While I want to get to everything eventually, I have to be practical. I have four projects I want to finish this year (if not more, but probably less). Two of those I am currently working on and feel like I should do some kind of an update thing. (If for no other reason than to keep myself accountable).

Comicon Ho!

Blog No. 168

I have no idea what images you conjure in your head when you read the word Comicon. For some of you, I’m sure, you picture the type of John Hughes 80s geeks wearing suspenders, pocket protectors, and playing with huge, complicated computers. Others just read the suspenders comment and pictured hipsters. You may imagine thousands of people dressed in overly tight costumes hugging strangers and hocking weird crap. Having gone to a couple of them, the former is closest to my experience, but it’s hundreds of people, only some of them are dressed up (some in really impressive, though unrecognizable, costumes) and some of that weird crap are books.

Big Announcements!

Blog No. 162

I hope you’ve already seen these things, but I’m going for total coverage, so get ready to see it all over again. I suspect that I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled drivel in no time, but this is all so important to me, I’ve got to go against all my instincts and spread the word. I have at least three things to share (I may drift into more because it’s my style, but I’m going to try to stick to it).

To preface it all, I hope whatever time off and celebrations you may have had were/are spectacular. I had a nice family Christmas as usual and other than the few times I had to go in for rentals, I don’t go back to work until the 5^th. So that pretty great. I just wish I were using the time more productively (as usual) but I’ve actually gotten a bunch done (not as usual). Over last weekend, the poster for the No Light Tomorrow book launch were finished and printed. At the same time, we (meaning Christian and myself) finished the December Zine (number six if we’re counting and there are numbers on them so we are). Though, more could always be done. And I’ve already mentioned two of the things, but let’s break them down.

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.

The Fifth Monday: Hard On’s Curse – Behind the Writing

Blog No 158

Behind the writing was an idea I came up wit back when we started Adventure Worlds. Other people have done similar things (it’s not like I invented it) but for the purposes of this blog, it was something I pushed for. The others weren’t convinced, and now I seem to be the only one sticking with it. Which is appropriate, since I was the only one interested in the first place. So now I’m doing them on my blog and I just finished the conclusion to Hard On’s Curse, and now I’m going to talk about it. So *spoilers* and all that. (http://adventureworldsblog.com/2015/03/29/the-fifth-monday-hard-ons-curse-complete/).

Layout and Design

Blog No. 157

In days of yore, and author was responsible for one (or at the most a few) things. The number one thing on that list is writing. They may find time to do readings or interviews. If they are successful enough, they may hold signings, be judges in contests, or teach classes, but above all of that, there was the writing and little more. Once they were finished with a manuscript, they sent it off to their publisher who would take care of the rest. (That’s a major simplification, but you get my drift). Even now there are a lucky few authors who have enough clout that their publishers handle most things, but the most successful of those tend to be active members of their own publicity.