Category Archives: Blog

The PulpWork Christmas Special 2013 is now available!

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The PulpWork Christmas Special 2013 is now available for sale! This book contains four short stories, penned by myself, Joel Jenkins, Russ Anderson, and Josh Reynolds. My contribution to this is “The Wild Hunt,” a story that features Asami, the kitsune changeling from The Myth Hunter and Dragon Kings of the Orient. In this tale, Asami is back in Japan and while tracking a yuki-onna (snow woman), she discovers something far more dangerous.

For those who are waiting for the third Myth Hunter book, you’ll…have to wait a bit longer. I’ve got a rough idea of the plot and some scattered notes, but I’ve got a few other projects I’m focusing on at the moment. So hopefully this story will be able to tide you over for a bit!

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SoulQuest Cover — One Step Closer

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SoulQuest inksBrad Horton has finished the inks for the SoulQuest cover, which you can see right on the left! There may still be some changes to the final version, mostly the positioning of the airship, but for the most part, this is how it will look. Brad emailed me this image today and said he’s moving on to the colors and will hopefully have them finished by this week.

Once the colors are done, it’s just a matter of adding the logo and tweaking it as necessary, and then fast-tracking the book to production. By that I don’t mean rushing the project, but the interior files are already done, so once Brad finishes up the cover art, all that’s left to do is assemble the front, back and spine of the cover. There has already been some preliminary work on this, but it’ll change a bit once I see how the colors come back and the cover and logo will be adjusted as needed.

But the good news is that it looks like this book will be available before the end of the year, so be sure to mention it in your letter to Santa!

The Exploding Typewriter: Pulp Writers on Writing Pulp

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logoSince I started my new job back in September, I’ve had a regular commute for the first time in five years. At my old job, my commute was usually a five minute walk or as much as half an hour when driving to my furthest school. Now my shortest commute is forty minutes and the longest is about ninety. So I’ve started to listen to a lot of podcasts.

And while listening to them, I kind of wanted to do it myself. I had a very brief show a while back on Japanese films, but the show didn’t end up working out the way I wanted it to. So I knew I wanted to do a show, and I knew I wanted it to have something to do with my writing, but being in Japan, it’s difficult to have a regular co-host and I’m not as entertaining doing a one-man show.

That’s when I remembered that I have gotten a lot of questions over the years about how to write. And I noticed there weren’t that many podcasts out there on the subject—a lot of them had ended. So I decided to do a writing podcast, specifically one on writing pulp. And instead of having one co-host, I’d have rotating co-hosts. Each episode would run for roughly an hour or so (sometimes more, sometimes less) and I’d sit down with a fellow pulp writer and we’d focus on one topic.

About a month ago, I sent feelers out to several people within New Pulp about this and got a lot of positive responses. Almost everyone I approached was interested in being on the show, some for more than one episode. I’ve compiled a nice backlog of episodes so far and am scheduling other recording sessions as well.

And now I can finally announce that the show is live. If you head on over to The Exploding Typewriter, you can listen to the first episode of the series, featuring a discussion with Tommy Hancock about defining pulp and New Pulp. The show has been submitted to iTunes, but still waiting for them to accept it. In the meantime, you can listen to the first episode on the site and also find the show’s Twitter account. If you like what you hear, please be sure to share it with others or write in to the show. And if you’re a pulp writer interested in discussing a topic, by all means get in touch with me!

NaNoWriMo Begins

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A few things to touch on this time around. November means the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and, just as I do every year, I’m participating once more. In the eight years I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo, I’ve only ever finished one novel I began for it. The others ended up abandoned on my hard drive. All novels aside from Fallen were written outside of NaNoWriMo or finished outside of it. Last year was an interesting one—I began working on a book called The Legacy of Frankenstein only to end up burning out around the 16,000 word mark. But it turned out to be a good thing, because it caused me to go back and look at some abandoned projects, one of which was SoulQuest. And though I didn’t finish it in November, I did complete it a few months later in March (more on a SoulQuest update a little later).

This time around, I’m working on a superhero novel. I actually began this back in April or May but then I put it on the back-burner after about 6,000 words because I needed a recharge after SoulQuest with some short stories. Those ended up piling up and took longer than expected, but now I’ve started back on it. I had cracked 11,000 words right before NaNoWriMo began, but instead of starting over with something new, I’ve decided to just keep working on this. Yeah, I know that’s cheating, but it’s not like there are any prizes involved and it helps me light a fire under my ass to keep going. To balance the scales a bit, I didn’t write at all during this first week of NaNoWriMo, so I’m about where I would have been had I started it on November 1st.

Although that writing holiday wasn’t intentional. I was busy on the 1st and the 2nd-3rd I was in Okinawa for the Japan Writers Conference. Speaking of the JWC, it went really well. A bit hectic on the first day because I landed at noon and then had to get from the airport to the rental car shop and then to Okinawa Christian University where it was being held. But I managed to make it in time. I gave two presentations that weekend, one on New Pulp and another on self-publishing. Both were pretty successful. I got to sell a few books and I also got the opportunity to connect with a lot of very awesome writers. Check out the Japan Writers Conference website to read some more about the authors who presented. Very good group of people and I hope I can go again next year.

So today, I’ve gotten back to writing. Managed 2,037 words today for a total of, as you can see on the little image from Writertopia (click on it to be taken to their site, by the way), 13,031 words. According to NaNoWriMo’s stats, the par for today is 11,666. So I’m doing well so far.

 

Yes, I am writing

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avengers-you-should-be-writingDamn, those Avengers are pretty judgmental, aren’t they?

Well far be it for me to disagree with the combined might of Cap, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk. So yes, I have been writing. And the Avengers meme is an appropriate one, because what I am working on does indeed involve superheroes.

I’ve discussed this project a little bit in the past, but haven’t gone into too much detail. And I won’t go into any more detail today. Mainly because I hate talking something up and then failing to deliver on it (see: The Legacy of Frankenstein novel I was real excited about around this time last year). So instead, I’ll just say I am working on something.

I first started taking notes about this project some time ago when I was still in the middle of writing SoulQuest. But I limited it to just note-taking because I didn’t want to get distracted from finishing the project I was very close to the end on. And once I typed the words THE END on SoulQuest, I immediately jumped into this project, cranking out around 7,000 words in pretty short order.

But then I had to put it on hold. Two short story opportunities presented themselves in the beginning of the summer and I committed myself to those. And before I finished those, I was invited to participate in another project that really excited me, so I jumped at the chance. Then before I could finish that, I was asked if I wanted to be part of the PulpWork Christmas Special and fortunately, a great idea came up and I agreed.

So this project was pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back and I was starting to worry if I’d even be able to get back into it. I unfortunately didn’t manage to do any writing over the weekend, because I was too tired from some work obligations, so instead I just looked over what I had written before. And at first, I was just staring at a wall, and I started to worry that I would get stuck and this would remain another vacant, uncompleted project.

But then today I opened up my Scrivener file and just started writing. And it just started flowing in a way nothing else has. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed writing those short stories, but this just came so much more naturally to me. I’m now at just under 10,000 words and I’ve barely even begun.

So I’m pretty excited about how this project is coming together and hopefully, if all goes well, it won’t take too long until you get to read the finished product.

Another Project Finished!

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student_finishing_essayToday, I sent off the final short story I had agreed to write. I banged out quite a few of these since around July or so. I agreed to write three stories for Pro Se Productions, although I can’t say much more about them than that until they’ve gone ahead and made an official announcement. The fourth story I agreed to write is the one I just finished, and that’s a Myth Hunter story featuring Asami that will be appearing in the PulpWork Christmas Special 2013.

In addition to those stories and my day jobs, I also edited a novel for Pro Se, did some lettering and logo work for a few different people, prepping for the Japan Writers Conference in just two weeks (and that led to a writer from the Japan Times contacting me about an article focusing on foreign writers living in Japan), and I also managed to turn out two WhatCulture articles. Been a while since I managed to do any of those. These two new ones are 10 Awesome Comics That Deserve Their Own Video Game and The Avengers: Age of Ultron – 10 Characters Who Could Potentially Die (And What It Would Mean).

I’m still doing my graduate work. The class I’m taking is Fundamentals of Fiction. So far, it hasn’t told me a whole lot I didn’t already know, but the class assignments mostly consist of short stories, so that’s also been some more stuff to work on, sometimes in areas I may not have tried exploring on my own.

And finally, another thing has been keeping me busy. I’ve begun recording interviews for a podcast that I plan on launching in November. This podcast will be called the Exploding Typewriter: Pulp Writers on Writing Pulp. Each episode will feature a different guest discussing a different aspect of creating pulp. I’ve recorded three interviews so far and I’ve got several more scheduled for this month alone, with a list of additional creators I need to arrange recording times with. It promises to be fun and informative, so more on that as it becomes available.

Although all but one of the stories I wrote featured my own characters, they were still more or less assignments. With them all done, I can get back to working on the new novel I started putting together a few months ago. It’ll be nice to finally get a chance to dive back into that.

 

Marvel Unlimited

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marvelunlimitedAs I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big proponent of digital media and especially of digital comics. But also as I’ve said before, the DRM restrictions that many publishers place on their comics have turned me off. I won’t be making a return to Marvel and DC until they stop treating their customers like criminals. The logic behind it is senseless, as a simple search over at the Pirate Bay would show that DRM has done absolutely nothing to curb comic book piracy, just like it hasn’t curbed piracy of movies, TV shows, books, or video games. I don’t trust ComiXology to be around ten years from now, five years from now, or even one year from now. I don’t want to end up in a situation where Marvel or DC switches digital comic providers and then I lose my collection, or in a situation where ComiXology goes out of business and I lose my collection. If you’re not going to allow me to back up my collection to my hard drive or to view it in a comic library other than ComiXology, you aren’t getting my money—it’s as simple as that.

But one thing that did intrigue me was Marvel Unlimited. For an annual fee, you get access to over 13,000 comics in Marvel’s library (or at least that’s what they advertise as). They’ve got old books as well as issues released six months ago. It’s also available for tablets and smartphones, so what this amounts to is a Netflix for Marvel Comics, and I’d be totally willing to opt into something like that. At least this way, I’m paying a rental fee for these comics, whereas with ComiXology, I’m being charged full price for a product I don’t own.

Now that I have an iPad, I thought I would check out the Marvel Unlimited app. I was really excited, downloaded it, and fired it up. And then I went to try some of their free samples.

And dear god, it is horrible.

Marvel Unlimited has three views for comics—single page, double page, and smart panel. I assumed the smart panel would be akin to ComiXology’s, but unfortunately it’s not. It basically zooms in on a portion of the page and it seems like a generic zoom, as it doesn’t have ComiXology’s smooth panel by panel reading feature.

To make things worse, on my iPad, which has retina display, I’d expect the comic pages to look pristine. Instead, they’re extremely blurry. The pages are not up to the standards of the tablet’s display.

This is a great idea, but Marvel has clearly not put a lot of thought into this. Crappy resolution and a jerky interface make for a product that is definitely not worth the price they’re charging.

Why is this so hard to get right?

The Magic Spreadsheet

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tumblr_lua11wav5b1qa3gglo1_500As I mentioned recently, my new job has a much longer commute, which gives me more time in the car and more time to listen to podcasts. Mostly I focus on comic book and film podcasts (special mention goes to my buddy Derrick Ferguson, co-host of Better in the Dark and of course, Tommy Hancock and his podcasts, Pro Se Presents: The Podcast and Pulped!), with a few political stuff thrown in for good measure (especially The Bugle).

I also listen to a few writing ones, and one of them I found that I like is Mur Lafferty’s show, I Should Be Writing. On it, she talked about the Magic Spreadsheet, created by Tony Pisculli. Here’s a link to the podcast she did with Tony about the Magic Spreadsheet and here you can find the Google+ community for the Magic Spreadsheet (as well as information on accessing it on Google Drive).

The Magic Spreadsheet works by encouraging you to keep a daily habit. Unlike most other writing outlets, the Magic Spreadsheet sets the bar pretty low to start off—250 words a day. Some may look at that and scoff. “250 words? That’s like a workout which consists of stretching!”

And it’s a good argument. Most people shoot for around 1000-2000 words a day, which is a good goal. When you’re working on a book that has to be tens of thousands of words long (or sometimes hundreds of thousands), 250 words a day doesn’t seem like it’ll get you any where.

But the goal isn’t necessarily quantity, it’s consistency. Yes, 250 words is easy to do, which is why this is an easy habit to get into. You can go over if you want (I frequently do), but what’s important is if you don’t write, you break the chain you’ve built up and you start off back at the beginning. Which may not matter to most people, but it gives you a sense of accomplishment and it’s something to keep you motivated.

Plus, let’s face it—we all have off days when we don’t feel like writing. But if all you have to do is put out 250 words, that’s not as daunting as 2000. Even if you’re not in the mood, it becomes something that you just have to get done. Like doing the dishes.  “Okay, I’m not in the mood, but this will only take about fifteen minutes and then I can get back to GTA5.”

And you might surprise yourself. Lately, I’ve had to work on Saturday mornings, but I had this past weekend off. Friday night, I was enjoying that I didn’t have to be anywhere the next day. I made a pizza, drank some beer, caught up on TV and read some comics. And then I looked at the clock and realized it was already getting close to 11 and I hadn’t written anything all day. I wasn’t feeling like it, but I told myself, “hey, 250 words and then I’m done.” So I sat at my computer and by the time I was done, I’d written about 1200 words.

That’s why something like this is good. Even if you feel like you’re not in the mood to write, that “it’s just 250 words” kick might be just what you need to get some momentum going.

So give it a try, you might find it to be very effective.

Sentinels: Apocalypse Rising

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apocalypsemini_2013This is the third book in Van Allen Plexico’s excellent Sentinels series of superhero novels, and the conclusion to The Grand Design trilogy. As a writer moves further and further into a series, some of the magic that was present at the beginning can begin to fade. The characters become overly familiar, the surprises grow less surprising, and there’s a sort of “sameness” that develops.

Although I enjoyed the second book in this series, A Distant Star, there was a sense that it was more set-up for Apocalypse Rising than its own entity. So I was a little worried that Van may not have been able to capture the lightning in a bottle he harnessed so effectively with the inaugural Sentinels novel, When Strikes The Warlord.

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, because Van certainly brings his A-game to this book. The plot threads that began in When Strikes The Warlord and continued and expanded on in A Distant Star are brought to an awe-inspiring finale that serves as both the end of the first phase in the lives of these characters, and the beginning of something more.

In a world where The Avengers was one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and turned what was once an unknown property to anyone outside of the comic book community, it’s become very frustrating to watch Marvel consistently fumble the ball with their premiere superhero franchise. Of the core titles, one is more concerned with the characters arguing amongst themselves than fighting supervillains, another shows the supposed “heroes” debating the merits of mass genocide in favor of the greater good, and the third features pretentious plot lines and characters who serve little purpose than to act as wallpaper.

It’s extremely disappointing. And that’s why we need people like Van Allen Plexico, who can still give us the same thrilling superhero tales that Joss Whedon and co. delivered so effectively with The Avengers. Van follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest superhero writers in history, names like Roy Thomas, Jim Starlin, Chris Claremont, Kurt Busiek, and Grant Morrison. These men are giants when it comes to superheroes, and Van has proven he is more than capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with them.

If you’re looking for stellar characterization, larger-than-life stories, and, most-importantly, superheroes who aren’t ashamed to act heroic, then you need to be reading Sentinels. Because no one, either in comics or prose, is doing superheroes better than Van Allen Plexico.

Head on over to Amazon right now and pick up your copy either in print or for your Kindle.

SoulQuest Cover Coming Along!

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imageToday I’ve got something special for you. Brad Horton is hard at work on the cover. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw I posted a small headshot from Brad recently. Well, I woke up this morning to find the image you see to your left waiting for me in my inbox!

The hooded guy in the cape and wielding a sword is Zarim, the hero of SoulQuest and captain of the pirate airship, the Excalibur. By his side, as always, is Ekala, his first mate, a rough-and-tumble thief who doesn’t take crap off anyone.

These designs were originally created by artist Frank Jensen when he was working on SoulQuest as a comic book. I gave those designs to Brad as a reference to work from and told him to feel free to make any changes he felt were necessary. For the most part, he left the designs intact, but he made some subtle tweaks which I feel have really tightened up the look of the characters.

And this is just the preliminary stuff, people! Brad’s showed me the concept he has in mind for the cover, and it will take these awesome designs and make them extremely dynamic!

Once again, if you haven’t, run on over to Brad’s website and check out his amazing work. He’s also got some art for sale (my personal favorite is his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles piece)! We still don’t have an official launch date for SoulQuest just yet, because I want to give Brad all the time he needs to work his magic, but once we do, readers of this blog will be the first to know!
On other fronts, my latest story for Pro Se is inching closer and closer to completion. I’m at 5,239 words and the story has a rough goal of 8-10,000 words, so a little more than halfway done.

I announced this on Facebook and Twitter yesterday, but I wanted to mention it here as well: I’m looking into starting up a podcast specifically about pulp writers on writing pulp. I’ve gotten some interest so far, but if any pulp writers are reading this and would like to be a guest on the show, please drop me a line either through Facebook, Twitter, or this site’s contact page. In your message, let me know what aspect of writing pulp you’d be interested in discussing on the show (feel free to come up with a list of things, as I’d like to have recurring guests).